The Journey(s) of Ian

Ian, please tell us about your education background. My educational background reflects my interests and work history. I have a Phd, Masters, and Honours degree in ancient history from the University of Western Australia. Ancient history has been an interest of mine since primary school. Secondly, reflecting my employment career, two graduate diplomas in Information Technology from Edith Cowan University. I put these to good use, having been a programmer for three decades in Australia. Both institutions are found in my home city of Perth, Australia. How long have you been teaching at 51Talk and how did you land the job? I have been teaching with 51Talk for two years. The job was recommended to me by one of my education students in Bangkok. I will admit that at first I was reluctant, as I believed that online teaching would be too distant and too impersonal to be effective. Until two years ago all of my teaching had been face to face. Now, I am pleased to say that I have found...

What can one say about Beijing? A city shrouded in history, pop-culture, and importance. All my life I have read about Beijing, and wanted to visit, now in July 2017 have finally achieved this! Overall, I feel truely pleased and happy to be here. Both for the city and my ESL students who I have met, in particular Jeff, Kevin (and his parents), Lydia, Tom and Holly, and Silence (cool name). Beijing, it is big, more than big, it seems huge and uniform over a large area. By this I mean travel a dozen stops on the subway, exit, and things look the same, tall buildings, shops and so forth. Big. It is also a little bland in design. The same style of buildings, condos, and the like all over the city. Not exciting architecture. The key reason I travelled to Beijing was to experience the historical sights of the city. It was a wonderful feeling to see these sights, the forbidden city, the museums, the ancient artefacts. After seeing them on tv! Also appreciating their longevity. I did feel grea...

My thoughts on China fall into two categories: good and bad.  The good is the people, culture, historical sights, and most importantly my students. Seeing my students in Shanghai and Beijing was wonderful. I just wish that I had more time and opportunity to see more students. Next time! Other people—I found helpful people everywhere I went, from a Kunming bus station guard who spent half an hour showing me to a cheap charlie hotel for an unplanned overnight stay due to a transport screwup (my own fault), plus many other locals who helped me, even taxi drivers. The sights, were many, varied, and endlessly pleasing. I visited museums, art galleries, and a myriad of other tourist destinations. Simply seeing the Shanghai ‘Bund’—the pre-communist buildings along the foreshore, the Hong Kong nightlife, and of course the famous historical sights in Beijing. I want to go again! The bad is subtle, essentially the Chinese government is fascist and dictatorial (to make a distinction ...

This is one of China’s megacities. With a population of 10-12 (depends on how you count) million people GZ is a big city (half the population of Australia)! I arrived here a week ago via train from Kunming. I have been here once before, four years back, but this time I was determined to take a closer look, check out the teaching situation, and generally find the lie of the land. GZ is not only big, but old, as in two thousand years or so old. Also a trading and business city. Once the terminus for the silk road stretching between Europe and the far east. A connection still underway. The city is a major part of China’s growing and busy economy. The city is a working city, there is little real frippery. People are into the work ethic. Not a great deal of real tourism, as compared to lets say, Thailand. Crowded, it is crowded. Lots of people, towering architecture, and noise, a constant background hum that one soon learns to forget. The subways, there is an extensive subw...

It has long been an ambition of mine to travel on a high speed train, but to this date I have always missed out, so I was eager to sample the High Speed train between Kunming and Guangzhou. To start, I had to get to Kunming and, I am happy to say, my departure from Jinghong was about as uneventful as it can get. I purchased my ticket the day before. The only real problem was the lack of English at the southern bus station (where one buys a ticket for the journey north), however, armed with the city name “Kunming" written in Chinese in my notebook by my hotel manager I quickly purchased a ticket from the helpful lady behind the glass divider.  The next morning, awakening at 06.00, packing, girding my mental loins for the 24+ hour trip, I set of at 07.00 to walk with my two bags to the bus station. An early arrival, sitting, the centre of some attention (not many foreigners in this nest of the woods), then bus boarding. In China boarding a bus or train requires a bag and bo...

A name that promises more than it delivers. The small city (half a million, tiny by Chinese standards), is located in southern China, near the Laos border. I arrived here ready to spend a day or two then head further into China to explore the Yunnan province, however, the fate of travellers intervened. My Thai debit card, which I had intended to use as my primary fund delivery system, was found not to operate in the Middle Kingdom (even though I had been assured that it would). Yikes! My aussie card did apparently work, but I had no money on the card. I immediately transferred $ into the aussie card, but then had to wait 4-5 working days for the $ to appear. Yikes. The things that happen. Apparently the problem was caused by a conflict between Visa and the Chinese Union Pay (UP), who are trying to capitalistically carve up the financial world between themselves. Back to the story. Jihngon. Jinhong is pleasant small city. Apparently it has the rep in China of being a party to...

My next destination was Jinghong City. Jjinghong is the capital of the southern area of Yunnan Province. Yunnan Province borders Laos (and Myanmar and Vietnam). This southern are a is named Xishuangbanna ('she-shung-ban-ar', nicknamed Banna), and is an autonomous region in the province. Banna culture reflects its Thai history and association. This region was once a Thai kingdom that eventually fell under the sway of China. The city is tiny by Chinese standards “only” half a million people! My first view of the city and the word “delightful” comes to mind. At night neon lights illuminate the streets and eating areas of the city. There is a great stretch of cafes and small restaurants in the city centre. The journey from Luang to Jinghong City (as it is nicknamed) is a 12 hour bus ride (07.00-19.00). Not the worst, but certainly not the most comfortable bus ride you will ever experience. Essentia lly, a long and winding, and bumpy road., but with beautiful and lush,...

Back again! I do enjoy this town. It would be hard not to. Luang Prabang is a world heritage site, a town in northern Laos, capital of the province of the same name, and a major tourist drawcard. The quiet, but still somewhat busy streets draw tourists from all over the world, mainly younger, backpacker oriented people, who visit as part of their tour of Laos and south-east Asia. People come to relax, enjoy the beautiful scenery, spend a little time with nature, and generally to chill. The town is a days journey by bus from Vientiane and half a day from Vang Vieng. LP is a tiny destination by most standards, dwarfed by the megacities in neighbouring countries, it has a population of 55,000 . The town lies between the Mekong River and Nam Khan Rivers. Essentially, the town is a long peninsular. The peninsular area consists of four main roads, which form the main tourist area. This is filled with r estaurants, hotels, tour companies, tourist trinket shops, and massage shops —...