So some of you will be aware that I have taken a year off work at Aptivate to get some hands-on experience at the hard face of ICT4D… Or to travel the world seeing exotic places… depending on your perspective… Basically to do some voluntary work at interesting – ideally participatory tech – development organisations around Africa, Asia and/or Latin America…
Well, the first 6 weeks was a little mini-break holiday, but I guess I should bring things up to speed so my first proper serious blog has some context…
London, Doha (stopover), Bangkok (land of rain and hangovers), Bali (cycled the whole island – Legian, Candidasa, Tejakula, Lovina, Ubud, Sanur), Gili Air (finally a proper tropical beach!), Melbourne (most liveable city in the world… as literally EVERYONE you meet will tell you!), Sydney (like coming home again after over 15 years…)
Whew, that was easy…
Highlights…
- The rain in Bangkok on our “big night out” being so torrential even the locals were videoing it!
- Being taken to a hidden bar in a residential street in a nice Bangkok suburb… To find it full of ex-pats… And ending up nicknaming someone ‘shame’ because I was drunk and didn’t hear his real name. Oops… He wasn’t impressed… I think the name stuck though poor guy!
- A cycle tour of Bangkok that took us away from the touristy areas and even involved cycling through a slum… Probably not the worst slum, but it made me realise I’ve never actually set foot in a proper slum before… Pretty poor show for someone who works in development and is interested in urban poverty!
- Cycling downhill about 20km to Ubud… After getting a van to take us to the top… Cheating? Maybe but worth it!
- Helicopters, wine tours, beaches, scenery and general all round fun in Australia. Oh and the food, my god the food! 🙂
- The realisation that I love travelling but hate other travellers. This is going to be tricky!
So, the party finally ends… My travelling companion leaves… I start to arrange my plans for the first placement at a really interesting poverty lab in Pakistan (IPAL), and I come to the grinding problem that… government bureacracies are the same the world over… They won’t give me a visa unless I go back to the UK to apply for it. Not happening!
So… The search begins for a different place I can go at short notice until Christmas… Lots of leads, but most were kind of on-hold so lets see how this goes.
Watch this space!
Oh, and suggestions of voluntary work… offers, requests are welcome! Ideally in Asia, as I’d like to stay in this part of the world till Xmas before I move on…
Oh and I guess a few random photos are kind of required…. See below… Some interesting, some just showing off… 🙂
Matt Haikin 