February 29, 2004

Use "spam filtering" to sort news feeds

Simple idea... use Basian (or similar) filtering to classify newsfeeds (see Feedster, FeedDaemon, etc) Basically you just need to keep track of a similar number of news stories that you are interested in vs. ones that don't do it for you... Train the filter with this information and (then let it rip on classifying your news items for you.)

You end up with very high level control based on the feeds that you subscribe to, and then much finer control based on filtering... Seems a little better than the categorization thing folks are doing now... mostly you probably don't care what category a news item is in, if it is interesting...

Posted by binduwavell at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2004

Timeless Thailand

So my journey is nearing it's conclusion. Today I'm heading to New Zealand for about 6 weeks then (tickets willing) I'll be heading home! Strangely, I'm feeling a little odd about heading back into western civilization. Two main reasons, firstly; I'm used to the Asia travel style -- sounds like NZ will be very different, secondly; it sounds very expensive. However, those two reservations asside, I'm extremely excited to see NZ, the amazing countryside, the people, the cool tourist activities (maybe sky-diving, black-water rafting, and yes the sheep... OK I'm not that excited about the sheep, but it must be a feature of the country with a population of just under 4 million people, and I have heard estimates of as many as 80 million sheep!!! :)

Since leaving Cambodia, I have been hanging out with Wade in Bangkok. Not much to report except that we have enjoyed hanging out. Yesterday, we went out to The Ancient City. Which is a pretty huge park (roughly shaped like the country) with bigatures (large scale modles) of a lot of Thai monuments. It's an interesting way to get a feel for what Thailand has to offer and a great place to take photos. We rented bicycles and meandered around for a few hours. It was opened in 1963, the brain-child of a wealthy business man from Bangkok, apparently he envisioned this park as a means of offering cultural healing to the world. Although I'm not quite sure how... In any case, there were very few tourists, and it was quite an interesting place to spend a day!

Goodbye, Thailand, Hello New Zealand!

Love,


-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2004

Thailand to Cambodia

After enjoying an afternoon and evening in Trang (very nice town!), I flew up to Bangkok. I stayed at a great hostel not the cheapest or cleanest place in town (don't assume it is expensive or dirt ;), but definately the coolest place to hang out with other travelers... I spent about a week sorting out a trip to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat and getting my teath worked on every day.... yikes :) I went to a very nice clinic that has very modern equipment and a really nice office. Compared to the US, prices were very reasonable and the dentists were fantastic! Everyone spoke great English and they were really gentle...

So that was probably pretty boring ;) but Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples has been really lovely. I flew from Bangkok directly to Siem Riep, which meant that I completely bypassed the road system in Cambodia, which I must confess gives me the heebee geebees ;) I am staying at a nice B&B in Siem Reap that's run by an English couple... It's their first season, and they already have great staff and a really friendly setup!

My first full day here, I hired a car and a guide for a solid introduction to some of the main temple complexes. We went to Ankor Wat, which is amazing, but I have to admit that I was not quite as awstruck as I thought I would be. I had imagined it bigger and more grand... I guess that comes from going to places like Orchha, Kujaraho and the Taj Mahal in India and some of the amazing temples in Japan... Still it is a very impressive stone mountain and with some really good sculptures. And I was more impressed on my second visit (day 2) when I didn't have the overblown expectations ;) The external stone at Angkor Wat is sandstone, some of which has lasted remakably well over the last 1,000 years. I think the ground are about 1.3km by 1.5km... which is HUGE by any standard. There is a moat that's about 300m wide then a large grass area with two stone libraries and two modern (16th century) Budhist temples. Apparently this area would have housed thousands of dancers and monks and grounds keepers, etc when the temple was in use. Then you get to the main structure. Which basically has several concentric walls with courtyards. The first wall has some really nice baise relief (sp?) sculptures. Mostly stories from Hindu mythology, but also some stories about the life of the king who built Angkor. All over the temples here there are carvings of lovely women called Apsara. There are two forms, either dancers or servers (apparently not servants... i.e. everyone was paid). The structure is setup with it's walls facing each of the primary directions. The top most enclosure has towers on all four corners of the walls and a larger tower in the center. These five towers are supposed to represent Mt. Meru, which is the 5 peaked mountain where the Hindu gods are supposed to live.

Most of the temples here are Hindu... There are several Budhist temples, but they were mostly defaced, presumably by Hindus, I beleive sometime in the 16th century. Our second temple was Banteay Srey, which is a very small temple that is unique in that it is made from mostly red and yellow sandstone. Also the sculptures are everywhere, and they are really lovely. Although it was small, and we didn't spend that much time there. It was my favorite temple. Again, it is hindu and it has the 5 towers, like Angkor Wat. But it seems to have a lot more of a Hindu mystical spirit enfused in it than any of the other temples (for me :)...

Temple 3 was Ta Prohm, which is famouse because they have not completely removed the jungle, so this is an amazing opportunity to see how nature and time can eat away at someting as fleeting (in eternal time) as a solid strong temple... If you have seen pictures of Angkor with trees growing out of or on temples, they are probably taken here... Also the cover of the Cambodia Lonely planet is taken here... I think this temple is one of the Buddhist temples that was re-apropriated by the Hindus a while back.... So all the Bodhisatvas have been chiseled out and lingas were placed where the Buddha statues used to be.... Quite a shame...

I wish I was here near the end of rainy season, rather than just before it... it's dry, so the trees look like they are having a hard time, and the temples that have ponds or that are built inside ponds... look a little bleak.

Temple 4 was Bayon, which used to have 54 towers, each one with 4 huge Buddha faces (one facing each primary direction) topped by a lotus flower. Apparently there are now about 34 towers... This place is probably my second favorit temple... So impressive, and the faces are so expressive... Fortinately when the Hindu reaction (that's what the guides all seem to call the defacement) happened, they took the Buddhas for faces of Brahman, so they survived... WOW!!!!!!

So that was day one, and I spent two more days looking around, revisiting places, etc. I have seen so many beautiful things over the last few days... however, today I stumbled (with the help of a very nice 12 year old cambodian girl) upon two Apsaras that she called Queens. They were bigger than the others, they were in very good condition, they even had diamond (not sure if they were real) jewels in their belly buttons, and they were stunning.... they were hidden down a few tunnels at a temple called Preah Khan... looked after by an old woman with black teeth... she provides insense and candles for people to pray... what an absolutely amazing, amazing experience!!!! All of it, the young girl, the old woman, the lovely statues, the insense, the praying... wow!!!!

Very much Love,


-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 06:13 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2004

What Next?

It's about time for an update, me thinks! :) So Wade and I made it onto the liveaboard with Coral Grand in Khao Lak, Thailand. We spent a pretty intense four days diving. I really enjoyed getting back into a major diving mode, and it was really sweat having Wade along! We saw Leopard Sharks and Manta Rays as well as: Octopus, Lobster, Cray Fish, Nudi Branc (sp?), Ghost Pipe fish, Eals galore, and much much more ;) Wade and I did several dives, with just the two of us, which was really cool! I'm definately looking foward to finding me some regular dive buddies to dive with, rather than going out with DMs most of the time! The boat and crew were great! The food was mostly great with a few minor exceptions, the other divers were pretty cool. One guy who makes tons of videos who showed us videos in the evenings, and crazy itallian woman who seemed to bounce rather than swim when she was in the water (you go Nico!!!!)...

So after 4 dives a day for 4 days, we made it back to the mainland... Had a bit of a hastle with our room, but got it sorted quickly. Then Wade and I took a minibus down to Krabi town. The town was OK, but nothing particularly special... it seemed to be half tourism and half trade... that was nice... and the food at the night markets was very good... Thanks Ot for the amazing iced tea and interesting conversation! We spent a day at the Tiger Cave which is a Budhist temple that hosts a personality cult for the main monk... was quite interesting, if not particularly inspiring :) There were loads of monkeys (not a pun) so we spent a lot of time taking pictures of them... and some time hiking back behind the temple. We whimped out on the 1200 step climb up to a huge gilded boulder and mini-temple... It was covered in scafolding... but folks who made the trek said the veiw was great (I'm glad for them after that much effort! :) We did not make it out to the Islands near Krabi since Wade was having major aqua-phobia :) actually having vertigo from an ear infection contracted while diving... Understandably, reducing the appeal of doing water based activities...

We did head out to Koh Lanta, which is a pretty big Island south of Koh Phi Phi. They had 6 resorts about 10 years ago... now they have over 200... we had a hard time getting into a room... hot bothered, hungry, not communicating well... ended up in the place that I walked away from at the start of looking for somewhere to stay... ;) I spent a day snorkeling which was OK, but not fantastic, was just nice being out on the boat and snorkeling for me, and Wade read and slept... Seems like we ate a lot and slept a lot for a few days... then Wade headed down to Malaysia and I moved to some neigboring bungalows (cheaper smaller room for 1 person) for a few more days hanging out. I went diving on Hin Daeng and Hin Muang which are 3 hours boat ride south of Koh Lanta... I dove with Koh Lanta Dive Center because several of the folks from the liveaboard had recommended them, and because I bumped into Rob and Karen who had also been on the liveaboard, we ended up diving together, which was way cool. Hin Daeng was AMAZING, really wonderfull dive! Hin Muang was a dissapointment, but mostly because the current had really picked up so we had to work hard to not get very far and most of the fish had buggered off :)

From Lanta, I headed to an island even further south called Koh Hai. I stayed at Koh Hai Villa, which was nice, but a little too quite... that's why I went there... for quite... :) Had a very relaxed few days, snorkeling, swiming, playing with my poi and even a bit of juggling on the beach... Now I'm ready for civilization.

After an incredibly painfully loud longtail trip, I'm in Trang city... just booked a ticket up to bkk so I can sort out the rest of my trip... At this very instant, I'm thinking about going to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, then heading to New Zealand for a bit over a month, then heading home... I think I'll goto Australia another time... I'll be sad to miss the diving, but I'm feeling like getting home :)

Posted by binduwavell at 04:41 AM | Comments (0)
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