Cameron Highlands

My parents came for three weeks (9 days of which I went to Germany - opps) so I got to show them some of the sights including my favourite meal - Ikan Bakar (grilled fish) from Jalan Ahlor.




















We went up to the Cameron Highlands, where we got to play with some bugs. Like the Horned beetle and Scorpions.


































My mum is holding a leaf and a insect. Can you tell which is which?

103 - 0

I have been playing rugby for the Royal Selangor Dogs in the KL Rugby Premiership. We came a unlucky second after a few dodgy calls against the National Police team from a referee whose brother was facing jail time. Then after our under strength side was mauled in the final round robin game by the eventual winners, the decision was made from high above that a grand final was not required when we could field a full strength team. Conspiracy? I think so...

But anyway the highlight of the season was being picked for a combined KL team to play the NZ Universities team. It was a very tough game against some fast, big and strong opposition. Sadly the first time we practiced as a team was that day so we were in the wrong end of a hiding. If we had a few weeks to prepare I think we could have restricted them a bit more. Anyways we never did give up and kept coming at them.

The final score 103- 0 but most of our team was still out partying when they went to bed so I am pretty sure we won overall.

















Facing the Haka was pretty cool


















Here I am in action. I only managed half a game after dislocating my thumb right on the break.

Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) Concert

While in Germany for work I saw a poster advertising Roger Waters playing live. I had always said Pink Floyd is one band I would go anywhere to see in concert, this was the next best thing.

Pigs can fly. This helium filled pig from In the Flesh did a few laps of the Arena. Clearly Roger Waters had a few political comments to make during the show.



















The concert had a pretty awesome lightshow and big screen images. The highlight being the revolving image like the Dark Side of the Moon album art and I man changing a radio station on the big screen movie as the band switched songs from Have a Cigar to Wish You Were Here.






































Seeing this band in East Germany was the probably one of the best places to be. Leipzig is where the anit-communist revolution began which led to the falling of the Berlin Wall. During Another Brick in the Wall they showed some pretty powerful images of the Berlin Wall.

Cycling in Thailand

From left to right were Pete (Aussie), me, Peter (English), Rob (Scottish), Tony (English) and Pat (Canada) who I work with.The aftermath from the Tsunami.

The staff at the airport were fairly dismayed when they saw all the gear we had.















Along many of the beaches were abandoned resorts. Patrick was in Phuket at the time. During the recovery he pulled several bodies from this swimming pool. Navy boat was washed almost 3km inland. It has been left there as a memorial.

At one point the road we were on was apparently abandoned, we pushed on but it became clear we needed MTBs. We eventually turned back when Tony, who was leading started, screaming like a girl after he rode into a Gold Orb Spider and it's web. I admit after I noticed the spider was still on his back and he asked me to get it off I politely told him to F**k off, as I was going nowhere near it. The spider was the biggest I had seen in the wild, it is next to the sunglasses in the picture below. You can see the spider web still on his helmet (it had covered his entire body and bike). The web was so strong it just peeled off his body in one piece like a blanket.

The trip was well supported with a van which continually dished out cold drinks when the temperatures started to top 40 degrees.

One of the many stalls where we bought curries for lunch and regretted it about 30 min later.

While out of the cities traffic was good, we found ourselves battling for a bit of tarmac in some of the more urban areas.

While this was meant to be a social tour any hill we encountered naturally earnt points for the King of the Mountain bragging rights. Here I am leading the boys up past some slow moving trucks.


















After a hard day on the bike we had a few well earned beers and met the locals. I am not sure if the recipient of this phone number got to experience the joy of Joy...



















One of the many fine views we had during the week. This is the waterfront in Krabi.