To make my life easier, and possibly yours, these notes are listed in reverse-date order with the latest notation at the top.  If you haven't read any of them yet, start at the bottom and work your way up.  From then on you can just read the latest one(s) at the top.
 

• Cambodia does not have Banking Machines.

• ALWAYS verify ALL the notations on a Visa that you get to travel to another country.  What you pay for is not always what you get.  In Kuala Lumpur, I paid the Thai Consulate for a two month Visa to Thailand.  When I left Thailand I was informed by an Immigration Officer that they had only given me a one month transit visa.  That visa is usually free on entry to the country.

• The fine for overstaying your Visa in Thailand is 200 baht per day.  Approximately $6 Canadian.

• I don't do stairs... at least those at the upper level of Angkor Wat.  If you've been there, you'll know why.  I got vertigo just looking UP the steps.  There were some pretty scared looking folks on that stairway.

• Tuk tuk, motorcycle, and taxi drivers in Thailand go to the same driving school as those in Indonesia.  They are firm believers in, and practitioners of, the "no space is too small to squeeze through" philosophy of driving.

• Schools classes in Bangkok get off to an early 7:30am start.  And they start with loud, and I do mean LOUD, outdoor assembly.  There's the school song, the National Anthem, an assortment of out-of-tune choral renditions, loud banging of drums, and sometimes, if we're lucky, counting from one to ten.

• We have many wonderful, concerned friends.  Thank you to all of you who have e-mailed asking if we are OK after the tsunami.  Also thank you to those who may not have fired off an e-mail, but were concerned none-the-less.  It is lovely to know you care.  Bless you.

• Just because you are in a hot country, it doesn't mean you won't catch a cold.

• Everyone in Kuching loves to pose for a photo.

• Getting a taxi can be a difficult chore in some Asian countries.  In both Brunei and Kuching, you have to call for a taxi.  That may not sound difficult, but if you don't have a cell/mobile phone and don't know a taxi number, you are out of luck.

• Finding a restaurant with a no smoking area in Bandar Seri Begawan is not a problem. Every restaurant we have been in so far is totally non-smoking, a very pleasant change from Bali. Outdoor patios, though, are smoking areas. Shucks.

• If the Western perception of safe clearance when driving is one meter or one yard, then the Balinese perception of safe clearance when driving is about one inch, or, "a miss is as good as a mile".

• Getting ahead in Bali means:

  - don't stop if the light is red, unless you really want to;
  - driving on the shoulder of the road to get to the front of the line at a stoplight;
  - if you think you've got a chance, squeeze through.

• Balinese drivers are gila (Indonesian for "crazy").  They drive when, where, and as fast as they please.  Red lights and stop signs are ignored when it suits.

• The Indonesian government discourages tourism in Bali - entrance fees; exit fees; overstay fines; failure to put money into Bali's infrastructure, i.e. road and sidewalk maintenance, temple upkeep...

• Four people really can fit on one motorcycle. 

• Actually, you can carry on a motorbike anything you can lift, or anything that someone can hand to you when you are on your bike.  Size is not important, apparently.

• 33 year olds like to be 'on the go' more than 58 year olds.

• Inika likes monkeys about as much as she likes spiders.

• A hiking stick can provide physical and moral support, and a dash of courage, when walking in the company of monkeys.

• It feels good to release a tiny turtle back into the sea.  Inika and I set 3 month old turtles free into the sea at Pemuteran in Bali's north.

• Balinese drivers don't stop at red lights unless they feel like it.

• Fifty little Balinese kids at a 7 year old's birthday party make about half the noise of fifty little Canadian kids at a 7 year old's birthday party.

• In Bali, McDonalds children's Happy Meals do not contain hamburgers or chips.  They contain rice shaped and packaged like little burgers.

• Doug likes Bali only marginally better than he likes curry.

• Joanie is the official spider killer in the family.  Both Inika and Doug shout for the executioner when faced with a spider of any significant size.

• If you go to Bali, you will get Bali Belly... at least once.

• Never, never, consider driving a bicycle or motorbike in Ubud, unless you have a death wish.  Your wish might be granted sooner than you like.

• There are more taxi drivers in Ubud than there are ducks.  OK, OK... that may be a slight exaggeration.

• There is one taxi driver for every tourist in Ubud.

• There are as many artists in Ubud as there are taxi drivers.

• I enjoy eating snails as much as the ducks do in the rice paddies beside our hotel.

• There is actually a restaurant in South East Asia with a "no smoking" area.  It's called "Lamak" on Monkey Forest Road in Ubud Bali.  It's up-market and it's good.

• Darwin is a jumping off place for other destinations, not a destination in itself.  All of the big sites are far from the city.

• Qantas seating is more cramped and has less leg room than other airlines.  Aircalain is much better.

• Digital cameras cannot be used during take off and landing.  Supposedly, they can interfere with the navigation of the airplane just like other digital devices like phones, games, and computers.

• When flying, the minute food is served there will be turbulence.

• Mad dogs, Englishmen, and mad travellers on their last day in a new place, go out in the midday sun. 

• New Caledonia is hot when it's not raining.

• Beds are often too short, too long, too hard, or too lumpy.

• There's a new elevator in our hotel in Noumea.  It's manufactured by a company called Schindler.  It's "Schindler's Lift".

• Toilets everywhere in the Pacific Islands were in good, clean condition.  Even in remote locations.

• There will always be a toilet with no toilet paper.

• You will not notice until it is too late.

• Many of the Pacific Islands are infested with roosters.

• Roosters are a bigger problem than cockroaches.  Cockroaches don't crow at 4:00 in the morning.

• You can't kill a 6" (15cm) centipede with a fly swatter.

• The best place to sit in a Twin Otter is at the back.  There's more leg room there.

• The worst place to sit in a Twin Otter is anywhere else.

• Tongans are roughly twice the size of a seat on a Twin Otter.

• My legs are too short for climbing around ruins and getting onto the first step of airplanes.

• My legs are just the right length for a Twin Otter.

• Doug's legs are four inches too long for a Twin Otter.

• Doug has no desire to climb around ruins.

• The French have a way of making big problems out of little ones.

• You'll wait a long time for a taxi on Wallis Island.  They don't have any.

• Doug hates cockroaches even more than he hates curry.

• Samoans have the longest thigh bones of any people.

• Samoan dogs bite.

• Dead molluscs really, really, stink.

• If you drop a seed the size of an acorn into a blow hole on Hiva Oa, it will shoot back out 3 m. into the air.

• If you drop a coconut shell into a blow hole on Samoa, it will shoot back out 10 m into the air.

• Everyone knows Celine Dion.

• American Samoa is more American than Samoan.

• Cockroaches eat their dead.

• There are no "no smoking" areas in the Pacific.

• You can't buy a lens cap in the Pacific Islands.

• A big camera lens attracts men.

• Kids everywhere love dumb jokes.

• Doug knows more dumb jokes than anyone I know.

• Breakfast at a resort in Moorea costs more than dinner at a reasonable restaurant in Canada.

• You can't avoid digestive upsets.

• Fresh fruit is hard to find in the Pacific in August and September.

• It is possible to get tired of drinking Coca Cola.

• Clean clothes come at a high price... up to $35 or $40 per washing.

• Our standards are higher than we thought.

• Children and teenagers are more polite and respectful in the Pacific.

• If you are checking into a small hotel with a heavy suitcase, your room will always be on the top floor.  There will be no elevator.

• You can buy great baguettes in New Caledonia

• They grow great coffee in New Caledonia... Cafe des Isles, Black Label.

• When you go east over the international dateline you get to do the day all over again.

• When you go west over the international dateline you lose a day completely.  I think it goes to the same place that single socks go to when they disappear from the laundry.

• Keeping this web site up to date while travelling is a lot of work, and having poor or no Internet access doesn't help.