The Journey(s) of Ian

(posted on linkedin.com) Teaching in Thailand is not a rewarding experience, neither financially or career wise. There are better alternatives, including the new option of online teaching. Test these before heading to the Land of Smiles, but if you go this is what you need to know. The first hurdle is visa paperwork. Mere words do not suffice to describe the complexity—the ever changing and growing complexity. To start, you must spend a few days at your school getting all the various bits of paper together, having them photocopied, signed, and verified, next visit several different government departments, and then leave the country(!), travel to a Thai embassy, and then wait for the Thai officials to process your ‘paper’ and return a work visa. All with lots and lots of ‘stamps’—just make sure that the correct colour is used. This usually goes ok, but not always. To add insult to injury Thai schools expect you to pay for this. A week and $1,000. Having secured your coveted...

This idyllic small town has been a goto destination of mine since I first came here five years ago. The reason is simple, it is a cool, friendly, comfortable, and fairly happy town. It is also dedicated to travellers, backpackers, and similar people. In short, a place to relax and have a little fun. After five years I still enjoy a visit, and I plan to return in the future, but the town is changing. The demographic is now fewer younger people, though they still predominate, and more older folk, families and such. Tubing and beer bars are now in decline, good and bad to that, but there are lots of other nature oriented activities to do. The big change to come is the rail link with China, due in five or so years. When this occurs hordes (pardon me) of Chinese tourists will flood across the border , heading south to merriment and enjoyable times, turning what is a now trickle into an avalanche. A sign of this coming change are the new and rather stodgy looking hotels recently built an...

'Blindsight' (2006) -- a science fiction novel by Peter Watts. I am a long standing fan of science fiction, it is the genre of choice for intelligent and educated people, and it is the new literature for the 20th century and beyond, however, finding good SF (never used the 'term' Sci-Fi, it is an abomination) can be challenging. In recent decades, in my opinion, too many SF authors have done no more than rehash old ideas and rework existing themes. With this in mind it is a pleasure to find a new author with new works which push the boundaries. Such an author is Peter Watts. Watts, by profession, is a marine biologist. According to his website bio (rifters.com) he has had a varied career, which was part of the reason he decided to turn his hand to writing. His first novels centred around human exploration and exploitation of the mid-21st century oceans. His latest novel, the subject of this review, is set later in the 21st century with its action taking pl...