Mystery amongst chaos

It's been a couple of weeks of the most intense development at work. The wayfinder is becoming a very popular product, so everyone wants it. And as it happens this is a product that I'm responsible for developing, so day to day I'm backed up with frantic development. Also when deadlines approach way too quickly, the stress levels increase. All is well so far though as expectations are being met and the software is becoming a configurable 'product' at a good pace.
Amidst this frantic work pace I've been refreshing myself with news stories from sources such as this and this. At first look it might seem that these news sources are all about conspiracy theories and silly delusions. But really they are just aggregators of news stories about topics that fascinate me: Archaeology and science's inability to explain all that has happened in the past in terms of available technologies and people's knowledge.
While dwelling on some of these fascinating topics, I thought I'd have a look on google maps where Tikal stood and how it looked on these maps. Meh, nothing fancy really. I'd rather be there in person (one day). But then scrolling about 70km to the south-west of Tikal shows an 'L' shaped cut out of the Jungle with squares on either end. It's about 5km by 5km, which is massive. I've never heard of the place so I though I'd do some research. Nothing. This really stumped me. All the tourist archaeological locations are everywhere else but this place. What's this about? This really freaked me out. Why is nobody mentioning this massive area? Zooming out of this map reveals that this area is dead in the center of the triangular area of south Mexico and western Guatemala. And surprisingly this 'L' shape can be seen from a large distance away. There are no town around it. and the ones that are, don't mention anything about this area. Archaeological maps reveal nothing. I am really freaked out at this point.
The other thing I thought this could be is an area of deforestation. This is possible, but why would any one leave two tree-laden square ends on either end of the 'L' shape? Also each of the square areas within this area are made of triangular areas that meet in the middle. This is reminiscent of the way that pyramids look from above. This is still freaking me out and now I really want to find out more information about it and if none comes along, A trip to this area will certainly be in my future travel agenda.
If anyone has any information about this area, I would be more than greatful, so please let me know.

in Syd for a week

Work have asked me to go to Sydney and work at the office all week next week. This is a bit much, but I also think that it'll do me some good. I think a week is a bit long, I'll get to catchup on what's going on within a few days, and the rest will just be working away as per usual. And I'll miss everybody back in Adders. On the flipside, I think that it will be a great opportunity to see what's been happening back at the 'ol office without me. There have been some changes in the way that things are beginning to be done. The flash framework is in full swing and all seems to be moulding very quickly towards a systematic standardisation in software authoring. So I'm looking forward to falling into the mould so that all the code that I write will leverage the existing structures as much as possible, making my code cleaner and less. And ofcourse it's all paid for!
I got my itinerary today so all the tickets and accommodation have been booked. No backing out now. Sydney here I come!

Bali hi

What an adventure! Well worth every penny.
It began with an exciting morning. Off to the airport to get sent to Darwin for the day. A 3 hour flight with a crappy breakfast. I just drank black tea as I was coding my way through how to place an input box in a specific place on a multi line text field, one of my favourite pass times when cramped into an airplane seat. While enjoying this pass time, I dropped my new sunnies, mangled them, popping a screw or two and bent the frame. Great, no sunnies for the trip.
Arriving in Darwin, greeted with the first wave of tropical humidity. 12 hours here. Ok off to the 'city'. Smaller than Adelaide with a unique population of Aboriginal people, this town is as rural as a city could get. It has one mall flanked by a few adjacent streets of open shops, then about a block or two away, the harbour and parks.
We stumbled into the optometrist who was able to mangle my glasses back into shape with about 1/2 a centimetre off on one side. Alright, glasses are back, and all for free! Then we had lunch in an unimpressive food court, before taking a long walk through the harbour, parks and a seaside suburb with a cold beer stop.
On the way back for dinner we stopped at Tim's Cafe. Awesome Aussie dishes. I ended up having a crocodile parmy. When in Darwin...
After a celebratory cocktail at the local tapas place, we whisked off to the airport to land in Denpasar. At the airport, we waited for about 1/2 hour for the international gate to open. After which we had to show our bags, and a ridiculous man frisked everyone with the backs of his palms in the most ridiculous fashion. If I had anything I wanted to sneak on board, there would have been no problems. One up for the Australian airport security. Doing a smashing job guys, love your work!
After a brief flight (not long enough to get my coding boots on), we landed in Denpasar at 11:30pm. The whole airport felt like it was made out of wood. And I felt like I just stepped into a Swedish sauna.
After passing the lacklustre security and dishing out US$50 to line the pockets of some corrupt official, we stepped out onto the footpath where everyone wants to grab your bag to help (for a tip). Luckily we spotted our Contiki bus who whisked us off to the resort for free through the hot and smelly streets of Bali. It's a mix between petrol fumes, burning rubbish, satay chicken and incense. Arriving in the Contiki resort was something different.
Drink on arrival and a poolside room that has a pool bar. Heaven.
With all breakfasts and dinners included, this resort was a real highlight of the trip. Our room was the one immediately to the right of the person with a blue skirt in this photo. So the out-of-the-bed-into-the-pool scenario became a frequent occurrence. And the water was so nice and warm that you just couldn't fault it. The only reasons to get out were excessively wrinkled skin and the need to visit the toilet.
From this home base we ventured out onto the streets of Seminyak, and Kuta. Everyone wants to sell you things. Trinkets, t-shirts, watches, carvings, fabrics and the list goes on. You just have to learn to politely say 'no'. We even thought of printing up some t-shirts that say 'no' or 'no thanks'. That might do the trick to those who can read. The most heard words though are : "taxi?", "transport?", "you like?", "where are you from?" The traffic was a horror on one side and a peaceful river of oneness on the other. Drivers are respectful and cautious but there are no road rules really. The main one to consider in Bali is that the driver is responsible for their vehicle's front. This makes drivers more vigilant and giving way to cars entering a road is not uncommon. The roads and places we ventured to I mapped on google maps here. Hope it works.
So after a few days of 'cooling off' with the coldest beer in the country, we headed off to Ubud. A place that's known for it's stone carvings, silver making, and beautiful scenery. Here, we stayed at the Tjambuhan hotel. It was amazing. The hotel itself is a series of villas. All of these are built on a cliff face facing the adjacent river. It even has its own temple! Walking around this place was like being in some magical land. Fresh water pool, a spa carved into the mountain, a collapsing stone bridge leading to a huge temple. It was simply amazing. It was not as hot here as it was in the plains, but you'd still built up a sweat, and if it wasn't for the air-conditioning, I don't know, we would've melted.
In Ubud, there are many cheap restaurants with good food and the main street has more than its fair share of shopping. One night during dinner we bumped into an Aussie who's lived in Ubud for 20 years painting. He said that there has been a massive expansion of Ubud in that time with many of the demand not being catered for by the town's infrastructure. There are no taxis, for example. Everyone has a car or a van and they offer transport on every corner. Ubud is kind of like the hippy valley of Bali. Highly recommended if you go to Bali anytime.
On the last day, we caught a taxi down to the airport, checked our bags into the lockers, and found a local taxi driver who took us around. To waste time he took us to the newly up and coming western-style shopping center. Even though it was huge, it just looked like it was going to fall apart any minute, and I swear about 40% of the stock there must have been 'Polo' shirts. He got a bunch of cheap DVD's, most of which didn't work, and wandered around for a bit.
After this, our cabbi picked us up and we went to Jimbarran bay. It's basically a beach with a whole load of fishing boats on one end, and is lined with restaurants from then on. You can select your live seafood and they cook it fresh, and you get to eating on the beach watching the sunset. I couldn't think of a better way of ending this magnificent trip. It has been truly awesome
Oh and one set of batteries lasted me the whole trip in my new camera - go Canon!
Here's the online collection of some of the photos from Bali. Check it out if you feel like it!

I've been to Bali too

Yes, soon enough I'll be another one of those people who can say that phrase and not lie. So after a stint of the roller coaster of ticket prices, Taryn managed to find and purchase it all on the web for AUD$600 less than what the travel agent could offer! Bah to those local businesses again!

So now, we are on out way for 9 days into Bali!!

I haven't had a decent holiday... ever... so the thought of this land of plenty is filling me with expectations of relaxation beyond relaxation. Especially because of the conversion rate, everything in Bali is cheap. In this case I am going to gorge on massages. Stuff it, I'll have a masseur follow me around!

So the first leg of the trip will be to Seminyak. We're staying there at the Contiki resort. Yeah I know.. Contiki. But it seems really good in this case. We got one of the 4 pool terrace king rooms in. the hotel which have "pool sofas" and a private pool access that joins up to the main pool. the view looks like this room here. One of the best things about this place is probably the fact that is has a pool-bar. This is a bar embedded in the pool, you can swim up to it, order your drinks and have them served to you while you're still in the water on some submerged chairs. Awesome.

There's plenty to do there, but I don't think I'm keen to fit into the Contiki mould and follow them around all day. We're simply staying here to explore Seminyak and get a taste for what it has to offer. Hopefully not a "Bali belly", a self explanatory term for food poisoning, which must be common seeing it has it's own catch phrase.

The second part of the trip will be spent in Ubud. This is higher up in the mountains. It's a bit more out of the way and peaceful, without forgoing any of the bonuses (awesome pool, massages and cheap food and drinks). It also has a fresh water pool spa that is embedded tight into the trees. Looking awesome. We are staying in the Raja Room, which has its own terrace balcony and looks comfy enough. This part of the trip is going to have some awesome hikes in the mountains, looking at temples and soaking up the nature in general. Of course planning too much during a holiday is never good, so the biggest plan is not to plan, go as many places as possible, experience everything, and get a good healthy dose of nothingness. Can't wait!