baileysblog

Now I sorry, but the photos from here on may take a while to sort out, but they will come. Unfortunately they used my bag for an airport game of bulrush and managed to snap one of my CDs, but I will update the photos when I get my hands on them. We caught the VIP overnight sleeper bus from Pakse to Vientiane, which was a new experience for me. It was basically a coach with rows of double bed bunks along each side. When I went to grab a bed for the trip, thinking I would leave the girls to share a bed, the ticket man insisted that I go with one of the girls. It seems they needed a girl to go with another female traveller as, although they don’t mind putting complete strangers ... read more

After the mission back up to Pakse, we had secured the scooters for another few days and were ready to hit the road again. We drove through some stunning countryside east of Pakse which mostly consisted of jungle with coffee plantations and villages scattered along the way. The road was generally in pretty good condition, but the talented riders in Team BeerLao managed to find some decent sized pot-holes which caused numerous yard sales. A “yard sale” as defined by my Urban Dictionary (thanks again Sarah and Lauren) is “The evidence or remains of a catastrophic accident or wipeout, in which the victim’s belongings are scattered or spread out across a large area (resembling a traditional yard sale).” Our yard sales, luckily, weren’t too catastrophic, but it did take a while to stop laughing and then ... read more

After hearing that a small group of the Sharjah lads were entering an "aircraft" in the RedBull Flugtag, I decided that I was definately not going to miss the event! As with any event in Dubai, the battle for road-space and parking was an adventure of it's own. But it was all worth while once you were sitting on the grass under a tree in the Dubai Creek Park, with the BBQ sizzling watching people throwing their friends off a cliff in the hope that they would fly. For those of you that don't know about the Flugtag, it is basically a competition to construct/create something that, once pushed from the stage, will fly as far as possible carrying the brave solo pilot. The teams are judged on the 60 sec entertainment/dance, creativity, and distance flown. ... read more

Hey ther,The last few weeks have been pretty crazy. I have been marooned in Dubai after I, skillfully, managed to put my passport through the wash. You know, they just don't built them like they use to! The last few weeks in Dubai have been a pretty good time. It was really interesting to be in the UAE for Ramadan, as it is something that I knew nothing about really. The basics are that Muslims don't eat, drink (even water) or smoke during daylight hours hours of the month (on the arabic calandar) of Ramadan. This means there is no eating, drinking or smoking in public during the day by law, as two Swedish tourists found out in Dubai and ended up with 3 months in the slammer. The general idea behind the fasting is to ... read more

Swede in the desert Middle East » United Arab Emirates » Dubai By baileysblog June 24th 2007 Carl Bailey The last three weeks I've been hanging out in the office in Sharjah while they send away my passport to get my UAE visa sorted. Which means hours sitting on the bus to and from work, staying at the amasing Royal Crown Hotel and spending way too much money going to Dubai and playing. But for the last 10 days the lovely Annie has been over to visit. Which was the prefect excuse to go do all the tourist stuff that you normally put off. The highlight of the trip was definately the safari trip with the crazy Iranian driv... read more

Off the coast of Iran at the moment. Iranians are really nice. Even the ones wrinkle lines on their face from frowning too much turn out to be pretty cool. Just chilling on a barge while some Indian divers fix a pipe that keeps leaking. Diving to 70m for 3 hours at a time……but they wont let me try. You’d think that you would feel isolated here, but it’s like a city of boats and platforms and they are building heaps more. No wonder the US wants this place. Must be oozing with oil…….sorry that’s not a nice word. It’s stunning at night when everything lights up. I’ve taken to writing a little bit of this each day so I don’t miss the classic moments. Communication. It’s a pretty funny thing. You have to be ... read more