Travel Experiences

Kota Bahru

2015-04-07T07:58:00.001+02:00

This place is mostly a stopover place for people going to the islands and the cheap hostels are easily found online and in guidebooks. I stayed at denai lodge for rm15 per night(the place is mosquito infested).
Food is decently cheap again and the night market has a good choice, iced lemon tea is called teh o ben limau here(Ben instead of ais). The place doesn't have much to offer, but people are friendly and especially the children at the night market are awesome.

There are usually some silat events to see you have your usual fare of mosques etc.. I just spent 5 days relaxing and doing nothing. I thought I'd meet other travelers there but I had no luck for some reason the few usually arrived late and left the next morning. I supposedly was lucky seeing this big silat convention with different styles from different Asian countries. Apart from that I slept a lot.

Kemaman

2015-04-06T08:18:00.001+02:00

I hitched my way to kemaman, and planned to stay two days, because I felt I needed some time of rest after all the camping and suspected a fungal infection because of several red itchy patches of skin. At first things looked bleak. The only place there calling itself a hostel had a room rate of rm120 ... and nobody at the reception. I didn't give up however and managed to find a cheap enough hotel with one room for rm 25. It was a tiny room, barely enough space for the double bed(but with ensuite shower) and I wondered whether they used it for 'special' guests usually(fittingly called VIP room..). It was good enough for sleeping so I took it. I was pretty much the only foreigner around and locals were quite friendly especially the Chinese. A guy called Harry decided to give me a tour of kemamans heavy industry.

The place didn't seem as conservative as I read it would be, or the Chinese just don't care. I saw a few just wearing hot pants.

Cherating

2015-03-29T13:40:00.001+02:00

I didn't know what to expect of this place except that it was supposedly a backpacker place. However I found that it let down even the modest expectations of meeting people there.

I arrived at about 7 p.m. after hitching a ride from Kuantan, a city which I couldn't stand anymore after a few hours(mostly due to accommodation prices). I heard that accommodation in cherating was supposed to be cheap. All I saw was resorts and chalets in a mostly deserted village. Everything seems to cater to tourism and there's nothing aside of it. Since there were pretty much no tourists that means the village was dead. A few locals waiting for business that's all.

I met another traveler who had the same impressions, so we passed the days pretty much just talking in the shade drinking iced lemon tea (te o ais limau ) I was going to spend the last night in a Rm20 accommodation but that price was outdated it seems or only for long term stays, so instead I'm writing this article and stay in my tent. The only other option would be the 'dorm' the other guy had stayed in for just rm 15(cherating cottage), but since it apparently is mosquito infested, my free tent just seems way more comfortable. I guess if you just want to relax and come as a couple or have someone to share a room with, cherating may be a viable option, food is priced similarly as in most places (Activities offered don't look cheap.), however if you expect backpackers.. this is not the place.

In case you want to camp for free, just go towards the beach and then left till the houses end. I camped next to the tree there, you might want to consider walking on towards the trees, at some point you'll find a burnt down ?House?. You'll have some palm trees there, more shade and you'll be more out of view. Note you can find free showers in the toilets next to the food court kind of place at the main road.

Further note: I had no coverage with u-mobile, they sell digi here, so maybe that works, but I have been getting by with guessing hostel Wi-Fi passwords.

Meeting Singapore's homeless

2015-03-14T09:06:00.001+01:00

Originally my plan was to leave Singapore at night with one of the last busses and pass the night at the bus station in johor bahru. A Malaysian friend however warned me that it is really not safe in johor. He even wanted to give me hundred ringgit so that I would stay in a hotel there. I declined but this made me reconsider and decide to take a bus the next morning and instead risking confrontation with the strict police of Singapore.

So at first I was sitting next to a shopping mall and thought I'd pass the night sitting there, but half an hour before midnight an old man told me I shouldn't sit there because of police and the last mrt would be at twelve. Alternatively I could stay at a branch of an evil fast food chain which is open 24h and this would have allowed me to charge my electronic devices. Alas I wouldn't want to support that chain, so instead I headed to the nearest park.

In the park, I had to pee. So headed for the toilet.
This was a place with light as well and I had my heavy backpack leaned against the wall already, so I got lost in browsing online. Meanwhile lots of Indian men entered and left the toilet. At some point one who was about to enter said he'd leave his stuff with mine. I said: "sure". When he came back he asked me in his almost non existent English about my situation. The he said he'd help me I should come with him, there wouldn't be an Ali baba men. I decided to take the risk, as sleeping seemed such an awesome idea. While we walked for a while, he apologized for the distance. Finally we crossed a tiny stream and passed between two buildings to the building of the company he worked at. We went through the building and I was a bit confused. We ended up in a staircase and he pointed at some cardboard. This was his home! This guy worked in Singapore for six years and he couldn't afford housing. So he shared his cardboard home with me. He also said maybe he could find me a job.

After a few hours of sleep I woke up early to leave first people arriving to work already I walked through the corridors of this company seeing many Indians sleeping on cardboard, hoping nobody would stop me and ask me what the heck I was doing there and thinking I had seen some of them a few hours earlier passing through the park toilet.

Cutting costs in Singapore

2015-03-12T08:55:00.005+01:00

Long time no post, but this is a very unproductive day in Malacca, Malaysia. I'll just let the day pass, will have to change hostels soon, leaving the bed bugs to someone else. This means I actually have time to write something again. I spent way too much time in Singapore and think I managed to cut costs a bit, so maybe some of my findings can help others.

Accommodation
This is the first big item everywhere and in Singapore it bites a little more than in other Asian countries, there are hostels which are not too expensive(apparently in the red light district), but they still were too expensive for me and I had no luck with CS.
In a crazy moment I remembered I carry a tent and found that it is possible to camp for free in some of the parks for a few days. All you need is a permit which as a foreigner you have to get manually by contacting nparks or going to the relevant park office. You should probably do that in advance which I didn't.. luckily I met a semi-homeless guy in the park who told me how to avoid problems with the police and that checks during weekends ( I arrived on a Saturday night and didn't know yet how the manual application process would work [and it'd] have been too late]) are rare, still I opted for not pitching the tent and go for the homeless way of sleeping (fine for illegal camping is 2000$ iirc).

Camping in the parks has some perks, like showers and drinking water for free (Singaporean tap water is drinkable, and I found a water dispenser in the park I stayed in)

Monday then I finally got the permit sorted out and could sleep in my tent unfortunately according to the permit I wasn't allowed to leave the tent unattended. So I spent some more time camping in the park and then found out about Pulau ubin a small island, where you can camp without permit. The ferry there costs S$ 2.5 one way. The ferry terminal is at changi beach and you have to go there by bus. Food there is expensive at the restaurants, but you can find coconuts and mangos(if in season). The cheapest rice with seafood meal I found was S$4 so not cheap but an option. Further a small supermarket sold overpriced instant noodles and they offer free hot water along with it, to let you get away even cheaper. ( I think it was S$1.8 for the Instant noodles)

The downsides are unlike the park you don't have showers and the tap water is not acceptable for drinking. It's probably advisable to bring cooking equipment (if you have it) and food, same for drinking water, the price for water in the small supermarket was S$ 1.8 as well.

Food

Food is a little more expensive than in other parts of Asia, but you can get pretty close to the prices in other countries. You can get "chicken rice" for $S2, or find one of those places where you can put together your own meal where you usually end up between S$2 and S$3 when getting rice, 2 choices of vegetable and meat. Or you can get free vegetarian meals at some temples.

(If you want to go for one big shopping trip where you spend more than $S100 you can check out the Mustafa center at Farrer park, you can get a tax refund if you spend more than S$100)

Transport

I haven't found a way around the steep transport costs in Singapore, even though I managed to get ahold of an ezlink card for free, which would only be viable for someone who stays longer term, as it costs S$ 15, with S$10 credit. You can't use sums smaller than S$ 3 on the card and the minimum top up is S$10. The tourist tickets are probably not worth it either, so I think the best strategy is to keep use of transport at a minimum.. which is difficult.

This is it for now, if anyone has some more tricks and hints on cheaper stays in SP, please comment and I'll update.

Work in progress

2014-04-27T00:35:00.001+02:00

I haven't posted here for a while. Amusingly this is not due to lack of me writing but more because every time I tried to upload the articles it failed. Probably because of the bad connection. Now I'm hoping that at least this short article will make it through until I'll resolve the problem.

Kinloch Lodge

2014-03-16T09:49:00.001+01:00

I had planned to go out at to party at least one night, for the in depth Queenstown experience. However in the end I couldn't be bothered, sleeping is just too awesome. I then headed off in the direction of paradise. There were a lot of of tracks I wanted to do in that area.

My first ride was an Australian expat. He worked in all the adrenaline related tourism activities, at the time in canyoning and said his job was a joke, pure fun. He was on his way to a fishing spot and left me in Glenorchy("gateway to paradise"). Back in Invercargill a crazy religious nut German woman told me the Kinloch Lodge was awesome. It was pricey too, but I thought if it's really that nice, I'll afford the luxury. So I hitched another ride with an old British couple on the way to a campground. This campground was conveniently located right next to the lodge.

The lodge had advertised that they sold trampers supplies. However when I asked they didn't really have much decent food. In the end I only bought a pack of deep frozen toast for 6$ that was going to be my breakfast along with the jar of peanut butter I had brought.
For dinner I ate at their expensive restaurant. I also joined the yha to get the "free" WiFi, thinking that it might pay off one day.
The next day I got up late and the Japanese guy who had the plan as I had and a car, had already left. Just like everyone else. Oh well tomorrow I thought. So instead I checked out the immediate surroundings and studied the wall maps for tracks. I saw that in theory I could walk up to the start of the Routeburn.
In the evening I tried the spa pool.. it definitely stunk, with the water having a greenish colour. I thought that probably must be super healthy, so I endured it for half an hour, then shower and bed.

Same thing, I got up late but this time decided to try and get to the routeburn. After a bit of walking a car passed, and somehow I just didn't feel like hitching, so just walked on. After leaving the protection of the trees I found myself in the middle of a silt storm. I continued down the road and put on Sun glasses to protect my eyes..just not from the sun. After walking against the storm for a while I saw a track sign and thought: " It goes into the forest. Forest means protection from storm".
The decision was made I started the glacier burn track. Some cars were parked there and the first hurdle was a small stream. I saw two girls who were just walking through. I smugly sandalized the river and walked past them. They told me there was another guy ahead. The girls were Israelis from the accent.

I was in the forest just a few moments later and after a few more minutes passed an old man. I kept walking until I passed the tree line. I looked up the snowy saddle and was quite tempted to climb up in the snow. Instead however I stopped about halfway between tree and snow line, then turned around and sat down to watch the storm from above. I sat there for a small eternity, thinking. I thought it was time to write an article titled broken.

Then I slowly headed down to encounter the Israeli girls again. They told me the old man had told them some guy had "run" past him. So we chatted a bit until I left them behind. I never met the old man again.
When I was back at the road the storm had settled a bit but I still was covered in dust when I was back at the hostel.
The next day I decided to head back to glenorchy to get some food. A woman who was having breakfast at the same time as I gave me a lift.

Queenstown to the sounds

2014-03-02T11:13:00.001+01:00

I met many people in Queenstown who took the bus tour to Milford sound or were wondering if they ought to do it. I would avoid that if possible.

Should you decide to go for this option you'll spend most of your day in the bus, to then spend 2 or 3 hours on the cruise.
Then however most people who went enjoyed the cruise and the pictures I saw did look really nice. At this time the cheapest option is about 120$ for bus + cruise.

If you have the time and interest to travel south base yourself in Te Anau or even one of the accommodation options right there in Milford, so you could easily get the cheap cruises - the early morning ones.

Also if you have the money consider going to doubtful sound instead of Milford.

Getting by a little cheaper in Queenstown

2014-02-10T03:22:00.001+01:00

Of course all the regular ways of getting by cheap apply, but since I'm still here I'll write down some specific tips. Also if anybody has some tips I'll update this.

Accommodation:

If you have a tent, try asking at some of the hostels, their tent sites are cheaper than the ones of the holiday parks and you probably don't have to pay extra for using pans or pots. The bumbles as an example has a tent site for 20$.

If you don't then there is a motel offering backpacker accommodation starting at 22$ which isn't member of either BBH or YHA and with that price it's cheaper than most bbh as well. It can be found close to the aforementioned hostel.

Supermarkets:
There is a "fresh choice" in gorge road which is a little cheaper than the centric "alpine supermarket"(which is a four square actually). If you have a bike or car you can also go to the new world supermarket in Frankton.

That's it, not much, but hopefully that will help someone a little.

Queenstown: first impressions

2014-01-26T04:42:00.001+01:00

So the new hostel is actually worse. I am in a 4 bed room which is hardly big enough for two beds. There is hardly any space left to leave the luggage on the floor. I don't want to imagine the drunk entries at night. At least two other guests(in the same room) seem heavy drinkers. The hostel is accommodating more people than it should, given its size. Accordingly the kitchen is a mess.

The DOC visit, proved fruitless, there doesn't seem to be much in terms of walking directly around here, except short walks. The supermarkets here even more expensive here and the town really seems to be a den for drunkards. Everywhere people with hangover. I was thinking of staying for a while, but I am currently thinking it may be too boring and expensive . The only thing to do here really seems to be to get drunk or waste loads on silly adrenaline kicks.

To Queenstown

2014-01-25T22:35:00.001+01:00

After doing another 2 day trip at lake Manapouri (this time it was designed to be one too and I wasn't alone for a change), I finally worked up the motivation to leave te anau. The hitchhiking worked out quite neatly this time. I only waited for like half an hour at a place which was surprisingly invested with sand flies.. a couple of a Spanish guy and a French girl both living in Australia picked me up and took me for quite some way, then I was picked up by a Dutch couple driving with a campervan who brought me all the way to Queenstown, even though they don't like the place. It seems people either love the place or hate it. I reckon the people who party their brains out love it..
Then I had to try a few hostels to find a place to sleep although I booked two more in the first place I was at, because they had space the day after.
Now I survived the first night with drunk people on the street at night, hoping sleep will be easier at this other hostel. Next I'll probably check with the doc which tracks are available around here.

Kepler track in 2 days

2014-01-19T07:33:00.001+01:00

So I decided to do the Kepler track in 2 days. It actually was a nice track with some really nice views. Very easy to walk and I was usually more than twice as fast as the times given even though I talked to most people I met and did all the side trips. Must have been the lighter load.

There are even possibilities of getting around the use of the expensive great walk huts(there is a standard d.o.c. hut near one of the gw huts for example). I stayed at an expensive great walk campsite though and of course was taken apart by the sand flies (obviously I had forgotten to bring the repellent). Apart from that it's a really nice track though.

I followed the standard itinerary so my first day was uphill to luxmore hut, which is a really nice hut with good views. I left my backpack there for a short excursion to the cave. I went in a bit, but the way is blocked at some point and for longer trips you are supposed to get permission. The cave is being dug out by a little river.
I then returned to the hut to get my backpack and went on my way. After a short uphill section there is the option to go for the
summit of mount luxmore, which I did and spent about an hour there having lunch with almost no wind going and enjoying the view. Then I followed the track again with some very windy parts. I stopped for chats at both shelters. Then I made my way down to the iris burn campsite with the way down dragging on quite a bit.

Finally at the campsite I picked a not so nice spot for the tent in the forest as there were supposed to be fewer sand flies and I was warned that the other spots that were left would be the ones where the smoke from the fireplace was going. Alas the amount of sand flies was still vile.

Three Britons made a fire and after trying out the outdoor meal I bought and chatting with an Aussie family I sat down with them. They were outdoor teachers and invited to a game of pasta pigs (and to a cup of tea in the morning).

The night was really cold (as I learned later temperature apparently went below zero), too cold for my summer sleeping bag, even with the newly acquired silk liner, so I put on my shirt...and then the recently acquired fleece jacket that kinda helped and I found some rest.

In the morning I didn't want to get up due to the cold at first but then decided that it was better to arrive early since it was supposed to rain in the afternoon.
So I got up started to pack everything in the tent then left the tent to get the promised morning tea. After the breakfast I took down the rest of the tent, or at least I wanted to. The floor of the inner was slightly wet so I leaned it against a table so it could dry. I said goodbye to everyone (people started to leave) and then left everything at the site to go for the waterfall. I arrived there when it was hit by the first sunlight. When I returned to site the floor still hadn't completely dried, but it was 10am already and the rain in the afternoon would make sure it would get really wet, so I packed up and left. I caught up with the last people who left fairly quickly at some point met a Danish couple who I met the day before, doing the track in the other direction and finally caught up with the Britons. They offered me a ride back to te anau from the car park saving me quite some distance, so I took them up on that offer.

Now I am back to te anau relaxing and thinking of life and the next steps, not having a data connection sure makes things a bit complicated.

The last ride

2014-01-16T01:44:00.001+01:00

So I thought the dairy farmer was my last ride, but either I misunderstood or he changed his mind, when he suddenly was sorry but reeeeeally had to smoke a joint. He left me in a village called Mossburn. It seemed all the people who took me were potheads and ex hitchhikers.

The wait wasn't too bad in Mossburn and this time the guy who took me was not a pothead(but still a hitchhiker). In fact he told me he wouldn't like smokers. He is a bus driver and I never really understood his name. He told me about all the people he didn't like in his bus and that he used to be a skipper. In the end he offered me to take me for free in his bus if there was space and let me out at cafe Hollyford in Te Anau.

Now I am still in Te Anau not really having done much. Everyone here books one of the super expensive tours in Fjordland. The famous Milford sound one or the slightly less famous but way more beautiful Doubtful sound one. I think I won't do the latter one because 250 NZ$ is just a tad insane for sitting around on a boat. There actually is a hike in that area, but apparently people regularly get into trouble around there and wading through water and mud seems to be the rule and I really don't want more of that for now. (Also the DOC people would probably be really unhappy if I was to go there alone...)
Unfortunately there don't seem to be any real daywalking opportunities around here.

The only track around here is the overbooked Kepler track. I am considering to do it in 2 days(if I can get a spot in one of the overpriced/overbooked huts). I met a German guy who did it in one day which doesn't seem appealing to me at all as that would be pushing it the whole day and since there may be snow now this might be a tad bit of torture in sandals. (Unfortunately my feet still haven't recovered from the track on Stewart island). Oh well I might attempt that anyway, at least I wouldn't be carrying a heavy peak, just a day pack. I guess I could unpack my other pair of vibram five fingers I suppose they wouldn't slow me down as much as my sandals(I am seriously starting to consider getting a pair of these sandal-shoe hybrid things) in unfavorable conditions.

On the way to Te Anau

2014-01-14T02:46:00.001+01:00

I left Invercargill and it's unstable weather behind. It was raining for 10 minutes and then the sun came out for ten minutes etc. I decided to try hitchhiking. So I went to the border of the city at SH6. After waiting the for an hour at least. Corey a seasoned hitchhiker stopped for me an took me part of the way since he was heading to work. Then I waited at the exit of Winton and the weather was terrible after a little more than an hour of waiting Shay the dairy farmer stopped and told me he'd drive me to te anau, but he'd stop at a friend's house for a while. That is where I am now, waiting and thinking if hitchhiking is something I'll keep on doing or rather not.

Back to civilization

2014-01-11T11:16:00.001+01:00

I had a written something for the first five days of the trip updated every day. Then I stopped writing down in the evenings and when I wanted to finally write down the rest, the app crashed and now the article is in an eternal state of saving, inaccessible. I won't rewrite and so my trip will have to largely remain a mystery. Let's just say I had a lot of mud and rain. I didn't stay in bluff on my way back to go for some hikes around there either, because the weather seemed to start mostly bad, except for the next day. So instead I went back to Invercargill to recharge and heal up for the next madness.

Well here are a few summary sentences: I stayed in a really nice backpackers on Stewart island called bunkers backpackers on my last days on the island and got some awesome but expensive smoked salmon from there. Before that I went on a 10 day hike in the wilderness.

On my way to Stewart island

2013-12-28T11:10:00.001+01:00

Tomorrow early in the morning I'll try to hitchhike to Bluff and from there take a ferry to Stewart island. Should things go right I'll immediately disappear into the subantartic jungle and this will be the last time anyone saw me for this year. So no early happy new year message from me. I'll be gone for a while.

I spent my last day in Invercargill buying some gear for the track. I am still lacking some things.. but oh well. And the rest of the day in the park. The aviary already gave me an idea of what to expect, but they had other birds as well. The African lovebirds are awesome always cuddling with another bird.

I also marveled at the icon of the city. A giant umbrella. Yes, because it rains so much and the rain could really become a problem in the island as well.
This will be the most difficult thing so far. I hope there will be some edible vegetation and that there is drinking water.

Oh well I'll see

Christmas, sandals and rain

2013-12-27T10:36:00.003+01:00

I have been staying in Dunedin for a few days now and the city deserves it's reputation for the terrible weather from what I can tell. I think it rained every day so far. The one day it only rained in the evening we drove to the tip of the peninsula where the only albatross colony that is not located on an island can be found.

Of course there everything was fenced and a overly expensive tour was available, even to just enter the information center cost 5$. Of course we didn't want to pay all that money, and so just walked around watching seagulls and sea lions. After a while we started on our way back but stopped for Larnach castle, the only castle of the country.. which actually is not a castle. Anyway we walked there and when we arrived at the gate we saw the entry fee.. and decided to not pay that fee so instead we turned around and walked back, then drove back to the hostel.

The next day was rainy but it was the last day before Christmas, so we bought food because the hostel held a potluck dinner. Of course since almost everyone was German this wasn't very interesting and meant there wouldn't be anything to eat for me, but oh well. Also since it was Christmas in Europe the others were complaining about not being in Christmas mood/not being at home. We walked around and then walked into the first church of Dunedin. I never expected this. The three are total nerds playing games on their mobiles all day and then they went to sit in a church for half an hour at least. The church smelled of pee and the person playing the organ wasn't hitting the right notes too often. Also even though I am not well versed in churches, I have to say churches here are not impressive. Then we headed back to the hostel to end another rainy day.

The next day was Christmas day in NZ, so everything was closed I expected another horrible day. We went to the steepest street of the world, the Baldwin street. Well steepest street in a residential area or something like that. And that turned out to be the best thing in a while. It was dry when we left the hostel, so I left in my typical attire - sandals, shorts and t-shirt. Then it started to rain, first just a little then it started to pour and so finally after a long time I felt alive again. The street was steep but yeah it's just a street. Then in the evening the potluck was as expected practically devoid of edible food and I was wondering whether I am too old for this since almost everyone I met is younger than 20 and contemplating what to study or how to get drunk. One would think people who come here, come to enjoy the outdoors however party tourism is at least starting to take a hold of nz.

I didn't have conversations options left and so watched whatever was on TV and everyone else was watching. The next morning we left for Invercargill.

Going south

2013-12-23T07:06:00.001+01:00

I didn't find a travel partner but I found three German guys (or maybe I should say boys) who also wanted to go to lake tekapo and in general seemed to have a nice route and who had a free spot in their car, so I decided to go with them.

The hostel where we wanted to go didn't have room for all of us so they went to a different hostel. I didn't have any food so I tried my luck with my other bank card to see if it had been unlocked already - I was in luck, although things were super pricey in that village.

Then I met up with the others who wanted to stay in and pay cards however and later watch a movie. So I went out alone for a longer walk around the lake with turquoise water and then through a pine first. Later in the evening I fended off a horny German girl in the hostel who was kind of racist and made me wonder how someone like that could travel around. German travelers are of the highest frequency among the travelers and so far she seems to have been the exception to the rule.

The next day we went up mount John together although I walked the extension of the track alone and found sheep who really flocked together very closely and barely moved. At first I thought they were weird statues, but at some point outer sheep started to fight.. a little.. for better spots.

In the evening I was amazed by the cooking skills of Asian girls one of which prepared an awesome looking meal in 10 minutes. All in all this was a nice stay with people from many countries.

The next day I accompanied the three to mount cook/aoraki. Where we went for a short walk and saw a kea in the distance and had a look at the glacier lake, then we headed back to the car, running from the train and just made it before it caught up with us. We then headed to oamaru where we found a steam punk museum and which in general seemed a steam punk place. At night we kind of illegally watched blue penguins and sea lions as a bonus. We didn't want to pay the ridiculous fee to be allowed to enter the colony, so we jumped down to the beach near a cafe which otherwise blocked the only other entry and was fenced everywhere else. Than we walked down a pier and were able to see everything and the sea lions at the far end of the pier. The thing seemed a sham really there were signs saying to be quiet near the penguins but they had loudspeaker announcements. Then we left and saw yellow eyed penguins in the harbour. It was funny while everyone ess staring at the penguins far away I saw a little fella peeking out beneath the platform everyone was standing on.
Unfortunately it was too dark for decent pictures. We then went back to eat steaks.

The next day we drove to Dunedin and that is where I am currently. The weather here is really effective at preventing me from feeling like going out. Apparently Dunedin is known for for its bad weather and there are newspapers saying it's really not that bad here. The hostel is easy overcrowded with Germans again.

Christchurch is really not a nice place

2013-12-23T05:10:00.001+01:00

I teamed up with a polish and an Israeli guy to finally leave Christchurch for a bit, even if only for a day. (The day before I showed them around in Christchurch and in the evening went for a hike with the Israeli guy which was nice to but very short and we found a way blocked by stones from a past earthquake). We went for a hike in the Hinewai reserve and planned to go to one of the bays, however in the end we spent all afternoon walking in the reserve and then returned to make it back to the car before it was dark. We then went to the aoraki village to find something to eat however since it was late we ended up only finding something in a bar. We all ended up eating a seafood bucket each. Then after spending forever there we went for one of the bays even though it was dark already. We then went to the beach not really seeing much in the dark and after some philosophical discussions and failed attempts at taking pictures, we returned to the car, to return to Christchurch. All in all it was a nice change.

The next morning was the beginning of the last workday before my birthday so I decided to call immigration new Zealand again to ask if I should/could do anything to make things go faster with the visa. The answer was that the fact that my x Ray still didn't arrive was going to be problem and it had to arrive on that day, so the only chance I had was to get a new x Ray done and have it arrive in Auckland that same day. In short I thought it was a pointless effort and a waste of a lot more money.. But I tried.
I went to the atm to get money for another night at the hostel cuz I didn't want to worry about that too. Then I wanted to print the accompanying documents for the xray, but met the Israeli guy who was about to leave and said goodbye. Then I rushed off to get to the nearest approved radiologist. I then realized I had forgotten to get the printed documents from reception but tried the medical center and luckily they had the forms although they were not too happy about giving them to me.

I got the xray done and then headed to the airport because that's the pace they told me to go to at radiology(there was an office much closer). They scanned everything and sent it by mail, but told me they didn't know whether they would accept that, so I should also send it by mail. So I located a post shop at the airport and sent it from there. Then I decided to walk back...

I walked and walked and walked. The sun was very strong that day and I was getting thirsty, after walking for a long time I came to fendalton mall, I bought a few things to eat and way more to drink and then feasted at the back of the mall. A security guy left the back door at some point...

I made my way back to the hostel and there after a while of more eating and drinking I wanted to book a bus to another place and more or less randomly had picked lake tekapo. Then I noticed I didn't have my wallet anymore. So I blocked my debit card, then called the mall where I last used it, but upon here the list of extension numbers I decided to call the police instead. Then I left my mobile with a Scottish girl in case the police would call and then walked back the whole way to the mall asking passersby if they had seen something. At the supermarket nobody had handed in the wallet and the spot where I ate didn't harbor my wallet either. So I went back. Everybody told me I had lost it in a good area so it would surely show up and people told me that their wallet had showed up again when they had lost it and the Scottish girl told me that she knew how I felt. So I decided to stay 2 more days in case it would show up and also hoping to maybe find a travel partner and I thought maybe the wallet would show up on my birthday because the finder thought it would be funny. It didn't show up of course.

In short, Christchurch doesn't really offer anything to do, there is a funny connection between cathedrals and prostitution it seems(both the destroyed and the new cathedral have unmistakable establishments close by), I got money milked by the hostel I was at making me pay for their mistakes and then I lost my wallet.

Visas, people and problems

2013-12-10T00:15:00.001+01:00

People in visa limbo don't seem to be that uncommon around here.

There is Matthew an event organizer from Wales who thought he was here for only one day, as he is planning to live permanently in Australia and had been living there for 2 1/2 years already. However the next step of his permanent visa is taking unexpectedly long and now he's been here for almost a week and is running out of money. Yesterday he had 10$ left and you could see his growing anxiety while he was chain smoking his last pack of cigarettes away.

Then there was this Italian/German guy who wanted to buy a car with me because I am 'chill', but he doesn't have a driving licence which is also why he didn't get the whv visa yet, he will have to do an interview on the 16th and is stuck here until then.

Not everyone has visa issues though, some people have more mundane issues. There was a Brazilian girl who was left behind by her friends who didn't show up when they were supposed to, so I left her my phone for the day, so that she could contact her friends.

A Texan project manager told me he didn't think the job situation in the states was bad, however with almost everything he said it was evident that he was worried about losing his job and he mostly talked about job security related issues.

A German politician from Munich pissed off other Germans by talking to them about politics and was worried that there would be re-elections in Germany.

I also had the short opportunity to practice some Spanish with a girl from Chile and a Mexican couple.

As for me I am waiting, still no news on the xray I found out the post office screwed me over though. I had told them I need to send the fastest way possible they just decided to send it by regular mail. So because of some clerk I'm sitting here and waiting and losing money on that and might possibly end up not getting the visa. Further of course the hostel didn't pay up for the cost they caused me. They basically admitted it was their fault but yeah.. then this morning when I had to change rooms they had forgotten to note that I had paid. At least they didn't try to charge me again...they just wanted to investigate.
I booked another night, but it really is time to leave Christchurch.

Hostel horrors

2013-12-06T20:13:00.001+01:00

Yesterday morning I left my hostel on a not so long trip to...the next hostel. When I finally arrived I was told that my booking had been cancelled because they couldn't charge my card and that I had received a mail which said I should have contacted them. Now of course the already expensive dorm room wasn't available anymore and my only option was to book a private room... which I did since at that point I had no internet connection to check for something else. So now I had to pay almost twice as much of what was already insanely expensive for a hostel.

The room wasn't ready yet, so I went for the mall to buy a SIM card. I also used the opportunity to eat kebab(and was seriously disappointed). I got lucky in a place called warehouse after being sent there by a cashier in a supermarket which heavily advertised that I could buy the SIM there but which didn't actually sell it anymore...

Finally I had internet access. I returned to the hostel, went to the room and checked my mails(first trying WiFi but that just didn't work at all and the quota is ridiculous being just a fourth of what I had in the haka lodge and more data would be way more expensive than on the phone...). The mail said that my booking shouldn't have been cancelled before 6pm on the day of arrival... So I went to the reception and the receptionist said after some discussion that she would talk to her boss.

Today I'll find out what the result of that was I presume. They should refund me, because this was completely not an error on my side, the account is fine and they shouldn't have cancelled the booking. It's also quite unfair that they didn't even bother to call and just immediately cancelled the booking. So from this experience I'd warn people to stay away from "The old country backpackers" in Christchurch. They have a very customer unfriendly attitude and WiFi is unusable.

After all that mess, i called immigration for news, but again nothing, i was told to ask the officer who worked directly on my case which i did only to get an automated reply saying that he was on holidays until the 16th. Great, time to book another hostel and wait.

I think I will probably buy a cheap car. That way I will have a cheap place to sleep and a means to get around. That would be much nicer if i wasn't traveling around alone, but oh well better than going broke.

Sunburn in Christchurch

2013-12-04T10:28:00.000+01:00

When I entered the plane in Dubai yesterday, I expected the take off wouldn't be something I'd have to wait for all that much. However after waiting forever the captain informed that there would be delay of another hour or so, due to the fog. Now since the flight is super long without that additional sitting and waiting already this sure was not nice. Arse torture to the max.

Finally the flight commenced and like for the first flight I was lucky in that in the three seat column we were only two and so didn't have a middle man. On the other hand I had a guy in front of me who constantly managed to things more complicated for me, by adjusting his seat dropping his pillow and keeping lights on when everyone else was sleeping. So I didn't manage to sleep during the flight. If my memory doesn't betray me here, I think that klm wins in terms off comfort and somehow I could sleep without any problem.
Luckily I had checked in for my last flight in Dubai, and so didn't lose time for that in Sydney but how else could it be. Again the flight was delayed. When I boarded I was asked to provide a valid return ticket, which I did. This time I was surrounded families with children. The flight was much shorter and I had to fill out an arrival form which I was unsure about because of the visa thing. When I arrived I checked mails, because I sent a mail in Sydney, but there was no answer except from the nz post, saying they believed the parcel arrived. So I sent another mail to immigration saying I'd wait at the airport till I'd hear from them. However the area before customs didn't even have toilets so I waited until everyone else was done and then asked a customs officer. She looked at my papers asked someone and then asked me to walk through control and wait on a bench. A while later another officer showed up and told me he'd give me a regular visitor's visa and I should check back with immigration the next day how things stand. Since I didn't want to do the checkup again as the immigration officer I had mail contact with told me I'd have to, I told the officer that. He then said he didn't believe that was the case, checked back with immigration and then gave me the visitor's visa.Then I booked the cheapest hostel I could find, going by the name of haka lodge. Looked for a bus to the center and then walked for another eternity to the hostel which turned out to be really nice with a garden and generally nice atmosphere.
I also had a nice slightly quirky roommate. I then went to the next supermarket and decided that I was lazy so bought chips, fruits and 'scorched almonds' simply because that sounded awesome.
She wanted to sleep early and I was tired as well, so that's what we did.
I woke up at 6 am but thought hey if the supermarket here opens at 7 am that's not such a bad time to get up. I said goodbye to my quirky roommate and planned to go to an electronics store to buy a usb power supply since I forgot a part of my charger for the phone. However my Spanish/Madrid heuristic (just keep walking at some point you'll find what you need) didn't work out. My day netted me the power supply and a sunburn, but no SIM card. I wanted to extend my stay at the hostel, but too late - booked out. So tomorrow I'll switch to twice the price for less quality according to reviews. Still no news about the visa.

Walking through Christchurch I learned two things, first people here actually give proper directions (unlike in Spain, where people send you to random directions) and second that Christchurch is still considerably damaged from the earthquake and very much in progress, oh and yeah there really are loads of churches here.

In Transit

2013-12-03T06:46:00.000+01:00

Waiting to board at Dubai airport. Free WiFi here doesn't work. So far not many things worked out.

First yesterday there was a traffic congestion. That wasn't much of a problem as the driver took an alternate route and we were like 2 minutes late. I was in luck since the bus stop was at the right terminal. Everything went smooth until I was at the point of baggage drop off. I was told I'd already need to have my visa. Oops. The clerk said she couldn't let me fly without one and wondered why immigration didn't tell people because she had a similar case recently already. After some discussion and calls I bought a ticket so that I could enter on a regular tourist visa. I guess this means I'll have to redo the x-Ray and additional medical checkups. Great. The 100 or so euros for the x Ray wasted. They tried to talk me into a cheap ticket, but I bought a full price one so that I simply can cancel it without incurring a financial loss one I have my wh visa. So finally I could move on to security. Apparently one of the guards had been eyeing me from afar, because as soon as I came closer she started to ask me about my vibram five fingers and was rather flirty. I already had forgotten that people do that and while I answered the five finger questions the rest of the security joined in. At some point after jumping around a bit and answering most of their burning questions. I suddenly realized that I was spending an awful lot of time there and moved to the gate. I was still earlier than the personnel for the boarding though.

Then I waited. We started late because of a shift change in the fueling company.. um yeah. The flight was uneventful I ate salmon and watched movies. Then we arrived late in Dubai and after going through immigration and waiting for the bus I was in my room at 1:xx am local time. Little time for sleep got up at 6:30 am had a super short breakfast, showered and then proceeded to the airport in order to wait. Finally the WiFi sort of works... a little. It is 9:44 the (again) delayed boarding should commence soon. I wanted to book a place to sleep from here but WiFi doesn't work for that. Oh well stopping to write now.

Trials and Tribulations ... will I not have a Visa?

2013-11-29T23:40:00.000+01:00

Not much time left. What is definitely going to be my biggest and longest trip will begin on Monday and I am still not completely done with my preparations. I don't even have a place to sleep yet.

After my long stay in Madrid I left Spain, after some not so nice things. Finally free from all the mad rental situations I was still waiting forever for my last (and seriously terrible) landlady to pay back the security. Finally when I was already considering legal options and after a last (unanswered) mail she paid up and I thought things would go a bit smoother now. However I waited a bit long since I was considering to go visit one last city in Europe before leaving the continent. In the end I booked a flight with three stops and almost 40 hours in total.
When I finally did that I filled out the Visa application and learnt that I had to do a chest x-ray and send the image to the immigration office within 15 days. This is a tough deadline since the image has to go around half of the world and I had to get an appointment to get it done first. All that just because I travelled too much within the last 5 years.

The other thing is that you have to go to one of the doctors on the list you get from the immigration office. So I also had quite some distance to cover just to get to the doctor. My appointment was last Tuesday and I got up at 5:15 to be able to make it because the only bus connection on time was rather early. Then waiting at the bus stop for ever.. There were two girls waiting with me and said I'll go into the airport(the bus stop is at an airport) and ask. I go in and ask around finally at the information booth the clerk called the bus company. When I looked out I didn't see the girls anymore..

The clerk asked me whether I really had been all this time and if others were waiting there. It seems the people at the bus company were confused(they didn't even know about it) about the missing bus as well, but said it should come soon. I went out and was worried that I missed the bus, because the girls had disappeared and just when I was about to give up a bus came .. and the girls came out of the airport. We thinking this was the bus waited for the people to leave and then approached the bus.. With the driver promptly telling us that this was not the bus we were looking for. A similar exchange to the one with the clerk ensued.
The driver then called the company again aaaand told us .. the bus would come soon and then there was an accident and the other driver had just called in a bit late. After more waiting a bus came, but they told us the driver would come later it was just so we could wait in the bus. Then a driver came who drove us to the company headquater where the final driver then entered to tell us the truth:"This is the first time that I overslept this year!". I thought to myself "the first time? so the plan is for more times?" This(admitting it) was obviously not very bright of him to do, because this meant the company was liable in case someone would have gone legal. I was just annoyed that I got up so early just to wait at a bus stop, because a slightly later start would have been perfect for me, well now it was a lot later.

When I finally arrived I didn't have enough time to get to the appointment on time having a relaxed walk instead I had to rush through the city and arrived 2-4 minutes because I didn't find the proper entrance to the hospital immediately. Then I had to wait a short moment and was called, entered the room, stripped down, got roasted in the radiation and then left to wait more. I guess that was about a minute. I waited 10 more to get the image and results and left. The image is huge so my plan was to go to the post office and send it off then visit the city a bit. So 1 1/2 hour later I found a sign at the door of the post office, which said: "We are closed today". They randomly decided to close on the Tuesday I wanted to send off something urgently. Oh well that was to be expected. I scrapped my plan, looked for something to eat, after a while gave up and took the first thing I had seen.

Then I went to the trainstation passed some time there and ultimately went for the next bus back. On arrival I went to the local post office and they didn't have a fitting envelope, then after a short odyssey through the whole settlement a foto store had something accpetable that they would have thrown away. So then just on time before the office closed I managed to send it off for a whopping 42 €uros. Add the X-ray and bus etc. That's a 100 €uros extra because I was honest. (the whole thing is a bit odd though it's to prove that you don't have tuberculosis, but then if they exepect someone to be honest about giving all this data in order to judge someone to be risky, then why the hell don't they just ask for signs of tbc directly, because if you wanted to lie about it you'd do it in the first step and avoid all this costly mess.)
Now I am waiting to see if the image arrives on time. If not I'll have to pay a lot more to redo the chest x-ray along with other examinations.

Another requirement is a health insurance and of course everybody knows that insurerers do everything to not do their job so you should research carefully... but at that point I was just out of time and tired of it all and just read through two different contract text. So without much further ado I just took the cheaper one was done with it.

I can't wait for the flight and it seems I'll be eligible for Dubai Connect, which means I get a free stay at a hotel there while waiting for my next flight.

How not to prepare for backpacking ..getting to know 'uncle rhabdo'

2013-11-24T19:03:00.001+01:00

A while ago I thought hey, since I'll be traveling again and since I am my own mule it would appear smart to do some ..physical.. preparations. Being an office slave does not have the benefits of being a quarry kind of slave, i.e. you don't become super muscular and start on a quest to destroy the empire of your enslaver to then found your own kingdom.
So I thought it would be beneficial to do something for my back. Having done all this taxing mental work I retired the idea. However randomly a colleague was getting scared of his belly protruding too much and asked me if I wanted to join in with his program. I thought the stars had obviously aligned(but didn't check..!) and this was to be the first step to godhood. As such I agreed already seeing myself wielding .... insanely oversized backpacks. Of course the program was targeting the whole body, but I thought that was an acceptable price to pay and the people in the program plan with every muscle chiseled out didn't succeed to scare me off even though they do look exhausted and out of breath. The colleague assured me that he had started the program before, but then got sidetracked and that the insane amount of repetitions was ok.

After some delays we started midweek and then started all over again the following week. I was sceptical of training over sore muscles etc.. but yeah my colleague had done it before and it's all just bodyweight exercises. So that all went fine until we hit week three of the program.
That was the first time we were supposed to do pullups and 50 pullups at that. Now I thought like: "WTF!?!" .. but yeah colleague ..before. So we went ahead and I just went through with it, surprised it didn't seem as bad as expected. Then during the following 100 pushups, I started to not be able to go for the full range of motion anymore, i.e. I couldn't press myself up completely anymore. According to my colleague the fun would just begin with the sore muscles and that we would resemble T-Rexes. Indeed that was what happened, walking around with arms in a 90° angle, because that was the only option, but then this didn't go away and at some point we suddenly had swollen arms. It looked a bit like we suddenly had gone massively overweight.. in our arms only, but even then there would be some kind of arm shape whereas we looked more like we had some kind of stuffed to the brim giant sausages on our sides.
It took three weeks to disappear all in all I think and foolishly at some point we exercised even with those arms a few times.

So after some point we found out that this most likely had been rhabdomyolisis and we could have suffered renal failure and died.
In other words we had gone too far and caused too much damage to the muscles. Now it turns out this is not uncommon in the so called crossfit scene where this has been dubbed 'uncle rhabdo'. While some people have a disposition for this, the common technique to induce it via execrcise is copious amounts of negative repetitions. Pullups are one of the most efficient means of acquisition.
Of course after this I have completely lost motivation to continue this program ("freeletics") since the program motivates people to keep going no matter what and that everybody could do it. There was no warning at all. For people reading this but who still want to continue their high volume training, please be careful and maybe limit the amount of additional negative only reptitions to no more than the amount full repitions you can do (i.e. 10 full + 10 negative repetitions). Also even if your program says so, don't go with insane amounts of repetitions for a new exercise, instead work your way up. Should you desire to kill yourself, there are way better ways than renal failure!

Now after that it took forever(more than a month) for me to be able to do even a single pullup again, and I am not yet back to the way I was before(in amount of pullups).

So I learned from this, that people I barely know see me walking around all the time in the city(with sausage arms), whereas I rarely see anyone. Further I am weird because others doing this kind of exercising say they feel so great after completing on of those workouts whereas I am just glad it's over. I also don't quite understand how people enjoy to inflict this kind of torture on themselves - what's the fun in having sore muscles every day? And what's the point of all this training when you never have the strength left to do other things after a session?