Can-Tiki

I know various foolish/insane attempts at crossing the Pacific by rafts inspired by the Kon-Tiki have been mentioned here before, but here's one from 1977 which caught my eye:

"BEER-CAN CRAFT REACHES SINGAPORE - September 17, 1977
The Can-TIKI has sailed from Darwin to Singapore. The boat constructed from 15,000 beer cans was made to promote trade and tourism."

Trader Woody

That's my kind of voyage. I wonder if it was the "King of Vessels" or the "Champagne of Rafts"? Any pictures?

Scotty

talk about having a CAN-DO spirit!

when i read this, one question immediately sprang to mind: were the folks who did this australian?

On 2003-12-11 06:26, Tiki Chris wrote:
were the folks who did this australian?

Ha ha - your time in London obviously gave you an insight into Australian drinking habits! (For those who don't know London that well, it's pubs are almost exclusively staffed by hard-drinking Aussies)

What makes is certain that Australians were behind it was that they thought that making a beer-can Kon-Tiki would somehow boost tourism & trade....

Trader Woody

[i]On 2003-12-11 07:15, Trader Woody wrote:

Ha ha - your time in London obviously gave you an insight into Australian drinking habits!

aussie drinking experiences:

backpacking thru southern africa (in the mid-nineties), there were a lot of uncertainties. but one thing was for sure, at the next hostel there would be at least a couple of aussies w/ ample booze & if you weren't up for the drinkin' they'd probably take it as an offensive. & if you were up for drinkin' you were probably in for one helluva night!

my neighbor in london was polish-australian & well, after the two of us finished the first bottle of grasovka one night, i was certain that he was indeed a true pole & a true aussie! & that i was truly drunk!

& then there were those not infrequent nights on a tube platform waiting (& waiting & waiting) for my train along w/ a large drunken group of large australian men that were singing as loudly as they were large! & wearing those brimmed hats w/ the funny tassles hanging down.

an english friend, who managed bars & restaurants for years simply referred to all the aussie staff as "JAFAs"

[ Edited by: Tiki Chris on 2003-12-11 09:03 ]

I've always had this suspicion that if you visit Australia, there is no one there between the ages of 20 and 35, because every cheap hostel and pension in the world is packed with them. I think it's Australia's version of conscription- when you turn 20, they throw you out and order you to drink your way around the world.

And I know exactly what you're talking about because I used to live in "Kangaroo Court". One of my best (fuzzy) memories is being on my back on the floor of a pub with the room spinning wildly around me and a mad aussie grabbing me by the lapel screaming, "Get up! It's your round!"

On 2003-12-11 18:00, martiki wrote:
I used to live in "Kangaroo Court".

that's not earls court, is it?

It is, as a matter of fact.

Wow, Martin, that was a really vivid image there.

What were you doing in Earl's Court? Not that I'm hijacking this thread or anything...

When my friend Doug and I made the circuit of the youth hostels of England, Scotland and Wales in '88, we lived in fear of the Aussies. Without fail, they would crash into the dorm rooms at 2 AM, turn on all the lights, and throw up on someone.

Earls Court is getting too expensive these days for the Australian hordes to live, even with their practice of 'hot bedding'. (That's where one person gets out of bed, and goes off to work, then another gets into bed having just finished work, saving lots of money on rent).

'Kangaroo Court' still is the spiritual home of Aussies though. It's filled with Australian pubs and bars. During the recent rugby world cup, they descended on Earls Court en masse to watch their beloved Wallabies lose the final to the mighty England team!

Trader Woody

On 2003-12-11 23:28, martiki wrote:
It is, as a matter of fact.

i lived between gloucester road tube (guess you could call that 'septic court') & earls court.

On 2003-12-12 02:27, tikivixen wrote:
Wow, Martin, that was a really vivid image there.

What were you doing in Earl's Court? Not that I'm hijacking this thread or anything...

When my friend Doug and I made the circuit of the youth hostels of England, Scotland and Wales in '88, we lived in fear of the Aussies. Without fail, they would crash into the dorm rooms at 2 AM, turn on all the lights, and throw up on someone.

Hey! I think I'm secretly Australian!

We were living in a dive hotel in Earl's Court while we were waiting for a semi-permanent room in a flat to open. There was literally a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Yeah, Woody, I figured it was too expensive now for the aussies- we were there back in 95.

Then we really moved up in the world: we moved to Stockwell! woohoo! And lived in council housing! Just top notch. Even that's probably too expensive now as well. I used to wonder why Stockwell was so ugly until I went to the Imperial War Museum and saw the number of V1 and V2s that hit Stockwell dead on. oops.

This thread has been derailed more times than, well, British Rail as of late.

G'day Tiki Centralites!,
Back to the start of this thread - Darwin, capital city of the Northern Territory, is famous for it's 'Beer Can Regatta'. It's a kind of Territorian version of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race( which is held every Boxing Day -December 26) but without the maxi yachts! Darwin, being a Tropical city on roughly the same latitude as Samoa, consumes a lot of Beer - & most residents carry around with them their personalised 'coldy-holders' because beer must be icy cold! Aussie Aussie Aussie!

I'll bet that raft wasn't constructed of Fosters, whenever I'm in Australia people are always drinking Swan Gold or Emu draft, Fosters is the Schlitz beer of Australia, but thanx to a spoofy Croc. Dundee marketing spree in the 90's they've got the Yanks fooled that it's the national beer of down under, too funny!!

Same goes for Castlemaine XXXX. Most Australians have never heard of it, despite it being described in British ads thus: "Australians wouldn't give a XXXX for anything else".

Tastes like XXXX, by the way

Trader Woody