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28/5/06 Itinerary for May-June |
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Getting to Laos: I left my previous home city of Sydney in Australia on Saturday night May 20, and flew to Bangkok via Melbourne.
(Thai Airways does a triangular route in case that doesn’t seem to make sense.) After a couple of hours at Bangkok early Sunday morning, I took a 1 hour flight to Vientiane, arriving Sunday morning. (See some photos.) Thai Airways provide a good service: the ‘Asian vegetarian’ food option was quite good. For those who like unlimited access to movies and entertainment, you won’t get that with Thai’s current fleet, but that didn’t worry me – I’ve got plenty of reading, and of course a new iPod. A little sleep would also have been nice – but the flight was full and I didn’t get much sitting up.
Krabi: But I’m writing this from Krabi, Thailand (near Phuket - see photos). I’m here for a workshop organised by ADRA Australia which will be quite a good introduction to my new job. I only spent from Sunday to Friday in Vientiane – not even a full week – before travelling again! I’ll write more about the workshop and the beautiful location later.
Bangkok: After the 10-day workshop finishes I go on to Bangkok for a one night stopover, which will provide a great opportunity for shopping, visiting the ADRA Asia Regional Office and hopefully upgrading my visa at the Lao Embassy in Bangkok.
Florence: From Bangkok I’ll be flying to Florence via a short stopover in Frankfurt, on the day the World Cup starts! I have a 3 week training course at the Villa Aurora college in Florence. The course is called a Master of Science in Administration, and the subjects are strongly related to development work. Many ADRA workers do this course. I am going as an ‘auditor’ as it’s cheaper for ADRA Laos to send me that way. Having already done a doctorate, there’s not such a need for me to obtain this Masters. However the three subjects I’ll be doing: Proposal Writing, Needs Assessment and Monitoring and Evaluation fit my job description so well that it’s an opportunity my employer at Laos wanted me to have. Naturally I’m very happy to go – to learn about the work I’ll be doing, meet others doing similar work around the world, and of course enjoy my first trip to Italy. The fact it’s the same time as the World Cup in Germany will make it even more interesting, no doubt. Let’s hope Italy don’t get knocked out too early! I’ll return to Laos around the end of June / beginning of July, in time to watch the World Cup final from Vientiane with my Brazilian boss. Let’s also hope Brazil don’t get knocked out too early. And go the Aussies!
When back in Laos, I’ll be hitting the ground running. We have a busy few months coming up as the country director and his wife will be going back to Brazil to have their first baby. I’ll be ‘on my own’ to an extent during August. And there are more workshops, staff retreats and strategic planning in September-October. Unfortunately I had to pull out of the 2006 IHDP/APN International Human Dimensions Workshop 2006: Institutional Dimensions of GEC – Water, Trade and the Environment (Thailand, Chiang Mai, 13 – 26 October 2006). I had applied for this workshop while still at uni, but unfortunately it clashes with events already scheduled for ADRA Laos.
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