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Elephant sculptures in Chiang Mai Bug Museum

Rhinoceros beetle in Chiang Mai Bug Museum

Chumphon harbour, gateway to Ko Tao

Sairee beach, Western shore of Ko Tao

Releasing a lantern carrying our hopes and dreams on Sairee beach

Sunset on Sairee 1

Sunset on Sairee 2

Sunset on Sairee 3

Sunset on Sairee 4

V on Sairee beach

Fishing boat from the window of the Songserm Express

Dawn at Chumphon

Departing Chumphon

I went on a six-week backpacking trip to South East Asia, briefly visiting Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia with my girlfriend (V), my brother (Robin), and his girlfriend (Alice). It was an amazing journey with both highs and lows, but felt terrifying swift and short. Six weeks isn’t a long time to spend visiting one country, so to make our way through four was a pick and mix affair that we could probably have planned a little better.

Nevertheless I don’t regret a thing, and I now have a number of destinations in mind for when we eventually return. Pai, a small town in Northern Thailand, was the favourite of our stops. A relaxed atmosphere, busy night market, beautiful mountainous countryside and cheap scooters all added up to a lot of fun! Chiang Mai, the gateway city, is also beautiful. Even without the attractions such as the comprehensive night market and the Old City, it has such a slower pace than Bangkok, our first stop, that it was a very refreshing change.

V and I scootering in Pai

Siem Reap and Angkor Wat in Cambodia also ranked highly. Angkor Wat, it goes without saying, is spectacular to the extreme, and Siem Reap, although very tourist-focused, lures you in via Pub Street (not kidding, there’s a street called Pub St.).

Vang Vieng was another spot on the traditional tourist trail. We were under the weather while we were in Laos, and we didn’t make it to Luang Prabang, a heritage-listed peaceful city in the North, but at least we completed our goal of floating down a tube on a river and flinging ourselves into it via various incredibly unsafe contraptions. A worthy investment if you can get past the sickening sound of Friends and Family Guy blaring out from every restaurant.

Ko Tao was our last destination in Thailand (barring another couple of days in BKK), and it was well worth the trip. Everything about it screamed ‘tropical island’, and cheap scooters and delicious seafood more than made up for the brief episode of Thai Belly I experienced while we were there. It was a little more expensive than the mainland, but expensive for Thailand is hardly a hit in the hip pocket.

Over the next few days I’m going to do some entries showcasing what I think are some of the best and most interesting photos I managed to snap on our trip. I ended up with 2200, and although there’s a lot of culling still to do, I think some have potential! I’ll start with a brief look at Angkor Wat, Bangkok and Chiang Mai. As a sidenote, all the photos were taken with a 6MP Olympus SP500-UZ. It’s developing some dead pixels now, but it’s been a trusty companion for a while.

Buddha heads at Angkor Thom

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Overgrowth in Angkor Wat (panoramic shot)

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Sunlight in Ta Prohm

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Ta Prohm panorama (V for scale)

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Spiky trees at Angkor Wat

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Dawn at Angkor Wat

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Dawn light hitting a relief carving at Angkor Wat

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Smaller building in the Angkor Wat complex

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Glass reflections in BKK Central Station

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Wat Pho

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Rooftop on Khaosan Road

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Chiang Mai Night Market central tree

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Decorative lamps in Chiang Mai Night Market

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Safe work practices in Chiang Mai’s Old City

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Terracotta leering

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Never actually found out what this fruit was called

Hope you enjoyed the photos! Check back for more in a couple of days.

You can read an excerpt from the Courier article, ‘Design career on downward slope’ here (who came up with that headline?), and my interview with Elecdrawnic is here.

craft

I made a small gift for my girlfriend and mounted it on a CD. It looks a bit silly, but everything on it has a special meaning for us.

View from above

View from the side

monkey puzzle tree

In other news, I went to my friend’s first classical piano recital for honours last night. She played brilliantly as usual, and she’s definitely going to go far. She also plays in a local quartet called Monkey Puzzle Tree, who fuse genres with contributions from percussion, keyboard, electric violin and classical guitar. They’re great, and I’d strongly encourage you to check out their MySpace.

The band from left: David O’Callaghan, Michelle Lam, Matthew Gorgula and Sophie Calderbank

bk01

Another talented friend’s just finished his first year of illustration at UniSA. His work’s great, and very surreal. Check him out!

A big thanks to TJ and his crew for running the contest, and congratulations to the runners-up, Daichi Ishikawa and Joseph Toney, looks like you guys’ll get some nice gear!

The announcement is on TJ’s website, and my winnning design is below. If you click, it’ll take you to a higher resolution copy in my portfolio.

Winning design

Brochure

Poster

I’ve linked to the entries through their respective images, but you need to sign up to vote so it’s probably not worth the hassle. Note: muchacho = little boy, bandito = bandit.

Entry 1

I thought this might appeal for the novelty value alone.

Entry 2

Mobster pin stripes on white leather, embroidered crest and vinyl pattern detailing on the palm.

I entered a simple logo based on the site’s primary initials, which takes into account the emphasis it places on its voting system. The logo was based on modified letters from Matthew Welch’s famous ‘College’ font to convey a campus atmosphere. The logo will work at any (reasonable) size, and is instantly recognisable.

I’d like to thank the team at Vote For Art and all the members who voted for my entry. I’m confident it’s a solid logo that will help them forge a strong identity and cohesive presence online.

The Logo

The logo

Listening to:

Eluvium – An Accidental Memory In The Case Of Death. A beautiful 26-minute album that’s perfect for winding down at the end of the evening. Classical piano that will melt your heart.

entry 3