Brian Thacker's Blog, page 14

Party food, 1974 style.

It's the book launch of 'Tell Them to Get Lost' tomorrow night (which you can order here!), so I thought I'd give you a taste of the food we might eat if we were in 1974. Although you probably wouldn't want to eat it, because those hip cats in 1974 ate some weird shit. I found some recipe cards from 1974 and looking at the things on offer was enough to turn me off my dinner. Even some of the names would make you reach for a bucket. I mean who would eat something called 'Fluffy Mackerel Pudding' or 'Chilled Celery Log'. Here are some of my favourite recipe cards…

Food should NOT be this colour!

I had no idea frankfurters could be so spectacular.

They must come from some big fish.

No comment.

I don't what you do to cabbage to get it that colour (perhaps something to do with the shower curtain on the right!)

With a frog and an alien on the side (and bong water in the middle!)

Enjoy your Chicken Liver bake with nanna's ashes.

I feel queasy just thinking about fluffy mackerels.

Just like vomit (but without the carrots)

Just cook in a nuclear reactor for 35 minutes.

What was the inspiration – open-heart surgery?

And here's the blood clots!

And finish it off with… another mackerel dish (a snappy one this time!).

You can buy 'Tell them to Get Lost' online here or buy the e-book here .

Coming up next: Snappy music from 1974 (but not the mackerel variety)

1974 fashion tips for the cool dudes.

Hey man, it's only three days until the book launch of 'Tell Them to Get Lost', so here are some way-out fashion tips for the cool dudes. You'll find threads that are, according to a 1974 Myer catalogue, 'ready to relax and cut to really swing' and where 'Shirt plus pant add up to a wonderful east life'. And who wouldn't look good, and perhaps sweat a little bit, in 'dashing slacks in crimpolene and hand-washable polyester.' But before you dress up you'll need some underwear that combines 'Comfort AND fashion with heat resistant waist band'…

Hello ladies!

Turn up Barry Manilow and let's parteeeeee!

When lumber jackets were cool (and so was blow-drying your hair!)

Carn the….. red, stripey, brown, grey, white team!

You can buy 'Tell them to Get Lost' online here or buy the e-book here .

Coming up next: Some tasty morsels from 1974

1974 fashion tips for the fab chicks.

It's only one week until the book launch of 'Tell Them to Get Lost', so I thought I'd share some 1974 fashion tips on what to wear on the night. I've actually got a Myer catalogue (an Australian department store) from 1974 where (according to the copy in the catalogue) caftan comes with 'flair and a bubbly interest in nylon' and 'skirts swirl and lurex shimmers'. And, even more impressively, you can look glamorous in 'voluptuous velvety velour'. I'll start the fashion tips show with some fab looks for the groovy chicks.

Like a technicolour dream (or a technicolour vomit)

Which one is a dress and which one is a table cloth?

That voluptuous velvety velour!

You should see the crocheted underpants.

A devilled sausage ladies?

…and if it's a cold night I'd recommend something like this underneath your caftan.

You can buy 'Tell them to Get Lost' online here or buy the e-book here .

Coming up next: Fashion tips for the cool dudes.

Tonight we're going to party like it's 1974.

Yeah man, all you cool cats are invited along to my far-out 1974 slide show and fab book launch. Get on down to the grooves of David Essex, Paper Lace, Blue Swede and Barry White while eating brightly coloured Cocktail Onions, Pigs in a Blanket and Deviled eggs and downing a few Creme de Menthes and Harvey Wallbangers. BYO joints. And don't forget your car keys for the bowl.

It's at Readings Books 112 Acland Street St Kilda starting at 6.30. Can you dig it? It'll be a real trip, baby.

You can check out all the details on my Events Page here – plus my upcoming Writer's festivals in Bali and Singapore. Peace, dudes.

A box of books.

My new book 'Tell Them to Get Lost' arrived today. In fact, I got a whole box of them. The book looks great and it's always such a buzz holding the book in your hands for the first time. Here's the blurb from the back of the book:

When Tony Wheeler wrote Lonely Planet's first-ever shoestring guidebook, South-East Asia offered 'cheap and interesting travel without the constantly oppressing misery of some of the less fortunate parts of Asia'. Certain 'hotspots' in the region attracted the tourist crowds, but there were many 'untouched places' too. So have Tony's recommendations stood the test of time? Just how much has South-East Asia changed since the Wheelers ambled through the region in flared pants?

Brian Thacker decides to retrace Tony and Maureen's footsteps through Portuguese Timor, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Burma using the original 1975 South east Asia on a shoestring as his only guidebook. Along the way Brian meets a cast of folk from the old guidebook who are still manning hotel desks and serving in restaurants. He also encounters mishap and adventure at every step of the Banana Pancake Trail – breaking bread with a gang of ravenous rats; swimming with a hungry goat-and-possibly-alsohuman- eating crocodile; crashing his scooter (twice); being wanted by the police and propositioned by Gary who likes 'pens', and getting lost everywhere . . .

And it's only three weeks till the launch on September 1st (available in all good books stores). I'll be posting all the info about my book launch in the next few days and you're all invited. I'll probably be dressing something like this…

The Laundry Boat Express.

After I finished my tour of duty in Vietnam with SNV I had a few days off before heading home. I went to a cooking class, had a massage (and no, not one with a happy ending!) and went on a 3-day cruise of Halong Bay. The cooking class (with Hidden Hanoi) was fantastic. There were only three of us in the class and we cooked up Vietnamese spring rolls, BBQ'd pork balls, fish sauce soup with green papaya and fresh bun noodle. We spent almost three hours cutting, dicing, slicing and cooking then I ate my body weight in food. It was the best spring rolls I've ever had – even if I do say so myself.

I booked my 'cruise' online and I really didn't have much idea what the cruise or Halong Bay would be like. Busy, is what it is. My 'transfer' bus was packed, the monolithic souvenir store selling monolithic marble statues we stopped at halfway there was packed with tour buses and Halong Bay harbour was packed solid with tourists waiting to get on their boats. And there were plenty of them. They were all queueing up to load passengers and crates of beer.

Our 16 berth boat however only had nine passengers. Four couples on a romantic getaway and me. This is our boat…

…and this is my rather salubrious cabin…

Most of the first day was spent 'cruising' around the towering limestone islands lounging about on the sun deck…

… visiting a cave and doing a bit of kayaking (we kayaked in the bay here…)

…with the other fleet of tourist boats. We did, however, get away from the hordes and had views that looked something like this…

After a sunset swim (jumping from the boat) and a banquet dinner it was time for my favourite part of the trip – karaoke! I even got the Norwegian couple to sing 'Take on me' by A-ha. The next morning, after a big sleep (the cheap bottle of Vietnamese win and the beers might have helped there) we transfered to Cat Ba island, where we were dropped off at various hotels in Cat Ba town. Except me. I was left on the bus and the driver motioned for me to jump on the back of a passing scooter. I was then taken down to a small harbour and he promptly rode off. I had no idea what was going on or where I was. I had paid extra to stay in a 'beach bungalow', but there wasn't a bungalow in sight. A lady with a large bag of groceries, who seemed to be just walking by, told me to get on a small wooden flat boat that was piled high with with bags of  clean laundry. She spoke no English and the boat driver spoke no English, but I jumped aboard anyway. I do love an adventure. Although, after 30 minutes of chugging out past a floating village and seemingly towards the ocean I was getting a tad worried (the pic at the top of the blog is my feet hanging off the front of the Laundry Express).

Finally, 45 minutes later we rounded an island and in front of me was a small perfectly idyllic resort and my perfectly idyllic bungalow on the beach…

…and this is the view from my balcony…

Not bad. eh? I'm so glad I didn't stay in noisy, built-up Cat Ba town and paid the extra $10. There were only two other couples staying in the resort and, amazingly, one of those was the lovely couple from New York that I did the cooking course with in Hanoi.

Off the beaten track in Vietnam.

I've just got home from another wonderful trip through the wilds of Northern Vietnam. Like my visit last November I was doing some work for SNV, a Dutch NGO. From Hanoi we travelled by car up into the Northern Highlands through areas that don't get too many tourists. Last time I helped design four logos, write a few taglines and whip up a couple of brochures and a website, and this time we were just as busy. We did logo design and straplines for the remaining four provinces, plus whipped up a lazy three brochures in two days back in an ad agency in Hanoi. On this jaunt up north we visited the province of Cao Bang – pronounced "Cow Bung' (I suggested 'Cowabunga, dude!' for the strapline) then the towering mountains of Ha Giang on the Chinese border and the steeped rice terraces of Yen Bai.

Our first stop was the village of Pac Ngoi on Ba Be lake where we stayed in a homestay (that's our 'house' on the far left in the pic below). For $3 a night you get a comfy bed with a fan and lovely balcony overlooking the river and a fridge full of cold beers.

This is the lovely balcony (not bad for $3, eh?)

And how's this for a scenic setting for a volleyball game. This was just below our balcony…

On the way out of Ba Be Lake we stopped at a small village for the weekly market and it was like stepping back in time with scenes like this…

and this…

and this…

and a modern twist walking past a huge sign…

.

We spent most of our time in the province of Ha Giang, which was home to one of the most spectacular drives I have ever done. The road between the charming towns of Dong Van and Meo Vac is known as 'Heaven's Gate' and winds it way precariously up steep, lush green mountains that somehow are filled with rice terraces and corn fields.

This is our driver Truong halfway up Heaven's Gate…

This is the poorest province in Vietnam, but the mountain folk are a friendly, sturdy lot who walk for hours up and down steep roads to the weekend market. Along the way we passed lots of curious locals like these kids lugging piles of some sort of leaves…

I loved the town of Dong Van. The 'old quarter' was filled with, well, old buildings and what I loved the most was that there were rice paddies smack in the middle of town – that looked something like this…

And the other thing I loved is that in these parts of Vietnam the pith helmet is in fashion. All the men wear them. Bring back the pith helmet I say – it would work a treat with my safari suit…

After Ha Giang, we had a big presentation in Yen Bai then it was back to Hanoi to whip up lots of work (I'll show you some of the work when I get the final artwork). When I finished in Hanoi I took a few days off (although it wasn't really 'days' off' because the trip and work was so much fun anyway) and did a 3-day cruise in Halong Bay. I'll post some pics from that Chinese junk junket on my next blog…

Thacker in Afghanistan.

Not this Thacker, though. My brother Colin (or Titch as he prefers to be called) is in the Australian Air Force and is stationed in Afghanistan (and his son Justin is in the Army and recently was posted in East Timor!). He has been there for six months already and hasn't been kidnapped or shot once yet (where's the fun in it then I tell him). Although he did tell me the other week when I spoke to him on the phone that he didn't get much sleep the previous night because 'the buggers kept throwing missiles at the base.' Well, those buggers can easily find out exactly where to throw those missiles. They just have to go to Colin's Facebook page. He's posted pics of his base and the surrounding desert (with the best vantage spots to attack). And besides all that, the buggers have nothing to worry about either – there's a photo of my brother with a gun protecting the base. Those buggers could just walk in! So for all you Taliban out there who read my blog (my books are huge in Kabul) here's some shots of the base. Just don't blow up my brother, please.

Afghanistan Holiday Camp

Now, where's that trigger thing?

The place goes off (so to speak) at Christmas.

*Note to Taliban: Attack from this side.

*Note to Taliban: Not from this side.

Oh, oh! Too late. Here they come…

Tell Them to Get Lost.

Well, after a few months of throwing titles around for my new book we've gone back to my original title (thanks to Larissa, my publisher!). And, I even have a cover! I got the first design layout last week from Random House and I quite like it (I like the nod to the original 1975 South East Asia on a Shoestring). I wasn't sure if I liked it to begin with because it was different, but then I liked it because it was different – you need that book to stand out on the shelf! So all is chugging along nicely at the moment for the September launch. I went up to Sydney last week for a bunch of meetings at Random House (at their very nice offices in North Sydney) with my publisher, my editor, my publicist and my marketing strategist (doesn't everyone have one of those?). The only person I didn't have a meeting with was the cleaner. The editor has my manuscript at the moment (and undoubtedly going crazy with the red pen) and I'll get that back next week. In the meantime here are some gratuitous shots from my weekend in Sydney…

That bridge reflected in that opera house.

Manly Beach

Me and that opera house

Beth at North Head (it was Beth's first time to Sydney)

A perfect Sydney day (it was cold and raining in Melbourne!)

Ahhh, Sydney – the Manly ferry and that bridge

Some random news.

I'm alive. Yes, I've been away from the blogosphere for quite a while, but that's because I've been frantically writing away to finish my new book. Which I just did – and only a week past my deadline. The other big news is that I have a new publisher. I'm now with Random House – which I'm very excited about (here's my new Random House bio here). Some of my favourite travel writers of all time are also with Random House including, Bill Bryson, Dave Gorman, Danny Wallace, Tony Hawks and Peter Moore. For those that don't know, my new yet-to-be-titled book is about my trip retracing the 1974 journey through South-East Asia of Lonely Planet founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler using their original South East Asia on a Shoestring guidebook as my only reference. I don't have a title yet, although I do have a few that are being thrown around. Out of the titles that I've come up with so far, which one do you like (or do you have a better one for me!):

Following the Banana Pancake Trail

(travels with Lonely Planet's first guidebook)

Tripping out in South East Asia

(travels with Lonely Planet's first guidebook)

The Funkiest Funghi in South East Asia

(travels with Lonely Planet's first guidebook)

The Yellow Bible

(travels with Lonely Planet's first guidebook)

So, I'm back now and I'll be updating my blog a lot more regularly