Sawat dee kha By far the most rewarding experience of all my travels has been volunteering in Thailand with Macquarie University. As most of you know I came to Thailand to volunteer with the Tsunami Volunteer Centre (TVC) in Khao Lak - a tsunami relief organization which helps rebuild Thailand’s tsunami affected areas. For the last two weeks I’ve been stationed in the Phang Nga province where Thailand’s highest number of deaths and heaviest damage occurred. As I hitchhike through Khao Lak or walk through the streets or stand on the beach looking out to the Andaman Sea all I can [View Full Entry]

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Who would’ve thought that I’d end the year of 2006 flying down the Austrian Alps with a Finnish Flask? To end my ‘whirlwind exchange year’ 6 exchangies and myself road tripped down to the Austrian Alps for Christmas week and made house in one of the cosy cabins up on the snowy hills. This was my first White Christmas- no thongs, bikinis, beaches or Santa wearing a Bonds singlet with a stubby in his hand- this was a true blue, fair-dinkum, fully legitimate White Christmas. We had the snow, the sleds, the fireplace, the personalised stockings, the Christmas carols including Jim [View Full Entry]

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1. Learn how to Communicate on a ‘Universal Level’ - The lack of a universal spoken language amongst exchange students calls for all students to practice communication by utilising broken words from different languages, facial expressions, verbal noises, hand expressions & various impersonations. Every day on exchange becomes a game of Charades. Entertainment at it’s best. 2. Become a Tailor/Seamstress - The Tilburg Erasmus Student Network (ESN) will adopt you for the whole semester & will keep you busy by organizing excursions, cultural activities, weekends away & brilliant theme parties every week. The theme parties - the crux of a [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday Brenda and I met the devil in the form of Dutch train-inspector. We were minding our own business on the train heading to Rotterdam for the Australia vs. Netherlands pre-World Cup soccer match. The train-inspector (the devil incarnate) walked past & mumbled some obscenities about being Aussie. I am not too sure how he knew we were Aussie or honorary Aussies (Brenda) - the Aussie hats, the Aussie flag that was draped around me, the inflatable kangaroo & my Green & Gold outfit might’ve tipped him off but I’m not entirely sure. Anyway, we arrived at Dordrecht (the station just [View Full Entry]

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Hello my Darlings! As you know I’ve seized every opportunity to travel extensively within Europe. Easter Break provided me with another opportunity to hop on a plane & discover a new region of Europe- namely the cities of Prague (Czech Republic), Krakow (Poland) and Budapest (Hungary). Without a doubt, the highlight of the whole trip was how cheap everything was. McDonald’s cheeseburgers were less than a Euro ($1.65 AUS)! Now I know that $1.65 is more or less the price of a cheeseburger in Australia but after dealing in Euros for so long and paying over 6 euros ($9.90 AUS) for [View Full Entry]

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So what happens when you travel with a crazy Mexican girlfriend to Denmark? You end up in Sweden. Now that may be a surprise to you but after knowing Brenda (the crazy Mexican I mentioned previously) for more than 2 months I’ve quickly realized that anything is possible. You see, I have a tendency to verbalize wild ideas. This is normally not a problem as most friends, family members or strangers either; ignore me, think I’m joking & laugh at me or take me seriously & consider me crazy. Brenda is the first person I have ever met to take my [View Full Entry]

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Normally ‘travelling’ doesn’t feel as good as a ‘vacation’. In fact there is a huge difference (which a lot of people don’t recognize) between ‘travelling’ and taking a ‘vacation’. Taking a ‘vacation’ normally involves a guilt-free way to spend time doing whatever, whenever with whoever. With vacations there is no concept of time or money and it is essentially driven by the seven deadly sins- namely sloth (lazing around is primarily why people go on vacations in the first place), lust (people have this crazy thing about finding ‘holiday romances’), greed (everything is about souvenirs & shopping), pride (beauty treatments-manicures, pedicures [View Full Entry]

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My friends and I made our way over the tarmac towards the plane. We all embarked, found our seats, not difficult as, in spite of my deepening premonitions, they were all on the same aeroplane. We buckled our belts and found a comfortable position to fall asleep for the next hour and a half. ‘Comfortable’ by plane standards basically means at least 20 minutes of sleep without losing the feeling in one’s hands, feet or buttocks. The flight was routine: the flight attendants were selling overpriced snacks & drinks and while my friends played cards I nodded in & out of [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from the land of windmills and hashish! I arrived in the Netherlands just over a week ago and to my absolute delight I have already found life-long friends and a place to call ‘home’. Much to my amusement I have also learned the intricacies of brewing a good beer, swear words in German, Spanish, Dutch and French (y’all know I love swearing!) and the reasons why I shouldn’t ride my bicycle while intoxicated (I learned that one the hard way). I share my apartment with 7 other people. We all have our own rooms (my room has a couch [View Full Entry]

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