The chronicles of Thomas

Photos: Hoi An

tom-raleigh — Mon, 3 May 2010 18:36:00 GMT

Photos: Nha Trang

tom-raleigh — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:24:00 GMT

Photos: Ho Chi Minh

tom-raleigh — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:30:00 GMT

Photos: Jakarta

tom-raleigh — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 00:39:00 GMT

Photos: When the venturers went

tom-raleigh — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 18:52:00 GMT

Photos: Alpha 1 kindergarten opening ceremony

tom-raleigh — Wed, 7 Apr 2010 00:36:00 GMT

Photos: Long Pasia 2

tom-raleigh — Fri, 2 Apr 2010 22:03:00 GMT

Photos: Long Pasia

tom-raleigh — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:48:00 GMT

Photos of my trip to Long Pasia to drop a new radio off for Alpha 7

Photos: Loop photos

tom-raleigh — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:26:00 GMT

Pictures from my loop around Sabah

Photos: Sepilok

tom-raleigh — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 02:10:00 GMT

Where the sun bears are

First week at fieldbase

tom-raleigh — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:40:00 GMT

My flight to KK only took twenty minutes, and I managed to get through airport security really quickly, so by the time I got out of the airport my flight had still not been scheduled to touchdown. Fortunately I didn't need to wait long to be picked up by Mac from Raleigh. It was a short drive from the airport to Fieldbase where I got to meet the rest of the advance team. I was the last there and it was getting quite late in the day, so by the time I had dumped my stuff in my room and had a quick shower it was time to head out for my first meal in KK. We went to a small place within walking distance for some roti. Apparently roti means bread, but to me it was more of a pancakey substance. The base of the food stays the same, a bit like a nan bread, but it is stuffed or cooked with a variety of sweet and savoury fillings. The food was ok. I wouldn't order it in a resturant if I had the choice, but it was interesting to try. It was also my first chance to chat to the other people. Quite a few of them had been on the previous expedition and so knew each other well already so I stuck with all the new people. After the meal we went out for a quiet drink at a local bar and then had an early night. The next few days were quite relaxed compared with what was to come. I spent my time reading the instructions given to me by the previous accountant, dealing with a few transactions, and attending various educational lectures with all the other people. In the evenings we would go to the same bar and chat. It was a really nice week. As time went on the group of people mixed and we all got on well. Mid week we all went out to the Fillopino market. This is a food market on the waterfront with loads of different types of stuff to try. There was a lot of bbq chicken and a huge amount of fresh seafood to choose from. The price of the food here is incredibly low. A plate of noodles and chicken cost less than five ringgit (just less than a pound). Generally food here is very cheap, even at branded places like McDonalds (where an extra value meal costs around GBP1.50) The atmosphere of the place was excellent and I hope to go back at some point. By the end of the week I was a little sad that all the project managers were going to be coming in country as we had all bonded and it would change our little team dynamic. The night before everyone arrived we all went out for a meal at the bar. The food wasn't great but the company was good, and it was a nice way to spend our final night as a group.

Disappointing Brunei

tom-raleigh — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:11:00 GMT

I flew into Brunei on the morning of the 12th of January. The flight had already taken sixteen hours and I was lucky enough to have a seven hour stopover there. Its a shame I didn't take any pictures of the airport because words cant express how depressing a place it was. It was tiny and brown. You could see it all in about twenty minutes if you really took your time in the two shops that were open. They were in the process of fixing the air conditioning so it was a little warm too. Fortunately the tourist board arranges free hour long tours for people on stopovers. This seemed like a good way to kill some time so I signed up for one. We had to check out our hand luggage and I've now got a Brunei stamp in my passport. The tour party has about twelve in it and we all piled into a minibus and set off. We drove us round the sights of Brunei without stopping or slowing down by the interesting bits. This made it rather difficult to take photos and so I appoligise for the poor photography. The tour was narrated by an overly upbeat tour guide whose job it was to explain why Brunei was so great. She seemed very nice, and some of the buildings were impressive, but the place all looked a bit shabby. I was expecting something a little more grand from such an oil rich state. Apparently there are more than three cars to every man woman and child, education is free and government jobs come with wonderful benefits like free houses and cars. However, to my eye all the money seems to be spent on showcase public buildings, or buildings in which the sultan uses. The rest look very ordinary by comparison. Because everyone drives we didn't really see any human activity, which made the place seem really soulless, kind of like Milton Keynes. Having rushed through the tour of the more interesting things that Brunei had to offer we then had plenty of time to spend at a food market that was in the later stages of packing up for the day. As none of the tour group planned to visit Brunei nobody had any Brunei currency to buy anything. So we all just milled around for half an hour until we could go back to the minibus. I would have gone back sooner but I was worried that the tour guide would be upset that I wasn't enjoying Brunei as much as she was. Eventually I decided to have a wonder out of the food market to see if there was anything else of interest nearby. There wasn't, but a nice man stopped his car to offer me a lift. He presumed there was something wrong because I was walking, and nobody in their right mind would walk in Brunei. Brunei as a whole was a bit like its airport. An hour was more than enough time to spend there. I killed the rest of the the time talking to my tour group until the bus headed back to the airport where I endured another two and a half hours of dullness before I boarded my plane.

Photos: Home

tom-raleigh — Thu, 7 Jan 2010 01:28:00 GMT

Where it all began