Going Global

Oh to the joys of Shisha

2007-04-28T23:27:00.000+01:00

Moving to the Middle East for the first time has been an interesting experience for a variety of reasons. One of the things which I am learning to appreciate, no infact love is the Middle Eastern shisha.

The shisha can be found across the Middle East and Asia and is one of the traditional ways of smoking. They are found in the hundreds of cafes which are spead across the island in an assortment of sizes. In the evenings Arabs from all backgrounds converge on them to smoke, chat and play games.

Without a doubt the shisha is the thing which brings the people together. Basically in a nutshell its a pipe which you smoke through a tube. The substance (be it apple, grapes etc) is below the charcoals at the top and when you breath in the substance kinda goes through the water. Now I don't understand the technique or how it works but its fun. Alas I am also realising that one night smoking is the equivalent to 20 cigarettes!!! So by the time I come back from Bahrain no doubt my lungs will have taken a severe hitting so I must frequent the gym more often!

So anyway the key to a good shisha is the coals. Back home in the UK it is really difficult to get good coals that get hot enough to make the 'process' work well enough. Here it doesn't seem to be a problem as you raise you hand giving a signal which results in a man scurrying over to you with 'fresh' hot coals ready to 'replace' you diminished stock. Within a minute your shisha is refreshed and your ready to go all again!

So tonight (like an other 2 nights this week) I joined some friend for a smoke and played backgammon in the middle of the 'Indian' suburb of the city. Here I was, 27 years old, learning to play a quintessential English game surrounded by Indian and Arabian men!

Afterwards we headed to the beach, well rocks as Bahrain doesn't have any beaches, to sit and chat. There is a lot going on in Bahrain as it is very much at a crossroads at it trys to compete with the other Middle Eastern states. Needless to say it is an interesting time to live in Bahrain.

i'm in Bahrain

2007-04-21T09:20:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

It's been a while, heck months since I last posted. The reason for this slackness is due to the fact that I have been working my arse off! Yeah sad excuse but its true. Alas I also had no internet at home (well I had a wireless signal I could 'sometimes' pick up - a la free).

Anyway to cut a long story short I have now moved to Bahrain! Yeah my employer asked me 'do you want to go to the Middle East?' Now ordinarily I would jump at the opportunity but as a) i couldn't drive, b) knew the summer was coming and c) wanted to live in London for the summer, i said no. Well fat lot of good that did as they sent me anyway!

So here I am in Bahrain experiencing the 'joys' of Bahraini taxi drivers on a daily basis and wondering/debating/contemplating life!

So yeah lots of posts to follow shortly but first things first I have to head down to the Souk in the Old Town to get a £1 haircut!

The trials & tribulations of house hunting

2006-08-28T19:29:00.001+01:00

Currently I am navigating the complicated channels of house hunting and its proving to be difficult to say the least. Essentially I have simple criteria - be near work! Unfortunately in London nothing is ever that simple.

So over the weekend I experienced the array of house hunting options. The first house I saw was out in the Docklands, lovely Chinese guy was the housemate, but the area was dodgy to say the least. Got lost trying to find the damn place. Then when I found it the litter packed streets and general run-down look of the neighbourhood made me feel like I was in some kind of American gheto, albeit in London. Scratch that option.

Next place was near work and was dodgy in every way. The landlord was of Bangladeshi heritage and spoke with a thick Indian accent. As he showed me the room he was at pains to stress '£160 pounds peeer week sir, very good price, all bills incluusive so noo problemm for you' with a 'wink wink' of his right eye. I thought I'd chat to him as he interested me (for all the wrong reasons) so played the Trowers 'Anglo-Middle Eastern Law Firm' card and found out the man has 20 houses now which he rents out to 112 tenants! Every house has no front room and from the feel of the place I looked at there was NO communial atmosphere. Plus the man wanted 5 weeks rent deposit and only 1 weeks rent upfront! Very weird and I dare say dodgy indeed. Scratch that option.

Next up was a house also in Wapping with two Kiwi tenants. The house wasn't that bad actually, decent size, Sky TV, leather couches but the flatmates were unusual to say the least. One was wasn't there and was referred to as 'a girl who is 4,8 doesn't say anything and you would barely know she existed' whilst I spent 10 minutes chatting to the other flatmate and still couldn't figure out if it was a man or a women! Despite this strangeness was definitely considering it until I found out i would have to move in next weekend which is too soon for me. Alas scratch that option as well.

So here I am commuting from Kent 25 hours a week and trying to get a place before I start at Trowers at the end of the month. House hunting is a pain in the arse and right now its driving me nuts but alas its got to be done.

So if anyone reading this knows of a place going in Wapping soon LET ME KNOW!

Cheers

The view from Gokyo Ri

2006-08-10T18:34:00.000+01:00

View from Gokyo Ri, originally uploaded by goingglobal.

This is the view taken from the top of Gokyo Ri which is some 5,400 metres up. The views are absolutely stunning from here as it is surrounded by mountains and overlooks the Gokyo glacier and lakes.

However, the three hour climb is at a 30-45 degree angle and never seems to end but is worth while in the end as the views overlook the mountains and the glacier below. From this photo you can see the main glacier and the third lake below. In the distance the second lake which you have to trek by is also visible.

The settlement of Gokyo is just by the lake and is to small to see from this height as its some 300 metres down. Unfortunately when we reached the top the clouds covered most of the mountains with Everest only showing itself briefly for a few seconds.

Still any trek in the Everest Region must include ascending Gokyo Ri for the views over the valley and glacier. A magical sight indeed.

Prayer flags by the 3rd lake

2006-08-06T20:16:00.000+01:00

Prayer flags by the 3rd lake, originally uploaded by goingglobal.

Here is a picture taken towards the end of the trek to Gokyo. The lake in the background is the 3rd lake with Tibetan/Sherpa prayer flags flying.

It's wedding season

2006-08-06T16:27:00.000+01:00

The first weekend of August is apparently the busiest weekend of the year for weddings and this year it was my uncles turn to gracefully arrange to get married on this day. So the entire family, including distant far flung relatives whose names and faces I cannot remember, turned up for wedding in a beutiful church which is hundreds of years old in the middle of rural Kent.

Have to say it was a great wedding. The wedding ceremony was led by a female Vicar who, with her thick funky glasses and curly hair, made everyone very relaxed and run a very modern ceremony. She didn't even wear shoes! Now that is modern!

Even the hyms, not my favourite things I must say, were good, including 'Lord of the Dance' which I remember being pretty much the only song I enjoyed at school when we were forced to sing in extremely boring assemblies! So I gleefully sung along to the song, didn't fall asleep (that used to happen a lot in Church for me) and really rather enjoyed it as the ceremony contained some odds and ends I have never seen before. For example, they lit two candles which represented 'both families' and then later in the ceremony lit a larger single candle representing them. The vicar proclaimed that they have to light this candle every anniversary to show their love and commitment to one another

Afterwards the assembled troop departed for the reception which was being held in the grounds of the bride's (Vicky) parents place. The marquee was magnificent and was placed in the grounds of the house with the animals moved nearby. Have to say the day was a lot of fun. Everyone had a really good time and the family got to together for the first time since our nan passed away. Grandad spent a lot of the day smiling and I think he was proud that his youngest son had finally got married and that he had found the love of his life at last. Even my cousin Dan was back from Dubai for the weekend to attend the wedding.

So all in all a rather good weekend. As the 4th wedding I think I have attended in the last two years I have noticed it appears to be wedding 'time' for most my friends and young relatives. No doubt this 'trend' will continue as I have another two weddings on the horizon! Think if this pace continues I'll end up feeling like one of the characters from 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'! Still can't complain, they are jolly good things to attend and involve lots of drinking!

September calling

2006-07-21T18:36:00.000+01:00

Its been a long time since I last updated my blog for a variety of reasons. Due to unforeseen circumstances I am now back in the UK and things are now beginning to return to normality.

At the moment I am living with my auntie and uncle in Faversham and trying to organise work in the city. It's really proving to be a very frustrating excercise regarding the patience of a saint at times. You see the problem is I only need work for two months before starting with Trowers at the end of September. I have been rather truthful with agencies and told them I only need work for 8 weeks. With hindsight honesty might not be the best policy as most agencies seem disinterested in a candidate who can commit for such a short period of time. Then there is the problem with my resume. You see I am skilled, especially in I.T. and H.R. but am rather a 'jack of many trades and a master of none!' So with no 'solid long term' experience I find myself just short of positions I know I can do, especially in I.T.

Had the funniest experience yesterday with a agency in the city. Jeni, a really outgoing friendly Australian from Perth, spent something like an hour with me trying to work out a timeline for my last 6 years. In the end the timeline took up something like 5 pages with a variety of employment and an even larger amount of travelling. By the end of it I realised that I really need to spend sometime in one place and perhaps keep my feet on the group, of course with the occasional week here and there spent diving from planes or trekking mountains allowed! The poor girl said she had never seen a candidate 'quite as wide as me in what I have done'. Of course take into account I have done everthing from I.T. support through to selling forklifts and you can see what she means!

I also went 'flat shopping' to see what's on offer in the city for when I started work in September. Turns out if I can find another person there are heaps of well priced options. A two bed flat right in the heart of the city would set me back no more than £150 a week! I mean isn't that a bargain! I may even get en-suite which would be a first for me! The thought of walking to a gym and then straight to work without all that commuting crap is very appealing.

So I await September with a sense of expectancy and eagerness not felt in many years. For the first time in my life I am going to start a career, albeit as a lawyer, and I feel perhaps I am about to turn the page and embark on a new period of my life. At times the thought of me dressed in a suit providing legal advice makes me chuckle, God knows what my friends think. But it'll be a challenge I'll relish.

Bring it on!

update

2006-06-08T11:08:00.000+01:00

As some of you might know I am no longer travelling. A few weeks back I got a phone call when I was in the middle of no-where rural China informing me that my nan had passed away. Although I love travelling its at times like this that you realise the imporantance of family so I headed back home at break-neck speed. I was largely raised by my grandparents and my nan seemed very fit and healthy so it has come as a bit of a shock to myself and the rest of the family.

I think I got from Kunming to Newton Abbot in 35 hours! This involed two taxi's, two plans, 1 train and 1 underground and lots of movement! When I walked through the door of my grandads place in Devon I felt emotionally and physically drained but it was good to be there for the family at a hard time for us all.

I shall endeavour to update the blog from my journals when I get round to it.

Will changes!

2006-05-07T15:55:00.000+01:00

You know people join diets, run like mad, do all manner of crazy and wild things just to lose weight. You know what the simple solution is? Come travel to Asia! Yeah in what 4 months of travel in Asia I think I have lost between 5-10kg's. Not sure exactly how much, all I know is where I previously had a belly of about '6 months' I now have a reduced belly of about '2 months'. Yep the baby has got smaller! My 'one tub' is no more!!!

Now don't want to go into the details, but needless to say the mixture of Asian food, physical activities (Everest eat your heart out!), lack of appartite and of course 'Asian belly' has helped!

God knows what I'll be like when I finish!

Northern Thailand

2006-04-22T10:11:00.000+01:00

Chiang Mai
I was last in Thailand a few months back at the beginning of my whistle stop tour of Asia and had the luck to visit Chiang Mai back then. The city is rich in history and culture and is a remarably easy and laid back place to visit. Arriving into Thailand with my Australian friend Dave I met up with TG, a friend since the age of 2, to travel together for a while. They had never been to Chiang Mai and were eager to 'sample' the cities many delights.

So with a strong recommendation about the cooking course at The Chilli Club they left early in the morning to learn the art of Thai cooking.

Thai master Kickboxing
One of the things which has always interested me about Thai culture is the kickboxing. Hundreds of years old the sport basically consists of two men going into a ring and beating the shit out of each other! Unlike American wrestling this sport is no holds bars and just about anything goes, including kneeing, punching and of course kicking. Their no play acting here and no one is stupid enough to think what is happening is anything else but real.

So paying the rather steep 400 Bhat price tag we jumped into a tuk-tuk for our nights entertainment. Arriving into a rather normal looking boxing ring we learnt that we were in for a rather special treat. One of the fights had a western Englishman fighting which was an uncommon and rare occurence. Everyone appeared to be excited at this prospect, us at seeing 'one of our own fight' and the Thai's obviously happy at seeing a foreigner get the crap kicked out him!

The first two fights were 'minor' ones involving kids who couldn't have been much older than 15 or 16. Basically they take part to get some experience and watching them walk up the steps to the ring I couldn't help but be impressed by their effort and sheer determination. Admitedly I wondered how stupid they were for wanting to fight but felt it was best to keep those kind of feelings to myself!

Two of the fights ended early due to injuries to the fighters. The others went the full period (usually there are five rounds of 3 minutes). The English fighter in his second fight was up against an experienced fighter of 100 fights. Looking even balder than me Justin was a youngster from the south of England in his early twenties. I'll give him credit for putting up a fight and not getting knocked out but rather unsurprisingly he lost the fight through a points decision.

The night was very enjoyable and Thai Kickboxing is definitely an experience which I would recommend to people. Provided of course you don't get the creeps watching people getting beaten to a pulp!

The decision

2006-04-20T10:25:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

Thanks to you all for your emails since I started travelling. I think its' been a very long 7 months and you won't be surprised to hear that its still not yet over! After my last email, which I know was depressing and grim, I have decided that it's about time to tell you my plans and to ask for any help or advice you may be able to provide on the matter.

You see ever since I was a kid I dreamed of doing the overland route between London and Singapore. It's one of those mystical 'i wish' dreams we occasionally have on a Sunday afternoon whilst relaxing reading the travel section in the paper. Well I now have the chance of doing just that dream, well most of it anyway. You see a week ago, less actually, I was thinking I would travel overland through Nepal into Tibet and onto China and then pick up the Trans-Mongolian through Mongolia and Russia. Well people getting shot, strikes and Nepal basically shutting down dismissed that dream rather rapidly. So now I find myself in Thailand picking up 'that dream' from Bangkok.

So here's the challenge. I have three months, yep three months, to do the following Thailand - Laos - Vietnam - China - Mongolia - Russia - Estonia - Latvia - Lithuania - Poland - Czech Republic - Germany - Netherlands - HOME. It's particularly challenging as a) I have run out of money so its credit card all the way and b) I have no experience or should I say clue about China, Mongolia and Russia. Some people have already been immensely helpful with advice on China (thanks Kate and Alena) but anyone who has experience or ideas on some of these countries I would appreciate advice a great deal. Currently in the north of Thailand, heading over the border into Laos for about a week before moving into northern Vietnam.

Take care,

Will

ps Since leaving Nepal the situation has got even worse. Just read that there is a 18 hour, yes 18 hour, 'shot-to-kill' curfew being imposed. What a complete mess. Interesting article can be found at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2142960,00.html

Let the journey commence

2006-04-17T11:52:00.000+01:00

It's very weird how things can change remarkably so quickly, one minute I was booking a bus to Pokhara, the next I had decided to fly instead to Thailand thousands of miles away. The reason being the protest, burning tyres, shottings and associated problems one finds in an uprising by the people!

So I found myself in a matter of a few days in Thailand contemplating what I was going to do for the next few months. I had intended to travel overland from the south of India to London via Nepal onto Tibet and into China. However, the uprising in Nepal swiftly put a stop to this intended itineria. So instead I am contemplating a different 'route' home. Starting in Thailand I head into northern Laos, down to the capital picking up a visa for Vietnam. Then crossing into Vietnam I head north into Southern China. Then working my way from Kumming north I head to Chengdu, then Xi'an and finally onto Beijing. With a fairly lengthy pitstop in Beijing I then either head through Mongolia and Russia home or go the old 'Silk Route' through the 'stans' into Russia and then to Europe. Whatever happens I have to be back in the UK for my uncles wedding on the 5th August.

Let the journey commence!

Nepal and Everest

2006-03-26T17:27:00.000+01:00

Well I am back in Nepal after nearly 8 long years and can't help but wonder why it has taken me so long to return. I have been lucky in my life to have visited some 25 or 30 countries and Nepal remains without a doubt the most special and unique place. Whether its the people, the culture or the landscape it never ceases to amaze me and keep me in awe. Walking around Kathmandu again after spending a month or so in India is a relaxing and very enjoyable experience, especially due to the lack of harassment which is commonplace next door.

Well tomorrow morning I am heading with mates to Jiri to commence the Everest Trek for three weeks. The first time round in 1999 was one of the greatest times of my life. Spending three weeks in the mountains is a liberating and exhilerating experience. This time round two of my best mates from Australia have joined me and no doubt it'll be a lot of fun.

So there will be no updates from me for the next three weeks as, well I will be hundreds of miles away from civilisation. When I return I will update my blog as I have a lot to publish on India and provide a full account of the Everest Trek.

I guess that's it for three weeks! Everest awaits!

Udaipur

2006-03-20T10:49:00.000Z

The city of Udaipur, located in the south of Rajastan, is famous for its lake and floating palace which formed the backdrop to the Bond film Octopusy. To this day whenever you walk round the streets of the city at every corner you see signs advertising the film being shown like its some advertising campaign for the city.

The place itself is really rather pleasant which means you could quite easily stay here for days on end without really getting bored or feeling the need to move on. Many of the hotels have restaurants which overlook the lake providing some truly outstanding views, especially around sunset. The streets are densely packed crawling with people and animals mostly cows.

Myself and Tito decided one evening to head up to the main temple on a hill overlooking the valley. The views were pretty damn impressive as the lake providing a glimpse of the huge size of the lake. Whilst we were up there Tito and an Australian girl we had been hanging out with got approached by the normal Indians hassling them for either sex (in the girls case) or drugs (in Tito's case). I'm getting to the stage now were I pretty much have a policy of not talking to these kind of people in tourist places. Elsewhere I love meeting Indians but not around tourist destinations as they inevitably lead to them either wanting something or to sell you something.

Zen and the art of Cricket madness

2006-03-20T10:48:00.000Z

One of the greatest things about India is book-post. India as the 3rd largest printer of English language books in the world is trying to encourage people to buy and send books abroad. So they subsidise books being posted via India post. Basically you rock up to a post office with up to 5KG's of books which you can post home via sea mail. Now admitedly this might not be the fastest way to send something but the cost in insanely cheap. For 5 KG's the cost is a mere $3! Yes that is not a miss print its $3.

Now the only problem is trying to post them. Taking my treasure trove of books I headed for a packer. Seeing the man at work was impressive as he cut the books and beautifully wrapped the package in silk and neatly sealed the box for a mere 10 pence cost. However, as I headed to the main GPO aware that it may shut early as it was a Saturday I was confronted by what I can only describe as a fire breathing Indian female dragon. I arrived just 2 minutes late, yes 2 minutes, and she promptly told me 'go away we are shut, come back Monday' even though the rest of the post office would be open until 5pm. My tuk-tuk driver informed me there was another post office which may have later opening times so we raced through the densely packed streets of Udaipur expecting to find it also shut. However, what I found was a room full of men who were unable to help me until 4pm when the 'bookman' returned. So as the thought of sitting there for 2 hours waiting went through my mind I asked the manager who was busy writing 'where's the nearest TV show I can watch the cricket?'

'You like cricket?' 'Of course I am English' I responded and we proceeded to chat about cricket for the next 5 minutes until he said 'ah I can do your book-post for you' as he happily filled in the forms and processed it. It was interesting as everyone in the office had refused to help me. You see in India EVERYONE is passionate about cricket, absolutely mad about it, so if you chat about cricket, be it team selection, form etc you will make friends very quickly. In this case it turned out most useful saving me two hours of sitting and waiting!

Video of the Indian Head Wiggle

2006-03-19T05:55:00.000Z

I have been advised by Evane (a.k.a 'tech guru') that I could upload videos so people can see them. Well I have now uploaded a brief video of the 'Indian Head Wiggle' taken by myself and some friends in Udaipur for you to see.

It can be found at - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLvMCKr4LB4

Hope you enjoy it

Will signing out

Holi madness!

2006-03-18T10:52:00.000Z

Holi madness!, originally uploaded by goingglobal.

When I was last living in Nepal I remember vividly the Hindu festival of Holi. Essentially for two days, or more, Hindu's throw paint and dyes at each other throughout the Indian subcontinent. I have never quite figured out exactly why they do this but I know they sure as hell enjoying doing it!

Anyway where ever you are outside you are a 'victim' and legitimate target for them to target!

Unfortunately this is also a time when Hindu's are allowed to drink a lot of alcohol, often with some bad side-effects. Last time I was in India many women I knew got gropped and touched by men who used the occasion as a way to get closer to women than they normally do.

So although I was keen to see Holi first hand I knew that I would get my cloths destroyed and probably get annoyed by the way the women were handled. So instead I opted to spend the 14th and 15th in the desert where Holi wouldn't be quite as mad!

This photo was taken on the 13th March in Jaisalmer. The kids were really getting into the festival painting the back streets of the city pink.

Whilst we were on the camel trek many of the villages we went through were celebrating the occasion. At one particular village we had to run through with our camels as the kids chased us through the desert hurling paints and dyes at us!

Camel riding in the desert

2006-03-18T07:25:00.000Z

Camal riding in the desert, originally uploaded by goingglobal.

Jaismalner is one of the best locations in Rajastan to go on camel safari, as its in the heart of the desert. So me and my Argentinian friend Tito decided to embark on a two-day one-night safari to see the desert and experience camel riding first hand.

Now I have riden a camel before for a think a few minutes in Australia but nothing really prepared me for this experience. Riding a camel is really rather difficult as controlling it or should I say 'driving' is almost impossible. You have reins which you pull to turn the camels head in the direction you want to go but whether the camel decides to follow you is another matter. This is especially the case if the camel smells a nearby female camel in which it goes off in a totally different direction in pursuit of the lady!

Camels also smell a hell of a lot. Seriously when I came home I smelt myself and all I could smell was camel! Imagine how horses smell and multipy that by a factor of ten! They also have this habit of burping and farting rather a lot which makes camel riding in a line a rather amusing experience.

What is surprising is how tall camels are. When you are riding a camel your quite a few feet of the ground. Aside from the height camels carry an amazingly large amount of luggage on them very easily.

One of the camels which usually took the lead had its tung hanging out with saliva dripping down the side. I wondered what was wrong with it so when I asked the camel man. 'Ah that camel is horny, permanently horny! Yeah it turns out that when camels get 'excited' they dribble lots and hang their tung out as a way to attract the female camels.

Our party was an interesting collection of people. Numbering 9 we had English, Argentinian, German, Dutch, Polish and Korean which made conversations interesting.

We spent the night sleeping on a sand dune overlooking the desert. During the day the temperatures get very high but at night they really plumet substancially.

On both days we visited local villages. All the villages were either Hindu or Muslim and were never mixed. At first it was difficult to tell the difference but after a while it became obvious that in the Muslim villages the women were veiled whereas they tended not to be in the Hindu ones. As it was also the Hindu festival of Holi whenever we entered a Hindu village we got peltered with paint and dyes by the children!

All in all a very interesting experience, especially as it only cost me $18 for the two days!

Pushkar

2006-03-12T16:06:00.000Z

Pushkar from above, originally uploaded by goingglobal.

The last few days in Pushkar have been a lot of fun. On the first day in the town I got speaking to a very cool Argentinian guy I met in a cafe overlooking the lake. We decided to eat in a bar called 'Pink Floyd' of all things!

Anyway no guesses needed on the kind of music or ambience in this place. It was a very chilled out enjoyable place to chill out. We got to know a couple of Canadians called Andrea and Melissa who had been in the town for a week and just couldn't leave. Thats the kind of place Pushkar is, its damn hard to leave unless you really have to!

The following day we decided to trek to the top of the one of the hills to watch the sun set. I could have done a morning trek but couldn't see me getting my arse out of bed at 5am! So here is the view from the top of the hill!

More photos to follow soon.

Leaving Pushkar to head to Jaisalmer

2006-03-12T16:00:00.001Z

Well time has come for me to pack my bags again and head out the door. With the cricket heading for a draw or even a loss I think it is time to move on! The festival of Holi is fast approaching and I need to be somewhere where I can sit above the chaos and watch people go mad with paints!

So heading on a ten hour night-bus trip into the desert. Jaisalmer is the desert frontier of the state, a fort surrounded by the desert. Its' also a great place to do camel treks which I intend to do over the next week or so.

Need to be in Nepal by next weekend for the arrival of the boys!

Next stop desert frontier!

Leaving Pushkar to head to Jaisalmer

2006-03-12T16:00:00.000Z

Drink and drugs

2006-03-12T06:33:00.000Z

India is such a diverse country with a multitude of languages, different cultures and attitudes that its almost a continent in its own right. It's no surprise then that the country has come to be known as the 'sub-continent' and I think you could spend your life travelling the country and still never 'do India'. When I was last here teaching me and friends used to joke about the travellers who we met who used to brag about 'doing India'. I mean how can you 'do' a country!

The differences across the country are reflected in the attitude towards drink and drugs. In some parts of the country its accepted to drink alcohol and not take drugs whereas in other states alcohol is prohibited and drugs openly accepted, albeit illegally. Pushkar is one such place. As the city is a sacred Hindu city it isn't possible to buy alcohol and if you want to do so it has to be through the black market. Hash and marujianna are openly accepted in the city. Upon arrival into a cafe one of the first things offered by the waiter is is some harsh. People sit passing joints around and one cannot help but wonder how this goes on so unabated. At first I sat round wondering when the police were going to come in! I choose to be cautious and politely refussed of course!

Pushkar

2006-03-10T11:41:00.000Z

Having spent a few days in Jaipur watching the cricket and generally not doing much I decided it was time to move onto the next place on the tourist trail of Rajastan - Pushkar.

The city has been an important backpacker hangout for many years due to its interesting and densly packed streets and holy lake lying in an oasis in the middle of the desert. The town is surrounded by hills and peaks which seperate the place from the surrounding desert. It's also located in the heart of the state of Rajastan within striking distance of most the other main desert cities.

Unlike Jaipur the central streets of Pushkar remain firmly the domain of the walkers and not tuk-tuk or rickshaw drivers. It's actually very liberating being able to strole down the streets without continually being pestered with 'rickshaw sir, you must have rickshaw' every metre of so. As you strole down avoiding the cow shit and assortment of animals you feel like you are really in the middle of India.

It's also a sacred pilgrimage site for Hindus' who believe one of their Gods resides in the city in (or by) the lake. Visiting the main pilgrimage temple I found myself in a horde of Hindu men and women taking all manner of offerings. Strangly judging by their cloths and appearance they seemed to come from a range of backgrounds, including the lower 'untouchable' class of people. As you climb to the top of the temple you are approached by men offering flowers to give as blessings. Call me a skepitcal person but I have heard stories of these people demanding rather large sums of money when you accept the flowers. So choosing caution I opted to sidestep these guys and visit the temple without blessings.

It's raining in the desert!

2006-03-09T12:30:00.000Z

In the desert city of Jaipur in the desert state of Rajastan and it's raining

Not exactly what I expected to find when I got here!

Gonna go out now and dance in the rain!

Willich out

Bombings in Varanasi

2006-03-08T16:08:00.000Z

With dozens of different languages, a complex mix of languages and huge spacial distances India has always been a difficult and in many ways conflicting country. Occasionally these differences spiral over into religious conflict and when they do the conflicts tend to be bloody and disturbing.

Last night bombs went off in the Hindu religious capital of Varanasi killing 25 people in temples and at the main central train station. Having been to the city 8 years ago I was particuarly disturbed as its a vibrant place and one of the few places I intended to try to visit again on this trip.

It's still not clear who placed the bombs but given the religious significance of the city and temples to Hinduism its likely to be Muslim extremists. Whilst 99.99% of the large Muslim population in India are peace abiding and adhore these acts it could provide a spark which may ignite conflict between the two religious groups in the country. The Government is calling for peace and calm but with all sights and religious buildings throughou the country on a high state of alert I can't help but feel that this might be the 'calm before the storm'. I hope and prayer that I am wrong.

It does seem like that trouble seems to be following me given the problems in the Philippines, Sri Lanka and now India. With Nepal next on the list I hope things don't spiral out of control there either.

Experiences in Jaipur

2006-03-08T13:31:00.000Z

One of the things about Indian cities are the sheer craziness and dirtiness of them. Streets can barely contain the sheer amount of traffic crawling down them whilst open sewers flow down the sides of the road. People try to make a living in these areas selling food and drinks to locals which I have to confess I haven't stumped up the willingness to try yet.

Rickshaw and Tuk-Tuk madness
I am currently in Jaipur, which is the capital of Rajastan, and have spent the day battling with Rickshaw and tuk-tuk drivers. I have to say I have never come across a city where there are quite so many trying to get you to take a trip with them. I am literally having to push them away as I walk down the street. Whats annoying is there seems to be a universal belief amongst them that I don't need to walk and in fact shouldn't be doing so. It's actually very annoying as I tend to try to walk everywhere but find myself spending most my time whilst walking telling the drivers to get lost.

Street Children
Another thing which I have noticed is the surprisingly large numbers of street children in the city. They seem to pack together and all wear identical grey cloths with white bags hanging over their shoulders. Even though I am very used to seeing this throughout Asia its still hard walking past them trying to ignore them as I don't find it easy seeing children suffer. I still havn't figured whether they are truly homeless or being used to make money by their parents or some other kind of 'master'.

The Indian Head Wiggle

2006-03-08T13:13:00.000Z

One of the things one notices when you visit India is the rather peculiar Indian head wiggle. Whenever you stop to ask someone something, whether its a direction, question about food or just about anything you will witness this rather unique phenonemem. Every Indian, and I mean every Indian enjoys a good head wiggle. Essentially what they do is wiggle their heads slightly side to side repeatedly whilst also smilling and crinning. At first you consider this might mean the equivalent of our nodding which is 'yes'. However, after repeatedly going the wrong way and eating decisively doggy food I am beginning to realise that it doesn't really mean anything!

So I have taken it upon myself to learn and master the head wiggle. After a few weeks on the road I must say I am beginning to do it rather well. Now whenever I meet a local we 'engage' in a mutual head wiggle. So our conversations, often not about much at all, usually revolve around us wiggling mutually to one another whilst trying to show the biggest smile possible. I think the locals enjoy my head wiggles as they seem to reciprocate with even 'larger and longer' head wiggles. Unfortunately I am beginning to realise that a good head wiggle isn't so good for the neck as its killing me right now!

Oh well never mind, eventually it'll become immune to the effects of a good 'head wiggle'

Goa and onto Rajastan

2006-03-08T11:47:00.000Z

Goa
The last few weeks havn't been particularly tiresome. After arriving into Goa a few days before my cousin I opted to head to Paolim which is one of the last remaining backpacker places in Goa. Securing a prime beach resort I awaited the arriving of Dan eagerly as I havn't seen him in 6 months and as his leaving for Dubai soon I won't get a chance to see him until August.

We spent a week on the beach doing not a great deal. Aside from dolphin watching and a rather amusing house hunt excursion I spent the week being lazy which was good fun! Have to say tho that a beach can become a bit boring after a week or so. I don't know how people spending weeks/months on a beach as I would become seriously bored!

After Dan left I found myself in a bit of a dilema. Although I wanted to head to the ancient city of Hampi ten hours away all transport was fully booked. Plus my friends are now arriving into Nepal two weeks earlier than planned cutting my time in India down considerably. So I felt it was better to head to the north to the desert state of Rajastan which I have always wanted to visit whilst I still could.

Indian Train journey's
The Indian railway system is the 2nd largest in the world and the world's largest employer with some 1.6 million workers. When you travel on it it quickly becomes apparent why this is the situation. To say the railways are complicated and difficult to understand is one hell of an understatement. There are 6 or 7 different classes ranging from top 1st class (1AC) through to wooden benchs crammed with people, animals and all manner of things which I think is termed 3rd class but barely seems to be any class.

At this time of the year the trains are heavily booked with people telling me 'oh you have no chance of getting on that train'. So I took it upon myself to 'test' this theory. Arriving into the station early I went to the counter and was promptly told to go to another one. Then another one and finally another one until I found myself taking to a suprinsingly nice member of staff.

'No sir afraid we are full, you will have to travel 3rd class sir'
Images of me sitting on a wooden bench for nearly 40 hours didn't sound particularly appealing
'Can you try and get me a 2nd class or 1st class birth anywhere on the route' I asked smilling and wiggling my head side to side Indian style.
The man grinned as I handed him over a few notes and smilled.
'OK sir one moment I shall see what I can do' he told me before disspearing into the back of the office. I began to feel confident I could get something and besides anything was better than 3rd class!
After five minutes he returned 'I have a 2AC birth for you from Panvel ten hours down the route'

Well OK so I didn't know where Panvel was, hell didn't know what state it was in, but this was an improvement. Of course at a cost 15 times 3rd class it wasn't cheap but then for 30 pounds I couldn't really complain!

The moral to the story is anything is possible with the trains in India and they are never full no matter how many times you are told they are. But then its amazing what a little bit of backshesh will get you in India!

Rajastan
Rajastan is a state which evokes many stong images. Known as the desert state it has been long famous for its location on the silk route, rich Arabian style princes and long battles between the Hindu's and Muslims. With some of the most magical sights in the country is has been on the pilgrimage trail of many backpackers for years, especially the British who are lured by its rich colonial history.

Jaipur
The city of Jaipur is the capital of the state and is known as the 'pink city' as that's the colour of the buildings in the old city quarter. It's the 3rd city in the great 'Cultural Triangle' of India (along with Delhi and Agra both of which I visited years ago). Walking round the city its very well laid out and hard to get lost in. But then as you are continually harassed by tuk-tuk and rickshaw drivers you slowly begin to lose any desire to keep seeing the place.

The Palace in the heart of the old city is the main attraction. The architecture is absolutely stunning with great old buildings coloured in pink towering above you are you enter the gates. Indians dressed in traditional Raj uniforms quide you around. Stepping into the complex is like stepping back 100 years to the time of the British Raj. This feeling is heightened by the pictures in the museum of the Raj Princes dressed in British costumes and images from the time of the British Raj.

Elsewhere in the city walking down the closely-packed backroads provides a feeling of what the city must have been like in the past. Many of the buildings appear to be in a state of decay and yet they all seem to have a clean wash of pink paint. This imagy coupled together with lazy cows walking down the streets and monkeys playing in the temples provides an amazing city to visit.

State of Emergency in the Philippines

2006-02-24T11:32:00.000Z

As I sit on the beach in Goa relaxing I am reading rather disturbing reports from a country I was in only a few weeks back. It seems that there has been an attempted coup against the President Gloria Arroyo and she has now declared a State of Emergency. Essentially this allows the government to arrest and detain people more easily and by-pass many of the laws which are in place to protect our civil liberties. What is troubling is that the coup seems to have been planned by a top general with connections throughout the country.

Given the countries turbulent and often violent history its understandable that she has used this power. However, given that Marcos used this to remain in power for years I hope she will only use it for a limited time. Otherwise, we could see the Philippines go back another decade at a time when the country needs to be moving forward.

What is especially distressing for me is that I was only there a few weeks back and felt the country had 'turned the corner'. Everyone I spoke to was optimistic about the future and felt the Philippines was making great strides forward. Coupled together with problems in Sri Lanka and ongoing troubles in Nepal I am beginning to feel like my tour of the world is turning into a 'tour of the worlds hotspots'.

I hope President Gloria Arroyo will restore order and the right of law as soon as possible.

Back to the beach.

In Goa and apologies for delayed posting

2006-02-22T15:40:00.000Z

I am now in Goa on the very beach where the opening scene of the Bourne Supremacy was filmed relaxing and waiting for my cousin to arrive on Saturday.

I love India, its such a fascinating country full of chaos and contradictions. Alas due to this I have had poor internet access which is why I have not posted for sometime. I just wanted to apologise and let you know I will catch up with my log over the next week whilst I sit and chill-out on the beach.

Cool little boy I spent my birthday with

2006-02-16T04:52:00.000Z

Cool little boy, originally uploaded by goingglobal.

Sri Lankan family welcome

As I made my way down the rock I found a Sri Lankan family at the foot of the mountain. An old granny in her late 50's spoke superb English and was visiting the rock with her cousins and two grandchildren. I spoke to them for 15 minutes and was keen to chat to them for longer but had to try to get the one direct bus to Kandy. So making my excuses I headed for the guest house for a quick cup of tea.

As I sat drinking the tea for 15 minutes the family walked through the door and we continued our conversation. They were a fascinating and lovely family to chat to. They invited me to diner and paid for drinks refusing to accept any money from me as it was my birthday. They then gave me a lift in their van back to Kandy and continued to refuse to let me pay for anything. The youngest child was about 5 years old and spoke an amazing range of English. As we drove to Kandy I played with him in the back of the van. The grandma lived in Switzerland as a carer for a 82 Swiss German man who was actually with us. He seemed like a nice old man but unfortunately he didn't speak a word of English. She spoke no fewer than 7 languages fluently and translated between Singalese, English and German.

I have to say that they were one of the nicest families I have ever met and made my birthday a really unforgetable day. I have found two types of people since arriving into Sri Lanka. There are those who will try to con you and rip you off all the time and then there are some really decent and caring Sri Lankans who will go the mile for you. I was fortunate to be able to spend the day with such a great family.

Tamil Hindu festival

2006-02-14T11:28:00.000Z

As I was sitting in the internet cafe in Kandy the owner rushed over to me and asked me if I wanted to see something special. Wondering what he meant I followed him outside the cafe and through the narrow alleyway to the sounds of musical instruments in the distance. Going down the road were a number of trucks which had trees going over the cabins. Hanging from the cabins were men suspended in mid-air by ropes and hooks. At first I said to my friend 'arn't they suspended by padding?'. He smiled and said 'have a good look'. As I stepped closer I could see they had huge hooks going through their skin so that they were literally hanging from their body! I don't know how they were able to take the pain as I couldn't even see them up close without feeling physically ill!

As the procession passed at the back of the convoy was a man who was dressed up elaborately and looked like both a man and a women. I was told by someone I could not take photos and realised quickly as the red carpet was placed in front of the person that he was meant to represent God, or one of the Hindi Gods. He was surrounded by women dressed in elaborate sari's with bowls on their heads, with people coming up and bowing to the man.

My friend told me this was an important Hindu (hence Tamil) festival procession that had come a distance of over 15 km's from the mountains. He assured me 'they won't feel any pain' then added 'at the moment' before checkingly telling me 'they will be in agony later tho!' Interesting what you can see when you least expect it

Adam's Peak

2006-02-14T10:26:00.000Z

Arriving back into Kandy on Saturday night I met up with Selina and Holly and heard about their plans for Sunday. They intended to make their way to Adam's Peak which was about 5/6 hours south of Kandy. Overlooking valleys the peak is 5200 steps up and is supposed to have some of the best views in the country. Unfortunately to 'experience' these views one must try to trek up to the top of the peak before the sun rises at 6.30am which means leaving for the trek at 2.30am!

So waking up on Sunday I headed to Kandy bus station to try to navigate my way somehow to Dalhousie which is on the steps of the mountain. Kandy bus station is without a doubt the craziest bus station I have yet encountered in Sri Lanka. Rather than one central bus stand it sprawls over many streets with buses ranging from Leyland buses which look older than my grandparents to super express small aircon buses which wiz from A to B rather quickly by Sri Lankan stands. Unfortunately all the destinations are in Singalese and hence completely foreign to me, so inevitably I end up going round asking people where the bus is to a certain places in English and limited Singalese often with rather mixed reactions.

Sri Lankan Tea estates
Driving to Dalhousie as the sun set over the peaks and surrounding lakes was a beautiful sight indeed. As the heart of the Sri Lankan tea industry the hills are packed with tea growing up the sides. As you pass the estates you can see tea pickers making their way through the fields sampling the buses for the right buds and leaves to bring down to be made into the tea which so many of us love to drink.

Dalhousie
The small settlement of Dalhousie isn't renowned for anything much aside from being the starting point for the trek to the top of Adam's Peak. As I arrived somewhat late, with only a day sack, I headed for the Green House where I knew the girls had rented a room. As I made my way up the small hill to the lodge I found the girls sitting round an immense circular table with a mixture of different characters. After introductions I found we had Australians (a young Aussie couple called Gemma and Luke), 3 Germans, 1 French Canadian, 1 Swiss man, an Englishman and a Scottsman. It turned out that everyone had already eaten so I asked if I could have the rice and curry and found myself confronted by perhaps the largest amount of food and dishes I have ever seen places in front of me. As I attemped in vain to eat the food the others watched me finding the sight of an Englishman, albeit large one, trying to eat so much rather amusing.

2.30am start
Having decided to leave my gear back in Kandy I hadn't reserved a room. The girls said I could sleep on the floor so after 3 hours kip I awoke from the cold floor to begin the assault on the hill/mountain. At 2243m high its twice the height of Ben Nevis in the UK and one hell of a climb to the top!

Ths sight is important for Sri Lankans as some believe that the huge 'footprint' found on the top of the peak is that of St Thomas, the early apostle of India or of the lord Shiva or Lord Buddha. Having been a pilgrimage location for the past 1000 years the season for pilgrims is from December until May. During this time thousands of Sri Lankans of all ages and fitness trek up and down the mountain in hordes. I even recall seeing a man with no feet make his way to the top of the mountain on his hands!

The way up the 5200 or so steps is lit by lights which is just as well as the climb is a tough experience. The climb was tough and extremely painful. As you looked up in the darkness you could see the peak of the mountain lit by the lights far in the distance and almost vertical in the air. At first the steps were gradual and not to difficult but the further onwards we went the highter they became until a ralling was essential to be able to move onwards without falling either backwards or over the side of the cliff.

As we approached the top we could hear the sounds of the Buddhist temple at the top of the mountain with chants echoing down the moutain. The walkways were packed with people going up and coming down which made the trek upwards slow and difficult. However, some three hours after setting off we managed to make our way to the top.

Sunset and Sun-shadow
The dawn could be seen in the distance illuminating the sky and a few clouds in the air in a gorgeous orange glow. The real highlight of the time at the top or its 'piece de resistance' as the LP describes it is the triangular shadow of the peak which is created by the sun which lasts about 15 minutes and races back towards the peak eventually disappearing into its base. Watching the sun rise over the other moutains and lakes was a gorgeous sight and reminded me of my time in Nepal. Their is something magical about mountains which continues to inspire me.

The route back down was probably tougher than going up. Their is something about going down which kills my legs, especially my knee caps. By the time I got to the bottom I was in a pretty bad shape so needed the immense tea and breakfast we got from our host.

Where are the taxi's when you need one
You know its very weird every time you walk down the street in Sri Lanka you get hassled for a taxi but the one time you need one no one will take you. As midday approached we found ourselves in Dalhousie in a difficult position. Out of our small group of 9 four people needed to get to Hatton to get the connecting train in an hour and a half. Unfortunately the bus wasn't coming for another hour. There was an alternative bus we could get where we would need to change somewhere else but we literally could'nt get in it! As I was the only person with no luggage I opted to try to rent one of the many mini-vans where people were sitting in doing nothing much. Most the drivers wouldn't even discuss rental but one decided to chat. At first he said an inflated price but eventually I got him down to 1000 rupees (about 7 pounds) which the 9 of us could share. As the others approached the guy literally saw them and bolted over the road to a cafe were he dissappeared. Feeling like a complete idiot I ran after him and was stopped by the restaurant.

'Where is he' I asked an old man who looked like he hadn't seen a shower in a few months
'Gone for drink and breakfast'
'What do you mean drink and breakfast' I asked, 'we are in a hurry and don't have time for him to sit around and debate the meaning of life as we have to get somewhere'!
The man shook his head from side to side probably not understanding my comment and not particularly caring either 'he will be only half an hour'!
'Half an hour' I was losing my temper 'tell him NOW'. I think my lack of temper had something to do with the lack of sleep or maybe the 7km climb I had just done, you could take your pick really.
I knew by this stage that I wasn't going to get this guy to come out anytime soon. You see in Sri Lanka time doesn't quite work like in the West. No one is ever in much of a hurry and if they are, well then they clearly arn't very Sri Lankan!

So I approached an older lady of another vehicle who to my surprise agree on 1,000 rupees quickly and proceeded to literally chuck out a bunch of Sri Lankans who were sitting in her van so we could drive with her! The trip was quick and easy and only cost twice what we would have paid for a cramped bus trip which would have taken three times longer!

Kandy Tuk-Tuks
Tuk-tuk drivers in Kandy are renowned for being con artists always willing to fleece a tourist out of his cash. As myself and another Englishman called Harry stepped of the bus we approached a couple of tuk-tuk drivers
'How much to Oldie Empire?'
A bearded man in a checkered shirt nodded his head backwards and forewards '150 rupess good price'
'No it isn't mate, 50 rupees' I responded. I was in a right mood at this moment in time due to a lack of sleep and was rather keen to have a bit of a fight with a tuk-tuk driver as they tended to piss me off a lot.
'80 sir no less'
'Mate its 50, i have been here three times, count my fingers' as I lifted three fingers 'three times and the price is 50'
By this time the man had a couple of mates with him and they were all basically laughing at me and my friend who was making a similar effort on another driver
'Sir since Tsunami minimum 80 rupees anywhere in the city' the guy said smilling.
I knew two imporant things now. One he was a complete bullshit artist as the tsunami hit hundreds of miles away on the coast and two he honestly didn't think I was smart enough to know the price
'Mate listen to me' I was angry 'my bag is in the Oldie Empire, look I have a day sack, have been here three times the last week and know the price is 50 rupess'
I said a few words to him I would rather not write down and walked off in the distance.

Another tuk-tuk approached and the driver, an oldish man in his 50's asked me 'how much sir?'
'Hi mate, its meant to be 50 rupees to Oldie Empire but I will pay 60'. The man smiled and nodded as we pilled into the back of the tuk-tuk. Clearly some tut-tuk drivers would rather get an honest decent price than sit on their arses, drink tea with their mates and con the occasional tourist!

Another year wiser in Sigiriya

2006-02-11T06:02:00.000Z

Waking up with a small post hangover from the previous nights birthday drinks I had to make my way to Sigiriya which used to be one of the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka. The city was only briefly constructed due to a conflict over the throne with the 'pretender' to the throne building an immense castle/fortress on top of the rock which forms the heart of Sigiriya.

The city of Sigiriya
I wasn't keen to stay to long in Sigiriya as I wanted to head back to Kandy so I was able to find a hotel I could never afford to stay in where I bought some tea and agreed to leave my bag with them whilst I went off to climb the rock. The city stretches out in front of the rock, with ruins clearly visable and the remains of gardens which must have made the city one of the greenest in Sri Lanka's long history.

The climb to the top
Sigiriya's central attraction is the rock which has something like 2000 steps on it. As you make your way to the top you are able to see a set of murials which have been found painted on the side of the rock. For 5th century paintings they are surprisingly full of colour and are very erotic in their style. Its thought that their were 500 portraits at one time but now only 22 remain. There is a large edge on the side of the hill known as the Lion's Paw due to the two enormous lion paws through which the gateway to the top goes between. What is amazing is that at one time a gigantic brick lion at this end nof the rock and the final ascent to the top went through the paws and into its mouth! Must have been an impressive sight then!

The Rock Top
As you come to the top of the rock you find remarkably well preserved remains of the palace complex coupled together with awesom views over the surrounding countryside. As I walked around I saw a large crowd of men who needed someone to take their photo on the spot where the palace used to be. After I took the photo they crowded round me asking 'where you from' 'what do you do' and the normal range of questions. What scared me was a guy in his late 50's with huge glasses who seemed really drunk. He wouldn't let go of my hands as he kept shacking both of them holding them. As I know what they use their left hand for I wasn't entirely keen on letting this guy continue!

What was funny was they wanted to know all about my relationship and sex life - 'are you married, have girlfriend sir'. I could tell where they were going ''Do you want Sri Lankan women?" Err 'no' I replied 'here to see the country and not the women'! 'Well why don't you come to Colombo with us' they asked. By this time I was beginning to think either a) they were drunk, b) were very unusual nice people or c) had ulterior motives. I decided it was better to be safe than sorry and made my excuses so that I could 'catch my bus'!

Polonnaruwa

2006-02-10T06:03:00.000Z

Having spent two days in Anuradhapura I was pretty keen to move onto the 'next' ancient capital known as Polonnaruwa. Aside from having an easier name to say the capital is known as being more centered and easier to navigate around. So getting up early in the morning, which is in itself a rarity for me, I made my way somehow to the right bus and headed for the city on the 4 hour journey.

Sri Lankan Bus Stations
All the bus stands in Sri Lanka are crazy places where people run around selling food and drinks and no one seems to quite know what the hell is going on. Unlike in the West buses don't have a 'departure time'. Rather they leave when they get full which inevitably means a lot later than you expected or just occasionally early which really pisses you off when you are late. As buses leave when they are full this usually means when no one else can be crammed into the odd centimetre here or there. If this is possible then it is just not full!

The city is one of the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka which was overrun by the jungle for 700 years. The guesthouse was a rather fortunate find. Upon arriving I remembered that Australia where playing Sri Lanka in the 1st cricket final which was being played in Adelaide. The owner of the guesthouse was watching the game and invited me into his house to see Sri Lanka finish off their 50 overs. They scored 50 runs in their final 5 overs and played with immense style and character. As I sat watching the game with a Sri Lankan and his family the bonds of sport and its ability to cross boundaries really stood out. I would spend the rest of the day touring the ancient city chatting to Sri Lankans about the score and getting 'progress reports'.

Renting a bike I set out at 1pm with the aim of finshing by about 6pm. As I made my way through the citu I kept on catching up with this tiny Japanese girl who was also cycling the same route. After a while I got chatting to her and we toured the city together.

Coming from the south of Japan Hiroko was a very pretty laid back Japanese girl. As we cycled around the ancient city we discussed all manner of things and I quickly found out that she had a strong interest in British rock music. In fact her knowledge was considerable knowing more British rocks bands, new and old, than I did.

It's difficult to explain what the city looks like as its considerable in size and extremely diverse. Buddhist temples mix with Hindi shrines in the jungle. After 700 years of jungle growth the ruins remain impressive, enabling you to imagine what the buildings must have looked like in their peak. One particular building had a Buddhist statue which must have been 50 feet high surrounded by high walls. When it was built the building must have contained 7 or 8 levels which is an impressive size.

Sri Lankan wildlife
Since arriving into Sri Lanka I have got a sense that the country's wildlife is diverse and extremely interesting. As we cycled down the road back towards the town I thought I could see something moving across the road slightly ahead of our bikes. As we approached it the animals slivered off into the bushes and it was only then I realised what I had seen. Coloured black and white with a wide head I had just witnessed a cobra cross the road! Yes a cobra, which could have killed me if I had been bitten by it! When we reached the checkpoint I told the guides what I had seen and at first they didn't believe me. After describing it they began to believe me and went off to see if they could track it down!

Tanks not lakes!
The 'Cultural Triangle' forms the ancestral heart of Sri Lanka yet the area is an arid dry zone for most of the year with only a few months of rain. Inevitably this led to problems with irrigation and water supply for the area. In an effort to stem these problems the ingeneous Sri Lankans built massive water works, essentially lakes, which they labelled as 'tanks' to hold water during the dry season so they could irrigate crops year round. One of the largest tanks was built by Polonnaruwa stretching far into the distance. As we cycled back the sun set over the lake forming a stunning evening image.

Birthday drinks
As I got back to the guesthouse I met two English girls called Selena and Holly who had just arrived. It's difficult to explain these two fascinating characters, both of them are full of life and energy especially Selena who jumps about and is keen to do just about anything. As soon as they heard that it was my birthday the next day they proceeded to take me to thelocal restaurant where we drank beer and ate the Sri Lankan rice and curry. Afterwards we returned back to the guesthouse where I opened the free bottle of Merlot which Cathay Pacific had given me and toasted to being another year wiser! All in all a good way to see in my birthday!

Kandy

2006-02-07T05:59:00.000Z

The city
Kandy is located in middle of Sri Lanka in the hill country. If Colombo is known internationally as the capital then Kandy is known as the cultural capital of Sri Lanka. Kandy and the surrounding areas resisted European rules for over 300 years and remains to this day the cultural and spiritual centre of Sri Lanka. The city is located in the heart of a valley surrounded by hills with a gorgeous lake in centre. Unlike Colombo the people here are much more laid back and culturally diverse with a large population of Singalese, Tamils and Muslims. Perhaps the most important thing the city is known for is it culture, history, temples and as a gateway to the Cultural Triangle to the north of the city.

Temple of Tooth
Kandy's most famous temple is The Temple of Tooth. Housing Sri Lanka's most imporant Buddhist relic of the sacred tooth of the Buddha the Temple is considered sacred. The tooth was apparently rescued from the flames of the Buddha's funeral pyre in 543 BC. The Temple is visited throughout the day and night by pilgrims who come from across the country and the Buddhist world to visit one of the holiest temples in the religion. Sitting on the front balcony of the Oldie Empire hotel you could hear the chants and religious blessings as the pilgrims made their way along the long walkway which leads up to the temple. Every full moon Buddhist's celebrate the occasion with a puja where they go to the Temple, prayer and give offerings to the Temple. As the full moon technically starts in the early hours of the morning you can hear thousands of people making their way along to the Temple.

It's not until you make your way through 3 sets of security personnel that you realise that the Temple was targeted by the Tamil Tigers during the civil war. The Temple sustained massive damage from a bombing in 1998 which it has only just managed to recover from. Now its not surprise that the checkpoints are manned by heavily armed personnel who have no problem in searching you and your bags.

The Temple itself doesn't look anything special from the outside at first. But upon entering you enter a glistering chamber of lights leading in the main chamber. A mini building in the heart of the Temple houses the sacred Tooth Relic which you can't actually see as its only put on display a few days every decade! However, that doesn't stop pilgrims praying in front of the Temple in their masses and visiting the Buddhist statues and paintings towards the back of the Temple.

The thing which upset me was the cost of the visit. Unlike in other countries like Thailand EVERY temple, monument, park or almost any sights costs a small fortune in Sri Lanka. For example, locals pay 20 rupees to visit the temple, tourists pay 500 rupees! I don't have a problem with tourists paying more as we have more money but I find the sheer difference in price insulting. Being forced to pay this much to visit a Temple, especially if you are Buddhist is wrong.

Kandy dance

Drinking, Sri Lankan late nights and American girl
On the first night in Kandy I met a loud and friendly Kiwi guy called Dwain who had been working out in the Maldives for the past year or so. Venturing out to the apptly named 'The Pub' (no joking that is the name!) we proceeded to pour various local concocsions down before heading the Pub Royale where we met a tall young American girl Alissa who had befriended by a rather annoying Sri Lankan with 'ulterior motives'. The pub seems to have an ability to attract the 'wrong' types of Sri Lankans as many drink in the bar aiming to either a) sleep with a 'cheap' (being their mindset not mine) foreign women or b) get you to pay copious amounts of money for something like a tour. Our time in the pub ended with Dwain standing up to the guy so that eventually after rather a while he got the picture that he basically needed to be somewhere else. What was really amusing was whilst we were arguing with this guy a brawl was breaking out elsewhere in the bar between a couple of Sri Lankan's and two waiters! So there I was in the bar with two brawls simultaneously going on wondering what the hell was going on!

One of the problems with Sri Lanka is that everything shuts down stupidly early. As soon as the sun goes down and night sets in the locals seem to think 'right we may as well go to bed now' at 6 in the evening! What this means is that almost every pub seems to want to shut its doors at
10pm, yes 10pm with many hotels locking out any poor unfortunate bugger who happened to be out trying to have fun!

Sure that the night was still young we jumped in a tuk-tuk and tried to find a place, any place, in the mountains where we could continue to drink. Alas where we went I do not know as it was someway up in the hills and I lost track either due to the number of turns we had taken or the amount of alcohol I had had to drink. Eventually we found this small bar on the top of a hotel with views over the valley and surrounding hills. Run by a young Chinese guy we ended up spending the night chatting to him and his German friend . Eventually the bar shut and the Chinese man offered to give us a lift back to our hotel in the small car which meant Alissa (who is over 6 ft 4) ended up sitting in a ball on our laps. As we feared the guesthouse decided to shut the poor girls gate so we ended up shouting and hurling stones at the window in a vain attempt to wake the owner up. After 5 minute the realisation this wasn't going to work dawned on us so I offered Alissa the spare bed in my room as I had a twin share, fortunate indeed as she would have been homeless otherwise. Needless to say DO NOT come to Sri Lanka if you want a large night out as they don't do late nights! EVER!!!

Cultural Triangle
What not a lot of people may know about Sri Lanka is that it has a long, interesting and prosperous history stretching back thousands of years. The heart of the country used to be the plains north of the hill country, known now as the 'cultural triangle' which sprawned a number of huge cities and holy sights. Two of the capitals are considered to have been two of the largest and most important cities of their ages - Anuradhapura for nearly a 1000 years (300 BC - 700 AD) and Polonnaruwa (1000 AD - 1300 AD). Aside from being rather difficult cities to even pronounce they were going to be hard to visit but well worth the effort.

The tour begins post illness

2006-02-06T10:05:00.000Z

Recovery
I spent the weekend recovering from a very nasty illness which I have no clue as to how I got. Fortunately I was in the beachside resort of Negombo where I could take it easy and relax giving my body time to recover without having to hassle with the 'taxi sir' people!

Monday moving
By Monday I felt like by body had enough strength to move. I had heard a lot about Kandy which is a hill city pretty much in the centre of the country so I was keen to make my way there quickly.

Public Transport in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan buses are a fascinating means of transport. Fill the bus up at the beginning of the journey, stop everywhere along the route where someone raises their hand regardless of space in the bus and finally make sure that you break regularly and hard ensuring a 'flow' of people on the bus as everyone becomes 'acquinted' with their new neighbours! Aside from the 10 people per metre the buses cram into the walkway they always come equipped with loud horns and Sri Lankan music blaring at full volume! In many ways it reminds me of the Guiness Book of Record attempts to pack as many people into a mini as was possible ending with limbs poking out at all angles.

Sri Lankan salesman
Arriving into the Fort Colombo railways station a little confused I was pinned down with remarkable speed by a dark haired smallish man in a cheaqured suit who promptly helped me go to the counter to buy the ticket for the trip to Kandy. He told me a couple of times how I must be getting angry with people trying to sell and that 'I am not trying to sell you anything sir I just want to talk and practice my English'.At first I appreciated this man's but having been a salesman myself I can tell when someone is preparing to line someone up for a sell and could feel that this was what he was doing.

When travelling I try to remain friendly and open to everyone I speak to but at the bacl of my mind I remain skeptical and dubious of their true intentions until I get to know their character better. Whilst this may be argued to deminish the 'joy' of travelling I feel it is an important factor as to why I have never been robbed or conned whilst abroad.

After speaking to the man for five minutes about odds and he suggested we sit down in the railway canteen and have some tea as our train was due in in two hours time. As we sit down he starts to question me about my plans for Kandy. At that time my plans for Kandy consisted of bed and sleep as I was keen to not over push myself on my first day of feeling better. Upon hearing this he reached into his small leather suitcase and pulled out a couple of colour pamphlets.

'Sir you need to stay in my questhouse, I promise very cheap price, with tour, and take you many places, only 2500 Rupees per night sir'
'Yes that's nice' I said 'but I am staying at Sharon Inn and I am not sure about whether I want to do a tour'
'Oh that is a smelly horrible place, no good' he quickly replied
'Really is that so' I countered 'as my guidebook calls it quote "the best value stay in town"'
I had his feathers ruffled on that point! So he quickly changed his pitch
'Why do you not want to do tour sir, you must do tour'
'Really why should I?' I said slightly raising my voice as he was beginning to frustrate my usually timid nature
'Because it is gorgeous place, very nice, only 2000 Rupees for you sir'
He wasn't getting the point
'The thing is I don't know what I want to do, or what I want to see so won't do anything until I have made my mind up'
He was beginning to get annoyed now as I could tell by the look he was giving me and the fact his was moving his hands about like a man who is on the edge of a cliff and is trying to steady himself to not fall!
'Sir you do not want to stay there its not nice' and he continued to sit there telling me what I should and should not do. Eventually I lost my temper and told him in no uncertain terms 'go away'!

He continued to stick around until a man who I think worked in the cafe walked up behind him and told him rather forcefully in Sri Lankan something. I think it was probably somewhere along the lines of 'get lost' as he quickly packed his sales material away and left me to my rather nice cup of tea!

The train to Kandy

2006-02-06T05:32:00.000Z

Deciding that the best way to reach Kandy in the mountains was by taking a scenic train I arrived early into the station expecting it to be late as is the norm in India. So when the train pulled in twenty minutes early I did not quite know what to do with myself! Questions of whether this was my train let alone where I was meant to sit raced through my head. My ticket which strangely resembled an old classic cinema coupon ticket gave me no clue either as it was written in Singalese, although I suspected I was in 2nd class. So I opted for the first carriage nearest to me. As I settled in a tall oldish man with big round glasses jumped into the train and grabbing my hand repeatedly said in rough English '2nd class this way' pointing further up the train. Taking me off the train he walked me to the 2nd class and found me a sit, without asking for anything. With my albeit limited Singalese I thanked him as these seats had cusions!

The train whilst old and regid retains an air and certain sense of grace. As the train weaves its way through some spectacular countryside the packed carriages bustle with life. Sitting in front of me I found a gorgeous little girl, maybe 3, sitting on her fathers lap. The entire journey they played with each other in what was really a rather sweet.

Elsewhere on the train people sit, chat and read newspapers whilst others, like the man who sat next to me, had this amazing ability of being able to fall asleep almost instantly even though the train rocks and rolls as it moves over the mountains!

The speed of the train is what surprised me the most. Unlike in India the trains in Sri Lanka, or at least the ones I have been on, move surprisingly fast. Admitedly not like the Intercity in the UK or TGV in France but nevertheless fast enough to make you feel like you are at least making progress in the right direction

The train at first crosses plains and gradually creeps and climbs into the mountains which rise in the centre of the country. The scenary over the two hour climb is simply breathtaking as the train moves through the mountains passing through hand made tunnels cut into the rocks or clings to the side of the mountains with sheer drops to the side of what seems like thousands of feet. As the train rises you can see the valleys against the backdrop of the hills and mountains in the distance.

As the train moves onwards sellers move up and down the train selling all manner of things from games to strange sorts of food which have strong aroma's. Some carry their products on their shoulders whilst other more adventurous salesman somehow manage to balance their baskets on their heads often whilst walking in the opposite direction to which the train is moving!

The allure of the Indian Subcontinent

2006-02-04T09:50:00.000Z

Ever since a young boy I have been fascinated by the Indian subcontinent. It has always seemed such a vibrant yet chaotic place where the normal 'logical' rules of society seem to co-exist at times with the odd an outright weird ways of doing things. I just thought that it would be a very entertaining and interesting place to visit.

I think was sparked by initial interest was watching Michael Palin arrive into India on his 'Around the World in Eighty Days' show. I swore to myself that one day I would follow in his footsteps or at least the Indian part! So it was no surprise to my friends and family that the first place I choose to visit outside of Europe was Nepal and India during my gap year.

Sri Lanka is very much part of the Indian subcontinent with strong cultural and historical ties and yet it has retained a certain sense of uniqueness which seperates it from the rest of the subcontinent. Historically it has been fundamental in the spread of Buddhism and to this day it is along with the small Kingdom of Bhutan one of only two predominantely Buddhist countries in the region.

So in many ways I have now embarked on the part of my trip which I have been most looking forward to the most. Over the next two weeks I will explore Sri Lanka, spend 6 weeks in India and 6 in Nepal.

Illness and Cathay Pacific

2006-02-03T09:24:00.000Z

It's time to get ill!
As I made my way to the airport in Manila I began to feel a little bit quesy. I have been blessed to have a body which gives me notice of an impending doom, so whenever I know I am about to get ill i tend to get a few hours warning. Well this was a warning sign loud and clear but I was in a rather difficult position to be able to do anything about it.

The thing is I have been long overdue for an illness so it was about time that I was hit by a bug of some sort. When your travelling you have to expect to get ill every now and your often eating in different places and sometimes foods you have never eaten before.

Cathay Pacific Troubles
I have always found the quality of the inflight service with Cathay Pacific to be superb, with very friendly and welcoming staff. However, the recent difficulties with my luggage being lost has exposed very poor service and customer care in this particular area. I had been told before hand that I would be able to reclaim my cloths purchases but upon arrival I found out this was not the case. Rather I would only be able to claw back 50% of the value regardless of other costs. This amounted to little more than $50 which was miniscule compared to nearly $500 compensation offered by KLM and $400 by AA. The ground staff are equally frustrated with this rate so I intend to take the matter further!

Kids in El Nido

2006-02-02T13:03:00.000Z

kids in El Nido, originally uploaded by goingglobal.

As I have mentioned I found the kids in El Nido to be really great. Unlike kids in Manila all they want to do is chat and talk to you.

As the sun was setting on the beach a few of us sat and chatted with the children playing with them, taking photos and teaching them English.

Really cool kids!

El Nido Sunset

2006-02-02T12:26:00.000Z

El Nido Sunset, originally uploaded by goingglobal.

The sun was setting as we sat out the front of our cottage and we suddenly realised what we had in front of us. It's quite possibly one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.

So we rushed out onto the beach and took this.

An occasion I'll never forget

2006-01-28T08:36:00.000Z

El Nido in the sun
El Nido is a really small village on the northern coast of Palawan near the top of the island. For many years its been a retreat of hardy travellers where the only access used to be by boat which was itself a long and painful journey. As a gateway to nearby islands it has grown over the years as people moved and access improved. It still retains a small village atmosphere and laid back way of life. The streets are narrow and everyone goes about their business almost oblivious at times to the tourists who are increasing in numbers every year.

Local Children learning the art of 'pukka'
Walking down the streets children run up to you asking for your name and where you are from. Unlike children in many other places such as Manila they simply want to chat and get to know you rather than to ask for money. Earlier today I spent some time with a dozen or so children chatting to them and decided that I would try to teach them some new words. Grabbing my now worn and torn book (The Magus by John Fowles) I told them this book was ‘pukka’. A bemused look crossed their faces and they repeated the word time and time again until some of them actually got the word sounding perfectly right. Then grabbing other things I told them ‘this was pukka, and this was pukka’. They quickly grasped what I was referring to. As I walked away all I could hear were the kids muttering to each other ‘pukka, pukka’ and felt a sense of satisfaction that I had actually taught them a new English word, even though it was actually Hindi in origin!

Island Hoping
El Nido is famous for its islands. It's essentially the gateway to dozens of islands which can be accessed by a short boat ride. Tourists tend to rent a boat for the day and cruise the islands hoping off at beaches and going snorkelling in the bays and coves. Renting a boat with Michael (my Swiss roomate) and two Germans (Tina and Michael) we headed out for the day. For the first time in three days we were blessed by great weather so we opted to go for a swim in a cove and then do some snorkelling. Even though we put on large amounts of sun creame we all still managed to get sunburnt to various extents, myself being the worst due to my 'lovely' white skin!

Unfortunately the area has been savaged by dynamite fishing destroying some of the most spectacular coral whilst damaging others beyond repair. When you snorkel the damage is evident in the state of the coral. Yet I was amazed by the sheer numbers and variety of fish which I could see. The sad thing about the dynamate fishing is that it tends to be non-local fisherman who do it and not the locals who learnt long ago to work with their environment rather than against it. The government is attempting to tackle these illegal methods but do not seem to be having much success.

El Nido

2006-01-28T08:24:00.000Z

The Road to El Nido
The journey to El Nido was perhaps one of the most difficult journeys I have ever undertaken. The first leg of the journey was fast and efficient. Our driver, a old man in his 50’s, drove at great speed along well sealed roads. After an hour or so I lost all feeling in my ass and reserved myself to not feeling it again until I got to El Nido!

For the first few hours I was lured into the feeling that ‘it wouldn’t be as bad as its supposedly meant to be’. After 3 hours the roads went from being sealed, to unsealed, to dirt tracks, to almost no track! Yet this apparent change in the road conditions did not seem to affect the speed at which our driver felt he could drive. One of the few benefits of this was that I spent a great deal of my time in mid-air where I happened to find feeling in my ass again!

Five hours into the journey it began to rain. At first it was only a few drops, but within half an hour the few drops turned into a torrential downpore. It didn’t take long for me to realise that this would have an effect on the quality of the road and hence the journey as we were by now driving on a dirt track. A month or so ago the area had been hit by torrential rain for many days which had literally flushed away many of the bridges and road structures in the area. As we drove along the road I got the feeling that I might not make it to El Nido as we drove past destroyed bridges which laid in pieces beside the road. Rather worryingly the way we now seemed to be making it on the road was by driving directly through rivers where there used to be bridges! Unfortunately as it has raining heavily this rivers continued to increase in size to the point where I was rather concerned they would flood the engine as the water level rose so much.

About an hour away from El Nido we came to a hill which had been turned into a mud-bath. Ahead of us were trucks, tricycles and jeepneys stuck and unable to move. As our driver put foot to the peddle the engine roared with smoke bellowing out the side. Suddenly hot smoke from the engine burst out into the bus creating panic and mayhem in the bus, with some people jumping out windows and others running for the door at the back of the bus. At first I thought that the engine had blown and that was the end of the trip to El Nido. Pictures of me trekking through knee high mud began to pour into my head. However, as I looked at the driver I could see he was calming sitting on his chair trying to put the cap back on the engine where the smoke was coming from. Hardly the actions of a man in distress! So I quickly realised that it was simply excess water. A child behind me sitting with his mum was panicking so I turned to calm the child down.

So here we were stuck in the mud up a hill which seemed impossible to move. People had already began to walkthe hill reserved to the fact that we were not going anywhere. As people left the vehicle they realised the full extent of the mud which rose above most peolples shoes. However, a few minutes earlier we had driven past machinery being used to re-build parts of the road and bridges. Within a few minutes a bull-dozer slowly past us and began to pull us up the hill. Although the journey was slow we made our way steadily up the hill passing vehicles which had not been so fortunate!

El Nido
Arriving into El Nido an hour or so late in the pouring rain we rushed to try to find a place able to take us for a few nights. Eventually we found a room at ‘Rico’s Cottage’ overlooking the sea front. Although the weather was still abysmal it provided a beautiful location to sit and enjoy the views. The sea was a few metres away and I could hear it rolling in and out from my bed. The previous day I had got to know a Swiss traveller called Michael and we decided that we may as well share a room for a few days as it would work out cheaper and easier. Michael is in his mid 20's, with long hair and very laid back, and is coming to the end of his year of. Outside the room we shared a balcony with two other rooms which had tables, chairs and hammocks we could sit and relax in.

Within a few minutes of arriving we met a Dutch and Philippino couple who had caught the previous bus. Noel, a mild mannered American Philippino in his early 40’s, joked about the journey and asked us if we had to do the same on the hill? Well we naturally assumed he meant waiting for the bulldozer so we joked that we had. However, this impression was soon eradicated when he asked me how many men it took? I said ‘what do you mean, took?’ He said ‘to pull the truck up the hill!’ . As you can imagine I was shocked by this! It turns out the previous bus had not had the fortune of having a bull-dozer nearby so ten men had had to pull the bus up the hill! They had to do this whilse it rained in almost knee high mud! Suddenly I felt my journey hadn’t actually been that bad! It's weird how other people's experiences can make you have a different perspective on your own.

2006-01-24T14:32:00.000Z

Sabang
After the 3 hour or so journey we arrived into the small village of Sabang. Located close to the entrance to the underground river Sabang has developed substancially in recent years. However, on first arrival it doesn't seem like it could have done as it's a very small village. With only a few questhouses and restuarants its a very quiet and laid back place where many travellers come and stay doing nothing but relaxing for days or often weeks.

The fee for the park is 200 peso's (about 2 pounds) which allows you entrance to the park and a journey up on the underground river on a boat. You can trek into the cave entrance, which is a few kilometres away but as I was on a day trip I did not have time to do this. So instead I opted to try to find a place on a fast boat heading for the cave entrance. The boats are very strange indeed. Essentially they are a single hulled vessle with stabalisers along the side. At first I was curious as to why they had adopted this particular design. As I attempted to board the boat for the ten minute journey I was knocked back by the force of the waves. Once on board the journey became even more difficult as boat headed into some of the largest waves I have ever seen. I had, unfortunately, decided to sit near the front which meant I caught the hardest waves along with an Philippino born American called Sam. By the time we reached the entrance to the cave my shoes were soaked through and my shorts drenched! Still its all part of the experience!!! I had a few Philippino's on the boat with me as well as two Americans. One was a Philippino born American in his mid 40's and the other an elderly white American who had an annoying habit of saying 'gosh' and 'oh my God' in at least every other sentence!!!

Sabang and the World's largest underground river system

2006-01-24T12:31:00.000Z

The Underground River
When I first mentioned to people that I was thinking of coming to Palawan one of the first things that people told me was to go to see the Underground River. At first I was curious as to what on earth they meant. I had images of me caving down some dark caves finding myself in a huge dark cavern with bats hovering around and a boat no where to be seen in the distance.

As I landed in Palawan one of the first things I did was to enquire about the underground river. Turns out that it is a World Heritage Sight (1999) and is the longest continuous navigateble underground river in the world. So I thought it might just be worth a visit!

Philippines Transport
Unfortunately the River is located some 3 hours north of Puerto Princesa on the banks of a small village called Sabang. The road is legendary for being a bit of a nightmare, so leaving Namwa at 6pm I headed to San Jose to pick up the bug via a tricycle and jeepney. Philippino trucks remind me of travelling by bus in India. Firstly, take the most basic truck, pile the back with wooden hard benches, ensure the suspension is non-existent, place a rack for luggage on the roof and finally pile people in the back and on the roof! It is also important for many trucks to have someone who basically sits/stands on the bonnet every now and again and walks around the vehicle while it is still moving! This is a typical example of what I mean by transport in the Philippines!!!

The Road to Sabang
I feel that when you are travelling the destination isn't always the only thing that matters. Often the best part of travelling is the things you see and experience on the way and the fun of the journey there. The road to Sabang is without a doubt a good example of this. As I boarded the over-crowded bus I realised that I was the only non-Philippino person abroad which inevitably meant I was staired at by people, especially the 8 month old child seated on the lap of a young lady beside me!

The truck had no windows or windwippers or anything like that, which meant that I experienced a whole new form of air-con. To be honest provided it didn't rain I was relatively happy and cool. Of course if it did rain I would be rather wet to say the least!

As we settled into the journey the truck stopped every thirty minutes of so when someone noticed a piece of luggage fall off. At first I thought it was a one off occasion but as we kept on stopping it began to dawn on me that this was rather a regular occurence! Aside from falling luggage I would rgularly get wet from water that appeared to be dripping down and occasionally get a leave fall on my lap from the roof!

At first the road was a well sealed roadway but within half an hour it had turned into a dusty pot hole ridden track. With some holes a metre wide, it took all the skills and experience of the driver to navigate through the roads ensuring we didn't get bogged down. I heard later that we were lucky to be going by road, as ten years ago it didn't even exist with river boat the only connection!

The bus is more than just a means of taking people from A to B. On this route its the spinal coloumn of the area. Carrying post, luggage and people its the main means of connecting people in a rather rural and remote location. Passengers would jump of whenever they reached their destination by knocking loadly on the roof and hoping the driver would stop long enough to let them take their things of without speeding off into the distance while they unloaded!!!

The journey is itself rather spectacular. Starting off it passes by the southern part of the island before moving into dense forests which steadily rise into the hills and mountains. Dotted along the side of the road are small hamlets of wooden huts made from very basic material. Virtually erery hut is built on stilts I think to avoid snakes and other creatures. At first the surroundings tend to be irrigated and farmed land, usually rice. However, as the journey rises into the mountains the farms are replaced by dense wildlife with some of the largest trees I have ever seen rising high above the truck.

Palawan

2006-01-23T13:46:00.000Z

Puerto Princesa
The capital of Palawan is Puerto Princesa which is located roughly in the middle of the island. Its a very quiet place where people seem to work only a few hours a day and instead concentrate on taking it easy enjoying the finer things in life! The streets are barely paved properly and at night the streets are difficult to distinquish due to the lack of lighting of any sort!

Arriving into Puerto Princesa I was confronted almost immediately by one of the cities most iconic symbols - The moto tricycle. Looking like a cross between a ride-on bike and a small car the vehicle is a bike which as had a ride on attached to it with a complete frame. With fares costing a flate rate of 6 Pesos' a ride in one of them is an inexpensive means of transport. The streets in the city are crawling with them as most people seem to choose to pay for a ride rather than the cost of buying a car on themselves.

Unfortunately I quickly found that many drivers seem to have little knowledge of the city which they live in. On the first night in town I tried to get back to my guesthouse and spent 30 minutes being driven around town by the only rider who a)didn't seem to have heard of Banwa Pension and b)was one of a very few people who couldn't understand English! I am quickly learning that its best to ask if they know a location first before jumping in as otherwise you could be in for a long and confusing experience!

Banwa Pension
Whilst staying at Pension Natividad in Manila I had met a young Aussie lady called Helen who had run a small eco-friendly questhouse in Puerto Princesa for year. With her recommendation in hand I headed for Banwa Pension with anticipation. The lodge is small with only a dozen or so rooms. What it lacks in facilities and amenities it makes up for in sheer character. The manager/owner is a young man called Joel who is immensely friendly and very knowledgable. As the lodge is made pretty much entirely out of wood its a very natural relaxing place to sit, relax and basically watch life go by! Due to the problems a few years back with the kidnappings tourists visiting the city are still relatively few in number so I found myself being the only quest in the entire place!

Palawan
For the next week or so I will be staying in Palawan. Most people reading this entry will wonder - where is the place??? Palawan is an island province located in the Western Visayas region between the South China Sea in the northwest and Sulu Sea in the southeast. It's best known for three things -

1) Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park;
2)Internationally Renowned Diving (especially Japanese wrecks in Coron) ;
3) Superb beaches and islands (El Nido being the most famous)

Palawan is well know internationally for its rich natural resources and boasts of exotic wildlife, white sandy beaches, world class snorkeling and superb wreck scuba diving. Starting off in Puerto Princesa I intend to visit the Subterranean Caves north of the city, then travel up to the beachs and islands of El Nido before 'attempting' to get the boat to Coron to do some wreck diving. Many of the travellers I have spoken to and through reading a range of books I realised relatively quickly that it was, in essence, "the last frontier" in the Philippines!

Palawan bound

2006-01-22T11:27:00.000Z

Palawan
Having spent far to many days stuck in Manila I decided that I needed to escape the city and heard some things about an island in the south of the Philippines called Palawan. The island is reknowned for its fishing and wildlife. As its so far away from the rest of the Philippines it also recieves very few tourists. A few years back some American tourists were abducted and killed in near the capital of Peurto Princesca which decimated the tourism industry. Its now a very safe place to visit and has plenty of beaches and some of the best wreck diving sites in the world to dive in.

Leaving Manila
One of the interesting and amusing things about the Philipino's is their usege of English. They are, without a doubt the most fluent English speakers I have ever encountered in Asia. Even the beggers speak good English! Whats amusing is the way in which they sometimes construct sentences with perfect grammer but use slang and phrases which would never appear in formal documents in the UK or US. For example, as I was leaving the domestic shed, sorry I mean airport, I found a sign in the main foyer warning travellers of making practical jokes about having a bomb. In the UK or US the warning would be very official and sound very important. This warning said that anyone 'cracking such jokes' would be treated seriously.

Manila Domestic Airport Fight
As I was walking through the airport, a rather run down small structure from the 1950s, I noticed a lot of noise and shouting coming from the main waiting room. As I entered the room I was confronted by the sight of a lot of men, and women, jumping and shouting punching the air regularly. At first I wondered whether I had entered into some religious ceremoney or something like that!

I could see that they were watching TV's which were hanging up in the waiting room with a fight on. Asking someone standing nearby I was informed that this was a lightweight boxing match between a Philipino man and a Mexican. In fact it was a re-match as the Philipino had lost before. As I watched the crowd I realised that this could be best seen as a Philipino equivalent of English men watching an important football game in England. Apparently this boxing match was being watched across the country and had the whole nation hooked on the outcome, including those waiting to get onto planes!

Leaving Manila
Flying out of Manila was a really great feeling. Having spent a few days in the city I had been practically crawling up the wall to escape. As the plane rose steadily into the air and flew over some gorgeous mountains and crystal blue sea I looked forward to arriving into an island relatively un-spoilt by tourism.

Major changes to blog

2006-01-21T10:43:00.000Z

As many of you can tell my blog has been substantially changed these past few days. One of my friends from Adelaide, Evan has been helping me write a new code to incorporate into the blog. Gone are the old 'word' heavy days. I now have a digital Pentax camera which I will upload photos from. In due course I will also be categorising all entries so information can be easier to find.

I would like to say a HUGE thankyou to Evan. She is without a doubt one of the coolest and smartest people I know. You rock Evan!!!

The Philippines

2006-01-21T10:38:00.000Z

Landing into Manila not altogether there
Landing into Manila I found myself in a rather unusual situation. For me I have been surprisingly unprepared for this trip. I have had little idea where I was going, what I was doing or whether there was even anything to do for that matter!!!!

As soon as I landed I was hit by my biggest problem - no luggage. My bags had decided that when they left Bangkok it would be easier for them to go to London rather than with me to Manila, so I did not have my main luggage. This would go on to be a major problem during the next few days.

Manila
The city is without a doubt unique. Traffic crawls through the central city streets and you wonder whether you are ever going to get anywhere! Riding in the back of the taxi I was on edge as the taxi driver edged past jeepneys, lorry's and all manner of vehicles bigger and hence more dangerous than our small little car!

South American feel
The Philippines is without a doubt one of the most unusual Asian countries I have ever been to. The country has a distinctly South American feel to it. Many street names are in Spanish, the langugage has many Spanish words incorporated into it and the population are overwhelmingly Catholic. In many ways I imagine its what like being in a South American country must be like. Given that the country was ruled for over 350 years by the Spanish this is not that surprising.

Christianity
One of the other things I noticed as soon as I arrived was the difference in religion and attitude. Unlike the rest of Asia the Philippines is an intensely Christian country. About 90% of the population are Catholic, many of them attending Church regularly. This religious feel is evident throughout the country, especially seen through the wide range of Churches, Cathedrals and modern evangelical churches which seem to be found on every corner.

Jeepneys
You find a rather unique vehicle patrolling the roads of the Philippines which looks like a cross between a jeep and a truck. Called the 'Jeepneys' they can be found throughout the roads on the Philippines. Every Jeepney is different in looks, with a vast array of them painted in different colours with a range of emblems. As the Philippino's are a deeply religious people many of them are painted with Christian imaginery and religious sayings.

Leaving Bangkok

2006-01-19T11:59:00.000Z

Khoasan Road
As a city Bangkok continues to devour the surrounding countryside expanding on a daily basis. Yet the bulk of the backpackers to the city nearly always head for the same one area that they have done so for the past 30 years - Khoasan Road.

Located in the north of the city near the Democracy Monument the Road is a road which stretches for a few hundred metres. Anyone who has visited it will know that its a place which really hits the senses and that its difficult to find the words to adequately describe the place.

The streets are lined with stalls selling all manner of handicraft goods to tourists at inflated prices. As you walk down the road you are pestered by taxi drivers and tut-tuk drivers saying 'hi sir, where you from? where are you going?. After a while it becomes somewhat annoying. In recent years these drivers have been joined by tribeswomen from the north of Thailand who walk around the streets in traditional costumes selling handicrafts and strokking wooden frog pieces which make a very annoying frog sound. After a while you feel the urge to buy one of the them just to shut them up!

As the day turns into night the stalls are replaced by street vendors and you start to notice increasingly large numbers of Thai women entering the area for one reason or another.

Philippines Bound
My flight was due to leave Bangkok at 10am so I booked a 7am airport taxi. As I stumbled out my hut room barely able to move to the end of the door let alone the other side of Khoasan Road I realised that I was heading a country which I knew very little about - The Philippines. Located offshore from mainland Asia its a country relatively few backpackers visit. With a high percentage of the population being Christian I was curious as to what it would be like compared to other Asian countries.

Leaving Bangkok
As I stepped into the airport taxi I was confronted by one of the strangest Thai people I have ever met. Rather round with a large hat and a cigarette hanging from his mouth he seemed to be trying to be a Thai John Wayne! Smiling at me he joked that the taxi was 'for Chang Mai sir Chang Mai'. As we drove round picking up passengers he told the same joke to various people all of whom had different reactions!

Sunday in Chiang Mai

2006-01-15T16:50:00.000Z

Thai cooking extreme style!
One of the things which I have been keen to do every since I first thought about coming to Thailand was attempting to learn to cook Thai. As a great lover of all things Asian, especially the food, I have found Thai food one of the most interesting specialities. Living with Simone in Newtown in Sydney further increased my appretite for the food.

So as soon as I arrived into Chiang Mai I looked into the possibility of doing a one day intensive course which would cost only about A$25 and I would get five meals included! Eventually I found the perfect course at a hostel called Eagle House. The name of the cooking course - 'The Chilli Club' gives a lot of clues away as to what the food was like. Held in the forcourt of the hostel the course was held outside and very relaxed.

The course was rather unique in that it gave the students the option of choosing five different dishes from a list of over thirty. When most of these dishes are appealing it was an extremely hard choice to make. Eventually I wittled the list down to:

1)Fried Rice with chicken
2)Thai Red Curry (with chicken)
3)Stir fried rice with chicken and cashew nuts
4)Noddle soup with chicken
5)Lemon Grass Fish (as I felt I should have something non-chicken!!!)

My teacher was a Thai man called Visutt who spoke excellent English. A small man in his 40's he's of Chinese descent and spoke in great length about his love of Thai culture, food and history. Although he had a tendency to speak rather fast I found him to be extremely amusing and laid back. This was helped by the fact that when I arrived I found I was the only person on the cooking course! I had seen the courst attended by 8 people the previous day and knew I was just lucky in this case!

The day started with a visit to the market where Visutt explained all the ingredients that we would be using, including their medicinal value and what they would normally be used for. The markets themselves were interesting to experience. Visutt informed me that they are open every day of the week 365 days a year. Unlike in many Western countries the Thai's prefer to shop on an almost daily basis for ingredients prefering fresh food to frozen or stored food. The sheer amount and variety of vegetables, fruit and meat on offer certainly adds weight to this approach.

Aside from the fish dish I found cooking Thai food to be suprisingly simple. It's actually a very easy cruisine to cook and not as time consuming to cook as you would think. The friend rice and stir fry chicken with cashew nuts were extremely enjoyable dishes both to cook and to eat. By the end of the day I had eaten 5 main meals within a 6 hour period and felt like I would not need to eat for another week! I sincerely hope that I can replicate what I learnt when I return home!

Chiang Mai and its people
One of the great things about Chang Mai is that it really is a very pleasant and relaxing city to walk around at any time of the day or night. Based on a grid the city is easy to navigate and very relaxed with relatively few cars especially at night. Ever since I have arrived I have found the people to be very friendly and happy to talk. Unlike Bangkok the main central Old City has remained relatively unspoilt by modern development. Walking around the streets I can't help but be reminded of first visiting Pokhara in Nepal 8 years ago. Back alley streets are lined with small family run hostels which offer very friendly accomodation whilst tuk-tuk drivers don't hastle you in the same way they do in Bangkok.

The people in Chiang Mai are from a wide variety of backgrounds with relatively few Thai in ethnicity. Their is a large number of Mon and Karen hill-tribes people as well as a large community of Chinese from the south of China. Added together this forms a rather interesting and diverse community.

Wats at night
During the day the Wats which can be found throughout the old city are undoubtedly the main attraction to be found rising above the surrounding streets. In the evening they are even more beautiful as some open their doors to Thais and tourists to prayer or to simply enjoy the experience of visiting them. In the evening the Buddha's within many of the Wat's seem to glow lighting up the surrounding areas. Watching Thai's come and prayer in front of the Buddha's you get a real feel for what it feels like to be in Thailand. Religion is considered one of the three fundamental pillars of Thai society along with nation and monarchy and in the evening its clear that this is still the case. When Thai's sit in front of the Buddha's they do so on their knees with hands held together in an upright posture. They then proceed to prayer and bow down to the ground with their heads eventually touching the floor with their hands rested on each side of their head.

Sunday markets
Walking around the city as it got dark I could hear the sound of a large number of people a few streets down from my hostel. As I walked down I found myself in the middle of an immense open-air night market which had sprung up from no-where on streets which are normally pounding with tuk-tuks and taxi's. The market is one of the largest I have ever seen. Running along a central axis along the main Rachdamner Road from the Phae Gate towards Wat Phra the market has many side streets running parallel or shooting of it in different directions. Lining both sides of the streets sellers sold a wide range of goods, predominatly handicraft, souvenirs and cloths. I later found out that the market runs every Sunday from about 5pm - 10pm and is well attended by most people in Chiang Mai.

I would have expected most of the public to have been tourists but I found there to be relatively few. Instead the streets pounded with thousands of Thai's shopping and generally enjoying themselves. In the middle of the street scores of street buskers played music and entertained the audience. Many were skilled blind musicians and young children playing traditional Thai instruments with great skill and care.

Aside from the main stalls the streets were lined with massage parlours and food stalls selling traditional Thai fruit. For less than a pound you could enjoy a Thai massage for half an hour! I had learnt at the cooking course that there are a lot of unique and unusual Thai fruits some of which I had tried. They were all on offer at the market and many seemed to be enjoying them.

Aside from the stalls and buskers walking down the densely packed streets were lines of school kids in uniform promoting something. In the two hours of so I walked the market I was unable to figure out exactly what it was they were promoting as they were speaking Thai. Many of the children in their teens were dressed up, many of the boys in drag which made them very funny and amusing to watch.

Perhaps one of the oddest and most peculiar sights I saw was a show promoting a live play of Jospeh and the Technicolour Dreamcoat. About 15 dancers dressed in strange combination of Biblical and thai clothing danced in the street singing songs from the show! A very unusual sight to see on a Sunday afternoon!

Many of the main Wat's in the city had stalls and places to eat contained within them which really bought the Wat grounds to live as the sound of people and children playing echoed around them. It also provided a chance for many Thai people to visit the Wat's with many praying and relaxing in the main temples.

Perhaps the only thing which upset me was the presence of a large number of Christian missionaries giving out pamphlets in Thai, often outside the grounds of Wat's. Using comic book images and basic Thai they were preaching to people to try to convert them to Christianity. I have many Christian friends and have the utmost respect for the Christian Church but found their approach and attitude frankly annoying. The fact that they did this outside Wat's was also immensely disrespectful to both the Thai people and the established Buddhist Church in Thailand. I approached a couple of them to find out where they were from and from what I could tell they were all American missionaries, often in their teens or twenties, who had come to Thailand to 'convert the heathen'! I only hope they show more respect in other areas of their lives.

Nightlife in Chang Mai
Whilst visiting one of the Wat's during the market I bumped into an American who had been working in Brazil called Lewis. A very relaxed and interesting guy to speak to he told me he was a pshycologist and that he had been drawn to Asia and was seriously considering moving to Thailand. He also told me about a couple of Thai bars which he had visited which were not well frequented by falangs so it would be likely I would be only Westerner their.

Taking his directions and instructions onboard I headed for 'Warm Up & Monkey Business' which are in the north of the city some way out of the main Old City Walls. Walking around both bars was a very interesting and unusual experience. As expected I was the only foreigner there. Most the people seemed to be high-school and university students who seemed to know how to enjoy themselves. Drinking Heineken and Scotch Wisky they stood and listened to a rock band which was surprisingly good although I did not understand a word of what they said.

Considering that a lot of bars in Chiang Mai and Bangkok which tourists visit are pick-up bars and basically a front for brothels of sort this was an interesting difference. Getting away from the main tourist bars and 'traps' was good fun and well worth the effort.

Will in Chang Mai

2006-01-14T10:50:00.000Z

The Route to Chiang Mai
The city of Chiang Mai is located in the north of Thailand and is considered the second largest city. It's an ancient city with a long and prosperous history with many important monuments and Wat's. It's also strategically well placed near-by the mountains and main trekking routes of Thailand so attracts many backpackers and travellers who want to experience 'the real Thailand', whatever that is.

Normally the overnight train would have been the most convenient and easiest way to Chiang Mai as its a 12 hour or so journey. Unfortunately the train was fully booked so I opted for the cheaper bus alternative. Walking into one of the tourist operators in the heart of Khoa San Road I was informed by a middle aged Thai women smiling at me that 'this bus sir is very goood, VIP bus'. Now whenever a Thai lady smiles at me and promises me something I get worried as it often signals a very big fall. Wearily I asked 'does it have air-con and will i be able to sleep?'. 'Yes, yes of course sir' she responded. I would soon regret asking those two questions!

The bus was meant to be 'VIP' and 'air-con'. Now it was air-con I admit, but what it lacked was 'suspension', so I spent most that time in the air along with the other passengers and found sleeping to be all but impossible! The bus driver didn't speak a word of English and drove like a manic which made the bumps in the road all the more painful. Now in India or Nepal I would expect this and it wouldn't surprise me at all but on a main road artery I found the trip very painful indeed! I am seriously considering buying the strongest sleeping pills for the next trip to knock me out as well as a cushion!!!

Chiang Mai
Chang Mai is a very different city to Bangkok. The central Old City is surrounded by a wall, or at least parts of it that remain, and a canal which circles the city. Unusually new development has taken place outside the Old City which means its actually a very quiet and relaxing place to be.

Wat Chiang Man
Due to the cities long history and strong culture it has an immense number of Wat's which dates back many hundreds of years. One of the oldest and most prestigious Wat's is Wat Chiang Man which contains two ancient Buddha images in one of the Wat's. One is a tiny crystal Buddha which is nearly two thousand years old. The other is a stone Buddha and is from Ceylon or India and dates back over 2,500 years! It is supposed to have been made after the death of the Buddha and contains his relics. Both are considered extremely sacred and are paraded through the streets of the city and drenched in water during the Songkran Festival in April at the end of the dry season to bring rain.

The Wat is very quiet with monks in orange robes going about there business. There is something very special about Buddhist Wat's and temples. I find them very thoughful and peaceful places where you can reflect on whats happening in your life. The smaller Wat contains some of the most elaborate and beautifully drawn pictorial histories I have ever seen recounting the Buddha's experience as you walk around the Wat

Lying all around the Wat are dogs which laze around peacefully sleeping and enjoying the sunshine. Unlike dogs elsewhere these animals are well looked after by the monks and lead a pretty good quality of life compared to most other animals in the country.

Wat Phra Singh
Located on the other side of the city Wat Phra Singh (Temple of the Lion Buddha) is the cities largest and perhaps most important Wat. The architecture is especially gorgeous here with the Wat's rising high into the air majecitcally. The main Wat contains a huge Buddha statue with many smaller statues in front of it. On the side of the Wat's inside walls are historical photos which add depth in understanding the age and importance of the place.

Cooking In Chiang Mai
One of the things I have promised to do since arriving into Thailand is to take a Thai cooking course. So I have one for tomorrow and will be taught how to cook five different meals throughout the day!!!! Yeah it is shocking that I might actually learn how to cook at least!!!!

Bangkok Baby!

2006-01-12T10:51:00.000Z

Traffic in Bangkok
Bangkok has a reputation for suffering from traffic congestion due to the immense amount of cars clogging the roads every hour of the day. Within a few minutes of being in the city it was plainly obvious to see that the reputation is thoroughly deserved. Cars criss-cross the roads at all angles, accelerating and then breaking at break neck pace. Taking a taxi, especially a rick-shaw is an interesting and frankly scrary experience. The driver often shouts at the traffic in mumbled Thai, whilst also smilling at you as if to say 'everything will be ok'! Unfortunately the taxi drivers rarely speak English, or at least a word or two, so you have to sit in the back and hope for the best!

Perhaps the only thing worse than taking a taxi is trying to cross the roads on foot. Basically there is a lack of any traffic lights or noticeable way of telling when it is safe or not to cross. So invitabely i find myself running across the roads whenever I see a break in the traffic hoping that I won't be run-over by a bus or something like that!!!

Pedal Bike Ambulance
Whislt walking along the street I heard a siren sound familiar around the world as that of an ambulance coming from behind me. Turning round I half expeced to find a battered but moving ambulance. Instead I could see this tired and weiry man peddling on this bike with the siren behind him. Iching my eyes to make sure I wasn't imaging things I realised that yes this was an ambulance 'Bangkok style'! Now I had to admit I am puzzled as to how effective the man is partly as he has to peddle the bike in blazing sunlight and secondly as he appeared to be peddling the bike down the wrong side of the road with incoming traffic heading straight for him!

Tasaya
One of the reasons I decided to visit Thailand, aside from the superb scenaria and culture, was to see an old friend of mine called Tasaya who I met at the ICM In Romania. After a little difficulty in getting to meet her we eventually organised to meet at the main central station. Tasaya is one of the nicest and sweetest people I have ever met. She's very friendly, laid back and immensely sincere.

Siam
Tasaya knew that I wanted to do some shopping so she kindly volunteered to take me to Siam which is the main central shopping hub in Bangkok. Siam Square is the more laid back and less plush area with heaps of small shops rather than the huge shopping malls which sprawl around others areas of Sianm.

Underground
To get to Siam we used the new underground system which runs to Chulalonghorn University where Tasaya studies law. The underground system is ultra-new and was built as a way to try to deal with the problems of congestion in the city. In many ways it is an impressive system, extremely clean and very reliable. As a model for future transport in the city hopefully it will provide a way for the system to overcome undoubtably its biggest problem.

Chulalonghorn University & Student Dress!
Tasaya's university is a sprawling campus in the centre of the city. Regarded as a very traditional university it is the only Thai university ranked in the top 200 world universities. One of the interesting things about university students in Thailand is that all students have to go to university in formal dress. For the girls this means that they all wear identical white shirts and black skirts. Every university has slightly different patterns on their shirt designs which is how you can seperate the universities from one another. As I havn't worn formal dress to education since I left school I found walking around the university in my shorts and T-Shirt a rather odd experience!!!!

The Deputy Prime Minister
As we walked down the law campus corridors a smartly dressed man in matching gray shirt and trousers walked past us. Tasaya informed me that he was one of her tutors and he also happened to be the Deputy Prime Minister in the current government. At first I rubbed my ears to make sure I had her correctly and asked her if she had just said what I thought she said. Her response was 'yes of course he is, his a very nice man'! Needless to say this kind of thing would not happen in the UK. Besides anyway I don't think there is much that The Right Honourable Mr Prescott could teach me anyway, aside from maybe how to throw a punch!!!!

Overground Trains
Running through the centre of Siam is the overground train system which runs on huge cement towers above the bustling roads. These are a much earlier attempt by the Government to handle the problems of traffic congestion in the city. Unfortunately they are not as clean as the underground system and suffer from the heat and humidity as they are above ground.

Thai shopping arcades

China Town
After leaving Tasaya I headed for China Town. As many of you may already know visiting the China Town of the city I am in is an important ritual which I undertake whenever I arrive. China Town in Bangkok is without a doubt the most unusual one I have ever visited. It is a sprawling labarinth of roads and alleys. Every alleyway is lined with stalls selling everything from machinery through to Japanese dolls, textiles and all manner of things.

Every alleyway is packed with people shopping and bartering with the sellers. Moving down the alleyways is a difficult and time consuming experience. As I walked down behind people I began to feel like I was back on one of the Tubes in London Underground. Everyone is so tightly packed together that you wonder whether you are going to get to the end of the alleywey. It also doesn't help that one of the alleyways is called Theives Alley and you rather feel like someone is trying to pick-pocket you as you 'flow' down the alley!

Walking down China Town I couldn't help but wonder whether their was anyone back in their homes as half the population of the city seemed to be jam packed into the little dense streets. I have never seen so many people crammed into one place and wondered just how many people are employed in such a relatively small area. What also struck me was the sheer variety of goods on sale. Compared to other China Towns in other cities you could buy whatever you wanted here.

Will in Bangkok

2006-01-12T10:38:00.000Z

Arriving into Bangkok late on a Wednesday night is never a good idea. Partly because its too late to get accomodation on the spot and secondly trying to get anywhere is a bit of a nightmare.

As you walk out the airport Thai's rush to you to try to persuade you to go into the city by Taxi. At a cost of some 700 Bhat they inform you that 'this is very good value sir as it also includes the fare for the Toll Road'!!! Wow, how impressive that sounds! Then you look at your guidebook (mine is Footprint and NOT Lonely Planet) you find that you can either get slow normal bus for 15 Bhat or express Shuttle Bus for 100 Bhat!

I have been to Thailand before and previously stayed in Ko San Road as its the hub for tourists with lots of cheap accomodation. So I decided to head there even though I have never had any particular love for the place. It tends to be full of a lot of con-artists and backpackers who seem intent on trying to break the record for the number of Thai's they can have 'liasons' with. OK now that might seem a little harsh butbut i am afraid its what I have found.

Upon arriving I found that there was practically no-where to stay with most guesthouses saying FULL. Eventually I found myself a place which seems to be inhabited by mostly Japanese people with the weirdest sleeping habits!

Will leaving Australia

2006-01-10T10:07:00.000Z

I am finding each time I leave Australia that it is becomming increasingly harder for me to do. This time round I flew out of the Tin Shed again, the Old Domestic Airport, as the new one still wasn't open months after it was meant to be. Simone was catching another flight at the same time so said goobye at the entrance to the flight. I admit that I am not the most emotional of people and was raised not to cry or show emotion but I was very tearful when I said goodbye to her as we had been together on this occasion for six months now which was a long time for us. The relationship had been in three countries as well!!!

Although Australia has its drawbacks I think it has a superb quality of life unmatched by any other country I have been to. The cities are generally safe with superb beaches and relatively cheap housing. I have been blessed the last few months to have been able to hang out with friends and do very 'Australian things'. On Sunday I had a going away BBQ at Slobbich's place in Brighton which was immense fun as everyone turned up.

I think this visit has helped me to decide that eventually I want to immigrate there. I don't know when, hell with my debt it could be more than 10 years, but I know I want to live and bring children up in Australia as it offers the best opportunities for them.

Further troubles in Nepal

2006-01-02T15:48:00.000Z

It seems that the world is slowly descending into chaos. Or at least the parts of it which I seem to be about to travel to are. I have just finished reading a brief news report on the troubles in Nepal. It seems that the Maorists are about to call of their cease fire with the Government and Army due to the Army basically breaking their part of the deal by attacking them.

I remember when I first went to Nepal over 6 years ago. I found the people immensely friendly and welcoming and was shocked by the sheer beauty of the place. I had never seen such a place and consider it to be one of the most spiritual and in many ways special places in the world.

That is why the troubles really worry me as I can't stand to see a place I hold so dear to my heart descending into anarchy and chaos. The people don't deserve it and don't want it either. What annoys me perhaps equally as much is the fact that the troubles are so rarely reported in the West and even if they are its a few sentences here and there. The press and the public seem to be more interested in David Beckham or some stupid reality show.

me!

2005-12-25T09:58:00.000Z

me!
Originally uploaded by goingglobal.

Christmas Season

2005-12-24T14:05:00.000Z

I have a confession to make. This year for the first time in memory, perhaps ever, I can feel myself getting into the Christmas season. I find this a somewhat strange and a curious sensation as I am in a place which is totally alien to my normal perception of Christmas. Rather than waking up to a cold icy morning not wanting to crawl out of bed I find myself in 30+ temperatures about to eat fish for Christmas!

What I think has sealed this enjoyment for me is the simple fact that for the first time in my life I have actually enjoyed Christmas shopping. Rather than running around trying to buy Christmas presents for relatives whom tastes I barely know or have no idea about I find myself buying Christmas presents for friends and my girlfriend which is a all-together different sensation. I actually have a clue now about what they might just want and am not concerned that the top won't fit them or be the right colours!

Christmas Tree spree
Back home the tree would have been put in our front room a week or so ago without anyone paying a particularly large amount of attention to it. The kids would have dashed around it, Joe would have wondered what the hell had taken over half the room and my sister Danni would have been simply curious as to what all the fuss was about. I often wonder that myself actually!

Anyway, here Christmas tree shopping appears to be done somewhat differently. Its Christmas Eve and I was wondering exactly when the tree was going to go up if it was. I had been reassured these last few days that 'something will happen' but as Christmas drew closer my scepticism became deeper and I wondered where this tree would appear from.

This afternoon my girlfriend asked me if I could jump in the yute with her and pick up the tree. Suddenly I realised we were going to get a Christmas tree and the felt suddenly happy that this was actually going to happen! It wasn't until we had driven round the corner that she turned and said to me 'here's the gloves you'll need then'! As she passed the rugged gloves which were frankly falling apart I wondered what I was actually about to do. Pictures of me yanking a Christmas tree from the ground appeared in my head, as did the picture of my falling on my butt trying to be successful in the attempt!

I guess a little bit of background info is crucial at this point. At this precise moment in time I am living in the Barossa Valley about an hour away or so to the north of Adelaide. Now this IS the wine growing region of Australia, where most if not all the main wines exported worldwide come from. Whether its Jacobs Creek, Wolf Blass or St Hallets they all come from here. It is a truly gorgeous place to visit and an even nicer place to live.

So anyway as we drive round the corner we go up a dirt track of a very well known winery that many if not all people reading this will have heard of (here's a clue, its got a Creek in the title!) . Stopping at a rather large tree which resembles a Christmas Tree but just much larger than would ever fit in our living room my girlfriend hands me a saw and says 'come on thats cut a branch down as that'll be our tree'! Apparently in Australia, or at least the Barossa Valley they don't bother with growing the trees. No they just go and knick a large branch of the local international winery!!! After trying to figure out which one was better we eventually cut the thing and managed, somehow, to carry it into the yute.

As if so often the case with these things it was only when we got the tree back home and somehow into the living room that we realised that half out lights for the tree did not work!

Still have to confess it does sit rather nicely in the living room!

Perth bound

2005-12-15T03:33:00.001Z

When I originally booked my flight back in the UK I knew that I had a couple of free flights in Asutralia and decided that I may as well use them to go and see Perth as its the only capital I hadn't seen (if you excuse Hobart of course!). So I re-arranged my flight and left on Wednesday last week.

You know its weird that in the same country you can fly for over three hours to reach another major capital city. Aside from Hawaii Perth is called the 'lone Capital' as it is so far from every other main Australian city. In fact its so far away that it has its own time-zone and is 3 hours behind Sydney and Melbourne!

The Airport Con
You know I have noticed something interesting on my travels. At most airports I arrive into the authorities seem to make it more difficult and COSTLY for you to get to the city. Usually this takes the form of either not supplying a bus route or making it extremely hard to find the damn thing! I am afraid Perth is no exception to that rule. Walking out the domestic terminal I found a bunch of backpackers, all of whom where English (no surprise there!) who were equally as lost. Eventually they found the hostel notice board and poceeded to phone hostels as many offered to come and pick you up if you stayed with them. Unfortunately it turns out a) you have to commit yourself to stay somewhere you havn't seen and b) stay 3 nights which I wasn't sure I was doing! So with that option gone I proceeded to enquire about the 'Shuttle Bus'. Well it turns out the shuttle bus isn't much of a bus, its a large taxi and all for the 'tiny' fare of $11! Well I wasn't prepare to part with that much cash, hey I needed to be able to feed myself, so that option was gone!

So what was I left with? Well my 11 year old Lonely Planet travel book, which by the way still contained info on Ansett describing it has having the 'monopoly of WA flights' (who went out of business a few years back to those who don't know), said the 200 and 201 run to the city. So I proceeded to walk around asking various people where this bus went from. Eventually it dawned on me that the 200 and 201 no longer existed! Guess thats what happens when you use a book which is just a tiny bit out of date! Lesson to be learned from that experience I can tell you! Eventually I found the 37 ran from the airport and proceeded to pay the $3 fare to the city.

Central Perth
The CBD of Perth is, in many ways, similar to Adelaide. Whilst it has its fair share of skycrappers with very odd designs, it feels very small and down-to-earth. It really doesn't feel like a large city and like Adelaide everything shuts down at 5.30pm. Hostels and hotels are scattered around the city with the area of the North, called Northbridge, the home for most of the hostels.

Globe Backpackers
Eventually I stumbled into Globe Backpackers which cost me $21 a night. Now the interesting thing about backpackers in Australia is that they tend to be on the whole either 'a) English, b) German and Swiss or c) Asian and each have their own style. This hostel had heaps of style and character.

The Asian Guests
Everytime I went downstairs to the kitchen I would find the an Asian girl (Japanese I think) there with two Asian guys either cooking or chatting at the tables. Whatever the time of the day they would be there. However, in the evening they would move outside and during the three nights I was there they seemed to cut each others hair every night! It was like they were professional barbers!

The Brits
Well the Brits tended to be somewhat drunk! Most evenings they would congregate around the outside tables and proceed to sing loudly to typically British music. After a while I became somewhat dulled to the sound of British folk songs and realised quickly again how much I hate travelling around Australia as a backpacker!

The Germans
The Germans and the Swiss always tended to avoid the British so that when the English went out the Germans stayed in and then when the Englosh came back at midnight-ish the Germans would then head out. I personally got on with the German guests quite well and tended to avoid the Brits as they seemed to spend most their time drunk anyway!

Room Guests
I have to say despite what I said about the majority of the guests I had some rather interesting room mates. I was sleeping a dorm room of 6 and had four very different room-mates. In the corner I had Raji who was from the south of India and was looking for work. He seemed to be constantly sleepy and always wearing a suit which I didn't understand. On the other ground bunk I got to know a Canadian guy who was even balder than me and was quite a laugh to talk to. Underneath me I had one of the weirdist people I have ever met. This guy seemed to be living permanently in hostel and was an Australian I think. He was over 6 foot 5 and seemed to have the weirdest sleep patterns. He would fall into the room as pissed as a newt at 3 in the morning, and then get up and leave the room at 6am and he did this every morning! Whenever I saw him downstairs he would be drinking and seemed to be constantly in a state of alcohol induced consciousness. He was even balder than me and the Canadian and frankly scared me rather a lot as he seemed to resemble a bloody big wall!

As you can imagine my time in Perth was shaping up to be an interesting experience!

Troubles in Australia

2005-12-15T03:33:00.000Z

Rioting in Australia
To many people around the world Australia is seen as being some kind of paradise where everyone lives together in peace and harmony. Now I admit this sounds a bit fluffy, but the essence of the point is that people believe that Australia doesn't have the problems we have in the UK or America, i.e. poverty, race conflict, riots etc.

So what happened?
Well over the past few days events have unfolded in the suburbs of Australia which have shown that Australia has the same issues and problems we have. On Sunday thousands of angry predominantly white youths gathered in the southern Sydney suburbs of Cronulla, Maroubra and Brighton-Le-Sands against the Lebanese minorities who they claim have terrorised their beaches. Shouting 'we will take Aussie back' and 'we are defending our homelands' they turned on anyone who seemed to be of Muslim or Arabian looks beating up men and women.

The following night in response a line of about 30 cars full of Lebanese youths toured Cronulla and other suburbs smashing up cars, throwing bricks at windows and beating up people.

Police Crackdown
Now the police have cracked down in recent nights by putting men on the streets in the effected areas, stopping people driving into these neighbourhoods unless they are residents and disarming and arresting people they find carrying weapons. For the time being it appears to be working but the real test will come at the weekend.

Expecting Riots
The riots at the weekend were not out of the blue. Rather they were a response to an attack on two life guards on the beach the previous week and were highly planned and organised meetings through the use of text messaging. Reports indicate that these messages are being used again to organise a new congregation this weekend. An example of a text the associated press has been able to uncover is "We'll show them! It's on again (on) Sunday," .

Speaking to friends in Sydney people feel very on edge at the moment as they know that these troubles are far from over. Sydney is an extremely multi-cultural city and there is a very real fear that the violence could spread from the southern suburbs and engulf the entire city. The consequences if this happened would be devastating on the Australian psyche and on the long-term reputation of Australia internationally.

Government Response
The Government response has been mixed. The Federal government of John Howard has refused to even recognise these events as being racist, rather calling them 'un-Australian'. This is very much typical of John Howard who would rather turn a blind eye to the problem than try to tackle the very hard and real causes of the issue which are racism in Australian society and the failure of his Government to integrate and build bridges between the communities.

The State response has been very different under Premier Morris Iemma. He has recalled State Parliament and is introducing tough new powers for police to lock down suburbs, confiscate cars and shut down pubs if they deem it necessary. Furthermore, they will be able to remove the presumption of bail for those charged with rioting or affray. Now many of these powers are needed for the time being but the fact that they have been resorted to and the removal of bail is extremely sad and in many ways shocking. I wonder what the state government will do in the long term to try to solve the problem.

Troubling Times
What is really sad is that since the troubles started two incidents have taken place which could be linked to the troubles, the burning of a church and shooting at a Catholic Carol Service. Although no one was hurt in either incident it is scary that people could burn down a place of worship and even more frightening that they could shoot a gun at children taking part in a school nartivity play. These kind of incidents point towards a complete lack of regard for human life, what is right and wrong and in essence the breakdown of the rule of law in these individuals minds.

The question is what can be done to stop these troubles? By not integrating disadvantaged and often poor minority groups into Australian society the Government has radicalised them. If Australia does not take action to tackle these problems it is possible the troubles could spread to other cities and create similar problems as what happened in France.

The first few days in Adelaide

2005-12-02T11:03:00.000Z

Settling back into Adelaide is a rather interesting experience. Having lived in the city for nearly two years returning back is rather like going back to home, or at least a place you know well. As much as people from Adelaide like to abuse the place it is a rather fine place to visit if you have friends and an even better place to raise kids, not that I intend to do that anytime soon!

No sooner had I arrived back into Adelaide was I attending my first BBQ, actually held in my honour, at Jess’ house. I was rather amused, surprised and extremely happy to see some 20 or so people arrive but felt rather weird at having such an event take place in my honour. As I socialised the thought crossed my mind a few times as to whether they had all arrived for the right Will Page! However, with a few ‘steaks on the barbee’ and a rather large supply of beer I proceeded to drink with friends until the early hours of the morning.

Now there is one thing that I love about Australia perhaps above all else – beer! Australia produces a truly amazing variety of beers, one of which is produced in Adelaide called Coopers Pale Ale. Although I like Coopers a great deal my favourite is called Boags which hails from Tasmania’s shores. I mean no disrespect to Tasmania when I say that it’s fair to say it is the islands contribution to Australia!!!

This summer, winter for all you Europeans and Americans, the Australians are playing the West Indies in cricket. After a summer full of spectacular cricket back in England (where we bet the Australians for the first time in something like 19 years) I could not resist going to the Adelaide Oval to watch the Third Test between Australia and the West Indies. Australia had already won the three test series but this match people hoped would be competitive with the West Indies putting up something of a fight, or at least looking like they were actually making an effort.

Adelaide Oval is one of the prettiest and arguably best grounds in Australia. The stands are extremely close in proximity to the pitch providing superb views and glitter in the sunlight. To the far ends of the pitch lie the two hills where supporters congregate sitting on the grass or in deck chairs they might have brought along. The ground has the oldest score board in the country which dates back something like a hundred years which overlooks one of the hills. Australians congregate in this particular part of the hill, standing up and make so much noise and entertainment for themselves and all the other spectators one wonders whether they are even watching the cricket! But you can feel the atmosphere they create and the enjoyment they obviously feel at being there even though one of the things they tend to do is throw beer and an assortment of other drinks at any poor person who happens to pass by in front of them! As well as the 'throw beer game' they also shout songs, jump up and down and try to throw Mexican Waves which never seem to get more than 10 metres down the ground!

The West Indies won the toss and decided to bat first. We arrived after lunch to find that although the West Indies had collapsed to 102 for 4 they were putting up a rear-guard effort led by their former captain and master strokesman Brian Lara. To anyone who knows about cricket Brian Lara is a legend, holding the record for the highest one day scores, Test scores and second in the rankings to only Alan Border for the most Test runs scored. When Lara reached his 100 everyone in the ground stood up in appreciation of his effort clapping and applauding his cricketing. Watching Brian Lara play is something very special. He is completely unfazed by the fast bowlers hurtling the cricket ball at him in speeds of excess of 130 Km per hour which would make ordinary men like me run away rather fast! Even the master spin bowler Shaun Warne who who terrorised England during the summer barely troubled him. He plays beautiful strokes scoring boundaries without even looking like he is making an effort. As the runs pilled on the spectators realised that they were watching a true legend of the game in action and supported him in a way I doubt many other countries fans would do. As he continued to score runs Australians throughout the ground edged and cheered him on to his second century even though it meant that Australia would obviously have a challenge on then. In any other country I doubt the opposing sides supporters would cheer on a member of the other team and I have to say as an outsider I have a great deal of respect for this.

As Lara approached his 200 the day was running out and people wondered if he would have time to drive home the final shot before the close of play at 6.30pm. In the penultimate over Lara hit two fours and took his total to 201 off 261 balls. The crowd all stood and cheered for what must have been nearly five minutes in admiration of his effort and his truly world class skill. When I think of all the sporting occasions I have seen this is the most memorable as I was watching one of the greatest sportsman of his sport in practice just a few metres away.

A place called Barossa

2005-12-01T01:34:00.000Z

Adelaide really is an interesting place to arrange to visit. Pretty much everyone who does a brief, or not even that brief, visit to Australia usually ignores the place. Now to be truthful I can, at first, understand this. You see at first glance it doesn't have a lot to offer tourists. It doesn't have Sydney's harbour, Opera House, glamerous bridges, huge CBD or a range of other things for that matter.

Rather Adelaide is a city you have to discover. The attractions are not at all obvious to visitors at first glance and are rather below the surface. In fact you often need a car to be able to go to a lot of the places. So if you want beaches, there's Glenelg and Brighton, for wineries there is Barossa and Clare Valleys, parks well they are everywhere. It's one of the most green cities I have ever seen, especially from the air.

Green Adelaide
When the city was first founded the builders were revolutionary in their approach as they laid the centre of the city out in a grid-like pattern and then surrounded it with parks as well as five central squares in the city. Victoria Square in the centre is the largest Square with the Glenelg Tram line running from it to the beach.

Now the layout of the parks may not seem to be the most interesting or unusual pattern but it does mean that the city is extremely green and very liveable. When you are in Adelaide you never feel like you are far away from parks to relax in which makes it a really rather plesant place to visit.

Barossa Valley
About an hour or so north of the city lies the Barossa Valley which is the main wine producing area of the country. Driving through the valley you pass through many household names, most notably Orlando Wines and Jacobs Creek. Now after all these years of drinking Jacobs Creek in the UK I expected the place to be significant or at least worth a visit. Instead its a very small, almost dry, waterbed which is barely noticable from the road were it not for the big Jacobs Creek sign!

One of the best things one can do when you visit the area is to get together with a few mates and go on a wine tasting trip. Essentially five people jump in a car, with a designated non drinking driver, and tour the wineries with each person taking it in turn to buy a bottle of wine. So provided you are prepared to buy two bottles of wine in total you can sample 8 or so wineries which should leave you nicely merry or even more. I have vague memories of entering the Wolf Blass winery the last time I visited a few years back as my final port of call although I have no recollection of how I got home that day nor the rest of the day.

One thing that I quickly noticed about being in the countrywas is how different the countryside is to the city. Now I know that isn't exactly a profound comment, is somewhat stupid perhaps, but in Australia the different is profoundly clear. The further one gets from the urban areas the more yellow everything becomes and the more bloody flies you see. They are everywhere, the little pests seem to take immense satisfaction is annoying you tot he point where you start to wave your hands around in the air like a mad-man. The Barossa is actually quite a green colourful place because of the wineries but one never feels that the harsh yellow landscape is that far away.

Arriving into Adelaide

2005-11-22T14:46:00.000Z

Now I have always found one of the interesting things about flying is who you find yourself seated next to and whether or not you end up speaking to the person. On one hand you are tempted to talk to someone to pass the time as boredom sets in and the sick bag instructions suddenly become interesting. However, I have often found that talking to the person next to you can also led to you opening 'Pandora's box' when you realise that either a)the person is extremely boring and making that sick bag attractive or b) a complete pshyco!

So on this flight I found myself seated in the worst possible seat in the middle between two gentleman. Now I hate this particular seat as you don't have enough room to put your arms down and don't get the benefits of either the views (window seat) or the ailes (aile seat). In the end I often find myself feeling like piggy in the middle with no where to go!

The funniest thing is that it is almost, no not almost, always impossible to read the paper in this seat without annoying either person. So here I was on the plane trying, and failing, to read the latest edition of The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald. Arm up, nope, down, nope,' oh this is hopeless' I uttered to myself, raising the eyebrows of the two unfortunate men I was seated next to who had endured five minutes of a restless pomme struggling with a paper. In the end I gave up with that whole idea as it obviously wasn't going to entertain me for the two or so hours I still had of the flight. So I took a risk and started chatting to the person to my left hoping that he wouldn't end up being boring or a pshyco, either of which I didn't particularly fancy at this time.

Fortunately the man turned out to be a really rather interesting. Well dressed and in his late 50's or early 60's Larry was going over to Adelaide for just the day on business. He had retired a few years back but still did training events every now and again, I think more or less to keep himself active. He had led a fascinating life as a trainer and marketing manager for IBM Australia. What was amusing was that he shared many passions of my own, inparticularly photography, although he probably had more ability in his small finger than I had in my entire body.

The other gentleman who I spoke to briefly as we departed the flight had a strong Scottish accent and had clearly just returned from the UK this morning. So all in all I was rather fortunate, this time!

Adelaide

2005-11-22T07:57:00.000Z

I remember being asked at the beginning of the first year of my degree 'does anyone here fancy going on exchange to Australia or Canada for their second year?' . I was one of relatively few people who raised their hands whilst looking nervously around to count just how many others were my 'competition' as well. It amazed me how few people wanted to go. Here was a course of some 200 or so budding geographers who studied the world, or at least some parts of it, and there was barely a dozen people who were up for the challenge. Wondering whether their was some catch or maybe I had just imagined the whole thing, I went along to the meeting which was held in a little corner box office room to meet the others. The department (for those of you who don't know I was at the University of Leeds in England) had eight places at two Universities in Canada (Waterloo and McGill I think) and four places in Australia at the University of Adelaide. The Department had arranged for previous exchange students to come in and discuss their experiences to add some depth to it all and scare the pants out of us with their stories I think.

Now I don't remember a great deal about what the exchange students said about Canada aside from the fact that it got a wee bit cold and they had to use tunnels to go outside! Now don't get me wrong, I can handle cold, say 5 degrees or if I am feeling really bold 0 degrees but minus 25 is asking a lot of a little bald Englishman! I remember shruddering at this thought and waited eagerly to hear what the Australian exchange students had to say. Well they said that Adelaide was a quiet place but had lots of do, and I vaguely remember one of the boys saying the beers was really quiet good whichgot me more interested to apply as I do consider that to be a key criteria to any permanent move or at least semi-permanent. So despite the hesitations about the warmth, which I also can't handle well, I decided Australia was the place to be and Adelaide was the place inparticular where I would go for a year.

So I first arrived into Adelaide during the second year of my degree in the early hours of the morning accompanied by three English girls who were also on exchange with me. Now the first thing one realises when you fly into Adelaide is just home small the airport it. The locals like to call it either 'the shed' or when they are being really affectionate 'the cow-shed'. For a city of over a million people the tin plated roof, cracked walls and retro 50's architecture make it a pretty hidous airport to see. Fortunately the government of South Australia realised that this really wasn't doing Adelaide any good as people like me would get all confused and think we been conned into going to some third rate city rather than the 'capital of South Australia'. So they took it upon themselves to build a plush new airport which is finally becomming operational. Well actually thats no quite true. When I arrived into Adelaide this time round I found myself back in 'the shed' collecting my luggage in the same place where people would met me! This was because apparently the airport had found corrosion on the fuel takes which serve the domestic part of the new airport and had to postone the opening date. Now how this happened is beyond me as it seems like a rather simple thing to have taken into account but then again I guess I am not a airport builder, or any other form of builder for that matter, so who am I to know.

Now one of the interesting things about Adelaide is that there are one or two things which you will hear, no I mean be told repeatedly. Every stranger you met, whether they are young, old, male or female will take great pride in asking you 'you want to hear something about Adelaide' and then proceed to tell you 'its a free settlement which wasn't founded by convicts' before you get the chance to say yes or no! If I had a dollar for everytime I had been told that over the years I would surely be a millionaire, or at least have a few thousand dollars to spend. I have never quite understood exactly why that is so important but I guess it serpates them from the other capital cities which are nearly all bigger and more well known internationally, if you excuse poor old Hobart of course.

The other thing is that everyone takes great pride in telling you is that its a festival state, so much so that every carplate has 'South Australia - The Festival State' written on it. Over the two or so years that I lived in Adelaide I have grown to appreciate just exactly why its known as this. The city has a spectrum of festivals from the arts and music festivals of WOMADelaide and the Frinch Festival through to sports and motor racing activities. A few years back Adelaide used to host the Australian F1 grand-prix before those 'nasty Victorians stol itt from uss' I learnt soon after arriving. You see Melbourne in the State of Victoria basically out-bid Adelaide to host the event and Formula 1 seeing the apparent increase this would bring into their coffers decided that it was a rather good idea to move the event. Now I am sure to them it made perfect sense to them. Unfortunately for every tourist coming to South Australia since then has had to endure South Australians frustration at losing the event and how many are 'gonna get one back' on them, being the Victorians, for what they did! Take into account that this was ten years ago and you see how big a deal it meant to them. As to how they are 'gonna get one back' is also a bit of a mystery to me. I do occasionally have pictures in my head of a few thousand South Australians running over the border wearing the South Australian colours with black hoods and sabotaging some event the Victorians had coming up, perhaps a motor racing event.

Now Adelaide really is a fascinating city. Nationally, even internationally, its known as being two things - 'the City of churches' and 'the murder capital of Australia'. Now I admit, I have always tried to get my head round how it can have a reputation for being two things so different in nature, unless of course the murderors like to go to Church after committing their deeds. Fortunatelty over time I havn't seen any murders, or even heard of many for that matter, and have never seen that many churches to see why its called 'the city of churches'.

It is a very interesting city to visit and an even more interesting city to live in. When you tell other Australians that you are visiting Adelaide it tends to get a look on the the persons face of bewilderment followed within a few seconds by the words 'why on earth are you doing that?' I think the rest of Australia has this misconception about South Australia and Adelaide in particular. I think they see it as a sleepy town with noting to do which tends to be very very boring. Now I often wonder how many of these people have actually visited the place and given it half a chance before they proceded to brand it. Over the years I have learnt to agree with them that it doesn't have many or possibly even any clubs, but it makes up with that by an over-abundance of pubs and superb eating establishments. Chinatown in Adelaide is one of the largest Chinatowns I have visited with a truly superb range of food at very cheap prices.

The good food coupled together with the the last independent family owned brewery in Australia called Coopers really made Adelaide an great place for me to live. Coopers produces a great range of beers, especially its main beer known as Coopers Pale Ale. This is a most interesting beer as when you slowly turn it upside down you can see the sediment/sludge fall through the bottle. Yet over the years of drinking it I have never been able to figure out where this sludge goes as I never tasted it.

The interesting thing is that if you were to place Adelaide in the UK it would be the second, yes I did write that, second largest city in the country after only London. It has over one million people living in its boundaries but it really doesn't feel like that. Instead it feels like a village or town of a million people as its extremely laid back and quiet in many ways. The really unusual thing you learn when you move to Adelaide is that everyone really does seem to know everyone with perhaps only two or three degress of seperation needed to connect everyone in this city!

Adelaide also happens to be the liberal bastion of the country. Until just recently you could legally grow 3 plants of marijuina in your garden for your own 'consumption'. Furthermore, you could smoke and if you got caught you would merely get an on-the-spot fine as its decriminalised. I have heard that you know when you are entering South Australia by train as everyone on the train immediately starts smoking when they cross over the border! In other states, especially Queensland, if you got caught smoking you would be thrown in jail and the key thrown out the door. It's almost like South Australia does things its own way and is proud to continue to do so despite what everyone else thinks of it.

Things you notice

2005-11-22T06:48:00.000Z

Waking out of bed rather late in the day I crawled downstairs to beans on toast and to Simone's flatmate Isi who was feeling rather unwell. The household had been going down with something for a number of days and yet I had somehow remained well throughout this period as coughing and spluttering multiplied throughout the house.

Sydney is a fascinating city to visit. Like many major international cities such as London and New York, the city has a cosmopolitan and sophisticated atmosphere to it. Yet the city also manages to have extremely laid back and relaxing suburbs such as Manly and Bondi where shorts rule and anyone wearing a suit may as well be an alien! Having lived here now for nearly two weeks I would seriously consider settling down in Sydney for a while as it does seem to be an extremely livable city where people are not afraid to work hard and play even harder in their spare time. I guess its a liveable place like London is but unlike London one does not need to be rich or well off to be able to enjoy yourself as much.

Sydney as a city is centred on the harbour. The city sprawls around the harbour and simply would not exist if the harbour wasn't there. Hence river transport is absolutely essential and very much epitomises the ethos and nature of the city. By all accounts one of the best ferry rides you can take in the city is the ferry to Manly which is about a 15 minute trip costing about $12 for just the ride itself. Although the weather was looking somewhat cloudy and uncertain I decided to pay the $15 daytripper cost and jumped on the train in Newtown heading for the city.

Trains in the US, sorry I mean Sydney!!!
Now one thing interesting about trains in Sydney is that they are remarkably similar in design to the Amtrak trains in the US and some DB trains in Germany. Every carriage has two levels with seats that you can pull back according to the direction you are travelling in. Isn't it weird that something can be so similar in three countries which would otherwise be considered very different in every other way. I could not help but wonder who actually builds these trains and where do they come from as they must do a very good trade!

Manly Ferry
The main ferry terminal is located at Circular Quay, which is a stones throw away from the Opera House. The 8 or so docks provide regular ferry's to many points on the harbour and the surrounding areas. Many residents of the city use the river transport as a means to get to and from work on a daily basis and its really not hard to see why. Unlike roads the rivers do not suffer from congestion and seem to leave and arrive on time. Added together with the low amount of pollution the boats probably produce compared to cars and you have a very convincing argument for this form of public transport.

Boarding the ferry at bay 3 I headed across the harbour towards Manly. Sydney harbour is one of the most stunning natural habours in the world. The city sprawls around the natural conturs of the city, with the CBD strangly spreading across the iconic bridge onto the northside of the harbour. When I first arrived in the city many years ago I was fascinated by this fact as every CBD that I had studied was located in one central place. Here was a city which had a CBD seemingly on each side of the bridge!

Of course the Opera House stands out in the habour because of its dynamic design. Interestingly enough it was considered a bit of a failure at first, taking some 11 years or so to build, whilst also going far over budget. Now it is considered a modern wonder of the world for its unique design and setting. With Governments across the world taking less and less involvement in even important social development and infrastructure projects you cannot help but wonder whether a Government now-a-days would be prepared to build such a monumentous building.

Manly
Manly is located in the north of the city and is usually reached by the ferry which goes there directly from Circular Quay. The more cities I travel to the more I seem to find parallels with places back in the UK as if there is some grand design to things! Manly is yet another place which reminds me of Brighton!!! Seaquils fly around the harbour whilst fish and chip shops and cheap taggy souvenir shops seem most widespread. The boat comes into the south of Manly with the beach a short walk to the north through the main prominade. The beach was extremely busy with topless girls sunbathing next to kids building sand castles like I used to when I was a kid back home.

What made the setting different was the poles by the side of the beach. Curious as to what they are I asked a young life-guard who was setting about a metre away from me. 'Well the yellow and red flags mean you can swim inside them' he told me. 'Ok so what are the blue flags outside them?' I asked, 'oh they indicate to the surfers that they are not allowed in between'. Five minutes later a message went out on the tanner notifying people that blue-nosed jellyfish were in the sea and they should come closer to the beach.

Asking my new guide, I mean life guard, about this he told me as a matter of fact that 'they can leave very painful marks on you and can be deadly'! With this comment made I decided I wouldn't go to the bother of swimming! I guess in the UK nothing can eat or kill you if you go swimming!

Monday afternoon sights

2005-11-21T07:24:00.000Z

Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House is located near the Bridge overlooking the harbour. I think if you were to ask someone abroad, be it the US, Africa, Asia or Europe, what they knew about Australia I would be surprised if they didn't mention the Opera House. Like the Statue of Liberty in the US, the building is so closely associated with the country that they are almost inseperable. When you first see the building what strikes you is just how different it is to everything else you have ever seen. From any angle it is simply gorgeous especially when the contour lines glime in the sunlight. Added together with the Bridge it makes for a truly superb sight in what is undoubtably one of the most gorgeous cities to visit.

Government House
Behind the Opera House, well overlooking it actually, lies Government House which is where the Governor General of NSW works. Now Australia has a fascinating system of Government. As the country used to be six countries prior to the Federation of Commonwealth about 100 years back, they have a state and federal system much like the US. Unlike the US Australia has a relatively small population of only about 20 million people and yet retains this extremely large amount of beaurocracy. Every state has a House and a Senate as well as a Premier and a Governor General of the State. Now what a Governor General does, especially of the smaller states liek Tasmania is a bit of a mystery to me. Maybe their is lots of gardening or something to do! Actually thats not fair, but you get the point as it just seems to be an extremely excessive system to me!

Government House is a very quiet place with some outstanding parks lying around it. People were having picnics under the trees and couples laid on the floor embraced in each other in the rather nice weather. With the skyscrappers of the city in the background it was a rather nice setting I must confess.

Australian Pop Idol Final
Walking down from the Government House through the Park I noticed that a large area around the Opera House was shut off to the public. Barriers were up round both sides with big grumpy looking guards keeping people out. Curious as to what was going on I stepped a little closer to take a look as one would under such an occasion. As I did so I began to hear screams which got louder and louder. Wondering what was causing this I slowed down and tried to listen further. Now I remember a few years back watching a documentary on the Beatles. At the height of their fame when they still toured girls would scream at the top of their voices, crying and fainting occasionally as well. Now what makes girls do this is a bit of a mystery to me. I very rarely cry, and certainly never faint unless of course I'm ill or have eaten something that didn't quite agree with me! Well these girls sounded exactly the same and from the sounds of it sounded like there was a lot.

Getting as near as I could to the gates, looking down from the hill, I could see a long line with thousands of people, predomoinantly girls there. Deciding that this was far to interesting not to get a closer look I walked down the hill through the shops towards the entrance to the Opera House where the quere was. I think the average age of the audience can't have been over 15. Girls dressed in all manner of cloths held hand-held banners which must have taken many hours to make. Now I must admit my knowledge of things like this is, well limited to say the least. I knew there was some kind of final on for Australian Idol but never knew it would be at the Opera House. You see I have to admit those kind of reality shows really don't get me that interested. Now I don't know why as people regularly ask me. Maybe its the fact that I am a little bit old fashioned, or maybe that all the hype really doesn't interest me and gets me thinking there are better things to see and do on TV!!!! But as I stood there I was rather entiched by it. I mean here are thousands of girls screaming, no sorry shrekking at the tops of their voices, like life itself was at stake. I wondered what was inducing this hystery from the girls? The closer I got the more I could see this TV host with dark spiky hair talking to the camera's and occasionally to some girls at the front of the quere. As he stepped nearer the girls screamed which then made him stand back, understandably as the man probably feared for his life!

The main ceremony was going to be during the night inside the Opera House, but outside a stage had been erected and live music was going to be played for free to crowds. Thats one of the great things about the city, the amount of free shows which the city puts on for its people and those fortunate enough to visit. I remember when I was younger, 15 or 16 I think, seeing the highlights of Crowded House's 'Farewell to the World' show which they played in the same place. I remember at the time thinking it must have been amazing to have been there. The crowd numbered tens of thousands of people with the music echoing throughout the top of the city. Whenever I see the Opera House it always makes me think about that show and what it must have been like to have been there at the time.

Sydney Sightseeing

2005-11-19T07:59:00.000Z

Well today (Friday) I decided that I would move my increasingly fat butt into gear and go and do some sightseeing in a city I have already visited half a dozen times. So leaving the house at 10ish I proceeded to walk into the city. Its a fairly pleasant walk through Newtown, vaious parks and through the Uni of Sydney into the south of the city.

A bookshop was closing down and had an insane sale on its books. The owner, a very Okka Aussie block in his 40's with jet black hair, spent the whole time yelling out at the top of his voice 'nathin in the place is more than 5 bucks people', repeatedly to the point where I wanted to say 'yeah mate i know you have said so about ten times now!!!'

Leaving the booksop with a rather large blue bag full of books (I bought 7 books for AU$15)I proceeded to make my way down to The Rocks which is an area of the city near the Opera House. Now The Rocks is the oldest part of the city and definitely one of the most interesting places to visit. It was where the first settlers in Sydney made their homes and is hence one of the main historical sights of the country. In many ways it reminds me of Covent Garden in London as it has the same close knit streets, old architecture and friendly cosmopolitan nature to it. Walking around The Rocks is, in itself, an interesting experience with the Opera House on the other side of the Pier and the Bridge overlooking The Rocks wherever you stand. Pebbled streets and old shops provide a real feeling of history in what is actually a very modern city.

I had heard that the Contemporary Art Museum was an interesting place to visit and decided to take a closer look. Situated in a gorgeous old building which used to be used I think for processing goods being delivered to the Docks, it only had one floor open. The current exhibition was entitled Interesting Times and featured 17 'up and coming' Australian contemporary artists. Now I admit my knowledge of art, especially contemporary art is minute. In the past I have looked at a piece for 10, 15 hell even 20 minutes and been so puzzled and perplezzed by the piece as I so rarely actually understand what the hell the piece is trying to say!!!

Whilst many pieces in the musuem did make very little sense to me, or to some of the other people on my guide trip, one or two pieces did stand out.

Our guide was a small old granny like lady called Barbara who was very passionate about art, even though I often didn't have a clue what the hell she was talking about! But over the half our tour their were three or four pieces which stood out.

George Gittoes
First and formost I would definitely suggest you look into work by George Gittoes. He is a fascinating artist who draws pictures in scrapbooks. The kind of pictures we all used to draw as graffiti in our books at school. Her progresses from the drawings to make film and music on the topic covered so as to add depth and meaning to what he had drawn. He had a 90 minute documentary being played which was entitled 'Soundtrack to War' which was extremely thought-provoking. He was interviewing US army personal in service in Iraq about what they were listening to whilst they were stationed in Iraq. Although he was focusing on the music you couldn't help but get a sense of the situation in the country, the unease in the army and how the people on the ground feel. One girl with jet black hair and in her young 20's choose the Dixie Chicks as her favourite current music. When he enquired about why she had chosen them she simply responded 'I love the lyrics as they are trying to say something'. The Dixie Chicks are well known for their anti-war stance and this is reflected in their lyrics so it was interesting that she made that choice. Another scene which stood out was five guys rapping and making lyrics up together in their compound as they found it one of the only ways they could take their minds of all the destruction outside the seemingly peaceful compounds.

Robert Boynes
Another piece that stood out to me was by Robert Boynes and was entitled 'The Great Divide'. It was a piece painted in acryallic, set on a street with one half in white and the other half in a dark red. The picture had people, shadows to be more precise walking down the street. Looking at it you felt it was a very dark and erry picture. It felt almost like it was set at the height of the Cold War as you could imagine the light left hand side as the West and the right hand side the East. Looking at its date of creation I realised it was 1997!!! Interesting, especially as I was looking at it with a tall German guy who also felt the same feeling about the painting as me!

Shaun Kirby
A piece by Shaun Kirby also really resonated with me but for a different reason. It was a plain white table in the middle of the room. At first I stood looking at it thinking 'what the hell is artistic about this?'. Then on closer examination I saw this brown hairer finger coming from underneath one part of the table slightly onto the table. Looking down underneath the table I could see that the finger was actually the leg of a HUGE model spider!!! I think the piece was trying to say that even such a clean and apparently safe table can harbour dangerous creatures and the fact that in a country such as Australia creatures such as spiders are not necessarily always in the most obvious dirty places but could be underneath our own beds, tables or chairs!!! Or in other words 'what lurks beneath?!?'

The musueam also contained other works which frankly puzzled me. One piece was a collection of floor tiles which a painter had painted on and this was meant to reflect art! Other pieces included random pieces of woods thrown together on a wall, or on the floor which was also meant to be a form of art! I seriously need a re-education!!!!

The Sydney Library
After leaving the Contemporary Art Museam I walked across to the Sydney Central Library which is located in front of the Circular Quay railway station in one of the oldest buildings in the country. Although the Library is in a beautiful old building it has been completely redesigned inside with a phenonemal amount of light entering the building from all angles. When you enter there is a model of the city located on a glass panel underneath your feet so that you really feel that you are walking over the city!

Here lies the start of the invasion!
Next to the Library I almost missed a British flag flying next to the road. At first I wondered what a British flag was doing in the middle of the sidestreet. Upon closer inspection it states here lies the beginning of the invasion as this was where the first British flag was raised when the settlers arrived!

The Exhibitions in the State
Realising how late I was I proceded to walk back towards the cental station round the outskirts of the city. The State Library, which I had no intention of visiting, stood out as worth a closer inspection. Upon stepping into the library I noticed that it had three free exhibits which was just as well as I had no money! The exhibition which really stood out was by Australian photographer David Moores. He is renowed in Auatralia for his pictures over the last half century. Before his death in 2003 he selected 100 of his most favoured pictures which he felt epitomisd his work from over 200,000 negatives in his position. Everyone of his pictures are in black and white and range in subject matter from Sydney, Aboriginal children through to the coronation of the Queen and New York City.

Some of the pictures really captured the times in such a timeless fashion. One picture of aboriginal children playing in the outback of South Australia in the 1950's really stood out. Another picture of the rain soaked coronation ceremony of the Queen really showed what it meant at that time as so few people in the UK or the world at this time know what a coronation is like.

Sydney Protests

2005-11-16T06:31:00.000Z

One of the interesting things about travelling is the things you find out about that you really alt to know but for one reason or another have gone un-aware to you. At the moment one such thing which is taking place is the new Australian Terror Laws and Work Restrictions.

Esssentially what is happening is the Liberal, sorry I mean Conservative, Government of John Howard is introducing, or trying to introduce, legislation to weaken the power of the unions and limit their ability to defend their members interests. Consequentally today saw some of the largest marches in Australian history in all the capitaln cities and outlying regions.

Some 50,000 people marched in the centre of the city to voice their discontent with the proposals. Interestingly enough the state governments, who all happent to be Labour, oppose the work restriction legislation but seem rather powerless to do anything. Essentually, as the Liberals control the Senate and Hosue in the Federal Government they can steam roll whatever they want provided they don't have a discontent within their own party. Given the remote likelihood that this will happen I do not see much hope for the protestors.

Whilst taking a break for lunch I met a few of the protestors, predominately uni students, where I was eating and they invited me to sit with them. It was an interesting experience as they were a rather eclectic mixture of people. Megan, a rather opinionated red haired girl seemed determined to question everything about me, even my own political views and those of the party I tend to support in the UK. The others, Simon, Jess and Rebecca where a lot more laid back, all being students, and quite happy to exchange ideas and opinions. Given the fact that they need all the support they can get I was a little surprised about the attitude of some of the people. However, looking at them I realised they had been somewhat agitated and worked up for the days protest so it was understandable that they were in a rather confrontational mood.

Festival Blues

2005-11-14T04:36:00.000Z

One of the things that Sydney, and its people, pride itself on is it liveability. At this time of the year every weekend there are all manner of festivals and activities for people to get involved in as the weather hottens up and people lose interest in doing anything other than having fun.

This weekend, Sunday to be precise, I had the pleasure of experiencing two very different festivals - The Spanish Quarter Festival and the Newtown Festival.

Spanish Festival
Sydney is a real multicultural city with different ethic and cultural districts representing different ethnicities. The Spanish Quarter lays at the back, or bottom end, of the city immediately adjacent to the Chinese Quarter. Approaching the area the place was buzzing with people and the sounds of Latin American drums and Salsa music resonated throughout the streets nearby. As we approached you could see thousands of red, yellow and orange colour circular flags flying or to be more precise dangling from the lamp-posts throughout the streets. Stalls lined the alleyways and streets which had been closed selling all manner of Spanish food as well as pizzas and hot dogs which I found really peculiar! One could have been forgiven for believing you was in Spain as walking through the densely packed streets was liking stepping into the heart of Spain itself. The sound of the Spanish language echoed through the streets. Spanish and Latin Americans artists on two stages entertained the crowds. One stage had a two different drummers playing in sync with a dancer who wore tap shoes in what must have been a tiring performance. However, the syncronisation and expertise was phenonmenal. On the other stage a Spanish band played salsa and Spanish themed rock music.

Two Spanish looking ladies on stilts dressed in Spanish costumes with what looks a million different colours walked between the two stages rattling their hand instruments as they walked whilst stopping occasionally to pose with tourists and locals who wanted their photos. What also amused me was that people seemed to have bought their deck chairs with them and sat quit happy and entertained between both stages. Along the side of the streets closed if you looked up above the flying colours you could see people hanging out on the balconies and relaxing. It was in many ways the way one could imagine a festival being held in the small streets and closed streets of a typical Spanish city.

Newton Festival
The other festival which was being held was the Newton Festival which was near where I am staying in Newtown. Newtown is a fascinating place. Its an area which feels like it really belongs back in the 1960s. Signs dangle from every shops advertising everything from tattoes to cosmetic products to book stores. Its also a very very liberal place with a large gay community, especially lesbian. The festival reflected this outlook.

The festival was held down the back streets of the area in the grounds of a park and childrens play field the festival was U-Shape in design. You could have been forgiven for missing it had it not been the sheer number of people heading in the direction of the festival. At its peak their was thousands of people packed into a relatively small area with little room to move or think for that matter. it reminded me a great deal of the Glastonbury as it had a hugely diverse range of people attending. Families walked with their young kids, next to hippys, goths, punks, members of the gay community and a range of other people. What made me chuckle was this big buch man walking his pet ball-terrier which was dressed in the yellow and green colours of the Australian colours!!! Very amusing sight indeed!

A spectacular range of stalls lined the festival walk ways selling everything from soap and messages through to herbal remedies, hippy cloths and my favourite bird calling machines!!! I also found the Tibetan Australian Council stand next to the Republican stand highly amusing and asked them to provide me with some material on what they believed in. What interested me was that you would have expected the stand to be maned by mainly young people rather than elderly people who you would assume would be more opposite. On the contrary in this case as predominantely elederly grannies wearing 'Australia should be a republic' badges and hats stood proudly handing out information!

The festival had three stages playing different music styles. Ranging from rock and punk music through to prose and a childrens stage the choice was surprisingly wide ranging. Their was even a Writers Zoon and Eco Tent on sight!

Whitlam Dismissal Anniversary
Last Wednesday was also the 30th anniversary of the Whitlam government being dismissed by the Governor General, which is still something which upsets many Australians and causes heated debates between people. Essentially what happened, I think, is that the Government was unable to get any legislation through the Senate which was controlled by the opposition Liberal party. This prompted the Governor General, who is essentially the representative of the Queen and a kind of President to dismiss the Government and Whitlam. The debate which ranges to this day is whether the Governor General had the right or authority to take this action.

Sydney Dreaming

2005-11-13T08:18:00.001Z

One of the nicest things about Australia is the festivals. Whenever the summer comes Australians, especially those in Sydney, like to hold festivals and celebrations. So I spent the weekend indulging in a little bit of 'festival hoping!'

Yesterday we drove down to Glebe where a rather funky little market is held in the grounds of a private school every Saturday. Walking around the market is a very strang experience indeed. Stalls sell all manner of goods, ranging from messages through the latest in hippy cloths. In many ways it feels as if you have just stepped out of Australian society and entered into the hippy cult in India! Its such a liberal laid back place as people lie back on the floor and people casually look around the stalls which are huddled together in the grounds of the school.

Simone had arranged to have some friends round to cook and Indian so we were on a book sharing quest for the day trying to find a decent Indian cook-book which she could use even though I know she is one of the best cooks I have ever met.

Newtown is a very weird and funky area of the city. The streets are lined with all manner of stores selling a range of goods as well as some of the best Thai and Asian cooking in the city. For some unknown reason, maybe because of its liberal nature, the area also boosts a range of book shops. One particular shop deserves attention. It is run by a formally high ranking member of the Australian Communist party who is in his 60s. When we entered he was listening to the public service ABC radio whilst doing the crossword and I had a destinct picture of this guy raising the red flag in his back garden! Anyway the book store is cluttered full of books, some of which should be disposed of in the dustbin immediately. It is impossible to move around many of the aisles as the books are pilled up of the floor and any hope of finding something you are looking for is about as likely as winning the lottery! Its essentially an extremely messy Aladdins Cave of books!

I come from a land down under

2005-11-12T05:20:00.000Z

The flight was an interesting experience. For once I had the foresight to request an aisle seat expecting that I would need the toilet a few to many times on such a long trip. Anyway about half an hour into the flight the main flight attended, who was a well growned and polite middle aged gentleman, knealt down next to me - 'would you be prepared to do me a small favour and in return I shall see you alright' he uttered to me. Now at first I admit I was somewhat unsure what he was refering to with my rather wild imagination ranging from holding an object through to a lot me seddier, 'err yeah of course' i said, 'what do you want?' 'Well the gentleman behind you is sitting with his wife and his tv screen isn't working, now I would move them to first class but as the flight is available I don't have the facilities, so if you could swap seats with them as you have a spare seat and sit by the window I shall see you alright'. So I moved expecting 'see me alright' to mean nothing more than a few drinks and good service. The man who moved was in his late 40's maybe 50's and his wife was, well a tiny Asian lady in her early 20s!!!! Throughout the flight they barely said a word to each other and the thought did cross my mind on more than one occasion that she was his 'mail-order bride'!!!!

Anyway they did provide excellent service with many many cups of tea offered and accepted. At the end of the flight the steward comes over, dips down and gives me this bag uttering 'thanks'. Opening the bag I noticed it contained an expensive wash kit and a bottle of quality champagne which I would estimate that would retail at about AU$100. All this for moving seats!!! Hell I would do it again!!!

Landing in Sydney I stuttered through the airport to the insanely long quere which has people from all walks of life waiting patiently in a zig-zagged line for immigration. Fearing a repeat performance of the US and Canadian customs I half expected to find a dozen or so questions shot in my direction and a look of 'i don't believe you' written across the persons face who was interogating me!

What I got was rather typical of a country I have slowly grown to love. The customs lady, in her late 40's yet with big permed hair, said 'where ya staying' in a typical deep Aussie accent. I replied 'afraid don't know, visiting my mates here and in Adelaide, used to be at uni here and basically gonna catch up and drink some piss'. In Australia piss is slang for beer and is taken to mean that you know what you are referring to and not the stuff that comes out another direction! Her response was funny and typically laid back in Australian fashion- 'oh sounds good, well ya have a good time now then'!!! Cheers, thanks a lot dear, talk about different to the US and Canada!!!

But I did realise that the reason the quere was so insanely long was because four flights had arrived, 2 from the US, 1 from Taipai and one from the Phillippines!!! So heading to the customs I said to the man checking and deciding who got searched 'sorry mate got a sweat off the flight, you want it', he said 'you just of QF12 from LA?' 'Yeah why?' 'Just wondering if you have any chocolate, as I fancy that' I replied err no, so he let me through! Classic example of a man who enjoyed his job!

Now Sydney is an interesting city. Its a mixture of British and American urban designs. Streets are lined with bill boards hanging above people's heads whilst those who can drive V6's and V8s around the city.

Speed of Sound

2005-11-07T18:09:00.000Z

Woke up this morning feeling the 'Guinness effect' which basically involved me needing the bathroom for some time and a pot, preferably a LARGE pot of tea! So stumbling downstairs to the kitchen in the hostels I found some bagels and apple juice BUT the tea was cold and pretty much non-existent. Now this hostel is actually pretty good, hey they provide breakfast and even evening meals three times a week but believe me when they say FREE TEA AND COFFEE they certainly arn't telling the truth!

So I head to the kitchen to ask, no beg, the kitchen lady to help with this dire emergency. The girl is about 20, small with blond hair and very very French. She turns lifts her shoulders and says 'never mind'! This comment was made worse when she followed it up with 'why don't you get a cold cup of tea and heat it in the microwave'!!!! My friend, whose also English, summarised how this comment felt to me quite well - 'its like walking over your grave'! Damn right!!!

The interesting thing about this hostel is the people. For example their is a 60 year old bald guy who seems to not belong anywhere and when I got here he was demonstrating how to do pressups in the middle of the computer room! Very weird and strange indeed!

Californication

2005-11-07T09:26:00.000Z

Well today has turned out to be a most interesting day. Waking up at 9am with the sun firmly bedded behind clouds and the chance of seeing sun as likely as winning the lottery I decided to 'venture out' to try to find a few things to see and do.

Walking down the Fishermans Wharf and Pier 39 I realised exactly why I had tried so hard to afford going there. It was like a tourist trap with everyone trying to sell me their tour letting me know that it was indeed the best place to see the bay and the city! Signs are posted everywhere selling all manner of goods 'guaranteed to be the lowest prices' when you know that they have inflated the prices ten fold as they rub their hands together waiting for another gullable tourist to walk through the door!

Whilst taking photos at the end of the Pier 39 I was asked by these three middle aged American ladies to take their photos. They quickly recognised my accent and asking me where I was from proceeded to give me their business cards and tell me about the herbal products I can buy if I become a reseller for them in the UK! Have to admit I felt very weird as they were clearly on holiday but had some inpulse to sell themselves and their company to every stranger they met!

Anyway I decided to head for the maritime museam which was cool ( and free!) and then onto the tram.The trams here are an interesting invention. They criss cross a few of the main streets and bustle with people holding onto the sidebars for dear life. To get on and off them you basically step of, preferably when the tram is going slow.

Unfortunately the weather was pretty terrible which meant the Golden Gate bridge was not worth seeing as I wouldn't be able to see a thing. So I jumped onboard a Metro train and headed for Castro which is the Gay Capital of the city and pretty much the country. Stepping of the metro signs on the walls advertise the latest HIV treatments and all manner of drugs which are, I guess, important for gay men. Castro has a reputation for being an extremely interesting place to walk around and this isn't far from the truth. For blocks in all directions rainbow flags fly proudly from every lamppost. Gay San Franciscans are proud of the fact that the flag was created here in San Francisco.

Every shop in the area also boosts rainbow flags and even the camera shop is drapped in raibow flags with pictures of gay men kissing on film a way they use to sell their products. But walking around the suburb you get a fell for the liberal nature of the city and can see why its so famous.

I decided that I would visit Ocean View on the beach front. Taking the Metro it made its way through the suburbs until eventually it reached the beach front. I had made a very bad decision in choosing to come and visit. As the weather was bad i couldn't even see the sea and it was raining! Strangely enough the weather in San Francisco is meant to be like the guy with four seasons in one day!

Ducking into a rather cool and laid back cafe by the seaside I sat down and started chatting to two pretty funky older people. Judith and Steve are probably both in their 50s and were relaxing over the weekend. They both seemed to be the kind of older relatives you always wish you had, the kind you could relax and chat to for hours about amusing and also serioues issues. Steve used to be a musician and spoke about the musical legacy of the city and the state of California. What was fascinating was that they both discussed the liberal nature of the city delving into the politics, history and pyschy of the people. Steve explained beautifully that the north is a liberal stronghold whilst the south is very Republican in nature. Turns out Bush has never visited San Francisco, hardly surprising as he'd get pelted with all manner of things!

There is a referendum on Tuesday which the Governor has decided to use to circumnavigate the Democrate held legislature. I thought they would be able to explain it in more detail. Everywhere you go at the moment in city you see these posters saying "Vote No on A' and so forth. Turns out there are about 10 different things people have to either vote Yes or No on.

Returning back to the hostel I headed out for a bite to eat with Rachel who is an English girl and Dave an American i was sharing a room with. A few blocks along with noticed the police had blocked of the road and about a dozen police bikes where parked up with poliuceman everywhere. My first reaction was to think something bad had happend, maybe a murder, but then the suited men with earplugs nearby gave it away. Turns out that the royals are in town!!!! So here I am in San Francisco and what did I do? Waited for half an hour in the rain freezing my arse of to see Prince Charles and Camilla!!!! How surreal, i went half way around the world to see my royal family!

Lying in the crowd waiting for our royals to come out was an amusing experience. The crowd was about ten people deep with two Irish fellows in a particularly rowdy mood. This tiny little Asian American pushed her way through the crowd saying 'are they here are they here' like she had just won the lottery! Wearing a rain make coat she was clearly an ardent royalist for one reason or another even though she was American!

The crowd was a mixture of Americans and tourits. I think the Americans were mostly curious about what was going on and so to probably where the tourists! We stodd in the crowd taking the piss out of each other, doing amusing accents and basically making a lot of noise!

I have a theory. I think we should sell the royal family to the Americans as they clearly love them more than we do and for a few hundred million we could even throw in a few castles! Now that would be a good business venture if you ask me.

The two Irishman were in their 40s, with dark hair and very broad southern Irish accents. After we saw the Prince for all of 20 seconds we ran into the nearest Irish pub (O'Neils) and proceeded to get drinking. In the period of maybe 2 hours I drank 7 pints of Guinniss! I even managed to drink Kevin under the table as he finished the night by running out the pub!!!

Royals and the Irish guys

The sights and sounds of San Francisco

2005-11-06T07:18:00.000Z

Had a lot planned for today but as is so normally the case I had profound problems, no issues, with getting my arse out of bed! So by the time I had eaten the complimentary bagels and moaned about the fact that there wasn't any free tea when there was meant to be I hadn't left the hostel until past 10am.

Purchasing a three day bus ticket I proceeded to try to find my way to Haight/Astbury which is meant to be a pretty funky 70s style street area with some cool places to hang out. However, one thing I am fast learning about San Francisco is that the buses are a complete mystery and really difficult to grasp as I havn't a clue what goes where! Eventually jumped on a 71 and headed to the area. Walking down the streets is like walking through Camden in London. People cruise down the sidewalks dressed in some elaborate cloths with hair cuts right out of the 70s. The area also boosts an over-abundence of strange weird people with my favourite character being this middle aged guy dressed in a rain-mak coat who was talking to himself whilst swinging a 2 litre container which had a few drops of orange juice like it was his price possession!

I had been told that Twin Peaks had the best fews of the city and since I was in 'the area' I thought I may as well give it a try. It became quickly obvious to me that this wasn't a great idea as I sweated my bullocks off walking up the beginning of the hill in the sun knowing that there was still an hour or so to go! So I managed to somehow find myself on the 37 bus which was going to take me near to the top. Onboard I joined a number of tourists and most interestingly a couple of Californians who were being tourists in San Francisco. Both girls were Asian in origin and had just started studying at San Francisco University. Being new to the city they were doing the tourist thing which involved trekking all over the city.

Coming back from the Twin Peaks I suffered for over an hour in traffic that would give London congestion a run for the money in terms of waits. Eventually, with the sun setting, I managed to jump onboard the tram which San Francisco is famous for. Holding on for dear life hanging from the side of the tram it navigated the streets of the city up and down numerous hills. At this point I must stress i regretted my earlier decission in wearing shorts. Hey I had spent weeks in cold and often wet miserable cities so relished in the sun. However, with the sun setting and the wind blowing through my legs and into certain 'other places' I started to wish I had worn those jeans after all!

At night San Francisco really comes alive. Like New York the city lights up with signs glowing advertising everything from strip clubs through to the latest chewing gum. The area of town I am staying in turns out to be one of the most 'interesting' areas of the city. Just past Chinatown the area is home, without a doubt, to the main bulk of the cities strip clubs. Everyone has a rep outside trying to tout for business which inevitably means that I get 100s of invitations to come in and 'sample' the local 'delights'. I don't know why I got so much attention, like I was some walking sign post with the words 'desperate for a strip club' written across my foreward! Last night I had popped out to buy some tea a few doors down (as the bloody tea machine in the hostel was broken!) and found that this area is heavily patrolled by the police. Let me put it this way the road next to the hostel has six police cars and about a dozen policeman gathered on the corner like they were waiting for trouble to occur. I always seem to find the 'interesting' places to stay!

Unsurprisingly I declined the offers of the strip joints and headed for my bed as tomorrow is going to be a long day.

The art of being a salesman!

2005-11-05T06:28:00.000Z

I had a rather interesting encounter today whilst shopping for a digital camera. Walking into a shop I proceeded to enquire about a Pentax. The salesman, who looked Turkish or Middle Eastern in origin, upon seeing my old Pentax SLR took it upon himself to try to convince me that it was 'in my best interests sir' to actually want to purchase a lens for that camera.

So he grabs a Sigma lens 70-300mm and proceeds to try to sell it to me 'for the bargain price of $350'. You see the thing is if I wanted it then perhaps, just maybe, I might have bought it then. But I really didn't want it nor did i trust this man who looked like he hadn't washed for a few days, smelt like yesterdays socks and generally looked really dodgy. At he tried to sell it to me his colleagues also took it upon themselves to try to add their weight into the sales pitch telling me how I had 'a good deal'.

So the price tag continued to drop. Starting off at the bargain price of $350 it dropped to $300, then $250 as they tried repeatedly to persuade me I really needed this item. The funniest thing was watching them. You see I have been a salesman myself, and having travelled around the Middle East and India I know the tactics they employ well. So when one person said 'ok sir no more I will give it to you, and I mean give it to you, for $200' telling his "boss" 'its ok I will write this one off price up' I nearly cracked up laughing but managed to contain myself somehow. So the price continued to drop until it hit $150 including taxes! At this point I managed to force myself a channel out of the shop as the Middle Eastern looking salesman proceeded to multiply in number and I feared my very sanity was at stack! Isn't it weird that whereever you go in the world same saleman techniques seem to always be employed!

California Dreamin'

2005-11-05T05:50:00.000Z

Had an interesting journey to San Francisco. Poor Kev drove me in the early hours of the morning to the airport even though he had previously worked 12 hours straight the day before.

Checking in at Toronto Airport is an interesting experience. When you check in you had to carry your main luggage through customs yourself and then through additional security clearance in what must be one ofthe most regulated and controlled check in locations in the world. At every corner airport personal seem to be watching you as if the next threat to the very security of the US is expected to come from those 'pesky' Canadians!

On board the flight I found myself seated next to a rather large but friendly gentleman who reminded me of one of the funniest characters out of a comedy. If any of you have seen the film Planes, Trains and Automobiles this man was very much in the character of John Candy's character, although not as large! He was a ceramic tiles salesman (ok so not wash hooks but close!) and seemed to be doing a lot of travel with his job but was heading home for his wifes 50th birthday the next day.

Boarding the Chicago flight for San Francisco I found myself seated next to another interesting character. This guy was a computer games salesman/programmer and seemed to be doing my travel in one month than i have done in my entire life! What was great was he gave me a 'tour' of the main sights as we flew over them naming lakes, rivers, mountains and even buildings! It turns out that Silicon Valley is near San Francisco as well as Harvard both of which he pointed out!

Arriving into San Francisco I suddenly found something very different to all my previous destinations these last few weeks - IT WAS HOT! Yes I quickly proceeded to take out my flip-flops which had been straddled to my bag the last month or so and took off the lumbersom boots I have been trekking in.

San Francisco is a very friendly city with everyone willing to help out if your look lost. For once I had booked accomadation in advance so actually had an idea where to head to! However, in typical Will-like fashion I had lost the address so knew the name of the hotel but didn't know precisely where it was! So I wandered around the airport trying to ascertain where my hostel might be as I knew it was near Little Italy and Chinatown.

Before making my way downtown I knew I needed to find my way onto the BART system. Now I had images of turning up and finding pictures of America's first family (the Simpsons) on the train with Bart maybe saying 'do the Bart thing!' Instead I had a rather new sleek train arrive that proudly boosted itself as being the 'best MTS in the country'!

Arriving into metro station and jumping of BART (hehe) I found myself in the heart of the city. Although San Francisco is a liberal capital of the West Coast it still has a rather large business district which rises into the air overlooking the low rises ethnically diverse districts nearby.

So here I was, 2pm in the afternoon dragging myself in somewhat hot temperatures through Chinatown looking for a hostel I had actually bothered to book. Aside from the two bagels I had eaten in Toronto before my morning departure I hadn't eaten as was extremely tempted to stop for food. However, i needed to find the place to shower and drop of the bag so as I walked past the strip clubs and multicultural areas of the city I knew I must be near to my place as I tend to find myself, i sweat unintentially, being drawn to these lovely parts of town!

I think the classic sign is that Larry Fynt's strip joint, the one he is famous for, is directly opposite my hostel! As soon as you walk out the door you are confronted by this and signs such as 'guaranteed the NASTIEST videos and DVD's'!!!

The Green Tortoise Hotel was actually a rather good find. Its very welcoming and great value for money at $22 a night including breakfast and for the one night even a free Shephers Pie in the evening as well as the complimentary tea and coffee which is simply a must in my accomodation details!

I was informed that the walk along Columbus Avenue was a quint little walk so as soon as the towel had performed it duties I set off down the road in my sandles which I had been waiting to wear for weeks. Columbus Avenue cuts across many avenues and takes in some nice suburbs and interesting sights. As I walked down the long street I found myself progressing from ChinaTown into Little Italy which was interesting as one minute I was surrounded by Asians and the next by waist-strapped Italian looking boys with their girlfriends!

Eventually Columbus Avenue meets Fishermans Wharf which is historically one of the oldest parts of the city and used to serve the surrounding areas before the bridges where built. Walking around the area I couldn't help but feel like I was in Brighton or Blackpool! It has the feel of English towns except ten degrees hotter with a lot less fish and chips shops!

San Francisco I perhaps most famous for two very special things - the sheer number of hills and the cable cars that move up and down them. I can assure you that this reputation is wholeheartedly deserved! Unlike in New York walking in San Francisco over long distances is really not for the faint hearted. The hills just continue to climb and climb and the feeling of 'Oh God when do i get to the top' is made worse when one realises your destination is actually right at the top!

Relaxing in Toronto

2005-11-02T19:12:00.000Z

Toronto is the largest city in Canada, with the longest steet in the world (Young Street) and one of the highest concentrations of shops in the world as well. You really notice this when shopping!

Whats weird is the urban street design. Here the camera and cloths shops mingle easily with the porn supplies and strip clubs. People don't seem to have a problem purchasing their GAP supplies next door to the joint where men are going in to watch 'dozens of women, 100% naked guaranteed'!!! How very very weird indeed!

But still walking down this long long street one does see life in a modern Canadian city. Beggers are surprisingly common and look the same as back home albeit with Canadian accents and those Monty like red jumpers that we all associated with Canada on instead!

Have to admit since the weekend I have done remarkably little here in this city aside from relaxing and watching TV. On Monday night I cooked, no attempted to cook, spagetti bolongaise for Kev and his uncle. We sat around the table and chatted for some time about business, Canada and a range of odds and ends as Jerry (Kev's uncle) had his mate Mark over.

Afterwards headed out to the Halloween parade down the main gay street in th city. It was, I admit, a surreal experience. Here in Canada they like to celebrate, especially Halloween. Back home our idea of celebrating Halloween is putting a horror movie on TV and the occasional nutcase running down the street in some crazy outfit he had made himself, rather poorly I must add. Whereas here they go the full hog! Pretty much everyone out over the weekend was dressed up for the occasion.

What was weird was the manner of the costumes on at the gay street. You had the traditional horror costumes but then you had sailors, storm troopers, bubble people and of course drag queens, and lots of them I must add! It was surreal, like it was an excuse for the gay community to dress up AGAIN for the upteenth time this year! But the spirit of the occasion was great, with everyone having fun, the streets rammed full of people and everyone being very friendly. Even the police joined in and fun, and no they wern't people dressed up as policeman!!!

Americn Customs Border Patrol - otherwise known as ARSEHOLES!

2005-10-30T16:10:00.000Z

Yesterday was interesting as we decided to take a day trip to the US to a city of Buffalo which we heard was the 2nd biggest city in New York State. So we drove the 2 hours down to the border expecting to get across relatively quickly. Anyway as we approached the booth both of us felt a strange feeling of impending doom. I wish we had been wrong!

Now I had found the previous night that Canadian immigration was very anal. Now I think they have just been overtaken by the US CBP guards! The border patrol guard had a look on his face of 'I wanna pick a fight with some dude' and unfortunately we were those dudes! Here are a snipit of some of the things he said -

'How long do you intend to stay' - Just one day
'Why for just on day' - Because its a day visit
'Why have you come here then?' - to go shopping in Buffalo
'Where" - errr Gap
"Where is that exactly in Buffalo' - we don't know
'Why' - because we havn't been there yet!
'I will ask you again where are you going' - Buffalo
'I will ask you again just one more time where are you going' - BUFFALO!
'So you are telling me you have come down to the US just for a day visit' - YES

At this point he told us to go to Bay One to be questioned further and finished on my funniest note -

'have a nice day and enjoy ya visit to the US' - Yeah right my arse like you meant that after having interrogated and spoken to us like shit for the last five minutes!

So we went into this very small room full of people and waited for nearly two hours. The funniest thing was we were pretty much the only white dudes in the entire room of about 20 people! There was Pakistanis, Bangladeshi's, Indians, Mexicans, you get the jest and here are two white boys! We felt like we were trying to illegally escape into the US like in the movies!

It turns out that they really really did not believe that we were going shopping in Buffalo. But after searching the car, interrogating Kev further, phoning his uncle up and contemplating speaking to Kev's girlfriend they decided to let us go!

Now as we approached Buffalo I realised quickly why they didn't believe us. For a city of 330,000 its DEAD! Seriously it looks like a city in serious decline with empty buildings everywhere in the main CBD standing next to rising skyscrappers. Its really weird like it was a ghost town in the old movies but with slightly higher buildings!

We realised quickly that there wasn't a lot of shopping to be done in Buffalo so we headed to Niagra Falls where they are shopping malls.

It t

Welcome to the world of Canadian immigration - Can we please ask a million questions!

2005-10-30T16:00:00.000Z

Leaving JFK on Friday night I arrived late into Toronto Pearson airport. The last time I had come to Canada I remembered somewhat vividly being pretty muh strip searched and interrogated! OK now I appreciate at that time I was arriving into Ottawa which pretty much no one goes to but still I remember the 'warm welcome' well!

Anyway this time around it wasn't a strip search, rather it was the Spanish inquistion! Here are a few of the questions Will was asked on arrival -

'Who are you?' (hello try reading my passport!)
'Who have you come to see? What is his name? Where does he live? Who long has he been in the country? Why are you coming just to see him? What is his job?' (as you can imagine I didn't/couldn't answer all these questions!)
'Why are you travelling around the world' (for the fun of it I said!'

And my all time favourite -
'What do you do back home?' The girl, I will give her her due, knew what a solicitor did and said 'so I don't need to ask if you have a criminal record then!' No kidding Sherlock!

So walking out onto the arrivals area I was met by none other than Mr Smith, an old fiend of mine from Australia. I haven't seen Kev in two years so one of the first things we decided to do was go out for a beer to meet his mates.

Now this time of the year is Halloween time. Now back home (and in Oz) Halloween isn't really much of an occasion but here in the US and Canada its insane. EVERYONE goes out and goes well over the top of costumes and stuff. So in the pub we were some of the only people not dressed up which felt very weird!

An Englishman in New York

2005-10-27T22:25:00.000+01:00

Woke up today at an insane hour (think it was 7am!) to rush to the toilet. Anyway met two Canadian friends who fancied walking to Central Park which is heaps a blocks up. So we decided that we may as well go together and set off after our lush free breakfast of toast!

Now the amazing and at first I must admit confusing thing about New York is the street patterns. Everything and I mean everything is in a gride. So running along the south-north axis are the Avenues (i.e. First Avenue, Second Avenue etc) and then criss crossing them are the Streets (i.e. 133rd Street). Now at first this seems weird as everything looks the bloody same! But after a while it does make navigating the city pretty easy.

So we walked up First Avenue as we were staying on 1st & 12 Street and without even meaning to we found ourselves at a rather well known N.Y landmark - The U.N. Building! So we went inside and looked after the place which was good fun. The building is larger than I pictured it and it wasn't hard imagining world leaders gathering here.

Afterwards we headed across the road to this dark huge black tower that was built by Trump in the 80s. Inside we asked the manager a few questions. It turns out that the apartments cost from only $1,000,000 to $25,000,000 to buy! Thats all!!! What really surprised me was the monthly maintenance fee of $25,000! Thats an insane cost to pay every month!

We continued onto CentraL Park and found ourselves rather amused. At the entrance to the park we saw this BUM, and I mean BUM walking around leaning over drinking some spirits with his bum sticking out! As we walked past we noticed these two coppers laughing at him from a distance. As I got nearer I heard them say 'man his bum is sticking out, we better go put his bum in jail!!!' Classic classic comment! So they walked towards the guy and as we laughed they turned round and said 'hey you know his secretly undercover!!!' Such a funny scene, wish I could have taken some photos!

Central Park is huge, and I mean seriously BIG. Their was some gorgeous places in the park, whether it was the lake where the couples where getting married or the central reservoir which is famous from many films. I walked down the famous sidewalk where the Partner in The Devils Advocate got attacked as well as the ghost scene from Ghostbusters 1 and 2!

The difference in look and general feeling of the neighbourhoods is very different on the other side of the park. The suburb of Harlem is located on the north east of the park and didn't look like the kind of place I wanted to go take a walk! So we walked to where Colombia University is and viewed the NY Cathedral which is apparently the largest in the world and still being built.

Afterwards we jumped on the subway and headed back down to Time Square. The food in New York is insanely gorgeous and cheap. The best food of all is along the sidewalks where you can buy a chicken sandwich for $4 which is about 2 pounds! Every corner you turn in this city you find food outlets and its no surprise they have a reputation for eating a lot. But the New Yorkers are so friendly and helpful you have got to love this city. Wouldn't mind working here sometime in the future actually.

Willich out!

It takes a Willich

2005-10-26T22:18:00.000+01:00

Waking up this morning in my palace, sorry I mean on my mattress, I sat in the dorm listening to the conversations in the room which I believe where in French, German and Spanish!

I had a lot of ground to cover today and started it of by walking down Broadway towards the south of Manhattan Island. The street was buzzing with people going about there business. Stalls along the sidewalk sold snacks and souvenirs to the crowds of people as they passed. Eventually I found my way to Ground Zero and stood looking at the site. It's hard to believe that here at this place two buildings once towered over New York, and indeed the world. I think its fair to say that everyone remembers where they were when the planes hit the buildings. I certainly remember sitting at home with my mum watching that plane fly into the South Tower live on TV. So here I was looking into this hole which is all that is left and it felt strangly weird. They have put up some signs and information boards which do a remarkable job at conveying the history of the place, the events that took place on that fateful day and the effects it has had on the American and indeed world psychy. As I stood there with hundreds of other people whilst life went on around me I wondered on how people must have felt that day and what it must have been like. All in all a very weird sensation.

Afterwards I continued walking towards the south of the island until I hit Stratten Ferry. I had been told this was a great way to get some photos of the Statue of Liberty without having to need to pay to go to the Island. Boarding the boat I went across to the Stratten Island on a packed ferry barely unable to move. It wasn't until the return trip that I was able to see the Statue properly and the City of New York in all its glory. Unfortunately the City was hit by the left-overs of Hurricane Wilma so the winds were enough to make my arse freeze cold and my fingers to turn blue!

Arriving back into the heart of Manhattan I decided to head towards the financial capital of the city and some would say the world - Wall Street. Now I always perceieved Wall Street as being an extremely long street South to North. Well in fact it is neither, it doesn't run a long way and goes east to west.

Infront of Wall Street is the New York Stock Exchange and its quite a building. Dressed in a HUGE flag of the US the building stands out and is really something to behold. Near to it on Wall Street is National Memorial which was where the first President of the United States was sworn in on the steps! Wall Street is a great street to sit and watch these busy men run around in suits much like in the business district of London.

Afterwards I decided I had down way to much walking for one day so paid the $2 fee and jumped on the subway to head for Time Square. Now I have to say the place is HUGE. Unlike Picadilly Circus it has massive electronic billboards at every corner of the square and further down. I never realised from films just how wide and long the street is.

After taking a few pictures and having a hot-dog at one of the stalls which spread out along every major New York artery I walked towards Grand Central Station which seems to appear as a location in every major picture filmed in this city. After getting a little lost I eventually found my way there and sat in the main hallway drinking a cup of the good stuff (thats tea!) watching people scutter around for there trains like little ants going about their business.

The Station also happens to be next to the Chrysler Building which at one time was the tallest building in the world. Around the corner whilst walking back towards Time Square I found by chance a very well known and often filmed landmark - New York Library! This building will be familiar to many people as its famous for being at the beginning of Ghostbusters where the team find an old female ghost who scares the pants out of them! It was also recently in The Day After Tomorrow. The room I am writing this blog in is so gorgeous. I keep having to pinch myself to make sure I am here and not just dreaming it!

Afterwards I headed for Time Square again to see what it is like. Its even more gorgeous at night when the whole place is lit up like a beacon. Having not been to the pictures for a month I found myself craving for a movie. Like a man on a quest I managed to find a cinema (2 actually on opposite sides of the road!) with something like 30 screens. I had two choices, either watch a quality thinking film or an action flick. So I thought about it and watched DOOM!!!! All in all a surprisingly good film if all you want is violence and action.

So my first full day in New York was a lot of fun and action packed and I ended up the day totally exhausted. Roll on tomorrow is all I can say!

Willich in New York!

2005-10-26T22:03:00.000+01:00

I arrived in New York yesterday exhausted and tired and yet buzzing with anticipation. New York has been a city I have dreamed of visiting since I was a little boy. I remember seeing Ghostbusters and thinking 'wow that looks great' and distinctly remember the opening scene in the New York Central Library where the ghost haunts the ghostbusters. So as I sit here writing my update IN THE NY CENTRAL LIBRARY I can't help but be overwhelmed by the fact that I am actually here!

Arriving into wet and miserable weather yesterday I found my way onto the subway. Exiting the subway near my intended hotel I had no clue where I was as everything is gridlike in this city. So I asked a passing stranger expecting merely a few words and a grunt as is commonplace in London and most cities. Instead I found my very first New Yorker I had ever spoken to to be welcoming, friendly and very kind. She walked me to my hostel only to find it overbooked. The next few hostels on my list were also booked out as we walked around the neighbourhood searching for anyplace I could place my bags and hopefully sleep! Eventually with her help through many phonecalls I found a hole, sorry hostel, in a street nearby which you would have easily missed had you not known it was there beforehand. Sleeping on a mattress on the floor my palace of comfort is putting me back a cool $33 and thats considered cheap here! However, it does include breakfast (toast) and complementary tea which I am sure you would know I abuse a hell of a lot!

Margaret, my new American friend who had adopted me, invited me to come along with her to eat some Japanese food with her husband. Both Margaret and her husband Mark are extremely friendly and easy going and I have to say they are two of the most worldly people I have ever met. We spoke for hours over great Japanese food about different cultures, travels, New York and of course my favourite topic - music! It turns out Mark is a huge rock fan and knows way more than anyone else I can think of about the British music scene. They have travelled all over the world and lived in the Pacific for over a year and a half. In all my years of travelling I have never met Americans quite like them and wish that more Americans followed in their example of how to live life.

New Yorkers have a reputation for being rude and not very helpful but I have found exactly the opposite since I arrived. Every New Yorker I have spoken to has been very helpful and wished me a good visit to the city. Everyone appears to be very proud of their city and rightly so as it has a real passion and soul to it.

The state of affairs in Nepal

2005-10-24T12:18:00.000+01:00

Reading the news these past few days I have become increasingly worried and concerned about the state of affairs in Nepal. Nepal is a country which is very close to my heart. It was the first place I lived abroad, the first time I had ever travelled outside Europe and most importantly the first time I had lived and travelled on my own. Nepali's are some of the most welcoming and caring people I have ever met despite the fact that they live in one of the worlds poorest countries.

Over the last few weeks the King has declared martial law, shut down the media, imprisoned opposition and continued to ensure Parliament is dissolved (he did this earlier in the year!). He claims this is to stop the Maoists, which I is probably partly true, but this is only making matters worse. From what I can tell this is adding fuel to the fire of the Maoists and I think in the long term will only make matters worse.

Unfortunately these events have led to the Government stating that all non essential travel to Nepal is advised against. Which leaves my plans in trouble as I was intending to go there for two months in April with mates to trek, raft and go on safari.

I have to hope things improve in the meantime

The quest for tea on a Monday morning!

2005-10-24T11:52:00.000+01:00

Well I woke up this morning feeling, well shit! I had a very large night out last night and this morning I didnt feel 100%. Now I know you may be thinking "oh he had a hangover blah blah blah" but all I really needed, no wanted, was a cup of the good stuff! Yep some good old fashion tea! Now many of you have probably been to Germany and know that tea is simply not something they make often, and if they do its not the same as in England or Australia.

So anyway I crawl out of my covers and head for the door. Passing all manner of stores selling anything and everything BUT tea along the way. Now Heidelberg apparently has the longest single street of shopping in Germany and believe me it goes on and on and on. So here I am walking down this street, like an addicted tea addict trying to find my fix! I must have gone into at least 5 or 6 stores to ask if they sold tea and if they did it sure wasnt the right kind of tea! So eventually i settled for apple juice and some pizza! Wow what a breakfast!

So yeah last night I arrived into Heidelberg and went out with Torgeir for just a few wee drinks. Now Torgeir is Norwegian which means that one thing he likes, no loves to do, is drink. So we drank, a lot! In fact my budget until Tuesday was blown in one nights drinking! Can`t remember exactly where we went, about three or four places I think. Eventually we were joined by Christina and Simon (President and Sec Gen of ELSA Germany) and had a really good night.

So today I am heading into the old quarter to walk around and see the city and shops. Might try and make my way to the castle which overlooks the city. Then meeting up with friends again and no doubt doing round two! Tomorrow I am heading to New York!

Laters

I leave tomorrow

2005-10-22T20:39:00.000+01:00

Well I am preparing for New York, but finding accomodation to be extremely expensive even for a dorm! Chuffed I am staying only two days as I couldn't afford anymore!

Just cooked another mean mean Indian spicy curry for Christoph and his flatmate Bianca and I have to confess it was DAMN spicy! It left my breath on fire and we couldn't help but comment that we thought we were both going to breath fire! Needless to say next time I shall be more mild on the curry powder!!!

Also found out today that Nepal really is becomming a dangerous place to visit so I am having to reconsider my plans. I really want to go back there for two months, with all my heart and soul, but all non-essential travel there is advised against. The King has desolved Parliament, declared martial law and shut down the media to all intents and purposes. This is not the country I remember so fondly. So any suggestions would be appreciated on what I should do instead. Thinking of maybe spending more time in India and then heading to China and taking the overland route.

Tomorrow I leave for Heidelberg and then on Tuesday for New York. Really looking forward to seeing Torgeir and Christina in Heidelberg but will be sad to leave Christoph as his been very cool. We went out last night but I have essentially relaxed and had a laugh these last few days which has been good fun. We watched hours of Futurama and I must say I think its as good if not better than the Simpsons.

Well back to the TV and beer. Laters

Willich

In Bonn

2005-10-22T15:50:00.000+01:00

I am in Bonn with my friend Christoph, currently dancing and moving my arse to some very cool dance music which he has acssembled. He has a awesom music collection, some great tunes, especially of the dancing genre. Would love to have his collection

Bonn is an interesting city. Very down to earth and small like which is weird as it was the capital for 50 years and yet retains this small feel to it.

Went to a party last night of one of Christoph's mates, called Stephan who is a really cool and down to earth guy. His band are a jazz/funk outfit of ten, 8 guys and 2 girls. His a very easy going guy and very friendly. The bar easily resembles many bars in the UK except that everyone seems to smoke in Germany and there was no air conditiong which made the place very very hot and humid. Also met some of Christophs mates who are very chilled and hippy like.

Bonn is an interesting city as on the outskirts it looks so nice and well organised but there is definitely a dark underside to the place. Christoph lives in a really nice apartment in what looks like a great part of the city. But there is a really rough alleyway which goes underneath the railway and you need to go through to reach the otherside. The place stinks of urine and is so graffitied, but what is weird is the drug use in the place. When you walk through the alleyway you pass at least one person on the floor who is injecting themselves! Call me small minded and maybe a little naive but i have never seen this in person and it was a real thought-provoking experience. I mean here are people sitting in an alleyway injecting themselve in a horrible horrible place. You would think that they might be dangerous or 'bad' people but they are either to ashamed of themsevles or more likely out there heads to confront you.

Bonn has certainly been an experience and its been great to see Christoph as he is a top guy and a great friend. Next stop is Heidelberg tomorrow.

Exams are over!

2005-06-19T10:52:00.000+01:00

Well the week is nearly over and oh what a week it has been!!! No afraid there has been no drunken escapades, no running down the street naked or come to think about it any other amusing antics. Alas this week has been exams exams exams

Now i have finished and i can taste the freedom!

Right off to the pub!!!