Blueshoewhotwo in Hono-lulu

Ok, I have to admit my traveling has become a bit obsessive. This one however had been planned a long time ago by someone else. It was back when I had a contract with one of those Korean hagwons. I was supposed to still be in Korea around xmas, well actually had I not broken my contract I would still be kicking about in that place. My parents decided it would be nice to me over the xmas break of which I had at least 4 days off (from the 28th to the 31st and who knows how few days after that) so my parents thought they´d fly me to Hawaii since it was about half-way for both of us. There really is nothing else in the mid-Pacific.

I´d been home for a little over 2 weeks and then decided I´d go visit a friend in my connecting city since nothing is ever direct from out-of-the-way-from-everything Edmonton. I spent a few nice days there meeting my friends family and some of his college friends from Taipei and Kathmandu. Strange that I´ve technically been to both those cities. I guess Taipei airport doesn´t quite make the cut for having been there but anyway. I went snowboarding even for a day and kicked some ass at Scabble. How the word ´fax´ could earn me so many points I´ll never know.

My parents flew out from Edmonton and I met them at the airport. We went to board the plane and they announced they were looking for volunteers to take a different route to Honolulu. So instead of going direct, I volunteered and spent some time at the airport in Seattle and earned myself a free flight voucher. I arrived 2 hours after the rest of my family but what is there to do in Hawaii after dark anyway.

I didn´t really do all that much in Hawaii. I sat on the beach. I sat by the pool. My albino self gradually became flesh-toned. I read a half-decent book and another now that I think about it. My parents, 2 sisters, and grandmother were there for about 2 weeks. Actually, one of my sisters left on December 30th since the thought of spending New Year´s without her boyfriend was too traumatic. I was as pleased with xmas as I could´ve been.

I guess I can mention something about Pearl Harbour. Even though it´s technically Harbor I still feel like throwing in the all important ´U.´ So anyways, we had to take a limo there. They are the same fare as regular cabs in Honolulu. I was a bit embarrassed to be the first one out of the limo to Pearl Harbour. Then we waited in line for a few hours and another few hours waiting for our group to be called. Finally, we saw a short film and got on a little boat to go see the USS Arizona. I was as moved by this as I usually am by such things. There were a bunch of patriotic Americans of course but being Canadian I can´t say it was all that important to me or stirred up many feelings. There were quite a few Japanese tourists there since the Japanese love Hawaii. At one point, a couple of Japanese guys were talking away in Japanese and began to laugh about something. Some guy decides to get over offended and yells at them telling them that Pearl Harbour is not funny. This coming from a guy who had to be told repeatedly that video photography was not allowed at the site. It was just strange to see what racist feelings Pearl Harbour provoked. There were quite a few white folk chatting happily while there but according to this guy the Japanese needed to be extra solemn while there. I wonder what he would think about being in Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

So there was that and more beach and a hokey luau ceremony. I´d been to Hawaii before and I think that time was better. There was a point in the show where there´s this barebacked woman facing the rear of the stage shaking her hips and all. The moment she turned around the reveal all these leis covering her chest was the moment I heard the most disappointed communal groan.

Let´s see. There was New Year´s. I never really enjoy new years all that much. It just kind of reminds me of all the things I didn´t accomplish the previous year. My parents were pretty lame about it and went to bed around 10´30. My grandma decided to go back to the hotel room as well. My one sister was back in Edmonton and the other with her little Hawaiian fling who was from West Virginia and sold timeshares. I watched some fireworks on the beach. Pretty impressive ones I´ll admit but I think there´s a time limit to how much you can enjoy them.

Then I spent another few days about the sun and sand doing very little. It´s nice to relax but I´d already had, oh I don´t know, 3 months of no work, all play. Then we took a limo to the airport and flew overnight to Minneapolis and spent a good five hours waiting for our next flight and that was how I spent the days from December 20 to January 5th.

At Home

Well, I've been back home now since December 3rd and I've pretty much done nothing. I managed to surprise my mom on her birthday which was on December 3rd, the longest day of my life. I got off the plane before I left. My sister came to pick me up with her roommate's dog. Then we drove to the restaurant where they would all be eating. "All" meaning my parents, my sisters, and my grandma. We got there and were walking to the door when we see the other sister driving past in her car, then my parents. Luckily, in Edmonton, it gets dark at like 3pm in December so they didn't see me.

When we walk into the restaurant my mom is right there talking to the hostess. She turns around and looks right into my eyes and then starts talking to the hostess again. One of those mindless looks where you aren't really seeing. Anyways, she doesn't remember and was surprised to see me home 2 days before I had said I was coming home.

From that time on I did absolutely nothing until maybe the 20th of December. I just remember having trouble adjusting to the time difference for pretty much that whole time. Getting tired around 8pm and having to force myself to stay awake until a respectable time to go to bed. I saw a movie called Just Friends, I think. It was definitely not worth the money. I also saw Syriana which was quite a bit better.

Aside from those terribly interesting things. I was at home doing even less interesting things. Watching TV, eating food that was easily identifiable, doing x-word puzzles and what not. I really don't know what I was doing those few weeks actually.

I always hate coming back home. I magically revert to my teenage self and feel like I've never left at all. It's an awful feeling really. I just look at the calendar and think, hmmm another x amount of months have passed, where have I been? what have I been doing? I mean, I know what it was that I was doing but as soon as I get back to Edmonton it feels like it never happened. Like I had been in a coma for months or stepped into some time wormhole. So all of the sudden, all these things have happened to other people and I've just had a dream. It was a really nice dream, well Wonderland not so much, but it didn't really happen. I'm just all of the sudden older without anything to show for it: some photos, passport stamps, and memories of things that no longer seem real.

I think I'd make a really good spy. I mean I'd be able to pull off any nationality and I'm only able to concentrate on the present. Nothing else feels real to me. So I could be reborn as some diamond merchant in Amsterdam, some scientist in Chicago, or an industrial engineer in Buenos Aires. Well maybe I can't pull off those professions but you know what I mean. I could go there and only know those lives and places. I'd have vague impressions of having been other people in the past but where I am at that moment, the person I am at that moment, would be what defines me.

No Seoul Pun

Seoul was quite a long time ago but I will do my best to finally wrap up my time in Korea.

I got out of the station without incident and got into a cab. I didn't have the address of the place I wanted to go but I knew the station I would have to get to. I didn't want to take the hassle of bringing all my luggage onto the subway. I ended up taking a luxury cab but it still wasn't all that much. I tried to bring the image of the map I had seen to get to the hostel into my mind but couldn't quite manage to conjure it. There are PC bangs all over Korea but I can never find them when I need to. I walked around some developed area with fancy restaurants and Koreans in fancy clothes. After pulling my suitcases and backpack all over the place some guy offered to help me. I was having to take a break every 15m. I found a PC bang and the address and realized I was on the wrong side of the street. I left my big suitcase on the street while I headed upstairs. I'm always disappointed to see that it hasn't been stolen. I eventually got to the hostel and I chatted with the girl who was working there. She bought me some ramen and we talked.... about her boyfriend and my time in Daegu. Her boyfriend was doing his military service.

I met a bunch of Japanese people who were staying there at the time. I went to bed and woke up late. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't have much interest in seeing Seoul. Maybe if I had a bit more energy or hadn't seen more interesting sights elsewhere. I went to the national palace and did the audio tour since it was so cheap 2000W I think. There were hardly any people there or anything that hadn't been rebuild sometime in the last 20 years. I suppose it was important to see though. I was still a bit torn about leaving Korea and didn't know how to feel about leaving. I still don't know how I feel about Korea, actually.

I think I went to Namdaemun that day. Maybe it was dongdaemun, I don't know. The more commercialized one. I really didn't see anything very interesting and tried to walk back to the hostel but I got lost. I always get lost, well take streets that I think will lead places but only lead to dead end or progressively smaller darker alleyways.

The next day I tried to go to Seoul tower. I was well on my way and fond the gondola up to the top but opted to walk. I was following a path that seemed to be headed in the right direction but as I kept walking I became convinced that it was leading me away from the tower. It started off heading upwards but later started going downwards. I ended up hoping over this little barrier and climbed the hill on my own. There were quite a few leaves and didn't look like many people decided to stray from the path. I was gripping trees and roots to climb up this hill at some points. I always feel stupid when I stray from the main routes and that I might end up stranded for days or become some unindentiable body when I'm finally found. I wonder if there's an equivalent to John Doe in Korea. Either that or I become convinced that I'm going to stumble upon a dead body. I always end up finding trash or broken picnic tables so I realize that I'm not actually in that remote a place. I finally make it to the top and casually climb over a barrier there. I didn't just walk up the mountain like some kind of caveman. I followed the road just like everyone else. The worst part was that Seoul Tower wasn't even open. I got there at the perfect time too. Right around sunset so you could see it lit up by the sky and then a nightscape of the city. I didn't realize it was supposed to be closed and then came across a sign that said it was supposed to be re-opened on December 1st. That was the day I was there. Maybe it was the second. At any rate it should've been open. The view from the top of the hill would've been more impressive had I been able to see through all the trees.

I went to the other market that night but wasn't really in the mood to be there. It was pretty cold too. This was the night that some guy asked me if I was Japanese. I still don't understand that. I also ran into some drunk guy who stole my waffle and started eating it. Then he offered to give me parts of it back. Then he jabbered away at me in friendly Korean and seemed genuinely surprised that I couldn't understand anything he was saying. This was actually the night I was lost but it doesn't matter. This isn't a very accurate account of what I did in Seoul but more of the impression that's been left on me.

I met a Dane that night though. He was born in Korea and looking for a job teaching English. A Danish Kyopo. I don't think they're very common. He told me I spoke Danish well even though I really only said a few sentences. It was still nice. I ended up leaving my towel with him. I felt a bit bad about it since it was long overdue for a wash.

I took a crappy tour of the DMZ. The Japanese people took the USO tour which I guess is much better and you actually go right to the border and can take a few steps into North Korea. I only got to go to some lookout point. It was still pretty interesting though. The worst part was that I had to wake up around 5am and the tour didn't start until 9 or so. It was all so I could be picked up my hostel even though the guy was 40 minutes late or something. The cave was pretty interesting but of course, photos were forbidden. At the lookout point you could only take photos if you stood behind some big white line. I still don't understand that. There was also a nice trip to a jewelery factory. Fascinating. I left after 2 minutes. I hate tours that sneak in trips tofactories.

I forgot to mention this little station. They've already built the station heading to Pyeongyang. They even have a little place where you can stamp your passport. I thought it was official thing. It turns out you just stamp it yourself. I was a bit hesistant about mutilating my passport so I debated it once I got the front. Then some guy from behind just took it and stamped it for me. It's pretty lame I think and it's upside down. I'm still worried some customs official will be disappointed that it's been mutilated but there you have it. There were other people debating about the implications of doing it. It's now a little spot of shame inside my passport but at least I wasn't the one to deface it.

I was pretty worried by this point though. By the time I got back to the hostel I only had 2.5 hours before my flight. I really thought I'd be back before then. It was a stressful ride to the airport as I watched the minutes go by. I got to the airport with only 55 minutes until my flight. The driver also wasn't very happy with my excess luggage. I could probably go into my luggage programs a bit more but don't really feel like it. I had a suitcase that weighed in at 35kg. My backpack was 27kg. I had to take out 5kg from the big one making my smaller backpack and labtop case extremely heavy. I was really surprised I made it onto the plane.

There's a really nice thing about line. In order to wait for the least amount of time, one has to either arrive right at the beginning or right at the end. It's all about timing really. I could've arrived an hour earlier and still had to wait just as long. It really depends on when the person before you gets there. When I was waiting at the Indian embassy in Kathmandu, I was in an ideal position. I was there an hour after the guy in front of me but it didn't matter because anyone who had come between figured they wouldn't get in or didn't bother coming to try. So anyways, it was lucky that I made my flight and didn't have to wait in line. Well I guess I had to wait for maybe 5 minutes.

Then I ran around the airport trying to sneak in my last meal and get rid of my excess won. I somehow dropped my boarding pass along the way. I was surprised when someone was handing it back to me. Eventually, they were ready to board my row and I left Korea feeling as confused as when I got there.

Final Days in Daegu

Back in Korea I really didn’t do all that much. I had returned for a grand cocktail party in Alex’s apartment where everyone got quite toasted. It was nothing compared to my last trip to Itaewon Pub Crew so I almost felt sober. I even wore my suit to the party, I got to know Young Mi and her friends. A good time was had by all.

I think I stayed in Daegu for about 5 days. I really can’t think of anything that I did. I went back to my old area. My pizza guy was so happy to see me. I saw one of my old workmates, well I don’t know if I can call her that. She doesn’t speak English and never spoke to me. Grace Teacher. I thought about going to see my replacement at my old apartment but decided against it since it would be kind of weird. Weird even to think of that really. I walked around downtown a bit but mostly just lazed around Alex’s apartment.

Of course, I waited until my last day in Daegu to do important things like close bank accounts. I didn’t want stacks of Korean money, although I could’ve felt like some kind of smooth criminal with so many bills. I’d love to get stacks of bills from the bank but since my bags were overloaded as they were I opted for a cheque. I assumed she’d give me an international bank draft but she gave me a cheque that couldn’t be used outside of Korea. I had to FedEx it back to Korea to have it wired to my bank in Canada. Idiocy really. I should’ve known it wasn’t wise when I didn’t see a single Roman letter on this little slip of paper but I thought I’d impress a bank teller with my foreign cheque. She didn’t seem impressed with it at all. They could’ve accepted it had it been Chinese or Japanese but Korean cheques were taboo for Canadian banks.

Alex treated me to a last meal in Daegu and then I got in a cab with a giant suitcase(35kg), a laptop case, a giant backpack (28kg), and a smaller backpack. All of them overloaded. The laptop case and smaller backpack were both really heavy but since Air Canada didn’t weigh them when I checked in I don’t know how much they weighed.

I got to Daegu station and managed to buy a ticket and get on a train to Seoul. It was my only real time on the KTX. It was technically my 3rd time but since you can’t see the countryside passing you by quickly there’s no point saying you were on a train going 300km/h. I was in Seoul an hour and a half later.

Back to Korea via Bangkok and Taipei

I’m the most behind I’ve ever been. I’m writing about things now that happened over a month ago. It’s time to get caught up, I guess.

So I spent a night in Georgetown, Malaysia at some little hostel that hosts people competing in Koran reading competitions. I again spent time only in Little India. I was the only one using utensils, also the only non-Indian so I guess that’s what made me stand out a bit more. I returned to my room only to find that I was locked out. I remember getting into the room and not only was some guy awake he said something to me that made me think ill of him. I can’t remember what. It was also very hot.

I had a cold shower and worried I wouldn’t make my bus to Hat Yai. I waited where some guys told me to wait. An hour after my bus should’ve left I went to the counter where I bought my ticket. I guess I was supposed to go there to begin with. Shame on me for listening to people who worked at the bus station. Anyways, I had to repay the fare, I got a slight discount on account of me being a retard and I was off….. about 4 hours later. I sat and read the last of my Harry Potter books.

I read all the way to Thailand and then across the border as well. I decided I would just go to the airport when I got to Hat Yai. I was in some kind of weird mood near the end of my trip where based on poor logic I decided that since my trip was so close to almost being over that it might as well be over. Also I plan to journey through Thailand some other time so I wasn’t very keen on seeing all that much. I got to the airport and tried to buy a ticket from Bangkok to Incheon so I wouldn’t have to do it later. It turns out that they had no flights to Korea. All the flights had been cancelled, probably because not enough people were flying. I decided I would sort it out in Bangkok and just fly there that night. So that’s what I did. Harry thwarted his nemesis en route. I got to Bangkok and didn’t plan on leaving the airport but went airline to airline asking for fares. They were all grossly overprices. Like $600 one-way whereas my cheapo fare would’ve been $240 one-way had there been flights. I really didn’t know what to do. I thought I’d even fly to Macao and then go through China and take the ferry again. I ended up on Kao Sanh road. A Thai friend of mine found me a cheap place to stay despite her being in Chicago. I think my room was less than $1. Yeah, like 20 baht or something. I also found a cheap fare back to Korea on China Airlines.

The next day I toured Bangkok. I got up late. Had something to eat and went with some Tuk Tuk driver who told me that I was there on the only day that all these temples and things were open. Buddha Day. I doubted him really until his cohort inside the Lucky Buddha temple affirmed his story. It was also supposedly a time when all suits were on sale. It was the last day of this massive sale. I don’t know how but I got kind of swept up in this so now I have a Thai suit. I really don’t know what possessed me to buy it. It wasn’t that expensive but something about the custom-tailored part persuaded me. I even got 2 custom made shirts. I don’t deny that I was scammed but it wasn’t that bad a deal, well for Thailand it was but what’s done is done. I saw a few temples and sat around some places but didn’t do many noteworthy things.

I went to bed early which is pointless on Kao Sanh road since I couldn’t get to sleep until the bars closed. I caught the 5am shuttle to the airport and then boarded the biggest plane I’d ever been on. I still don’t understand why they need a huge double decker plane to fly from Bangkok to Taipei. Well only first class was on the upper deck, you know what kind of plane I mean. I sat next to a woman from Malawi and a Chinese man. She was one of the few who actually wanted to go to Taipei. Hardly anyone wanted the customs declaration for the Republic of China. I don’t think I saw Taiwan anywhere in the Taipei airport. I checked my email there though and some middle aged American kept saying ‘Fuck’ about something.

So after my next flight I was back in Korea and immigration went much smoother than I thought it would. I imagined myself being detained for not having an ongoing ticket, which seems a bit silly now. He asked me a few questions though which is actually nicer than just being stamped and ignored as a living being. I took the bus to Seoul station and within 2 minutes of entering the station was offered a job. I kind of wish I’d asked for some details but knew I wouldn’t be returning to the job market for a few more months. I called Alex and then boarded the KTX bound for Daegu, well it was bound for Busan but that would be misleading. I was almost able to take the newly opened second line but I was lucky to get on line 1. I took a taxi and was back at my old sleeping ground. I even had a little greeting party awaiting me. Alex, his newly acquired girlfriend Young Mi, and his co-worker, Nathan. It was nice to get back to somewhere kind of familiar.

Pulau Pangkor

Well I can't sleep so this is the most productive thing I can think of doing without leaving my bed. Laptops are great aren't they.

Anyways, I left Kuala Lumpur headed for beach and relaxation. The monsoon limited me to the west coast of Malaysia. I picked Pangkor since it was described as being more lowkey than any of the other places on the west coast. I don't know how you heavily promote something as being lowkey but that's what the government is trying to do. It was pretty lowkey actually.

I took the bus to Lumut to catch the ferry. We stop in Lumut and these Scandinavian girls ask the driver about the ferry terminal. He says 5 minutes. I assume, as the girls do, that this means in 5 minutes we will go to the ferry terminal. I could tell there were others left on the bus besides these Scandinavian girls. The driver gets back on the bus and tells us to get off. Turns out the other people on the bus were European tourists as well. Stupid tourists. I thought there were natives left on the bus.

I end up spending the next few days with the Scandinavian girls. We got along but had only lowkey fun. They were waitresses from Sweden but waitressed in Oslo. One was Vivian and the other Tess I think. We shared a triple and went to the beach and ate at restaurants together. I ended up getting burnt the one day I spent at the beach. It was hardly even sunny. Not a bad burn though. It was pretty cloudy the second day and the girls decided to leave. I ended up deciding to leave as well. It was a nice beach though. It just wasn't beach weather. I decided to just cross over into Thailand as soon as possible. I really don't know why. I was getting a little tired of traveling. I'd been traveling for about 5 weeks at this point and it was just a random trip with no particular destinations or things to see. Plus I didn't want to see very much since I'd imagined I'd be back in South-East Asia at some point.

I ended up in Georgetown that night on Pulau Penang. Nice town and I could've spent more time there. I was only in Little India though. That was the only place I saw Indians eating with their hands. My 6 hours in India outside of trains didn't expose me to much. The next morning I went to catch the bus to Hat Yai, Thailand. I ended up missing it because I was supposed to go to the ticket booth where I got the ticket and not to the place where the people who run the station told me to go. So I had to buy another ticket and wait for 3 hours at the bus terminal with my book. If only I hadn't had to lug around a heavy backpack with me everywhere I could've seen a bit more of Georgetown.

Kuala Lumpur

Let me think back to my time in KL. I wasn't there very long and didn't really do all that much. I woke up early enough and left Singapore. I slept for most of the bus ride. Malaysia and Singapore both kind of have little slogans that they hang up at immigration. 'Death for drug traffikers.' I was there before the Australian was executed in Singapore so 'death to' signs were more comical to me then. Oh, Israelis aren't allowed to go to Malaysia. I've been a few places where people have said that Israelis are the worst tourists. I know that's not why they aren't allowed into Malaysia. Malaysia's largely Islamic.

I really can't think of anything that interesting that happened to me while in KL. I met some guy from Korea. Why are Koreans that aren't in Korea so untypically Korean. This guy had a big bushy head of hair. An Asian 'fro if you will. He didn't do anything but hang out at the hostel from what I could gather. I tried to go out sightseeing one afternoon but those monsoon rains got in the way. I ducked into the National Museum of History. My shoes were all wet and squeaky since I'd been wandering around in the rain in a little plastic poncho and had submerged my whole feet in water. My pants were soaked right through too. I really only felt bad because I had followed a woman who had just cleaned the floors. I relearnt about Malaysia's rotating monarchy. They've actually have 13 kings or something since independence in 1960 (I think) and only 4-5 prime ministers. The country has 9 sultans but only one can be king so they take turns.

I went to the Petronas Towers. I didn't go inside though. I meant to go the next day but they say you need to get there early since they limit the number of people who can go in. I woke up too late and knew it was my last day so I went to the Kuala Lumpur Tower which is uglier but has a higher observation deck. I also discovered I had seen 3 of the 10 highest towers on my trip. One in Seoul that I only saw in passing and the strange tower in Shanghai. KL's tower was 2 or 3rd.

I really like being in Islamic countries. I think it's something about the mosques and architecture. I've really only been to Turkey and Malaysia but it just makes them feel so much more foreign. Sarajevo was actually my first Islamic city. Downtown Sarajevo is actually really nice. Malaysia though was the only one where the women covered their heads. I'm not sure what it was but for some reason I found myself staring at them so much more. Something about it being mysterious or just different. The men were dressed pretty securlarly though. Funny to see some guy in t-shirt and jeans walking around with a woman in full muslim get-up. Malaysia has a fair number of Indians and Chinese, obviously. I took a photo of some women waiting for the bus outside of 7/11. Turned out blurry though. It really is a diverse Asian country.

My pics of the Petronas towers look incredibly unnatural. I swear I didn't do anything to them.



I really liked the base of them. Some strange reflective material makes it look there's motion. After I took it I looked at it my little screen and thought what the hell? After I took this some guy started talking to me in Portugese. I just look at him like what are you saying? He was from Brazil and thought I was too. We had a little chat but I think he was disappointed. He really wanted to be a fellow countryman. I really should be a masterspy or something. People have thought I was so many different nationalities. The strangest one happened while I was in Seoul. I was in Dongdaemun market and some guy says to me "Japanese?" I did have a hat on though but still. Then other people are sure my ancestors are nothing but northern European. People have thought I was Turkish, Chilean, French, Russian. I know I've mentionned this before but it seems to be a recurring theme in my life. Do I really have this ambiguous nationality look?

For the record, I'm quite a mutt. in decreasing order, I'm part English, Irish, Spanish, Scottish, Austrian, German, French, Welsh, and a teensy bit Dutch. Not Danish at all, or Turkish or Japanese for that matter.

Singapura

I'm calling it Singapura since I'm pretentious and it's more fun to say it that way. I arrived in Singapore around 4am. It was a pretty nice airport. I never get to spend much time in nice airports. They are always crummy airports. So I was tired and dirty but really that was nothing new. I remember stepping outside and it being really humid.


Bad pic but I like it.

I walked over to the Terminal 1. I never understand why people take the escalator or trams in airports. You've either just been on a long flight or are about to be. What do you have against movement? The moon looked nice. It was actually too early for the busses to run so I had to sit and wait for them to start. I had some burgerking and exchanged the rest of my Chinese yuan. The subway started at 6am (not sure why I didn't to talk about the busses instead). I found my hostel alright. Luckily I used the 15 free internet in the terminal to research a place to stay. Lonely Planet didn't really have their act together on accommodation for Singapore. Of course, I wasn't able to check-in at 7am. I walked around for a bit. Found the Raffles Hotel and tried to buy some things that fell out of bag on the flight.


Tried to take a nap but just rested really. Then I went out in search of something to do. I decided I would go to Little India since my trip to India wasn't that Indian. It was monsoon season in Singapore so suddenly it starts raining like mad and I duck into an Indian restaurant. I'm a bit hesistant about the food since I'd never eaten Indian buffet style. I ordered rice and chicken. Of course, I get all these sauces to dip stuff in or pour onto things. I like my food plain. I'm a gastronic dullard, what can I say? I try my best to eat it the proper way but I guess I failed because the guy next to me asked if I'd ever had Indian food and told me I didn't look like I was enjoying it.

He seemed nice enough this guy. He was there to have his fortune told by this other Indian guy. Once I'd finished and it was still raining, this guy Joe, told me my fortune. He foresaw good things in terms of relationships and friends or whatever. I forget really. He did tell me that I was unable to stay put very long and like to be on the move. Gemini is an air sign you see (so that's what it is). This first guy left and Joe and I talked about Buddhism.I have a very limited knowledge but he explained the basics to me. He also told me about yoga. I didn't realize it was about waking up centres and bringing it all in line. I'm not the least bit spiritual.

Actually, I had some kind of weird desire to go to Singapore. I'd been there before you see. Most people would say I haven't.I was there in February or something of 1982. I was born in June. So yeah, a prenatal vacation (maybe that's what it is). My parents had a layover in Hawaii too. I had a kind of strange experience when I went to Hawaii a few years ago. I sometimes wonder if I left a part of myself in Singapore back in 1982. Anyways, it's kind of beside the point but I wondered if anything would happen in Singapore. It did strangely feel like I'd been there before but that could've just been it was the most Western place I'd been since coming to Asia and people spoke English everywhere. My uncle had been working in Singapore at the time. My parents were never big travelers. I didn't even leave Alberta until I was 8 or something. A big fishing trip on the border with Saskatchewan. Well and when I was 2 I went to Vancouver but only because my aunt was working there.

Later I was invited to say since they were having some kind of gathering.2 British graphic designers, one a prof. So I had a few beers with them and told one about teacher in Korea. The one prof seemed quite interested despite my warnings. Who knows? Universities are much better places than hagwons. Joe also took me to his Hindu temple and showed me around. So he taught me about 3 religions or disciplines and he was into astrology and all that too. He was in his late 40s. We had some roti and he showed me around the department store for south asian expats where things were really cheap, well for Singapore I guess.

I had gone here at night when it was a lot more lively. I always feel like such an outsider at religious places. I don't take pictures.

Then we went back to the restaurant. A native Chinese Singaporean with a crazy laugh joined us for a bit. Very strange lady. The some native Indian Singaporean who was in 70s came. I guess they didn't get along because the crazy lady gave the odd man the finger to the back of his head. This guy had had a stroke a few months before. They said he was always a bit weird though. He had just gotten up but had been awake for 25 hours. He found out that I had been an English teacher and told me to take lessons from Sidney Poitier in To Sir, With Love. He sang the theme song to me. Then started asking me all kinds of personal questions. "Was I able to make love in my country?" I thought I must have misheard but nope. "Did I enjoy making love? How long have I been making love? With whom had I made love? etc." So strange being asked these questions by some old Indian man in Singapore. I learnt a lot that day.... and had my drinks and food paid for. (I actually had donated $10 Sg to something for the children. Maybe there is such a thing as Karma, or at least in Little India there is).


The next day pales in comparison since I only did typical tourist things. I did get to experience the embarrassing accompaniment (if that's the word) to an ATM. I could've sworn I had my credit card. I also tried to go see the largest fountain in the world. The Fountain of Wealth. Closed, probable an omen. Singapore was nice but really I felt like I'd been there before and that I'd be there again so I wasn't that sad to leave it after 2 days.

Pleasant Singapore. I ate at one of the restaurants across the water.

Kathmandu to Kolkata (or 48 hours of nothing)

I've got to write this very carefully or it will switch to Korean. I'm not sure how it's happening but I can't use this latin script long because it keeps switching to Hangul for some unknown reason.

I haven't been in Kathmandu for nearly 3 weeks according to my passport. I left Kathmandu on a Tuesday I believe. I had a message at my hotel but I didn't return it for awhile because I like to procrastinate. It was my travel agent where I bought my bus and train tickets to Calcutta. He was calling to tell me to take an earlier bus, the bus that was leaving in 15 minutes. Needless to say I was unable to catch that bus. I took one that left several hours before I was planning on leaving. It was an interesting journey to Calcutta. I asked the guy when I would be arriving in Calcutta and he told me 12:45 on Monday. That's right I left on a Sunday. So we were driving along in this Nepalese bus, we being myself and Nepalese people. I figured out how to switch back to latin characters. Shift + alt. As I was saying, I met some guy sitting near me. I didn't really feel like having a conversation in broken English so I just answered his questions. I'm a pitiful conversationalist to begin with.

I'm not sure why I brought that guy up so soon. I was told the bus ride would last about 3 hours. I've been on this bus for about 5 hours already and it's getting quite dark. Actually, there was no daylight left. We stop a few places along the way for bathroom breaks and some food. There's no toilet on the bus. My diarrhea had subsided by this point (thank god). I thought it was just a 3 hour ride so I never bothered to get much. The guy bought me some kind of fruit. Like an orange but they didn't quite look like oranges. I had 2 of them I think. At 9pm, the bus pulls over one last time. It doesn't go anywhere for the next 8 hours. The bus just pulls over to the side of the road and we all sleep there on the bus. I wasn't told about this. I'm a bit concerned that I'm going to miss my train plus I'm still in Nepal and haven't even crossed the border. I guess it's because of the Maoists that we pull over. The guy tells me the busses used to run all night. So I slept crammed between 2 seats with no real jacket. Lucky me am right at the front of the bus also with the door wide open bringing in cool breezes. It isn't warm at night in Nepal.

Finally at 5am the bus starts up again and we press on towards Sunauli. The scenery is nice at least. Very green and hilly. Nepalese music is a bit uncreative though. The songs last forever and basically just repeats 10 seconds of music again and again. At least you could learn to sing along rather quickly. It could have been Indian music. I didn't really developed much of an ear for it.

Finally we get to the border. I guess the guy must have said 13 hours to reach the border and even that I now realize it a bit of an underestimate. It looks so close on the map. I catch a rickshaw to the agent who has my train ticket. That goes smoothly enough. Then the rickshaw driver takes me to the border. That goes rather well also. I was kind of worried about the Indian border since I had a transit visa but didn't have my onward ticket since I bought it online and had to give my printed copy to the Indian embassy and never bothered to reprint it. I left them but would see them again shortly.

I got to the guy who is supposed to give me the bus tickets. I somehow managed to lose my train tickets despite having had them for only 15 minutes or so. The rickshaw driver goes back to Nepal while I stay at the Indian immigration office. I left it at Nepali immigration. That bit of stupidity aside it was alright. The rickshaw driver charged me a stupidity fee, well extra hassle or something. He made me give him the rest of my Nepali money for the drive (not much though I doubt it's illegal to take Nepali rupees to India, I'd removed some from my wallet beforehand though). I'd already paid him before that so I had to give him Chinese Yuan since it was all I had.

India didn't go very smoothly. I did understand where the 12:45 Monday came in. That's when the train left for Calcutta. I had no idea it would take so long. The bus guy tells me that if I take the bus I will miss the train. I need to take a taxi now. I wonder if that's even true. I'm a favourite target of small scams. I believed it though since I only had about 2 hours to get to the train station which was in another town. I had no money for the taxi so I had to give a deposit in Chinese Yuan and then they would take me to an ATM in Gorakhpur. After driving about 2 hours we finally get there. They tell me I need to give them more money because my ticket is a sleeper with AC. I tell them no, that I needed some kind of proof that I owed them more money. Anyways, I really have no tolerance for these kind of things, hence the reason I didn't want to spend much time in India. I relented, since I always relent.

I still haven't eaten since I left Kathmandu aside from 2 pieces of fruit or possibly just one. I'm rushed into the station and onto a train. I don't know how long I'll be on this train. I know it's overnight and that I'm not getting to Kolkata by 12:45 on Monday since it's about 12:44 on Monday. So I find my sleeper, top bunk, no access to a window. I end up reading the whole time and sleeping. I finish reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I end up being on the train for 25 hours. Not what I was expecting to say the least. I buy some water at some station and a little stuffed bread thing. I was hungry, not having eaten anything substantial in oh, 40 hours or so. I didn't even get to see much of the countryside. Quite boring.

I had planned on spending 2 days in Kolkata/Calcutta but due to a misunderstanding I have 8 hours total. My flight is at 10pm that night. I try to leave my bags at the train station but they refuse to take them since I don't have a train ticket. I end up wasting all my time in Calcutta. I just take a taxi to Sutter street, eat some tandoori chicken, go to an internet cafe for 4 hours, have some more tandoori chicken and then go to the airport.

Of course, I didn't take out many rupees since I knew I wouldn't be in India long. The taxi which was agreed to be 200 rupees, jumps to 300 when we arrive at the airport and I want to go to the international terminal 200m further. It ends up being a moot point since I don't have anything less than a 500 note. He won't give me any change either since he didn't pick up a passenger. I really had no use for a few dollars worth of rupees so all I had was a 'fuck you' left for him. I'm such a relenter.

Luckily my plane ticket was ridiculously cheap. Only $100 US from Kolkata to Singapore. I really expected the international terminal of the airport to be a lot bigger. There were only 2 gates. I had to stand around and wait for immigration to start their shift. I guess no one flies into Calcutta or out of for that matter. I board the plane and am the only non-South Asian on the flight. Actually that's not true, the pilot was Australian and the flight team as they call flight attendants plurally were based in Singapore. Jet Star Asia was a good airline though. That brings me to the 16th of November now... ok later.

Kathmandu omissions

I never really went much into my mystery illness. So let me begin. I wasn't feeling all that well. Something to do with my stomach. So I deduced from that that it must have been something that I drank or ate. Then I suddenly remembered that I'd taken a vitamin earlier in the day that I started to feel not so good.... with tap water.

So after my one day of sightseeing and me planning to do a half day the next day with my bus leaving at 6pm, someone Sam had been traveling with for a few days back in China showed up at our hostel. Apparently, she had amoeboid dysentary. Not all that fun. So after she mentioned this I immediately became concerned that I had amoebas inside of me. After she left I looked up my travel guide health section and read all the water-borne diseases. All of them involved diarrhea. Good, I don't have dysentery. Of course that meant I could have any number of other things. I went to bed not feeling all that great so I took the garbage can and brought it close to my bed.

I don't know how long I'd been asleep but then I got sick 3 times. That didn't feel very good but I felt a bit better afterwards. Then in the middle of the night it became obvious that shall we say, I might have had amoebas. It was sudden and violent. The next day I still felt funny.

I still had to do a bit of running around also. I forgot to mention what a dolt I've become. Actually, I'm a bit iffy on the definition of dolt but I've become a bit forgetful. I just forgot my shoes on the bus actually, and I forgot my daypack on the beach a couple nights ago, I left my sunglasses behind on another bus, and while in Kathmandu I forgot my ATM card in surprise surprise an ATM. I didn't realize for a few days while when I next went to take out money. Who ever heard of a return card button? Once I get my money and receipt I figure I'm done and I leave. Anyways, I had to call the bank, meet a guy at the ATM, find out since it happened days ago my card is at the head office, go to the head office later but miss the appointment because my rickshaw driver was slow at getting me change, and go on my last day. I got my card back though. I was shocked my student card worked though. It's through a bank but I'd thought it would only be accessible in Texas. Don't ask me why I still have a bank account based in Texas.

The missed appointment is visa related. Don't try to get an Indian visa in Nepal. It's next to impossible. Scott, Sam, and I showed up one day at 1 trying to get visas. We were told there were closed and to get there the next day by 6am. It doesn't open until 9:30. The next day, days before my illness, I'm the only one to get up. I get there by 8:30. The line is long and I'm number 68 on the list. I doubt I will be seen. I spend the day there and read most of my book. Prisoner of Azkaban. Yep, been reading Harry Potter since Beijing. Anyways, I'm barely seen just before 12 when they close. They can't do anything for me. I need an onward ticket for a transit visa, of course I don't want to buy a ticket until I have a visa. Anyways, I buy a ticket online and head there the next day at 6 with Sam and Scott. They are getting tourist visas. This time we are numbers 44-46. A lot of people between 40 and 60 just leave because they lose faith that they will be seen. That's how I managed to scrape in the first day. Anyways, this second time I go in the line for transit visas. I was there the day before but someone moving from the visa line to the transit visa line convinced me I needed to be in the visa line first. Dumb since I got seen right away in this other line and just had to wait for hours while Scott and Sam waited in this miserable line. They were the last 2 to be seen before the window shut. Actually, that's what they like to say but really they were seen at 11:59 so technically the last before when they should've closed. There was still a line of people waiting and we were hoping they would shut the window and for things to get ugly. We got impatient and left. Scott and Sam had to wait a week for the telex clearance form to go through and then standing in that line all over again. My transit visa was ready in the afternoon and that's why I was late getting to the bank to get my card.

Let's see if there's anything else I should mention about my time in Nepal. Umm... I've rarely seen such a marked border. Nepal really is a lot greener and hillier than Tibet. I guess it began to change a bit before that but anyways. The change in scenery was as dramatic and Lonely Planet made it out to be. I would quote it but I've sold my China book. It was also much warmer and I only ever needed to wear 2 layers there. Well aside from when I felt cold during my brief illness.


Entering Nepal

Mountains floating in the sky

Dine and Scott

Look at how drunk I am

Good times, the Tibet 5 (minus 1)

Kathmandu

What can I say about Kathmandu?

I didn't actually do a whole lot in Kathmandu. Actually I pretty much just spent a week relaxing, not doing a thing. Showers (with hot water even!), real restaurants, bars, electricity. I spent my time just readjusting/overindulging in those kinds of things. I really did just do absolutely nothing. I read, sat around, ate, and drank.

I did spend one day, maybe a half-day sightseeing just looking around Durbar Square. There was a living goddess there but I missed her. She's called the Kudari, maybe just a Kudari. Anyways, she's this little girl goddess. Right, she's the Goddess of Kathmandu I think. She lives in her little temple and dresses in her little Kudari costume. When she hits puberty though it means she is no longer the goddess but a mere mortal so they kick her out and from that point on no man will touch her for fear of death within 14 days. I wouldn't like to be the living goddess. Scott and Sam saw her for a brief moment. They said she looked pouty and a bit resentful. Some other word also but I don't recall. I actually wasn't feeling very good on that last day.

We'd gone out that night. The first night after the girls had flown off to Bangkok we went out with some other people for steak (I had chicken since that's what I do, I go to a sushi restaurant and order teriyaki chicken, I like chicken. Steak I will eat but never order...anyways). Then we went to a casino where I lost 6 out of 7 hands of blackjack. So I lost my money very quickly and then started to feel unwell. I left early and paid way to much for a taxi back to the hotel. I wasn't in the mood to argue and my fuckitness (as I call it) was in fullswing so I just paid and went right to bed. I woke up the next morning feeling pretty shitty. Like I had drank way too much (2 beers, I swear). The one day I had left to sightsee and I felt sluggish and a bit sick. Here are some pics of Durbar square. I saw a monkey. Not great quality but I'm not retouching them on vacation.

Photo Highlight Reel

I've decided to finally post some pictures but due to the number of photos and that I'm paying to use the internet, I will only post a couple from each place. Maybe even some really bad ones of myself.
Leaving Incheon by ferry/ Slow boat to China

Shanghai

Bright blurry lights

It's like I'm in the future - Shanghai

Me in Tianamen Square

Obligatory photo

Feeling exasperated and like such a tourist in the Forbidden City

Konglish meet Chinglish

People crowd to see the Terra Cotta Warriors (you know what they look like)

Aren't pandas cute? I suppose.

Gotta lead Tibet with Potala Palace, home of the Dalai Lama...uhh..if he weren't in exile that is

Some happy Tibetan people

Me on a yak... ok half yak

People I was stuck in a jeep with for 7 days: Me, Vanessa, Dine, Scott, and Sam...... oh, yeah and Everest

I think that's enough photos for one day. The last 3 photos were stolen from the others. No more photos for you!

Nyalam to the border

The next day in Nyalam, the gateway to Hell, we did a bit of trekking. We hiked up a stretch of the mountain in search of a lake. We found out the lake was much further than we had thought. We never saw it but it was still nice walking along. I managed to step through some ice and got my foot sopping wet. I was worried I'd have to turn back but it wasn't that cold during the day and I forgot about it awhile later.

We found a big rock with some Tibetan prayer flags atop it, we climbed it. We saw some yaks. An abandoned house. Not really interesting to read about.

Then we drove to Zhangmu on the border with Nepal. It was so surreal. At first we are in the desert where nothing grows and only shepherds, goats, yaks, mountains, and rocks can be seen to really lush hills. Tibet was nice and all but we were pretty ready to leave. It must be much nicer in the summer. We were still all filthy animals. Zhangmu was just surrounded by trees and plants, all these waterfalls, and it really felt like Tibet was so far away. We found a place to stay and bid goodbye to Dawa. The hotel had actual showers, actual electricity, real menu options. It's hard to believe I could be so excited by such a thing as an electrical outlet or flushing toilets.

We spent the night out having a few beers. The girls went to bed and Sam, Scott, and I (lured by promises of bread that I never received) snuck out again. I was already pretty drunk and just wanted to sleep. We went to some club with performers on stage. It was kind of odd. Some Tibetan (city Tibetan I guess) kept trying to proposition women for sex. The last woman he approached was appauled, but only by the price he offered. At 500, it was all settled and the 2 of them hugged and walked off stage. Very odd story line. Then we danced with locals for a bit to Tibetan/Nepali/Chinese traditional music with a dance beat. A lot of them were in traditional clothes dancing the night away. One lady there must have been well over 40. It was jolly good fun.

Then we decided to switch it up. I was pretty tired but still went. I had a drumstick that I bought from a street vendor. Very good drumstick but a bit too spicy for my liking. I still managed to have 3 of them that night though. I didn't enjoy the second place so much. I missed the dancing girls who Scott had said were better than strippers and I didn't do any dancing there. I just longed for sleep or more chicken legs. I don't know why I was so tired.

On the way back we stopped for chicken legs several times passing a few places with red lights and Sam singing Roxanne. At one chicken plac, we saw 2 guys come in who were served chicken right away at no cost. The guy and his wife were so attentive to these leather clad serious men that we were sure they were local mobsters. Then we finally got back to hotel and Sam tried the key and it broke off it the lock so he kicked the door open. Ok, this part came between the girls going to bed and us going out again but I just forgot to mention it.

The next morning, the girls came in to wake us at 8. I guess we'd agreed to the time earlier. We got out of bed at 10. The girls were a bit upset and anxious to cross the border into Nepal. We had to get to Kathmandu before sunset or I'm not sure, something very bad would happen to us. We ate breakfast, exchanged some money, got into a small argument about the key (I'd conveniently gone in search of postcards), and then walked 10 feet and cleared Chinese immigration. Out of Tibet and China and into no man's land between the 2 borders.

So at long last I finish my travelogue of China and Tibet. I'm still one country behind since I'm actually no longer in Nepal either. Where could I be? Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until I'm 2 countries behind since I'm leaving this one in another few hours. 4 entries in one day, it's not that there isn't anything to see or do where I am but due to some unclear explanations by the ticket agent and people's unwillingness to watch my bag for just the afternoon it really isn't worth seeing or doing anything here with my heavy pack across my back.

Tingri & Nyalam

Tingri wasn't really worth the trouble of getting to. We did have a nice little argument with Dawa through one of the hotel employees. He said we had only booked 8 days. We knew we'd booked 9. I don't know why it escalated so much. We only ended up using 7 days total. We were threatening to kick Dawa's wife out of our jeep and just leave her wherever. Threatening to tell Snowland and anyone else who would listen what a shitty driver he was. I don't think the threats were translated.

We decided to go to the nearby hot springs. It was quite nice to actually be warm for a change. We pretended we were now clean and then headed to Nyalam. Lonely Planet says that Nyalam means "Gateway to Hell" in Tibetan. We were no longer worried about hell though having lived through it the day before.

We got to the hotel in Nyalam and the man at the hotel was quite nice. Later though he turned on us and wouldn't heat the guest room for us even though we were his only guests. There was no heating in this place either. I was really sick of being cold all the time. At least Canada has indoor heating in the dead of winter. It's really the only way to make the cold bearable, being toasty warm inside. Anyways, we are sure that Dawa tainted the innkeeper's image of us. He also wouldn't let us watch TV or do anything really. There wasn't much to do in Nyalam that night and we'd promised ourselves we wouldn't use the internet while in Tibet. We ate Nepalese food and shivered in our beds like so many nights before.

Dawa and his effin' wife

I forget whether I mentioned that Dawa had brought his wife along for the journey. We picked her up at another place where we'd stopped for momos. The bathrooms in this town we so bad shit extended all the way to the outside entrance. I should've taken a picture. Shit all over the floor. Apparently, Dawa's wife's cousin or sister was having a baby right on the border.

Nobody slept well at Everest and I woke up feeling pretty shitty. Combination of altitude sickness and a hangover and some weird feeling in my stomach. Dawa took us down to Everest Base Camp. We decided we didn't want to walk 2 hours from the monastery on a road very much accesible by car. It was freezing cold don't forget.

We decided we would trek around the base of Mt. Everest for a couple hours. We got there and the wind was howling away. It was blowing so hard in my face that I could hardly breathe. The girls turned back in less than 10 minutes, an iced-over stream was enough to make the tropical island girls (French Mauritian girls). Originally they had planned to do several days of trekking around the base. We all had a good laugh about that in retrospect. I trudged (is that the word?) for another hour or so. I had images of myself collapsing and needing to be carried back. Hangover trekking at altitude in strong winds is hard. So I kept going until I thought I'd get a nice clean view of Everest. Just around one more bend I kept saying. Anyways it became one bend to many and I turned back. As luck would have it, it really was only one more bend and then it became a nice little valley protected from the wind. Damn!

I walked back to jeep and stopped several times. I could've had nice little naps on the jagged stones. I laid down on several actually. There was virtually no vegetation at Everest. All I could see was rock and snow. Completely barren and lots of wind. It really isn't a place that humans are meant to go. By meant, I mean adapted to go.

So now we come to a key moment in the trip. One we have decided to immortalize in a t-shirt. We drove out of Everest base camp. Scott and Sam had been looking for it all over the place in the valley (we'd actually stopped the jeep there, some lady told us it was a 30 minute walk, I guess she had no clue). We'd been driving for maybe an hour and then Dawa stopped the jeep. He went to the back of the jeep and got some water. He came back and we kept driving. Maybe 20 minutes later he stops again. He gets out and goes around to the back. He's out there for maybe 5 minutes and Sam decides to see what's up. He opens the door and the back passenger side tire is completely flat. Rim touching the ground flat.

The girls decide that while he is changing the tire, they'll go for a walk and then we can pick them up along the road when we get moving again. Us 3 guys, decide to just sit and wait. Dawa slowly gets the jack out and then changes the tire. After putting the spare on, he decides there's a problem. The spare is flat, too! He never lowered the vehicle but decided him pushing on the tire was test enough.

He and his wife have some snacks since we're going to wait for a passing vehicle to help. The girls return aware that the odds of them being picked up by us were getting smaller and smaller. Eventually, Dawa decides to go. He and his wife grab some things and walk back down the road from where we came. All he tells us is to stay at with the car. We have no idea when he'll return. The 5 of us hang out in the car for a long freaking time and then I leave to go to the bathroom.

I come back and off in the distance we see 2 people walking along a path. Maybe we're saved. Scott notices what the 2 are wearing and yells "It's Dawa and his fucking wife." They'd been gone for 2 hours and we now walking along some parallel road in the opposite direction. What the hell!

Later, we see 2 more people off in the distance. Who are these people? We wonder who they are for the longest time and then see a giant herd of goats following them. We get worried as these 2 approach the vehicle. We were all in some weird state of paranoia by this stage. They come and peek into the windows. Tibetans aren't the cleanest of people and nor do they have the best of oral hygiene either as we discover. Sam decides they are safe and shows them what's wrong with the jeep. They'd approached from the left side. Then these 2 decide to hang around a bit, peering into the jeep and all. I don't think these 2 had had many opportunities with tourists or white people before. Then before they leave the offer us the chance to buy a goat so we could eat it. We decide not to.

Then we're alone again in the jeep. We decide to go through all the compartments to see if there's anything useful to survival. A few of us were sure we'd be spending the night in this jeep freezing to death right on the Tibetan plateau. Nice views of mountains but between them the land is absolutely flat. We find several items of note. First some unidentified green substance in little baggies. It isn't marijuana but that's really all we know. Next we find the vehicle registration. The vehicle we were told was a 1998 Toyota Landcruiser when we had been sure it was no later than a '93 was actually a '92. Then we find Dawa's ID. He's not 29 as he had claimed but 34. No wait, we find another set of ID and he is 29. Who is this guy? Why does he have 2 IDs with his photo with different birthdates.

We begin to wonder who our driver is. We question why he stopped for water. Did he puncture the tire on purpose? Is he going to let us freeze to death overnight? What was he doing when he headed off for 2 hours only to re-emerge in the distance somewhere else? Why had no cars past in the 3 hours we had been there? Why did Dawa not tell us where he was going? Should we have bought a goat?

We decided the next time a shepherd went by that we would indeed buy a goat. A few more hours past. We were still in the jeep. Then off in the distance, along the parallel road, which was paved (why weren't we on the paved road?) we saw two vehicles approaching from the direction Dawa had gone. We needed to save ourselves. Dine, Sam, and I raced to catch them before they had driven by. This other road was several hundred metres away. We didn't think we'd catch them. Dine used her big red scarf and waved it furiously in the air. They actually stopped and we went to them. They were Chinese tourists and didn't understand what we were saying. From what we could work out with signs, they had seen our driver, understood we had a flat tire, and motioned that they'd be coming around to our vehicle. We went back to our 4x4 which looked so tiny off in the distance along some dirt path that couldn't be seen from the main road. The Chinese never came.

Then maybe an hour later, we see another group of vehicles. This time Vanessa and Scott run to stop them. They reach them and out of one of the vehicles, Dawa emerges with a new tire. The jeeps had several empty seats as far as we could tell and she'd been making due in the back with all our bags piled up around her. We figured his wife must be at the next village. Dawa takes awhile to cross this field with a giant tire over his back. Just as he reaches the vehicle, a mysterious cart being pulled by a donkey arrives on the dirt road. Who do we see sitting in the cart but Dawa's wife? Why did she arrive by donkey and Dawa by jeep? It really made no sense.

With our fears of a driver who'd just left us to die in the middle of nowhere subsided, we were on our way again. Dawa had very strange driving habits. If the road was good, flat, and straight he would drive maybe 40km per hour. In the middle of nowhere, driving on what was barely even a path going over all kinds of bumps and through water, he would drive about 60km. No sense. Eventually the sun set and we were driving through these hills and over passes in the pitch blackness. We still didn't know if we would actually make it to Tingri and we had more images of us sleeping in the 4x4. Then at last Dawa pointed at some lights in the distance and said "Tingri." Then he would turn and the lights wouldn't be in front of us and we would worry. I was getting pretty restless in the end. I needed to get out of the jeep or something terrible might happen.

Finally, after about 10 hours (3 hours for other groups) we got to Tingri. We tried to find a guesthouse which we had read had hot showers. It had been about 4-5 days since our last one. Lonely Planet had lied to us. They only had hot showers in the summer. We spent another night in an unheated room. We had more momos. I had 2 bowls since Dine had just become really unwell and needed to go right to bed. I was starving. We decided we didn't need to stop at the guesthouse for lunch since Tingri wasn't that far away. Despite all our plans to post really bad things about Dawa and the Snowland Hotel where we had hired our car and driver, we never followed through. They really do have you on those one-way journeys.

Everest

I think the last time I blogged I was in Shegar. Well I wasn't actually in Shegar at the time but at any rate. We got out of Shegar without much todo. Well Dawa, our driver, was anxious to leave. Up for several hours, he was, just waiting.

We got into the 4x4 and got on the road. I don't remember if I this came before Shegar or afterwards but anyways, we were supposed to stay in some town, Tashi Dzom, I believe. There wasn't much there so we kept on going, stopping only for momos. What Tibetans call Chinese dumplings. We ended up at the base of Everest. Well not exactly the base but the Rongphu monastery with Everest right in sight. We really didn't do very much there. We got out of the 4x4 and went to the guesthouse across the road from the monastery. We put our bags in the room and noticed our splendid bathroom. Actually it wasn't a bathroom at all, okay technically it is, but a little stone cube with a narrow slit through the floor. Squat toilets didn't look nearly as bad as they did before. There were 2 slits I believe but one was covered over with... waste, shall we call it. The other one was practically right at the door, from which, you could see people standing about on the sidewalk in front of the guesthouse. So I kind of positioned myself in the best possible fashion pretending there was no way I could be seen. There was another bathroom but both holes had vanished so business was just done in corners. Pleasant way to start my journey to Everest right?

After that, we headed across the street to the monastery. It was a nice little monastery but not all that special aside from Everest being right there. The monks and nuns were a bit cold and tried to buy clothes from some of us. They gave us some bread and we told them we'd come back tomorrow. We didn't though. We just wanted to lie to Buddhists. Okay, the lie wasn't intentional.

We went back to the guesthouse and hung out in the kitchen with every other person who had come to Everest from the Tibetan side. We ran into almost all the people there at some point later in the trip. A Welsh guy traveling with 2 Koreans who didn't know each other previously, an Irish and Aussie girl who were downers for their group, 2 middle aged Frenchmen, and others. A Dutch guy I had met in Chengdu was there. I ended up just playing cards most of the night. Some Hearts and then Presidents and Assholes. I won a game of Hearts and was president for most of the night. I had quite a few beers at high altitude. Beer goes a long way at 5200m. I was toasty warm the whole time too being right behind the stove. Everyone was all bundled up and I was down to a t-shirt. Then they kicked us out of the room and we took the game to our chilly non-heated room. We took extra care to duct tape the holes and gaps in the glass. We had our little lightbulb though..... for about 10 minutes and then very slowly the light dimmed to blackness. I don't know why but we were obsessed with the game and everyone went to get their headlamps. We played for 2 more hours I think. We were noisy. Not that it mattered. Nobody slept at all. I'd been sleeping fine the whole time except for that one night. Even with all the alcohol the decreased oxygen in the air and the cold made it impossible to sleep. I also couldn't quit thinking about cards.

Some more from the Tibetan plateau

I'm no longer in Tibet but I've been doing a bad job at keeping this up to date. I was doing so well before I met people.

So last place I was was Shigatse? I think I need to prod my memory banks a little. Ok I think I've got it. From Shigatse we drove to Shegar. It was a pretty boring day really. We drove over fairly unfriendly roads around some very nice mountains and lakes. Tibet is very brown and lacks a lot of vegetation. Scott kept saying how it reminded him of Star Wars. I guess it is kind of other worldly, maybe Martian like but only because there's hardly any green to be seen. We'd see some other 4x4's making the reverse trip and some shepherds and their flocks. It really is hard to believe that they still have shepherds in Tibet. We's be driving forever and in the middle of nowhere would be this man and all these sheep/yaks. I guess there really aren't any predators there. Unbelievably boring job though.

There's really not much that else can be said for a day of driving. We got to Shegar which for some reason I'd imagined to be completely different. It sounds like some formerly great city, right? Anyways, we did absolutely nothing in Shegar. We arrived and there were no showers at all, no electricity save for a lightbulb in the middle of our room. "You can turn the light on after 7pm" they told us. Really barebones type stuff. Our pillowcases though were adorned with little birds that may or may not have been ducks. I actually had a dream involving these little cartoon birds. We spent most of our time in the main part of the hotel with everyone else since it was the only source of heat. In the centre of the room was a big oven that was really only used to heat water and unless you were really close to it couldn't feel any warmth. Tibet is freezing... well when there's no heat indoors. Yeah, no heat in any of our hostel rooms in the whole of Tibet. They are also lacking fuel in Tibet so yak poop and goat poop is burned. It didn't smell bad but then again I have a really poor sense of smell.

So the five of us sat around drinking beer (which goes a long way at high altitudes) playing cards and other weird little games until it seemed like a good time to go to bed.

I'll update tomorrow probably since I need to meet some people in 4 minutes. I was really hoping to put some pictures up but I'll need to burn a CD for that from Sam's computer. Seems like the easiest way since I've downloaded my pictures on his computer and deleted them from my memory card (reluctantly). I have 80 free minutes of internet from the laundry/internet place so I'll finish up Tibet then. Good times.

7 days in Tibet (well first 2 days I guess)

I'm not sure how much I'm going to write today. It's the first time I've been on the internet since I last wrote. I been through most of Tibet now, well from Lhasa. My hotel is only a few hundred meters from the Chinese border, another 8km to Nepal but my time in Tibet is coming to an end.

It was quite an interesting way to spend a week. I think this is day 7 of what was supposed to be a 9 day ride. I think 9 days was a bit too ambitious for us. Let me go back to the beginning now. If only I had my camera on me to jog my memory a bit.

We met our driver, Dawa, at about 8 in front of our hotel. He pulled up and the number 7 was displayed on the back of the Landcruiser. Lucky 7, I thought. We left Lhasa and shortly thereafter we saw a Landcruiser flipped over in the ditch. Nice way to start things (no accident is forthcoming in the narrative, just to let you know). We drove further and eventually came to Yagrem Lake (something with a Y anyway). It was a pretty nice lake but honestly growing up with the Canadian Rockies not far away it's hard to impress me with mountains and lakes. So we were on the top of the pass. It took forever to climb this hill with our slow driver and all these loops. We could see the same village at the base of the mountains for at least an hour or two. We got to the top and got out. I was scammed a little bit up there but not more than $5. I sat on a yak and had my picture taken. I gave her 20 yuan since I didn't have a fiver. She said everyone else in the group would get their picture taken and then no change would be needed. The others all paid seperately so I lost about $2 there. Then I had my picture taken with some dog. Not that special really and the dog and camera were thrust upon me rather quickly. Another $2 gone. I guess I need more pictures of myself on this trip anyway.

We were listening to some CDs in the 4x4. We decided to shell out an extra 500 yuan (umm, $70 per person over the course of 9 days) for a new vehicle, a '98 we were told. It came with a CD player as luck would have it. Shortly after passing the lake our driver stops and gets out of the 4x4 and looks under the hood. He never told us anything he did. Gets back in and we're off. Maybe 20 minutes later we just stop and stay there for 20 minutes or so. Something wrong with the engine or something. Dawa was a poor communicator. Anyways, we keep going and stopping for quite awhile. Eventually we reach some village. He tells us to go eat and everything will be fixed. OK. Actually, we called the agency and told them about the vehicle. At first, they don't know who we are or why we'd called. Finally, after speaking with our driver (Dawa speaks virtually no English btw), they figure it out. They'll fix the vehicle and send us a new one the next day. Whatever.

Somehow, we make it to the next place, Gyantse (no idea where we stopped for lunch to pay for an expensive buffet). We get there and aren't too impressed. So this is the least Chinese influenced city in Tibet? We decide to walk around and then leave in a few hours. We see some fort but it doesn't seem worth paying the entrance fee. We walk in as far as possible before getting caught and leaving. We decide there's not much to see in Gyantse and decide to continue to Shigatse (Tibet's number 2 city after Lhasa). Turns out we missed quite a lot in Gyantse. We didn't explore the Tibetan part of the town (no wonder it didn't seem very Tibetan) and we missed the monastery there. I saw it from the car at least. No going back now, I guess.

Shigatse we did something similar. We missed the big draw there as well in favour of a smaller one. We took a minibus to go see this monastery next to some tiny village. It was really nice actually. I don't know what to say about it really. We saw some little rooms with iconic images which wasn't too impressive actually. I felt a bit like an intruder there. All these buddhist monks and buddhists doing their worship (or whatever you want to call it) and me and my travel companions, mind you I wasn't with them for a lot of the time there. The most impressive part was seeing all these monks doing chants in the main room. I wasn't sure if I should be in there or not. I crept along the out walls (there were other tourists there so I didn't feel too bad) but then some monk who wasn't part of the ceremony smiled at me so I figured it was ok. There were only 3 other tourists there the whole time. A bit disrespectful I must say photographing with the flash on in there. I admit I took a short video with my little camera but there was no flash. Walking around the little halls around the main area with all these chants and drums was quite an experience. Maybe it was more that I felt I was intruding and was like some kind of spirituality spy.

We left the monastery and decided to hike up to the hermitage on the hill. We got to the base of the hill and 2 boys with a cart and donkey decided to offer us a ride. Vanessa was feeling a bit tired so she negotiated a 12c ride to the top. That donkey was slow and she lagged behind quickly. The boys only took her part way before renogociating at which point Vanessa got out and we waited 5-10 minutes for her to catch up. The hermitage wasn't all that impressive. We got to the top and took a break. There was a nice shrine that I would've gone to see had there not been a giant ravine that I had to walk around. I finished my Harry Potter book there at this buddhist hermitage in Tibet. Sam and Scott decided to go while the French Mauritian girls and I took a little nap. They actually got some holy water poured over their heads up there. I regretted that I didn't go a bit but realized I didn't really believe in that so what was the point in going through an empty spiritual ritual. I kind of wish I'd gone but oh well.

We got back to the village. We found some farmer and hopped on his little tractor to get back to the highway. We waited at this other village along the highway for quite awhile. We were passed by by all kinds of vehicles. Hitching was really the only way back. Half empty busses didn't even stop. Eventually some truck stops for us and we ride back to Shigatse atop all these glass bottles, can, and other various assortments of garbage for about 45 minutes. I had this bag of broken glass or something else very sharp under one leg. We made do.

We were going to go to the other big monastery in Tibet (home to the Panchen lama) but were too tired. We decided to just drive by the next day. That was kind of a mistake. Turns out it's this giant complex that is essentially a village inside the town. The Panchen lama is second to the Dalai Lama who is in exile. You can hang pictures of the Panchen lama and he is quite visible around Tibet. He's kind of like Beijing's poster guy for Buddhism. Tells Tibetans what Beijing wants him to. Actually he was a bit more rebelious than Beijing had hoped (he was appointed by the govt) but anyways. We quickly ran up to take a few photos and then left. Another high entrance fee and an impatient driver waiting for us.

Tibetans seem to all know at least 3 words. Hello, sorry, and money. They say hello, then sorry, and then hold out their hands for money. I must say I wasn't that generous. It depends on the place too. The city beggars have their beggary pretty well laid out. I remember one group of Tibetans walking by. The woman has her mouth full with this giant bun she was eating and she holds out her hand as they are walking by and says 'money, money.' Then she kind of shrugs her shoulders and moves on. All without stopping mind you. It was a bit depressing to see at times but you can't help everyone so my solution was to help no one. Cruel, I know.

Anyways, Scott stayed in the car while we went to the gates. Some kid came up to the window 'money, money.' Scott decides to give them a bun or something. One kid runs up the window and just grabs a couple from the bag. Can't reward the thief and punish the innocent so our breakfast disappeared pretty quickly.

I think that's all I'll go into for today. There should be something up here in the next few days. I plan to spend a few days in the next place I go so there'll be plenty of time to update my English teacher turned vagabond traveller blog.

We won't stay in touch

This is just a quick little post. I've just kind of been chillin' in Tibet for the past few days. It really is just great being here. I've mentioned all that before.

I'm going to be out of touch for the next week most likely. I'm taking a 4x4 through Tibet with 4 other people down to the Nepalese border. I was thinking yesterday. Wow! I'm in Tibet! I'm going to Nepal! I don't know if I can really believe it. I went to Potala Palace today. It was quite amazing. I didn't really feel like I belonged. Kind of like I was intruding upon the Tibetans and their religion. The outside was much more impressive. I might be able to post some pictures soon but hey, no promises.

I'll be sharing a landcruiser with a guy from Amherst, Massachusetts (age 23), a guy from Brandon, Manitoba (29) who had also been teaching in Korea, and two French girls (26,27) who are actually from Mauritius. So we'll have 8-9 days together in a little jeep going around Tibet. So far we have 3 bottles of wine and one of vodka. Should be some good times.

Out of China, well not technically

I've left Chengdu. I'm so glad I did. Yesterday, I had to wake up really early for the second day in a row. Well, I suppose 7:45 isn't all that early but yesterday I woke up at 5. That's right 5am. I needed to be on the end of the alley by 5:20. I managed to make it by 5:15 but I had to sacrifice one of my t-shirts. I could've gone back for it I suppose but technically it's just an undershirt and I have at least 2 others the same in my bag. I also lost the key to the room and despite there being a key deposit I didn't lose any money. They even gave me the key deposit back. I'm glad that I reported the loss to some young guy working there who either didn't know or didn't care to charge me and just gave me a new key.

Right, I needed to be on the street by 5:20 because I was catching a shuttle bus to the airport. I was catching my flight to Tibet. I hadn't been on a plane in over 6 months which is the longest I've gone for 5 years or so, maybe more. It was a typical flight except the food was really terrible. It was basically some type of rice gruel that barely looked fit for prisoners. I had a bit. I think it was because I knew that I should be eating but I looked around and didn't see anyone else eating it so I folded the aluminum foil back over it.

I arrived at the airport in Tibet and was pretty worried. It was freezing. I don't have a jacket either. I just have all these layers. Then, they warned us all about altitude sickness. I was a bit paranoid about that. I actually went from being about 500m above sea level to 3700m. One woman fainted while we were waiting for the luggage. Then we got on this bus to head to Lhasa (the airport is over an hour outside of town) and someone had puked in the back seat. I didn't look but someone said it looked just like the plane food. Of course, puked up rice wouldn't have looked any different.

Tibet so far though has been amazing. Everything looks so different. I think I was a bit down on China just because it didn't seem all that different from Korea. Tibet feels nothing like Korea. The people look different. The food is different (much better in my opinion). The buildings. The air. The atmosphere.

I took it a bit slow yesterday. I stayed at the hotel and watched a movie, "Kingdom of Heaven," with some guys I met. One had been staying at my hostel and I'd gone out for pizza with him and some people. The other guy had been teaching in Korea for 3 years on and off. I met him on the bus along with an Aussie girl who's been traveling for 8 months now. We had gone out for lunch shortly after getting here. It was such good food. I love meat and potatoes. It was more than that though. I haven't really eaten potatoes in 6 months, I guess almost 7 now.

I walked around town by myself for awhile. I had a bit of a headache actually, because of the altitude I think. It was so nice. I actually felt like I was traveling. All these people in traditional clothes, actual traditional. Everything just feels so authentic. Not like in China or Korea where you might see something traditional but made it new ways so it was only superficially authentic. You know what I'm trying to say. The hostel in Chengdu, Lonely Planet said that it dated back to the Ming dynasty or Qing at least. Turns out the building dates back all the way to 1993. Nothing felt authentic in Korea. Well most things technically weren't since most really old things had been destroyed by wars and fires. "This temple dates back to 1338 but was destroyed many times, the current structure was built in 1974." I bought a bit of bread and was eating it while I walked around. I saw some little Tibetan boy who was also eating bread and he stared at me for a bit and then said hello to me. Some other kids said hello to me also. It didn't annoy me at all and actually made me a bit happy. In Korea or China, I was either indifferent or annoyed. I usually wasn't indifferent by the way.

So even though I really haven't seen anything in Tibet aside from the street life, I'm really enjoying it. They speak English much better than the Chinese also, which is interesting/unusual. I've been disappointed by a few things here but mostly just how much more modern it is than I would've imagined. Of course, this is Lhasa, Tibet's largest city. They have ATMs, electronics, internet obviously. I bought some stuff from an old lady today and afterwards, she got a call on her cell phone. I don't even have a cell phone and I don't imagine many old women around the globe carry cell phones with them. It's nice for the people though, just a little depressing for the traveller. I've realized though that even if I go the ends of the Earth, I'm still going to find someone there blabbing away to someone on a cell phone.