It begins.

Singapore has been great - crazy stuff has been going on, but I'm still alive, haven't caught the deadly flu yet, and am mostly in one piece, despite being hit by a car, among other things! It was a friend's car - she somehow managed to back into me and wedge me between her car and another parked car. some damage done, but nothing that is slowing me down much.

Lots of other dramas in thge last few days... got lost trying to find the hotel, finally found the 'hotel' after taking an unintended scenic walking tour of the local area. the place is still being renovated - definitely a work in progress. given all the issues, its still pretty much what i need - a place to crash at the end of the day. Lots of other cool travel stories, but they can wait til later.

Working out where to go tomorrow at the moment - will probably head up to the malaysian island of tioman as planned for some serious down time, but it all depends on how arrangements work out. the guy i'm with at the moment is due to fly to hong kong tomorrow but is having second thoughts because of the histeria around the flu, so things may change.

time to get back out there - just checked dtaf website, and they say its still ok for me to bumb around on the island of tioman for a few days, so its go go go!



1st mass email update:

Is it too soon for a first update? Probably, but hey, I've got some time on
my hands, so here goes.

I'm currently sitting in a giant internet cafe in London, about to fly out to
Belfast to tour Northern Ireland for a couple of weeks. It seems like all I've
been doing over the last few days is traveling and sleeping! I arrived in London
Thursday morning, after a 29 hour journey from the island of Tioman on Malaysia's
East coast to London. Not a bad journey - I travelled by foot, boat, bus, train,
plane and then finally by car. All I was missing was the elephant and the hot
air balloon!

The last week has been great - mad, but great. I'm battered, bruised and burnt,
but I've loved (almost) every minute of it. Just by chance, a guy that I went
to highschool with (Simon Bills, for the Pembroke crew) was on the same fight
out of Adelaide to Singapore. We ended up running around Singapore for a couple
of days, which was pretty cool. I spent a couple of fun days in Singapore,
caught up with some old friends, saw the sights, enjoyed the food, and even
managed to get hit by a car (which was being driven by one of the afforementioned
friends - nice of her, huh?) Not much damage done, just a nice big bruise and
a story to tell. After a couple of days Simon and I parted company - he headed
off to Hong Kong, and I headed up to Tioman. Its a great place, kind of like
Langkowie, but much cheaper. The whole place was really quiet (as was Singapore,
in fact), I guess because of the war and the asian flu. Whatever the reasons,
it was just what I was after - total relaxation time. I've just spent 3 days
lazing around on a beautiful white beach, snorkeling over coral reefs teeming
with colourful fish, and generally winding down. When I get around to it I'll
scan in some of my photos - they're amazing.

Anyway, almost time to move on... the train I need to catch to the airport leaves
in about half an hour. Belfast soon, then Istanbul. Bring it on!

Keep the emails coming guys! Its nice to know whats going on back home.

Cheers for now,
Chris

The World Clock (custom version)

i spat the dummy at work this afternoon. didn't want to be in here on a saturday afternoon, so I did a runner. its a saturday night now, about 10.30 (yeah, I know - the time log on the post is wrong). i've just been out for dinner, and I felt guilty about not getting an engagement finished earlier today, so I ended up back at the office to get it done by the monday deadline.

i've already quit. I shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't care.

and I shouldn't be writing this - I should just get the job done so I can go home

12 more sleeps.

8 school days to go. there is no way I'll get everything done - work stuff or personal stuff. not a good result.

i hate my job some days, i really do. 12 days to go. and counting.

ok, this is it - no more messing around with format, content, etc...

so this is my blogger. its a site I plan to maintain as a central link to my photos, and to (maybe!) keep a bit of a travel diary running. hopefully I'll keep it up to date, but knowing me....

ok... this is where I chuck down my favourites list so that I can grab everything easily. don't mind me.... once I get the other pages up and running I'll get them off here....

Savings and Loans
Citibank
Striptease Comics
Sinfest
Everything Jake
SA Central
Triple J
Nashy's Spot
Blogger
AFL
1st Contact
Paddy Wagon Tours
Shamrocker Tours
Red Hot Chili Peppers
ATO
ICAA
Chariot Web Mail
OPSM Direct
ASIA Travel
ninemsn
The Australian

welcome!