Anders i Asien

Trans-Mongolian and Moscow

2007-04-19T18:37:00.000+08:00

Taking off from the train station in Ulaan-Baatar was a strong experience. I met a young girl in my compartment who's father were about to take the train to Moscow and then to Prague. The whole family was on the station to say good-bye (except the mum - she was already in Prague). He would not be back for at least four years and they didn't know if they would be able to visit their parents meanwhile. Rolling out from the station you could see a lot of those life stories passing by - families waving of their fathers and crying, proud parents saying a last goodbye to their son or daughter or the look of hope and dreams in the faces of friends and family of some. There was hardly anyone on the platform or on the train without really strong emotions of some sort showing in their faces.

To then see all the preparations for the border crossing was hilarious. There were two women on the train, going around and distributing large amounts of jeans, pants, shirts, jackets and boots in different compartments. There is also a gorilla walking around as a lookout and making sure noone is causing problems. Then they spend all the way from UB to the border with going around, unpacking all the clothes (they are all bought in Mongolia or even China I guess and for sale in Russia) from the plastic bags and asks people to take them in their bags. They go through a lot of trouble to make sure people pack it together with their normal clothes, stove it under their food bags or hide it in other ways. They remove all tags, turn some of them inside out and make sure there are no signs of the clothes being brand new. As a spectator this smuggling is just hilarious to see.

After crossing the first border crossing, i.e. after leaving Mongolia but before entering Russia, things get even more crazy. Now they start putting on two pairs of jeans each, one pair of the new boots, hiding jeans in the bed, in the trash bin, in bags with food and even some in the roof air condition.

The bureaucracy is amazing - we have met at least six different guards now, collecting passports twice, handing out forms, collecting forms, etc... So far it has been at least seven forms - imigration, emigration, double copies, customs for Mongolia, customs for Russia and so on. Our "room" has been searched three times now and I'm not inside Russia yet. This is like a cirkus - especially with the two Mongolians looking like twin brothers with exactly the same clothes and everything. Once again - hilarious!

The border crossing then gets more and more surreal - at the same time as a blonde and surprisingly young and good-looking Russian female guard in uniform, high-heels and a short skirt is climbing around in the room, looking at all the hidden jeans she finds and saying "souvenir", two Mongolians pop in their heads and start speaking to me in Swedish - the first Swedish I've heard in a long time now. They all turn out to be living in Sweden at the moment, one even works just one block away from where I live with my mum when I'm in Stockholm. I wonder if the horse meat I got from my two "roomies" contained something strange, 'cause I started to believe I was hallucinating... :)

Sitting in the restaurant for breakfast on the first day after the border crossing gives me yet another insight into the size of the smuggling. Since we had by then passed the Russian border they didn't try to hide it at all - which means I just saw cartload after cartload passing me in the aisle, all full of jeans, shirts and so on. There must have been hundreds of jeans at least. The guys in my compartment got 150 rubel (40 SEK?) each for the favor of taking 20-30 jeans or so across the border.

On the second day the train starts resembling a fair more and more. Every compartment in my wagon seems to be selling something - my coupé got a new passenger during the night that sells jeans and jackets, while others sell shirts or shoes or even blankets. The "train lady" responsible for keeping the wagon trim, cleaning everything up and locking the toilet before every stop also cooks food in her compartment that she sells for a lot less than the restaurant. You just go and tell her when you're hungry - you can also buy tea and coffee from her. One compartment brought a portable TV and a video game - you can pay a bit to play for an hour. In the middle of this you find a lot of over-weight Russians walking around with huge shoppings bags - buying clothes from the Mongolian vendors. The few compartments that are not selling clothes or stuff are rather make-shift bars, full with Mongolians who've been drinking for three days. Just now (I was writing this one the train) a guy I haven't seen before came into our compartment, climbed up into the bed of the girl selling jeans and passed out. Iäm not sure I will have my space/bed free when I get back from the restaurant wagon.

At every stop on the stations it's equally crazy - all the vendors jump of from the train before it stops into a market frenzy - the stations are packed with Russians coming there to buy cheap jeans or stuff from the vendors on the train. People are hanging through the windows to sell blankets or shoes, while others set up regular shops (with life-size dolls showing their clothes) in the doorways of the train. On the same time the train gets invaded by some Russian vendors trying to sell canned food, cooked food or beer to the people on the train. The train stops for a set amount of minutes, usually 15-25, and then it just leaves without any warning. When it starts to move all the vendors at the station gets crazy, rips their stuff back from the customers that haven't paid yet and runs for the train - I always think that someone won't make it, but they seem to be used to running along side the train to jump on. Just hilarious!

And then, the last 24 hours on my trip: Moscow. I found Moscow a fascinating place, although I didn't have to see much of it. I was staying in a flat for 20€, just one block away from the Red Square. A real bargain - especially since me and the Mongolian girl Naraa paid for two "economic dorm" beds (which would have been a madrass on the floor of the living room), but got a huge double room instead because the newly started hotel/flat didn't have two madrasses. The double room would normally have been 100€.

Moscow is impressing - it's a mix of Soviet and West, a mix of old and new. They have the fascinating history, they have the architecture to match any city in the world, they have the old-style cafés associated with Eastern Europe cities like Budapest, they have all the Western chains, brands and shops, they have a lively night-club scene, bars, live music and of course a lot of the classical entertainment such as concerts, opera, cirkus and acrobats. To make it all at bit more exciting and adventorous they have the police - possibly the single biggest annoyance in Moscow. If they spot you as a tourist they will invariably hazzle you, check your passport and visa and try to get a bribe from you. The hotel will tell you that there are some thieves in the city, but it's the police that you really have to look out for. Never look at them, never speak to them and even if you've been robbed - don't contact the police, it will only make things worse!

Now that I'm home in Stockholm, Sweden, I've uploaded some pictures from the train and from Moscow. I will probably write some more entries in this blog - making a summary or some kind of reflection of the whole trip, but basically the trip is now over. To all the awesome friends I've met traveling, thanks for helping me make this trip a great time - and please, send me all your photos from our time together and stuff, would be awesome to have!

Mongolia from a different perspective

2007-04-12T13:18:00.000+08:00

Wow. I just read Oni's blog entry about the trip we just made together and realized how much I forgot to mention. I think the easiest way is to post her entire entry so you can see her view of the whole trip - there are some fascinating details in there that I really loved with the trip.

And oh, by the way - I've uploaded all the pictures from our trip now, which is a lot of pictures considering there were five people taking photos. Will try to upload some videos as well, but for now I'll just sort them, write some comments and delete duplicates. Probably they won't be in a proper order though - my pictures go first, then Will's pictures and then Ferry's. You'll have to figure out the "real order" by yourselves! :)

Anyway, this is what Oni wrote:

Mission: West, semi Gobi, to the White lake

Duration: 7 days

Crew: well, me and 5 men

Transportation: a retro van, Bill our driver- a legend, can navigate by the winds, sun and moon.

Bonus: not tourist season

I honestly do not know where to start. I just had the trip of a life time!!!! Mongolia is a truly stunning country and I am blessed to have been able to have experienced what I did. Soo gracefully and with so much patience the Nomadic Mongolians showed us their way of life. For the last seven days we have been driving through the desert, along some of the roughest roads I have ever seen. There is a 'proper' road for the first day, however, it is soooo bad that Bill preferred the off road style. So for seven days I spent most of my time air borne, feel like I have inhaled enough dust for a life time, and often after a long day felt like some of my organs may have switched place from so much bouncing around.

The landscape is crazy! Steppes with tussock grass, rolling hills and so so dry (it gets green in summer we are told.) So imagine Bill our hard core driver, a mad Dutch man, a German, a Swede, Will and I hooning through what looked like the most remotest place on earth. Camels, wild horses, yaks and huge birds dot the landscape, whilst the 'villages' are often only a few ger tents large. Mongolians are yellow sect Buddhists, following Tibetan Buddhism, so all along the way we stopped at ovoos (stone piles with blue prayer flags) and walk around three times clock wise for good luck.

Being the off season, we had the amazing experience of staying with nomadic people, and not in tourist gers. It was soo out of this world, a real anthropological experience. In Mongolia, you can almost stay in any ones ger, no matter what time of the night you may turn up. Our fist night we stayed with the most amazing old couple. There was no language in common so we sat there looking at each other for hours, and then there it was, the biggest beaming smile I have ever seen. As soon as we had taken a seat on the floor the old woman set about making us tea ( a welcome gesture). Mongolian tea is black tea, with water, salt, and cow or yak milk, which is ceremoniously handed around and drunk in a very slurping manner. Then the old man continued with the welcoming procedures, handing around his snuff bottle, pipe (that lived in his boot, when not in use) and the trusty Russian influence, vodka, all of which have elaborate ritualistic consumption actions. For example, when you receive the vodka, you don't hold the rim of the cup, you dunk you ring finger in the vodka and flick two times towards the sky and one time towards the earth before consuming the harsh vodka, with a huge happy grin beaming at you from the old man over your bowl as you drink. A bowl of horse meat, the best I am told, was also presented, which our driver Bill ate with gusto. When I asked the old man where to go to the toilet, bless him, there I was in the middle of the desert in Mongolia, with this 65 year old man, with a wrinkled face from the elements and his traditional dress on, leading me by the arm, smoking his pipe....when he stops in the middle of the desert and says 'here toilet.'

Along the trip we slept in a restaurant, and then for two nights with another nomadic family. They at first were alittle hostile, and there was one woman who just stared at me the who 48 hours, with a sneaky look. This family was huge, however we shared a ger with a couple who were 8 months pregnant. Its so crazy, you just walk into their lives and live in their house. The men work outside with the livestock whilst the woman's job is to look after the men and do all the cooking, in fact most Mongolian men cant cook at all. Being the only woman guest, it felt like I got a closer view of how the women live. It is undermining to ask to help a woman in her ger, as she is boss, but the communication that you have without language is so great. Many of the women are younger than me, with a few children, and want to look and touch your hair and look at their face in the mirror and then yours. So we slept on the floor with the newly wed pregnant couple and five goats. Early in the morning, still dazed we were greeted by a goat meters away being a super loud alarm clock, and then various other goats getting dragged in to feed the younger ones. Outside through the open door you can see men racing around on horses organising the animals. Horses are vital and play such a big part in Mongolian life.

The last night was abit different we stayed at a friend of Bills ger, it was flash, had a TV, and fridge. The couple both worked in the national park, where the wild horses are, so could speak some English. Was a lovely night playing cards, listening to the men sing and once again finding a common ground with the women of the ger. Even tho our worlds are so different, there is that bottom line connection, that is so real.

We also stoped at beautiful monasteries along the way, watched monks chant, ate in little towns, played soccer with the village boys with an old botle, and walked up an amazing volcano to see a stunning frozen White lake. I have so so many impressions from the last week, and can only give you a snap shot of what it was like. We will put some photos up when we have time. Was lovely to have my first shower in seven days, and wash off the thick layer of dust I had accumulated. My finger is getting sore typing, we had a near accident coming back into Ulaan Baatar (mad drivers), in which I sprained my finger. Tonight we are going to a Mongolian cafe to hear some more throat singing, I love the way Mongolians sing where ever they are, most of the time.

Tomorrow morning our train leaves for Beijing, apparently the best train trip of the trans Mongolian we saved till last. It goes through the Gobi and along the Great Wall. I feel a bit sad to be leaving Mongolia, and deciding to stay here longer was one of best followed travel instincts yet. Mongolian people are truly beautiful, and I leave with only fantastic memories. Sniff!!!!

Mongolian tour

2007-04-11T16:38:00.000+08:00

Wow! What an experience! By fa the strongest and most genuine experience of a country so far. The people, the landscape and ... yeah, just everything! But I'll take it from the beginning I guess.

After being in the Russian embassy for half an hour, applying for my transit visa, I rushed back to the guesthouse of the others in the group. The group consists of five people - it was me, a New Zealand couple that were just wonderful (Will and Oni), a Dutch guy (Ferry) and a German guy (Markus). As soon as I came back to the guesthouse we quickly loaded the last luggage into the jeep and left. The jeep is a big Russian jeep/minivan which turned out to be really comfortable and able to take us through any kind of terrain. It also had more than enough space foe everyone, so we had some room for extra bags, the boxes of food we brought and so on.

When we left Ulaan-Baatar there was a light snowfall and a cool wind from the north, but after only one hour on the road we were in the middle of the Gobi or at least the semi-Gobi with sand, rocks and a blazing sun that quickly heated the van.

Traveling through the Gobi or the semi-Gobi (we're going west from UB, not south where the real Gobi is) is an interesting and different experience. The "main road" is just a joke with any Western or even South-East Asia standards - it's rarely a sealed road and the parts where it's actually sealed the driver usually drives beside the road anyway - the desert or the grassy plains is far less bumpy than the actual road. Most of the time though we are just going on small paths or just straight through the fields and the desert where no visible roads or tracks are to be seen. It's fascinating to see how the driver handles these kinds of "roads" and especially to see how he navigates - he uses the landscape and the horizon to navigate and to know exactly which dirt track to take the next turn on he counts the bumps! He is an awesome driver - the best I've ever seen or traveled with by far!

The landscape is just amazing - immense stretches of desert, sometimes just sand, but most of the time dry grass or a mix of stones, sand and grass. At times the terrain is extremely flat and at times we're surrounded by rolling hills or in the middle of a big canyon. It's easy to understand how the Mongolians can have 39 different words for desert - there are just so many different kinds of deserts here! We've also seen small patches of forest, now dried out and ghostly pale and grey, but in summertime surely a beautiful addition to the green fields. Apart from desert, we've also seen an interesting volcano, the lava fields surrounding it, a great frozen lake, some biggers forests and even more hilly landscapes.

On of the nights of the trip we were staying in a tourist ger inside the old capital, which is like a small camping with gers and we had our own where we could eat, sleep and so on. Another night we slept in a cafe in a small town (20+ houses) together with the family owning the cafe. All the other nights we've been sleeping in gers with local nomadic families that our driver knows or at least knows about. The setup is usually that we pay a small sum of money for the accomodation and an ever smaller sum of money for the food and then we stay together with the family. Usually we pay like US$3 for the accomodation and around $1 for each meal.

The first night we were staying with an old couple in their spare ger - usually used by the young ones in the family. We came there late in the night, around 9 pm, through the desert which was very dark and bouncy and without a single road or dirt track to follow. After a late dinner, and loads of their very special tea (salted and with added milk during the cooking - really good) we went to sleep. Waking up in the morning was an experience and first then I really realized we were in the Mongolian countryside. I was the first one up and stepping outside in the early morning sun into a vast desert, scattered with beautiful rocky hills was a real surprise - we didn't see any of the landscape when we arrived to the ger. Since I was up so early I got to see the family separating the old sheeps going for grassy fields far away from the young ones staying in the safety of the ger and their "farm buildings". It was really interesting to see, perhaps not per se - I've seen sheeps being herded before, but because landscape and the surroundings were astounding and they all had their traditional Mongolians clothes on it was a wonderful sight. In the morning we also had some time to play with the three small girls of the family and also with some of the cutest small lambs and goats I've ever seen. Just wonderful! The breakfast consisted of the tea with milk and salt and rice-porridge mixed with sheep-yoghurt - it was surprisingly good. At first it was kind of sour, but the more you ate the sweeter it became - yummie!

When we arrived to the lake on the third day (second night was in the cafe in the small town), it turned out that the ger camp that we had planned to stay in was still closed - not enough tourists. Instead the driver took us to a family he knew who lived nearby. So for two nights we were staying with this family and that experience was even stronger than staying with the first family, mainly because we were sleeping in their main ger together with the rest of the family. So I found myself playing chess on the floor of a beautifully decorated ger together with one of the locals and after this going to bed on the floor with just a few blankets covering me. The five of us slept on the floor, while the couple (the woman being pregnant - probably sixth month or so) slept in the only bed in the ger. In one corner they had some goats in the ger as well - they were to young to stay outside in the cold. Every now and then the family would bring in three fully grown goats to feed the small ones - a wonderful and somewhat surprising view!

The biggest cultural experience of the tour and probably the whole trip was falling asleep on the floor of this ger, with the sounds of the crackling fire in the stove, Ferry and Markus playing cards with the two brothers of the family and the couple making love in the bed just two meters away from us. I guess you're not very shy about those things when you've been sharing a ger with your family and relatives your whole life. Waking up to the sounds of hungry small goats hearing their mom outside of the ger was equally interesting - I never thought those small creatures could produce noise that loud!

The last days of the trip was spent seeing the surroundings around the lake, we had a full day of just hiking around by foot to the volcano close by and not doing any jeep traveling. That was also awesome, it was interesting to see the lava landscape surrounding the volcano. I kind of felt like Frodo and Sam walking closer to Mount Doom to destroy the Ring - I even got a great Frodo-picture of Will with his unruly hair and big confused eyes! :D

The last day of the tour we stopped in a national park where they had a large number of wild horses. We got to see a introductory video, a museum and of course - the wild horses! This place has supposedly the largest number of wild horses in the world and we got to see some of them at least. We couldn't go really close, but it was an awesome view to see the wild horses running around and just eating grass in the wonderful and vast landscape!

Now I'll go to dinner at a local restaurant or something like that - perhaps we can catch some locals singing their special throat-singing? Tonight or tomorrow I'll try to upload all the pictures from the trip - until then you'll have to do with my descriptions of the wonderful landscape!

Change of plans

2007-04-05T08:27:00.000+08:00

As it turns out the Russian embassy were not the most friendly place I've been in. The visa rules are so hard and so strict - to get a Russian tourist visa I would have to pay almost $500 in total for the visa, an invitation from a travel agency and the train tickets to Moscow from here. That amount of money is simply not possible for me, so I decided on the less expensive transit visa. This however means that I'm not allowed to make any stops in Russia, just take the train to Moscow and then I have to leave within 24 hours. So now I've booked all my tickets and the plane home from Moscow. I leave Ulaan-Baatar on Friday, April 13, and arrive in Moscow on the 17th. I fly home on the 18th, landing in Stockholm in the afternoon around three.

This leaves me a lot of time in Mongolia though, so today I'm leaving on a tour of western Mongolia and the Gobi for seven days. I'll be back on Wednesday, so until then - don't expect to hear anything from me. There is bound to be no internet in the places we go, probably no mobile network and probably not even showers. Toilets is not a problem though - the desert is big enough for all of us they say! :)

Uploading the pictures from Mongolia now, check them out! More pictures and comments to the pictures will come when I'm back from the tour on Wednesday!

Start of Trans-Mongolian

2007-04-03T18:44:00.000+08:00

The beginning of my trip along the trans-Mongolian railway couldn't be better - it's an adventure waiting at every corner and I love being back on the road. Traveling in China was great, but started feeling predictable, easy-going and sometimes it felt like going between places you already knew - partly because I visited friends along the way. Not in a bad way though, but unpredictable things happen now and I love it.

The hostel in Beijing gave me the name of a long-distance bus station where there would be a bus leaving for the border town Erenhot. They told me to go there early to be sure to get a ticket. The fact that the border town has like four different names, at least, doesn't make it easier though (I've seen Erenhot, Erlian, Erlianhot, Ereen and perhaps something more?). Well at the bus station it turns out that I can't buy the ticket in the ticket office, but have to buy it from the bus driver. They don't know which bus it is or when the driver will be there, so I walk around and ask people (I'm really happy for the note I got from the hostel in Chinese at this time). When I found the bus and one hour later the driver as well, he tells me the bus is full, but he sells me a ticket for another bus that will leave at the same time from the same place. He don't know when it will be on the bus station though, but probably in the afternoon sometime. That means I have to either carry my backpack for the full day (it's around noon when I get the ticket) or wait until the bus gets there, dump my backpack and then go for some food. I chose the last one, deciding to sleep in the warm and nice spring sun for a couple of hours and do some reading about Mongolia. As it turns out the bus is not there until five minutes before departure, leaving me to wait at the bus station for five-six hours. Didn't seem that long though - the spring sun was just lovely!

On the bus I got a upper-middle bunk in the back of the bus which meant that if I turned around in the bed I had a great panoramic view through the rear window. The bus takes about 12 hours, arriving in the border town at 4:30 am. It takes me through vast landscapes of grassy planes, stretching away far in the distance. After passing some mountains and the Great Wall in the sunset, the only features of the landscape might be a building far off on the horizon and the other cars, buses and trucks on the road. Other from that it's just flat, grassy and a perfectly blue and huge sky. After the beautiful sunset, the landscape is still lit by a strong full moon and lots of stars, leaving the world in dusk-like state. When the grassy fields start being frosty or snow-covered, the whole landscape gains an eerie, ghostly look - everything has a pale white color and glows in the dark. It is just beautiful and makes your thoughts wander freely around subjects rarely touched and memories long forgotten.

At half four the bus suddenly stops and we are appearently at our final destination. Now things get hectic and before I understand what's happening (or before I even know whether I'm at the right town) I'm stuffed in a minivan together with two Chinese drivers who just nod when I say Mongolia, Uud-Zadum (which is the border town on the Mongolian side) and they don't seem to understand a single word of English. They end up dropping me at a hotel and tell me to sleep a couple of hours before taking the train to Mongolia at eight or so. The train supposedly leaves from the building just across the street, a building that certainly looks like a train station. I pay 20 yuan for the cab and the hotel and end up sleeping in a waiting room of some sort - luxurious sofas, a huge TV and a bar and by putting to sofas together I get a real nice bed for some hours.

When I wake up in the morning at 7am I first go to the "train station" which turns out to be a big market - no trains or tickets, but loads of shoes and bags. Surprised, confused and a bit lost (still don't know if I'm in the right town) I walk out onto the pavement again. From there things happen too quickly again, I get picked up by a minivan who says he can take me across the border, he drives for one minute, drops me off to another van and I find myself in a minivan with five Mongolians in my age and an older Russian man. The Mongolians turn out to be students returning home from Beijing. Together we all cross the border without any big hassles and two of the Mongolians help me a sleeper ticket for the train to Ulaan-Baatar even though it's "sold out" - the brother of the girl works in this town and has some contacts obviously.

Another 7 hours to kill is ahead before the train leaves, so we end up playing ping-pong, snooker, 8-ball at a snooker table, juggle, play cards, eat and just talk a lot. Talking is the most fun and interesting part of course - especially because we have some troubles communicating. Only two of the Mongolians are confident enough about their English to actually talk to me in English, while the other ones do understand parts of what I say, but won't answer me directly. The Mongolians that speak English have very basic English. The Russian guy speaks Russian and Mongolian, but also German. So he end up interpreting some of their Mongolian to German for me, which I don't speak but understand enough to make sense of what they are saying. The Mongolians all study Italian also, so we do a fair bit of talking in Italian/Spanish which we all understand and speak a very little bit of. Since they study in China they also now some Chinese, so we do some of the conversation in Chinese. The conversations thus end up being a lovely mix of English, Mongolian, Russian, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and some Swedish which they seem eager to learn some words in. The interesting thing is that it really worked out well!

The Mongolian border town is really a desert town - all flat and sand everywhere (outside town, on the road, in between all the buildings, inside the buildings, in the wind when it blows, inside my cloths and so on..). After boarding the train it takes me straight through the sandy parts of the Gobi (which is actually only about 3% of the desert, the rest is stones, dry grass and steppes and the like). Of course I take photos through the window, but they are not even close to capturing the vastness of the sand dunes that just disappear far behind the horizon.

After traveling through the Gobi for 16 hours, most of the part being just sand, rocks and sometimes dry grass, I get a good feeling for how huge the desert is. We've now come into areas where there are some hills and the ground is occasionally partially snow-covered or frosty. The only signs of life I see throughout the whole trip through the Gobi is the occasional train station (every third hour or so and these are a sight in themselves - a train station in the middle of nothing and not a single person or building as far as the eye can see in all directions, and still people get off here...) and some hoards of wild horses, some groups of domesticated horses with their shepherd and some yaks.

Now I've found my guesthouse in Ulaan-Baatar - a ger (which is the type of tents the nomads use in the desert) set on the top of a building in the outskirts of UB and overlooking the market and the town. I've seen some sights in UB and met a Mongolian girl in a temple who had a day off from work and showed me the town. Now I'm heading out for dinner and perhaps some pool later. Tomorrow I'm looking at a full day at fighting for getting a Russian visa - they are really messy about this. Travel plans, all tickets, visa for next country, health insurance details and payment in US$ just to get a transit-visa. Wish me good luck!

Great Wall

2007-04-01T08:55:00.000+08:00

"A man is not a true man if he have not walked the Great Wall" - Mao Zedong

Perhaps one of the few statements of the great chairman that I truly agree with (not that I know many statements from him, but anyway). Seeing, walking on and climbing the Great Wall was a awesome experience! I did a day trip from Beijing to a far-off portion of the wall. We started at Jinshanling which is about 4 hours bus from Beijing. This part of the wall has not been repaired at all, leaving it in a crumbled state with lots of the genuine bricks and watchtowers to see! Some parts have been a bit renovated to allow for passage, but most of it was "the real thing". From there we hiked along the wall to Simatai which is equally impressive but a bit more renovated. Both these places is the steepest parts of the wall, which meant we sometimes had to climb with both feet and hands to get up or down.

The weather was just perfect for seeing the Great Wall. The sky was blue with only one of two clouds sweaping by and the weather was nice, although a wind kept us cool while climbing the steepest parts. It was just awesome and the weather was clear enough for us to see the Great Wall disappear in the distance faaaar off!

The hike from Jinshanling to Simatai was 10 km and it took us close to four hours to complete. It was really nice that I chose to do this hike - it gave me loads of time to see the wall, to take pictures and just saviour the experience! We were in a small tour group of about 16 people, but after 20 minutes we lost them all and it was just me, an Irish girl, a kiwi and two Americans who were walking on the wall more or less. Occasionally we would see someone from the group in the distance or meet some other tourists, but basically we were all by ourselves on the wall! It was just awesome, compared to photos I've seen from parts of the wall closer to Beijing where they stand in line to get photos, the wall is newly renovated and looks like any brick building and they have to get past immense amounts of gawkers, street stalls and vendors. We had two locals following us for a while to sell post cards, water or t-shirts - but they acted more like guides telling us about the towers, the views and everything like that instead of trying to sell stuff.

All in all the trip was just awesome. It really felt like walking a piece of history and the greatness of the wall is just immense. It's hard to imagine how big it is until you actually stand there on the top of the highest watchtower and see the wall disappearing away in the distance, miles and miles away. Just incredible!

Also uploaded pictures from this trip so check out the Great Wall in my pictures! :)

Right now I'm trying to get into Mongolia as soon as possible. It seems that the TransMongolian train only leaves on Saturdays since it's not summer, so that is too long from now (I don't want to spend another week in Beijing and my Chinese visa is running out and I don't want to extend it either). The other options is train to the border and then another local train in Mongolia, but they don't seem to leave right now either. The third option was to catch a daily bus taking me across the border and then onto the local traion - but the guy booking those trips were in Mongolia right now and couldn't arrange that. The fourth option is to try to get a bus to the border town and from there figure out what to do. That is what I will do - today I try to get tickets for the bus (it supposedly leaves at 4 pm and they start selling the tickets at 1:30 - I'm ready for an immense fight with the Chinese and the Mongolians about the tickets). From there I figure I just take a minivan across the border and then I at least don't have to worry about my visa running out. From the border town on the Mongolian side there is trains leaving every day and if I can't get one there you could always hitchhike. Hitchhiking in Mongolian seems to be the way to get around if there aren't any trains - there are no buses and very little public transport in general so most Mongolians hitchhike with trucks to get around in the country. Might be an experience even though I would prefer the train to Ulan-Bataar. I'll keep everyone updated about why whereabouts - hopefully I'll be in Mongolia and Ulan-Bataar the next time I write here.

And oh yeah - yesterday I went to a Chinese nightclub with another Swede I met at the hostel. It was an interesting experience - it's like taken directly from the movies. The music was soo loud - my ears are still ringing. The place was just a big dance floor and the bar - and it was all so modern. Three DJs were playing a good mix of neverending dance beats and the whole wall was a huge TV screen blasting lights and blinking behind them, the other walls were covered with huge TV screens showing different music videos, the bar were juggling with bottles, serving the drinks were they set the whole bar desk on fire and pouring burning alcohol over a pyramid of glasses into the glasses of people buying the drinks, a small firework in the middle of the bar, crazy Chinese people dancing on the bar, on elevated squares along the wall and rich Chinese businessmen sitting in the VIP booths drinking whiskey and champagne. It was just crazy - definetely a new side of China! The drink of choice for most expats and Chinese seems to be to order a bottle of whiskey which comes with free amounts of tea to mix it with - a really nice mix that works well actually! What you do when you're not dancing is to play a interesting dice game - to talk is impossible which means playing is a nice way to make some time pass - all you need to know is the hand signals. I joined some groups and played with them for a while - great fun!

Beijing and pictures!

2007-03-29T12:59:00.000+08:00

Now I'm in Beijing. The train took 14 hours which was a bit too much on a hard seat where you could hardly sleep. But it wasn't that bad! So far in Beijing I haven't done much. First day went to finding my way to the guesthouse, finding out that both the Mongolian and Russian embassy were already closed and from there just strolling around town. I found a reaaally nice park. Met a Russian girl in a cafe in the park and we ended up spending the rest of the day together. We didn't do that much though - just went around trying different cafes and later on bars. Played some pool and went to a night club in the evening. Nice place but not that special really.

Today I've fixed my Mongolian visa. I will pick it up att 3 pm, but I'm beginning to realize that these visas will ruin me! Since I'm kind of in a hurry I have to pay a lot for express visas, probably around 1500 SEK/yuan for both the Mongolian and Russian visa. Will get the Russian tomorrow I hope. Then I have the time to actually see Beijing, do some sightseeing, go to the Great Wall and get a train ticket to Ulaan-Bataar. Plan is to don't stay that long in Beijing - I'm curious about Mongolia now!

And yeah - I finally managed to upload all the pictures from Chengdu, Xi'An, Shanghai and Beijing - so now there's probably a few hundred pictures awaiting the interested in a new album! Haven't written comments to all of them yet - will do that ASAP.

Sightseeing in and around Shanghai

2007-03-27T12:06:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I had a nice day trip to West Lake (Xihu, Xiwu or something like that - learning a word is easy, remembering it is hard...). I went to the bus station where I successfully got a ticket to Hangzhou, which is a small city outside of Beijing and right next to the lake. It is always interesting to buy tickets by yourself - you have to get through the crowd in front of the office (no, there is no real queue, just a crowd surging in the same direction), pronounce the city name correct or show them the characters and then understand when the bus leaves, from where and how much you're supposed to pay. And of course they don't speak English.

Anyway, after a semi-long bus ride to Hangzhou I firstly went by local bus to the train station, bought a train ticket back (same procedure - use your elbows, try to communicate and then try to pay). After that I got a taxi down to the lake. The weather wasn't that good - it was raining slightly. I didn't mind though. The lake was beautiful and it was still warm enough to walk around in a hoodie. It was easy to see that Hangzhou was a smaller city - not on the buildings (many skysrapers, I would guess the city is only slightly smaller than Stockholm), but on the people were soooo fascinated with me. They couldn't have many "whities" living in that city and most tourists were Chinese (I did see two girls that could have been from Turkey and an old man from Poland or something like that, but that's the only Westerners I saw). The local people would be in groups and when one saw me they would whisper something and then the whole group would "accidently turn around" to see me - very subtle indeed! :) But I guess I was a bit of a sight - apart from being tall and white, I was also only wearing t=shirt and hoodie and looking really happy in the middle of the rain when everyone else was hiding under umbrellas and looking miserable. I like the quote from the book saying that "Physical discomfort is only a problem if you're in a bad mood" and for some reason I was in a really good mood this day.

After a long walk around the lake I saw bits of the city (could have been Shanghai really - skyscrapers, large banks, McDonalds and all the large chains) before taking a cab to the train station to catch the train back. In the evening me and Ashley went to dinner at an Italian pasta-place - not so genuinely Chinese and perhaps not the cheapest place to eat in town, but definetly worth every yuan! Yum! Had a delicious lasagne with spinach and goat cheese and two glasses of really good wine as well! Panna cotta finished of the meal nicely! :)

Today I've done some more "queueing" in Shanghai - to get my train ticket to Beijing. I'm leaving this afternoon, on hard seats for an overnight train that takes 14 hours (give or take a few hours). This one was a real challenge, it took me like half an hour to find the ticket office for a start. They had really nice huge signs showing the way in English - almost all the way. Suddenly the signs just disappear and you're left wandering around the block trying to find a huge crowd of people inside something that could be a ticket office. After finding it I had to stand in line for like one hour, which was actually good since I got the chance to learn how to read the large electronic board showing all departures the next ten days. First I found out how to spell Beijing in Chinese characters (the board is of course only in Chinese), then how to read out which date was actually showing, then doing it at the same time at high speed (the departures - 20 at a time, would only show for five seconds or so), then I found out how to read out hard seat, hard sleeper, soft seat and soft sleeper in Chinese and then how to see whether they were available at a given departure and whether they were sold out or not... Doing all this took me more or less the full hour and from there on I just practiced for myself how to actually order the hard seats for the departure I had choosen. It turned out to work like a charm - she didn't have to use the limited English she actually knew and the tickets were only 175 yuan - much less than bus or hard sleeper would have been.

The rest of the day i've been walking around in shanghai, seeing the Bund again (this time in better weather), seeing the old town and other parts of the town which I guess doesn't really have a name.

Still haven't uploaded pictures - there are loads to come from Xi'An, Shanghai, Hangzhou and so on. In Beijing I'm sure I'll find a great place to upload them - this cafe doesn't really cut it.

Partying in Shanghai and seeing the acrobats

2007-03-26T07:52:00.000+08:00

The birthday party for Dan (a friend and colleague of Ashley) o Saturday night turned out to be just perfect. We started off by going to an "all you can eat and drink" Indian restaurant where you pay 80 yuan for an Indian buffet (which was delicious) and free beer. A nice way to start the evening, and after a while more than 25 people turned up. Great to meet the friends of Ashley - they were all so friendly (most of them were English teacher but also the occasional Japanese teacher and one or two locals). From there we went to a bar called Windows Temple or something like that which might have been one of the best bars I've been to. They played good music, there was a dance floor, the music wasn't too loud so you could actually sit down and talk without a problem, there was a (good) pool table where you could play some pool to catch your breath after dancing, the drinks were only 10 yuan each and most importantly - they were showing some snooker games on TV! Got to see the game between Hendry and O'Sullivan and then a game with Hendry and Ding Junhui if I recall it correctly. I was just stunned - didn't realize I missed snooker so much! :)

Sunday was great as well. After a nice brunch me and Dan strolled along the famous Nanjing Road down to the riverside street known as the Bund. Ashley went back to sleep a bit more, so we had a few hours of just walking around town, seeing some great views (view over Renmin Square from a hotel reception on the 38th floor), drinking some coffee at Starbucks, seeing the "old Shanghai" at the Bund and being annoyed with the smog and the fog that made photographing close to impossible.

Had dinner with Ashley at a Chinese pizza place, cheap, good pizzas and they actually had enus in English which helped a bit. Peas on a pizza isn't that bad actually! From there we went to the circus where we saw a show called the Intersection of Time. It was just awesome - two hours of pure astonishment! The acrobats were just amazing, all the tricks, flips and other stuff they did was great and it was all nicely mixed with live music - a mix of modern beats and traditional music, some nice light shows, intereesting use of lights and shadows to empasize on different parts of the show and a neverending stream of great performances. The romantic side of me was mostly impressed with the part were a guy and a girl were swinging about in "silk curtains" - it was just beautiful! The technology side of me was much impressed with eight motobikes inside a small "steel ball" - driving around in crazy speed and patterns in a space so small that only one driver at a time could be "on the bottom" of the baal! Amazing! Other numbers included juggling with ming-wases, doing crazy flips through rings (seemed like great fun), doing triple flips with some twists up to the top of four people on top of each other shoulders and much more that I can't even put words to. Wow! No photos were allowed though - so you will just have to trust me that it was all extremely interesting, amazing, great, beautiful and a handful of other superlatives!

Today I'm plaaning to do a day trip to the West Lake, so I will write more about that later I suppose. Pictures will be uploaded as soon as I get to a real computer (i.e. not a Mac)!

Shanghai

2007-03-24T18:16:00.000+08:00

So, my first day of actual sightseeing in Shanghai. Yesterday night we went to a Shanghainese restaurant and had some great food together with Ashley's sister, her boyfriend and some of their friends. It was great, the food was just awesome and the company was good. The only not-so-good part was the baiyou (spelling?) which is rice-wine. Extremely potent and with a taste that would haunt you through the rest of the evening, night and early morning. From there we went to a bar with some of Ashley's friends. It was nice - chillin', talking and playing some dart. All in all a nice and not to extreme night out.

Today we've been to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum which has a great model of the whole town and we've seen some parts of the town as well. Now we're going to a birthday dinner for one of Boston's friends. Will be writing more tomorrow I reckon.

Xi'An and Shanghai

2007-03-23T08:42:00.000+08:00

Having your own personal Chinese guide in Xi'An turned out to be just awesome - especially since she knew sooo much about Chinese history. We had a really good time together in Xi'An - seeing loads of historical things, exploring town a bit and one day on Hua Shan - a great mountain close to Xi'An.

The first day in Xi'An (not including the day we got there) we went on a tour to see the Terracotta warriors, the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, a new museum in Xi'An showing some of the history about Buddhism getting into China and Huaqing Pool. It was a great day - really interesting. The terracotta warriors were so impressing - it's hard to imagine someone building sooo many warriors and so long time ago. And they're still excavating the site - finding moe and more warriors all the time. Impressive! We also got to see the farmer who originally found the first terracotta warriors when he was digging a well - he was at the museum this day. The other places were less impressive, the tomb was huge, but since they hadn't opened it (lots of traps inside, they don't want to hurt anything, etc...) there wasn't really much to see except for a hill, some nice gardens and a hazy view over the landscape. The pool was a bit more interesting, especially since Xiao Hui (Helens Chinese name) knew a lot about the history and told us a great tale about the emperor and his favourite concubine.

The second day we spent going to Hua Shan - a mountain area close to Xi'An. That was just crazy! We came there quite late, so we ended up taking the cable car to the North Peak. From there you walked along the ridge to the next peak, so it was great views, cliffsides with hundreds of meters fall on both sides and small stone buildings that used to be temples up here. Impressive views, it was a shame that we didn't have time to see the whole area. Got some great photos from here which will be uploaded shortly. We also saw a man carrying a freezer on his back to the top. That was a real eye-opener, Xiao Hui talked to him and he had been carrying that 20 kh freezer from early morning and we saw him in the afternoon. Guess what he was payed for carrying 20 kg up the mountain which would take him more than a full day? 20 yuan!!! (Equivalent to 20 SEK or not even US$3). Insane!

The third day we did some more sightseeing in Xi'An (the Big Goose Pagoda), but most importantly we went to Haegen Dazs for some really nice ice-cream! That was just great, I've been missing good coffee and great ice-cream! Then I caught the 20 hour bus to Shanghai, which turned out be not as bad as I thought, only 24 hours long, only one accident (where we avoided coliding into the two buses standing still on the highway because of the dense mist with a few inches and instead just bumped into the side fence - leaving a small scratch on the bus and then standing still for three hours) and a bed that was just slightly too small to be comfortable.

So now I'm in Changhai - staying at Ashley's place. I will write more about Shanghai later when I've been here for a couple of days. Pictures will be uploaded later!

Songpan, Chengdu and Xi'An

2007-03-18T23:54:00.000+08:00

Oy. Once again a long time since I wrote anything. And this time I don't really have the time to write that much, so I'll probably just write a short notice of what I'm doing and what happened the last couple of days.

Songpan and horseback riding was great! I started my birthday with a real birthday cake which I bought in the bakery and then it was picked up in the morning by Emma, the owner of Emma's Kitchen which was the restaurant I ate in a few times. She was sooo friendly and spoke great English. They would even sing for me in the morning, that was awesome!

After having the birthday breakfast I was off to do the horseback trekking. The group turned out to be me, two Chinese guys and two Chinese girls and then of course the five Chinese guides. A good chance to practice some Mandarin! :) We all got our horses, they turned out to be kind of small horses which was good. And the saddle wasn't really like a normal saddle - we used normal saddles but on top of them were a lot of blankets and sleeping bags and stuff we would need for the night - so in the end the "seat" was really comfortable. People told me that I would be really sore after two days of riding, but it turned out that the horses was only slightly more bumpy than the local buses and the seats was much more soft! No worries at all!

The riding experience was perhaps not great - we mostly were riding slowly in walking speed because the path would be so steep. That wasn't a problem though - the views were sooo amazing that you really didn't have time to think about the riding. Songpan is a town on approximately 2700 meters altitude and from there we went straight up to 3500 meter. That is a great climb and even sitting on a horse I got tired. When we had to walk for more than an hour to get down the tricky parts where the horses couldn't carry us, I got really tired. Anyway, the mountain views were just fantastic. It can't really be described and all the pictures in the world can't really capture the greatness of being on a mountain top in an area looking like Grand Canyon, looking out over the mountain tops, the city in a valley far below and in the distance huge snow covered mountain peaks - everything under a clear blue sky and a shining sun! Look at the pictures to get a feeling of what I saw and then go there to see it for yourselves - a place like that has to be experienced!

Around lunch time we got to the place where we would spend the night - a small cottage close to an area with beautiful lakes. The name of the area was something like Erdao-something, which meant Two Line Lakes or something. The area was bascially a really nice forest area with beautiful lakes. Unfortunately the lakes were not really filled with much water, but it was still beautiful - especially with all the snow still on the ground and everything. We had a great snowball fight through most of our walk around the area which made us all very tired.

The night we spent on the floor of a small house without heating, but with all the cloth on, a sleeping bag and two blankets it wasn't that cold actually. After sleeping a lot that night and having a great breakfast I felt really good again - the first day was kind of rough with the altitude, the cold and too little sleep the last couple of nights. The second day took us back by horseback to Songpan again. It was a different route so there were loads of new sights, nice villages and more mountains. The weather wasn't as good though - a bit overcast, windy and cold. But it wasn't that bad - all in all it was a nice day as well. In the afternoon the sun came back and we had to take off hats, gloves, jackets and so on.

When we got back to the town it was only 1 pm or so, so we decided to go for another adventure - we hired a car with a driver to take us to a nice mountain one hour away. I'm really happy I followed the Chinese group going there, it was sooo beautiful. The mountain was about 4200 meters above sea level, so here you could really feel the air becoming thin and it being harder to do anything. We stopped on the way to watch the view - it was just amazing. It felt like being on the top of the world - especially with clouds blowing past under you! Look at the photos - hard to capture but truly wonderful experience!

On the mountain we made an 8 km trek - 4 km up to the five-colored pool and some temples, and then back down again. Going up took us like 2-3 hours and we had to stop quite often to catch our breath and then even more often to take photos. There were loads to see - frozen lakes, waterfalls, mountain views, temples etc. Look at the pictures I've uploaded (Songpan has a album of its own btw).

We barely made it down from the mountain to the waiting car before nightfall, it was already starting to get dark when we got down. It was cold, it was snowing and the driver was afraid of driving. He didn't know how to handle snow and his car in that weather so I had to show him some tricks from Sweden (like how to get rid of fog on the windscreen), but he still only kept a speed of 20-30 km/h. It took us more than three hours to get home... :)

Friday I spent on the bus back to Chengdu, then let myself into Eoin and Megans apartment and waited for them to get back from work. From there we went for a nice dinner with Helen and then went back and watched some movies. I got to see Happy Feet again - yey! :) Saturday was St Patricks Day, so it of course had to be celebrated. First we played rugby for a couple of hours with a lot of expats and other Westerners in Chengdu, that was great! Had a really good time and got to meet a lot of interesting people living in Chengdu. After the rugby we went for a good massage and then chilled in their apartment before it was time to go partying at Shamrock Bar, watch some rugby on tv and play some pool. All in all it turned out to be a really nice party evening.

On Sunday me and Helen took the plane to Xi'An (flying was the only option - train tickets were sold out...). Helen had been thinking about going to Xi'An for a while, so we decided to go together. It's great - I have a private guide now that actually speaks the language (and of course great English). So now we're in Xi'An. We found a great youth hostel out of accident. We were looking for another one mentioned in the guidebook, but we stumbled upon this one instead. It's awesome! It's newly built (they haven't officially opened it yet - one week left), it's built in a traditional old style and has like small bonsai trees and everything. And best of all - a free pool table! It's cheap, it's close to all the great sights in central Xi'An and it's just around the corner from the bar street. Awesome! And yes, of course, we thought the double room was a bit expensive so we went for the dormitory instead, but the reception promised us to let us have those four beds for ourselves for three nights. Strange, but very nice of them! :)

Anyways, gotta go now, tomorrow it's terracotta warriors and other sights in Xi'An and from there we'll see what we'll do. The plan is to stay here until Wednesday and then take the bus to Shanghai.

Emei Shan and Songpan

2007-03-13T18:19:00.000+08:00

After writing the last blog I spent the day sightseeing in Chengdu as planned. I started by walking around by myself - finding lovely small alleys, a school with children playing and some nice street stalls selling food for less than 1 yuan per piece. After this I went to the Wenshu Temple, a big temple area in the center of the town. That was nice to see and a really nice prequel to Emei Shan the following day.

Wenshu temple has a lot of visitors, so it felt a bit touristy. As always it wasn't that many foreigners though, mostly Chinese tourists. The temple itself wasn't that impressing (see pictures), but the surrounding garden with small pagodas spread out and the great library behind the temple was awesome! The library was three storeys high and looked like a great mansion taken straight out from Chinese history.

After the temple I went back to the guesthouse where I met up with Rachel to go to the opera. Nikki didn't feel like paying 90 yuan for the opera, so it was just me and Rachel. The opera turned out to be a mix of traditional Chinese entertainment on weekends, so we saw a mix of different things. There were some parts with classical Chinese opera, but also acrobatics, juggling with large Ming-vases and a table, shadow puppets show and some theatre with changing masks. The changing masks were great - they would have really nice dresses and a mask covering their face. And the masks changed - when they turned around they would have a new mask showing a new kind of person/thing. Very interesting!

The day after the opera the three of us decided to go separate ways. Or rather - same way but by different means. The girls wanted to hitchhike to Emei Shan and spend the night there, where as I wanted to just go there for a day trip. So after a nice breakfast the "party crew" split up and I went to the bus station to get a ticket for Bauguo Village, which is just on the bottom of Emei Shan (Emei Mountain). Sad to leave them, but also nice to travel by myself for a while. I guess I will meet them later, if nothing else back in England or Holland!

Emei Shan was a great experience. The bus ride there took two hours and it took me through some small and heavily industraialized towns (which was interesting to see) but mostly seemingly endless fields of "raps" (the Swedish word- not sure about the English word for the yellow stuff you use to make vegetable oil from). Bauguo Village turned out to be a quite touristy place - felt like coming to a ski-resort in the summer. Although touristy in China means - lots of tourists but no Westerner. I didn't see a single Westerner during the whole day actually - it seems the vast majority of tourists in China, at least in this season, is Chinese or Japanese.

From the village it was a short walk up to the two temples I'd decided to visit. The first one was Bauguo Si, or literally Declare Nation Monastery. It was a newly renovated temple that still kept its charm, although as I already said - a bit touristy. They even had a price list posted for staying in the monastery. And who the fuck wants a color TV when they're visiting a temple and sleeping there, that's beyond me?! The temple itself was built in several levels and you would walk through one temple just to find stairs leading up to the next one. There were monks walking about in the temple grounds and you could always here some chanting from temples or monks walking around. Very spiritual. The temple was surrounded by gardens that were perfectly taken care of, a nice place to spend an hour relaxing, taking in the views and listen to the silence. The views were fantastic, with Emei Shan rising as the backdrop for temples that looked exactly that you would have thought or hoped that they would!

From Bauguo Si I went towards the next temple - Fuhu Si. This literally means Crouching Tiger Monastery or perhaps Crouching Tiger Nunnery since there were only nuns there. To get there you would walk through large parks with lots of planted trees of more than 300 different species - it was just sooo peaceful and beautiful. From the first entrance to Fuhu Si there was a long way of staircases leading through deep rain forest, across streams on wonderful covered wooden bridges and fantastic pagodas. See the pictures from this walk - that was awesome!

Fuhu Si itself wsas also nice - it wasn't as picture perfect as Bauguo Si perhaps, but it felt much more genuine with nuns walking about in their daily routines, not so many tourists and even more quiet. On the top of the temple area there was a large hall filled with one thousand Buddha statues - each one different from the other. Interesting to see, but unfortunately you couldn't take any pictures in there. I also spent half an hour sitting on a terrace and looking out over the roofs of the temple - I just love those typical Chinese roofs!

After walking back to the village I got a bus back to Chengdu, which took me through all those golden fields again - this time during sunset which was beautiful. Well back in Chengdu I picked up my backpack and took a taxi to the apartment where Eoin and Megan is staying. They had invited me to sleep in their new guestroom for one night, which was totally awesome! They are sooo friendly and nice and the apartment is just wicked. They pay less than I would pay for a student flat with one room in Sweden, and they have something like 120 sq meters on the 15th floor - looking out over Chengdu. The flat is really luxurious, the highligts being the view and the panorama windows, the kitchen, the computerized shower and of course - the original Nintendo and the soccer table! We had a great evening together when we didn't do much, we went for food and chilled out in their apartment. Early night for us all - I left at 6 am to be in my guesthouse 6:20 for the pickup that would take me to the bus station and later Songpan.

So now I'm in Songpan. I am still recovering from the shock of the bus ride - just north of Chengdu started a great landscape that took us through deep valleys. It looks somewhat like Grand Canyon, or perhaps the greatest fjords in Norway, with huge mountains on each side of a beautiful lake and with snow still on the top of some mountains. After eight hours on a bus we arrive in Songpan which is a lovely small town (70k inhabitants or so). I'm not sure about the elevation - but you can feel that the sun is really strong and that the air is thinner than usual. No altitude-sickness though - just a bit harder to breath and move around. Along the way we saw some signs that this is indeed on the border to Tibet - except for the views there are the local dresses (reminding of the ones in Vietnam somewhat), the food along the way and of course the yaks lining the side of the road and roaming around in the stony fields.

Tomorrow I will buy myself a great birthday cake for breakfast and then go on my two-day horseback riding tour. I'm really looking forward to it now! Hope that the blue sky and the warmth stay - I really don't feel like riding in cold and rain! My wishes for my birthday (except for a new iPod filled with great music - I'm starved on music after almost three months of traveling) are to have a really memorable time on the tour and perhaps to see some more yaks! They are soo cute! :)

Guilin, Yangshou and Chengdu

2007-03-11T12:33:00.000+08:00

Oh. Now it was a long time since I wrote my blog. Some of you might have gotten an e-mail or two about what I've been doing and if you've been checking my pictures you know a bit as well, but I'll try and retell those days a bit here as well.

Ok, so after writing the last blog entry we went for a nice dinner in a Chinese restaurant. It felt a bit like a upper-class place, but the prices were good so we decided to eat there anyway. It was kinda late, so there weren't very many left in the restaurant. After we've ordered rice porridge - the only vegetarian food they could offer a Singaporian guy starts talking to us and he seems especially interested in talking to Rachel. He buys us some beers and then go back to his table and leaves us alone. After a while he gets back though and explains that he's working in Guilin at the moment and that at the other table is the boss and the big-big-boss for his company. They would like Rachel to come over and talk to them, they were appearantly interested in talking to foreigners (but only Rachel). The whole thing seemed kinda dodgy and wrong, but she couldn't really say no (and he was very clear all the time with the fact that they didn't want anything from her, just talk for a while). So she went to the next table and we kept a close eye on them all the time. When she gets back it turns out the big-big-boss is like really owning more or less the whole town and that he wants to give us stuff, especially pearls to Rachel. He wants to give her one tonight and if we call them tomorrow he'd give her many more. Very dodgy indeed, so we leave the place after a few mishaps. We're not sure what he wanted really - most likely someone that could smuggle pearls into England... No, we didn't call them the day after and no - so far no troubles with the mafia... In hindsight it was a interesting experience though...

After having a really nice night at our somewhat dodgy hotel (see the picture "please pull in case of security when you go to bed") we left to Yangshou. We did plan to take the bus to Yangshou, which would have been 10 yuan, but after haggling down the price for a boat ride from 500 yuan to 80 yuan each we took the boat. The boat was really cold, but there we're some really nice views and it was well worth the extra time it took.

The cold is a problem though. Arriving in Yangshou we realized that it was like 6 degrees and raining, which made us spend the evening in the warmest restaurants drinking hot chocolate and eating really good mexican food. I have bought a warm jacket (North Face - good winter jacket with fleece inside) for 250 yuan (less than 230 SEK) and some mittons - so now the cold isn't that big a problem anymore. They told us that one week ago (before the rain came) they had 27 degrees in Yangshou though, so we're still a bit disappointed that we missed out on the nice summer weather.

Yangshou is supposed to have some really good views and it must be amazing when you get here when it's warm enough to do stuff. All the places in town have bikes for rent so you can bike around by yourself, there are loads of tours to caves, peaks and mudbaths - of we ended up doing nothing. We saw a few of the peaks that are actually in the town, but we never went up to them. It simply was too cold! Instead we spent the days wandering around town, trying out more than a couple of bars and cafes and having a good time. At night time we had our dorm room with five beds all by ourselves. The first night it was soo cold and we wanted to watch a movie (you rent a DVD player and then buy a movie for 10 yuan), so we moved together two beds into one large one and just huddled up to keep warm. That was a great idea - warmest nights ever!

Yangshou was great in many ways. It was really nice to see, the town had some charm even though it was a bit too touristy (I'm glad we were there on off-season - otherwise it would have been mad I reckon). But the cold drove us crazy! The last night we did a cooking course which was really nice, we learned how to do pork dumplings, sweet and sour-chicken and ginger, garlic and chili beef. Really good and the lady showing us the things were very nice.

On the next day we took the bus to Guilin which took us one hour and from there we took the bus leading to Chengdu. We had soft-sleepers, which means you have a small bunk (literally to small in all directions - you can't really sit up, I was too tall and my shoulders are too broad to fit in) where you spend all the time. At night they would have the bus dark and quiet, which was really nice, but as soon as they thought it was someone awake they would play loud Chinese karaoke, play some action movies in Chinese or blast away with semi-Western music and videos with gogo-dancers. Very surreal experience... The bus ride was supposed to be 22 hours long, but turned out to be 24 hours, so we came to Chengdu at around 4 pm.

After succeding to find a cab that knew how to get to our hostel (we had the name in Chinese and a map - none which seemed to help very much) we checked into a small dorm (four beds), booked a panda tour for the following day and went out to see town. I mailed some friends that I met in Vang Vieng, Laos, who lives in Chengdu and said that I was here. One hour later or so, just when we were looking for a bar to go to they called and told us about a good bar to start at. After some troubles with finding the place (same things - name and map doesn't seem to help really) we met up with Eoin (pronounced Owen) and Megan and some of their friends. It was a nice bar, full of westerners and expats gathered to see the rugby game between Ireland and Scotland. He told us some interesting facts about Chengdu, for example that there are only like 600 expats in the whole Chengdu, while the population is close to 11 million now. My guidebook says 4.5 million - but that was 3 years ago and it was probably a bit unupdated already then. The cities here grow with immense speed - they say that Beijing went from 7 million to 14 million in less than five years. I can't believe that speed - it's just... unbelievable how a city can grow that much.

Anyways, we had a good night out. We started at this small bar, drinking a bit of beer, playing pool and eating some reaaaaally good pub food (best one I've ever had I think) and after that we went to the Babi Club which is full of Chinese people dancing and partying and we were more or less the only Westerners (together with two Dutch guys who joined us). We decidsed that this was my birthday party - I will probably be somewhere with the monks or on a horseback on my birthday so this was the last chance to party. It was great! Babi Club sold bottles of whiskey really cheap and then you got tea to blend it with. At first I was skeptical, but tea really hides all the wiskey taste more or less. Interesting and a bit dangerous - it was easy to drink a bit too much. After being in Babi Club for quite a while I followed Eoin and Megan to their home together with a few others and we ended up sitting there playing Nintendo (8 bit - the original!) and table soccer the whole night.

At half six I took the cab back to the guesthouse to get on the panda tour with the girls that started at seven. No sleep tonight, but after 24 hours of sleeping and resting on a bus that doesn't feel like a problem really.

The panda tour was great! We went to a zoo/breeding ground for pandas and saw lots of them. They are really beautiful, like teddybears but with something human in them as well. The way they use their hands, the way they look at you and the way they just sit and eat makes them feel very intelligent and ... humanlike in some way. It was really amazing and I've uploaded loads of pictures from this (and the party night as well).

Anyways, now I'm heading for lunch and some sightseeing in town! My plans are a bit blurry right now, but I'll probably be away for a couple of days doing tours around here, so don't expect any updates on the blog. First I'll probably try to go to Emei Shan which is a mountain area nearby where you can do some trekking and sleep in monastaries with the monks. After this I might go on a horse-riding trek for a couple of days in a place that is on the border to Tibet and that people say is more or less like Tibet (but closer). I don't know if I have the time to do both though, so I'm not sure what I'll end up doing...

Guangzhou and Guilin

2007-03-06T19:17:00.000+08:00

After doing some Internet in Guangzhou me and Rachel, the Brittish girl, headed back to the guesthouse to catch the others. We ended sitting in the dorm for quite a while, talking and drinking some beer before going for a really nice dinner at a muslim place along the riverside of Guangzhou together with Nikki, Francois from Canada and of course - Gregory (our local tour guide you could say). That was a really nice dinner, we had shitloads of barbequed lamb (you pay like 3 yuan = 3 SEK per stick and five was more than enough per person) and some other kebab-like things. Very nice!

After the dinner we continued along the riverside until we decided to take a cab to one of the bar areas in Guangzhou. This was a small street with a couple of lounge-looking bars, probably run by the mafia for money laundry (or so Greg said at least). After a beer and some talking we went for a small walk in the really expensive neighbourhoods of Guangzhou - large houses for ridicolous prices (really ugly though) with their own guards outside each building.

The following day me, Rach and Nikki spent walking around town and having a great time. We all were going on the night train at night, so we spent the day just walking around without a goal at all. Guangzhou is a beautiful city in many ways - there are lots of small alleys that are just wonderful. There are Chinese old men sitting along the streets more or less everywhere, playing Chinese checkers, go or mahyong (spelling?). It was interesting to watch them play and they almost everytime wanted me to sit down and play with them.

The train trip to Guilin was a nice one as well. The hard sleepers we had was reaaaalle nice - although I'm like 5 cm to tall for the beds and it was a bit cold when we woke up. But it was a nice trip all in all - took 13 hours and from 1 o'clock we slept really well (at least I did - I don't know about the girls really). The first hours we spent in the restaurant carrier, eating our take-away food from KFC, drinking beer, playing cards and generally just having a really good time. These girls are hilarious, it's so easy just to hang out and have a good time with them!

Today we've been walking around in Guilin. First we got a really nice hotel room with three beds. The guidebook says that there are no cheap places to stay - but that's obviously not true during low-season. We met a guy on the street who showed us his hotel. It was a two-star hotel, really nice and clean enough. The room-rates on the wall said 420 yuan for a three-bed room, but after a bit of haggling we got it for 60 yuan. Yes, 20 yuan each! That's less than I paid for the lunch at KFC (yes, we're a bit lazy sometimes)! After checking in, walking around a bit, seeing some nice temples (the temple of the moon and the sun) and eating lunch to get warm we went for the Solitary Beauty Peak which is a 66 meter high pinnacle with a temple on top in the middle of the town. The peak is surrounded by a temple area with temples and other buildings built hundreds or years ago for one of the princes. The three of us had an English-speaking guide showing us around and it was really interesting and amusing at the same time. The cold made it a bit hard to really enjoy the view though - it's less than 10 degrees here right now.

Anyway, now we're heading out for some dinner I think. Perhaps try some snake soup or wild cat - they are supposed to have really strange food in this town!

Also trying to upload pictures now - I hope it's working, so check them out!

Last night in Hong Kong and Guangzhou

2007-03-04T19:04:00.000+08:00

So, I finally succeded in leaving Hong Kong. Today I took the bus from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, where I just arrived. The bus trip was great - probably the best I've had so far. The bus had air con, soft seats and more than enough leg space. Crossing the border was no problem, it took like three minutes in total - very effective.

Yesterday was a great day in Hong Kong as well. I had a slow start - sleeping to 11 or so (which I reckon I really needed) and then I showed Aleks (my new German roomie that I literally picked up from the street :) to the great Internet place before I went to lunch with Carey. We went to a Korean restaurant which was really nice - especially the fact that you did the barbequeing by yourself on a small grill in the middle of the table.

After the lunch me and Carey went around in the Wanchai area and she showed me some of the "old areas" of Hong Kong. Those blocks only had like five-seven floors and they all looked really old compared to the brand new office towers surrounding the area. But it was all about to change. The area was officially closed down, so noone was living there and no shops were open - they were about to tear the whole area down within this year to make room for new office buildings and skyscapers. I'm glad I had the chance to see this before it's too late. We bought a Mandarin phrasebook for me which I reckon I will really need here in China - especially when I get to smaller places where noone speaks English. After this we found a building with 66 floors and a rotating restaurant in the top. We didn't want to go to the restaurant, but we figured we could just go up with the "observation elevator" that was on the outside of the tower. I'm really happy we did - that was a great experience - to see the town just disappear under you while you go from floor 17 to floor 59 in less than half a minute. We ended up going up and down two or three times! :)

After this I met up with Aleks again to show her to the Victoria Peak which I saw just two nights earlier. It was really great - we came there just before sunset and saw a amazing sunset over the outskirts of Hong Kong. After this we ate at Burger King (cheap cheap) and then went for the walk around the peak which shouldn't take more than half an hour. If you stop to look at the view and take lots of photos it takes more like one-two hours we found out. Anyway, after this we did some more shopping and sightseeing on the peak before taking the tram back down. When we got down we slowly walked through the town back to the ferry terminal and went more or less directly to our guesthouse when we came to the other side. The plan was to find a Internet place and then get a drink somewhere, but after failing to find it for 15 minutes we went to bed instead - we were both really tired I think. :)

Today I only went to some lunch, did some Internet and then took the bus. Now I've found a great dorm here in Guangzhou on the Shamien Island and in a short while I will go for some dinner. Tomorrow I'm going to Yangshou with a Brittish girl I just met in the hostel - we're taking the same night train, so I'll have the day tomorrow to actually see anything of Guangzhou.

The headache has been gone for two days now, so there shouldn't be any problems. If it comes back I might go to the doctor - the guidebook has a listing of English speaking hospitals in every city. Thanks for all the worried mails - that tells me you are actuallt reading what I write and that you are concerned as well. No worries, I'm fine now!

Also put up more pictures from Hong Kong, be sure not to miss them!

Still in Hong Kong

2007-03-03T15:28:00.000+08:00

So, I'm still in Hong Kong. This seems to be one of those places that I really can't leave - I like it here and I haven't even done anything much special. Anyway, just writing a short entry now to tell you that I'm fine, that I've had some more headache but that it has mostly been due to last nights activites (although I still feel the original headache - it's there but it doesn't hurt much at all).

Uploaded lots of pictures from Bangkok and Hong Kong as well, so be sure to check them out! The night views over Hong Kong from the Victoria Peak are fabulous!!!

A new journey begins...

2007-03-01T15:52:00.000+08:00

I feel as if one part of my trip is ending and that a completely different journey lies ahead. It's exciting and actually a little bit scary as well. The new journey begins in a really good way, but also in a really bad way.

The good thing is Hong Kong - arriving in Hong Kong felt a bit like coming home to Sweden at first. The weather (it's winter here) is like Swedish summer - approximately 20 degrees and a bit overcast. This means I'm wearing my new hoodies - this is cold for me, compared to the last days in Bangkok with 40 degrees and a blazing sun. The second feeling after arriving in mid-Hong Kong with the bus from the airport was that I've been dropped in the middle of Manhattan. Hong Kong is a whole city looking like the famous Times Square on Manhattan, NY.

The other really good thing with Hong Kong is the two locals showing me around and giving me ideas for what to do. The first one is Carey (Clacke's girlfriend for you at home who knows Clacke). She has showed me two really nice Dim Sum places (really good food - it's like a collection name for different types of dumplings and springroll-ich things). She also gave me some maps and showed me where I could get my Chinese visa, etc. The other local would be Fifi, a Hong Kong-born kiwi and a friend of Kim (the kiwi I travelled with in Laos and Bangkok). Yesterday she took me to the pub area Lan Kwai Fong and a small place called Le Jardin, where Carey met up with us after a while. We had some wine (the first good wine I've had in two months - aaah) and ate some Indian food as well. After Le Jardin me and Fifi continued on to the next party area, Wan Chai (perhaps the correct spelling?), where we started by going to an aussie bar selling Long Island Ice Tea in huge bowls for only HK$100 (roughly 100 SEK). After realizing we couldn't finish it by ourselves we went to "the place to be" - Mes Amis, which was crowded, played good music and we ended up dancing the night away there.

The bad start of the new journey is a terrible headache that I got in Bangkok. It's located just above my right eye, so I suspect there's something wrong with my sinuses or so. The first time I felt it in Bangkok it wasn't that bad and it went away after some hours. Since then it has appeared every day to stay for a couple of hours and then to go away again. When it's there nothing seems to help. I've tried all the stuff you should - drinking loads of water, taking a hot shower, blowing my nose, rinsing the sinuses, eating, sleeping, resting, massage, drinking (not water) and taking painkillers/paracetamol. Today I woke up and the headache was there (no, I was not hungover, we didn't drink that much) and it was terrible! I could barely get out of bed, but I knew I needed water, food and perhaps a pharmacy. I've never felt a strong headache like that - tears just kept running due to the pain and my whole body was slightly trembling. I don't mind the pain that much - I can always block it out, but when it makes me cry and shake it's still hard to do stuff. After buying some painkillers and sitting down on McD for breakfast an old couple asked me if they could help me - I could hardly open the box of painkillers and I must have looked like I was in great pain (which I was). An hour after a double dose of painkillers I realized that they didn't help much, except that my whole body felt a bit numb and that I could actually fall asleep after 30 mins more (despite the still horrible pain). When I woke up the pain was more or less gone, but I reckon should go to the hospital if it returns tonight or tomorrow. Let's just hope it doesn't - that was a horrible experience, especially since I was all by myself and couldn't really get any help from anybody.

Anyway. Except for the headache everything is great and I'm really looking forward to seeing China now. First stop will probably be Guangzhou (spelling probably way wrong), the town formerly known as Canton. I don't know when I'll be going there, but probably tomorrow or the day after.

Bangkok - Hong Kong

2007-02-28T00:38:00.000+08:00

Ok, I know - I haven't written that much lately and I don't really have a reason for it, it's not as if they're not hundreds of internet places in Bangkok. Anyway, here we go. The last night with Fra and Kim was really funny. We went back to our hotel room and looked through what we had bought. It was a lot. Shitloads of cloths. I ended up sending home 9 kilosof stuff, which was more or less only cloths. To be a bit more specific I bought 20 t-shirts, 3 hoodies and 2 jeans. And some perfumes. And some other stuff. I love shopping in Bangkok and MBK, I spent less than $150 in total I think, which is good value I must say.

Anyways, back in the hotel room we showed each other everything we bought and then we decided (read: Kim decided) that we all needed face masks and that we should dye my hair. Dark brown it was supposed tobe, but as it turns out I'm really black-haired nowadays. Goodbye sun bleached blonde hair. Noone thinks I'm Swedish anymore though, which is good.

After they left (buhu - no more kiwis...) I thought Iwould be by myself in Bangkok for a couple of nights, but after just one night I met Tina from Germany who I had met in Nha Trang, Vietnam - so we ended up spending the rest of the time in Bangkok together. It was very nice to meet her again, although I was a bit surprised at first to meet her in Bangkok. But then again, the last night I also met the three Israeli girls from Halong Bay and Sapa, so I guess you can never spend a long time in Bangkok without meeting people you know... :)

Bangkok really made a mess of my English. There are so many Swedes there that you here Swedish all the time - no half of my thoughts are in semi-Swedish and thinking in neither Swedish nor English feels natural anymore. When trying to find my way from the map today I found myself thinking "One two tre fyra blocks kvar to go" - confusing.

So. After a nice time in Bangkok with lots of shopping and lots of Indian food, I'm know in Hong Kong. The airline was a bit worried that they wouldn't let me in because I didn't have permission to stay in Hong Kong and I had no exit ticket,but it was no problems at all. Arriving in Hong Kong at night was a great experience, it feels as if someone just dropped me in downtown Manhattan - the city is immense, colorful, modern, loud, bustling and extremely international. I reckon I will have some nice days here - if my budget allows it. I found a nice room for $130 (hongkong dollar - approxiamtely one HK$ on one SEK) - it's expensive but I don't think you can find much cheaper in HK. But the room is great - two beds, aircon, TV, hot shower - I feel liked a spoiled kid at Christmas after all those rat holes in Bangkok and other places. Very nice!

I'll write more tomorrow perhaps, now I have to go to bed. And yeah, also, thanks to Carey for showing me the great Dim Sum place where we had dinner and for giving me lots of great ideas for what to do in HK. See ya tomorrow as well! :)

On my way to China

2007-02-24T15:24:00.000+08:00

Okey, now I am on my way to China. More or less at least. From Vang Vieng I decided that I should go to China as soon as possible and to go to China you could either take the plane or the bus from Vientiane. So I went to Vientiane together with Fra and Kim (the two kiwis). Then I really don't know what happend, but I ended up in Bangkok.

To fly from Vientiane to China was possible, but it would mean I had to stay a couple of days in Vientiane which I didn't feel like. And that would only take me to Kunming, which I didn't feel like at the moment. Taking the bus was possible, but it was expensive, would take me to Kunming as well and would take 2-3 days depending on who you asked. Not a good option. So instead I got on the night train to Bangkok from Vientiane together with the two kiwis and now we've spent two days of shopping in Bangkok. I will have to send home a lot of stuff, I've bought t-shirts for at least a year to come and now it's time for some jeans and some hoodies.

New plan is to fly to Hong Kong on Tuesday, which is a bit too late in my opinion but still very good. The price was a bit too high, but still cheaper than going from Vientiane to Kunming.

I'll write more in a day or two and I'll try to upload some pictures from our days in Bangkok. Tonight the kiwis are leaving (going back to New Zealand), so I'm by myself in Bangkok soon. I'll probably do some more shopping and some sightseeing.

Tubing in Vang Vieng

2007-02-20T14:13:00.000+08:00

Now I've had two days of tubing in Vang Vieng. The first day when Allison left I had a great breakfast at the Organic Farm Cafe. After that I was by myself and had some plans to go tubing. It took me like two minutes of walking through the town before I met James (the Canadian guy that I stayed with in Luang Prabang) and he was going tubing as well. Turned out to be a big group of people, consisting of me, James (from Canada), the Swiss girl Carol and the Dutch guy Chris (I met both in Luang Prabang as well), Matthew, Luke, Danny and Alan from England and Kim and Fra (aka Kiwi) from New Zeeland. Really nice group of people and we had a great day together.

To go tubing you first get into line at the tubing office. You pay your $3 for the tube (and the tuk-tuk ride upstreams), fill in some forms abou8t security and stuff and then you're off. You get on a tuk-tuk which takes you to the starting point and from there you just get into your tube (a tractor wheel filled with air) and start to float down the river. Floating down the river is not what you do for the whole day though - it's just a way to get from one bar/place to the next. We never made it that far down the river really - we kinda got stuck at the first four bars.

All the bars sell beer Laos (best beer I've ever had I think), serve free lao-lao (Lao whiskey) or sell buckets with lao-lao and mixers. Some bars are just bars where you sit down, chill, drink, enjoy the sun and the music and just meet new people. Most bars have swings where you can swing into the water, courts for playing beach volley, a bonfire or other entertainment. We had a really great time both days - just chilling, playing volleyboll, drinking a bit and meeting loads of new people. The first day we got a new member in the group as well - Ashley, who quickly got the nickname Boston Wu-tang (long story short, she's from Boston and her last name is Wu).

You start early in the day with tubing - around noon for us. It should take like 2 hours just to go down the whole river to the end, and you have to be back at six. We never made it to the end - I think we stopped in the middle at 6 pm both days - taking a tuk-tuk back since it's too cold in the water and you have to return the tube. It was really good fun though!

The nights have been spent in the company of the group as well, having a really great time with loads of fun. It's a bit of a shame though that all bars close before midnight and that there's a curphew for people which means you can't have alcohol in the streets after 11 pm, you can't make any noise or just being outside in the night (going home from the bars is okay - if you do it quietly). The punishment for breaking the curphew is a warning the first time and then you may face up to a couple of years in jail. Not a good idea to push it... :)

My plans for the future is a bit unclear. I'm starting to think that I will spend a couple of days more in Vang Vieng and then try to get to China as fast as possible - probably by taking the plane from Viantiene. I'll see how it turns out.

Also uploaded some more pictures from Luang Prabang and the tubing in Vang Vieng. Enjoy!

Vang Vieng

2007-02-17T19:31:00.000+08:00

So now I'm in Vang Vieng - a small town filled with backpackers. Some people compare this town to Khao San Road i Bangkok, which is not a good thing I would guess. Khao San Road is the backpackers area, which is overdeveloped, filled with bars and backpackers and a great way to spend a couple of days in Bangkok without ever seeing anything of Thailand or the Thai culture. I can see why they compare Vang Vieng to this, but I don't agree. Sure there are lots of backpackers. Sure the town is filled with bars showing Friends at large TV's, lots of guesthouses and bungalows offering rooms for $3 and upwards, restaurants letting you choose between Lao, Thai, Indian, Israeli or Western (burgers, pizza (yes, of course they have the happy version as well)) food and internet cafes with brand new computers. But still there's a certain charm to it. It is a relaxed feeling and a feeling of genuine welcoming from the locals. The locals are friendly, helpful, don't try to rip you off and in comparison to Bangkok the surroundings are absolutely breathtaking. I love Vang Vieng so far - and I haven't even done the tubing yet.

Sooo... Vang Vieng is a small town. A really small town. As you now know it's filled with bars, restaurants and guesthouses. The town itself is located in a large valley or perhaps on a plain, but it is surrounded by limestone cliffs - making it look quite a bit like Halong Bay actually. It is soooo beautiful. There is a small river or stream runnning through the city - giving opportunities for kayaking, rafting and ... tubing! The surrounding mountains contain lots of caves which gives the place lots of trekking and hiking possibilites.

The first day me and Allison went to the Blue Lagoon which was a small lagoon outside a cave - 6 km from the town. We spent a couple of hours there just swimming in the lagoon, playing with the swings and just relaxing in one of the huts by the small river. Indian food for dinner and then some drinks in a lovely bar with great music (especially when the open mic got used - there were two great guitar players there that night) and a bonfire to sit by.

Today, which I hope is the second day (which I just realized it can't be since I've had two nights here, so the first day was probably just arriving and going to a bar), I've been doing a hike to the Losi Cave. The plan was to go tubing, but first we wanted to go to the cave. The cave turned out to take a longer time than expected, so I decided to wait with the tubing until tomorrow. So we went to the cave me, Allison and a very nice German girl (whose name I think is Patricia but I wouldn't swear on it). To enter the cave you have to pay a guide to follow you, which is very sensible. The cave was huge. I don't know how deep it was, but we spent more than two hours in there. The cave leads inwards and inwards until you reach a lagoon inside the cave. Me and the German girl went for a swim with the guide while the others (Allison and a German couple) waited a bit away - they were a bit scared and having a bit of troubles with some claustrophobia. It was a great experience to walk around in the cave and also to swim around in it. Especially when the light of the guides flashlight went out while we were swimming - and this was the only light we had at the moment. It was sooooo dark - you couldn't know whether you had your eyes open or not.

Now I'm getting ready for dinner after having relaxed in the sun for a couple of hours. This has been a lovely relaxed, chilled out day - which seems to be the only kind of days you can have in Laos. Tomorrow I'll tell you about the tubing - I don't want you to worry before I've actually done it! :)

Last day in Luang Prabang?

2007-02-14T13:17:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was at least as lazy as the day before. I didn't achieve to do anything, apart from finding a bar in the evening that had a pool table where I spent the whole evening, sharing a bottle of lao-lao (lao whiskey) with James (the Canadian). Oh yeah - we went for bowling also - the only thing that is allowed to stay open later than midnight. It was fun to do some bowling, but after a fair amount of lao-lao, the results is bound to be quite bad. First time I've played bowling bare-footed as well, it wasn't that bad and playing in flip-flops were absolutely impossible.

The things I had planned to do and failed utterly to do was:
- Buy a book to read (I did find a book shop however, but then I saw the pool table next doors)
- Get a haircut
- Buy scissors for my fingernails, I've lost the last three ones (I did actually find scissors and bought them, but they didn't work so I returned them - thus still no scissors)
- See the town and some temples (I did leave the main street today though - progess)
- Upload the last pictures

Since I failed to do any of those things yesterday, the plans for today are pretty much the same. Except that I will also try to buy tickets for a bus to Vhang Vien tomorrow morning, I think it's time for a new town now.

I've already uploaded the lasat pictures from Vietnam now - so now you can see great photos of the Bac Ha market, interesting photos from local bus rides and some nice pictures from Mai Chau.

Luang Prabang

2007-02-13T15:55:00.000+08:00

Now I'm spending my, erm, third day in Luang Prabang and it stills feels as if I haven't seen the town yet. First day we went to the waterfalls and partying in the small village, so no town sightseeing then. Yesterday I slept until 11 am, took a long nice shower, went for a breakfast at the "Scandinavian Bakery" - lovely sandwiches, hot chocolate and pineapple juice, yumie! - and after that I went to the Internet cafe where I ended up spending a long time, writing about everything that I've done the last few days and uploading a lot of pictures. After Internet I went for a nice Indian dinner by myself which was very nice. Had a chicken vindaloo which cleared my sinuses and made me feel good again! :) Had some beers with a girl from Canada and then I went to bed really early. Today I've been relaxing as well - haven't accomplished anything apart from seeing a nice temple (no camera though, so I have to go back I suppose). Perhaps I should get some lunch now and try to find me a book and then get my camera. In the evening I'm climbing the hill here to see a nice temple in the sunset, supposedly very good views as well.

It feels nice to be just resting for a while - taking a vacation from traveling. I needed that! One-three more days and I'll be ready for more traveling again!

The last pictures from Vietnam will be uploaded tonight!

Border-crossing to Laos

2007-02-12T15:47:00.000+08:00

Now I have finally managed to cross the border to Laos. The day before yesterday I left Mai Chau in Vietnam by moto-bike. He was supposed to take me to Sam Neau on the Laos side - which is like five hours on moto. Since he couldn't take dollars I had to pay the hotel which would give him dong instead. This was OK for me (but if I had given it more thought I might have understood that this could 'cause problems). Anyway, we ride through the Viatnamese mountains for three hours (with small kids, 2-20 years or so, in every village shouting "hello" and waiving at you). The driver tells me about some of the local villages, especially the Tao villages which is "his people". This is a great drive - going by moto is a good way to see the views and get a real feel for the country I think.

Just realized that I haven't described the evening of the second day in Mai Chau either - I apologize for the insequential and not chronological order of everything now. Anyway, the evening was great. After using Internet for a couple of hours - writing that extremely long blog entry and answering a couple of e-mails from friends and family I went to see some caves that a local had told me about. I could find them by looking for some special road sign and then look for some stairs. He told me the climb was a bit exhausting but I figured it wouldn't be a problem and seeing a cave is always nice. So I find the stairs and I look at them. They really are long - but it's not _that_ long anyway - I can make it! So I start. And then I realize that what I saw was just the stairs to the first turn. So I climb a bit more. And a bit more. And some more. And wow - this is a really nice view, but I am a bit tired now. And more climbing. And more. Even nicer view. And now you can't hear the city anymore. But still just stairs. Uff. Can't turn back now - so I continue. I think the total climb took me like half an hour (perhaps not - but a really long time and I haven't really been working out the last month if we put it that way). When I reach the cave it's almost sunset, which gives me lots of nice views of the valley and the cave an eerie feeling of emptiness, with looong shadows cast from the strange rock shapes. It was a shame that I couldn't stay that long - I wanted to get down the stairs before it gets dark. On my way down I counted the steps, which gave me the total of 1198 steps (a local told me 1251 when I got down, so I was kind of close anyway). That is a lot I can tell you!

After the caves I get back to the guesthouse where two other guys are staying this night. It is a Swiss guy and his Vietnamese guide. We all have a dinner with the family of the guesthouse which turns out to be very nice. They have lots of food and it's soooo good. Everybody shares the same plates, you just take your chopsticks and bring a piece of food to your rice bowl and eat it. Also they drink rice wine. A lot of rice wine. It feels likes Swedish midsummer, except that the speed is higher. When we finished the eating and drinking we go to the karaoke place in the village. It's me, the Swiss guy and three Vietnamese guys sitting in a small room and singing karaoke together with the girl that works in the place. It turns out that it is much easier getting the Vietnamese pronounciation and tones correct when you are (or at least trying to) singing. It was a great evening, the Vietnamese guide was really funny and was a great singer as well.

Anyways, the border-crossing. When we get to the border there is a small immigration office and a bus standing outside. There are some Westerns (for me it seems like a lot of them, like eight or nine perhaps - on the same place!) and they are trying to get into Vietnam from Laos. I later on learn that this border crossing has like 50 Westerners every week, but that only 1% or so cross the border from Vietnam - Laos. This I notice when I get into the office as well, show my passport and say "To Laos" - they border guard is very confused and has to find another book in a small cabin in another room before he can let me show my VISA and exit Vietnam. When you pass into Vietnam they seem to be very careful - checking VISA, asking questions, looking through the bag and stuff, but when you cross to Laos you just show your passport and walk right past all the security checks. When I get out of the office I notice that my driver has dumped my bag on the ground and I see him disappearing in the distance. Fuck. I should have figured that paying in advance wasn't a very good idea - but they really seemed nice and reliable (he was a friend of the family I stayed with). So. I'm at the border of Vietnam and Laos. I have just exited Vietnam which means I can't go back into Vietnam to find a new driver or to fix something. There is only one way right now - to Laos and the village on the other side of the border - perhaps I'll find something there. (The fact that he left me disturbes me a bit, but it really only means that I payed the standard price for getting to the border instead of getting a really good price for getting to Sam Neau). So I walk a couple of hundred meters before reaching the Laos immigration office. They seem very surprised to see a Westerner, and even more surprised by the fact that I come by foot and by myself. After showing my VISA and getting some stamps the border guards tells me that the only bus leaving from Na Maew (which is the village on the Laos side) leaves at 10 am, and now it's 12.30. Which means, they tell me, that I either try to find a truck and get a ride with one of them (there are usually some per day they say) or find a local family in the village where I can sleep. Both sound fine to me, so I decide to explore the village while waiting for some trucks. Exploring the village turns out to be easier done than said actually (no, it's not a misprint) - it's just to turn around 360 degrees and you've seen it all. There are a small restaurant, a small shop and five houses with the families of the shops. And the immigration office of course. And a small office checking arriving people for bird flu. That's it.

So I sit down in the shadow, play with my juggling balls for a while, order a noudle soup which turns out to be inedible, talk to the border guards for a while (no, they don't have anything to do - this is not a very commonly used border crossing) and try to get some sleep on my backpack. I ask the guard when he thinks there will be a truck here, and he says that there is usually a couple of trucks around 3 or 4 pm. Just to relax in a couple of hours then - which I do. At 3.30 the border guard comes over to me and seems to be really happy - he tells me there is a Vietnamese bus coming to the border in an twenty minutes or so and that I can take that bus to Sam Neau. When the bus arrives it turns out that Anita is at the bus and that she had planned to hitchhike from the border to Sam Neau. We have been traveling together for a week or so, but she left Mai Chau one day earlier than me to get to the border by hitch-hiking - but now we end up together anyway. We end up taking the bus from the border to Sam Neau and arrive there late in the evening - both very tired. We get a room, watch some TV with a Danish couple and then go to sleep. After reading the guidebook I decide that I need to get to a place where I can stay for a couple of days, which means I'm taking the bus to Luang Prabang in the morning. Anita decides to take the same bus but only to Nong Khiaw, she wants to go trekking first and I'll rather do that later.

The busride was supposed to be long - I knew that. When I get on the bus it seems to be a long, but nice, bus trip. The seats are very soft and alomst no-one seems to be throwing up. There is a nice couple from Holland in front of us and we talk a bit to them. The bus gets more and more crowded and some people have to sit on stuff in the aisle, like plastic chairs or other stuff. I'm glad I have my seat, my trip is supposed to be something like 15 hours long. After the lunch break it turns out that more people are getting on, and that those people have already entered the bus and taking seats. My left sweater is now not on the seat, but on the seat in front of my old place. I want to tell them that no, that was my seat and you'll have to take the aisle or someone else's seat - but then I see it's two parents and their 4 year old daughter sitting in their laps. Yeah yeah, I'll take the aisle - it can't be that bad, can it? It turns out it can. I spend 7 hours on that bumpy bus, sitting on a sack of rice. A sack of rice is hard. Really hard. Not like wood-seat hard, more like really really stone hard. And after a while it has the same shape as you rear parts, which means that it's not just hard for a small part of you and that you can shift around - it's hard for all of your ass and it's hard all of the time and you can't shift your position 'cause the sack is shaped after only one position! Blah! Oh well, I borrow a book from the guy next to me ("Zen and the art of taking care of your motorcycle" or something like that - a very interesting book, I have to get it so I can finish it - Dad: You should read it - it's about zen and life in general, but also have some nice thoughts about traveling that made me think much about our many travels together) which says that "Physical discomfort is only a problem when you're in a bad mood. If you're in a good mood, physical discomfort is not a problem, but if you're in a bad mood you can use the physical discomfort as an reason for the bad mood - although it rarely is." (loosely quoted from my memory). At the time that seemed very true, I was in a good mood (the first five hours at least), and the discomfort didn't bother me that much really. Along the way we have two flat tires, which gives us time to stop for a toilet visit, something I'm not sure they would have bothered with otherwise. The last three hours of my trip the bus is a bit more empty, a few people and all the Westerners (except me) got of at Nong Khiaw, which means I get my soft seat back (Fredrik: aaah, sweet music for my ass). I also get a new "neighbour" - a guy sitting down with a large automatic gun next to me. He always has it pointed towards the roof and I guess/hope it isn't loaded and well secured, but I still have a bit of a trouble relaxing the rest of the trip.

When I get to Luang Prabang it's one o'clock in the night and the first guesthouses I try to get into are full. But I find three guys and one girl on their way home from some partying and ask them about their guesthouse. They think it's full as well, but I can crash in their room. So I end up spending the night at the floor of their room (three beds, one madrass and one Anders on the floor). They turn out to be very nice, they all met up one or two days ago. There is one guy from Canada, Adam from New Zeeland, a guy from Italy and the Swiss girl Sabine. Since the Italian guy didn't use his blanket or pillow I had a blanket I could roll into (which made it more soft to sleep on that floor than the sleeping mats I had for two nights in Mai Chau).

In the morning they told me that they were going to the waterfalls. I was at first a bit skeptical - I wanted a day of relaxing, using the Internet and stuff. But I thought that going to the waterfalls for some hours wouldn't be that bad, so I followed them. I'm glad I did - although this made me miss a day of relaxing (I'm doiung that today anyway, so it's okey). The waterfalls was very nice and pretty, really good for taking photos. You could also go on a small trek/climb to the top of the waterfall which I did (the others did as well, but we lost each other for a while which means I did it by myself). Afterwards we were bathing for a while in the pools under the waterfalls, playing with the swing and having a great time. We had a good lunch and played some cards at a restaurant waiting for our tuk-tuk driver to pick us up. When he does, he tells us that he wants to take us to his village and we say, sure, why not.

When we get there it turns out to be a big party/disco in the small village. Later we find out that it is the birthday of the village chief and that they celebrate it by having live disco music, eating lots of food, drinking even more Beer Lao the whole day and dancing. When we got there the locals were very nice but already very drunk. They took us to dance with them - at first just disco dancing, but later more of traditional dances. They taught (see Sophie - I know how to do!) us how to dance, how we should move our hands, how we should walk in a ring and when we should go around in circles. Very confusing at first, but after a while (and more than a couple of Beer Lao - they were inviting us to drink with them all the time) we could really enjoy ourselves. We ended up spending almost four hours there before taking the tuktuk back to Luang Prabang. That was a really nice and interesting experience. To see the locals partying just for themselves, to meet the whole family (his five brothers and four sisters and of course the parents), to dance with the locals and to learn how to drink and share food in Laos. Not so nice but equally interesting was the fact that several locals (very drunk I admit) tried to grab my balls when we were dancing (old guys and my-age-guys). I'm not sure why, but I saw them do it to each other some times as well. Either they were just curious or it's some kind of "game". Strange.

Today I'm taking a slow day. I found a Scandinavian bakery where I sat down for breakfast between 12 and 2. Since then I've been using the computer, uploading pictures and writing this blog entry. See the pictures and please write more comments!

Still in Vietnam

2007-02-08T13:09:00.000+08:00

So - I'm still in Vietnam. I've been without a decent Internet connection for more than a week now I think, so that's why I haven't posted anything to the blog. But here goes. This will probably be quite a long blog since it's a long time since I wrote and lots have happened. But I will take it from the beginning I suppose (I'm glad I wrote diaries for hand though - otherwise I wouldn't remeber it all i guess)...

From Hanoi me, Anita and the three Israeli girls took the train to Sapa (really it was to Lao Cai which is more than one hour of driving at small mountain roads). Me and Anita bought the tickets at the train station, which gave us a very good price, less than $5 for a hard seat. If it wasn't for the cold and the fact that the window wouldn't close completely these seats would have been fine, but with one window partially open all the time it turned out to be a freezing experience.

When we arrived in Sapa it was really cold (7 degrees or so - which is very cold when you're used to 25-35 and don't have cloth for the cold) and raining, so we ended up staying at Buffalo Bell by the fireplace the whole day - playing cards and drinking hot chocolate! The second day in Sapa we did some trekking in small local tribe villages. We saw Cat Cat, Ban Ho, Te Yan and Lao Chai. It was really nice to see the villages of some of the different tribe peoples and even more interesting to see their beautiful and colorful traditional dresses that they wear (and not just for the tourists as it turns out). The views were fantastic, this is by far the most astounding mountain area I've ever been to (and I've been traveling in mountain areas in Sweden, Norway, Spain, Greece, France, Slovakia and others as well). The mountains were huge, the valleys were deep and it was full of lovely rice paddies, small local hill tribe villages with small wooden houses (each tribe has their own way of building their houses) and great waterfalls. The only shame was that it was a bit hazy - so the few photos I took doesn't really convey the beauty of the magnificent mountains...

The third day in Sapa we went to see the Bac Ha market, where we saw loads of locals dressed up for the market - which gave us lots of good photo opportunities. On the bus back me and Anita decided to give the border crossing at Nay Trang a try, so we needed to get to Lai Chau (not to be confused with Lao Cai or Lai Chai - it's important to get it right we understood after a while). Nay Trang is not officially open to foreigners, or at least it wasn't when my guidebook was printed - but we thought we might give it a try anyway. So we asked around for how to get to Lai Chau, but the general opinion seemed to be that there was a bus leaving at 5 am the next morning. All of a sudden there was a bus standing in the street and they told us to take that one to get to Lai Chau. Very confusing and we had to make up our minds really quick. It turned out to be a very nice trip across the mountain range (going up to an altitude of almost 3000 meter and then back down again), giving us great views and a chance to see some locals. The first half of the trip took us up, up and up - all the time giving us good views of the mountains and the sunset. The second half was pitch black and winding down - clear sky and lots of stars though. We talked a bit to one girl from a local village wearing her beautiful traditional dress (and I'm so happy I bought that Vietnamese phrasebook).

When we arrived in Lai Chau and checked in to our guesthouse, we realized that after paying the room we only had 10.000 VND left - i.e. 5 SEK. So we went to look for an ATM and when we found it, it turned out to be broken. After asking around with the help of my phrasebook (no-one speaks English - at all) it turns out that this is the only ATM, that no hotels accept VISA or will exchange money and that the bank opens at 7 am. No dinner that day then. In the morning Anita went to the bank where she found out that, no, we couldn't use the VISA there, and yes, they could make an exception and exchange some dollars to dong. The problem was that we didn't have any dollars, we only had euros and travellers cheques which was NOT possible. So we were stuck in a city where no-one speaks English, the ATM and VISA doesn't work and we had no money. Doh!

Luckily Anita meets the only non-Vietnamese person in Lai Chau except for us - a man from New Zeeland working in Thailand who has an office in Lai Chau. He takes her by jeep to his office and after checking the exchange rates for euro at the internet he exchanges 50 euro for 1.100.000 dong - a good exchange rate for us and a chance to get some money. So we have money again, which was good! Back to the hotel, pack up and go to the road where we sit by the road side and wait for the local bus to Dien Bien Phu to pass. When the bus passes you just wave to it, throw your backpacks at the roof and get in. After having a harsch conversation/haggling with the driver about the price we end up paying only slightly more than the locals and alomst half of the first price he gave us. We also refused to pay for extra-heavy luggage, given the fact that the locals often brought rice, building material, huge bags and really heavy stuff. This bus ride turned out to be even more interesting, since it was six hours in daylight. The mountain views weren't as spectacular, but we followed some nice valleys, saw green rice paddies and a bunch of nice small villages where the locals were doing their daily routines and wearing their traditional dresses.

We had a nice lunch together with two guys from the army, they were on their way home we think (the communication is a bit hard). The bus ride was extraordinary, really an experience. The fact that it was slow, bumpy, that they played semi-loud Vietnamese music and having a couple of locals throwing up in plastic bags or in the bus only added to the experience.

When we arrived in Dien Bien Phu we were first aiming to get to the border in the evening. This turns out to be top tight since we have to go to the banks etc, for US$. Instead we take a guesthouse and arrange a pickup at 7 am with two motodrivers for bank and border crossing.

Before we go to sleep we want to explore the town and perhaps find a bar - so off we go. For some reason we end up in a private party that turns out to be a wedding. It looked like a bar from the outside, but when we went in everybody was laughing and pointing at us. But they wouldn't allow us to leave, instead we're invited for some tea, candy, cookies and of course a lot of rice wine. Everybody seems to think we're the great attraction at the moment and we get to talk to the two English speaking daughters of the family. They explain the tradition of their weddings and after a while the bride comes to the party as well, after being at the house of her parents, where the bride and the groom goes so he can ask for their permission. She then returns to her party, while he stays with her parents and drink some more rice wine. A bit confusing, but they were all very nice and friendly and we had a great time. After roughly an hour we decide to leave them to their partying, but first we exchange e-mail addresses and they give us some tea and candy as gifts for the road. Truly an odd but wonderful experience.

The following day (6/2 I think) we go to the bank and after one hour in four/five different places we get our US$ which we will need in Laos (the problem is that no-one accepts VISA, only Mastercard). From the bank we take two motos through the misty and freezing valley, with lovely rice paddies once again.

It turns out that when a border crossing in Vietnam is only for locals - it is only for locals and you can't even bribe your way through. After some haggling with the motodrivers we go back to Dien Bien Phu (lovely views of the emerald-green valley with clouds/mist in the valley and a clear sky) and get the bus to Son La. The distance is only 320 km or so, but the bus ride takes 6,5 hours - quite indicative of the type of road traveled. The road meanders through mountains and wonderful valleys. We follow a small river for a while which gives us insights in local villages and nice views of hanging bridges and other photo-genique stuff (too bad we couldn't stop the bus to take photos). The landscape is really different different from the mountains so far, with more dust and sand. The road is the worst road I've ever traveled for a longer time. It felt as though it was a road construction stretched out for 6 hours. (Note to dad: the road was about the same quality as the road construction-road in Greece - with sand, dust, stones, potholes and no room to meet other cars or buses). This doesn't stop the bus from going at break-neck speed (when it's not uphill that is - the motor isn't very strong) and bouncing up and down. I'm glad that I never feel road-sick - cause in this bus I would have. Asian people doesn't seem to be as lucky - they all seem to get sick. In this bus ride I think I counted to seven people (approximately 50%) throwing up in the bus or in plastic bags. The last old man they had to lead out of the bus and leave him in a town, he was too bad to continue traveling. And to take away the bad look and some of the smell they just throw lots of sand over the puke which actually helps - and then the bus ride continues... At the middle of the bus ride a local girl gets on the bus together with like a ton of wood. I'm not kidding - they filled the whole back of the back of the bus with wood for a fireplace or something - I guess she was selling it in the town or so. Since the wood now occupied like 8 seats and the whole aisle the bus got kind of crowded, with people sitting three on two seats, sitting on small plastic chairs or on the backpacks of other travellers. This seems to be the standard though - no-one really seemed to think it was strange.

I think I've been in Asia for too long - cause I don't seem to bother about stuff like that. Bouncy bus ride, dust everywhere (there was at least three windows and the door that wouldn't close), hard seat, people throwing up and 7 hours on a bus. I think my senses are somewhat disconnected from me at the moment - stuff like bad smells, cold or other discomforts are only temporary - so why bother about them?

Son La was a quite boring place - just a city (although i reflected about the fact that at the time we hadn't seen any Westerners for more than 4 days). The only good thing was that we found a pool place with real pool tables (i.e. American pool tables that I'm used to instead of the small bar pool tables you find everywhere in Asia). Had a great time playing pool with the locals (and they actually knew a few words of English - and together with the International language of sports/pool we could understand each other well). They were very proud of the fact the Ho Chi Minh himself (the great Vietnamese hero), uncle Ho, had been in their place and playing pool.

From Son La we took an early bus at 5 am to Nam Xoi (or so we thought), but due to some misunderstandings we ended up along the road, 7 km from Mai Chau. This is apparently as close to Nam Xoi and the Laos border crossing at Na Maew that you can get with public transport. Which is not very close at all - it is more than 5 hours by motobike to the border. Anyway, we take a moto to Mai Chau and stop in one of the local villages. Since this is kinda close to Hanoi it's somewhat touristic, but I've only seen three Westerners so far - so it's not that bad... We get a guesthouse/tribe white-stilt house where we decide to spend the day while trying to figure out how to get to the border. We had a great day in Mai Chau (feels good not to be traveling for once - we have spent the last days on buses mostly) - exploring the village by bike and going through the rice paddies on small paths. Since I'm feeling a bit sick - a cold that didn't really break out - I decided to stay here one more night before I go to Laos by moto. Anita on the other hand thinks it's a bit too expensive, so she will try to hitchhike to the border, and if that doesn't work she will get a border today. So at the moment I'm by myself - left to explore the village even more. I've heard there is a cave somewhere here and after that I'll go to some more villages, more rice paddies and then back to the stilt-house in the local village.

Tomorrow it's a moto to Laos and then I really hope I'll get to Laos. I've been in Vietnam almost a month now. I really love it, but I want to see other stuff now. The visa is running out in a couple of days as well, so I better cross the border before then... :) I'll try to post some pictures the next time I find a fast computer - this one is soooo slow. Keep writing comments and e-mails - I love to hear what's happening in Sweden and what you think about everything that's happening in my travels!

Halong Bay and moreHanoi

2007-02-01T16:35:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I returned to Hanoi after my tour to Halong Bay (which means Descending Dragon - nice name). Originally I was booked for the two day, one night trip, but after meeting the people in my group and seeing some views we decided to extend our tour by one day. This was a really good decision as we got some time for ourselves at Cat Ba Island.

Halong Bay was really wonderful! Going by boat around the islands and seeing the amazing views (photos will be uploaded shortly) and the fascinating caves was very relaxing after the intense experience of Hanoi. We kayaked around for a while as well - it is a great way to get close-ups of the great view. We also visited some floating shrimp farms with our kayaks and bought some cheap wine from them (cheap compared to the rip-off prices at the boat). Our group consisted of me, a Finnish girl Anita (we're still hanging out - going to Sapa together tonight), the American Allison, the German guy Steffan and three Israeli girls (Nomi, Vicki and Jen). Steffan, Anita, Allison and me rented motobikes (three bikes - two driver, Steffan was driving Anita around) at Cat Ba Island and had a great time with our drivers seeing the whole island by bike and just playing around and doing stupid stuff. Loads of fun! Afterwards we went for some Bia Hoi (local draught beer) with our driver and learned how to drink in the Vietnamese way (mot hai ba zeeoo - one two three drink)! Extremely good fun!

I will upload pictures from Halong Bay soon, I hope. I don't know how the Internet connection in Sapa will be, but hopefully it will be possible to upload them from there. After Sapa I'm going to Laos, so for the first time I somewhat of a plan that stretches further than the night. But then again the plans might change and I still don't know how long I will spend in Sapa.

Yesterday evening in Hanoi was great. We had some food with Steffan before he had to catch his train for Sapa (we'll meet up in Sapa I hope - he has some pictures and other stuff that I want - including my Vietnamese vocabulary book that I bought yesterday). Me and Anita went for some Bia Hoi (which always ends up with you meeting loads of new people and having a great time - but then again, what do you expect when the beer is cheap and good?). We ended up in a small bar with a Danish girl and a Swedish guy named Anders (practical I know) and some other "none-Scandinavian people" as well.

Today I've been chilling in Hanoi with Anita. We went to the train stations and tried to find the cheapest possible tickets for Sapa. From $16 for a soft bed we went to less than $5 for a hard seat in the slow train. We don't mind sitting there that much and the chances of seeing some locals and getting some great experiences are much bigger. Will be loads of fun. The rest of the day we've been drinking coffee (ca phe sau da - yummie!) and playing cards at a cafe. Very nice!

I have confirmed that my holiday is extended now which means that I'll be back in Sweden in mid-April probably. I still don't know whether I can (or want to) reschedule my flight, but I'll probably go for the transmongolian train home instead - that's what I wanted to do originally so why not do it now that I have more time?

Rooftop accomodation

2007-01-28T17:34:00.000+08:00

Haha. As it turns out, my $2 room is a rooftop room. With a nice view over Hanoi. I love it. And by rooftop I literally mean rooftop. I have to climb some small stairs to the fourth floor, then I have to go up one more small steel stair leading to something that I suppose used to be the roof but is now surrounded by something working as walls. From there I climb one more ladder and then walk over some kind of planks of wood to get to my room. Just beside my room is the family room where they sleep, eat and have their family altar where they are burning incense. The reason I have a view over the city is partly that one of the walls is a "window" and partly because the other wall have small holes in it. Lucky me I got blankets to sleep in, might get cold otherwise.

Hanoi tour

2007-01-28T16:06:00.000+08:00

After writing the blog yesterday I went for a dinner with Anthony, the Korean guy I shared a room with, and an "almost-40-year-old" Japanese friend of his. We went to Little Hanoi which was supposed to be a great restaurant - which it very much turned out to be as well. The food was really good and the price was not that bad either. I also ran into the Australians that I met earlier the same day, so I decided I would try to join them for the water puppet show after their dinner.

While waiting for them to finish the three of us went to the local beer corner and drank fresh beer for 2000 dong per glass (i.e. 1 SEK) which was really good (and to a nice price as well). We also started talking to a Vietnamese guy sitting next to us. He was just about to begin his PhD in environmental engineering (about air pollution) in Japan - so he saw a great chance in learning some Japanese from the Japanese girl. We talked quite a lot and it turned out that apart from working at the university he also worked as a guide in Hanoi every once in a while, so I asked him if he could show me around town today. Said and done, we decided on a price (which was nice for me 'cause I didn't have to go via a travel agency and nice for him 'cause he probably got a bit more than he would from the agency as well) and decided he would pick me up at 8 AM in my hotel.

After a few beers on the corner I joined the aussies to the water puppet show and their tour guide managed to get me tickets even though it was full which was very nice. The water puppet show was actually really funny and interesting - but I'm happy that I did drink a couple of beers before, otherwise I might have got bored like some of the Australians.. After the water puppet show we went to the Funky Monkey bar and danced the night away. I had a great time with the six (or so) Australians, dancing and laughing and being silly mostly. After haggling a good price and getting lost a couple of times I managed to get home with a motobike around 2 am. A bit too late, but I'll sleep some hours in the afternoon instead.

The guided tour of Hanoi today was really great! My guide speaks excellent English (since he has done his masters for two years in the Phillipines in English) and knew a lot about all the things we visited in Hanoi. During the day I've seen a museum (which was really good - probably the best I've been to so far), a couple of Pagodas, the Temple of Literature (which is the first university in Vietnam, built in the 11th century) and some other sights. He also showed me the Hanoi institute of technology, the university where he works and have studied which was really interesting. All in all a very nice day.

Now I'll just kick back in my new hotel (where I pay $2 for a single room which I haven't seen yet - I hope it's ok!) and later go to dinner with the Australian girls (Sophie and Lucy) that will be back in Hanoi by then. Hopefully a early evening before going to Halong Bay tomorrow. In Halong Bay I will stay for one or two nights probably, so don't expect any blogs from me meanwhile.

A day of walking in Hanoi

2007-01-27T15:41:00.000+08:00

Wow. Just came back to the guesthouse after a full day of walking around in Hanoi. Mostly the Old Quarters. Hanoi is crowded, it is intensive, it is dirty, it is colorful and I absolutely love it. After leaving the guesthouse in the morning I did a couple of hours of walking around in the Old Quarters where every street is a market. The streets are filled with dirt, food stalls, vendors and lots of motobikes. Since I didn't know where I started or in which direction it wasn't much of a point worrying about getting lost - to get lost you kind of need to know where you are when you start. The Old Quarters are lovely though. It is a labyrinth of small streets changing direction and name every block, and filled with small shops, cafes, food stalls and so on. There were lots to see and I was so busy taking in all the views that I forgot to take any photos. Might do the same tour tomorrow and try to capture some of the feeling with the markets in the morning. Or I might go for a three-day tour in Halong Bay, sounds really neat actually!

After finding my way down to the lake I had an hour of visiting the temple in the lake and then walking around the lake. I found the St Joseph cathedral which (just as the guidebook said) looked as if though someone had taken it straight from France and put it in the middle of Hanoi. After visiting the church I sat down for an early lunch / late second breakfast in an alley. I'm not sure what I ate, but it was really good. There was deep-fried boiled eggs (strange but nice), some tofu and some sort of meat that I couldn't recognize (might have been dog - what do I know?). Just when I finished my meal and was enjoying my ca phe sau da (iced coffee with milk - but without the ice since the lady thought it was too cold outside for iced coffee) a group of Australians that I recognized from Hue walked by. I ended up following them on their walking tour through Hanoi which got me back to the church again and then to a restaurant which was very nice. I ate some nice spring rolls and had a proper ca phe sau da, which cost me approximately 3 times as much as my whole meal and ca phe in the alley. We decided to meet again tonight, so I'll join them for dinner, after dinner or some other time during the evening. They were going for a water puppet show which sounds like a nice idea. The other idea is to join the Korean guy that I'm staying with for the moment for some cheap local made beers (it's fresh beer - made the same day and costs 8000 dong which is 4 SEK per glass).

Now I'll try to upload some photos to PicasaWeb, so hopefully you can find a couple of new pictures there in a while.

Hanoi

2007-01-27T10:08:00.000+08:00

Just arrived in Hanoi after 12 hours on the night bus. The bus ride wasn't the best bus ride so far, but I got to sleep a couple of hours at least so now I'm ready for a day of exploring (and getting lost) in Hanoi. The blog is working from here anyway, so today or tomorrow I'll probably write more and upload some pictures as well!

Now I'm off to see Hanoi. I'm staying in the Old Quarters which seems to be a labyrinth of small streets and markets and other cool stuff. Check in soon for an update from the capital.

Blog problems?

2007-01-26T16:44:00.001+08:00

I've been having some troubles reaching my blog from Vietnam since I left Nha Trang. I'm not sure why, but I wouldn't be surprised if the government is blocking blogger or something... You wouldn't want Western propaganda to be spread to much now would you? :)

Anyway, I just realised that I still can publish things on the blog by sending an e-mail to a secret address (not that secret really, but secret enough... :), so here we go.

At the moment I'm in Hue, "small" town of Vietnam (only 2 million people or so?). Yesterday I spent the day on a tour, seeing all the tombs and the citadel of Hue. It was a nice day and it was very interesting to see all these stuff. It feels a bit hard to write about what I've been doing since the last time though, it feels as if it was ages since I wrote something.

Let's see... I spent a couple of nights in Nha Trang which was a really great time! I was staying with a girl from Singapore, Azny, and we had good fun together. I went for a diving trip on one of the days - that was awesome. Saw lots of stuff like barracudas, crabs, wonderful corals and the visibility was really good as well. My buoyancy was perfect, which makes it feels as though you are floating in mid=water. I love that feeling - the feeling of being weightless. When you take a deep breath you go up, and when you exhale you go down. You kick a little and you float forwards through the water effortless. I love diving, I'm just wondering when the next time will be. During the nights I was partying at the different bars of Nha Trang - that was good fun. You always meet lots of wonderful people. The first days I spent with a German girl, Tina, which I had a really great time with and then I met two Australian girls which I ended up traveling with for a couple of days.

So.. After the dive I went straight on to the bus ride to Hoi An together with the Australian girls (Lucy and Sophie). It was a night bus, which means something like ten hours of almost-sleeping and waking up, going off the bus to eat, sleeping a bit more, having unconfortable seats and trying to find a way to position your legs so they fit under the seat in front of you. I think the buses are to small even for Asian people, even much more so for me... But anyway, you get along and try to sleep and you save one night of hotel costs which makes it quite alright. Some people go for Valium on the night buses but so far I've been fine without it.. Hoi An turned out to be a very nice town. It is a small town at the riverside and it's absolutely filled with tailors. There isn't very much to do and see in Hoi An, so you end up at the tailors tailoring stuff for a couple of hundred dollars... Break the budget! I got four suits and two shirts tailored and later sent home by boat for $250 dollars - the same price that I would have paid for one suit of the shelf in Sweden. In Hoi An we also saw some of the old houses, went to a couple of museum and the like. Nothing extraordinary, but it was very interesting and a nice way to spend the day waiting for your suits. :)

After a couple of nights in Hoi An (I'm losing track of time wuite fast, I'm not really sure of which date or weekday it is - it doesn't really matter when you're traveling I've found out) we continued on to Danang where we spent one night. I really liked Danang. I had a day by myself (although I still were staying with the Australian girls) when I rented a moto-driver ($5 for a full-day) and went to the Marble Mountains, the Cham museum in town, had a great lunch with him and then saw the China Beach and other sights around town. Danang was an interesting place, full of contrasts. The Marble Mountains were really nice with views over the city, some dense jungle-like parts, huge caves filled with marble carvings, some temples and pagodas and more. I had almost two hours of just walking around in caves, exploring the site, looking for great views, visiting temples (one of them seemed to be in active use) and being amazed by the lack of tourists (of course there were tourists, but not very many - saw like five or six couples/families and a group of Japanese youths...). The town is interesting as well - mostly because this was a place used by both the Viatnamese and the US army. Just outside of the town you had the US airfield which was interesting to see - still being used sometimes I think, but kind of falling apart and there were cows strolling around amongst the barracks and everything... The China Beach is a huge stretch of beaches which supposedly was used by the US army for relaxing. Extremely white sand, nice waves and just a few resorts spread out on the immense beach.

After Danang we continued on to Hue where we had one day of just strolling around in the town, trying to avoid the rain and the cold (we didn't really succeed - it was f***ing freezing!) and then one day of seeing tombs and citadels. The Australian girls left in the evening for Hanoi so I spent the evening by myself (not really by myself - once again I ran into the Canadian couple Rob and Steph so we ended up in the DMZ bar drinking, eating and playing pool). Today I've been relaxing, seeing the churches in the town (had a catholic motodriver which insisted on showing me all the cathedrals in the town for free - good deal for me) and then just hanging out for a while. Should head back to the hotel for some food before I take the night bus to Hanoi though.

My plans for the moment are to go to Hanoi. That's it. After Hanoi I'm not sure where I'll go or even how long I'll spend in Hanoi. I've been talking to Asa at my work, so I'll probably have a much longer trip than I intended from the beginning. I haven't decided about the details yet, but it seems I'll spend one or two months more traveling in Asia which is absolutely wonderful - I'm really grateful for getting this opportunity - it's really a once-in-a-lifetime offer!

Anway. I'll write more about everything when I get to Hanoi - I might take some hours to upload photos, organize them more, reflect about my travels so far, write more about the food and the people and other stuff that I haven't mentioned that much so far... Continue to write comments and long e-mails about my blog or what's happening back in Sweden (or in the countries you're visiting at the moment for those who I've met during my traveling!). Cheers!

Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang

2007-01-19T13:25:00.000+08:00

At the moment I'm at the beach town of Nha Trang which seems to be a lovely place to hang out for a while. We arrived to Nha Trang at six in the morning after a ten hours bus drive from HCMC and found out that it was raining. A lot. The rain continued during the whole day, so I had a day of relaxing, exploring the town (in the rain, yes), reading, catching up on some e-mailing, eating lots of food and checking out all the cafes and bars in town. That was great - I needed a chill out day like that - but now I'm ready for some serious beach life! :) In the evening we visited Guava (a nice bar) and played pool for a couple of hours and after this we went to the Sailors Club - supposedly _the_ place to be in Nha Trang during nighttime.

Tomorrow I'll probably go for two dives - scuba diving is so awesome! I'm not sure the visibility is too great this time of year really - but it's still supposed to be really beautiful here so I want to try it out.

Ho Chi Minh City then. I haven't said much about what I did in HCMC and truth be said - I didn't really do much at all. We mostly walked around town and tried to get a feeling for it. We saw some sights, but mostly markets and the everyday life of one of the most interesting cities I've ever seen and visited. Ho Chi Minh City is intense, it's fast and furious, it's constantly moving and everybody is always on the move to go somewhere in some business. After being in HCMC rush hour, going to New York and Manhattan would feel like a trek in the countryside. I've never seen that many motobikes at the same time - thousands of them in each crossing - each one finding their own way through the no-mans-land that makes out the streets of Saigon. Whenever you want to cross the street you just close your eyes (not literally - although I doubt it would make a difference) and then walk in a slow and steady pace through the current of thousands of motobikes passing on each side of you. Traffic lights, crossings for pedestrants, driving on the right side, adhering to rules like one-way or no-left-turn seems to be concepts that are unheard of - or they see them mostly as guidelines meant for breaking.

I don't know what to think about Ho Chi Minh City. It's huge. Some parts are poor and dirty, some parts are shining with skyscrapers reaching for the stars. The markets in the morning is bustling with Vietnamese people buying their food for the day, the town is a mix of light, color and movement in the night. In a small alley we found some butchers working in the middle of the night - with a huge heap of pigs heads lying on the street and they sat around smoking and chopping them up in neat meat packages. I might have had one of those for breakfast the morning after when we went for a small food stall nearby and pointed on some things that looked delicious. The best food you always find in the food stalls - just look out for the ones that are regularly used by the locals and sit down. Point at the things you want and use your limited Vietnamese skills to say how much you want and how much you want to pay (I know how to count now at least - that makes it a lot easier haggling with people not speaking English). I guess you can only love the city and just hope that you sometime in the future have the possibility to return here for a more thourough experience of the city.

Vietnam, Mekong delta and Ho Chi Minh City

2007-01-16T17:35:00.000+08:00

The reason that I haven't written in a while now is that I've been travelling around on the Mekong delta for a couple of days now. From Phnom Penh I took a boat trip to the Vietnam side of the border, to the town Chau Doc where my plan was to figure out what to do and probably get to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) as quickly as possible. As usual my plans changed during the course and I ended up taking a three-day tour from Chau Doc on the Mekong delta together with a Swiss girl named Bettina. We've had a great time traveling on the Mekong delta, seeing how the people live on and close by the huge river, how they make a living out of fishing, sarong making, coconut candy and much more. We also stayed at a "homestay", i.e. stayed with a local family for one night. That was a pleasant evening, we were four people sleeping in their living room (although they had some bungalows as well for other tourists, so it didn't feel THAT genuine really). But it has been three really interesting days and lots of nice views over the river and the rice fields.

Some of the things that I've seen and experienced during these days are:
Slowly floating down the Mekong river in a wooden boat on our way to the Vietnamese border - see my PicasaWeb for pictures.
The stilted houses and the floating houses surrounding the river and the canals in Vietnam - always ready for flooding.
Fishing boats and fishing with electricity.
The huge rice fields in the sunset with a view over the Cambodian border.
Sun rising over the emerald-green rice fields, with the morning mist still lingering among the trees.
The bus ride from Chau Doc (roughly 160.000 inhabitants) to Can Tho (roughly 2 million) takes a couple of hours and the small road (still being the main road of southern Vietnam) is always filled with motorbikes, bikes and trucks and never once is the rows of houses and shops replaced by some "real countryside". I wonder if there is still some countryside in Vietnam - a small country with 100 million inhabitants.

I managaed to upload almost all of my photos here in Saigon, so now there's much more to see then before! Enjoy! picasaweb.google.com/anders.ivarsson/Asien is the address.

Tuol Sleng Prison and Choeung Ek Killing Fields

2007-01-10T18:57:00.000+08:00

Today I had the most intense experience in my whole life I think. We started the day with the S-21 prison (Tuol Sleng Prison) where the Khmer Rouge captivated, tortured and later executed thousands of people. Of all the people in S-21, only 5 families survived. The prison used to be a school and is now a museum to the horrible genocide of the Khmer Rouge. I have never in my life went to a museum that evoked so strong emotions - I had to go out several time to just take a deep breath, dry my eyes and try to understand how anything like this could ever happen. After an extremely quiet taxi-ride to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek we went around on the fields that used to be the execution site for many of the Khmer Rouge prisons. They have found 129 mass graves on this site and emptied 80-something of these. This means that you still see bones and pieces of cloth in the ground, slowly unearthing as the time passes. You could still see the colors of the cloth, and although they are kind of bleached by 30 years in the earth and now by the sun, you can still see patches of blood and dust on the cloth as well. You also got to see unsettling views like the killing tree that was used to kill the babies of the ones that had been in prison or the mass grave where they found more than 100 bodies without heads. All this to the backdrop of a large white stupa in the middle of the field - filled with 8000 skulls from the victims of the Khmer Rouge.

While walking about in these grounds, both the S-21 and the Killing Fields, you see the life of the Khmer (i.e. the Cambodians) pass by in their everyday doings. In the fields you could hear children playing at a nearby school and see some Khmer trying to feed a cow on the fields just beside the mass graves. That was a very eerie and unsettling experience and I will need some time to just settle down and think about this I think.

I got some great photos during the day, from the S-21 and the killing fields as well. They are really horrible but at the same time interesting. I have a picture of a beautiful little girl playing just outside the fence from the Killing Fields - seemingly ignorant of what was behind those fences and hidden in the ground.

Laura's blog

2007-01-10T10:32:00.000+08:00

After hanging out with a Canadian couple for some days now and meeting only native English-speakers I find myself thinking and dreaming in English as well. So I'm switching to English for the blog as well - I'm sure that won't be a problem for anyone and it makes it a lot easier for me really! :)

I got an e-mail from one of the Finnish girls today, so I checked her blog. You might want to read it to get another side of the same story (regarding Ko Lipe and the dive course). There is also some great photos of the island, the Finnish girls and also some pictures of me that I really like (especially me playing with that Thai-kid in the restaurant - that was awesome!). Check her blog about Thailand at http://laurah.vuodatus.net/blog/376757 .

Tonight I had the cheapest accomodation so far. I should pay $3 for my double room - so that's a good price. However the two Australian girls that I met in Siam Reap arrived to our guesthouse yesterday and it was full. So I let them take my double room and I took a single bed in this Irish guy's room. Then they paid me $5 for the double room and they wouldn't accept the change - which means that I just earned $2 for staying here or that I'm paying $1 for two nights if you will.

Now it's time for the Killing Fields, the S-21 prison/school/museum and then some other sights in the city. I reckon it will quite a rough day - the history of Cambodia is indeed horrible and today this reality might just hit me in the guts! I will write more about it when I find the time.

Phnom Pehn och mer runtresande i Kambodja

2007-01-09T23:13:00.000+08:00

Nu har jag tagit mig till Phnom Pehn - Kambodjas huvudstad. Tyvarr har jag inte sa mycket tid pa mig att skriva, sa hinner inte beratta om allt roligt som hant sen sist direkt. Kortversion av det ar att jag sett mer av templena i Angkor Wat (helt sjukt otroligt - bilder kommer), traffat ett kanadensiskt par (30-ich), festat i Siam Reap, gatt hem pa natten genom Siam Reap och traffat tva Security Guards som jag snackade med i en timme och larde mig massa Khmer, akt en hilarious bus ride fran Siam Reap till Phnom Pehn (sex timmar, kambodjansk film och karaoke pa hogsta volym samt en chauffor som tutar var tredje sekund at saker pa vagen), borjat dricka ol igen (inga problem alls - Angkor Draft eller Anchor Draft ar bada tva underbara), borjat tanka och dromma pa engelska (kanske lyser igenom i mitt skrivande - kanns lite skumt med svenskan nu) och sen atit en underbar middag pa riverside Phnom Pehn. Mums!

Jag ska skriva mer nar jag far tid och se till att hitta en bra dator dar jag kan ladda upp bilder ocksa.

Angkor Wat

2007-01-07T18:29:00.000+08:00

Nu har jag spenderat en forsta dag pa att aka runt och se lite olika tempel i Angkor Wat-omradet. Wow! Angkor Wat var faktiskt det sista templet vi sag idag, sa jag ska nog tillbaka dit imorgon ocksa for att hinna uppleva det ordentligt. Det ar verkligen fascinerande att se alla tempel dock. De flesta ar byggda for ca 1000 ar sedan, och de vi sett idag har blivit restaurerade en del for att det ska ga att besoka dem. Angkor Wat har dock aldrig riktigt overgivits, sa det var annu finare an resten. Det ar otroligt hur det kan ha funnits en san stor civilisation har for mer an tusen ar sedan. Khmer-riket var tydligen gigantiskt och strackte sig fran sodra Vietnam till en bra bit in i Kina, och fran Vietnam i oster till Bengaliska viken, dvs. bort till Indien nastan? Ofattbart stort imperium och det kulturella centret lag har i Angkor. Staden hade tydligen 1,3 miljoner invanare, och det pa en tid nar London hade 60000 invanare bara! Det enda som finns kvar av staden ar alla tempel, eftersom folket bodde i byggnader av tra. De tempel som finns kvar ar dock verkligen underverk! Det finns en del enormt stora som stracker sig mer an 60 meter upp i luften, som ar fyllda med statyer, reliefer, gangar, fonsteroch som ar underbart vackra. En del andra ar betydligt mindre, men minst lika fina. Vissa har byggts for hinduiska gudar som Vishnu och Shiva, medan andra ar byggda for buddhismen. Alla ar otroligt vackra och har massor av symbolik i arkitekturen, valet av antal torn, tinnar, form pa huvudbyggnaden med mera. Stenen som alla tempel ar byggda av ar fran ett berg 75 km bort och fraktades med elefant hela strackan. Forsta vilket enormt arbete att bygga alla tempel, frakta all sten, hugga ut alla figurer och sa vidare! Det ar narmare 500 tempel i omradet fick jag hora, och vissa ar i storleksordningen med Nilens pyramider! Helt ofattbart!

For att ta oss runt idag har vi akt med en tuk-tuk, dar vi betalade $10 for att han skulle skjutsa oss runt hela dagen. Imorgon hyr jag nog en mopedforare for att ta mig runt lite pa egen hand, men i langsammare tempo. Ska forsoka se Angkor Wat lite nogrannare, samtidigt som jag tar mig tid att sitta och lasa, skriva och fundera. Tankte kopa en bok om omradet, de saljer de for $1 dar ute vid templen.

Nu ska jag bege mig inat staden for att ta ut lite mer pengar, ata middag och sen kanske besoka baren Angkor What? (roligt namn) som spelade grymt bra alternativ rock, hade trevligt folk, billig dricka och ett biljardbord. Allt som jag behover alltsa! Igar blev klockan tva innan jag tog mig hem, sa har sovit lite nu pa eftermiddagen for att orka med kvallen.

Kambodja upphor inte att forvana mig. Fattigdomen blir mer uppenbar nar man ser hur desperata forsaljare, barn och tiggare kan bli. Samtidigt stalls det i kontrast till storslagenheten hos Angkor Wat och all historik. Den traditionella khmermaten jag atit hittills har varit underbar god ocksa! Till sist en liten fundering over landet. Ganska lugnt trafikklimat maste jag saga. Bilar verkar dock ha hoger- eller vansterratt lite vilket som och aldrig nagon nummerskylt. Vilken sida man kor pa ar lite valfritt, det bytte namligen till hogertrafik for nagra ar sedan for att passa de japanska turisterna (var den forklaringen jag fick), men en del kor fortfarande vanstertrafik. Mycket intressant. Gatunummer ska man ju inte direkt forsoka navigera efter heller, samma nummer forekommer ofta flera ganger pa samma gata och inte alls i ordning. Till exempel 11B, 9, 22, 46, 9, 23 har jag foljt pa en gata har. Skumt!

Kambodja

2007-01-06T19:50:00.000+08:00

Nu har jag tagit mig till Kambodja efter lite stok med diverse saker. Sista dagen i Kuala Lumpur var givande, jag agnade dagen at att utforska staden pa egen hand. Forst foljde jag Josefine till flygbussen, vilket gjorde att jag fick se staden lite fran ovan fran deras MonoRail. Efter det akte jag runt lite med lokaltrafiken for att se staden, folket, Twin Towers, Chinatown med mera. Pa vag tillbaka till mitt dormroom sa traffade jag en belgisk tjej, Babs eller Barbara, som sag lite vilsen ut och som skulle till nastan samma stalle som jag, sa vi slog folje. Slutade med att vi hade en trevlig kvall med nagra cider pa den lokala irlandska baren, en mumsigt god glass mitt i affarskvarteren och sedan tranade vi poj tillsammans (sana dar bollar i snoren som man snurrar runt for den oinsatte) pa en mork bakgata brevid hennes hotell. Eftersom hon skulle till Bali idag sa slog vi folje till flygplatsen ocksa, vilket dock innebar en hemskt tidig morgon (alarm 05:30) for oss bada. Men efter lite sovande pa planet sa har jag tagit mig igenom den har dagen ocksa.

Kambodja sen alltsa. Flyget satter ner en i Siam Reap (vilket betyder Siamese Defeated, jattebra namn pa en stad som ligger nara gransen till Thailand eller Siam som det heter) och det forsta man tanker pa ar hur otroligt platt det ar. Inte en kulle sa langt ogat nar (fran planet - en bra bit bort alltsa) utan helt och hallet platt. Siem Reap ar en liten stad, som dock verkar lida lite av att Angkor Wat ligger precis brevid. I utkanten av staden byggs stora hotell, resorter och annat upp och det satter tydligen stora belastningar pa stromforsorjning och vattenforsorjning for staden. Mycket annat som ar lite konstigt har ocksa. Att komma in i landet till exempel kraver att man har ett visum. Detta kan man kopa pa flygplatsen nar man landat, dock ar priserna lite oklara. I US-dollar som verkar vara standardalutan har sa kostar det $20, men man kan ocksa betala 20 euro eller 100 malaysiska dollar (vilket ar betydligt mer an $20). Fragade man efter priset i lokala rien sa var det valdigt flytande svar pa ca 100000 rien ungefar, men det verkade vara en helt frammande tanke.

Pa flygplatsen motte jag en tysk kille och en italienare (som kunde tyska dock, mycket forvirrande), sa akte till stallet som de skulle bo pa. Italienaren hade redan bokat rum, medan den tyska killen tog ett rum som var ganska dyrt. Vi delar det dock forsta natten, sa nu blir det lite lyx. Rummet ar storre an alla bungalows jag har bott i hittills och har bade AC, riktigt varmvatten, toalett med toapapper och spolning, stooora sangar och frukost ingar. Ett riktigt vasterlandskt hotell alltsa och aven med den standarden valdigt fint. For detta betalar vi gemensamt $35, varav jag betalar $10. Dock flyttar jag till Popular Guesthouse imorgon, dar jag betalar $3 for ett enkelrum med delad dusch. Precis min prisklass faktiskt, men forst ska jag passa pa att duscha med gratistval, raka mig i varmvatten och lyxa med annat.

Kambodja verkar bli en land som kommer fastna valdigt mycket. Det ar mycket fattigdom och en hel del tiggare, ungar som forsoker salja saker, handikappade som ber om donationer med mera. Det ar ocksa valdigt tydligt att gamla personer ar extremt ovanliga, det ar mest barn, ungdomar och folk upp till drygt min alder. Detta ar val foljderna av det hemska Khmer Rouge-styret dar stora delar av befolkningen dodades eller svalt ihjal. Hittills har jag inte sett nagot av de avsparrningar som signalerar trygga omraden (resten ar ganska kraftigt minerat fortfarande sen krigen, sa man far passa sig sa man haller sig inom markerade omraden), men det ar nog vanligare nar man kommer utanfor Siem Reap.

Nu ar det tre dagars tempelutforskande for mig som galler. Vi ska se Angkor Wat och nagra av de andra templena i omradet. Finns tydligen narmare 500 all in all, sa det kan man ju pyssla med ett tag. Imorgon har vi en tuk-tukforare som aker runt med oss hela dagen och visar oss templen for $10, det ska bli intressant. Sen far jag se om jag kanske hyr en cykel och utforskar lite pa egen hand ocksa, det kan vara ett fint satt att se stallet pa.

Nu ska vi val ut och ata lite, dricka lite gott och kanske festa (det ar ju trots allt lordag - val?), men det blir nog ratt tidig dag med tanke pa att man ska ga runt i solen och se tempel hela dagen imorgon.

Kul att hora fran er dar hemma, fortsatt garna kommentera och skriva vad ni sjalva har for er!

Kuala Lumpur och bilder

2007-01-05T17:37:00.000+08:00

Nu har jag antligen kommit at att ladda upp alla bilder har i KL. Gick riktigt snabbt dessutom. Bilderna hittar ni pa http://picasaweb.google.com/anders.ivarsson/Asien.

Malaysia i allmanhet och Kuala Lumpur i synnerhet ar verkligen fyllt av kontraster. Hela landet verkar praglas av dessa kontraster. Alltifran kontrasterna mellan den fattiga lokalbefolkningen man ser uppe i bergen, till de gigantiska resorterna pa Langkawi till det fartfyllda och internationella Kuala Lumpur. Befolkningen ar delad i tre delar som verkar ungefar lika stora. Dels ar det malaysierna sjalva, dels ar det indier och dels ar det kineser. De haller vissa separata vanor och har egna omraden (Chinatown, Little India, etc. - alla stader verkar ha varsitt av dessa). Dock sa smalter de samman till en helhet som ar nagot forvirrande som besokare. Man mots av en blandning av sprak (kinesiska, indiska, engelska, malaysisk engelska) och en hel hop av kulturer (hinduer, muslimer, buddister, kristna) i en stamning som ar valdigt oppen och icke fordomsfull. Nar man gar runt i staden som vasterlanning sticker man ut rejalt - bade i langd, hudfarg och kladsel - men trots detta mots man inte av annat an enstaka leenden eller forsiktiga forfragningar fran taxichaufforer. Runt omkring en ser man indier i sina harliga morgonrockar/kaftaner, malaysiska ungdomar i vasterlandska klader med piercingar, fargglada sarronger, de mer strikta slojorna, kinesiska affarsman i kostym, en och annan vasterlandsk backpacker och en massa annat folk. Maten ar samma sak, man vandrar runt i en blandning av McDonalds och KFC restauranger som tar upp stora utrymmen i de enorma skyskraporna, samtidigt som sma kinesiska stand med mat slas upp pa marknaden utanfor, de indiska restaurangernas roti, tikka masala och naan trangs med malaysiska ratter baserade pa nasi goreng eller mee goreng, fruktstanden i form av mopeder med pabyggnader kors runt pa gatorna och ropar ut frukter och gronsaker man aldrig sett forut och mitt i smeten hittar man en irlandsk pub, en vietnamesisk och en libanesisk restaurang. Malaysia verkar inte riktigt ha en egen identitet (endast 50 ar som nation), men samtidigt ar det en harlig blandning av kulturer, folk, matratter och mitt i allt hittar man sig sjalv pa vag till Reggae Bar som redan stangt tillsammans med den svensk man reser med, tva galna britter som jobbar som dykinstruktorer i Phuket och tva malaysier som kanner folket pa Reggae Bar och later oss festa med dem efter stangning.

Imorgon blir det flyg till Kambodja tidigt pa morgonen - fragan ar om jag tar en tidig kvall eller skippar somnen i natt.

Cameron Highlands

2007-01-03T21:05:00.000+08:00

Nu har vi tagit oss upp till Cameron Highlands. Har ar det helt underbart vackert, aven om vi mest sett utsikter langs vagen och vart hotell idag. Bussturen var nagot av en pars, jag har nog aldrig akt en sa skumpig buss faktiskt. Forsta bussen var riktigt illa, och klarade dessutom inte av uppforsbackar (typ lite lutning pa motorvagen) - dar kunde den inte kora snabbare an 30km/h typ. Efter drygt halva resan fick vi byta buss langs med motorvagen nagonstans och efter det sa blev det marginellt battre. Efter nastan sex timmars bussresa kom vi fram till Taran Rata (om det nu heter sa, glommer ju bort det hela tiden). Det finns ganska mycket resorter har, kanns lite som Osterrike faktiskt. Dock sa har de aldrig sno har, sa jag antar att folk ar har for vandringen - nagot annat finns inte riktigt att gora har. Det ar betydligt kallare har ocksa, nagonstans kring 15-20 grader skulle jag tro, sa jag har fatt anvandning for tjocktrojan, jeansen och mina nyinkopta DC-shoes (berattade jag om dem? 160 kr for ett par som kostat 1000 kr i Sverige atminstone) nu. Resten av dagen spenderade vi med att utforska byn, ata indisk mat pa lov fran banantrad (mums, massor med mat, olika saser och roror, brod, naan och allt kostade 14 kr var), duscha i det kalla vattnetn (tog fel dusch och orkade inte byta nar jag val borjat duscha i kallvatten och sen sett tva filmer pa storbildstvn har pa varat guesthouse. Vi bor pa Father's Guesthouse, det kanns tryggt att bo hos varldens storsta indier (tva meter lang och valtranad typ) som dessutom har hockeyfrilla. Kanns som att komma till bergen i Slovaiken faktiskt, bortsett fran maten och att man sticker ut valdigt mycket som vasterlanning.

Faktum ar att vi inte sett manga vasterlanningar alls i Malaysia. Langkawi hade sjalvklart massa vasterlanningar pa alla sina resorter, men pa Penang sag vi nog bara en handfull totalt och de verkade vara relativt bofasta och prata spraket atminstone. Pa bussen var vi under ganska lange det enda vasterlandska folket. Har uppe ar det lite mer folk som ar uppe for att traska i bergen, men det ar fortfarande stor majoritet lokalbefolkning i kontrast till hela Thailand och Langkawi.

Malaysia har vi kommit fram till ar Asiens Norge. Det ar rent och prydligt har, allt ar lite mer uppstyrt och lite snallare an resten av Asien och de har Kalle Anka-engelska precis som norrmannen. Man forstar typ alla skyltar om ma bara ar lite open-minded. Eller vad sags om Bas Ekspres (Express Bus), Bas Sekolah (School Bus), Feri (Ferry), Farmasi (Pharmacy), Nasonal Transfer (National Transfer), Komputer, Polis, Butik och sa vidare. Mycket underhallande.

I ovrigt har vi det lugnt och slappt. At just en hamburgare och tittade pa filmen Insider Man (tror jag den hette), sa nu ska vi val sova snart. Imorgon ska vi pa en halvdagstur i djungeln och se lite av omgivningarna, sen en snabb lunch och sedan buss till Kuala Lumpur. Lordagmorgon flyger jag till Kambodja ar tanken. Tankte ladda upp fler bilder idag, men det verkar inte ga att gora fran de har datorerna, far gora det senare istallet. Har massa bilder fran dykningen, Langkawi, vara boenden och resor och annat som jag vill visa. Blir nog en del bilder tagna imorgon ocksa, ar valdigt fint har uppe. Borde ga snabbt att ladda upp dem fran KL dock, hoppas jag atminstone.

Kartor

2007-01-02T22:48:00.000+08:00

Medan jag laddar upp bilder fran resandet tankte jag kolla lite pa kartor var jag varit, sa da kan jag ju visa er ocksa tankte jag. Har kommer en liten lanklista till de stallen jag varit pa hittills - de flesta har ratt kassa satellitbilder dock.

Thailand:
Railay Beach
Long Beach - Koh Lanta
Koh Lipe

Malaysia:
Langkawi - Cenang Beach (var bungalow ar det tredje graa huset uppifran)
Langkawi - Reggae Bar (det lilla bruna huset ute i skogen i mitten typ, har spenderade vi nyar)
Georgetown - Pulau Penang (det har var lite svarare, men jag tror att ni har vart hotell precis i mitten. Tog dock ett tag att mappa hur man gatt under dagen mot satellitbilderna.)

Allmant funderande

2007-01-02T21:53:00.000+08:00

Nu tar vi en liten mer ordentlig internetpaus sa har pa tisdagskvallen. Vi ar fortfarande kvar i Georgetown pa Penang, men imorgon aker vi harifran. Efter nagra timmars slappande pa rummet, dar vi bland annat laste guidebockerna for att komma fram till vad vi ville gora, har vi nu bestamt oss for hur planen ser ut de narmaste dagarna. Fram tills i sista sekund verkade det som att jag skulle fortsatta sjalv ner till Kuala Lumpur, medan Josefine akte tillbaka till Thailand for att njuta av stranderna. Den nya planen ar dock att vi reser tillsammans nagra dagar till, vilket passar mig bra da det verkar svart att traffa backpackers just har och vi har det trevligt tillsammans dessutom. Imorgon aker vi alltsa till Cameron Highland, till en stad/by som heter Tharin Rata (det kan vara nagot helt annat ocksa, jag har sjukt svart att komma ihag det har namnet). Det ar lite mer bergstrakter och det ska finnas nagra fina tempel, djungel och teplantager dar uppe. Jag hoppas pa lite farskt te i soluppgangen bland dimmiga dalar, men man kanske inte ska hoppas for mycket? Naja, vi far se vad som hander. Vi aker atminstone med en tidig buss harifran, bussen gar 8:00, sa far val aka fran hotellet redan vid halv sju for att hinna till busstationen med mera. Framme strax efter lunch, sa sen ska vi uppleva hoglanderna. Dagen efter fortsatter vi ner till Kuala Lumpur och sen ar planen att jag sjalv flyger till Siem Reap i Kambodja. Men som jag sett forut kan planer komma att andras - kanske ska jag ner till Singapore istallet?

Just nu forsoker jag ladda upp bilder, men det verkar ga ruskigt langsamt. Vi far se om det blir nagra overhuvudtaget. Kanske borde forminska dem innan jag laddar upp dem, men det har de nog inga program for. Naja, vi far se, annars far ni noja er med mina vackra ord och se bilderna sen.

Idag har varit en ratt underlig dag. Jag far inget riktigt grepp om Malaysia faktiskt. Vissa saker ar ruskigt billiga, exempelvis boende och mat. Idag har vi bytt hotell till ett som kostar 20RM per natt, alltsa 20 kr per person. Totalt har vi lagt 30RM pa mat under hela dagen, vilket slutar pa en total dagsbudget pa 50 kr per person. Helt okej. Imorgon kostar 5 timmars bussresa 20RM, men vi kommer ocksa fa betala 20RM for att ta taxin till busstationen. Det finns manga cykeltaxis har, men de verkar helt ointresserade av att fa kunder. De ligger mest och sloar och vill man aka med dem tar de riktiga ockerpriser, 5RM for en liten resa, men ar ocksa helt ointresserade av att pruta ner priserna. Underligt pa det hela taget. Vi har idag ocksa varit uppe i Kompar Tower som ar en del av Kompar Komplex. Det ar ett 60-vaningshus, sa vi var uppe i restaurangen/turistfallan pa toppen och forsokte fotograferna utsikten samt njuta av vara "gratisdrinkar" som vi skulle fa dar uppe. Gratisdrinkarna visade sig vara en subventionerad (men anda valdigt dyr) kopp kaffe som smakade choklad eftersom det var sa mycket socker i den. Men men, var nog ratt vantat att man skulle bli lurad dar. Hur som helst sa har vi nu sett staden fran ovan och jag har ocksa insett hur nara det ar till fastlandet.

Jag har raknat lite pa resan hittills. Det verkar som att jag ekonomiskt ligger ratt nara vad jag raknat med, dvs. ganska dyrt. Den enda anledningen till detta ar dykkursen, som star for ganska precis halva utgifterna totalt hittills. I ovrigt sa har jag gjort av med ungefar 70 kr/dag pa resande (speed boat ar dyrt - kommer bli billigare senare), 60 kr/dag pa boende (thailand ar dyrt - dock sa har jag delat boende hela tiden sa beror pa om jag delar boende i fortsattningen) och ungefar 110 kr/dag pa ovrigt (mat, solglasogon, drinkar och annat smatt och gott). Helt okej alltsa, jag kommer nog ha en del pengar kvar att shoppa upp i slutet av resan helt enkelt - speciellt som bade Kambodja och Vietnam ar billigare an Thailand.

Infor nyar sa gjorde jag och Josefine listor for att sammanfatta aret. Himla skojigt satt att gora det pa ocksa - rekommenderas for er som inte gjort det annu. De saker vi bedomde var bland annat basta/samta resa, basta/samsta upplevelse, party, restaurang, frisyr, tjej/kille, kompis, musik, karriarsval, ny bekantskap, film, inkop, present, etc... Det var valdigt givande att blicka tillbaka over aret pa det har viset, man fick chans att tanka till och minnas vad som hant. Basta resan var nog Thailand i april, eftersom jag inte hunnit avsluta och fa grepp om den har annu. Varsta resan var nog Tallinn, sa bakis har jag aldrig varit tidigare. Basta party blir nastan julafton pa Koh Lanta (mycket pa grund av folket), alternativt de grymma poolpartyn vi hade i somras och under nolle-p. Samta party blir nog festen hos Gisela med oinbjudna draggtjejer fran Motala som kissar i kattladan. Och sa vidare. Testa ni sjalva och lagg garna upp resultaten pa bloggar eller maila dem, det ar kul att se hur folk har upplevt sitt ar!

Nu har jag fatt upp nagra bilder redan och ska forsoka lagga upp annu fler. Adressen ar samma som alltid, picasaweb.google.com/anders.ivarsson/asien/.

Far se nar nasta gang jag skriver blir, troligtvis nagra dagar kvar. Under tiden far ni garna maila om vad ni sjalva har for er, vad som hander i Sverige och om nyheter om stortade plan i Indonesien, jordbavningar i Taiwan eller bomber i Bangkok har oroat er!

Georgetown

2007-01-02T15:08:00.000+08:00

Nu har vi spenderat dagen med att strosa runt i Georgetown. Det ar en fascinerande blandning av Little India, Chinatown och lite Malaysiska har och dar. Det kanns som en storstad med massor av affarer, trangsel och trafik samt stora kopcentrum, men i utstrackning sa kan man se hela stan per fot pa en timme eller tva. Kanner redan att jag hittar hyfsat bra idag. Vi har spenderat storsta delen av dagen i Kompar Komplex, ett stort shoppingcentrum. Josefine har kopt glasogon och linser, jag har kopt ett par skor. Kom pa att jag behovde nagot varmare i nora Vietnam och Kina an mina flip-flops och har kostade ett par akta DC-shoes bara 80RM, dvs. 160 kr. Inte ens 15% av priset pa samma par skor i Sverige. Kandes trevligt maste jag saga. Forsaljaren blev ratt chockad nar jag sa att jag troligtvis fatt betala 600RM for samma par skor i Sverige.

Ska inte skriva sa langt nu, sitter egentligen pa internetcafe for att fora over pengar och boka flygbiljett. Verkar som att jag pa torsdagmorgon flyger fran Kuala Lumpur till Siem Reap i Kambodja. Eventuellt tar jag en dag till i Malaysia och ser Cameron Highlands, har inte bestamt mig for hur jag gor. Josefine ska iallafall tillbaka upp i Thailand verkar det som, sa imorgon borjar jag resa sjalv.

Ska forsoka komma at internet mer idag (for att boka biljett om inte annat - har inte passet nu sa kan inte boka biljetten), sa da laddar jag nog upp bilder ocksa.

Malaysia

2007-01-01T23:00:00.000+08:00

Ojoj, nu var det ju flera dagar sen jag skrev. Det hander sa mycket att jag vet inte riktigt vet var jag ska borja. For tillfallet ar jag pa en o som heter Pulau Penang utanfor Malaysia. Vi kom hit idag och bor i en stad som heter Georgetown i Little India. Jag skriver val mer om staden senare nar jag hunnit uppleva den, hittills ar det lite oklart vad det ar for stalle vi kommit till.

Senast jag skrev sa sa jag att Pooh Restaurant hade allt och det visade sig vara mer sant an jag visste. Det visade sig namligen att de hade en hel uppsjo med bakterier eller annan skit som gjorde att bade jag, Josefine och Laura (de tre som atit dar) blev magsjuka ganska precis sex timmar efter middagen. Det var inte sa farligt, men magen ar val fortfarande lite upprord. Blir inte direkt battre av att vi bara atit indisk mat sen dess. Men magen far val lov att vanja sig. Som sagt sa var val inte magen i sig ett problem, men nar man bor tre pers i en bungalow dar toaletten bara ar avskild av en liten halvhog bambuvagg, man inte har nagot toalettpapper och dar "toalettslangen" eller duschen inte har vatten (handfat ar bara att dromma om), sa blir det lite krangligare. Men det gick fint anda, man ska inte klaga. Duschen pa morgonkanten lostes genom att osa massa vatten fran en hink over sig - det funkar precis lika bra.

Mattias valde iaf att aka upp mot Krabi for att sen ta sig upp genom Thailand. Jag och Josefine valde att aka till Malaysia och on Langkawi for att fira nyar, nagot som visade sig vara en fin ide. Det som slog en mest nar man kom till Malaysia och Langkawi ar de stora kontrasterna mot Thailand. Har var standarden pa vagar, boende och allt annat betydligt hogre. Natten till idag hade vi alltsa AC, varmvatten och TV pa rummet - till det hutlosa priset 80 RM (ca 160 kr). Det lag ratt nara stranden Cebang (cha-bang) och framforallt nara till Reggae Bar dar vi firade in nyar. Vi var dock nara att missa tolvslaget eftersom vi glomt att vi bytt tidszon, men det ordnade sig.

Jaja, nu ska vi bege oss vidare i Chinatown och titta pa staden. Snart sovdags ocksa. Imorgon ar det helgdag och festival har verkar det som, det ska bli skoj. Ska forsoka ladda upp massa bilder imorgon ocksa! Tyvarr inga undervattensbilder Marten, far ta det nasta gang jag ar ute och dyker. Jag ar atminstone en certifierad dykare nu, det kanns bra!

Kram och gott nytt ar pa er alla!

Dykkursen fortsatter

2006-12-29T21:51:00.000+08:00

Nu har jag hittat ett stalle (Poh Bungalows) som har allt! Framforallt sa har de internet som faktiskt fungerar och dar jag kommer at bade mail och blog. Yey! Jag ar fortfarande kvar pa on Koh Lipe och kommer nog aka harifran pa nyarsafton. Far se var jag tar vagen da, an sa lange ser planen att aka till Langkawi ut att halla faktiskt. Men vi far val se.

Dykningen fortsatter. Idag hade vi ett riktigt underbart dyk. Formiddagen gick at till att trana "skills", dvs. att trana pa att ta ut andningsanordningen (the regulator) for att sen borja anvanda en buddys extra regulator, ifall ens luft skulle ta slut eller sluta fungera eller att trana pa hur man gar upp sjalv om man inte har nagon luft i tanken (cesar tror jag det heter?) - simma langsamt mot ytan och blas ut hela tiden. Gjorde lite andra skills. Jag hann inte klart med allt pa forsta omgangen, verkar som att jag anvander luft valdigt snabbt. Andra dyket var dock ett riktigt dyk som var helt underbart! Vi gick ner pa ungefar 12 meters djup och foljde en underbar korallvagg med en del fisk. Sikten var helt okej, battre an igar atminstone. Det blev riktigt riktigt fint nar man slutade tanka pa andningen, tryckutjamnade automatiskt och fick kontroll pa sin flytkraft sa att man kan ga upp lite genom att bara andas in och ga ner lite genom att andas ut. Som avslutning kom vi upp nara en stor sten dar vi simmade mellan stenen och korallvaggen. Samtidigt som vi simmade dar sa dok solen upp, det var MASSVIS med fisk och riktigt riktigt fint. Tror jag sett nastan alla fiskar fran "Finding Nemo" nu! :)

Idag ska jag byta bungalow och bo med Mattias och Josefine istallet. Det blir bra. De finska tjejerna behover nog lite utrymme for att fa slappa totalt, sa nu ska jag trangas med nagra andra istallet! :)

Skriver mer nar jag far chans! Imorgon har jag mitt dykcert om allt gar som det ska! Bilder kommer senare ocksa!

Ingen kontakt med omvarlden

2006-12-29T21:47:00.000+08:00

Jag befinner mig nu pa Koh Lipe, en o som ligger nere vid gransen tillMalaysia. Elen slar pa forst vid 6 pa kvallen, sa innan dess har maningen kontakt med omvarlden alls. Efter det sa fungerar mobilnatetknappt alls (men jag har mitt svenska nummer sa sms fungerar om det arnagot akut) och internet ar via satellit och jattelangsamt. Dessutomfungerar inte gmail eller blogger, sa det blir inget skrivande tillomvarlden. Far se om detta skickas ut dock, borde det gora.
Any way. Jag har det underbart! Ni far veta mer nar jag kommer at attskriva i bloggen, typ kring nyar. Just nu bor jag med tva finska tjejeroch idag paborjade vi en tre-dagars dykkurs for Open Water Certificate.Det var UNDERBART! Wow! Hittills har resan varit ganska slapp, med enbra blandning av sol, bad, dyking, lite festande pa julafton och traffanytt folk.

Vi bor just nu i en bambubungalow som ar har en flakt, en stor madrass(extremt hard - golvet ar mjukare typ) och ett litet "badrum".Badrummet ar mest en del av bungalowen som ar avskild mha lite rotting.I badrummet finns det en liten toastol och en dusch. Knappt.Betonggolv, en kackerlacka, nagra odlor och inget handfat. En stor hinkfor att spola toaletten finns det ocksa. Men ma borjar vanja sig, jagtanker inte langra pa de dar sakerna - det kanns skont. :)

Pa nyar ar planen just nu att aka over till Langkawi, dvs. tillMalaysia i nagon dag. Sen aker jag nog norrut mot Kambodja och Vietam.Men planer andras snabbt, sa vi far val se... :)

Julaftonsmorgon

2006-12-24T11:00:00.000+08:00

Jaha. Da var det julafton idag alltsa. GOD JUL pa er alla dar hemma. Min julfrukost har bestatt av en skal med musli och yoghurt tillsammans med massa farsk frukt. Utsikt over havet och lite mysig, relaxed musik. Grymt mysigt! Det slog mig just att frukosten ar det dyraste malet mat pa hela dagen. Nu sprang det ivag pa 125 baht, dvs. 25 kr. Da tog jag yoghurten, en ananasjuice och en flaska vatten.

Igar kakade jag middag med Josefine och Mattias pa stranden har brevid; Klong Ao Beach (?)(icke att forvaxla med Long Beach). Det var himla trevligt. Vi satt pa ett stalle som hette Time for Lime. de har matlagningskurser dar ocksa, sa funderade ett tag pa att ta en san kurs. Visade sig dock att stallet hade lite begransat utbud av mat och att det var mer snacks eller liknande snarare en regelratta matratter. Sa det blev nog den dyraste maltiden hittills. Vi blev inte matta heller, sa efter det gick vi bort fran stranden upp mot huvudgatan. Dar tog vi en "restaurang" som mest var ett betongskal med plastbord och Fanta-plastdukar. Maten var en kontrast mot Time for Lime - det var den basta Thai-maten jag fatt i Thailand nagonsin tror jag. Riktigt gott, smakrikt och fint balanserat mellan olika smaker. Sen att hela middagen kostade 130 baht (26 kr) for alla tre personerna ocksa, med mat och dricka, var ju bara ett plus i kanten.

Imorgon beger jag mig vidare fran Koh Lanta. Da borjar jag nog resa sjalv, men kanske hakar pa Josefin och Mattias efter ett tag - det beror pa var jag bestammer mig att aka. Sandra ville stanna kvar har pa stranden ett bra tag till verkar det som, sa jag ska nog aka vidare. Nu har tva kompisar till henne kommit hit till on ocksa, sa jag lamnar henne inte helt sjalv iaf. Var ska man aka da? Tips mottages tacksamt. Alla oarna har omkring verkar ratt turistiska och packade med turister sa har kring jul. Koh Lanta, Koh Phi-Phi, Phuket, mfl. ar alla stora charterorter kanns det som och det ar inte riktigt vad jag ar ute efter langre. Funderade ett tag pa att aka over till andra sidan, Koh Samui, Koh Pha-Ngan och Ko Tao - de stallena gillade jag verkligen forra gangen jag var har. Dock ar det snart full moon party pa Koh Pha-Ngan och dessutom extra mycket svenskar dar sa har kring jul - sa det kanske inte blir sa bra anda. Det var samre vader pa den sidan ocksa, sa kanske ska skippa det for nagot annat. For tillfallet ar planen att aka efter Josefine och Mattias (de akte i morse) ner mot Ko Lipe - langst ner i sodra Thailand i narheten av gransen mot Malaysia. Koh Lipe verkar vara en mysig o som ar jattefin och som inte blivit fullt sa utvecklad an. Priserna ar fortfarande rimliga och det ar atminstone inte horder med turister. Grannon Ko Tarutao (sakert felstavat ur minnet) ar ett stort naturskyddsomrade, sa dar ska det nog finnas mycket fint att se. Kanske man hinner med lite dykning eller snorkling ocksa, vem vet?

Oh well, nu ska jag ut pa stranden och njuta lite, sen ska jag ta mig en massage och en stooor god lunch. Ikvall ar det pool competition pa lokala bordet och sen kanske jag ska vidare till Bubble Djungle Bar for att festa sa har pa julafton. Inte for mycket dock - ska jag till Koh Lipe gar baten vid atta redan. Kanske inte sova helt enkelt?

God jul till alla er dar hemma. Hoppas att ni far en trevlig julafton, titta pa Kalle Anka fran mig ocksa och at mycket mat. Av nagon anledning ar dopp i grytan den enda julmaten jag saknar, sa at extra mycket av den ocksa - ni som nu anvander er av sant!

Slappa

2006-12-23T20:12:00.000+08:00

Efter tre dagar (tror jag? eller ar det mer eller mindre? borjar tappa greppet om dagarna. jag vet att det ar julafton imorgon iaf) borjar varlden dar hemma kannas lite mer avlagsen och jag ar sa pass utvilad att jag borjar vilja hitta pa saker pa dagarna. Idag blev det ocksa slappa. Jag har legat nagra timmar pa stranden och stekt mig, jag har spelat biljard ett antal timmar (de har ett litet bord utomhus under ett litet tak mitt bland alla barerna pa stranden - lycka!) och jag har spelat beach volleyboll. Nu ska jag snart ivag och ata middag med Josefine fran Stockholm som jag pratat med lite infor resan, samt Mattias som hon reser med. Det blir nog himla trevligt. Nagra killar som Sandra pratat massa med innan resan kom hit idag ocksa, sa det blir lite mer liv och rorelse nu kanske. :)

Jag har nu lagt upp bilder pa mitt PicasaAlbum, adressen borde vara http://picasaweb.google.com/anders.ivarsson/Asien sa kalla in hur Sandra ser ut, hur vi bor och hur stranden vi ar pa verkar! Skriv garna kommentarer ocksa!

Idag upptackte jag att vi har en rumskamrat hos oss. Bortsett fran de sma odlorna (< 1 dm) som bara springer bort uppfor vaggarna i badrummet nar man kommer in, sa bor dar ocksa en betydligt storre odla som var drygt 2 dm + svans. Det var en harlig upplevelse att se den komma krypa mot en nar man satt pa toan. Jag har dopt honom till Oskar! Han blev radd for mig och satte sig i hornet och lekte dod. Jag blev radd for honom och satt kvar pa toaletten och lekte dod. For ovrigt ar toan en san dar som man far spola manuellt, men det ar mer eller mindre standard har... Vi slipper sta upp iaf!

Sadarja, nu ska jag bege mig till Time for Lime och kaka middag som sagt. Hoppas alla dar hemma har det bra,jag har det iallafall toppenfint! Kul med sa manga kommenterar - fortsatt ge dem! By the way - ni som far inlaggen som mail till er: om ni svarar pa de mailen skickas de till hela listan, dvs. alla som far bloginlaggen till sin mail. Det ar helt okej det med, men alltfor privata svar (inga hittills) kanske man ska halla till personlig mail? :)

Ytterligare en dag pa Koh Lanta

2006-12-22T12:18:00.000+08:00

Koh Lanta var ett himla trevligt stalle. Bytte rum idag, sa nu bor vi i en bungalow en liten bit fran stranden som kostar 500 baht per natt (100 kr). Lagom pris tycker vi bada, sa nu tar vi igen lite pa den overtrasserade budgeten. :) Inte for att jag haft nagon budget direkt, men att lagga drygt 400 kr per dag i Thailand pa boende och mat ar oforsvarligt nastan...

Jag trodde man skulle vara forberedd pa att det var billigt har nar man varit har i paskas ocksa, men jag hade tydligen glomt vissa detaljer. Visst - upplevelsen ar inte lika stor som forsta gangen, men man blir anda forvanad nar man ater en jattegopd middag med efterratt for under 30 kr. Dyrast hittills ar nog nastan internetcafeet, det kostar 24 kr/timme, riktigt dyrt alltsa!

Idag tar vi ytterligare en slapp dag pa stranden. Sandra ar helt slut verkar det som, sa hon lar vilja vila upp nagra dagar. Jag ar lite piggare, sa jag gar runt pa stranden och sysselsatter mig medan hon ligger och solar. Narmast ar planen att ga till stranden brevid och se efter hur det ar dar, sen ska jag kolla upp om det finns nagot att gora imorgon (en dagstur till nagot korallrev, dykkurser, matlagningskurser, elefant-trekking, vem vet?). Efter det ar det nog dags for lunch och sen lite massage skulle jag tro. Sen kanske man ska hanga med folket vid biljardbordet eller spela lite beach volleyboll? Naja, nog med funderande, nu ska jag ut och njuta av solen!

Railay Beach och Koh Lanta

2006-12-21T17:35:00.000+08:00

Jaha, då var man nere i Thailand då. Efter lite förseningar klockar vi in tiden drygt 23 timmar restid när vi landar på Krabi Airport. Lite mojsig i huvudet är man allt och trött och hungrig. Tur att man hade lite sällskap på både planet och flygplatserna, helt själv hade jag nog snabbt blivit uttråkad. Sandra är jättehärlig tjej, så vi lär väl åka runt ett tag. Hon verkar vara lite mer inriktad på att ta det lugnt, men jag kan ju åka på dagsturer utan henne också.

Har försökt att skaffa kontantkort till mobilen också, bara för att inse att man mobil är operatörslåst. Det innebär att inga andra SIM-kort kommer fungera. Alternativ 1 - jag använder mitt vanliga kort och betalar svindyrt. Alternativ 2 - Jag skiter i mobil helt och om jag behöver ringa använder jag telefonautomat från internetcaféerna. Får se hur det blir - tills vidare klarar jag mig utan mobil iaf.

Planen vi bestämde oss för på planet var att ta oss ut till Railay Beach för att bo där så länge vi trivs. Väl ute på Railay så hittade vi inget boende alls, det var antingen helt fullbokat eller dyrt som fan. Till slut fick vi ta ett lyxigt rum som spräckte dagsbudgeten ganska rejält. Men men, sånt händer väl. Railay är fortfarande like breathtaking vackert - dock bygger de om rejält mitt på land, med massa grävskopor, hundratals byggnadsarbetare och lite annat skrot. Synd.

På grund av bristen på boende alternativt priset på det boende som fanns checkade vi ut tidigt och satte oss på båten till Koh Lanta. Ingen av oss har varit här tidigare, men det verkar vara ett finemang fint ställe. Det är lite blåsigt och molnigt idag, men Long Beach som vi bor på är både vacker och, ja, lång! Har gått en tredjedel av den högst, men hunnit räkna tilll en hel drös med cafén, massageställen, fyra veolleybollplaner, ett internetcafé och bungalows i överflöd. Så här ska vi nog kunna trivas några dagar verkar det som.

Vår fina bungalow. Fanns bara dubbelsäng - inte twin bed, men det ordnar sig nog. Händerna på täcket! :)

Vår bungalow som vi har nu är också den lite finare än vad vi tänkt oss kanske. Imorgon byter vi ner oss till ett boende för ca 400 baht däremot, så 40 kr per skalle ska man väl kunna leva med.

Nu ska jag återvända till stranden och spela lite beachvolleyboll. Var lite svenskar där som spelade för ett tag sen, så det blir nog fint. Kram på er alla där hemma, nu vet ni att jag lever iaf! :)

Packning igen

2006-12-19T16:43:00.000+08:00

Jaa. Nu är det så på riktigt det blir innan jag åker. Om mindre än två timmar går flygbussen som jag siktar på. Lär väl frysa arslet av mig i kylan med bara en skjorta och en tjocktröja. Men men, det är temporärt.

Igår packade jag upp allting för att få en överblick av vad jag har med mig, så nu måste jag ta och packa ner allt igen. Det verkar som att hela packningen består av "bra-att-ha-saker" som malariatabletter, reseplånbok, dagslinser, etcetera. Necessären är en betydande del av packningen också. I klädväg har jag med mig ett par byxor, ett par shorts, en tjocktröja, ett par badbyxor, fyra t-shirtar, tre par kalsonger och strumpor och en handduk. Det känns rätt lagom. Sen kommer den mesta vikten från guideböckerna. Har inte bestämt mig för vilka jag ska ta med än, så blir väl alla till slut. :)

Nu ska jag gå till 7-eleven och införhandla det sista (nytt raklödder) inför resan, sen ska jag packa och äta frukost. Om jag får i mig något. För jag är inte alls nervös. Nejdå. Inte jag.

Packad och klar

2006-12-17T21:41:00.000+08:00

Nu har man tagit sig till Stockholm med packning och allt då. Det jag inte har med mig nu får helt enkelt införskaffas på plats. Saker jag redan vet med mig att jag glömt är solskydd och jag var nära att missa shorts och badbyxor. Med de tre självklara sakerna nästan glömda känns det som om jag kan ha glömt precis vad som helst. Men pass, biljett och VISA-kort har jag iaf, så då löser sig nog resten.

Lite resfeber börjar jag nog allt få nu! Det börjar kännas att det är lite mer på riktigt när man har hela packningen klar. Men kan fortfarande inte inse att de närmaste två månaderna kommer spenderas på resande fot i värmen. Det lär jag nog inte fatta förrän jag sätter foten på den thailändska marken i Krabi och möts av den 30-gradiga hettan. Tills dess är det mest ett pappersprojekt som jag funderat på ett tag.

Så nu är det alltså exakt 2 dygn kvar tills planet lyfter! Jag kan knappt bärga mig!

Flygresa bokad

2006-12-13T13:49:00.000+08:00

Nu har jag bokat det enda som kommer bokas nere i Asien i förväg: ett flyg från Bangkok till Krabi för mig och Sandra direkt efter att vi kommit fram. Det gick rätt bra, men är lite halvkonstigt att beställa hos AirAsia kändes det som. Framförallt är deras engelska väldigt bra, men inte helt korrekt i alla fall. Skoj egentligen!

Fick biljetterna som en PDF-fil på e-posten. Det funkar för mig. Vad som inte funkar för mig var deras "Terms & Conditions" som de skrev ut på baksidan som man "skulle läsa igenom". Jaja. Lägger upp dem här så får ni se för er själva vad ni tycker.

Va?! Jaha, ni ser inget! Inte jag heller!

Sen skriver de också:
"To ensure a comfortable, safe and fun flight, you are strongly encouraged to:
1. keep in mind your AirAsia booking number
2. print your AirAsia travel itinerary
3. bring your travel itinerary as proof of booking
4. read the AirAsia Travel Requirements
5. read the AirAsia Terms & Conditions of Carriage "

Japp, det låter ju som att det blir en himla rolig flygning om man lärt sig allt det där! :)

Flygbiljetter

2006-12-04T01:02:00.000+08:00

Nu har jag rotat runt efter flygbiljetter inne i Thailand. Tanken är att jag och resekamraten Sandra ska åka direkt från Bangkok till Krabi för att vara där några dagar. Det var inte helt lätt att hitta flygbiljetter dit dock. ThaiAir flyger självklart dit, men deras hemsida fungerar inte. Dessutom kan man kanske tycka att 600 kr/person är onödigt dyrt för 1,5 timmar flygning inne i Thailand. Efter lite runtletande så hittade jag samma resa, fast lite senare på dagen, med AirAsia. Där kostar resan knappt hälften så mycket. Det blev dock ingen bokning - man behövde passnummer och mitt nya pass har inte kommit ännu.

På onsdag är dock sista vaccineringen och uthämtning av pass, så då ska jag nog kunna få bokningen gjord också!

Prenumerera på inlägg

2006-12-03T04:27:00.000+08:00

Har just upptäckt att det går att prenumerera på inlägg från bloggar på lite olika sätt. Ett sätt är att använda en RSS-läsare (eller senaste versionen av Firefox's "live-bokmärken"). Då använder man den här adressen: http://anders-asia.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default. Det andra sättet är att man kan få varje nytt inlägg jag gör skickade till sig via mail. Hittills är det bara Emma som känt att hon kommer att vara för lat för att gå in själv och läsa om mina resor, så hon ville ha dem mailade till sig. Är det fler kan jag lägga in dessa mail-adresser i en Google Group så kan ni få dem smidigare och mer direkt.

Säg till här eller per mail om ni är intresserade av att få inläggen mailade till er!

Guideböcker

2006-11-29T14:54:00.000+08:00

Yey! Nu har jag köpt guideböcker! Blev tre stycken - hela sydostasien, Vietnam och Kina. Tillsammans med min tidigare guidebok för södra Thailand har jag nu en ganska heltäckande samling. Dock kommer jag inte kunna ta med alla på resan - det blir alldeles för tungt. Tillsammans väger de fyra omkring 3 kilo, och jag tänker inte spendera en femtedel av min packningsvikt på guideböcker!

Visst är de fina? Nu ska här läsas!

Engångslinser och boende

2006-11-25T22:26:00.000+08:00

Har skaffat engångslinser för resan nu. Börjar bli klart det mesta som ska fixas nu. En vaccinering kvar. Linser fixade. Biljetter bokade. Jag har också testat att boka boende på Koh Pha-Ngan kring jul via www.phangan.info som verkar som en rätt bra sida. Och det är bara drygt tre veckor tills jag åker nu! Wiiii!

Vaccinering

2006-11-21T04:12:00.000+08:00

Idag var jag nere på stan och vaccinerade mig. Fick andra sprutan för japansk encefelit. De verkar aldrig vilja ha mina pengar dock - de säger bara att jag kan ta det nästa gång. Och så fick jag ju förstås den här och nästa gratis eftersom jag väntat förgäves en kväll. Det var mer praktiskt med bokad tid. Hade tid 14.10. Blev inropad 13.58 och kom nog ut innan 14.00 skulle jag tro. Snabbt och smärtlöst.

Reseförsäkring

2006-11-17T19:39:00.000+08:00

Huff. Orkade inte kolla runt på reseförsäkringar hos olika bolag. Ringde helt enkelt Östgöta Brandstodsbolag som vi redan har här hemma och som jag automatiskt får 45 dagars skydd från och bad dem förlänga det till 60 dagar. 300 kr skulle det tydligen kosta, så det får väl vara okej antar jag. Skönt att ha det avklarat på under fem minuter åtminstone.

Har filat lite på en packlista också. Verkar som att praktiska saker att ha med sig överskrider mängden kläder mångfalt. Återkommer med en färdig packlista senare!

Visum

2006-11-16T19:18:00.000+08:00

Verkar inte som att det ska bli så mycket krångel med att skaffa visum trots allt. De länder jag tänkt besöka är som sagt Thailand, Laos eller Kambodja, Vietnam och Kina.

Thailändska ambassadens hemsida säger visserligen inget om detta ännu, men UD påstår att sen oktober 2006 så gäller nya viseringsregler i Thailand. Jag behöver alltså inte söka något visum innan, trots att jag ska stanna 60 dagar, utan får ett när jag kommer fram. Skulle jag stanna 60 dagar i landet behöver jag åka och förnya det nångång, men nu kommer jag ju åka ut ur landet inom 30 dagar, så då ska det inte vara några problem.

Kambodja som jag blir mer och mer sugen på att åka till har lite strängare viseringsregler. Där måste jag fylla i någon blankett och fixa. Dock så har de ingen ambassad i Sverige (och vice versa), så jag får fixa det nere i Thailand helt enkelt.

Då återstår Vietnam och Kina. Vietnam går bra att stanna i om man är där mindre än 15 dagar - vilket jag lär vara. Enda kruxet är att jag måste visa utresebiljett vid inresan, men det ska nog gå att ordna. Kvar återstår alltså bara Kina. Ska jag bara vara i Hong Kong så behöver jag inget visum där heller, men troligtvis kommer jag försöka ta mig utanför staden något i alla fall. Så det är väl tryggast med ett visum dit iaf. Hur man löser det rent praktiskt återstår att se.

Reseplanerna

2006-11-16T06:03:00.000+08:00

Reseplanerna går ständigt framåt. Har äntligen bokat biljetter för resan ner nu. Hur det sen blir där nere återstår ju att se, men nu har jag åtminstone klara gränser för start och början och jag har börjat bränna de första pengarna. There is no turning back!

Åker till Bangkok 19 december, klockan 14:50. Flygningen går via Paris och jag är framme 12:25 Thailändsk tid.
Återresan går från Bangkok 16 februari, klockan 23:30. Åter i Stockholm 12:30.

Vad ska man göra under resan då? Jaa, den som lever får se. Klart är att jag får en resekompis som heter Sandra som jag träffat via backpacking.se som åker ner med samma plan som mig. Därefter får vi väl se. Verkar inte helt osannolikt att vi åker söderut mot öarna över julhelgen. Julafton på Koh Pha-Ngan verkar vara the shit om man läser vad andra har tänkt göra. Så så kanske det blir.

Sen ska jag ta mig norrut igen är tanken. Norra Thailand en liten sväng efter nyår, för att sen åka in i Kambodja. Genom Kambodja till Vietnam för att sedan ta mig rakt norrut till Kina. Hur länge man stannar på varje ställe får man väl se, men Kina är jag väldigt sugen på så förhoppningsvis blir det lite mer tid där. Tänkte flyga från Hong Kong tillbaka till Bangkok och se till att ha några dagars shopping i Bangkok innan jag flyger hem till allvaret igen.

Sydostasien - here we go!

2006-11-16T05:36:00.000+08:00

Startade just den här bloggen för att kunna berätta om mitt resande i sydostasien. Till en början blir det väl planering, packlistor, bilder, länkar och kartor. Senare blir det reseberättelser, bilder, mer bilder, dumheter jag hittat på och annat smått och gott.