Could we be aqua gliding? I search my tired memory; is that a fictional term? Did I concoct it, or was I privy to the term on some car documentary in my past?

I consider language, and decide the words irrelevant. What is important is that it’s after midnight, the headlights are incredibly dim. We’re hurtling along the thin back roads of Bali, most of which are unrecognizable to me in the unusual-for-May rain downpour that faces us.

We’ve just arrived. Twenty minutes ago, my wife and I exchanged Bahasa pleasantries with our driver, before exhausting our limited vocabulary. We’ve now resorted to English, of which we believe our driver understands at least half of the conversation.

If we’re not dodging the itinerant dogs on a late night hunt for food, we’re hitting large oil-slicked puddles which I remark could be Agung, Bahasa for river. Our driver laughs, yes, Agung, he says, laughing merrily as if I were the first to relate large puddles to other water masses.

It’s close to half past twelve. We’re on a midnight trek to reach our destination in Nyuh Kuning, just outside Ubud, before we either hit a puddle that consumes us, or that the tiredness of our flight hits us like a wall.

His Toyota Kijang is merely a few years old. It’s in relatively good condition. Balinese sure look after their motor vehicles I say to myself. The scene is replete with the quiet sounds of cassette-driven Gamelan music, before the sudden intrusion of some bad nineties western track, which happens to be our drivers handphone ringing.

I’m relieved in the fact he has silenced the phone and is silently looking ahead into the heavy raining darkness. After an improbable amount of time he says ‘Yes, they’re here, we’re on our way’, and I realize he is on the phone and more interested in the conversation that the shockingly uneven and sometimes missing bitumen spreading in front of him.

I look out the window, relishing the street side art that are the bamboo poles for Gangulang, an important ceremonial day in the Balinese calender, two days from now. Or is that one day? I’m confused with the days and dates, even though my flight was a paltry four hours, and within the same time zone. It may be the fact I haven’t slept in what feels like an eternity.

I tried the fitful middle-seat sleep routine on the packed budget airline flight. The girl from Prague beside me is happily sleeping; her head facing me, her breath reminiscent of the airline lamb shanks meal she consumed not long ago. My vegetarian sensibilities kick in, and I try to turn away. That dance seemed to last days in the few hours between meal and stowing our trays for landing.

We slow down for a dog that is urinating in the middle of the road; under the sole streetlight seemingly in this village. It looks at us unconcerned, and wanders off to the side, as if we’ve inconvenienced his display of manly urination to his unseen friends. Steam rises from the road that we can barely see.

Our driver is fascinated with the fact we’re visiting his village no more than six months after we were last there. He informs us of his holiday rental home that he owns. I politely suggest that we should visit for a look over the next few days. He proudly describes how his current tenant — another Westerner — has been living in the house for eight years now. I silently decide to skip the house tour; it may be some time before the place is accepting new blood.

We’ve made a bond. It could be a late night mateship thing, but our driver shares with us his story. The bombings in Bali in 2002 changed his life forever. He was a woodworker, far from the destruction of Kuta, in the beautiful surrounds of Ubud, however the tourists stopped visiting after that day. No tourists, no sales. No sales, no work.

He is now an entrepreneur, although I didn’t explain the word well, so he is left wondering what I mean. His wife, two children not dissimilar in ages to my own and he are busily making a new life.

He drives his car for the hotel we’re staying in, mostly picking up passengers departing late flights, such as ours. He explains that every day this week, he is at Denpasar airport, holding a typewritten sign with a name, arriving after midnight back in his village. During the day, starting early whilst it is still cool, he works the rice field adjacent to our hotel. He owns two rental properties in the same village, both of which are enjoying high occupancy.

He has a modest cafe outside his two story house, which we pass for a late night inspection along the way. His wife and sister works there, whilst the two kids are in school. Entrepreneurship runs in the family; his brother owns the motorcycle rental company we’ve arranged two bikes from.

He dreams of opening another wood working shop, maybe near the Monkey Forest, where the tourists who are now returning in better-than-ever numbers can view and buy his wares. I wonder aloud if he has time with all these other jobs, to keep his hands on the chisels. He answers that he hasn’t the time now.

We fall into contemplative silence, and moments later, we pull in to the driveway of our hotel. Ninety minutes since our journey began, we pop the boot, remove our luggage, and shake hands. We exchange good byes and farewells. His van descends into darkness.

I have recently returned from just under two weeks to Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. As I’ve done previously, with Canberra, NE England and Singapore, here are some random facts about Hong Kong…

1. The Taxis have these contraptions installed to open the rear left door automatically.

2. The multi-trip travel smartcard, Octopus Card, can be used to buy lots of other things, like from vending machines and stores. The cleverest thing ever!

3. There is a shopping centre called Wonderful Worlds of Whampoa that has a building shaped like a boat.

4. There are no ferry or MTR timetables. That’s because they are ridiculously regular, so there’s no point.

5. It’s legal to drink standing on the footpath or sitting on a curb outside a pub or club.

6. You can even get served outside, as we did (see previous point)

7. Cans of Coke cost $9 out of a vending machine. I know the exchange rate is good, but it is still a shock to see.

8. The trip from Hong Kong to Macau takes about an hour on ferry, plus customs time at both ends.

9. There are literally hundreds of gates at the Hong Kong Airport.

10. As per point 9, I caught an underground train to get from the arrival gate to customs!

11. They are serious about Typhoons. We had a typhoon signal whilst i was there, and just about every foyer has a sign go up warning people.

12. Although Cantonese is the main language, most people speak Mandarin (and English) as well.

13. Sundays are the maids day off. You can see thousands of maids flock to public spaces such as parks on Sundays.

14. The Big Red Bus tours are seriously cheap, and worth the ride.

15. Make sure you visit ‘the peak’. It’s a grand view of Hong Kong from up there (see the photo above as an example).

16. Hong Kong has over 7 million people in 1,000 square kilometres, making it the “world’s most vertical city” – it sure is packed in!

17. Because of the SAR (Special Administrative Region) status of Hong Kong, Facebook and Twitter are accessible. The infamous Chinese internet filter doesn’t reach Hong Kong, yet.

I would definitely recommend visiting. The east meets west feel to the place makes it comfortable for someone who doesn’t want to face culture shock, but still different enough for those who want that shot of culture.

I’ve covered Singapore before, and although I spent most of a day in Macau, those facts will have to wait for another blog post.

We were very lucky enough to go to Ubud, Bali again last week for four days. This was only six months after our last visit of the same length. My wife, Meredith and I hired motorbikes for the entire time and went riding, ate lots of local Bali Makan, and practiced our Bahasa. We even went to the northern areas, Lovina, Singaraja and specifically the only dedicated Buddhist temple on the island, Brahma Vihara Arama, for a day too.

I’ll write more about our adventures shortly (there are a few articles in the works…) however in the meantime, please enjoy this video (above) of one of our rides, this one taking us from Nyuh Kuning (south side of the Monkey Forest from Ubud central) through to Pasar Ubud (the Ubud Markets).

Thanks to the power of Google Maps, here is the route that the video takes you on.

View Nyuh Kuning to Pasar Ubud in a larger map

If you keep dreaming of visiting Bali, I recommend that you check out some of my other videos (please vote for them whilst you’re there!), and perhaps even check out some of the reviews I have given on TripAdvisor. Enjoy!

Recently, Meredith and I spent a few beautiful days in Bali, Indonesia. I did have all intention to write a mini travelogue and publish it here, but in the weeks we’ve been back, it’s been crazily busy at work and in life.

We arrived late Monday evening, sans children (who had Meredith’s mother staying with them). My brother Charlie happened to be in town, so along with his friend, Rani, they were kind enough to pick us up from Ngurah Rai Airport, and in the middle of the night, we made our way to Nyuh Kuning, a small and quiet village just south of Ubud town center.

Our chosen hotel, Saren Indah, is tucked away on the southern end of the Monkey Forest, near the top end of Jalan Nyuh Bulan.

Replete with beautiful gardens, an inviting swimming pool, outdoor Bale style restaurant (open 7.30am – 10.30pm), and two story buildings housing the sixteen rooms, the place was fantastic. Either side of the property were rice fields, and although we stayed in one of the Garden rooms (lower floor), we’re assuming the views from upstairs would be great.

We ate and shopped, practised our Bahasa, and rode our two hired motorbikes, for the next four days, before sadly heading back to the airport early Saturday morning for the trip home. If you are considering a few days of downtime, you couldn’t go wrong with booking one of the many cheap flights to Bali, and relaxing in Ubud for a few days.

I’ve uploaded two videos that I took from the handlebars of the bike, using a loaned GoPro camera, designed for the purpose. This video shows a quick ride around Nyuh Kuning, and this video shows our ride from Jalan Hanoman in Ubud, over to Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave).

Terima kasih (thank you) for reading this post; I trust you’ll enjoy the videos!

Image: Photo of the reception Bale at Saren Indah Hotel, Ubud.

It’s true that I’m passionate about Port80 events; I’ve seen so many great things come out of Port80 Perth, I really want to see them established in other Australian capital cities.

Well, the Australian Web Industry Association are hitting the road again – this time, we’re bringing Port80 to Sydney and Melbourne, with aspirations that these cities then take the baton and grow their events locally.

Gary Barber (AWIA Treasurer) and I will be promoting the Port80 Melbourne concept on May 26th, along with fellow AWIA committee member, Harriet Wakelam, who recently moved to Melbourne from Perth.

We’re putting on some free nibbles, free entry and a cash bar at the funky Softbelly Bar. The full details are:

Port80 Melbourne
Tuesday 26th May, starting at 7.00pm, at:

The Lounge @ Softbelly Bar
367 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

You can see a Google Map here.

Then, Gary and I are also joining fellow AWIA committee member and Sydney local, Marc Lehmann, at Port80 Sydney. Once again, free nibbles, free entry and even a few free drinks (thanks to sponsor, Saasu!) on May 27th, at the Saasu offices in Sydney CBD.

The full details for this one are:

Port80 Sydney
Wednesday 27th May, starting at 7.00pm, at:

Saasu Offices
Level One, 111 Elizabeth St
Sydney NSW 2000

You can view a Google Map here.

If you’re going to be in either city on these days, I’d encourage you to attend. We promise no long boring speeches, this is a casual social affair. Port80 events are a chance for you to meet other web designers, developers, project managers and others in the web industry in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere.

Mark these dates in your diary, and please feel free to invite your colleagues and co-workers in the industry. I hope to see you there!

After last nights shenanigans at the Southern Cross pub, Cuba St, we woke to an early start, getting to the beautiful, 105 year old, Wellington Town Hall to be greeted by plenty of ushers and volunteers, feeding the masses barista-made coffee and raising the anticipation of the day ahead.

Door open of 8.50am comes around quickly, and we’re being shepherded inside for unique-to-a-conference banquet style seating, around tables of ten for the opening of Webstock 2009.

The first speaker of the day, Jane McGonigal, took us on the road of a gamer, with her talk explaining how gaming can improve your life.

Next up, the 500 strong audience listened to Nat Torkington, who expounded his wisdom about the lessons of better, stronger, faster failures. The big takeaway was fail small, and the only bad thing about failure is if you don’t learn from it.

Well known speaker, Derek Powazek (previous gigs include time at HotWired, Blogger, and Technorati) was up next, where he spoke about the wisdom of communities

Prior to lunch, we then broke into three streams (Matt Biddulph and Fiona Romeo spoke in two other rooms), where I stayed in the main auditorium to listen to Meg Pickard, Head of Communities and User Experience for guardian.co.uk, speak about content, communities and collaboration.

After lunch, three streams continued (with Cameron Adams & Pamela Fox being in the smaller rooms), and I sat as young (23 years) and very smart David Recordon gave a presentation on the open social web, expounding the virtues and explaining the history of the open data movement, comparing Facebook, MySpace and other social networks.

With everyone back in the main auditorium, our next speaker, Adrian Holovaty, went through the design and development decisions and lessons he has learnt in building well known US-based mash-up, everyblock.com. His experience began in developing one of the first Google Map mash-ups, chigacocrime.org.

Heather Champ spoke about passionate communities, from her personal experiences gained as one of the original Flickr team members. She discussed the growing pains, the trials and the tribulations of user management and their filtering and copyright strategies.

Author and software designer, Michael Lopp then took us on a light-hearted look at the differences between Geek, Nerd and Dork. As he alliterated a number of times, he thinks of himself as a nerd, maybe a geek but definitely not a dork.

Well known web identity, Ze Frank, was the closing speaker of day one with a fun look at his experiences since his first animated dancing clip, many years ago.

Afterwards, the Webstock team invited everyone to stay for a champagne and nibble, whilst browsing the wares of Craftstock, an Etsy style collection of artists selling unique handmade geek craft items.

All in all, a fantastic day, with the only downside being the arctic conditions inside the main auditorium – the first we’ve felt of the cold since arriving in Wellington on Tuesday. Mental note; I’ll remember my jacket for tomorrow.

As my previous post mentioned, tomorrow I head off to Wellington, New Zealand to attend Webstock09, what looks to be an absolutely fantastic web conference. The programme line-up is superb, with a mix of both presenters I have seen before, and a stack of people I haven’t.

I’m looking forward to checking out Wellington, and catching up with old friends, as well as meeting plenty of new folk. If you do see me, please do come up and say hello (we can trade Webstock Trading Cards whilst we’re at it!)!

I hope to post a wrap up of the event here, and perhaps a post or two in between if I get the chance. Oh, and you can see my stream of 140 character travel reports over the next six days via Twitter.

Meanwhile, you can read my interview with Mike Brown, one of the organisers of the event.

Image: Airport codes for my multi-leg trip. Perth to Sydney to Wellington, and then to Brisbane and finally back to Perth.

It’s no secret that I enjoy going on journeys both across Australia and overseas. During the next two months, I am off to Wellington, New Zealand in February and then Bali, Indonesia in March.

I was speaking to a few people the other day, about what each of us do for planning. Here are the five main websites I use to discover the area I am visiting, before I get there.

Wikimapia
This is a great site, which is literally a wiki overlay to Google Maps. You can select areas and tag them and write short descriptions, and then others can explore a city or area from above. Here’s the Wellington, New Zealand wikimapia section.

Trip Advisor
This is a great review site, and a very active forums community as well. I’ve reviewed a few places on there in last 12 months, and even have my own travel map, showing where I have been (fairly limited, I know!). Here’s their Bali, Indonesia section as an example.

Flickr
This may sound like an odd choice, but you can find out a lot about a city by the photographs of it on this great photo sharing site. The easiest way to search is by keyword, such as ‘Wellington, New Zealand‘. You can see my photos here.

Wikitravel
This is another wiki-based website, with succinct articles about thousands of locations around the world. They tend to be written by people who have vast experience in the area, and I’ve used their recommendations on previous trips. Here is the Wikitravel page for Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.

Delicious
Social book-marking pioneer website, Delicious, is a great place to see hat others are bookmarking and tagging by the destination name. Here’s an example of people tagging websites with ‘Sanur‘, one of the places I am staying in Bali.

What sites do you use to research travel destinations before you leave?

Really, has it been nearly a month since I last posted? If you’re anything like me, you hate to see blog posts where people apologise for being recalcitrant in keeping their blog up to date.

I have an excuse! Well, not really. I’ve been in Bali you see, for 15 days of blissful family time, with my children and wife and no email or phone. A week in Sanur, a week in Ubud, and a day in Kuta to remind us why the beaten track is the better track.

We practised our Bahasa (Tidak Bagus Bahasa!), we took many photos (3,000+) and we ate and drank our way through every meal. I’ve come back with a beard, Meredith came back with a tan and the kids came back with a cultural experience, fond memories and plenty of DVDs.

Where’s your favourite holiday destination? It need not be overseas, or even that far from home, but what makes you a relaxed soul?

I’ll be back as soon as reality kicks in.

Photo: Statue, Puri Saraswati, Ubud, Bali.

It’s official! We’re having another pre-Web Directions Port80 meet up, and so far have had RSVP’s from all across our land. The night before the conference, where else would you want to be besides the following great event?

On the eve of Web Directions South 2007, come along for a warm up social networking session with your industry peers. It’s free to drop in, there’ll be some free nibbles and rumours of a bar tab (if we can find a sponsor!).

There’ll be a gang of folk from Port 80 Perth, folks from Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane, and possibly even some Sydney locals. Lots of attendees to the conference, and a good chance a few speakers will also show.

It’s all kicks off at 6.00pm, September 26th 2007

Quarryman’s Hotel
216 Harris St
(Cnr. Pyrmont Bridge)
Pyrmont NSW 2009

See a map to the venue.

This venue is literally stumbling distance from the WDS07 venue, so here’s a chance to scope out where you’ll be for two days, and get to drink and meet your peers.

If you’ve got any questions, feel free to hit the Port80 forums.

For more information about Port80, see the Port80 website or more about AWIA at the Australian Web Industry Association website.

So, who’s in with me?

Image: Sorrento Beach, WA.