Train Rides

I love travelling by train, some interesting trains that I have caught;  


The metro train in Dublin to Dalkey is very scenic, hill side views along the edge of the bay, only costs you a couple of euros. 

The Heathrow to Cardiff train is very easy and comfortable.

I've also caught a train Hanoi to Hue in Vietnam

Trains in Thailand north to Chiang Mai and south to Samui. 

The Ghan from Alice Springs to Melbourne

Jakarta to Bandung

Guangzhou to Hong Kong

Jakarta - Yogyakarta

And technically it is not a train, but a tram, but the Hong Kong Peak Tram ride is a classic.

Bangkok Sixes

The Jakarta Gonads gave it a good crack, the cricket was excellent craic, now back at work waiting for the next tournament ! More info here. http://www.thailandsixes.com/

Song Kran (Thai new year and water festival) in Sydney

Song Kran is a major festival in Thailand, in Sydney expatriate Thai's and other well wishers joined in the fun with a small Aussie version in a local park at Discovery bay.

Traditional thai dancing, singing, handicrafts and food on sale.

Unfortunately for the organizers, it started raining quite heavily, abruptly ending festivities...

A visit to the Dusit zoo in Bangkok

We visited the Dusit Zoo last week, now, despite living in Thailand for a number of years I had never been here before. It is in central bangkok on Rama V road, maybe a 70 baht trip in a taxi. 100 baht for me and 50 baht for Ryan to get in. It was certainly interesting enough, the cages were not too small (for a zoo in the centre of a large Asian city) .

It also had a large lake (hire paddle boats, of course), fountains, shady trees etc, so can also be a good escape from the noise and heat of Bangkok.

Enjoying an icecream on a rather hot day!

more airport trouble...

travel agent had booked me on a 7pm flight - i arrived that day at about 4ish.... a few days before I emailed him to confirm which airport I flew out of.... Don Muang

- so he then rescheduled my flight to the 9pm flight so as I wouldnt miss it if traffic was bad etc.....

An hour before i was leaving Jakarta he sent me an email to say he had rebooked me for the 7pm flight for some reason.

OK. I arrive, travel directly to DM. get to the check in desk and the girl asks me what time is my flight?

I said 7.00pm, (it was now 6.30) - she replies with "that flight leaves from Suvanamhumi airport not DM."

What??? Oh no. you are kidding!"

fortunately - she managed to rebook me onto the 9.00pm flight which did leave from DM, so a few boring hours at the airport.

PS - and just to make life interesting the ATM swallowed my card, and the hotel had lost my booking!

Welcome to Thailand!

Siam Parrots Chiang Mai Cricket report

Sat. morning and the CM boys pick us up at 9am. Out to Prem school. Weather lovely and cool with rain looking likely. Parrots only had 7 and borrowed 3 CM fellas. Won the toss, Vick suggested batting first and then the rain will come. Good plan. 35 overs each

Badsheila and Sledge to open. BS out first over tryingg to hit the ball to Burma. Sledge takes a pounding on the body, hits a four and is eventualy out in about the 9th over - 9 runs, highest score for the parrots - bloody well batted!. I come in and score bugger all, out off the glove down leg side again! Prez strolls in and looks like he last batted yesterday, not 6 months ago, timing straight drives, flicks off the legs and a glorious back foot cover drive. Can't remember how out but a lovely 25 odd - all class. Nick leaves the first ball and thus attains his best score at Prem. Gets hit flush on the box with a very loud slap of leather on plastic which brought fits of laughter from all. Batted well before being caught behind. Only had 10 players and all out for 145.

Looking at a comfortable defeat I reckoned - well, at least we'd have our work cut out for us anyway

CMCC paid for our lunch - wicked spread

Vick and Nick open the bowling and bowl great lines and toke 2 wickets each including Coombesy and 2 other dangerous "Irishstanis". Bowled their 7 overs straight and we're back in the game.
Who to bowl next? look around and see Badsheila (maybe), Prez (sure), Tom K (told me he doesn't really want to bowl) Ring ins (didn't seem to be too trustworthy, best to go with Parrots), Me (shlt, might have to. Wait there must be someone else...) ...Sledge -
" Prez, you're bowling next and Pete you're taking the gloves!!!"

Prez gets a wicket in the first over and we're running around like a very excited Parrot team does. I buy a couple of wickets and when the Prez's height guidance system packs in and they start reaching Goodchap at head height on the full, we use one of the ring ins to try to get the last 2 wickets for victory while they need 22 runs - very exciting!

History will show that we lost by 2 wickets but it was tempered by the fact that 2 home grown local Thai lads calmly and cleverly got Chiang Mai home (including a massive six off yours truly) and secured the first ever Town and Country Challenge Trophy. The Thai boys did what the others were struggling with. It was very fitting.

Throughout the game I was fantasising about how sweeter this day would have been with the likes of DC, Scully, Justin, Strunky, Slatts, Raja, Princy, Neil - hell all of the Parrots actually. For one we would have had a full 11 and secondly we could have put on a good parrot performance on a beautiful wicket and ground during a rainless day in the mid 20's temperature wise. It was a very entertaining match with a close finish in bloody pleasant conditions. We all want to get back up there in December when the weather is perfect.

Tom K brought some Vodka from Ukraine and the Prez gave the President's award to Deano. Sledge failed to deliver vodka yet again and Wally nearly throttled him when he offered a bottle of 100 pipers instead!!!

Off to Thailand....

Tomorrow....

It's gonna be a busy trip, gotta a game of cricket in Chaing Mai, also some golf, catch up with some friends, then return to BKK to catch up with my son, plenty of thai food to be eaten, some shopping, more friends, Essendon vs Melbourne AFL, then Bledisloe Rugby, and also State of Origin.

Oh, and, eat some thai food, of course! moo ping, kao neow, kiteow, the list goes on, but I am going to eat so much pork (since Indonesia does not have much)

A Thai-Australian Chamber of commerce networking meeting (read a big piss up for men in suits ;) )

Then the grand finale of the trip, the Asian Champs AFL - 10 footy teams about 300 Aussies.

here's my player profile for this tourney....

"Liam “Sledge” Hammer – former Tiger who is champing at the bit to take his much-celebrated tattoo, drinking and martial arts skills back to Bangkok in the red, black and white jersey. Likes to have a chat on the park and, as a former kung fu champion, has the skills to back it up."

This is what I love about Asia - sports, mates, beers, travel.

and a reminder that all these fantastic sports clubs have websites should u wanna have a read... just check out my links to the right....

trying to take the girl out of thailand

well - i guess moving countries was just too much and too hard. My gal, bless her heart and yes i miss her, aint coming back. She tried, I tried, it just didnt work out.

i dont really feel like going into too much detail, but basically she just didnt like living away from Thailand. Which is awfully ironic when one considers the iron clad negative attitude of australian immigration policies..... most of the Asian people i met, including me gal, just DONT WANT to immigrate to Australia or any where else!

Perhaps someone should tell Jonny "Asian Invasion" Howard.....

Thai New Year & Dangerous Roads

bloody song kran and idiot thai morons and alcohol, i bladdy had a bad feeling about my g/f going home for song kran this year, i told her over and over not to ride motorcycles in her village etc, to the point were she was well sick of the subject, i just 'felt' like something was gonna happen, had a dream about it last nite, i just got news that my g/f has been in an accident and is now in hospital..... feel useless a 1000 miles away! Damn thai's and song kran and drinking too much! stupid bladdy corrupted festival - should be canceled!

*sorry, rant over.*

but wierd how this year, as opposed to every other year i really felt worried abt it....

i think she ok now, she was walking home from the market and a dickhead on a motorcyc collected her, she went to hospital and has concussion and some cuts and bruising on her head, face and arm.they want her to return tomorrow to double check.so lucky I guess. coulda been a lot worse.

the situation was only made for difficult because my stoopid bladdy landline phone has decided in the last 2 days that her thai number is engaged.I can ring on my mobile, but its prepaid and costs around 40bht per minute, so tends to run out bladdy quickly.She sounded pretty shaken up, (as you would be I guess) but ok.

bikes and alcohol, just fills me with fear... I gather now that she is mostly alright - a bit sore and a big fright. dont have much more details at this stage cos of the stoopid phone thing.

i worry wheneva she drives, but at least you have a tonne of steel around you in the event of an accident, motorcyc its all hard gravel.but this time the poor gal was a pedestrian, (mind you i do know what thai pedestrians are like....) - but being song kran and all i'd be willing to bet a beer that the driver of the bike was a 14 year old whiskey guzzling twit speeding down the road..... anyway i just spoke to her again and she says she pretty much alright just feeling a little bit jeb. (thai word for sore!)

spoke to her again, she's just sore and bruised all over, the accident was 2 young drunk blokes (surprisingly enough) on a bike, after the accident they picked up their bike and fled the scene. fortunately her brother was nearby and took her to the hospital.

teaching in indonesia

This is my first post for this, my new blog. I'm teaching in a National plus school in Indonesia in the city of Tangerang, which is basically being swallowed by Jakarta. I'm a science teacher, Biology, being my area of speciality.

I've previously taught in Indonesia, about 1o years ago, at an international school, and also spent the last 5 years teaching in Bangkok, thailand, at a large international school in Bangkok.

www.ajarn.com is an english teachers based website for thailand (ajarn being the thai-word for teacher)

No wonder so many Thai’s are rubbish drivers!

The other week my significant other decide she wanted to get her car licence. So she rang up a car driving school and signed up for 10 hours of lessons. This school (perhaps they all do) also included the chance to complete the drivers test also.

The first question she was asked by her driving teacher was “do you want to do the test or just pay?” !!!Now I’m no newbie to Thailand and its system of bribes – but that just appears a little bit too systematic to me rather than a few (well very many) people making a little extra on the side whenever they can!

A week or so later she announces that she is doing her test WTF ? – that’s fast! She got it to, so now my g/f is able to drive a car through-out Thailand. Now I’m not saying she’s stoopid – far from it – she’s a smart gal – but in farang land ( I know I know TIT ! ) but in da west – one generally needs to complete something like 10 times that number of hours learning how to drive – just to gain confidence, read traffic, road rules? Ability to respond to different driving conditions (ie rain, fog, night) (all her lessons were the middle of the afternoon.) ability to calmly respond to emergency situations that may arise.

Most of which can only be leaned through experience and TIME spent driving!She decided she only wanted to get her automatic licence – tho I convinced her to at least get some lessons in a manual ( turns out she had a total of 10 minutes – before the instructors car broke !? and only managed to use 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears!)

Apparently she never learnt how to reverse ( and by implication reverse park!) Anyway I own a manual 4WD – u guessed it she wants to drive it now, ok ok I’ll sit with you – show me how well you can drive. Feck me – she accelerates hard straight at a brick well in our apartment carpark – I slam on the hand brake and have a wee chat with her which consisted of you don’t need to go fast in the carpark – and her saying I wasn’t going fast.

OK – its Sunday morning – should be light traffic – overshoots the driveway exit leaving the nose of the car in the middle of the road – lucky no traffic was coming past, overcorrects the corner so we end up on the wrong side of the road.Couldn’t stay in the white lines down sukhumvit road – generally accelerated towards cars that where already braking despite me asking her to repeatedly to “Chaa Chaa!” (which means go slow go slow!)

We arrived safely – I promised some more lessons at a later date, – while filing a mental note to check my insurance cover! If this in any indication of the general population - its no wonder they all drive like feckn maniacs!

overqualified thai secretaries

"The bride received a Bachelor of Business in Finance from Bangkok University (Bangkok, Thailand) and a Master of Economics in International Trade from Victoria University of Technology (Melbourne, Australia). The groom is self-employed."

this is a wedding annoucment of a former colleague and friend of mine....she was working as a secretary! WTF? - a bloody typist/PA in thialand with an educational background like that?? wot gives? in a similar manner i recall a mates wife being refused a job as waitress at the londoner (expat bar in thailand) because she didnt have a degree!!

Thai Bureaucracy ....

Originally a letter i wrote...
1 March 2006-03-02

Dear K.No Idea,

I refer to your letter dated in Thai but not English. (6th of something 2549) addressed to myself, Mr Liam. Firstly, I assume that this was a computer generated email, because it contains several errors of fact.

Let me enlighten you –
1. You stated “we had tried to remind you by phones of the said outstanding balance several times, but to no avail.
1.1. This completely incorrect – your company has contacted me ONCE only!

2. The company reserves the right to suspend the e-mail service without prior notice
2.1. Your company has already suspended my internet service well over 1 month before this ‘warning’.

3. KSC had requested you to make payment in the amount of Baht 4.459.48
3.1. Previous to this notice your company had never asked for this amount – each month you ask for a different amount – in fact this latest notice has an amount of 367.74 baht added to it.

3.2. I also object to the fact that you have suspended the service since 26th Dec 2005 but continue to bill me for services ‘not’ provided.

I would like to draw your attention to the following items of dissatisfaction;

4. When I originally signed up with your company ( about October of last year for a service I signed a form allowing you to automatically deduct my credit card, which you managed for a few months.
4.1. Within a month I had continuing problems with the router that you sold me – I made several calls to resolve to no avail, in fact one time when I spoke to your tech. department I was promised a technician would be sent out – this never did occur.

4.2. When sent the first bill in December I rang your company to say that I wanted it taken out of my credit card – the details of which I had already given to your salesman – and which your company originally was able to use. This was not done.

4.3. The end of December my internet was cut off by your company – I then proceeded to make a number of calls, emails and faxes to your company to resolve this – on different occasions I was told the credit card would be fixed, that my internet would be turned on and I could pay online and a new form would be sent to me to enable automatic payments. None of these promises were ever met.

4.4. In January I sent a short email to the president/CEO/Boss of your company via your website – in it I complained about all these problems and finished with the comment “I am trying to pay you money, does your company NOT want it!” This remains unanswered.

4.5. Your company has continued to bill me for this termination of service, I notice this latest letter (well, first and only, actually) was sent via registered mail – I find this extraordinarily rude and cheeky of your company.

Given all the above I now have no intention of paying you any money nor do I want my service reinstated with your company – I will recommend all my colleagues DO NOT deal with your company.

Rgds

Mr. liam


they have since continued to randomly ring my mobile phone asking for payment - each time I tell them I want a reply to the above letter....

still has not happened,

i continue to get bills though ....

last 2 times they rang me I was told we need to check your address...

"ok fine - what is it?"

extended silence

"we need to check your address...."

"yeah fine - tell me what address details you have?"

"no you need to tell us"

"answer the letter first"

"oh ok - I'll email"

no email eva arrived.....then 5 days later I had almost exactly the same converstation - (it must be the same thick bird) about my passport number.... as if I am going to give them my passport number....

2 Dinners - a cultural exchange

her food.....thems chicken feet! ugh! lucky i had got some western food for me ....fish and chips from the offshore....dont really look that good really!

so i added some pepper, salt vinegar and mayo

then it did taste good.

her food needed garnish too - not quite the same as mine