Tripping Out Alone

June 2016 Cheating a bit.  I wrote this trip up for Gaia Discovery and have copied the piece here with some additions that are more personal: After an arduous and extended journey of delays, technical problems and missed connections I stumbled into a smoky Medan bar in the middle of Ramadan to be greeted with beer. What a relief!  Here in the esteemed company of some true leaders in worldwide environmental protection, people with victories under their belts and lifetime’s of experience, I sat to gather myself and enjoy the beer but before a moment has passed a challenge was issued: “Why are you going to take a bunch of kids into the forest, why not just leave the animals alone and watch a program about it on tv?”  No names obviously, but these were real experts in their field, worn out and feeling cynical at the end of a hard week's negotiations, of battling to save what may not be salvageable, grinding against the deal that we have made to bring kids in to ...

Sunday January 17th Back in Bali and it is so so hot, the rains have not come and the phrase "When it get's a bit cooler.." is redundant, I have had to get up at four am to get anything reasonable achieved. Looking back over the last month  I have had many interesting encounters, some of which are playing out now in the work that lies ahead in organising the October Youth Conference. Travelling alone, but still connected, allows for these seemingly random but not entirely coincidental meetings to happen as friends of friends and small circles of like minded people are bound to collide at some point. It was so wonderful to come back to Bali and hang out in Ubud with friends and family. Bangkok - reboot Saturday to Thursday Literally reboot ! I got to the park and worked out, I ate my favourite foods and I went to the gym. On Monday I went twice, I do not know why, it meant I did 200 sit ups and two hours of kicking and punching, it made me feel very good. I went...