The Journey(s) of Ian

Due to the clumsy way blogger.com handles images these pics of Songkran are poorly organised, however, they do tell the story of Songkran in Pattaya.  As you can see, I had a good time, meeting locals, dancing, taking pre-emptive counterstrike action against hostiles (shooting girls with my water gun), and resting from my labours. There were girls dancing in the streets, an unwary cat sleeping through all of this, children playing around, farangs (just like me) getting into the spirit of things. All much fun. ================================================ Songkran in Thailand ! What is a ‘Songkran’ you may well ask? Indeed—it is a term not often heard in Australia, however, in Thailand it is a special and joyous occasion, one bound into the cultural and religious history of the country and region, and also an occasion which provides lots of fun and amusement

Cambodia March 2008 I decided to return to Cambodia for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it is an interesting country. While very poor, and still recovering from the effects of decades of conflict, it is also a dynamic and exciting nation with a people determined to improve their lot in life. It is this dynamism, combined with the (to me) exotic flavour of this small SE Asian nation, that makes it appealing. Thus, in January I departed from the fair but dull shores of Australia, arriving in Phnom Penh a mere 12 hours later, after a brief stop over in that most miniature of cities—Changi airport. PP had not changed much since I was last there 6 months ago, it was still dusty, noisy, dirty and poor: beggars sat on street corners, samloar (rickshaw) drivers hustled for fares, broken (or non-existent) footpaths tempted fate, a continual honking of horns—Ahhhh, paradise! My self-imposed mission was to hook up with a UN sponsored ‘convoy’, which was to carry needed supplies t