I was planning to blog a lot more while I was in Meekatharra. About stuff and things. But life, it got in the way. As it does.
Meekatharra ended up being a very interesting time, and maybe one day I’ll write more about it. The job didn’t work out quite as planned, my father left his job after one month, but I stayed to finish my contract and I achieved most of the goals I had. I am glad I took the job, I was able to make some difference and I learnt a lot.

I made some great friends in my time in Meekatharra and enjoyed going camping at Mt Augustus, swimming at some of the old mine sites, numerous dinner parties and the wide open sky. One night there was a meteor shower which was a first for me. I didn’t get photos of that, but I did get an awesome one of the moon!

I’ve been back in Perth since Christmas and have been busy house/petsitting for a friend, moving into my old house in Fremantle, enjoying summer and working part time as a temp. Of course I’m also still working on EnjoyPerth.com.au and am excited about having some new advertisers come on board.
I’ve signed a lease on the house in Fremantle with a friend and have brought up my belongings that were in storage in Bridgetown for 18 months while I travelled around! Now I’m looking for a job. Preferably part time, community development and/or social justice related and in Fremantle. I have spotted one that fits the bill even more perfectly than that because it also involves multicultural arts and the admin skills I have. Very excited!

I’m also hoping to get involved with volunteer work again, probably through Youth Tree and also with the Australian Greens party. I met someone recently who is organising the Fremantle Carnevale which will be held from 18 February to 8 March, and I am now on the organising committee, helping with the website and publicity and the organising of the Convergence and Costume Ball on 5 March.  Like us on Facebook! Follow on Twitter!

I was all set to get a pretty good job in The Netherlands and work and travel there for the time being, when I decided to accept a job offer in Meekatharra, a town of 1000 people in outback Western Australia. Some people find this very strange.

To understand this decision, we have to rewind to my childhood (sorry!). My father is a builder/carpenter and in 1990 we moved from Perth to Bidyadanga (200km south of Broome) because he got a job as builder coordinator with the aboriginal community there. In 1991 we lived in Nullagine (between Marble Bar and Newman) and dad was the general coordinator for the aboriginal community. Then we moved down to Bridgetown, back to The Netherlands, then back to Australia and he’s been building houses but also has had project management jobs, and for quite a few years was working with disabled people (there’s a more politically correct term isn’t there?).

So he wanted a change, and I was talking to a friend who knew there was a position free in Meekatharra as CDEP coordinator (Community Development Employment Projects). Dad got that job and has been up there since July. Mum is also there and has just started work as a carer in the small nursing home.

Now they need a facilities/office manager, and I happen to have a bachelor degree in facilities management (management of buildings, vehicles, office, maintenance, cleaning etc) and experience in office management. I also have a strong interest in working with a small local company, vaguely (or not), ‘social justice’ related. It’s about creating employment for local people. There’s not much out there, and not everyone can or wants to work in mining! Not to mention discrimination, poverty and having a completely different culture.

So I’ve got a 3 month contract with Yulella, will  be living with my parents some of the time and housesitting at other times, and I start work next week. Just waiting for my father to come back from The Netherlands (funeral :( ) and then we drive up there on Tuesday. I will be working part time, leaving enough time to manage EnjoyPerth! (EnjoyPerth is another reason why coming back to WA made sense, and the fact that I’m definitely home here now!).

I’m excited! :D

Here some more about Yulella and Meekatharra. It was written in 2007, so things have changed a bit since then.

Yulella is a community body that oversees the local CDEP (Community ?Development and Employment Program) initiative in Meeka – as well as several outstations in Cue, Mt Magnet, and smaller remote localities in the region. It also runs several businesses in town – a very successful building company, a general goods store (also doing quite well), a mechanical services business and other business ventures that are currently mothballed – largely due to management issues. Up until a few years ago Yulella managed it’s CDEP quite effectively too. However since the change over to DEWR as our funding manager, and the change of focus on how CDEPs now go about doing the business – we have shifted from what was once a program involved in creating social change and empowerment (through good community development practices), to becoming another Job Network Provider for DEWR. CDEP no longer has a community development focus – they are now only required to manage a program that is ALL about employment goals and outcomes.

Meekatharra is a small town situated on the Great Northern Highway. It’s situated approximately 850 km from Perth, is at least 5 hours inland from the coastal town of Geraldton, and approximately the same travelling distance from the major mining town of Newman – north of Meekatharra. Meekatharra is predominantly a mining town – with a goldmining history – but is also surrounded by large pastoral leases, where the Stations in the region run both cattle and sheep. Meekatharra can be quite hot in Summer (mostly over 40 Degrees C), quite cool in winter (close to desert type temperatures and conditions), and dry for the most part – though this is subject to wet bursts depending on cyclones running down the west coast during the wet season up North. If you enjoy prospecting for gold – then Meekatharra is a good place to be.

Unfortunately I left The Netherlands as I arrived, with a family death. My awesome uncle, Piet Oepkes, passed away suddenly while on holiday in France with his much loved wife Heika. Luckily I was able to see my aunt before I left, and my father is on his way to The Netherlands as I write, to support his sister and attend the funeral. Just two weeks ago my uncle and I went boating through the canals near their house. And we have many more great memories. He left us too soon, but peacefully and painlessly.

I hitchhiked and couchsurfed through (some of) Austria and Switzerland. Couchsurfed mostly with people I already knew who I met through couchsurfing in WA. And hitchhiked for the first time, which was very exciting.

I researched and got tips from Hitchwiki, which definitely helped me be prepared. As well as tips for girls hitching alone (also here), it also has maps and information about where the best spots are to get a lift. My first lift was from a young couple, the second from a young female student. Those two rides got me from Innsbruck nearly all the way to Bregenz. Then after I had spent a few days with Babs and her friends in and around the Bodensee (Lake Constance), I took a bus to the border, walked across the Rhine and through the border post (they did want to see my passport!) and got my third lift from two truck drivers, who took me all the way to the centre of Zurich, where I surfed with Nina. I never felt unsafe, and if I’d had any doubts about the person offering the lift, I would have declined.

In Zurich I did a bit of sightseeing, and drove into the mountains for a day with Nina.

Then I took the train (hitchhiking fail for various reasons) to Basel, where I found a last minute couch, just across the border in Germany, but really it was a suburb of (Swiss) Basel. Within a few hundred metres was also the border with France. And Basel’s airport is also Mulhouse’s airport, which is in France. It’s the only bi-national airport in the world.

Bit of sightseeing in Basel, and a couchsurfing meetup, and I flew back to The Netherlands.

I was ‘home’ for a day and then took a 3 hour train ride to Maastricht in the south where I met up with a friend and we took the bus to Belgium, for the music festival Pukkelpop.

Was there from Wednesday evening to Sunday morning. Good music, good weather, good people, good times. Not much sleep and no shower ;) Highlights for me were listening to Henry Rollins and dancing and singing to Gogol Bordello, but there were many great acts, and lots of fun with new friends.

Unfortunately there were also two deaths at Pukkelpop, the singer of a band committed suicide, and a crew member and father of another band had a heart attack at age 60.

All the Austria/Switzerland/Germany photos here and Pukkelpop here.

I have just started a new flickr 365 project, taking a photo of something every day.

I start with a boring photo of where I’ve been sitting for most of the last week. But big things have been happening. Firstly I’ve been working hard on EnjoyPerth! Added a lot of new content, talked to people about all sorts of things, and have been liaising with the designer about the new design coming soon.

I’ve been following Australian politics. Frustrating to see what Labor and Liberal are focussing on, but awesome to see The Greens get a bigger following because of it. Much more to say about this, but not in this post.

And then a few days ago: I was all set to get a (part-time) job here in The Netherlands with the biggest retail corporation in The Netherlands (and one of the biggest on the east coast of the US), when my dad offered me a job. In Meekatharra, 750kms north of Perth (500kms east of Geraldton).
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He (with mum) has recently moved to Meekatharra to start there as CDEP Coordinator (Community Development Employment Projects) with an indigenous corporation that runs a number of shops and businesses there.

They need someone there to manage facilities (buildings, vehicles) and the office, and I happen to have a degree in Facilities Management and experience in office management.

I said no. Then I changed my mind 12hrs later, while sitting here chatting to my brother on msn. It’s a fixed term contract, but it’s in a field that I have interest in, in a location that I’m keen to explore and see if I could live there for a longer period in the future (or an area like it, ie outback WA). I have lived in remote communities before, but I was a child (we lived in Bidyadanga near Broome in 1991 and Nullagine near Marble Bar in 1992). I hope to continue my travelling next year!

So the last few days have been very busy organising flights and my last few weeks in Europe. I’d already bought tickets for a big music festival in Belgium on 19/20/21 August, so I’m not leaving till after that. And I’ve just booked flights to Austria and back from Switzerland for this week. I’ll be couchsurfing! And seeing the alps for the first time!

It’s been great spending more time than ever in Zaandam, where I was born and where all my relatives live. I hadn’t lived here since I was 5. Have been able to spend time with family, and visit some old friends, but not all unfortunately! I’ll be back!

I saw this video at TEDxPerth a few months ago. This was after I had already became a ‘semi-vegetarian’ about 6 months ago. There’s so many reasons not to eat meat! And still I can’t commit to being 100% vegetarian (or vegan, though I don’t drink milk, but do still eat cheese and eggs), crazy! But, a small change is better than nothing, as this video says.

Which reminds me of the quote by Edmund Burke:

Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.

Which is why I don’t pay attention when ‘friends’ laugh at me for being a semi-vegetarian.

I’m listening to music from the 50’s till now and there’s so much I like and I’ve never heard before (or haven’t paid attention to), I really don’t need any new music in my life any time soon! I only discovered Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath one or two years ago. I’m a running a bit behind…

I have gone through phases where I haven’t listened to music much at all, as my head is too busy, I can’t handle the extra ‘noise’. Or I just forget to put music on. And I couldn’t listen to music in my job that I had until last year.

I feel this is weird as I’m surrounded by people for which music is their life. It can be powerful for me too though. And I love going to see/hear live music, especially if there’s energy and I can be right amongst it, preferably right near the front. Yes, I enjoy getting bumped around and sweaty in moshpits.

A while ago I set up a last.fm account which keeps track of what I listen to in itunes. Interesting (for myself at least). It’s also making me listen to things I’ve never listened to (yes, all that copied music from friends…). At the moment I’ve listened to around 250 artists since signing up in March, but I have nearly 700 artists in itunes!

Photo: Alice in Chains at Soundwave 2009, soooo good!

I caught up with my couchsurfing friend Dhugal and my blogging friends Skribe, Ceezedby and JOOB. And even attended a twitter meetup with Dhugal and Skribe!

I ate lots of awesome food in hawker centres (trying different food is a big part of travelling for me, which is definitely not always a good thing!).

Went to the Raffles and had a Singapore Sling and Million Dollar Cocktails, which cost a ridiculous amount of money and I wouldn’t really recommend…

And Dhugal and I visited the Singapore National Museum and learnt how Singapore has become such a developed country so quickly! We got a free guided tour there by a french volunteer!

All the Singapore photos are in this set on flickr.

And so my 6 month trip through Indonesia (Bali, Lombok and Komodo Islands only), Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Singapore ended. It was not enough time, but what would be enough time?

Hopefully/maybe I’ll write a blog post at some stage about my overall reflections on the trip. Either way, I had a lot of fun, met a lot of awesome people, and learnt a lot. Mostly about myself I think!

I was planning to be here later in the year. Unfortunately I’m here early because last week my grandma, Oma Han Kloos, passed away very suddenly from a stroke, at age 78. It is difficult for us that we couldn’t say goodbye, but we’re happy she did not have to suffer through a long illness, rehabilitation or nursing homes. May she rest in peace.

This is what I have written to read at the funeral today. Translated from Dutch so a bit wonky:

I didn’t grow up with my grandma nearby because I lived in Australia from age 5 to 14, and that was of course harder on her than it was on me, her only granddaughter, because I didn’t know any better.

Of course I do have some memories, and photos. We visited Madurodam before we left Holland. And she arrived in Australia the day before my 7th birthday and brought me a doll that I still own.

But the last few years, everything changed. I moved back to Australia after living in Holland in my teenage years and seeing Oma a little more often of course.
Now we’ve become close with help from the internet.
We emailed, spoke and saw each other via video chat on skype, and both took a lot of photos and uploaded those to flickr and left comments.

With big thanks to SeniorWeb.nl and Oma’s independence. As long as I can remember she’s had to be independent. Mobile phones, programming tv and video, travelling to Australia, etc etc.

Often there are complaints that the internet creates superficial relationships. My relationship with my grandma proves the opposite, and for people separated by distance, whether it’s 24 hours in an airplane or a few hours in the car, I believe it’s a great way to stay in contact and even to become closer.

I’ve had many messages expressing sympathy from friends in Australia, who have never met Oma, but often saw her messages on flickr and facebook, and heard my stories about her. Cyber Oma was very cool!

Change is inevitable. I think Oma is a good example of why it’s good to change with the times and learn new things, and that it’s still possible at age 78.

Unfortunately change also means we now have to come to terms with the fact that so suddenly and unexpectedly, Oma isn’t here anymore. May she rest in peace.

Ubon Ratchitani
From Pakse in Laos we (Raf and I) crossed into Thailand by bus with Kate and Fred. While they flew back to Bangkok to catch their flight home, Raf and I stayed in Ubon Ratchitani for a few days, then took a sleeper train to Bangkok. We didn’t do much, Raf was sick again and I made use of the free wifi by doing some work. We did enjoy eating at the night markets again, the food is definitely more varied in Thailand than in Laos!

On our last day, after checking out of our cheap hotel, we took a taxi to a more expensive one towards the train station and payed a small amount (about $2) to use their swimming pool and again had free wifi, so believe it or not, but I got some work done while lying next to the pool!

Bangkok
We arrived in Bangkok the following morning at around 7am and made our way to MBK to pick up my fixed camera. Unfortunately it doesn’t open till 10am so we had to kill some time.
Then we made our way to Stefan and Poi’s place again, were we were able to stay for a few days until Raf flew home and I took a bus back to the North.
With Stefan and Poi we ate smoked reindeer and drank swedish schnapps, had massages, went out for Peking Duck (my first time ever) and went to the Chatuchuk Markets.
Raf and I visited the nearby Fashion Island Mall and did some shopping. From the outside (and mostly the inside), it looks like we were back in Australia. We did however get our hair washed(+head massage and hair blow dried) for $2. :o

Back to Chiang Mai
So on 17 January I left Raf to fly home after 7 weeks of travelling together, and I took a bus to Chiang Mai, alone again. But not for long. While in Bangkok I messages some couchsurfers I’d met last time I was in Chiang Mai (through another couchsurfer I knew from Perth), and there happened to be a chinese dumpling making party that evening at someone’s house. I could also couchsurf with one of them. So I went straight there from the bus station, on the back of a motorcycle taxi! The bus had taken 11hours, so I was a bit late, but the party was in full swing.

Kow soy, a northern thailand/burmese noodle soup:

I ended up couchsurfing in Chiang Mai for 4 days, while waiting for my friend Nic to arrive from Perth.
I hired a bike, and my host Scott and his other couchsurfing friends took me out to local restaurants and bars. A highlight was the Thai hotpot restaurant. A huge undercover area, with two huge buffets set up in the middle, and a stage with live music/comedy (in thai) at one end.

Each table gets a ‘hot pot’, a type of small bqq/steam dish. You can bbq meat etc on top, and around it in the water you throw vegetables etc to make a broth. On the buffets there were also other things to eat like sushi, fruit, salads, steamed buns and dumplings made fresh and cakes, pastries and other ingredients to make dessert! All you can eat for around $5.00!

On night at ‘Bangkok Bar’, a bar with a thai cover band playing rock music, Ross bought some crickets/grasshoppers and a couple of meely worms off a passing seller. I’d had a drink (but was definitely not drunk), and was convinced to try them. The meely worm was the easiest and tasted the best (like twisties), the cricket had eyes so was harder, and didn’t taste like anything in particular but was bigger and while still chewing I tried to wash it away with Thai whiskey, which didn’t work to well.

Oh well, try anything once! I lie, I doubt I’ll ever try a cockroach or spider, but never say never!
We also went to the North Gate Jazz Coop, a bar that’s mostly frequented by thai bands and audience. First one and later two more elephants came wandering past, led by one guy with someone else offering people sugar cane for sale to feed the elephant. A few days later while nowhere near the ‘old city’ and tourists it happened again at a bar, proving it’s definitely not just a thing for the tourists.

I really enjoyed staying longer in a place and ‘pretending’ to live there amongst the locals, learning from the expats. Though Chiang Mai is a very modern/western city in many ways, a lot is different from home. Tap water is not drinkable (as it hasn’t been for all of my trip, I’ve been buying water in bottles). I discovered that in Chiang Mai, there are drinking water ‘dispensers’ on some streets, where you can fill up a container for 1 baht for 2 litres, wayyyy cheaper than bottled water (at least 5 baht for 1 litre for the cheapest).

There are also many places with washing machines along the road.

Most people do not have a washing machine at home, many don’t even have a kitchen or kitchenette, especially in apartments.
And for something different: street drinking is not illegal, and that’s reason enough to do it!

I loved the Thai ice teas with milk – Chai (Nom) Yen. This is a regular street vendor, off the tourist trail, that I passed while biking around Chiang Mai. So proud I could order my drink in Thai and they could now understand me.

Back to Pai
Then Nic arrived, and we took a minivan to Pai, where we caught up with my friends Marissa (met in Perth, southern Thailand and Laos!) and Phoebe, who I’d met travelling in Northern Thailand a few months ago. While having a drink while watching the sunset over the river we also got talking to a israeli/russian girl who I then invited to dinner with us. It was funny, later it felt like I was ‘giving back’ after all the times I was asked to dinner when I was travelling alone. That’s how it goes on the backpacker trail.
We ended up in Releaf where a duo who I saw last time in Pai was playing, a thai girl with a beautiful voice and a farang (foreigner of european descent) guy on an acoustic guitar. I have mixed feelings about Pai, but one of the things I love is all the live music everywhere.
After a breakfast at Good Life Pai (I generally don’t like eating at the same place all the time, but this place is really good value), Nic, Marissa and I set off on scooters to Cave Lodge, near Soppong on the road to Mae Hong Son.
Good Life Pai:

Ok, the above was written only a few weeks after all that happened, but now I’m writing the rest of this at the end of March, so it’s going to be more of a summary :P

Back to Cave Lodge

It was an awesome scooter ride up and down the mountain range. So beautiful and not much traffic so just so much fun. At the top of the highest points are some markets so we stopped for a while.

Late lunch in Soppong, then the last 9km through forest to the town of Ban Tham and Cave Lodge, which is about 500m from Tham Lod, the cave. I love it, this is the second time I came here and generally I don’t go back to places. It’s a wooden lodge, set on the side of a hill looking over the river and the mountains. Big verandah/open restaurant area with a fireplace, cushions and a table tennis table. There’s dorm accommodation and separate huts. All made of natural material and all very open, but everyone gets a mosquito net.

That evening we asked where a nice place to do a small hike and see the sunset was, and were told the ‘Big Knob’. We drove our scooters through the main town, but then walked through a small group of houses to the base of the knob. We kind of made it halfway, the last bit we didn’t see a path, and it was getting dark and I was on thongs (flip flops).

The next day after a morning bath in the river (quite cold water and a bit shallow for a proper bath!) we wandered around a bit and then at 4pm did the Tham Lod cave tour, and watched the swifts flying back in at sunset. And another evening of good food, reading and table tennis.
Cow, Nic, Marissa:

Very old coffins in the cave:

Mae Hong Song, Ban Rak Thai, Burmese border roadtrip
The following day we decided to do a 2 or 3 day trip to a town further to the north east, again on the Burmese border, but this was a Chinese town, founded by ex KMT fighters in 1950. Bit of a tourist town now for thai people. We only saw 2 other western tourists. Was awesome, something different. And the ride there was beautiful, and we got chased by rain and thunderstorms! First at the top of the big mountain pass beyond Soppong we had to stop to shelter from a thunderstorm.

And then just before arriving in Ban Rak Thai we were being chased by clouds (sweeping over the road behind us!!) and it started raining soon after.
On the way we had lunch in a small town and through not being able to communicate much, we just ate pad thai. We also stopped to view a waterfall, but there wasn’t much water.
In Ban Rak Thai the power was out due to the thunderstorms. There was one restaurant open and we shared a table with some thai tourists from Chiang Mai and/or Bangkok. We didn’t order much before it was all chinese type food (so not much choice for Marissa and I, vegetarians) and very expensive compared to what we were used to paying. Confusing that a place that pretty much only caters for Thai tourists is more expensive than western tourist places.
Guesthouse with chinese decorations, and Nic and Marissa:

After a night sharing a big bed (we only got one room as accommodation was expensive too!), we scootered back south and to Mae Hong Song, the capital.

After a look around, and lunch at which a crazy US ex-army guy joined us and told us stories about the Free Burma Rangers, corrupt police and drugs, we scootered back to Cave Lodge. Long rides that day, but very nice. Right in the very north of Thailand.
Temples in Mae Hong Song City:

Pai again
Back to Pai the next day (28 January) and we visited the hot springs at night, and then went to a party at the Pittalew Art Gallery, where there was music, art, food and an awesome fire show, probably the best I’ve seen!

The annual Pai Reggae Festival ‘We Be Jammin’ was on for the next two days just outside of Pai and we went the first night and had a great time! Nic, Marissa, Eve, Phoebe and Marissa’s friends. I may have also driven a scooter with two passengers for the first time ever… No, not after drinking alcohol, but still, shhhhh.
The reason Phoebe was back in Pai/Thailand was that she’d been invited to play saxophone with a band at this festival. I played photographer for the night using her DSLR, but am proud to say that my point and shoot camera (with Nic and I using it), got some shots that were just as awesome:

And then it was farewell to Phoebe who was staying in Pai, to Marissa who was staying one more day and then back to Aus. Back to Chiang Mai for a night, said goodbye to my new friends there, and said goodbye to Nic who had another two weeks.

And now I continue writing this in the middle of June, so it’s going to be even more summarized.

Homeward bound
I spent a night in Phuket, one of the hells on earth for me (ok, slight exaggeration…). I got to the airport at around 3pm, spent about 3hrs getting to Patong, the place with the cheapest accommodation, and I had to leave there around 5am again in a shared taxi to get back to the airport to fly to Singapore. It was so much more built up that other areas of Thailand (ok, except Bangkok of course). So many hotels!

Everything was double the price of Northern Thailand, and I hadn’t seen that many Australians since Kuta in Bali (and so not my kind of travellers) and there were also heaps of american soldiers on leave, and plenty of lady boys and prostitutes. Or girls that dressed as prostitues… It was strange seeing Tsunami Hazard Zone and Evacuation Route signs everywhere in Patong.

My only luck was that my room had free wifi from a restaurant downstairs. I skyped my parents, pretending to still be in Chiang Mai. Part of my carefully planned trick of showing up on their doortstep 4 days before they even thought I was in the country again.

Phew!

Only a few days of left of my six month south east asia trip.