Blog

Today we get a private tour to the handicraft villages in Chiang Mai.  Our guide has forgotten us so the hotel rings him for us.  Works out well as it gives us some time to grab breakfast.  There’s somethig wrong … Continued

We get up pretty early for a huge breakfast..we’re talking a whole watermelone, 3/4 loaf of bread + a huge dish of something else…my foot is so sore (I can hear my Mum saying “why do you play those silly games?”) … Continued

We get up and are met with breakfast…too much food again…won’t be complaining about being hungry.  So today we go to see a tribal elder, a cave (no crawling this time) and sleep in the Karen village. We meet our guides … Continued

So this morning we get picked up for the start of our 3 day jungle trek. It’s raining so we’ll be needing our raincoats…So after a 1 1/2 hr drive to Chiag Dao Nest we get our brekkie and organise our … Continued

While at the cooking course i went to show some monkey pics…but couldn’t find them.  On closer inspection all the pics from Wednesday – monkeys, and night pics of ruins are gone!    I’m hoping they’re in a directory and … Continued

Today we learn how to cook.  We get picked up and taken to the cooking school.  We are joined by 2 Brittish boys.  So after choosing the dishes we want to eat, our instructor takes us to the market to … Continued

So we try to sleep in, but someone calls us like 6 times at 5am..grr.  We pack up our stuff, have a late breakfast, grab out stuff from the safe, jump on the internet and check out.  Our “limo driver” … Continued

So we skip out on Bangkok and stay in Ayuttaya tonight.  We have some dinner and about 8:20pm we wander out to grab a tuk-tuk to take us to the temples to take some night pics. The driver tells us … Continued

Michelle and Ewa recommended going to Lop buri – 1 hr north on the train from Ayutthaya.  I love monkies so off we went.  We’re running late for the 8:37 train and there’s no tuk-tuk in sight.  We arrive at … Continued

After the excitement of a new baby elephant last night everyone slept in.  So with nobody in sight I did a bit of a wander around the camp.  It’s raining today so the day spot for the elephants has turned … Continued

We get some news that one of the mother’s could give birth tonight!  It could be soon…or hours.  John and I decide to stay up and wait.  It’s not too long (not sure if it was just before or after … Continued

The director of Elephant Stay also owns a boat the cruises up the river in Ayutthaya.  Tonight we are priveleged to be invited to go to dinner on the boat.  So we all pile into 2 cars and head off. … Continued

Here at Elephant Stay the have had 9 babies in 2 years…now that’s a lot of little elephants.  They’ve currently got a 2 week old and a 1 day old.  The 2 week old is getting quite boisterous and runs … Continued

Joe from Aussie Dog toys has come to ElephantStay to fit some elephant shoes.  Odd you might think…but elephants need their feet protected too.  The slight complication is the elephant whose shoes need to be fitted is in musk and … Continued

Today was the start of our 3 day elephant experience at elephantstay. So for 3 days we get to look after – ride, scrub, wash, feed, walk etc. our own elephant (we’re sharing one which works out well as one … Continued

So we get a cab to the train station and a quick lesson on how to prounouce Ayutthaya. Helpful person #3 tells us where to go to buy the ticket and what platform to go to.  Our train tickets are … Continued

So we get up pretty early cause at 7am it feels like 10am and pack up our stuff ready to stash our bags for the day.  Go to put my Bangkok Lonely Planet in my shoulder bag and can’t find … Continued

So we arrived at the airport just over 3hrs early in hope of securing ourselves a decent seat.  When we found Thai airways we were met with a very long queue and came to the realisation that we were probably … Continued

My gen3 Ipod has served me well on many a long plane trip across the world or within Australia but after several years the battery has lost it lifespan. I had simply assumed it would spend the rest of it … Continued

Ok..couldn’t help myself…we did a dash to the Gold Coast to grab me a new 70-200 f4L IS lens for the trip. It’s really light and really sharp.  Took a quick snap of the dog at ISO800 and still very … Continued

We just came back from a weekend in Canberra where i took the opportunity to take some pics in the little spare time we had.  As the Sunday was very grey it showed up lots of “spots” in the some … Continued

 For anyone who cares…we’re off to Thailand for 2 weeks on Friday.  When and if we get to and internet cafe or two we’ll be posting our adventrues here…so stay tuned. Our itinery is posted earlier here.  If you’re only … Continued

In preparation for our recent presentation on Virtual Earth I made a few “backup videos” of the demos we were going to show.  We’ve tried a few different screen capture tools before and most of them seemed to kill your pc … Continued

We did our presentation of Virtual Earth for Scalable Applications last night.  John spoke tirelessly for 1.5 hours and we only had a few minor glitches and even had an internet connection so we didn’t need the “backup video demos” … Continued

Video: The 10min Map

We just got back from Age of User Experience Brisbane session.  It was great to see an event in Brisbane.  Overall, I found the session disappointing..felt like it hadn’t been properly prepared and parts of it seemed like it hadn’t … Continued

Just sitting here looking at my injuries from my “fun” activities for the week…and realised how we simply accept them and think no more of it.  If i got the same injuries at work…would I be so forgiving…don’t think so… I … Continued

Trip To Thailand – Plans for far Date Details 27 April Flight: Thai Airways TG984 Depart Brisbane  15:20 Arrive Bangkok 21:40   Hotel: Trang Hotel Bangkok 99/1 Wisutkasart Road Bangkok 10200 +66 228114023 28 April Walking Tour pg 116 Wat … Continued

The other day I wrote about my new toy – LED tap light and promised some pics.  So here it is…isn’t it cool .  Unfortunatly, it’s probably a water wasting device…since you just look for an excuse to use the … Continued

I signed up for Cluster Maps the other day and put it on our blog page.  Ever since I seem to find myself checking on the progress of the little dots each day, to see if they’ve changed and grown. … Continued