The Journey(s) of Ian

Eleven days at sea: Fremantle to Singapore, via Penang, Phuket, and Langkawi. As regular readers of my blog will know I travelled from Fremantle to Singapore on a freighter way back in 2006. This was an experience, rough and ready, but fun. Now, three years later I have traveled a similar route, but this time on the opposite end of the comfort scale, this time I travelled on a ship from one of the world’s premier cruise lines: the Princess line, and the ship -- the Sun Princess. The specs: The Sun Princess was manufactured in 1995, it displaces 77,000 tonnes (making it twice the size of my freighter) is 260m long, 30m wide, and has 13 decks. (Interestingly enough, there is no number 13 on the ship, this means that there is a deck 12 with a deck 14 immediately above, but no deck numbered 13, nor do cabin numbers contain the ill-omened 13. The baleful 13 is totally skipped. This seems a little archaic to me, hopefully it is a nautical tradition and n...

'Blindsight' -- a science fiction novel by Peter Watts, reviewed by Ian Reide 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. There are exceptions to this of course, Greg Egan comes to mind. 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 year has seen many changes, in myself. I write this while in Australia, but soon I will be leaving, at least for a year, to return to SEA. I have plans and hopes, dreams and ambitions, here's hoping that they will come to fruition. Ian Reide.

(disclaimer: I did post a similar version of this onto the apple applesauce forum) Ok, my review of the iphone 3g (after one week I am now an expert). Let me start by saying that I like it. The iphone is a good phone. I have not had any problems. It is easy to use. I did not need to read the manuals. I like it. I am happy. I am content (relatively, for the moment). By way of background I have lusted after an iphone since S. Jobs announced the original 2 years ago. However, living in Australia, and with the original iphone not allowing apps (ok, it did allow web apps, but I mean real apps, (ok, it had jailbroken apps, but I wanted real apps)), I decided that the purchase was just not worth the trouble. When the new model came out I decided that this was the way to go. The new model had a GPS, could handle the 3g network, and it had real apps. Cool. Since I travel a fair bit I decided that tying myself into an expensive Australian network was not the way to go. Via ebay, via a fr...

The land of the Thai’s is a quiet, peaceful country whose presence is rarely manifest in journalistic circles, and only then for stories about its cuisine, tourism or sex. However, for the last few days, or the last few months, or even the last few years (depending on ‘when’ a ‘crisis’ begins) Thailand has been troubled by increasing levels of political dissent. There is a background to all of this, and a full description is complex, and can be found below, however, I shall summarise the situation here. There are two major factions in Thai politics, the ‘old rich and powerful’ versus the ‘newly rich and want to be powerful’. That is to say, the ‘old guard’, the traditional aristocracy and high society, versus the newly wealthy capitalist class, who have engaged the help of the poorer elements of society. The interests of the two groups clash diametrically. The capitalists want economic reform ‘a free market’ and less restrictions, while the old guard want things just as they are or e...

This or this ? Why do western men (farang—the local term for westerners) come to Thailand, and why do some of them stay in Thailand—is the attraction Thai women (ser-way mark mark = girls very beautiful) or something else? The usual answer to this question is ‘Yes’ (to the former)! The common belief is that farang men come to Thailand for sex with Thai women (some come for sex with ladyboys, many Australian married men, so it seems—but that is a story for another day), however, I will put forward a counter view, that in fact most western men do not come to Thailand primarily for women, rather they come for the entire lifestyle experience—warm weather, low cost of living, a new environment, not being at home, away from their family and friends, an opportunity for greater personal freedom—and that the ‘Thai women’ are incidental. Of course, I make all of these claims without any hard numbers, based solely on personal accounts, so I could be 100% wrong! The western men I will discuss fall...

My 5 days in Laos or ‘How to get a Thai visa in Savannakhet’ In need of a new Thai visa, and wanting to try something new, I decided to travel to the central Laos town of Savannakhet (hereafter referred to as 'S'). S is a smallish town immediately across the Mekong from the Thai town of Mukdahan (‘Mook-Dar-Harn’—hereafter referred to as 'M'). The attraction of S is the presence of the Thai embassy, which can issue Thai tourist visas. There are also a few interesting attractions which are worth a look. I had originally planned to travel south from S to see the town of Pakse and the nearby temple of Champasak, but heavy rain in the area rendered the road impassable. I did not know how long this would last so I headed back to Thailand after a few days. Next time. Mukdahan I arrived in M a day before my Thai visa was to expire. This gave me a day plus to sample the delights of M. My bus was delayed in reaching Surin (my starting point) and delayed in reaching M, by rain. M ...