Memmory trip to Laos :)

Hey friends, since I'm back in Europe now and have fast internet connection, I can finally share with you some images. Hope you are all fine and safe and happy and wish you a Merry Christmas already and who knows, maybe we will meet again in 2014? :)

So long!

Great stuff in Australia 2

Emerald. The largest Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting on an easel in the world!!
How cool is that! 

Great Barrier Reef :)

Went diving.

Great stuff in Australia

We've came across several great things in this great country. Here they are:

Great galah

Great prawn

Big merino

Great pineapple

Great koala

The Big Banana

And the biggest rocking horse in the world!

Australia

Waking up in the tent again. Weather is finally nice and warm, so we don't have to put every single thing from my backpack for the night. After half a year my clothes have finished and I walked Melbourne looking like a weirdo, wearing random pieces of clothing. Funnily enough, I didn't really stand out, because this city is full of space cadets, artists, pseudo artists who spray the streets and their own faces. But the city has a nice vibe, lots of cafes, outdoor eateries, galleries and street greenery. That's also the first city in Australia that really looks like a city, with enough density and street life. Most towns here are settlements with a few thousand inhabitants, wide street with lots of parking spaces and a few one storey buildings along it. 

We left Melbourne with a new wardrobe supplied by Pamela, so now I can show up in Sydney without shame and have a photo taken in front of the opera house. 

In the meantime some paragliding in Bright over the Mt Mystic and climb to the top of Mt Kosciuszko in full milk of clouds and still snowy fields on the top. 

Time is racing and it's already Movember, so grow your mustaches thick and long boys. Over. 

Indonesia from the train

After a week of wondering what are people seeing in Java, I finally get to see that too. Indonesian trains are so slow, one would have thought they are being pulled by a pair of Komodo dragons, but they have an advantage of breathtaking, hilly landscapes, shaped with juicy green rice paddies and other plantations behind the window. Above all that- volcanos, under - little straw and clay huts with red tiled roofs, yes tiled, not tin! 

It immediately changed my mood, that was rather grim after the whole morning spent in the buses on dusty roads. Roads! Always jammed, with no sidewalks, not even even side of the road to walk on, there is no walking in Indonesia, unless you want to risk your life. Airspace seems so much safer so we set off and done some paragliding. From above, where there is no noise and all the trash is not visible, everything looks so much better. Tea plantations with some sparse trees covering the hillsides, rice paddies in the valleys. Never thought people would be so happy to find me crushing (actually landing nicely but smashing some plants on the way) into their rice field. "Hello Mister! Come my home! Welcome!" Eh, falling from the sky... :) 

But apart from that Puncak fell a victim of its own beauty. Hotels, guesthouses, restaurants and ugly shacks quickly built up along the road to accommodate and facilitate the masses of Javanese and Arabic tourists are of bad style and obstruct the views, masses of waste left along the street or simply thrown in the stream pollute and stink. Prices are through the roof and quality disputable. Nights are still loud with traffic or morons who find it funny to shout out loud and ride motorbikes up and down the street with a great speed. 

Speed... Street... Few days ago, 500m from our hotel a bus with bad breaks smashed into the house on the bend of the road and took it with it into the stream several meters below. 20 dead, some more injured. Road jammed with spectators taking pics with phones etc, ambulances rushing up and down the road between the site and little hospital. 

Down the hill drama, above fun goes on. People keep flying, tandem business flourishes (6000 flights a year for one pilot!), there is joy, children playing. The Universe is a balanced place after all.

Two weeks ago

Singapore. Arrived last night around 11pm, fearing everything will be closed and we will have to spend a night on a bench. Couldn't be more wrong. If you want to wake up in a city that never sleeps, this will be the place. In little India the malls and restaurants were still open and full of people at 1am. And it's only the middle of the week... 

The country is an example of clockwork organization. Border crossing reminds an airport, bags and people are scanned to ensure there is no flow of illegal substances like e.g. chewing gums and that absolutely nothing can escape customs. Two Dutch guys we were traveling with watched their cheap, thai cigarettes being destroyed in front of their eyes. Not one smoke was allowed. We were surprisingly allowed with half emptied bottle of wine, the last one for a long time, as we were to realize soon. 

Singapore is a dream after months spent in Asia. A dream for eyes and nerves, not for the wallet. With progress prices jump up so one knows one pays the price for this little bit of comfort on the way. Metro goes often and on time, streets are paved and sidewalks are wide, parks are beautifully designed and architecture... That topic would require a separate entry. They've got some nice and interesting buildings! 

And oh! Cars stop to let pedestrians go! I missed it so much. And older or disabled citizens  can press their ID card to the street lights box for prolonged green when crossing. Little things! 

The sight of elegantly dressed people in fancy tops, skirts and dresses made me miss my summer wardrobe and feel like a scavenger ;) 

Beautiful campus, equipped with newest technology etc, would be a great place to study. 

Yet, apart for all the super sides of Singapore I missed the messy, arty part of culture. It's got big opera titles on the boards but little alternative concerts are hard to find, illegitimate street art - nonexistent. A few street musicians can be luckily spotted around the place. There's nothing cheap in Singapore but great Indian food. Thanks for that!

Under the surface

The fifth day on Tioman. It seems that my sinuses are finally getting better and I can start the diving course. I just got too lazy after last few days of doing nothing that I could keep on like this for ever. Lay in the hammock and read or listen to the music. Holiday at last...

3 days later: I'm certified open water diver ;) underwater is cool, The reef is beautiful, fishes funny, but still there is nothing like air! Off we go towards Indonesia! 

Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur. it's 4.00 in the morning, the fridge that brought us here from Thailand has just dropped us somewhere in the center. It's pitch dark but streets are not empty, it's Ramadan, so many Muslim men are having early breakfast in the nearby, tightly packed, halal food place before the sun will rise. We get a disgusting coffee at McDonald's and think what to do next. Decision - night trek to Petronas Towers. Circling around we get there through 'little India' and its omnipresent sari shops, some backyards where dogs don't even bark but they look from dark corners of a dark city - silent observers. Rats, picking last, delicious pieces of yesterday's kebab's before the washmen will come and clear the pavement with the soap solution. Rich and fancy financial district and there, there! Petronases! Bench! Splendor and two backpackers setting up a camp in front of it, washing faces in the fountain. 

Other rats, the office ones, passing by from time to time, it's hard to tell if they are going to or out of the office... Lights are turning on, off, it's a spectacle for those who have time to watch. It's getting lighter, sun is rising under the towers - photo session - people start to rush, traffic picks up. It's getting crowded. All around the city people in suits, miniskirts, saris, long coats and head scarves, too short trousers, hats and shirts, elegant makeups, emphasizing their origin, religion, social status. All of them with badges hung around their necks, already before they leave home, showing the streets their belonging to the corporates, determining the skyscrapers they are heading to, saying they are not here to fuck spiders. Big city at its core. Lets move on. We're taking first bus to Melaka. 

Retrospective from Cambodia

A few people were asking me about my volunteering in Cambodia, the farm, the project, the people. Well, it was so long ago that I hardly remember and since I've stopped writing anything anywhere it will take  some brain work to recall what was all that about...

Well, apart from the fact that I was super lazy and for most of the time was thinking about getting into a hammock (what I have been often doing) it took some hard work, including swinging a hoe and such. It was very different from what I expected, starting with the fact that nobody had a clue what we want to do and where we want to start. So unless you are a very organized person, always make sure that there actually is some kind of a program, otherwise it can be boring or at times even irritating. Anyway, we've spent half of the time in town based house, trying to organize ourselves, training a lot of yoga, eating healthy food and discussing environment and deteriorating state of human spirit in general. Very hippie style, anarchistic, angry people who would like to change the world so the go to poor Asia to do that. 

No mom, I didn't save the world, nor did I attempt to do that. I haven't learned how to do that either. But I've made a few drawings, a little bit of landscaping and I probably prevented a few people from killing each other (saving the world missions rise murderous tensions, you see). 

When on the farm site, there was a lot of physical work, mostly in full heat, sleeping on the floor in very very basic, village houses and one of the best night skies ever. 

Being in such a remote area of such a poor country makes one realize what actually is poverty and what it takes to get out of it. How resigned must be people who do not care how their surroundings look like, if their children run around dirty and naked together with a herd of same looking pigs. I've never seen anything like that before or after, even India, although often terribly dirty and poor in cities, in villages presented some degree of aesthetics and cleanliness. 

All in all it was a great experience and it timed me up perfectly to meet an amazing group of people a few days later in Laos:)

Laos - my adopted second motherland

Lonley Planet on Lao: "Lao commonly express the notion that 'too much work is bad for your brain' and they often say they feel sorry for people who 'think too much'".

Cambodia's environmental issues

For those of you who haven't seen them yet, here are some photos from Vietnam, which I've had a chance to develope some time ago.

https://plus.google.com/photos/104268395531637428125/albums/5887341286937768881?authkey=CJTU0bHTv_bS5wE

I'm in Cambodia now, preparing a plan for ecological farm in remote village in Rattanakiri province.
60% of rainforest disappeared during last 40 years, indigenous people who were finding their food in the jungle before have to buy it in the market now, as they don't know how to grow it. Villages look poos and rather depressive.


Oryginal forest, getting denser when deeper




















Areas cleared from trees, some of them still smouldering. With mono crop farming system soil gets poor within 5 years and plantation moves further, clearing next part of the land from trees and using chemical fertilizers to keep things growing.




















Rubber trees plantations, that cover big part of the whole province, decreasing food production.




















Traditional houses: left - for young, unmarried man, right - unmarried girl. Unfortunately I'm shooting those pics blind with my small camera.

Over.

"I will love you good!"

I've got an offer of marriage today. From 60 years old Chinese man.
"Hello! What's your name? Are you married? Boyfriend? Marry me than! I'm better than all those young boys, I will take care of you, I will love you good!" Mom, dad, what do you think?

Jobs

I'm boarding the ship to Ly Son Island and what I see is the floor of the passanger cabin covered with green plastic bags full of vomits. Pukes should be the logo of  vietnameese  means of transportation. Bus - pukes, ship - pukes. Unfortunately vomitting is like yawning - when you hear somebody fighting two rows behind you, all that you have in your stomach start bubbling joyfully and wants to catch some fresh air as well. I managed to avoid this till now somehow, but I'm also not stuffing myselfe with the big bowl of beef soup before the bumpy ride as others do.
Back to the topic. Through the cabin goes a boy with the bucket and collects those plastic bubbles filled with half digested soup. What a job... Just the view makes me dizzy so I immediately decide to spend the whole journey on the sun burned deck but at least with the wind in my hair. Soon after the puke-picker follows with the bucket full of bubbles and of course empties it straight to the sea. Some of them go straight down, but some sway playfully on the waves, glistening in the sun.

Ly Son. Beautiful shore, cliffs, white sand and super nice people. Completely off turistic track!

Island of garlic fields. They even put it in rice wine and drink garlic alcohol. Cant imagine the morning breath after a night of going wild... ;)

Viet Nam+ Ba Lan = Number 1!! A beer with locals and only phrase I could understand. I happily went on in polish, they talked vietnameese. We had fun.

Beautiful sunset on the beach full of waste - thats the landfill of the village :( kids take a swim and have fun anyway)

Mekong Delta 8h boat ride. Was nice but my buttocks acquired the shape of the bench...

Sunset under the monsoony sky

A Co To? and others

So many places and not so much feel for writting so here are some pictures:

 Ship ride to Co To Island

 There is so much trash all over the place. One would think that is something is off the tourist track it would be clean. Well, unfortunately that is not the case. In the water - medusa, medusa, plastic bag, medusa...

 Trenches on the side of the island facing China.

 Sleeper bus :)

Sleeper bus closer look.

Cat Ba - Ha Long photo update

It seems that I made it through the hardest time and from now on everything will be going nice and easy. Got cleared of money often enough to learn what is the real value of things, was lonely enough to go out and speak to people and got brave enough to venture on my own a little bit off the beaten track. I' spending the night in Cai Rong and catching an early ship to Co To Island at 7am tomorrow.
Ha Long Bay was so indecently beautiful that one could just ride around on a scooter and keep laughting to oneselfe. Quite surreal. Well, see for yourselfe.

 Disco Cave

 Kayak in Ha Long Bay

 Lost in the jungle. Unplanned treck with no food or water.

 Zmija's twin bro randomly met on the boat.

 Well, why not a self portrait at the sunset...

 This delicious food came over from America!

Some fun in Hai Phong. Learning vietnameese, english and playing ukulele

This delicious food was made and ate in Vietnam!

At the end a few reflections on travelling without a plan:
1) its nice to travel without plan
2) when you travel without plan anything can happen
3) anything means really anything
4) it can be problematic when one has problems with taking decisions
5) Last minute takes more time and is usually more expensive

Cat Ba

With an overnight train, morning bus and afternoon boat I made my way from Sa Pa to Cat Ba island in Ha Long Bay. Very scenic, beautiful place. How were those rocks formed this way...
Today I took a ride on a scooter around the island and hiked 20km through the jungle. What was awaited to be a leisurely walk turned out a serious trek! Up and down, up and down through bushes, grasses and rocky mountains. 10km there and 10km back when it turned out there is no other, easier way... Fiuuu. I deserve my soup and my drink now. Cheers :)
Cat Ba Town is rather ugly place for a change. Reminds me of Costa Del Sol in Spain. Big hotels in front or the beach and ugly, grey beach. Thank god there is no beach here, just port. Beaches are a bit further away. One can miss Sopot sometimes!

Sa Pa

So Sapa. Another town destroyed by tourism. Luckily some views are still beautiful.

Vietnamese and tourists, they both say that Sapa has lost it's charm. They are right, although I can't really say that if I haven't been there before. Well, in Sa Pa all is done for money now. Street sellers are very pushy, hotels are big and are obstructing the views, prices are high and the landscape- the main attraction is degrading. There uses to be a Valley of Roses, now the roses are mostly gone, simply not taken care of or cut down for construction space. Terraced rice fields look idle, but maybe it's just the wrong season. Without all that it doesn't look like pictures you can google and is rather disappointing. What a pitty...

Hanoi

I dare say it is so far the most pleasant Asian city I have visited. Hanoians love the activities on the fresh air, so they have quite a lot of smaller and larger parks and squares, where they play badminton,  roller skate, have dance classes or just hang out. Curbs are low or reasonable and sidewalks rather wide, so it is really nice to walk around, although in some places they are blocked with parking scooters.
I'm enjoying a lemonade in cafe L'etage- a small room with a narrow balcony over busy Trang Thi street. Difficult to access, through the backyard, narrow staircase and somebody's house, but worth all the confusions.  On the opposite side is Hoan Kien Lake and it would be so pleasant if a girl next to me wasn't training for "the voice of Vietnam" with plugs in her ears! Where are mine? Better.
The lake than... Three lakes even, all with organized waterfronts and pagodas on the islands. Jogging foreigners, pissing grandpas, kissing kiddos, policemen taking care of order and disorder and unity of the nation. Sexy Vietnamese girls with lousy, old white faces, woman carrying a tree on a bicycle,  newest BMW, another wave of scooters.
Yesterday spent a few hours with American guy. "What do you do" I asked. "I used to work in law enforcement" he said. "What does that mean?" I really didn't know. "I'm an ex soldier" he explained. Aaaah! Those euphemisms...
So I kept looking at the shapes of balconies and the height of curbs and counting benches along the lakeside (something he found a very refreshing attitude) and he, it turned out later, was analyzing types of crowd and counting policemen with guns by their belts. It was definitely the safest walk i had in this city:) He was a nice guy, so trying to be friendly I marked that his mind must be really twisted. Dear honesty! He didn't seem to be very pleased... 

Jet lag

Granny Basia thought me to count something if I can't sleep. Since the jet lag got me rolling over for last three hours I gladly took her advice. There was a woman with a questionnaire at the airport asking me how many flights did I take within last 12 months. Feeling guilty about Mother Earth I estimated around 10. After a closer look at the subject and careful calculation of all connecting flights it turned out to be... 26! Twenty six! Oh damn, I'm killing this planet. Should have sticked to the sheeps...

Transition

So, here I am. Hello Vietnam. Trying to get a grip of myselfe with such a change. Suddenly no language, money or food I can understand. No job! Haaa! The only preparation I've made was checking a LP guidebook in the airport's bookstore for an area to stay in Hanoi. Made it here, found a room, a bed, a clean pillow! The moment I put my head on it the omnipresent loudspeakers started the morning-motivation-talk followed by cheerful songs praising the unity of the nation and its beloved Party. I'm dreading 7:30 tomorrow morning! :)

Guys, I had so much fun those last weeks it was superhard to leave (as some of you might have seen). I guess it will take me some time to readjust. You filled me with so much joy and love, it's probably pressing on my brain right now and affecting my perception of the things around. But I've learned these days that there is no time for hesitation, no place for prejudices and no fun in keeping for oneself. The Force will guide me. Amen.

So long!