15. September 2000 11:05
by Rene Pallesen
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In September 2000, just after I returned from my trip to Borneo, I had to buy this new car because my girlfriend had written off my car whilst I was away! *smile*
I did not look forward to hunting around for a new car, but I found a good buy locally. This car is a 1997 Ford Futura, with 4.0 litre, 6-cylinder, 220-horsepower, power-steering, central locking and electronic windows (I think I am starting to sound like a car advertisement...)
It is pretty much the same colour as my old car, and it feels so nice to drive!
As you can see, pretty similar, but I also really miss my old car! It had a lot of computerised features - from a digital odometer, to adjusting the internal temperature of the car. It was a pretty cool car and wished I could have kept it for another few more years.
A huge contrast to my first car!
It is a red hatchback that I bought early 1998, a few months after I arrived in Australia. But someone wrote it off a few months after I bought it. It was a pretty bad accident, but luckily I was alright. I was only covered by Third Party insurance, and to go through a lot of paperwork just to get reimbursement for the car!
15. August 2000 10:43
by Rene Pallesen
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Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )
Away from Headquarters . . .I managed to explore the villages at Silam.
The people here wore this white stuff on their faces - I guess their form of sunscreen.
These people were refugees from the Philippines.
The kids were fighting to fit into the photo!
The kids here were really cute.
These kids here, had caught a monkey and was trying to sell it at the camp for 5 ringgit (AUD$2.50).
No-one wanted to buy it because they knew if they bought it, and set it loose, the kids would just catch it again, and try to sell it.
In general, there were lots of great photos at Silam village.
One of the helicopter pilots was driving through the jungle roads, took a corner too fast, and had a minor mishap.
We headed into Lahad Datu to get some seafood!
An escape from camp food. Camp food was disgusting. There were live worms in the vegetables (yes, after cooked). Most of the food was not fresh, and was pretty boring. The seafood was fantastic here. Whenever we had the chance, we ate lots of seafood.
Yum... Paul did not get to eat all of the crabs - all of us had a portion of it.
Yummm... they were huge, but we did not eat them. They were too big for us to eat, pretty impressive though. They were the biggest lobsters I have seen in my life. We saw these at the same place we ate our seafood and frogs (below).
We had this frog for dinner about 2 min after I took the photo.
This was actually when I went out with Glen in Kota Kinabalu - he asked me to pick some food and to surprise him.
I did not tell him till a year later that he ate frog meat. He asked me what it was, because he reckoned it tasted funny, but I did not tell him at the time.
I think he will only eat it again. Only if he really had to.
Petronis Towers - the tallest twin towers in the world.
Actually, they are the tallest buildings in the world, followed by the Sears Towers in Chicago.
The towers are joined by some sort pedestrian platform.
These towers are located in Kuala Lumpur.
I went to Kuala Lumpur to pick up my Permanent Residency for Australia.
Woohoo!!! After 2 years of lots of paperwork, and correspondence back and forth with Berlin, I finally managed to get it!
The inconvenience of it all, was that I actually had to leave Australia ie collect my PR before re-entering Australia.
Below, is the only photo I have of the Lateral Linking Team that I worked with during the race.
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Created: 7 Dec 2001
15. August 2000 10:42
by Rene Pallesen
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Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )Helicopters . . .The radio communications team had to arrive a few days before that because we had to hand out over 2,000 pieces of radio equipment. We had problems getting the necessary approvals for helicopters so they were grounded! I ended having to hand out most of the equipment as Glen and Paul had to sort out our use of the helicopters.
We had to fly all the equipment to Silam before the start of the race, and our team managed to fly to Silam the day before the race started.
Do you believe that Paul managed to take a photo of me whilst I was flying the chopper? He was standing to the side of me, and took the photo at night time, with the door open ...
Just kidding.
A couple of days before the race started, I was at the airport most of the day. We had some problems with the radios in the helicopters... I must have been in and out of those helicopters at least 200 times.
I did manage to get someone to take some photos of me in a helicopter, looking very much like the pilot!
I had hoped that I had the time to explore Kota Kinabalue, but we were so busy, it had to wait.
Here is the 212 or "Huey" - a twin-turbine Vietnam helicopter taking off. It is a hell a lot more powerful than some of the other helicopters we were using, which were 206s.
Here are the medical guys practising abseiling out of the helicopters (Aussie style)!
At the start of the race, I was sitting there listening to the first rescue on the radio.
3 hours after the start, four boats had capsized... helicopters and boats were very busy!
The competitors were due to arrive at Silam (another checkpoint) the next day (21st Aug).
For the first few days after the race started, I had to help organise to get the fuel to the top of the mountain.
After that the helicopter came in useful. It brought up 100 litres of fuel on the 4th day so I did not have to ferry fuel anymore!
At the end of the race, we had to sling-load the repeaters, to get them off the mountain. That means we had to strap them onto the helicopters, and pull them off the mountains that way - quite effective really.
Repeater station finally airborne!
You can see a pole in the right photo.
My girlfriend asked me what it was for - it helps balance the load so that it does not keep swinging whilst airborne.
Below, you will see some pretty good photos from the chopper.
Towards the end of the race, we had to scan the rivers for the last competitors coming in - to make sure they had completed this section of the race course. It was low-altitude flying of the river-bed.
The photo on the left shows the chopper approaching Silam Village. This village was located just outside of Silam HQ.
Glen liked wanted to have a photo of the back of my head - and I ruined the photo by turning my head as he took it...
Here's a sunset shot of the helicopters flying around.
I had to put in this fantastic photo - the lighting gives a really nice feel to the photo.
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Created: 7 Dec 2001
15. August 2000 10:42
by Rene Pallesen
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Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )
The Wildlife in Borneo . . .The jungles in Borneo are really dense, dark and humid.
You will find that some of the photos look as though they have been over-exposed, but in reality, it is just the humidity in the air.
I have a photo of this at home - Glen enlarged it for me, and framed it!
Don't ask me why - I think I look rather wasted there.
Glen and I tried to race through the jungle.
The climb to the top of the mountain is rated as a 1.5 hour climb... Glen and I have done it in 26 minutes... actually I was confident that I could do it in less than 20 and so I did!
I held the record of taking 17 minutes to race to the top of Mt Silam, covering a distance of approx 4 kilometres through the jungle, up a mountain.
I was getting really fit (My girlfriend was proud of me).
This photo shows how dense and dark the jungle can be. It was so humid there... no, not because I hadn't cleaned my lenses.
You can see how muddy it is in the jungle - I became quite dirty after many trips into the jungle.
I think these trees are just as big as the Californian Redwoods. They might not be as old, but definitely just as big.
This was taken with a 300mm lens, from 1.5 metres.
The most amazing thing about them, is when they are scared, the curl up into little "marbles".
It looks like a small bug, but it is actually at least 7cm long, which is actually quite big.
I noticed in Borneo, most of the insects there were huge.
The wingspan of the brown moth was about 15cm wide - huge!
They are mostly active at night, which is quite common for creatures in the jungle.
A couple of the girls stationed in the jungles, was stationed here. Not a wise decision, considering these girls were paranoid about the insects.
(Note: in the photo below, I still had conjunctivitis) I had the red eyes for most of the trip.
Big and beautiful, don't you think? You can see how big the black moth is compared to the size of the telephone.
These plants were kind of special because each branch split into two, so by the end of it, they formed a hexagonal pattern.
Below, are plants known as the "pitcher" plant.
The pitcher plants are meat-eating plants - you have watch out not to fall into them because they will swallow you whole.
If you just believed that, you are very gullible! *laugh*
The pitcher plant, like other carnivorous plants, feed on insects.
They have sweet-smelling nectar that attract the unsuspecting insect to it.
When the insect lands, it finds the surface slippery and fall straight into the “pitcher”, where the plants juices drowns it and is digested by the plant.
You may have heard of other type of carnivorous plants such as the Venus Fly Trap, and the Sundew plants.
Yes, you see me holding the snake with a leaf.
It was a poisonous snake, and I was worried about it's venom getting on my skin.
For example a puff adder, contact with the venom numbs the skin.
I was not familiar with the snakes in Borneo, and was not about to risk it.
The tarantella was sitting inside the catering tent hunting.
Everyone was looking at it and admiring it, which was pretty amazing, considering I know many people who would willingly kill a spider in sight.
This week I am in Tokyo for work visiting a couple of partners and also giving them some training on some of our internal solutions that they would like to sell.
I love visiting Tokyo...it is like Disney land and everything is just so slightly different. Like for instance the toilets have all the buttons on the side. Yesterday I saw one with a volume control and a "flush noise" button. I couldn't help pressing it...and yes the toilet did make very realistic sounding flushing sounds. I am unsure under what circumstances the sounds can be useful...another mystery that I may be able to solve one day.
In the hotel I also tried all the other buttons and it is kind of cool with all the sprinkling water (heated to body temperature), but I still haven't found the button for the 'but' dryer.
Click here to see video of Tokyo Square in Shibuya
We visited one of our partners customer service centre and that was like watching a movie. They had big wall-to-wall screen showing that status of all the various sites, latest news tv, weather forecasts...or anything else that could be relevant to them running their operations. The walls were liquid crystal walls and by the flick of a button they could make the whole wall transparent and the next minute they would have the latest status projected onto the walls instead...unfortunately they wouldn't allow me to take a photo.
Masaru and I also went to a whale restaurant in Shibuya...we tried Whale Sashimi, Whale Tempura, Whale Skin, Whale Bacon, Whale tongue, Whale Beef and Whale soup (I only ate it for Scientific Purposes). It was all very delicious and the Whale Sashimi (raw whale meat) was definitely my favourite.
For lunch today I had a really nice baby clam soup...very unusual and very nice.
In general food is really nice and there are some unusual places that specialise in their small niche markets...for instance the lunch place that specialises in 'Lemon Detox lunches'. Compared to the food in Sydney this is a magnitude better.
The hotel I stay at is in Shibuya which is the area in Tokyo that is very famous with all the lights and screens...it is a very hip area where all the teenagers are wearing the latest fashion and have funny hair. My room is a lot bigger than the one I stayed in last time I was in Tokyo...in this one you can actually walk around the bed and it has got all the features you would normally expect from a western hotel room. And they serve a really nice bacon for breakfast...I bet it is Danish bacon.
We also took the peak hour train in the morning...man those trains are fast and they are packed so tight that it is impossible to move let alone raise your arms.
Being in Tokyo also means very long working hours. People here start working around 9am in the morning and seldom leave work until after 9pm. It is still the musical chairs with meeting rooms, the deadly silence in the offices, hot working environments etc.
One evening we went out with our partners...which was a big introduction to japanese customs. We went out for a late dinner after work a big group of us and when they have dinner then a lot of drinks were served. This was a chinese restaurant so we were drinking some chinese type of wine that tasted like bitter Kahlua. After dinner we went to this drinking place which was really weird (and slightly uncomfortable but interesting). They pay an entry fee of around 3000 Yen ($30 AUD) and you then get to sit down with a girl that serves you drinks and who you can have conversation with (and conversation only).
You cannot choose the girl and I guess this is the modern form of the Geisha...and a cheaper way of talking about your problems at work or with your wife than visiting a psychologist.
I really like visiting Tokyo...but I don't think I could live there (too controlled). It is really interesting to visit especially in a working capacity as you see all the funny differences in lifestyle, work, objects and opinions. Most of the time it is a really good laugh...like when one of the guys asked if he could take a picture of me because he told his wife that he was working with a foreigner that looks like Tom Cruise (I told him that Tom is a full head shorter then I am).
We had an earthquake while I was there. The whole building started swaying from side to side...I was looking at the Japanese guys are they were calm so I thought that there was no reason to panic. Apparently it happens all the time there.
Click here to see more photos from Tokyo
Here is some more photos from the trip.
1. December 2007 01:23
by Rene Pallesen
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Before my trip to Tokyo and before Christmas we decided to go to the Hunter Valley to stock up on good wines (We buy them now cheap and drink them in 5-10 years time when they would be really expensive).
Hunter Valley is about 2 hours drive North of Sydney and it had got about 200 Vinyards you can visit for wine tasting and then buy the wines straight from the cellar.
We went there with a couple of Kims friends and Kim and I bought a couple of cases of wine together.
Everything in the Valley was nice ang green due to a lot of rain in the area lately.
Click here to see more photos from Hunter Valley
21. November 2007 01:50
by Rene Pallesen
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When Kim left Epicor she got a gift certificate to go Kayaking at Woy Woy, so this weekend we headed up there together with Mike and his wife Helen.
Both Kim and I have done some kayaking before but it was a new experience for Helen. We paddled up through some of the inland waters in Brisbane Waters near Woy Woy and afterwards we stopped at the fisherman's wharf for some really nice seafood.
29. October 2007 02:57
by Rene Pallesen
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One of the things about living in Australia is that you are exposed to a lot of creepy crawly stuff. In the urban jungle you don't really notice, but once you come a bit closer to nature then you cannot avoid seeing some of the insects etc. This is especially true when we go climbing. The last couple of weeks Andy and I have been exposed to a couple more creeps than we usually see.
The last couple of weeks Andy and I have been climbing in the Sydney area. Last weekend we went up to Berowra again and had a generally pleasant day had it not been for the brown snake.
On the last climb of the day we decided to try this climb that none of us had done before, but because of the protection we decided to top rope it. In the guide book the description reads:
Savage Cabbage 8m 19
Perfect Moments Photography | A Rene Pallesen Journal