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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 7 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 185025 |
| Visitors Out: 913 |
| Total Visitors Out: 1898 |
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| In the Beginning…..one year on |
| 2011-06-14 07:02:00 |
Hard to believe but it’s been one year since I started this blog. Why I started this blog and why I continue to write this blog I can’t really explain, god knows I hardly have time to keep it updated! However I have managed to make at least one or two posts a month and readership has steadily increased. Today the blog is averaging about 20 new hits a week, mostly coming from Google searches. There are about a dozen regular readers who keep coming back to read more! Overall in a year there’s been about 1700 unique hits and 6000 odd page loads. Most visitors come from the US, with Australia second and a lot of hits from South East Asia, most likely as the majority of posts are from/about places in South East Asia. The number one page hit is the Savu Sawu Sabu page...
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| Raja Ampat: Paradise of Birds |
| 2011-02-26 09:40:00 |
New Guinea is the primary home of the Bird of Paradise. Whether in the east in Papua New Guinea, or over in the west across the border in Indonesia's Papua provinces, references and imagery of the Bird of Paradise are found everywhere. Papua New Guinea’s national flag contains the bird, Air Niugini, PNG’s national airline bears the bird in it’s logo. Hotels, schools, products, restaurants, companies across the entire island use the bird as it’s symbol. And despite travelling extensively through New Guinea for 15 years now I have never once come across one of these elusive birds in their natural habitat. Air Niugini’s Bird of Paradise Logo Indonesia’s Cenderawasih University logo (literally Bird of Paradise University) PNG...
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| Filipinos: Snack or Insult?!? |
| 2011-02-25 01:33:00 |
….and the 25th Anniversary of the greatest People Power Revolution in history…. A couple of months back, being passed round various “Facebook walls” of Filipino friends of mine, was a short story on some European cookies going by the name of Filipinos. The question was posed regarding the appropriateness of calling a snack food by the name of a nation’s peoples. None of my friends were personally offended by the notion but reading into the history of these cookies did amaze me somewhat. Filipinos Biscuits as sold in Spain and Portugal It seems back in 1999 then Philippine Congressman Heherson Alvarez, claimed that the name of the cookie was offensive due to the apparent reference to their colour, "dark outside and white inside". His resolution stated "These ...
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| Balut! Balut! Balut! |
| 2011-02-16 06:00:00 |
“Balut! Balut! Balut!” From city to province, all over the Philippines in the late afternoon, early evening, you’ll start to hear this call. Balut is probably now the most well known food to come out of the Philippines, thanks to modern TV programming with people like Anthony Bourdain and shows like Fear Factor and Survivor, all featuring Balut in recent times. For example contestants of The Amazing Race Asia 2 had to eat 8 Baluts as a team before receiving their next clue.This common snack food in the Philippines consists of a fertilized duck or chicken egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. It’s also popular in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Balut or Balot, has it’s name rooted in the Austronesian languages of the r...
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| Asmat to Timika: Papua Contrasts |
| 2010-11-08 09:54:00 |
Continued from Go West: Indonesian Papua
After doing the business in Agats and Syuru Village, it was time to head further afield into the Asmat region and drop in to some more remote villages to see if they wanted to be included in our business activities. I had my eyes and mind set on a village called Owus, which had not had organised tour groups visit for around 6 years and was prime for the activities we wanted to achieve. However behind the scene there was some kind of issue. My Florinese con-man guide who I still needed to negotiate the boat and local people to get me into places like Owus was doing his best to convince me that he had much better places to go than Owus, and for some reason he was being real evasive about Owus. I never got to the bottom of what the issue was but he did not want to go any where near the place. In the end I agreed to go to his village of choice AND Owus and I would decide after visiting both which one was better for what we were trying to ac...
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| Weekend with Bali |
| 2010-07-04 07:40:00 |
Being at home for a few weeks and with a lot going on in the work world I don’t have a lot of chances to update this blog, so here’s a look back at the weekend after returning from Savu last month.
Returning to Bali, Island of the Gods, after the trip to Savu I found myself with all my work targets achieved on a Friday evening. With Garuda’s direct flights to Sydney departing at 10 minutes to Midnight if I left now I would arrive in Sydney on Saturday morning, so why not delay departure for a couple of days, depart Sunday night and still be in Sydney for work on Monday morning!
But work wasn’t quite finished, Yusdie Diaz, Indonesia’s legendary expedition operations consultant was flying from Flores, where he was busily trying to get himself appointed as the local Bupati (somewhere between a mayor and a god), to see me. Yusdie came straight to my hotel from the airport and we headed off for dinner in Kuta. Most locals and savvy travellers avoid Kuta but it has some great r...
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| Sabu! Savu! Sawu! |
| 2010-06-13 23:35:00 |
My most recent sojourn was to the Indonesian Island of Savu, about half way between the islands of Timor and Sumba.
Like most places in Indonesia, Savu can be spelt any number of ways, depending on whether you use the Dutch spelling, the Indonesia spelling or the local spelling. Most locals I came across seemed to use the spelling/pronunciation "Sabu", where as most outsiders know the place as "Savu". So take your pick as to which you want to use, but for now I am going with Savu!
One of the challenges to visit Savu is the lack of flights getting there. There are regular ferry departures from Kupang, West Timor, however given the regularity that Indonesian ferries sink, the plane always gets a look in as a viable option. Although one would argue the rate planes fall out of the sky in Indonesia would certainly give cause for further consideration, however being a seafarer and spending a great deal of life at sea I have vowed not to die on the ocean. I am quite happy to die in a pla...
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| In the Beginning..... |
| 2010-06-13 23:16:00 |
Well here goes! WELCOME to Blog Attempt #153!I have lost count how many times I have attempted to start a blog.......So will this time be any different....possibly....possibly not....But if you've made it this far you are at least at Post #1All going to plan these ramblings should follow me around the globe on a never ending quest of never endingness Special mention should got to Mad Dog of Madang for inspiring me to reattempt the blog!
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