When we left the condo at 2pm, the road was dry. 4 hours later it was covered in water. Naitt and I went to her condo to pick up a jacket she'll need for a trip to Korea next week, and then headed to Siriraj Hospital where she works. Wading to hospital It's normally a 20 minute walk to the hospital, but it takes a heck of a lot longer to wade. 200m from her condo it started getting wet. That road was ankle deep to begin with on our side and went down to knee deep on the other. Already boats were being used as alternative transport and nothing smaller than a pickup could pass on the highest spots. Buses were still passing and picking up bedraggled passengers. Another 300m down the road and it ... read more

Getting around South Africa ain't easy. Especially going to a little town like Rustenburg that doesn't even have a direct route to Johannesburg. Rustenburg shouldn't really exist as a town at all, except it's sitting on the biggest deposit of platinum on the planet. The other other things it has is the "Platinum Highway" linking it to Pretoria and the Royal Bafaking Stadium -- a name that lends itself to misuse. After failing to hire a driver we had to resort to driving ourselves. Wayne kindly offered to do the driving but Tim and I vetoed that idea immediately -- Wayne's much better company drunk than sober. I ended up driving by default, so the three of us collected our Elvis costumes and piled into the car for the 3 hour trip. Wayne mentioned that he ... read more

The Lion Park Yes, I know, you can go to lion parks anywhere. In fact my parents took me to a couple in Australia when I was a kid. But this is different. This is seeing lions caged in their natural African habitat instead of caged in an Australian habitat. As corny as this is, it was good fun. We got to play with the cubs and see some albino lions (which I didn't even know existed). There were also a few bored giraffes, springbok, zebra, meercats, and dogs to see -- just like any other zoo. The best part was driving through the lion enclosures. We had fun leaning out of the car to take pictures and then getting our limbs inside the car and closing the windows before one of the young lions took ... read more

The Denmark vs Holland game received much publicity as newspapers in both countries have been very irreverent to Islam's Mohammad. Naturally, that meant more people heading there and a higher profile. There were seven of us going to this game. Only four of us had tickets, while the other three negotiated with scalpers to get better tickets than us at lower prices. Once again, FIFA efficiency at work. They should all be taken out the back and shot. I've already sent an email to Ossama with the suggestion. Speaking of Bin Laden, Al Qaeda had already stated that this game would be a target because of the cartoons in Dutch and Danish newspapers. Or maybe just the Danish newspapers and these guys can't tell the difference between Danish and Dutch. Such simpletons. Just shoot the ... read more

Just before I left Bangkok, I checked the weather in South Africa. It had occurred to me momentarily that this was in the southern hemisphere and that some countries down there experienced winter. Sure enough, it's winter. So I managed to pack my only jacket, all three pairs of socks, and bought a pair of pants. Done. Three hours to Hong kong, 12 hour layover for banking, eating and drinking, twelve hour flight to Johannesburg and I'm there at 6:20am. It was only after arriving at the airport that I realized that this is going to be a city gone mad. After passing through immigration I got my first hint. A guy was walking around blowing a vuvuzela -- the plastic metre-long trumpet things that have made this the world's noisiest World Cup. These things are ... read more