Tripping Out Alone

  I’m fragile, but if I don’t eat I feel well enough to join my friends Joe and Nee on our planned Christmas Day Trip .  We head out to the north west to a temple from 1816 that was designed to incorporate lessons learned from French colonial architecture and designs from Buddhist temples elsewhere. Unusually the Buddha rides an elephant, this reflects the habit of the original Abbot to go about atop an elephant. Goats run around the grounds, no elephants are left. The area was heavily bombed during the war as it formed part of the Ho Chi Min trail and the destruction was profound. While the temple avoided damage the population of monks became depleted as people became isolated. The road, once you turn off the highway is dotted with potholes and the narrow bridges over the low lying ponds and streams are one way two planks . Amazingly we drove out there in an EV taxi a tiny thing that did a superb job, and who’s female driver only had to stop once on our return trip to charge ...

 DMK no delay, Air Asia tucked in the middle seat up the back barely noticing the hour go by. Met on arrival and whizzed expertly and safely through the night by Mr Nipon and his fast car.  All border crossings in order and arrived in Suvannakhet to twinkling lights on the mighty Mekong. Arrived in one piece and slowly proceeded to fall apart from the inside out. It was obvious the next morning I needed to be in hospital so a kind man from the hotel drove me to the Provincial Hospital where I received immediate and excellent care.  Delightful doctors hooked me up to IV rehydration and anti nausea fluids and I gave up trying to pretend I felt anything but absolutely wrecked. That in itself was something of a relief too. And I slept. And slept until they said that I’d be ok to go. And the kind man turned up, unbidden and brought me back with my bag of medication and rehydration salts. And it was Christmas Eve and everything was very peaceful and quiet. 

It’s a good concept , to hop around South East Asia like this, however not having a private plane presents problems, namely, airport queues, check in three hours before flight , visa on arrival queues and then a massive walk to your bags and a massive walk to the taxi stand. That turns  a short flight into a day of travel, exhausting but I’m now in Bangkok.  So on Sunday there was breakfast at Crumb and Coaster in Kuta, something unidentifiable on the plane, which I only ate a mouthful of and some very nice fresh Vietnamese spring rolls at Maison Saigon after arrival. Yet somewhere in there lurked a vile and aggressive organism that has spent the last 24 hours turning my insides inside out. Not much to say about that.  I’m off to Laos today , fragile and tired but not defeated. 

I did comment that you can’t recreate the past, but you can catch up wth it. A turn of events after ruminating in the depths of Kuta decay led me to accept an invitation to a beautiful occasion, the BIASA Fashion collection trunk show, held at their flagship store in Seminyak. Dressed in white linen I stepped into a world of elegance, charm and surprises.  One of the first of those was meeting an ex-student, now a global modelling sensation living in New York, and her mother a talented photographer living here in Bali. Old friends, familiar faces and that special element that creates comfort, welcoming ambience and connection, how ever light or brief.  Later, in the evening Edward and I headed over to the newly refurbished The Orchard , that used to be a pub with live music that supported local musicians to perform original music to a well mixed crowd. It’s bigger, it’s air conditioned and people smoke inside. This makes your clothes smell. The Hydrant were playing their Elvis...

 December and January I am tripping out on my own again, I have made plans, let's see what happens with that. Bali, Bangkok, Suvannakhet, Varuna Royal Yacht Club, Hua Hin, Butterworth, Ipo, Cameron Highlands and Penang before back to Bali and a return to Darwin for the start of the school year. I have bought a particular suitcase, a particular brand and it comes in a particular size that I can muster on to planes, trains and what ever form of transport required to get me to all these places.  I am on a mission to connect with friends living or staying at these destinations and it feels like I am emerging again into a globally connected being.  I got this message from the suitcase manufacturer, and they are going to share a part of the journey  as I add images and short notes to my Instagram kaytype account. I think that is what happened to the blogging, instagram made it photo based and comments were short, which was great for all the adventures I have had in the com...

 Hands by Kepsibel , This is the Happy New Year card for this year and formed part of the work from Kepsi's graduate show at RMIT and now at All the Very Best Art Gallery in Abbottsford in Melbourne. I've included it in this blog as Kepsi is now an honours graduate and tripping out alone in her own style. 

 December 9th 2025 Yeah, I have finished out my first entire year living as an Australian Citizen, and as a permanent employee at the Department of Education, NT. I have an apartment near the famed Nightcliff Foreshore, I drive a car to work and I exercise regularly. That's so grown up!  I'm off to four countries, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos and Malaysia to catch up with friends living in South East Asia and making the effort to get out and about in a region of the world I truly enjoy being in. And I am on my own again, travelling solo, open to adventure, facing the fear of flying through the therapy of constant exposure and enjoying the luxury of taking trains.  I have a great book to read "In the Green Heart" by Richard Lloyd Parry and a copy of Tourmaline by Randolph Stowe. I am also attempting to travel very light with only carry on from Indonesia on, that's because I need to take 2 k of cheese to Bali and some items for the house in Pupuan. This is just the beg...

 Deciding to remain in Yirrkala due to my recovery from a fall despite the world opening up around me and family and friends visiting many of my favourite places has given me time to sort through the images of travel that are filed away under various platforms such as facebook, external hard drives and Google photos.  Looking at these collections it could seem that nothing existed prior to facebook, or before I got my first smart phone. Somewhere along the digital path some crumbs of travel have gone missing somewhere.  Similar to the trip I took to India in 1988 when none of the films I shot developed properly.  As I began to go through the files, the back ups and the duplicates I thought it might be useful, to me to create a list of my travels to be able to better arrange the storage. That then begs the question why, why file and formalise the memories and contain them in photos?  Will they help me remember, I don't think so, will they make me nostalgic, maybe...

I headed out at the end of June to visit family and friends in Europe for a ridiculously short trip of ten days - it involved a stop over in Bangkok on the way to catch up with friends, two days in Paris, four in my 'home' town of Caversham and three in London...and then back to Bangkok. I flew Gulf Air and while not a fancy as Emirates it got me there, and back to Bangkok without problems. My only advice would be not to book the gluten free meals, they are far too weird.