Vietienne, Laos

morning cup of tea
Originally uploaded by Scratchin Dog

Ahhh, money. I find it really hard to mentally change money into real australian dollars in my head.. and here, they will do the US$ into kip, then into baht if you want. Am now carrying 3 types of currency.

10.00 AUD = 74,107.17 LAK (known as the kip)

or approx 150,000 is AU$20.. or 50,000 is AU$6.70

In real terms: 10,000 = 1 longneck of Beer Lao (except for happy hour when it drops to between 6 -8,000 kip)

A dodgy hovel of a hotel room is 50,000 or AU$ 6.70. For that you get a bed, a shower (over the toilet) and no real windows.. and a fan (thank god!).

Off to watch the sun set over the Mekong and eat street food. Whole fried river crabs are crunchy!

Nong Khai

who laughing now?
Originally uploaded by deepwarren

We spent a day at Nong Khai, which is a border town between Laos and Thailand. It was a rather sleepy little scrappy number, but it had very fine food. Lots of river prawns, and seafood cooked on the open grill. Fish cooked in salt (we didn't get time to try that) and this rocking little seafood curry sold in a banana leaf basket for 30 baht. We were recovering from the train ride, so aside from wander about the markets and river side of town, we didn't do too much exploring.

Saw a Buddha! Another one!

I asked these people sitting in the back of the van if I could take their photo- which they thought was just hugely funny. So much so, that I took one fast snap, did the nop (head nod of hello/goodbye/thank you) and bolted embarrassed. Sometimes it happens. I haven't gotten into photographing people this trip. There has been so many tourists about, and the industry is so geared to westerners everywhere, that it seems a little rude to be snapping the people as well.

I'm sure I will get over. It could have been a rocking shot, if I was a little closer, a little steadier and concentrated just a touch. The light was right..

How to catch a taxi in bangkok

taxi number
Originally uploaded by deepwarren

Patience seems important, and so is watching the meter, and not giving in to just blatant demands for more baht. Perhaps it's the fact that there are 75 million! people in larger Bangkok, and who could be expected to know where anything is, or that taxi driving is just a badly paid occupation that attracts men (haven't seen a woman driver yet) who didn't do so well at school. They don't seem to get maps. At all. Checking in the street directory is not an option.

You get to the cab and then you ask if they know where you are going. Repeat as necessary.

Saturday

sketchbook and beer
Originally uploaded by deepwarren

Did a lot of wandering trying to work out some semblance of direction, layout and an idea of how bangkok works street wise. Fantastic pedestrian crossings everywhere that just go up (stairs)and over the roads (more stairs). They also have zebra crossings that don't work.. well they work with motorbikes but the cars don't seem to have quite worked out where the brakes are. You kinda wait for a gap in the traffic and get over as quickly as possible. Lots of cars, way more than I was expecting. They outnumber the motorbikes - around this section of town at least.

Bangkok hasn't quite grabbed my fancy yet, but it's a nice jumble of all things asian, with a large smattering of western thrown in. Everyone more or less speaks a little english, and are more than happy to give directions, or at least say no :) Trying to get into a drawing headspace - it was the plan for this holiday was to do some 'proper' drawings for once - instead of beer scribbles..

Been staying at the Sukhothai hotel which has been all about relaxing and luxury. It's been a first. About to go stay somewhere a little cheaper now. Will report back.

Rounded angel

, originally uploaded by deepwarren.

They have a lot of very bad garden sculpture in bangkok. This one took my fancy. Off to the Forensic Museum today to see the sights - hopefully I''ll have something quite weird to post.

Flash hotel

ross in swishland, originally uploaded by deepwarren.

Made it to bangkok, am now in wish hotel with way expensive wireless. This is a very short post. Off to explore town and buy some thongs. It's hot and steamy here, but a welcome break from the sydney winter. Took over an hour to find Ross at the airport - only found him in the end by getting Information to page 'Loss Rest' over the announcements. DrP - you were right. We should have had a plan, or a semblance of a plan.

Very funny. No bars in Bangkok airport.

Will post with detailed adventures soon.

ross with beer stain art

ross with beer stain art, originally uploaded by Scratchin Dog.

I turned another year older, and it was good. There was good food, nice wine, and presents from Dr P, followed by friends and a lot more wine.

And in a few days I get to fly out of the country and see a whole new slice of SE Asia. Very excited. Found this old shot of Ross in his flickr stream from last 2 summers ago. I'll be drinking yet another beer with you on thurs night. 'til then.

I got my full license

car stencil newtown, originally uploaded by deepwarren.

I went and did the last of my drivers tests - the dreaded DQT, and passed! Yah! I promptly went and and brought a 5year license so i won't have to step foot into the RTA for ages and ages.. and they have given me the very worst photo i've ever seen of me. No retake. Nothing! Even my hair looks bad.
Flat hair.
Funny expression. and about 70yrs old.

But i have my license - i can now drive and drink! Whoot!

*for anyone who wonders what the big deal is - to get your full license in Australia now you have to sit a learners test, followed by a yr drivers test, followed by a hazard perception computer test, a year later, and then another one about 1.5 yrs later - it takes like 3 years to get to the full license, and 2 speeding tickets will demote you back to no license.

I've had one speeding ticket for the last year, so have spent the last 12 months on ONE point.. hoping that I don't hit any strange speeding cameras.

Clutter me dearly

The living room looks like a public library - the centrepiece being a beige filing cabinet, circa 1978. "These are graveyards for paper," Law says, opening one of the drawers stuffed with tax returns, electricity bills and group certificates dating back 10 years. It is known as a "fat" filing cabinet in professional decluttering jargon. "This is among the worst I've seen," she says.

from this Sydney Morning article on clutter in the home and it's flow-on effects to our anxiety.

I'm disturbed 'cause now that i've dropped my belongings to about 1/10th of my stuff - i literally have about 3 baskets of clothes, a computer and a pile of rubble at DrP's house. Nothing! Not like a travelling nothing, but still, controlled stuff Some days I get anxious about how out of control the rubble seems to get..and it's only a bit of a minor scree slope and a coffee table spill. Or maybe I'm just anxious about what needs to be done with the spill - it's DrP's OCD following me about behaviour, him checking that i haven't left a trail of crumbs (or popcorn) from the kitchen to the couch. I recognise the filing cabinet in the article (a close friend used to own one, it was his thesis graveyard), and every time my mind flashes back to the clutter of the last house I shared with Marty, there's a little shiver of horror. Don't agree though about people not seeing one's house - if you really live in it, messy or not, people should be always welcome.

Hey R, regardless of quality - the point of blogging is to blog :)

Yet i still feel the urge to buy and collect stuff.

Almost midnight

Found this funny portfolio site with a little bit of everything - the invisible project is a lovely illustrated poem.

Am
wound
way
too
tight.

Am wound way too tight at work, without any need to be. Way too tired. The easy peas-y workies seems to be a lost dream. Been at the movies a lot.
The nutshell roundup:

• Mongol - excellent. Build up slow, but worth it for the towering steppes, and the beautiful children.
• Bank Job - great dialogue with a nice sideline in 1970s titties.
• Wanted - bad, bad, bad. exploding rats and very shiny special effects
• Batman - so very good. surprisingly good. the flip side..
  

the games have started

, originally uploaded by Kombriesombrae.

Trivia from Jack Marx, unlikely to be true but always funny..

During the time of the ancient Games, just moments before the start of a race, officials would plant hot peppers into sprinters’ rectums, ensuring a more explosive contest. This is why, today, short-distance sprinters are still seen to raise their behinds at the words: “Get set...”

Photo is from a flickr street photo group - somehow this reminds me of an Francis Bacon painting, with it's emphasis on the head, tilted towards curiosity. And i love masks in photos, especially accidental ones.

"Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film." ~Steven Wright

Bout to go to bangkok for a holiday, and hopefully wander through Laos and Cambodia before ending up at Hanoi with 2 of my beastie friends. Beasties are sorta those special friends that also manage to lead one astray more often than not. As DrP gloomily predicts my alcohol intake is about to treble, a prediction that might be actually erring on the side of caution considering I've managed to get it down to one night a week (okay, maybe 2, but it's a gentle 2).

I've also managed to give up smoking for 4 months and it seems quite perverse to go to SE Asia where you can cheaply remove whole afternoons in a blur of alcohol and nicotine. It's a holiday though, and i so need, a good long walk. Having all those overstressed danger signals where you start to think that you might be actually important at work (as opposed to valuable) and the whirly brain of what-do-i do? with said life.

Project 1 for trip is to start on a series of 100 photos of strangers - one per day at the least! It's a flickr group, and i think it will make a great set - complete with their name and their story.

Totally Uncomfortable

Found a great blog from Courthouse confessions
He photographs people as they are coming out of court, and asks them what they did, and then transcribes them on the blog. Here's my pick of a quote:

"Now I've moved on and I've found myself a new apartment so I'm not with her anymore। I found myself a new girl so now I'm good, I'm happy now man. You know. Jail is not a good thing to be man. It is totally uncomfortable. This is my first time and .."

pulp

green, originally uploaded by deepwarren.

After a few dates, though, and before the relationship had really progressed enough to merit the name, she dumped me. She informed me, matter-of-factly, that she was old enough to know the difference between intriguing and fucked up. 'You should go for younger women,' she advised me . "They can't always tell'.

from my latest bath read
'In the woods
by Tara French