Where Have You Been?

December 29, 2015
by Rodney Olsen
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Where Have You Been?

This year is almost at an end and as with most years it’s had it’s ups and downs. One of the big ‘ups’ is that I had my first ever overseas holiday. Together with my family I visited Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

I’ve been overseas a number of times in the past but it’s always been for work or for some other cause. This time it was all about enjoyment. That’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed all my other trips but there’s something different about travelling purely for enjoyment and especially travelling with people you love.

Including my home country of Australia, I’ve actually been in 17 countries so far. I’ve been able to spend significant time in some countries with others only visited while in transit or for a very short time. The places I’ve been include Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, USA, Canada, India, Haiti, Dominican Republic, PNG, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Thailand, Myanmar and Hong Kong. You can see them all plotted out on the map below.


I wonder how many countries you’ve visited? Let me know your favourite (and maybe not so favourite) places in this wonderful world of ours.



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The Journey Begins

December 10, 2012
by Rodney Olsen
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So here I am, sitting on a bed in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur. My journey to Bangladesh and India has begun.

I flew out of Perth about 3:00 a.m. this morning on a 2:30 flight together with Kieran, the other Western Australian on the trip. Time is a fairly fluid concept when it comes to flying.

After dozing off a few times I woke up to find that food was being served ….. at 4:00 a.m. I found myself asking, “What meal is this?” Four in the morning on a plane that is travelling between two places in the same time zone. It was supposedly breakfast. Scrambled eggs, a small sausage, potatoes and green beans. I figured that as I hadn’t got around to having dinner the night before it’d work for me.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur just after 8:00 a.m. and fairly quickly made our way out of the airport and onto the highway in the transfer taxi. When we finally got to the hotel for our overnight stay, ready to freshen up and rest, we were told it’d be five hours before we could check in. So, we headed off to see some of the local shopping and to collapse into some big, welcoming armchairs at a local cafe.

The highlight of the day was meeting Renee. Renee’s a friend of my wife Pauline. They know each other through an online community. While I only got to spend a few minutes with her it was an absolute delight.

A large chunk of the afternoon was spent examining the inside of my eyelids. Sleep was very welcome.

We went for dinner in the restaurant in the hotel. Cheap and delicious. I had the chicken curry. Mmmmm!

After a stroll to see more Christmas lights and the never ending array of shops we headed back to the hotel. I don’t expect to be awake too much longer.

Tomorrow will bring a little more sightseeing before we meet up with two more people and head off to Bangladesh. The journey that has taken so long to prepare is now underway.



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Manic Monday

April 21, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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It’s certainly good to be having a Monday today. It might seem like a rather odd thing to say but I only had about an hour of last Monday.

I flew out of Dominican Republic to Miami on Sunday morning, then flew from Miami to Los Angeles Sunday evening, and out of LA late on Sunday night.

As our fourteen and a half hour flight headed across the International Date Line we only experienced an hour or so of Monday before Tuesday began. I lost almost a whole day.

I know that flights like that are good for frequent flyer points but where do I go to get a refund on losing an entire day from my life?



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