Hi there again people! I assume most of you thought I had given up on this by now but no....just find it hard to have time to write up everything that has happened..... Which leads me to an apology...there are people out there waiting for a blow by blow account of my latet adventure (namely my Dad)...but this is not going to be it....I thought I would at least get some of the photos up there for people to have a look at and then I might get around to writing later...I hope... :-) So...a bit of background first maybe. On [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, I know I promised an epic, but given the feedback I have had on how unpopular epics are I will try to cut down on the words for you all....instead...I have increased the number of pictures! :-) This visit up north was to help kick-start a project evaluation on a disaster management project in Hongsa, Sayabouli province. We flew to Luang Prabang, then the car picked us up and we begun our 5 hour drive to Hongsa. Normally it is about a 3 hour drive, and has been known to be done in 2 hours, but that was in [View Full Entry]

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Hi there everyone, This one...surprise surprise...will be a short one. Mainly because I was able to catch up, albeit breifly, with a lot of you when I was back home earlier in the month. The reason I was home so soon into my Laos experience and when it was winter in Australia? Diana was getting married to lovely Marc and she had asked me to be a bridesmaid. The wedding was amazing with the ceremony at St Mary's Cathedral in the centre of Sydney and the reception at the beautiful Curzon hall in epping (i think...or at least near there). The [View Full Entry]

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If any of you have spent your evenings wondering what the combination of cross-dressing, temples, sex and explosives is I now have the solution to your pondering: The Lao Rocket Festival! Every year just before the rainy season all along the Mekong river villages hold rocket festivals, otherwise known as Bun Bang Fai. Shooting rockets into the air while all the young virile (and not so virile) males are running around in dresses and wigs, with wooden models that very clearly represent “fertility” as they grind back and forth together are all meant to help in bringing forth the r [View Full Entry]

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Happy Easter everyone! yes I have managed to get myself together to present to you a very LONG next installment.... Work takes me to Sayabouli province quite a bit as we have 3 projects up there at the moment (in the north/west of Laos) and this time I was on a mission to visit a community based disaster preparedness project in Hongsa district. Sivisay (the Hongsa project driver) and I jumped in the ute and headed off on the paved road toward Luang Prabang. Then, about 2 minutes into the smooth journey we took a left hand turn onto a dirt [View Full Entry]

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Some of you may have been wondering what I have been up to since my last entry. Yes, once again I have been bad at keeping up to date with my stories, but hopefully I will be able to stick to my once a month update from now on. No promises though! So….where do I begin? December was as expected a fairly crazy month. I found myself a house with plenty of room for guests so let me know if you are coming through. It is a wonderful house with a great garden and has what I am labeling the biggest [View Full Entry]

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Hello again! So...I would say nothing exciting has happened in my first few weeks as I have actually been working quite a bit...but...as predicted strange things do happen to me. More on that later I guess. Finally you can see some of the photos from my previous blog after I arrived and there are a few others as well..... I headed up to Luang Prabang for my first weekend here. Geraldine (CARE Laos) and I took Robert (CARE Aust) for a trip to see a project site where CARE is implementing an HIV/AIDS prevention project targeting youg people from a few [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone! Yes I have arrived in Vientiane, Laos ready for a new life, job and whatever life throws at me along the way. Yes sounds corny I know but if I am going to do things like have my first experience in Laos riding a moto during peak hour when all the kids are getting out of schools, running across roads, parents driving/parking more manic than usual...then I think it is fair to say I kind of ask for the strange things that happen to me....needless to say I have survived... I have been at work this week, but Wednesday [View Full Entry]

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Finally a holiday! After the wonderful experience of packing my life up in boxes and bags, moving out of my unit ("bumping" my car in a typical nami fashion so that I had to get it fixed before I left Australia...I time things so that I can get the most stress out of a short space of time....) I managed to get on the Surfari bus with my "little" brother Tim on Monday 31st October and we began our trip up north with about 22 other people all keen to learn or practice surfing. The big yellow bus (named "Capt Good [View Full Entry]

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Much to the surprise and horror of all those featured..here is a collection of farewell photos....enjoy... [View Full Entry]

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