aaahhhh … so have been back in Asia for about 36 hrs now and slowly emerging from culture shock … I am slowly reacquainting myself with life here … 48 hrs in BKK (population too many) … 24 hrs in Udon Thani (population a bit under too many) … 96 hrs in Vientiane (population maybe 400 000) … 24 hrs in Oudomsay (population around 50 000) … and back to Luang Namtha (population it feels like about 50) …
Don’t get me wrong … I’m happy to be here doing what I’m doing etc … love it in fact … but I do feel a knot developing in my stomach contemplating a return to night time closing down at 8.30pm, no beaches, no espressos and an overwhelming lack of people!! But hey … these things help you love the other times even more hey!
My final european moments …
sitting here in an internet cafe in BKK and my heart has started beating at double speed seeing that delicious salty beachy water again
daisy (old gc student) and I doing some posing work around barcelona beach … this may seem pretentious but everyone else was doing the same thing topless or more, so really we are being particularly conservative
final moments of european culture, european cafes, european smells, european …
Well this is a quick one but the photos below tell the story. In Barcelona at the moment and waiting to meet up with an old student from the G Coast to celebrate her 19th bday for the wnd! Hope I´ve still got it in me! Might just grab a couple of espressos before she rolls in … On my last days so soaking up every possible second …
beautiful little beach ´tapas´town in the north of spain where the surf is meant to be great but as you can see it was flat all week! never mind … a lovely week of beaching, wine and tapas
a sequence of sleep deprived shots day two 3am of summercase festival barcelona – wanted you to share this moment of self portraits …. in an attempt to get my dancing legs moving once again … cleary any sense of style and beauty had left me by this stage
and of course the left side view
had a few people offering to help me out with these shots but clearly that would have defeated the purpose of why I was taking them
2nd favourite act of the festival … or perhaps equal … so nice to see someone whose fame hasn´t gone to the head
trying to summon energy after only a couple of hrs of shut eye on the beach
absolute highlight of the festival hands down … happy happy crazy people … a crowd moment … vid to come
not as good as I wanted them to be … resting on their white suited laurels a bit … but good music all the same … really just wanted to brag about my fence position
Wow … I´ve just had an incredible week of surf and (remembering how to!) down in Sagres … the most southwestern point of Europe. Amazing little beach town that reminds me of so many places on the nsw east coast … in fact after a little nap in the sun I very often felt confused as to why people were speaking in Portugese, not Aussie english for the first few moments of awakeness! Never thought I would find a place where the beaches compare to Aus, but Portugal has them!!
Have just spent the last 3 days on a surf camp down around the Sagres area … you need a car (and insider knowledge) to get to the best surf spots, so surf camp I did … SUCH A GREAT GREAT WEEK! Met some great Swedish girls there as well … photos below.
Off to Barcelona tomorrow for Summercase festival … the good times keep rollin
Summer and beach is perfect
a little beach espresso to kick us into action … life I’m sure does not get better … louise (aussie chick) jen, linda (swedish gals)
my surfing girls … stretching out the muscles after a hard day of it … linda & jen from sweden, louise from aus
Just had 3 days of glorious live music in Lisbon … the greatest thing is that it was only a tiny festival that half the people in Lisbon didn’t even seem to know about it … and only one stage … so I got myself there nice and early and found a prime little spot right at the fence and didn’t move all night long … every night!!! Was perfect!! And I am completely musically inspired and re energised … and more of the same but with Flaming Lips, Air and others in Barcelona in a couple of weeks … hooray! Festival run down thru photos below …
In the south of Portugal – Lagos – at the moment … the beaches are fabulous but the whole town feels like it is on a continual American summer camp. Really really does … feels like I am at the opposite end of the world from my little town in Laos! Anyway … met an Aussie chick from Dubbo and she feels like a kindred spirit compared to the rest of the world around me … so we are off to Sagres … a little beach surfing town south west of here tomorrow for some camping and surf time. Our goal is to find someone with a combi van with two spare seats that wants our company for a few days!
in lagos … and feels like I am on an 18yr old American summer camp … so when tiring of the same same conversation entertained myself with some experimental dance moves
gig of the festival … 3 violinists, two trumpets, trombone, french horn and all sorts of weird and wonderful other crazy percussion bits and pieces … indescribeably amazing … true musos … go see them in aus
these guys were in my top two … awesome tunes, great happy energy although the bass player needs to work on his dance moves
some great tunes but unfortunately these boys have developed significant egos over the last couple of years which they were happy to share with all of us!! in fact I think they are becoming a little too ‘coldplayish’ … that’s my word on that one anyway
