I can’t believe it. James Brown died on Christmas day. Sad, sad, sad news for all music lovers everywhere. He’s been touring and playing so long, you almost got the feeling he’d outlive us all. Rest in peace.

Quick post that I’ve uploaded a panorama photo I stitched together of the airstrip in Vang Vieng. You can see it here. Don’t have a thumbnail to show here, but strongly recommend taking a look at the page. It’s a stunning view. :-)

For those of you interested, I took the photos myself with my Fuji and no tripod. I just stood there and rotated myself, keeping an eye on where the centre of each photo would be in relation to the previous shot. In total there are 15 photos used therein. There are some obvious stitching issues, to the trained eye. But for the most part the photos went together quite well. The images were of a better quality than even I had hoped. :-)

For those who want access to a full resolution version, you can see it here.

So here’s the link to the set on flickr of my new apartment, inside and of the view outside. Enjoy. :-)

Well, thankfully I got an extension last night on one of my assignments which is due Monday (I spent two days this week working on the wrong one :-S) which left me with some breathing space to think about finding an apartment this weekend. So, I woke this morning and took a wander over to soi 36 to check out Pacific Apartments, which my friend Vickie had recommended - having almost moved in there herself a while ago. It’s the soi right across from 53 where I lived at Raintree. Anyway, the room’s pretty good and it’s in my price range with the things I need, and seems to be pretty quiet - which is great. So I took it after a couple minutes contemplatin’. So with Vickie, Da and Amy all living along Thonglor, I’m back in the hood and close to friends. :-D Which is great. It’s quite something to see things falling into place so rapidly. Seriously, it’s been just about a week and a half since I first contemplated staying in Thailand.

Here’s a photo of all my worldly goods as it stands in BKK - well minus my laptop and gear in my little suitcase. :-)

I’ll post more photos once I’ve moved in.

Last night was quite a trip as well. I was invited to the Xmas Party at the Village by my new boss. Thankfully my old co-worker/still co-worker, Miriam, was there, cause her daughter goes to that school, and I had someone to chill with after I first arrived - breathlessly from my online class. But even after Miriam and her crew left I had a real nice time chatting with the other teachers and parents and assorted people. Had a great time talking with my boss’s parent-in-laws, who are Irish but use to live in London, Ontario, many years ago. He knew Cambridge as Preston, Hespeler and Galt of course. It having been three cities before amalgamating. ;-) Anyway, it was quite easy talking to everyone and they were all really welcoming. Everyone seems dead nice over there too, and I ended up sticking around til about 11PM helping to finish off the last keg of Asahi with my boss and two of the teachers as well as some ex-students. ;-) It really does seem like an extended family there. It’s interesting to be getting involved in a school where people are so close, and they talk about the potential of me sticking around and wanting me to stick around for some time. They can see it in my eyes apparently. ;-) Will write more about it soon. :-)

Off to move soon, and then Raffles Xmas party tonight as well!

I haven’t had time to post photos or tell stories from my recent trip to Laos. I am back in BKK safe and sound though. ;-) But, I now can say, that after a whirlwind timeline of approximately a week, I am staying in Thailand for at least the next 6 months or so, and hopefully until my MA is finished in the next 3/4 of a year, and then who knows! I will be gainfully employed part time at two schools come the first week of January. I will be teaching two classes at my old work, as well as two afternoons a week at a new school that teaches kids with developmental challenges. (Not sure how to describe that yet since I have only been there twice so far.)

I could say that circumstances have corralled me into this position - and I generally dislike being corralled ;-) - but honestly, it’s all worked itself out (after my fears of potential visa problems were assuaged) by itself with little effort on my part besides agreeing to stay. Almost as if I was meant to stay. ;-) Who knows. I do know that my friends here are dead awesome and wicked good support. They’re all quite happy I’ll be sticking around for a while longer at least. Now, I need to find a place to stay, move by this Saturday, as well as finish one school assignment for UNN by Monday! Life just piles it on at times. When it rains…

I had been planning on going to AUS come January, and I still will probably go in Jan or Feb for a quick visit to activate my working-holiday visa in case I need it later, but it honestly looks like a bird in the hand is worth more than potential jobs in AUS - no matter how many job opportunities there may be there.

But, for now, I am a semi-shell-shocked student cum teacher finding myself in BKK once more. More soon. :-)

I’ve arrived safe and sound in Laos, after a deadly early flight and an uneventful transit across the border. Strangely enough, since Oct 1 2006 they have different visa fees for different nationals now, with… and get this… Canada at the top as the most expensive! I had to pay $42 US for a VOA. The next closest was like $40, and then lots of others at $35 with the lowest being $30 - which was the old fee. I have no idea how they came up with Canada at the top. Maybe to take advantage of all the Quebecois travellers plaguing their country-side?!? I doubt it, but it’s a funny image anyway. ;-) It’s great travelling with Kaywood. So much better to travel with a friend. Also met up with a nice American bloke up from Singapore. Good to be hanging around meeting other tourists. lol. More soon. :-D

I’m heading back to Laos this Thursday for a wonderful few days with my buddy Kaywood. K has to do his visa run and I’m coming along for the fun of it. I won’t be taking my laptop this time, what with the troubles I had on Samet and the extra added bother of carrying it around even. So I’ll be conducting my online classes this Thursday from an internet cafe once again. I have a dead early flight to Udon Thani (like I did last time I went through to Laos) so hopefully I can catch a few winks in the afternoon before class starts. ;-)

I have lots to do over the next two days to make sure I’m on top of my game. And, when I return from Laos, I am going to start job prospecting again. I’m still planning on hauling ship after the New Year, and I want to get a gauge on likely places to get employ - going to look into AUS, Holland and Ireland. All places I would love to live and work for a year. So, here’s hoping. :-)

So I spent this last weekend (Wednesday to Sunday really) on Koh Samet. It was the usual enjoyable time, with beaches, swimming, partying and dancing. :-D And I have photos to prove it! ;-) It was Kris’ birthday party weekend, so there was a small group of us. Mostly BKK regulars, but Kris’ main squeeze Arjan (pronounced ar-ee-an) was there also. Arjan is a gas, really fun to hang out with. But he’s Dutch, so no wonder. :-) It felt really nice to be on Samet and know I didn’t have to go to work as soon as I got back to BKK. I’m beginning to enjoy this time between jobs. ;-) I won’t go into a day by day breakdown of the trip, but I will touch on a few highlights.

The first night was quite, quite fun. I had enough energy to keep up a really good pace, so there was some dancing and fun had by all. It was interesting to be there during the week at the start of the tourist season. It was nominally a long holiday in Thailand (King’s birthday tomorrow) but only some people had Monday off. So there weren’t too many Thai people on the island as would be usual on a typical holiday weekend. As such most of the people there were farang tourists. Kris and Arjan are both quite friendly, so I got to meet more of the locals and some of the long-term tourists while there as well. The second night I went home early intentionally to get some rest. A side benefit of which was that I was up relatively early the next morning and got some wicked good shots of the beaches. I laughingly think of these as my tourist magazine/poster shots. ;-) The light is typically so bright and glaring during the day, that early and late are the only times to get good photos. Quite a few of which (of the landscape shots) in this set were taken at those times. Here’s two shots from mid-early morning of Ao Phai beach.

Here’s some more shots of the general beach landscape, these taken near sunset.

The third (or fourth, I can’t keep track of these things) day down there, fellow Canadian Lisa went for some muay thai fighting exercise training at the little muay thai gym at Naga, Larpsin Gym, run by big and buff Gary. I followed along and took a number of snapshots. The gym is located on a hillrise and has a great view out over the water. The late afternoon sun was great light for the colours.

And here’s Lisa getting her work on.

There was also, of course, much partying and going on. Here’s a shot of noble Arjan contemplating the cosmos late one evening.

As well as Arjan with Kris, Amy and Lisa at Ploy Bar. Phillipino bands must be the biggest export from the Phillipines, I tell you!

As I said in my previous post, my phone died on my first night on Samet. It was, what is apparently called, the ‘white screen of death’ - a known issue for certain Sony Ericsson phones that can happen with frequent use of the USB cable connector for the computer. Basically my firmware got corrupt, and though I could turn my phone on I could not use it for anything. I got it flashed Monday at MBK thankfully and I’ve been back to normal now since. The bluetooth on my laptop stopped working a long time ago, so I’ll probably get a PCMCIA bluetooth card if I can get one cheap enough and just use that to connect my phone to my computer. I wonder each time I unplug the USB cable now how long it will go until it gets corrupt again. :-S

Regardless, I spent all Thursday evening online in an internet cafe at Naga, which worked out well. I made my fellow MA DPrac student Louise jealous from the thought of beaches and sunshine. ;-) I made special extra effort to take good photos of Samet this time around so she would have pictures to keep her warm in the Newcastle wet and cold. Here’s to you Louise!