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Phnom Penh has an interesting street system, all the streets are given numbers, but they aren’t in any sort of order, but it gets better, the numbers are all out of sync as well on the street. You will find number 1 next to 456, there is no odd or even side of the road, it goes by who ever got their first, so number 1 could be at the middle of the street & number 2 at one of the ends - & they often have the same number twice (which is what happened when we were looking for DDP) needless to say it took us ages to find where we needed to go.

DDP is located at No 7A Street 101, Boeung Trabek, Phnom Penh - they have a website too.

DDP is linked with a church organisation at the moment, although they are not linked with the church, that is just where some of the funding comes from.

We spent a lot of time talking to Justin, who is originally from England, he has been working at DDP since 2003. It was so nice chatting to him, he said that he really enjoyed chatting to us because I was using Auslan which is very close to BSL, & I enjoyed interpreting for him as well (mostly voicing for Geoff) because BSL is so similar to Auslan.

DDP was established in 1996. There are at least 2,000 known Deaf people in Cambodia, who go to Krousar Thmey schools or have contact with DDP, but there are estimates that there are about 50,000 deaf people in the country, however there isn’t any reliable data available. DDP is working hard to try to find as many deaf people as they can.

DDP has 7 projects currently underway….

1/ Education of Adults
Krousar Thmey (KT) is focused on the education of children, but once they are too old to go to a KT school, then the only option that they have for schooling is to go to DDP.

DDP often takes in many students who drop out from KT schools, often because their parents need them to work in the fields & help to support the family or perhaps they have failed.

We met students in grade 1 & 2, who were aged between mid-teens to early 20’s. They have had students in their 50’s though. Last year, Justin told us that there was a first for Cambodia, 2 Deaf students graduated from KT, athough it was only 2, it’s a good start.

There is a HUGE need for teachers of the Deaf to help with schooling of their many students.

2/ Interpreting

They have 7 of the 8 Interpreters (Professional Interpreters) work at DDP. All of them know English, as many of the NGO meetings involve people who speak English.

3/ Job Training

DDP helps to find Deaf people jobs & provides them with interpreters so that they can do job training for their jobs. Some of the jobs that they find for people are - hairdressing, metal work, motor mechanic, sewing etc.

4/ Linguistic Research

DDP is doing research into Khmer Sign Language & working towards making a SL dictionary. They have 4 booklets completed in a proposed set of 6, which will ultimately be combined into one dictionary. There is a linguistics expert from America, Tash, who is working with locals to collate the signs & a local Deaf (man) artist who draws all the signs.

5/ Finding Deaf people

As I mentioned earlier there are only 2,000 recorded Deaf in Cambodia, but the real number could be as much as 50,000 (maybe more) so there are a lot of people to find, it’s a big job & a job that Justin is in charge of.

Many deaf people, have not had any exposure to other deaf people. If they can get them to come to DDP to study it takes them a couple of months to realise that the room of people (their class that they are studying with) is full of other Deaf people just like them. They have no real mode of communication, as Justin said, he has never seen so many Deaf people without the ability to communicate in any way, normally mime or gesture can be used, but they can’t even do that - WOW!

6/ Establishing Community Cultural Centres/ Deaf Clubs

Many Cambodians are more focussed on working to live in the fields, rather than any sort of social affairs. DDP is trying to encourage Deaf people to come together & build a cultural history & foundation like so many other countries already have. Many have a history that focuses around sporting events & that is what Justin would like to see happen here too, but it’s a bit of a battle to achieve.

Justin would love to see some younger Deaf involved in sport in come over & help with this project - perhaps some from Australia?

7/ Welfare

This is a new project area, which has come about to provide “help” when required by members of the community need it, such as for hospital or doctor visits.

It was nice to have a tour of the building and meet everyone there, including the students. DDP is in need of people and money to assist in getting the work done that needs to happen. I would really like to do something there. Hearing about everything that is happening & all that they are trying to achieve, has really inspired me to look into working for an NGO, such as DDP.

I enjoy working as an interpreter in Australia, soon to be Canada, but there is such a need in Cambodia & other countries, maybe I could do something more. I enjoy working in the Deaf community, but am also aware of the fact that I hearing & a NERD (Not Even Related to Deaf) so I don’t want to be branded a “helper”. It’s a hard middle ground that has to be found, but I feel like maybe I could be of more use in countries like Cambodia, Mongolia etc.

I am determined to find out more about NGO’s, & if I could do any sort of work for DDP. Not sure how long I could do it for, Geoff has his permanent residence visa for Canada & he needs to spend at least 3 of the next 5 years in Canada. Justin mentioned that many people like to volunteer for 1 or 2 weeks, but that really isn’t enough, I was thinking maybe 6 months to a year or so.

I would love to work for DDP itself though. If some of my talents could be used &

Our last day in Cambodia was memorable & had a big impact on me, much like my last couple of days in Mongolia.

One of the reasons that we came to Dali was that I had read in the Lonely Planet book about a place called The Sweet Tooth. It is owned by a Deaf woman, Gao & serves sweets. She went to the USA to learn how to make the desserts that she serves & although I cannot sample the food because it’s made from everything that I am allergic to, it is apparently very yummy. I wish that I could sample it, not only does it get good reviews from other travelers, but we have been there several times already to indulge Geoff’s sweet tooth.

Gao seems to be doing reasonably well with her coffee shop, but wow does she have some battles to face. If you are Deaf and Chinese, you cannot get a drivers license over here. Owning a shop, she needs to get supplies all the time, so she has some hearing staff, who have a license that can pick up stuff. Traveling overseas is a task & a half too. Oh & Interpreters, well they are very rare here, Deaf people rely on passing notes, no-one can afford an interpreter. When I was speaking to Gao, she said that she was quite lucky, as some of her staff are hearing, she uses them as interpreters, when needed, which saves her some money.

She had the idea of opening the shop, so that she could employ other Deaf & she has a great relationship with the massage place up the street, which employs Deaf masseurs (5).

There are about 50 Deaf people that live in the Dali (Old City) area. So it’s a bit like Lismore in size.  Most people are outside the city, but I have to say that I have seen quite a few Deaf people on the streets here, probably about a dozen or more, it’s been so cool.

I am picking up more Chinese sign & getting to practice my International sign too, with the occasional Auslan sign, which is cool. It is so nice to be traveling & able to communicate with Deaf people so easily. Don’t get me wrong there are still times when I struggle with some signs & have to ask for clarification, but my conversations in SL are much better than my spoken Chinese.

Gao & all the other Deaf people that I have met at the massage place seemed suitably impressed that I was able to remember their sign names (I don’t know their written names) so well, which was a nice compliment. I feel like I am adapting reasonably well with my SL too, interpreting for Geoff & other hearing people who want to follow any conversations has been to keep my skills up.

When we first went to the massage place, there were 2 Italians that were having foot massages who were very interested in following our conversation & managed to get a bit of an education about Deaf Culture in the process, which I think was a very valuable experience. It was quite interesting to see their reactions when they realised that there were different types of SL around the world, but we could still communicate so well with each other. They managed to learn a little bit of Chinese SL too & tried to use it, which was really nice.

If you get a chance to go to the massage place - it is a must see, it’s on the opposite side of the road from Sweet Tooth, down a little bit, near Foreigners Street. The massage is awesome too!!

Mongolia only have 5 SL Interpreters for between 9 - 13,000 Deaf people. FIVE, & none of them are paid for their work, they have other jobs, sometimes 2 or more, which they do, so that they can interpret. Any spare time that they have, they are interpreting. It’s not about the money, although some payment would obviously help.

One of the Interpreters, interprets the news every night on Mongolian TV.

No offense but how many Interpreters from Western Countries would do the same & interpret so that there is some form of equal access, without thinking of their pocket books. I know that it is hard & you need to make a living to survive, but wow, you can really learn a lot from interpreters like that - it would be great if Sonia could go to an ASLIA National Conference. Needless to say, with only 5 interpreters & no National Accreditation Board for SL Interpreters there opportunities for PD just aren’t there.

I would love to go back there & help out, with whatever I could, even if it was just my time. It would be fantastic if some other countries like Australia could become more involved in helping out countries like Mongolia. The Deaf society, Helping Hands, relies heavily on donations in order to improve the lives of Deaf people in Mongolia & are currently looking for help in trying to raise enough funds for a project to try to have interpreters in the classroom & train new interpreters & standardise MSL. They want to be up to the same standard as they see the rest of the world being at.

There are several artists who come to Helping Hands to dabble in the arts that they enjoy, be it painting or movie making. They used to have computers, which some used for Graphic Arts, but they no longer work. We managed to see a DVD of some of the performances that the Theatre of the Deaf in UB have had & it was really interesting.

I think that western cultures tend to get all caught up in money, which I understand happens because in the end you usually need money for things to get done, but that isn’t how it has to be necessarily. The Deaf theatre for example doesn’t seem to get that much money, yet it still runs, there. We met a couple of Deaf guys who want to have their short films in the the Deaf Short Film Festival & their determination is such, that I eagerly await seeing their films at the Short Film Festival in the USA.

After being  given 2 Sign Language dictionaries, he couldn’t charge me, as they were free to begin with, we had to help out in some way. When we saw all the art that Deaf artists had made, we of course bought one & made a donation to Helping Hands. Just like I had tears in my eyes when I was given the sign language books, out of happiness, it was a similar reaction when we told (the manager of the Helping Hands) that we were making a donation to help him out. It would be great if more people could help out - coming from a western country, we really do have things a lot better than others do.

Wow, what a day, everything just fell into place. I have never been one to believe in a lot of coincidences, but today I did.

I have been trying to find out about the local Deaf community here in Mongolia & thus far have not had any success. At first I used my little Mongolian phrasebook & a lot of mime & gesture, without any success, then I had a note written in Mongolian to say that I was looking for a Sign Language dictionary in Mongolian, again, without much success.

However, I did find a woman that operates a shop that sells Mongolian crafts, who is originally from Ireland (from memory) & she tried to find out some information for me, whilst we went on our 20 day tour. She did find out the name of the shop where you can buy one, but apparently they don’t have any in stock.

We had planned to leave by about 10.30/ 11 to see her again to see if there was any way that I could source a SL book & due to all the rain earlier in the morning (well most of the night too) the streets were flooded, so we were going the long way to avoid the deep puddles of water & just past the State Department Store (outside of the Adidas shop) I saw 2 people signing. Holy shit!!!! Needless to say I was a little excited & tried to converse with them in SL. One man was Deaf the other hearing. After fumbling around with a bit of sign & managing to point to a few phrases in my phrasebook & sign a little, I showed him my paper, which said that I was looking for a Mongolian Sign Language book. He tried to show me on my shitty little tourist map where to go (that whole section was missing from my map) and in the end told us to come with him & he drove us to a Deaf Church, The Sunrise Centre.

We were there for about 3 hours, chatting to everyone. We had a bit of a tour of the building, looked at where the children can play, plus the actual room, where they have church services. They were a congregation of 400, but many people have moved from the city to the country, so there are 200 now. They had a big gym area (basketball court) as well for different social days that happen. Unfortunately, we will miss out on the 2 that are coming up, 18th & 25th July, (our visa’s expire on the 17th & to extend your visa you have to do that 3-4 days before it expires) we catch the train to Beijing on the 16th.

I got to have a look at the 2 Sign Language dictionaries they have. One is a children’s one, with hand drawn colour pictures of what the sign represents, the other is a rather thick dictionary, with photo’s of the signs (so you would need another Mongolian/ English dictionary with it, in order to understand what the sign means. The first one is all Mongolian Sign, the 2nd is a book that was constructed by HH & hearing & it is a mixture of Sign Languages (Korean, Chinese, + 2 others). The only MSL (Mongolian SL) is the alphabet. I really enjoyed learning a bit of sign, I learnt a few things, like how to say; Thank you, My Name ….. , Hi How are you, Good, Camel, Marmot, Gobi Desert, Mongolian, Horse, Turtle etc etc etc. Actually starting to write it down I now realise just how much I learnt.

We were asked if we had seen the BIG Chinggis Khan (40m high) monument just outside the city & when they realised that we had not, we were offered a lift with one of the Mongolian Deaf guys there (sorry I forget everyone’s names). He was a taxi driver (everyone is here really, if you have a car, you take passengers and they pay you). It was T35,000 ($35) to go there & it’s about 60KM out of the city, so not bad really + he even bought us some water on the way. Our driver had been to Australia about 5 years ago, he went to Sydney for a Judo championship, he couldn’t remember a lot of Auslan, but we managed to converse in a combination of International SL, Auslan, MSL + ASL. It was so nice to be interpreting again too, I did it for Geoff & also for our driver/ guide. I had a couple of interesting experiences with interpreting for our driver. We watched a video about the monument when we were there that had (limited) English captions, but nothing in Mongolian, so Interpreted that for our driver (so it went from Mongolian to English to SL), then we went to a Museum (located underneath the statue) & we had a woman that worked there who spoke some English (she was Mongolian) & she guided us around & I interpreted for our guide/ driver in SL too (even voiced back). Wow, what an amazing day. So nice to be interpreting again too - it was just so amazing!!

It had to be one of the best days & so nice to be able to communicate so well too, which we haven’t really had very much of since we arrived here. I felt so comfortable (& so did Geoff) conversing in SL - it was awesome.

I have to say a BIG Thanks to John Uri for the refresher in some ASL signs, that came in handy. It was really cool that we could fall back on the ASL alphabet to converse in as well. Their English was amazing, I wish that my Mongolian was 1/2 as good.

Tomorrow (Thursday) is our last day in Mongolia. We have arranged to meet up with everyone again (2pm) & hopefully I will even get a MSL dictionary. Can’t wait….

Well, after setting up our new bank account, I think that I am nearing the end of having to inform everyone I work for of my new details. At first I started asking for the agency specific paperwork to update my banking details, which was taking ages for me to receive, so in the end I decided to send out a “form letter” of sorts with my new banking details on it, which seems to have worked for most agencies, which is great, then we can get rid of Suncorp - wohoo!!!

Today I have a NABS job, last one for the month, I anticipate. I had a good run there for a while, this month (including today) I have had 6 NABS jobs, last year I had a total of 13 NABS jobs, so I have almost reached 1/2 my quota in a few weeks. I quite enjoy NABS jobs, it’s a different vibe to the jobs that I do for QLD Health in the public system, which is refreshing, there doesn’t seem to be as much in-equality happening. Perhaps the fact that NABS is government funded and the Dr’s surgery’s etc don’t have to pay for an interpreter to be there helps too. You are facilitating the communication without anyone involved needing to put forward any additional effort, other than organising the interpreter to come, which is pretty cool when you think about it.

Wow, Woodford & X-mas are creeping up fast, it’s next weekend - holy shit! I had at least started some of my x-mas celebrations preparation before I managed to get 2nd degree burns, but being out of action for the last couple of weeks after it happened has certainly put me behind - I wish that I had done more before it happened. We aren’t even sure if Geoff’s dad is still coming up for x-mas day or not - which to be honest is kinda stressing me out. David has a dog, Benny (fox terrier) who needs to be looked after whilst he is away & he doesn’t really want to ask his neighbours, so he might only come for a day or two. If he does come, I will only see him for a day or so, as I am headed up to the Sunshine Coast on Boxing day so that I am ready for interpreting on Monday, when it officially starts.

I have decided that I won’t be camping at Woodford this year for a couple of reasons 1/ everyone who is going and camping with the dancing hands group, will be bringing hay bales (which I am allergic to) 2/ my burns need to be kept clean & I don’t think that camping there is going to be all that good for me in that respect. So instead I will be staying with Heather & Maree on their farm/ property (although with them now having goats it probably is becoming a bit more of a farm). Maree said that it will probably be good for me too, as I can have some time to myself to really relax, which is a fair point, so I can be either working or not, not in the middle most of the time like I was last year. Plus I can probably eat a little better as well. I think that I will miss being fully immersed in Deaf culture for the week, but my burns are really important to get them healed. I need to stop injuring myself!!

In other news, we setup our  x-mas tree - FINALLY tonight - holy crap, I thought that it would never happen - it was pretty quick to setup - it kinds felt like the express x-mas tree setup, taking us about 10 min to do everything but, at least it’s setup. Hard to believe that there’s only 10 days left til x-mas.

This year should be interesting. This is the first year that parts of the Woodford Folk Festival program have been formally organised to be Auslan interpreted. There will be Dancing Hands performances as well. In previous years, there has only been a few off the cuff performances that have been interpreted, so this is quite exciting.

The only issue is that they stuffed up one of the events, they were told not to organise 2 events to be interpreted at the same time & they did on Tuesday - Spirituality the quadruple bottom line with Professor Sohail Inayatullah & Bob Hawkes talk, Political Bigotries and Statesmanship both at 12 -1pm, which is extremely disappointing as there is no way that everyone can be at 2 places at once & when there was a limit to the number of events that could be interpreted - bummer!!

To view the parts of the program that have been officially organised to be interpreted into Auslan click here

There is an online preview only version of the Woodford Folk Festival program book which you can view by clicking here

You can download a program timetable online here

There is also a Festival Map & Directory that can be viewed here as well & can be downloaded & printed

If you are viewing the program online or if you get the actual program book, look for the little hand symbol to show which events will be interpreted in Auslan

In other news, because we have such a large group this year, we are not camping in the normal full week performers area, we will be in the overnight performers area. Hopefully it will be a little cooler, as we are over the hill or on the hill (not really sure on that one), only problem is that you have to catch a bus to & from the camp site to the main festival area, so you are restricted by the bus schedule, but there should be a little more room I hope & perhaps some flatter camp grounds too (will try not to get my hopes up too high on that one) as long as it isn’t like last year, when we had to prop up the mattress & it was still on a slope, which made sleeping interesting.

Well, today was interesting.

I did my good Samaritan thing today, helping out a poor women who was the victim of car park rage. She had a huge camper van style car, which she parked at Southport Library & due to it’s size she had to consume almost 2 car spaces, which apparently she has done in the past, without any issues (I don’t see why she should have any issues anyhow). Then today, a guy decided that he had to have one of the spaces she was parked in (despite the wide array of other spaces available) & was screaming at the poor woman.

I could have just continued to walk past, but decided not to, I calmly asked him what the problem was & he started screaming at me & complaining about how she had taken up more than one car space - my response - “she has a bigger car & needs the extra space, so that she isn’t blocking the car park” - he kept screaming & I kept telling him not to scream & calm down - at which point he made some comment about how he wasn’t (bull shit, everyone in the car park could hear him) so I kept telling him to stop screaming, over & over again & re-iterated the fact that she had a bigger car & needed the space, there were plenty more spaces available - apparently he has some sort of a love affair going with that specific car park. I was pretty sure at one stage he was going to punch me (he might have gotten a surprise if he did touch me), but perhaps my arm braces convinced him not too, I am not really sure. This went on for about 10 minutes & then he took off into the library.

The poor woman was very distressed - he had banged on her window & the side of her car - there were a couple of dents on the side. She took his license plate number & we exchanged numbers, as I was a witness & helped her out. Jerk off took photo’s with his phone camera of her car & us - which is funny as he is actually liable for hitting her car - she didn’t touch his.

Some people are jerks.

Then this afternoon, I arrived to an appointment & asked how many people would be involved in a meeting, so that I had an idea of how many I had to interpret for, I was told 10 & a guy who was a part of the meeting told me - Hang on, NO, you only interpret for 2, I don’t need an interpreter. My response, Ok, well, I am interpreting what is said by A & B from Auslan into English & I will also interpret to A & B what is being said by everyone in the room from English to Auslan, so I am the interpreter for everyone in essence. He was none to pleased with that & said Well, I won’t say anything & I said Ok, if you want to, makes it a bit easier for me with a nice smile on my face - at which point I was asked - “How are you paid, by the hour?” I just nodded & he said Well Shut Up.

Nice …. I know your job sucks, but a little bit of courteous behaviour goes a long way - Boy was I happy when he moved over to chat to some other women (part of the 10) to chat them up & even happier when the job was done - oh well, such is life eh?

Here are a few caption bloopers from the Mental Health Congress 28-30 Oct 2009. I started writing down a lot of them, then but then I realised that I could be writing all day, so gave up. I realise that it’s all typed phonetically& I certainly couldn’t do it myself, but it was kinda amusing. I noticed that they omitted a few things either because of chatting amongst themselves or they didn’t want to venture a guess about how to spell it - which was amusing when you consider the mistakes they made when they apparently heard it properly. So here goes it …

Caption : What it should have said

Bend it : Benefit
Cock Lee ar Implantees : Cochlear Implantee’s
Cochlear Important : Cochlear Implant
Efficocy : Efficacy
Impants : Implants
Surgeery : Surgery
Do main : Domain
Undersfanings 6 : Understandings
10 Pearls : 10 Parents
Famaeldz : Families
Rebe hab i will taiges : Rehabilitation
Implanlted : Implanted
Xhild : Child
This Motor : This Mother
F that : (not sure?)
Piss in pants : (not sure?)
Tony Blair : (not sure? - nothing even close was mentioned)

I went on the Deaf Australia River Boat Cruise on Wednesday, on the Kookaburra Queen, you may have heard about it actually. That was the night that the Kookaburra Queen crashed into the William Jolly Bridge.

The night was appalling - the Kookaburra Queen is supposed to be this icon that everyone goes on for a great time on the Brisbane River. WOW, Brisbane must be shittier than I thought - my trip on The Kookaburra Queen represents crappy food and service as well as an appalling level of incompetence. If you feel like blowing a wad of cash to have a shitty night, than a trip on The Kookaburra Queen is the one for you.

The whole night was a disaster. I booked my trip on The Kookaburra Queen a couple of months ago with instructions about my allergies, yet when I arrived the staff had no idea, despite receiving e-mail messages informing them about people with dietary restrictions. Luckily I had a wad of my allergy cards with me, so I gave them another one. I was originally told that I could have the meatballs & chicken skewers (without the sauté sauce), but after reviewing my allergy card, it came to light that the meatballs had flour in them & the chicken skewers actually had the sauté sauce on them & then I was told that they didn’t have any food at all for me on the boat. After that I discovered that there wasn’t any alcohol available either - all of the wine had trace amounts of Milk & Egg (& seafood – but I am not allergic to seafood – thank goodness) in them - so NO Food & NO Booze - wohoo & I paid $100 for that - I can’t even express the level of pissed off I felt. I left my car at Kim-Ann & Leesl’s so that I didn’t have to worry about drinking & driving & yet I could have driven after all & avoided all the extra fuss & expense to get there.

The safety briefing wasn’t even done by any of the staff, they just chucked a laminated card to someone on board (the guy from AMP (sorry forgot his name) who helped sponsor the night) & got him to read it out & the 2 interpreters then interpreted it. I remember thinking, why isn’t the captain reading it out or one of the staff? I thought that the captain HAD to read it, but then again, he did have a bit of a glazed over look to him when I said hello to him as we boarded & the staff hadn’t shown much promise either in any sort of professionalism. The card was fairly vague, I do remember the part about life jackets being thrown from above - the top deck where the Captains area was & thinking what the hell - oh well what are the chances?

After complaining nicely about the lack of food (inside I was SOOOOO PISSED) a several times, I managed to get some salad (wohoo, oh how lucky, I managed to get some salad) & 3 skewers of plain fried squid with some salt, but I was still hungry (what a surprise - NOT!!!!). I asked for more food & expressed my disappointment again, but nothing happened - more of the story… “we are on a boat & don’t carry a lot of food”, so that’s pretty much about all for me when it comes to food, but that they would take my details down & get someone to contact me - yeah right. It was about this time that all the toilets on the boat were broken - so you pretty much had to hold for the rest of the night.

Then came the crash, which just topped off the evening. I actually thought that we hit another boat for a second & then realised it was a bridge. I noticed that we were incredibly close & realised that we were going to hit & when we did - FUCK! It was a fairly violent hit - you heard the sound of timber breaking & the boat rocked violently - I must admit that I thought that we were going to sink - it was bad. The combination of senses, sight, sound and vibrations made it all the more scary. I think that it would have been better to have been deaf, if you only felt the vibrations & saw it (most didn’t see it though) – then perhaps it wouldn’t have been as bad. The sound was pretty terrifying.

The boat hit the bridge port side & the impact was very close to where I was (about 3 metres away). Fortunately I was inside, if I had been outside I think that it would have been worse. I grabbed onto Rachel Byrnes, who was next to me & held on.

What some people don’t know is that although I enjoy sea kayaking, I never go anywhere without my life jacket on, as I can’t swim. So, a fraction of a second before impact that fact came to mind & I started cursing my lax behaviour to the vague instructions read on the card about the location of the life jackets & not questioning it, like I had wanted to at the time & then thought better of it - how often do you have a boat crash on a big boat - guess that there are a few that happen, but still what are the odds eh?

I guess that it’s not a huge surprise that things didn’t improve afterwards. Despite them being so strict about counting everyone and all of our names being ticked off a list, after the accident there wasn’t any head count. The impact was big enough that someone could have been thrown from the boat (especially if you were a guy having a pee off the back of the boat) & yet there wasn’t any thought about that at all. In fact it appeared as if they were trying to cover it up. There were a few people that had some bumps and bruises from the collision. One woman hurt her knee’s & was simply chucked an ice pack, no first aid as such given, another bumped their head. Bernie found the Captain & told him to come down & tell everyone what had happened, he didn’t see any reason to do so, but she was persistent & about 20min after the accident, he finally came down to tell us what had happened. I was a little shocked to discover that the captain was the same one that I saw when I boarded, who seemed a little glazed over - I had actually hoped that it was the end of his shift, but it made sense that we crashed in a way. Apparently he misjudged the height of the bridge (not only did he hit the top, but he hit the side - so that was a bit of a lame story) & he didn’t know the tides either apparently & miscalculated the speed. All I thought was BULLSHIT - there weren’t any boats near us at the time & you have to know the tides to be on the water - incompetent comes to mind! We go sea Kayaking & you have to be aware of everything around you - honestly if he hadn’t had a few drinks then he had to be on something in my opinion.

The boat was able to carry on & when we docked a few people took off as quickly as possible (not that I doubt them) & some of us stayed to chat. I stayed to talk to the manager, that I had been told would be coming back onto the boat later on in the night & expressed my disappointment with the food at least (I figure that the disappointment about the crash goes without saying). He finally came up with the idea of cooking me up a steak with cauliflower, beans & potatoes - which I had to gobble up as quickly as possible & then depart, I got my steak at around 10.15 & we were all asked to get off at 10.45.

The whole night was a debacle - not enough food, for those that had a dessert (I couldn’t eat anything that resembled a dessert) they had it in between savoury items. The food was pretty average along with the service and the facilities. I think that this quote from their website deserves a mention “Our Promise: We will provide you with a higher standard of service, in comfortable surrounds, as you enjoy your cruise with us - come on and give us a try - you won’t be disappointed!” There isn’t a part of that statement that rang true for my experience.

My photo’s of the top of the boat, didn’t really turn out because it was a little dark & my flash didn’t carry, but one of the news articles featured a photo, so borrowed it - here it tis  (click on the image to go to the news article that it relates to).

Here are some other news articles:

Brisbane Times : Brisbane river boat in bridge collision

News.com.au : Paddlewheeler Kookaburra Queen hits William Jolly Bridge

Northside Chronicle : Kookaburra Queen & bridge come together