Hudson's travel blog

Ecuador

2011-01-25T15:37:00.000-08:00

16 days in Ecuador in my sights, solo this time.
-After flying into Ecuador's 2nd largest city, Guayaquil, at night, I have since learned, and can recommend to you, that it is worth attempting to get to your destination city/town straight away. Save yourself from having to waste time the following day on travel...FYI
-Also, cost me $13(!) the one time I took $ out of an ATM in Ecuador. Anyone have any tips on how to most cheaply get $ abroad?

Cuenca
A city in the Andes over 8000ft high, Cuenca is not what I think it used to be. What was once a quiet mountain town, is now full of traffic jams, exhaust fumes, and traffic lights that belie the single-lane cobble-stoned streets and antique architecture.
I stayed in a hostel room that turned out to be right next to a club (you never know until the music comes on), which turned into wakeful dreams of bangin music... only to wake up to the church next-door that, starting at 5am, rang its bells about 15 times...every half hour until about 8--uff!, that was painful.

Went for a great hike into the mountains of Cajas national park. Reaching up 13,300ft and containing over 270 lakes, it was a classic view of the Andes.

After catching our breath (a different story hiking at 13,000+ft) and stopping in for a taste of the locally and heavily farmed trout, we went for an amazing walk into a canyon lake that held a tranquil calm with breathtaking scenery.

My first encounter with lamas and alpacas. The difference I learned is that alpacas have a tuft of hair on their forehead, llamas do not. What mild mannered animals.

Did this hike with a Swiss couple doing a 6 week trip in Ecuador--now that´s more like it! (boy I wish we could learn from the European way of life)

After a long day's hike I sought off to a corner of the city known for it's thermal baños / baths. What just looks like the local swimming pool, looked to me a like a great community space for families/people to hang out and soak in the natural hot water. There are a bunch of these baños spread out all over the hill town. Various neighborhood's with their own... we need some!

Had a few passes on the water slides, couldn't resist.

Next, it was an 8 hour(!) bus ride north to Baños--an amazing, winding, cliff-side drive through Andean mountain communities. At one of many quick stops at these small mountain towns to let people on/off, however, the bus driver gets out of the bus, somehow gets in a fight with someone outside. We are stuck not knowing if he's coming back for an hour+, waiting for who knows what. He comes back with a bandaged bloody eye. Now he's back driving (again, on these Andean mountain cliff roads) very angry, driving crazy fast all over the road. Then we descend into foggy valleys with a swinging bus, honking and passing smaller cars. Eventually enough people are screaming and yelling at him to slow down, he does. Yipes, scary!

Baños
A medium sized mountain town.

Where they twist candy.

Rented a bike for the day--still one of my favorite things to do while traveling.
Found a quiet side road along the river that made for some good adventure...

Went to the very cool ($2) zoo perched on the side of a mountain.

Across the way was the ($1) snake aquarium.
A guy had let one of the 12 ft boa constrictors out for some sun on a railing...
I walk by about 15 minutes later and just happened to notice that, after the guy had left, the snake was crawling down the side of the building into the street! So i yelled down to a worker below who got the guy to come get it. For helping out, I was rewarded with a chance to hold it :)

For the 2nd half of the day I took off for a waterfall ridden trip along a river valley road.
Along the way there are a bunch of little gondolas that people use to cross the canyon,

fun for tourists too.

Somewhat touristy a road, some locals had set up a 1 kilometer(!) zip line over the river. I had met up with some other Argentinians biking the excursion and we stopped for a look. After haggling over the price, getting it down from $13 to $7, my partners for the day asked me to go first-- scardy cats ;) So not knowing how it was, only after doing it did I realize that I had to do it again!--with my camera this time. So fun! Check it out:

The last waterfall along the way, el diablo, was by far the most amazing--about 265ft high.

Most amazing was the construction job they did building a passage way along the cliffs to the top of the waterfall.

Where you could go right under near the top of it--such a rush!

I met a 23 year old kid and his father from Alaska at the top. The kid was in Ecuador for 3 months guiding kayak trips (his 3rd time) and he was sizing up the water fall for a run of it with his kayak! crazy!
At night, on the menu in baños are the baths (claro que si). Hot springs that make for a great community gathering site.

With a party pool.

Went white water rafting on el rio verde. Had one too many in my boat, so someone had to sit without a paddle on the front and center, legs hanging out. After another was too scared to sit there any longer, I went... So much fun! Like being in the front seat of a roller coaster...only like riding a bucking bronco and much easier to fall out.

Puyo

A small town on the outskirts of the Amazon. I went for a little tour of an indigenous medicinal garden.

My young guide said the indigenous people of the Amazon usually live to 100 years. In discussing the various plants and their medicinal use, she said they attribute their longevity in part to eating a certain plant every morning that forces them to vomit. Your guess is as good as mine on that one...although, I don't think they had much of a calender system.

She also discussed their marital/mating habits: that men can have many wives who all live in the same house. In order for them to mate, they must has to go elsewhere--to the respective garden that each wife maintains away from the house. Each wife leaves for this garden to have her baby on her own, which my guide said usually takes 30 minutes, the result of special plants she eats to aid the birthing process, plants that my guide said her elders would kill her for telling tourists about...

Yucca:

Ayahuasca:

Into the amazon for a short day trip. Saw some very cool plants and their residents.

Made a quick stop at a monkey zoo/hospital was fun. They are so playful, often to the point of aggression.

Another guided tour of traditional plants in the Amazon and their uses. I'm guessing I'm comprehending about 50% of things...between the locals and the other South American travelers I find myself with, little English is spoken. But, for me, that's half the fun--trying to get by in Spanish.

Montanita
What a town! Hung out here for a while...A beach town with a rocking night life. Turns out it's a destination for Chilean and Argentinian youth during their summer vacation. Didn't get to bed before 4am the 5 nights I was there...Including a night of dancing outside in the pouring rain and mud until the joint closed after 4!

The small town is mostly only foot traffic.
By day an easy going beech town,

by night, party in the streets.

Drink whatever you like, $3.

Plenty of fresh fruit

and fresh sea food (ceviche)

I've encountered so many Chileans and Argentinians traveling in South America. My impression is they are an interesting breed: genes are good looking, courteous, and steeped in culture. If only I could better understand their Spanish!--a very different version of the language, it seems to me.

La Isla De Plata
Not too far away is this small island, compared with the Galapagos but with far fewer species. A steaming desert enclave 40ks off the coast, 100+ degrees in the sun--yum!.
A nesting ground for frigates and boobies,

Took off to a more remote beach, los Frailes...worth the walk.

Took a bit of a hitchhike to get back...atop the roof of the driver, with a pig riding in the back :)

ah, the adventure!...why must it be so short...

Colombia

2010-02-15T20:55:00.000-08:00

This years winter escape brings Nick and I to Colombia. Mostly to the northern/Caribbean part.
First, a brief sun scorched couple days in Bogota to visit our friend Chris (who's been teaching English in Bogota for a couple years now).

We we're caught without our sunscreen when we went for a walk in the park and we paid for it. Lesson: at high altitude (Bogota is 1.5 miles high), the sun is very intense and you burn easily :)

Although only 7.3 million people (vs. Shanghai at 20 mil, Bangkok 10 mil), it sure looked and felt like a massive city. Thank goodness they've got a great bus system (best i've ever seen), which has reduced traffic to a more sane level (I can't imagine what it was like before the new TransMileneo bus system).

Made a quick stop in for a peep of the Bortero museum. Quite a hoot actually.

A quick flight up to Santa Marta, we shot straight for the sleepy fishing village of Taganga. Of course now more touristy, it was still a great escape from traffic/city craziness.
After a poor decision to stay in an over-priced room directly beneath the speakers of an outdoor bar/club,

we found a GREAT room perched right above the water (the white building all the way on the right)

with a hammock looking right over the beach....ahhhh, perfect!

Having stayed in plenty of hostels before, I knew this was just what I was looking for and we stayed for longer than anticipated. A benefit of not planning ahead ;)

These street-side arepas (grilled cornbread filled with cheese, and sauces) were pretty good,

but our favorite restaurant was this pizza place that was basically the front stoop of this guy's house, composed of a prep table he'd built himself, a pizza oven, and some chairs scattered about the rubble between his place and the street. He had opened the joint 4 days before we sat down.

With our sights set north to the Tayrona national park, we were looking to take a boat ride vs.the more circuitous taxi-bus-hike into the park. After 3 days of bartering--really--I got the guy down to the price someone of my skin color and Spanish skills would be proud of: the same price some Argentinian chicks I met got on their first pass!
Just how it is when you travel as a Gringo, off the beaten track, in a developing country. The price game...

And it was odd, Colombia turned out to be a very popular place for Argentine travelers, up north for their summer holidays. We met heaps,

So after a VERY bumpy 60min ride along the coast, we arrived at Cabo de San Juan, something of a backpacker's commune set amidst a remote national park paradise beach. Totally worth the spine crunching, ass numbing trip.

Remote as it was, the accommodations were, well, minimal...You could bring your tent,

or sleep in a hammock....CRAMMED in with others RIGHT up next to you (no swinging allowed ;).....

So, between the intimate hammock accommodations, the mosquitoes, and the farm animals lingering around, there no was sleep to be had...although I did find myself laughing at like 3am at how funny a situation it was when one of the pigs started squealing at full blast right near where we were all just hangin out....

But it was totally worth it to be around these remote beaches:

where supplies were brought in by donkey,

and you had to hike 3 hours to get out to the main road to catch the bus back to town.

South-west to Cartagena, a Caribbean city with narrow streets and an old-world charm, kinda like that of Sevilla, Spain.

Apparently emeralds are Colombia's foot into the world of jewelry, evident by the swath of shops in old-town Cartagena. We bought a couple pieces to adorn some fingers back home.

Lastly, we made our way out to La Playa Blanca (the white beach) for yet another Vitamin D infusion.

A difficult haggle of a boat ride away, the picturesque beach spanned only about a mile, inhabitied by a few loosly assembled dwellings. And for backpackers, again hammocks or tents (what more do you need? you're on a beach!):

The kitchen from which Nick and I feasted on fresh seafood,

keeping the bugs off the fruit,

Everyday an injection of day-trippers between 10am and 4pm spoiled the otherwise serene setting with the typical tourist driven fare provided by a transient host of locals from a nearby village 2 hours away. Jewelry, massages, fruit, local deserts, shrimp, lobster,
fresh coconut,

and oysters (I tried a few, my first ever),

A 360 of a spot we hung out in for a while...ah, to relax....

Indonesia

2009-07-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

Wanderlust beholds me.
My girlfriend happened to have gone to high school in Indonesia, so I joined her for her 10 year reunion.
Alas, I arrived in Indo to find my camera broken. (Never put your camera in your checked baggage...) What's more...I lost my girlfriend's camera in a taxi the 2nd day :( ! ...Luckily, a friend of hers brought a spare, so all was not lost.
5 days in Seminyak for the ruinion--near the main tourist area of Bali--not much but shopping, lounging, and traffic--of which there was heaps! :( . With some death-defying scootering, I did find some nice adventure into the outskirts of town and along the coast; alone, I had no camera to catch it.
Not much photo-worthy in the tourist Kuta/Legion area if you ask me...
Although we did check out the Kecak dance at a cliff side, monkey ridden temple.

The real fun began when we left the touristy Kuta/Legion/Seminyok area for the Gili Islands. A $60, 2.5 hour, 1000 horsepower speed boat ride to the east, the most expensive thing I paid for all trip.
This was as close to that 'idyllic remote tropical island' as I've ever come across. No engines--cars or motorbikes. Only horse carriage and bicycles. My kinda place (!).
Perfect turquoise blue water.

Great views of the ocean and neighboring islands,

of the sunrise,

and of the sunset.

Beautiful beach,

that gave way to coral as the tide went out in the evening.

With great snorkeling all around the island, what more could you ask for?
turtles,

fish

coral

mermaids

and me.

In contrast to my first taste of Central America in Nicaragua, Indo has great food.
Gado Gado,

Curry...mmm, yum,

and heaps of seafood,

After 4 precious nights in paradise, it was back to the mainland for Ubud. On the touristy side, again, Ubud has become something of a hippie-hangout. Heaps of Aussie's seemed to come here for the spas and yoga. Not one to pass up the cheap massages, I got myself a few. As usual, I prefer the young guys, but one guy laid it into my calf so much I developed rashes on my legs, ha!
Ubud has a great market: 3 levels, tons of stuff (for tourists). A bargaining bonanza!

Went for a wander to some outlying rice fields/villages, as I love to do. Amazing landscape. So easy to get lost on small/dirt roads that take you through tranquil valleys with views like this all around.

On a tip from one of Nicole's friends I sought out to find an organic restaurant that was said to be in a rice patty. I had to ask a couple locals just to find the sign that points to the drive way to the place. Arriving at the driveway, it is not clear where to go. Having known that it was "in the rice paddies" I set out walking by moonlight on the small paths between the water filled paddies.
My first two attempts brought me down dark paths, only to be chased away by howling dogs. The third path took me around some houses and I heard an oncoming scooter--a human! English speaking no less! And he said I was on the right trail, about 800 meters that way he said.
I end up walking another good 15-20 min by starlight, surrounded by crickets, frogs and flickering lightning bugs, with only a couple local farmers (who I mistook for dogs as they were in the dark squatting on the side of the path) who recognized the word 'organic' for the restaurant and pointed me onwards.
I have never had such a journey to find a measly restaurant. And I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw 4 other people there. Boy these people are ballsy, I thought to myself, to put a restaurant in the middle of nowhere!
The food was good. But I should have gone during the day, the view would have been much better.

The Balinese, who are mostly Hindu (vs. the rest of Indo which is mostly Muslim), are very religious. More so than the Thai, I think. Religion so pervades their culture, it is often difficult to distinguish their homes from temples. Most domiciles have elaborate archways and religious sculptures in the entrance.

and everywhere you go, people put out these offerings along the sidewalks--they're everwhere.

Nicaragua

2009-02-21T18:44:00.001-08:00

So my brother, Nick, and I took off for a couple weeks to Nicaragua. My first pass at Central/South America--an escape from the New England cold and a chance to improve my Spanish.

We stuck to the West/Pacific coast; the more politically/socially modern side of Nicaragua. The Eastern/Caribbean side was mostly undeveloped mountains, inhabited by only small, dispersed more indigenous locations.

Water
We came across quite a bit of water.
Water as volcanic lakes:
--Laguna de Apoyo

--Volcan Conseguina

Water as beach,
--far removed from others

--where kids bike on the rocks and the beach...?

--to eat with a view

--at small fishing villages

--to ride the waves and fill our ears with sand...oops

--for beautiful vistas,

--with the sunsets of the west.

Water by kayak
--Padre Ramos Estuary

--Las isletas (little islands) in a huge lake

(This is the island Ometepe, with it's 2 volcanoes in the background, in the middle of a lake. It was VERY windy; so windy, in fact, the ferry to the island stopped, for it had almost turned over with cars on it).

Churches
We came across only a handful, exclusivly in the cities.

...a far cry from the widespread temples of Thailand.

Animals
Famous for its sea turtle landings, we came across:
monkeys

prancing in the trees (center below)

and, oddly enough, pig...turtle... and manta ray... in one place!... only one's alive though...

Food
The local fare was, well, fair...
fruit

vegetable soup, rice chillies,

gallo pinto (beans, rice, eggs, cheese, tortilla, fried banana)

and plenty of fish, all prepared the same way: deep fried whole...

almost always eaten with "dos Toñas por favor" :)

Traveling
Getting around the country was relatively easy. The bus system could get you pretty much anywhere for dirt cheap...just no guarantee how long it will take or how comfortable you'll be along the way.
The roads were sometimes pretty awful, especially going into more remote locations. Of dirt, they were passable only by horse, 4x4 or (like us) by the retired US school buses fitted for off-roading.

They were packed to the brim with 2-3 people to a 2 person seat and people packing in the aisles, many of whom were there only to walk up and down the aisle selling bagged water or all sorts of deep fried stuff they cooked in their kitchen.

And there were always a couple young guys, on the inside, pushing through the aisle to collect money and, on the outside, moving stuff up and down from the roof of the bus, crawling atop and along the side of the bus as it bounced along.

Language
The Spanish spoken in Nicaragua is, in my experience, a more intelligible variation of Castilian Spanish than that spoken in other Spanish speaking countries. It is certainly more intelligible than the Spanish I came across in Andalusia and Catalan Spain. Although, I found it more essential to speak Spanish in Nicaragua than I did the more touristed Spain.
While I certainly came across other Westerners traveling through Central America who didn't speak much Spanish, I did find it quite essential to be able to speak Spanish--especially when venturing away from the larger towns/small cities or when arranging guides for the hikes and kayaking we did. In a couple of the smaller places we went, no one spoke a word of English--FUN!.
I tried to stir up conversation as often as I could--with a bus driver, a hostel worker, or kids playing (often curious about my white skin).

Although far from fluent, I can hold down conversation reasonably well. In fact, at one point, I found myself in between a coversation of 2 people--one Nican, one American--who thought I spoke Spanish well enough to translate for the Nican environmentalist as he downloaded his life story and the travails of trying to protect a national reserve in the face of foreign corporate ventures to exploit the land....After 45 mins or so, I had to bail on them, I was mentally exhausted.

It was a reasonably successful trip, although more of a vacation than true traveling this time. I will most certainly make another pass to these parts.
Hasta la proxima vez!

Closure

2008-01-31T09:26:00.000-08:00

So my travels have ended. It was a great time. Experience for contrast, perspective, appreciation.

I hope that you will be able to bait some memories/stories out of me, for it is difficult to keep a hold of and recall memories/experiences without people with whom one can share them.

FYI: For the 5 or so months I was away I spent about apx. $8400, including $3000 on flights. Of course it is often not the money that stops one from doing such a thing in one’s life, it is the time and freedom.

Now, having put it off for 5 months, it's finally time to get going with my career in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, with my father @ Comprehensive Medical Services and hopefully elsewhere as well.

So to conclude my travel blog, a summative photo gallery of each place I visited.

Until next trip,

Hudson

Seville, Spain

Cordoba, Spain

Granada, Spain

Alicante, Spain

Barcelona, Spain

Turin, Italy

Cinque Terre, Italy

Cinque Terre, Italy

Pisa, Italy

Florence, Italy

Rome, Italy

Nicosia, Cyprus

Hangzhou, China

Zhejiang Provincial Hospital, China

CCTV Beijing 2008 filming, China

Ningbo, China

Shanghai, China

Bangkok, Thailand

Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand

Chiang Rai, Thailand

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Sydney, Australia

Noosa, Australia

Sunshine Coast, Australia

Auckland, New Zealand

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

East Cape, New Zealand

Tongariro Crossing, New Zealand

New Zealand--5:Wellington and closure with NZ

2008-01-24T00:16:00.000-08:00

(Last one on NZ. One last one to come.)

In acquiescence to the limited amount of time I had left, instead of hitch hiking I took a 6 hour bus down to Wellington--NZ's capital. Spent just a few nights in Wellington, Couch Surfing in a few guys basement flat.
Wellington is a nice little oceanside city, ensconced in mountains--typical NZ.

Went up to a hilltop/volcano cone with my hosts to look out over Wellington and around,

Walked through the botanical gardens. There were:
some great aromatic "fragrant gardens",

with many varieties,

succulents

An informative "herb garden",

And a bountiful "rose gardens" (from above),

with all sorts of roses...like these 'heart throb roses',

Nota Bene: a great time to go to such gardens is when you're fasting. I had been on about 36 hours fast (inspired by a woman I met hitch hiking on a 5 day fast, something I'd been meaning to do for a while) when I walked through the park. For when you are hungry, your olfactory bulb is more easily illuminated. And stimulating it with the smell of flowers is a pleasant evasion from food.
Paid a visit to the Parliament House and the Beahive (where the prime minister and company work, on the left there).

Had a listen to some interesting excerpts of famous speeches given in the NZ Parliament over the past 70 years or so. Went for a really nice tour of the building and learned a good bit about their government, politics, Maori relations, etc. E.g. NZ is not independent of England; as part of 'The Commonwealth" they are still a constitutional monarchy (like Australia and Canada) in which their governor general must sign on behalf of the Queen for laws to be passed.

Checked out the (free) Te Papa Tongarewa museum of NZ's animals, meteorology, tectonic landscape, and Maori culture/history. On the 'Ring of Fire,' there is a lot going on in and under NZ. Free national museums are great.

Lastly, I found the City Gallery Wellington. I'm usually not one for art, but I quite liked Bill Hammond's work of mostly these avian human things.

(not my photo)

There was also a really cool screening of 2 short films titled "Doomed" and "Love" in which the producer (Tracey Moffat) sampled small pieces of films spanning about 60 years and spliced them together into a montage pursuing the above themes, with a soundtrack threading the story. Very dramatic.

Something interesting I learned staying with a few younger Kiwis: they told me that it was normal for young people to move out of their parent's place when they are young. Three of the 6 or so I spoke with moved out @ age 16...

Last thoughts on NZ
Of all the places that I've traveled, I would recommend NZ the highest for others to visit. It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to, prices are reasonable (very cheap if you travel like me ;) ), the people are really friendly/generous/hospitable, it is well organized for tourists (good hostels, etc.), and they speak English (key).
Mind you, it takes time to see the country: no less than a month...for one island (North or South Islands), if you ask me. There is just so much to see and traveling takes time.
The North Island is a bit warmer, more tropical, more people, somewhat more developed. The South Island (from what I gathered cycling it 5 years ago and from what I've heard) is more rugged and barren but more scenic, mountainous and gorgeous (with the fiords and all). But really, with either, you can't go wrong. Of course, flights are not cheap and peak season is between Christmas and most of January.

As for me, hitchhiking, often crashing at local people's places, making friends and doing things with the local people I met, I really felt I like I was able to have an authentic individual experience in NZ. I did not feel like the impersonal statistic of a tourist that I kinda felt like in Europe: where traveling by bus/train, living amongst other backpackers/tourists in youth hostels, and visiting must see museums/churches/ruins/etc. can confine one to a somewhat circumscribed experience that is jaded by the presence/knowledge of the masses of others who are doing/have done the same thing. But that was just my experience.

New Zealand--4: Gisborne, Rotorua, Taupo

2008-01-06T02:52:00.000-08:00

Caught a hitchhike from Tokomaru bay to Gisborne with an EMT and a GP, made for some good conversation. Had a chance to discuss the brain science stuff I got into at UNSW, like the mind-brain paper I wrote a few years ago (and since had published in a Harvard student brain science journal).
In Gisborne I had a place to crash through the friend of a former patient of mine. Despite the fact that he wasn't even there, he set me up with the key and let me stay in his absence. Which was nice, but I didn't find much to get up to in Gisborne so I took off to Taupo via Rotorua after a couple nights.
Spent just the day/night in Rotorua, a thermal wonderland.
Hot mud,

and hot water,

with the smell of sulfur lingering everywhere.

Then it was just a couple quick hitchikes down to Taupo, a great place for outdoor activities--my sorta thing.

My first night at the backpacker in Taupo, I overheard an Aussie family talking about doing the Tongariro Alpine crossing the next day. I spoke up and said I was keen on it too and hooked up with them for the trek; one I had been looking to do for a while.
Up at 530AM (blah!) to beat the days heat, we saw the sun rise over Mt. Ngauruhoe,

Recognize that mountain?
How about now?

No?
Try imagining a red eye one top with flames coming out of it...
It's Mt. Doom from Lord of The Rings.
Climbing it was a detour from the main trail; and a bloody steep one at that. It was made of loose sand/rock that would slide under your feet as you climb, making for a really hard slog up.

It even made me sweat :)

But boy was it worth it!! The view from the top was unreal,

To my dismay, a look inside the crater did not yield a flaming red eye nor even flowing red lava....

It took about 1.5h to ascend and about 15mins to descend--sliding down the loose gravel/rock. Which filled my shoes with sand, absolutely chalkers! As you can when I emptied them.
The rest of the hike was no less spectacular:
evidence of landslides,

white lichen like ground cover,

martian like scenery,

Colors I don't know if you can see anywhere else,

This hike was exactly the sorta thing I was hoping to do in NZ.

In Taupo, lake Taupo flows out into the Waikato river with pristine clear turquoise water characteristic of NZ. Along side it I found a few things:
A very cool rope swing. With about 250 degrees circular swing, it was one of the best I've ever seen,

A thermal spring that pours hot water into the Waikato river,

And Huka falls.

New Zealand--3: The Bay of Plenty and the East Cape

2008-01-06T02:50:00.000-08:00

After returning from Paihia, I checked back into the Auckland city YHA, threw my stuff in the room-- not even bothering to take anything out for I was leaving the next day, caught up with a friend I made on NYE who worked at the hostel, then took off for a club to meet a chick I met the week before out at that small basement club. This time there was a much better turn out of people set on dancing, a great venue with a wildly different kind of electronic music than I listen to...

I love electronic dance music. Where non-verbal bass rhythms can communicate an energy through your mind and into your body that is ineffable and euphoric. I stayed until 330 when I had to check out so I could get up for the mornings hitchhike, 4 hours south to where I had arranged a couch surf. I am very envious of the Auckland dance scene--the people and the venues anyway.

I pretty quickly acquired myself a ride with a young boyfriend/girlfriend. But after about 30mins the girl got upset with the guy and didn't want me in the car anymore. So being the obediant boyfriend, he left me by some exit, who knows where. Now in a pretty bad spot to catch a ride, it took me 5 hours to catch another. But I tell ya, despite how long it took to find someone, people were still supportive—smiling, being friendly, and a few times some Maori kids walked by and tried to help me out.
Eventually a guy yells up to me (standing on an overpass) from the highway below where he was able to stop. He was an avocado/kiwi orchardist going most of the way to where I was going. He had a lot to say about NZ—landscape, climate, economy, etc. I learned a bunch. On our way, he took me out for a great view of the Bay of Plenty,

a gold mine,

A little tour of his kiwi/avocado farm,

And because it was already late, he let me stay at his place for the night. An amazing spot on one of the fingers extending into the Bay of Plenty.

The next morning Stephen dropped me off on the main road to catch a ride over to Te Puke. Within 5 mins a young kid picked me up and, speeding and tailgaiting, dropped me off closer to my destination. Then after a short ride with a Somoan woman I arrived in Te Puke to meet my super hospitable host, Chad. Chad, a seasoned CouchSurfing host and as relaxed as sunday morning, took me around to check out what there was to see in Te Puke: the big kiwi, where the 7 Maori canoes landed about 700 years ago from Hawaii, the natural salt water pools,

walk up to a Maori Pa site (where men would guard against invaders), etc...

He was full of good kiwi vernacular, like: "All that sorta carry on" and "falling ass over tit." I loved it.

From Te Puke it was a long day of hitch hiking: took me 5 hitch hikes in all to get to where I ended up, about 4.5 hours east.
I stopped in Whakatane (pronounced Fakatany) and went for a little 2.5h hike up the mountain dividing the town and the next beech town over. On my way up to the start of the trail, a woman noticed me looking at my map, came over to help, and invited me up to her place for tea. I happily obliged and walked up to her house

for a 1/2 hour chat and a great view from her porch.

From Whakatane it took me 3 hitch hikes to get 2 towns short of where I was originally hoping to go.

But the views driving along the 35 hwy of the East Cape (north east, north island) were fantastic.

One Maori woman took me as far as her place on the side of the rural highway and said I could crash at her place were I not able to catch another ride further...

But on my 5th hitchhike of the day,

my driver said his friend ran a place just before the campsite in Te Kaha-- where I resolved to stay the night at this point. I checked it out and decided I'd stay, unaware of what I'd really found.

For $15/night I decided to pitch my tent in the yard...with a view,

The Te Kaha Homestead Lodge is a dream of a place.
I intended to only stay a night on the East cape before getting to a host's house in Gisborne, but I ended up staying 3 nights in Te Kaha (and more further on), and even then I had to pull myself away.
It was half a family's home and half a backpacker's, but you felt like a friend of the family. They were so friendly, generous, and hospitable: free use of kayaks, hot tub, took us out fishing, and served 3 meals/feasts a day (that were apparently included), and stirred up a singalong with whoever was around most every night.
The East Cape is teeming with life. The ocean was bountiful with seafood and the locals take full advantage of it. While I was there, from the ocean they pulled up snapper, king fish, travelli, albacore tuna,

kinna,

paua, crawfish,

and who knows what else. They also hunt wild pig and deer, but I had no interest in that...

With the days catch, whoever wanted to help out could get in on the action.
In the filleting section of the yard (between the trees there),

big Paul (who called everyone Choi!) tried to show me how to fillet a fish,

but I mostly made a mess of it...so I helped with the scraps,

feeding them to the birds.

They did a good job using all they could of what they caught--like putting what they did not cut off the fish in the smoker.

With a hot tub at the foot of the yard on the shore, soaking in the sunset was always on the menu,

Quite a place. One of the best I've found traveling.
Although with only a month in NZ (yes, a month is not enough for even just the North Island!), I had to move on after a few days.
(FYI: it is on 35 highway, just before the caravan park in Te Kaha, East Cape, NZ. I also got some of their business cards if you ever decide to go).

*If you come to NZ, methinks it best to get (buy/rent) a car. Getting out to places like this are not easy--buses don't go here. The only alternative are the "Kiwi Experience" tours, which I stay away from... There are also heaps of bays, lookouts, lighthouses, etc. that you can only really reach with your own car. Which go on the left side of the road. FYI.

Leaving the lodge, it was a little embarrassing hanging around out front for a ride, for it took me 2.5h to catch someone--who was only going a fraction of the way anyway. It was a car of three Maoris heading off to a family gathering in a station (sheep farm) in the mountains. Upon arriving to where they were going to drop me off in front of the road to their place, they asked if I wanted to come in for tea. Not to turn anything down at this point, I obliged.

I met a bunch of their family but after some small chitchat I had to be going, for I had a long way to go and the road out there on the East cape was not well trafficked. Standing there in the hot sun at the front of their dirt road, I quickly realized it wasn't going to be easy to catch a lift, so I started walking. I walked amidst the beautiful mountains and horse/sheep ranges.

It was 28 Ks to just the next town, apx. 150 Ks to my eventual destination. With no real rush, I was content to walk all day and pitch my tent by the side of the road if I had to. By this point, though, I had such confidence in the generosity/friendliness/hospitality of the Kiwis, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone would pick me up. And after about 1.5h, a car passed, stopped, and reveresed towards me. Two younger Maori chicks picked me up and I was off again. They were going to Tokomaru bay, so I went there too.
A very small town of about 400, there was a great beach,

the cornor shop, a fish shop, and the town bar. Not much.

Come evening I headed over to the bar. With some horses tied up in the parking lot and people hanging out on the porch, pissed, yelling in some pretty heavy Kiwi accents, I knew I was in for something different.

Mostly fishers and farmers, it was not the most preposessing lot of folks. Something of a hick's-ville, it's was flooded with piss (alcohol) and some very 'interesting' characters. Few seemed to have changed their clothes from the days work on the farm/boat, most were a good 100lbs over weight, more mullets than full sets of teeth.
I bumped into the chicks I had caught I ride to town with earlier in the day--yes, quite a small place. One of them was singing country-western music in the bar that night. They introduced me to some people. Maybe 50-70 people there, but by the end of it I was introduced to maybe 20+ husbands, brothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, friends...Very friendly a people, but fuck were they vulgar and blunt. At one point, I was standing near a younger attractive girl and talking with a nice older (obese) lady. The lady introduces me to an (obese, fully bearded, half-toothed, older) guy, who, aware of the cute chick next to me, asks : "So, are you well hung?!" I recoiled in astonished laughter and asked they guy just next to him if he heard what the guy had just said to me. To which he replied: "Yea, so are ya?"

Come the next day I didn't feel like moving on just yet and stayed another night. 5 nights on the East Cape where I only intended 1.

New Zealand--2: Northland

2008-01-06T02:47:00.000-08:00

Going 4 hours north to the Bay of Islands, I had a look at a map of Auckland to suss out a potential spot to catch a hitchhike north. Drew myself a little sign with the town I was going to and another town along the way. Within 10 mins a lady picked me up and said she could bring me to a place where I'd have better luck catching a ride to where I was trying to go. I was dropped off I don't know where, but within 5 mins another lady picked me up. On here way north to her holiday home to finish her 5 day fast. She said that she was going to go sightseeing along the coast, between Paihia and Ngunguru, on her way back to Auckland, but since she now had me, she would do it on the way up. She used to live up this way so she was quite familiar with the area and knew of some great spots--coves, beaches, walks, etc. I couldn't have asked for a better hitchhike; and compared to the bus……

3 hitchhikes in 2 days, less than 30mins waiting, all women...
The Northland of NZ has some amazing scenery: from lush green countryside to idyllic coastal areas, I have never seen such a compact diversity of landscape. The scenery here was right up there with the paradise like feel of Thailand but amidst developed world small country towns.

We also stopped off at the worlds most famous toitlets in Kawa Kawa (at least according to those living in Kawa Kawa)

By the way, she told me that the best time to visit NZ would be outside the school holidays--Christmas to end of Jan. So if you plan a trip here (or Australia), the best time would be before Christmas or starting beginning of February.

When my generous driver dropped me off in Paihia in the Bay of Islands, she gave me her number. She said she might be going back to Auckland the same day as me and might be interested in a snorkel trip I was thinking of doing off Tutukaka at Poor Knight’s Island. How generous is that!..... Although I didn't end up taking her up on it.

Paihia was alright, another lovely place that has become an area of holiday homes and tourism. But there were some nice walks,

up into the mountains looking over the Bay of Islands,

and a coastal walk,

Went on a catamaran sail boat out into the harbor in search of dolphins.

Only just before returning did we come across some…many:30-40.

But because they were feeding—swarming, diving, trapping fish against the boat—and with babies, we couldn't jump in with them. Which would have been scary, my god: we were really far out in the ocean, the water black with depth, and there were heaps of these very large dolphins swarming about. Although I would have done it had we been able.

We also saw the smallest penguins in the world--that looked like ducks,
and heaps of Gannets swirling in the air, diving like kamikaze pilots, crashing into the water for fish. They did so repeatedly until they became so full they couldn't fly anymore and just floated on the water there. Sometimes as sitting ducks for other animals to eat them. It was really cool to watch the masses of them dive; I've never seen such a thing.

I met a couple Aussie chicks from Melbourne at the ‘Pickled Parrot’ hostel where I was staying. They were going back to Auckland same day as I and were gonna do a scenic trip along the coast on the way back. Sweet. So I crammed my stuff in their ½ size car and we ventured to an area of the coast I had not seen with my previous hitchhike. More beautiful countryside

and this time long stretches of beach.

but boy do overcast skies make for uninspiring photos.

New Zealand--1: Auckland

2007-12-28T07:22:00.000-08:00

Ante script: I've been too busy and without internet access to manage my thoughts/photos into a publishable blog till now. But I've been through a lot, so hopefully some of it will come through. Should have a few more to put out sometime soon.

FYI: So of the countries I've been to, NZ ranks 4th against the value of the US dollar. In descending order: Cyprus pound (since absorbed into the EURO), EURO, $AUD, $NZ, Chinese Yuen, Thai Bhat. Of course all pale in comparison to the Kuwaiti Dinar, the worlds most valuable currency.
----------------------------------------------

Got hung up in Auckland a little longer than I’d a liked (6 nights), having to secure accommodation around NYE and all. But it is a nice city: very modern, clean, well designed, not too many people. With plenty to do, I never went idle.
A little look around town:
Downtown Auckland by day,

and by night.

Took the ferry over to Davenport, a nice residential suburb on the other side of the bay.

Atop an old volcano (above green mound), there was a great view of the islands around Auckland (Rangitoto behind me).

From atop the volcanic cone, I caught a hitchhike down to the family oriented north shore beaches. A very pleasant place to grow up, I reckon.

Walked over to another old volcano, now overgrown with grass and grazed by cows (in the pit there).

Took another ferry--quite fast:4ok/h--to an island in Auckland's harbor, Rangitoto. Another volcanic rising (there are 50 volcanic cones in 6k's around Auckland), it is the most recent, formed about 600 years ago. Rising out of the ocean before the eyes of the Maori's who lived here at the time.

One of the strangest hikes I've done. Much of the island is covered in volcanic rubble that spewed out not too long ago, and the paths go right through it.

Apparently, this fresh volcanic covering permits an unusual variety of plants: e.g. it has these kidney ferns that conserve water and shrivel when temps rise and water is short,

and it is the largest remaining forest of pohutukawa in the world,

So I'm out Friday night seeking serendipity, as you do traveling with nothing better to do, and I'm walking down the main street of downtown Auckland when I come across a green bus with "End the drug war" painted in big yellow letters on the outside. Struck with curiosity I go over and have a look. Behind a table, there are a couple of older, hippiesh sorta guys handing out little pamphlets of info and having a good time. They were members of NORML doing a regular demonstration in their canna-bus actively expressing their disgruntlement with the legal status of cannabis in NZ. Had a good chat with the dude about the laws regarding weed in a few countries. He had an interesting little pamphlet that showed that showed that %42 people in USA, AUS, NZ, Holland who have smoked weed. The guy I spoke with even knew that both Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are the only ones outwardly for the decriminalization of pot in the US pres race (I think) .

These guys could not have been demonstrating their defiance of the prohibition of weed in any more public a place. In fact, while I was having a little tour of the inside of their couch filled bus, 3 coppers walked by, gave a sniff, and, despite the fact that it reeked of pot, they had a quick word and carried on. How about that! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera at the time :(

While in the bus, chatted with some local Aucklanders and some Dutch chicks who popped in (and were as surprised as me by the goings on), and I got a tip from a guy in there of a good dance club just down the way....

After retrieving my camera from my dorm and getting lost trying to find the bus that had since left, I found my way to the little basement club. It was really cool. Despite the fact that many were out of town for New Years, it was evident that there is a great house music scene in Auckland; better than any I've found elsewhere. I was really excited to have found it. Of the 20-40 people who were there at any given time, %70-80 of them were into the music and dancing. I love to see people get into the music and dance, one of my favorite things. It was evident that most came out to listen to the music and dance (not that common in my experience, unfortunately), feeling free and comfortable to do so regardless of the small crowd. The Kiwi's are really friendly people. I mean really friendly. I asked a guy a question about the place and quickly he discovered that I was from Boston, bought me a drink, introduced me to his friends, and made me feel welcome. People were really open and friendly, not something you often find in such loud, dark places.

RE: Music-- So they listen to what they're calling 'dirty house and electro'; was alright, I reckon. A little noisy and disjointed for my taste. I'm more into 'Deep and Sexy house' or 'deep and jazzy' house--like my all time favorite, Yoshiesque. (and if you're interested, there are some great sets on my brother, Nick's website: http://www.liquidmusik.net/

Australia

2007-12-13T20:05:00.001-08:00

So it's back to Sydney, Australia where I did my undergrad @ UNSW. Nice to be in a place I am familiar with, also somewhat nostalgic to get back to where I had lived only 4 years ago.

Caught a plane up to Brisbane (1000 k's north) to catch up with a mate of mine from UNSW, Mike. Brisbane is a nice little city--very modern, clean, livable. There is a great tidal river that runs through the city/suburbs, that, even though heavily flooded in the 70's which has made it forever muddy, contains dolphins and small sharks...So no swimming.

Checked out a great Andy Worhol exhibit at the art gallery.

It's interesting how the Aussie's (other countries) can have such insight into the life and times of American culture/history through such figures as Worhol. For example, they had display of his work and newspaper clippings depicting the drama of the JFK assassination that would move anyone. An insight that we (or at least I) get little of in America about the culture/history of other nations...

Mike and I took a drive up to the Sunshine Coast, drove down Steve Irwin way (near Australia Zoo) and went for a hike/climb in the Glasshouse Mountains. A steep climb up (and down),

but right on the coast, it made for great views.

Then over for a visit to the really nice little spread of towns along the Sunny coast, where beaches abound and families congregate for 'Surf Life Saving' events--that they start as young as we start soccer (5-6yo). Even Santa Clause made a visit: driving by on a boat, waving to everyone on the beaches....yes, very strange.

(including those silly hats, whose purpose is entirely unknown/forgotten by the Aussies I've asked)

Popped up to Noosa for a few days, the northern most part of the Sunshine Coast but south of Fraser Island (which I did not make it to). A nice place that has become an Aussie vacation town. But both the weather and the water were warm, the beach was real nice,

and there was a great section of national park to walk through. Including a coastal walk,

with turquise water that made for great snorkeling,

and a section of "tanglewood forest,"

and these weird things,

So did I mention how big surf life saving is in Oz? Instead of pick-up soccer or basketbal, these kids got together to practice racing out about 50 meters into the water...over and over again.

Surf sports are not exclusive to humans either. This dog was getting in on the action with the help of his owner standing and rowing from the back of the surfboard. When the dog fell off,the guy would stand close the end, dipping the board under the water, allowing the dog to climb back on. Very cool.

Here catching a wave (if you can make it out).

I did some surfing myself. The couple of hostels I stayed in gave free use of boogie boards, surf boards and kayaks...being one to always try and get my $'s worth, I did all three. Even though I was able to catch a few waves surfing, I was punished for not wearing a shirt--a rashy as they call them here--and got a pretty bad rash on my chest... my nipples were screaming.

Back at the backpackers that night, I got a dorm bed for a night where I had a snorer/restless sleeper shaking the bed above me and one of the worst snorers I've ever heard in the bed next to me--I swear he had a chainsaw stuck in his throat. Worst of all, they were both huge British guys with lots of tattoos, so I wasn't about to throw something at them or anything. It was horrible, I barely slept. At one point I just yelled out, "Oh my god!"...which did not stir them, of course.

Took a bus back down to Maroochydore and met up with Yasmin, the Aussie chick I traveled with in Thailand. She took me for a great walk in the Kandalilla national park of the Sunny Coast.
Amazing flora

and a really cool swimming hole.

The quality of life up here in the Sunshine Coast of Queensland is very high, I reckon. Warm, clean, not too developed, long stretches of amazing beach...I think I could live here (anywhere between Brisbane and Noosa). Who couldn't live in a place where you can do your yard work, or even walk into a supermarket (yes, i've seen it), like this :)

Between the abounding lawn bowling clubs, surf life saving clubs, beaches, parks, and weather that permits them to be outside most of the year, it is a lot easier for people/families to spend quality time together than places like Boston. I reckon it contributes (significantly) to why Australian's seem to be more chipper and amiable than other peoples. And maybe it helps that they have road signs like, "smell the roses, make time for loved ones."

Then it was back to Sydney for a week around Christmas. As weird as it is to be in the hot sun on the beach around Christmas, I'm finding some way to get by. .. Difficult :)

Stayin at a kickass house of 5 guys with a 2 terabite server full of movies, TV shows, etc., 2 couches, 4 lounge chairs, and huge love sack. With people stopping by most every night, it was a happening place to hang out. Here Toaks rocking out on Wii 'guitar hero'

On the recommendation of a friend, I went for a snorkel at Gordon's Bay Marine Reserve between Clovelly and Coogee beach (why I had never thought to do it in the 3 years I lived there, I don't know).

It was pretty cool. Dove down and smashed the little muscle things attached to the rocks and heaps of fish swarmed in around me. I did it a few times and created a bit of a following, pretty bloody cool. Although I didn't see any of the stingrays I'm told live down there.

The weather in Sydney had, for the most part, been pretty crappy: overcast, cool, some rain. So I was going to go and ask for a refund on my plane ticket, but on my last day--of course-- the sun came out to play and I was happy.
Dave and I at Maroubra beach,

Thailand- 2

2007-12-03T02:17:00.000-08:00

While in China I pushed back my departing flight from Bangkok to Sydney a couple weaks. In part cause I thought it more worthwhile to spend more time in a place I have not been and in part in acquissence to the impotence of the US dollar. So with more time, after the islands I went up north.

I took a 12 hour bus from Bangkok to Chiang Rai, a small city just south of the border from Laos and Burma (where there is some awful stuff goin on). Arriving at 5am, I walked a cold, dark few Ks up to a great little hostel where I got my own (grimey) room for less than $3--no frills of course.
Soon enough I booked myself a trek in the mountains near by. Ended up with 2 Italians, an American chick, and a sensational Thai guide named Fido.

A long tail boat ride up the Mae Kok river

brought us to an elephant camp

where these Thai elephants were kept. (As bad as it may seem that they are held in captivity, they are safe here and otherwise going extinct.)

There were even some elephants with TWO trunks! yipes!

Only one grabbed for food though.

After a little ride on the back of these guys, we went off for a fantastic hike into the jungle.

It was pretty darn lush.

Heaps of banana trees (with banana flowers, below), guava trees, rice patties,

these awsome bamboo forests,

and loads of cool waterfalls

After walking through what were once fields of poppy plants (now eradicated with the help of the US and their satellites), we eventually got up to a Lahu hilltribe village where we stayed for the night.

"Jesus came on 4-wheel drive," said Fido. And many were converted to the Western life that probably came with Christianity... Who can resist the advents of technology. "The big snake came and everything changed," said someone in town. The coming of the road, connecting the town to the outside world, changed their lives forever. Although one positive thing that it brought (I think) were solar panels (freely distributed by the government to any residence) that they use for light at night.

Fido and a few friends (and he had many, i.e. whenever we came across some people on our trek. He'd hiked it a fair few times) cooked up a storm in this quite rudimentary kitchen

The cracks in the bottom of the bamboo floor served as a convenient trash bin; from which the pigs below fed.

Such great fruit:

In the villages they seemed to make everything from bamboo: butter knives, spears, cups, tools, firewood, smoking pipe, and virtually every part of their houses seemed to be made from the stuff.

Walking through the hill side villages was pretty neat. They were all a bit different: architecture, dress, livelihood...

And it finished with a hot spring...they've figured out a pretty good formula.

Couple days later I rented a bike in Chiang Rai, as I love to do, and just road into the farmland/fields. Came across a cool Buddha sculpture on the face of a cliff

and some caves high up on the rock face with some cool statues inside.

I tell ya, it's quite a different experience traveling in Asia vs. Europe. When you go to temples and tourist sites in Asia, you aren't surrounded by throngs of tourists like I was in much of Spain+Italy. In some places, like these, I was there by myself: in a cave/temple with the statues, in a cool silence, alone.

More interesting and worthwhile an experience if you ask me. Furthermore, food is often less than a dollar or two, accommodation less than $5, fixing my shoes 20cents,

renting a bike $2, 4 hour bus ride $3,

etc. etc., i.e. you can really enjoy yourself! (it's just the plane ticket to get here that's expensive, of course). Then again, I go pretty much as cheap as I can; one could always spend more.

------------------------------------------

Met an Australian chick in Chiang Rai (who happens to live in an area of Queensland that I'll be going to in Australia) who I caught a bus down to Chiang Mai with. Just rocked up to the city and found a double room for $2.50 each...

Chiang Mai is chalk full of temples; you can't go a block inside the moat (old city area) without coming across one or three. There are far more temples here in Thailand than there were in China; I reckon the Thai are far more religious a people than the Chinese--both in terms of the number of temples and, more significantly, their behavior. I even saw a monk bless someone's new car.
Although often similar, I quite liked checkin 'em out... here's a taste of walking the wats:

Traveling with the Aussie chick has been great. We get along real well and I'm getting to practice up on my Oz-speak before I return to Australia (where I did my undergrad degree). . e.g. an interchange we had a couple nights ago: Hudson-"i'm just takin the piss" Yasmin-"don't make me chuck the shits" Hudson-"well you better watch out or it might hit the fan".

We've been doin a lot of hitchhiking around Chiang Mai. The Thai turned out quite open to the notion--I've goten 4 in 2 days. One on the back of a little girls moped (just down the street). Don't know why, but hitchhiking is so much fun!

Lastly,

Lady-boys! I don't know what's up with this, but in Thailand there seems to be a third sex recognized by both society and officially by the government, I'm told. Lady-boys, not quite drag-queens but similar, they live everyday life as females. It's scary, you have to catch yourself sometimes. I've seen 'em as young as 15 or so up to late 20's, they dress hyper-feminine and often really look like girls/women. I think they're usually gay, although often act more aggressive than straight men... So watch out. Yipes!

Thailand- 1

2007-11-19T22:52:00.000-08:00

Ante script- It is difficult for me to write individual emails, but I do apreciate hearing from you. I've been away for about 3 months now, it'd be nice to hear from you.

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Spent a few days in Bangkok (12 million), about half the people as Shanghai but about twice as dirty--congested streets/sidewalks, lots of noise and exhaust fumes. The back allies are really cool. It is a very dense place, where you can get lost amidst endless sideroads with interesting
things going on, like the local garbage man:

From what I have seen, Bangkok is mostly very unappleaing highways/malls/prostitutes/designer crap/blah.
One bright note was this Chitachuk market. A vast (5 square km or so) market crammed to the brim with stalls selling all sorts of stuff: cloths, art, books, food, and animals (so bad).

(here a guy mixing carnation instant breakfast ( ha!), the hard way)

So many people, you wouldn't believe people could stil move--it was not a place for the claustraphobic.

(hard to capture, but it was this crowded everywhere)

The density of the crowds also made the heat swealtering. I spent about 4.5 hours there and could have spent more had I not made a fruitless attempt at trying to get to the zoo (which was much more than a walk away! I discovered).

While in China I found a roundtrip flight from Bangkok south to Surat Thani for $0 + tax =$30. On the flight, I met an Austrian girl and a German couple who thought I had a good plan to get to one of the Islands (Ko Pha Ngan in the Gulf of Thailand) from the plane. So they came with me and we rushed from a taxi to catch the last boat of the day. On the boat a I guy sold us on a cheap bungalow (that turned out legitamite, fourtunatly) and we took his car to the place.

In all I had to take a bus-shuttle bus-plane-taxi-boat-taxi; although only 10 hours travel. Amazing how much travel you end up doing, eh!

The island is much more of what you would expect of a place like Thailand, it's pretty nice.
Liza, the Austrian chick I met on the plane, and I rented a scooter and buzzed about the island.
Went for a hike in the jungle. Had to Indiana Jones it a bit,

but we found the waterfall we were looking for.

The ants here are nasty--they're everywhere and they bite.

Another trip we made in search of yet another waterfall wasn't so lucky. We had to ditch our bike early, as the roads here can be pretty dodgy.

But we did come across some elephants.

And, on many of the trees along the road, there were all these sliced coconuts hangnig on the side, collecting this white goo. It felt like rubber and smelled like s*#t; don't know what it was.

The night market, in the only town on the island Song Thala, has been a cool place to eat dinner. It's outside and every vendor brings different options. Getting some good ideas to cook, e.g. rice steamed with coconut. And I can't seem to resist getting the $1 fruit shakes with basically every meal--coconut, banana, mango....em...

As we were on our way to check out the northern part of the island, Liza abrutly checked out on me for another island. I'm sure she was a bit over our partnership, as was I, but boy did she miss out...

The place I've found (and remained for a week) was fantastic; in fact, I've decided to stay here for a while: it's just the sorta place I've been hoping to find. I've got a little bungalow on the side of a beautiful, somewhat remote beach.

The view from my hammock:

It's only a bed and a hammock, but for $5/night I'm happy to walk a few minutes to the nearest running water (sink, toilet, shower) and live w/out electricity.

If you are looking for a great place to escape to the beach for some peaceful vacation, I highly recommend the Coral Bay Resort on the north side (Hat Khom) of Ko Pha Ngan. Tops!

Full moon party was pretty cool too... Save the fact that you had to think twice every time a local looked friendly towards you. For, more often than not, they were just trying to sell you glowsticks, alcohol, drugs, or sex.

China 6- last bits and pieces

2007-11-11T02:10:00.000-08:00

On my second to last night in Hangzhou a crew from CCTV (Chinese Central TV) showed up in our hostel. They asked a friend of mine, Yuping, and I to do a small spot for them the next day as part of a cultural heritage thing they are doing for Beijing 2008. I had to skip a shift of mine at the hospital, but they took us out to this swanky place in the mountains and shot 3 small scenes of me, the foreigner, and my friend Yuping, the translator, discovering the wonders of Chinese culture--it was pretty cheesy/phony. But it was really fun. Yuping and I had to make up our own lines--I don't know if they'll actually use the audio. And they paid me 200RMB/$25. They said it is going to be broadcast internationally before the next Olympics, so we'll see!

That night, Yuping threw me a little going away party. Hanging out with some friends and the staff I'd lived with for the past couple weeks was great. But I got so sloshed my morning departure to Ningbo was none too fun.

Taking a train ride here you can not only take in a lot scenery, but you can get a pretty good glimpse at where people live and work. Train rides also afford you a sufficient sample of the land to see that buildings--apartment projects, bridges, roads, etc.--are rising from the ground like mushrooms in fall: ubiquitously and quickly. Furthermore, it seems to me that China's infrastructure is superior to that of America. From the modern roads and highways (that all have seperate lanes for bikes/slower vehicles and street signals more advanced than ours), waterways, bridges, overpasses/underpasses, to the extensive rail system, China has invested heavily in its public transportation system--at what cost to individual wealth I do not know...

(hard to capture on camera)

Spent a few nights in a city to the east of Hangzhou, called Ningbo. I quite liked it. I found a $3/night hostel and made friends with a girl who worked there. She helped me find some of the more intertesting places and plenty of back roads to keep me happy. I much prefer the backstreets to the main streets--which are the same in most cities across the world, methinks.

I'm gonna miss how they speak and use the words 'jigga' and 'nigga'-- this/this one and that/that one. They use the word nigga like we use 'um' or 'like', saying it all the time and it cracks me up: ''nigga niggaaa, nigga niggaaa....;" their verbal buffer.

Finally figured out a reliable way to get what i wanted at restaurants: I would just go to a market and buy the vegetables I wanted, bring them to a small restaurant place and say 'stir fry noodles/rice with this' (chao mien tiao er jigga). I realized this only after a friend of mine bought me a few heads of broccoli after i told her i liked it but could not find much of it in restaurants; and of course i wasn't going to cook it myself when i could get someone else to for a 75 cent meal.

I made a day trip to an island near Ningbo, called Putuo Shan, that had been recommended to me by a couple sources . What was apparently an island of religious recluse, has become a tourist site/trap more geared to commerce than communion. For 8 hours travel (taxi, bus, boat and reverse) and 300RMB/$40, I'm not sure it was worth it.

Got one more ($3) massage--that I just have to mention. It was more like acrobatics than a massage, really. This little girl, maybe 5'4 130lbs, had me in the wildest positions: contorted around her, above her, hanging off her over the side of the table. It didn't exactly feel all that relaxing by massage standards, but, then again, I was moaning and laughing half the time.

Lastly, I spent a couple nights in Shanghai. Fortunately I had a contact with whom I could crash, for Shanghai is a long ways away from the cheap China we reflexivly think of. With over 20 million people, and the traffic/buildings/noise to prove it, I, again, reaffirmed my distate for large cities.

Nevertheless, only just getting out and about, I have not been able to escape the friendliness and generosity that the Chinese people have extended me. From sharing conversation and food in small restaurants to people chatting me up and taking me with them for tea, the Chinese people have impressed me.
I've had a great time in China and could easily come back some day.

China 5--in the Hospital

2007-11-05T03:56:00.001-08:00

Much of my time here in Hangzhou has been spent in the Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), so I thought it worth a post of its own.
I do two 4 hour sessions a day. Mostly in the acupuncture outpatient department and specialty herbal departments, but also the Tuina (Chinese massage) department and in the inpatient wards (following an acupuncturist as he/she does rounds in different parts of the hospital).

Acupuncture
In the acupuncture clinic there are 19 cubicle beds and 10 chairs. They are often mostly, if not completely, full for the better part of each 4 hour shift. 3-4 acupuncturists work at a time with student assistants. There are very few records kept (as far as I can tell), pretty much just the patient cards in which dates of treatment are recorded.

Tools:
-they use only free hand, disposable needles. Needles are sometimes disposed of in plastic disposal containers; just as often in trash cans or trash bags; and there a many needles scattered about the floor.

They use moxa rolls extensivly. the place is well ventilated when it's warm, far less so when it's cold and the windows have to be closed; in which case it is quite smoky. (I have heard that some of the former doctors here have died of lung disease--a testament to how toxic moxa smoke is.) For the moxa rolls they have this cool 8 pronged pitch fork to light and hold the rolls.

-they also have this nifty device to press out moxa cones that they then put on an herbal cake (of Bi syndrome herbs) to put on the skin.

-all of the Electro Acupuncture machines are without clips; just loose wire endings.

-they use a 'thick needle' of 80-120mm that they use to thread down the spine, often for neurological and dermatological conditions. I had it done on me just to see what it was like. I am usually not sensitive to needles, but I became faint and a little nauseous with this one.

Injections:

they do a lot of injections here.
-B12: often at ST36 to build immunity or sometimes SJ17 (in the hole behind your ear--ouch!) for paralysis, tinnitus, deafness. I even saw them do it on ST3 (on the face) for paralysis.
-Dan Shen/Salvia: locally for pain
-one's own blood: drawn from the cubital crease and injected at e.g. ST36, also for immunity and allergic diseases. I'm told it's an antiquated technique from Western Medicine.
-and others.

Techniques:
-Needle insertion: they insert very quickly free-hand, often many points in quick succession--abdomen and face especially, but you see very few winces here.
-Needling: They are also more aggressive than we tend to be--to confirm what we had always heard. I've seen them needle very deeply, lifting/thrusting GV15 (back of neck), CV23 (front of throat), and BL40 (behind the knee). Saw jinjin and yuye (under the tongue) pricked on a guy with aphasia, every GV (spinal) point needled with EA on almost every point, a 2 year needled as his father restrained him while he was crying in an opisthotonic spasm, and a lumbar puncture (by a Western doctor) that would dispel any acupuncture student's fear of needling a point on the GV meridian.
-Abdominal/turtle Acupuncture: they do a lot of abdominal acupuncture. somewhat new a style, it is a microsystem on the abdomen in the shape of a turtle. Many of them swear by it and patients often say they get better immediatly.
-Moxa- not as much direct moxa as i expected, although I've seen it done for plantar warts a few times--in which the patient comes in a just does it themselves. But they do a hell of a lot of the rolled moxa--great, but very smokey.

-Gua Sha- I have not seen it done once.
-Cupping- done a lot. Washing them is done like an afterthought--not much.
-Blood letting- haven't seen it done.
-Catgut implantations- where they insert an acupuncture needle through a hypodermic needle to implant a small piece of catgut (what is used for internal sutures) under the skin in order to stimulate a point for 4-6 days (they say). Only saw it done on the abdomen for weight loss, but could be used for anything really.

Prices: $1=7.5RMB
-<5>5 needles- 20RMB
-cupping- 3RMB
-EA- 3RMB/pair
-moxa: 5RMB....etc
-total would come to about US$5
----strange scheme if you ask me. But it is pretty damn cheap. The government pays for much of the hospital expenses I hear; for with prices like that, more money has got to come from somewhere.

Dr. Xuan, the head of the acupuncture department, sees the most people. I have followed her as she saw about 25 people in less than 40 minutes for the first round, 15 on the second, maybe 10 scattered patients after that in a 4 hour shift. She just walks around the room, somehow knowing who is where, walks up to a patient, somehow remembers what's going on with them--for she sometimes barely says a word to them, and starts inserting needles--quickly. That she often does this very popular abdominal acupuncture helps her move so quickly. She often sees people 3times/week, so there need not be much discussion beyond the repetition of the treatment.

Dr. Xuan is what they call a national level doctor. The top level (above the provincial doctor and what more i don't know), she is paid more than other doctors but I'm not quite sure how they attain such status. She taught us a class on abdominal acupuncture, I think I might use some of it myself, in combination with what I already knew.

The acupuncture clinic is mayhem by US standards. There are up to 40-50 people in there at one time. Most people are getting treated, then there are those accompanying, the doctors and the students/assistants. A big open room with many dividers (just low enough for me to peak over) and chairs, it is like a community acupuncture sorta setting.

People come, hang about, get treated, talk with those around them, read the paper...Acupuncture, It's no big deal here.

(hard to see, but she's fanning the moxa smoke)

Herbal Medicine

The specialty clinics (internal medicine, endocrinology, rheumatology, etc) in which doctors use mostly herbal medicine (it's a TCM hospital), but also some Western medicine, are fantastic places to gain clinical experience as a student. The conditions here in which students observe doctors is extremely educational. There are many many patients presenting different variations of conditions, the doctors often stop to explain or point out something or give their diagnosis, and the students get to see what the doctor prescribes/recommends. Far better than what we have, it does not compare. Of course we have no such hospital nor do we study Western medicine as extensivly as they do; much of their time is spent figuring out the Western diagnosis--looking at lab results, medical imaging, or doing a pelvic exam, for example.

The students here seem to be very well educated--in both Chinese and Western medicine. The english vocabulary, for instance, coming out of their mouths often startled me--thymectomy, gastroptosis, lassitude....it's just their grammer and pronunciation that can sometimes leave you stumped.

I spent a lot of time with Dr. Lu, another national level doctor, seeing patients with rheumatic conditions, which he would diagnose within seconds. I learned a lot shadowing him.

In general, the doctors here, like a teacher of mine in Boston, BJ Wang, prescribe at least 12 to 15 herbs at a time, more often 15 to 20+. The vast majority is raw herbs, some patents, very little powder, and also Western Medicine. The two forms of medicine are idealy integrated in these clinics. The doctors order and assess lab work and medical images, ask questions of both forms of medicine and prescribe either as they see fit.

By the way, it was amazing how often patients would leave the doctors office with a referrel for some blood work, CT, X-ray, whatever and return within the hour for the doctor to look at it and then prescribe something. I have not done it myself, but I think such things would take days, if not weeks, to do in the US. And there are no appointments here: they just show up and get in line. How it so cheap, though, I can't figure out. An ultrasound, for example, was about US$10, a Dr. told us.

And the bike parking lot in the basement was quite a sight. I thought there were a lot of bikes in Holland!

China 4--around Hangzhou

2007-10-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

So a bit of what I have been doing around Hangzhou.

There are blind massage guys here in China, one below, and for $5/hour... I've gone for a few. Although not as often as some Brits who I was living near--who got 2 a day!

I got foot massage today, divine. They lay you out in this ultra cozy reclining chair, soak your feet in hot water, wrap one foot in a towel like a mummy to keep it warm while they go at it on the other. With King Britt- "Deep and Sexy" set flowing through my head, i was in heaven. afterwards, i noticed they had glass suction cups and a gua sha blade, so i asked for some of both. After scraping my entire back, he slid a large fire cup up and down my paraspinal muscles--my favorite. and to top it off, he put on 10 stationary fire cups all the way up my back, so strong i thought my skin was going to be sucked off my back! Apparently he thought the same as he kept saying "oh my god! oh my god!" Good thing i knew what was going on. Strongest cupping I've ever had. The kid didn't really know what he was doing; it was too much.

I moved into a youth hostel a couple days ago, not because the YHA was cheaper ($7 vs 12) but because I didn't like the luxury of what was like a hotel room I was given by the hospital. Besides, there are more people here, mostly Chinese, to hang out with after the hospital. It's a bit out of the city, in a more quiet woodsy section of town with a little farm next door. Kinda cool.

It's funny, in China they spit (and i mean really hok loogies) everywhere (inside and out) like it's there civic duty. And the only thing cleaning up the streets are these trucks that drive around all day, everyday spraying two streams of water out the back and plyaing ad noseum an ever-lasting loop this 15 second long hyper-patriotic tune--the kind that really gets stuck in your head.

Went up to an ancient Buddhist temple in the mountains, called the Lingyin temple. It was really cool. In the surrounding mountains there are heaps of caves/rock faces in which hundreds/thousands of years ago people carved out Bhuddhist images. Both kinda spooky and really interesting.

The original temple dates back to 326AD, since updated of course. It was a really special place, I reckon--in a lush mountain side with sculptures, large statues, and pools around. I happened to have rocked up when the resident monks were chanting/drumming in the main temple. Not that we haven't all heard it before, but in person, in their element, it is something special.

I also went for a walk around Hangzhou's West Lake--what really distinguishes Hangzhou in China--with some Chinese friends I've made. It is quite beautiful.

Much of what would otherwise be the natural attractions of China are often helped out with man made additions. Around the Westlake are stone walkways, gardens, bridges and speakers playing relaxing music. In Wushan park just near me there are caged brids hanging from the trees/on the walls to ensure the forest is filled with the sound of birds.

On the West lake they also have a colored fountain like that of Barcelona. While it doesn't quite stack up to the "Magic fountain of Montjuc" in Barcelona, the one here is still pretty damn neat. The water jets are in sync with the music they play, moving in different patterns and pulsating so that each jet of water splashes down on itself in time with the beat... Pretty nifty. I reckon we should build one in Boston; on the Charles somewhere...I think I'll have word with Menino when I get back.

Like other third world coutries I've been too (although Hanghzhou looks far from 3rd world), I have been getting the celebrity treatment by the public, especially at tourist sites (where throngs of Chinese tourists go), where everyone says hello to me, takes a picture of me and occasionaly wants a photo with me. Kind of annoying at first, but if you just play along it can be kinda fun.

Some other memorable sights include parents squating down facing the street while they hold their babies/young chidlren's knees to chest so it can piss/s#*t into the street. Baby clothes have built in evacuation slits/holes in the crotch so that parents don't need to take any clothes off, just spread the legs and point. Better still, at the Hangzhou train station, there were no doors to the bathrooms and some of the stalls didn't have doors or people just didn't even bother to close them so that one could see right in from the hallway people's asses as they squated over the holes in the ground and did their business....sorry no pics these. :)

On a brighter note, I was walking with a chick through a park at night and we came across a little plaza/circle in the park in which there was a stereo playing hokie music to which about 60 people in their 40-60's were dancing. Neither of us could really ballroom dance, but we gave it a whirl anyway; one (older, single) lady was nice enough remind us, though, that "you guys stink".

China 3--food

2007-10-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

On this crowded pedestrian way you can get all sorts of food, in all sorts of forms.

Most of which comes dried

or cooked...

but all of which smelled pretty heinous.

All around town are restaurants like this, my local. There all pretty much the same. $1-3/meal.

As I've said before, ordering food is no easy task. The places without pictures on the wall often have these sorta menus, where, as an illiterate foreigner, it's pick your price!

These are something of my staples...

And the 30 cent 1/2 liter beers are nice too...

At this place, where by now i've made friends, i tried to order a dish of tofu, vegetables and rice. which i know as "dofu, shutsei, er mee fan". the frist time i said it, i got the above. not bad, but i didn't get any vegetables nor was it prepared as a dish as i had hoped. the next time i got all three, still prepared seperatly. so i tried to ask for 'shutsei, shutsei, shutsei, dofu, meefan' rolling my hands over eachother trying to demonstrate that i wanted them made together. i resorted to going into the kitchen and pointing to few vegetables to prove my point, but ended up with 5 dishes--tofu, rice, and three differente vegies in different plates.... I threw i tall together and showed them that's how i wanted it--as one dish.

Not willing to put up another fight where I was basically trying to tell them what and how to cook--which I did not want to do--the last time I showed up willing to eat whatever they would give me for 10RMB. They threw all the ingredients I had the last time into a dysjointed concoction of the ingredients preperad differently and slopped together into a big bowl. It was edible, but a sign that I should try another approach...

So when I returned to the same place a couple nights later (I liked the deaf/mute guy there) I tried pointing to the food of other people eating there. I pointed to what I thought was a tofu dish, a chicken dish, and a bok choy dish. What I got was a dish of bok choy, pork (with bones of course) and a dish of intestines (not tofu skin, as i thought it was)...blah!

I love how they roll out the noodles right in front of you, stringing 'em up into small strands by hand and throwing them right through the window, outside into an awaiting boiling pot.

A little restaurant near the hospital where you choose your own soup contents... Yes those are brains on the bottom left corner. I don't think I'd dare. This is an easier option to get what I want, except that they dunk everyone's stuff in the same big pot of broth, mixin all the juices...

I rode my bike and crossed over the Qiantangjiang bridge to the other side of the Hangzhou. Saw some of the barges moving the hoards of materials they use to carry out the immense amount of construction going on here. The barges were so full of materials they were submerged so that water was almost pouring in. I would have taken a photo, but, on a bike, I had to ride on the side walk part of the bridge where there were crowds of people on bikes and scooters, so I couldn't stop lest I have everyone behind crash into me. On the otherside, where new buildings are growing like flowers in spring, I visited a translator/friend of mine at the Zhejiang University. Here in the cafteria,

I had a hard time getting down my first taste of prawns. They don't exactly clean up 'em for ya like I've seen in the west. Head, legs, tail and all, creepy little things.

The local fruit shop.

Notice that all the bulbs are long life flourscents. They are the norm, as is energy efficiency everywhere. All the glitzy lights on buildings and pagodas are turned off after 10 or so. While there are many people and they certainly do consume a lot of energy, I think they are more conscious of their consumption than we in the states.

A fruit whose name I don't know and which I wouldn't care to try again--more looks than taste, this one.

This is the big shopping place nearby-- the Walmartization of China.

With everything from eletronics to sporting goods to food, it looks a lot like a store you'd see in America--but a bit different:
Fish and other meats in some petrified form.

Thankfully I haven't yet gotten sick. The food is pretty good. Hard to get anything without meat in it--one reason I have conceded my vegetarianism for the trip. Vegetable and even tofu dishes come with meat. Especially because I've eaten little meat in my life, I often don't know what meat I'm eating--often pork, I think, hopefully no non-farm animals....

p.s.- I've finally been able to get the video i wanted of a guy playing the 'hong' in barcelona, check out that blog to have a look/listen.

China 2

2007-10-20T05:36:00.000-07:00

My first week in Hangzhou went quite well.
In the hospital,

we do 2 rotations a day, observing in one of the departments around the hospital: e.g. the outpatient acupuncture clinic, the inpatient acupuncture clinic, and herbal clinics in which doctors see people under specialties--Bi syndrome, respiratory, diabetes, endocrine, etc.
The treatment conditions here are very different to say the least. The outpatient clinic makes a joke of OSHA and the privacy many take for granted in our medical system. People line up at the door before it opens and then flood in looking to get one of the beds.

Acupuncture is no big deal. People sit around in chairs with needles in, moxa rolls going, heat lamps ablaize, talking to each other or reading the paper. People listen in on and observe others' treatment all the time.

It is so nonchalant that one time an older guy who was obviously a regular walks over to a doc doing a treatment and says something to the effect of--'come on treat me now', to which the dr. replies 'OH go sit down, I'll get to you soon enough!', as though no big deal.
Treatments can be real fast. I shadowed the head of the dept. who saw easily 20 people in 30 minutes, then did 2 more rounds of that before the shift was through. They do a lot of what they call abdominal acupuncture or turtle acupuncture here. What is said to be a microsystem on the abdomen that can treat diseases of the whole body. They say they get great results with it.
So far paralysis is quite common--maybe %50. To confirm what we hear in the states, they do quite aggressive needling, all free hand, mostly tolerated well by patients--although they definitely do wince at times. (pics to come later)
For herbal clinic, I've been following who is supposed to be a famous, national level herbal Dr. He specializes in rheumatic diseases, although people come to him for other stuff too. During the 8-12pm shift, there is pretty much constantly a crowd of people pushed up next to his desk, waiting in line, listening in and watching what's going on. They are so very much there that one time when the doc was repeating to a patient that he must take his insulin, an onlooker yells something to the effect of "listen to the Dr, take your insulin, let's go!".

A translator I had for Bi syndrome/rhuematology herbal clinic took a few of us to the mountains of Hangzhou. quite nice. They do real well to keep things up here in Hangzhou--one of the more tourist friendly places in china.
West lake tea terraces

A sculpture depicting the story of the two tigers who brought the monk to the spring. Now a site for sacred water called the 'tiger spring'.

Went to the TCM Museum here in Hangzhou. Was mostly herbal focused, with a room of a thousand samples, recounting the origin and development of herbal medicine in china. Interesting, but I was hoping for something on acupuncture.
In the herbal dispensary/shop at the front of the museum was this 200,000RMB (apx 23,000$US) ginseng. Far more expensive than any potential therapeutic value I reckon.

Be forewarned!

Some grinders for making powder. Looks like they could have doubled as a prostration device.

China-1

2007-10-18T04:22:00.000-07:00

Hangzhou is great. Loving the city, the people, the culture, the streets! The hospital where I am observing is great as well. Acupuncturists command a lot more respect here than in the US. THe acupuncture outpatient clinic is bursting with people. And doing rounds in the inpatient side, we are afforded much more recognition than I ever got at Boston Medical. ALthough, i don't know what it is about china, but about %50 of the cases ive seen so far have been facial paralysis. We're guessing its either a difference in their anatomy or the MSG in their diet (which i always try to request to leave out). seeing some really interesting things; coming here is definitly worthwhile, i reckon. will gets some pics up soon of the hospital.
SO nice to have cheap access to food. which i order by either pointing to a picture on the wall, pointing to the food of people near me, or pointing merely to a price on the wall hoping for the best! The point and prey technique as i've dubbed it.
i got a bike and riding it is so much fun. the streets here are mayhem. road rules are mere suggestions, but things usually seem to work out somehow.
now with cheaper computer access, i can update my blog easier. more soon.

Cyprus--Take 2

2007-10-16T04:49:00.001-07:00

Escaping the hustle and bustle of Nicosia, we caught a bus up to the Troodos mountains, hiked up and then hitched down to little town called Platres--a quiet and scenic mountain-side town. Where we shared a reasonable priced little hotel,

It was great to find a town without the fracas of a city--the first in a while for me. Marcin taught me 1000, a popular card game in the Middle East.
Went on a little hike up to a waterfall,

and, thanks to Marcin's ability to speak 5 languages (English, Polish, Russian, German and Chinese--so jealous), we were able to hitchhike down to Lamissol, a beach town on the south coast.
We went over to what are supposed to be some of the oldest ruins in Europe, dating back as far as Neolithic 4000BCish--predating continental Europe. Although the ruins we saw dated back as far as 300BC. Apollo was a hit here.

In Limassol, spent some quality time diggin into 'Atlas Shrugged', which I've really enjoyed despite the fact that I disagree with Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism--which argues the inherent morality of selfishness and free market capitalism.

Jumped off the pier into the crystal clear water of the easter Mediterranean that is so salty even I float and after you get out and dry off, a thin film of salt covers most of your body.

Cyprus is littered with cats who were originally introduced to control the indigenous snake population and now, of course, run rampant.

Went up to a town called Aiya Napa where I knew my weak US $ (.4 Cyprus pounds) would disallow me to stay at any of the Hotels (no cheap options here). I did find a cheap little 4 hour boat cruise where we went around the coast and jumped in the water.

After which I scouted out a secluded piece of beach to stay for the night.

Despite it being very warm during the day, though, by 4-5 in the AM it was so cold I could no longer pretend to sleep that I got up and walked around till the sun came up. I knew it would suck, but thought it a chance to experience some suffering; get some of the perspective one needs in order to appreciate what we so easily take for granted. (Evidently I'd forgotten that lesson since I did it in Bali a few years ago, where I ran out of $ the day before my flight.) Anyway, after the sun came up, the beautiful Mediterranean beach quickly erased the cold night...
After returning to Larnaca, where there was an affordable place to stay, I took the long way to the airport and walked a few hours around a salt lake to find the beautiful Hala Sultan Tekese mosque on my way to the airport by foot--a first.

My departing days were much nicer than my arriving...

Cyprus--Take 1

2007-10-04T11:29:00.001-07:00

egats...had the sorta transit you never look forward to...

So a few days before leaving Rome for Cyprus, my friend Josh (who is living in Cyprus working on a peace project between the Turks and Greeks) was exiled from the country for some Visa problem. So I knew I would not be staying with him...
Oct 3- (My birthday) First, I didn't wake up to my watch alarm clock but did to the door of my dorm room closing about 40 minutes after my watch went off. So I quickly threw my things together to catch the next (20minute, $16) train to the airport in Rome. Got there 1.20 before the flight, so turned out fine, just a bit of stress. Flew to Milan, then to Beirut, and then to Larnaca Cyprus, arriving at 9pm--1 hour after all the buses stop running into the city. So instead of catching a $60 taxi to the hostel at night, I resigned to staying in the airport until the next bus @ 6am.
---We'll have to make up for this less than stellar birthday next year, eh.

Oct 4- I caught the bus and found my way to the hostel. This was by far the most seedy, illegitimate place i've ever stayed.

There was no one there when i showed up at 8am, so I put my hand through the hole in the door,

went to the bathroom,

found myself an empty bed,

and went to sleep.

Couple hours later some kid wakes me up asking how many nights I was to stay and to pay 5 Cyprus pounds/US$12 a night. So, half in a daze, I payed him the money. I awoke later and checked out the empty place--dirty, falling apart, no security, no policies, very dodgy...
Later I spoke with another guy who had been staying there a few weeks and he said he'd never seen a young kid who worked there. That it might have just been some kid off the street who knew how the place worked and scammed me....
Anyway, after this psychotic greek chick-- who seemed to be angry with everyone-- got into a fight with the manager (who made her put more cloths on, as her gigantic bush was bursting out of her skimpy, see through undies) over the presence of another greek guy who had apparently OD'd on depression meds the night before (I saw the bag of meds the next day, more drugs than I've ever seen) and who had gone through the fridge eating people's food and throwing up on the floor, the manager, fed up with both the Greeks, closed the hostel. As it should have been anyway. Minutes later he told the 3 others of us who were there that we could come back later that day, he just wanted to get rid of the two crazy Greeks. But I had already planned to leave with a polish guy I met there, Marcin. So after looking around a bit more of old town Nicosia-the last divided capital (so they say)--between the Turks and Greeks,

we caught a bus west, towards the mountains.

Rome, Italy

2007-09-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

So I crashed with a guy who happened to live 2 minutes walk to the Vatican. And, as it turned out, the Vatican museum is free the last Sunday of each month--the day after I got to his place. I could not pass on such luck. Expecting a massive line for the freebee I show up at 9am to a 4 block/.25 mile line that dropped my jaw. Expecting this, of course, I had no intention of waiting in line for the museum to close in front of me at 2pm. So I stepped in about 10 mins away...as you do...
Again, I am not one for art, but the shear size of this place, fully encased in art, was mind boggling. The scale of the art, filling entire rooms, entire hallways, was quite impressive (impossible to capture in camera).

The jesters guarding the joke...

Went to the Di Vinci musuem. Man that guy was ingenious. He designed a self enclosed octagonal mirror that lets you see yourself forever in all directions. What better way to watch yourself dance! Cause I know he was just waitin for glow sticks to be invented with this one.

Ok, so I am one for ice cream and I really came to Italy to see for myself what the hoopla was about with their 'Gelato'. But, after at least 20 samples in 30 days, I gotta say, between Spain and Italy, I think Spain takes the cone. Blasphemous, I know.
Rome

vs.
Spain

For the most part, though, I just walked around the city, as I have been for a month or so now....

Florence, Italy

2007-09-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

On the way to Florence, I stopped in Pisa...for a few hours. It was on the way.

Got lost in the rain without a map (keep forgetting to pick 'em up in the train stations) trying to find my CS host's house. Fortunately he was officiously nice and made me feel welcome when I finally got there, because the weather outside did not.
The next day, with still soggy shoes, I headed into the throng of tourists and well-dressed chimneys that are the Italians.
From outside the (wet) Duomo.

From within the Duomo (a hellish part of the domes interior--from very close up ;) ).

From atop the (100m, 463 step nave of the) Duomo.

Lucky me, this weekend in Florence it was free to go to any of the state museums. I went to the Uffizi. I ginourmous gallery of mostly renaissance sculpture and painting that I couldn't begin to appreciate.

Cinque Terre, Italy

2007-09-27T13:38:00.000-07:00

A series of 5 towns perched along the Mediterranean, the Cinque Terre was just the Italy I was looking for. Quiet, beautiful, small. Although heavily touristed and ideal for couples, these romantic towns were just the break I needed from the many cities Ive been through.
Starting in the northern most town, Monterosso, I stayed for 2 nights in a little coughin of a room; but for €25/night, the best deal in town. There were real beaches this time, crystal clear water (perfect for my new €5 mask) and real sand. Monterosso is quite an idyllic little Italian beach town.

The real glory of this area, though, is the walk between the 5 towns.
here seen behind me.

I met an Italian girl at the beginning of the hike and we stuck together the rest of the way; much nicer to have someone to share the views and the little towns with--especially with someone who speaks Italian. It turned out to take us about 6 hours. And with my 25-30 pound pack, the climbs up and down were a good old fashion "hello, how ya doin" for my legs. I loved it though, besides I've been walking almost everyday anyway, so the all day walk wasn't much new.
The landscapes were great.

But the best views were of the little towns, perched precariously on the side of the cliffs.
Vernazza:

Corniglia:

Manarola:

Riomaggiore:

Torino, Italy

2007-09-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

Crossed over to Italy on an overnight train that, like a 13 come 26 train ride I once did in India, took a lot longer than it should have--going real slow and stopping for no apparent reason. To my favor, though, I met a bloke from Venezuela about my age who I got to talking with in Spanish and we set off to kill some time before we caught up with our respective hosts. We did a good 6-7 hours walking about, talking in both English and Spanish--practice for both of us.
Come nightfall I met up with my couchsurfing host and we went off to dinner with another couchsurfing guest/host pair. Twas nice, I got a good lesson on Italian food and costum, and for my part, they were keen to hear about Chinese medicine and my experiences with it so far.
The next day I met the others living in the flat and had a blast walking over to the local market, the Porto Palazzo--what i am told is one of the largest markets in Europe.
Here, a vendor of only the stinkiet of cheese.

My hosts were most amicable and, with no shortage of knowledge of Italian/European history/culture, gave me some insight into where I was: The strong and rigid fascist makeover Mussolini gave the Center of Torino in the 20s, the influence of Moroccans on Italy, the shroud of Torin (which covered Jesus on his death bed and is said to hold an impression of him) held in a church we stepped in (only a copy is on display)....

Many thanks to Simona, Alvise and Paola for a great stay in Torino.