The group for our cycling tour is a mixed bunch – two Canadians in their 60s patriotic enough to fly the flag from their bikes, an English couple who look like professional cyclists, and my mate Dave and me. Dave hadn’t ridden more than about 10km in a day before we began our training program.… Continue reading Happy Drink
Category: Asia
All countries I’ve visited in Asia
Escaped Chickens
I’ve travelled a lot in Asia, so my arrival in Vietnam didn’t cause any culture shock, but a couple of experiences surprised me. The first, on the drive from Saigon airport to our first hotel, was seeing guards (they looked like policemen) braving the heavy night-time traffic to drag barriers across the street. When my… Continue reading Escaped Chickens
Distance Education arrives in Bhutan
When I first arrived in Bhutan, I was invited to help the government’s Department of Information demonstrate the power of technology in an effort to get more government funding. Today, I see that Ericsson have begun work with Bhutan’s education department to install videoconferencing into five remote schools so their students can take lessons from a central group of specialists.
PopMatters Review
John L. Murphy has completed a mammoth review of just about every book written on Bhutan. He understands the value of a book written by locals and residents. There are many more books about this amazing country than I knew of, and I’m delighted to see he rated some of my favourites highly – see… Continue reading PopMatters Review
Humour and Culture
Not everyone understands the Australian sense of humour. Sometimes it’s even beyond Australians. Some of my countrymen have complained about the Prime Minister’s recent video declaring that the end of the world is nigh. In one case, a mother of a young autistic man has had to convince her son that the Mayan calendar can’t… Continue reading Humour and Culture
Dragon Bones Discussion Guide
I tried very hard to allow the Bhutanese people in Dragon Bones to tell their own stories and to minimise the bias created by my beliefs, my mood and other aspects of my life. I knew it was an impossible task before I began writing, so I provided clues to my own state of mind… Continue reading Dragon Bones Discussion Guide
Attitudes to Downs Syndrome
I was standing in the kitchen of our other Sydney office yesterday, when in came a woman with Downs Syndrome pushing a vacuum cleaner. My boss, who was showing me the facilities, introduced her as Claire and told me that she was the real boss of the site. While we chatted with her, Claire opened… Continue reading Attitudes to Downs Syndrome
Unsocial Eating
Sri Lanka is the first Asian country I’ve been to where people seem happier to eat alone. In Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore people prefer to make a big event of eating together even daily lunch with colleagues. The only exception in my experience has been that Bhutanese families will eat in the kitchen while… Continue reading Unsocial Eating
The Perfect Volunteer
While volunteering in Sri Lanka, I heard stories of other volunteers who acted as if they knew better than their supervisors. Naturally, they did not have as good an experience as they could have and were considered to be intrusions by the organisations they were meant to be helping. I’m not suggesting that they were… Continue reading The Perfect Volunteer
A New Future
In 2009 I set myself 4 goals as steps towards a future of providing assistance on locally driven aid projects in developing countries. In their original form, those goals were: Publish a book on Bhutanese culture Complete a Masters in anthropology Buy a studio flat in Australia Invest the rest of my savings to create… Continue reading A New Future