The Xmas Letter. The Xmas Letter is meant to be a communication device, an expression of one’s self to those whom they love who are far from them at a time of family, closure, reflection, and pause. It is with grandiose vision in mind, that I’ll try to lead you through my life as it has been lived this year. I will try and share what I can of myself to make up for what have not been able to share with most of you because of distance. I’ll aim for the goal of imparting to you the essence, feeling, flavours and my reality, but will settle for someone actually getting to the end of this email Like the State of the Union address, this is a State of the Soul letter, and as it unfolds you will see my thoughts and environment are invariably intertwined.

The landscapes I’ve passed through this year are Indonesian Aceh (3 months) and the Provincial Philippines (9 months) working as an IT software implementor for Microfinance organisations. Indonesia is a place I have written about on my blog, and so a quick rehash will suffice. It is exotic and foreign, and the skills I had developed to relate to the Cambodians where very much applicable and successful in the Indonesian environment. The trick was to learn as much of the local language as possible, through books, daily interactions with the maid/cook, the corner store owner, colleagues in the workplace, flirting, and the watching of music videos. Religion, specifically Islam, was infused in this strange simultaneously present but absent way. The presence of religion was like those picture illusions, the drawing doesn’t change, but depending on how you look at it, something is present, and in the next glance that something is not. I was able to successfully complete my work assignment in my own time, and in part because of my interest in developing my Indonesian was able to indulge in fulfilling social life that consisted of all locals (including an Indonesian Muslim girlfriend) bar two expats.

Provincial Philippines, specifically Bacolod, has been a completely different environment, and what worked for me in one place/time does not always work in another. I lack a sense of self-preservation and assertiveness that would otherwise had forced the more sane to have left early had they been experiencing the senses of isolation, disconnection, and stress that I have felt during this time here. I still can’t pinpoint exactly why is has been this way, maybe I’m not suited to small town life (rural life is fine!), maybe not having a language to learn hasn’t provided the same socialising impetus (Filipinos speak fantastic English), maybe the physical environment (mainly concrete-very few landscaped garden public spaces) and the food has been uninspiring. It was through this lens I experienced Bacolod, and despite being aware of other lenses I was never able to “break on through to the other side”.

Vision has been one of the big ideas consuming my thought this year. Despite being from within, a vision is built from the building blocks of what is around you. Every human endeavour starts with some sort of vision, from writing a movie script, to designing a Information Technology project. And it is the Philippines that has shown me that, for whatever the Philippines may lack in reality, it makes up for it in vision, aspiration and dreams. For example, I took MBA classes at the local university and here and in causal conversations, I would often hear Filipinos complain of their politicians as being hard-headed, self-interested, dogmatic and corrupt. But whereas the average Cambodian would merely accept the status quo and leave it unchallenged, young Filipino’s can envisage and articulate a different system they think would work for the better of their country. These aspirations to be something greater, or more than what is there, are manifest in such Filipino artworks as the trompe l’oeil frescoes of San Agustin Church. Organisations everywhere have and publicly display vision and mission statements on the outer walls of their buildings. Unfortunately for me I wasn’t able to absorb enough of this vision to dispel the loneliness of not having found friends and like minds in the organisational and social groups I frequented.

Filipino’s have the gift of expression and communication, and expressing oneself has been the second big idea I’ve spent many waking moments pondering. This not uncommon Filipino trait is manifest in the numerous live bands (exported to other parts of Asia), the display of prices on products in small corner stores, ubiquitous text messaging (I process something like 30-40 text messages/day), the numerous postings and paintings on walls for all to see on topics ranging from organisational visions, Bible psalms, religious praises (“God is Love”), desired character traits (“Choose Enthusiasm not Apathy!”), and government staff expectations in their dealings with the public (“We are not doing the public a favour by serving them, they are doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so”). It has been impressed on me by those Filipino’s who have been extremely forthright and candid, people for whom there is direct channel between what they think and what they say (not a typical nor traditional Asian trait).

Vision and expression! Two powerful character traits I hope to develop more of. But the devil is in the details, and it’s in the implementation that many well intended Filipino grand plans fail (I hope the same fate does not befall this letter). For in part, implementing vision requires the almost selfish imposition of a particular viewpoint on the diversity of the whole wide world. And the Philippines is a diverse place with mixed influences and individual backgrounds ranging from the members of the landed elite during the Spanish colonial, to the those with dirt poor backgrounds that have “made it” through wise parenting, study and hard work (a testimony that the Filipino education system can work), to the mobile and educated middle class with relatives, sources of income and connections abroad (especially the US), to minority ethnic groups and the traditional rural class, more isolated and less penetrated by influences and ideas from the outside (more similar to the type of people I was working with in Cambodia and Indonesia). The Philippines being a democracy in theory tolerates this diversity, but it is a young democracy which lacks consensus, even on the rules of the political game, as seen in this year’s alleged coup d’état attempts and the temporary imposition of emergency powers for one week.

In mid January I will leave the Philippines, pass through Indonesia, Japan, and Australia and be back in New Zealand in February. This life as I have know it will crumble and fade leaving only memories, experiences, and the inner perspective and view of the world I have arrived at. That view is the combined product of the choices I made this year and the environment I was in. That environment will be gone, and the thoughts that accompanied it. I’ll be faced with starting a new life ­ again! When I return to New Zealand I hope old patterns will not resurface, but that I will have realised the ultimate goal of an overseas experience – to be taken not only out of my country but myself, and to return to see my country as a foreign land.

For me, this Xmas will be my first Xmas in 4 years I can spend with the people of the land (2002 ­ Laos, 2003 Cambodia, 2004 ­ Cambodia, 2005 ­ Indonesia ­ all predominately non-Christian countries). I’m already enjoying Xmas lights everywhere – on houses, buildings, and in the trees! May your Xmas be a reflective time of reconnection with your friends and family, your traditions that keep you grounded and your hopes that keep you moving forward.

Merry Christmas!

Oliver

It’s that time of year again, when you sit back and think to yourself ‘I’ve changed directions, I’ve moved back home, maybe I should let my friends know what I’m up to?’. Well that time of year was back in January, and I am finally getting around to actually writing to you.

I finished my contract in Cambodia at the end of December 2004. There were options to extend that for another year but after much unconsidered career crystal ball gazing I decided I would return to New Zealand to study. You can blame that idea on the crystal ball, it was pretty foggy.

As the semester didn’t start until March I had two months to make use of being in SE Asia to travel. My Mother and sister also wanted to make use of that fact and so came over for a 3 week trip. Together with Nhung, my girlfriend from Vietnam, we travelled to Siem Reap to visit the famous Angkor temples, myself for the fourth time. Following this we flew to Laung Prabang, Laos and I carried on by myself to China, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia. I will probably post something in due course about these destinations on the blog.

Since being back in NZ, other than studying what have I been up to? One occasion that struggled to occur, given that my best friends have been the university librarians, was a trip to Omaha. The highly select guest list of any random stranger I could find included Steve S, Babu (the fashion bohemian also known as Desh), and a French traveller we picked up on Queen St (well okay he wasn’t a complete random stanger, he knew Babu). Unfortunately none of my librarian friends could make it. Having been instilled during my school years that competition is a Good Thing, I was eager to participate in the challenges of luck and physical dexterity that we set for each other that fateful weekend. The first challenge was the ever cerebral paper, scissors, and rock championship. Babu lost and had to get his face painted as Spiderman, which seemed to bring out his inner Spiderman. We proceeded to take photos whilst he hung on to the Matakana WWI monument, one of the world’s lesser known greatest statues of all time. I lost the game of mini golf and my punishment was to ask every stranger ‘Don’t I know you from somewhere?’ Steve proved unable to hack the intense pressure of the Jenga battle and had to clean the BBQ. Weekend topics of conversation included ‘Is business all about relationships?’, ‘Will Steve be the next CEO of Coca-cola?’, and ‘Babu you still haven’t convinced me your clothes are cool.’ Being cool is another important virtue I learnt at school. Huh? What’d you mean you can’t tell?

The 17th of April was Khmer New Year. Invited by Srey and fiancée Brett, I partook in the Auckland Cambodian Community’s celebration at the Cambodian Wat (temple) in Takanini. In attendance were enough Cambodians, including monks, to start giving me flashbacks of my time in the ‘Bodia. It felt like Cambodia because of the talcum powder and water balloon fights, the huge meal prepared and eaten communally, the Buddhist ceremonials, and the stall vendors selling their wares. I learnt an important think that day: you can take the Cambodian out of Cambodia, but you can’t stop their desire to try and set you up with their sisters or daughters. Who needs internet dating when you’ve got Khmer New Year?

Also in April was the Auckland International Cultural Festival. It was held in Potters Park and consisted of a large range of New Zealand ethnic groups, running the gamut from Eastern Europeans nationalities to obscure South East Asian countries that only people putting off the real world or hoping to make a career as a corrupt government official would want to work in. No, I wasn’t an English teacher, and yes, I’ve given up that line of work. There were performances by some of the groups, including Cambodian dancers, stalls selling cultural artefacts, and food carts selling exotic dishes. All and all a pleasant event where one can experience a little of the world without leaving home.

Steve & Julien on Omaha beach

Cambodian dancers at the Auckland International Cultural Festival, Potters Park, Balmoral, March 2005

Khmer (Cambodian) New Years April 2005 at the Cambodian community Wat (temple) in Takanini, Auckland, New Zealand

A question of great importance has been weighing on my mind lately. You know those type of questions? The ones we all have to face at some time or another in our lives. Questions of existence. Questions with different answers for different people in different times. Questions debated fiercely. The question bothering me lately is such a question:
What shall I have for dinner tonight?

In Ratanakiri, Cambodia this is a difficult question to answer. I have already eaten in every restaurant, that is to say both of them, many times over. Recently I have come across what resembles a take-away bar. There is a bench where you sit and place your order, and behind the meal is prepared in front of your eyes on a wood fire. The wood fire is a newly discovered cooking method used in fancy cafes to make gourmet pizzas, so these guys are certainly up with the play. They have a delicacy called “poan-tear-goan” but I call it “hard boiled egg of semi developed duck embryo with crunchy body parts”. Gulp.

Christmas provided the perfect opportunity to answer the above important dining question with “2 pigs”. It takes about 5 hours to cook 2 pigs above a pit of burning coal. It takes about 2 days for 30 people to eat them. It was a lot of bacon.

On New Year’s Eve I attended my first Khmer wedding reception. Anyone who was someone turned up, stayed long enough to eat the food and then shot off. Anyone who was drunk stayed and danced. It was quite surprising to see most people only stay 1 or 2 hours before going home. The reception started about 6pm and most people left by 8pm. Maybe, like me, they didn’t actually know the bride or groom. Still it pays to be at these things to mix-n-mingle, or if you are a small Khmer child, to collect empty beer cans. 4 cans can be sold for 100riel ($US0.025).

In Khmer there is a word “darleng” which might mean going for a walk, a trip, a mission, a journey or all of the above. I try to go “darleng” in the weekends because Ban Lung is a pretty small place. Last weekend I went for a darleng which took me down National Dirt Road 19, through a rubber tree plantation, into the forest, along tree felled hillsides. Stop. Time for a rest and a sugar cane juice drink. Over rivers, through small villages, past small children waving and shouting “Bye-bye” to a very nice waterfall. Here we did what any self-respecting gourmet pizza chef would do and set about making a small wood-fire. We cooked rice and meat, which along with an philanthropic dose of MSG made a very nice meal in a very pleasant place.

So it’s now 2004 eh? I am going to stay in Cambodia a little longer, so now is the time to book your flights! Offer lasts only as long as my contract and more to the point my sanity – currently measured as being 6 more months in Cambodia. Current plans are to finish up here in July 2004.

Hope you have a pleasant 2004 and good luck with any difficult dining questions it may bring

Working in the environment sector, I am realising how much time us usually city dwellers spend indoors! Lately my work, and leisure, has been taking me into the outdoors.

A couple of weeks ago I went to visit the Ranger Station to talk with the rangers about data collection, and went out in the weekend to visit and stay overnight in a local indigenous community village with a Swedish research student. It felt quite strange just rocking up to this village in the middle of nowhere and asking if we could stay, the villagers were very shy people and they must of wondered what the hell we were doing there. After kicking around a ball for a while with the kids and the drunk adults (we arrived on the eve of funeral party) the ice was broken and I felt we had made ourselves more welcome, if uninvited. That night we spoke with the village chief – he told us about life in the village now and in times past- and slept in hammocks, I only fell out once with a big thud. The ride back turned hairy when I parked my motorbike nicely in a waist deep water filled pot hole, after which it failed to start. I got towed back to town using the strings from my hammock- they’re pretty strong.

The plane from Phnom Penh to Ban Lung hasn’t been flying lately because the battery is flat, so instead I took the 1.5 day land journey. On one stretch of the journey it was a nasty 16 hrs from 4pm till 8am to travel a meagre 100km. The driver might not have had a driving license but he was a practised bush mechanic. When we got stuck he would get out his axe and chop down a small tree, sharpen the end and use it as a lever to lift the back wheel out of the mud. This ritual was repeated more than enough times I might add.

The expat life cycle in Cambodia has been explained to me recently, and involves three stages:

1. Enthusiasm – This place is great! It’s so free! No rules! The people are lovely, so friendly! It’s so cheap!
2. Frustration – Hmmm.. this place is terrible, the corruption, the incompetence and lack of education, the different cultural values
3. Indifference

I feel I am now entering Stage Two after recent events. Last Friday I was returning home on my newly purchased motorbike. The lights at this particular junction were off. I proceeded to cross only to be hit by a faster moving motorcycle from the right. No major damage done but I was a little shaken. The policeman helped me to the side of the road and picked up my scattered belongings. Back at home I realised I didn’t have all my belongings with me – I was missing a bag of books. So I went back to the crossing only to be told by the policeman I would have to pay to get my books back. $US5 for the books the policeman kept from me. I got away with paying $US2 but was really annoyed, resigned to the fact that I obviously didn’t share the same cultural values as the policeman.

Other than that I have managed to get to the seaside once (Sihanoukville), and Angkor Wat twice in the last 2 months what with the large amount of public holidays at the moment. The last time was with friend Cecile, over here from France on holiday for the last 2 weeks, and who just left today. And I have just finished reading the 3rd Harry Potter book.

Too da lo!

After travelling through SE Asia & Sri Lanka, I arrived in the UK in May where I stayed with Dave & Emma and their South African flatmates for several weeks. I thought London and the UK was a great place, a large advanced industrialised society with so much on offer. But when it comes to the outdoors, it does not compare to New Zealand or Australia. I visited Brighton, probably the most popular seaside town, and was amazed to see a pebbled beach! When Amanda went for a job interview in Oxford I tagged along with Dave & Emma and experienced a quintessential old school English town. I also visited Shiloh & Jimbo in Derbyshire and got a taste of the English countryside life. Thanks guys for your hospitality guys.

Onwards to Ireland with my 1 year working holiday visa. The first 6 days Amanda, who was visiting, and I took an organised 6 day tour of Ireland. Unfortunately I slept most of it. I particularly enjoyed Belfast and Derry as the history of conflict was very interesting. The North West coast was also particularly beautiful.

Settling in Dublin, my new best friend was Craig, also from New Zealand. I moved into a flat with students, it is now summer over here and all the students are on holiday looking for jobs. I too began the job hunt, looking for any type of work. I.T work was hard to find. I was disadvantaged because I had only a 1 year visa (although I was eligible for a 2 year I.T work visa if I found work) and so some recruitment agencies would only send my CV in for contract jobs, and with only 2 years experience I am sure there were better candidates out there. There was also a bias with some hirers to hire Irish people over foreigners.

So I settled for a job as a telephone market research interviewer, one of those annoying people who ring you up when you are having dinner and ask you to give up your leisure time to do a survey. I worked a whole 2 days there before…..

I was offered a job in Cambodia! I had seen the contract advertised and applied whilst I was there but did not get the job. However, the
original candidate had pulled out and so they offered me the job. It is doing I.T setup and training for the Ministry of Environment in the
Ratanakiri National Park. It is very much in the (bamboo) sticks (and rice paddies). It is due to start in August, although I am a little
worried it might not happen at all because there are elections in Cambodia on the 27th of July, it will be only the 2nd or 3rd elections they have had and potentially a little unstable.

Keen to see a much of Europe as I could before heading back to Asia, I packed my bags and flew to Amsterdam. Dave K had recently arrived to take up a job with Vodafone, so I stayed with him, his Dutch girlfriend Nienke, Nienke’s Dad, and their dog Rex.

Wow, my first taste of Continental Europe and I loved it. The canals, the buildings, the history, the technology (huge wind turbines), the
food (stroopwaffels and chips with mayonnaise). And of course Amsterdam’s red light district and the coffee shops I met some of Nienke’s friends and went to a free festival in a park in Amsterdam. Once while walking through Amsterdam we caught sight of a launch in one of the canals with a female flashing her fake breasts as part of a promotion for what I think might have been a swingers club! We went for a lovely bicycle ride in the countryside, including riding through a beautiful old village which exhausted the remaining film in my camera. Thanks Dave & Nienke and Nienke’s Dad.

There are organisations and websites in Europe where people advertise seats in their car. On one of these websites I found a man and his dog with a free seat for a trip from Amsterdam to Paris. On the 25th of June I cruised down to Paris in his Peugeot convertible, he even let me drive part of the way when he was tired.

Paris blew my mind, the architecture was absolutely stunning. Huge buildings from the Airport terminal to the Louvre Museum. Cathedrals with ornate detail. So much culture. For me the mentality of most cities I have been to is that it is only about business. Paris was different, it was a city of history, culture and art. Paris developed an interest and appreciation for these other aspects of life that I had previously given little attention.

Through another website of people offering free accommodation I met a Belgium girl called Eveline, who offered me accommodation on the floor of her room in a student house on the Cite Universitaire campus. Free accommodation and dinner at the student cafeteria was just what the budget of a traveller on the New Zealand dollar needed. The next night we picnicked on the concrete banks of the river Seine. Somehow the lack of grass and the word picnic didn’t quite go together in my mind.

My next destination was Stuttgart, Germany where I knew some people. I decided to hitchhike. After standing in the rain for an hour I was picked up by a family coming back from the airport. They had just picked up Anne-Marie who had just returned from a year in New Zealand! What a coincidence. Half-way through the trip they asked if I would like to stay with them in Strasbourg. Strasbourg is where I am now, a delightful town that is half French half German, being on the border between the two countries.

Current plans are to stay for a few days and then go to Stuttgart, then Switzerland to visit Max & Isabelle and then maybe Italy.

Well that’s where I am at. Hope all is well with you, you are no doubt busy with your own life, don’t forget you can tell me all about it!

Take care

I think most of what I described in my last email is characteristic of the area I am staying in, Banglamphu which houses the backpacker hub Khao San Rd.

It seems wherever there are groups of foreigners (Khao San Rd, temples, sight-seeing attractions) there are Thais trying to get your cash for more than their goods and services are worth. I got suckered in the park the other day. I was walking through and a Thai lady came and stuffed some bird seed into my hand. I thought what a nice lady asking me to help her feed the birds. I dished out the seed and then she asked me for money. I should have know. She wanted several hundred baht ($10) and wouldn’t take the small change I offered her. I had to do a runner.

But this isn’t the case everywhere. If you take the red pill and venture outside the matrix of the dodgy tuk-tuk drivers and other generally scammy Thais picking the carcasses of foreigners there is a different Bangkok. There are department stores the same as ones at home. There are canal taxis (really cool, I read Bangkok was once the venice of the east) that take you places real fast (no traffic on the river). There are people on the public bus that are friendly and help you out. In fact I met a lovely Thai couple on the bus (I was wary at first, you do have to be discerning). They invited me back to their home for a meal, it was a small home with one room that was a bedroom, living and dining room in one. The only other rooms were the toilet/bathroom and a small storage area. We went sight seeing together. We went up Baiyoke II the 2nd tallest hotel in the world, it was a stunning view of Bangkok, at least the part that you could see that wasn’t covered in smog. I really recommend it if you go to Bangkok.

Today we went to the movies and before the movie everyone rises to pay tribute to the king. You are treated to a slide show of his majesty and his anthem in dolby stereo surround sound. I did end up paying for the sightseeing but I was OK with that (the tower is like $6 and movies $6 still cheaper than home).

Other attractions I have seen are the temple Wat Po with a huge huge lying buddha (I suppose it is actually a place of worship, not an attraction, but they seem to want tourists to visit), that was impressive. The Grand Palace I didn’t really find interesting, just lots of old stuff and architecture (I’m showing my ignorance here of old stuff and architecture) and expensive for what you get (still cheap tho-$10). The big river (as opposed to the canal which is also good) taxi is definately worth a trip. Chatuchak weekend market was the biggest market i have seen – it was OK.

As for the night life, there’s this cool bar called the love sick bar. The theme is broken heartedness. You can buy a beer and when you’ve finished you can throw the bottle onto a wall that has a projected picture of your choosing. I threw my bottle at David Beckham only because he happened to be on at the time. There is also a crying room with tissues and a semi-sound proof shouting room with words like “Bastard”, “I don’t want you”, “You’re suck” on the walls.

The shopping is great! I have never been a shopper, more a hoarder and a gambler But things are cheap here. I bought a pair of the “Thai National Olympic Team Offical Jogging Shoes” for $45. Label t-shirts for $7-8. Wallet for $5. A warez CD full of Microsoft books for $5 (that was in the IT plaza-Pantip Plaza). I got a haircut to for $2.50! A lot of the stuff you see are copies, very authentic looking copies mind you. The most surprising thing for sale was this guy with face masks. He had the usual halloween masks as well as a Osama bin laden mask! If you are so inclined you can also sell things to various street vendors, they have signs saying “We buy everything” but in reality they only want books (especially Lonely Planet guide books, they are a hot commodity), shoes, cellphones, wallets etc. Getting a good price is not about shopping around as in the Western world type way, but about knowing the fair market price (which you can get from window shopping around) and being able to bargain to get that price. When you first get here you are vunerable I think, you don’t know the fair price. I paid more than I could have buying a shirt in Khao San Rd (which seems to have the biggest price differentals), but it was still damn cheap! At least now I have an idea of some prices, can express my dissatisfaction at a high price (say the Thai word for expensive and put on a sour face but not yet always get a fair price!

You can really spoil yourself with food and drink here. the street vendors are the cheapest, although there are stories of nasty bowel reprecussions, fingers-crossed because i have been eating there all the time! you can get nice as mixed fruit shakes for 15baht (75c), and omelette and rice for 10baht (50c) and that could be lunch! a breakfast of 2 toast, ham, bacon, scrambled eggs and coffee (i have iced coffee thats yum) is 50baht ($2.50) a big slice of pineapple or watermelon or other fruit is 10baht (50c). I’ve had lots of that. hmm.. maybe i’ll end up coming back with a bigger belly than last time i left new zealand!

as for accomodation, all i can say is you get what you pay for, and I’m not paying very much! for 150baht($47.50)/baht i am getting a double room with a shared toilet/bathroom water. the bed is hard and the water cold. the bathroom is pretty grotty, it has a hole in the sink its not a popular place, i’ve only seen a few other foreigners, most probably don’t like the grottiness and i don’t blame them. i have wanted to move but stayed in the one place (called sunshine house) because I have a bit of a rapport with the owners, and the net cafe/restaurant next store – I help them when the internet isn’t working! Transportation here is really diverse. I have travelled by train, taxi, bus, boat, motorcycle, tuk-tuk and ute! Its quite a interesting system. There are large roads that run a fair distance. These roads have numbered Soi’s or smaller roads off them, eg: Soi 39. Off this first Soi can be many other little Soi’s. So an address might look like 159/5 Thonglor, Soi 10 on Soi 55 off Sukhumvit Rd. You can generally catch some sort of public transport to the start of the first Soi. There will be a group of motorbikes and coverted utes at the start of this first Soi which can take you to your final destination. I first discovered all this when trying to get to the Laos Embassy, what a mission that was!

After about a week I decided Bangkok was getting too carcengic for my liking and the touts (people who bug you for their goods and services) too annoying so I have been planning to move on. I have finally got my Uncle Sams together and plan to go to Cambodia tomorrow, it takes about 12hrs from Bangkok to Siem Reap (next to the famous Ankor Wat temples). I have been reading all about the border crossing at http://talesofasia.com/Cambodia/Overland/reportsSR.htm It seems that I may be able to escape the Bangkok fumes but not the touts! They are supposed to be terrible at the border.

Well I have rambled enough, tell me how you are, even if its really boring. Attached are some badly scanned photos. Dinner with the Thai couple I met and up the top of the tall hotel.
Take care!