Jim Travels The World

Sunday 27th Off to tour London a bit more with my host and coworker Nicholas. We catch a train to a market downtown, then a bus to Trafalgar square. There is a bit of evidence of the protests from yesterday, broken beer bottles, protest signs, new graffiti. We walk to the London bridge, Big Ben, and many other buildings that I didn't even know what they were but were damn impressive. not pictured: falling down Walk on more to the imperial war museum. This kind of thing is more my dad's forte, but I hear it's interesting. We spend two hours there and see only about a quarter of it. We're tired and decide to head back home. Riding the train makes me miss Australia. I wasn't too keen on London when I got here, but this place is starting to grow on me. Monday 28th Last day of work in the office, and a busy one. Bus to work is interesting, I see many bikes lane-splitting, dodging in between moving cars. It's crazy Tuesday 29th I'm outta ...

Saturday 26th The big day. Taxi to my bus pickup at 7:30. Bus to Windsor Castle. Grey and a bit rainy out. The tour bus, mostly American and Japanese tourists, filter out to the entrance. The flag is flying which means the queen is at the castle today.  flak vests and automatic weapons. these guys aren't fucking around We stroll through the state apartments, which are a bunch or ornate rooms with paintings, suits of armor, swords, other relics.  adds a bit of regal to the Brown Drab See the changing of the guard. Katy Pery's 'Firework' sounds so beautiful coming from these olde english musicians Bus then on the Stonehenge. The English countryside is pretty, green, hilly. Reminds me of Tasmania; like everything here reminds me of something in Australia. My heart skips a beat when I actually see the rock formations; I can't believe I'm here. Walk around with the audio guide and listen to the theories about why they think it's here. ...

Wednesday 23rd Make it to London via Heathrow. Bags not in London. I am not at all surprised. they will be here tomorrow, apparently. Taxi to my hotel. The city is all brown and red brick, very dark and old. Taxi driver gets address wrong, but I know I'm close by so I get out to walk.  Immediately discover a Brit language quirk: guy giving directions tells me it's 'two streets over' but he means one street over because he's counting the street we're on right now as one of those two streets.  whatevs. Like when an Australian says 'next thursday' and it's Tuesday, he actually means two days from now. Hyde park hotel. Smallest hotel room I've ever seen. The entire bathroom is literally as small as my bathtub at home. Wander around the shopping area nearby and buy some clothes so I can have freshies tomorrow. video chat with the wife then off to bed. Thursday 24th Short walk to the office. More brown drab old buildings. It...

Sunday march 20th To DIA for 4 pm flight to lax then connect in LAX to heathrow. Except the 4 pm flight was delayed so long I would miss the connection. My luggage, however did make the flight. So I got a new flight for tomorrow Monday march 21st My new flight takes me to LAX, and then to find my bags. No one knows where they are. Go to check in for my London flight, and they tell me it's the wrong flight; I wasn't supposed to connect from lax. The supervisor at American airlines in Denver hosed me. And also, my passport has a corner torn, so American won't let me fly with that passport. And they found my luggage, it was sent back to Denver. Stayed at the radisson in LA. At some point in the day I had cut my toe, leaving my sock a bloody mess.  it's better if you don't see it. I only have the one pair of socks as my luggage is in space somewhere. Tuesday march 22nd 6 am cab to the LA federal building to get a new passport. I'm first in...

as i write this from beautiful Boulder, Colorado, I have to bid a farewell to Singapore, Thailand, and Beijing, as I've (obviously) returned home from my world travels. Still a bit jet-lagged, but glad to be home after not living in America for 13+ months. Goodbye also to Australia and New Zealand, it's been a crazy year. I'll be posting some new adventures from to time in a new America -only blog, and if I do any more world travelling (which I hope to do), adventures will back here. Stay tuned.

Siewyee, my coworker, Singaporean tour guide/ambassador, took us to Bugis  market last night, to fulfil my mission of trying the Durian (aka 'the stinky fruit'). Singaporeans call it 'the king of all fruits', a delicacy. All I knew was that the smell and taste are famous. You can smell a durian from 10 feet away. Siewyee offers some Durian already shucked: chris takes a bite: reaction 1: reaction 2: brian takes a bite: reaction (note chris is still gagging on the left side of the picture): jim takes a bite: reaction: and it's done. the taste is like... i can't describe it. foul. and it stays with you for a while. we immediately rushed to get some indonesian barbeque as soon as the tasting was complete

we had an office opening party a few days ago for our new Singapore office. At that time, I learned a bit more about the intricacies of the business card exchange (I had already heard some things) For this blog, I've enlisted the help of my coworkers Grace and Siewyee to dramatize the exchange. . Business cards are exchanged after the initial introductions. The text on the card should be facing the person who is receiving it . Business cards are exchanged using both hands. . Examine business cards carefully before putting them in a business card case. . Treat business cards with respect. Never slip it in your pocket after receiving it. It's an indicator of how you will value the relationship. . Your own business cards should be maintained in pristine condition. Never give someone a tattered card. And this is just the 'westernized' Singaporean custom. It's way more detailed in Japan, apparently.

singapore is such a drastic mix of the old and new. one block will be a poor neighborhood like chinatown , and then next is some wealthy touristy area like clark quay . last week i explored little india: like chinatown, but a different set of odors. i love what a melting pot singapore is. so many different races, languages, cultures. and like little italy or chinatown areas you'd find in american cities, i have found little clusters of caucasians in various places.

Since I'm only in Singapore a short time, my company has arranged some temporary housing for me, and my coworkers, until they find more permanent residence. Currently, we've just all moved into some spare rooms in a house in Holland Village . The house is owned by a local artist, Ketna Patel . Her house is also her studio , and this place is the craziest house I have ever seen: front porch. some giant bed/sandal/spiky clog shoe thing. brian coming up the stairs this is a $4000 chair. Ketna told us to sit anywhere, don't worry about the price tags. couch some more more crazy shit. don't even ask me. my favorite art piece (note the doornkob nipples. get it?) another giant shoe.

Day 2 Today, the John Grey sea canoe tour. Bus ride to Phang Nga ("Pong Naw") bay, boat ride out to the islands. Phang nga bay is a cluster of 160 small islands, most of them uninhabitable spires of rock. Our canoe guide takes us into caves to inside 3 of the little islands, to see the monkeys, crab, bats, and all kinds of fishes and little creatures.  Our guide Natt with a jellyfish. Apparently, unlike the Aussie jellys,  these guys won't kill you if you touch them. At night, we build Thai offering things made of banana leaves and candles. And set them into the ocean.  they pointed out that our offering were "bio-regrettable" so it was safe to launch them out to sea. Then we turn off all the lights, and dip our hands into the water to active the bio-luminescent plankton. So trippy, like turning the water into a lightshow that follows your hand. Back to hotel and sleep, early flight tomorrow. We had wanted to go to Bangkok,...

Phuket 8am flight from Changi airport Singapore to Phuket, Thailand. Met lisa at the hotel. We walked down to the beach. Patong Bay The streets are filled with hawkers, up in our faces to buy DVDs, suits, anything. They kept asking us if we were Australian. I guess a lot of Aussies come here. A momentary quiet on the street. notice the telephone lines. We decide to take a tour of Phuket. Bus comes, and we go pick up one other couple, some kiwis. Our tour guidde, Son, is Thai. His English is hard to understand. He told us Thailand has no world cup team, but has the #1 elephant football team in the world. He pointed out that America doesn't even have an elephant football team. Touché, Son. It's really cool to be someplace that really cares about football (soccer) during World Cup. kids playing some soccer-hackey sack hybrid game with a wicker ball We go to old Phuket town, to a couple markets. Stray mangy dogs and ferrel cats everywhere. And the stree...