A Dingo's got my Barbie!!!

Willover's Travel's Pt 3

Parts 1 and 2 have been added to the sidebar (under Willow's Serials) in case you missed them when they were hot off the presses.

In an earlier WT Travel Tip, I explained how a few dollars could be saved by travelling a night, obviously this isn't the best way to travel if you want to see the country, but a lot of times the geography is pretty much the same as wherever you come from (unless you're travelling through tropical jungles or deserts). Well, in the premium version of this tip you can actually get some accommodation thrown in.

At a time when the Soviet Union was in it's final stages, and it's citizens were still being prevented from travelling anywhere other than within the USSR (although they liked to call it CCCP), one of life's little ironies was that Intourist was just about the largest travel agency in the world. However, in a prime example of why communism is ultimately doomed to fail, they had no idea of how to turn a profit. The whole thing was heavily subsidised, and run along bureaucratic guidelines, where everyone just did their job. This was great for the low cost traveller, as there were some glaring examples of stupidity that were capitalised on by many a seasoned traveller.

Here's the deal...Aeroflot flew to almost all European countries, but in a similar way to trying to fly anywhere in the States, you had to change planes at a Hub (which in Amercia's case, is a prime example of why capitalism is doomed to fail). Anyway, it's like this, you could fly anywhere you wanted to, so long as you were prepared to change planes in Moscow. This gave rise to some lateral thinking, what if you chose a flight from where you were (say, Bangkok) that didn't quite meet the connecting flight to where you were going? Answer: free accommodation.

Now the trick was to find the biggest gap possible, in my case I chose Athens as my destination because they only flew there once a week, on Tuesdays. I then found a flight out of Bangkok that landed in Moscow on a Wednesday morning, thus giving me 6 free nights at the Hotel Metropol, as well as three free meals a day! Mind you the meals weren't that flash. I doubt a commercial airline would have allowed that sort of scheduling.

So now here I was, sitting in an Ilyushin Il-62 (I didn't know what it was at the time,I didn't even now a minute ago for that matter, I just looked it up for you, thank you Wiki) waiting to take off, when I noticed two things that made reality seem even stranger than it had been for the last 3 months, due all the drugs I'd been taking. Firstly all the stewardesses were really big (not as big as the women I saw in Moscow, but way bigger than any stewardesses I'd ever seen before), and secondly, there was some sort of vapour coming from the overhead lockers. It seemed like I was at an Alice Cooper concert, with an out of control dry-ice smoke machine! As near as I could tell, that was the cooling system.

Oh I almost forgot, the in-flight meal consisted of a big old sausage and a potato (both boiled) in a cardboard box. While that may not seem unusual now in an era of cheap low frills flights, 30 years ago when you got real cutlery, actual steak and all kinds of nifty little containers on international flights, this was pretty unusual. But the plane worked fine, unlike some I've been on (more about that later maybe).

Next time, my week in Moscow.... (don't hold your breath it wasn't all that exciting)

* Unfortunately there are no photos of this period, as I didn't have a camera at the time. I eventually bought a Rollei 35T trip camera in Canada, which I still have.

Willover's Travels - Tips and Tricks.

Jenni in KS (when she's not disputing what I've said or trying to pick holes in my posts) sometimes makes valuable contributions to the Dingo. In this case she has asked a number of questions on behalf of her son's friend. So, while I'm sitting on the plane waiting to take off for Moscow (that's a metaphor guys, don't send me any emails asking how long I'll be gone for!) I'll answer them, and add a few bits of advice as well.

It sounds like you worked for a while until you got enough money for one of your journeys, then worked again once you were out of money until you could afford to go again. Did you have a place to come back to in between?
Yes and no, I worked in either mining or industrial construction in remote areas of Australia to earn enough money to get me on the circuit* again. I did this for two reasons, a) at the time they were the best paying jobs in Oz, so I didn't have to work too long, and b) accommodation (including all meals) was provided, which meant that I didn't need to keep a base of my own. However, I did have some stuff in my parent's garage in Sydney, and I did stay with them from time to time in between journeys. I should add that I worked for four years straight as an apprentice electrician before any of this happened. Once I got my Electrician's Licence I started to travel.

Did you work odd jobs while on your travels?
Normally I worked as an electrician in Oz to earn the bulk of my travel money (around a thousand dollars was enough in those days, but I usually tried for a thousand in spending money after tickets), however there have been times when I've wanted to extend the trip, so I have also worked as a builder's labourer, painter, carpenter, waiter, translator, handyman, fruit picker, wood cutter, car deliverer and a few other odds and sods. I've worked in New Zealand, America, Canada, Thailand, England and Bali (and of course, Australia).

What kind of places did you stay while you were travelling? (He specifically asked if you had to spend all your money on hotels or if you were sleeping on park benches.)
I have never slept on a park bench, and I never will. Oh wait, there was one time when I went to Queensland with my brother and his car broke down, so we had to sleep on park benches and in picnic shelters while we waited for dad to send him the money to get it fixed (he always was a dependant sort of a person, still is from what I've seen). But I don't take any blame for this, as I had only just turned 15 at the time and I was 700 miles from home and didn't have much control of my destiny yet. (When I was robbed in NZ six years later I didn't even tell dad, as I knew he try would to get some money to me, and I didn't want any help.)

One thing that you learn if you want to stretch the adventure out as long as possible, is to always do long trips overnight, that way you get accommodation thrown in, you may be sitting up, but you're safe and you haven't had to fork out for a room. This is actually why I flew to Athens via Moscow (but I'll explain exactly why in the next episode, if there is enough interest for me to keep writing).

Another thing that helps is that there is a loose travel fraternity, and it's not uncommon to meet someone in one country and stay with them in another (generally their homeland), for this reason it pays not to be a prissy whining traveller, if that's how something is done in a country , that's how it's done; either deal with it, or fuck off back home to where things are done how you're used to! It also pays to travel by yourself as you're more likely to get invites when you're on your own, plus you're also more likely to meet people. Where couples tend to stick to together, singles (out of necessity) tend to mix much more.

Have I not been paying enough attention while reading your posts?
Probably not, you're usually too busy trying to find fault with what I've written.

Any other thoughts?
Yes, I wouldn't mind a cheeseburger. Oh yes I do have another handy travel tip, taught to me by a Texan by the name of Howard. The best way to pack soft luggage (which is the only luggage you should ever travel with - handlers hate suitcases and regularly take out their frustrations on them), is to get a few nylon sack type backs with string pulls (you can buy them in any camping store now, but I used to get my aunt to make them for me). You need one for t-shirts, one for socks and underwear, one for sweaters (it's best to follow the seasons, then you don't need too much heavy clothing, one for your blanket (make sure it's thin and pure wool), and a slightly larger one for dirty clothes. To pack your clothes (say your tees for example), fold them in half lengthwise and lay them neatly on top of each other, trying to keep the wrinkles to a minimum, then roll them up as tight as possible and stuff them into the sack, which should be just a fraction smaller in diameter than the clothes that you have just rolled up. You'd be surprise how good they look when you unroll them when you get to your destination.

Just one more thing, always carry a flashlight small enough to hold comfortably in your mouth so that you hands are free, a pair of tweezers. a pocket atlas (I find Bartholomew make the best ones) and a universal plug (there's usually a sink but there's never any plugs, this way you can always wash your underwear).

*There is a distinct low cost travel circuit that is fairly fluid in nature and can change without warning due to the changing popularity of destinations, the current political situation, the cost and standard of accommodation as well as the cost of travel.

To join the circuit, basically all you have to do is find a place where travellers congregate and tag along, you'll eventually find out where the cheap and safe places stay are. Unfortunately this doesn't work so well in America for some reason. But anywhere else, all you have to do is stay in a few backpacker hostels and you'll soon have a pretty good idea of where the current circuit is.

Willover's Travels Pt 2

I paid the extra for a First Class ticket on the Indian Pacific since it was such a long trip (one of the longest in the world in fact) and I wanted a cabin to myself, there's diagrams if you follow the link. I also booked the ticket so that I was on the train in the middle of the Nullarbor at midnight on the 31st of December, that way I could celebrate New Years in transit. That turned out to be a good decision becasue it was one of the best New Years Eve parties I've ever been to. Seeing as I had a first class ticket, I was able to use the club car, which not only had a bar, but a piano too, and there was a Japanese girl who could play quite well. I had my harmonicas so we played duets and sing-alongs all night. At midnight the chef brought out huge bowls of King prawns and champagne. It was one of the best nights that I can almost remember.

Three days after I left Sydney,  I arrived in Perth (again)...

While I had enough money to get me further than I got last time, I decided get a job just to give me a bit of a buffer; plane tickets always leave a bit of a hole in the finances. So for the second time (hmm, that link is actually better than this post), I phoned a number in the classifieds and was told what time to be at the airport the next day. This time I ended up in Mt Newman.

Three months later I was sitting on a plane to Bangkok. Having learned that hooking up with a hooker can really stall your travels, I determined that I wouldn't hang out in Bangkok at the Atlanta Hotel* like I did last time, with all the associated risk (wow, just looking at that link, they've really cleaned up their act, it used to be pretty seedy). So the next day I caught a bus to Phuket. One day I may go into detail about the pitfalls of spending too much time in Bangkok.

You may well ask, "Why the hell would you even go to Bangkok again? Given that it brought you undone last time". A valid question that deserves an answer...well in those days, airfares were really expensive in Australia (they still are a bit high, but not as bad as way back in the 70s), so the idea was to fly to Bangkok and buy your tickets there, as they had the cheapest flights in the world at the time.

Phuket is a great place, it's free from hookers, it has cheap food and cheap accommodation and it's right on the beach.  In addition, it's one of my favourite places in the world, I've been there with ET (my best man and best friend), Mel (I was his best man),  MDW (I was her groom) and several times by myself, and every time was better then the one before. This particular trip I was there with Mel, my Canadian best friend who I actually met there. Funny, but I met both ET and Mel in Thailand 30 years ago and they are still my best friends, although I'm in contact with ET a bit more, (we talk once a week).

After about six weeks of just hanging around enjoying the beach and the seafood, it was time to leave, so we went back to Bangkok where Mel bought a ticket back to Canada (he'd been working in Oman for the past two years), and I bought one to Greece via Moscow. I really didn't feel like doing the whole overland trip thing through India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey this time, so I just flew over them. I had been to India, and frankly it didn't hold much of an attraction to me, and it just takes so long to get through those countries...

* A short note on travellers hotels in Bangkok. During the Vietnam war, the two most popular destinations for American servicemen were Bangkok and Sydney (with Bangkok being way ahead of Sydney), the result being a proliferation of western style hotels to cater for the GIs. After the war, these hotels fell on hard times for a few of years until in the mid to late 70s when Bangkok became a mecca for young travellers.

Willover's Travels Pt 1

My first two expeditions were neither spectacular nor particularly successful. The first overseas adventure was to New Zealand, which is a bit like going to a convent and hoping to see a strip show. It would have been completely forgettable if it weren't for the fact that I was robbed the second night I was there, I wasn't mugged, my room got burgled, but the result was the same; I ended up with no money (I had cash rather than travellers cheques), no clothes and no idea.

Two valuable lessons were learned from this unfortunate experience, (i) the value of security, and (ii) the wisdom of having travellers cheques and a money belt, I also got to work in a brewery for six months while I saved enough money to get the fuck out of there.

The second expedition, while being slightly more spectacular, was only marginally more successful. It started with a cross country trip in a  big rig that belonged to a friend's father (that's not the actual rig, but it was just like it, and the terrain is the same), followed by a bunch of buses, trains and ferries through Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and ended with me being fucked and far from home. I eventually limped back to Perth with about three dollars in my pocket, after having gotten as far as Ceylon (yes, I know it's Sri Lanka, but Ceylon sounds much cooler).

I got a job in a mine to get enough money to get back to Sydney where I could recover and figure out how I screwed up so badly (I was supposed to get to England). As with the first trip, this too was a learning experience, here I learned a) an absolutely brilliant way to pack my bag, b) heroin isn't very good for you, and c) Thai girls are great, but they don't make such great life partners.

Now back in Sydney, I was determined that the next trip would be more successful. So after working as a builder's labourer long enough to get a thousand dollars, I packed my bag (it's best to travel with just one bag) with what I now knew to be a successful combination of clothing. ie, t-shirts to swap for local clothes, enough underpants to last a week, some socks, and most importantly some border clothes; these are a nice shirt with a collar, tailored pants and decent shoes (it never ceased to amaze me that there was always a line of boneheads in wife beaters and shorts waiting to have their luggage inspected and wondering how come they always seemed to be the ones getting searched!).

Another thing I learned was that backpacks are like having a sign stapled to your forehead saying "Hi, I'm a Tourist! Please rip me off", therefore I always used a leather barrel bag that allowed me to blend in on arrival. In addition, this time I also figured out a way to include a cut down version of my tool kit so that I could work along the way.

I booked a First Class ticket on the Indian Pacific and was off again...

Some random photos

I have a folder that I created just to keep photos (copies actually) that I may use in my blog. Once I have used them I delete them. Every now and then I put stuff in there that doesn't end up in a post. Well, this post will be the perfect opportunity to get rid of some of them...

If that thing over my left shoulder looks a lot like a car engine mounted on a pivot stand with the tail shaft sticking out the back, that's because it is. These things are called long boats, and this is what they look like...

If that rock looks familiar, it's because it was in James Bond film, I don't know which one but somebody probably does.

The shower facilities aren't the best, but the views are pretty good.

Life in a mine camp.

This picture is the road into Leonora, then nearest inhabited place to where the mine site was. The road was constructed by the mining company in order to get their equipment to the construction site.

Once you get over the fact that you are in the middle of a desert, that you can't leave even if you wanted to and that you work ten hours a day Monday to Saturday and five hours on Sunday, life in a mining construction camp is pretty good.

For a start you don't have to make your bed or cook your dinner (or breakfast or lunch). Everyday your room is cleaned and your bed is made. As for the food, an important bit wisdom known by all mining companies is that production is directly related to morale, and morale is directly related to the food that is served. As a consequence, this particular camp had a head chef, two sous chefs, three breakfast chefs, a pastry chef, a dessert chef and two bakers. I'm not kidding! I ate some of the best food in my life at that camp.

The alcohol was cheap too (some camps were dry, but fortunately this wasn't one of them). Mind you this did have its drawbacks. One morning as I went to get my ice from one of the ice machines in the wet mess, I saw a guy I was drinking with the night before still sitting in the same spot I had left him. Being one who always cuts things close in order to stay in bed as long as possible (I missed breakfast more than a few times), I didn't have time to deal with him. Plus I didn't know him all that well, and anyway it was his responsibility to make sure he got to work, not mine. After our shift that day while we were having a beer at the mess, we learned that he had died during the night, some months later we we told he had died of alcohol poisoning. Just as well I didn't try to wake him, I would have been there for hours.

But despite the copious amounts of booze available there were very few fights.  The reason was twofold, first and most important; it was like Survivor - immediate exile for fighting. No kidding, you get hurt you wait for the next flight out, you get into a fight and they send a plane to get you. Second, people mostly got on pretty well and all had a common interest...living in the middle of nowhere and making lots of money. Plus everyone was just so tired after a shift that they were too pooped to fight, plus there was very little free time, by the time you had a few beers, had a shower, had dinner and a few more beers it was time for bed.

There was the occasional drama, like the American guy who went crazy and started yelling that he would kill everyone. It took about  about three minutes to subdue him, and ten to make the subduers stop beating the crap out of him (they must have been ex LA cops).

The funniest thing was that the pilot refused to have him in the cabin because he was crazy, so they trussed him up and put him in the luggage compartment (picture the trunk of a car).

These are what the dongas looked like. The little boxes outside at the head of the are air conditioners.

Then there was the time that one guy took a dislike to another guy who he though was in the next room. The walls were just two sheets of three ply with no insulation and they were baiting each other through them. Suddenly he just smashed through the wall to get to the other guy. Now here's where it gets funny, turns out that the other guy was actually two rooms away and not right next door. So the first guy steps over the stunned guy lying in bed reading a book, and smashes through the next wall too. Then the fight really got going. I was in the same block but at the end so I was never in harms way, but I did hear everything.

As they say "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", so every six weeks you got four days R&R. You could either go to Kalgoorlie or Perth depending on what you were after. Normally went to Perth, but I did go to here one time just to see what it was all about.

The picture on the left is in Hay St. Kalgoorlie and it's worth clicking the link. This is something that happens nowhere else in Australia. It was an experience like no other too. I don't mean it was good, I mean it was the ultimate in kitsch.

That's the good news, the bad news is that it is very dangerous work.......

Five Star(fish) Restaurant.

Welcome to the Naiharn Beach Restaurant, Phuket.

Our friendly, professional waiters are eager to serve you..

We accept all major credit cards..

So come on, your limo awaits to take you to a dining experience..

Just in case you're wondering, they don't accept all major cards, in fact they don't accept any. A hippie told them that they would get more customers if they wrote that.

An Interesting Collage.

It's funny the pictures that show up when you scan old negatives. These two photos are 26 years old, but the truly amazing thing is that everything in the photos (except the guitar and case) are up here with me.

I thought it might be fun to go through the items and give a brief description. I'm not too sure that it will make good reading but if I go to the effort of typing it in, I'll post it regardless.....

Guitar Case: The guitar case was worth more than the guitar! It was given to me by the guy who owned 'Pick and Grin' music store in Truckee as a wedding present. Apart from owning the music store he was also a carpenter and we worked together building a house at Alpine Meadows. We also played in a bluegrass band.

Guitar: Yamaha six string that was given to me by the guy whose house we were building. He was the guy who owned the restaurant building in Post-It Man and was a good friend of mine, still is.

Boots: I bought these babies in Sydney and at the time the photo was taken they had traveled most of the way around the world. They need new soles but I don't wear boots anymore so they just sit in a corner.

Hat: Now this was a cool hat, both figuratively and literally. The open weave let the air circulate. It was one of those hats that had copper wire around the bream so that it maintained it's shape. It also has the best feather hat band that I've ever seen.

Bag: This was (and still is) a great bag. I lived out of it for over three years. I bought it in Perth but changed the handles to webbing when I lived in England. I dyed and handstitched 2" wide webbing that was used to secure loads on trucks so that I could put the strap over my shoulder. I've always hated backpacks, you're identified as a tourist immediately.

Trunk: We bought this at Kmart in San Jose to pack with household items. It held mainly kitchenware, we bought a full set of Faberware stainless steel pots and pans (that we still use). The trunk is now just used to hold excess dog toys.

Straps: Nothing special about them except for the fact that I still have them.

The sticker on the trunk about recreation is from the California Parks and Wildlife Service. If you look closely at the leather bag, you can make out a set of Greek worry beads that I got in Athens. The guitar and case I only just recently gave to my neice.

Anyway, thanks for taking this trip down memory lane with me. I'll be doing a funny one soon so stay tuned.

There are many different lands.

~~~Thailand~~~

~~~Scotland~~~

~~~No-mans's land~~~

An unscheduled Q&A

Look out Julie, I think someone is after your 'Barbara Walters' Oaubie. Robin asked so may questions that replying in the comments seemed inappropriate, so we'll do a whole post.

This doesn't mean that I'm opening the floor to questions like you guys have been doing recently (I think you all should be on Oprah!).

But before we start on the perils of pooping, I thought a reminder of why we go there in the first place is in order (hence the picture).

1) Were you there working or vacationing or merely on an adventure?
a) Those pictures were taken on the trip back to Australian after having spent 3 years in the States. However, I have worked at this place on a previous occasion, and I have also adventured there on several other occasions. So I guess the answer is yes.

2) In the absence of tp, what does one do?
a) The short answer is that you use your hand. How it works is that before going in, you fill a thing that's like a 1/2 gallon plastic ice-cream container (with a handle) with water. After you've done your business, you pour the water on your hand and wipe your butt, you repeat this until the water is gone, thus having both cleaned you arse and flushed the toilet at the same time.

2A) Can I presume shaking hands is not part of the cultural mores?
a) This is a very good question (and you just thought you were being funny). Firstly most Asian countries don't shake hands, in Thailand for example the hands are place palms together and the head is bowed. But more importantly, it is why in Sharia law a thief's right hand is cut off, thereby excluding them from communal meals. As the saying goes 'right hand for eating, left hand for shitting'.

3) How many people share these "facilities"
a) As many as are staying there.

4) How often does one bathe? I'd use the sea and a bar of Ivory.
a) The sea and a bar of ivory works just fine. After a while the salt on the skin doesn't feel too bad, remember its a hot country so the clothing is lightweight. If you're going into town you would have a shower.

5) Although I don't want it, I need a working visual of the toilet--can't begin to understand how to straddle that big boy. It looks cold, and I imagine, it's not often that "sanitary" looking.
a) Karmyn gave a good description when she said it was like a urinal in the floor. The comode itself is about 24" long and 18" wide at the foot blocks (roughly). Wearing a sarong or dress it's a simple matter of placing your feet on the foot blocks, hiking up the clothes and squatting, the action is similar throughout Asia and you often see people (peasants) doing it on the side of the road in India and Sri Lanka (Thais are more discrete). Interestingly, asian men often squat to pee.

6)Months without a solid stool....ummmm, do you intentionally cause that to happen?
a) No, it's not done on purpose (other than being there on purpose). It's usually caused by one of three factors, poor hygiene (everywhere), extra spicey food, or the water. Sometimes culture shock can do it too.

A couple of supplementals.

I'm assuming you mean solid stool as in sitting on...rather than solid stool as in runny poo. or is it the other way around.
Pamela! What are you thinking? Do you think this is a land of beanbags or something? That would be an affirmative on liquid crap.

And one from Beth.....
Okay, this has nothing to do with this post, but why didn't you tell us it was your birthday?
Ah Beth, maybe you could look at the comments for my...birthday post where you will find one from beth that says "So...I hope you got to have some cake too (if you know what I mean)...so your wife wasn't able to stay the night? I know it's none of my business..spank me!"

Not for the Faint Hearted.

Yeah, yeah. Tropical Islands are wonderful! Sure sure, so exotic and pretty, and cheap too!! But here's why they're cheap. This is the Toilet of the 'resort' we stayed at for a couple of months, and believe me it's better than a lot of others.

You soon learn a few home truths, 1. jeans and tailored trousers just don't work and 2. under no circumstances can you use toilet paper. The toilets work on a simple gravity system and are flushed with the water that washes your hand - take a moment to think about that, remember no toilet paper.

Here's the shower facilities, this one actually had running water, in a manner of speaking. The pipe you see with a tap on the end of it is only use to fill the concrete tub every few days. The actual shower was an ice cream container dipped into the tub and poured over you. It's better being there during the monsoons because you can then shower under rainwater.

So why are jeans and trousers a no go? Because the picture on the right is what the actual toilet looks like. This is common throughout Asia and in fact I've even seen them in Greece. You'll realise pretty damn quick that there is a reason why everyone wears sarong type apparel.

It does take some getting used to but after a few months you don't even notice it, unless some dumb two day tourist has used toilet paper and clogged everything up. And that can be a problem. The other major hassle is going months without a solid stool. So, anyone up for an adventure?

Some travel snaps.

I mentioned in passing the other day that I was scanning some old negatives. There turned out to be quite a few from southern Thailand, so over the next few days I'll be doing a mini travelogue and using the photos as a reference point. There is one particular story in which I'm a hero, but that's later, for now here's a small sampler.

Awww pretty trees and ocean. It was a bit hairy getting this because I had to climb over a ledge. It doesn't look it but it was really steep.

This is a shot of the general terrain. I should really have cropped this (or put it in the film in the feeder correctly).

Now I want you to remember this photo as it will feature in at least two of the upcoming stories. The Huts on the right are where we stayed for about eight weeks.

Some random photos

I'm just tidying up a bit and these photos were in my 'blog photos' folder but aren't really strong enough to work a story around, so I'm just throwing them in here so I can delete them from the folder.

This is a close up of our driveway on the Coast. If you've ever wondered why I always capitalise the 'c' in coast, it's not because I'm confused about the usage of proper nouns. It's actually short for 'The Central Coast' which is the geographic area who's southernmost point is just north of the Hawksbury River and northenmost point is just south of Lake Macquarie.

Remember the picture of the Willow Tree Inn? This is the only other commercial building in Willow Tree and is directly opposite the pub.

This is what happens if you don't perform routine maintenance.

You can always get a Coke

This is not a joke, it really is a sign for Coke, it's just not in English (or even English lettering).

No matter where you go in this big old world of ours, you can always get a bottle of (not nessesarily ice cold) Coca Cola.

And just as well too, because without it Mekong whiskey tastes like sewer water.

These are some of life's little necessities, Coke, Whisky, Ice, Coffee and in the bowl under the coffee mug, Ganga. (pron Gunjah)