Validation, Baby.

Validation

First things first. I got promoted! Woohoo! I can't describe the feeling at the moment. I've gone from a graduate to an analyst which happens automatically as you complete one year of work. But my first promotion, which i had to work for is to go from analyst to senior analyst. So now I'm a senior analyst!

It's my first promotion and it feels fantastic. There was some minor controversy over my promotion as they left me off the promotions list. My heart sank. However, I was reassured that it was an admin error and they made a special announcement to correct that. I tell you right now, it was one of the lowest points in my life.

For me it was more relief than anything when they told me. I've kinda known for a while that I was getting promoted, so its not a shock to the system. When I heard those words "You've been promoted", a wave of relief and emotion hit me. I just can't explain the feeling. It was more validation, of everything I've worked for in the past 2.5 years in my job.

All those hours I stayed back in the office, late at night finishing those projects. Checking the emails on the weekend. Helping out wherever I was needed. Going from knowing jack squat to becoming an expert in certain areas. You know your good at your job, when you can clearly explain things to people that are new to the job. When you can answer every question because you've been through it. From all the praises and criticisms that people heaped on me leading up to it, its been worth it.

I was always confident in my ability and in the last 12 months, its taken a phenemonal leap. I feel like I accelerated quite quickly in the last 6 months, and my confidence is higher than ever before. Not only do I feel like I'm capable but other people believe that I'm capable. And I'm recognised for my ability now.

Validation, baby. That's all I can say.

I'm facebooking, goodlooking!

Is the whole world on Facebook now? I discovered Facebook two weeks ago, and its so addictive. What is facebook? It's similar to Myspace, LinkedIn and Friendster, and Bebo. Still no idea! Well its social networking via the internet.

Facebook or Myspace gives you your own space on the internet. Kinda like this blog. What is good about it, is that it allows you to connect to other people. You can customise your page, add friends and share pictures and lists.

Most importantly, its allows you to see who your friends friends are! That is the key factor for me. The excitement of saying "you know that person too?!" I'd better add him. It's all about discovering who is connected to who. When I first joined facebook, I spent two whole nights "facebooking" - going through my friend's lists and adding in everyone I knew. In two days, I had added 75 friends!

I honestly believe that Facebook has overtaken Myspace. In fact, I dont even look at my own Myspace anymore! I log onto facebook two or three times a day. It's so easy to share photos and provide comments on other people's photos.

Facebook is the future. Make sure you jump on board!

I'm out like facebooking,

DJ Ho.

There's gonna be some changes........

I have decided that there's gonna be some changes in my life. Some things that I need to do.

For one thing, I got the travel bug. Ever since I went travelling to Vietnam and Thailand, I met heaps of interesting people. Young and old that were travelling for 5, 6, or 7 months. I gotta do it. Tim, a close friend just came back from a year of travelling.

I went to the travel agent, and inquired about a round the world ticket. no definite plans yet, but i want to go travelling for 3 - 5 months.

The places I want to go to?

India
Cambodia
Europe - London, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, etc...!
Dubai
US - New York, Washington, LA, San Francisco.

Lately, i've been reading a lot about demographics and about these various
countries.

Check the 7 star hotel in dubai.



I'm out like the travel bug,

DJ Ho.

I'm the greatest........

My man Aries Spears delivers another classic clip. Check it:



I'm out like being the greatest

The extent of my photoshop skills........

You are my solace

Everytime something sad has happened in my life, you were there for me. Everytime i needed comfort, I turned to you. When I'm there you, you take me to a place of solace. I can forget all the worries of the world. I forget about my job, my relationships, my friends, my family. All the troubles go away.

When I broke up with my girlfriend, I immediately sought your help. When I struggled with my job four years ago, I turned to you and you made it go away. After every exam, I played basketball to free my mind. When I needed you yesterday, I turned to you.

Basketball, you are my solace.

You are my comfort.

You are my rock.

When I'm there, I can be by myself. I can shoot around for hours. Pretending that I'm Michael Jordan in game 5 of the NBA finals. Or I am Kevin Garnett, 7 foot tall and unstoppable. Or I can play with 7 random other strangers in a game of pick up basketball.

I love you basketball, because you gave me a place to belong. A place to go when I needed peace. When the noises of the outside world became too deafening. When I needed to think and reflect. You've brought so much joy to my life. I've met you when I was 12, and I've never let you go.

Every day I would check up on you, to see the latest scores. To see the latest news. To hear what happened, to hear the dramas and the highlights. You were larger than life. You included me and you made me prove myself. You gave me something to look forward to on the weekends. If I look at my best friends, there is one thing we have in common.

A common thread that runs through all of us. Its basketball.

Basketball, you are my solace.

Take me to that place again.

DJ Ho.

Only in Bankstown

Last Saturday, Marie and I went to Bankstown Square. We are locals, so we are no strangers to the area. However, last Saturday had a few interesting incidents I hadn't seen before.

No Man's Land

Normally, I find carparking at any shopping centre a bitch. Especially on Saturday daytime. There always more cars than carspaces. So we're doing the usual thing, and doing laps of the car park in the hopes of finding that elusive white unicorn - a car space!

Marie's driving and slows down to turn the corner. Our car stops cause we are stuck in traffic. In the corner of my eye, I see two cars stopped in the middle of the car park - they are both facing opposite directions. The two drivers have come out of the car and appear to be exchanging pleasantries. I can't hear what they are saying, but it looks a lil animated.

There's a young blond Aussie guy of normal size arguing. On the other side is a Middle Eastern guy, who is stocky with broad shoulders and looks built. He has sun glasses on (an important fact!). I'm not sure what they are arguing about, but I believe they have either crashed cars or its over a car parking space.

Curious by nature, we continue to watch.

Out of nowhere, the Aussie guy shoves the Middle Eastern gentleman with a full two handed push. Suprisingly he doesn't react immediately. He calmly turns around, takes off his sunglasses and throws them through the rear window of his car. Then I know its on! I mean who wants to damage expensive sunglasses? He has that look in his face like he's about to rip a kebab in half.

The Middle Eastern guy walks up to the Aussie dude, and returns the favour with a two handed shove. Winds up the right hand and gives him the biggest bitch slap I have ever seen. But wait, there's more!

Just like E-Honda in Streetfighter 2, he unleashes the 1000 hand slap. Well its really like 5 or 6 punches in succession.


The Aussie responds and starts throwing out haymakers. The Middle Eastern equivalent of E-Honda continually forces the Aussie back with a flurry of punches until he is up against the open car door. I can only see the fight ending one way, as E-Honda has too much aggression & size and the Aussie guy is giving up too much in weight.

So I undid my seatbelt and opened the car door and was determined to step out and stop the fight before the Aussie guy gets knocked unconscious. Marie says to me "it's not your fight". Then simultaneously, E-Honda's wife steps out the car looking concerned. The Aussie guy has a mate who also steps out. For some reason, a moment of clarity strikes both parties. E-Honda backs away and the Aussie guy's mate grabs the Aussie guy and they walk away. Both cars speed off.

Then I calmly directed Marie to take the disputed car space.

Clearly, a win-win situation for all.


All purpose Hijab



The second interesting thing occured in the big park next door to Bankstown Square. Marie and I are walking around and stop at a nearby cafe. I see this girl walk out of a building, wearing a Hijab. If your not familiar with it, its like a cloth that Muslim women put around their head. This is normal to see anywhere especially in Bankstown.

This girl was talking on her mobile phone on a flip phone. Something like this:


What really caught my eye was the fact that she wasn't using her hands. Then it occurred to me that there was something unusual about this scenario. The top of the phone was actually shoved into the Hijab! Tucked in so she didn't have to use her hands. The bottom part was next to her mouth. Ladies and gentleman, it appears that we have discovered the latest invention in Bankstown:

The Hands Free Hijab.

Coming to a store near you! Marie was laughing her head off so I told her to shutup. When we turned the corner, we just burst out laughing.

And that concludes my Saturday at Bankstown Square. Only in Bankstown folks.

I'm out like fighting E-Honda,

DJ Ho.

Ultimate warriors! Golden State Rules!

The Golden State Warriors just crushed the Dallas Mavericks! How awesome! Bringing back some life to the Bay Area. I love it how the underdogs came out on top and just outgunned the Mavs. B-Diddy, S-Jack, Matt Barnes, Biederins, were just too much for the Mavs to handle. Run and gun all day baby! Bring back Run TMC!

I've included another pic of the Ultimate Warrior for your viewing pleasure.


I'm out like the Mavs,

DJ Ho.

I'm the proud owner of................

I was looking around for a leather shoe to go clubbing - to get into those fancy places that don't let you wear sneakers. So I went shopping and basically gave up on the snakeskin, tortiose shell, half brown leather shoes. Fell back into my comfort zone and started looking for sneakers.

Lo and behold, in Footlocker they had the new NBA adidas superstar series which were the subject of a previous post. They are going for $160 AUD, a hefty price tag, but I had to have one. They've only got Celtics, Pistons, Bulls and Spurs so far. In the next couple of weeks, they'll hvae the other teams. So i may end up with a New York Knicks one too!

I'm out like NBA Adidas Superstars,

DJ Ho.

The right/wrong to bear arms?

It's wrong to bear arms

April 22, 2007 12:25pm

FOR two months, a couple of years ago, my family and I lived in Virginia in the US.

It was an outer suburb of Washington, really, but very much part of Virginia, the state whose gun laws allowed Cho Seung-Hui to buy a 9mm Glock handgun and kill 30 people at Virginia Tech.

Most weekdays and every weekend, my wife and I would go for long walks. And here's the thing: the Virginians we met were the friendliest in the world.

Not once did we walk without other walkers wishing us a nice day, a good morning, a pleasant stroll.

The paradox is that, undoubtedly, many of these kind people were gun owners.

It would be hard to find a non-American who loves America more than me. I admire its broad generosity, its voluptuous excesses, its high ideals and its immortal idealism.

But it is impossible to admire its gun culture.

The right to bear arms is enshrined in the US Constitution. The relevant provision of the Constitution actually seems to refer to the right of states to have armed forces, but it has been interpreted as meaning an individual's right to bear arms.

It is unrealistic to expect that Americans will ever give up this right. And it's not practical.

There are 300 million Americans and 250 million guns in private hands. Even if they were outlawed, you would never actually get them out of society's hands.

The most that can be hoped for is some more sensible regulation.........

There is a distinct gun culture emerging even in parts of Sydney and I suspect illegal gun ownership is far wider in Australia than we know.

Once guns penetrate a society you can't get rid of them and the international trade in illegal guns is enormous and booming.


Nonetheless, it is right that guns should be as illegal as possible in Australia so that we can retard, if not forever prevent, their spread throughout our society.

But even in America, gun control could make a much bigger contribution to reducing gun deaths.
In those situations, people deranged by anger, booze or drugs, or a combination, use anything that comes to hand - fists, a piece of furniture, sometimes a knife. If a gun is at hand it will be used.

Making it less likely that a gun will be at hand reduces the deadliness when a person lashes out.

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DJ Ho Commentary

This is the 4 straight post i've done with a violence theme. Unfortunately this is the world we are living in right now. Where psychotic students gun down fellow students. Where arguments are resolved by staring down the barrel of a gun.

The profileration of guns in America is a ticking time bomb. Don't they ever do background checks on these people? Why is there a right to bear arms in America? It's a very simple formula: More guns = more deaths.


If there is a gun around, there is the potential for it to be used. Incidents like Virginia Tech show that there must be tighter gun control laws, not just in America but everywhere. People need to be educated about guns, and they need outlets for their frustration. Creative and non-violent outlets.

Students with a disconnect to the rest of the class, that are isolated and show mental issues need to be identified and helped at an earlier stage. Why don't they teach them conflict resolution classes? Didn't anyone ever reach out to the question mark kid? Who is selling them guns?

What a crazy world. Where 32 students can be gunned down by another student.

I'm out like gun control in the U.S,

DJ Ho.

Bad Things Come In 33

The killing of 32 people including the shooter himself at Virginia Tech was........ senseless. Shocking. Disturbing. Tragic. Sad. There is not an exact word I can use to describe it.

I'm out like the lives of innocent students @ Virginia Tech,

DJ Ho.

Update: More d*ckhead behaviour in the City

Remember my last post on violence on George St?

Well here's an update from my night out in the city on Saturday on the long weekend.

Shark Attack

After paintball on Saturday during the daytime, I chilled out at Shark Bar aka Sharkies in the city. As soon as I got there, there was massive scuffle outside between a group of lebbos and what appeared like another group.

This set the tone for the rest of the night. I must admit, Sharkies is straight up dodgy. All these gangster Asians playing pool, watching TV, trying to dance and generally acting hard. Ok, I might have known a few of them but that's not the point.

This young caucasian male came down the stairs from the Space dance party escorted by two bouncers. Blood was streaming down his face from his forehead. I was in the bathroom where he was getting cleaned up and I overheard that he needed 4 stitches.

So you want to dance/get stabbed?

We went to Pumphouse but unfortunately the line was too long. Instead, we rolled up to Martin Place Bar, which we heard over the wire was quite empty. We quickly found out why.

As I walked up to the bar, there was an ambulance on Castlereagh St. A young white male was in a stretcher. There was a massive wound on the side of his head. Blood was streaming out. His shirt was completely soaked in blood. I saw another Asian male with blood on his hands.

I heard the guy was either stabbed in the head or had a bottle cracked over his head. No wonder no one wanted to go into MPB. One of the bouncers at Red Room who I know said I could get in easy to MPB, but I was like why would I want to go into a place where someone has just been stabbed? Do I really want to dancing around the blood splatter. Plus the whole mood of the place would have changed.

Misc d*ckhead behavior

Later in the night, I was walking down george St with my brother at 3am in the morning. There were 3 or 4 police cars outside Cheers in Chinatown. I heard from a friend that another fight had occurred.

To top it off, the next day i called up my friend who informed me that upon leaving Sharkies at 4am, there was another fight outside.

Wait, there's more. Marie, who was at Pumphouse had a huge bump from guess what? Some idiot had dropped an empty glass bottle of Stollies on to her head from the second floor of Pumphouse. This was not an isolated incident because it also happened to a friend of hers.

What happened to the city? Was it just the effect of Easter and people drinking or is there something more sinister?

I'm out like peace in the City,

DJ Ho.

Is George St getting violent?

Sydney's strip of terror

By Gemma Jones and Henry Budd
April 02, 2007 12:00

Shopkeepers fed up with the sickening violence have spoken out about attacks by teenage gangs who hang around late at night.

Senior police say the strip is one of the worst in the city for alcohol-fuelled assaults because of the number of pubs, clubs and restaurants in the area.

One shop attendant, who asked not to be identified for fear of being attacked, told The Daily Telegraph that brawls and drug deals were frequent.

"Every Friday and Saturday night it's a theatre down here, you just watch the street," he said.

"After midnight, there are four or five fights every night.

"I've seen one person go around to pick the fight and when the fight starts the others jump in so you have got six or seven people on one person," he said.
"They walk up and down and bump into people on purpose to start a fight. It is getting worse."

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Incident 1: Romper Stomper

Last night outside Bar 333, I saw a guy work outta the bar with his shirt off. Now this is a upmarket joint, so I thought this was strange. Then all his mates started filing out the bar and I noticed a trickle of blood around his mouth. They started yelling and posturing and talking to the bouncers.

After 5 minutes, in the open area next to the bar, I see people running and all of a sudden there is all in brawl. I have no idea who's on who's side.

There's one guy on the ground in the fetal position while getting kicked and stomped to the head by 5 other guys. This Indian dude and another Aussie guy are both facing each other with their fists cocked and start swinging. More Aussies guys jump into the fight to pull people off the one becoming someone's doormat.

I actually walked over half for curiousty's sake but also to yell at the guys beating the hell outta the guy on the ground. I actually contemplated jumping in and trying to stop him getting knocked out. It wasn't a fair fight.

About 6 bouncers from Bar 333 run into the various fights and try to stop them. One bouncer has this guy on the ground with his arm twisted in a arm bar position and his knee to the guy's head. Another burly bouncer yells out "we've called the police". The fight gets worse as the bouncers try to break it up. This girl runs into the fracas and bitch slaps this guy. She gets shoved and punched. It's no holds barred on George St tonite!

This goes on for a good 5 minutes. Eventually the fight is broken up and everyone goes their own ways. Apparently there was these two guys with these two girls who were getting the living daylights beaten out of them. And they were still talking trash calling the guys "cowards, come back!!". To top it off, those two girls were still trying to start these guys by running after them and pushing them.

A while later, John and I decide to get some food. We walk past the big group of wankers on George St and the guy who was in the arm lock position yells at me to come here. As per usual, I ignore him and he then says to me to give him my shirt. I can see that his mate's shirt had been ripped. Of course, I wasn't going to give it to him. It's one of the my favourite shirts! So I give him the hand sign and wave him off. His other mates yells "Their Asian - triads!" and decide to leave us alone. They proceed to hassle other people for their shirts. Which I thought was quite funny.

Ah, a crazy night on George St.

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Incident 2: The Big Kahuna Burger

Last Friday, i was at Privilege and decided I needed some much needed dinner. I'm in Macdonald's @ Wynard eating my Big Mac burger. I'm all content and enjoying the calories much like Marcus eating the Big Kahuna burger in Pulp Fiction.

On the communal table, there's a young 20 year old asian guy with his girlfriend who i saw at Privilege. He's got this security pass which is tied onto a retractable string.

He suddenly thinks its a great idea to impress his gf by flicking the pass at me and it lands about 30 cms away. Like a yo-yo, he retracts it. I ignore him.

He flicks it at me again. I notice it this time and give him a dirty look.

Marie calls me and I answer the phone. I'm happily chatting to her and ignoring this dickhead. This idiot tells his girl - "maybe he'll notice it this time!" and flicks it at me again. There's only so much I can take.

So I point directly at him and tell him in a loud, slightly aggressive voice bordering on a I'll shove this Big Mac down your throat and the security pass up your ass tone "I wouldn't do that again".

His girlfriend gets concerned and tells him to stop. He also sees the wisdom in not pissing me off. Normally I'm a very calm and passive guy. But don't annoy me when I'm enjoying my big Mac.

His friends show up, a couple of asian guys and some girls. They ask me if the seat is taken and then if there;s anything wrong. I tell his stocky asian friend, your mate is pissing me off because he threw his security pass at me three times. I notice that there is 1 idiot with 3 male friends and 1 DJ Ho.

I decide to not pursue this issue, tell him that everything is cool, and call up some mates to see if they are in the area. Another little ball comes rolling my way. I suspect its from my little friend. Seeing that this guy has a brain the size of a peanut, i stay there, calmly finish eating and walk out.

There's a side of me that says that if he had thrown that security pass at me one more time, I would have run over the other side of that table and banged his head on the table like a door knob.

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Incident 3: Kebabs save the day

About a year ago, I was at George st Macdonald's near the cinema strip. I walk out at 2am in the morning and step on to the pavement. There's one guy with a hat on being pursued by 20 (yes 20 guys) that have just emerged out of Bar Ace or Maloney's. they look like a mix of people from Aussies, Wogs, Lebs. The one lone guy who looks Leb is getting punched to the head, shoved into the wall at Metro. The security at Playtime shove them away because that's their jurisdiction.

This guys is totally outnumbered and in for a massive beating. I couldn't really get a good view, and it wasn't safe to stand in front of MacDonald's. So I crossed the road and stood on the steps of Starbucks to watch it unfold. Quite sadistic actually. The one guy did the best thing he could have done: run into Ali Baba's kebabs which is next door. He had no chance of surviving. By running into the store, the attackers stop pursuing him.

But he had a brain explosion and started taunting his attackers, motioning at them to come in and fight him. So you know what they did? A couple of them started to walk up the steps and almost into the stop but were stopped by the owners of the Kebab shop. Who were more concerned about the loss of business and the potential damage to their store.

At this point, the fight was over and i climbed down from my lofty perch.

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I'm a lover not a fighter.

DJ Ho.

Y speling is o so importtant

NIT title T-shirts are almost heavun

Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia may have won the National Invitation Tournament, but the Mountaineers' commemorative T-shirts are less than championship material.

They contain a misspelling.

The "West Virginia" printed on the shirts players wore after winning the NIT title with a 78-73 victory over Clemson on Thursday night is missing the last "i" in "Virginia."

WVU sports information director Shelly Poe said the NIT printed the shirts.
Calls to tournament officials were not immediately returned Friday.

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I'm out like the "i" in Virginia,

DJ Ho

My Lil Brother busting a groove

My Brothers Keeper

G-Money: "Am I my brother's keeper?"
Nino Brown: "YES I AM!"

(Nino Brown then shoots G-Money in the head)

- From the movie New Jack City

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Last Sunday, I met up with Marie and I decided that we should watch The Bra Boys. I convinced her that it was a romantic comedy centralised around the themes of family, brotherly love and about Australian surfing culture.

No, I am kidding, of course I didn't say that!

The Bra Boys is a documentary currently showing at many of those indie type cinemas like Dendy and The Palace. The story is centered around the four Abberton Brothers - Koby, Jai, Sunny and the other one (kinda like the third tenor who know one really knows).

The primary focuses is on the suburb Maroubra and the group of people know as the "Bra Boys" which hang around Maroubra beach, which the Abberton brothers are a part of. "Bra" is short for Maroubra in case you didn;t know.

The movie does go into the world of the Bra Boys through the Abberton brothers. They are surf heads, in that their whole life is centered around surfing. Sunny and Koby compete on the world stage and the brothers travel the world looking for the best waves.

Koby Abberton - Back

However, their world comes crashing down when a violent standover man Anthony Hines threatens Jai Abberton and to rape his girlfriend. Hines pulls a gun on Jai, and in the ensuing struggle Jai manages to shoot Hines with the gun. Jai then is charged with murder and faces a maximum of 30 years jail time. Koby refuses to give evidence against his brother and to co-operate with the police and is charged as an accessory. He faces 15 years jail. If you want to know the rest, see the actual movie.....punk!

Are the Bra Boys a gang?

The doco goes to great pains to reposition the group to not be a gang.I have tried to avoid mentioning the word "gang" til now as it has negative connocations. But let's not kid ourselves here.

The Bra Boys have gotten a lot of publicitiy from fighting, rioting and the notorious incident where they fought like 100 police at the Police Xmas party. I believe and this is my own opinion, while the Bra Boys are not exactly a gang they do have gang-like elements.

They are not into committing crime like drug dealing, and shootings but the fact that they do get into terrotorial fights and the movie does also depict the Bra Boys defending their terrority against outside gangs trying to invade Maroubra in the 70's and 80's. If that is not a gang, then give me one of these "2053" Bra Boy tattoos!

That's another factor - the tattoos. if you have been a member of the Bra Boys for 5-1o years and done your time as a member, you get approval from the older boys to get a tatt. So they'll have a massive "bra boys" tatt on their back, on the familar tatt of "my brothers keeper" or the postcode of "2053".

The movie is a bit of a sellout of the Bra Boys. And they are also come up with crap about how the Bra Boys had an influence in stopping the race riots in Cronulla by meeting up with these Biker lebbos in Brighton. Apparently they reached out to their "connections" and played a role in calming down the race riots. Yeah they did a bit, but I hardly think that influenced any one.

Conclusion

Before I forget, the story is narrated by Russell "put the telephone down" Crowe. He chimes in every now and then but I'm surprised he actually took up this role. He doens't add any credibility to the movie.

The movie wasn't that fascinating and didn't really tell me anything about the Bra Boys that i didn't already know. The one good thing they had was awesome surf shots and they depict how crazy the Abberton brothers are when they surf.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10. Wait for the DVD.

I'm out like Biker Lebbos in Brighton,

DJ Ho.

This is how we roll

In the summer of 2003/2004, which some might call the summer of Jackson gate/boobgate, there were two young interns sitting next to each other in a workspace booth crammed with files, office workers rushing around them, and the constant buzz of telephone calls. These office rookies quickly became friends cause they were both freshmen, knew absolutely nothing about working, and loved to talk loudly about boob gate.

During that summer, they both worked their proverbial behinds off, ate lunch together, and knocked back countless drinks. They would even SMS each other to find out what the other was wearing to the casual friday to ensure that either of them did not turn up in an outfit unsuitable for work. At the end of that summer they parted ways, promising to keep in contact. One went back to Canberra to work for the next 3 years, and the other stayed with the company in Sydney.


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Fast forward to 2007.

My friend Gurav got a 3 month transfer to work in Sydney so I met up with him last night. We decided to meet up for a couple of drinks. He's actually originally from here but he hadn't been out in Sydney for a while. Well he hadn't been out with DJ Ho as his tour guide. So this is how DJ Ho rolls.

Here is a snapshot of the places I took him to :

1. Verandah Bar @ Martin Place: All business types inside. Nice bar but too crowded.

2. MacDonalds - pitt stop for food.

3. Ryan's Bar @ Australia square: Packed. This chick asked me to buy a drink for her friend. I was like what the ####. She accused me of knocking it over when I hadnt even walked past her. Apparently, I needed to be calmed down cause I was not cool about it. I told her to try it on the next guy in the line. In fact I wouldn't even buy her a drink under normal circumstances. I guess us Asians must all look alike :P

4. Opera Bar @ Circular Quay: $5.50 for beers on tap? I guess the view aint too bad.


5. Industrie @ Pitt St: Chilled out music but this place is too small and narrow.

6. Bar 333: This place was dead so we didn't stay there

7. Privilege @ George St: This place was going off. Played some old school classic rnb/hip hop. I got there as the place turned into a nightclub (yes!) but as the $3 drinks stopped (nooo!).

7. Bungalow 8 @ King St Wharf: Under normal circumstances I would not go to King St. This is exactly why: The small aussie bouncer introduced us to his big black "friend". The "friend" proceeds to interrogate us with "where have you been tonite? How many drinks have you had? What are you doing here?". This is the kind of attitude I don't need. Eventually we got in and paid the ridiculous prices for drinks.


8. MacDonalds for second pit stop to refuel on food

9. Cohi Bar @ Darling Harbour: This place was dead but since we had walked 20 mins to get there we stayed for a drink. Upstairs was just empty.

10. Tank nightclub @ Circular Quay: Refused entry as we didn't have stamps and the line was not moving at 1.30am in the morning. I used to walk into this place with no issues and now there is a line?

11. Pavillion Hotel: Again, this place was dead and we didn't want to get stabbed, so we quickly left.

12. Equilibrium: They were closing up so it was completely empty. Disappointing.

13. Scruffy Murphys: We got refused into this place? Are you kidding me. This is the dirtiest place on earth!

14. Paddy Maquires: Closed.

15. Harry's Hotdogs: You can always count on a Harry De Wheels Hotdog with chilli, peas, and smothered in mustard and tomato sauce to hit the spot at 2.30 in the morning.

16. 7-Eleven for a slurpie.


I'm out like introducing patrons to the big black friend,

DJ Ho.

I'm back!

I'm bringing blogging back, you fans don't know how to act


Local guide lying on his back on the elephant as it drinks water

I came back on Monday and it feels like a world away. I thought when I was travelling I would be blogging every couple of days and telling you about my trip, but you get so busy and want to do so much, you kinda neglect the blog. Well back, with a vengenance.

Chiangmai continued

The last time I updated my blog was during my first day in Chiangmai. Chiangmai was really cool. One of my favourite places on the trip. it's got this real hippy vibe to it - think of Bob Marley hairdo's, weed, hill tribe villages, and just a chilled out environment.

Highlights of Chiangmai would be the two day trek that we did in the jungle/mountains. We rode a elephant and my guide was off his nut - he was high! Smoking a joint. This guy is controlling a 3 tonne elephant and he actually fell off the elephant and rolled down this hill for about 5 metres. He was bleeding slightly but wasn't fazed and hopped back on the elephant. I'm thinking *&%^ - what kind of guide have I got? Turned out to be pretty cool experience.


Tim riding the beast

Then we trekked for 3 hours to the top of this mountain. It wasn't particularly difficult, just a lot of up hill walking, crossing over lakes and little man made bridges, around rocks. We had a pitstop at this waterfall, and I thought what the hell - I'll jump in for a quick shower - it was freezing! But refreshing.

At the top of the mountain was the Lahu village tribes people. There were dogs and chickens running riot all through this village. Really outback stuff - I had another cold shower and next door was grunting pig. A very unique experience - you know your alive when that water hits you. It was such a cool experience sitting on top of a village, getting back to basics and sleeping in a bamboo hut.

Our trekking guide was a legend - he would break out into these random laughs "ahahaha" and made the whole trip so enjoyable. He even made me a slingshot which the Australian customs people confiscated (nazi's!). We stayed up and just talked into the night and the hill tribe people played some traditional folk songs and then broke into Bob Marley "no woman no cry" and some contempoary tracks.
Left to right - young trek guide, main trek guide

Next day, we trekked for a couple more hours and then stopped for another quick dip in another waterfall. that was even more freezing! Then we went white water rafting and that was pretty cool. Our boat got caught in the rocks on a lil drop and water just kept flooding in. It was unreal experience white water rafting along the rapids of Chiangmai.

After that we hopped on some rafts made up of bamboo. Hollow logs of bamboo that were tied together! Somehow they managed to stay afloat and I actually got up and rowed/guided the boat for a bit.

If you are ever in Thailand, I highly recommend you check out Chiangmai. It was my favourite place in Thailand - better than Bangkok and Phuket. The two day trek was perfect. Average fitness is required for the trek. Get away from the heat and craziness of Bangkok, all the tourists and dirty old men in Phuket.


Julie's guesthouse - funky, cheap and excellent people. Best guesthouse in Chiangmai!

Oh, and i forgot to mention on our last night there, Tim and I went all out and feasted at this restaurant. We ordered like 5 or 6 dishes and couple of beers, attempting to spend up big in this restaurant, yet the bill only got to like 400 baht - which is $13 AUD. Ridiculous how cheap Chiangmai and Thailand is. Our accomodation at Julie's guesthouse was $2AUD a night in a dorm! Cheap as bro. We upgraded to our own room with hot showers and spent big - $3AUD a night! I've already

The only sad this about Chiangmai is that the people in the tribal village are not allowed to enter the city. If they do go to the city they will get arrested. They must remain in the village as they are nomadic people who have orginally come over the border from countries like Burma. Children under the age of 15 are allowed to have a Thai passport and can go to schools and get regular jobs.

Tourism has changed the tribal villages. They have ipods, mobiles, solar panels providing power and beer! I was initially a bit reluctant to visit them, as tourism changes their ways. Snapping pictures, pointing at them, invading their space. But on the flipside, tourism brings in money for these people and allows them to sustain a decent lifestyle and pay for things like schooling for their children. Its hard to find that balance between being a tourist and respecting their ways and letting them be. The more exposure they have to tourism and the outside world, the more their ways will change.

Oh, I love Chiangmai!

Sunrise at the top of the Lahu village

Chilling out in Halong Bay

Halong Bay, Hanoi

Hanoi and Chiangmai - No Same Same

It appears in Asia that they are obsessed with saying "same same".THey just can't say the word "same" once. Incidentally, there is a roaring trade in same same t-shirts with the tourists.

I'm currently now in an internet cafe in Chiangmai, THailand. Its in the North of Thailand, near Burma and the GOlden Triangle. I flew from Hanoi to Bangkok, then we got an overnight train to Chiangmai. I spent about 13 hours on the train and slept on a hard sleeper bunk. Its a different experience to travelling by plane or bus. Travelling by train is more comfortable and slightly more expensive than bus, and its better for your ass. COnsidering that i slipped on the stairs on a boat in Hanoi and landed on my backside.....that's another story.

I prefer train rides over buses as they are more comfortable bus also because you get to see more of the countryside. Its goes through towns, villages, nature and you get to see more of Thailand that way. Tim and I had a seat to our ourselves, and next to us was a chick from Holland. We talked to her most of the night about travelling, Europe, drugs, and even a bit about tax!~

How come How long


THe last two days, we have spent in Halong Bay which is about 4 hours from Hanoi. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world. There's about 1600 islands (yes 1600!) in this area. We took a cruise and saw all the islands. It was so peaceful and serene. It reminds me of Milford Sound, in New Zealand. WOrds cannot describe how awesome this place was.

We cruised for a while and then we went to this massive limestone cave. It was huge, like half a kilometre long. THere were heaps of stacalites hanging from the roof, it was just simply unbeileveable. Think Jenolan Caves to the power of 1,000,000.

We were supposed to go Kayaking, but the bastards running the tour ripped us off. In fact we were supposed to go to several islands and that didn't happen either. So we had to call up the Captain and complain and eventually spoke to the tour operator who then took us to an island the next day to appease the tourists. These Viets are just dodge cause they try to do the absolute minimum.

We slept over night on the boat. From time to time, these hoochie mamas on little paddle boats would come up to our big boat and try to sell us food, beer and drinks. It was fun negotiating with them. In fact, I tried a pick up line from my viet phrasebook and pointed at Tim "Can I kiss you?". She gave us the biggest cringe i've seen in my life and just paddled as fast as she could away from us. Apparently that line doens't work in Vietnam.

That night we went to the top deck of the boat and all 14 tourists sat around talking. To me that has been one of my most interestnig experiences on tour. THere was one dude, Bob who really inspired me. Just to hear everyone's travel stories and where they had been was amazing.

I so want to see the world now, as much as I can before I get too old. There's just so many places i need to see, like the Jesus statue in Rio De Janiero, the pyramids in Egypt, cross the Ocean from Antigua to Europe, the Inca Trail in Peru. I want to see India, South America, Canada and more!

Meeting all these people on my travels has really inspired me to travel even more. And i've met so many interesting and varied people from backpacking.

On the bunk below me in Hanoi, was a lawyer from Melbourne who works at Allens. I met these two Spanish guys in the door way of the hostel who work for the Spanish Consulate in HOng Kong. THis Canadian guy i had been hanging out with he's been to the Himalayas in 3 different countries in the last two years and is now studying chinese in CHina. Bob, is a private tutor in Taiwan who's been travelling for the last 30 years. On the train last night, the Holland chick just quit her Public Relations job in London to go travelling. Amazing people with amazing stories.

I'm out like no two things the same same,

DJ Ho.