tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5757718306305986622024-03-14T04:24:24.745+11:00supersomaNickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-48290737168078768782011-07-20T18:34:00.001+10:002013-03-15T10:43:44.805+11:00Launch of the final Space ShuttleBit of a late follow-up, I've been busy catching up on things since I got back last week.
Anyway it all went fairly well considering everything was organised at the last minute.
The flights were fairly uneventful, except the first leg to Sydney where we got in 90 minutes late because of wind... 45 mins AFTER check-in had closed for my flight to LA! The transfer bus had already left for the Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-27067343608344240232011-07-04T18:25:00.000+10:002011-07-21T08:33:47.892+10:00Last minute trip to Cape CanaveralI read this morning that the last space shuttle launch ever was happening this Friday, and since I've always wanted to see one, I decided to book a flight to Florida for a few days. I knew they were being retired, but I thought I had a few more years to get there! It'll be a historic event, and this is my last chance, so why not. I fly out early Thursday morning to Sydney, then from there to LAX,Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-53394588253910743172009-10-22T17:06:00.004+11:002009-10-22T18:05:23.420+11:00First days in PadangTwo days ago Christie and I flew into Padang in Sumatra to see if we could offer any help to the earthquake relief effort. After a night in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) we got to Padang airport around 5pm Tuesday in the middle of a thunderstorm. The plane was only half full with Sumatran locals and a few Malaysian aid workers. After buying our visa on arrival, we passed through customs without Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-56971462281830726452009-04-14T13:32:00.003+10:002009-07-25T12:21:17.931+10:00TouristsSmart: wearing one of those clear waterproof pouches around your neck during the massive water fight that is Laos New Year.Dumb: putting your $1000 iPhone in it for everyone to see, in a country where the monthly income is about ten bucks.Crime is low here, but if that idiot doesn't put it away, I'll steal it myself.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-55789537787721604162009-04-06T21:09:00.005+10:002009-04-06T22:59:59.203+10:00Asia Update #7 - Cambodia, VietnamThis should be a fairly quick one, since I've been putting some stories on my blog which I'll just link to, so they're even easier to skip :)First stop in Cambodia was Angkor Wat, which was impressive but not mind-blowing. After that was Battambang and the capital, Phnom Penh. There I saw the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge and the genocide museum (S-21), which was a thoroughly disturbing Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-48799134408243007712009-03-23T18:33:00.002+11:002009-03-31T20:34:10.088+11:00SaigonOn my first day in Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City, or HCMC), I decided to go for a walk around to orientate myself. I thought I'd head over and check out the War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace (where the North Vietnamese tanks rammed through the gates in 1975, ending the war).Waiting to cross the road not far from my hotel, a well-dressed Asian man next to me said hello and asked my Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-43564644542388019242009-03-22T21:26:00.004+11:002009-03-27T18:33:19.606+11:00Vietnam, first impressionsOther backpackers have been telling me that Vietnam is a beautiful country, but were tired of getting hassled and ripped off by the locals. Well it didn't take me long to confirm that, I got scammed before I'd even gotten through the Vietnamese checkpoint at the border.I was going from Kampot on the south coast of Cambodia into Vietnam via a recently-opened and very out of the way crossing near Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-78429532354727263402009-03-19T20:35:00.003+11:002009-03-27T18:25:56.468+11:00SihanoukvilleHands up those who knew that Cambodia has some great beaches? Yeah, me neither. Turns out it does, in the southwest corner from Koh Kong on the Gulf of Thailand, around to Kep near the Vietnamese border. I spent a few days in Sihanoukville which is about halfway between the two.Apart from being thankfully much cooler than the rest of Cambodia, there are some really nice beaches around the area, Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-16726233430826886022009-03-14T19:57:00.001+11:002009-03-22T20:34:08.225+11:00Packing lightAfter travelling for six months with a regular-sized, 65 litre pack, I realised I didn't actually use half the stuff that I was lugging around. Ben had already moved to using a smaller pack, and kept on about how much better it was, but I didn't have another one to use. Before I set off alone to Cambodia though, I got myself a new one about half the size to see how it went. Turns out he's right, Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-88877669025403936182009-03-11T18:51:00.004+11:002009-03-22T19:57:05.295+11:00BattambangNot much to say about Angkor Wat, the temples are pretty amazing and that, but I probably would have been more impressed if I hadn't seen the big temples in Java and the thousands of them in Burma. There's pictures here but they all kind of look a bit samey: Angkor Wat photos. Although hot, Siem Reap is a nice place, especially the Warehouse Bar where I spent half my time - hi Josh, Sony and SodaNickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-54186614582034228412009-03-05T00:40:00.004+11:002009-04-06T21:14:20.480+10:00Into CambodiaToday I crossed the border into Cambodia at Poipet, about 5 hours east of Bangkok. The first weird thing was that it was hot and sunny on the Thai side, but after passing through immigration and emerging on to the Cambodian side, it had become dusty, dark and windy. Five minutes later it was raining hard. It felt like I'd just stepped through the wardrobe into Narnia.Before you even get to the Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-87581339151722408592009-02-28T18:25:00.005+11:002009-02-28T20:06:08.319+11:00Asia Update, umm... #6? - Thailand, BurmaWell it's been bloody ages since the last update, but luckily most of what we've been up to in the last three months can be summed up in only a few words: beaching, boozing and bumming around. After Malaysia, we headed straight to the resort island of Phuket in Thailand, where we stayed for six weeks with Sergey, a Russian friend we met near the start of our trip. Living next door to us in Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-92038601783285769722009-02-18T23:26:00.007+11:002009-02-28T18:20:24.402+11:00BurmaBen and I recently spent three weeks in Burma, which was certainly different to any of the other countries we've been to here in Asia. Probably the main reason behind these differences is the bizarre and seemingly arbitrary behaviour of the Burmese government. As you may know, Burma has a military dictatorship. In 1990, the opposition party won the election in a landslide, but they were then Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-24760015034964133932008-11-22T03:25:00.003+11:002008-11-22T03:29:25.639+11:00Asia Update #5 - Malaysia, SingaporeBeen a few weeks since the last update, since then we've actually moved on from Indonesia - but even after two months we didn't see everything there that we wanted to.Our last week in Sumatra was spent riding around giant crater lakes, firstly Lake Maninjau which takes almost 3 hours to get around; where Ben stacked his bike good and proper but remains alive; where we got drenched coming home andNickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-85751738888323518052008-11-01T01:50:00.004+11:002008-11-08T20:43:32.735+11:00Asia Update #4 - JavaSorry, this is going to be a long one, I really should update more often. For those who just want the précis: we finally left Bali, got through Java, and are now in Sumatra. We've passed the 50 day mark, and only have one week left in Indonesia. It's gone really fast, yet somehow it feels like years ago since we were in Bali. Probably quicker to just look at the photos and map.So just after the Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-59505817473527099552008-10-11T10:39:00.004+11:002008-11-08T21:16:24.716+11:00Asia Update #3 - LombokHaven't had much time on the internet lately, since we've been on Lombok where it's patchy and slow.After the last email, we left the beach hotel in Soka abruptly because some Swiss guys we met were leaving the next morning and we got a lift with them halfway back to Denpasar. From there we shot clear across Bali then a ferry to Lombok. The ferry took about 5 hours but then we were waiting in theNickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-4865887467937419502008-09-21T15:03:00.002+10:002008-11-08T21:14:54.906+11:00Asia Update #2 - BaliFeels like we've been here a month now, can't see how we're ever going to get through this since Bali is about 1% of Asia...We spent a few more days with Tia in Jimbaran (near Kuta) - it's nice to spend a few nights in one place. Last Sunday night we had dinner at one of the famous seafood restaurants which are actually on the beach - all the tables are just out there on the sand with the waves Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-43853542889956837742008-09-15T22:28:00.002+10:002008-11-08T21:20:54.139+11:00Asia Update #1 - BaliIt's only been 5 days since we landed here but it feels like a month with so many new things to take in. The main things so far have been cheap food and beer, motor scooters, heat and monkeys. So many monkeys...Couch surfing has been awesome, it's great staying with people that live here so you don't just see things that are in Lonely Planet, and you know how much stuff is actually worth. Made a Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-81302199966570967292008-06-12T18:52:00.003+10:002008-06-12T19:55:14.318+10:00Fascinating facts about the SunI was reading today how NASA is planning to send a probe to the Sun, which got me reading Wikipedia's article on the subject. I thought I already had a fair appreciation for the topic, but some of the facts in there are simply amazing. Most of the figures are just impossible to wrap your head around. How's these for starters:The energy output of the Sun is equivalent to about 200,000 times the Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-42432685203364889522008-03-24T12:42:00.002+11:002008-04-08T19:27:10.921+10:00Singapore, Day 2 and 3On Saturday we decided to check out a cool bazaar that I'd found on my last visit, problem was I didn't know exactly how I'd gotten there. I guessed it was around the Little India area, so we headed up there on the tube. After walking around in the heat for an hour we finally found it - nowhere near where we thought (it was the Bugis St markets for future reference - and metres from a train stop,Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-20725636955900177862008-03-22T11:40:00.013+11:002008-03-25T09:37:19.727+11:00Singapore, Day 1Well, despite thinking it was too good to be true, we actually made it here. Tiger wasn't half as bad as I expected either, they're pretty close to Jetstar service-wise. They even gave us exit row seats for the Melbourne-Darwin leg without us asking. We weren't so lucky on the second leg, so I got very little sleep.We got into Changi at 4am local time, with no real plan, although we had at least Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-89559806111761101632008-03-11T12:27:00.004+11:002008-04-08T19:18:11.300+10:00$40 to Singapore?I think I may have just scored two return tickets to Singapore for forty bucks...Back at the start of the year we booked flights to Newcastle for a weekend in April, for our parents' birthdays. Usually we go with Virgin or Jetstar because Qantas don't fly direct to Newcastle, but this time we decided to check out the new Tiger Airways. Got a pretty good deal too - $40 each way.In mid-February, Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-66796635324128792922007-06-04T10:55:00.000+10:002007-06-04T11:51:52.711+10:00More iPhoto problemsAs I mentioned in Using iPhoto with Picasa, when you import photos into iPhoto, it has the annoying habit of generating copies of any photos that were marked as "rotated" on your camera. I assume this is for the benefit of any image applications that don't read the "orientation" flag in the photo's EXIF tag, which apparently OS X didn't even support until 10.4 or so. However to me it's just Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-67094049975870850362007-05-31T12:55:00.000+10:002007-05-31T13:22:34.771+10:00Geotagging in PicasaA cool feature I played with while sorting out some photos last night is the Geotag option in Picasa. It's been there for a little while, but I haven't gotten around to looking at it. The implementation is pretty slick: you select one or more photos in Picasa, select "Geotag" and it opens up Google Earth. For each photo, you pinpoint a spot on earth and tag it, or tag a whole group of photos withNickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575771830630598662.post-38023359125950247972007-05-31T11:08:00.000+10:002007-05-31T12:38:00.059+10:00Using iPhoto with PicasaI've taken about 15Gb of photos over the years, and have always organised them with Picasa because it's so damn easy to use. However I recently bought a new MacBook which Picasa isn't available for yet, and I wanted to try Apple's bundled iPhoto. After a bit of playing around, I think I've come up with a way to use the best of both.Since I'd also just caved and gotten a 2nd gen Shuffle so I Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12379535959453889076noreply@blogger.com0