Kickin' it in Chiang Mai

Bangkok was the ending point for half of our group. Mike, Dave, Rob, and Indhu all went their separate ways while the remaining members - Henry, Caryn, Giles, Charlotte, and yours truly - headed off to Chiang Mai to embark on a 3-day trek in Chiang Dao. We had one full day in Chiang Mai before our trek, so we hired a guide and a van for an afternoon to show us around.

Our first stop was a large wood carving factory where we watched the artists in action as they shaped large flat pieces of wood into incredible works of art.

In addition to reliefs (I hope I have my art terminology right) there were also sculptures and furniture for sale. One of my favorites was this sweet elephant chair and table set (see below).

Next we got a brief tour of a silk shop and learned about each stage of the silk making process from the birth of the silkworm to the final product.

But then I learned that all the silkworms used are killed in the process! I had naively assumed that silkworms were like sheep. Just like you don't kill sheep for their wool - they're just temporarily naked and cold until everything grows back - you don't have to sacrifice the lives of silkworms for their silk.

Knowing that tens of thousands are silkworms are cooked up to produce a scarf or shirt would evoke enough guilt in me to avoid buying any silk products. It's now officially on the "do not buy" list under leather and neon orange fox fur head wraps.

"Cooking" the silk.

Also on the itinerary were some temples.

Besides the usual buddha statues and monks expected at a place of prayer and worship, we discovered that temples also serve as a dumping ground for unwanted dogs. There were all kinds of dogs -- big, small, young, old, scruffy, and preened -- that hang out and basically run the joint. Most of them just lay around and nap all day, but when it's feeding time - oh boy! The whole place becomes a frenetic swirl of ecstatic yelps and doggie fur.

And I love how they were fed rice porridge each on a separate plate. Despite there being over two dozen pooches, they were impressively disciplined and even orderly about being fed. Well, except for the naughty puppies. They attempted to climb into the tall plastic pails every time the lunch lady turned her back. It was too cute.

Puppy stealing some rice porridge

In the evening, Henry and Caryn wanted to get massages so I tagged along not knowing that I was walking into the massage parlor of doom. I requested for the massage to focus on my neck and shoulders because that was the only part of my body that felt really tight, but hot damn, I had no idea that I was going to get the life worked out of me. The masseuse was like an acrobat practicing her moves using me as a prop. At one point, she was pushing so hard into my left shoulder blade that I groaned and almost lost consciousness. I tried to speak but no words could come out of my mouth. When she stopped I almost passed out again - this time from euphoria. Then this lady rested her knees on my rear end and - I swear I'm not making this up - started riding it in a forward-backward motion. While not at all painful, it felt so wrong and envisioning what this would have looked like to someone watching, I almost let out an embarrassed giggle.

And then! (yes there's more), the masseuse, using both her legs and arms, grabbed my legs and arms and twisted them in directions that I never thought was humanly possible. She held my limbs in whatever undignified position they were in and pushed my body against the mat. As I laid helpless with my face pressed uncomfortably against the pillow, I tried to make eye contact with Caryn who was next to me, hoping that my eyes could magically shoot mini distress flares her way, but she looked too blissed out to pay any attention.

Finally, the masseuse dropped my lifeless lower body to the floor and sat down behind my head and placed my head in her lap. I had gotten a massage previously, at the resort in Phuket, and when that masseuse massaged (and by "massaged" I really mean "squeezed") my head, it was more painful than pleasurable. So you could imagine the fear that flooded my body when this lady placed her hands on my temples, but to my surprise, this part was so gentle and soothing that I actually fell asleep half way through.

When it was all over, I had sore and slightly bruised shoulders for days but no remnants of a knot anywhere on my body. Man, what an unforgettable, crazy ass massage!

Man who walks through airport turnstile sideways...

...is going to Bangkok.

I've known that joke long before I could even find Bangkok on a map, but let us not dwell on this little fact.

After a two week fun-filled roadtrip through Oz land with Lin, I have returned to the cooler and drier climate of Adelaide. Before I get to the juicy details of that trip, I'll try to finish telling you about my time in SEA.

Soon after the sea kayaking expedition in Phuket, we spent three and a half days in Bangkok. On the night we flew in, we had dinner at Cabbages and Condoms, a restaurant whose food is "guaranteed not to cause pregnancy." Male diners even have the added bonus of receiving a free vasectomy at the clinic next door if they so desire. I, however, was happy just to get free internet while waiting for my entree.

Besides not getting pregnant in Bangkok, I also played pick-up with some locals. I didn't bother to bring my cleats for one day of Ultimate on a month long trip, but during that one hour of playing, I definitely wished that I had. The most exercise I got in Bangkok, however, was the leisurely stroll turned four hour trek from the city centre to the railway station with Henry, Caryn, and Indhu on the second day. The lesson learned from that activity? You can't assume that tourist maps are always drawn to size.

Indhu, Caryn, and Henry mapping the 'quickest' route to the train station. Little did we know then that that would be useless...

To enrich ourselves of Thai culture, we also visited the Grand Palace:

One photo amongst many taken of the Palace

and Wat Pho - the Reclining Buddha (see below):

And if you are too lazy or faced with time/budgetary constraints, you can visit Ancient City in Pattaya, about an hour outside of Bangkok, which is a huge park featuring miniature replicas of major landmarks and other buildings that exist or used to exist in Thailand.

My feelings of visiting Ancient City are mixed. I suppose if you actually knew what you were going to see, it could be an entirely positive experience, especially since it does provide a nice overview of what you could see throughout all of Thailand or what you could have seen if you had only shown up a couple of centuries sooner. However, we thought we were going on a tour of the ancient city of Ayutthaya (also known as Siam) -- a real city -- that was destroyed by the Burmese in the 1700s and later rebuilt near the old site. So keeping that in mind, when I got to "Ancient City" I felt a bit cheated. It's kind of like going to Hollywood expecting to meet cool celebrities only to discover that you've somehow ended up at Madame Tussaud's wax museum instead. I don't care how real Whoopi's dreads look in wax form, it won't float my boat unless it's the real thang, ya know?

Well, I'm not sure how all of this got lost in translation at the tour agency, but our utter confusion upon entering the park was entertaining enough to me that it made getting up at the crack of dawn and dragging my tired, whiny butt over there almost worthwhile.

A miniature temple "ruin"

Group photo atop ruin pictured above

Click here for more photos of Bangkok.

Kayaking with John Gray's Sea Canoe

In the last two days we were in Phuket, we went sea kayaking around Phang Nga Bay with John Gray's Sea Canoe, an ecotour company. We explored hongs which are inland lagoons and caves and circumnavigated tiny islands in the bay by ocean kayak. We saw mangroves, monkeys, birds, and other wildlife. I also witnessed the bioluminescence of plankton at night which can be created from disturbing the water with your hand or oar. It's hard to describe but the sparkles in the water made the entire experience seem magical.


On the first night, we constructed kratongs and learned a little bit about the Loi Kratong festival. Kratongs are small floating "lanterns" constructed from the trunk of a banana tree and decorated with folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, and incense sticks. After we made them, we waited until dark before taking our sea kayaks into a hong to float them on the water.

Some kratongs

Before nightfall, the crew set up tents on a tiny island in the bay where we camped on the beach underneath the stars. The next morning we watched the sunrise with a cup of hot tea and coffee.

Sunrise on the beach

John Gray's crew was knowledgeable about the ecology of Phang Nga Bay and provided superb service. And with a tour group leader nicknamed "Beer," how can you possibly go wrong? I highly recommend this company for anyone traveling to Phuket.

Click here for more photos of Phuket.

Phuket Thai Cookery School

On our fourth day in Phuket, Ian, Indhu, Caryn, Giles, and I signed up for a half day cooking class at the Phuket Thai Cookery School. We were picked up from our hotel early in the morning and taken to a beautiful private beach on Sirey Island near Phuket Town. The five hour class consisted entirely of learning to cook and eating six dishes including dessert. It was easily one of my favorite activities from my entire SEA trip.

When we arrived, we met six other students, one of whom had already topped off two or three beers while waiting and was completely wasted at 8:30 in the morning. He introduced himself as Roger from Sweden, and accompanying him was his friend, a non-English speaking Swede who, funny enough, bore a striking resemblance to Robin Williams.

Noi, our instructor, gave us cookery garb (an apron and cap) and led us to the classroom where she presented to us a variety of Thai ingredients which included vegetables, herbs, and sauces. Every time Noi held up a new item to show, Roger would rudely interrupt by loudly telling the class that his friend needed him to translate. So we'd sit in silence and wait for Roger to bring Robin Williams up to speed who, as far as I could tell, looked like he couldn't care less about what was happening. We'd know Roger was finished when he would turn toward Noi, and ironically, position his hands into the mudra of respect and say, in a grave tone, "Respect." Roger's class clown antics continued until the school ran out of beer and he finally passed out half way through the class to everyone's relief.

For each dish we made, Noi first demonstrated the steps at her cooking station while the rest of us studiously watched and took notes (I just sat and salivated). Then we headed to our individual cooking stations and attempted to mimic her culinary awesomeness on our own.

The Venerable Chef - Noi

The first dish we tackled was Kwithiaw Kua Kai, or as we Americans like to call it, saute chicken with rice noodles. Since Indhu, Caryn, and I are vegetarian, we used mock meats and tofu instead (a much better choice I'd say). Despite the fool proof set up and instructions, I managed to screw up at step 3. I minced a clove of garlic, heated some vegetable oil in the wok, and then proceeded to burn the garlic. Well, that created a stir amongst Noi's assistants who scrambled to find me another wok and clove of garlic as I stood helpless with my idle spatula in hand.

Noi walked over to my station to check on all the commotion and clucked when she saw the brown garlic floating shamelessly in the hot oil. With a glint of evil glee in her eye, she lifted the wok off the stove top and asked me, "What is your name?"

Thinking she was going to scold me in front of the entire class, I answered, "Uh... Indhu."

But Noi just took the wok away. I could hear a lot of giggling from the group of assistants standing in the other corner of the room. One of them came over with a new wok and held my hand (in the metaphorical sense) while I tried again. No conflagrations or other culinary mishaps to speak of the second time. And you know what? It was the best freakin' Kwithiaw Kua Kai I've ever tasted, if I should say so myself. Not bad for a "D" student!

We also whipped up:
Som Tam - Papaya salad
Tom Yam Goong - Thai hot and sour prawn (tofu) soup
Kaeng Kiew Wan Kai - Green curry with mock chicken
Pad Pak Ruam - Stir-fried mixed vegetables
Khao Niew Mamuang - Mango with coconut sticky rice!

Papaya Salad

All were delicious (even the ones I made, ok) and it was incredible to be able to distinguish the flavor of each ingredient. By the end, I had so thoroughly stuffed myself with food that I could barely lift myself out of my chair. Now that's a good day.

Chowing down on some tasty Thai goodness

Patong - Land of Old White Men

First stop: Phuket, Thailand

A week before our departure, Jetstar changed our flight from Adelaide to Sydney from 10am to 6am, which meant we had a five hour layover before our connecting flight to Phuket. However, the e-mail I received listed "HKT" as the final destination. When I read it, my immediate thought was that Jetstar had rerouted our flight to Hong Kong instead of Phuket. So for an entire day, I lambasted myself for choosing a low cost carrier and got myself (and Indhu) into a worried frenzy until I finally got on the phone with a customer representative who calmly assured me that "HKT" was really the Phuket international airport and not Hong Kong.

To ensure that we didn't miss our flight, Indhu and I got to the airport by 4:45am and were sitting at our gate by 4:52am. With nothing to do because I hadn't brought any reading material, I pulled out a box of cherries to snack on, while Indhu, who hadn't packed until a mere two hours earlier and was a little too drunk to recall what she brought, opened her backpack to review its contents. In it was one tennis shoe. She couldn't remember if she had packed the other one.

Off to a great start, we sat in a drunken stupor until we arrived in Sydney. The time spent in the airport was unremarkable as was the flight to Phuket except that it was uncomfortably cold the entire time. When I asked for a blanket I was told that I could purchase a blanket and pillow set for only nine dollars, which I refused to pay on principle. I have no doubt that Jetstar keeps the temperature on their airplanes inhumanely cold on purpose to sell their blankets to poor suckers like me who get cold even at room temperature.

After we arrived in Phuket, we had to find our way to Le Meridien, the five-star resort that my friend Henry booked (yeah, we like to vacation in the lap of luxury). We got into a large taxi van with a group of drunken Aussies who had spent a fortune on alcohol on the same flight over from Sydney. Half way to our hotels, the van abruptly turns off the road and pulls up in front of an open store. As Indhu and I were trying to figure out what was happening, one of the Aussies sitting next to me starts yelling at the driver, "Oh no! I know what you're doing! We don't want any! We just want to get to our hotel!" and then turns to the both of us and says, "They do this all the time. They pull over and try to sell you tours or lady boys."

Perhaps on a different night I would have been more intrigued by "lady boy" action, but having just stepped onto a foreign land after being strapped to an airplane seat for nine hours, I just wanted to get to a hotel and a bed. We all protested loudly and refused to get out of the van until the driver finally heaved a sigh and pulled back onto the road. The rest of the ride was lady boy-free and we checked into Le Meridien without a hitch. We were welcomed with an orchid lei, a hot towel, and fresh lychee juice. Life was suddenly good again.

Le Meridien

All my other friends were on a diving trip and Caryn and Giles hadn't yet arrived in Phuket, so Indhu and I were on our own the next day. We explored Patong which was nothing but endless rows of bars, restaurants, and stalls selling every name brand knock off good imaginable. It was a tourist wasteland and Patong being my first experience in Thailand, I was sorely disappointed by what I saw. The little beach town catered entirely to predominantly European and Australian tourists and was devoid of any culture. During the day, old men in speedos played bocchi on the beach.

Old men playing bocchi

At night, Patong transformed into a seedy red light district teeming with young Thai prostitutes and old white men looking for "companionship." Witnessing this was both fascinating and revolting, much like watching a train wreck.

We eventually met up with Ian and then Caryn who flew in from Bangkok. Ian had read in his Lonely Planet guidebook of an "absurdly beautiful" remote beach called Laem Sing in the north so we headed there the following day on Sunday. While the beach was indeed beautiful, I think Lonely Planet likes to exaggerate with bombastic language. We spent a lazy afternoon baking on the beach and both Ian and Indhu drank potent alcoholic drinks out of absurdly large coconut shells.

Ian, your typical beach bunny

I'm baaaaack!

I have returned to Adelaide from - as Lesley calls it - my epic adventure in South East Asia (SEA). I brought back with me an uneven tan, a few extra pounds, some new clothes, and lots of stories and photos to share with you all. It was quite the productive trip - I hit the beaches of Phuket, sea kayaked in Phang Nga Bay, took a Thai cooking class, played Ultimate in Bangkok, trekked through Chiang Dao, explored caves, rode an elephant, and almost got married off in some village. And that was all just in Thailand!

Before I delve into the details of the SEA experience, I had mentioned in a previous post that I'll be doing more traveling in January. Just before coming back to Adelaide, Lin and I made a plan to see more of Oz. In two days I will be flying out to Sydney to meet up with Lin and we're going to spend two weeks roadtripping along the coast up to Cairns. So if my blog entries mysteriously stop part way it's because I ran out of time and had to leave for my trip. I'll continue when I get back!

So grab a cup of your beverage of choice, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

Stick a fork in me, I'm DONE!

I am officially two-thirds done with my degree and by this time tomorrow, Dhu and Boo will be sipping cocktails on the beach and getting massages in Thailand. Hell yeah! After six months of intense work, we're going to treat ourselves to a nice long holiday. We have a whopping seven weeks off before our third (and last) semester so we're going to live it up in South East Asia for the first half and the rest of Australia in the second half.

Travel Itinerary:
Dec 8 - 12: Phuket
Dec 13 - 14: Sea kayaking
Dec 15 - 19: Bangkok
Dec 20 - 23: Trekking in Chiang Mai
Dec 24 - 30: Kuala Lumpur (and Melaka)
Dec 31 - Jan 3: Singapore

We'll be meeting up with some of my friends from DC (Henry, Giles, Rob, Caryn) in Thailand and Ian (Big Easy) is going to meet up with us in Phuket. Indhu is going to head off to KL after Bangkok to spend more time with her grandparents while I'll be trekking in Chiang Mai. Then I'm going to meet up with Indhu and a couple of other friends (Lin and Hani) in Malaysia. Hani is an old friend from high school whom I haven't seen in over five years; she lives in KL and just got married this past July. I can't wait to see her! Lin, whiptail alum extraordinaire, has been globetrotting for a couple of months already. She, Indhu, and I will be taking the train to Singapore for New Year's. Hopefully Lin will still want to do Oz in January after Dhu and I fly back to Adelaide.

No firm plans for January yet, but I'm eager to visit Sydney if nothing else. Also on my list: Brisbane, Cairns, either Sunshine Coast or Gold Coast, Fraser Island, Darwin, and Alice Springs. The Great Barrier Reef is a must see before I leave Australia. Time and budgetary constraints (and sanity) will prevent me from doing it all in January, so I think I will just pick a couple of destinations and take my time at each.

If any of you have some vacation time to burn in January, it's not too late to accompany me on my travels! I could use a travel partner or two and Australia is totally kick ass.

It has been one hairy semester. I can't wait to get out of here. 8 hours and counting before we leave for the airport! I don't know if I'll have a chance to post while I'm gone; if not, happy holidays everyone! Send me your address if you want a postcard!

Peace out.

Welcome to the Heinz School

A taste of what group work is like at Heinz (and Coro):

And if you really must know, I'm "Carol."

Worlds Recap

So Worlds was fun, though much of it was in a "please god let me get through this point without dropping dead" sort of way. Running continuously in 90+ degree weather without cloud cover for upwards of seven hours each day for four days was inarguably not an ideal way to ease back into playing Ultimate. Still, the soreness and exhaustion felt good at times - just not while I was conscious.

One of the few photos I took of us playing.

Despite concerted efforts, my team wasn't very good at winning games. I found out after I got there that 7 Express didn't make it to Regionals this past club season. And they're playing at Worlds?! Given that fact, I guess it's not terribly surprising that we went 0-6 while I was there and 2-8 overall. In short, we stunk. I had a difficult time gelling with 18 strangers and three people with whom I hadn't played in over three years. Although I liked getting to know the players, some of them drove me (and each other) insane on the field. While seemingly well-adjusted individuals off the field, a few inexplicably turned psychotic during our games.

I will share just one example. One teammate, when he wasn't playing, would sit in his chair with his arms crossed and bark out such helpful tips as, "C'mon, catch that shit!", "Fucking run harder!", and "Throw better throws!" Yet one time when I made a cut for him after he caught the disc, he looked me off and later made the excuse that he didn't have confidence in his "long" throws (it would barely have been a half field length throw if he actually threw it). However, his inability to throw a disc clearly could not have been the only problem resulting from that failed play so he had to criticize my cutting as well. Amazingly, this guy managed to pick a fight with everyone on our team during every game.

Apart from those less than inspiring moments, it was awesome to play teams from all over the world. We played against teams from the UK, Italy, Germany, Australia, and throughout SE Asia. I also learned a new cheering game and it goes a little something like this:

Players from both teams begin by "mingling" in a small circle for an unspecified period of time. The "referee" would then call out an instruction randomly that can be one of three options:

1. "Tandem!" -- Each player has to find a partner. One has to lie on his/her stomach on the ground while the other has to balance on top of him/her with arms outstretched.

7 Express and the Italian team, Gert Johnny's Band

2. "Pole!" -- Each player has to find two partners. One player has to stretch his/her arms high above his/her head and press his/her palms together to form a human "pole." Then the other two players have to pole dance on either side of the "pole."

[I was too caught up in watching to take a photo of this.]

3. "Princess!" -- Each player has to find a partner. One player must carry the other in his/her arms.

Anyone who is left without a partner in any round is out of the game. Mingling occurs between rounds. And the game ends when only two or three players remain in the circle. Watching this game beats seeing a land shark parade any day. I especially enjoyed the pole dancing bits!

Another highlight from the trip was running into Brynne who, by the way if you haven't heard, is the co-captain of Mischief! I didn't get the opportunity to watch her team play, but I'm glad I saw her.

Like almost all frisbee tournaments, I didn't see much else other than fields and my hotel room while I was there, so I can't say much about what Perth (or Fremantle where we had team dinner) is all about.

I made it back to Adelaide by Friday night - just in time for an early morning group meeting the next day and a twelve-page paper to write. Taking off from school for five days felt like a big risk at the time but the timing turned out to be fantastic because I didn't have any work due that week. After chasing plastic for so many days, I was eager to return to my mundane grad school life.

View of Perth on my flight back to Adelaide.

Overall, I had a good time. More importantly, I now can add Worlds to my list of Ultimate Frisbee accomplishments -- woohoo!

This is how flat most of Australia is.

Bonus Features
Video 1 (the Americans):


Video 2 (the Italians):

Hello, Worlds!

I'm flying out to Perth for Worlds '06 on Monday!

Before I continue, I must first express my gratitude to Russ Bogin for making this trip possible. I had originally decided not to go because it was so incredibly expensive but Russ persisted and offered to "sponsor" me. So I changed my mind at the last minute and bought my plane tickets earlier this week.

I'll be picking up with 7 Express, a mixed team from New York. I'm psyched to be at Worlds, but I'm also dreading playing. 7 Express does not yet realize the dud of a player they're getting. I'm totally going to get spanked on the field! I've been exercising frantically these past two weeks to at least look like I do more than just sit on the couch and eat ding dongs all day, but I'm still no where near the fitness level appropriate for Worlds.

Oh, and speaking of potential humiliation, did I tell you what my jersey number is? #69. Whoever ordered that extra women's jersey on 7 Express sure has a sense of humor. Well, if I'm going to play like a dumbass, I might as well provide some extra comic relief while I'm at it.

After I paid my player fee, I had to call one of the Worlds' organizers to provide my "details." When I did, I got grilled on my date of birth, current address, allergies, injuries, years of playing experience, current medications, country of citizenship, emergency contact, shoe size, and of course, my jersey number. And then I had to e-mail my head shot to be put on my player pass. The whole experience was like walking into a doctor's office expecting a quick check up but getting a full body cavity search instead.

And on that lovely note, I should start packing!

Let the Duck Hunt Begin

Our quack head president is officially a lame duck! Hooray!

The Republican Revolution is dead. The Dems are in control of Congress. Maybe there is some hope for America after all. And I might even want to go home now!

Props to:
- Nancy Pelosi, first woman speaker of the House
- Keith Ellison, first Muslim elected to the House
- Deval Patrick, second African American governor
- Voters that voted Dem in Montana, Virginia, Missouri, and Ohio
- Voters in South Dakota that rejected the ban on all abortions
- Voters in Missouri who voted for stem cell research

Big losers for good reason:
- Katherine Harris
- Rick Santorum
- Donald Rumsfeld
- Voters in the seven states who rejected same-sex marriage
- Voters in California who rejected funds for alternative energy

Anyone else want to add to this list?

Christmas... in November?

November 4, 2006:

Last Saturday was the Adelaide Credit Union's Christmas Pageant. Yes, you read correctly - Christmas Pageant. In the first week of November. I don't know how people can get so excited about the birth of Christ this early in the game - or even at all. But I'm an old Scrooge so don't mind me.

The locals really hyped up this event by claiming that it rivals the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and that most people show up three hours early to save a good spot. Sitting on the sidewalk at 7 am on a Saturday morning and waiting three hours to watch a parade? You couldn't get me to do that even if Jesus himself was going to be break dancing on one of those floats.

Still, I was eager to see what all the fuss was about. I showed up half way through as the floats were parading through the center of town. All I can say is, this pageant is probably the biggest freak show in Adelaide. And I enjoyed every second of it. I even made Indhu stand with me for an extra fifteen minutes despite her complaints of dehydration just so I could take more pictures.

My favorite float - a fire breathing dragon!

A Lesson in Style

Today at the park:

Hey Dhu, show us your awesome frisbee moves!



The "prancing crane" throwing style you see in the video is definitely a Dhu trademark, and I bear no responsibility for it.

So I've realized that this blog is becoming less about Australia than it is about poking (good-natured) fun at my roommate who is less amused with each new post. I guess it's what happens when I only blog what I know, and the fact that my entire social network in Australia consists of one person doesn't really help.

Could you please post a comment to commend Indhu of what a great sport she is? If you don't, I may not live to post another entry. Thanks!

Joystick Challenged

If you are not a YouTube fanatic, you probably haven't come across this, but it is one of the funniest video clips I've seen yet. In terms of entertainment value, it even rivals watching Indhu bowl, which means it's gotta be pretty damn funny.

Ode to Limpy

An Ode to Limpy the Lettuce

by Indhu S. Sekar

You sit on my balcony, with the view of the city
Hoping to grow, to look so pretty
But as your caretaker, I see no good
to water you, as you'll be eaten as food.

So, instead of hoping to grow so high
to stretch your leaves out and touch the sky,
You will remain in the pot, looking pale green and impy,
But no worries, you're still my mate, Limpy!


The end.

[Begin polite applause here]

Indhu's many talents as showcased on this blog. Stay tuned for more!

Kangaroo Island

A few weeks ago, a small group of Heinz folks went on a full-on day-tour of Kangaroo Island, which is Australia's third largest island after Tasmania and Melville Island. Among the rich diversity of wildlife that exist on the island were colonies of sea lions and fur seals lounging on the beach, oblivious to the hordes of human papparazzi passing through. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll leave it to my set of photos to speak about the experience.

Link to my photos:

Kangaroo Island

Quarter of a Century

I'm 25 today.

And guess what I'd rather be doing?

Bowl-o-rama

A couple of weeks ago some of us went bowling. We thought it would be funny to capture on camera each of our own unique style of rolling a ball across a waxed lane.

Andy, red-faced from effort.

One word: bad-ass.

Indhu, who looks like she's in mid-sprint down the lane.

'Impeccable' form: arm flappage post-release.

Did I mention that alcohol was present at this alley?

Part Deux (Finally)

You're looking at the blog of one sick, miserable puppy. I've been battling a nasty flu for the past week and I'm just barely winning (I hope that I am). I've managed to write up the second part of my spring break trip, but it doesn't quite have the same gusto as the first. Maybe the pictures will make up for it.


After teetering on the brink of disaster, Dhu and I made it back to Adelaide without additional drama, although in our haste to get rid of the car, we failed to remember to return it with a full tank of gas. You'd think after the last episode, we'd be more mindful of such things.

Within 16 hours of being back in Adelaide, we set off for another roadtrip - this time to Melbourne with our friend Brad. He picked us up in his mom's pimpin' '92 sea blue Mitsubishi Executive loaded with a bumpin' cassette stereo system and classy velour seats. The only thing missing was a license plate that says "SXY MF" accented by neon pink pimp lights -- cuz we were that stylin'.

Right. So...

Our first stop was a volcanic crater with a lake in the center.

And then a cave.

Then we got hungry, picked up some Asian-licious noodles, and being the vagabonds we were, ate them by the water.

After lunch, we officially turned onto the Great Ocean Road, but for the first couple of hours, we continued to see the same roadsidescape we had all morning, which looked something like this:


By afternoon, I started getting suspicious.

Me: "Uh, so Brad... where's the ocean on this so-called Great Ocean Road?"
Indhu: "Yeah, Brad. What's so great about this road?"
Brad: "Are you two poo-pooing this trip already?" (I don't think Brad actually used the term "poo poo" but I wanted to keep a consistent theme from the last post.)
Indhu: "I think it's a misnomer. It should really be called the So-So Ocean Road."

And as Indhu and I were exchanging verbal high fives over that last comment, we turned a corner and suddenly came upon a breathtaking view that would render any obnoxious American speechless.


I had written this post up to this point before falling ill, so the rest of this is just a summary of the highlights of the trip.

We stayed in Apollo Bay for two nights. During the day we hiked through a nearby rainforest, did a treetop walk, and admired some gorgeous waterfalls.

We made it into Melbourne by Friday afternoon. Later that evening, Brad took us to an Aussie Rules quarterfinals footy match at the MCG. Unsurprisingly, Australians are loud and crazy about their footy. It was like being in Pittsburgh during the Superbowl all over again (but without cars getting overturned and furniture dragged out into the streets and set on fire).

The next day, Saturday, we went to the National Gallery of Victoria to see Picasso: Love & War 1935-1945 and then ate lunch at Queen Victoria Market. And for our last night in Melbourne, we ventured out to St. Kilda's beach on the tram for dinner. We left early next morning and made it back to Adelaide by late afternoon, less than twelve hours before our first class of the new semester.

In conclusion: Melbourne is a kick ass city, full of life and energy.


Bonus Features--

1. A Few Memorable Quotes:

Indhu: "Aww, look at the cute baby cows!"
Brad: "Indhu, those are alpacas."

Brad: "You two look like paraplegic teletubbies on speed."

Indhu: "I would jump out of a cake."
Me: "Really?"
Indhu: "Yeah, why not?"
Me: "I don't know. The mental image I have of you doing that is a little traumatic."
Indhu: "What? Why?"
Me: "You know... you popping out of a cake wearing nothing but pasties."
Indhu: "That wasn't what I had in mind when I said I would jump out of a cake."
Brad: "What are pasties?"
(Let's just say that I hope I never have to explain what pasties are ever again.)

2. A short story about nothing:

While having dinner one night in Apollo Bay, Brad says, "So-and-so is really nice but I wish she could just stop talking so much... blah..blah... like a rooba or something."

I sat there thinking, What the hell is a rooba? Perplexed, I shot a glance at Indhu for help but she was looking at Brad like he had an extra head growing out of his left nostril. I leaned across the table and asked, "Rhubarb?"

He stared at me blankly, leaned closer toward me, and said, "Rooba, you know, like a booba?"

A boo-ba? Was he being dirty?

"Boo-ba," I repeated slowly.

"A bool?" suggested Brad.

I shook my head.

But Brad was persistent. "You know, bools... the animal. And a ba... the thing on the front of cahs."

And then it clicked.

"A bar?"

"Yes, a barrr." (Brad's American accent has a southern twang to it)

"A bull-bar? And a... 'roo-bar?"

"Yes, that's it."

"Oh. We don't have those in the States."

So what was Brad's point about the bull bar and 'roo bar? I still have no idea.

3. Link to my web album (click on photo):

A Dingo Ate My Baby! (Part I)

...and other spring break adventures with Boo, Dhu, and Lefty the donkey!
During our one week off from school, Indhu and I embarked on an action-packed roadtrip to Flinders Ranges and Coober Pedy for hiking and camping and then to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road with our Aussie friend Brad. Seeing more of Australia was only half of the excitement. Driving, as it turned out, was the other half.

Indhu bravely took the first shift of driving our rental car out of the city as I didn't want to be one responsible for getting us killed before we had the opportunity to see anything cool. As we got into our compact Toyota Yaris in the Budget parking lot in the middle of a busy part of town, I said to Indhu, "Just act like you know what you're doing and no one at Budget will think it was a mistake to rent to us." She nodded, turned the car on, hit her right hand on the window when she instinctively went to change gears, and then turned on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal as she pulled out into the busy intersection.

Shit, we both thought silently, we are going to die on this trip.

Once we got out of the city, however, we pretty much had the highway to ourselves. Still, it took me all of the four days on the road to learn to not turn on the wipers when signaling a turn. Nothing makes a driver look more like an asshole -- or an idiot -- than passing without a turn signal, with the wipers scraping furiously back and forth across a dry windshield when it's a perfectly clear day out.

We drove five hours and spent the night at a campsite in Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges National Park. We arrived at dusk, pitched our tent, and having nothing else to do for the rest of the evening, proceeded to gorge ourselves on the two cooler bags of food we brought. We removed every item from the bags -- ciabatta bread, brie, apple slices, strawberries, chocolate, and nuts -- placed them onto the wooden table and then feasted - for hours.

The next morning, we packed up our sleeping bags and tent and re-created the gourmet buffet from the previous night for breakfast, before setting out on a short hike into Wilpena Pound. To be honest, the scenery from within the Pound wasn't as amazing as I had hoped it would be, but I really needed the exercise. I hadn't had to exert this much physical effort since I carried my luggage up three flights of stairs into our apartment three months earlier.

The brochure we picked up from the visitor's center claimed a 3-hour return trip time but Indhu and I completed the entire hike in about half the time, which led me to believe that the estimation was based on the walking speed of a family of one-legged cripples. We had enough time for another hike but I was already sore and lacking motivation, so we got back into the car and set off for Quorn (pronounced "corn") where we had booked a reservation at a hostel.

We made it into town right before dusk, but despite Quorn being the largest and most populated town within a 200km radius of Flinders Ranges, there was nothing to do there except sit and pick at one's toes. None of the stores were open and we barely managed to buy some food from the grocery store before it closed. Luckily, Indhu and I weren't the only ones staying at the hostel. We befriended three girls from Adelaide who had skipped out on a couple of days of school to roadtrip up to Flinders for the weekend. The hostel owner made a bonfire out in the backyard for us and the five of us spent the evening sitting around the fire and chatting while one of the girls strummed her guitar.

The gals

The next day, Indhu and I drove nearly six hours from Quorn up north to Coober Pedy (an aboriginal name for "white man in a hole" -- how awesome is that), a small, bizarre, dodgy opal mining town in the middle of nowhere. We got there exhausted, and when we saw the town, all I could say was, "That's it? This is what we drove all this way for?" There was nothing around except for huge mounds of dug up dirt everywhere and wandering packs of dogs. You can easily drive through the entire town in less than a minute. The cool thing about Coober Pedy though is that because it gets so hot during the summer months, a lot of buildings are underground including houses, restaurants, churches, and shops. We spent about an hour and a half checking out different underground sights before we exhausted most of the free stuff.

Underground church

For Indhu, the novelty of underground buildings wore out pretty quickly. I think it might have dissipated even before we arrived. So we checked Coober Pedy off our to-do list, got back into the car, and drove back down south and made it to the town of Glendambo before it got dark. Apparently, "town" was just another word for "gas station." Adjacent to the BP, the rest of this town consisted of a caravan park and pub. Oh, and a windmill and public telephone.

Indhu and I paid $15 to stay at the caravan park only to end up sleeping in the car because the ground was too hard for the tent stakes and I was convinced that sleeping in the car would be more comfortable. (I was wrong.)

Again, we didn't have much with which to entertain ourselves after it got dark, so we turned the car into a photo studio and what came of it should not be made public.

The next morning we set out for our drive back to Adelaide. And here is where the real fun began.

Indhu: "Should we get gas before we leave?"
Me: "How much gas is in the tank?"
Indhu: "Right below the half way mark."
Me: "We can make it to the next gas station before we need to fill again."
Indhu: "Okay."

Indhu drove for about an hour when we came across the first gas station. We didn't stop and a short while later, Indhu suddenly says, "Shit. We have a quarter tank of gas left." I pulled out a map and checked where we were. My heart skipped a beat. There were no gas stations for another 170km until Port Augusta. When I broke the news to Indhu, she looked like she was going to throw up all over the dashboard.

Indhu: Fuck.
Me: Should we turn around and go back to Pimba?
Indhu: I don't know.

We kept driving. After a few minutes, I asked Indhu if she was okay. She removed her hand from her mouth and after a brief moment of silence croaked, "Oh god, I need to poop."

Me:(While suppressing a fit of laughter) There's no time for pooping right now.
Indhu: I get like this every time I'm nervous.
Me: Pull yourself together!
Indhu: Oh gawwwd.

(Indhu, if you ever read this, I'm sorry. It was too funny to not share.)

I rechecked the map and then we started to try to convert liters into gallons and kilometers into miles because neither of us could think in a different metric system and gauge whether we could make it to Port Augusta before the tank went empty.

Me: We have a 41-lite tank. So we have to go 170km on about 10 liters of gas.
Indhu: I know that there are 32 ounces in a liter!
Me: Hmm.... Okay. So how is that going to help us exactly?
Indhu: I don't know.
Me: Right.

We had already passed the point of no return, so we slowed down to a crawl to conserve gas and sat in nervous silence. I was still peppy enough to take some photos from the car. There wasn't much else we could do so I might as well have used the opportunity to get some good pictures of the Outback. Afterall, what was the worse that could happen right? (Er, Wolf Creek, anyone? I heard about this "true story" after we got back to Adelaide.)

After an hour, the empty light came on. Road signs indicated that we were still over half an hour away from our destination. My palms started to sweat and Indhu basically looked like she had stopped breathing. When we finally rolled into the first gas station in Port Augusta, we cheered. I got out to fill the tank and when the handle of the nozzle clicked off, the meter clocked in at 40.56 liters. With less than half a liter of gas left in the tank, we had just barely made it. Pretty exciting, no?

Fill 'er up!

Trip summary:
Kilometers traveled: 1085
Hours drove: 20+
Live lizards encountered on the road: 7
Lizards that did not survive the encounter: 3
Other roadkill seen: 12+
Nights spent not sleeping in a bed: 2
Hikes: 1
Candy bars eaten: too many