The landscapes I’ve passed through this year are Indonesian Aceh (3 months) and the Provincial Philippines (9 months) working as an IT software implementor for Microfinance organisations. Indonesia is a place I have written about on my blog, and so a quick rehash will suffice. It is exotic and foreign, and the skills I had developed to relate to the Cambodians where very much applicable and successful in the Indonesian environment. The trick was to learn as much of the local language as possible, through books, daily interactions with the maid/cook, the corner store owner, colleagues in the workplace, flirting, and the watching of music videos. Religion, specifically Islam, was infused in this strange simultaneously present but absent way. The presence of religion was like those picture illusions, the drawing doesn’t change, but depending on how you look at it, something is present, and in the next glance that something is not. I was able to successfully complete my work assignment in my own time, and in part because of my interest in developing my Indonesian was able to indulge in fulfilling social life that consisted of all locals (including an Indonesian Muslim girlfriend) bar two expats.

Provincial Philippines, specifically Bacolod, has been a completely different environment, and what worked for me in one place/time does not always work in another. I lack a sense of self-preservation and assertiveness that would otherwise had forced the more sane to have left early had they been experiencing the senses of isolation, disconnection, and stress that I have felt during this time here. I still can’t pinpoint exactly why is has been this way, maybe I’m not suited to small town life (rural life is fine!), maybe not having a language to learn hasn’t provided the same socialising impetus (Filipinos speak fantastic English), maybe the physical environment (mainly concrete-very few landscaped garden public spaces) and the food has been uninspiring. It was through this lens I experienced Bacolod, and despite being aware of other lenses I was never able to “break on through to the other side”.

Vision has been one of the big ideas consuming my thought this year. Despite being from within, a vision is built from the building blocks of what is around you. Every human endeavour starts with some sort of vision, from writing a movie script, to designing a Information Technology project. And it is the Philippines that has shown me that, for whatever the Philippines may lack in reality, it makes up for it in vision, aspiration and dreams. For example, I took MBA classes at the local university and here and in causal conversations, I would often hear Filipinos complain of their politicians as being hard-headed, self-interested, dogmatic and corrupt. But whereas the average Cambodian would merely accept the status quo and leave it unchallenged, young Filipino’s can envisage and articulate a different system they think would work for the better of their country. These aspirations to be something greater, or more than what is there, are manifest in such Filipino artworks as the trompe l’oeil frescoes of San Agustin Church. Organisations everywhere have and publicly display vision and mission statements on the outer walls of their buildings. Unfortunately for me I wasn’t able to absorb enough of this vision to dispel the loneliness of not having found friends and like minds in the organisational and social groups I frequented.

Filipino’s have the gift of expression and communication, and expressing oneself has been the second big idea I’ve spent many waking moments pondering. This not uncommon Filipino trait is manifest in the numerous live bands (exported to other parts of Asia), the display of prices on products in small corner stores, ubiquitous text messaging (I process something like 30-40 text messages/day), the numerous postings and paintings on walls for all to see on topics ranging from organisational visions, Bible psalms, religious praises (“God is Love”), desired character traits (“Choose Enthusiasm not Apathy!”), and government staff expectations in their dealings with the public (“We are not doing the public a favour by serving them, they are doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so”). It has been impressed on me by those Filipino’s who have been extremely forthright and candid, people for whom there is direct channel between what they think and what they say (not a typical nor traditional Asian trait).

Vision and expression! Two powerful character traits I hope to develop more of. But the devil is in the details, and it’s in the implementation that many well intended Filipino grand plans fail (I hope the same fate does not befall this letter). For in part, implementing vision requires the almost selfish imposition of a particular viewpoint on the diversity of the whole wide world. And the Philippines is a diverse place with mixed influences and individual backgrounds ranging from the members of the landed elite during the Spanish colonial, to the those with dirt poor backgrounds that have “made it” through wise parenting, study and hard work (a testimony that the Filipino education system can work), to the mobile and educated middle class with relatives, sources of income and connections abroad (especially the US), to minority ethnic groups and the traditional rural class, more isolated and less penetrated by influences and ideas from the outside (more similar to the type of people I was working with in Cambodia and Indonesia). The Philippines being a democracy in theory tolerates this diversity, but it is a young democracy which lacks consensus, even on the rules of the political game, as seen in this year’s alleged coup d’état attempts and the temporary imposition of emergency powers for one week.

In mid January I will leave the Philippines, pass through Indonesia, Japan, and Australia and be back in New Zealand in February. This life as I have know it will crumble and fade leaving only memories, experiences, and the inner perspective and view of the world I have arrived at. That view is the combined product of the choices I made this year and the environment I was in. That environment will be gone, and the thoughts that accompanied it. I’ll be faced with starting a new life ­ again! When I return to New Zealand I hope old patterns will not resurface, but that I will have realised the ultimate goal of an overseas experience – to be taken not only out of my country but myself, and to return to see my country as a foreign land.

For me, this Xmas will be my first Xmas in 4 years I can spend with the people of the land (2002 ­ Laos, 2003 Cambodia, 2004 ­ Cambodia, 2005 ­ Indonesia ­ all predominately non-Christian countries). I’m already enjoying Xmas lights everywhere – on houses, buildings, and in the trees! May your Xmas be a reflective time of reconnection with your friends and family, your traditions that keep you grounded and your hopes that keep you moving forward.

Merry Christmas!

Oliver

Microfinance is a concept that has been touted as a powerful method of poverty alleviation. Broadly speaking it is finance for the poor: the provision of financial services to those living in poverty and excluded from the mainstream financial system. Microfinance clients will usually have small incomes and little or no assets, and hence no substantial financial guarantees. A key part of microfinance is providing microcredit, or very small loans, perhaps as little as US$40. Clients use these funds to start a new business or expand an existing one, such as buying a sewing machine, chicken, or cooking equipment, to start a sewing salon, egg selling business or restaurant. And that’s about all I know about microfinance at the moment.

Being the first time I have actually planned this far ahead, I am posting my schedule for the next 6 months, so you can pencil my whereabouts into your dairy and come and visit me, or more likely skip over the rest of this post:

2005:

18 Aug: Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia
19 Aug: Jakarta, Indonesia
21 Aug: Banda Aceh, Indonesia

2006:

These 2006 dates are just a rough guide and will probably change.

01 Jan: Jakarta, Indonesia
09 Jan: Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia
10 Jan: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
16 Jan: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
18 Jan: Ban Lung, Ratanakiri, Cambodia
21 Jan: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
22 Jan: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
23 Feb: Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia
24 Feb: Auckland, New Zealand

So what has been on the academic agenda? I have been taking papers in Sociology, Politics, and Economics. These are the questions I have written about, and what I wrote about them:

Describe briefly five or more “priorities� or enduring interests that motivate current US foreign policy.
-Heal the world, make it a better place, for you and for me and the entire human race.

Explain the 1988 Burma uprising and the resulting transition from a one party socialist state to a bureaucratic military regime.
-Oil. It’s all about the oil stupid, in fact why study politics at all?

It has been suggested that late capitalism is marked by the process of ‘the production of consumption’. What is meant by this phrase, and how is advertising implicated in this process?
-Advertising is the capitalism’s predominant art form. All your problems can be blamed on advertising.

Critically analyse the 60 Minutes segment you have chosen, discussing how a particular ideological perspective is presented in the story.
-Ideology is the cosmic glue that holds the universe together. It is present in everything from the smallest quantum interaction to the construction of the Auckland Sky Tower.

What motives drove the evolution of EU institutions and policies, and in particular the EU’s move into the foreign and security policy spheres?
-Drugs, sex and rock n’ roll.

All unemployment is voluntary. Discuss.
-The fear of unemployment drives people into jobs. Thus unemployment is this true driver of any economy. Here endth the essay.

If you have an answer to any of these questions that isn’t oil, you can comment below.

I finished my contract in Cambodia at the end of December 2004. There were options to extend that for another year but after much unconsidered career crystal ball gazing I decided I would return to New Zealand to study. You can blame that idea on the crystal ball, it was pretty foggy.

As the semester didn’t start until March I had two months to make use of being in SE Asia to travel. My Mother and sister also wanted to make use of that fact and so came over for a 3 week trip. Together with Nhung, my girlfriend from Vietnam, we travelled to Siem Reap to visit the famous Angkor temples, myself for the fourth time. Following this we flew to Laung Prabang, Laos and I carried on by myself to China, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia. I will probably post something in due course about these destinations on the blog.

Since being back in NZ, other than studying what have I been up to? One occasion that struggled to occur, given that my best friends have been the university librarians, was a trip to Omaha. The highly select guest list of any random stranger I could find included Steve S, Babu (the fashion bohemian also known as Desh), and a French traveller we picked up on Queen St (well okay he wasn’t a complete random stanger, he knew Babu). Unfortunately none of my librarian friends could make it. Having been instilled during my school years that competition is a Good Thing, I was eager to participate in the challenges of luck and physical dexterity that we set for each other that fateful weekend. The first challenge was the ever cerebral paper, scissors, and rock championship. Babu lost and had to get his face painted as Spiderman, which seemed to bring out his inner Spiderman. We proceeded to take photos whilst he hung on to the Matakana WWI monument, one of the world’s lesser known greatest statues of all time. I lost the game of mini golf and my punishment was to ask every stranger ‘Don’t I know you from somewhere?’ Steve proved unable to hack the intense pressure of the Jenga battle and had to clean the BBQ. Weekend topics of conversation included ‘Is business all about relationships?’, ‘Will Steve be the next CEO of Coca-cola?’, and ‘Babu you still haven’t convinced me your clothes are cool.’ Being cool is another important virtue I learnt at school. Huh? What’d you mean you can’t tell?

The 17th of April was Khmer New Year. Invited by Srey and fiancée Brett, I partook in the Auckland Cambodian Community’s celebration at the Cambodian Wat (temple) in Takanini. In attendance were enough Cambodians, including monks, to start giving me flashbacks of my time in the ‘Bodia. It felt like Cambodia because of the talcum powder and water balloon fights, the huge meal prepared and eaten communally, the Buddhist ceremonials, and the stall vendors selling their wares. I learnt an important think that day: you can take the Cambodian out of Cambodia, but you can’t stop their desire to try and set you up with their sisters or daughters. Who needs internet dating when you’ve got Khmer New Year?

Also in April was the Auckland International Cultural Festival. It was held in Potters Park and consisted of a large range of New Zealand ethnic groups, running the gamut from Eastern Europeans nationalities to obscure South East Asian countries that only people putting off the real world or hoping to make a career as a corrupt government official would want to work in. No, I wasn’t an English teacher, and yes, I’ve given up that line of work. There were performances by some of the groups, including Cambodian dancers, stalls selling cultural artefacts, and food carts selling exotic dishes. All and all a pleasant event where one can experience a little of the world without leaving home.

Steve & Julien on Omaha beach

Cambodian dancers at the Auckland International Cultural Festival, Potters Park, Balmoral, March 2005

Khmer (Cambodian) New Years April 2005 at the Cambodian community Wat (temple) in Takanini, Auckland, New Zealand

Let me start where I left off in my last email, way back in April. At that time I was about to go to Vietnam. Well I went to Saigon and the Mekong Delta (all in the very southern part of Vietnam) and the top 3 impressions I come away with were:

According to the guidebook no self-respecting backpacker should be without, the CIA World Factbook, Vietnam is 1 of the world’s 5 communist states. Those states are China, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, and SRV (The Socialist Republic of Vietnam – not to be confused with Special Reconnaissance Vehicle or Safety Relief Valve). According to the same CIA World Factbook, Communism is “a system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single – often authoritarian – party holds power”. The SRV government has less and less of a hand in planning the economy these days, but it is still a one party state where you can be arrested for publicly criticising the government on grounds of being an “agitator” or “endangering national unity”. So I had to keep my tendencies to agitate and endanger national unity in check.

In June I returned to New Zealand for about 3 weeks. I spent my time with friends, family and the International Film Festival. It had been 1.5 years since I was last in NZ and I noticed that time has an effect on things. When things are slowly changing around you, you don’t really notice it but 1.5 years on I saw new businesses, new roads, and that some of the places of my old memories do not exist. As well as that, I had changed, which all added up to the NZ I left not being the NZ I returned to.

Back to Ratanakiri and I have been a bit of a celebrity lately, after my premier on provincial television (it runs for a good solid 30 mins each day) in an advertisement for an English school. I am the tourist who walks up to a shop but the vendor cannot speak English. Her daughter can and closes the sale – and that’s why you should send your children to Krou Yoeung Centre to learn English (so the ad goes).

There’s been a recent promotion for the “Tiger” beer brand in Cambodian, you flip the tab on the can and underneath you can win various prizes. A friend and I went to a restaurant where we proceeded to win about 3 free cans of Tiger beer. Great we thought, until the bill came and we weren’t given the beers free but had to pay half price. Why? Because the Tiger company gives you the beer free, but you still have to pay the restaurant their profit. Not quite my definition of “free”, but this is Cambodia.

Speaking about restaurants, one of the more interesting (or should I say bizzare) restaurants I have been to is Pyongyang Restaurant in Phnom Penh. The restaurant is North Korean, which you should know by now as 1 of the world’s 5 communist states. The waitresses wear strange ball gowns and try the hard sell with the North Korean wine. When they are not trying to sell the wine they break out into revolutionary song, dance, and harp playing. A strange place, not doubt as is North Korea.

I’ve caught up with a few visitors in the last couple of months. The first was a friend I had made while hitch hiking in France last year. Congratulations for being the first person I know from outside Cambodia to make it to Ban Lung, Ratanakiri! Her and her friends were the first to take the new tours being offered in Virachey National Park were I work. The second visitor was international man of mystery Mr Steve S. Previously shoulder tapped to study the Bogs of Belarus for British American Taboo, Mr Steve declined and instead packed up for a world trip. He was on the road when he stopped into Phnom Penh. Most recently my father visited in early November and we travelled to Siem Reap, and Hanoi and Hoi An in Vietnam. I think my father’s highlight was a ride we took on motorbikes along tiny dirt tracks and through villages to reach an overgrown temple some 2 hours out in the countryside.

Cambodia has a new king! At the start of November the new King was crowned. Whilst the previous King liked to sing to the public, the new King can sing and dance. Before becoming King he was, among other things, a ballet dancer. The streets were packed with people and a public holiday declared during the 3 day coronation. As for the old king, you can visit the royal blog in French here.

My contract is finishing at the end of this year, after which I will be unemployed and looking for the next opportunity, which could include study. I am thinking of travelling in Asia during Jan and Feb and then heading back to NZ in early March.

The temperature has hit 40 degrees C lately, and Khmer New Year brings with it socially sanctioned water fights. Getting wet and throwing water balloons is all part of the fun. But you won’t catch me walking around in a raincoat on these hot sunny days trying to avoid getting wet. With the recent arrest of a dozen or so international offenders, it’s fair to say the paedophile look is moving to the back of the closet in Cambodia. And a good thing too.

Apart from that, life has been action packed and full to the brim. Well okay, maybe not. There are still the odd suprises, the other day it was a group of people sitting in the grass on the roadside watching Terminator 2. They had wired the TV directly to the electricity grid and the local cable TV feed. Reminds me of some young teenagers I used to know in NZ who would make free calls doing the same thing with the telephone line

Another surprise I am still trying to get my head around is people in the government who have more than one name. To get a government job is usually difficult and requires education. But there is a back door. To get yourself on the payroll you can buy some else’s name and position. When you deal with the person at work you use the name they have assumed. Outside of work, family and friends would call them by their birth name. It can get confusing when talking about that person, sometimes two different people end up really being the same person.

In late January I finally went into the national park that I am supposed to be working for. I spent 3 days in the bush with the rangers. There was no track and our guide had no map or navigation aids. Thankfully he knew were he was going because I was completely lost. The rangers recreated for me that seminal event eons ago when man first made fire with sticks. I must say it was a pretty neat trick. At night we slept in hammocks. Meals were simple – rice, meat and MSG.

Work is challenging. It is very easy to get frustrated. To do my job effectively I am having to learn new skills. I have to work at developing a broader perspective and understanding of the context here. It’s a very different culture and environment and lots of things don’t work the way I would like them to. Complaining and assigning blame without any real analysis is easy, but not necessarily helpful. And one has to watch this type of thinking doesn’t become reinforced when mixing with the expat community.

Tomorrow I am off to Vietnam for one week since Khmer New Year is a public holiday. Actually, I’m going so I can say “When I was in Narm..” and really mean it. Saigon, the delta, tunnels, and maybe beaches.

Till I get back from duty station in Narm have a happy Khmer New Year, don’t wake up your neighbours with too much loud noise, dress like a paeodophile or eat too many pies (you know who you are). For those of you celebrating Easter, may it be a pleasant one.

Ta ta
Croaky

In Ratanakiri, Cambodia this is a difficult question to answer. I have already eaten in every restaurant, that is to say both of them, many times over. Recently I have come across what resembles a take-away bar. There is a bench where you sit and place your order, and behind the meal is prepared in front of your eyes on a wood fire. The wood fire is a newly discovered cooking method used in fancy cafes to make gourmet pizzas, so these guys are certainly up with the play. They have a delicacy called “poan-tear-goan” but I call it “hard boiled egg of semi developed duck embryo with crunchy body parts”. Gulp.

Christmas provided the perfect opportunity to answer the above important dining question with “2 pigs”. It takes about 5 hours to cook 2 pigs above a pit of burning coal. It takes about 2 days for 30 people to eat them. It was a lot of bacon.

On New Year’s Eve I attended my first Khmer wedding reception. Anyone who was someone turned up, stayed long enough to eat the food and then shot off. Anyone who was drunk stayed and danced. It was quite surprising to see most people only stay 1 or 2 hours before going home. The reception started about 6pm and most people left by 8pm. Maybe, like me, they didn’t actually know the bride or groom. Still it pays to be at these things to mix-n-mingle, or if you are a small Khmer child, to collect empty beer cans. 4 cans can be sold for 100riel ($US0.025).

In Khmer there is a word “darleng” which might mean going for a walk, a trip, a mission, a journey or all of the above. I try to go “darleng” in the weekends because Ban Lung is a pretty small place. Last weekend I went for a darleng which took me down National Dirt Road 19, through a rubber tree plantation, into the forest, along tree felled hillsides. Stop. Time for a rest and a sugar cane juice drink. Over rivers, through small villages, past small children waving and shouting “Bye-bye” to a very nice waterfall. Here we did what any self-respecting gourmet pizza chef would do and set about making a small wood-fire. We cooked rice and meat, which along with an philanthropic dose of MSG made a very nice meal in a very pleasant place.

So it’s now 2004 eh? I am going to stay in Cambodia a little longer, so now is the time to book your flights! Offer lasts only as long as my contract and more to the point my sanity – currently measured as being 6 more months in Cambodia. Current plans are to finish up here in July 2004.

Hope you have a pleasant 2004 and good luck with any difficult dining questions it may bring

A couple of weeks ago I went to visit the Ranger Station to talk with the rangers about data collection, and went out in the weekend to visit and stay overnight in a local indigenous community village with a Swedish research student. It felt quite strange just rocking up to this village in the middle of nowhere and asking if we could stay, the villagers were very shy people and they must of wondered what the hell we were doing there. After kicking around a ball for a while with the kids and the drunk adults (we arrived on the eve of funeral party) the ice was broken and I felt we had made ourselves more welcome, if uninvited. That night we spoke with the village chief – he told us about life in the village now and in times past- and slept in hammocks, I only fell out once with a big thud. The ride back turned hairy when I parked my motorbike nicely in a waist deep water filled pot hole, after which it failed to start. I got towed back to town using the strings from my hammock- they’re pretty strong.

The plane from Phnom Penh to Ban Lung hasn’t been flying lately because the battery is flat, so instead I took the 1.5 day land journey. On one stretch of the journey it was a nasty 16 hrs from 4pm till 8am to travel a meagre 100km. The driver might not have had a driving license but he was a practised bush mechanic. When we got stuck he would get out his axe and chop down a small tree, sharpen the end and use it as a lever to lift the back wheel out of the mud. This ritual was repeated more than enough times I might add.

The expat life cycle in Cambodia has been explained to me recently, and involves three stages:

1. Enthusiasm – This place is great! It’s so free! No rules! The people are lovely, so friendly! It’s so cheap!
2. Frustration – Hmmm.. this place is terrible, the corruption, the incompetence and lack of education, the different cultural values
3. Indifference

I feel I am now entering Stage Two after recent events. Last Friday I was returning home on my newly purchased motorbike. The lights at this particular junction were off. I proceeded to cross only to be hit by a faster moving motorcycle from the right. No major damage done but I was a little shaken. The policeman helped me to the side of the road and picked up my scattered belongings. Back at home I realised I didn’t have all my belongings with me – I was missing a bag of books. So I went back to the crossing only to be told by the policeman I would have to pay to get my books back. $US5 for the books the policeman kept from me. I got away with paying $US2 but was really annoyed, resigned to the fact that I obviously didn’t share the same cultural values as the policeman.

Other than that I have managed to get to the seaside once (Sihanoukville), and Angkor Wat twice in the last 2 months what with the large amount of public holidays at the moment. The last time was with friend Cecile, over here from France on holiday for the last 2 weeks, and who just left today. And I have just finished reading the 3rd Harry Potter book.

Too da lo!

I’m working as “Information Systems Trainer/Computer Specialist” for a project that manages Virachey National Park, here is a little boring background information (sorry it’s all I could find) if you are interested:

Mekong info – BPAMP

It is a very interesting environment. Working in Cambodia is much different than visiting it as a tourist, it is like two completely different perspectives. I am based in a small rural town of about 17,000. There are dirt roads and it is now the rainy season so it’s very muddy. The power is intermittent and internet access slow and expensive. There are some natural attractions in the area, including a crystal clear volcanic lake and waterfalls. Ban Lung is located in the north east of Cambodia in Ratanakiri province, near to Lao and Vietnam. Here is one traveller’s perspective on Ratanakiri province, selected from many possible perspectives (try a search on Google) for no particular reason other than I visit his website to read his Cambodian monthly newsletter:

http://talesofasia.com/cambodia-ratanakiri1.htm

It is very cheap to live here, a house can be rented for $10US/month. I pay a local restaurant $30/month for 2 meals every day. I’ve also bought a mountain bike and get around the small town on that. Kids still shout out “Hello!” at me when I go past, they don’t seem to get sick of seeing foreign faces. Socially I like to spend time at the local guesthouses, having dinner and chatting to the tourists passing through.

There are quite a few other expats of varied nationalities working here. As a remote rural area, and so probably seen as particularly marginalised, there are many NGOs (Non-Government Organistions – donor funded non-profit organisations working in the community). But a lot of Cambodia is probably seen as marginalised, and there are a lot of NGOs everywhere. There must be about 30 expats all together, some having been in Cambodia 4-7 years. A lot of them are or have been Australian Volunteers.

So I am gaining a new perspective on Cambodian life, and finding it quite a stimulating environment. I have a spare room and keenly await any of you as visitors I will be here at least until the end of November when the project and thus my contract finish, although the project/my contract may be extended.

So tell me about your varied life,
Take care

Onwards to Ireland with my 1 year working holiday visa. The first 6 days Amanda, who was visiting, and I took an organised 6 day tour of Ireland. Unfortunately I slept most of it. I particularly enjoyed Belfast and Derry as the history of conflict was very interesting. The North West coast was also particularly beautiful.

Settling in Dublin, my new best friend was Craig, also from New Zealand. I moved into a flat with students, it is now summer over here and all the students are on holiday looking for jobs. I too began the job hunt, looking for any type of work. I.T work was hard to find. I was disadvantaged because I had only a 1 year visa (although I was eligible for a 2 year I.T work visa if I found work) and so some recruitment agencies would only send my CV in for contract jobs, and with only 2 years experience I am sure there were better candidates out there. There was also a bias with some hirers to hire Irish people over foreigners.

So I settled for a job as a telephone market research interviewer, one of those annoying people who ring you up when you are having dinner and ask you to give up your leisure time to do a survey. I worked a whole 2 days there before…..

I was offered a job in Cambodia! I had seen the contract advertised and applied whilst I was there but did not get the job. However, the
original candidate had pulled out and so they offered me the job. It is doing I.T setup and training for the Ministry of Environment in the
Ratanakiri National Park. It is very much in the (bamboo) sticks (and rice paddies). It is due to start in August, although I am a little
worried it might not happen at all because there are elections in Cambodia on the 27th of July, it will be only the 2nd or 3rd elections they have had and potentially a little unstable.

Keen to see a much of Europe as I could before heading back to Asia, I packed my bags and flew to Amsterdam. Dave K had recently arrived to take up a job with Vodafone, so I stayed with him, his Dutch girlfriend Nienke, Nienke’s Dad, and their dog Rex.

Wow, my first taste of Continental Europe and I loved it. The canals, the buildings, the history, the technology (huge wind turbines), the
food (stroopwaffels and chips with mayonnaise). And of course Amsterdam’s red light district and the coffee shops I met some of Nienke’s friends and went to a free festival in a park in Amsterdam. Once while walking through Amsterdam we caught sight of a launch in one of the canals with a female flashing her fake breasts as part of a promotion for what I think might have been a swingers club! We went for a lovely bicycle ride in the countryside, including riding through a beautiful old village which exhausted the remaining film in my camera. Thanks Dave & Nienke and Nienke’s Dad.

There are organisations and websites in Europe where people advertise seats in their car. On one of these websites I found a man and his dog with a free seat for a trip from Amsterdam to Paris. On the 25th of June I cruised down to Paris in his Peugeot convertible, he even let me drive part of the way when he was tired.

Paris blew my mind, the architecture was absolutely stunning. Huge buildings from the Airport terminal to the Louvre Museum. Cathedrals with ornate detail. So much culture. For me the mentality of most cities I have been to is that it is only about business. Paris was different, it was a city of history, culture and art. Paris developed an interest and appreciation for these other aspects of life that I had previously given little attention.

Through another website of people offering free accommodation I met a Belgium girl called Eveline, who offered me accommodation on the floor of her room in a student house on the Cite Universitaire campus. Free accommodation and dinner at the student cafeteria was just what the budget of a traveller on the New Zealand dollar needed. The next night we picnicked on the concrete banks of the river Seine. Somehow the lack of grass and the word picnic didn’t quite go together in my mind.

My next destination was Stuttgart, Germany where I knew some people. I decided to hitchhike. After standing in the rain for an hour I was picked up by a family coming back from the airport. They had just picked up Anne-Marie who had just returned from a year in New Zealand! What a coincidence. Half-way through the trip they asked if I would like to stay with them in Strasbourg. Strasbourg is where I am now, a delightful town that is half French half German, being on the border between the two countries.

Current plans are to stay for a few days and then go to Stuttgart, then Switzerland to visit Max & Isabelle and then maybe Italy.

Well that’s where I am at. Hope all is well with you, you are no doubt busy with your own life, don’t forget you can tell me all about it!

Take care