Hi from Indonesia!

Jakarta

Bogor

Hey everyone!

(update - Actually now in Bandung... trouble emailing in Bogor)

I'm now in Bogor which is just an hour and a bit south of Jakarta. I'm going against the travel advisory's notes once more as I find myself in a bastion of western influence... A shopping mall. Not only that but it's the brand new one with a KFC and A&W prominently placed at the front of the shiny new building. They are checking vehicles and the occasional person for explosives if that makes one feel better ;) They're missing the metal detector gateways that the fancy malls in Jakarta had though. Still not as thorough as I remember them being in Is r ael.
I arrived in Jakarta two nights ago. In the airport in KL I got talking to a high school student who spoke excellent english... turns out he goes to high school in Boston. He was in Aceh in north Sumatra (An island of Indonesia) visiting his mom who he later mentioned was a advisor to the new government in the region. They've gotton special status within Indonesia and this new regional government is a bit special.. It ends years of terrorism. His mom was one of the dissidents and it came out later that they had a good chuckle with a close family friend who had just been elected intelligence chief for the new government... A role he had held with the rebels.. So now the people in charge of his safety are the same ones who were hunting him just a short time ago. International observers are in Aceh now in force so he figures it's one of the safest places to be these days...
Some other interesting characters that came through KL while I was there:
My friend Thomas who overstayed his visit to Thailand by 8 years and has been stuck in KL the past year trying to get papers from his native Czech Republic.
Young woman from Edmonton heading to Bali
A guy from Edmonton.. All of a sudden lots of us!
A prof from Iran... from his comments and another Iranian it seems 90% of Iranians don't support their government!
Oh.. and last but least, some white trailer trash guy with fake breasts... ugh.. scary... ( of course.. this kind of stuff is a bit more common in Thailand.. )

First two from Jakarta. Last picture is from Bogor.

JJ

Attack of the leech... video

Monday, August 18, 2008

My first YouTube video.

I mentioned this video in my jungle email. YouTube shrank it down a little bit. Yes, that's my foot.

Ignore the camera noises.. focusing.. NOT the leech ( that would just be too freaky )

Here's the YouTube video link if you prefer. Might be a bit bigger than the one above.

http://www.youtube.com/v/nLBNgd-vHpo

I've attached a still shot of one that made it to another hiker's leg... lighter and pliers handy ;)

JJ

Singapore

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Hi All,

Spent 3 days in Singapore.. quick bus ride down from Kuala Lumpur to Johur Bahru where you get off the bus to get your departure stamp then get back on the bus if you can for the 1km ride over the causeway to then go through it again for Singapore immigration. It was easier to walk the middle 1km.

Singapore is amazingly clean compared to everywhere else I've been in SE Asia. The only place that might compare is Hong Kong. Singapore seems like one big national park. Singapore is a big shopping experience for most people. Orchard road is the main stretch of high end label shopping and was bustling with activity. They had shopping for me as well.. lots of computer tech stores and even a building dedicated to electronic parts and tools. My grandfather would like the selection of HAM radio supplies. Prices all around were not very good though so no deals to be had.

Little India was quite a neat place. I stayed nearby at a homestay so spent quite a bit of time there. Also went through the Arab section of town and visited Chinatown which is the high end. The Chinese make op the largest part of the population here. There are noticeably fewer muslims than Malaysia. Westerners make up 1 to 2% but are very prominent in the bar areas ;)

They are getting ready for a night Grand Prix race for the end of September. That would be quite an experience.

The most construction cranes I've seen in one place has to be the extension of downtown they are building here. It's all reclaimed land ( ie.. filling in the ocean ) and the casino is set to be done in two years.. a very ambitious schedule.

I'm back in Kuala Lumpur now..

Justin

Picture: downtown Singapore at night

picture 2: just to the left of downtown.. the reclaimed land construction area.

Hi from the Jungles of Malaysia

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Hey All!

I just got out of. the jungle... Taman Negara. I had a great hike into the middle of the national park where we (3 of us along with 5 others who had also reserved bunks) slept one night listening to the wild animals outside drinking, chasing and killing or at least injuring each other. Good thing we were about 20' up on stilts(see picture). It was a strenuous 6 hour hike in. The next morning most of the others hopped on a longboat at the river.. but there wasn't enough room and two of us could wait for another boat in an hour or hike back on a shorter trail. Myself and another decided to do the hike back as originally planned. We boiled some water for a liquid breakfast and some more for drinking on the way back and headed out. It was shorter but a much more difficult hike. We made it in very very good time - 4 hours instead of the estimated 6 hours. We only had one leech that made it to blood sucking stage and I'm happy to say it wasn't on me despite
more leeches making the attempt (I caught about 4 inching their way up - made a little video too). These aren't like the leeches I grew up with in the lakes of Alberta; they are litle spaghetti strands that reach out from the underside of leaves and from sticks on the ground to catch on as you walk by. they inchworm themselves to an opportune location before becoming engorging themselves on your blood. As for the hike, I've never sweated so much in my life. Others were quite jealous that I had a dry shirt and shorts to change in to. Even better that I had a towel as there was well water with a rudimentary shower; did that ever feel good! When I got back to the park entrance on the second day I had 7 ice teas and later found a place selling cans of beer (illegally) to top it all off.
We didn't see all that many animals. Wild Boar, Monkeys, Pheasant, Some kind of badger (Tamas???) and some large insects including a very large and poisonous looking centipede.
I´m not sure if I mentioned this already.. But I´m now toting around a Nokia N800 and it´s a great improvement over the previous one ( a slightly older model) that I had pickpocketed. I can now pop in the memory card from my camera directly and send you all pictures. I can also attach a keyboard much more easily so I can write more ( I´m sorry ;). It has a webcam as well.. But have to figure out what program to run on your end then maybe I can give a few live video tours if anyone is interested ?? Anywhere I have wifi I can video roam.. Which may limit me largely to Kentucky Fried Chicken stores.

Hi from Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Hi all,

I got a call while in the guesthouse in Kuala Lumpur from the Russian couple I had been hanging out with... they missed me and having decided to delay going to Thailand a bit longer decided to see if I would come and hang out with them on an island off the very NW tip of Malaysia called Langkawi. Nice beach etc.. we did a trip to the cable car for a good view of the area. It was a good day and the pictures came out well. I made some interesting friends while in Lankawi including a couple from Austria ( who seemed to be there to take advantage of the tax-free status with relation to beer consumption.. aprox 50 cents cdn a can of beer.. vs $2 Cdn elsewhere in Malaysia). We also hung out with an Arbian guy and his wife ( who at least had her face showing.. there are a number of "Ninja's" walking around this part of the world). I had a lucky game playing pool and I wouldn't be all that surprised to see him show up at my doorstep in the future for a rematch!

I've since moved on to Georgetown on Penang, an island south of Langkawi.

Hope all is well with each of you.

JJ

ps, saw Hellboy II last night.. was very please that the Malaysian censors didn't have to make any cuts or silence any swears - it can really ruin a movie. I'm scared to go see Batman.. can anyone comment on the amount of swearing?

Still in Kuala Lumpur.. pickpockets and private hospitals... theives all of 'em

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Hello all!

I had a rude shock when I went to get my last rabies shot. The general hospital here didn't offer it! The private hospital down the road wanted 600 ringet for it ( $200 !!!!) ( I paid about $15 in Thailand ) then next private hospital didn't have it and clinic offered it for about $90 Cdn. I was seriously contemplating the 8 hour bus ride to Thailand to get it I was so pissed off. Then to make things worse.. as I was on a packed transit car ( with my back to a wall even ) I got pick pocketed! They got, you guessed it, my Nokia 770 :( :( But not my wallet/passport/camera or money :) :) :) I had the important stuff better secured and underneath the Nokia - which I had hurriedly stuffed in my pocket before entering the station. I actually know who piked me and the guy was waiting to get on the train I was on heading back to the busy station ( I had gone two more stops figuring out who it had been - with my back to a wall there weren't many
possibilities to rule out). I was tempted to do some harm but I'm sure he had friends around and I wasn't actually 100% sure he was the culprit.. although the fact he was coming back on the train without going anywhere at the stop made it pretty close. The police were happy to hear it was not a native Malaysian.. there has been a lot of racial tension here in the past and I've gotten a few hints there is still a bit of animosity lingering - the most direct suggestion I got was a suggestion that Malays and Indians don't go into Chinatown ?!?!

I ended up getting my rabies shot on time that night at a different hospital altogether.. near the hostel and also for $90. What a day. I think I was more upset about the expensive rabies shot... I figure I got robbed twice on July 2nd! Thailand makes it's own whereas Malaysia imports theirs from France, chilled of course ( Bordeaux ??? ).

I hung out with some Russian friends last night taking pictures around the Petronas towers. One is included. I've also attached an example of the horrible condition of the sidewalks in places.. this one is on a nice patch where you might not expect it. Kuala Lumpur is quite a city... a long monorail, an LRT system with underground, on-ground and elevated sections, a commuter train, a once-tallest building in the world, 4th largest tower, a bunch of western-style shopping malls and at least one with a rollercoaster (see pic ) similar to the mall I grew up near.

Oh and yes, I did go up the towers.. but only to the walkway! They don't let you go any higher. I also went up the 4th tallest communication tower a mile or two away from Petronas for a better view. I was surprised they were so quick to note, upon finding out I was Canadian that the tallest is in Toronto.

I'm tired.. I hope this was at least readable if not at all comprehensable!

Justin

Out of Thailand... finally!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Hi all!

After a whirlwind tour of Thailand's S.W. and then an overnight bus I'm now sitting in a guesthouse in Kuala Lumpur waiting for tbe weekend crowd to checkout and make room. I arrived around 4am and have spent the last three hours walking around with a Moscowvite couple who were on my bus. This isn't my first 4am arrival... the buses and trains never seem to have very good schedules to choose from for overnight travel.
After Koh Phangon's Full moon party I headed on the night ferry to the mainland and a morning bus to Phuket. Spent two nights there (and a daytrip to the beach town ) staying at the guesthouse used in the movie "The Beach" as a stand in for the Bangkok Kho San road flophouse. It was a pretty decent place - honest! Unlike the island huts I had no spiders or cockroaches! No mice or rats either.. at least that I saw. A young woman staying there had rented a motorbike and had an accident. I went and drove it back for her and it was no wonder... the front brakes were extremely grabby and she just had to touch them while making a slight turn around the traffic circle to lock up the front tire and throw her off the bike. She dented the helmet but was ok herself. The back brakes are rather unintuitively positioned at your foot, whereas the front brakes are handy on the handlebars. After Phuket I headed on a ferry to Phi Phi... an amazing little island with great
everything. I enjoyed the beach and sunset and stayed up late partying at the bars. The island was devestated from the tsunami and is on it's way back to being a tourist mecca.
The next morning it started to pour so I decided to move on. While waiting for the rain to let up a little (it did a bit... from monsoon to just pouring down vertically) the guesthouse employees/family pulled a 4ft lizard out from somewhere behind me and proceeded to spin it around and bash it dead on the concrete. I heard them say komoto a few times...??? I barely had time to snap a video and fuzzy picture.
After PP I spent two nights in Krabi hanging out with a British bar manager and two French guys and then headed to Au Nan(sp?) for two nights where I ran into friends I had gone to the Full Moon Party with!
So now here I am with little sleep but plenty of caffiene sitting in a guesthouse in Kuala Lumpor!

Pics: My view from Phi Phi guesthouse... why did I only stay one night!
Rainy view from same... ok, that's why.
Large now-dead lizard

JJ

Full Moon Party, Koh Phangan, Thailand

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Hi All!

It's the low season for tourism here but they are still able to get 8 or so thousand people out on the beach for the full moon party on Koh Phangan. I made quite a few new friends the past few days so we had a great little gang touring the party together. It's a little soap opera.. one of the british couples is having an "amicable" break up of their 8 year marriage.. how long it remains amicable is anyone's guess... and they haev another 6 months of travel planned together??? ouch.

I was surprised on two occasions to have people recognize me from earlier locations ( and this was in a crowd of 8000 in the dark)! One was a Swedish girl, Cat who was in the group in Bangkok a few weeks ago and the other was a guy named Sam who was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia a month or two ago. Always cool running into travelers again down the path.

So without further adieu I present to you a picture from last night's full moon.
Oh.. and a 3D picture you can cross your eyes to view... you might want to make it smaller or stand back to make it easier to cross the images to get 3D. Find your inner geek. If you like it I've got tons of these ready to piece together... Angkor Wat for example was great for 3D!

JJHi All!

It's the low season for tourism here but they are still able to get 8 or so thousand people out on the beach for the full moon party on Koh Phangan. I made quite a few new friends the past few days so we had a great little gang touring the party together. It's a little soap opera.. one of the british couples is having an "amicable" break up of their 8 year marriage.. how long it remains amicable is anyone's guess... and they haev another 6 months of travel planned together??? ouch.

I was surprised on two occasions to have people recognize me from earlier locations ( and this was in a crowd of 8000 in the dark)! One was a Swedish girl, Cat who was in the group in Bangkok a few weeks ago and the other was a guy named Sam who was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia a month or two ago. Always cool running into travelers again down the path.

So without further adieu I present to you a picture from last night's full moon.
Oh.. and a 3D picture you can cross your eyes to view... you might want to make it smaller or stand back to make it easier to cross the images to get 3D. Find your inner geek. If you like it I've got tons of these ready to piece together... Angkor Wat for example was great for 3D!

JJ

Hi from Koh Tao, Thailand

Friday, June 6, 2008,

Hi all!

I was in Bangkok much longer than expected.. just left a few days ago
and did a one night stopover in Champon to do a border run ( involved a
boat trip.. much more involved than the northern Myanmar experience)
and then I arrived in KohTao yesterday and signed up for a diving couse
and 5 nights accomodation (leaving the 10th?). There's not much more to
do here than dive so it seemed like the best thing to do. It's also one
of the best deals in the world for the dive course.. about $280
including accomodation.. and your 'confined' dives are in shallow open
ocean water. I did my first set of dives this morning... I was the
only student so we got a lot done. I had a small fish nibble (more
like a bite actually) on me fairly soon but I had experienced that at a
hot spring in China ( although it's a Turkish thing but I digress... )
so I knew/hoped it was after dead skin around a healed wound so didn't
start eating water or otherwise freak out ;). The session included mask
removal, gear removal underwater and on the surface, swimming without
your mask, turning off your air etc. My instructor swears I've done
this before!

So... back in Bangkok... before I was able to escape here I finally got
the room in the guest house I had wanted since I got there... and then
on the second night in that room... I noticed a mouse scurry away when
I entered but was really tired and decided it would probably avoid me.
I blocked a few holes and went to bed. I was woken up a few hours later
from the pain of the little bastard boring down on my finger!!! I was
swearing immediately as I knew this little bite would be costly and
involve further pain. The blood dripping from my finger confirmed it
would involve more consideration. I went downstairs and corraled the
local pet caat and locked it into the room. The mouse appeared briefly
when the cat was thrown under the bed.. but I was scarier so it ran
back under the bed! The cat was unsuccesful and almost took out a
window screen an hour later so I had to let it retire. I went back to
sleep. The next morning I skyped (phoned) my parents and a friend or
two for moral support and to keep me from baking out on the hospital
visit... I was already registered at the hospital (from getting my Hep
A/B innoculation top ups) but it still took all morning. I ended up
being a high risk bite victim ( lots of nerves in the fingers ) so
needed more than just the innoculation series. I needed 7cc or so of
"mobilized" serum. Kinda like paratroopers ready to fight and dropped
into the fighting zone. So the first to land were 1cc into the tip of
my finger. The tip of your finger is probably not much more than 1cc..
so mine got a bit bigger. It was the only real painful shot of the
four. The other paratroopers were injected behind the front (yes... in
the rear ) and then the first of 5 innoculations over a month was put
into my arm. I've already got the second innoculaion here in Koh Tao.
What a pain.. pun intended. I'm now ready to fight off stray dogs
though!

So.. I'm currently sitting in a bar with 3 Spanish guys I hung out with
in Bagkok over a week ago... they had gone north so it was a real
surprise to see them at my guest house a few hours ago.. signing up for
the diver course too. I'm hoping to meet up with another friend I met
in Bangkok as well; as well as a cool couple I've bumped into a few
times over the months who left China and are now in Bangkok and in
touch via email. This is getting fun again.. Bangkok was great but it's
not the best place to make friends.

Let's se what I have for pictures..
Ok - first two are during the longboat trip out to Myanmar to get the
visa topped up. You can see the white facepaint used occasionally for
sunscreen. Asians prefer their skin lighter and there are quite a few
pharmaceutical products related to that. Michael Jackson anyone? The
seconsd is a shot from a resort on Khao Tao. There are plenty of less
desireable views as well... but I'll send the 'classic wish you were
here' one for now.

JJ

rabies shots

Monday, June 2, 2008

Bit by a mouse while sleeping!

( My Grandfather asked me about catching the mouse...)
I thought about trying to catch the moue too.. but there could realisticly be multiple mice with accesss to my room.

It took quite a while but I got all the initial jabbings required... I have to gt 4 or 5 more shots over the next month but they are all easy shoulder ones. Today, in addition I needed to get a set of shots with already fighting antibodies to drop into battle fighting. They put as much into th bite site s possible.. my finger, which was by far the most painful jabbing... but it wasn't as bad as I was led to belive it would be. They then distributed the remainder of the thre vials to my glutons ;)

So all is well. It cost me 3150 baht already ($100) and the other 4 or 5 shots will me $10 or so each. ( update.. unless you are in Malaysia.. where I got my last shot.. for 350 Ringette or about $110 - disgusting )

an Elephant came walking..

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Hi all,

I'm still in Bangkok. Got held up a bit because of some light food
poisoning. I say light because I could tell the food was rancid and
spit it out but I guess some of the earlier part I actually ate was bad
too. Anyways.. no where near as bad as my experience in a previous
trip.

I've come across an elephant in Chang Mai but didn't expect to see one
in the streets of Bangkok. I've actually seen a few now. One was
outside of a tech shopping area up by the old airport ( and not
frequented by tourists anymore as there are two other more accessible
ones ) and the other few were on the street outside of my guesthouse
near Khao San road. I understand it's illegal to keep an elephant in
Bangkok.. where the heck do they hide it? ;) They come around with the
elephant and sell you food to feed the elephant. They make a good
living and the elephant gets fed. I'm sure the elephant would be much
better off somewhere else though. Sorry I didn't get a good picture..
this was the baby.. a bigger one came around 15 minutes later too.
The highway picture is outside the tech shopping area where I wasted a
good part of a day... this is the highway a good 10 miles away from
city center!
Well, I'm checked out and ready to get out of Bangkok... but to where?
I still haven't decided even on the direction!

Oh, and a picture of a job listing in the Bangkok Post.. note the job
requirements.. ages!

JJ

Dog days....

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Hi all,

I'm not sure if I entioned... but I've noticed a lot of stray dogs
(and cats) during m travels in Asia so far. A few travelers I've met
have even received bites and gone for the regiment of painful rabies
shots. One girl drunkenly tried to brush away a baby rat and got bit..
but I digress.
Today I came across two interesting dogs in Bangok.. the first speaks
for itself ( but I have to mention I did not set up the shot or have an
idea who or for how long the accesory was present). The second dog was
busy digging the large hole when I approached and only after he settled
in did I realize it wasn't for a bone but instead to expose some cool
earth to help escape the heat. smart dog! Here are the pictures...

JJ
ps.. all is good. Short trip to Hau Hin and back but now in the Koh San
area of Bangkok where the paty never ends! Think exosition and that's
it year round (I'm guessing). Tons of tourists.. definitely not
cultural... at least not Thai culture!

Hi From Chang Rai, Northern Thailand

Monday, May 12, 2008

Hi All

Just an update. I did a "border run" to Mayanmar to top up my Thai
visa as it was getting down to it's last week and Mayanmar was just too
close and convenient. I wasn't sure the border would be open and it was
actually closed a few days ago for their "vote" on the constituional
amendment to essentially embed the military rule into the constitution.
A Californian I met in between the two border posts compared Mayanmar
to Tijana and he and his cousin, as most others it seemed, pretty much
just stepped over and back. I walked around a bit ;) I was shocked
when a monk came out and scared away a bunch of women and children..
then pulled out a slingshot to make sure they got the message. He
didn't notice me until after and I sheepishly motioned for permission
to take a picture of the buildings and he gave me a big thumbs up...
until then I was still ready to run. Come to think of it I was still
ready to run in case it was all just a ploy to get me in closer...
those monks.... (!)

The scooter pictures are from Pai .. a magical place in N. Thailand; a
bit too magical for some. It's heyday as an opium center is long past
.. Laos and Cambodia have taken over as tourist centers for that ( and
no.. that's not why it took me so long to get through Laos and
Cambodia.. excellent tourists spots for many reasons ).

I'm off down to Bangkok and then on to S. Thailand next. It's supposed
to be raining a lot in the next while down there but I'll let you know
for sure.

Hey Bill.. it turns out losing your appetite in China and parts south
is a pretty good dieting technique.. I've lost over 20 lbs! oh,
reminds me.. one more picture to attach.. from an hour or two ago...
(my apologies to the dial up user.... )

Justin

Hi from Chang Mai - my bike accident

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

I had a bit of an accident last night.. I had rented a bike and was tooling along in traffic when I decided to take a shortcut down the sidewalk... it was barren and I thought it was the safest way to avoid the car pulling out in front of me. I forgot about the fact that they don't pour a sidewalk here.. every lot has it's own "sidewalk" out front and although these were all the same level ( I think that's what tricked me ) one of them had a 3" concrete wall which launched me up in the air. I was going fairly fast and was still at a slight angle turning off the road and I went flying. The lucky part was that my landing spot was a nice flat tile area so I just slid upon landing. If anything had grabbed I'm sure my injuries would be much more than the 5" of scraped arm! I'm counting my lucky stars today and trying to remember the lesson learned.

oh, btw. I skipped Bangkok so far.. got there ( from Koh Chan Island, Thailand near Cambodia ) and just went to the train station and hopped on a train to Chang Mai. Pai is next and then who knows.

Justin

Hi from Chang Mai

Saturday, April 26, 2008

There was a guy on the bus to Bangkok from Koh Chang who was from
Edmonton! I thought he was from around here so it was a real surprise.
He's actually born in Cambodia and regularly visits Cambodia. More
interesting was that when I asked him what he does he said he was going
to be the next leader of Cambodia. He said it with such earnestness
that I'm tempted to believe he's actually going to be a candidate. We
talked a little bit and he seemed to be well studied up on the politics
of the region. Too bad I hd to get off before I could find out more...
but I'll keep an eye open for him in Edmonton... or maybe laterin the
news. There are quite a few other i teresting characters floating
around including one guy who does import/export but only has customers
by word of mouth. He flys at least once a month (sometimes 3 times)
back to Germany and also spends some time in Cambodia but mostly time
in Thailand.

Chang Mai is a neat city. A bit bigger than I was expecting. Even has
a big technology shopping center. Went to see Thai boxing last night..
only non-thai guy boxing was an Australian who caught his opponent with
a knee to the head and knocked him silly. I don't know why they even
bother with boxing gloves when elbows and knees and feet are fair game!
Most of the crowd was tourists which made me a bit skeptical at first..
band they started with young fighters (15?) but the fights were genuine
and things got serious with the bigger fighters although they all
showed respect for the refs, trainers and other fighter through their
opening 'dances (thanks to trainers) or bowing etc (fighters/ref)

Interesting traveller from Edmonton

April 25, 2008

There was a guy on the bus to Bangkok from Koh Chang who was from
Edmonton! I thought he was from around here so it was a real surprise.
He's actually born in Cambodia and regularly visits Cambodia. More
interesting was that when I asked him what he does he said he was going
to be the next leader of Cambodia. He said it with such earnestness
that I'm tempted to believe he's actually going to be a candidate. We
talked a little bit and he seemed to be well studied up on the politics
of the region. Too bad I hd to get off before I could find out more...
but I'll keep an eye open for him in Edmonton.

ps. Chang Mai is a neat city. A bit bigger than I was expecting. Went
to see Thai boxing last night.. only non-thai guy was an Australian who
caught his opponent with a knee to the head and knocked him silly. I
don't know why tey even bother with boxing gloves when elbows and knees
and feet are fair game!

JJ

a few more pics

Friday, April 18, 2008

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the long silence.. I'm moving around quite a bit. Since my
last pictures from Laos I've been back into Vietnam and now am in
Cambodia. I am closing down the internet cafe in order to get a few
pictures up.. more to come. I'll try to get some cross-your-eyes 3D
compositions up there soon as well ;)

My current location is Sihanouk Ville on the south coast of Cambodia.
I had to backtrack through Phnom Pehn ( pronounced: Nom Pen ) after
Siam Reap ( the base of exploration for Ankor Wat ). Next destination
is Bangkok, Thailand.

Here's the Flickr Link:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/61421953@N00/F4b0tu

JJ

Out of Vietnam.. Hello Cambodia

Friday, April 4, 2008

I made it out of Vietnam - a day past my visa expiry.. $5 penalty although as expected someone tried to get more out of me. Luckily for me it was only the bus company employee and I could just tell him he was wrong.. but the gaul! He was there when I was told by the tour company that it was only $5 and not to worry. That's Vietnam for you.. I'm very glad to be out of there as the constant watch for scams, counting change, adding up your own bill, constantly turning down tuk tuk.motorcycle rides etc was getting to be too much hassle.)

I've been in Phnompenh for a few days now. I saw the genocide meuseum at the school that was turned into a jail although I still have trouble keeping track of Phol Pot and the Khmer Rouge story... and I'm not sure anyone really understands the motivation as the genocides were of their own people! I don't think I'll bother going to the actual killing fields.. just fields with pits and a very sad story. I'm in Phnompenh for tonight and will head out tommorrow or the next day.. not sure which direction though. Either south to their beach or more likely just on to Siam Reap and the world famous Ankor Waht. I was also toying with the idea of going up to where I was a month ago in Laos but just look from the Cambodia side ( and see the pink fresh water dolphins before they die off ).

JJ

Bus ride

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Something my Mom said reminded me of one other bit of the bus trip.
Although the people being smuggled into Vietnam were not on the bus as
it crossed the border ( just their boxes/luggage - they were on a hike
) they were indeed on the bus immediately after the border ( well, we
had to wait for them while we unloaded rice ). Right around the corner
from the border we were stopped by two policemen. I didn't notice it
but another traveller said there were more than a few faces that went
white. My "uh oh" exclaimation probably didn't help ;) . The policemen
were paid off by the "cash man" and we went on though. I wonder if a
fellow policeman didn't clue his friends off on the big payer coming
down the road!

Today was a good day walking around Hue. I followed a walking tour and
visited the "forbidden city" of Hue. The layout reminded me of the
"forbidden city " in Beijing. Even had a square across from the
entrance a la Tiannemen although not as big of course ( Tiannemen is
the largest in the world I believe ). Took lots of pictures of course
(including my 3d special ones to screw your eyesight up ) but this
computer at the hotel doesn't have a usb port. I bought some new memory
cards so I can take pictures freely once again.

JJ

Travel Update, I'm in ....

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Hi All,

Sorry to those I just added to my email list, but I actually have
been very bad at sending anything so you haven't missed much! Many of
you will be surprised to hear I'm in Laos and have been for about 3
weeks now. I was in China for about a month and then Vietnam ( mainly
Hanoi ) for a short while before coming to Laos. I actually bought a
second visa for Vietnam so am going back there soon to head south on
their coast now that I've decided to continue traveling past my return
flight. So Vietnam is next and then Cambodia and Thailand and then??? (
suggestions anyone).

I'm currently in Savanaket, Laos. Splitting a room with another
Canadian from Montreal. $10 ( / 2 ) gets some decent luxury ( after
an island with limited electricity and no hot water ). Watching the
stock market fall on tv last night and this morning.. not too surprised
but still a bit shocking none the less. I haven't watched TV much at
all since I started traveling... what a change!
Just had an "expensive" buffet... 35,000 kip ( about $4 ). Other
places have omelets for 7,000 kip, coffee for 3,000 kip etc etc. It's
easy to forget the translation to Cdn$ when you are paying thousands of
kip for something! On 4,000 islands I was paying 30,000 kip for a hut
on stilts with a mosquito net and short walk to shower/bathroom.

I never intended to spend this long in Laos! It's been a nice place in
many different ways.
I'm putting these and some other pictures up on flickr (I've had the
account a while.. now I'll use it I guess ;)

guest pass?? Try this out and let me know what you think:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/61421953@N00/51eb5Z

I've also got some pics from China at:
http://toozy.nfshost.com

Justin

ps Bathroom talk.. rant cut out from the above: ;)

Bathrooms here can be anything from a floor with raised foot stones (
and a hose to wash away the results ) to a squat toilet to a western
toilet and some of those are manual flush ( bucket and water scoop to
pour down the toilet to flush it ). So far I've been able to get a
western toilet although many with manual flush. Oh, no shower
curtains.. the whole bathroom floor drains and everything can get wet.
The whole toilet situation is pretty common everywhere I've been so far
although China tended to be much dirtier and you almost always had to
have your own toilet paper. Washing basins aren't a necessity it seems.
Vietnam and Laos are better for washing basins and even had a lot of
places where they had soap. It's best to forget about hygiene when you
have few choices in restaurants... although in China eating at
McDonald's has some real benefits with cleanliness!

Fw: pics on flickr

Thursday, March 6, 2008

In Savanaket, Laos. Splitting a room with another Canadian from
Montreal. $10 ( / 2 ) gets some decent luxury ( after an island with
limited electricity and no hot water ). Watching the stock market fall
on tv last night and this morning.. not too surprised but still a bit
shocking none the less. Just had an "expensive" buffet... 35,000 kip (
about $4 ). Other places have omlettes for 7,000 kip, coffee for 3,000
kip etc etc. It's easy to forget the translation to Cdn$ when you are
paying thousands of kip for something! On 4,000 islands I was paying
30,000 kip for a hut on stilts with a mosquito net and short walk to
shower/bathroom. Bathrooms here can be anything from a floor with
raised foot stones ( and a hose to wash away the results ) to a squat
toilet to a western toilet and some of those are manual flush ( bucket
and water scoop to pour down the toilet to flush it ). So far I've
been able to get a western toilet although many with manual flush. Oh,
no shower curtains.. the whole bathroom floor drains and everything can
get wet. The whole toilet situation is pretty common everywhere I've
been so far although China tended to be much dirtier and you almost
always had to have your own toilet paper. Washing basins aren't a
necessity it seems. Vietnam and Laos are better for washing basins and
even had a lot of places where they had soap.

I never intended to spend this long in Laos! It's been a nice place in
many different ways.

Justin

Travel progress

Friday, February 29, 2008

I just got a second visa for Vietnam and am heading back there in the next few days.

I'll have to think about highlights... Great wall was good, Lijang reminded me of Jasper with the road lined up with the mountains etc. I hate to say but the big empty mall on my little sidetrip just highlighted the odd construction planning in China.
I liked the tacky highly tech light show in Hong Kong too :)
Hanoi was much more of a increase in number of tourists from China than I expected. The lack of hygene in Asia continues to amaze and disturb me. The tourist invasion in Laos disturbs me.. it's hard to gan any insight into the culture.

JJ

Chinese New Years

Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Chinese New Years...
I already got my haircut so I'm safe there... took me a while to find a
place where I would be sure a man wasn't going to do the cutting.. a
cute young woman was hard to gurantee! ;) I paid for it though.. had
a learning Chinese speaker with us who made things worse by finding out
the wrong price for me.. despite being off the beaten path it ended up
being 50Y which is about $7. Most places it would be 20Y.. not that I
cared.. just had to make sure it wasn't a special price for me!
I just got back from a tour. 2.5 hours transit each way and it took us
to the Rock Forest ( I might have the wrong name there.. similar at
least) and a large cave complex. We went by a large dam on the way and
the driver stopped to let me take a picture when he saw I was
interested... when I looked down from the bridge I got a shock though..
we were darned high up on that bridge!! I got a picture of the bridge
from a good angle too. It's high enough to BASE (parachute) from!

I dont' think I'll be in Vietnam too long... will be going in a day or
two.

oh.. more fireworks going off.. all week but it's starting to pick
up.. oh.. a big one just went off in the alley and set off some car
alarms. In Dali the kids were dropping them in the water too.. neat
poof and little geyser. Wonder how the fish like that.. didn't see any
floating...

JJ

Hong Kong - Dongguan

Thursday, January 24, 2008

I'm in Dongguan, just north of Hong Kong/ Macau and s.e. but close to Guangzhou. I just this second got back to my jj-inn (like a motel6) after visiting the largest mall in the world. I met a guy from Miami who pulled out his WEM hat when I said where I was from. He's here to help 'fix' this mall and has worked for triple5 in Edmonton. He's got a big job on his hands! Imagine wem but almost twice as big, with half the theme park outside.. then have only 4 or 5 stores open and a McDonalds, Pizzahut and California noodles open!!!!It was quite a sad sight ;)
I'm glad I stopped in as it wasn't too far out of my way. Hacking cough and all makes me want to find a warmer place to recover for a while. I'm travelling solo ( after all.. who else would really want to visit a huge mall??) and one friend is on the south China island.. planning to meet up soon before heading to Thailand. Other friend is already in Thailand.
Oh, I had stuck around Hong Kong and caught the last ferry to Macau two nights ago (23rd) so that I could catch the harbour light show .. sure glad I did... very cool coordination of lights on many buildings in Hong Kong. Lasers and spotlights too for a 15min show every night (that I seemed to miss the previous two nights).

so far?

January 18, 2008

Hi everyone!

This started out as a private message to a friend Chris in Seattle who
I haven't heard from in a while. After attaching photo's I decided to
send it around a bit more. Please forward to anyone you think Might not
have received it.

Edmund and Steve are the two guys from Seattle who are also on the
trip. We've got different travel priorities though so as you will read
we will not be travelling together for chunks of the trip at a time.

re: Chris,
Well, I can't speak for Edmund but no, not for me.

Edmund only lasted 20 hours in Beijing if that. We got in at midnight (
I decided to minimize the risk by waiting for 5 hours for them at the
Beijing Airport ). Edmund jet lag had him up at 4am wanting to go to
the park to see the crowds gather for tai-chi. . I didn't
have any jet lag as I've been pretty close to Beijing time for quite a
while before the trip. Later that same first day Edmund bought a train
ticket and hopped on the train to Nanning in the far south of China.
Steve stuck with me to see Beijing but was almost as bad at nagging to
get out of there as Edmund ( ok, that's not really possible ). Steve
and I went to visit his housemate's parents in a coastal town east of
Beijing ( close to some Olympic sites which was handy ) . Steve wanted to risk being rude to get moving along and we left earlier than planned the morning
after spending two nights. It backfired as the earlier train that they
drove us to the next city to catch turned out to be a slow train that
took 5 instead of 3 hours. When we got to the train station in Beijing
it was the farther away one too. Steve was so anxious to get moving that he unilaterally decided to buy two
train tickets to Shanghai for the next evening. The next day he realized there was more
he wanted to see too so didn't argue too much to push it back a day.
He also made some comment to others about getting a train to Nanning
from Shanghai without spending a night in Shanghai. I don't know why he
was surprised when I wasn't going along as I mentioned my plans were to
spend at least a few days in each city!! So I've just finished a log
day of touring around Shanghai ( just got back from the Bund area's
Pearl Tower ) and Steve should just be finishing up a day+3 hour train
ride to Nanning.
I met up with a Brit and a Swede who drink far more than I do. the
Swede gets more looks than 6'5" Steve did.. Carl ( the Swede ) had
broken his ankle just before his trip and is using some fancy aluminum
crutches ( which also got him along a rigourous Great Wall hike from
what I hear ). Along with the crutches he's sporting a large light
color leather coat ( his fathers old military issue) and to top it off
he's got 11 years invested in dreadlocks.. so he looks a lot like one
of the bad guys from a later Matrix movie.. tres cool. He injects
himself into the background of some Chinese tourist photo's for some
extra raised eyebrows. The Brit, Rick, is also taking advantage of the
lower alchohol prices and has a scar from the side of his mouth tojos
cheek to show for it ( faceplant?? fight?? maybe I'm assumign too
much). He's an offshore banker.. just off the northern coast of Wales.
They actually took the trans-siberian from Moscow to Beijing. They
hated Moscow and said everyone else they met did too. Everyone loves
Beijing. A funny thing happened as I was leaving Beijing in the
subway... I had to look twice as they were all lining up for the
subway. Every other time they were a shoving throng of anything goes.
It's all part of the Olympics and there were organizers there chanting
some motto which I assume was to get everyone to practise their
"queueing".
Traffic.. It's amazing I haven't seen more accidents. We did have a
bike run into a minibus I was in coming back from the Great Wall tour.
Truly anything goes in this traffic .. you name it.. they do it. If
there's room on the sidewalk they will drive on it!! I've almost been
run down by a motorcycle on the sidewalk once when I let my guard down
a bit. The electric bikes are silent and dangerous for that reason. The
cars also go up on the sidewalks but have less places they will fit to
do so!

Great Wall tour. We did the hike despite a German girl who wanted us
to take the cable car at another Great Wall site. I think she was
hoping her long time and long distance boyfriend from L.A. would
propose to her up on the wall.. but from what I heard in the internet
cafe with him chatting to his brother there wasn't much chance of that
and maybe quite the opposite.. long distance is a hard road to travel (
It was a Skype internet phone call.. shared with everyone in the
hostel's internet room ). The hike itself was quite a bit of exercise.
The couple I mentioned above didn't get back to the meeting point in
time and almost got left.. they were quite relieved when we revisited
the two pickup spots as they had seen us drive off from not so far
away. I really enjoyed the hike and took a lot of pictures ( and of
course have a gps track to prove it too ). Carl and Rick had done a
slightly longer Great Wall hike that was further out of town.. and they
also had a immensely long rip-line at the end of theirs as an option to
get down. The video made the ripline look a mile long... and it starts
out deathly high above a cold ( frozen ?) lake.

Electronics aren't actually a very good deal here so I haven't had a
chance to upgrade my digital camera. They also don't have that great of
a selection ( I went to the famous electronics sales are in Beijing..
huge buildings full of electronics for sale.. but much of it repeated
offerings. I might try again in Hong Kong where I know it will be much
better. Speaking of Hong Kong... I met a couple here in Shanghai who
are head to Hong Kong on Sunday. The couple, Greg and Shannon are from
Stony Plain which is maybe 15 km down the road from my parents house in
Edmonton!

Gee.. I really got going on this letter. Hope I didn't relate too many
issues about Steve. I can't blame him for not wanting to deal with the
cold I guess. Edmund .. well, he had other motivations as well as the
cold. I guess I'll copy a big chunk of this into my blog which so far
has pretty much nothing.

L8r!

JJ