The Heart Of The Day

Met a really nice bright young Swiss guy in the breakfast room while at the Sarisanee who has been living in New Zealand. He talked up NZ and of course now I want to go there! He, a self-described punker when younger (you would never know it by looking at him) is living in Karamea on the West Coast of the South Island where apparently there is an enclave of “hippies.” Wikipedia says that in 2006 the population was 423! Wiki also says the Karamea township offers local services including a general store, supermarket, petrol pumps, information centre, cafe, hotel, camping ground, motels, backpackers and art & craft shop. Ha! Must have been written by one of those hippies!

A NZ blog says Karamea has a warm climate with over 2000 sunshine hours every year, making it the sunniest area on the West Coast. The surroundings are beautiful with the Tasman sea on one side and Kahurangi National Park – encompassing a high plateau, 15 river catchments and a long coastal strip – on the other. The park boasts stunning walks, including the Heaphy track, and mountain bike routes.

In the Oparara Valley, just north of Karamea, there are stunning caves, canyons and arches carved from the natural limestone and backed by granite ranges. A guided tour will take you to an important assemblage of bird fossils, including moa fossils, that have been found at Honeycomb Hill – a 13-kilometre labyrinth of caves.

The town sits on the estuary of the Karamea river, 100km north of Westport. A two-hour trip down the river from the gorge is a pleasant way to spend part of the day. Horticulture and dairy farming are important industries to the town.

Wonder how long they are going to keep this place a secret. Hmmmmm.

You can just imagine the look on my son Josh’s face in Hong Kong today as my chair collapsed out from under me in Las Vegas as I disappeared from view in his skype video frame! He he. Fell on my bum as he kept helplessly asking “are you alright?” Are you alright?”

On couchsurfing.com there is a thread on a forum with people talking about places they didn't like and why.  After reading a few posts, a very funny couchsurfing friend who I shall call the "Green Lady of England" finally let ... [Continue reading this entry]

Joe, a gregarious Dai tour guide who hangs out at the tourist haunts looking for business invited me to join him and his family and friends, including a young French couple, at the new BBQ restaurants on the road along ... [Continue reading this entry]

Yesterday an older woman from Ireland and I tried to find the Night Market at the end of the bridge over the Mekong River where you used to be able to get great BBQ meat cooked over coal fires. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hard to believe I was in Beijing for two weeks. But you know what they say about stinking guests if they stay too long. So today I flew to Kunming in Yunnan Province in the south ... [Continue reading this entry]

Meri and Mary Rain, volunteers at the Casa de los Amigos where Barbara and I stayed in Mexico City came to visit me this week. They were great fun and kept me company on my birthday as we sat ... [Continue reading this entry]

Watch a video with some young people who demonstrated some dance styles one night in the Zocalo.

Don't know if it's just Oaxaca or maybe it's the whole of Mexico. However, my dentist says that drivers in Oaxaca are worse than in Mexico City! But in Xalapa they were ever so polite...big fines meted out ... [Continue reading this entry]

New Luxury tax on internet usage in Thailand All internet accounts to be taxed with 970 Baht/month. ($235) Hardware dongle required for internet use BANGKOK: -- The government has announced heavy investment to upgrade Thailand's international bandwidth, but has introduced an internet tax ... [Continue reading this entry]

Found a hilarious travel article on Bootnall today about the luxury tax...or dual pricing for foreigners as it is called: The Luxury Tax - Asia, Europe, South America By: Adam Jeffries Schwartz The following is a guide to how the luxury tax is ... [Continue reading this entry]

Last week, with friends, I attended the annual San Andreas Huayapam Fiesta about 15 minutes northeast of Oaxaca City. Very well organized with a lot of people for such a small pueblo. There was a local band ... [Continue reading this entry]

It is creepy odd...the dirty war at night we don't see...the bustling life of the Zocalo by day. Monday was Mike's last day in Oaxaca. Merilla & Peter, expats from Australia, Mike and Gerardo and I met for coffee at ... [Continue reading this entry]

I am cranky this morning. I was up all night because of a very noisy wedding party in the courtyard below my apartment window. So I went to my favorite food stall in the Benito Juarez market where I ... [Continue reading this entry]

Last night I visited a gentle sincere Oaxacan family that lives about 20 minutes in the mountains northwest of the city in San Andreas Huayapam. The couple roasts fragrant locally grown coffee and delivers it to outlets all over. I ... [Continue reading this entry]

Juanita, the Mexican-American woman I met at Pachote Market, will ride down here with me in my car in September...a road trip to Las Vegas to see Greg, to Phoenix to see friends and across Texas to the border at ... [Continue reading this entry]

Took a tour of Colonial Reforma today...in the northern part of the city. Went to immigration to get my year-long visa and on the way the bus driver got into a stand-off with a car whose driver was yelling ... [Continue reading this entry]

When I was in China a couple years ago, I met a lovely British woman in her 30's using an internet next to me in the bar at the Camellia Hotel in Kunming. We have kept in touch while ... [Continue reading this entry]

At Pachote Organic Market while sampling Mezcal, an alcoholic beverage made in Oaxaca from the agave plant, I met Juanita, a lovely Mexican-American woman, who was here visiting her daughter. We connected immediately and it turns out that ... [Continue reading this entry]

Photo From "Oaxaca Noticias" Video of 4th March The local "Oaxaca Noticias" newspaper estimated 500,000 marchers at the 4th Oaxaca Megamarch...a historic event that included supporters from several neighboring states. Starting with a motorcycle cavalcade and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Yesterday I went to Tule...a small town of about 15,000 near Oaxaca City. What a charming place. Most of the men are gone up north, my driver said (as a huge brand new black diesel pickup backed up ... [Continue reading this entry]

I had forgotten how much fun it is to dance to Mexican music! I think I am a Mexican trapped in a gringo body! Last Friday, Gerardo and his mom, Socorroo, invited me, a few of her friends, Michael, ... [Continue reading this entry]

WOW what a city. BANGKOK is alive. It is New year for them amd they celebrate with water. The streets are alive with people walking arround with water pistols and clay. Everyome is om thr street. You goota srr it ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day before yesterday was New Years in Lao. Yesterday was New Years in Thailand, although the celebration continues for several days in these countries. We get it again! Leila took a cheap bus to Kao San Road while I ... [Continue reading this entry]

After the Lao Cotton Company party, Villa, the driver, took a nap in his tuk tuk while we rested in our room. Later that night we toured the city under the lights. Villa, it turns out, is not just ... [Continue reading this entry]

Lao New Year (and in Thailand) is a time to encourage young people to absorb the spirit of cleaning their temples, houses, stupas of their ancestors and apparently the bodies of anyone, especially the foreigners they come across. The purpose ... [Continue reading this entry]

After dinner with Susan, Leila and I looked for some music and found a night club with a terrific Thai band playing Rod Stewart, Eagles and Pink Floyd's "The Wall." Leila turned into a 15 year old...singing along with ... [Continue reading this entry]

Seeing the Mekong in Vientiane during dry season was a worse shock than seeing it in Luang Prabang...down hundreds of yards from the water line in the wet season. Leila, my Australian travel ... [Continue reading this entry]

Never come to Northern Thailand or Lao during the dry season which is now. Slash and burn fires send smoke against the mountains and beyond. You won't see anything and the Mekong River will be down to a trickle.

Last night a lively 50 year old woman that teaches kindergarten in Alberta Canada, a young woman from California who is a consultant to a California educational testing company, an even younger woman from ... [Continue reading this entry]