where in the world is tara sandiego?

Home-sweet-home-sweet...

2006-07-31T09:20:00.000+09:30

Hi all !

For those of you for which this is a surprise, Tara and I are back in Australia!

Tara begins work on Monday at Logan Central Special School and I am registering for relieft teaching.

We are lliving at Tara's parents place until we can muster enough money to get a flat in Brisbane.

Looking forward to catching up with you all.

Adam!

these are a few of my favourite things...

2006-07-19T19:45:00.000+09:30

i see pictures of people invalidating passports
mabo is written on berlin wall of division
korean propaganda and lister is listless
these are a few of my favourite things....

the wall and castles

2006-07-19T19:00:00.000+09:30

Hullo!
The last couple of weeks have been very busy for us here in Berlin. After a long time of not being tourists, and just being Berliners, we took the tourist trail along the wall.
We visited the East Side Gallery, a public art space on the East facing side of the Belrin Wall and were quite surprised to see the name of a Brisbane based grafitti artist LISTER scrawled on the wall.

When at Check Point Charlie, tourist hot spot and site of the U.S checkpoint on the border, I was also quite surprised to see an old aquaintance from high school casually ride by. Of course, he was here for the football, but it "...just makes us more and more convinced that Berlin is the centre of the world..." - quote from York. You can also get your passport invalidated with old stamps there, and buy small pieces of the wall ofcourse.

We also went out to visit some historic castles in former Prussia, where Kaiser Frederick the Great spent his weekends in a modest but spectacular castle, having Enlightened converstations with the likes of Voltaire - who lived in the castle ´San Soucci´ for 3 years. There were quite a few castles actually...but the grounds were just too big for us to get around to see them all.

We visited a very good Jewish museum with an awesome exhibition and unbelivable architecture - which some argue actually detracts form the exhibits. We also visited a very large Synagogue and yes Broooko, we have lots of piccies and brochures to send to you!

Also passed by the Aldon Hotel, and reflected on when Michael Jackson dangled his baby from the landing.

The Berliner Dom, Museum Island and Medieval Art Gallery were also nice little visits, but the highlight for me was seeing some performance art by a Japanese artist. He built a house, put it in a vacant lot, filled it with a LOT of fireworks, and exploded the house. It was awesome and lasted maybe for 20 minutes. I´ve always wanted to fill a house with fireworks.

Anyway, today is very hot, like 32 degrees, and I just can´t imagine what it would be like in winter here. The lakes freeze and you can go ice skating. I wonder if we will make it that long...?

Money for basic needs;

2006-06-29T08:41:00.000+09:30

Unfortunately I dont have too much to say. I started work for this small company teaching English and its really good and relaxed. The people I work with and for, are very nice. They are young and good. We had an artshow the other night which was low key but it was great for me because I got to meet all these new people, and they all spoke English to different degrees. The company plan to have more artshows in the future so it will be agreat opportunity for me to meet other artists and creative types so maybe I can get back into that scene again.

We have this summer camp who wants us to go with them. But it is very hard work at only 4.5 euro an hour!!!! and we would probably have to go to Austria. Tara has some nannying possibilities too.

Basicallly at the moment it´s like we've got into a timewarp but instead of being 2002-3 in Brisbane, its 2002-3 in Berlin (share-housing, poor, haging around with young creative types...oh, and the NANNYING!!!).

It will be great though if we could just get a bit of money to survive from a reaonable source. At the moment, our only option seems to be this terrible summer camp which will only just get us enough money for basic needs (like water, sausages and bread).

So...its all still up in the air...

Update: Adam just got offered to run an intensive summer English course. Very good news, Tara also has been offered private English lessons to kinder. So maybe all has been provided for.
Must go, need to remember English.

deutsche Jobjagd

2006-06-16T08:45:00.000+09:30

We have two job interviews, one for tomorrow, one for tuesday which look promising if the job is okay. Basically to survive we need 30 hours a week between us. We have an apartment!! Fully furninshd so thats cools and its cheaper than staying in a hostel.

Pieces of the Berlin wall are anywhere from 10 bucks to 60 aussie dollars.

Germany

2006-06-06T18:15:00.000+09:30

Hallo!
We are in Germany now and have been in Frankfurt for three days. The World Cup is coming so the place is getting very excited and there are a lot of tourists here. Every night on the river has been like New Years Eve at SOuthbank Parklands. We are staying in the seedy part of town but it is totally safe with the police presence. Have been able to finally talk in STRINE with some Aussies instead of the usual broken, or ´proper´, English you need to use when talking to most other foreigners.
Tara is having some trouble finding appropriate food. Remember - she doesnt eat meat, wheat or drink beer: and we´re in Germany?
Will try to keep you updated....
Adam and Tara OUt!
Tchus!!

sri lanka

2006-05-29T17:03:00.000+09:30

OKay
It's been a long time I know, and most of you probably think this BLOG is now extinct.
Sri Lanka has been good, we leave tommorow.
Lovely historical Buddhist sites, the people tend to be genuinely nice and the food is fresh and slightly more spicy than South India.

This photograph was taken from the site where Buddhism began in Sri Lanka a long time ago.

We visited cousin Michael first and last and he was a most gracious host and friend. We will now be one week India, and then across to Europe for Germany and Italy.
Hope you are all well...

Farewell
Adam

oman

2006-04-09T21:01:00.000+09:30

Whoda thunk it!

We are in the gulf - desert, Arabs, Islam, Tara's dad, etc. The architecture is awesome. It's seriously like we're in Tatooine (desert planet of Luke Skywalker). I keep waiting to see some droids. Most of the men (in my imagination) look like Jedi wearing fez (whats the plural of fez?), there is a mosque on every cornerand every other building is fantastic - pure white, massive, symetrical Arabic designs, etc, it's like every house is a 5 star hotel and get this - no income tax! The only tax you seem to have to pay is on restaurant bills (service charge) and on pig products and alcohol.

We are so impressed with the place, it's exactly what we were expecting but at the same time nothing like what we expected. For example, today we went to the beach, and there were ruins of forts (which are everywhere!) whcih surprisingly featured grafitti such as 'Eminem' and '2pac'.

The men wear decorative but functional daggers in their belts. They are worn for formal occasions. The dagger is the national symbol and features on the flag. I've included a piccie of the dagger for ya'all.

Peter is being a great host and is taking us out to dinner, touring us around the sites, etc, as well as generally being a very nice man. His place here is very nice and it has been great to just hang around the house and do nothing for a while (except maybe cook our own food and watch TV).

Take care, thinking of ya'all everytime I'm seeing all this desert, castles and other impressive things. Adam out!

the site of grandad's baptism...

2006-03-21T19:22:00.000+09:30

This photo is taken from within the Santa Cruz Basilica, Fort Cochin.
Tara's grandfather was baptized Antony here.

not such a lonely planet

2006-03-05T17:17:00.000+09:30

Tara and I have finally started making friends. we starred as extras in a Bollywood film, met lots of fellow travellers and suffered the wrath of a catty film director.
We have been to Hampi, Goa, Bombay, Pune and more of Goa. Are in Bangalore now on the way to Mysore and some hill stations where we can visit some Tibetan settlements and take the train journey that Grandad took from Fort Cochi on his way to the orphanage.
Will post more when we have time...will hopefully be flying to Oman to bludge off P. Daddy for a while - will have lots of time to chat to you all then (using his phone maybe??).
Bush is in India at the moment making some nuclear deals, massive protests everywhere with people also seeming to blame him for the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in the Danish newspaper.
Bush is quoted as saying "There are 150 Muslims in India"!!!!!!!! Yeah, like, whatever!

Hope you are all well,
Tara and Adam.

imagine...

2006-02-20T16:09:00.000+09:30

Imagine that you are in a small non-aircon room about 6 computers. The computers are served by a computer that accesses the internet via a slow, unreliable, faltering dial-up connection.
Imagine that when you attempt to send an email, or post an update on your blog, that the page expires before it makes any changes, or sends any information.
Imagine a place called India...

Salaam Namaste

tara gets sick and adam shaves off his beard

2006-02-12T19:18:00.000+09:30

Well
Tara got sick so we spent 2 nights in a clinic and I ate the same things at every meal because of the language barrier - the nurses were'nt in the hospitality industry so their English was quite limited (I had iddly at every meal time).
Once we managed to get out of Pondicherry we spent a week at Aunty Cousin Sister Caroline's again where we had the opportunity to see Jethro Tull perform for free! Tara also got to see Bryan Adams but I was a little ill so I had to pass.
We are currently in Hampi - where Tara and I have both got upset stomachs so we will be having yet another extended stay!
It's an interesting little place, and the site of some ancient ruins that were repopulated about 100 years ago I think.
Will post some photos of the ruins, and some detailed accounts of the visits to temples, etc, in the next few days.
Leaving for Goa on Tuesday morning to have a planned extended stay - possibly a week.
That's all for now!

ghandara, they say it was in india

2006-01-26T17:57:00.000+09:30

auroville

2006-01-24T20:56:00.000+09:30

"Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity."

Tara, Brooke and I rode some vespas out to Auroville on our second day in Pondicherry. Check out the website below...

http://www.auroville.org/

pondicherry

2006-01-22T17:55:00.000+09:30

Today is REPUBLIC DAY!

So I thought I'd upload a photo of a French ambassador...

We're riding around on mopeds in Indian traffic, staying at an ashram guest house for $3 a night, cycling to the quiet beaches, staying on a french boulevard on the other side of the canal, its all very European - except populated by Indians. Very cool... more soon.
Tara and Adam.

Ps.Everyone thinks I'm Moslem because of my beard. When I say my name, they think it's like, Ariff or something...

bangalore

2006-01-16T18:54:00.000+09:30

We have been staying with Peter's aunty, cousin and niece in Bangalore for four days now and have been very well fed and looked after. Aunty Caroline has offered for Tara and me to use their home as a base during our travels, which is great. Already we have planned to stay here again after Pondicherry, on our way to Goa.

Bangalore is a much nicer city than Chennai but to be honest we haven't been out exploring it too much. We visited Peter's former school and were special guests on parade. The schooling is very different compaed to what Tara, Jo and I have grown acustomed to. Peter has been overloaded with memories, we have never seen him so happy but I think he will need a good rest now to be able to take it all in (much like his camera will need to rest and recharge its batteries). Peter will only be in Australia for a day before he flies out to Oman.

We leave for Pondicherry tomorrow night for a 7 hour bus ride. We will be meeting my old friend and housemate Brooke, who is on the last leg of her tour of India. She has been doing some volunteer teaching for underprivelaged children so we might talk to her about the experience and consider it ourselves (since the children seem so eager to learn! [ha ha Trish and Bec - won't that be a change!])

Will update again soon (don't forget to check the ringo photos if you can)
Adam and Tara

more on allepey (allapuzha)

2006-01-16T17:23:00.000+09:30

Allepey was really an amazing four days. Tara was warmly accepted as a true Malayali girl by all who we shared our story with. We spent a time trying to uncover more information about Peter's paternal grandmother, Lena Koshi, but have so far been unable to find out anything.
We had news articles featured in three state papers, so perhaps something will come of that. The Malayali people were very warm and welcoming and the landscape was like something out of a storybook.

Most villages are only accessible via canoes and small boats, and we were able to explore these places through the canals and backwaters that make up Allepey.
As we passed by houses and small roads, children would run along asking us for "wun-pen!" We later found out that this was "one pen!" so on our last day we bought about 50 pens to give out to the studious children. It was so moving to see children who are so eager to learn, and grateful for what little they have.
While the families were dressing Tara in her sari (a generous gift from our taxi drivers mother) all the ladies and girls were rushing to their homes to retrieve jewellery, even taking it off their own wrists to adorn Tara.

We will definately be going back.

allepey

2006-01-11T20:16:00.000+09:30

We have met and been welcomed into the home of a wonderful family in Allepey. They were the family of our taxi/autorickshaw driver Harish for the duration of our stay in Allepey, Kerala. I will update this post when we get to Bangalore as I only have a short time. Allepey is amazing, and we are really enjoying ourselves. We even feature as an article in the states leading newspaper, which has a readership in the millions. Will fill you in on the details soon.
Tara and Adam

chennai

2006-01-06T19:47:00.000+09:30

Okay - I didnt actually take this photo - but it was the closest thing I could copy from google images - sleeping homeless people with autorickshw in background.
We are posting this from an internet cafe in Chennai that charges 15 rupees and hour (approx. 50 c) which is cool. It even has beggars on the doorstep.
The taxi ride from the airport was crazy! The driver 'didn't know' where our accomodation/street was, so tried to take us to another hostel, so in the end we jumped out when I noticed a landmark and walked there ourselves. Once inside our clean accomodation we freaked out over what we had just seen.
It's a lot to take in so quickly, as we have flown into a pretty big city so the high density poverty and traffic is quite shocking.
We are definately looking forward to relaxing in Allepey tomorrow - the train leaves tonight.

We found a shopping centre to hang out in, and have only been grossly overcharged once. We picked up our train tickets that Aunty Caroline had organised for us from The Times India and when we left the security guards haggled a price for the autorickshaw back.
I never thought I'd be so happy to see armed men walking around, but we both feel much safer with the police and security guards walking around the streets and shopping centre.
They have very large rifles.

Before we sign off, here are four facts about Chennai we have learnt so far:
1. Almost everyone wants your money in some form or other.
2. You could easily die trying to drive on the streets.
4. Human poo smells bad.
3. Almost every man has a moustache.

We are doing fine and are feeling safe most of the time, so no need to worry Nan.

Love Tara and Adam

tales from japan

2006-01-03T19:35:00.000+09:30

We have now come to our last night in Japan - we leave at half past one tomorrow morning. Our time here has been very short but very good and Chenoa has been a great host - she even has bags under her eyes to prove it.
We have managed to fit in these excursions during our time: Blade Runner bridge and never- ending shopping street, Shinsaibashi; giant bronze Buddha and mangey deer, Todaiji temple, Nara; Golden Temple, Kyoto; neon supermarket (looks like a games parlour, but very cheap), Namba; feeding monkeys at Monkey Mountain and visiting a zen temple, Kyoto; shopping at 'America mura' - retro funky thrifty stuff, Namba.
Highlights for Adam have been all the vending machines - selling vitamins, food & drinks, beer, sake, magazines and tickets for meals at restaurants.
It feels much too soon to be leaving as we were just starting to learn how to pronounce: wakarimasen (I dont understand what you are saying) and sumimasen (sorry I have bumped into you as I am a huge and ungainly westerner).
Hope you all had a great New Year,

Love from Tara and Adam.

little india

2006-01-01T14:15:00.000+09:30

Singapore.
You may be thinking, "Why would you go to to Little India while you were in Singapore if you're on your way to India anyway?"
Well, it was all part of Adam's transition program, which included - squatting toilets, crowded trains and little Indians.

Highlights were: seeing little Peter Gillan clones (bald Buddhist monks wearing glasses), the man at the barefoot dining restaurant who we made friends with and who gave us free food, the astrologer with the talking parrot and the breakfast lady who when we said we were from Australia asked, "From Sydney or Amsterdam?"

Oh yeah, and after only half a day of backpacking our backs were sore so we went to see a movie(Narnia). Instead of feeling like lazy loser Aussies we have decided to view seeing a movie as an important cultural experience - doing something you normally do at home and making comparisons (stolen from Lonely Planet but we liked the concept).

Well... until our next instalment - stories from Osaka and Kyoto - fare thee well.

Tara

merry christmas - we're going to sing a poor

2005-12-21T15:35:00.000+09:30

Tara and I will be arriving in Singapore on the 27th of December and staying in Bugis Village overnight. Local attractions include... the THIEF MARKET?!

Tara is already paranoid enough about pickpockets and limbless orphans, how could they go and name the local flea market "Thief Market"?

We fly out to Osaka in the early hours of the 29th. If you are already missing us by that stage you can look at this map.

Don't expect another entry until we get to Japan, or as the locals call it, "Land of the Rising Sun".
So have a Merry Christmas family - and if you don't celebrate Christmas...maybe you should talk to Jo who is currently spearheading the "Save Christmas Campaign".
The first union meeting for members will take place on December 25, New Farm House.

"mole - a - skeen - a" ???

2005-12-16T07:56:00.000+09:30

Peter and I may have an argument soon about the correct pronounciation of our new travel diaries. It seems it is debatable.

For the full story check out: http://www.itotd.com/articles/565/

"in a misguided attempt to be helpful, say that the word is pronounced “mole-a-SKEEN-a.” Well, that could be approximately right, depending on whether you interpret the a sounds as being a long a (correct) or a schwa sound (incorrect). As a result of this ambiguity, other Web sites that have attempted to be even more helpful by using a phonetic alphabet have assumed the schwa pronunciation, so that it comes out roughly as “mole-ə-SKEEN-ə.” But that doesn’t follow the pronunciation rules of English, French, or Italian. (Despite the word’s English-by-way-of-French origin, Moleskine is now a nominally Italian term, and the final e is never a schwa sound in Italian. It’s more like eh, which is almost—but not quite—the English long a sound.) So let’s settle this once and for all: in Italian, it’s “mo-leh-SKEE-neh”; in French, it’s “mo-lə-SKEEN”; and in English, it’s “those little notebooks with the oilcloth covers.”

Also take a look at this site to see what everybody's talking about - ADAM'S NEW TRAVEL DIARY! I thought it was something unique until I got home and Audrey and Peter showed me theirs...
http://www.moleskine.com/eng/default.htm

Malaria song

2005-12-14T09:46:00.000+09:30

Tara and I started our anti-malaria drugs today as a trial to see if there are any adverse side effects. I googled the drug and came up with this song, maybe it will help other anti-malaria druggies through the hard times of extra photo-sensitivity, hair loss, headaches and dehydration.
check it out: http://lyrics.rare-lyrics.com/L/L.A.-Guns/Malaria.html

yawo for mer

2005-12-13T18:09:00.000+09:30

I guess the first part of our journey was saying goodbye to our home and family for the past two years on Mer.
At the moment it still feels like we are on just a short holiday like usual and I hope that this feeling doesn't leave us as then we can rest assured that it's only a gammon yawo and we'll be back to see you all in the not so far away future.
You all know how much we love you all and I'm sure that after becoming part of mara buai giz Tara and I are now prepared for many things we will experience in our travels.

ABLE SAME FIGHTING SPIRIT WASE KOIKI MABO...

chawo yawo

Adam sets up the blog...

2005-12-13T09:50:00.000+09:30

Tara read in a lonely planet book that it would be easier and less time consuming for us to set up our own website instead of sending emails about our adventures to everybody.
I said, "How about we just don't send emails to anybody then?" But she was quite forceful so I set up this blog.
We leave in like 12 days or something and we are still running around getting our stuff.
So make sure you add this page to your favourites so you can check up on Tara and I over the next 12 months.
Who knows? Maybe we'll run out of money and see you a lot sooner than we intended. I hope not.

Adam out!