19 December 2009

Kuala Lumpur - 2009 December


In warm relaxed KL, 13Dec09. The people here are of a very different temperament, life moves in a different, smooth rythem. It brings out a different aspect in me as well, (is this why I travel ? to meet diff aspects of self ? "Keep traveling Grasshopper, keep travelling").
It is the kind of place where one can just talk to people on the street without that initial film of suspicion and defensiveness I'm used to within myself and others i.e. ("is this a psycho asking me the time of day, or is he really just asking the time ? or does he want money ? " -- sometimes asking the time is really just asking the time says Dr Freud, although I think he was talking about cigars in the original I think... . )

What struck me too: It's a very child friendly society.
Kids are everywhere and part and parcel of the scene, for some reason parents don't seem to be engaged in constantly 'shushing' them or trying to stop them from embarassing the family or arguing with the about why they can't have this or that nick nack. They just float along with whatever is going on without much fuss.



Watched "the Matrix" again on the plane: great stuff. We live in Matrices within Matrices.... now how to figure out the jumping bits equivalent in real life ?

In Melbourne we were about to take off at 13:30, but something did not pass the final tests. it was 18:00 by the time we got away and 2am before I hit the bed in a hotel near Sentral Station in KL.
The lady of the hotel did reverse bargaining: Original price was 100 Ringgit (AUD $30) and the closer we go to the room the more the price dropped without me saying a word, it ended at 80 RM and when I paid she said 70 because it was 2am already. Definitely not many tourists come to this area, love it.
By the time I stumbled out of bed brunch was in full swing. The mainly Indian area here, Brickfields, has all a traveller needs within 100meters: food, barber, internet cafe, IT gadgets, antique pocketwatches and a lively street scene.
Indian music is playing in the background, kids play computer games in the cool shady aircon upstairs internet shop.

Mum & Dad: thanks for your christmas present: a selfwiding 1990's good quality pocket watch from KL ! this is YOUR present to me - thank you :-)

It seems short and sweet missives more often is better than long and rambling, so I'll close this here.
If you want off this list just drop me a line.
All the best for Christmas.
Heiko


'dance me to the children who are asking to be born....' - Leonard Cohen

One often meets one's destiny while trying to avoid it. - Anon.



Today (Sunday the 13Dec09) I set myself the challenge: treat the city as a jungle:
take train to Petronas twin towers, and then walk back to the other end of the city, in Brickfields, with just a simple Lonely Planet map, and a magnetic compass to guide me.
4 hours later, with a detour to the 425m TV lookout tower, I was back in my hotel, hot & smelly.
Close to the hotel I bought a local SIM card, for my phone and when I opened my old leather bag I had to take out bottles of juice, apples etc.... the guy asked me (in Jest ???) are you sleeping anywhere ?
"Huh !!! Yes I am, I just did my shopping and and have 3 liters of juice and apples and stuff crammed in". Hummpfff said Eyeore !!!.

Impressions from trekking across KL:
- The place is NOT as big as it seems on the map, if you know where you are going the city is actually manageable even on foot.
- There are some really "NOICE" areas, tasteful restaurants, Thai and Vietnamese, stylish areas, bizzare and artistically built, architects dreams.
- Parks, with lawn, ponds, HUGE old trees, even a forest area, of original looking vegetation, old trees and mosquitoes.

- the CAR is KING !!!. Long live the CAR ! Prepare ye the way for Zee CAR, make ye straight the path of the CAR !!! here cometh the CAR !!! tada... Let nothing stand in the way of ZEE CAR!!!
- Result of the above: trekking accross KL sometimes means negotiating clover leaf flyover after clover leaf flyover. If you are in a car or train it's all easy, but no one walks more than a 300m radius circle of their immediate neighbourhood.
Certainly not any major distances.
Sometimes footpaths run along the freeways and just suddenly peter out or have a fence. Not sure why they put a footpath there in the first place, its a nice idea though. No real thought to how a pedestrian would actually move around. Well that's not really true: pedestrians just have to dash across the freeway when it is safe to do so. Takes some strategy to work out how to get across a huge system of ramps and multilanes. Usually there is a shortcut or even an under/overpass. Other times you just have figure out the flow and work out how to position yourself so you cross the minimum number of lanes.
But anyway: the only ones using footpaths are mad dogs and Englishmen...(or these days: Australians,...Germans...etc...i.e. falangs)
- Traffic lights for pedestrians are set on "miserly", you gotta dash around between the flow of those things for which all this was built in the first place: CARS.
- I'll be taking trains from now on.
- as a result of the trekk: I now know how the key things in the city are laid out. Where PetronasTowers are in relation to Chinatown, & to Puduraya bus station, to the old Train station and all of them to Sentral station.
Now the maps make a degree of sense.


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ok - well you asked for it: more "fascinating" stuff below: you were warned, read on at your own risk.
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Are there any Bicycles in KL ?
Bicycles ?
What are they ?
"Bi" - meaning two and "cycles" - meaning repetitious, round as in wheels.
Oh you mean those funny things with two wheels you have to precariously balance on, where you might fall off, and where you use your MUSCLES to push YOURSELF along by your own strength...OMG.
Not cool, might actually break out in a sweat.
Saw ONE cyclist, and it was a foreign/falang looking person. Expat type.

I would not want to cycle in KL, car drivers are totally NOT expecting a bike, even motorbikes are an endangered species.
I guess a bike would be ok if it was expensive and you wore all the right colourful lycra gear, but for just getting around ? No!
It seems to me riding a bicycle in KL would about as exotic as saying "Hey watch me fly my hang-glider" in Australia.

It strikes me KL is at the stage regarding cars, that Melbourne was in 10+ years ago.
Quite liveable and very nice but cars were the undisputed first preference, no traffic calming, no bike lanes, etc... .


Oh and one more thing: Malaysians seem to LOVE, really really LEEEERVE, shopping centers.
I walked into KLCC shopping center (just because it was there, next to Petronas Towers). inside it was ritzy and glitzy just like the best of them in Australia or anywhere in the world.
Ok, I have to be honest: 4 mins was not a long time to assess this, but there was really nothing different to KLCC from any international standard glitzy ritzy super brand name shopping center.
It made me think though: There is one thing that always intrigued me: Does shopping not mean spending money ? and does this money not come from the ones who shop ?
Now I could really get into shopping if it meant spending someone else's money on things for myself, but spending my OWN money ? I was brought up to try and hang onto it. I'm not that good at it as it is. But shopping centers make that 10 times harder.
That one has always puzzled me.
Perhaps it's a bit like Ulysses: who wanted to hear the song of those deadly alluring sexy Sirens, so he ordered his men to tie him to the mast of his ship and not to untie him no matter how much he yelled and threatened them.

However I'm quite happy to admit that I'm shopping-ly challenged and miss the necessary DNA.
My first thought is always: "But I can get this much cheaper outside!"
Then again perhaps I'm just a mutation: I DO Love shopping for pocket watches in strange places, like tiny little alley shops run by bespectacled old guys who fix and repair old spring driven clockwork.

Speaking of which: perhaps it is all just a matter of taste, and each to his own. Some people get their jollies from shiny ritzy shopping centers, I get mine from chaotic shopping streets, mixes of restaurants, butchers, tailors, jewellers, fruit sellers, mobile phone shops, watch repairers, crazy parking, shiny lights. The smells of sandalwood, incense, piss, and exhaust funes. In short: a chaotic quirling mass of humanity. A swirling about of young and old.

If anyone would like to donate money to rehabilitate me to see if I can manage to like high class shopping centers, please send donations .... he he he .




STOP PRESS: I figured it out (about the shopping centers): I'm a male, I'm an Engineer !!! OF COURSE that explains it all.
Tomorrow I'll explore one shopping center that DOES sound interesting: a cybercenter, IT, technology place.


14Dec09 MOnday,
The lady managing my Hotel, would be perfect for Charles Dickens to characterize. She is a middle aged Indian with an offbeat sense of humour, and seems like she can deal with whatever is thrown her way, (even a Heiko and worse). I get a very nice sense of Indian culture from her.
The hotel I discovered by "chance", happened to see it from the airport bus as we got close to the final stop in the city at 0100.
It's a totally non-tourist area here. The Indian restaurants serve meals on big banana leaves.

If you have ever looked closely at a trail of ants, you'll see that ants move along very narrow trails. Some ants move in one direction, some in the opposite. Every now and then some of the ants going in different directions stop and wave their antennas at each other. They are talking, exchanging info in 'ant-language'. then they hurry on for about 3 to 10 centimeters and stop and do the antenna waving thing again.
That seems very similar to how us tourists and backpackers follow very narrowly defined trails. Everyone goes to the same general Backpacker area. Or if you are Biz traveller or 5 * traveller, to the same general top class Hotels. Before the internet people did have to actually hang out and talk face to face.
After the internet: the same still happens, only it happens online, on a few key websites.





17:00 hours: back from the Guanyin/KuwanYin Temple, next to the Petronas Tower, (by train this time, both ways).
The rain bucketed down thunder raged and everyone waited indoors for an hour.

Devi the lady who runs the Crescent Hotel in this small little Tamil enclave near Sentral Station keeps a vigilant eye on things. She greets her customers when they come in, smiles and asks what they did in the day and generally chats amiably.
As I was sitting in the lobby, this evening watching the street scene through the glass doors. Suddenly she got up like lightning and dashed to the front door as one of her guests was coming in, saying "NO".
HUH??? I was puzzled for an instant.
"No prostitutes, allowed in my hotel"
The guy just turns around without a word, his girl never made it inside.
She goes back to her spot on the front desk.
"he paid for one person, he can bring his wife, or his girlfriend, but not a prostitute", she explains to me.
I giver her a thumbs up.
"I don't run a brothel here " she is indignant.
She may be the Madame of the hotel but is not "A Madame of an 'Establishment' "
She can be sweet as anything but she ain't no pushover.

enough rambling for this time....
Busy Christmas coming up...
Heiko





15 November 2009

Saigon musings: war n peace



the video shows black and white footage of 1968,-
"Hero level of american killer, because he killed 16 american soliders, and
destroy 3 tanks".
a ripple runs  through  the English speaking audience around me.
........
the video goes on to  describe the battles and deaths, and victories over
"the enemy"
 and how the people of Chu-chi, living in the tunnels resisted toxic gas,
crazy dogs, bulldozers, and SWAT teams to go on fighting in a war that cost
1,000,000 vietnamese and 58,000 US lives.

why did it strike  me as odd - just for a split second - to hear a hero's
title awarded for killing americans ?
ah yes, of course, ....

the chu-chi tunnels were a 200km long network that formed a key resistance
point in the Vietnam war. The tunnel fighters were never defeated.

now 33 years after the war....
the ideology that caused all those deaths has grown mellow, for all
practical purposes, business and trade and commercialism has taken hold of
Vietnam.
there are 25m motorbikes in Vietnam, 1000 new ones every day.

Backpacker places and pubs with names like Apocalypse NOw and B52 attract
western travellers.


our guide, fought in the war, he spent 6 months in the tunnels.
I went down and  through a 20m section of a slightly widened tunnel
(otherwise western big people would get stuck).
In the middle of the tunnel I was squatting and shuffling along, people in
front of me and people behind me. the Mexican girl in front felt
claustrophobic. I started to wonder 'what if I die down here, just earth,
can't even move, or stretch out or stand up, or ....- ooops better just keep
going. - stop those thoughts.
We made it out. After all, it was just a tourist experience, it wasn't real
life was it ?

Our guide never goes down into the tunnels anymore.
When he speaks  on the bus intercom he describes history, that he lived
through. he remembers shooting people.
as he rambles on he grows philosophical and tries to make sense of his life,
of all the changes he has seen.
some of his friends are now BIG people, bishops in Hanoi and such. he is a
tour guide who cannot shake the memories...."when you are on the
battlefield, someone  comes to kill you, if you don't kill them,  they will
kill you...."he tells us. But mixed these memories he chuckles and
philosophizes, .... "time goes so fast, and you look back and you wonder
what have I accomplished ?
be happy, if you not happy, you did nothing at all, "
I wish I'd taped some of his speach... it was strangely touching...

I remembered my childhood school lessons in germany: my teachers told me how
it works: first  an enemy is painted as bad, and horrible, then he is
dehumanized and made to be evil.
then  its ok to kill him. he is no longer human after all. He is something
abstract in a mental philosphy and we are just correcting the
philosophy.....the principles....

I grew up thinking that after WW2 we had learnt our lessons.
germany was rebuilding itself, vowing to not make that mistake again, -
ever.
I thought after Hiroshima we had learnt.
I thought after Vietnam we had learnt.
I thought after Iraqu.... actually no, I didn't anymore....
at that point I realized something else.

Every time  I hate someone, wish them to no longer to exist, want to solve
the problem by just getting 'rid'of them, I am in effect doing what war does
on a larger scale....
how would I cope with someone wishing me dead ? would I retaliate ?
I don't know, there are no really simple answers  for me anymore, I'd have
to deal  with each situation as  it comes.
But  I hope all possible alternatives for peace are tried first.

so i hope  for the future....
and remember to be happy NOW, because NOW is all anyone ever has.

if this has been a bit philosophical... perhaps I caught it from the
tourguide today... the old man who reflects on his life in a bus... full of
young backpackers on the  way to the Chu-chi tunnels..... .
the old man who fought in a bitter war, survived  and  wonders what it was
all about....
the old  man who is trying to make sense of it all.....

making money and getting a car or a new motorbike or fancy degree, do not
grab him anymore....
a mellow strange humour and a self mocking laugh follows his soliloquies...
he turns off the mike and we do most of the trip in silence.....

hyco

29 October 2009

Work and travel: living and traveling abroad - a collection of links

Travelling and working: lifestyle, as a way of life:

http://www.everthenomad.com/
and http://www.everthenomad.com/whatilikeonwww.html

http://jetsetcitizen.com/

http://locationindependentprofessionals.com


http://locationindependent.com/


Travel advice: - search for advice on your location: - community generated so not as biased toward commercial interests.

Wikitravel:  http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page

Thorntree on Lonely Planet: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree

Taiwan ('Ilha Formosa'): a collection of useful travel info

this page has moved to: 
all changes and updates on the NEW page.


older version below:


A collection of travel links for Taiwan.



Before you go -o- 'be-ing there' -o- traveling around: 
 
A full introduction and practical overview of Taiwan: Travel, Food, Accommodation, Money, Work, Tourist sites for Taiwan.....
By Wikitravel: it is community generated and thus avoids commercial bias towards certain hotels, resorts, tour companies etc... . 
http://wikitravel.org/en/Taiwan
Great introduction to Taipei (the capital) http://wikitravel.org/en/Taipei



The other great introduction and jumping off point for further info on Taiwan.Lonely Planet on Taiwan:(but more commercially oriented)
And info on the capital: Taipei http://www.lonelyplanet.com/taiwan/taipei

One of the best sites to search for specific info is the good old Lonely Planet Thorntree. Just search for what you are looking for, read the stuff others have asked and answered and if you want ask your own questions:

Heiko's tips on meeting local traveler-friendly people here:  

Traveler-friendly Taiwanese and expats (the CouchSurf Taipei Group): 
http://www.couchsurfing.org/group.html?gid=1311
Read a few of the messages and see what you think.




Getting there and away again: 
Do I need to get a visa ?

Flying there and away

AirAsisa is a cheap airline. Prices vary a lot depending on the dates you want to go. I've flown Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur (KL) for AUD $300 return (all taxes included), other times I've paid AUD $750 for the same trip. All their flights from Australia go to KL first.
I paid AUD$170 KL to Taipei December 2009
There are lots of good deals by other airlines. It changes fast.

Flying to Macau with AirMacau (I hour ferry ride to Hong Kong ~133 HK dollars)
http://en.airmacau.com.mo/


Taiwan airports: there are two, and there are no direct flights to China for political reasons, more details here:

Taiwanese Airlines:
Insurance: personally I found the cheapest travel insurance you can get in Australia is: AAMI
http://www.aami.com.au/travel-insurance/international-travel-insurance.aspx
You DO have be an Australian resident over 18 and under 65 though.
I think they cover the big stuff.
Of course if you want all the bells and whistles and to be covered for every conceivable minor detail then you'll have to pay almost twice that at the local travel agent. Travel agents are great at scaring the s*** out of you to get the highest premium insurance for you, and the highest commissions for themselves. 
And in case you are wondering: no, I don't get click-through ratings, or adverstising bonus or anything by recommending AAMI. A few years ago HSBC bank had the cheapest Aussie travel insurance but they got more expensive and went for higher premiums (for themselves) and are now just so so.... .






Accommodation:

....more info as I find out more.
the backpacker low cost accommodation scene changes but the "usual suspects" are:
In Taipei the Hostel prices seem to range from AUD $30 / night for a single room with ensuite, to AUD $20 or less for shared accommodation. Cheaper for couples. (Nov09)

A range of places to stay in Taipei is described at Wikitravel:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Taipei#Sleep
Budget (US$10 ) to five star options are listed by location and district.

And of course if you want to stay with local people, surfing their couch, or staying on their floor check out:
http://www.couchsurfing.org/
My profile on CouchSurfing is at: http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/cinnamon/


- the above are all links to other sites, which I've found useful.
If you think anything should be added/changed, let me know, just leave a comment below or email  heikorudolph  @  yahoo.com  (without the spaces).
Heiko

NB: most links are shown fully expanded, so that the page is easy to copy and use.  Use commonsense, no warranty of any kind for any of this info, it is simply one person's offering for others.



Useful Taiwan Links in any order - 


Youth pass travel in Taiwan: from Lonely planet's ThornTree. 
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/message.jspa?messageID=16372991
come the following links:
http://www.youthtravel.tw
http://youthtravel.tw/youthguesthouse

http://tour.youthtravel.tw/travel2009/1210.php?forewordID=99&s


 

20 October 2009

26Nov09 Java Cafe Saigon

Couchsurfing event  26Nov09 Saigon
Corner Dong Du street and Hai Ba Trung - Ben Thanh Ward,  Dist 1

see map image

17 September 2009

HOW TO dive beneath the Tourist surface: internet communities e.g. Couchsurfing


 How can you get to know locals and expats in a place you have never been to before ? It can take weeks and months to really meet people.

This used to frustrate me, because when I travel I often just meet other travelers or people dealing with travelers, working in hostels, restaurants etc... .That's nice but I wanted to meet locals and foreigners who had lived in the place for a while and see what life there was like for them.
Of course sometimes you can meet local people in buses and planes.



One way that has worked for me is to join an internet community of people who are into travel and who are interested in meeting travellers.
When I know what day I arrive in a place, say for example Macau, I ask if anyone from that community  is interested to meet up for an informal meal or tea 'n coffee session. Usually quite a few people are.  



The internet group I picked is called Couchsurfing.  It's a collection of traveler friendly people.

It was set up to develop a network of trust and allow those they trust to stay on their couches/Sofas - basically provide some space for people to crash overnight ! The idea has been around for ages. Servas was popular in the 1960's to 1980's before internet - when all was done by snail mail. They are still around http://www.servas.org/. I stayed at a Servas host in Singapore in 1985. The current incarnation of this idea is couchsurfing and other similar sites. I won't explain it all here, you can read more at: www.couchsurfing.org

Qu: Does everyone have to allow strangers to stay on their couch ?
No.
My flat in Melbourne is too small for hosting people, so I only meet people for tea/coffee for a chat, there is no compulsion to provide overnight hosting. It is perfectly OK to just meet people for tea and coffee, in a public place.
I set my couchsurfing profile to indicate that.
 I usually stay at Hotels/budget backpackers when I travel. Unless work pays :-)

In 2008 I joined the Egypt-Cairo Couchsurfing group and asked if anyone was interested to meet up. A few people were and they suggested a nice Cafe. It ended up with about 9 people coming, locals Egyptians, travelers, and expats.

In  September 2009 I wanted to meet people living in Macau. We got a lovely group of resident Macau-ans, European Exchange students and travelers. We all met at a popular ice cream shop suggested by one of the active Couchsurfers in Macau.

I had never met any of them in person before.
In a strange new city I like to meet locals and expats, otherwise I tend to float like a cork, on the surface of life and remain the gringo tourist ready for the milking. I'll probably always be the gringo tourist, but there are ways to dive below the surface and meet locals and other travellers.
Seven of us met at a famous ice cream shop on Sunday at 12.30. Four were local Macau residents, a lady who was studying business and has a wine import business, a final year High School student who wants to study in Europe, a Goverment employee in education who loves to travel and wants to visit 100 countries before he dies and a Japanese Macau resident who runs a business.
The foreigners were a group of exchange Univ students (Germany, Finland, Holland...) and a Japanese visiting her friend, + yours truly. Pictures here: Sunday meeting

We  met at a small inconspicuous ice cream shop that was famous for its ice cream sandwiches. Then the locals took us to eat at a REAL traditional noodle shop, we shopped for a new camera for the German exchange student. Our High School guide took the rest of us who stayed on for a tour of her favourite spots in Macau: the bisquit making, juice shop, super fresh tofu shop, backpackers place where a famous movie was shot. (thanks VL :-) )

Oh yea, and we found out about the graffiti scene in Macau, nothing like as full on as in Melbourne but some really nice stuff, with interesting ideas.
It seems that multinational marketing is getting really sophisticated: Apparently Coca Cola sponsored graffiti that subtly promotes their Zero Coke brand, but looks like a huge graffiti mural. Photo to follow once I manage to get a cable to connect the camera to the computer. [update: photo below]



I'd never been to the other islands of Macau, Taipa, and Coloane. A lovely Couchsurfer in Macau took me  on a night time sightseeing tour of those other parts.  Photos of the nightime tour here.











I was asked if most CouchSurf people were the younger set ?

Yes, age tends to make people more
  • - scared,
  • - more tied  down  with kids & work, and
  • - richer i.e willing to pay for comfort i.e. unwilling to sleep on a couch, so yes,  most are young-ish.
However the more committed longer term active ones such as country "ambassadors" are often older, more mature and have made a clear committment.  Statistics are here

Couchsurfing is my way of meeting people who are NOT on the tourist trail, and NOT working in tourism, but who are interested in other countries and travelers.

In Myanmar I met a Couchsurfing lady doing great work with orphans, widows from Cyclone Nargis; we are still in touch working on how to do "useful" stuff. My old High school buddy GK who was a monk in Burma for 15 years is also going to see about linking in with her work.

In Macau I met great Couchsurfing member working for a Christian  orphanage/children's home: (kids 3-18year old, some abandoned, others from troubled families)
We went for a nigh time tour or Macau, after work, on a small motorscooter, a true whirlwind tour.  This was just straightforward  friendliness as I remember it in the 1970's  when travellers were a select group and there was an instant camaraderie 'on the road'. Less suspicion, more commonsense. 
               Photos of the trip here  - it gave me a chance to show off my new  camera (Canon G10) , which lets me take photos from a moving motorbike at night with NO flash, (at ISO 3200).

The Couchsurfing meetings remind me of the world I grew up in Germany in 1960's, a basic trust is still alive over here that is dead in most big Western cities after 2001. (not complaining, simply observing).

This kind of internet community is a great way to dive behind the tourist barrier and meet locals, expats who are at one end of the Bell Shaped Normal Distribution Curve, that is, the 3+ sigma group (explanation here).

I never surfed anyone's couch through the Couchsurfing site yet, because I'm one of the older ones. Also I prefer my freedom to come and go as I want, - it would have to be someone I really felt comfortable with and know for a while to actually do the couchsufing thing and sleep on a couch.
In Asia a cheap backpackers hostel  is my standard accommodation.

As I mentioned above: I don't host people, my place is too small 6.5 x 6.5 meters, I'm older (see above points re age again :-)) and it would have to be someone I really trusted to do the hosting-a-couchsurfer thing.


Clothes, dress, and the message it gives out to all around you:
Another thing about getting out tourist mode: dress in such a way that the local people think you are living and working there (i.e. an expat), travelling around for holiday.
        In Thailand I know I've hit the right dress level when local people ask me: "where do you work ? how long you been working in Thailand ?"- then I know I've dressed the correct way :-)
- Then I know I don't run around with clothes that scream "TOURIST !!!!!"
Thais have a phrase for certain groups of foreigners  'kii nok tourist' ... I'll leave you to work out what it means :-)

One really useful thing I found out over time was this:
I take a suit jacket.
- It helps me blend in,
- it is NOT the usual backpacker dress so instantly takes me out of that pot.
- It makes people (in SE Asia) think I am working locally (expat).

I take jackets that I can knock around a bit, older stuff, that is good for travel.

And in case people think it makes me look rich, no, not really, as I wear the suit jacket with clean pants, jeans, whatever, and the rest of me clean and casual.And it is not JUST clothes, attitude matters even more.

I also found wearing clothes like this makes locals trust me more, they are actually more friendly.
I get better service, better responses from most places.
Admittedly I am over 40 years old, so I guess that helps the image as well.

It is ironic because for my work at the University I don't usually wear a suit jacket. Or if I do, it is very casually.

 Travel tips for women in the links at the end talk about dress too.






Ok and we might as well face the inevitable question of SAFETY
I'm an Academic and Engineer, by trade, and researching things is in my blood. It is curious how our human psyche puts up with the incredibly high chance of getting killed in a car accident (details here)
            and yet turns itself inside out, about things that are really rare. Kids are taught a fear of strangers that changes the shape and the whole tone and feeling of our society, and yet we are quite happy to accept risks of 1 in 100  of being killed in a transport accident over the average lifetime. The social risks from strangers or in travel are 10,000 times less than that. Having said that, of course does not mean it NEVER happens, it just means it is rare - some good figures by a reputable group from Oxford Uni on accidents and travel  here    and on general healthy living here.
And having looked at the numbers does not mean my heart and guts agrees. Numbers don't mean little in the end.  In the end it is everyone's personal choice. I guess we all 'gotta go one day'.  ---  Enjoy the ride. :-)



I've talked more about how I used Couchsurfing to meet some great people in Macau in September2009 on another blog  here.


'dance me to the children who are asking to be born....'  - Leonard Cohen


I walk with her, and I hear the gentle beating of mighty wings....
I hear the sound of her wings.... and the darkness lifts from my soul...

04 September 2009

Macau - B - last days



Macau people burn paper replicas of money, food, utensils, gold bullion, even mobile phones, to send to their ancestors on the other side. This is the time in the Chinese calendar to do the burning Well that is what our local Macau Chinese expert told us at the Sunday meeting.The idea of sending messages to loved ones on the other side has a long tradition in Chinese history. I've done it on occasions, writing a letter using paper and pen and burning it. It's good. People here do it in big metal bins on the footpath all over town.

- sorry layout in this blog sucks, I need to redo in firefox, later, to make it look nice. Some sections are moved about other repeated, the layout on IE is not good, - I move one thing and it has funny effects on othe parts of this layout...  Haiko



This evening at 10pm as I walk back to the hotel I pass an old man, bent over, having difficulty walking pulling a bamboo woven garbage container. He seems to have pain in his legs. By the looks of him, he's a cardboard and plastic recycler who does this all day. Wearing only shorts he makes his snail's pace way across the road. On the other side three men sit drinking beer and playing cards. see photo below:

---o(O)o---
The act of observing alters that which is observed. It is an old principle known as the 'observer effect' which has found application even in quantum physics where it is known as the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

It applies equally to tourism. The act of observing and gawking at a tourist spot, creates a definite, often negative, effect.
An effect I like to keep to the absolute minimum.

People ask me what I do when I travel, don't I want to see the Casinos and the tourist spots ?
Casinos no, some of the tourist spots yes, but when I travel I travel ad hoc, without a fixed itinerary, I travel in a funny way, wandering about, exploring, photographing, and most of all blending in, not wanting to be noticed by anyone, just passing through looking like a 'regular', a local expat whatever...
For example: Yesterday I walked past and watched the huge tenement high risers, like anthills, like a termite colony, - we humans live in huge concrete cities... (not for too much longer I think, that makes me appreciate even those termite hills, as a unique thing in history. Funny how much the time/history perspective makes me appreciate things I would reject otherwise.)
And in those termite hills, at sundown hundreds of families go to the playgrounds, hundreds of lively squiggly shouting kids, eager and excited by life. Each one family, each one a story, each child (mostly) carefully looked over and after by a mother and father, each little life weaving itself into the tapestry of memories that the old men and women of the future will remember 70,90 years hence...



---o(O)o---


Talking with younger travelers last Sunday I realize how far the travel scene has moved and I start to feel my age... .
In the late 70's overland travel on YOUR OWN with a backpack was a NEW way, not established. There were odd articles here and there, by crazy dudes who tried it and lived to tell the tale.
I took a train all the way out to Geelong as a 17 year old High School student to talk to a guy who had 'done it'. He gave me good advice, much of which has become part of my mode of travelling.The method basically conisted of finding the first cheap traveller hotel - and asking other travellers what the best next stop was. "where do you stay in Singapore ?""Becoolen street has cheap accommodation, some flats are converted to cheap hostels.""Where have you just come from ?" "Jakarta.""Oh, what place d'you recommend ?"etc... Lonely Planet's famous yellow bible "South-East Asia on a shoestring" was in everyone's hands, it was small, 2nd edition, and it was sketchy, but it was a start, enough to go on. In those days you didn't insist on as much detail. A rough outline was enough.
Remember the hippy generation had ripped through Western society not very long ago, the echoes were still around. Maybe I'm one of those echoes... ?






(quavery voice)"In those days: there was no internet." (shock and horror !!!! how can one live without the internet arghhhh .... ) Today it is inconceivable to travel without the net.
Backpacker places provide it as a matter of course. To get mail I wrote to my parents 6 weeks in advance: "send mail to Calcutta GPO Poste restante until May, then stop 2 weeks before I get there because the mail will not reach me in time. Each major city had GPO Poste Restante sections where budget travellers would check to see if there was a letter from home. It was another hub of exchange. Everyone going through piles and piles of letters.




It was part of the 'ant trail' as I called it. When ants meet they stop and wave their antennae at each other, communicating in some way. The travel scene was like that, the stop-overs were the cheap hotels. You couldn't book these places, you just turned up, that was how it worked.




It was part of the challenge to set off into the wild blue yonder. The motto was:"if you can book it, it's too expensive" because the only hotels you could book easily were Hiltons and 5star places. By fax, phone of travel agent.
The typical accommodation of the 70's was fan operated, small rooms, bare bones, clean, neat, simple and Zen like. There are only a few left in Macau. Even I don't stay there anymore (--- much). Below is a picture of one such remaining place, a famous moview was filmed there in the 70's

These days carrrying your phone and buying local SIM cards is the norm. I had to go to shops and buy things to get coins, walk around to find a phone box...I find it hard to keep in the loop without a phone these days, still I didn't want to bring it this time.

Now the traveller's social scene is on the internet, and travel tips and the ant trail has moved to the NET. You meet on the net, develop trust, sus each other out then meet in person. One uses whatever tools are around.

---o(O)o---




Lots of schools in the area I'm staying in.


Walking around when the schools all finish, the remarkable thing was that almost every child had a mother or grandmother/father to taken them by the hand and pick them up and walk them home. Not many car pickups, there simply is NO space in this tiny island.


---o(O)o---


Speaking of using the Internet for social circles reminds me: In the previous email, I forgot to explain that the way all those strangers got to know each other and arranged a meeting last Sunday in that ice cream shop was through
www.Couchsurfin.org. It is set up for people to develop a network of trust and allow those they trust to stay on their couches/Sofas - basically provide some space for people to crash overnight ! The idea has been around for ages. Servas had this concept in the 1960's to 1980's before internet - when all was done by snail mail. I stayed at a Servas host in Singapore in 1985. The current incarnation of this idea is couchsurfing and other similar sites. I won't explain it all here, you can find out more at: www.couchsurfing.org My flat is too small for hosting people, so I only meet people for tea/coffee for a chat, there is no compulsion to provide overnight hosting. I usually stay at Hotels/budget backpackers when I travel. Unless work pays :-)

I'd never been to the other islands of Macau, Taipa, and Coloane. I got a great nightime sightseeing tour of the those other parts from a friend I met using the same site (couchsurfing.org) as for last Sunday's meeting. Photos of the nightime tour here.

---o(O)o---


I've moved to the Institute for Tourism Training Hotel the last two nights. The hotel is really classy and nicely done up, take a look if you want at:
http://www.ift.edu.mo/pousada/eng/index.htm
I like the clean-ness. They are s***tscared about this silly Swine flu and go nuts on face masks. The place smells strongly of insecticide in fact it positively stinks of the stuff. I hold my breath as I walk quickly through the lobby.
The insecticide is doing more harm to staff than any flu virus would.
These are the vagaries of big bureaucracies...
the Hotel one notch down wouldn't dream of such extremes.

The air in Macau is around 28-33 Celsius, humid, pleasant if you like that kind of thing (I do). The hotel has the aircon on instant-freeze-dry mode, at cryogenic freezing levels close to absolute zero - ok a little exaggeration, but you get the point. It's the deep cold that hits you in the chest, hurts the lungs as you breath when you come in from outside.
Another reason to walk quickly through the lobby.
Why they do these things ? These are mysteries beyond the wisdom of the Sufi's themselves I think.


Then they wonder that some people get phlegmy and chesty.


A tip I picked up from an older traveler years ago: always take a suit jacket as protection when you change from hot to cyrogenic aircon. I even take a small silk scarf. It's the change over that is the tricky time, after 20mins the body adjusts and all is cool (pardon the pun).
Suit jackets serve the double function of looking nice and more formal which is important in Asia (and Australia I'm noticing to my surprise).



---o(O)o---

All these recent email articles are on: here


If you are interested in more esoteric tangents: Musings on the feeling of having lived in a place before, e.g. a city that I know I didn't ever visit in my life before - more here if you are interested.






---o(O)o---

31 August 2009

Macau A - travels in Macau


how come I love the messy shops,
the lively raucaus restaurants,
the worn outness of buildings,
narrow winding streets so much ?
- I've just arrived in Macau,
29Aug09 at 22:30
If I was ever going to talk about
having lived in a place in another
lifetime, and I had to pick a
place, this would be one of
them for sure.
I feel at home here straight after
arriving at 10:30pm via Kuala
Lumpur and an 11 hour stopover.
I surprise myself with the
confidence with which I lounge in
the corner of a restaurant, order
stuff, get served by guys without
shirts wearing old shorts, because
its clean-up and close-up time but
the white gringo wanted some of
the last bits of food in the trays
before they got cleaned away.


I speak one word of Chinese and they none of English. The teenage son was hauled out to face me, "Ze foreigner", at first but that wasn't neccessary after a while. The staff kept going, chatting, watching some comedy of manners and talking animated with each other.
The mentality, the approach, the attitude to life is soooo very different to where I normally live in Melbourne. Not bettter or worse, just so different.

Not many speak English here, but unexpectedly some do
"stand in line please" a lady tells me.
I surprise myself again by not minding that at all.
Ï'm trying to figure out if the bus goes to my hotel" I tell her. She very kindly ends up showing me where my bus stop really is.

There seems to be less fear of talking to strangers. Not the "Oh my god a stranger's talking to me" instant apprehension of inner city Melbourne. [Country people are not like that I found.] Or maybe I just look really harmless. Certainly the check in girl must have thought I was some absent minded professor when I couldn't get the electronic room door open. Turns out you have really crunch the handle down like crazy. Almost to point of brute force.

----------- 30Aug09 Sunday ------------
The hotel "Öle London" is nice but they charge for two persons per room and I don't want to afford that invisible companion (AUD $99 total).

A cockcroach falls on me at the first alternative hotel I look at. It started as a funny scratch at the side of the neck which I flicked off and onto the front desk. Turns out to be a roach lands onto the check-in desk. Not a good omen.
But maybe it was there in my shirt from overnight ? Don't know, these things happen.

I have no money to pay the hotel in HongKong Dollars. Banks are closed on Sunday. So money changing turns out to be interesting. There are changing booths in Senado Square I'm told. It's easy to get to, the hotel desk lady tells me. (Beware of that phrase "it's easy to find'.)
I have a choice to risk it and beat a track through tiny alleyes and curving streets to Senado Square or to play it 'safer'.
I decide to take the longer but surer route along main roads I can't miss according to the map (yea sure, ha ha ha ) . I get lost anyway. Out comes the trusty magnetic compass and old jungle and boy scout skills come to the rescue. That and the odd confirmation question from locals.

After asking 7+ people I finally find the exchange booth. Phew.
Then I realize: oh!!! this is literally around the corner from where I set out. With a little more adventurousness I'd have found it in a few minutes...and I'd have found exchange booths with better rates at that...
Oh well I got to know Macau better.
There's a little life lesson in this if I care to look. Hmmm.....

I am proud to say I can now get around most areas and have some idea of where I am. Compared to my time 3 years ago I'm feeling like an old hand. I even remember some of the vague glimpses of those frantic 1.5 days from memory and they fit into the overall picture.

At the HOtel the whole family comes out to eat behind the front desk. Somehow I like this mix of business and private, it feels nicer and more human to me than 5 star robotic friendlyness. However I could get used to both if I had to ... ;-P


"Knock, knock"
I open the door.
"You not check out ? Please pay".
Ok I pay my $280 Macau Patacas (Aud $45) - a bit upmarket for me, but hey the place feels nice.
The real cheap places tend to be overrun with red light activities.
The area I ended up in is the street of "felicidad" i.e. 'happyiness' - it used to be famous for happiness of the carnal kind. Most of that activity has shifted to the casinoes, closer to the punters, but some of it still lingers here I think.


-----------o(O)o---------------

I arranged to meet a group of locals and travellers in Macau on Sunday. I had never met any of them in person before.
In a strange new city I like to meet locals and expats, otherwise I tend to float like a cork, on the surface of life and remain the gringo tourist ready for the milking. I'll probably always be the gringo tourist, but there are ways to dive below the surface and meet locals and other travellers.
One of those ways is to meet likeminded, traveller friendly local & expat people in that strange new city. So 7 of us met at a famous ice cream shop on Sunday at 12.30. Four were local Macau residents, a lady who was studying business and has a wine import business, a final year High School student who wants to study in Europe, a Goverment employee in education who loves to travel and wants to visit 100 countries before he dies and a Japanese Macau resident who runs a business.
The foreigners were a group of exchange Univ students (Germany, Finland, Holland...) and a Japanese visiting her friend, + yours truly. Pictures here: Sunday meeting
We used this site www.couchsurfing.org to meet up.


Everyone met at a small inconspicuous ice cream shop that was famous for its ice cream sandwiches. Then the locals took us to eat at a REAL traditional noodle shop, we shopped for a new camera for the German exchange student. Our High School guide took the rest of us who stayed on for a tour of her favourite spots in Macau: the bisquit making, juice shop, super fresh tofu shop, backpackers place where a famous movie was shot. (thanks VL :-) ) Oh yea, and we found out about the graffiti scene in Macau, nothing like as full on as in Melbourne but some really nice stuff, with interesting ideas.
It seems that multinational marketing is getting really sophisticated: Apparently Coca Cola sponsored graffiti that subtly promotes their Zero Coke brand, but looks like a huge graffiti mural. Photo to follow once I manage to get a cable to connect the camera to the computer. [update: photo below]

that was it so far...
If I won Tattslotto, you can imagine what I'd be doing full time. :-)

Blowing my own trumpet a bit:

After 4 years of pushing, modest result in the newspaper: Heiko and the cypress trees being chopped at the Melb Gen Cemetery- here.
as they say, every dog has his day :-)
Travel tips by heiko here

and by lonely planet below:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/travel-blog/community/?p=1084



ch
H
'dance me to the children who are asking to be born....' - Leonard Cohen


Haiko's - blog list here or direct: life42 or backpacking or stories. --> Risks of being alive & Media :-)

I walk with her, and I hear the gentle beating of mighty wings....
I hear the sound of her wings.... and the darkness lifts from my soul...

27 August 2009

felling trees, making space, making Millions of $$$'s ?

After 4 years of bringing this up the Melb Leader Newspaper has taken the story and asked the right questions.
see below
heiko

HAVE YOUR SAY: Grave fears on tree scheme

HAVE YOUR SAY: Grave fears on tree scheme
Heiko Rudolph at the cemetery.
PIC IN SYSTEM N09ME309
MELBOURNE General Cemetery's neighbours fear the felling of trees on its boundary fence is part of a plot to squeeze more graves into the necropolis.
Carlton's Heiko Rudolph said the cemetery's failure to replace the 130 heritage-listed cypress trees that lined the cemetery until 2005 had raised eyebrows among nearby residents.
"There's a bit of talk among the neighbours that maybe the motivation for this is about freeing up a bit of extra grave space," Mr Rudolph said.
"These sites cost tens of thousands of dollars and it's no secret that the old cemeteries, where grave sites are highly sought after, are running out of space."
Small trees replanted in the same position would allow for hundreds of new grave sites, reaping millions of dollars in revenue for the cemetery.
Rod Shell, operations manager of the cemetery's management company, Necropolis, refused to rule out putting more grave sites on land left open following the giant trees' removal.
"You never rule out things. Who knows what will happen, but there's no current plan," Mr Shell said.
But the organisation was committed to replacing the trees and had begun planting in recent months.
Heritage Victoria granted a permit for the trees' removal only on the condition that they were replaced with the same species.
"The problem for us is that these aren't trees that are commonly grown any more and Heritage Victoria was insistent we use the exact species so we've had to actually cultivate the trees and there's been some difficulties in getting them," Mr Shell said.
He said the trees were removed because of safety fears after several fell over.
But Mr Rudolph said many residents remained sceptical about the reasons for the removal.
"When they chopped them down, I inspected and photographed the trunks and none of them showed any signs of decay or decline," he said.






http://leader-news.whereilive.com.au/news/story/grave-tree-scheme-fears-grave-fears-on-tree-scheme/

'dance me to the children who are asking to be born....'  - Leonard Cohen


Haiko's - blog list here or direct: life42  or backpacking or  stories. --> Risks of being alive & Media :-)

I walk with her, and I hear the gentle beating of mighty wings....
I hear the sound of her wings.... and the darkness lifts from my soul...


'dance me to the children who are asking to be born....'  - Leonard Cohen


Haiko's - blog list here or direct: life42  or backpacking or  stories. --> Risks of being alive & Media :-)

I walk with her, and I hear the gentle beating of mighty wings....
I hear the sound of her wings.... and the darkness lifts from my soul...


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Aswan, Egypt, Tombs of the Nobles