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.

So, we’re doing it. I’ve been talking about it for a while, so we have finally organised passports for the kids, and we’re off to Bali, Indonesia for two weeks in the second half of October.

We’ll be staying in beach front Sanur for a week, and then up to the hills and Ubud for a week, and no doubt visiting everywhere else as well. The plan is relax, eat, drink, shop, relax, eat…you get the idea.

The kids are practicing some basic Bahasa at home the last few weeks, so cute when Leia goes to Kindy and says to her teacher ‘Selamat Pagi!’ (Good morning).

So, anyone got any inside tips on where to eat or visit in either area, whilst we’re there? I have only ever been to Kuta before, back in 2003.

Image: A family worth of passports.

This blog appeared as a result of attending Web Essentials 2005 in September 2005 in Sydney. Since then, the conference has evolved into Web Directions South, with a few of my posts from WDS 2006 hitting this blog, and now a ‘warm up’ post for Web Directions South 2007.

Why a warm up post? Well, it’s not for another six weeks, and although the speakers and topics have (mostly) been announced, there’s still no actual schedule as yet, so there could be conflicts in timings for some of the following.

Here’s a short list of some of the presentations that I am hoping to attend (in no particular order);

Andy Clarke presenting The October Revolution. Andy presented last year, and not only was a smooth public speaker, he made Keynote shine, and he hung out more than once with the Perth crew.

Pushing beyond design sounds like a great topic, by RedBubble team member, Justin French. I visited the offices of RedBubble back in 2006, and they certainly have some cool stuff rolling out.

Being interested in SEO, Scott Gledhill talking on Is SEO Evil? should be an enjoyable presentation.

George Oates, an Australian working on that little photo sharing site, Flickr, will be presenting Human Traffic.

Mark Pesce did a fantastic closing keynote for last year, and he is back this year with Mob Rules. We’ll be expecting another motivating close to the conference no doubt.

A big part of the national trip to attend Web Directions on the other side of Australia is the chance to socialise with your peers in a licensed venue. This year, we’ve gone one better and hired most of a pub for our accommodation. I’m looking forward to the networking that’s for sure.

Speaking of team building, I am looking forward to hearing local Googler Carl Sjogreen speaking on the topic of Building and managing great development teams.

WDS 2006 drinking partner, Ben Winter-Giles, is joining the line up with a talk entitled Managing agile projects in large organisations. Ben is a fluent and passionate person, so I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us (No red wine, OK Ben?).

So there’s seven of the presentations, however they all look to be worth attending – the challenge is trying to get to as many as possible, and at least absorb some of it.

All in all, I’m glad they’ve managed to add another stream, so now we have Design, Development and Management & Strategy streams. Here’s looking forward to late September!

Image: Seats at Web Directions South 06 (prior to the doors opening).