Happy channuka and merry christmas from melbourne. Just a brief update for those who were starting to get worried.
Life here in Melbourne has been fairly quiet of late. I am working hard (...well, working at least) as a chef at a steak restaurant in town. I dont get as many hours as i would like so money is a bit tight but will hopefully get more hours after new year.
Im still managing to go out and enjoy the nightlife and do a fair bit of socialising. I started a team in a futsal (type of football) league in Albert Park. Its used as the F1 track so we play in hall 3 above the ferarri pit lane. A little weird driving up to it.
Weather is good so its shorts and t-shirt everyday and occasionaly sunbathing in the garden. Made all the better after i spoke to home today where it is -3.
anyway, i am still alive and doing well. I should be back home in May.
cheers
Sunday 13 December 2009
Sunday 25 October 2009
Settling down
I have been putting off writing the blog for a while. Its because i wanted to wait until I was in Melbourne and sorted out with a job and a routine. Unfortunately its taken me rather a while to achieve this. I live with a friend I went to high school with in Scotland but who is originally from Melbourne called Ashley. He has a 3 bedroom house so it was perfect for me and richard mail to move into. My room is at the back of the house and gets really cold at night, although I've been told it will be much worse in summer when my room will reach temperatures which exceed that of the sun.
I have been searching for a job since I got here without much success. I started looking for jobs in places where i would like to work. Cinemas, video shops and generally other easy jobs which dont involve too much thinking or enthusiasm. I got a call one day at 10:30am which woke me up. The person asked me to come in for an interview the following day. Being half asleep i forgot to ask which job it was in refrence too. So i got into a bit of a panick and needed to find some smart clothes for this interview. I asked a guy i know called Cal if i could borrow some plain black trousers. He said sure he would get them later. Eventually he did. The trousers he handed over were neither black nor plain. The were blue pinstripe with a huge hole down the side and back. On the upside though, they were the correct size. So I had to go to the interview wearing these trousers where, despite my best effort with safety pins, you could still see my bum. The job (which i got) was harassing businesses asking them for money for a charity. It didnt pay very well and wasnt what i was looking for. So I had to start again. About a week ago I got a job in a call centre making outbound calls. It had got to the point where i had to take anything that was offered to me.
Meanwhile, a guy i had met who ran a restaurant said he may be able to get me work as a chef. Which I would love. You get to cook, eat, chat, swear (if what I see on tv is right) and dont have to smile and be polite to customers. After getting the call centre job I called him and he said he would give me a job which starts in a couple of weeks. So I quit after my first full day at the call centre. I wasnt prepared to get abuse down the phone for the next 6 months. Funnily enough, 3 out of the 4 people that started that day quit. Seems like people think they are desparate, until they start working there.
So in a couple of weeks i should be fairly settled, with a house and a job. Its just coming into summer so im looking forward to trips to the beach and whatever else people do in sunny countries. I should be staying here for about 6 months, then another month travelling around the east coast of australia and then a final month in New Zealand and Fiji.
My new address is:
273 Bambra Rd, Caulfield South, Melbourne, 3162 Australia
I have been searching for a job since I got here without much success. I started looking for jobs in places where i would like to work. Cinemas, video shops and generally other easy jobs which dont involve too much thinking or enthusiasm. I got a call one day at 10:30am which woke me up. The person asked me to come in for an interview the following day. Being half asleep i forgot to ask which job it was in refrence too. So i got into a bit of a panick and needed to find some smart clothes for this interview. I asked a guy i know called Cal if i could borrow some plain black trousers. He said sure he would get them later. Eventually he did. The trousers he handed over were neither black nor plain. The were blue pinstripe with a huge hole down the side and back. On the upside though, they were the correct size. So I had to go to the interview wearing these trousers where, despite my best effort with safety pins, you could still see my bum. The job (which i got) was harassing businesses asking them for money for a charity. It didnt pay very well and wasnt what i was looking for. So I had to start again. About a week ago I got a job in a call centre making outbound calls. It had got to the point where i had to take anything that was offered to me.
Meanwhile, a guy i had met who ran a restaurant said he may be able to get me work as a chef. Which I would love. You get to cook, eat, chat, swear (if what I see on tv is right) and dont have to smile and be polite to customers. After getting the call centre job I called him and he said he would give me a job which starts in a couple of weeks. So I quit after my first full day at the call centre. I wasnt prepared to get abuse down the phone for the next 6 months. Funnily enough, 3 out of the 4 people that started that day quit. Seems like people think they are desparate, until they start working there.
So in a couple of weeks i should be fairly settled, with a house and a job. Its just coming into summer so im looking forward to trips to the beach and whatever else people do in sunny countries. I should be staying here for about 6 months, then another month travelling around the east coast of australia and then a final month in New Zealand and Fiji.
My new address is:
273 Bambra Rd, Caulfield South, Melbourne, 3162 Australia
Sunday 13 September 2009
The Outback
These are some pictures of the trip which show the journey from Broome to Alice Springs. The wide open road, road kill, wind, sandstorms, and Uluru (Ayers rock) in dry sun and thunder storms.
It was an organised trip which me and Richard Mail took with a company called Western Exposure. It was on a bus travelling up the coast seeing beaches, gorges and other really impressive sights. Unfortunately i didn't bring those pictures with me to the Internet cafe otherwise i would have put them up. Some highlights were... running a snake over in the bus, then reversing back to watch it writhe about before it took its final breath and then some brave lad (not me) picked it up with a stick and threw it into the bushes. Gorge walking in big red canyons with green trees and blue skies above. Got some good pictures but at this time of year the water is surprisingly cold and the cliffs rather precarious... although cliffs are probably dangerous at all times of the year. Anyway, once this 10 day trip was over i arrived in Broome to pick up my rental camper van.
The plan was to do a car relocation (a very cheap way to rent vehicles) from Broome to Alice Springs then go from Alice Springs to Melbourne. However once i arrived at Britz they informed me and Mail that the car had been cancelled. After a couple of hours of argument and walking around in the overwhelming heat looking at different companies. We settled on a low budget camper van company to take us to Darwin. --From Darwin we pick up a decent camper van for very cheap but we have to drive it to Sydney... where we will need to find transport back to Melbourne. Complicated. Yes. Unnecessary. Probably.-- Anyway. We were in the budget 'wicked camper' car lot and asked for the cheapest, crappiest car that would make it to Darwin. The guy took us deep into the storage yard, which looked a little too much like a scrap yard for my liking, and we came across a blue painted monstrosity. The thing started up... just, with a lot of shuddering and shaking. It was dirty, smelly, rusty and hardly what one would call road worthy, however this was to be our home for the next 5 nights (the 5th night being tonight). Uneconomical does not begin to describe this thing. 4 gears, automatic, petrol. Not good, but on the up side the A/C doesnt work so at least that doesnt waste petrol. It does mean you need to drive with all the windows open at all times which is not good for fumes, dust or volume. So we drove this thing from Broome to Darwin where we are now.Its about 2500km (or... many many miles). The van has insects the size of my head, an ant infestation, at night the temperature is probably close to that of the sun, lights dont work, when the engine is turned off the car continues to shudder for a good 30 seconds and the cooking facilities are... well... not good. All that being said, it was a fun few days. We saw some national parks, a lot of flies and a lot of outback. Here are some picture from that trip.
Me surfing on the the blue monster... I hope the rental people don't see this.
I ran out of time and the pictures wouldnt upload. Only the first one. Will try to change this shortly.
Friday 28 August 2009
Back in the first world
JAVA
I went to Jogjakarta which is a big city in central Java. It was very cultural, lots of museums and arty things to do. Obviously this meant i spent most of my time in a Belgian owned restaurant which sold freshly made chocolate. It was a great experience of Belgian culture... in Indonesia. Whilst i was there, known terrorist and the FBI number 3 most wanted man, Nordin Top was thought to have been killed in a shoot-out with police. This happened about 50 miles from where i was. As it turned out the person they actually killed was a florist... who was also a terrorist and involved in the Jakarta bombs.
After Jogja I went on travelling to a eco-tourism site. At the train station I was informed there would be no train today as 5 carriages de-railed the previous night. Not sure how many people died but not much was said about it. Apparently that sort of thing is very common. So I got the bus instead. It was a local bus and not air-conditioned. I think it was probably hotter than the sun. The eco-tourism site was in a nice spot with fairly decent facilities. The bathroom was outdoors, as in it had 3 walls and no roof. A little weird. I like nature as much as the next person but that was perhaps a little too close to nature.I was now in volcano country. Everywhere there were massive volcanoes, some active and some dormant. It was quite a spectacular place. Mt Bromo was a definite highlight. People go to Bromo for the sunrise over the volcano. They set up a grandstand and it was quite weird to see 300 Japanese people cheering as the sun came up at 5am. It felt very touristy but the views were great. (I tried to upload some pictures i took but it didn't work so here is one from the internet which is similar to my own). After Bromo i got another bus (with A/C this time thankfully) and got a boat over to Bali.
Rice Paddy
Mount Bromo (my excellent photography!)
Nice quiet beach for surfing
BALI
I started in north Bali and one of the highlights was snorkelling over a shipwreck. It was a weird experience. You could go down and touch it and see in some of the rooms. There were colourful fish everywhere. The ship was an American merchant ship which was wrecked during the 2nd world war and just left there.
I got to Ubud in central Bali where i was to meet Richard Mail, my friend who i will be travelling with from now on. The night i met him i felt quite ill. I had stomach cramps and generally felt run down. So the next 10 days were spent in bed watching DVD's and going on short walks where i was constantly calculating the distance to the nearest toilet. I did manage to get a little surfing done in this time and enjoy the sun by the pool. I think i lost some weight being ill and when i last looked in the mirror i looked like Christian Bale from 'The Machinist'... for those of you who arent very up on popular culture, that means i looked very skinny. Me and Mail flew to Perth in Western Australia 3 days ago.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
I arrived in Perth and was struck by how similar it was to Canada. Very clean, wide roads, nice friendly people. It was nice to be in the first world again and be able to get what you wanted and not have to worry about getting cholera or tetanus by just walking down the street. I have come to Fremantle which is a suburb of Perth to see one of my friends who i met on my travels 6 years ago. That was a little weird but went well. Im headed on a trip to Broome tomorrow and then getting a camper van through the desert to Alice Springs and then onto Melbourne (that is about 5000km!). Should be in Melbourne in 3 weeks where i will start looking for a job and a place to live. Still a little ill but I think I'm getting better, and will hopefully start putting on weight soon. Shouldn't be too hard here. Portions are of the American style, large and full of fat.
A run-over snake on its last legs... sort of
Friday 7 August 2009
erehpsimeh nrehtuos
I arrived safely in Bangkok to start the next leg of my journey to Singapore. I decided to this part as a semi organized tour with a company called intrepid. Intrepid arranged accommodation and travel from place to place. The trip from Bangkok to Singapore took 15 days. I thought that it would be busy at this time of year with lots of students and backpackers in a similar position to myself. How wrong i was. I walked into my room on the first day to discover i was sharing with an elderly Italian gentleman and that there was only 3 other people taking that tour. My 78 year old room mate didn't speak English too well so we didn't spend a lot of time together. When we did, i had to hold myself back from asking questions about the war and what things used to be like in the good old days.
The tour went to national parks, beaches, islands and big cities in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The border crossing from Thailand into Malaysia went smoothly and offered an opportunity to see the largest insect i have seen in my life. It was some sort of grasshopper and it was sat just above the window for immigration. It was roughly the length from my elbow to the tips of my fingers. Fortunately it didn't move very much but it did make for some tourists a little more nervous looking than they should have been at a border crossing.
Once in Malaysia i visited Penang. I was feeling a tad ill and after sitting at a disgusting (but cheap!) roadside cafe and not getting served i thought i would go over the road to a 5 star hotel which were doing a lunchtime buffet. It cost GBP10.50 which was a fortune for the area and they told me the buffet was only on for another 15 minutes. I said this was ok and got 2 large plates straight away and ate my way through the food whilst reading. When it came time to pay the manager said it was ok, i hadnt eaten much and the food was going to waste anyway so i didnt have to pay. Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch!?
After reaching Singapore i got on a short flight, crossed the equator and arrived in busy Jakarta, Indonesia. I have had a few days surfing in southern Java which has been lots of fun if very painful at times. Yesterday i got up at 7am and went surfing on my own on a beach that was almost deserted other than some fisherman. Im travelling east across Java to the island of Bali where i am meeting a couple of friends and spending about 10 days on the beach. It will be good to spend more than 3 days in one place as i havent done that in around 2 months. After Bali im off to Australia where im looking forward to cereal and cheese which i havent seen much, if any of, in a long time.
The tour went to national parks, beaches, islands and big cities in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The border crossing from Thailand into Malaysia went smoothly and offered an opportunity to see the largest insect i have seen in my life. It was some sort of grasshopper and it was sat just above the window for immigration. It was roughly the length from my elbow to the tips of my fingers. Fortunately it didn't move very much but it did make for some tourists a little more nervous looking than they should have been at a border crossing.
Once in Malaysia i visited Penang. I was feeling a tad ill and after sitting at a disgusting (but cheap!) roadside cafe and not getting served i thought i would go over the road to a 5 star hotel which were doing a lunchtime buffet. It cost GBP10.50 which was a fortune for the area and they told me the buffet was only on for another 15 minutes. I said this was ok and got 2 large plates straight away and ate my way through the food whilst reading. When it came time to pay the manager said it was ok, i hadnt eaten much and the food was going to waste anyway so i didnt have to pay. Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch!?
After reaching Singapore i got on a short flight, crossed the equator and arrived in busy Jakarta, Indonesia. I have had a few days surfing in southern Java which has been lots of fun if very painful at times. Yesterday i got up at 7am and went surfing on my own on a beach that was almost deserted other than some fisherman. Im travelling east across Java to the island of Bali where i am meeting a couple of friends and spending about 10 days on the beach. It will be good to spend more than 3 days in one place as i havent done that in around 2 months. After Bali im off to Australia where im looking forward to cereal and cheese which i havent seen much, if any of, in a long time.
Thursday 16 July 2009
Richard 'so good with chopsticks he only needs 1' Alexander
Hong Kong was great, until i got to the airport. I was a little early for my flight so i decided to get some food before i flew. I went up to the counter to pay for my KFC (fast food joints are only allowed when traveling if they are in an airport. Its the rule) only to find i didn't have any cash left. No problem, just get some from an ATM. I left my 'chicken' at the counter and found an ATM only to discover that my usual visa debit wasn't in my wallet. Not panic time yet, probably just in my other shorts. So i had to go into my big backpack to get my backup credit card. I put it into the ATM and put in my pin. INCORRECT - TRY AGAIN. ok... INCORRECT - TRY AGAIN..but its definitely... INCORRECT - YOUR CARD HAS BEEN RETAINED. OK, panic time. I fished out my emergency $50 and paid for my now cold food. After searching thoroughly through my bag and finding nothing I checked my bag at the check in desk. As i walked away wondering if my life could get any worse, my flip-flop snapped rendering it useless. I was on a flight to Saigon, alone, with 1 shoe, $45 to last me indefinitely and no plans.
Fortunately Vietnam is a good country to be stuck in with a money problem. $45, or 810,000 Dong, goes a long way. My first day i visited the Cu-Chi tunnels which were used by the Viet Cong when fighting the Americans. The tunnels were cramped but quite interesting.
There was also optional gun shooting, a tad insensitive some may say. I, being insensitive, chose to shoot an AK47. It was alarmingly similar to paintball. The next day was raining so i thought i would go to a nice hotel about 2 miles away to use their indoor pool. I went up to a man beside a motorbike (moto taxi's are everywhere) and he said he would take me after we had agreed a price. At this point he started walking away from the motorbike and towards a romantic looking pedal rickshaw. I grudgingly got in and gave the driver a look of "this isn't what i agreed to", and spent the next 25 minutes getting soaked and laughed at by every passing motor biker as well as pedestrians, shop owners, school children, etc.
When i got back to the hostel there was a new person sitting on the bed beside mine.
Me: Hi, you traveling alone?
Stranger: yeh
Me: Want to get some food and check out the night market?
Stranger: Sure, just let me finish by beer
(Stranger reaches into a plastic bag and pulls out an un-open beer. Opens it.)
Me: How many have you had?
Stranger: Um... 6
Me: ...oh
The stranger, Jules, was from Germany and had just finished a year working in Australia. We went out for drinks that night and met some other people who were headed for Dalat (in the mountains, 8 hours away) the next day. Being a few drinks in, we decided this was a great idea and booked tickets right away. The 2 people we were traveling with were an Iraqi/American atheist who used to own a bar in Panama and an Israeli girl. In Dalat we met a couple from Stratford. The 6 of us became travel buddies and took the 'top gear Vietnam special' route up through the country for the next 2 weeks.
Highlights included a beach party in Nha Trang where Jules disappeared, then reappeared soaked. The next day he told us he went for a walk along the beach and fell into the sea. Hoi An, where we all rented scooters and found a deserted beach. That night a promoter for one of the bars tried to coax us in with the promise of free drinks. After assuring us there was no catch, we went along to discover a small bar with drinks completely free from 9pm-11pm. It was only 9:30 so by 11:30 we were out again having drank plenty and paid nothing. Halong bay was a really nice place to finish my trip around Vietnam.
Having spent so long in Vietnam it meant shortening my trip to Cambodia. After flying from Hanoi i arrived in Siem Riep. Today was spent cycling around the Ankor Wat temple complex. It wasn't a great idea to choose to cycle since it is the rainy season, about 35 degrees and the distances are rather large. This gave me the choice of either a raincoat/plastic bag and getting soaked in sweat but having a dry rucksack, or no raincoat and getting soaked by rain along with by rucksack. I came home exhausted but impressed. Next is an apparently awful bus to Bangkok where i start my trip to Bali.
Some snaps.
A Vietnamese local takes a nap.
The crew enjoys some pizza.
Beach time in Nha Trang
Halong Bay.
Ankor Wat.
Fortunately Vietnam is a good country to be stuck in with a money problem. $45, or 810,000 Dong, goes a long way. My first day i visited the Cu-Chi tunnels which were used by the Viet Cong when fighting the Americans. The tunnels were cramped but quite interesting.
There was also optional gun shooting, a tad insensitive some may say. I, being insensitive, chose to shoot an AK47. It was alarmingly similar to paintball. The next day was raining so i thought i would go to a nice hotel about 2 miles away to use their indoor pool. I went up to a man beside a motorbike (moto taxi's are everywhere) and he said he would take me after we had agreed a price. At this point he started walking away from the motorbike and towards a romantic looking pedal rickshaw. I grudgingly got in and gave the driver a look of "this isn't what i agreed to", and spent the next 25 minutes getting soaked and laughed at by every passing motor biker as well as pedestrians, shop owners, school children, etc.
When i got back to the hostel there was a new person sitting on the bed beside mine.
Me: Hi, you traveling alone?
Stranger: yeh
Me: Want to get some food and check out the night market?
Stranger: Sure, just let me finish by beer
(Stranger reaches into a plastic bag and pulls out an un-open beer. Opens it.)
Me: How many have you had?
Stranger: Um... 6
Me: ...oh
The stranger, Jules, was from Germany and had just finished a year working in Australia. We went out for drinks that night and met some other people who were headed for Dalat (in the mountains, 8 hours away) the next day. Being a few drinks in, we decided this was a great idea and booked tickets right away. The 2 people we were traveling with were an Iraqi/American atheist who used to own a bar in Panama and an Israeli girl. In Dalat we met a couple from Stratford. The 6 of us became travel buddies and took the 'top gear Vietnam special' route up through the country for the next 2 weeks.
Highlights included a beach party in Nha Trang where Jules disappeared, then reappeared soaked. The next day he told us he went for a walk along the beach and fell into the sea. Hoi An, where we all rented scooters and found a deserted beach. That night a promoter for one of the bars tried to coax us in with the promise of free drinks. After assuring us there was no catch, we went along to discover a small bar with drinks completely free from 9pm-11pm. It was only 9:30 so by 11:30 we were out again having drank plenty and paid nothing. Halong bay was a really nice place to finish my trip around Vietnam.
Having spent so long in Vietnam it meant shortening my trip to Cambodia. After flying from Hanoi i arrived in Siem Riep. Today was spent cycling around the Ankor Wat temple complex. It wasn't a great idea to choose to cycle since it is the rainy season, about 35 degrees and the distances are rather large. This gave me the choice of either a raincoat/plastic bag and getting soaked in sweat but having a dry rucksack, or no raincoat and getting soaked by rain along with by rucksack. I came home exhausted but impressed. Next is an apparently awful bus to Bangkok where i start my trip to Bali.
Some snaps.
A Vietnamese local takes a nap.
The crew enjoys some pizza.
Beach time in Nha Trang
Halong Bay.
Ankor Wat.
Sunday 28 June 2009
Hong 'How much!?' Kong
I left the martial arts academy just over a week ago now. It was a strange mix of emotions to leave as I was enjoying it a lot and miss the friends i made. However i don't miss the constant bruises, cuts and general pain so much. I got the train from Yantai to Xi'an which took 25 hours. It wasn't a great 25 hours as i only spoke to a 9 year old Chinese boy (i made my first joke in Chinese, i was very proud) and didn't eat or sleep much. The bed was a top bunk and was rather short and close to the ceiling so i couldn't sit up or stretch out properly. I got there eventually and found my hostel. I met a Uruguayan/Israeli who was impressed enough by bad Spanish and worse Hebrew to invite me to see the Terracotta Warriors the following day. They were quite impressive but very similar to photos obviously and exactly how you would imagine them... but with more Chinese tourists surrounding them. Xi'an isn't the most exciting city and i was glad i was only there for a couple of days but it was really nice to start meeting people and hearing there stories. The real travels had begun. As i was now a real traveller i had to wear flip flops at all times and clear some space in my bag to accumulate junk and useless tat. I sent my large towel home along with my trainers and waterproof jacket and went to Yanshuo.
I arrived in Guilin in pouring rain. I hadn't considered that it may be rainy season in south china during may and June before jettisoning my jacket and towel. From guilin i had to get a bus to yanshuo. The bus took 2 hours instead of the 30 minutes it should have taken as the woman selling the tickets was hanging out the door the whole time, and hopping off every 100 yards to try and harass locals and tourists alike into going to yanshuo, 'cheap price' of course. I got off the bus and started the search for my hostel which i had dotted on a rough map. It wasn't where it was supposed to be. It was still raining, i had no jacket or towel and had my big backpack (admittedly slightly lighter) was weighing me down. I was getting a little antsy to say the least. A chinese guy came up to me saying he knew where my hostel was. Turned out he just new where a hostel was, not my hostel. Anyway after trudging around with him for an hour we found it. At the desk they asked me for payment (i had already paid a deposit) so i went into my wallet and realised i had run out of money and needed a bank machine. No problem, my new chinese friend knew where a bank was just round the corner. It was out of money. The next bank, chinese agricultural bank, only for farmers... obviously. The third bank would not accept my card. So i went back to the hostel moneyless and wet. They agreed to let me pay tomorrow and my new chinese friend, chao choo, said he would buy me dinner. Turns out he was a student and just in town to practice English. I was happy to talk to him for a free dinner. After that shaky start (i eventually found a bank that accepted my card) and with a new friend in tow i went about exploring the countryside around yangshuo. Its an amazing place. Huge karst hills covered in trees are everywhere and are crossed by streams and rivers.
I went about exploring by bike and then by scooter the next day with chao choo. We spoke to local farmers who use buffalo to plow their fields and rice Paddy's. It was interesting to see rural china and speak with local people. The food, although equally interesting was not always a great experience. Especially with chao choo saying "this is a very special dish here, we should get it". "It" always seemed to be far too spicy for me and usually involved me putting on a brave face as a variety of animals and weird vegetables were served. I met other people at the hostel and we went for a swim at a secret beach which was great and i also went with a swiss couple and choa choo to hot springs and mud pits which were in a cave. To get to the hot springs and mud pits you had to go on a boat into the cave which was very low and claustrophobic. I would liken it to the pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney, but with no pirates, no singing and no regard for safety. The mud pits were fun and i got a few good Martin Sheen/Apocalypse now inspired pictures. After 4 days or so in yanshuo i got the bus to shenzhen.
The bus to shenzhen is a sleeper bus. I had never heard of a sleeper bus but thought that 12 hours over night on a bus with beds would be better than a bus with seats. I was wrong. The coach is arranged into three rows and 2 levels of beds. The beds are too small for an average sized westerner. You are forced to put your legs at awkward angles just to fit, comfort was clearly not their number one concern. Then you get people shouting on the phones in chinese, people smoking and a movie on all night with sound. Why have sound on a sleeper bus? About 3 hours in, the bus was full but that didn't stop them picking up passengers. A guy came and made his bed on the tiny aisle space between me and the next person. His head was literally 2 inches away from mine. I turned the other way and put my jumper over my head to make it less awkward. This was fine for 10 minutes until he fell asleep (quite how, i don't know) and started to lean into me. I had to keep pushing him off, fairly violently at times, but he just continued to sleep. After a sleepless night i arrived in Shenzhen with extreme pain and numbness from the 'bed'. I wasn't at the bus station i thought i would arrive at and it took me a while and much pointing and pantomiming from the local officials to realise i had to get to the other end of the city to go into Hong kong.
Finally i arrived in my hostel at Hong Kong after a bus, taxi, train and an hour on the metro. I was told by the receptionist check in time wasn't until 2. i had 3 hours to kill, so being tired and hungry i went to the cinema. It was nice to sit in a comfortable chair and just watch a film that wasn't in chinese. I got back to the hostel and met my new room mates who were just about to go for food so i joined them. Then we started drinking at the hostel which led to going out of the hostel to drink and into the bar area of the city. It was pouring down all night but was great fun. I got lost for a short time and fell into a large puddle in front of a lot of people, it wasn't my finest moment but i picked myself up and got on with it. The night ended at 5am with me talking to a guy from LA in a McDonalds about nightlife in bangkok... that's not a euphemism. This morning i didn't feel great, although the vomiting sounds coming from the toilet told me i was doing better than some of my roommates. Hong kong is great but really expensive so its probably for the best that I'm leaving for Vietnam tomorrow.
P.S.
Now that I'm out of china and can use my blog properly i will try to put pictures up in the relevant places in each post. My chinese phone is out of commission so don't try to call. Keep the emails and messages coming.
I arrived in Guilin in pouring rain. I hadn't considered that it may be rainy season in south china during may and June before jettisoning my jacket and towel. From guilin i had to get a bus to yanshuo. The bus took 2 hours instead of the 30 minutes it should have taken as the woman selling the tickets was hanging out the door the whole time, and hopping off every 100 yards to try and harass locals and tourists alike into going to yanshuo, 'cheap price' of course. I got off the bus and started the search for my hostel which i had dotted on a rough map. It wasn't where it was supposed to be. It was still raining, i had no jacket or towel and had my big backpack (admittedly slightly lighter) was weighing me down. I was getting a little antsy to say the least. A chinese guy came up to me saying he knew where my hostel was. Turned out he just new where a hostel was, not my hostel. Anyway after trudging around with him for an hour we found it. At the desk they asked me for payment (i had already paid a deposit) so i went into my wallet and realised i had run out of money and needed a bank machine. No problem, my new chinese friend knew where a bank was just round the corner. It was out of money. The next bank, chinese agricultural bank, only for farmers... obviously. The third bank would not accept my card. So i went back to the hostel moneyless and wet. They agreed to let me pay tomorrow and my new chinese friend, chao choo, said he would buy me dinner. Turns out he was a student and just in town to practice English. I was happy to talk to him for a free dinner. After that shaky start (i eventually found a bank that accepted my card) and with a new friend in tow i went about exploring the countryside around yangshuo. Its an amazing place. Huge karst hills covered in trees are everywhere and are crossed by streams and rivers.
I went about exploring by bike and then by scooter the next day with chao choo. We spoke to local farmers who use buffalo to plow their fields and rice Paddy's. It was interesting to see rural china and speak with local people. The food, although equally interesting was not always a great experience. Especially with chao choo saying "this is a very special dish here, we should get it". "It" always seemed to be far too spicy for me and usually involved me putting on a brave face as a variety of animals and weird vegetables were served. I met other people at the hostel and we went for a swim at a secret beach which was great and i also went with a swiss couple and choa choo to hot springs and mud pits which were in a cave. To get to the hot springs and mud pits you had to go on a boat into the cave which was very low and claustrophobic. I would liken it to the pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney, but with no pirates, no singing and no regard for safety. The mud pits were fun and i got a few good Martin Sheen/Apocalypse now inspired pictures. After 4 days or so in yanshuo i got the bus to shenzhen.
The bus to shenzhen is a sleeper bus. I had never heard of a sleeper bus but thought that 12 hours over night on a bus with beds would be better than a bus with seats. I was wrong. The coach is arranged into three rows and 2 levels of beds. The beds are too small for an average sized westerner. You are forced to put your legs at awkward angles just to fit, comfort was clearly not their number one concern. Then you get people shouting on the phones in chinese, people smoking and a movie on all night with sound. Why have sound on a sleeper bus? About 3 hours in, the bus was full but that didn't stop them picking up passengers. A guy came and made his bed on the tiny aisle space between me and the next person. His head was literally 2 inches away from mine. I turned the other way and put my jumper over my head to make it less awkward. This was fine for 10 minutes until he fell asleep (quite how, i don't know) and started to lean into me. I had to keep pushing him off, fairly violently at times, but he just continued to sleep. After a sleepless night i arrived in Shenzhen with extreme pain and numbness from the 'bed'. I wasn't at the bus station i thought i would arrive at and it took me a while and much pointing and pantomiming from the local officials to realise i had to get to the other end of the city to go into Hong kong.
Finally i arrived in my hostel at Hong Kong after a bus, taxi, train and an hour on the metro. I was told by the receptionist check in time wasn't until 2. i had 3 hours to kill, so being tired and hungry i went to the cinema. It was nice to sit in a comfortable chair and just watch a film that wasn't in chinese. I got back to the hostel and met my new room mates who were just about to go for food so i joined them. Then we started drinking at the hostel which led to going out of the hostel to drink and into the bar area of the city. It was pouring down all night but was great fun. I got lost for a short time and fell into a large puddle in front of a lot of people, it wasn't my finest moment but i picked myself up and got on with it. The night ended at 5am with me talking to a guy from LA in a McDonalds about nightlife in bangkok... that's not a euphemism. This morning i didn't feel great, although the vomiting sounds coming from the toilet told me i was doing better than some of my roommates. Hong kong is great but really expensive so its probably for the best that I'm leaving for Vietnam tomorrow.
P.S.
Now that I'm out of china and can use my blog properly i will try to put pictures up in the relevant places in each post. My chinese phone is out of commission so don't try to call. Keep the emails and messages coming.
Sunday 14 June 2009
End of the kunyu shan dynasty
In a few days time I will be leaving Kunyu Shan martial arts academy. Its been hard work here at times but lots of fun. The past week has been quite busy. Firstly there was a grading which meant getting up on a stage on my own in front of the whole academy with the masters sitting at the front. I ran through the moves that I had learned which was a complex series of punches, kicks, sweeps etc. It was quite a scary moment but i did well enough to pass without my shorts splitting or any other disasters.
Friday was sparring day and against all my instincts and common sense I decided to go for it. Again the whole academy watches, standing around the boxing ring shouting encouragement and advice. The fight is two 3 minute rounds with a short break in between. It went reasonably well, I wasn't bleeding at the end and I was conscious so an overall success. My opponent, Andrea, thought it went well too... No, he's not a woman, just Italian.
That night we went out to a club in Yantai which was great fun and a huge contrast to life here at the academy. The rest of the weekend was spent laying by the lake in the sun and going for the occasional swim. There are snakes that live in the lake and can be seen swimming about (6 feet + !!), but the Chinese guy we asked said they weren't poisonous and very tasty.
When I leave here I'm travelling solo again and getting the train to Xi-an for a few days. Then travelling through China to Hong Kong and on to the South East Asian part of my trip. I should get to Vietnam by the last day in June.
Friday was sparring day and against all my instincts and common sense I decided to go for it. Again the whole academy watches, standing around the boxing ring shouting encouragement and advice. The fight is two 3 minute rounds with a short break in between. It went reasonably well, I wasn't bleeding at the end and I was conscious so an overall success. My opponent, Andrea, thought it went well too... No, he's not a woman, just Italian.
That night we went out to a club in Yantai which was great fun and a huge contrast to life here at the academy. The rest of the weekend was spent laying by the lake in the sun and going for the occasional swim. There are snakes that live in the lake and can be seen swimming about (6 feet + !!), but the Chinese guy we asked said they weren't poisonous and very tasty.
When I leave here I'm travelling solo again and getting the train to Xi-an for a few days. Then travelling through China to Hong Kong and on to the South East Asian part of my trip. I should get to Vietnam by the last day in June.
Sunday 31 May 2009
Kung Fu Griping
For the past 2 weeks I have been in a martial arts academy in the mountains of China. Life here is very enjoyable in some aspects, and less so in others. The academy is a little like a boarding school with about 50 pupils, 6 'masters' and 4 translators. I share a small room with an 
american/arab who wears a cowboy hat and prays 3 times a day. The 3 toilets on my floor are shared between 25 guys and the plumbing is basic so... you get the idea. Meals are eaten in a food hall when the bell goes and is always rice, served in a big pot at the end of the room , and 5 plates of chicken, egg and vegetables in one combination or another. Apparently the food used to be terrible but is now quite nice... if you like chicken and rice.
Training is done either in the academy or at the temple which is a short walk up a steep hill. The temple has about 60 stairs which lead up to it and is exactly what you would imagine it to be like from any kung fu film you have seen. There is a platform at the temple where we practice and it has views of the mountains in the national park (http://www.chinatravelguide.com/ctgwiki/Kunyu_Mountain_National_Forest_Park).
If I had to choose anywhere to get the shit kicked out of me, it would be there. Training is split into groups under different masters depending on what you want to learn. My group has another scottish guy, an australian, an englishman, a hyper-active 16 year old brazillian and a guy from oman. Our master, or sheefu, in chinese, is Wong Sheefu, who speaks very l
ittle english but manages to get his point across by kicking us or shouting one of the 3 phrases he does know, 'more power!', 'punch' or 'kick'. Although that is just as good as my mandarin which includes 'hello', 'this one' and 'thank you'. The training includes a lot of running, a lot of stretching (including power stretching where you stretch as far as your body allows in a certain place and 1 or 2 people will stand/push on you to stretch you until you scream... then hold it for 30 seconds), conditioning (where a part of your body gets hurt lots by people hitting it and the theory goes that next time it won't hurt as much - Im still to see results), kung fu forms (punches, kicks etc), meditation (which on friday was sitting in shorts on a rock in the middle of a stream for an hour in 30 degree heat. Relaxing until the sun burn comes out), Power training, weights and sparring.
Every month there is also the chance for people to fight each other in the ring with the whole academy watching. This was on friday and Antonio (the hyper-active brazillian in my group) decided to fight properly for the first time. He was put up against Carlos, they touched gloves and the fight started. Its important to know at this stage that Antonio claims to love kung fu more than his mother (who shipped him off to china for 5 years to study it at the age of 16) and he has an unhealthy obsession with Bruce Lee. So the fight starts and Antonio steps forward, makes a 'whaaaa daaaaaaaaaaa!!!' screaming noise and kicks Carlos in the groin (which isn't allowed). Carlos doubles over and isnt heard from for the next 15 minutes, the whole time of which the entire academy is laughing hysterically.
Yesterday was a day off and i went into the local city (an hour away) called Yantai with 5 other students. We did some shopping then tried to find lunch. We decided that it would be good to try dog. So after telling our taxi driver this and a bit of a wild goose chase we ended up in a weird back alley with lots of animals in cages. Turned out to be a chinese pet store. So after looking at the animals for a while we decided most of us couldn't stomach dog for lunch so went for some silk worm instead (i passed on the silk worm too in favour of the more appealing 'mystery' meat).
After lunch we went to the beach which was packed. We got lots of stares to start with and even more once we started practising our punching and kicking routines in unison. Fortunately most of the stares were directed at Andy who is impossibly muscular, very blonde and has dreadlocks down to his bum. We later had a much deserved pizza hut and headed home. I have another couple of weeks here, then I'm off travelling through china with my limited mandarin and my now extremely full backpack.
P.S. Since writting the above I got back to Andy saying "Did you see the news?!". Confused I took a look at the paper he was waving about and it turned out one of the people taking pictures of us on the beach had been a photographer for the Yantai paper and Andy was on the front cover with a headline that translated as "white people practice chinese martial arts on the beach". Sadly they missed me out of the paper, obviously I wasnt quite 'white' enough for them.
american/arab who wears a cowboy hat and prays 3 times a day. The 3 toilets on my floor are shared between 25 guys and the plumbing is basic so... you get the idea. Meals are eaten in a food hall when the bell goes and is always rice, served in a big pot at the end of the room , and 5 plates of chicken, egg and vegetables in one combination or another. Apparently the food used to be terrible but is now quite nice... if you like chicken and rice.Training is done either in the academy or at the temple which is a short walk up a steep hill. The temple has about 60 stairs which lead up to it and is exactly what you would imagine it to be like from any kung fu film you have seen. There is a platform at the temple where we practice and it has views of the mountains in the national park (http://www.chinatravelguide.com/ctgwiki/Kunyu_Mountain_National_Forest_Park).
If I had to choose anywhere to get the shit kicked out of me, it would be there. Training is split into groups under different masters depending on what you want to learn. My group has another scottish guy, an australian, an englishman, a hyper-active 16 year old brazillian and a guy from oman. Our master, or sheefu, in chinese, is Wong Sheefu, who speaks very l
ittle english but manages to get his point across by kicking us or shouting one of the 3 phrases he does know, 'more power!', 'punch' or 'kick'. Although that is just as good as my mandarin which includes 'hello', 'this one' and 'thank you'. The training includes a lot of running, a lot of stretching (including power stretching where you stretch as far as your body allows in a certain place and 1 or 2 people will stand/push on you to stretch you until you scream... then hold it for 30 seconds), conditioning (where a part of your body gets hurt lots by people hitting it and the theory goes that next time it won't hurt as much - Im still to see results), kung fu forms (punches, kicks etc), meditation (which on friday was sitting in shorts on a rock in the middle of a stream for an hour in 30 degree heat. Relaxing until the sun burn comes out), Power training, weights and sparring.(This is a picture of my Sheefu (master) putting
his kung fu skills to good use by balancing on the
top of a ladder whilst fixing an electric box)
top of a ladder whilst fixing an electric box)
Every month there is also the chance for people to fight each other in the ring with the whole academy watching. This was on friday and Antonio (the hyper-active brazillian in my group) decided to fight properly for the first time. He was put up against Carlos, they touched gloves and the fight started. Its important to know at this stage that Antonio claims to love kung fu more than his mother (who shipped him off to china for 5 years to study it at the age of 16) and he has an unhealthy obsession with Bruce Lee. So the fight starts and Antonio steps forward, makes a 'whaaaa daaaaaaaaaaa!!!' screaming noise and kicks Carlos in the groin (which isn't allowed). Carlos doubles over and isnt heard from for the next 15 minutes, the whole time of which the entire academy is laughing hysterically.
Yesterday was a day off and i went into the local city (an hour away) called Yantai with 5 other students. We did some shopping then tried to find lunch. We decided that it would be good to try dog. So after telling our taxi driver this and a bit of a wild goose chase we ended up in a weird back alley with lots of animals in cages. Turned out to be a chinese pet store. So after looking at the animals for a while we decided most of us couldn't stomach dog for lunch so went for some silk worm instead (i passed on the silk worm too in favour of the more appealing 'mystery' meat).
After lunch we went to the beach which was packed. We got lots of stares to start with and even more once we started practising our punching and kicking routines in unison. Fortunately most of the stares were directed at Andy who is impossibly muscular, very blonde and has dreadlocks down to his bum. We later had a much deserved pizza hut and headed home. I have another couple of weeks here, then I'm off travelling through china with my limited mandarin and my now extremely full backpack.
P.S. Since writting the above I got back to Andy saying "Did you see the news?!". Confused I took a look at the paper he was waving about and it turned out one of the people taking pictures of us on the beach had been a photographer for the Yantai paper and Andy was on the front cover with a headline that translated as "white people practice chinese martial arts on the beach". Sadly they missed me out of the paper, obviously I wasnt quite 'white' enough for them.
Monday 18 May 2009
Destroyer the Hairdresser and Cakes made of nail polish
China have censored my blog. This means i dont know what i last wrote so excuse me if i cover old ground. (you may wonder how i managed to post this... thanks mum).
I was in Outer Mongolia about a week ago, so here is a brief summary. Stayed in a traditional ger camp, which is basically a tent/teepee thing. The countryside was nice, squat toilet out houses not so nice... especially in the dark. Curiously though in the middle of the mongolian steppe, miles from anywhere there was a small recreational hall (the only stone building for miles around) and in it was a full size snooker table. The mongolians were giving me all manner of snooker chat, 'did you watch the lastest tournament at the crucible?', 'what do you think of higgins?'. I dont think they were impressed with my knowledge.
I also went horse riding round semi dangerous cliffs (only dangerous when on a very nervous horse), tried some archery, hiked and saw some local yaks and wild horses. Back in Ulaan Baatar city i helped a charity project by digging a hole for an out house with a couple of my fellow travellers. When they told us it had to be 2m deep it was hard to hold back the "what a load of shit!".
After a discussion with Frank (an australian fellow traveller) about his goatee i discovered it had been on for 15 years. Since Frank is only 35 i found this slightly shocking. I agreed to shave my head if he got rid of the beard. We had both been putting this off for a while when we found we had free time. So we headed to a salon stylist place called 'destroyer' which seemed a strange and quite ominous name for a hairdresser. Anyway i got my head shaved and the only thing that was destroyed was my illusions of a perfect hairline. Frank duly followed and shaved his beard (he had it back 3 days later).
After Mongolia i got the train south through the Gobi desert, which was... dry and sandy, into china. On the train it was a girl called kirtys birthday. Someone had kindly bought her a cake and as it was opened a strange smell filled the carridge. Thinking nothing of it and cutting rather generous slices, we tucked in. After one bite it was clear that this cake was not for human consumption. It was filled with acetone (nail polish remover) and tasted, well, like it was filled with nail polish remover. I swallowed one bite and felt ill for the rest of the day. I eventually reached Beijing and have said goodbye to trains and my fellow travellers for the time being. I have made lots of friends and contacts for when i visit australia, so i shouldnt be short of a bed.
Beijing is a great city. The best part about it is the tiny streets called hutongs, which is where people live, sell things, travel through, keep pets, cook etc etc. good fun to walk through. The great wall was pretty great but quite cloudy. Food is great. I leave shortly for Yantai to start my shaolin kung fu training which should be... interesting.
P.S. should you wish to get hold of me, you can call me on my chinese mobile. From a landline, and to get the 1p a min rate, call 0844 861 7878 then listen to the automated instruction and dial 008613141140807. to text, its just +8613141140807... i think. im 7 hours ahead so no joly drunks calling at crazy hours
PPS. The reason the cake was filled with acetone, or so I guess, is that it is an offering for the Bhuddist Temples or Shaman Shrines and it is meant to last for ages and not be eaten. Quite why they have to fill them with sugar and flour I don't know.
I was in Outer Mongolia about a week ago, so here is a brief summary. Stayed in a traditional ger camp, which is basically a tent/teepee thing. The countryside was nice, squat toilet out houses not so nice... especially in the dark. Curiously though in the middle of the mongolian steppe, miles from anywhere there was a small recreational hall (the only stone building for miles around) and in it was a full size snooker table. The mongolians were giving me all manner of snooker chat, 'did you watch the lastest tournament at the crucible?', 'what do you think of higgins?'. I dont think they were impressed with my knowledge.
I also went horse riding round semi dangerous cliffs (only dangerous when on a very nervous horse), tried some archery, hiked and saw some local yaks and wild horses. Back in Ulaan Baatar city i helped a charity project by digging a hole for an out house with a couple of my fellow travellers. When they told us it had to be 2m deep it was hard to hold back the "what a load of shit!".
After a discussion with Frank (an australian fellow traveller) about his goatee i discovered it had been on for 15 years. Since Frank is only 35 i found this slightly shocking. I agreed to shave my head if he got rid of the beard. We had both been putting this off for a while when we found we had free time. So we headed to a salon stylist place called 'destroyer' which seemed a strange and quite ominous name for a hairdresser. Anyway i got my head shaved and the only thing that was destroyed was my illusions of a perfect hairline. Frank duly followed and shaved his beard (he had it back 3 days later).
After Mongolia i got the train south through the Gobi desert, which was... dry and sandy, into china. On the train it was a girl called kirtys birthday. Someone had kindly bought her a cake and as it was opened a strange smell filled the carridge. Thinking nothing of it and cutting rather generous slices, we tucked in. After one bite it was clear that this cake was not for human consumption. It was filled with acetone (nail polish remover) and tasted, well, like it was filled with nail polish remover. I swallowed one bite and felt ill for the rest of the day. I eventually reached Beijing and have said goodbye to trains and my fellow travellers for the time being. I have made lots of friends and contacts for when i visit australia, so i shouldnt be short of a bed.
Beijing is a great city. The best part about it is the tiny streets called hutongs, which is where people live, sell things, travel through, keep pets, cook etc etc. good fun to walk through. The great wall was pretty great but quite cloudy. Food is great. I leave shortly for Yantai to start my shaolin kung fu training which should be... interesting.
P.S. should you wish to get hold of me, you can call me on my chinese mobile. From a landline, and to get the 1p a min rate, call 0844 861 7878 then listen to the automated instruction and dial 008613141140807. to text, its just +8613141140807... i think. im 7 hours ahead so no joly drunks calling at crazy hours
PPS. The reason the cake was filled with acetone, or so I guess, is that it is an offering for the Bhuddist Temples or Shaman Shrines and it is meant to last for ages and not be eaten. Quite why they have to fill them with sugar and flour I don't know.
Wednesday 13 May 2009
For those who are concerned
I had the tick analysed in a lab and it is as healthy as a tick could be. Which means i remain disease free... for now
Saturday 9 May 2009
Ticked off
Sorry it has been a while since my last post but i have been rather busy with trains and... well really just trains... and really just one train. Since i last wrote i have been to Moscow, Suzdal and Listvyanka (on lake baikal). Not much else exciting happened in St Petersburg other than an angry thug man coming up to me and shouting russian in my face whilst making a blade across the throat sign. At this point i was a tad scared and reverted to my britishness by replying loudly and slowly, "Im sorry, i dont speak russian and dont understand you". I turned and walked away as casually as i could and hoped he wouldnt follow. He didnt and my throat is still in tact so... the lesson is, treat all would be muggers with good manners and a polite smile.
Suzdal does not deserve a paragraph. Its not that it was bad, just unremarkable. I would sum it up by saying it was overcast and had more churches in it than you could shake a stick at. (i do realise that by explaining why Suzdal doesnt deserve a paragraph i have given it one but hopefully you will overlook this slight mishap)
Moscow (or to give it its full title to travellers - 'Moscow, the most expensive city in the world') is actually rather nice but niceness only takes you so far when you have to pay six pounds for a starbucks coffee! Red square was nice lit up at night and there were lots of soldiers about. From Moscow i got the train to Irkustk which sounds like a fun old ride. It was four days and nights on a train populated by lots of jolly travellers and no shower. It was not the fun old ride you might imagine. I shared with 3 australians who i am travelling with which was pretty good as i wouldnt fancy sharing with a russian chowing down on borsht and sausage. I read 2 books, wrote in my diary, slept a lot and avoided going to the toilet at all costs. We cracked out the vodka at night which was good but not so great when it came to sleeping on the top bunk of a train which seemed to be going and down hills at an alarming rate. The food was noodles, chocolate and occasionally whatever an old lady was selling by the platform. Often this was mystery pastry. The mystery was usually potato or onions which arent the best in a warm greasy pastry. Needless to say i think i lost weight on the train. The view outside gradually changed between trees, small town, snow, power stations and different types of trees. The Taiga forest of Siberia is twice the size of continental USA (apparently. i didnt measure). The train was a good experience despite possibly leaving me with chronic back pain.
Anyway after arriving in Irkustk we got on a bus (a mere 2 hours as opposed to the 96 of the train) to Listvyanka. Its a small fishing town on the lake baikal which is bigger than all of americas great lakes put together. I stayed in a russian guest house owned by an enthusiatic man called Nicolay. After a good days hike which i went on my own and forgetting a map. I ended up in the forest and climbed a 500m hill (i later checked on the map). This was a good walk although i did get slightly concerned about bears and whittled (if that is indeed the correct verb) a spear - just in case. When i got down the mountain (which didnt have a path... or maybe it did but without a map...) i went into a cafe and kept finding what i thought were little insects in my hair. After quickly finishing my meal to escape the bugs i went back to Nicolays for a banya (which is like a sauna but with an over enthusiastic russian hitting you with birch twigs). It was at this point i noticed one of the insects attached to my hip. Nicolay calmly picked it off (it put up a fair fight) and put it aside, i thought 'if its not big deal to him, its probably fine'. Today i arrived in irkutsk again and the local guide told me that good old nicolay had passed on the tick, in a jar, and she was taking it to a local lab for testing. The test results are still to come back so i have no happy ending for you, or more importantly me, just yet. Although i have had the bill for this service (440 roubles if you wondered - about 8 pounds).
Anyway, im on the train again tonight for about 40 hours to Mongolia. Fingers crossed i dont get struck down with tick bourne encephalitis or any other hard to pronounce, and spell, diseases during the journey.
Suzdal does not deserve a paragraph. Its not that it was bad, just unremarkable. I would sum it up by saying it was overcast and had more churches in it than you could shake a stick at. (i do realise that by explaining why Suzdal doesnt deserve a paragraph i have given it one but hopefully you will overlook this slight mishap)
Moscow (or to give it its full title to travellers - 'Moscow, the most expensive city in the world') is actually rather nice but niceness only takes you so far when you have to pay six pounds for a starbucks coffee! Red square was nice lit up at night and there were lots of soldiers about. From Moscow i got the train to Irkustk which sounds like a fun old ride. It was four days and nights on a train populated by lots of jolly travellers and no shower. It was not the fun old ride you might imagine. I shared with 3 australians who i am travelling with which was pretty good as i wouldnt fancy sharing with a russian chowing down on borsht and sausage. I read 2 books, wrote in my diary, slept a lot and avoided going to the toilet at all costs. We cracked out the vodka at night which was good but not so great when it came to sleeping on the top bunk of a train which seemed to be going and down hills at an alarming rate. The food was noodles, chocolate and occasionally whatever an old lady was selling by the platform. Often this was mystery pastry. The mystery was usually potato or onions which arent the best in a warm greasy pastry. Needless to say i think i lost weight on the train. The view outside gradually changed between trees, small town, snow, power stations and different types of trees. The Taiga forest of Siberia is twice the size of continental USA (apparently. i didnt measure). The train was a good experience despite possibly leaving me with chronic back pain.
Anyway after arriving in Irkustk we got on a bus (a mere 2 hours as opposed to the 96 of the train) to Listvyanka. Its a small fishing town on the lake baikal which is bigger than all of americas great lakes put together. I stayed in a russian guest house owned by an enthusiatic man called Nicolay. After a good days hike which i went on my own and forgetting a map. I ended up in the forest and climbed a 500m hill (i later checked on the map). This was a good walk although i did get slightly concerned about bears and whittled (if that is indeed the correct verb) a spear - just in case. When i got down the mountain (which didnt have a path... or maybe it did but without a map...) i went into a cafe and kept finding what i thought were little insects in my hair. After quickly finishing my meal to escape the bugs i went back to Nicolays for a banya (which is like a sauna but with an over enthusiastic russian hitting you with birch twigs). It was at this point i noticed one of the insects attached to my hip. Nicolay calmly picked it off (it put up a fair fight) and put it aside, i thought 'if its not big deal to him, its probably fine'. Today i arrived in irkutsk again and the local guide told me that good old nicolay had passed on the tick, in a jar, and she was taking it to a local lab for testing. The test results are still to come back so i have no happy ending for you, or more importantly me, just yet. Although i have had the bill for this service (440 roubles if you wondered - about 8 pounds).
Anyway, im on the train again tonight for about 40 hours to Mongolia. Fingers crossed i dont get struck down with tick bourne encephalitis or any other hard to pronounce, and spell, diseases during the journey.
Wednesday 29 April 2009
Do not fear, the mullet is alive and well!
Strazvutiya!
im in st petersburg, northern russia. i came prepared with winter jackets and fleeces as i thought russia would be cold and bleak. turns out its rather warm and bleak. my trip started on sunday morning where after emotional goodbyes i got on a plane to london. saw friends there then stayed up until 3am when i got a taxi to heathrow. Turns out it doesnt take very long to get to heathrow at 3 am so i was an hour early and it was just me and the cleaning staff. After some waiting around i boarded a plane to warsaw where i only just managed to make my conecting flight to st petersburg, my bag wasnt so lucky. the plane to russia was really small, maybe 45 seats and only about 12 of them were taken up by important looking russian businessmen. When i arrived in russia i walked up to passport control (i still hadnt slept in a fair while) and the customs woman just shouted something at me in russian. i thought the best thing to do was to just walk to another customs officer who explained to me through the use of her hands and a pen to paper motion that i had to fill out a form. once this was done, i was in and things were looking up... until i reached the baggage reclaim and saw a lonely case going round the conveyor belt which looked suspiciously like it had eaten my bag. anyway after lots of huffing and puffing and more hand gesturing i found out my bag was lost and it would be delilvered to the hotel the following night.
When i arrived at my hotel i went for a short sleep before meeting my 'trek' group who i would be travelling with. I dont have much time here so i will sumarise the rest. I toured about the city yesterday on my own which was quite interesting although annoyingly i havent learned how to say "can you take my picture please?". So there are no pictures of me really. oh an i had been wearing the same clothes for... 3 days at this point so i was starting to smell a tad funky and had the begginings of a goatee beard. i did get my bag though last night and was pleased to get a shower with soap. my clothes should probably have gone straight to incineration but instead they just went back into my bag for another cycle. ok fine they did go into my dirty washing bag.
i am leaving st petes tonight to get an overnight train to moscow then a bus to... somewhere else close to moscow which is supposed to be nice. thank you all for your messages and keep them coming.
dasvedanya
im in st petersburg, northern russia. i came prepared with winter jackets and fleeces as i thought russia would be cold and bleak. turns out its rather warm and bleak. my trip started on sunday morning where after emotional goodbyes i got on a plane to london. saw friends there then stayed up until 3am when i got a taxi to heathrow. Turns out it doesnt take very long to get to heathrow at 3 am so i was an hour early and it was just me and the cleaning staff. After some waiting around i boarded a plane to warsaw where i only just managed to make my conecting flight to st petersburg, my bag wasnt so lucky. the plane to russia was really small, maybe 45 seats and only about 12 of them were taken up by important looking russian businessmen. When i arrived in russia i walked up to passport control (i still hadnt slept in a fair while) and the customs woman just shouted something at me in russian. i thought the best thing to do was to just walk to another customs officer who explained to me through the use of her hands and a pen to paper motion that i had to fill out a form. once this was done, i was in and things were looking up... until i reached the baggage reclaim and saw a lonely case going round the conveyor belt which looked suspiciously like it had eaten my bag. anyway after lots of huffing and puffing and more hand gesturing i found out my bag was lost and it would be delilvered to the hotel the following night.
When i arrived at my hotel i went for a short sleep before meeting my 'trek' group who i would be travelling with. I dont have much time here so i will sumarise the rest. I toured about the city yesterday on my own which was quite interesting although annoyingly i havent learned how to say "can you take my picture please?". So there are no pictures of me really. oh an i had been wearing the same clothes for... 3 days at this point so i was starting to smell a tad funky and had the begginings of a goatee beard. i did get my bag though last night and was pleased to get a shower with soap. my clothes should probably have gone straight to incineration but instead they just went back into my bag for another cycle. ok fine they did go into my dirty washing bag.
i am leaving st petes tonight to get an overnight train to moscow then a bus to... somewhere else close to moscow which is supposed to be nice. thank you all for your messages and keep them coming.
dasvedanya
Sunday 26 April 2009
Terra incognita
Hello and welcome to my blog. Hopefully this will be an fascinating insight to my life as a traveller, documenting the highs and lows of my trip around the world. However, more likely this will be a small space of the internet dedicated to me moaning about the 'mystery meat' in russia or the quality of the mattress in vietnam.
It is the morning of my departure so i am frantically packing and saying goodbye to my family. I fly to london later today, then warsaw at ridiculous o'clock tomorrow morning and then onto st petersburg where i will hopefully get to catch up on some sleep.
Thanks to everyone for your messages of... luck giving and advice on what to do and what no to. Actually i think it was all what to do's.... This is going to be expensive
It is the morning of my departure so i am frantically packing and saying goodbye to my family. I fly to london later today, then warsaw at ridiculous o'clock tomorrow morning and then onto st petersburg where i will hopefully get to catch up on some sleep.
Thanks to everyone for your messages of... luck giving and advice on what to do and what no to. Actually i think it was all what to do's.... This is going to be expensive
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