Cambodia

The temple at Ta Prom, Cambodia

Just for the record, I'm happy to announce that I am alive and well in Cambodia.

I'm now just over two weeks into a month long stay, and my first foray into a third world country has been an exciting, exhilerating, saddening, life-affirming, eye-opening experience.

It will take me a long to time to absorb the lessons and process the experiences this amazing country has showered on me since my arrival here. From Phnom Penh, to the amazing temples of Angkor Wat and numerous others around Siem Reap; from the eight hour boat trip across Tonle Sap Lake to Battambang, to the experiences, sights, sounds and smells I am still to encounter, this month long visit will certainly turn out to be one of the highlights of my eight month travels, and I am delighted to have added it to my itinerary.

The resilience, friendliness and hope for the future shown by even the poorest of Cambodians has been one of the greatest joys of this trip. I have much to write once I return to Australia, and literally thousands of photographs and numerous video clips to go through before I can share my observations through this blog.

Right now I am in Battambang, Cambodia's second largest city - after Phnom Penh - where I will stay four or five days, before heading down to Sihanoukville for my final major Cambodian stop. If you have ever considered visiting Cambodia, I urge you to do so as soon as practicable. I'm sure you will not be disappointed.

Hard Lessons on Hard Drives

Don't panic - have a back up plan instead...

It's like being caught in a time warp.

Back in September 2009 I wrote about a hard drive crash that wiped out gigabytes of documents, photographs, and files containing more information that any human could possibly retain in one insignificant little brain.

Now it has happened again.

My poor long suffering Sony VAIO laptop seems to have finally given up the fight, and bitten the dust once and for all. Although I have been travelling with a back up drive, I have been remiss about backing up nightly or even weekly, and now it seems several months worth of work is once again lost in cyberspace somewhere, along with all the other terrabytes of lost information from failed hard drives everywhere.

Since I am still far from home and not due to reach Australia until late February or early March, blog updates will be few and far between until I can get my laptop looked at, and (please God), fixed, or until I buy a new one.

Thanks for reading the Compleat Traveller, and stay tuned for more occasional updates from the road.

Sigh... you'd think a man would learn...

Chinese Bicycle Acrobatics

I've never been to China, but it is on my list - along with the rest of the world! The Chinese are famous for many things, not the least of which are their amazing acrobats as the following except from an acrobatics display shows. I can't even imagine the hours and hours of practice that must go into routines like the one seen here.


Did I say hours? Try years. A lot of them.


Enjoy...