2001journey

Beautiful Brisbane-Day Two Yesterday afternoon I arrived at the Brisbane Domestic Airport from Cairns and taxi-ed out to Sandgate where my hosts live. Aniska and Tony live right on the bay directly in line where the sun rises on the Pacific beyond and the bay at this time. We talked briefly and then went for a few K walk along the water's edge last night as the full moon rose. Then back to talk about many, many things. They are a couple years younger than I am. Aniska is a Yoga Teacher, very accomplished one and Tony is a manager. Off this morning by train to Brisbane, about 18 k from Sandgate. As I walked out of the Central Station I did not know what to expect. There is front, to the right, to the left, behind me; surrounding me were many very contemporary hi-rise buildings. Each excellent designs. Before I boarded the train in Sandgate I called Iain Duruid, president of the Queensland Chapter of the Australian Professional Speakers Association, who I ...

I'm Not Bar-Coded or a Sticky Wicket in Chennai Airport Arrival in Chennai "Some day I'll laugh about this!" Actually I did even while it was happening and many times later in the evening with new Indian friends. Once again I realized I am highly intuitive while also needy for and dependent upon WWWWWH Who, What, When, Where, Why and How answers. Who?  Prakash by cyberspace friend and promoter in Sri Lanka and India What?  What to expect once I made it through Immigration and Customs checks with my bags When?  8:55 am arrival Where?  Chennai International airport Why?  to be picked up by Prakash who was going to help me find a hotel How?  I am have become so spoiled by my hosts, hotels with their vans and staffs to pick me up whenever  I  first arrive in a new country. I did not have a reservation for a hotel. There were no simple phone banks just for hotel arrangement...

Standing at an email Kiosk Standing at an email Kiosk in the Sri Lanka's Business Class "Peacock Lounge". It is about 6:00. I was scheduled to receive my wake up call at 4:00 to be ready for my ride to the airport for my 8:00 flight to Chennai. After my full day workshop (60 very enthusiastic participants) bouncing balloons, having them run around the room shaking everyone else's hands and my other usual tricks of the trade about creative thinking, a great lunch in the hotel's original lobby, now a banquet room, bigger than two American football fields and 6 to 8 stories tall and a two hour drive through Colombo to my night at a resort on the Indian Ocean I had a basic meal, a walk on the beach at the water's edge under the stars I internetted and tried to go to sleep for a few hours. I have had more sleep at traffic lights. Concern about making it in time, mosquitos: a convention of them; making me into an inv...

Midnight in Sri Lanka Wendsday I arrived from Singapore at 12:15 am to work my way through the immigration and customs check points to wait and watch bags, bags, bags and still more bags go round and round. Then there they were. My bags once more had made it with me. Then off through the customs Nothing to Declare line. No hesitation. Smooth walk through. I began searching for my host. Never before have I enjoyed seeing my name in print then that early morning when I saw it in Daya's hand, the hotel bellman who drove nearly 60 kms in the dark to wait for me for an hour in order to drive me back 60 ks to the Trans Asian Hotel in the heart of Colombo. It was about 2:30 am while lying on my new bed watching the only English speaking channel, watching the Law and Order movie (repeat) before I shut off the lights. Bright and early I woke at 6:45. Off to a breakfast buffet consisting of... French Toast with jam in the middle of the slices, pancakes with Mapl...

Kuala Lumpur & Singapore trip two Cab, subway, bus, cable car, monorail, cab and foot again to Sentosa this morning in Singapore. Sentosa is a pleasure and cultural island off the coast of Singapore connected by bridge and cable car. It has many events like an amusement park with several beaches. All the beaches were totally empty this morning. Singapoeans are at work today.  Only Alan is  at the beach(es). The island is an Asian Jungle Paradise filled with  fun  sites, rides, experiences or events. Call me a jetsetter this past few days. I spent 3 days in K-L then flew to Singapore for the weekend for fun and flew back for the day to speak in PJ/city adjacent to K-L to only fly back again the next day after my presentation. I was met at the airport by a representative from one of my sponsors in K-L (NPC-National Productivity Center), PJ and driven to my hotel, PJ Hilton. Entering my room I was greeted with ...

Kuala Lumpur & Singapore - Rain, Rain, Rain I have found rain again. My hosts and new friends in Kuala Lumpur convinced me to lighten my luggage load for the overnight train trip to Singapore and to leave my umbrella in K-L. Yes Dr. Leo it does rain here. In fact it has been raining steadily for 3 days in a row. Oh well, off to travel around various parts of Signapore in the rain. Rain was enough but once I arrived at the building in the city centre from my hotel by taxi I realized that I had left my camera in the room. Oh well back to buying post cards or sketching. Rainy photos are not that exciting any way. My first stay in KL was a lot of fun. Rita, Audrey, Leo, Dr. Teoh, Ananda, Dr. Alice Lee and many others made it a great pleasure.... even with them attempting to challenge me with the traditional foods. Yesterday was another highly stimulating day. Ananda, my new KL friend; we met in Athens earlier this year, took me to the Batu Caves. It is ...

Ikan bilis-hot hot hot Guava, Mango and Orange Juice to start off the morning. Followed by Kuala Lumpur Hokkien Mee (Japanese noodles), 3 types of Dim Sum, French Toast, Scrambled eggs and a mix of rice and cocoa Krispies. Sitting in a beautiful dining room of my hotel: Cititel; I was reflecting over the past 20 or so hours since I landed at 9:00 pm at the KL International Airport on Tuesday evening. It is now Thursday morning about 9:30 am. My flight from Brisbane lasted for 8 hours. We flew at 39,000 ft. A fairly smooth flight across much of northern Queensland and Northern Territory and the Timor Sea. "Spy Kids", "Tailor of Panama" and various music videos held my interest while I was drawing cartoons for Dr. Alice Lee who I will meet to be interviewed by this morning in about 30 minutes. My first breakfast consisted of: Mango and Orange Juice, scrambled egges, noodles (or something else...still speculating on what they were) that tasted...

Colors so much color Today started with the dark blue sky turning to white, yellow, orange and pale blue as the sun rose over the Pacific along the Esplanade at Cairns. Mountains behind me, to my left, to my right and on them rainforests. In front of green, so green ocean water for as far as I can see. Then a short walk back to my hotel and an "Aussie Breakfast": eggs, English muffin, sausage, bacon, cereal, mango juice, orange juice. Then a short wait for my bus pick up to take me to the Down Under Dive boat to the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef. I was scheduled to snorkle and SCUBA dive. I had never done SCUBA because of my cleft palette. The crew called a local doctor who said I should be able to. Went through the verbal part of the training and the physical demonstration. I was assigned to Group 4. So I put on my wet suit, goggles and snorkle and jumped in for 30 to 45 minutes of snorkling among the coral. It wasn't long before I real...

By Plane, boat, train & cable car By plane, boat, bus, train, cable car, cab and foot I have been traveling around the upper Northern Territory and now have spent one day in Cairns in Queensland, my 8th and final state/territory of Australia. Two days ago I traveled around Darwin by bus and foot to see as much of the town and area I could see. It is amazing to see this city when you discover it was pretty much wiped off the face of the earth by Cyclone Tracey in the mid-70s and also back in 1942 by Japanese bombers. All that and people still come to live in this tropic environment because they love it. After a leisurely wander around I went up in a pontoon plane to see Darwin and the area from a few thousand feet up. I had never been in a sea plane before. It was great fun. We float out through the inlet to one of the bays to another open bay to take off ever so gracefully from the water. I was sitting in front with the wheel within inches of my hands. We b...

Darwin Day One - Sunshine and Warmth in Darwin Darwin, located in the northern part of the Northern Territory, has a very warm climate and it is the middle of winter here now. Completely clear blue sky. Warm...high 70s to low 80s  F.  Light breezes through the shade. Wandered along the Esplanade along the water, a beautifully landscaped area full of varied palm trees, low plants and flowering trees, bushes and plants. People walking, jogging, running. Found the area where the explorers first landed that is now a historic site with a rock beach. Walked through a rainforest area and then back to civilization. So much of this area reminds me of south Florida, Palm Beach County from West Palm Beach to Ft. Lauderdale back in the 1970s. One to two story, brick or stucco homes surrounded with rich rainforest plants and huge Palm trees: Christmas, Coconut and many others. The city centre has a Mall area that is rich with colorful buildings and shops: red, blue...