Charles Poulsen

In June, I passed the one year mark. One year since I left home (Perth) I mean! It really feels like just yesterday when I stepped off the plane into this strange, foreign and faraway land known as England. What’s even more strange is how much I’ve started to love London. My first impression of the place wasn’t really that great. Now, wherever I go, I can’t wait to get back to the place.

I guess it’s a good time for me to reflect on some of the achievements over the last year. I’m not going to write the details. All in all, I have done exactly what I’d planned, and a bit more I guess. So the whole thing has been a success. I am dieing to come home and see everyone, but I know it wouldn’t be long before I felt like I had to leave again. I guess with all the travel I’ve been doing over the last few years, it’s really opened my eyes to how much is out there in the world. I’d love to do it all, but sadly I think I will run out of time!

Anyway, I’ll be home in December, just before Christmas, for about a month. Can’t wait to see everyone!

Here’s a few quick updates on whats been going on)

Work, I’ve been working on 2 projects for a while now. Long commutes to work every day, but at least they’re in London. I don’t want to work anywhere else! It’s been a bit boring really.

Travel, I’ve done a few small and 1 major thing. For my birthday, a crew of us went down to Newquay in Cornwall, for a surfing weekend. The surf was rubbish, but at least we got in the water. I went on a small trip to Lille (France) and Brussels (Belgium). Skippy (Ryan) came to London in early July, so I spent a bit of time showing him around.

Then in July, we’ve just done the big one: San Fermin festival in Pamplona (Spain). This is the crazy 9 day, 24 hr a day festival which is famous for the running of the bulls. We stayed at a camp-site called El Molino, which was kind of cool. We had to get shuttle bus’s into the city, which was about 25 minutes away. So Skippy and I did the run, and I must say it was a massive sense of relief to finish it alive! I didn’t get any injuries except some scratches, but I did lose a shoe. The closest I got to a bull was probably about 1 meter. You really need to watch out for the other people, as they push, shove, and fall everywhere! Tragically, one spanish guy died this year. It was the first time since 1996 or something that somebody has died. I guess we’re lucky to be alive.

You can see the photos of the trip here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chazwoza/sets/72157621458718742/. Also, here is the video that Tom took of the actual run I was in. I don’t think you can see me, as I had already run off ahead a bit.

I am glad I did it, and I know it’s something I’ll never need to do again. And I never want to see Sangria again! From there I drove across France with Tom, and stayed with my cousin at the air base in Saint-Yan where he is training. Won’t name his name in case he gets in trouble for having us there! Then we drove on to the Netherlands, where I stayed in Amsterdam for a couple of nights. It was a pretty cool place, the only downside being the attempting mugging by a crazy guy who reckoned he had a knife!

So that’s that, one year down, what to do next? Let’s see what happens!

So I’ve been to them all now, although I wouldn’t say I’ve done any of them properly. I just finished up working in Ireland for about 2 months all up. I was on a project in a small town called Mitchelstown, which is about 45 minutes drive from Cork. Fun times all around. I also have done a couple of small work trips, to Bangor in Wales and Edinburgh in Scotland.

Some other news since the last update:

• In December (after Egypt), I went to Vienna for Christmas to see my parents who were staying there.  From Vienna, I met Aliz in Milan, and we went on to Lugano. Then we headed to Davos in Switzerland, where we went snowboarding for a few days. We After Davos, I went solo to Zurich, and then to Basel, from where I flew back to London.
• Went on a small work junket to Antalya in Turkey for a week.

Next (planned) trip: Pamplona in July for the San Fermin festival.

I’m finding it hard to make time to write updates on here. I guess my twitter is going to have the most news these days. They should be feeding along the right hand side anyway.

Hope everyone is well! Miss everyone back at home very much

Chaz

December 08:

With alot of uncertainty whether my project would be delivered on time, I wasn’t sure how December would go. In the end, I got it all done on time, and needed something to do. So I jumped on a tour to Egypt! I went with The Go bus, who were recommended to me, and I can’t recommend them enough. Heres their website. And heres the tour I did, Pyramids and Beaches. You could read the tour itinerary, but heres a bit of a run down:

Cairo
We started off in Cairo. You meet the whole crew at the hotel. 25 people, 24 of which were Kiwis and Aussies. The odd one out was an English girl. It took quite a while to get to know everybody, but all-in-all they were a great crew. Hope to catch up with some of them soon. Cairo was okay… but the Pyramids were amazing! It’s everything you imagine.

Aswan
Then we took an overnight train to Aswan. From Aswan we saw Abu Simpel (spelling?) which we had to get to by police convoy, and some other ancient temples. On a spare afternoon, Garrat and I went on a little exploration mission. Across the river, we could see a massive sand dune with what looked to be a temple at the top. So we had to find out what it was. We found a ferry which was crossing the river, and on the other side, found ourselves in a crazy camel market. Well thats what I think it was. Lots of kids wanted to meet us, and many don’t ask for money, they ask for pens, or something to write with. We got to the top, and i’m not really sure what it was, but it was an amazing view!

Felucca Ride up the Nile
From Aswan, we took a Felucca (traditional boat) up the Nile for the next 2 days/nights. It was so relaxing, so much fun. Nothing to do but lay about on the deck, drink beer, doze off, talk crap! The first night, we stopped by a small village and smoked sheesha pipes with a local in his house. The second night, we parked at an open area, lit a bonfire, and the Felucca captains played traditional music for us. We danced a bit and got pretty wasted.

Luxor (Ancient Thebes)
After two days, we arrived somewhere near Luxor, and reluctantly had to get off the Felucca I could have easily stayed a few more days and nights on that boat! We got off, near the Kom Ombo temple which is where they worshiped crocodiles. They even had crocodile mummies! We then went into Luxor, and saw the Luxor temple at night, which was very impressive under lights! The next day, we took a donkey ride out the Valley of the Kings. This is where they found (and are still finding) old tombs where Pharaohs are buried. It’s pretty incredible.

Back to Cario
From Luxor, it was an overnight train back to Cairo. Here the group split up. Some were ending their tour here, others including myself, were off to Dahab at the Red Sea.

Dahab
First thing we did when we got to Dahab was organise diving. Dahab is one of the popular diving towns on the Red Sea. I organised to do the Advanced PADI course. Then we had dinner, and headed off to MT Sinai to stay the night. I believe Mt Sinai is where Moses got the 10 commandments from god, but could be wrong on that. We climbed to the top of mountain at about midnight, and hired little mattresses from the camel men to sleep on. You have to bring a sleeping bag, which I swear did nothing as I nearly froze to death. Anyway at dawn, theres a really amazing sunset to be seen! Once thats done, its back to Dahab. I spent the next couple of days diving, completing my scuba course. So now I’m a cerified advanced padi diver! Sadly, a camera accident meant that I couldn’t get any underwater shots in dahab The next couple of days were spent chilling out by day, partying by night! We also went on a four-wheel motorbike safari. Dahab was awesome, and I’ll definitely be coming back

Well that’s about it for Egypt. I missed many small details, but you’ll have to go for yourself to experience those. I have to finish by saying it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and nobody should go without seeing this place at least once!

If you want to see any of my photos, here they are!

Life has been pretty hectic for me. I would say the last 6 months have probably been the busiest ever!

So, to bring things up to speed…  heres a bit of a timeline (up until Egypt trip)

September 08:

As soon as I got back from the USA, I moved into a flat in Battersea (Southwest London). It was great while the weather was warmish, but when it gets cold, the heating just doesn’t cut it Other than that small complaint, the place has a big living room and kitchen, and I put a big flatscreen TV ( plus PS3) in it!

Luckily, workwise I got to settle straight into a project in London. It was writing some software for one of the big banks. The one with massive financial problems at the moment!

Mid-project, I took little excursion to the European continent. Aliz and I hit Salzburg (Austria), which was really nice. Some photos here. Then we headed to Munich for Oktoberfest! All I can say is that it was the biggest party I’ve ever seen, and I had a blast. Can’t recommend it enough, and I’ll more than likely be there again in 09

October 08:

Got back from Oktoberfest… not a whole lot happened this month. Just alot of hard work! Really…

November 08:

Took a couple of small excursions…

Up to Newcastle to see my cousin Will. Had a great time at a party up there, although it got a little messy!

Went into France with the aussie crew to see the Australia vs France rugby match! Had a great weekend sightseeing and eating/drinking. And watching the rugby!

Its been about two months since I last posted, and nope this isn’t about the election, although I’m very pleased with the result! This is about my little trip I took there a couple of months ago.

In August/Sept, I went on a work trip to San Francisco Bay Area, to work in our companies product development team. It was a pretty good experience, but 2 weeks really isn’t enough. On the way, there was a few flight stuff-ups which resulted in me spending the night in Washington D.C. So I made the most of it by doing some site-seeing. I saw the White House, Capitol Building, Abraham Lincoln Memorial, George Washington Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and some others that I just can’t remember. Anyway you can check my washington photos out here on flickr.

So then I finally got to San Francisco, and stayed about 30 minutes out down at Redwood Shores. Heres some photos of our headquarters and of the area. From there I worked by day, and checked the area out by night and weekend. I stayed in the Hilton in San Francisco city on the weekend. I saw Santa Cruz, Napa Valley, Mavericks (although there were no waves), Half Moon Bay, and probably some other things that I’ve forgotten by now! You can check out photos from San Francisco here on flickr.

So since I was heading that way back to London, I decided to take a trip to Denver to stay with my Aunty and Uncle, Niel and Alice. They live in Golden which is just in the Rocky Mountains. So that was a chilled out few days, with one exception, the big mountain climb. Mick and I decided to climb Mt Bierstadt which is about 14000 Feet. To get an idea of how high this is: Denver is about 5000 feet (1 mile above sea level), Niel and Alices place is about 7000 feet. For Mt Bierstadt you start at about 11000 ft, and go up to 14000 ft. Thats 4.26 Kilometres above sea level! So it took us about 2 hours to reach the summit. Every few steps you are really tired and you need to rest. Eventually we got there, and the view was amazing. At the top, you are very dizzy. After signing the register, taking some photos and videos etc (see below), we took a 1 hr walk back to the car. Both of us were feeling like absolute crap at this stage! Probably some form of altitude sickness or something.

The next day, I took a trip to Vail (ski resort for millionaiires) to check it out. It’s a really nice town but theres no snow in summer. Would love to go back one day in winter.

So that was the trip over, and it was time to head back to the UK for the move to London, which I’ll write about in the next post! Bye bye USA.

Heres a couple of vids I took while Driving near San Francisco..

Driving across Golden Gate Bridge:

And… driving down the worlds most crooked street, Lombard Street.

And … Riding the famous Cable Cars. This vid is a bit jittery, its pretty hard to hang off the side of a moving cable car, with people moving all around, and take a steady video!!

I’ve been sorta busy, and sorta not.. so its about time I wrote an update. In the interests of saving time, heres whats happened:

• Stayed and worked in Leeds for a couple of weeks. Leeds is a cool city. Lots of old buildings, good restaurants and clubs. Shame I didn’t really know anyone out there!
• Have done bits and pieces of work around London. Getting to London from Reading is a major pain in the arse. The trains are packed, and the tube is HOT.
• I went to Munich, Germany for a training course! For those that don’t know, Munich is in southern Germany (Bavaria). Its famous for Oktoberfest. I truly love Bavarian food and beer!! Half roast duck was awesome.

So thats about it in point form. As for whats coming up, I’m going to USA (San Francisco) for 2 and a half weeks. I’m going to be working at company headquarters, which is in the Silicon Valley area. Its about time I got over there! Some work, some play. I’ll let you all know how it goes!

When you get frisked by security in German airports, you stay frisked …

I flew through Munich to Nice (Southern France), then onto the Mercure Country Club.. its a very cool place in the hills near Nice, Cannes and Antibes. I was there for a training course, but it felt more like a holiday!

When I got there I realised I had forgotten to charge my camera battery, and hadn’t brought the charger. I think the photos weren’t meant to be. More on this later.

Monday started at a lazy 1:30 pm where we met everyone, and had some presentations. Then we all boarded a bus to go to a seafood restaurant on the beach in Antibes.. this was the first of what was many many seafood dinners! Wasn’t long before we were craving red meat! One of our crew from work, a crazy russion guy, drank way too much and started acting quite the public nuisance. He didn’t show up at all Tuesday. Very poor form. Wednesday evening, a few of us went too Cannes, where we wandered down the beach, had dinner somewhere, then found a pub to watch the footy (soccer).

Friday it was time to leave Sophia Antipolis and head to Nice town, where I had booked a hostel. I checked into a 6-bedder there, but nobody was in the dorm. So I went down for a swim at the beach, and walked around the town looking to buy a battery or a charger. In the end I found a place to charge my battery for me. Excellent! I went back to the dorm, and found a couple of kiwi lads in there. We promptly went down the shop to get some drinks to play ‘drink poker’ in the common area. There I met another aussie guy from Melbourne who was in our room, and a few others from around Europe. After heaps of drinks we all went out and hit the town.

Saturday, waking up with a slight hangover (more tired really), me and Dave (the aussie from melb) decided to go to Monaco. We went there, and had a pretty cool day! We walked heaps of the famous F1 Grand Prix track, and through the tunnel. We went swimming out and took water photos of us with the city / mountains in the background. Some ladies thought we were crazy taking our camera in the water. I guess they eventually figured it was water proof and we weren’t that stupid!

Saturday night was back to the hostel, and more drinks with the same crew and some others that had joined. Then we all headed down the beach, where there was a big party but you had to be wearing all-white to get in. That was the last known whereabouts of my brand new $500 camera with all the awesome Monaco photos on it Was it lost, or was it stolen, I guess we’ll never know. A facebook group, ‘I lost my camera with all my photos whilst traveling‘ has since popped up in support of people like me. You can find it here. Cheers Skippy!

Sunday I spent the day down the beach, in the police station attempting to file a police report, walking around Nice old town and up the cliff to get an awesome view of the city. It would have made a great shot

Then I hit the airport to head home. Once there, I found that our companies travel agent had cancelled my flight. I had earlier called him to ask if I could change to an earlier flight and was first told yes, then told no. Don’t remember asking him to cancel my flight and leave me stranded? So with no chance of getting on the plane ( the previous flight had been canceled so the waiting list was 50 person long ), i attempted to book another flight which I ended up getting on British Airways. Lucky, as I had to be back to London by the morning to get my flight to Leeds. Which I actually missed But thats another story and you’re probably bored by now.

I guess I’ll have to go back to France and get some more photos!

The trip has been great so far! Me and Skippy (Ryan) have taken lots of photos and some pretty good videos too. I will upload everything when I get some more time!

We started in Bangkok for a night. Then we heading into Laos, where we started in Vientiane, then headed to Vang Vieng, which was just awesome. Then it was back to Vientiane and a flight into Hanoi. From Hanoi we went to Halong Bay, and Cat Bah Island. From Hanoi, we took an overnight train to Hoi An, and spent a few days there. Then we flew to Saigon.

Right now we are about to go check out the wave pool. Then tomorrow we head off to Chau Doc then into Cambodia, where we will first go to Phnom Penh then into Siem Reap. After that, its party time in Ko Phangan and Ko Samui.

Heres some highlights from the trip so far:

• Eating food / drinking at the open restaurants on the Mekong River in Vientiane, Laos
• Tubing down the river in Vang Vieng, Laos. Stopping at Bars along the way, and swinging on flying foxes.
• Beerlao
• Staying overnight on the boat in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, and staying on Cat Bah Island. We had a great bunch of people on this tour and had a wicked time!
• The snake restaurant in Le Mat, Hanoi. They killed the snake in front of us, then we drank the blood mixed with rice wine, and bile mixed with rice wine. Then they prepared the snake in many different ways.
• Hanging out in Hoi An, with its ancient streets and red lanterns at night. So cool.
• Shopping in Hoi An. Lots of Tiger singlets!
• Crawling through the Cu Chi Tunnels near Saigon (Ho Chi Min City).
• Firing an AK-47! Only 5 rounds, but it was worth it.

More updates as soon as possible!

Charlie

Well, me and Skippy are off to SE Asia tomorrow. The time is finally here! First stop is Bangkok for a night, then Laos, then Vietnam, then Cambodia, then Thailand. Look out for any updates on facebook (if i manage to find some time!).

I get back on January 6.

Its been a great year Hopefully next can top it. Highlight of the year was definitely working/etc in Hong Kong for 3 months.

Hope you all have a merry xmas and a happy new year!

cheers,
Chaz