In the corner of the room, close to the window was an armchair. It was black, adorned with metal end-caps on the armrests, and a large pillow decorated with gold embroidery which was slightly too large to be useful. I…
Musings from a Bangkok Mall
Eight days in one city is not something I would usually relish. Even at home in Perth, I rarely spend that amount of time in the city in a month. So when I found myself booked to supervise a tour…
Last on Hill
RED LEADER: Our first red run The sun had fallen behind the mountain and the golden hue that hung like a shimmering halo above the peak had shifted to the icy blue of impending dusk. Apart from the brief racket…
Meeting Linh: Part 1
When people ask how Linh and I met, the answer often elicits a condescending smile – at least until we provide a little more detail. The short version of this story is that I found Linh on Gumtree, but before…
An open letter to (WA) Drivers
Dear Western Australian drivers (may be applicable to drivers in other locales), Hi, you probably don’t know me. I’m that guy sitting in the oncoming lane. I know you haven’t noticed me, because you’re trash texting your mate about how…
Cardiff and the Doctor (why I went, and why I’d stay)
We started planning our trip (my first) to Europe over a year before we queued up at the departure gate. Two things remained constant over the year between the decision to go and actually making the flight. The trip was…
First past the post – 12 months of Einstein’s Barber
Exactly one year ago today, I posted my first blog on WordPress. I wrote a blog about what I hoped to achieve by weighing into the blogging community. You can find that first post here from when I reproduced it…
Harvesting the fruit of a ten-year old dream
Ten years ago I was selling televisions in Queensland and doing everything I could to avoid the responsibilities of my still new adulthood (in some ways, little has changed). Elsewhere in the world, however a man and his wife had…
Extra cut! Hop Harvest
As I try to work out how to replace Barber Shop Photos with something else, I’m playing with video editing. Last weekend (Feb 20) Linh and I joined some friends in their inaugural Hop Harvest Party to celebrate their first…
How travelling to Europe is different – Normandy, France.
When we take a trip, I’m used to spending a good two to four weeks in a couple of carefully selected countries. Coming from Perth, one of the most isolated cities on the planet, it’s a massive undertaking – both…
My first real encounter with the language barrier
Whenever I travel, people ask me how I deal with the language barrier as if it is some kind of physically oppressive wall that stops them from travelling themselves. Of course I tell them that language is only a part…
O Starry Night
Although I have spent much of my life living in or around major centres in Australia, I have been fortunate enough to spend a fairly significant amount of time in The Bush. The Bush is one of those ubiquitous terms…
The Home Range
While I love to travel for myself, there is also something to be said for sharing your local region with guests. After living in one place for a while as we start to do as we enter the Thirty Fraternity,…
Barber Shop Photos 14 – Gateways in Galle
This week, I was looking back through the photos I took in Sri Lanka, and I noticed that during the last couple of days of the trip – particularly in Galle on the South West coast – I found a…
Travelling in search of culture
When we travel, one of our goals is always to find a slice of whichever country we’re touring that has been saved the ravages of tourism. As contradictory as it may be, we travel to seek the very thing our…
On the train to Colombo
I have never loved crowds. I have quite the knack for avoiding situations where I have to deal with being crushed against hundreds of sweaty bodies. I shun most events that mean that I’ll have to jostle, fight, bite and…
The salesman on the beach
When I travel, I find that I can forget the stresses and anxiety of my normal life – in fact, I become a completely different person when I am on a journey. The short temper and inflexibility that has come…
Barber Shop Photos 11 – Stilt fishermen in Sri Lanka
One thing that fascinates (and concerns) me about travelling is the effect we have on cultural and social practices as we trudge our way through countries that often have vastly different structures than our own. This shot of the stilt…
Surprises in the desert – Siwa
Egypt taught me a lot about the realities of travelling. I was swindled in the shadow of the great pyramids (http://www.einsteinsbarbershop.com/?p=72), endured the corruption of officials in Luxor (bullied by a guard at Karnak), dropped my bundle in frustration at…
A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts
Tropical island holidays have never really tempted me. When I daydream of escaping my day to day routine, my mind draws me not to a recliner on a sandy beach (although it sounds most pleasant), but to exotic adventures…
Roger’s Demise
As the last rays of sunshine radiated through the clouds, to the clicking sound of the thirty or so cameras attached to the eyeballs of the tourists around me, I replaced my lens cap and sat back to sip my…
Making a meal of Timor
We don’t often think much about the act of preparing for, and cooking a meal. Of course we’re more than happy to follow the menu of the glut of cooking shows that crowd the television schedule, and share our favourite…
Home ground disadvantage
I love living in Australia. There is so much to see and so much to do. I’ve been able to surf perfect waves, dive pristine reefs off tropical islands, explore desert wilderness with a backdrop of outback oranges and…
Four floors above Vientiane
As I write this, I’m reclining in the front of a coaster bus somewhere west of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. I make the journey from Perth to the bush a couple of hours east of Kal each year with a…