Ambrish and Shruti's place - Raleigh, NC 

Ambrish and Shruti at Lake Johnson, near their place in Raleigh. The rocking chairs are a nice touch I think. 

I love American News

Some headlines on Detroit local tv news...

"Why police shut down two lanes of the I-94. Shots fired. We'll tell you who got hit - tonight at 10!"

"Britney Spears is Pregnant!" - Actually, that was on ALL the news. But then, that was probably big news in Australia too.

"Next, we'll cross live to Detroit Metro airport to see how travellers are coping with the new 'no cigarette lighters on planes' rule"

....

....

"There were 5 seperate shooting deaths in Detroit on the weekend"

A walk in the city

At lunch today, I left the conference and went for a walk around downtown. First to the Renaissance Center - GM world headquarters. The most modern, hugest, most recognisable building in the city. There must be tens of thousands of people working there, along with foodcourts and shopping centres and a hotel.

Then into the heart of downtown. Probably about 30% of the buildings are empty - some have been carefully boarded up, as if they're awaiting better days. Others have just been left and there are broken windows etc.

there's a lot of construction going on everywhere around the city - Detroit has the Superbowl in January so they're attempting to clean up the city's image a bit. I was talknig to a guy about it and asked if the downtown 'renewal' will continue after the Superbowl. He doesn't think it will...

The photos I've posted are in the nice downton areas. I haven't been to any of the inner city suburbs around the city. Frankly, I'm not sure I want to go walking around those suburbs! the Lonely Planet recommends that travellers do NOT go near 12th street, where the 1967 riots occurred, where 43 people died and several blocks burnt to the ground...

I might drive down 8 Mile Rd on Friday - see if I can spot any of Eminem's posse!

As sad as this city is - it IS fascinating! Home of the Motown sound (Stevie Wonder, Jackson 5, Diana ross...), lots of African American culture and an amazing history of boom then bust...

Seeya!

This monolith isn't empty - it's the 'Renaissance Center' - GM world headquarters. I checked it out inside - it's an entire city of it's own. Probably one of the reasons so many of the other buildings in the city are empty... 

Non-empty building. This is a cool oldschool sckyscraper! 

Empty buildings... all of them! 

Empty building - but it looks like their preparing to either demolish or refurbish this one 

Empty Building 

This is a cool building with all the windows painted all graffiti like. 

The nicest angle...

This is one of the best angles on Detroit... There's not many 'good' angles on Detroit... I'll try to take some real 'urban wasteland' photos tomorrow. There is plenty of it! I can't really think of a city that is more ugly. It's like a third world city, but without all the interesting culture and people... In Australia, our cities have maintained a great 'downtown' feel. So many American cities lost that cool feel back in the 50s and 60s... and it's never some back. It's really sad to see beautiful old skyscrapers, and building after building in such a state of disrepair.

But I must say - all the people we have come across (in shops, restaurants etc) have been really really nice!

Seeya!

One Big Carpark - Dearborn, Detroit, MI, USA

Woke up this morning, thought I'd go for a walk to look for a place to have breakfast. I tell people all the time you need a car in America, but I forget the extent of it until I get here... There are no footpaths along the roads here in Dearborn - just sloped grass, difficult to walk on. Detroit is definitely the 'Motor City'. Everything in the mall only opens at 10am and there were no other restaurants cafes around! No breaky for me...

Weather's nice though.

Old Photos...

We spent the weekend in Toowoomba at 'The Earle of Cotswald Hills' place (my parents). Dad has a LOT of old old photos from Kumbia/Kingaroy that he loves to show us. I scanned a few of them in and thought you might like them - whoever you are...

Some other old plane at Kingaroy... 

Charles Kingsford Smith's 'Southern Cross' visiting Kingaroy 

I think this is my Granddad's confirmation 

Carrying the piano up to the barn for a farm concert - 1930 

My Grandma (Vida Schultz), My Aunt Yvonne and my Dad on the street in Kingaroy - I guess this is in the late 1940s 

A dinner party at 'Mackenzies Place', Kumbia. My Grandma (or mayber her sister) is in this photo. 

My Dad 

Sunday Afternoon Bike Ride

Wish I took my camera - this was such a photogenic afternoon... I do love this city!

A secret bikeway weaving over the freeway interchange, over the pedestrian bridge into the Botanic Gardens where people were lazing, weddings were being photographed... then through the CBD - I love how there's nothing going on there on a Sunday afternoon except for the occasional bar. Down under the Story Bridge and along the floating walkway - a fantastic way to see the city, the bridge and the river. Past Owen and Corrina's old place at New Farm... I was a bit sad at that point. Continued along the river walkways in front of old Wool warehouses converted into luxury apartments, still lots of people enjoying a beautiful afternoon. On the way back, I wove around side streets that I never knew were there. I love how there's always another quiet little street full of beautiful old queenslanders here. And none of the roads are straight, and none lead you where you think they will...
I love how I can find myself back on Brunswick St and not really understand how I got there...
I love riding back to Gibbon St at the Gabba and although it's one of the most run-down, ugly, emptiest little street in the city, it's the place I most want to come home to! I guess familiarity does that...

Now to some serious West Wing watching!

Boring Ramble

First of all - I've got photos from Jo and Mikey's wedding in Adelaide at our homepage
I don't think I've ever done a boring ramble about my day blog... so here goes!

Woke up at 6:30 when TripleJ sprung into life on our clock radio. So I got up then, washed up from dinner (Di made what WAS going to be a Vege Lasagne, but turned into a cheese sauce broccoli thing that was YUMMY.). Had breaky, fed the fishies (we had a neon die yesterday, and our Angelfish aren't looking the best - I think Sword and Dagger, our new shark fish are picking on them.)

Drove to work with Jay and the Doctor. I enjoy our 15 minutes alone together each morning. They are getting better I reckon - no Adam and Wil, but a worthy replacement. Didn't get to hear whether anyone called from North Queensland where Cyclone Ingrid was crossing the coast.

At work, Steve was off to the USA to do our biggest delivery of STUFF yet. He dropped in to pick up some things, then left. Ian, our CEO was just back from a 2.5 week trip to USA/Singapore so there was a bit of catching up there... then it was business as usual - sitting at my desk responding to interruptions, researching new technologies, working on what priorities are... chatted to Bede - guy who used to work for us who had just arrived in Seattle where he is starting work for Bill at Microsoft. Also said hi to Owen in Vancouver for the first time in a while...

After lunch we had a 'million dollar meeting' - a meeting with a rep from the government who is helping us get a big R&D grant. So that was sort of interesting.

Ended the day playing with bluetooth and a business card scanner... and watching our crazy CEO run around the office Skyping with his bluetooth headset...

Came home to find Di and Loz on the couch watching Bride & Predjudice - it was up to the 'No Life without Wife' song... definitely the low point of the movie. Well, A low point anyway...

So that's about it - a seemingly boring day in the life of Brad, but one that I found not disagreeable.

A moored CityCat 

Story Bridge 

Waterfront Place and Kangaroo Pt cliffs 

New building... Di can't understand my fascination with large scale engineering projects. 

Karen and Di on the CityCat 

A few snaps from a City Cat ride in Brisbane... Southbank to Balmoral for a movie, dinner, and back again.  

View from the fort at Sariska 

Di and Sonu 

Friday 9th January 2004 – Sariska Tiger Reserve, India

Travel Log Extracts continue...

See photos from this day on our website HERE

This had to be one of the best days we’ve had in India!

Got up early in Jaipur and had breaky at 7am. Then rickshawed it through the quieter morning streets straight to the bus station where, after making a few enquiries, we got a ‘computer booked, seat allocated’ ticket to Sariska Tiger Reserve. While waiting for the bus, a young boy selling newspapers in Hindi tried his darnedest to sell me one. He understood that I couldn’t read it so sprinted off… a few minutes later reappearing with an English language paper! I bought it and whiled away the time reading the ‘Matrimonials’ and local news about how much money the government was wasting, small riots claiming the lives of truckdrivers who ran over someone and what was going on ni Bollywood.

The bus was off and away by 8:30. About a 3 hour ride – not too bad… and nice scenery. It is always nice here to go down a road lined with Eucalypts. Brings on some nostalgia! Most of the trip was “freeway” (divided road). Don’t for one minute think that it was a ‘free way’ though. At one point the driver stopped and abused a truck driver for driving on the wrong side.

After turning onto a smaller side road and travelling for another hour, we were in the middle of the bush when people started saying ‘Sariska’ to me and motioning us to get off. The bus hardly stopped and we jumped out at a place that seemed at first look, deserted. Except maybe for the Tigers watching us. But as the bus moved off, we noticed buildings on the other side of the road.

We walked up to the registration office and arranged a jeep (“Petrol or Diesel?” – Petrol is quieter apparently. Nice that they gave us the choice…), a guide, driver and tickets into the park. The nice guy said to be back at 12pm. We filled the 45mins we had to wait by heading over to the nice, and also deserted (Except for 3 or 4 staff) RTDC (Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation) guesthouse. We managed to convince the guy in the restaurant, who was tucking into a thali, to feed us. We only had a couple of options so each took one. Di – boiled eggs, me – veggie patties, and some chapatti each. And a Pepsi. After managing (with some difficulty) to find someone to pay, and attending to nature’s call, we headed back to the park office, paid 2000 rupees (about AUS$50) and got a driver and a jeep. Dunno what happened to the promised ‘guide’…

Our driver at first seemed silent and mean, but ended up being a nice guy – his name was ‘Omi’. We drove into the park along a narrow bitumen road and our first stop was a Park Ranger’s house, where a young antelope was lazing on the lawn. Its name was ‘Sonu’, and when called, it came over and nuzzled us and we could pat and hug it!! You can imagine Di’s delight! After not-enough-time, we headed off. A short drive to a small lake where we saw more antelope, peacocks and then, a crocodile lazing on the bank! I asked if we could walk closer, and we started to, but heard another jeep coming. Omi said “back in the jeep! – walking not allowed!”. The crocodile sped into the water and I into the jeep so Omi wouldn’t get into trouble.

We continued driving along rough dirt tracks seeing monkeys, spotted deer, antelope, wild boar, peacocks, some cows/buffalo and villagers. There are a lot of villages in the park - about 20. We got out at one point and walked to a beautiful pond with palms in it where Tigers/Leopards/panthers/jackals come to drink. Saw a BIG eagle and a kingfisher. A bit later we saw some spotted dear fighting and also some jackals (pretty small dogs) at another waterhole. We were loving it!

Sariska Tiger Reserve is about 640 square km, surrounded by small rugged mountains with dry, hardy small trees and occasional areas of palms and beautiful Dr Seuss-looking big trees. Lots of monkeys too.

Then we headed off to the ‘fort’ – mentioned to us at the park office as an ‘extra’ that we paid for, not really knowing whether it would be worth it. We drove up into the mountains, off the bitumen road, then unexpectedly through a MASSIVE, majestic stone ‘gate’ standing on it’s own in the bush. Very reminiscent of Lord of the Rings. We continued along a rough track along a narrow valley for 15 minutes until finally it opened out into a huge round valley with a hill in the middle, capped by the fort – beautiful and magnificent. We didn’t expect it to be SO spectacular! We had to weave around a fair bit to get there, passing a few villages with waving kids. Stopping in one for a chai (20 rupees – 60cents! (Chai normally costs about 5 rupees)) but it was worth it for all the fantastic photos of the kids that Di got. (Such shallow tourist types aren’t we….)

We continued on around the fort hill, through another village and up to the fort on a steep road. At the top we got out, and with Omi as our guide, explored the magical place. Apparently (someone explained later), this fort was used by a Mughal Emperor to incarcerate his older brother so his leadership wouldn’t be threatened. The views were fantastic, and the thought that a tiger or panther might be lurking inside was a bit exciting too. We walked around the walls, then into the small decaying palace. Omi yelled and stomped – too scare away any lurking creatures. On the way out, Omi said we could walk down the old walled passage, winding down the hill to the lake at the bottom, and he would meet us there – which was GREAT. It was cool to have 15 minutes alone to walk down the hill and see the beautiful sights – the lake, ducks, birds, palm trees… The precious minutes spent at that fort were some of the most special in all of India. No other tourists. Just us, with some of the magical history of this nation.

We stopped briefly in the village again and got more photos – there was one cute old lady smoking a pipe, but she laughed when we tried to photograph her with it and kept it hidden if we tried.

We drove back to the main park area, stopping at a park office where tame birds ate peanuts from Di’s hand.

Then a roundabout route, keeping an eye out for Tigers, with an extra passenger – some guy with a big stick that we picked up… he was a park guard I think - to the monkey temple – quite boring unless you’re a Hanuman (Monkey god) fan. Stopped there for a while (Omi had a Chai) then drove slowly back out of the park. We took one off-road route and Omi stopped silent for a while. As we left, he said “99 percent Tiger sleeping”.

Oh well – we didn’t see Tiger, but had a great day. He dropped us on the road at the office where we waited for a bus, chatting to a park guide called ‘Rohit’ while we waited. Learnt a lot more about the park, but were glad we didn’t have a guide talking to us ALL day. Omi’s occasional comments were all we needed.

When the bus arrived around 6pm, the doors opened and one guy got out (well, more came out briefly as intestines might spill out of an overfull, split belly). The bus was packed – but somehow we managed to squeeze on, and after a stop, Di scored a seat. Then I did – in the front section. It wasn’t a bad three hours. A guy next to me gave me some small deep fried spicy ball things that he bought at a stop. YUMMY. I saw them cooked in boiling oil, so they were safe (I hoped).

Back in Jaipur around 9pm we ate at Dasaprakash restaurant – same chain as the one at Agra, then home to bed and a long sleep-in.

I finished reading ‘Chasing the Monsoon’ too – a great read about a guys journey following the monsoon up through India, eventually to the wettest place on earth.

Travel Journal Extract #1 - Kathmandu, Nepal

1^st December 2000 – Landing in Kathmandu

A new month and a new world. Wow.

Landing in Kathmandu and looking at the lights, I could tell it was a type of city I had never known. Scattered, flickering orange lighting across the dark valley, the occasional naked flame. The airport is tiny.

We met a nice guy from the Netherlands who had just come through China for a few months and was about to go back to Europe overland via the Silk Road. He was about 35 and a financial advisor back home. He had a positive outlook on everything, but couldn’t understand why we wanted to spend so much time in the USA.

Out of the airport, a hundred or more taxi drivers / hotel people were all yelling at us - ‘Do you want guesthouse??!!’. There was one guy in the moshpit holding a sign with ‘Tibet Guesthouse – Bradley Schultz’ on it. Booking ahead was a good move.

Getting in the taxi, before we knew it, a TINY little boy had grabbed our bags and loaded them in. His bigger friend (still a tiny boy) said ‘Hong Kong Dollar?’ repeatedly and hassled us until the taxi drove off. We were too far out of our comfort zone to pay them. The driver and hotel guy thought it was pretty funny.

The ride to the hotel was crazy – nothing can prepare you for Kathmandu if you’ve never been to a third world city before. You can picture it in your mind, watch it on tv, but you just can’t comprehend what you will experience. The driver spent more time beeping his horn than not. People gathered around fires in the gutter of the dirty, steep, bumpy streets… I can’t express why, but it shook me up a bit.

We have a great room in the guesthouse – US$16 a night with 2 single beds and bathroom.

We're in Nepal!!!

Kathmandu outskirts

Culture Shock!!!

Dropped Breezo (www.breezo.blogspot.com) at the airport for his year away. He was off to Turkey first - a little scared about the culture shock waiting for him. Healthily scared I would say. If you're not expecting it, it hits you hard I reckon.

Ben came Bollywood dancing with us the night before his departure and at the airport said "I'm a bit worried about the culture shock in Istanbul... I mean, I got culture shock just byu going to your Bollywood dancing class!"

He'll be great.

Made me start thinking about Di and my first time tavelling... to Nepal. I've got all these travel journals from our trips, I need to start collating some of our experiences a little. Maybe I'll post some exerpts here!

There's something about Asia / third world countries that scares a lot of Aussies. I don't know what it is... simply scared to get out of their comfort zone probably, but so many people think that there is no reason to go to a 'dirty' place. Something about that offends me.

Enough Trendy Anti-Americanism!! Please!

I've just got to vent about so many of my friends hopping on the 'anti-american' bandwagon...

So many of them seem to have this unreasonable hate of someone else, when they know nothing more about them than what their accent is. It's a pure 'racist' attitude.

One friend of mine was all set to hate someone, until someone told him her accent was Canadian. Now he likes her. A LOT.

Another friend laughed mockingly at US customs when he heard they didn't know where Queensland was. I asked him where he thought 'Arkansaw' was. He looked at a map of the USA and said "Well I can see Arkansas... but no Arkansaw..."

Point proven.

Anyway, Australians love to hate Americans. We also love their movies, their tv, their technology, their culture in general. We love to hate some of it, but there is so much of it that we simply consume, without even realising that it's American. We think we're so cool because we can go anywhere in the world and people think we're great because we're Aussies. Well let me assure you - because of our lovely Prime Miniature and the support he's received from over half of the Australian people, that's changing!

When we travelled 3 years ago, even 2 years ago, I proudly wore an Aussie flag on my pack. (accompanied by an aboriginal flag in a feeble attempt to offset the union jack). Last year when we travelled, I felt that the world (or more correctly, Australia) had changed enough that I wasn't proud to advertise myself as an Australian oversseas. Anyway, that is a different story...

I'm the first to admit that American foreign policy (and much of it's internal policy) leaves much to be desired. I also admit that there are a lot of Americans who have not had the opportunity to be educated about the world in a way that is not overly US-centric. This does breed a form of arrogance that many people hate. However America has produced (and is stil producing) some of the smartest, nicest, most brilliant people on earth. It produces scientific breakthroughs that will carry the world forward, past challenges like AIDS and Cancer, it produces movies that we lap up, products that we love to consume and a culture that, although we like to think we say 'no' to it, pervades our lives in ways that we welcome.

So if your first reaction when you meet an American is 'Oh no... An American!? I hate Americans!', then I'd like you to explain to me how that is different from someone meeting an African and thinking 'Oh no, a black person'? It's not 'biological race' based, but geographical is the same thing.

Adam and Wil

The world is coming apart at the seams... First, some of our bestest friend move to Canada, and now it's Adam and Wil's last breakfast show EVER. These are two guys who have been a part of my life for 5 years. They were who we tuned in to over the internet when we lived in the USA to get away from horrendous local media in North Carolina. They are the creators of numerous phrases, now common language amonsgt Australians from all walks of life. Eg 'Go off like a frog in a sock'. They are the two of the three people I spend at least the first half hour of my day with. They are the reason I often sit in my car in the carpark at work for 10 minues after arriving, just to hear them finish their ranting. They are the reason I have shared in the rage of many Australians telling it LIKE IT IS. I could go on and on. Suffice to say I am sad, it is the end of an era and I can't imagine life ever quite being the same again. Tomorrow will be like Sept 11 - except we have had a warning, and we are powerless to stop it happening.

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/breakfast/default.htm

Bye Bye Canadians

Owen and Corrina leave Australia physically and become virtual friends as of tomorrow...

A bit bummed about that.

Voting Reasons

I think the reason Johnny got back in is that most people vote for who they think will be best for THEM. In fact, it is completely expected that that is how you will vote - that usually means someone who you think will keep interest rates low or will look after you when you retire or who will give you a tax break.

I reckon we should vote for politicians (if we can find them) who we think will do the best thing for the underpriveleged, the struggling, the environment... the world. And that they won't work for only Australia's best interests, but in the interests of the WORLD.

Who is the intended audience here?

I think I have avoided blogging so far because I find it weird wondering who is reading this. At the moment, noone will be reading this because I haven't really told anyone I have a blogg. But as soon as I link it to my website, it could be read by friends, family work associates, mortal enemies.... ANYONE! Thinking about that makes me realise how much I filter what I say / opinions I express depending on the audience at the time. Is that bad?

I'm not talking about whether I could swear or not... that's not something I really do anyway. But things like expressing political/cultural opinions... I guess if I have opinions that someone I know may find troubling / insulting, then it may actually be a good idea to get them out there. I just hope that if I did write anything here that troubles someone, they would be willing to discuss it with me!

Cheers!