I've been out of touch with the modern world for over three weeks now. As such, I haven't been responding to email nor posting on the blog with any frequency. However, I must immediately detail the best day on the river I've ever had.
It began on the Rangitata River last Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday had seen torrential rainfall and the river was well above commercial rafting levels. But our rescue course was still all-go. We started off by rapelling down a steep hill to the side of the river and then swimming across the river while moving downstream nearly a mile. That's how fast the water was moving. Everything we did was pretty safe though - we had safety kayakers, cover rafts, and rope throwers all positioned downstream for us.
After that cold brisk beginning, we carried the rafts up a steep hill on the far side of the river to a pasture where a helicopter came, picked them up and flew them further up the gorge. We followed on foot with the rest of the gear running about 6km. It didn't seem like it was going to be the best day ever when we began....
However, we got to the top and did the coolest activites. We started off by rescuing a "swimmer" trapped against a wall with a tethered swimmer. As the tethered swimmer, you got a rope attached to your back and then you swim in, grab the "swimmer" and then everyone on the shore pulls you back up stream to where they are.
From there, we built a Tyrolean crossing (zipline) over the river and zipped over. Then we re-anchored ourselves and rappelled down a cliff to the water's edge to rescue another "swimmer." Then we jumped into the river and swam to rock in the middle of the river with a deflated raft wrapped around it. One at a time, we each had to use our knife to cut the raft off the rock and rescue the "swimmer" trapped between the raft and the rock. Badass.
From there, we learned how to do helicopter rescues where we approached the helicopter with a stretcher carried by a team of four. The rotor wash was quite powerful.
We also did some first aid, raft guiding, and other more mundane activities. Alas, it was the best day on the river I've EVER had.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Raft Guide School Week 1
I am presently in Greymouth, New Zealand learning to guide whitewater rafts. Greymouth is in the Grey District, and the city sits where the Grey River meets the ocean on the west coast. It has steep mountains behind it which stops clouds and causes it to rain all the time here. And the skies are always grey - if you can believe that!
The school itself is incredible. I have many years of guiding experience, but I have a lot of bad muscle memory to overcome:) There are 9 people in the class and three instructors. We take three boats everywhere, which means we all get a lot of "time on the paddle." We start at 7am everyday and don't finish until 8pm. I'm very sore but I'm sure I'll be returning super fit.
The other students in the class are great and come from all over. One American (me), one Canadian, one Estonian, one Australian, and five Kiwis. Everyone here wants to be here and is motivated which adds to the program quite a bit.
On the weekends we stay in the school dorms so that's pretty fun. All our roommates are between 16-19 and when we got back last night from a hard first week, we found out one of them was having a birthday party. We thought we wouldn't be able to sleep, but we had people passing out by 8pm. It didn't go for much longer and we had no problem sleeping:) Unfortunately, there is no Internet at the dorms, and the only place to use it is the coin-operated kiosk at the grocery store. I am unable to bring up gmail, so that will have to wait.
During the week we camp out near the rivers we run. Every day we do a different section or a new river. The rivers are all incredible, and it's weird to me that there are no other boaters or commercial crews running on them. We're all by ourselves for the most part and the seclusion is pretty nice. I asked one of the tutors (they're not instructors:) out this and he said that most Kiwis don't have their own kayaks or boats, so the rivers aren't very busy.
I'm out of coins, so I'm off to the pharmacy to buy anti-itch cream (got bit by a lot of sand flies) and then back to the dorms for a nap. I'm exhausted!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
NZ Holidays
Perin and I enjoyed Halloween here in New Zealand. It is a new holiday here: all the children want to dress up and get candy and many the adults think it's one of the worst American exports of all. They have to find costumes for thier kids and give them a bunch of candy before trying to get them to go to bed.
And last night we went a Guy Fawkes party at a Perin's colleague's house whose husband used to be a diplomat for NZ in the US. So it was a US election/Guy Fawkes party. Nobody at the party was very excited about McCain, but needing Republican representation at the party, the hosts dressed the dog up.
We missed the city fireworks during a heated Trivial Pursuit match. It was a New Zealand edition, so Perin and I were a little out of our league on some of the questions. But Perin had some great saves for us, and we ended up victorious.
One great thing about New Zealand is that they still have some sweet fireworks legally available. And they're cheap! There are no restrictions on when you can set them off, but they are only on sale for three days a year leading up to Guy Fawkes. So I bought a huge box of Roman Candles and we had our own fireworks display in the backyard of the party. If you saw _V for Vendetta_ that's a nice introduction to Guy Fawkes. To really learn more, click here.
And last night we went a Guy Fawkes party at a Perin's colleague's house whose husband used to be a diplomat for NZ in the US. So it was a US election/Guy Fawkes party. Nobody at the party was very excited about McCain, but needing Republican representation at the party, the hosts dressed the dog up.
We missed the city fireworks during a heated Trivial Pursuit match. It was a New Zealand edition, so Perin and I were a little out of our league on some of the questions. But Perin had some great saves for us, and we ended up victorious.
One great thing about New Zealand is that they still have some sweet fireworks legally available. And they're cheap! There are no restrictions on when you can set them off, but they are only on sale for three days a year leading up to Guy Fawkes. So I bought a huge box of Roman Candles and we had our own fireworks display in the backyard of the party. If you saw _V for Vendetta_ that's a nice introduction to Guy Fawkes. To really learn more, click here.
The willpower to finish
So I have been putting off a final post from my trip because I've been procrastinating about putting the pictures together. There are many pictures, so I decided to do them in installments. Here is part 1 (of 2):
We got back to Bangkok okay and then we spent hours trying to find the grilled squid cart. Finally found him and he was all out! So we ordered some from a restaurant near our hotel and it was good. I decided that if we can find super fresh squid, I will cook it!
Andrew and I were both running low on steam. The bike ride from Saigon to the airport was pretty crazy. They wouldn't let us ride our bikes to the international terminal, and when we went to the domestic terminal, they said we had to leave the airport and but our bikes in a taxi and drive up to the terminal. So we pretended like were going to, then rode the wrong way down a one-way street leaving the airport, got into the domestic terminal and walked our bikes to the international terminal. We showed them!
We ran into a jerk American our last night in Saigon (basically, he treated everyone like crap and left us with his bar tab) and all we could talk about our last days was what a jerk he was. Oh, and a dirtbag. He was a dirtbag too and we discussed that as well. He teaches English at some school and pays for Viet hookers when he has stressful weeks. But we didn't know that until late in the night. We met him when we found a place to get cheap beers and he seemed interesting, plus he invited us to get appetizers and a great place he knew. We got our first suspisions of his jerkiness when he thought the price for the appetizers was unfair and crumpled up the receipt (rather large paper) and threw it in the face of the manager! It went downhill from there. Enough about the jerk for now!
We went to Thai kickboxing for my last night here and it was pretty fun. We kept wishing Ben (the jerk) was there so we could practice moves on him. When the action paused, we stepped on cockroaches instead - there were a lot of them and we both got the heebie jeebies feeling like they were crawling all over us. Just writing about it makes me itch all over again LOL. Highlight of the muay thai: one guy got kicked and started vomiting all over the ring. Knockout!
My last day in Bangkok was spent getting everything ready to come home, eating a few last delacacies, and picking up the clothes I had tailored for Perin and myself. I made it home safe and sound and slightly tan.
My suits turned out well because I had several fittings. Perin's clothes turned out nicely as well, but they had to be fitted by a tailor again here. Still, if you need a whole new wardrobe, it's probably better to fly to Bangkok and get everything you want custom made. It's cheaper and you get a trip to Bangkok!
 |
| SE Asia |
We got back to Bangkok okay and then we spent hours trying to find the grilled squid cart. Finally found him and he was all out! So we ordered some from a restaurant near our hotel and it was good. I decided that if we can find super fresh squid, I will cook it!
Andrew and I were both running low on steam. The bike ride from Saigon to the airport was pretty crazy. They wouldn't let us ride our bikes to the international terminal, and when we went to the domestic terminal, they said we had to leave the airport and but our bikes in a taxi and drive up to the terminal. So we pretended like were going to, then rode the wrong way down a one-way street leaving the airport, got into the domestic terminal and walked our bikes to the international terminal. We showed them!
We ran into a jerk American our last night in Saigon (basically, he treated everyone like crap and left us with his bar tab) and all we could talk about our last days was what a jerk he was. Oh, and a dirtbag. He was a dirtbag too and we discussed that as well. He teaches English at some school and pays for Viet hookers when he has stressful weeks. But we didn't know that until late in the night. We met him when we found a place to get cheap beers and he seemed interesting, plus he invited us to get appetizers and a great place he knew. We got our first suspisions of his jerkiness when he thought the price for the appetizers was unfair and crumpled up the receipt (rather large paper) and threw it in the face of the manager! It went downhill from there. Enough about the jerk for now!
We went to Thai kickboxing for my last night here and it was pretty fun. We kept wishing Ben (the jerk) was there so we could practice moves on him. When the action paused, we stepped on cockroaches instead - there were a lot of them and we both got the heebie jeebies feeling like they were crawling all over us. Just writing about it makes me itch all over again LOL. Highlight of the muay thai: one guy got kicked and started vomiting all over the ring. Knockout!
My last day in Bangkok was spent getting everything ready to come home, eating a few last delacacies, and picking up the clothes I had tailored for Perin and myself. I made it home safe and sound and slightly tan.
My suits turned out well because I had several fittings. Perin's clothes turned out nicely as well, but they had to be fitted by a tailor again here. Still, if you need a whole new wardrobe, it's probably better to fly to Bangkok and get everything you want custom made. It's cheaper and you get a trip to Bangkok!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Pictures from Perin's Photography Class
Last weekend I took an "impressionist" photography course. We learned some really neat techniques by using different lenses and various household products (vaseline, chapstick and hairspray). All of the pictures in the attached album are actual photos. None of the pictures have been altered on the computer. I hope you enjoy my artistic approach to photography!
 |
| Photo Class |
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Market Fatigue
In travelling through Europe, one is at first fascinated by all the cathedrals: the architecture, the stained glass windows, the art displayed in them and the religious art in the all the museums. But as one visits more and more of them, one becomes fatigued. Same thing happens in SE Asia while walking around. "Oh look, cheap deals on stuff," soon becomes, "I'm not buying anything from you. Please direct me to ice cream."
Which they don't have much of here:( A suitable replacement: fresh squeezed sugar cane juice (3 parts) and fresh squeezed orange juice (one part) over ice. And they fire up a generator to power the sugar cane crushing machine, so it has power tools involved with its creation. SO GOOD.
We are in Saigon now, and it is by far the most cosmopolitan of anywhere we've been on this trip. Crazy busy and dense like New York. Except take all the cars, sextuple the number, and add that many scooters and motorcycles. Remove road rules and prohibitions like "correct side of the road," driving against traffic or on the sidewalk. Everything is high rise here and there are far fewer merchants of touristy stuff. They sell exercise machines, have far more beauty salons, and child care, so that means they're much better off with more disposable income.
Went to the War Remnants Museum here this morning. It was very interesting to see the war from the Vietnamese point of view. The deformed fetuses from Agent Orange and the combat situations in that terrible mud were the worst. I met a guy who lost both arms from the elbows down, one eye, and one leg and bought some post cards from him. A ripoff, but it did buy some guilt away after just walking through that place.
My main question is: What's up with software stores and internet cafes having numerous fish for sale too? It's like you can't work with technology without also working with a large number of fish. Interesting, but not as interesting as finding out where the ice cream is. Let the search resume!
Which they don't have much of here:( A suitable replacement: fresh squeezed sugar cane juice (3 parts) and fresh squeezed orange juice (one part) over ice. And they fire up a generator to power the sugar cane crushing machine, so it has power tools involved with its creation. SO GOOD.
We are in Saigon now, and it is by far the most cosmopolitan of anywhere we've been on this trip. Crazy busy and dense like New York. Except take all the cars, sextuple the number, and add that many scooters and motorcycles. Remove road rules and prohibitions like "correct side of the road," driving against traffic or on the sidewalk. Everything is high rise here and there are far fewer merchants of touristy stuff. They sell exercise machines, have far more beauty salons, and child care, so that means they're much better off with more disposable income.
Went to the War Remnants Museum here this morning. It was very interesting to see the war from the Vietnamese point of view. The deformed fetuses from Agent Orange and the combat situations in that terrible mud were the worst. I met a guy who lost both arms from the elbows down, one eye, and one leg and bought some post cards from him. A ripoff, but it did buy some guilt away after just walking through that place.
My main question is: What's up with software stores and internet cafes having numerous fish for sale too? It's like you can't work with technology without also working with a large number of fish. Interesting, but not as interesting as finding out where the ice cream is. Let the search resume!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
In Phnom Penh now
The second day in Angkor was great too. We went back to Bayon, then visited Ta Prohm which has the most intricate stone carvings in the world. We saw some other great places too, but those were the best.
I've become a huge proponet of the Siesta. It's way too hot here to do anything between 10am and 3pm. We get up early, do stuff until lunch time, then head back to the room with AC for naps everyday. It's the only way to go.
We ended up taking a bus instead of the ferry to Phnom Penh, because even though they take the same amount of time, the bus is air conditioned and the ferry has no AC, is more expensive, and is overcrowded. Then we rode our bikes through Phnom Penh and found a place to stay on the waterfront. First thing we did when we arrived? Musuems, the royal palace? Nope - we went and shot machine guns, playing our part in the "ammunition reduction plan" in Cambodia. The M60 was very fun to shoot, but it jammed a lot and I wouldn't ever want to depend on it!
Went out for dinner and from our balcony, we watched the torrential rain pour and the thunder and lightning show. It was amazing.
Today, we went to the killing fields and S-21. The killing fields are the mass graves filled by the Khmer Rouge and that was definitely depressing. Afterwards, we went to the highschool converted by the Khmer Rouge to torture people to death. More people died in the Nazi Holocaust, but here all victims were tortured to death individually, each over the course of many days. And the torturers were all children between 10-14, trained to be exceptionally cruel.
Whooo! So we went back, took naps, and went to find some internet. We leave tomorrow morning for Ho Chi Minh city, so that will be good.
I've become a huge proponet of the Siesta. It's way too hot here to do anything between 10am and 3pm. We get up early, do stuff until lunch time, then head back to the room with AC for naps everyday. It's the only way to go.
We ended up taking a bus instead of the ferry to Phnom Penh, because even though they take the same amount of time, the bus is air conditioned and the ferry has no AC, is more expensive, and is overcrowded. Then we rode our bikes through Phnom Penh and found a place to stay on the waterfront. First thing we did when we arrived? Musuems, the royal palace? Nope - we went and shot machine guns, playing our part in the "ammunition reduction plan" in Cambodia. The M60 was very fun to shoot, but it jammed a lot and I wouldn't ever want to depend on it!
Went out for dinner and from our balcony, we watched the torrential rain pour and the thunder and lightning show. It was amazing.
Today, we went to the killing fields and S-21. The killing fields are the mass graves filled by the Khmer Rouge and that was definitely depressing. Afterwards, we went to the highschool converted by the Khmer Rouge to torture people to death. More people died in the Nazi Holocaust, but here all victims were tortured to death individually, each over the course of many days. And the torturers were all children between 10-14, trained to be exceptionally cruel.
Whooo! So we went back, took naps, and went to find some internet. We leave tomorrow morning for Ho Chi Minh city, so that will be good.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Techno Bum
While my post does not include any exciting Asian adventures, I thought I would share a quick note on what I am calling the "techno bum".
Today, as I headed across the city I saw a bum, clothed only in a ratty blanket. His hair amess, no shoes, no shirt and I'm hoping, though I didn't check, that he was wearing underwear. But the difference between him and other bums was that along with his impoverished garbs, lack of home and general "mentally insane nature" he was listening to a bright and shiny iPod.
Yes, you read that correctly, no clothes, no shoes, but he had his music!
Today, as I headed across the city I saw a bum, clothed only in a ratty blanket. His hair amess, no shoes, no shirt and I'm hoping, though I didn't check, that he was wearing underwear. But the difference between him and other bums was that along with his impoverished garbs, lack of home and general "mentally insane nature" he was listening to a bright and shiny iPod.
Yes, you read that correctly, no clothes, no shoes, but he had his music!
Angkor Wat is awesome
Yesterday we got up at 6am to see sunrise at Angkor Wat. Rode our bikes there and while morning isn't as hot as midday, it is much more humid. Our sunglasses were unable because of the thick mist constantly present on them. I've never been to the pyramids, but I think the Angkor complex could definitely be much more impressive.
Angkor means "capital"and wat means "temple." The name isn't very significant, but the wat is very impressive. The moat surrounding it is the largest in the world - something like 1.5km on each side and 1km wide. It is the largest religious building in the world. The intricate carvings and depictions of Buddhist and Hindu lore are pretty cool. My favorite? The Battle of Lanka where Rama along with his army of monkeys, battles 10-headed, 20-armed Ravana, seducer of Rama's wife. Ravana rides a monster-drawn chariot and has an army of giants. That bas relief is one of many, and is almost 500m long.
The Angkor complex is enormous and has hundreds of wats nearby. We planned to see some more, but by 9am the heat was getting oppressive. Rode back to the guesthouse, took showers, turned on the air conditioning and took naps. Went to lunch at the Butterfly Gardens - a do-gooder business that pays children for butterflies they capture so they can pay for school. At the same time, they train impoverished youths hospitality and cooking skills.
They wash all their vegetables in spring water so we got a Khmer salad - so delicious because we haven't eaten vegatables in a while, PLUS it had a fried hard boiled egg on top. Genius. We really loaded up on food there but the other thing that was super delicious there were cashews fried with minced onion, chili power and lime juice. I'm bringing that recipe home!
Went back to the AC to watch Cambodian MTV (every video has karaoke sing along words) and out again at sunset to see Bayon Wat which was also very impressive: 54 tours with 4 Buddha heads on each for a total of 216. The sunlight was a little low for pictures so we went out for pizza in town. Delicious! Went to bed early so we could get up at sunrise again.
Learned the whole history of the Cambodia and the Khmer people. I didn't really know anything about them before. Quick summary: the Khmer people ruled all of SE Asia from Vietnam to Thailand and Burma before the Mongol hordes drove those nations to attack Cambodia. They reached the height of their civilization in 13th century which was when many of the temples were built. They slowly lost power over the centuries from others attacking and taking land. Which leads us to French colonization, Cambodian independence, the fall of the pro-Western government when the US pulls out of Vietnam, the rise of the Khmer Rouge, years of civil war and Vietnam conquering Cambodia, then pulling out. And they been rebuilding as best they can ever since.
Also, nagas are the best. They are seven-headed serpents. If you're ever looking for a good gift for me.....
Angkor means "capital"and wat means "temple." The name isn't very significant, but the wat is very impressive. The moat surrounding it is the largest in the world - something like 1.5km on each side and 1km wide. It is the largest religious building in the world. The intricate carvings and depictions of Buddhist and Hindu lore are pretty cool. My favorite? The Battle of Lanka where Rama along with his army of monkeys, battles 10-headed, 20-armed Ravana, seducer of Rama's wife. Ravana rides a monster-drawn chariot and has an army of giants. That bas relief is one of many, and is almost 500m long.
The Angkor complex is enormous and has hundreds of wats nearby. We planned to see some more, but by 9am the heat was getting oppressive. Rode back to the guesthouse, took showers, turned on the air conditioning and took naps. Went to lunch at the Butterfly Gardens - a do-gooder business that pays children for butterflies they capture so they can pay for school. At the same time, they train impoverished youths hospitality and cooking skills.
They wash all their vegetables in spring water so we got a Khmer salad - so delicious because we haven't eaten vegatables in a while, PLUS it had a fried hard boiled egg on top. Genius. We really loaded up on food there but the other thing that was super delicious there were cashews fried with minced onion, chili power and lime juice. I'm bringing that recipe home!
Went back to the AC to watch Cambodian MTV (every video has karaoke sing along words) and out again at sunset to see Bayon Wat which was also very impressive: 54 tours with 4 Buddha heads on each for a total of 216. The sunlight was a little low for pictures so we went out for pizza in town. Delicious! Went to bed early so we could get up at sunrise again.
Learned the whole history of the Cambodia and the Khmer people. I didn't really know anything about them before. Quick summary: the Khmer people ruled all of SE Asia from Vietnam to Thailand and Burma before the Mongol hordes drove those nations to attack Cambodia. They reached the height of their civilization in 13th century which was when many of the temples were built. They slowly lost power over the centuries from others attacking and taking land. Which leads us to French colonization, Cambodian independence, the fall of the pro-Western government when the US pulls out of Vietnam, the rise of the Khmer Rouge, years of civil war and Vietnam conquering Cambodia, then pulling out. And they been rebuilding as best they can ever since.
Also, nagas are the best. They are seven-headed serpents. If you're ever looking for a good gift for me.....
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Hey, man, you don't talk to the Colonel. You listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet-warrior in the classic sense.
We rode our bikes from Aranyaprathet to the border on some very nice paved roads. And then we got to the razor wire and mud roads. When you depart the Thai border, you're in a no man's land packed with casinos. Since gambling is illegal in Thailand, this is a hot tourist destination. Like a humid, muddy Vegas.
But there were several men from the Cambodian Cultural Affairs office who helped us fill out all of our paperwork and told us which lines to stand in for the fastest service and what to give to each station when clearing the Cambodian side. VERY helpful and friendly, so that was great. When we got to the Cambodian customs guy, he was very thorough and spoke some English. However, his English seemed to be limited to quotes from _Apocalypse Now_ and that was super creepy!
The road was unbelievably terrible beginning right away. It was a rocky dirt road covered in a super slick mud slime that smelled bad. Andrew's tires have some knobs to them, but mine are pretty much road tires only. With all my equipment on the back and unequal weight distribution, I was sliding all over the place and using all of my concentration not to get hit by any cars and more importantly, not to fall into that rancid mud.
Our tires kicked up a ton of mud and we were soon covered. But I didn't fall! After about a kilometer, it dried out and we were on a "regular" poorly maintained dirt road. We didn't stop to take any pictures because we were afraid we wouldn't be able to start pedaling again. And we didn't want to even step in that mud. Picture ops we missed: a hospital sign with a blue cross on it. Instead of the snake being coiled around the Staff of Asclepius, it was coiled around a martini glass. And a truck with rice sacks piled up 30ft high, and lots of people on top of that!
We went about 60 miles today in the heat and humidity today. It was very interesting to see the countryside, but we consumed prodigious quantities of water. Every time we stopped (once an hour) we were covered in sweat. I've never experienced anything like that before. When we were moving, the breeze was enough to keep us dryish. But when we stopped, we poured sweat. I don't think the pictures will do it justice.
Fortunately for us, almost 40miles of what we rode today was freshly paved. It made for much more pleasant riding and since the road was so wide, we could ride side-by-side.
We planned to ride half-way to Siemreab and then get a guest house for the night. We got there at about 5 just as it started to rain heavily (perfect timing!) and got a bite to eat from a little shack with flies all over everything. We picked the dish which contained the most peppers hoping it would kill anything living in there:) Time will tell.
We asked where to stay, and they said the closest place was 25km down the road. We asked if a taxi could take us, but they said there weren't any. So we ate an extra helping of rice, bought more water and decided to keep going before it got dark out. But then a taxi arrived and we negotiated to have him drive us all the way to Siemreab for $40 US. It was worth every penny:)
We skipped some terrible muddy sections of road, and missed the pouring rain. And we have the next two days to check out Angkor Wat (the eighth wonder of the world) before we catch the ferry to the Capital.
I ended up getting sunburned on my triceps (the only part of me not covered in mud) and on my back on one side through my tshirt:( We'll see how bad it is tomorrow.
Alright, I can barely keep typing. I'm off to bed!
But there were several men from the Cambodian Cultural Affairs office who helped us fill out all of our paperwork and told us which lines to stand in for the fastest service and what to give to each station when clearing the Cambodian side. VERY helpful and friendly, so that was great. When we got to the Cambodian customs guy, he was very thorough and spoke some English. However, his English seemed to be limited to quotes from _Apocalypse Now_ and that was super creepy!
The road was unbelievably terrible beginning right away. It was a rocky dirt road covered in a super slick mud slime that smelled bad. Andrew's tires have some knobs to them, but mine are pretty much road tires only. With all my equipment on the back and unequal weight distribution, I was sliding all over the place and using all of my concentration not to get hit by any cars and more importantly, not to fall into that rancid mud.
Our tires kicked up a ton of mud and we were soon covered. But I didn't fall! After about a kilometer, it dried out and we were on a "regular" poorly maintained dirt road. We didn't stop to take any pictures because we were afraid we wouldn't be able to start pedaling again. And we didn't want to even step in that mud. Picture ops we missed: a hospital sign with a blue cross on it. Instead of the snake being coiled around the Staff of Asclepius, it was coiled around a martini glass. And a truck with rice sacks piled up 30ft high, and lots of people on top of that!
We went about 60 miles today in the heat and humidity today. It was very interesting to see the countryside, but we consumed prodigious quantities of water. Every time we stopped (once an hour) we were covered in sweat. I've never experienced anything like that before. When we were moving, the breeze was enough to keep us dryish. But when we stopped, we poured sweat. I don't think the pictures will do it justice.
Fortunately for us, almost 40miles of what we rode today was freshly paved. It made for much more pleasant riding and since the road was so wide, we could ride side-by-side.
We planned to ride half-way to Siemreab and then get a guest house for the night. We got there at about 5 just as it started to rain heavily (perfect timing!) and got a bite to eat from a little shack with flies all over everything. We picked the dish which contained the most peppers hoping it would kill anything living in there:) Time will tell.
We asked where to stay, and they said the closest place was 25km down the road. We asked if a taxi could take us, but they said there weren't any. So we ate an extra helping of rice, bought more water and decided to keep going before it got dark out. But then a taxi arrived and we negotiated to have him drive us all the way to Siemreab for $40 US. It was worth every penny:)
We skipped some terrible muddy sections of road, and missed the pouring rain. And we have the next two days to check out Angkor Wat (the eighth wonder of the world) before we catch the ferry to the Capital.
I ended up getting sunburned on my triceps (the only part of me not covered in mud) and on my back on one side through my tshirt:( We'll see how bad it is tomorrow.
Alright, I can barely keep typing. I'm off to bed!
Third world travelling at its finest
So we made it back to the train station in Bangkok with no problem. We got fresh fruit breakfasts and another Thai massage to pass the time. Bought additional bungy cords and did another fitting at the tailor. All of our stuff and bikes were still there too!
The tourist-helper-ladies at the train station were very helpful. They got us in the correct line for tickets and showed us to weigh station for our cargo (bikes), then directed us to the platform we needed to be at. The last lady told us that we needed to be on the platform at least 30min early because that train was free for Thai citizens that day and it would be packed. It's really too bad we missed the early train!
The station policeman carrying a six-pack of beer with him while on patrol was great. We were reluctant to take his picture though. And the Buddhist monk who really wanted to see us ride our bikes on the packed platform was strange. I hope I suffer no karmic penalties for refusing him:)
Although we had to pay for our cargo, there was no cargo area and we had to carry our bikes on board with us. And when the train got there, we were no match for those wily little Thais. They ducked under us and pushed the little kids past us while they held onto our bikes and pulled to get in front of us. Alas, there was nowhere to sit when we got on, which meant that we couldn't see anything out of the windows either. And so our 5-hour train journey began.
We did meet a very nice girl from Brittany, France named Marie and she was a pleasure to talk to. She just finished law school in France and is traveling through Asia and then to New Zealand. We did get places to sit a little over three hours into the ride and that was most spectacular!
When we got off the train, we met another guy from London named Hittesh and we all went to a hotel together. Hittesh went to a wedding in Bahrain about seven months ago and decided not to go back to work. He's been traveling ever since.
We got some beers and ordered the fried snake heads appetizer, but they were all out of the heads! We got regular fried snakes, and they were just okay. The curry and french fries were delicious though.
We broke into the swimming pool after that and that was fun. It's probably better we couldn't see how clean the water was. And then we went to bed in the sweaty heat of the night. Both Andrew and I didn't sleep very well because of how loud the pouring rain was over the multiple fans we had set on high. Nobody in that town spoke much English, and all I could think about was how we were going to get our hands on some ponchos for the bike ride the next day. I decided I would draw a picture.
But everything always works out! It stopped raining around 7am and we were on the road by 10am - later than we had planned, but the weather was only hot and more humid than anything I've ever experienced in my life; it wasn't pouring rain!
The tourist-helper-ladies at the train station were very helpful. They got us in the correct line for tickets and showed us to weigh station for our cargo (bikes), then directed us to the platform we needed to be at. The last lady told us that we needed to be on the platform at least 30min early because that train was free for Thai citizens that day and it would be packed. It's really too bad we missed the early train!
The station policeman carrying a six-pack of beer with him while on patrol was great. We were reluctant to take his picture though. And the Buddhist monk who really wanted to see us ride our bikes on the packed platform was strange. I hope I suffer no karmic penalties for refusing him:)
Although we had to pay for our cargo, there was no cargo area and we had to carry our bikes on board with us. And when the train got there, we were no match for those wily little Thais. They ducked under us and pushed the little kids past us while they held onto our bikes and pulled to get in front of us. Alas, there was nowhere to sit when we got on, which meant that we couldn't see anything out of the windows either. And so our 5-hour train journey began.
We did meet a very nice girl from Brittany, France named Marie and she was a pleasure to talk to. She just finished law school in France and is traveling through Asia and then to New Zealand. We did get places to sit a little over three hours into the ride and that was most spectacular!
When we got off the train, we met another guy from London named Hittesh and we all went to a hotel together. Hittesh went to a wedding in Bahrain about seven months ago and decided not to go back to work. He's been traveling ever since.
We got some beers and ordered the fried snake heads appetizer, but they were all out of the heads! We got regular fried snakes, and they were just okay. The curry and french fries were delicious though.
We broke into the swimming pool after that and that was fun. It's probably better we couldn't see how clean the water was. And then we went to bed in the sweaty heat of the night. Both Andrew and I didn't sleep very well because of how loud the pouring rain was over the multiple fans we had set on high. Nobody in that town spoke much English, and all I could think about was how we were going to get our hands on some ponchos for the bike ride the next day. I decided I would draw a picture.
But everything always works out! It stopped raining around 7am and we were on the road by 10am - later than we had planned, but the weather was only hot and more humid than anything I've ever experienced in my life; it wasn't pouring rain!
Friday, October 17, 2008
Missed the train
Andrew and I have been pretty busy. Got some more fittings in at the tailor and took our bikes for a ride through the streets and alleys of Bangkok. It's much easier to ride a bike on the streets here because I think other drivers are always on the lookout for bikes, carts, scooters, etc. Don't worry - we wore our helmets!
We took a waterway tour of the city's canals, which was just okay. It was nice to see how people on the water live and some of the wats (buddhist temples). However, the boat driver kept pulling over next to other boats trying to sell us stuff. And then at each wat we got out to see, there was a 20 baht "landing fee." However, we had the boat all to ourselves and it was nice and breezy on the water. One lady tried to sell us a loaf of bread to feed the thousands of catfish(?) in the water. It was a total ripoff, but fortunately, the people in the boat in front of us were suckers and did it, so we got to the reap the benefits without forking over our cash. And by benefits, I mean we saw a bunch of fish breaking through the surface of the water trying to eat the breadcrumbs. Similar to feeding pigeons.
It is very hot and humid here, but not as overbearing as I thought it would be. Even the air from riding a bike was nice. I'm usually sweatiest standing around:) It's nice having Andrew's skillz here - after we put the bikes together he helped me get it really tuned in. Fixed the seat, handle bars, and gear shifters.
Got our visas back from the travel agent at 6pm last night, so we're covered there. After that we met up with a colleague of Perin (Deloitte US) who's travelling the world - Harley Young. Small world! We got a beer and wandered around the city for a while. We laughed a lot and that was fun.
So everyone we talked to said the train to the Cambodian border left at 6:30am in the morning. So we got up at 5, put most of our stuff in storage and took tuk-tuks over to the train station. Got there at 6:05 and it turns out we missed our train by 10 minutes. Stupid trains! Next train leaves at 1pm, so we have some time to write in the blog and check out anything with air conditioning. Aranyaprathet is the border town we're going to. We'll stay there tonight and cross the border tomorrow. The train station has a luggage storage area, put it's just a huge pile of bags with a piece of paper staples to each one. We ended up locking our bags and bikes together to a metal gate. Don't worry: there is a piece of paper stapled to one of our bags, so it's official.
We were planning to go back to the hotel to tell them we left something back in the room: our sleep. But we got to this Internet cafe first. Oh! And we found a Dunkin Donuts, so that was nice treat after the train ordeal.
Andrew and I got Thai massages too, and they were pretty cheap (about $8 for an hour). It was really nice and relaxing until she got me in a full nelson, put her knees in my lower back and rolled onto her back. I'm still a little sore from that! Harley said he doesn't like them because it's like wrestling a panda bear.
We're off to see if we can get some hammok time somewhere air conditioned. I don't even know if they have that, but it sounds like a sweet business opportunity!
We took a waterway tour of the city's canals, which was just okay. It was nice to see how people on the water live and some of the wats (buddhist temples). However, the boat driver kept pulling over next to other boats trying to sell us stuff. And then at each wat we got out to see, there was a 20 baht "landing fee." However, we had the boat all to ourselves and it was nice and breezy on the water. One lady tried to sell us a loaf of bread to feed the thousands of catfish(?) in the water. It was a total ripoff, but fortunately, the people in the boat in front of us were suckers and did it, so we got to the reap the benefits without forking over our cash. And by benefits, I mean we saw a bunch of fish breaking through the surface of the water trying to eat the breadcrumbs. Similar to feeding pigeons.
It is very hot and humid here, but not as overbearing as I thought it would be. Even the air from riding a bike was nice. I'm usually sweatiest standing around:) It's nice having Andrew's skillz here - after we put the bikes together he helped me get it really tuned in. Fixed the seat, handle bars, and gear shifters.
Got our visas back from the travel agent at 6pm last night, so we're covered there. After that we met up with a colleague of Perin (Deloitte US) who's travelling the world - Harley Young. Small world! We got a beer and wandered around the city for a while. We laughed a lot and that was fun.
So everyone we talked to said the train to the Cambodian border left at 6:30am in the morning. So we got up at 5, put most of our stuff in storage and took tuk-tuks over to the train station. Got there at 6:05 and it turns out we missed our train by 10 minutes. Stupid trains! Next train leaves at 1pm, so we have some time to write in the blog and check out anything with air conditioning. Aranyaprathet is the border town we're going to. We'll stay there tonight and cross the border tomorrow. The train station has a luggage storage area, put it's just a huge pile of bags with a piece of paper staples to each one. We ended up locking our bags and bikes together to a metal gate. Don't worry: there is a piece of paper stapled to one of our bags, so it's official.
We were planning to go back to the hotel to tell them we left something back in the room: our sleep. But we got to this Internet cafe first. Oh! And we found a Dunkin Donuts, so that was nice treat after the train ordeal.
Andrew and I got Thai massages too, and they were pretty cheap (about $8 for an hour). It was really nice and relaxing until she got me in a full nelson, put her knees in my lower back and rolled onto her back. I'm still a little sore from that! Harley said he doesn't like them because it's like wrestling a panda bear.
We're off to see if we can get some hammok time somewhere air conditioned. I don't even know if they have that, but it sounds like a sweet business opportunity!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
In Bangkok
Landed safely in Bangkok and I am highly impressed with the infrastructure here. The roads are perfect everywhere, the airport's brand new, the busses were obtained recently, the trains are all rather new, and the tuk tuk (pronounced took took) are in repair, clean and colorful. I expected more chaos, but it's a major metropolitan city. Everyone obeys the traffic lights (which are all in working condition) and everyone crosses at crosswalks. I guess I expected it to be a little more like Africa... Sure there are unlicensed businesses everywhere (which happen to be the best places to eat) but everything is pretty orderly.
The plan is to bike through Cambodia to Ho Chi Min city and fly back to Bangkok and then home. Andrew, my friend from way back is going with me. He has another couple of weeks after I leave to decide what he wants to do. Rock climbing in the south of Thailand, yoga in India, trek to Nepal, who knows.... But I'm excited for him!
Went down to Khao San Road and got ourselves a tailor that Andrew's been to many times over the years. Got myself some suits, shirts, pants, a blazer, and a winter coat. Got Perin some skirts, some blouses, a top, a winter coat too based on her measurements I had with me. Learned a lot about different silk products and am impressed by his past work - all quality materials and extra stitching everywhere.
Had a couple beers with lunch and started wheeling and dealing on purchasing stuff. Got some sunglasses and some fire-breathing monkys with flashing red eyes lighters. Had to work hard to get the price down to what we were looking for: $1 each. Tried doing some tshirt deals, but the vendors that have my favorite shirts only have large shirts. (XL is best for me). And I suppose I could buy promising to work out for hours every day and then they'd only be really tight on me, but that's not the requirements you want to make of yourself to buy a tshirt with some clever or ironic print on the front of it.
We did get some flattened squid fresh off the grill which we saw a lot of people eating. Not quite a squid jerky but close. Thoroughly unpleasant in the tastebud region of the tongue. We spit those out after a couple of chews and then got more beers to wash the taste out of our mouths. We ate some other mini octopi off a stick that were grilled and then dunked into asian hot sauce for us and those were declicious! It's nice being able to get two full serving of pad thai and two beers for a 2 dollars.
We set up our bikes and they should be good to go. We used compresses CO2 gas to pump the tires and that the way to go! We should have brought more for insurance. We did spend some time trying to find a place to buy more. No luck.
We have to go pick up our visas today, then arrange take the train closer to the Cambodian border tomorrow morning. I have a third and four fittings for my suits today and then a final fitting when we fly back here from Saigon on Sunday.
A friend of Perin and myself named Harley will be in Bangkok today so maybe we'll run into him. That would be pretty cool.
Off to a busy day!
The plan is to bike through Cambodia to Ho Chi Min city and fly back to Bangkok and then home. Andrew, my friend from way back is going with me. He has another couple of weeks after I leave to decide what he wants to do. Rock climbing in the south of Thailand, yoga in India, trek to Nepal, who knows.... But I'm excited for him!
Went down to Khao San Road and got ourselves a tailor that Andrew's been to many times over the years. Got myself some suits, shirts, pants, a blazer, and a winter coat. Got Perin some skirts, some blouses, a top, a winter coat too based on her measurements I had with me. Learned a lot about different silk products and am impressed by his past work - all quality materials and extra stitching everywhere.
Had a couple beers with lunch and started wheeling and dealing on purchasing stuff. Got some sunglasses and some fire-breathing monkys with flashing red eyes lighters. Had to work hard to get the price down to what we were looking for: $1 each. Tried doing some tshirt deals, but the vendors that have my favorite shirts only have large shirts. (XL is best for me). And I suppose I could buy promising to work out for hours every day and then they'd only be really tight on me, but that's not the requirements you want to make of yourself to buy a tshirt with some clever or ironic print on the front of it.
We did get some flattened squid fresh off the grill which we saw a lot of people eating. Not quite a squid jerky but close. Thoroughly unpleasant in the tastebud region of the tongue. We spit those out after a couple of chews and then got more beers to wash the taste out of our mouths. We ate some other mini octopi off a stick that were grilled and then dunked into asian hot sauce for us and those were declicious! It's nice being able to get two full serving of pad thai and two beers for a 2 dollars.
We set up our bikes and they should be good to go. We used compresses CO2 gas to pump the tires and that the way to go! We should have brought more for insurance. We did spend some time trying to find a place to buy more. No luck.
We have to go pick up our visas today, then arrange take the train closer to the Cambodian border tomorrow morning. I have a third and four fittings for my suits today and then a final fitting when we fly back here from Saigon on Sunday.
A friend of Perin and myself named Harley will be in Bangkok today so maybe we'll run into him. That would be pretty cool.
Off to a busy day!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Preparing for Asia
Next week I leave for a bicycling tour of South East Asia. I'm flying to Bangkok, Thailand, riding my bike through Cambodia to Saigon, Vietnam, and then coming home.It's very exciting, and I'm in decent shape, but my butt bones are in terrible condition. Okay, I'm already in Asia, but did a terrible job of completing this post before I left.
I traded the seat with flames on it for Perin's seat (which is way more confortable). Thank you Perin!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Just an update...
Its Saturday afternoon here and I thought I would finally put in a new update. Everyday I think "oh, I should add that to the blog" but of course as I get here, I can't remember anything.
So I will start with some fun family and friends updates. All our families are doing well. We have spoken with almost everyone over the past few weeks and its been nice to be back in touch. This past week was Bob's b-day, Alan & Ange's anniversary, Randy's b-day and Myra's b-day (which is technically tomorrow in the US and today in NZ) in chronological order. So it was a big family week to say the least. A big shout out of congrats and happy birthday to all. On other family news, Myra' and Erik got a super cute puppy a few weeks back and named her Paisley. And finally (but not least) on Oct 10th Josh and Barri celebrate their 10th anniversary WOW! Oh and I almost forgot, Josh got a new job and started a few weeks ago!!!
With regards to my friends, I finally got pictures of Sibel's growing belly, I found out Michelle is actually on normal schedule (going to bed early and rising soon after the sun comes up - OMG), Kimi and her boys are loving life in CA and Amy will be moving to Hawaii in Dec. DJ had a baby girl this week (CONGRATS) and Jon Poynter went skydiving today. I think thats all the exciting news I have heard recently. Though I highly encourage all to send me updates.
So now for a NZ update. Last weekend we went 4 wheel driving and I took some cool photos of Paul doing some extreme driving and I got growled at by some Sea Lions for getting to close (got a picture of that too). We also went for a great hike along a beautiful creek. We were going to head for a hike today, but the weather prevented us from doing much more than sitting on the couch surfing the internet and playing video games.
I learned a few new New Zealand phrases I thought I would share. The first is "starter for 10" this is the equivalent of "draft". You can use this when sending along a first draft of a document and say "here is a good starter for 10". It comes from a university quiz show were you were answering a question as a 'starter' for ten points. I also heard a story about a somewhat famous NZ boxer who went on wheel of fortune and asked for an "O" for awesome!
I think most people have heard my deer story at this point, but for those who haven't I will type up the revised version here. Basically I met our neighbors who have a beautiful stained glass window in their house. When I commented on how pretty it was they explained to me that it was new because their old window had just been broken by some boys who they figured were "just boys on a deer". Well it took us two days and a discussion with a local to learn that "boy on a deer" was really "boy on a dare" (just a pronunciation difference). Needless to say it was hysterically funny when we finally figured it out because we just couldn't figure out what a boy would be doing on a deer and why that would break a window!?
We also learned that W & H together make an "F" sound. So there is a town near here spelled Kaiwharawhara and its pronounced 'ki-fara-fara'.
We are planning a big vacation for when Marilee, Mark, Myra and Erik arrive. We will be touring the South Island and then Paul and I may head to Australia for week since I have another week of work off after they leave. Pretty much all of NZ has a forced shutdown over the holiday period. I of course keep calling it the winter break which confuses all the locals since Dec/Jan is our summer!
I went to a work function last night. It was an indoor go-karting grand prix. It was super fun and the first time any women have raced (this is an annual event). I joined the all women's team and I had the fastest lap of all my teammates, but unfortunately we came in dead last - oh well!
My mom asked me to post a brief update on work, so here it is... Pretty much all of my clients are in the public sector. In just the 4 weeks I have been working I have either had a project or responded to a proposal for the Department of Corrections, the Department of Labour, Housing NZ, the Internal Revenue Department, and the Ministry of Health. All of my work is pretty interesting and very busy. We are in a recession similar to the US, but on a much smaller scale. Fortunately, since most of our clients are government, they aren't as affected as the private sector and so business hasn't really slowed.
There are some major difference between the US and NZ practice but mostly around how we are reviewed. Its neat because there are only a handful of partners and 100 or so practitioners so its a totally different review process. Instead of 100's of random people in a room talking about someone hardly anyone knows and fighting for how well they did or not do, its incredibly personal. Utilization is important but not the end-all be all and what you do is lot more important than who you know (and everyone knows everybody).
I've also noticed that people are not nearly as particular about things like grammar, formatting and PowerPoints. This is not to say that deliverables aren't of the same quality just that feedback from partners and senior managers is more about content and less on whether or not your boxes are aligned. What a nice change! (no commenting on my terrible grammar in this post, this is fun and no one is paying me for this!) Deloitte NZ bases your utilization on a 32 hour work week, but in the same respect they assume that for every 10 hours you are at the client you probably only worked 8, so my work weeks are just as long!
Paul is doing well and getting ready for his big vacation in Asia. I'm not particularly psyched at being alone, but I can handle 12 days and I have a long weekend in there so it will be nice to relax.
Ok, I've probably caught most people up with enough boring stuff. As Marilee said, most blog posts are just stuff people could have posted in an email, but I hope/think this will reach more people than I could remember to email.
Miss you all!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Let the pictures begin!
All of our stuff was delivered and while much of it is now out of the boxes, it hasn't been put away yet. Part of the reason for this is that while the house is much larger than our old apartment, there is less closet space. Another part of the reason is that we don't have any furniture to put stuff in. But we're working on that!This is one of our favorite pictures from a tourist sign. It reads:
Blame it on Cook Strait.
Our prevailing north-west winds accelerate through the straight, giving us 173 days of wind over 60kph (32 knots) each year, on average. Southerly winds also intensify through this narrow gap, giving Wellington the strongest winds on record in New Zealand.
During the 1968 Wahine Storm wind gusts reached 270kph (145 knots). That's double hurricane force! Wind measuring equipment at the airport was destroyed as Wellington faced the most intense storm ever recorded in New Zealand.
Force (kph) Description
2 (7.5-11) Leaves are in motion
3 (13-18.5) Gentle breeze. Raises light flag.
4 (20-30) Moderate breeze. Small trees sway.
5 (31-39) Fresh breeze. Large branches sway.
6 (41-50) Strong breeze. Whole trees in motion.
7 (51-61) Near gale. Hard to walk against.
8 (62-74) Gale. Large branches break off.
Did you read the best part? 173 days a year over force seven. To see some more pictures click the picture below:
 |
| Pictures |
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
First All Blacks Game in NZ
Perin and I attended our first live All Blacks sporting event a local "dodgy" bar. We met some colleagues from her work who told us to get there 90 minutes before the start so we could get a good standing (not sitting) area staked out.
The match was to decide first place in the Tri-Nations Tournament. The Tri-Nations are the three rugby powerhouses of the southern hemisphere: South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The All Blacks played the Wallabies (Australia). South Africa's team is the Springboks.
Just watching the haka (traditional war dance performed by the ABs before every game) with everyone packed into that bar together raised testosterone levels tremendously. A couple pitchers of beer and the last-minute victory made it a very memorable event! Go All Blacks!
We learned a lot about the subtleties of the game from her colleagues and saw that no one moved or ordered drinks while the ball was in play. Only during a stoppage in play was it appropriate to move or order drinks - at least at the bar we were at.
Get pumped up for battle watching the haka:
The match was to decide first place in the Tri-Nations Tournament. The Tri-Nations are the three rugby powerhouses of the southern hemisphere: South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The All Blacks played the Wallabies (Australia). South Africa's team is the Springboks.
Just watching the haka (traditional war dance performed by the ABs before every game) with everyone packed into that bar together raised testosterone levels tremendously. A couple pitchers of beer and the last-minute victory made it a very memorable event! Go All Blacks!
We learned a lot about the subtleties of the game from her colleagues and saw that no one moved or ordered drinks while the ball was in play. Only during a stoppage in play was it appropriate to move or order drinks - at least at the bar we were at.
Get pumped up for battle watching the haka:
Water pressure
As it rains a lot here, no one has to pay for water or sewer. New Zealanders won't be facing droughts any time soon. And even though we live near the top of a hill, we have unbelievably high water pressure.
I've blown the plastic cup out of my hand several times trying to fill it from the tap. When we flush the toilet, the water is so forceful that it sprays up and out of the bowl, getting the seat wet. Dangerous. No courtesy flushes here.
Even shutting the lid before flushing doesn't fully alleviate the issue - the water splashes up against the lid and runs to the sides and gets on the seat. Not as bad as without the lid down, but still....
So I got super pumped for my first shower! I wasn't sure if the water would pin me to the back wall or if it would hit me in the chest so hard I would do a backflip. Regardless, I looked forward to that shower. You can imagine my bitter disappointment when I found out we have a super-water-saver shower head. It barely trickles out.
We have a second shower in the basement that's normal. But one of my first improvements to this property is to get a better shower head installed upstairs.
Other updates: Our stuff is supposed to be delivered on Monday, so after we unpack, we can start uploading pictures. We also got a car - a white 2001 Nissan Pathfinder that we'll pick up on Monday too. We got a couch and TV set up and cable/phone/Internet should all be working this week.
I've blown the plastic cup out of my hand several times trying to fill it from the tap. When we flush the toilet, the water is so forceful that it sprays up and out of the bowl, getting the seat wet. Dangerous. No courtesy flushes here.
Even shutting the lid before flushing doesn't fully alleviate the issue - the water splashes up against the lid and runs to the sides and gets on the seat. Not as bad as without the lid down, but still....
So I got super pumped for my first shower! I wasn't sure if the water would pin me to the back wall or if it would hit me in the chest so hard I would do a backflip. Regardless, I looked forward to that shower. You can imagine my bitter disappointment when I found out we have a super-water-saver shower head. It barely trickles out.
We have a second shower in the basement that's normal. But one of my first improvements to this property is to get a better shower head installed upstairs.
Other updates: Our stuff is supposed to be delivered on Monday, so after we unpack, we can start uploading pictures. We also got a car - a white 2001 Nissan Pathfinder that we'll pick up on Monday too. We got a couch and TV set up and cable/phone/Internet should all be working this week.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sam the bartender
Perin and I have been waiting to get TV, phone, and internet installed. Service everywhere isn't quite the same as in the US, but better than India. Only a 17-day wait for installation... Hopefully next week. Now I'm at an Internet Cafe downtown.
Perin and I live in a Brooklyn - a 10-minute commute to downtown Wellington. We have two pubs and I met Sam the bartender at the one closest to our house earlier this week. (I haven't been to the pub two blocks further away yet). Sam's young and fit so I thought he'd be the perfect one to ask about how best to join a sports team around here.
Sam: "What kind of sports?"
Paul: "Soccer and touch rugby."
Sam: "Touch rugby? No! You want to play tackle rugby."
Paul: "I don't know.... I'm kind of old to learn such a physical game. Mostly I'm worried that whichever team I try to join will make fun of pads in American football and try to inflict deep tissue bruising and probably break my nose at the first practice, just because."
Sam: "How old are you?"
Paul: "29."
Sam: "Yeah, they probably will, but only for the first practice. Then you'll be part of the team. If you get the ball or try to tackle somebody, just go in confident. Listen - in highschool I played rugby and broke my arm just below the shoulder. I couldn't lift it and it hurt like hell. But I kept playing. Do you know who Buck Shelford is?"
Paul: "Nah, not really."
Sam: "He's a famous rugby player for the All Blacks. See, raking in where players rake you with the bottom of their cleats. Usually, they go for your hands after you've been tackled and are lying on the ground. Well Buck Shelford got his crotch raked. Tore his scrotum open and he a testicle hanging out. Went to the sideline, the doctor sewed him up and he finished the game. I knew if he could play with that kind of injury, I could play with a broken arm."
Paul: "Oh."
You can read more about Buck Shelford here. Sam's nice and everything, but I'm still not sure tackle rugby is for me. And when I find out how to join a team, I supposed to let him know.
Perin and I live in a Brooklyn - a 10-minute commute to downtown Wellington. We have two pubs and I met Sam the bartender at the one closest to our house earlier this week. (I haven't been to the pub two blocks further away yet). Sam's young and fit so I thought he'd be the perfect one to ask about how best to join a sports team around here.
Sam: "What kind of sports?"
Paul: "Soccer and touch rugby."
Sam: "Touch rugby? No! You want to play tackle rugby."
Paul: "I don't know.... I'm kind of old to learn such a physical game. Mostly I'm worried that whichever team I try to join will make fun of pads in American football and try to inflict deep tissue bruising and probably break my nose at the first practice, just because."
Sam: "How old are you?"
Paul: "29."
Sam: "Yeah, they probably will, but only for the first practice. Then you'll be part of the team. If you get the ball or try to tackle somebody, just go in confident. Listen - in highschool I played rugby and broke my arm just below the shoulder. I couldn't lift it and it hurt like hell. But I kept playing. Do you know who Buck Shelford is?"
Paul: "Nah, not really."
Sam: "He's a famous rugby player for the All Blacks. See, raking in where players rake you with the bottom of their cleats. Usually, they go for your hands after you've been tackled and are lying on the ground. Well Buck Shelford got his crotch raked. Tore his scrotum open and he a testicle hanging out. Went to the sideline, the doctor sewed him up and he finished the game. I knew if he could play with that kind of injury, I could play with a broken arm."
Paul: "Oh."
You can read more about Buck Shelford here. Sam's nice and everything, but I'm still not sure tackle rugby is for me. And when I find out how to join a team, I supposed to let him know.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Some things I have learned on the job
I'm almost through my first week of work (it's Friday here) and I thought it would be fun to share not only my experiences but some of the many phrases I have picked up.
My first week was hectic. Monday was a whirlwind, I met at least 65 people before 3pm and by the time I got home at 6pm I had a proposal to work on, trainings to complete and head that was spinning. Also, taking 3 months off of work definitely made the adjustment a little harder. I fell asleep at 7:45pm on Monday, made it all the way till 9:30 on Tuesday and then of course stayed up really late (11pm) on Wednesday when I had to be up at 4:45am the next day to catch my flight to Auckland.
All in all, I really like the office. We have about 60 or so practitioners in the Wellington office and another 60 or so in Auckland and its very important to our leadership that we view ourselves as a national, rather than regional practice. Therefore everyone, knows everyone. For example, in pursuit of some information, I called a colleague in Auckland (as recommended to me). When he answered the phone "hello Perin" instead of just hello, I was caught off guard. Then I quickly commented, how he must have picked up my name through through our caller ID, to which he replied, "your'e the new manager from San Francisco". Basically what I'm trying to convey is that its a personal environment and everyone, knows everybody.
I am currently attending our "All Hands" meeting in Auckland and its been really nice to meet all the partners (all 5 of them) and the rest of the practitioners. Prior to coming we were sent an email regarding the dress code. One of the items said "No Jandals". So I enquired what a Jandal was to which I got a reply, "No thongs". No thongs? Why do they care what underwear I wear? Finally it was clarified that jandal is Kiwi, thongs is Australian and in the US and UK we call them flip-flops (hehe).
I have to be downstairs in a meeting in about 20 minutes and I'm still in my PJ's so I'll keep this post short, but I've been capturing a lot of interesting sayings and new words that I definitely want to share with everyone. For example, Togs for a kiwi is a bathing suit (also known as a swimming costume) where as Togs for a South African (of which our practice has many) is your Rugby boots.
I also learned that when computers used disks instead of CD's, South African's called the two different types floppies and stiffies. So can you imagine the first time the partner entered the room and asked if anyone had a "stiffy"? I was laughing so hard at this story last night.
I also heard a funny story of a German colleague who was trying to use the english phase "spoon fed" and instead the sentence came out "I can believe I have to breast feed the client". Another burst out laughing story.
Just so you know they don't use sidewalks here, they are called footpaths, and to sound like a kiwi turn your I's in U's. So it would Fush and Chups (instead of Fish and Chips) and if you want an Australian accent, I been told to turn my I's into E's. So it would be Feesh and Cheeps.
Everyone here calls me Peerin (prounced like peer-in) and so after a few drinks last night the "peerin-perin" story came out. For those of you that don't know that story I suggest you ask Jon Poynter as its not quite too appropriate for the blog (though I swear I didn't see anything!)
Ok, gotta run. Got 15 minutes to get dressed and I've been up since 7am on phone calls with the US (for work). I will post again tomorrow with all the other funny stuff I have learned.
Love,
Perin
My first week was hectic. Monday was a whirlwind, I met at least 65 people before 3pm and by the time I got home at 6pm I had a proposal to work on, trainings to complete and head that was spinning. Also, taking 3 months off of work definitely made the adjustment a little harder. I fell asleep at 7:45pm on Monday, made it all the way till 9:30 on Tuesday and then of course stayed up really late (11pm) on Wednesday when I had to be up at 4:45am the next day to catch my flight to Auckland.
All in all, I really like the office. We have about 60 or so practitioners in the Wellington office and another 60 or so in Auckland and its very important to our leadership that we view ourselves as a national, rather than regional practice. Therefore everyone, knows everyone. For example, in pursuit of some information, I called a colleague in Auckland (as recommended to me). When he answered the phone "hello Perin" instead of just hello, I was caught off guard. Then I quickly commented, how he must have picked up my name through through our caller ID, to which he replied, "your'e the new manager from San Francisco". Basically what I'm trying to convey is that its a personal environment and everyone, knows everybody.
I am currently attending our "All Hands" meeting in Auckland and its been really nice to meet all the partners (all 5 of them) and the rest of the practitioners. Prior to coming we were sent an email regarding the dress code. One of the items said "No Jandals". So I enquired what a Jandal was to which I got a reply, "No thongs". No thongs? Why do they care what underwear I wear? Finally it was clarified that jandal is Kiwi, thongs is Australian and in the US and UK we call them flip-flops (hehe).
I have to be downstairs in a meeting in about 20 minutes and I'm still in my PJ's so I'll keep this post short, but I've been capturing a lot of interesting sayings and new words that I definitely want to share with everyone. For example, Togs for a kiwi is a bathing suit (also known as a swimming costume) where as Togs for a South African (of which our practice has many) is your Rugby boots.
I also learned that when computers used disks instead of CD's, South African's called the two different types floppies and stiffies. So can you imagine the first time the partner entered the room and asked if anyone had a "stiffy"? I was laughing so hard at this story last night.
I also heard a funny story of a German colleague who was trying to use the english phase "spoon fed" and instead the sentence came out "I can believe I have to breast feed the client". Another burst out laughing story.
Just so you know they don't use sidewalks here, they are called footpaths, and to sound like a kiwi turn your I's in U's. So it would Fush and Chups (instead of Fish and Chips) and if you want an Australian accent, I been told to turn my I's into E's. So it would be Feesh and Cheeps.
Everyone here calls me Peerin (prounced like peer-in) and so after a few drinks last night the "peerin-perin" story came out. For those of you that don't know that story I suggest you ask Jon Poynter as its not quite too appropriate for the blog (though I swear I didn't see anything!)
Ok, gotta run. Got 15 minutes to get dressed and I've been up since 7am on phone calls with the US (for work). I will post again tomorrow with all the other funny stuff I have learned.
Love,
Perin
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
We got the house!
Today, we signed on the line which is dotted for our house, so that's good. It ended up working out okay, but the day didn't begin well. I had to be at the realty office with the check at 10am but our bank doesn't open on Wednesdays until 9:30am. Why you ask? Because there's a weekly meeting.
That alone would have been okay, but all the bus drivers got today off while the union negotiated pay raises. Technically, the drivers weren't on strike. Union members just get the day off when negotiations take place. Crazy! So instead of a $2 bus ride to the top of the hill, I took a $20 cab ride to the top.
My choices as a consumer here are kind of interesting. But it explains some things we noticed, like how come no one here talks on their mobile phone? And of the very few we do see talking on mobiles, how come no one has Bluetooth?
There are two mobile phone companies to choose from. New Zealand has the most expensive mobile phone plans in the industrialized world. You pay approximately $40/mo for service and $0.40 a minute when you talk. You can some phones for free or for a nominal price similar to the US, but the more features you get, the more expensive it is. A PDA phone costs nearly $1000. Which explains why no ones uses their mobile unless they have to and also the popularity of text messaging.
I thought about starting my own phone company but Telstra (an Australian firm) has beat me to it. They announced the beginning of their service yesterday. They only charge $20/mo and $0.21 a minute. I'm thinking about signing up with them!
Most people think rugby is the sport of New Zealand. Those people are correct. However, another very popular sport is jetsprint boating. It's on for like two hours a day on the sports channel. We might have more jetsprints in the US if those damn environmentalists weren't protecting the wetlands and air quality. See what you're missing out on here:
That alone would have been okay, but all the bus drivers got today off while the union negotiated pay raises. Technically, the drivers weren't on strike. Union members just get the day off when negotiations take place. Crazy! So instead of a $2 bus ride to the top of the hill, I took a $20 cab ride to the top.
My choices as a consumer here are kind of interesting. But it explains some things we noticed, like how come no one here talks on their mobile phone? And of the very few we do see talking on mobiles, how come no one has Bluetooth?
There are two mobile phone companies to choose from. New Zealand has the most expensive mobile phone plans in the industrialized world. You pay approximately $40/mo for service and $0.40 a minute when you talk. You can some phones for free or for a nominal price similar to the US, but the more features you get, the more expensive it is. A PDA phone costs nearly $1000. Which explains why no ones uses their mobile unless they have to and also the popularity of text messaging.
I thought about starting my own phone company but Telstra (an Australian firm) has beat me to it. They announced the beginning of their service yesterday. They only charge $20/mo and $0.21 a minute. I'm thinking about signing up with them!
Most people think rugby is the sport of New Zealand. Those people are correct. However, another very popular sport is jetsprint boating. It's on for like two hours a day on the sports channel. We might have more jetsprints in the US if those damn environmentalists weren't protecting the wetlands and air quality. See what you're missing out on here:
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Perin's First Update
I start work tomorrow and I figured it was time I put an update on the blog. Its been interesting how different, yet how similar Wellington is to San Francisco. I must admit that at first I was dissappointed. I mean why move all the way around the world to live in a city that is so similar to where you left? But as we have been here for over a week, I'm noticing a lot of differences.
The first difference is that I have a lot of trouble understanding what people are saying. Paul and I do a lot of "uh-huh's" and "sures" after we have asked people to repeat things for a second or third time and we still don't understand them (and I thought the Irish accent was hard to follow). I think I will find this most difficult at work. Nodding and saying yes isn't going to cut it there (hehe).
The second difference is that people here walk incredibly fast. Paul and I thought we had a pretty fast gate, but we get passed left and right everywhere by people of every age. We have decided that since it rains here so much, they have learned to pick up their pace!
The third difference is that the hills here make San Francisco look flat! I remember my Aunt Barbara once saying that she had to get in shape to live in San Francisco, well I'm going to have to get in shape to live in Wellington.
We met the landlord of the house we wanted yesterday and she liked us, so now we get to move in next week! The house is huge and it has three full bedrooms, a kitchen/living room, an office, 1 full bathroom and 1 3/4 bathroom a laundry room and the main attraction, a big deck with an incredible view of the city. I'm excited to have so much space, especially after our 1 bedroom/ 1 bathroom apartment. Our house is in Brooklyn, Wellington and is very near Central Park (named after the one in NYC).
When we were coming into the city from the airport we passed a penguin crossing sign. The taxi driver told us that little blue penguins live around there and they cross the street mostly at night. We are going to have to check this out! I will also make sure to grab a picture and post it to the blog.
Today we go car shopping. I'm not willing to test drive as I'm not comfortable driving on the other side of the road just yet and really all that matters is that Paul can fit in the driver seat comfortably. Looks like we are going to buy a mid-sized SUV so that we can camp in the back. Because of the delicate ecosystem here, they didn't allow us to bring any of our camping gear (tent, mattress pads, etc.) so we are hoping to find a car that can substitute.
I have to fly to Auckland next Thursday for work. Its our annual meeting and I think a great way to start my first week as it gives me a chance to meet everyone. Of course everyone is a total of 120 people for all of New Zealand. That's pretty neat as well considering we had 700 practitioners in just our Bay Area offices. I also learned from our local banker that Deloitte is considered one of the most prestigous places to work in Wellington and that was a very nice ego boost!
The rain has subsided at least for now and New Zealand is heading into spring. But even with the sun its still pretty cold (I can see my breath). I wear my red rain jacket with my multi-colored hat everyday and I get some pretty silly looks. Its not that I look silly but I'm not adhering to the dress code of all black! I guess I must stand out as a foreigner.
Mostly we've been shocked by the cost of living. We heard that our cost of living would go down, but since groceries, rent and auto's are more expensive (even considering the exchange rate) we are beginning to think its only less expensive to London or Tokyo. That being said, I am still excited to be here.
The grocery stores here have a really smart idea. They took the little baskets that you carry, put wheels on them and added a long handle so you can basically drag them around the grocery without having to hold them. Its like a mini shopping cart and I love it, it makes buying soda and other heavy, yet small items quite easy.
Also, a quick way to figure out the time difference is to subtract 8 hours (if you live on the east coast) and remember it's the next day for us. So for example, if it's 9pm on Friday in NJ, it's 1pm on Saturday in Wellington.
Ok, I'll end my post here and add more as I start work and find more interesting things to tell you all about. We miss everyone tons, though it feels like we are just on vacation!
Much Love,
Perin
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Busy looking at houses.
We've been very busy looking at houses and apartments to rent. I think we've seen around thirty of them now. However, we did find one we like.
Supposedly, there are a lot of people interested, but none of them meet the qualifications of the landlord - a single individual or a couple. No families, no more than two people. We're going to try and meet the landlord later today, sign for next weekend, and then move in a little early later next week. Hopefully everything works out. Click here to see what Perin's commute could be like:)
We'll take some better pictures if we end up getting the place.....
Supposedly, there are a lot of people interested, but none of them meet the qualifications of the landlord - a single individual or a couple. No families, no more than two people. We're going to try and meet the landlord later today, sign for next weekend, and then move in a little early later next week. Hopefully everything works out. Click here to see what Perin's commute could be like:)
We'll take some better pictures if we end up getting the place.....
Monday, August 25, 2008
Important information
We're learning all kinds of new slang: breakkie is breakfast, Wellington is Welly, Melbourne is Mellie and Brisbane is Brissie. Runner up is also ran and layaway is layby.
When dealing in cash here, there are no pennies and no nickels. If the last decimal of the price ends with 1-5, it's rounded down and 6-9 it's rounded up. The debit cards here are called EFTPOS cards and if you use one, then the exact price will be debited from your account. Pennies are stupid anyway.
We stopped by the liquor store and they have the greatest beer service in the world. You bring in your own [empty] two liter bottles and they fill them for you straight from the keg. For numerous dollars less than buying it in pre-packaged containers. Genius! I even took a picture, but since we shipped the cord to copy photos from the camera, you'll have to wait to see it.
When dealing in cash here, there are no pennies and no nickels. If the last decimal of the price ends with 1-5, it's rounded down and 6-9 it's rounded up. The debit cards here are called EFTPOS cards and if you use one, then the exact price will be debited from your account. Pennies are stupid anyway.
We stopped by the liquor store and they have the greatest beer service in the world. You bring in your own [empty] two liter bottles and they fill them for you straight from the keg. For numerous dollars less than buying it in pre-packaged containers. Genius! I even took a picture, but since we shipped the cord to copy photos from the camera, you'll have to wait to see it.
Olympics Coverage
Every country emphasizes the events that it does well in. Accordingly, New Zealand is crazy about the "twins". Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell won gold medals in the skulls (rowing). So they are on the cover of every newspaper and magazine and interviewed on the telly quite frequently.
Additionally, many newspaper inches and lots of media coverage is dedicated to discussion of MPC - medals per capita. New Zealand was doing very well for most of the Olympics but then were usurped at the end by a few very small nations getting a bronze or two. In the end, NZ finished 9th in the world with one medal for every 462,717 people. Feel free to let people you meet at parties know that the Bahamas "really won" the Olympics with one medal for every 153,725 people.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
New Gym Experience
So Perin and I have been busy looking at apartments to let. We've exhausted all of our possibilities within three blocks of the hotel and now have to venture further out. That's unfortunate because it's raining today.
During our brunch yesterday at "the best" pub in all of Wellington - The Black Harp - we asked our waitress about letting an apartment and she said that between November and February is the best time of year to get a place. That was pretty good information because there aren't too many places to look at. The Black Harp is apparently the best because it's an Irish pub and they serve Guinness. We'll have to check some more places out to verify its "bestness."
We are staying in a corporate apartment - like a hotel room with a kitchenette and washing machine. It's pretty nice and we get a newspaper every morning and a free gym membership while we're here.
I went to the gym yesterday and it was satisfactory. It's literally across the street from us which is nice and yesterday it was empty. I went again this morning and had an experience I've never had before. In the locker room there are irons and ironing tables. That's right: plural. And there there were: two naked guys ironing their shirts and talking to each other.
During our brunch yesterday at "the best" pub in all of Wellington - The Black Harp - we asked our waitress about letting an apartment and she said that between November and February is the best time of year to get a place. That was pretty good information because there aren't too many places to look at. The Black Harp is apparently the best because it's an Irish pub and they serve Guinness. We'll have to check some more places out to verify its "bestness."
We are staying in a corporate apartment - like a hotel room with a kitchenette and washing machine. It's pretty nice and we get a newspaper every morning and a free gym membership while we're here.
I went to the gym yesterday and it was satisfactory. It's literally across the street from us which is nice and yesterday it was empty. I went again this morning and had an experience I've never had before. In the locker room there are irons and ironing tables. That's right: plural. And there there were: two naked guys ironing their shirts and talking to each other.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Newspaper Headlines
I'm still working on finding linkable pages for these headlines, but here are a few of our favorites so far:
The Dominion Post - Friday August 22, 2008 - "Keep boobs in babies' mouths."
The New Zealand Herald - Thursday August 21, 2008 - "Ninja pupil kills schoolmate."
The Dominion Post - Friday August 22, 2008 - "Keep boobs in babies' mouths."
The New Zealand Herald - Thursday August 21, 2008 - "Ninja pupil kills schoolmate."
Thursday, July 31, 2008
The Diogenes Club as Described by Sherlock Holmes
"There are many men in London, you know, who, some from shyness, some from misanthropy, have no wish for the company of their fellows. Yet they are not averse to comfortable chairs and the latest periodicals. It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one. Save in the Stranger's Room, no talking is, under any circumstances, allowed, and three offences, if brought to the notice of the committee, render the talker liable to expulsion. My brother was one of the founders, and I have myself found it a very soothing atmosphere."
– The Greek Interpreter
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
