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!

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!

Well, I’ve succeeded in getting myself some internet through my cellphone so I am online finally. I’ve signed up for a GPRS internet package with my cellphone carrier - was quite easy actually - and I can use my EDGE (or GSM if no EDGE network is available wherever I am) to get from two to four times the speed of a regular dial-up connection. This also means that I can move around Thailand and get internet wherever I can connect to a GSM (or EDGE) network. So, all things considered it’s a happy solution. More speed would obviously be nice ;-) but at this point I’ll take what I can get. Especially if it is above dial-up. hehe

Here’s a photo of my new setup. I get a kick out of the fact that I’m just like the geeks with their laptops and cellphones in the movies, connecting to the net. :-D

Other than that, I’m mostly over my jetlag already, surprisingly. I still get laggy in the evening, but so far so good. I think all the excess sunlight has done wonders for re-synchronising my internal clock. It took me over a week to really get back to normal back in Cambridge, and I haven’t even been here for one week yet. :-)

I finally went and upgraded my flickr account so I can now post lots and lots of photos. I was getting a bit tired of editing, resizing and posting photos to my blog. I will still do that for some series’ when I want to have the photos on my site itself. But for now I’ll probably just post images which link to the photo sets on flickr.

Here is the direct link to my flickr account if anyone wants to just browse around.

So, let’s start with a few highlights from the glut of photos I posted last night.

Dawson Family Photos

Me and my neices, Jordan and Jodi. :-D A while ago my cousin Leanne did a Dawson family photo shoot of the Dawson crew down by Moyer’s Blair Landing. These are some shots taken with mine own camera at the same time.

Bassfest 2006

A few weekends ago I had the infinite pleasure of attending my first Bassfest (2006) up at my Uncle Bill’s cottage. All the Gosse boys (who could be there) were in attendance. So I was surrounded by cousins, uncles, as well as my father and brother. For those of the fairer race, please don’t worry. There aren’t any strange or rudely-male photos here. ;-)

Go Home Bay’s Autumnal Colours

While up at my Uncle’s cottage (more of a mansion in the hills really ;-) I had the chance to take Bob, my dad’s kayak (yes, he calls it Bob) out on the water for a spin. The leaves were all changing colour, so I went forth as the eager beaver and took many a photo. Ostensibly it was to show my friends back in the warmer clime of Thailand what the changing colours look like, but heck - I did for myself too. ;-)

Pumpkin Carving

Here’s a great shot of me and my brother with the nieces carving pumpkins the night before Hallowe’en. We’re all just so damned cute. ;-)

Chief Chaser

And for those of you who have heard of the inestimable joy and fantasy! that is John and Jen’s pooch Chief, well, here’s a bit of a Chief chaser after all those other photos.

There are lots of other photos on my flickr page as well, so don’t be afraid to look around. After finding a picture you like as well you can click on the ‘Other Sizes’ link to download a full-resolution version which you could save or take and print if you so desire.

And if I have mentioned it before, you can click on the ‘Photo Posts’ link in the menu on the right to see any posts I have made/will make that contain photos.

Cheers.