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By pkeusgen
September 16th 2007

Sailing in Tonga

 Oceania » Tonga » Vava'u
The appropriately named "Bliss"
The appropriately named "Bliss"
Our home for eight days was this 49 foot four cabin four head huge benateau
Tonga - unique among Pacific nations - never completely lost its indigenous governance. The archipelagos of "The Friendly Islands" were united into a Polynesian kingdom in 1845. Tonga became a constitutional monarchy in 1875 and a British protectorate in 1900; it withdrew from the protectorate and joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 1970. Tonga remains the only monarchy in the Pacific. Tonga has a land area of about 750 square km, which makes it a bit smaller than metropolitan Melbourne. It’s 115,000 people live on 36 of its 169 islands. Tongans are huge, friendly and poor. With [View Full Entry]

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3992 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 19 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: November 16th 2007 | 317 Views | [diary=220052]

Sunrise somewhere near Vava
Once of the hundreds of tropical islands we didn
The veiw from seat eight of the fifteen seats

Delhi First impressions 15 June 2007 We arrived at Delhi Airport to find that our hotel taxi didn’t show, so we were left to the mercy of the touts. They didn’t swarm us as I had expected (as they do in Manila) but had a good try at ripping us off. Our first tout asked 800 rupees and we agreed to go with the second guy for 350 rupees (USD7.50). The guy was as dodgy as I expected. He got us in a car with another bloke and drove incredibly slowly while talking on the phone to some friend and to [View Full Entry]

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1654 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: June 17th 2007 | 242 Views | [diary=170207]


By pkeusgen
June 17th 2007

A day in paradise

 Asia » Thailand » South » Ko Samui
An average meal
An average meal
Net cooked up a storm every lunch and dinner. Best food I've had in Thailand - absolutely awesome.
For anyone who is interested in what I've been up to for the last six weeks, here's a quick description of my day (they were all pretty much the same). 0600 A slight disturbance in my sleeping pattern as Net, my Thai girlfriend gets out of bed and heads to the morning market 0700 A slight disturbance in my sleeping pattern as Net returns from the morning market with fresh fruit, vegetables, juice, and eggs. 0800 Wake up to the smell of breakfast, give Net a kiss, and wake up Anand in the next bungalow for breakfast. 0810 Breakfast of [View Full Entry]

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336 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 7 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: June 17th 2007 | 311 Views | [diary=170199]

Saying our thanks to Buddha before attacking our dinner
Attacking our dinner
Net

By pkeusgen
December 16th 2006

Trekking in Phongsali

 Asia » Laos » North » Phongsali
On the first morning of my trek I met my guide, Sook, at my hotel for breakfast. He was a good guy, very earnest, and just passable in English. More importantly, he was trilingual in Lao, Punoi, and Laosang, which would cover most of the areas in which we would be trekking. He also had a most irritating habit of laughing if he didn’t understand me and laughing again whenever I rephrased the question in simpler terms. We got along well though, and I avoided strangling him because he was such a nice guy. After breakfast we walked to the market [View Full Entry]

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2084 Words | 4 Comment(s) | 19 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: November 16th 2007 | 586 Views | [diary=111276]

Akha woman returning from the market
Leaving Phongsaly
Kids and their toys

The following morning I got to the bus station at 7:50 to find that their were no seats on the bus and even the plastic stools in the isle had been sold out. Being a once daily service, this meant a day in Udomxai, which even the guide book, usually pretty positive, described in less than glowing terms. I wandered up the main street (actually, the only street) and found myself agreeing with the guidebook. On a more positive note, I found the best hotel in town and booked myself in for a $15 night of comfort, aircon, room service, and [View Full Entry]

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1214 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 3 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: November 16th 2007 | 126 Views | [diary=111275]

The old French barracks
Hail to the chief

Kuta Beach “Dead” is the best way to describe this place at the moment. It’s a bit like Melbourne during a football final: everything is open but nobody is home, except in the odd well patronized joint, and the mix of (non-Indonesian) Asian and Australian seems pretty even - more so than in Sydney. The hordes of Western Australians have been replaced by a few Koreans and other Asians, with a lot more Javanese than previously, according to a well seasoned couple I met who have been to Bali more than twenty times. Nevertheless, cash heavy west coasters are hard to [View Full Entry]

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1385 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 23 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: August 11th 2006 | 1720 Views | [diary=76839]

Surfing in Bali
Going ballistic
Rice paddies

Orangutan Sanctuary at Sepilok One learns a lot about people when watching orangutans. Especially some of the people I know. I spent this afternoon at the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in north east Borneo, watching our cousins feed on bananas. They were all juveniles and aged: the rest were out hunting fruit in the forest and creating havoc in sugar cane plantations. At 3pm the local rangers bring out a few bunches of bananas and other assorted goodies to a viewing platform to bring the orangutans for us tourists to gawk at and for the orangutans to gawk at us [View Full Entry]

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450 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 11 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: July 20th 2006 | 452 Views | [diary=75826]

Stopping enroute to dinner
Pull my finger
One way to eat dinner.

By pkeusgen
July 19th 2006

Diving off an oil rig

 Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sipadan
Sipadan and Mabul One of the "ten best dive spots in the world" according to the literature. Certainly some of the best diving I've done. 14 July Heading to the oil rig I met my dive buddy, Juliana, for the fourth time at the pick up point for the Seaquest drilling platform. This time we recognized each other. The previous two times on Mt Kinabalu and at the Karaoke bar we were familiar but it didn’t click into place. A one hour high speed boat ride from Semporna took us to the island of …. and the converted drilling rig about [View Full Entry]

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1383 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 16 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: July 20th 2006 | 1549 Views | [diary=75720]

The main deck on the drilling platform
Juliana on the sun deck at sunset
The view of Mabul from my cabin in the morning

The Kilabantan The longest widest crocodile infestedest wildlifest junglest river. I guess I had to go. 11 July I woke in Sangatan to find power restored to the city and had a leisurely morning before catching the bus to Mile Sixteen, where Uncle Tan’s guesthouse and office is. I met the other dozen or so backpackers who would be joining me on the trip, paid my money, and jumped onto the bus for the three hour drive to the Kinabatangan River. Amongst my fellow travelers were Mark from Singapore who also amused himself by taking photos with his digital SLR, thre [View Full Entry]

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1565 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 18 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: July 20th 2006 | 1363 Views | [diary=75721]

The Kinabatangan River
A frog that survived me
A bat in his bat leaf

I arrived on Labuan, a tax free island that caters to the oil industry, to meet "Alex" who had promised diving work for $500 a day. (See ) My first call got through to his answering service, so I left a message saying where I was and giving my contact details. My next calls over the next two days didn't even get the answering service. I sent an email to Alex and Teresa and found that they were in the same situation and had just left the island in disgust. I waited around for another day, enjoying the cheap beer [View Full Entry]

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302 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: July 20th 2006 | 1272 Views | [diary=75722]




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