Yoni's travels

Snow

2009-02-07T12:58:00.000-08:00

Well! Snow! I haven't written in a while, even this post comes late. Last Monday (nearly a week ago) London had a lot of snow. I managed to get to work, but most people from the office didn't. After making a snow-man at work with the few who made it in, I returned home before lunch. Transport on Tuesday was problematic, so I worked from home. Here are some pictures of the snow:

London under snow

My walk to work

Our terrace at work

A snow man

My walk home

Autumn (rains a lot)

2008-11-10T14:30:00.000-08:00

It's nearly mid-November and London is now towards the end of Autumn. I like Autumn. Not only are the colours pretty, it rains a lot here in London. I've been conscious of the fact that I enjoy rain since I was about 10. It's rained every day for the past week. It's great. At work I have a view of London's main business district - the City. Distant buildings look soft and grey through the rain. I'm not sure why, but I like that. So when I'm at work and I look out the window, I enjoy noticing the patter of the rain on the puddles that form on our terrace. Occasionally the drizzle becomes a minor deluge, but it's always raining. Great.

When I was a kid I used to enjoy being indoors, sitting by the window watching the rain. Maybe I was drawing, playing lego, playing with transformers, or watching cartoons. But I was always happy that it was raining. Sometimes the rain would stop and I'd notice patches of blue sky appearing between the clouds. That would always disappoint me, because I wanted it to drizzle forever.

Several years ago I flew to London via Korea, because it was the cheapest flight available. It was my first time to the country, and all I got was one night in a guesthouse near the airport. I went to sleep very happy that night because lying in bed I could hear the rain outside. Despite waking in the night to close my window to stop rain and wind getting into my room, I felt I slept very soundly because of the rain, and in the morning woke up totally energised and in good spirits. Later the same day on the plane I was chatting with Korean business man. He told me that the rain last night was in fact part of a medium level typhoon.

Anyway, this post is just meant to be a place for me to post of photos of Autumn in London. Rain photos may follow. Enjoy. =)

View from my flat

In Hyde Park

A squirrel

Bollywood

2008-11-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

I'm still in Bangkok, it's now my last night. I've had a very nice stay. Apart from enjoying eating Thai food, meeting old friends, idly roaming Bangkok's streets and not working, I've been on a bit of a Bolly Binge.

The friends that I'm staying with in Bangkok (not Indians) have been taken away on a storm of a Bollywood, and since arriving in their house I've been swept me along with them. I've been here a handful of nights and I've already seen 4 Bollywood films - quite an achievement as each film is roughly 3 hours long.

Aaye Din Bahar Ke (1966)

Probably my favourite film so far. Set in the beautiful hills of Darjeeling, tells the story of two couples from two generations, dealing with the issue of relationships crossing social classes. Powerful story with great music and dancing!

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)

A particularly high grossing film in India featuring the (apparently) famous Shahrukh Khan. This film deals with the issue of love versus arranged marriages in India. Nice European scenery and again, powerful story. I think Shahrukh Khan plays a right twit, but overall quite pleased with the ending. Good soundtrack too!

Kismat Konnection (2008)

This modern film was much weaker than the older films above. Set in Toronto Canada, I wasn't aware that most people in Canada speak Hindi. This film doesn't explore any real social issues - and the plot resolves itself a little too easily. Some amiable characters, but content is just a hollow shell of eye candy. Not bad songs.

Golmaal Returns (2008)

I just came from a special screening of this Bollywood film in a cinema packed with Indians - myself and my friends were the only non-Indians. Quite simply this movie was dreadful. It was pure slapstick, silly sound effects, and no substance. After the above I've come to expect high standards from Bollywood and this let me down. The two songs in it were catchy, but not relevant to the plot and there were only two of them! Hope to find better than this.

Summary

Bollywood is great. From these few films that I've seen, the plot is pretty much always about an annoying guy meeting a girl on very bad terms and they end up marrying each other at the end. On the way from the predictable beginning to the predictable ending, these films have the potential to touch on some very key social issues in India, and I'm all for that. Have enjoyed what I've seen and am looking forward to more!

Bangkok

2008-10-28T03:56:00.000-07:00

Hello. Well, *finally* I have reason and motivation to write in my blog. I've been spending some nice days with my girlfriend in London, taking pictures of the Autumn leaves in various London parks, but am yet to post those here.

Right now though, I'm on the road again. I'm not in the office today, nor will I be for the entire week. I am in Thailand, and being here feels like an echo of last year - when I had the whole year off for care-free travels. I don't have quite as much time this trip, but it's pleasant not to have to think of work. I'm come here for a friend's wedding.

For those of you who don't know, I used to live in Bangkok, and I've been back as frequently as I've been able. I know the place well, it's really like another home for me. I am of course farang (the Thai word for foreigner), so there's plenty I don't know about the place or haven't discovered, and each time I come back there's lots for me to learn and lots of new food to try.

People have very different views on Bangkok - some love it, some hate it. I can sympathise with both views. Everyone, I'm sure, will agree that Bangkok is a sensory overload. Bangkok attacks you through every sensory channel - strong smells, either putrid or divine, force themselves in your face; loud sounds, pretty or coarse, are always at your ears; the tropical heat penetrates you from every direction, leaving you sweating much like the steam in your bathroom after you've had a very long, hot shower and your ventilation isn't working; the food, famously, is divine; visually, you will never be bored - there are endless arrays of street food vendors, sickly dogs, flower-stalls, khlongs (which are canals but also open sewers), everyday I walk past a chap doing welding work without gloves or glasses of any kind... etc.

Well, that's all I've got to say for now. Am attaching some photos. Bangkok: the place and it's food. ;p

A typical Bangkok lane

A hot, wet, sweaty day in Bangkok

Thais wearing the King's colour yellow on the King's day (Monday), as is their habit over recent years, to show solidarity & support for the King.

Lunch - Pad Thai noodles with prawns (& a section of a banana flower)

Lunch - the Thai take on a Chinese pork dish

Life

2008-07-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

I'm at home now, it's late on a Sunday evening, and I'll be going to work in the morning. It's dark but warm out, today was an unusually warm day. I have a lamp on and I just listen to some soft music as I get ready for bed.

I'm very busy these days. I seldom get a chance to write my blog, as any readers of this blog should know by now. I take pictures from time to time, snapshots of my life in London. I'll share a handful here.

Work
I work just east of the City of London. I get out at Liverpool Street Station every morning, as do thousands of other city workers. Together, as a great mass of bodies, we heave out of the station to go to work, day in day out.

London
There's lots to do and see in London, I stroll around a lot. There're nice parks and architecture, there're classical concerts and plays, art exhibitions, and all sorts of other things to occupy one's self with. Outside work, being involed in London takes up a lot of time. As nice as London can be, I find I haven't much time to myself. I also get the feeling, increasingly, of being too couped up in London, I sort of yearn to get out into nature a bit. I spent most of my time in buildings.

Home
I have a nice room to myself, not far from Hyde Park. Occasionally I get the chance to roam in the park after work. Usually the only time I spend at home is in the evening. I have a view of the next building's fire exit. I can hear pigeons in the cavity between. I'm happy enough here.

My new PC

2008-07-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

Well I've now got my own PC. I wish I didn't have one, because having one disrupts my otherwise calm life-style. It's 2am now and if I didn't have a computer I would have read and gone to sleep by midnight. I've had the laptop 3 days and already the Windows Vista Anti-Virus tool has told me that I have 452 viruses on my computer and prompts me to pay £50 to buy a licence to be able to remove them.

On running my computer for the first time, my machine had to go through a series of updates which took about 2 hours. Not very pleased with welcome I've had to Windows. I'm thinking about why I didn't get a mac or why I shouldn't soon move to Linux instead.

Frustrated.

Routine

2008-07-09T14:48:00.000-07:00

After *a very long time*, my life has fallen back into routine. Work on the weekdays, relax on the weekends. My current lifestyle doesn't allow for much blogging. Work is busy and outside work, well, I seldom have access to a computer. I quite enjoy not having a computer at home. But there's pressure on me from various sources to buy a computer. So I might have one soon. If I do get one, I expect it will mean more regular blog entries from me. I've been taking all sorts of photos as well, so it might mean I actually get to put them on here. Maybe even back on my Flickr! ^^

Today rained all day. It didn't affect me so much as I was stuck in the office. But now, in the evening, it's pleasant being indoors while it rains outside. I listen to soft songs by a genius of a musician called Jo Yun-Sook but who goes by the title of 'Lucid Fall'. Some songs are here. They're all nice, but try 'Why do I need feet when I have...'

While I enjoy not having a computer, I do miss being in contact with people. It's hard to squeeze in all my communications at work, having a computer at home would let me do that! Oh well, this is all I have to write right now. Wishing you all the best. Yoni

Enjoying the English 'Summer'

2008-06-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

As an Australian it's my duty in part to complain about the English weather. It's 'Summer' already, and I spend my days in the office wearing a jumper (but then we have particularly cold air-conditioning). In the few minutes I have to check my personal email at work I also check the BBC website to find the London forecast for the weekend. Sometimes I check the forecast for other world cities too, to see what I'm missing out on. Bangkok: 34C light showers, Barcelona: 36C sunny, Beijing: 28C sunny. Yet despite being close to mid-Summer, London only ever seems to be cloudy with light showers.

So there's plenty of gloom about the English Summer - it's always hotter and drier elsewhere. But it's not all bad news. What the weather lacks in ferocity and consistency is made up for in wonderful, if very occasional, temperate pleasantness. Over Summer, the days get longer and longer until the dusk nearly meets dawn, and the country erupts with green. Although it's cold, wet and windy most of the time, on a nice day, rare as they are, life is so pleasant and the world feels happy to exist.

Last weekend the forecast was for rain, but 'sunny intervals' prevailed, so I made the most by taking a certain someone to visit a country park near my old house. We sat under an oak tree, had a picnic lunch, lay on the grass, strolled through the meadows and finished off the the afternoon with tea and scones. Such days, although few and far between, are about as pleasant as can be, and are certainly worth waiting the rest of the week under an umbrella for.

I'm not dead

2008-06-23T01:59:00.000-07:00

Just to let you all know, I'm not dead. I'm just very very busy and I don't have a computer at home. Hope to fix that and return to writing regular posts soon.

Long weekend

2008-05-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

Long weekends are great, there should be more of them. Sri Lankans get a whopping 25 public holidays this year (compared to UK 8) - including one each month for the day of the full moon.

Saturday
Anyway, my long weekend was fine. On Saturday I made it to pretty Oxford for an old highschool friend's wedding. Nice day, happy to see him married. Went for a stroll in a country park, and the town.

Sunday
Met some Irish friends for lunch. Then returned home and played lots of Mario Kart Wii.

Monday
Today was a typical English Spring day. Cold, wet and windy. Got to Chinatown for lunch, got drenched, returned home to cook some Thai food with my friends, then played lots of Mario Kart Wii. I didn't take any pictures of the rain.

P.S. Sorry none of these pictures are getting onto my Flickr account. I've been quite lazy, and since my camera broke last year, I got out of the habit of uploading. Will start again soon, I hope.

On the pleasures of music

2008-05-20T16:29:00.000-07:00

Today I got quite a bit of pleasure from listening to music - from both the softer and harder ends of the musical spectrum. I find music has the ability to give at times a very special, almost euphoric kind of pleasure. And it's ability to do so completely perplexes me. I'd like to know why music is so imporant to us and can evoke emotion in all of us, and how it came to be so.

I guess you could call me an evolutionist, I believe that which ever traits we have, we have them because of natural selection from evolutionary pressures on our ancestors. We fear, for instance, because those who didn't posses such a thing as fear didn't last long enough to leave children. We enjoy certain foods because of some personal pyschology perhaps, but more broadly I believe it's because of natural selection - and while I might not know the exact mechanism, it's probably the case that if we tend to die young if we don't get nutrient A, then those people who tended to like, and thus seek out essential nutrient A, tended not to die before they left children.

Any aspect of ourselves should have a reason for being so. The pleasures of music seem to be common to us all. But why? I don't get it. What advantage did early humans have in an ability to find pleasure out of very particular sounds. There could be social reasons, but as far as I'm concerned, I've not yet heard a convincing explanation as to why we find pleasure in music. I once read a theory to do with the fact that we inherited an inclination to be sensitive to rhythm from fish, but I wasn't entirely convinced.

Hard Music
Hyperviolet - by Pig Destroyer
Accessible Losses - by Darkest Hour
As the earth spins round - by Sikth, but sample misses the best bits :(

Today I roamed the streets a little melancholy - with a certain someone in mind. To lighten my mood I decided to play a little Pig Destroyer, on a metal mix that my friend Mr Michael Rayner recently compiled for me. This, along with some other tracks, somehow focused my mind, and made the task of walking down the street that much more pleasurable.

I'm new to 'metal'. I used to enjoy some songs bordering metal, but I never quite crossed the death growl threshold. My friend is an avid metal fan, so I asked him to compile a sampling of metal music to help me see why metal is so great. Indeed, its combination of death growls (which become rather quaint, I think), virtuosic guitar and drums, grunging assonance and leading, blasting rhythm is quite hyptnotic. 'As the earth goes round' has a particularly beautiful ending, lulling you away to a contemplative state, underscored by a tyranny of bass beats.

I just have to be careful not to put the volume too loud on my iPod because I came home tonight with a ring in my ear, similar to when you come home from a club. It lasted about an hour.

Soft Music
An die musik (an Ode to Music) - by Franz Schubert
Clarinet Quintet in A, K581, Larghetto - by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Prelude No.4 Opus 28 - by Frédéric Chopin

Softer music also gives me great pleasure. I'm not the best piano player in the world, but when I got home tonight I completely unwound myself by playing some tunes on the piano - Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert - some of my favourite composers. I'm sure plenty of people have written on the pleasures of Mozart, and have attempted to explain its origins in pyschology or perhaps mathematics or both. I don't know why it gives pleasure, just that it does. It can take me away to a beautiful, melancholy place, it can bring elation, and such joy and sadness. The two sometimes get confused.

Garfield minus Garfield

2008-05-12T16:25:00.000-07:00

When you take Garfield out of Garfield, you get a tragicomic tale of a very lonely man...

Refamiliarising myself with London

2008-05-12T15:57:00.000-07:00

Friends
Went over the weekend to drinks & dinner with some university friends plus many others. We fit 30 people (not all present in photo) into the smallest apartment I've ever seen at 10 square metres. It was hot, loud and sweaty, but kind of fun.

Work
Today was my first day back at work. It wasn't so bad. The weather is nothing short of perfect - warm blue-sky days. I wasn't expected at the office until 9:30 so I took a leisurely stroll to the office, through leafy streets and several churchyards, remembering how pretty parts of London are.

Thoughts
Still plenty on my mind. Took a seat this evening by the Thames, near my friend's house. Sat for a while. Read and watched the people going by. Occasionally I'd glance up, nice view...

London

2008-05-11T15:34:00.000-07:00

Summer has certainly arrived in London. Today was a beautiful day at 27C. Met a friend for ice-cream, then joined some other friends and sat in the park...

Tomorrow is my first day back at work...

Leaving Canada, Arriving in London

2008-05-09T17:38:00.000-07:00

Leaving Canada
Pleasant few days in Vancouver after my short stay in Whistler. I basically spent the whole time with friends, cooking, visiting nude beaches, riding bicycles, eating lots. For some reason my appetite has been HUGE recently. I don't know why.

Arriving in London
Minutes into arriving in London I realised how much better Vancouver is than London. I missed the clean crisp Vancouver air, its spacious streets, ample trees, endless water and towering mountains. What a special place. London's rather squalid, flat, urban, it's too big and too busy. It's bedlam. At least, those were my first thoughts this morning.

After a nap, I had a bit of a change of heart. My friend got home so we headed to central London - Charing Cross, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden. I know London very well, returning feels like coming home. And Summer nights are rather special in London, as was today's. There's such a festive atmosphere in town, all the pubs overflow with drinkers onto cobble streets, all chatting away in the balmy evening air. We had dinner, then went for a drink. I guess being back is not so bad after all... It's just very familiar.

Whistler

2008-05-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

My time in Whistler is nearly up. Yesterday proved to be a good day. Started with a huge breakfast, then left to myself. Went for a stroll through Whistler village. Made it to some golf course. Saw two bears. It's a strange thing, to see a bear. I found myself thinking: if the bear starts running, which direction will I run? It did start to run, but not in my direction, so it was all fine.

After my encounter with the bears, I met Mike to do a small hike. According to Mike's calculations there should have been no snow left in the forest, but in fact we did the entire hike over 1-4 ft of snow. Which wasn't entirely unpleasant, in fact it was quite fun.

What a beautiful part of the world.

Shredding the Gnar Gnar

2008-05-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I decided to pass through Canada on my way to the UK was because two of my friends live and work in Whistler - a premier ski-resort a about an hour and half away from Vancouver. Yesterday morning we made the drive up to Whistler, past exceptional scenery - mountains rising from the sea.

It's Spring now, and by a lucky fluke there's enough snow left on the mountains to ski or snowboard on.

This was my first morning in Whistler, and along with my two friends Mike and Tina, we were ready to shred the gnar gnar. This is snowboarding lingo for riding fresh snow. I have never snowboarded before, and it showed. I didn't so much shred the gnar gnar as slide down it on my backside. That was for the first hour anyway. I sort of got the hang of it after that. It was nice up the mountain. It snowed. Snowboarding was very fun, but very tiring. And by the time I got back down to the village my appetite was huge. A fun day.

Vancouver

2008-05-02T23:15:00.000-07:00

Although I'm not currently in Vancouver, I feel out of a sense of thoroughness that I ought to document my time there.

Once you know one international student, you know a dozen. I happened to know two in Vancouver, from my trip in Korea. I met many of their friends, but on one day we made a small group of 5 to go explore the outskirts of Vancouver, which are exceptional, in this instance taking a bus and 'sea-bus' to a place called 'Lynn Canyon'. Crossed a bridge, walked through some pine forest, saw a river, pleasant.

Dinner, on my insistence was 'sam gyeob sal' - a Korean dish made from Bacon which I've already mentioned in this blog twice. Later went for beeer.

Vancouver reminds me in a small way of Brisbane. It's a medium-sized city and it's full of Asians. The city-centre is a little rougher, but the outskirts are incredibly beautiful - the ocean and tall green mountains covered in snow. It's pretty in Spring too, lots of trees in blossom.

Canadia

2008-04-29T18:48:00.000-07:00

Well I'm now in Canada. I had one of the longest days of my life yesterday, when I left Australia at 10am on the morning of the 28th, somehow flew back in time, and arrived in Vancouver 3 hours before I left at 7am. My day was quite full, I got to my friend's parent's place, got back 'downtown' to meet a friend for lunch, then went home, ate dinner, fell asleep in front of the TV by 11pm. Eventually got to bed. Slept 12 hours.

Jet lag wasn't such a problem today, checked out Vancouver itself. My friend Mike took me in the car up the hills behind his place in West & North Vancouver. Pretty views of Vancouver and the mountains behind. I seem to have arrived right as the various blooming trees are in bloom. Picture attached of what I think are Japanese cherry blossums (sakura), but someone correct me if I'm wrong. Very pretty anyway.

Then ventured 'downtown', walked around. Saw stuff. Vancouver city itself is more urban and generic looking than I'd imagined - but then most new places impress me in the same way. There are lots of Asians here. There are also lots of homeless people and people offering to sell 'the good stuff', is what one person called it. Oh well, perhaps I don't notice the seedier sides of Sydney when I'm there. The surrounds however are quite exceptional. Tall mountains, green with pine and dusted with snow at the peaks. Pine trees are everywhere and make for a pleasant change of scenery from Australia. The weather is fresh, it's cool but warm enough to go out in a jumper. Yesterday rained lots.

Well, that's all from me for now. More soon.

Last day in Australia...

2008-04-27T06:53:00.000-07:00

Packed itinerary this weekend, came down to Sydney from Gold Coast, saw close friends, and now I'm ready to fly to the UK (via Canada).

Last night had me attempting to cook Thai food with a friend, followed this morning with a contemplative stroll in magnificent weather through the leafy suburb Chatswood West, in Sydney's North. It's Autumn now, and Sydney's European trees have turned colour, they're very pretty. I'll be leaving Autumn for Spring tomorrow, which seems a bit unfair. I seem to keep skipping Winter, I want to experience it again.

After my stroll I met friends for 'Yum Cha' - which is a Cantonese style banquet of little dishes, called 'Dim Sum', taken with tea. An obligatory dish is also chicken feet. Photo attached for the non-believers. Most of my readers are probably of Chinese origin, so this photo probably isn't much but wasted space.

What better way to follow lunch than with ice-cream... A sweet farewell. So long, Australia~

. . .

2008-04-24T06:29:00.000-07:00

Not packing

2008-04-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

I learned early in university that a *necessary* and *inevitable* first step for any given task is that of procrastination. And for any potential employers potentially reading my blog, the exception is of course in the office, in which case I always do an exceptional and efficient job.

Today was supposed to be my first day of packing. Instead I had the whole lot more agreeable option of playing host yet again, with a recent friend from Brisbane. Visiting the beach is a lot more pleasant than packing a suitcase...

Packing starts tomorrow.

Saying goodbye...

2008-04-21T03:46:00.000-07:00

...to people
Apologies if this blog has gotten monotonous or stuck in a loop - with me going back and forth to Brisbane. Well! The end is in sight. I've made my last visit to Brisbane before my trip over to London. Had a similar time to previous visits: meeting various friends, eating various things. I also had coffee (by the sea!), saw a kind of a play, used internet in the library again, had a BBQ, was dragged along to karaoke, and spent time with lots of lovely ladies ;p Ah, I've made good friends here in Brisbane. I'm going to miss them very much when I'm over in London...

...to places
If anyone knows me well they know I love to walk. I think I started because I didn't have anything better to do. That's still pretty much the case, and I enjoy using walking time to process whatever is going through my mind. I also enjoy scenery - whether it's natural or urban. Recent walks have had me catching glimpses of things like buildings, trees, cows, the beach. One part of the scenery that seems to follow me everywhere I go is the moon. Tonight there was a full moon. I gazed at it for ages this evening, as I went to the beach for dinner. The world was black but for the moon and its reflection on the sea. There were huge waves crashing against the rocks, and a cool gust coming off the sea - it is getting cold now, at this time of the year. It's beautiful, the moon, but then I'm hardly the first to notice that. Does it evoke a kind of serene melancholy in everyone? Or is it just in those who miss someone...

Final outings

2008-04-17T05:42:00.000-07:00

Well, my flights are now booked, I'll be going to London very soon. Just enjoying my last few days in Australia...

I went up to Brisbane on Tuesday with my parents. Met a friend for lunch, visited a French patisserie, bought some books, used the internet at the library, listened to my ipod, met friends for a birthday party, stayed the night with six lovely girls (I slept alone on the floor between the sofa and the coffee table), it was a fun day.

Today went with parents and the neighbours to a 'genuine English pub' that some guy built up on Mount Tamborine, which is the name given to some of the mountains just behind the Gold Coast. Decent pub, food was average. Some nice views from the top of the hills up there.

I've seen plenty in the past weeks here in Australia, and made so many nice friends to give me lots to feel nostalgic and homesick about once I get to England. This place is *beautiful*.

The end of the chapter

2008-04-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I received my visa for the UK, I'll be off on my way soon. So it's a matter now of doing a little preparation for my trip, and just enjoying what time I have left here on the Gold Coast until I start my new life in London.

The Gold Coast has a bit of a bad reputation. The main part where the tourists go is called Surfer's Paradise. It might not be Tahiti, but it is a very nice stretch of beach. The only trouble is, it's swamped with tourists and tourist shops. There are a lot of people chasing the dream of paradise up here, where it might not exist. 'Plasticy' is a word that gets used lots, for the kind of society that has developed here. Having said all of that however, if you do get away from Surfers (as its known), the rest of the Coast is very nice after all. In fact, it's very beautiful.

Not much has changed since my last post. I try to get to the beach everyday. Sometimes I climb the rocks for fun. I sit and enjoy the view, reflect on things, read sometimes.

Today I didn't get down to the beach because I was reading a book at home, and as I looked up for a moment I realised a huge storm was on its way. I watched the storm, for a while, it was very beautiful from a distance.

Weekdays

2008-04-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

I was away in Brisbane for a while. There hasn't been much to report. Generally my weekends are spent in Brisbane, my weekdays are spent on the Gold Coast. On any given weekday I usually encounter the following: a) a visit to the beach, b) a clamber up the rocks, c) sunflower seeds.

Reflections

2008-03-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

Perhaps I reflect too much.

...on the beach.

...on the rocks.

Easter weekend

2008-03-23T07:13:00.000-07:00

Visitors from Brisbane
I sit with a cup of Earl Grey tea, I've just had a shower, it's late, I have a lamp on, and it's raining a little outside. I'm feeling quite relaxed after a relaxing Easter weekend. My only Easter plans had been to eat hot-cross buns and do a lot of lazing. As it turned out, I forgot about an invitation that I made to my random international-student friends to come join me in the Gold Coast over the weekend. Fortunately they reminded me as they took the train early on Saturday morning. On arrival they subsequently convinced a further two friends to join us, so there were 5 of us by the evening.

Weekend activities
For the most part, we didn't overly exert ourselves this weekend. The only exception was when my parents assigned us the task of scrubbing clean various bits of old Arabian brass-ware. But despite the grueling elbow work and noxious fumes, this was a kind of fun. Over the weekend we also visited the beach twice, made a trip to nearby bushland to visit a tea house to enjoy tea with scones (known as Devonshire Tea or Cream Tea). We watched some DVDs, cooked, chat, played the piano. Over breakfast I was lucky enough to spot a koala from my backyard, through a pair of binoculars. We also ate a chocolate bunny.

Bacon, Beach, Beams

2008-03-19T03:57:00.000-07:00

Bacon
I fell in love several times in Korea, one such time was with a bacon dish called 'Sam Gyeob Sal' (삼겹살 in Korean). Don't tell the rabbi, but I think it's one of the best dishes ever, and this isn't the first post I've mentioned it in before*. I went to Brisbane over the weekend to see friends. We had a farewell dinner for a good friend, and on my insistence, we went to eat this dish. Lucky me. I rule. And so does Sam Gyeob Sal. =)

Beach
Joined another friend down from Brisbane to meet her friend who volunteers as a surf lifesaver. Australian beaches are patrolled in the summer months by volunteers who wear yellow and red, they'll risk their lives to save you if you happen to be drowning, which is awfully nice of them. Anyway, it was raining, but we were fortunate enough to be invited to shelter in the lifesaver lookout tower, which was also very nice of them. ^^

Beams
We had an electrician in the house today, to help install new lights. He encountered a problem in that in the roof above my parent's bedroom there is very little space and many beams making it impossible for him to access the ceiling. So, being young, able and skinny, I was requested wriggle and writhe through the roof beams to drill holes and feed wires from place to place. It was hard work and there were spiders about. ;p

Melbourne

2008-03-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

I just arrived back to the Gold Coast this evening, to my parent's place. The past few days I spent in and around Melbourne - Australia's second largest city. I'd never been to Melbourne before, news of which usually causes non-Australians to laugh at the fact that I'm Australian but have never been to Melbourne. Well, now I have.

And my verdict is: it's most pleasant! I stayed with a friend, who happened to be hosting 4 other friends over the same weekend. Somehow this worked well, most of my time was spent eating, the rest of my time was spent in transit between eating venues. Melbourne is well reputed for its cafe culture, and it didn't disappoint. Coffee was Italian and excellent, everywhere. Food was fancy, cafes were plenty and chic.

While in Melbourne I also made a trip to inspect the lonely little beach at St Kilda. I strolled the city at night. I also strolled through delightful back-streets in South Yarra, near my friend's place. My night hours, once dinner with friends was finished, were spent at home on the computer watching episode after episode of Heroes.

It's nice, being on holiday, in some new place, alone, at liberty to roam the streets, following any direction on a whim. Finding random things, lost in thought. I lose myself in thought too much these days.

Cootamundra

2008-03-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I arrived in Melbourne, my first time here, after several days spent with my grandmother in the country town of Cootamundra. Cootamundra is where my dad was born and raised, and I know it well, having spent most of my childhood holidays there. It's a sleepy town of about 5,000+ residents, located in a region of New South Wales known as the 'South West Slopes' and is located roughly halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, several hours inland. It lies on the train line connecting Sydney and Melbourne, and this is how I got there, enjoying a traditional 'Devonshire Tea' onboard - this is called 'cream tea' in the UK and consists of Tea served with Scones topped with clotted cream and jam.

Most of my time in 'Coota' was spent with my grandmother, 88 - reheating meals and discussing religion and politics. I also had some time to myself, with which I explored the town. I took a stroll in the late afternoon around places I knew as a kid. On another day I took a drive around the surrounding countryside.

The land around Cootamundra is often quite dry and consists of gentle rolling hills, golden grass and a scattering of dry eucalyptus trees. This is very typical, and beautiful, Australian countryside. I grew up taking this landscape for granted, and is what I always understood to mean 'countryside' - a place hundreds of kilometres from any city. It is only since I have started to visit other countries that I realise how unique places like these are in the world - in terms of landscape and culture.

Cootamundra is home to the 'Cootamundra Wattle' (Acacia), a species of wattle - which is Australia's national flower. I'm not sure why the Cootamundra variety is particularly famous in Australia, perhaps because it was immortalised in a song by the Australian country singer John Williamson.

The town features some pleasant architecture, though I wouldn't know which style to categorise it in. Much of it was built in the late 1800's to early 1900's. This includes public buildings along the main street - the post office, several banks, some shop-houses, and also private homes along Cootamundra's unusually wide roads.

It's possible in the big cities to forget that the modern pace of life is not natural. Perhaps I'm just stating the obvious. Anyway, it makes for a pleasant change to be afforded several days rest in somewhere disconnected from the pace of urban life, where there isn't much else to do but escape the heat of the midday sun, have a nice meal, read a bit, put one's feet up & chat with Nan. ;p

Yoni's Culinary Adventures

2008-02-25T19:28:00.000-08:00

In a recent post I reflected on the inappropriateness of this blog's title 'Yoni's Travels' due to the fact that I'm no longer travelling. Today I thought a more appropriate title might be 'Yoni's Culinary Adventures' because, sadly perhaps, second to meeting old friends, food seems to be the most interesting thing going on in my life right now. I am, however, going back to England soon, where the culinary adventures will surely end, so perhaps its better I just dedicate individual posts to food instead.

Central Asian Cuisine: Laghman
During my time in Central Asia one of the most common dishes I encountered was handmade noodles. In Chinese 'pull noodles' are called lamian. In the Turkic languages of Central Asia this has been corrupted to laghman. The dish originates from China, but can be found in all the 'stan' countries along the ancient Silk Road trade route. It normally takes the form of white flour noodles topped with grilled lamb and green & red peppers. It's delicious. But day after day for weeks, well, it becomes a chore to eat. But, it's been ages since I ate it, so today I followed my cravings by getting a serving at a specialist Chinese-Muslim restaurant in Sydney.

The noodles I found in Sydney were remarkably similar to those I ate in Western China , even if the atmosphere wasn't. I attach a photo of noodles I ate in the desert oasis town of Turpan in Western China. Turpan is populated by ethnic Uighurs, descendants of Turkic tribesmen. They don't look Chinese. I ate these noodles in a small restaurant in the local market, where I sat with my friend Rayner alongside fierce looking Turkish men wearing robes and turbans, and attractive ladies in conservative dress and sporting fashionable monobrows. The town itself is famed for its grapes, of which I attach a photo. By contrast, in Sydney I ate the noodles under plastic grapes in a small restaurant directly adjacent to my university's library in urbanised Chinatown.

Laghman in Turpan, Western China

Laghman in Sydney

Middle Eastern Cuisine: Falafel
The Muslims certainly know what they're doing with food. Israeli cuisine piggy-backs on the culinary traditions of its Arab population, who are responsible for the country's 'national dish', falafel. Falafel are small balls, a deep-fried paste made from chick-peas, garlic, cumin, and parsley. They can be found in many Middle Eastern countries, but some of the best are to found in Israel where the falafel balls are smaller, and served in a fluffly pocket of pita bread with various salads and sauces.

I decided on the weekend to go eat some, along with a uni friend, his girlfriend, and another friend who I met on a train in China. We went on a fine Summer's day to a favourite Israeli falafel cafe near the world-famous Bondi beach. The falafel was divine, served with fresh lemonade flavoured with rose-water. Lunch was followed by another divine Arabic treat, baklava - a dessert made with pastry, honey, nuts and rose-water. We also did some sight-seeing along Sydney's attractive coastline near Watson's Bay.

Falafel and baklava for lunch in Sydney

In Sydney's East

Strolling around Sydney

2008-02-19T15:29:00.000-08:00

The days pass, I meet another friend, revisit old haunts, take some pictures...

Go to a festival...

Visit the shops...

Think about things...

A wedding

2008-02-16T18:04:00.000-08:00

I went this weekend to the Blue Mountains to attend the wedding of two very dear friends of mine. All went to plan, ie. they got married. The day was, as one would hope, a most jovial affair. The setting was pretty, on a quiet hillside, surrounded by nothing much more than trees. The ceremony was held in a tiny chapel. The bride and groom entered to the traditional bridal march, and after various words, facial expressions & kisses later, they exited to the bridal march theme from Star Wars as we all blew bubbles from a little contraption we were each presented with. It was most excellent. I stayed the night in a cottage nearby, along with a hoard of Irish people, who had come down especially for the wedding (the groom is Irish). It was cold.

At dinner I was even asked to say a few words into the microphone for the newlyweds, for which I was rewarded with some chocolates. I sat at a table with friends and was merry on food, drink and good company. When some had dithered off to the dance-floor, and when not engaged in conversation, my thoughts drifted to other things. I contented myself by blowing bubbles, watching them fly about in their funny way, and thinking about a girl I know.

I spent the previous evening alone at the Royal Botanical Gardens, where someone had erected a cinema screen on the water for 'moonlight cinema'. This was pleasant, I saw the film 'the Darjeeling Limited' which was ok enough. It's a romantic place there, over looking the town and sea by night. Oh well. Good things come to those who wait, I'm told...

------------

PS. My latest poll asking 'Where should Yoni stop on his way to London?', has ended. Token support for China, Taiwan and Thailand. I suspect one person embarked on a campaign to get me to go to Canada, because Canada received a whopping 19 votes, and I only know two people living there. If we rule Canada out, virtually everyone thought I should go to Korea. Thank you readers for your votes, and support. I still don't know where I shall go. I'd like to do as you've suggested, but, well, it's complicated. New poll soon.

Sydney

2008-02-14T15:44:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm now in Sydney. I used to live here, for 5 years. It hasn't changed particularly since I was here last - just a year ago. The main purpose of this visit, apart from seeing my friends, is to attend the wedding of two dear friends of mine. The wedding will be tomorrow and it will be in the mountains. Last night was the 'stag' night, also sometimes called a 'bucks' night. This started at a Belgian Beer cafe for dinner, and beer, and later proceeded to a, erm, 'gentleman's establishment'. This was a curious experience, as none of us had ever been to such a place, we were all quite shy and embarrassed, yet oddly contented.

Time in Sydney spent so far meeting friends over food. It's a bit of a joke that after having come back from Asia I seek out Asian food in Sydney, but after all it is rather good. Enjoyed Malaysian and Taiwanese food so far. And ice-cream.

Yesterday was Valentine's day. Lots of couples on the streets holding red roses. Flowers are an awkward gift to give a girl, I once discovered. What's the girl supposed to do with the roses? Hold them for the rest of the evening? To say thank you and then dispose of them would be the most practical thing to do, but that would only wound the guy's fragile ego. Perhaps I wouldn't be cynical if I was lucky enough to have a special girl to give flowers to. I guess I have to exercise patience until I meet her~

Sunshine Coast

2008-02-10T05:41:00.000-08:00

With a bit of tact, consideration and careful execution, all manner of things are possible! This weekend, for example, I somehow managed to play my cards right by convincing three lovely girls to join me on a drive to the mountains and beaches of the Sunshine Coast.

We set out from Brisbane first thing on Saturday morning. After briefly engaging in a car-crash on the motorway, we continued our journey into the mountains. Our first two stops were at the small mountain towns of Maleny and Montville. There we enjoyed the views, lunch, we visited a vineyard, a cheese-factory and several quaint boutique shops.

From the mountains we made our way down to the coast, to sit on the beach at Noosa, perhaps the most famous beach on the Sunshine Coast. I fell asleep in the shade while the girls played on the beach.

We then drove back towards Brisbane and stopped once more along the beach. This was a special spot. It was all pastel shades of pink, green and blue, the sun had just set. There was a gentle sea breeze in our faces, we just took some photos and walked along the beach a little. We even saw a giant sea turtle, but it slipped away into the water before we could get our cameras out. How marvellous to have an encounter with such a large creature from the sea.

Lots of driving took us back to Brisbane, where I crashed on a couch while the girls took care of dinner. It was a great day. ^^

A spot of rain

2008-02-05T05:35:00.000-08:00

It's been raining on the Gold Coast. A lot. For weeks. It's flooding in places. And yet, the city's water reserves are supposedly still at critical levels. So much so that we still have in place level 6 water restrictions - this means that by law we are not allowed (in most circumstances) to water our gardens, to wash our cars and we are expected to take very short showers. Failure to comply results in hefty fines.

Flooded cricket oval - not particularly severe flooding, but then, this is after only a few hour's rain.

Meanwhile, for better or for worse, my mum decided to return to the Gold Coast a week early. So at the moment, it's just me and my mum at home. There's not all that much going on, we still go for a walk to the beach - even today, despite the rain. My weekly highlight is usually a trip up to Brisbane on the weekend to see people.

Attaching some pictures from today's outing to the beach. I fear this blog is degrading from a chronicle of Yoni's Awesome Adventures to a mere chronicle of Yoni's Mundane Daily Happenings. I hope it still provides interest for some readers. At least today's post features a photo of a turtle, albeit with it's head eaten off. Sorry about that.

The beach

Beach houses

Beach erosion - persistent bad weather and high tides have caused serious erosion right along the Gold Coast

Debris - bad weather has scattered debris / flotsam right along the coast

Sea froth

A dead turtle, washed up on the beach

So it's to the UK, but how?

2008-01-30T06:12:00.000-08:00

Dear readers,

Well, the results from the latest poll are in. You might recall I asked your advice as to where I should live. The results were a little surprising but overall made a kind of sense. Strangely no support for Thailand. Some support for Taiwan. More support for Australia, Japan, Korea. Even more support for China. But the overall winner was the UK - and so, on your advice, I believe that is where I shall go.

My next question is how should I go there? Well, by plane obviously (though coming home I might opt for an overland route to Asia). But what I mean is where shall I stop en route to London? I've narrowed down the options to: Canada, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand. Well, it will be interesting to see the results.

Thanks in advance for your votes!

Yoni plays host!

2008-01-28T05:12:00.000-08:00

Living home alone is all very well, but this past weekend, for a bit of a change, I thought I'd invite 4 girls down to stay with me. It turns out that this was a jolly good idea. Girls are so great. They make for very pleasant company, they are friendly and they know how to cook and clean. Perhaps there are exceptions, but these particular girls (friends of mine from Brisbane) were all those things, and I felt very spoiled. They took care of breakfast, lunch and dinner, all I had to do was make friendly conversation and show them the local sites - beach, mountains and shops. It was a lot of fun, and every minute was thoroughly documented with photographs, of which a small sample are attached below. ^^

Ocean views

2008-01-23T05:33:00.000-08:00

Both my parents are now back in Papua New Guinea, leaving me home alone on the Gold Coast. This suits me fine. It's been fantastic to see my family again, and I look forward to seeing them again soon. But for now, space and time to myself is very welcome—I've a lot to ponder!

I've been 'home alone' since Sunday, and already I've established a kind of daily routine. I wake at 11am, make lunch, fill some time, head to the beach at around half past four, I stroll there for about two hours, I then make some dinner, which I also quite enjoy, then I sit and eat in front of the tennis or a Western, after this I spend some time on the internet, take a shower, then go to sleep at about 3-4am. Ah, the holiday life... appreciating it while it lasts.

Anyway, the beach stroll is the highlight of each day, and I usually take my camera. Attaching below some photos I've taken of the past few days on my daily strolls...

Brisbane connection

2008-01-19T04:10:00.000-08:00

Yoni comes to Brisbane
Well, yesterday it was back to Brisbane with me. I was lucky to enjoy for dinner the company of a friend of a girl I met on a train. Strolled around Brisbane's 'South Bank' a bit. It was most pleasant! I later crashed the night at a uni friend's place.

Brisbane comes to Yoni
Today my awesome uni friend and I drove back down to the Gold Coast. What a terrible day we had. What with having to cope with glaring sunlight with our fish and chips at stunning Currumbin Beach, and with driving through the endless bends leading to leafy, lofty Springbrook National Park - my friend's car (Honda S2000) didn't even have a roof! Gutted by such a drag of a day, we decided to take out our frustrations on local wildlife which included things called paddymelons, kookaburras and lorikeets. We took some pictures, which I attach below, to prove how terrible it was. ;p

Passing time...

2008-01-16T04:00:00.000-08:00

Haven't been up to much. Daily highlight is usually a walk along the beach... Time to reflect on things, on life, on beauty - it's really a very nice spot. These photos were taken today...

Our local beach: Burleigh

Beach heading up to Surfer's Paradise

The only trick on my daily pondering-stroll is not to get stung. Below is a 'blue bottle' - jelly-fish type thing - which, apparently, hurts a whole bit if you touch it.

[PS. In other news... After countless distractions, at last I've read and thoroughly enjoyed this article. Good night, dear readers!]

Company and Contemplation on the Gold Coast

2008-01-11T03:32:00.000-08:00

Visitors from Brisbane
Today I enjoyed the company of a very good friend from university, her boyfriend and his guide-dog. They made the short drive down from Brisbane to my parent's place on the Gold Coast. I played host and took them to the rather attractive Burleigh Heads, Burleigh Beach and to a viewing spot just above my house. We walked along the beach for over an hour, much of the beach had been eroded due to recent and prolonged severe weather - in some places by at least 2 metres - quite phenomenal.

Yoni's soul: the Verdict
In other news, faithful readers, you will recall I recently asked you to *rate my soul* in a poll. Well, the results are now in. According to the poll, first and fore-most I am a bastard. I also happen to be very much a fool - and can I say, I very much agree. A tiny percentage had the idea that I was 'most excellent' - but statistically this was negligible, so much so that I can only be led to assume that these votes were mistaken attempts to call me a bastard. If anyone sincerely felt I was most excellent, then please accept my humble and heartfelt thanks - I also think you're most excellent.

Poll #2: Where to for Yoni?
Well, Yoni's life plans were never particularly concrete... but recent events have left him heartbroken and even more confused... So! Dear readers! Now is the time to help a Yoni in need. Please, readers, in your wisdom and knowledge of Yoni affairs, make a recommendation about where Yoni best ought to live (for a while or more)... I've narrowed down the options to: Australia, UK, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea. You can places your vote/s in the panel on the right. Thanking you in advance!

An outing to Brisbane...

2008-01-08T21:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday decide to take my camera to the official Casio repair centre in Brisbane. They've taken my camera and a postal address, so all going to plan they'll fix the camera and post it back to me *soon*.

After the visit to the industrial estate to drop off my camera meet with a Korean friend who I met on New Year's Eve through my friend from the airport train. It happened to be her birthday and I happened to be welcome to join her and her other Korean friends for the celebrations. Well, I learned that Brisbane is full of Koreans, and that it's quite possible to have a totally foreign experience right here in Australia. In fact, I think I already wrote a blog-post to that effect.

Dinner was at a Korean restaurant. Oddly enough, the food was Korean, as were the entire staff and every diner but for myself and some other chap at another table. Food consisted of some kim-chi flavoured meat & octopus in soup with rice and endless side-dishes. This really was no different from being in Korea. Dinner was followed by Korean karaoke. All the staff, clientele, machines and music was Korean. I don't sing, ever, in Karaoke, but this time I had an excuse that I didn't know the songs. I smiled awkwardly, stared at the ceiling a bit, and played the tambourine.

After this pleasant evening, crashed at a good uni friend's place. In the morning I went for a stroll through some of Brisbane's inner suburbs. I noticed a lot of very pleasant architecture - just people's homes or pub houses. The architecture, was it Victorian, 'Federation' or 'Queenslander' I don't know, but it stood out for it's beauty and is quite unlike anything I'd seen over the past year in Asia. Much of it was humble, but always ornate and pretty.

Train took me home to the Gold Coast. Went for a walk with my mum on the beach at Burleigh before sunset. Very pleasant. Overcast, with strong winds, but I forgot my camera, so here is a photo I prepared earlier:

A very 'Australian' day

2008-01-06T01:30:00.001-08:00

Well, my day today was, without too much scrutiny, an *average day in Australian suburbia*. I helped my dad with some house work, we listened to sports, while my mum did her thing in the house & cooked for us.

My dad woke me early to start work painting some new cupboards that we've just had built in our garage. We first applied a primer. After this my mum served us breakfast. Then the cricket started (Australia v India), so we had the radio on. We next applied the first coat of paint. Then my mum served us lunch. Then I had to cut the lawns. Next was the final coat of paint. Covered in paint, grass, sweat, grime and probably a lot more, I ended the day with a long bath.

Attaching pictures of today's highlights: painting the cupboards, cutting the grass, the cricket:

New Stuff

2008-01-04T19:20:00.001-08:00

Exciting times! I have two new features on my site to entertain the 2 or so people who read my site:

1. Yoni's Travels Search Engine
For those not content to find Yoni action via the 'Blog Archive' tool, you can now search my site from the search box in a panel on the right. Minutes of fun! Or seconds, surely?

2. Yoni Poll
Introduced a new poll feature. As for the first poll question... well, Yoni's feeling a bit low. He's doing some soul searching... So, he's asking his readers to *rate his soul*! Take a vote! It's all anonymous. ;p

Thank you for your attention, faithful readers.

^^

2008

2008-01-01T21:52:00.000-08:00

Well, Happy New Year to all. Wishing everyone a very pleasant 2008.

I'm in the Gold Coast and it's raining. In fact, it's rained almost everyday since I've been back in the country. It rained over Christmas, it rained over New Year, and it's been raining on all the days between.

My plan for New Year's Eve was to sit around at home on the Gold Coast, listening to the rain perhaps. As it transpired, my random train friends (who I mentioned in previous post) invited me to join them in Brisbane to see the fireworks. Fireworks went ahead despite a nearby cyclone-type thing which brought heavy winds and rain to the whole region. It was quite a special evening spent with pleasant company...

New Year's Day spent strolling around Brisbane & it's Botanic Garden with my awesome train friends. Was very pleasant. Now I'm back in the Gold Coast, starting to ponder my plans for 2008, which is currently a blank canvass. 2007 was incredible, I didn't work a day, I saw so many new places, met some wonderful people and made many new friends, and perhaps the highlight, I got together with a wonderful girl, though I did (and still do) suffer heartache after losing her by poor decisions... Well!! 2008 is a new start and although it necessarily involves work for me, should be a good one. I wish the best for my readers too!!! Happy New Year!

Oh, I also need to buy a new umbrella.

Foreign culture at your doorstep

2007-12-30T04:55:00.000-08:00

Of course, the best and most obvious way to experience foreign culture is to pay a lot of money to physically remove yourself from your country to get yourself to the foreign lands themselves... There is however, if you live in Australia, a much cheaper alternative, and that is to stay home. Today alone I've experienced 4 different cultures, all distinct, and all here in Australia.

The last few days has been spent with an Indian family, family friends, who are currently staying at our house on the Gold Coast. Today for lunch I was invited by a bunch of Korean and Taiwanese students - who I met by chance on the train home from the airport. We first went to buy ingredients at a Korean store in Brisbane - it was huge, full of Koreans and full of Korean produce. We next went to a Taiwanese store, again full of Taiwanese stuff. So for lunch, amongst other things we enjoyed Taiwanese pearl tea, Korean 'manju' (dumplings) and 'teok pogi' - which is rice-cake in chilli sauce. Nice, but not what I actually miss from Korea...

Then tonight I'm lucky to be staying in the home of a good uni friend who is Sri Lankan. Dinner involved papadums, rice, pickles, salty things, curry, etc...

Australia has it all, apparently...

Australia

2007-12-28T03:36:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back 'home'. I arrived at my parent's new house in the Gold Coast on Christmas Eve. I went down for a few days to visit relatives in Newcastle over Christmas, and only yesterday I arrived back in the Gold Coast.

Ah, Australia, the First World, one of the most comfortable countries to live in on earth. It's gorgeous, there are endless trees all round, the air is clean, the roads are perfect, the beaches are sublime, it's modern, safe, friendly, relaxed and we are free from oppression. It's just about perfect.

So why don't I want to stay here? Well, it's just a little boring. It's predictable. There's no chaos. Chaos occurs in virtually every country except Australia, and also brings with it higher death tolls, inequality, poverty, corruption, oppression and destitution. So, it's morally wrong to say chaos is a 'good thing'. But, well, for reasons I don't fully understand, at this stage of my life I'm enjoying being on the move and experiencing new places. When paternal instincts kick in and I want to 'settle', well, Australia will probably be a good place to do that.

Bags packed, but don't want to leave...

2007-12-20T09:23:00.000-08:00

Well, tomorrow morning I'm supposed to leave Bangkok. I'll fly to Singapore, spend a night there, then return to Australia.

This is it! The end of my super-trip. Today happens to be exactly one year since my last day of work in England. In truth I don't quite feel like this is the 'end' of Yoni's travels as I don't plan to start working in Australia yet. I'll be out of there by March, potentially, I just have to choose a place I'd like to go.

How about a summary of this year's travels? This year I've been to the following 15 countries:

Australia
Bhutan
Cambodia
China
Hong Kong
Macau
England
Japan
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Malaysia
Papua New Guinea
Singapore
South Korea
Taiwan
Thailand
Uzbekistan

People often ask me: 'So, which was the best?' I tend to go for a diplomatic: 'Well, they each have their own appeal.' But for fun's sake, I'm going to try to assign 'top 3's' in various categories of my choosing:

Most hardcore (a measure of screwed up administrations, remoteness, inhostpitible geography/climate, grot, security, and lack of toilet hygiene)
1. Uzbekistan, 2. Papua New Guinea, 3. Kyrgyzstan

Most extreme nature
1. China, 2. Bhutan, 3. Kyrgyzstan

Most heavenly food
1. Japan & Thailand (tie), 2. Laos, 3. Malaysia

Friendliest People
1. Laos, 2. Taiwan, 3. Bhutan

Quirkiest Culture
1. Japan, 2. Bhutan, 3. Kyrgyzstan

Prettiest Girls
1. South Korea, 2. Kyrgyzstan, 3. Bhutan

If anyone cares to suggest another category I'll happily attempt at assign more 'top 3's'.

Well, time for me to sleep. zzzzzz

More relfections

2007-12-17T10:03:00.000-08:00

When you travel you generally use your time differently from when you are at work. As a traveller you have a few key tasks and these are that you have to sort accommodation for the night, you need to sort transportation out of wherever it is you are, you need to plan where you want to go and how to get there, you need to find food and you need to see sights. Outside these activities you're generally left with a lot of time to yourself. The amount of time you have to yourself is even greater if you're staying in a place for a long time - because accommodation is sorted, you don't need to plan for the next few days, you don't need to sort transportation to anywhere and you've seen all the sights.

So, as a traveller, you find yourself having to fill this free time. If you have somewhere comfortable to sit you can often fill this time reading. If you're on the move or you can't find a park or don't want to pay for a seat, then you're left wandering the streets with lots and lots of time for reflection. It's nice, I suppose, to have a time in your life for reflection - not something I found I did much of when I had an office job. You can reflect on all sorts of things - the smells around you, girls, why the street dog by your side has no fur, girls, the nature of the universe, girls, what you want to do with your life, girls, how pleasant it is not to be working... And such things.

I've been fortunate enough to have a number of people to see in Bangkok, so a lot of my time has been spent with friends. But, I've had lots of time to myself and have pondered the above in great detail. Today I read a book about Buddhism - it's about time I learned something about this religion that's followed me around my travels of Asia... The most resonant advice seems to be: don't think about girls so much. Good advice probably.

Passing time in Bangkok

2007-12-11T06:56:00.000-08:00

I haven't much to report. I've spent the last few days around Bangkok and at the family home of a best friend who lives about an hour outside of Bangkok (in an ice-factory). Notable activities include chaperoning my friend to his ex's sister's wedding - which involved little more than showing up in not entirely disrespectful dress, and prancing from table to table eating cocktail treats; accompanying my friend's family at various furniture shops - they need furniture for their new house (which is not inside the ice-factory); eating Thai food and cleaning the many messes left in the wake of my friend's tiny nephew and niece.

In Bangkok itself my task has been to eat more Thai food; to meet friends; to soak up the atmosphere of the place (generally smog), roaming the streets of this my old home city, reflecting on various things & trying not to think about Korea. 2008 is a bit of mystery for me. 2007 has been carefree fun. I realise now I'm actually going to have to find work in 2008. But I'm not sure where to go. I have an idea where I'd like to go - but not sure if I'll be welcome. Hrmmmmm... Decisions await me in Australia in the new year.

Photos!!

2007-12-07T05:22:00.000-08:00

My digital camera might be dead, but my ultra-cheap, ultra-flimsy film camera lives on, and I've just had some photos developed. I've updated all my previous photo-less blog posts from Sichuan, Yunnan and Laos with relevant photos, so please check them out. Beware the quality is atrocious, some made worse by the fact that I opened the back of my camera exposing several shots to the light - they come out kind of green. But in a way we can say that the poor quality of the photos reflects the hard-core nature of the adventures they capture...

So please, browse through my older blog posts, I've updated all of them with photos. Here are some highlights:

Sichuan

Yunnan

Laos

Laos, Cambodia, Thailand

2007-12-05T03:07:00.000-08:00

Laos
Last few days in Laos spent thinking about things on buses and on hammocks in the country's sleepy south. Encounter a culinary curiosity - Chinese girl I'd been travelling with buys hard-boiled egg as we take a toilet stop on our bus. On opening it seems a little darkened, after breaking through the white of the egg we're left with sight of a baby duck. She didn't eat it. Another curiosity was deep-fried spiders (tarantulas), but that was in Cambodia...

Cambodia
Not a particularly developed country, a rough, grubby place. Our bus takes us on car-ferry across a river, only our boat has no power, we get stuck on a rock. After being freed we free-float down the river, and ricochet off the river bank. Eventually a tug-boat rendezvous with us and takes us to the other side. Cambodian highlight is of course the famous Angkor Wat & surrounding temples. These are a series of stunning ruins of the ancient Khmer civilisation amid jungle in the flat plains of Cambodia. The temples are epic - some with stone walls kilometres in circumference. The temples are sublimely proportioned, and as you approach them up close you find intricate and beautiful engravings. Tag along with a Korean girl, nice opportunity to talk about what we each miss in Korea... ;p

Thailand
3 hours in traffic on arrival back in my favourite city of Bangkok. Fireworks outside as we are at standstill on highway - we arrive on the King's birthday, which is a pretty big deal here, he turning 80 and revered nearly as a god. Most Thai's wearing his colour, yellow, and crowd the streets as do yellow flags and lights. Bangkok is excellent, very pleased to be back here, will meet with friends and eat good food.

Reflections

2007-11-27T06:23:00.000-08:00

This evening
My time on the road is nearly up. So I thought to myself this evening, with sorrow, as I rolled small balls of sticky rice and popped them in my mouth. I sat at a table of Lao girls in the backyard of a home in a Vientiane suburb belonging to the cousin of a friend of a sister of a friend. In other words, a complete stranger's house. I wasn't part of the conversation, it was mine to stare at the neon light balanced precariously in the banana tree above, to be blasted by traditional Lao music from behind, and to eat sticky rice, reflecting on the fact that in less than a month I'd be back in mundane Australia. I'd been shuffled along to this dinner by my Lao friend as some person's brother had been ordained as a monk - this was a kind of ceremonial party. Oh, the random things you get up to when travelling are such fun. The First World has nothing to offer but monotony and the mundane.

This afternoon
Today cycled around town. The afternoon was perfect, I thought to myself, as I rode up to the high banks of the Mekong. I sat on my bike and stared at the river, under the balmy sunlight, the river was still and silver. Thailand is on the other side of the river. I'll be there soon enough.

Death
In other reflections... some people shorten their lives with cigarettes, others with alcohol - I do so with French pastries. I know, already, that I'll die of a tart-induced heart attack. But, I think, it's worth it - today's lemon tart at the French patisserie Le Banneton was divine. Sigh.

Tomorrow
Tomorrow to Pakse in Lao's south. Then to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, then to Bangkok.

Good night.

Happenings in Vientiane

2007-11-25T06:26:00.000-08:00

Hello from Vientiane. Plenty has happened over the past days that I better commit some of it to my blog. It's quite a backlog, so I might have to resort to over-simplification or outright omission.

Monk Feeding Frenzy
6am meet old highschool friend (who I'd not seen in 10 years) to feed several thousand monks at stunning stoopa 'Tat Luang' - it's gold and looks as though it was designed by Ferrari. This was the last day of a festival held at the stoopa, the monks had come from all over the country. The monks cannot prepare their own food, so instead rely on donations from the public - they in turn are willing to donate because they get good karma (points in the afterlife). I followed my friend and her family, and many thousands of other Laos (many stunning in their best dress), as we gave rice and other foods to monk after monk - who formed a giant ring around the temple grounds of empty bowls, shaved heads, orange robes and appreciating smiles.

Tat Luang Festival
The same festival concluded in the evening with the largest fete I've ever seen - thousands upon thousands of shops, games, food stalls. People told me how sleepy Vientiane was, but I saw no evidence for it that evening - it was more crowded than the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China. The religious aspect of the evening involved circling candles around the Tat Luang stoopa. There were too many people to get anywhere close to the stoopa - but I got close enough, it was lit up majestically gold in the night. I love that stoopa. In fact, it's my favourite stoopa in the whole world!

Empty waterfall
Today with friend in back of pick-up truck to lunch by some river some distance out of town. Then to some strange waterfalls - the slightest incline of any waterfalls I've ever seen, but on a bed of rock of strange shapes and forms. Anyway, it was completely dried-out due to the fact that this is the dry season, so I walked all about where the water would be falling, or rather, gently declining.

Radiohead
Also going on during my travels is music, which I carry in my iPod (bought in March, now obselete and called an 'iPod classic'). Anyway, recently acquired latest Radiohead album In Rainbows. It's always an exciting day, the day of a new Radiohead release, but the first listen of this album, well, I found to be a challenge, as is the case with any new album by the band. Their style becomes, erm, at the time of first listening, 'weirder' every album. But after time, the new style settles in, starts to make sense, and then becomes seriously listenable, before becoming brilliant. Well, I'm now several listens into this album and it's incredible. 15 Steps, Reckoner, Jigsaw falling into place, Faust Arp, all getting lots of repeats on Yoni's 'oldskool' iPod.

Vang Vieng

2007-11-21T01:39:00.000-08:00

Hello from Vang Vieng. 'VV' is a small town in northern Laos - set along a river beside some rather stunning limestone mountains. Like much of Laos, this is a sleepy town and the locals are friendly. But there's something not quite right about this place. It's sleepy in a spaced-out, disconcerting way. It's now apparent to me that this is ... a *zombie town*.

Zombie town
It doesn't take long to realise that the very many young backpackers here are zombies. My first walk around town confirmed it. The place is brimming with them, many out of of their minds or entirely brainless, lying like vegetables in bed-cafes in front of the TV ('Friends' is shown in most such cafes). They just lie there, listless, sipping at their 'special' lassies, watching TV. Sadly, zombies outnumber locals in epidemic proportions. Many of the zombies are travelling around South East Asia in large groups, their only plan to drink, do drugs and enjoy Laos. It's all a bit false, I feel, which is why I'm leaving here sooner than I had planned.

Tubing
VV is also famous for 'tubing'- which is when you get driven upriver, dropped into the river on an inflated tyre-tube, and float downstream, stopping at bars on the way. All very well, it's very relaxing. The only problem is having to socialise with the other tubers - many of whom are loud, drunk and stupid. Of course there are other genuine human beings who tube- I met a few, but on the whole it's drunken madness. I found a restaurant where I could be alone, have a drink, eat some noodles. Then I floated all the way back to town, about an hour downstream. It was very relaxing once I got passed the bars and the techno music. On arrival in town, I returned my tube, had a shower then became a zombie myself at a cafe, watching episode after episode of the Simpsons. It was an Israeli cafe - the menu was in English, Lao and Hebrew and the place full of Israelis.

Countryside
The zombie culture is strange and unpleasant, and contrasts with the genuinely stunning landscape around VV. Yesterday I hired a bicycle and rode around the countryside, entered a cave, met plenty of locals, ate a pineapple beside a cow. All very pleasant. In the evening I made the mistake to take a walk around town at midnight. It was full of thoroughly unpleasant drunks disrupting locals. One English chap thought he'd be a star by getting in the way of oncoming motorcycles. His friends were laughing. The poor Laos were patient and waited until he let them pass. This is just abusing the local culture.

Summary
Vang Vieng is a small place in a very charming part of the world - I just feel sorry that Laos has to endure some of the worst parts of Western culture. Be warned it's full of drunks and zombies, be advised to avoid them, enjoy your stay. Have a pineapple.

Laos - buses, leeches, lime juice, taleban & neo-nazi

2007-11-19T01:45:00.000-08:00

An eclectic post from an eclectic few days.

Buses
Today caught bus from Luang Prabang to 'backpacker-central' - Vang Vieng. I'm told the only thing to do here, besides lots of nothing (itself very pleasurable), is 'tubing'. This takes the form of taking a tuk-tuk several kilometres upstream of the river, getting onto a tire-tube, and drifting leisurely back down the river. More about this after I've tried it.

Curious point on the bus journey: lunch at some tiny town, then hang out with a crew of 11 year-old school kids playing snooker. All of them were smoking, and offered me cigarettes, but I declined telling them I don't smoke, never have and that I think it's bad for the health.

Leeches
I made a small journey out to some waterfall near Luang Prabang. I don't have a guide book to Laos, so I have no idea what this waterfall was called. I just said 'well ok' to an offer to join some Australian girls. The waterfall was well, walked over it, through some muddy jungle paths, and, was even attacked by giant leeches. To be more exact, it was only one leech and it was only giant compared to an ant. I pulled the sucker off with my bare hands. Now, at long last, I can say I'm a man - I feel like Steve Irwin.

Lime juice
I love lime, and have enjoyed lime juice and food with lime several times a day since arriving in Laos.

Taleban & Neo-nazi
I'd been growing my beard for close to 6 weeks. It was full and tinged red. I had a similar one in Uzbekistan where I was accused by police in an underground police questioning room, in a friendly kind of way, of being Taleban. Mostly this was because I was standing next to Michael Rayner - whose beard is infamous. On a whim I entered a barber in Luang Prabang and told him to cut my hair and beard. *Not too short* I insisted. His razor was lousy and he accidently shaved the side of my head to the skin. So I've gone from Taleban to Neo-Nazi in a day. I'm off to get some lime juice.

Laos - Luang Prabang

2007-11-14T06:45:00.000-08:00

Today was a day spent in Heaven. Technically I'm still on Earth, in a town in Laos called 'Luang Prabang'. This is a very attractive, laid-back town in the hilly jungle-forest along the Mekong in Northern Laos. It's such a pleasant change from China, it's so much more laid-back, less crowded, such an agreeable temperature, the people are friendly, quiet and polite. And then there's the food, which I'll devote a whole section of this post to. It's very much geared up to tourism, there are endless guest-houses, and foreigners. But in contrast to the Chinese tourist towns of 'Shangri La', and Lijiang, I feel the locals in Luang Prabang come out with their dignity intact.

Anyway, let me first tell the story of how I got here, then about my day (eating).

Getting to Luang Prabang
Despite advice I'd heard there indeed does exist a direct bus from Kunming in China to Luang Prabang in Laos. It takes 30 hours. It wasn't the most unpleasant - I had a bed and we made regular food and toilet stops. It's a Chinese bus full of Chinese people (and the odd foreigner). The Chinese passengers made sense in their Chinese context, but once over the border, sad to admit I could begin to sympathise with Thai's complaints about Chinese mainlanders (that they're loud, smoking, spitting, screaming, littering, uncouth monsters!) .

Erm, I usually prefer to take a diplomatic non-committal stance to describe people, but, well, I think this is a pretty objective observation! As we pulled up to a small town in Northern Laos for a toilet stop, we spilled off the bus, there was that now familiar cacophony of the clearing of throats, spitting, screaming (conversation), throwing of bags and bottles onto the streets - it was quite embarrassing. The Lao's running the stores were so quiet, watched timidly and waited patiently for the Chinese Storm to pass. Erm, no offense to my mainlander friends - you all rock, perhaps, I hope, you know which people I'm referring to though.

Eating in Luang Prabang
50 metres into the Laos border I'd already ordered Som Tam (Papaya salad), and what a delight it was. I'd been craving fresh vegetables and lime for weeks in China. This salad didn't disappoint, it was cold, spicy, refreshing and dripping with sour lime juice and fish sauce. I didn't order the grilled mouse (or whatever it was).

Today however, I woke to a forest-fresh morning, dressed in shorts, t-shirt and sandals (the first time in over 2 months), and strolled the town. It's all jungley-overgrowth, guesthouses, French colonial buildings, Thai wats (temples) and other miscellaneous filler buidlings. I ate by the road-side, I had a baguette filled with grilled chicken and salad. This was a new combination of Thai-style food with French, it was a delight. Another curious remnant of French colonialism was the ample crowds of people passing the day playing petank- it seemed very relaxing.

I went back to my hostel and had a leisurely nap. I woke to thoughts of lime juice and spicy-sour-tangy-chewy phad thai (thai noodles) - which I made my mission to find. I found a wonderful spot on the high banks along the Mekong, under giant jungle trees. I had a big grin on my face as I enjoyed my lunch and read my book. Bliss.

I later found a French patisserie and continued the sour theme with a very tart lemon tart. Another evening stroll eventually led me to dinner. I'd decided to splurge a whopping £8.50 on a fancy French restaurant - (buffalo) steak with chips (I'd been craving such a dish for months), a glass of red wine, creme caramel and Lao espresso to finish. Oh, what a delight.

I'm loving this place. It's so incredibly relaxing and to indulge in the food is bliss. No big plans tomorrow - more leisurely strolls, more eating.

Kunming

2007-11-09T00:19:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Kunming - the regional capital of Yunnan province, China. My guide book says about Kunming that with Chengdu it's the the most relaxed regional captial in China. I wouldn't know about that, but it's certainly laid back. My first impression of the place was that it was Grot City. But then I arrived late and hadn't noticed the trees. It's not the tidiest of cities, not the most orderly, it's actually quite grubby, but it's certainly fun. In fact, the outskirts reminded me of Bangkok - rust, concrete and billboards. There's not all that much to do or see here, but that suits me. The Yunnan university is very pretty however with neo-classical buildings, green lawns, bamboo, avenues lined with yellow ginko-tree trees, and so on.

Today I opted to get a 'cooking class' which took the form of me paying a small sum to my hostel, the staff then took me to a local market in the morning to buy ingredients, we cooked lunch together, and then we cooked several dishes for dinner. The market was fun, full of bustle, grot, people and vegetables and parts of animals I never knew existed. Cooking involved little more than putting too much oil into a wok at high temperature, adding ingredients, serving. My menu was as follows:

Tomato with egg - a favourite in China
Gong bao chicken - chicken with peanuts
Mapo tofu - spicy tofu dish
A kind of potato pancake

When you travel you find you tend to bump into the same people again in random places - in fact this happens so regularly that it raises serious questions about the nature of the Universe. Anyway, in Kunming I met a cyclist who I last met in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. He's ridden from Germany to Kunming, and lost over 20ks in the process. We went for Indian food.

Not much more to tell. Today was a sunny day. It was warm - and we're still at 2,000m above sea level.

Dali

2007-11-06T02:30:00.000-08:00

Hello from Dali, Yunnan province, home to the Bai people (to me they all look Chinese anyway). After the lofty heights of the Tibetan plateau, there is, in normal circumstances, only one way to go and that is down. Indeed, since I left Litang (at 4000m+) I've slowly made my way back towards sea level. In Dali I feel as though I've found the lowlands where the air is thick, but it turns out the place is still at 2,200m, which is about the height of Australia's tallest mountain, Mount Kosciusko.

Dali is a small city perched between tall green mountains and a large lake. It's an old town, very much done up for tourists - backpacker guesthouses, trendy cafes, pizza restaurants, etc. It's laid back though and the Chinese culture protrudes comfortably about the tourists, and you don't have to walk far to see traditional ways of life. Today I hired a bicycle and went for a cycle to the nearby lake Er Hai. There wasn't much to do there but take a ferry, so I headed back along the road I came. I chanced upon seeing two foreigners on their bikes following a local lady with a baby on her back down a narrow alleyway close to the lake. I decided to follow them, and found myself peddling along muddy concrete, past old men smoking tobacco, dirty kids with big grins, men and women mixing concrete, old houses and rubble overgrown with vines. It was quite charming, and then I caught up with them.

They were Germans who'd found a lady to take them cormorant fishing. I decided to join them. Parked our bikes in a farm, then jumped into the lady's husband's boat, full with cormorant birds. Out we went into the lake and the birds got to work. They're well trained and know what to do. It wasn't long before they returned to the boat to be lifted back in, regurgitating caught fish into a bucket.

I later rode about about the countryside by myself, lost in thought. This is a nice place.

Lijiang & Tiger Leaping Gorge

2007-11-04T05:58:00.000-08:00

*please note, some of the photos in this article I sourced from Flickr, they're not my own.

Lijiang
Lijiang is a popular tourist town in Yunnan province and is the 'captial' of a minority group called the Naxi. After an earthquake in 1996, it's old town was largely reconstructed, and with tourism in mind. I'd been warned about this place - of the hordes of tourists, of the endless souvenir shops and of the marginalised Naxi culture. With suitably low expectations, I can say after getting here, that in fact I really like this place.

You have to know what you're getting in Lijiang - this is a modern Chinese city, and it's old town is in fact rather new and is completely separate from the living city. It's a contrived tourist-only zone completely removed from reality, but is very charmingly done and is a wonderful place to stroll at night - by its tiny streams, over its many bridges, under its many red lanterns and past its endless souvenir shops, bars and restaurants. Don't expect genuine, living Naxi culture - it is a kind of theme-park but a very pleasant one. I'm still IMMENSELY sad that my camera isn't work, of course.

Tiger Leaping Gorge
This is, I'm quite sure, the most incredible place I've ever seen. Tiger Leaping Gorge is the name given to a very deep valley in the Yunnan mountains (part of the Himalayan system), after the legend that a tiger once leaped across it (I don't know why, google can tell you if you wish to know). It's the deepest gorge in the world in fact (and one of the narrowest) - from the river below, the valley walls rise a whopping 3 kms directly upwards, from forest through to sharp snowy peaks. The hike takes you along one of the valley walls, with views of the mountains on the other side.

I'd initially decided to skip this 2 day hike, but I met a Japanese person in Lijiang who insisted that I went. The scale of this gorge is nearly beyond the imagination. Again, killing myself that my camera doesn't work - how sad that my camera should die at the most beautiful place I've seen on my trip. The hike here also featured the most memorable peeing experience of my travels - peeing into a beautiful sunset to the sound of the river far below & out of sight, where the ground beings to heave directly upwards, forever, into clouds far overhead.

Tibetan culture

2007-11-01T06:14:00.000-07:00

Shangri La
Greetings from so-called 'Shangri La' in Yunnan province, China. The town's actual name is 'Zhongdian', but the Chinese Tourism Bureau decided it better ought to be called 'Shangri La' - justified on the grounds that it's in the mountains (3,500m) and is somewhat Tibetan. Actually this town is a very sad place. It's just a big Chinese city, with token Tibetan architectural flourishes on big concrete buildings, and souvenir-shop after souvenir-shop selling Tibetan trinkets. I suppose there are a good number of Tibetans living here, but what you get to see as a tourist is just the brand-new old town, the shops, hotels, bars and the Tibetan hard-sell. Very sad.

Sichuan > Yunnan
Getting to Zhongdian was a delight of epic, bumpy, long-distance mini-bus journeys through the mountains. Starting at Litang on the Tibetan plateau, we crossed strange landscapes from high-altitude, boulder-strewn grasslands, to densely-forested valleys, to monumental rocky gorges. Culturally this whole route is Tibetan - the people are Tibetan and so is the architecture: attractive white block houses. Some of the most impressive scenery I've ever seen.

Sky burial in Litang
Before leaving Litang I was invited to view a Tibetan funeral. Where in some cultures it's common to bury a body, and in others to burn the body and put the remains in a little jar, in Tibet the norm seems to be to tie the body to a stick on a hill, have a holy man hack it to pieces, then let vultures devour the whole thing - sending the body back to the heavens. It sounds gruesome, and is, I'd never seen a corpse before, let alone one being chopped to pieces - there's a lot of blood involved - yet, the experience wasn't as disturbing as I thought it would be. In fact, it was peaceful in its way, we (few others from the hostel, our pretty Tibetan host, and the relatives of the deceased) sat by a small stream, there were no sounds but for the trickle of the water, the slamming of the sledge-hammer and the tearing of the vultures. There was no mourning, just the disposal of a body back to nature, whose soul had since moved on.

Tibet (sort of, not exactly)

2007-10-29T03:53:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Tibet, sort of, not exactly. I'm staying in the town of Litang, one of the highest in the world at 4,014m above sea level. All the hostel staff are Tibetan, virtually all the town's residents are Tibetan, all the buildings look Tibetan, on the streets the Tibetan greeting 'tashi delay' has replaced the Chinese 'ni how'. I'm on the Tibetan plateau. Geographically and culturally then we can say I'm in Tibet. As far as borders are concerned however I'm still in Sichuan - in its deep far west, a long way physically and culturally from the administrative capital Chengdu.

Pretty much all the advice I read advised against taking the bus to Litang, my guidebook said it's 'dangerous' though didn't offer any details. Blog reports I read spoke of arriving here at high altitude and feeling as though their brains and lungs were about to explode. The only people enthusiastic about the trip and who dismissed all dangers were the bus-station staff selling me the tickets. This was the reassurance I needed.

The bus from Chengdu rises through some of the lushest terrain I've ever seen. I guess it would be jungle, but farms, construction and miscellaneous industrial buildings take its place, but always covered in overgrowth. Eventually jaggered stone walls shoot up out of the ground and we being our ascent. We work our way from this lush forrest eventually into a temperate Autumn forrest at over 2,000m. I stay the night at Kangding (2,700m).

Today was gruelling. Left Kangding before dawn at 6am, climbing. We climb and climb until we reach a giant pass - completely snowed over at 4412m. This was my first test at serious altitude. Although I was just sitting in my seat - I was very cold (I had 6 layers of various kinds of shirts on), and I did feel a little queasy. The bus continued on, the highest pass we took was a whopping 4718 metres.

The very bumpy hours before arriving in Litang are quite nauseating - both for altitude and sheer bumpiness. The scenery changes drastically - gone are the forests, all that remains is rather pathetic yellow grass and rocks. Stark. Arriving in Litang the sun was hot, and the trek to hostel proved epic. When I finally arrived I was light headed and needed to sit, staff let me, served me lots of tea, and it was a good 20 minutes before I asked about rooms. The trek from the bus station to the hostel is about 150 metres. It's evening now and I've taken this slow, acclimatising. It's really not so bad, you just tire faster up here.

This is a long post, sorry. My camera started working again yesterday, so will post some pics, but it died again today. =( Thanks for your comments by the way, I cannot reply them now because of blogspot bans in China (I can write new posts though, obviously, strangely). Yoni: out.

Moving on

2007-10-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

Today was an odd day. A random series of unrelated events, stressful, funny, happy, sad. It was also a day of decisions, many decisions.

Breakfast - Fried dough sticks dipped in sweet soy milk on road-side.

Camera - MY CAMERA BROKE, so I got myself to Casio's Chengdu office which was closed. This means no more photos, perhaps for the rest of my travels.

Huanglongxi - Got myself to what's been the prettiest city I've seen in China - a Qing dynasty town of ceramic tiles, wooden architecture, banyan trees, bamboo, teahouses and Chinese tourists - my only photo is a crummy one from a film camera.

Lunch - On arriving in town I looked particularly disorientated, the bus station staff felt sorry for me so invited me to sit for lunch with them - a divine feast of Sichuanese stir-fries with rice, all laced with that distinctively aromatic & tingly spice Sichuan pepper.

Onward travel - Decided to head through Tibetan plateau back-route to Yunnan. Tomorrow in 'Kangding' the following two nights in what's just about the highest town in the world 'Litang' (over 4,000m) then to "Shangri La" 'Zongdian' in Yunnan. I share this itinerary in case I go missing or something.

Thermal underwear - It's going to be cold in the mountains, so I got heavy-duty underwear.

Jacket - I wanted a jacket but don't want to pay for it. As it happened late at night I walked past a used jacket sitting by itself on some stairs. I looked around for homeless people but could find none. I wanted to take it but thought someone else might get better use out of it, so I walked off. About 1km later I changed my mind, I thought I'd use the jacket until I got to Yunnan then donate it appropriately. Anyway, by the time I was back it was gone.

Enjoying Sichuan

2007-10-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

I seem to keep extending my stay in Sichuan Province's capital Chengdu. It's the most polluted city I've seen in my life, visibility is abysmal - and yet it's so friendly and laid-back, I don't want to leave. The streets are lined with jungle-like trees, teahouses abound, the food is great (lots of tofu, chilli and Sichuan pepper which numbs the tongue), and people are generally pretty nice.

Pandas
Chengdu calls itself 'Home of the Panda' - it has the world's largest panda reserve (breeding & research centre) just outside town, and is one of the main tourist draws to the city. So I got myself there and saw some pandas. They're well and all, but it didn't really excite me, and the place is over-run by tour groups.

Big Buddha
Another tourist draw to Chengdu is a rather large Buddha called 'Dafo' which I visited today. It's the largest Buddha, in fact, in the whole world, at 71 metres high. The Buddha is located at a cliff near a river in a town called Leshan, which is a curious place - it's on the confluence of three seperate rivers. Air quality was as terrible as Chengdu - I saw lots of heavy industry on the 2 hour drive there. I jumped on a local bus, and changed to a smaller bus to get to the Buddha. I was assulted by a large pack of 8 year old kids on the bus, who after making fun of my nose, forced me to give them an English lesson. At the Buddha, once again, the site was over-run with tourists.

Today I met many locals. First it was the kids on the bus - then at the Buddha someone ahead of me in a queue put an arm around me while his friend came in front and took a photo, without asking. I knew the drill and played my part. We got to chatting anyway (in the *very* limited English they had), they had a group of about 10, were about my age or a bit younger, workmates. It's a different culture in China, but it's warm and people are genuinely nice and non-threatening, at least, this is what I've experienced. Finally I befriended a mother and child on bus back to Chengdu - the girl, understandably, couldn't help cracking up in laughter each time we established eye contact.

Getting to Chengdu

2007-10-23T04:50:00.000-07:00

The journey from Beijing to Chengdu, in Sichuan Province (in South-West China, bordering Tibet), took me 4 days longer than expected. To start, I missed my train in Beijing, an express. The next available train left 2 days later and was not an express - it would take, and indeed took, 31 hours - which means to 2 nights on the train. I arrived this morning at 5am.

Beijing
So, having missed my train, I had extra 2 days to fill in Beijing. I decided I ought to visit the Great Wall - not the obscurer more untouched sections but the most touristy section of them all, a spot called 'Badaling'. I knew it would be throbbing with tourists, but not to the extent that it was. My only thought was: wow, what a revenue generator.

Once again, Domo kun was unfased by the change of plans - in fact he quite enjoyed the 31 hr train journey.

Chengdu
I like Chengdu. Tibet looms to the west, but around here it's quite flat. It's also atmosphere rich, so rich in fact that most buildings are lost in it - or maybe it's pollution, I can't tell. This place is dank, yet cool; dirty yet lush with trees, gardens and overgrowth; the buildings are a mix of skyscrapers, decaying concrete blocks, and exquisite Qing-dynasty architecture. The place is rather enchanting. And yet it's almost surreal - as though it were plucked from my subconscious. It's a dreamlike exaggeration of the corner behind my old house where I used to dump the garbage - a dank brick wall overgrown with all sorts of green.

Chengdu is famous for its cuisine and teahouses. Teahouses can be found everywhere and remind me of French bistros. The idea is that you pay for your cup of tea and you're given unlimited refills of hot water. This is great, but an odd consequence of free refills is when it's time to leave you do so in a rather painful limp, for pressure on your bladder. This happened at both teahouses I visited today.

Some thoughts on travelling...

2007-10-20T01:24:00.000-07:00

On food in China
I'm not going to say Chinese food is bad. China has one of the oldest, proudest, tastiest, most influential cuisines on the planet (even though it includes rat). All I wish to say is that for a non-Chinese speaking independent traveller (ie. me), eating food in China is tricky and often frustrating. For several reasons which include:

1. Menus: You rarely know what you're ordering (at times exciting, at other times frustrating). Menus are usually in Chinese, if there is English it rarely makes sense and more often than not only includes simple dishes, and there are rarely any pictures.
2. Hygiene: Some of the worst I've ever seen.
3. Price: If you want to avoid hygiene issues you start paying big money - more than a night's accomodation in a hostel.
4. Culture: It seems to me the culture is to eat together, not by one's self. This means that you need to order several dishes to have a balanced meal - which is just silly when by yourself.
5. Monotony: If you buy cheap (and dont know what's available) you invariably end up with noodles or dumplings or fried rice - which are all very nice but aren't very nutritious and get bland and boring fast.

On toilets
There is, I believe, a very easy way to guage how hardcore your travelling experience is. It's all to do with toilets. There is a inverse correlation between the pleasurable experience of using a toilet and degree to which your travels can be said to be 'hardcore'. If I map this theory of hardcoreness vs toilet pleasure on my travels it would as follows:

Best toilet experience (therefore least hardcore travelling): Japan, where toilets are heated, electronic, clean, they clean you, dry you, play music for you.

Worst toilet experience (therefore most hardcore travelling): Uzbekistan, hole in the ground, cloud of flies, stench beyond words or imagination, need to stand on other peoples' excrement to align yourself with the hole - inside of which is a giant pile of other peoples' excrement. China tends towards terrible toilets too.

On being hardcore
Yoni & Mike's rule of travelling: There is always someone whose travels are more hardcore than yours. This rule holds true for everyone except for Heinz Stucke, the most hardcore of them all - a German cyclist on the road for over 40 years.

On asking questions
Always ask questions. In full backpacker attire (sandals, shorts, smelly t-shirt, hat) I asked the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong if I could store my bag for the day for free. Strangely they let me.

On assurances
Always treat assurances with suspicion. People who think they're right often aren't.

Back-packing Proper (in China)

2007-10-17T04:30:00.000-07:00

Korea
So, I went from Japan through Korea to China. The preferred route would have taken me north from Hokkaido to Sakhalin, through Russia, Mongolia and down into northern China. But I had reasons to return to Korea. You can ask me about those reasons in an email or in person. Sadly I ended up leaving Korea sooner than expected. At least I got to eat 'sam gyob sal' (grilled bacon dipped in sesame oil wrapped in lettuce leaf) and some ice-cream.

China
Now I find myself back in China. I find backpacking doesn't feel 'proper' unless I have to carry my own toilet paper (and so on). Well, after more than two months in civilised Korea and Japan, being back in China backpacking suddenly feels proper again. Dodginess greeted me early on my way to China - the very boat I took was completely rusted and in parts falling to pieces. And on arriving in Yantai, still on the boat, in my room reading a book - something funny happened. I heard someone fiddle with my door's handle, the door opened, a middle-aged Chinese man popped his head inside, saw that it was just me and entered the room (I had a 4 person room to myself). Once inside, he looked around again, saw the bathroom, invited himself into it, came out with all the 4 towels, felt bad - offered me one (I declined), put them in his bag, started singing and left. Welcome to China.

With ample dodginess and backwardness I have also been greeted with exceptional warmth. Even on the shuttle bus to the ferry in Korea (full with Chinese) I was greeted with warm smiles (and stares) and attempts at communication through body language and shared vocab (not much). On the ferry I sat on half a rusted business chair that was left on the deck, enjoying the setting sun, when three Chinese chefs came from the kitchen for a cigarette break. We laughed and commented on the weather. And now, in China, people smile or approach me and say 'hello' or 'nihow'. I took a seat watching the sea where a host of people came and chat to me (in Chinese), including an elderly couple who sat next to me and chat to me in Chinese, asking where I was from etc. These kinds of encounters happen all the time in China - the people are so very nice (at least, this is my experience). It's quite a change from Korea and Japan - where people are friendly but very reserved. And in Japan where the default volume for speaking (especially women) is close to a whisper - in China it's most common to scream. There's a girl on a computer next to me right now screaming at someone on her phone.

Glad to be on the move I guess.

Saying goodbye to Japan, Hello to Korea (again)

2007-10-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

Japan kicks ass. I didn't want to leave the place. But, as a traveller, it's my 'job' to keep on saying goodbye, as sad as that can be. As in Korea, I reluctantly said goodbye to Seoul, twice in fact. And yet, this is where I've ended up again, for reasons I won't go into but leave me just as confused.

My last day in Hokkaido involved ramen and sushi:

I bought a souvenir in Hokkaido, my new friend Domo kun. He didn't seem too concerned about leaving Japan, he just wants chocolate. I like his philosophy of life and will try to emulate it in the future.

Anyway, from Hokkaido my journey to Korea began. It was epic. 4 days of ferries. I left on Sunday, and I only arrived in Korea today (Wednesday). I spent one night with a Japanese family somewhere in mountains not far from Kyoto. This was wonderful. The man picked me up from their local station (at 23:30), drove me home, laid out my futon on the tatami mats and wished me goodnight. But not before I took a bath and he took out a glass of water, his reading glasses, a pen and paper and I giant book full of timetables. He planned my whole trip from his place to get to my ferry terminal at Osaka the following morning taking 2 buses, 4 trains. Train times, destinations, platform numbers - I was impressed. Here are some pics from their house:

Morning was fabulous Japanese food then a mad dash through Kyoto to Osaka. I got to meet a friend there for lunch who I first met in Uzbekistan. She happens to be a lot more comfortable with French than English, so there I was in Japan having to use my lousy French with a Japanese girl over okonomiyaki (if you don't know this dish - go find out about it, NOW).

From Osaka it was 18 hours of ferry:

And now, 4 days of ferries and many hours of buses and trains later, I am in Seoul. I was lucky (again) to meet with a school friend and her entourage: a Thai magazine & film crew and scattering of young Thai models. We went shopping for make up and such things.

I am knackered and off to bed.

Saying goodbye to Hokkaido

2007-10-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

Me at my unadulterated coolest

Today is a sad day for many reasons, one reason is the fact that today I must say goodbye to Hokkaido. Here, the Gods let me share their playground (and food), so a big thanks goes out to Them. Cheers.

Major events yesterday include: breakfast, a trip out to Jozankei hot spring town and to a nearby dam, and dinner.

Breakfast
The perfect meal - sent straight from Heaven (via a small restaurant at a Sapporo fish market). I'm already shedding tears at the prospect of saying goodbye to this restaurant and food. :~(

Jozankei
Here enjoyed several public footbaths. They were a little smelly, but welcome, the air is already nippy in those hills surrounding Sapporo.

Dinner
A Japanese take on an Indonesian curry. We ate under a disco ball, surrounded in South East Asian & Indian kitsch, listening to Thai country music while Bollywood films played in the background. It was great.

Enjoying Hokkaido's countryside

2007-10-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a great day, climbing Asahidake. I've given up on guidebooks, I don't carry them any more. So, I did little research about what to do after Asahidake. Fortunately over instant noodles last night I met a girl who had done her research. In fact, it was such a great idea that I decided to usurp it. Without asking I stole her idea and planned to do the same thing. I'm really sorry (but thankyou!) ;p

Biei
The plan was to somehow get to a small town called Biei, made famous by a Japanese photographer named Shinzo Maeda. The area is surrounded by patchwork farms, rolling hills, and giant volcanos. So I got there without much drama, fetched some lunch - ramen. Ramen (Japanese noodle soup) is King in Hokkaido, you can find all varieties here. Incidentally, so far I've had ramen for lunch every day that I've been in Hokkaido (a week) with the only exception of yesterday when I was up the 2,290m volcano.

Then next part of the plan was to hire a bicycle and explore the countryside. This I did and found immensely rewarding. Hokkaido is a diverse and most beautiful place. It was a gorgeous day, the air was cool on the skin but the sun warm. I rode past recently-sown fields of brown, fields of green, I saw lots of potatoes. The fields and pastures had a timelessness about them, the tractors went about doing what they do, farmers did what they do, the tourists, and there were many of them, did what they do: take photos.

Oh, and nanny nanny poo poo*:

Volcano

2007-10-04T03:41:00.000-07:00

There are many ways you can choose to spend your day. You could go to work. You could watch TV. Another option is to start the day with Japanese food, go hiking up a smoke-spewing, snow-covered volcano, through bear-infested Autumn forest, continue past the geysers, up to the rocky, snowy summit, then later relax in a hot spring and finish off the evening with more Japanese food and tea. Today I went for the later option.

I'm staying on the base of the volcano tonight, as I did last night. It's Mount Asahidake, and it's Hokkaido's tallest mountain at 2290 (point 3) metres. As with dragons, I think mountains are a lot more awesome when they spew smoke and fire. I didn't see any fire, but saw lots of smoke pouring out the side. The fact that it was covered in snow was also worthy of my respect.

A sign at the start of the trail was somewhat disconcerting, in fact it was mildly terrifying. A warning: Bears - a frightening picture, big red text (with exclamation marks) and a date - signifying I don't know what, I can only imagine. I spotted an elderly Japanese couple who seemed prepared - they had bells, so managed to tag along with them for 2 hours through the forest. The bells worked, we didn't meet any bears. The forest was beautiful: yellow, orange and red.

For the final 2 hours to the summit I went with a French couple. Over rock after rock, and eventually on snow. It was stunning at the top, but smelled of rotten eggs.

On returning to my hostel, I relaxed in an outdoor onsen (hot spring). Last night I enjoyed the same onsen, alone, under a million stars, surrounded by nothing but darkness and forest. In fact, it was a little creepy last night, it was so dark and the forest crept right up to the rocks I was sitting on, I kept looking over my should for bugs, spiders, snakes, bears. But then I'd slip back into the water and all my worries would melt away.

My time in Hokkaido is nearly up - what a magical place. I don't want to leave.

Northern Japan

2007-09-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

Tohoku
Tohoku is the northern-most prefecture of Japan's main island Honshu - I stayed here for two days en route to Hokkaido. I took the shinkansen (bullet train) there from Tokyo to the end of the line - to a place called Hachinohe - 650kms in 3 hours. On arrival it turned out there was a kind of a hostel on a farm not far away, so I stayed there for a night. Cows, horses, sheep, grass, trees and a crummy French restaurant, that's about all there was.

The following day went to a rather exclusive onsen (hot spring). A hot outdoor bath surrounded by a pond, waterfall (I suspect it was man-made), lots of Japanese maple & pine trees - some of which had started to turn colour. I sat in the bath, watched the rain fall and the trees and listened to the breeze, the occasional train and the odd military plan overhead. It was nice.

Hokkaido
Hokkaido is Japan's northern-most island and from what I've heard is famous for its nature and food: seafood, beef and lamb. And, one day in, it's all ready delivered the goods. Today was a culinary treat.

Breakfast: Raw salmon & salmon roe on seaweed & rice.
Lunch: Soy ramen (noodle soup).
Afternoon tea: Mochi (sticky sweet) followed by beer.
Dinner: 'Jenghis Khan' Grilled lamb.

And in other news today I came across a store selling the latest in dog fashion.

Yoni does the Japanese Alps

2007-09-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

After some initial indecision I decided to go a little bit out of my way to visit the Japanese Alps. The detour has certainly been worthwhile. After spending time in several big cities I wanted to go to a smaller, quieter place in nature, where I could unwind. I certainly found this here, but what I didn't anticipate was that because of the place's beauty, there's just too much to do: hiking, cycling and the sort, so I won't be putting my feet up and relaxing like I'd hoped. No matter.

Yesterday I thought I'd go walking. Unfortunately it was entirely overcast, and rather gloomy. The mountain tops were covered in clouds, which I knew meant I'd have no view from the top. I decided to walk up anyway, and as you can see already in the photos the clouds posed no problems for views from the top - in fact they added to the beauty. I was surprised and delighted to find towards the peak that in fact the mountain was above the clouds. It was only me up the top, I sat and ate some chips, drunk some water, ate some chocolate.

That's all from me for now.

Still alive in Japan

2007-09-17T17:34:00.000-07:00

Hello. Right now I sit a net cafe called 'Rounge' - actually it's a 'manga cafe' - a place where people go to read comic books, but they also have internet. In fact, you even get a little room. So it's here that I decided to spend the night, for the sake of sheer Japanese-zaniness. It was great.

I have no idea where I'll go today...

My last few days was spent visiting friends - an Australian friend in some place called Gifu, and a Japanese friend & her family in a place called Seto. I stayed with the family, who needless to say were incredibly hospitable, they even got me dressed up in a summer kimono thing - which I'm told was ridiculously small for me.

...maybe I'll go to the mountains.

Kyoto

2007-09-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

Word up from Kyoto. In short, Kyoto kicks ass. The city proper is a grid of roads and homes, there aren't many trees. Along the smaller roads are terrace-like homes, compact modern Japanese homes - new but often in a traditional style. There's plenty of wood, bamboo, slate but also concrete. Many homes have tiny box-shaped cars parked in front. Check out my photos of Kyoto.

Surrounding Kyoto, but also inside the city proper are countless temples. I hired a bicyle and rode around from temple to temple. Many of these are Zen temples, also famous for their rock gardens - let me just say that rock gardens rock. No trees, just rocks, several large ones laid out by some master gardener (or was that master monk?), pebbles make up the majority and are expertly raked. Many temples also feature beautiful plant gardens, Japanese maple, pine, flowers, moss.

I also got myself into an el cheapo tea ceremony. Had to kneel on my shins for an hour. It was very painful. The Tea Master sat out the back room, he wore black robes. Everyone had to bow to him. I think that's cool.

Japanese food continues to be a delight - I get giddy with excitement at every meal. In fact, I might go get some now.

Japan

2007-09-06T20:04:00.000-07:00

Hello from Japan. Today I am lucky enough to be staying at the home of the family of a friend I met while in Korea. The home is on the island of Kyushuu (in the West of Japan) and is in the outskirts of Kumamoto city. The house is smack in the middle of rice-farming countryside, I see nothing but green rice fields, some farmhouses and large volcanos in the distance. His family's home is modern but traditional, with tatami mats, rice-paper walls, but also high-tech toilet & high-speed internet. It's great. Japanese style.

My culinary adventures also continue, and I have been travelling long in anticipation of Japanese food. The food is fantastic, and so far, 2 nights into Japan I've eaten raw octopus, raw horse (which I'd tried once before, but this time I had a new cut - it was white and taken from directly underneath the mane), horse intestine, pig's foot, and a host of other things. All delicious. The only possible exception is nato (fermented soya bean) - which was edible but a little difficult.

Japan promises to be a bit more varied than Korea - in landscape, food and culture. But I was a little sad on my overnight ferry leaving Korea, I had a great time there, eating great food meeting great people. ;p

Seoul, Geoje, Masan

2007-08-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Hello. Well, Two and a half weeks into Korea, I am still in Seoul. To be more precise I am back in Seoul, because for a little over a week I was visiting friends in Geoje and Masan, both on the South East coast of the country.

Geoje
Geoje is an island, the second largest in the country, famous for its coastal scenery, beaches and heavy industry shipyards, some of the largest in the world. My time spent here was part lounging in a luxurious apartment, provided my by friend's work, and part eating strange (but delicious) food with locals. This includes dog, silkworm pupae, something called a sea squirt, sea snails, raw fish, etc. I was also lucky enough to be taken on a tour of the giant Samsung shipyard. My old highschool friend and her workmates were fantastic and took great care of me, I didn't want to leave!

Masan
But I had to leave, and I left for Masan. This is a fairly industrial city with no obvious tourist sites. This however makes for a relatively laid back, relaxed place. It's here that two friends of mine live, and with them that I spent several days continuing my food odyssey eating fresh eel, pig's heart, intestines, raw octupus, etc. Also made a day trip to an ancient capital GyungJu. Had a great time with great company.

Now I'm back in Seoul, catching up with friends I made & enjoying the vibe of the city. Don't want to leave but Japan beckons.

Qingdao & Seoul

2007-08-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

Hello all. I am currently in South Korea. My hostel is fully booked tonight, I have no idea where I'll stay or whether I'll stay - maybe I'll leave Seoul today, but I have no idea what to see or where to go. Anyway, I can give a brief recap of what I've been up to since Shanghai.

Qingdao
I took an overnight train from Shanghai to Qingdao. As usual, this was very comfortable and provided the opportunity to meet friendly locals who are hoping to practice their English. A family I met on the train insisted on taking care of me, driving me some distance out of their way to my hostel from the train station.

Qingdao itself is located on the eastern shore of China, not quite as far north as Beijing, is China's 4th largest port, and is famous for producing China's most famous beer of the same name: Tsingtao. The city's history doesn't go back much further than 100 years when it was ceded to the Germans as a port colony. It features leafy streets and some Bavarian architecture. The area around the actual port is grotty, but was a eye-opener to see the conditions that some people live in. In house after dilapidated house there sat countless prostitutes. In one house I saw a 14 year old girl sitting between her prostitute neighbours, it was sad to think of her likely career opportunities.

Seoul
From Qingdao I jumped on a ferry (half freight half passenger ship) which took me over night to Korea. Korea, so far, has been wet and humid. It rains throughout the day, every day. Eating is somewhat easier than in China, where are at times felt it was a choice between eating cockroaches or blowing two days' budget on a single dish. In Korea, as in Taiwan, there is a happy medium of trendy cafes offering reasonably priced food - western, asian or fusion.

Here I met up with some highschool friends from Thailand, and have spent most of my time seeing sites - which include palaces, a Chicken Art Museum, a Kitchen Utensil Museum, and also spending time eating and drinking green tea or coffee in the abundant cafes.

Shanghai, Transformers, Xitang, Huangshan

2007-08-03T21:56:00.000-07:00

Shanghai
I'm currently in Shanghai - it's ridiculously hot and muggy outside. So instead of roaming the streets I sit in this air-conditioned internet cafe. It smells of cigarettes, my eyes are sore from the smoke and my table is covered in ash left from users now left. I arrived in Shanghai yesterday. Shanghai is a monster of a city. It's hot, loud, dirty, at times attractive but always ugly. It's grotesque. It feels like an accident of a city - as though its outgrown its intended size and planning and has become bigger than any city should be. While that might not sound very positive, and it isn't, it's still a very curious place to be in. There's lots to see, and I'll do my best, but I'll be pleased once I've left.

If you like shopping, it's very convenient, you only have to stand still for about 5 seconds and you'll be approached by a hawker offering T-shirts, DVDs, Mobile phones, Wallets, Bags, Sex massages.

Transformers
Yesterday evening I'd had enough of reality so I thought I'd go enjoy Transformers: The Movie. There's a lot that can be said, no doubt, about how bad this movie is, but for me, a former transformer fan, it was most excellent. I was ridiculously excited going into the cinema. And, while watching it, I felt as though cinema, computer technology and culture in general had reached a high point, and produced this perfect gift to humanity, much like the pyramids of Egypt, to be treasured for all time as a symbol of man's intelligence and ingenuity. But perhaps I was a little over excited.

The film perfectly scratched that inexplicable itch of a desire to see computer graphics at their best rendering giant robots fighting and wreaking havoc about town. There was lots of lame humour, but it wasn't unwelcome. The only gripe I had about the movie was that it didn't contain the original theme song from the series - which was great.

Xitang
Xitang is a small, ancient water town, that I only found out about a day before I went there - in a reference somewhere online. It's not in my guide book, or on any map I can find - so I don't really know where it is. I just got to Hangzhou from Huangshan, showed the ticket lady the name in English, and was shuffled onto a bus to I don't know where. From that city I changed for another bus, which got me there. There wasn't much to do, which was welcome, I just relaxed and recouperated after climbing up and down Huangshan.

Huangshan
Huangshan is a beautiful series of moauntain peaks in Anhui province - and don't the tourists know it! The place is throbbing with tourists, they flow in excess throughout its few walking trails. I walked up the West trail and down the East - which is the opposite of what is recommended, but that's what was most convenient for me with accomodation - the mountain top is scattered with 4 star hotels, many offering dorms, which is what I took. These dorms are different from those I was used to. Instead of being filled with smelly foreign backpackers, they were filled with smelly Chinese men & their sons who apparently generally prefer to wear just their underwear in the room, to talk as loudly and inconsiderately as possible (starting at 4:30am which is when they wake to watch the sunrise), and, of course, spitting lots. It wasn't the most pleasant, but a worthy sacrifice of comfort for experiencing such exceptionally beautiful mountains.

Hangzhou

2007-07-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

Hello. I am writing to you tonight from a small farming village in Anhui province whose name I don't know. I'm the only foreigner in town. I'm staying in a large, empty hostel, where nobody speaks English. I have an 8 bed dorm to myself, and the very friendly staff took me for a cheap staff dinner in their canteen. Aside from the hostel, and a few simple shop houes, I'm surrounded by giant mountains green with bamboo, pine, tea terraces and rice paddies below. It's rather rustic, very rural - but not far away is one of China's top destinations, heaving with tourists: Yellow Mountain (Huangshan), inspiration for countless painters and poets over the past millenia. I'll be there tomorrow to sus it out first hand.

Over the past days however I have been enjoying the former Chinese captial city of Hangzhou (but then most cities seem to have been capital at some stage or other). This is a town I've heard much about - it's where many of my uni friends spent a year studying Chinese. It's home to the much fabled 'West Lake' - my guidebook quotes several ancient Chinese poets going on about its beauty - much of it to the effect that it's the most beautiful lake in the world (or close to). Even Marco Polo agreed. So, arriving in Hangzhou, my expectations were somewhat high.

Fortunately I wasn't disappointed. The West Lake truly is beautiful. The city itself is one one sides, and the three other sides are surrounded by green mountains. Hangzhou is lucky to have four distinct seasons (white Winters, red Autumns, Green Springs, Scorching Summers), and I was there for what I was told is the worst of them, Summer. By day I seldom dared to go outside - such was the heat and humidty. By afternoon however the air is balmy and it's safe to go outdoors. Most time was spent cycling all around the lake - unders its willows, by its water lillies, and lotus flowers, through clouds of dragon flies. I even took my bike to the river, several kilometres out of town, then up through some of the heavily forested mountains to tea villages & secluded temples. Very attractive and photos to follow.

Me, marbles lost, in Hangzhou.

Time's up on computer! Must be off! Cheers, Yoni.

Busy about China

2007-07-25T07:28:00.000-07:00

Hello. I am currently in Fujian province. I've spent the last several days along the coast of Southern China, inspecting plenty of colonial architecture in various historical port cities along the way. The most well known of these is Hong Kong. I also made a trip over to Macau - where Portugese is still the official language along with Mandarin. Most recently I have spent time in Xiamen (which used to be known as Amoy).

Xiamen
Tonight I am staying in a town called Xiamen (Amoy, as it was once known, is the name given to the local dialect). Xiamen is an island connected by bridge to the Chinese Mainland. Just off Xiamen island is a smaller island called Gulangyu - and that is where I am staying. This tiny island was ceded to the British as a port after the First Opium War in the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing (the same treaty that gave them Hong Kong). No cars are allowed on the island, and it's small enough to stroll around. There are plenty of neo-classical villas, many in disrepair, and lots of big trees. The place is swamped by Chinese tour groups by day, but by night we've the island to ourselves - as most of the tourists return to Xiamen proper by night. Staying in a pleasant youth hostel which was once the German Consulate.

Macau
Macau has a long history of European settlement. The Portuguese setup up here as early as 1553 (for comparison, that's over 200 years before Mozart was born). The place is rife with colourful Portuguese architecture, great food and giant casinos. Macau is the only place China where casinos have been legalised, and the local government earn as much as 70% of their revenue from the industry. I strolled around many of these casinos, at one I saw a well dressed lady being escorted from a table, she was crying uncontrollably and seemed barely able to walk by her own legs.

Hong Kong
Hong Kong is pretty crazy - it's nothing but tall buildings about rather attractive tropical mountains rising from the sea. It's manic. It's also rather expensive, at least compared with other countries in the region.

Taiwan

2007-07-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

I recently left Taiwan, and am now back in Hong Kong. I thought I should say a bit more about Taiwan, as it's really not such a bad place. People are friendly, people tell you that the people are friendly, and I pretty much found this to be the case. On arrival into the country, an airport taxi driver apologised for bothering me: "Excuse me sir, do you need a taxi?" "No thanks." "Oh, sorry to bother you, have a nice stay in Taiwan." A sharp contrast to pretty much every other country I've visited on this trip so far - in Uzbekistan a taxi driver hounded us even before we passed immigration & customs.

Taiwan was however the only place so far where I've seen proper violence - a gang beating. As I was purchasing some iced-tea at a busy night market in Tainan, four chaps with baseball bats came running after someone, clobbered him over the head to the ground and pounded him for about half a minute. It was brutal. The guy got up and seemed to be ok. I took my tea and walked back to my room. I guess this stuff goes on right throughout Asia, and the world, but it served as a reminder to be on my best behaviour. Apart from this incident, it was all pretty smooth sailing.

Photos of Taiwan are in my Taiwan gallery.

Taipei
I spent two initial nights in Taipei before visiting other parts of the island. After this, I returned and stayed another two nights. On the first two nights I hung around with some friends I'd met in Singapore. Ate tasty food, climbed world's tallest building, visited night market, dragged clubbing. Taipei is fairly cosmopolitain, there's plenty of English, lots of modern shopping centres, plenty of trendy fusion cafes and bakeries. There're some grubby looking apartment buildings, but I'm sort of used to those after China and Hong Kong.

East Coast (Hualien)
This was a pleasant surprise. Before arriving in the country I didn't even realise Taiwan (or at least half of it) was in the Tropics. This part of the country looks like Hawaii - lush mountains plummeting into aqua-coloured ocean. Beacuse of its formidable geography and lack of major roads, it's also less developed - in a pleasant relaxing kind of way. The town reminded me of the Thai coastal town of 'Hua Hin'. Here I also visited a famous gorge, but then I mentioned this in a previous blog post.

West Coast (Tainan)
The west coast of Taiwan is flat and home to something like 90% of Taiwan's population. For lack of time I had to skip most of the major cities along this coast, I instead decided to visit only Tainan - a former capital city, orignally founded by the Dutch. It's famous for its traditional temples, of which there are many down the city's many back-alleys, and for traditional foods and snacks. It was hot there, I was forever thirsty, so I had lots of ice-tea (a Taiwanese specialty), I even had South African tea.

Central (Alishan)
Alishan is a popular mountain resort at about 2,500m altitude. It was a pleasant alpine retreat from the swealtering tropical heat at sea-level. Waking at 3:30am to climb a peak and watch the sunrise is pretty much obligatory at Alishan, so I joined the (very massive) crowd. The place was beautiful but somewhat tarnished given its history of deforestation - most of the forest we saw was no more than 50 years old. Some exceptional trees were spared from logging and aged between 800-3,000 years old.

The Stans, Part II: Uzbekistan

2007-07-11T22:55:00.000-07:00

As with my Kyrgyzstan post, my Uzbekistan post is a kind of retrospective summary as I've already long left that place. Uzbekistan is a rather mad place. It's got an ancient (ex-soviet) administration which is incredibly frustrating for tourists. It seems that every third person is a policeman and every second policeman needs to see your passport and money. In our first 4 hours in the country we'd shown our passport 4 times (police checkpoints occur about every 30kms on roads). We were even taken for questioning twice in underground police offices at metro stations. The madness is more extensive than that but I won't bore you.

Uzbekistan's current borders were arbitrarily assigned by the Soviets, but the region has a visible identity formed by its position at the centre of the ancient Silk Road trade route that connected the Middle East, Europe, Persia, India and China. Islam was maintained in a series of Khanates (city-kingdoms), which have left some magnificent Islamic architecture in their wake.

Tashkent
The capital city, our first destination and with Almaty in Kazakhstan are the largest cities in Central Asia. It's an anciet city, though most of the centre is of Soviet design - broad, leafy avenues & plenty of neo-classical architecture. It's really quite pleasant, and despite the hordes of policemen, Rayner and I found it a relaxing place, especially its beer gardens. It's also the least conservative place in the country - elsewhere women wear full-body length dresses and veils (but not face the covering variety).

Samarkand
This is Uzbekistan's second largest city and former capital city. It's most famous site is the Registan: a complex of 3 medrassas (Islamic schools). It blew me away for its beauty. All the medrassas function now as tourist shops. Pic below is of a mosque, not the Registan. Also enjoyed strolling around parts of the old town - which consists of a series of walled alleyways, doors leading into private courtyards & people's homes. It seemed rather idyllic at the time. Other parts of town also quite Soviet - leafy avenues.

Bukhara
Uzbekistan is very much on the tourist route - bus loads of European and Japanese tourists abound. Tourism has very much influenced the places we visited - the whole of Bukhara's ancient centre seemed geared for tourists. It's still an intriguing place of turquoise-capped medrassas, minarets and winding alleyways of medieval design which differ greatly from the Soviet town planning in Samarkand and Tashkent. It's hot here - we endured 45C and it wasn't even near mid-Summer.

Khiva
Our final stop was Khiva. An ancient walled city - and used to be a pretty cruel place - even up until the early 20th century. Saw a nice little museum of paintings dipicting various tortures that were enforced by the Khan. They included having your mouth cut open as far back as your ears (for drinking), being buried alive, being thrown from a minaret, 'woman beating' involved putting a woman in a bag and beating her... and so on. One chap we met, our age, showed us a picture of his (great?) grandfather on his mobile phone, an administrator - he looked a proud man in a dark robe, huge dark beard and huge dark turban. He was murdered by poison for a reason I cannot remember. The town these days is pristine and ultra sanitary, it's entirely for the tourists, it's difficult to get any sense of tumult of daily life back in the day.

Greetings from Taiwan

2007-07-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hello all. I am writing to you from a town called 'Hualien' which is on the Eastern coast of Taiwan. The coastline here is nothing short of spectacular - giant marble mountains, rank with deep-green vegetation plunging straight into turquoise waters (see here). The vegetation around here is some of the lushest I've ever seen. I also went today to Taroko Gorge - a spectacular gorge made of marble which, I've heard, is deeper than the Grand Canyon - though much, much narrower. I even walked through a cave called the 'Water Curtain' - because it's roof is completely penetrated by water - it's like walking through a long, dark, cold shower, with a river down the middle. It was great.

Oops, my time at the net cafe is up. More later. Cheers.

Hello from Hong Kong

2007-07-06T01:38:00.000-07:00

The past few days have flown by. Today I arrived in bustling Hong Kong. Last night I was befriending locals who'd never spoken with a foreigner before on a night train - while little 5 year old kids ambushed my notebook and filled it with diabolical cartoons. The previous night I was in the furnace city of Wuhan having a personal tour of a plush revolving Thai restaurant on the 41st floor of a 5 star hotel overlooking the Yangtze River wearing shorts, sandals and a very smelly shirt. The previous night I was again on a night train, eating instant noodles & drinking tea. The evening before that I ate 'boiled pork on a pole' in Beijing with a local friend I'd met on the train. It was well delicious.

So! It's been a very busy few days. There's more to come. Tomorrow I will be in Taiwan. I hope my Stans Part II post will be along shortly.

Cheers! Yoni: out.

The Stans, Part I: Kyrgyzstan

2007-07-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well! This is a long overdue entry. I am in China, though have just returned from nearly a month in the 'stans' where I was busy sharing taxis, drinking tea, avoiding laghman (lamian noodles) and shashlik (kebab - meat on a stick), practicing my Russian, riding horses, drinking fermented horses' milk, drinking vodka, staying in yurts, and so on. Pictures now reside in my Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan galleries.

Because I've left my blog for so long, I can only attempt a kind of retrospective summary of Kyrgyzstan because I've already left the place. Here we go...

Road from Kashgar to Osh
Getting to Kyrgyzstan was a drama. It's a 24 hour sleeper-bus ride over terrible mountain roads (with stunning views), we wasted 5 hours doing nothing at the border, baggage handlers at one point occupied the bus (one climbed through the window, another into the baggage hold) refusing to leave until they were paid for their services (which we didn't ask for), someone placed a lamb's carcass in the overhead baggage store, a box full of wet goats' livers spilled blood onto my backpack, and so on...

Osh
Osh is old (older than Rome), it's Kyrgyzstan's second largest city and it is the first place we visited in Kyrgyzstan. It's a welcoming place, leafy, and the girls are hot. I nearly proposed to a waitress but decided against it at the last moment, for practical reasons (leaving town the same day).

Arslanbob
Although in Kyrgyzstan, this small alpine village's population are all ethnic Uzbeks (apparently there's a difference). Time spent wandering village backroads, walnut forests, midnight runs to the outhouse.

Road from Arslanbob to Bishkek
The ride from Arslanbob took 12 hours but was one of the most spectacular rides of my life. The scenery was exceptional, of snow capped peaks, deep-green mountain pastures coloured with eruptions of orange and blue wild-flowers.

Bishkek
Kyrgyzstan's capital city. We arrived at night into Bishkek, and it was most peculiar. There's virtually no street lighting, most people on the streets are drunk and at the time we were there there was no hot-water in the entire city (their hot water is centralised). By a random fluke it turned out that my friend Rayner and I had an old acquaintance living and working in Bishkek, so it was with her that we spent most of our time in Bishkek, binging on Western food, exploring ex-pat hangouts, drinking with US marines.

Kochkor & Songkol
Probably the highlight of our trip. Kochkor is a small town in the mountains, and Songkol is a high altitude mountain lake (3,100 metres). We got from one to the other by horse. Neither of us has much horse riding experience, but it didn't stop us scaling a 3,400 metre mountain pass made of rock and ice. We stayed in isolated yurts, saw lots of grass, and drank plenty of vodka and kymys (fermented horses' milk) which, as my friend Rayner says, is as bad as it sounds. On leaving Songkol we were even snowed on, rather heavily, and it was mid-June which is approaching mid Summer.

Frustration

2007-06-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

Greetings from China. I prepared a great post two days ago on Kyrgyzstan only to have it disappear into thin air. Frustration.

I had a huge wad of Uzbekistani money on leaving the Uzbekistan, but the currency exchanges at the airport refused to change it into US dollars because, shrugging, their computers weren't working. Frustration.

I want to buy a book about Central Asia here in Beijing, but Beijing has a lousy number of English-language book stores. Frustration.

Blogger, Flickr, BBC News, Wikipedia - all daily sites for me, are banned in this country. Frustration.

Planning my onward travel. Frustration.

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It's not all frustration however, Beijing is still a fun place to be in. Last night wandered upon a brand-new super mall called 'The Place' which features the largest TV screen I've ever seen, and probably will ever see, in my life. The previous evening was spent with locals at an area called 'Houhai' - a series of bars and restaurants about a lake. We visited 'East Shore Jazz Cafe' - Beijing's premier jazz club (one of the locals we were with was a jazz pianist herself).

So, in all, it's great to be back in China, civilisation, after the 'stans'. The stans were superb and I will write a more comprehensive post about them later. Really fantastic. In the mean time you can see my Kygryzstan and Uzbekistan galleries.

Xinjiang!

2007-06-02T03:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the end of the line - the end of China at least, from the town of Kashgar. Few people here look genuinely Chinese, most of them are of Turkic origin (Uigurs).

In the time since I was last able to log onto my blog much as happened. We revisited the sand dunes - in the middle of the afternoon heat. They were fantastic again, but we were rather knackered.

We visited a town called 'Turpan' which is a grape growing oasis in the middle of the Taklamakan desert. That place was the first truly Uighur town that we visited, it has a very different feel from other Chinese cities - it's really like an extension of Turkey. What with the kebabs, breads, garb, hats, people, language, food etc. There wasn't much to do there other than relax under the grape trellises and to do day excursions to important Silk Road sites, such as the ancient ruined town of Jiaohe, which looks a heck of a lot like the setting from the original Planet of the Apes movie.

After Turpan was a bus ride through the desert, by the mountains to the reginoal capital 'Urumqi'. This is largely Uighur but there is now a majority Han Chinese population there who have migrated from Eastern China. Urumqi was pleasant enough, as was our hotel room which was a bargain at less that 5 pounds per night (each) for a 4 star room.

An obligatory day trip (or over night trip if you have time) is to 'Heavenly Lake' (Tian Qi) in the nearby Heavenly Mountains. The only description I'd heard of the place was that it might be disappointing to Europeans because its so similar to Switzerland. This apparently wasn't grounds enough to disappoint Rayner and I who climbed to the lake from the base (er, carpark) and were left in awe at the majesty of the place.

And now, finally, we endured what was actually a rather pleasant, comfortable, 24 train journey 1000kms west of Urumqi to the final frontier: Kashgar. We are here to witness its supposedly rather famous Sunday market - which is tomorrow.

That's all for now! Next stop: Kyrgyzstan!

PS Don't forget to visit Mike's Awesome Blog of Doom.

Sand dunes

2007-05-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Dunhuang, which I think is somewhere near the Gobi desert, it might even be in it. Either way, it's rather desert like around here and yesterday we had the good fortune to play on the neighbouring sand dunes.

In the morning we first checked out the Magao Caves - one of the most important Buddhist sites along the Silk Road. Since very early times (300AD-ish) people have been creating Buddhist artwork (painting and sculptures) in the more than 700 caves at this site. It is possible there to trace the history of Buddhist art in China from 300AD to nearly present times - and to see the changing influences on Buddhism from traders who came along the Silk Road. One Buddha even looks like Jesus. Others take more Persion, Indian and Taoist influences.

The caves were well and all, but as we went to bed that evening the only thing on our minds were sand dunes. Just as the sun started to cool ever so slightly after the blistering heat of mid-day and the afternoon, we set out to the giant sand dunes, just south of Dunhuang. Deciding not to take a camel up, we just walked straight up the ridge. We even met some local girls up the top - the only language we had in common was 'hello' (what they knew of English) and 'tingbudong' (which means 'I don't understand' and is the little that we know of Chinese).

We then trekked about some other dunes, taking some insane photos of ourselves jumping off the tops of them. We stuck around for sunset, and only descended with the arrival of the cool evening winds and as the moon began to shine brightly. It was a great end to a great day. Lamb-skewers for dinner.

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Only other thing to mention - the day before we were in Jiyayuguan, which is the Western most extent of the Great Wall of China. There's a largish fort stationed in the middle of a relatively narrow pass between two large mountain ranges & it's rather deserty out there.

Xiahe

2007-05-24T00:22:00.000-07:00

Greetings once again from China. I am currently at a giant net cafe in the giant city of Lanzhou (in Gansu province). Lanzhou is a strange metropolis that slivers between giant dusty mountains in semi-arid desert. The food here is spicy and tasty. I am only here for a few hours however, as we're only transiting here. We just spent two nights in the pleasant town of Xiahe.

Xiahe sits at 3,000 metres above sea level and is home to a giant Tibetan monastery called 'Labrang Goemba'. The monastery is truly massive - with over 2,000 monks in residence. Our hostel was just outside the monastery. Our first impression of Xiahe was not a positive one however. The town is split between the original Tibetan population and the more recently arrived Han Chinese popultation. The bus stop is in the Han Chinese side of town, which frankly is rather squalarly. The other end of town it Tibetan - which although is also without much financial weath, is wealthy in culture and tradition - colourful dress, architecture and customs. Photos will have to do the explaining because I haven't much time at this net cafe!

The highlight of the trip was yesterday when we set out to the Ganjia Grasslands - home to Tibetan nomads and monasteries. On visiting one monastery, instead of looking inside the prayer room as we were meant to, the monk invited us (group of 2 Aussies, 2 Thais and 1 Canadian) to his room for afternoon tea. We were honoured and sat about his small table. He initially had trouble with the kettle, as his stove wasn't ventilating, which filled the room with smoke, as well as laughter.

Food was a dish called Tsampa - which is eaten like a light brown dough. It's made with dried yak cheese and barley flour mixed in hot water with sugar and yak butter. It's rather tasty, but you have to be careful not to add too much yak butter - it's very rich.

Ok, that's all I have time for. Be sure to check out my friend Rayner's blog: http://mdrayner.blogspot.com/

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Ok, a later update. After writing the above post, strolled around Lanzhou, met friendly locals and even played a game of outdoor pool.

Xian

2007-05-19T17:10:00.001-07:00

Greetings from Xian, which I think at one stage was a former capital of China. It's a city of 5 million people and features a rather ginormous wall around its old city (few kilometres by a few kilometres and perhaps about 20 metres up). The plan is to hire a bicycle and cycle around the top of it.

My friend Rayner has two friends in Xian, both of them he met on his trip through Xian last year - one his Muslim homie Bill, who is ten years old, and the other is Alex who is our age studying postgraduate studies at Xian University (of 40,000+ students). We met both of them yesterday.

Rayner met Bill the last time he was in Xian strolling around the Muslim quarter. After a sequence of events he was persuaded by a lady to speak with her son to help him practice his English. As it turns out the kid is rather a genius and carries an English conversation better than I could. So, yesterday we set out to the Muslim quarter to find his mother's shop, a kind of convenience store, which we miraculously somehow found (the Muslim quarter of Xian is large and packed full of alleyways). Some phonecalls were made and after a while came Bill. He was delighted to see Rayner again and it was a rather cool experience for us to be sitting in a small store in the Muslim quarter of Xian chatting with a 10 year old named Bill. Most of our conversation was about Naruto (a Japanese kid's cartoon that I happen to know a bit about) and Fighter planes (of which he seems to know every one). We'll be seeing him again today.

We also enjoyed a delightful serving of hand-made noodles in the Muslim quarter. As usual this attracted a small crowd of spectators about the small shop where we ate.

In the evening we were taken to Xian University to meet with Rayner's friend Alex. We then met a series of other friends and with them were taken around their massive and attractive campus. The friends' English names are rather arbitrary to them and one of them in fact forgot the English name he used when he met Michael last year, so came up with a new one.

Dinner was of a kind of satay - skewers of kidney, what we think might be stomach (it had purple bits though), and some other unidentifiable meat - all delicious. After dinner we all played cards on a campus green in the balmy twilight. At night we went to the 'big goose pagoda' to watch a musical water fountain show - which involved hundreds of jets of water in sync with music, thousands of crowds, and a few game people willing to run between the fountains. Rayner and I joined them, but it was towards the end of the show and we didn't get very wet.

Yoni: out.

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Ok, this is a later update. Since went to Terrcotta Warriors, Rode bike around city wall,

China

2007-05-18T03:58:00.000-07:00

Hello world. A brief hello from Beijing, China. I arrived safely, late, into Beijing a couple of days back, meeting my highschool friend Mr Rayner at the airport - who himself flew in from Canada a few hours before me. We've been seeing the sites, strolling around Beijing.

The place is rather spacious for a city of 20 million (I haven't verified this number, it's what I heard from 'some guy'). The spacious parts are the grand avenues and of course the famous Tienanmen Square. There are some rather crammed areas in the old parts, such as where we are staying (a place just south of the centre called 'Qianmen'). Around this part are narrow alleys, gauntlets of shopkeepers and lanes that I think are called hutongs - traditional alleyways between courtyard-style houses.

Somehow both Rayner and myself managed to procure friends here (who we knew before arriving), and have been lucky enough to be taken out to eat with them. The first meal was at a Sichuan restaurant and offered food like I've never tasted before, many of the dishes leaving the mouth hot from chilli and numb from Sichuan peppers. It was great. Our second meal was Beijing style food including the famous Peiking Duck, along with a host of dishes like nothing I've tried before. All delicious. Except from those meals, the Rayne and I managed to enter smallish shop-houses and order local (rather simple) food. Entering those places and ordering had us feeling a bit like those foreign chaps in Western movies when they stroll into a saloon. The chatter stops and all eyes are on you. Both mornings so far we've had a meal accompanied both by curious stares, and by a bowl of hot soy-milk - which although left us feeling rather cat-like, is really yummy.

I was warned that the Chinese might be rude or aggressive but so far people have been overwhelmingly friendly.

Seen some big temples too, photos to follow. Tonight we leave by train to Xian, and I hope to write a post from there. Good-bye world!

Yoni update

2007-05-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Apologies for taking so long to write a blog post. This is partly because I had restricted access to the web and partly because I'm lazy. It doesn't have to take long however to summarise what I've been up to over the past weeks.

Malaysia
In my final week in Malaysia I enjoyed several days away with friends on the island city of Penang, in the northern part of Malaysia. Penang is famously known in Malaysia as a food heaven. It didn't disappoint.

Enjoying Asam Laksa (sour noodle soup) and Rojak (fruit salad with sweet shrimp sauce) in Penang

After a day on the beach in Penang (photo courtesy of Caxton Chow)

Thailand
I am currently in Thailand and have been here for a little over a week. In 2 days I will fly to Beijing to meet a friend and start our 6 week Silk Road journey. I have been quite busy in Thailand meeting people, strolling around Bangkok and eating food. I can't complain, it's been a lot of fun! I also somehow managed to watch two fashion shows.

A drinks shop near where I am staying in Bangkok

At some kind of fashion show in one of Bangkok's swanky malls

Malls, Hotels, Christians and Malaysian culture

2007-04-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

Greetings again from Malaysia. I've been here about a week and all is well. The first time I came to Malaysia (xmas 2005), I was fortunate in that my friends had recently graduated and had not yet started working, so were free to entertain me. This time however they are, fortunately for them, all working. Which means during office hours I have to rely on myself for entertainment.

Entertaining myself has meant lots of walking (aimless meandering with occasional harmonica action), and a healthy amount of reading (usually takes the form of me bumming around a foodcourt in a mall, or paying the least I can for a drink to not get thrown out of a nice hotel lobby cafe).

On a random walk around town.

Outside office hours I've been lucky enough to catch up with friends and to be taken to lots of local food spots. I was even taken to attend an Evangelical Christian Sunday Service, Praise the Lord!

Bah Kut Teh - pork bone soup served with tea.

I've also enjoyed trace amounts of what I think must be contemporary Malaysian (Malaysian-Chinese) culture. Specifically, the night culture. Strangely it didn't involve bars or alcohol. It mostly revolved around food and games.

Food is King in Malaysia and people expect to be able to buy food at any time of the day or night, be it Chinese, Malay or Indian food. Indian food is typically and rather famously found at 'mamak' stores. These are simple, but often huge, restaurants run by Indian Muslims. I think the phrase 'mamak' actually refers to Indian Muslims, but it is also taken to mean these kinds of shop-houses. Many mamak stores are open 24 hours. Other kinds of food can be found along the road sides or in large hawker centres (food courts), which are also open late into the night.

One evening we went to an area called 'Subang Jaya', which is a town attached to the side of Kuala Lumpur, and has several university colleges and thus plenty of students. We'd already eaten so arrived there to play table football (fussball) a bit before midnight. After my comprehensive thrashing, we left. Someone made comments about playing Counter Strike (a computer game, for those who somehow don't know), so off we went. We were lucky to find seats at the gigantic net cafe, which had a rather loud drone made from hundreds of gamers clicking, tapping, whacking their machines. This lasted until after 2am. We were all rather knackered. I heard more whispers about us getting supper (supper being the 4th meal of the day that I never before knew existed), thinking it was a joke. Of course it wasn't. Supper was after 3am. More jokes about us playing pool. 4am. Darts then took us to nearly 5am. And so, we'd made it to 5am, entertained, and completely sober. I was told this was not unusual, and judging by the crowds everywhere and when we went I could see that this was so.

My time at net cafe is up. More to follow.

Net-gaming at 2am.

Leaving Thailand, Arriving Malaysia

2007-04-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

Hello from Malaysia. I've been a bit slack with my posts, but I'll excuse myself by saying I've been busy. I haven't got any pictures from Malaysia up online yet, they will follow soon.

Thailand
My final days Thailand went well. It was public holidays (being the Thai new year), and I spent the whole time with my friend Krisanai, mostly enjoying good food. I even met an elephant.

On two occasions we played host to groups of friends visiting from overseas. The first group were two Malaysians, friends of friends. Went around Bangkok, had lunch, checked out some shops, visited a temple, had dinner, visited a shrine, and even had our fortunes told. My soul mate will be 3 years older than me, and I will have three daughters, indicating that I am bit of a player. If I stay in my current job it will lead to good things.

The second group of friends were Japanese, one of them a uni friend. We had lunch, checked out some shops, then had dinner. After that was done it was time for me to prepare for my next destination.

Malaysia
It is now my second day in Malaysia. I've been spending my time in KL, while my friend is a work. Time is spent walking, resting, reading, eating. More from Malaysia to follow.

Bhutan
...Still miss the place.

Happy (Thai) New Year!

2007-04-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

It's Songkran time in Thailand. That's the Thai new year. The main theme of Songkran is undoubtedly water. It's the hottest time of the year right now, and the first rains of the season are just arriving, bringing relief to all. At new year, water is traditionally poured on peoples' hands for respect or blessing. Water is also poured on Buddha images for similar reasons and for good luck in the new year. These days however these simple ceremonies have evolved into a country-wide water fight, with young and old getting out their water pistols, buckets, even firehoses to join in the fun of splashing water about. *

I felt rather sheltered today, driving around in my friend's car, not getting into any water-soaked action. This might follow in the coming days. If my camera survives it, you might even see some pictures.

I just went with my friend to a mall, poured some water on a Buddha image there, ate some yummy food, and came back to his place.

As exciting as it is in Thailand, I must admit to still feeling attached to Bhutan. I loved the place, the people, the general tranquility and wish I was still there!

* Please remember that I rarely know what I'm talking about and there's every chance what I've told you about the traditions of Songkran is wrong.

The Kingdom in the Clouds

2007-04-10T22:59:00.000-07:00

I recently returned to Thailand after a week away in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. Fortunately I knew some Bhutanese friends from highschool (via my little sister), so it was with them that I stayed and was taken around by. I had a crammed itinerary of temples, fortress-monastery-administrative-centres (dzongs), basketball, food, trip to the cinema, hiking & more. In fact, there was so much going on that there's no way I can document it all in my blog. Instead I'll aim for broad generalisation and let my photos fill in any details.

Paro Dzong (fortress monastery)

Bhutan is beautiful. It felt like being inside Hayao Miyazaki's film Princess Mononoke, with its forests, sublime landscape, folklore and nature spirits. Bhutan is mountainous and densely forested. It's people are friendly and peace-loving. It is occupies a slice of the Himalayas perched between the tall peaks of Tibet to the flatlands of India. Ethnically and culturally its people mostly derive from centuries of immigration from Tibet, though there are Nepali and Indian influences. Buddhism shapes the landscape through architecture, temples, prayer-flags, prayer-wheels and vast expanses of untouched forest (ok this is hard to qualify, but I think they have some kind of respect for nature spirits, to disturb the forest or lake would be rouse trouble). The culture is ancient and steeped in folklore and is very well preserved - most people wear traditional dress.

Ok, that's the broad-generalisation part done with. A cynic could list negative issues such as the abundance of stray dogs, poor medical facilities, bland food, poor literacy (less than 50%) and lack of infrastructure, but then I'm not very cynical and accepted these problems without much trouble. The food I even quite liked, most dishes being variants of cheese and chilli served with rice. They also enjoy Tibetan style dumplings called momos which were delicious. I even tried fried fern (with cheese and chilli).

This was originally going to be a trip with me and two friends from Thailand, but plans necessarily changed and in the end it was just me. All tourists must be accompanied by guides, so effectively I had a package tour for one. My guides/friends were excellent, and if anyone wants to go to Bhutan please get in touch with me.

I spent every night in the capital Thimpu, except for my last night where I stayed in Paro (near the airport). Most days out were thus day-trips from Thimpu. We made several hikes, reaching a highest elevation of about 4,100m. We visited many remote monasteries. I was even taken clubbing. Overall I had a fantastic time and lament the fact that I am no longer there. I found it to be friendly, tranquil, sublime and less obsessed by materialism than most of the West. I loved the place and hope to go back some day!

Please enjoy my photos =)

Factories and Monks in Thailand

2007-03-30T21:26:00.000-07:00

Factories
In my previous post I mentioned my visit to Samut Sakhorn where I hung out around shrimp processing and ice producing factories. Since then, I have visited two more factories, belonging to the family of a different friend. The last factories I visited were a bridal gown factory and a garment factory. From the few factories I've seen in Thailand, it seems to be that women operate the mass-production lines, where the men operate the heavy machinery. There must be exceptions, but this appears to be the trend.

Bridal gown factory outside of Bangkok

Garment factory outside of Bangkok

Monks
The reason I made the visit to the above pair of factories was to take part in a 'tham bun' ceremony, which I loosely (and most likely erroneously) understand to mean a Buddhist ceremony of offering merit and gifts to the monkhood on behalf of the factory, in return for their blessing and good luck. A long time ago my friend Krisanai and I worked out that 'tham bun' in Buddhist tradition must be similar to the notion of performing 'mitzvah' in the Jewish culture - the doing of general good deed.

This particular ceremony consisted of two phases:

Prayer followed by food
The ceremony commences with the arrival and seating of the monks. The representatives of the factory (and me) then approach, bowing three times on the floor out of respect. The monks then begin chanting, I think in sanskrit, while we sit clamping our hands as in prayer, for about 30 minutes. If the wait was shorter than 30 minutes, it didn't feel it. This is then followed by the offering of food to the monks. Monks in Thailand can only eat one meal per day, and only before midday.

Monks in prayer

Monks being served lunch as part of 'tham bun' ceremony

Prayer followed by the offering of gifts in exchange for the blessing of the monks
My memory is loose, but I believe there was a bit more praying after lunch. We then each approach a monk and give them a bucket filled with practical gifts such as candles, matches etc. After receiving the gifts, the monks then pour some water from a jar into a cup. As the monk pours the water, one person must touch the cup. Another person must touch him and so on until we have a circuit of everyone touching someone, with one person touching the cup. The monk then takes the water from the cup and transfers it to some kind of reed/sticks. I didn't get a good look. He then blesses us by throwing water on us, ridding us of any evil.

This was about the end of the ceremony, eventually the monks left. We then had lunch, finishing off any food the monks didn't eat. It is considered good luck to eat after the monks. And so concluded the 'tham bun' ceremony.

Once again, you can see all my photos on my flickr site.