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South East Asia revisitedIt is time for us to show a full-scale example of how we like to work and live. We are heading back to South East Asia and this time we are bringing both flippers and laptops to enjoy business with pleasure. It has been busy days leading up to the departure and especially considering it coincides with the launch of our website with its new appearence. But working with fun things makes work fun, and that is the philosophy we bring with us when we fly to Bangkok. March 12-17, Thailand
We wasted no time getting out of Bangkok upon arrival. Nothing against the city in itself but the prospect of smoldering heat amidst cars, tuk-tuks and towering landscape of concrete and steel wasn't appealing (not to mention that we didn't mind putting some distance between us and certain elements onboard the plane from Qatar to Bangkok). Anyway, we caught a flight to Phuket and prepared ourselves for the next leg of the journey which would take us to Ko Lanta (south east of Phuket). But before that happened we kind of stumbled across our friend and business partner Fredrik Aurell at Phuket airport. By the baggage carousel we spotted a huge poster from Phuket King's Cup Regatta with Fredrik at the bow of the boat (trust us - it's him). Encouraged by this we went on with our day and scored a Thai SIM-card and an excellent ride to Ko Lanta. After another couple of hours we finally reached a destination that had the right ambience for us to kick back and relax in.
Getting down to businessSo, here we are at Top View Resort on the south west coast of the island. Our bungalow has swiftly turned into an office together with a pair of chairs, laptops and cellphones with Thai SIM-cards configured for GPRS. Hans, still under the inspirational spell of the evening's sunset, is working on a set of logotypes for a client while I have finished my work on another client's website and turned my focus on the release of our revamped site. In a few hours it will be launched...
To sum things up at this point we can say that it is a delicate feat to find a harmonious balance between business and pleasure. It takes a bit of practice to focus on the right thing, be it a design task or a game of cards on the beach. The human mind is fascinating and what we seek during a trip like this is to set it free while we still opt to keep the possibility to focus on something or nothing, whatever we chose to have in front of us for the moment. But things are different here, particularly the working conditions, though we can't say it's difficult - just different. And as a couple of ants are running around on my laptop screen I ponder and think that it's not the technology or distances involved here that has posed the greatest challenges so far, but rather climbing down the steep slope below our bungalow to get a chair that a troop of cheeky monkeys pushed of our balcony this morning. That was Hans' office chair! March 18-24, ThailandAfter Koh Lanta we headed for Koh Lipe a small island further south in Thailand, almost at the border to Malaysia. We have been here for four nights now and we have witnessed the most epic thunderstorms during every one of them. Tonight it just won't stop. The sky is almost constantly lit up by all lightning.
Koh Lipe is the only island in the Turatao National park that has been open to private development, and it shows. The island is swamped by bungalows and farangs, but still it has managed to keep some of it's authenticity. There are no roads and no cars, just small paths that we seem to manage to constantly get lost on. We only have power here a few hours each night, but that is enough to keep the gear up and running. We can get on the internet to send you this report. We're nearing the end of our second week in Thailand, and tomorrow were heading for Malaysia. Our first stop is Georgetown where we will stock up on the necessary communications electronics. A new country, a new phonenumber ;) Now as the rain starts to pour down outside I say goodnight. April 2, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
We have now settled down up in the mountains of Malaysia where the clean and cool air allows our brains to function on some higher levels than merely life supporting. An apartment in Tanah Rata has become our new HQ and we will stay here for about a month and a half. It was easier than we thought to find an apartment but it was worth holding out for a few days while we kept looking around as many apartments had as much personality and ambience as a hospital hallway. It was quite a few of those available since the last batch of retired Japanese couples had gone back home for the blossoming of cherry trees. But eventually we found a 3-bedroom apartment above a Chinese restaurant, and with wooden floor, modern facilities, sun atrium and the restaurant's WiFi available to us we just had to take it, but only after some good wheeling and dealing regarding the rent (at least we like to think we did well...). It really is a pleasure to have a place to retire to in the evening that consists of more than a bed and complementary geckos. In the evenings we still go to Father's Guesthouse where we stayed earlier for good times and an interesting blend of conversations, and believe me when I say that it is not only your average backpacker or traveler that pass through this place. A few nights ago we were engulfed in a fascinating talk with Dr Nomarly Muslim, a retired Malaysian nuclear physicist who has worked with Hans Blix at IAEA. Now when he has the possibility to spend his time on things of passion rather than searching for missing warheads he went to Cameron Highlands to find and study a parasitic (or perhaps synergetic) plant with amazing potential for treatment of liver cancer. Chinese traditional medicine has used this plant for about 2 millennia and Dr Nomarly is doing some high-tech detective work to find the active substances of it (there are about 500 possible suspects). One of many interesting things about it is that an extract from the plant is poisonous for persons that don't have liver cancer, but it is not poisonous if you do have liver cancer. It is good with a chat like that every once in a while. April 23, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
It's amazing how time can fly and suddenly we're only two weeks away from moving out of our apartment in the Highlands. The time here and the people we've met have been a great new surrounding to work in, and we must say that this is a superb way of working and exploring the possibilities. Lately there have been some long days of work due to new assignments, skype-calls and other communication with our clients in Sweden resulting in workdays that stretch well over midnight. However, we've been able to take on assignments and deliver results on short notice for a couple of new clients in Sweden while still eating tandoori chicken on banana leaf with our fingers for lunch. What can I say? Webdesign in Cameron Highlands is finger-lickin' good... The near future for us
Well, we have also sketched out the rest of our time here in Asia and we will leave the Highlands to go to Penang in less than two weeks. There are some friends in Georgetown that we will meet, one of them is working for a Malaysian manufacturer of LCD and plasma-screens and they were earlier interested in revamping their website. Perhaps a new assignment but no matter what, it will be great to see him again. A kin spirit from Nova Scotia
In the highlands we have spent many lunches, dinners and evenings (basically just a whole lot of time) in the company of a wonderfully eccentric Canadian. Let's call him Paul. Conversations with him were like sailing on the Bering Sea - you were in for a wild ride. Paul is one of those highly intelligent autodidacts with a mind that twists around the most complex matters, often esoteric, which he digests cognitively and then serves to you. And he does it fast. Very fast. There's no doubt that the man would be a millionaire if he wasn't perfectly happy with being wealthy in the more important aspects of life, and with that I mean freedom, chi and grit to enjoy it all. One way to describe him is to say that he's like a sober Hunter Thompson. Paul, Hans and I understood each other pretty well... May 7, Perhentian islands, MalaysiaHoliday in the sun. We are now relaxing at D'Lagoon. Snorkling, sleeping, eating and not that much more. It could be translated to total relaxation. To balance our mode of apparent inactivity we have some new exciting photos to share with you. Take a look in the second picture gallery. May 19, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Back in modern civilization again with its 24 hour electricity, strange smells and juggernaut rats. Kuala Lumpur doesn't have the ambience of a religious city but it certainly has plenty of contemporary temples. It is quite amazing with the shear number and magnitude of the shopping malls here. If you could eat marble we might have stumbled across the solution to the world food crisis. The journey back here was eventful including two accidents and a couple of swedish tourists that forgot to get off the bus at the destination of their 13-hour journey. These fellows (no names mentioned with respect to their integrity... or something like that...) scrambled off the bus in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur at a toll-booth after the bus had passed through the city. It might (or might not) have been the same fellows that later flagged down a taxi that 1 minute later t-boned another car, luckilly loosing nothing more than momentum, pride of our taxi-driver and his front bumper. Anyway, tomorrow we will catch a flight to Bangkok and visit the house of a former CIA-operative. |
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