Janin matkassa

Africa pt. II

Hey hey hey again!

Our first stop in Malawi was, of course Lilongwe as you usually have to go through the capital if it on your way. We stayed in Lilongwe for a few days just to stock up on provisions, take a breather and handle some things. We also needed to take a lot of cash as ATMs are scarce around the Lake Malawi. We wanted to get to Nkhata Bay along the shores of Lake Malawi as I had read that it’s one of the best places to be on the lake and you can also do diving there which was a priority. We checked in to a place called Mayoka Village which was on the shores and filled with small, cute cottages. You could also take out a kayak to go into town and go snorkeling for free. Long story short, Nkhata Bay was possibly the best place I have been in Africa so far. It was a small village with a beautiful lake next to it and the watersports possibilities were abundant. There was a free boat trip from our accommodation that we took. We went cliff jumping (first time ever!), fed some fish eagles and went a nearby beach to play some football with the local people. I also did two dives, one during the day and one during the night. The night dive was a bit scary as you could not see anything else other than the beam of your torch. It was great to be diving again! Also convinced Olli to do a course too hahahaha. Our instructors were also great and NKhata Bay was filled with awesome people too. We spent only four days there but could’ve stayed for longer. If I go back to Malawi at some point, I will definitely go there.

Next stop was in the middle of nowhere to a hostel called Mushroom Farm, an eco-lodge in the mountains of Malawi. We had heard so many great things about it so we had to check it out. The way there was a bit rough though. Took like four different buses there and one of the minivans’ door was broken so it fell every now and then. The last stretch was a one hour ride along the steep, narrow, mountain roads high up. Definitely interesting! Mushroom Farm was a really cool place with spectacular views. We also visited the nearby waterfalls which are the tallest in Malawi.

We had decided that after Malawi we just push through Tanzania as our time was running short since we need to catch our flights from Nairobi on the 26th of May and Tanzania is a rather large country hahahah. So we took a bus, traveled during day light, slept, then repeat. We did this until we reached Pangani Town (a village with maybe some hundreds of inhabitants), where we stayed for a few nights to take a breather. Now we are on the last stretch of Africa, in Moshi in Backpackers Paradise. Tomorrow we get a bus towards Nairobi and on Tuesday leaves our flight to Dominican Republic via Germany!

See you next time!

-J

Mama Africa

Hey hey hey!

I thought I’d make you all happy by writing another blog entry even though everybody must’ve thought I gave it up. The truth is, I didn’t forget to write this, it’s just that it seems to have gotten a deal way harder to get on a computer with a proper internet in Africa. Granted, had I put enough effort in this, I could’ve posted one every now and then. But as it was hard to find an internet cafe and especially one where everything works, I postponed everything. A lot has happened since Vietnam and even more time has passed since I was there but I’ll try to give you a summary of what I have been doing and what I have seen.

I spent roughly two weeks in Thailand after Vietnam. A part of it in Bangkok and the majority of it in Koh Lanta, which was awesome. It was fairly low season and there weren’t that many people around so the prices were cheaper as well. I got a nice bungalow close to the beach with a few friends and did nothing but chilled, relaxed and drove around the island with scooters. By the way, if you’ve ever seen Jurassic Park (the original one), Koh Lanta looks exactly the same as the island in the movie! I could picture the dinosaurs roaming around the jungle while driving.

Anyways, around Easter on the 7th of April it was time to dust off the sand of  Southeast Asian beaches and hop on a plane which would take me all the way to South Africa via Addis Ababa (in Ethiopia). It was fairly exciting as it was going to be my first time ever in Africa! The plan was to meet up with Olli in Johannesburg, do a little touring around South Africa, then move on to Botswana, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania and finally fly out of Africa from Nairobi in Kenya. Of course our plan/itinerary was wide open so we could pretty much do anything we wanted to. For those of you planning to visit Johannesburg and staying in a hostel, be aware that they are rather expensive (especially if you come from Asia). And there is no similar backpacker culture there either. We (aka I) had contacted this one guy from Couchsurfing and had asked if we could stay over at his place for a couple of nights. He wasn’t able to host us as he had exams and all but he invited us to his family’s beach house in Southbroom (on the coast) for a weekend of surfing, partying and chilling. Of course we accepted the invitation gladly. So the weekend came and we were picked up for a day of driving to the coast (the trip usually takes like 8 hours), which to me is a bit too much if you’re only staying there for the weekend. But anyway, there we were. Three cars full of people we just met but hey, this is Africa. It was a long day full of stops and distractions and detours but we finally made it to the coast. However, it was fairly late and everybody was a bit tired so no parties hahaha. We also met these two Belgian girls at the beach house who wanted to rent a car and drive to Cape Town and they were looking for people to join in on the costs. WE thought to ourselves; a road trip to Cape Town, sounds awesome. So after a weekend of swimming, playing rugby, football, eating, sleeping etc we rented a car and started the trip (by they way, it’s really cheap, like 25e/day). The distance to Cape Town was a looong one and we had maybe like four days to complete it. And we only had two CD’s; The Best of R.Kelly and a dance mix from South African Dj’s. It was interesting to say the least. We made a few stops along the way in Coffee Bay and Storm’s River. It was nice driving around and didn’t even take that much time getting used to driving on the left side. The views were also spectacular as the road went up and down with altitudes changing constantly. We also met a lot of cool people along the way and went National Parking with them. In our last hostel of the trip there was also a pet goat called Bez. She was cool, really social on her own terms. She wanted to be close to you but you could not touch her, otherwise she got mad.

We finally reached Cape Town and we were staying a friend’s place in the suburbs (a guy who I met in Cambodia). Learned how to use the local train and local buses which run surprisingly well (compared to Johannesburg). Cape Town was cool as a place, it has so many things to do. I hiked up the Table Mountain and took the shortest route, which I also think is the steepest. It was no fun and games hahaha. Especially since I took too little water with me. The view from the Table Mountain was amazing. The picture does not do it justice but hopefully you get the idea.

One of the things I also wanted to do was go see the penguins at the Boulders Beach and go Shark Cage Diving as I have always wanted to see a great white up close. Luckily I got to do both those things even though we did not have that many days in Cape Town. I love penguins so it was great to be able to actually walk amongst them when they’re just hanging out, sleeping or swimming. It cost a few euros to get to the area but totally worth it. If you want to see them properly, you have to climb over some rocks to get to the most secluded parts of the beach where there’s practically no people. Shark Cage diving was also a memorable experience, a bit expensive yes but worth the price. You go in really early to the place where the boat leaves and there’s a small briefing about sharks and what to do and what not do to. Then you take the boat some ways to the sea and they start luring the sharks out. Not with food though, but a mixture of something (an aroma, a scent), which brings out the sharks. We had to wait for a while before they started appearing but when they did it was great. We were lowered in a steel cage just a bit below the surface and there they were. A bunch of big, scary sharks with big teeth. Thrilling! The fun lasted quite a bit as well. I wasn’t left with a feeling that you only saw a glimpse and then it was over. Only downside was that the water was freezing, even in a wet suit. It was like 10 degrees or so.

After Cape Town we took a bus to Johannesburg and then onwards to Gaborone in Botswana. We had gotten a couchsurfing host from Gaborone and we were staying at her house for 4 nights. We met up with our host and some of her friends and then the next day we were taken out by another couchsurfer and we met some more locals which was great. All in all Gaborone was cool but there is pretty much nothing else to do than go out (which we did). On a Saturday we were taken to probably the dodgiest and shadiest nightclub in Gaborone and had a blast. Granted, we were the only mzungus there but it was to be expected! After Gaborone we wanted to go to the Okavango Delta which is a large lake/safari area in the north of Botswana. We stayed in the Old Bridge Backpackers and from there we booked a one night/two day Mokoro safari. A mokoro is a small dug out canoe which the locals use to get around the lake areas where they live. Some of them also work as tour guides and take people to see the animals living there which are abundant. So we took the mokoro to the wilderness, put up a few tents and went on some walking safaris around the area (me hoping that we will not encounter a lion as we had no weapons or anything). Saw some zebras, elephants, antilopes, warthogs etc. It was really cool to be walking around there with only wild animals surrounding you. We cooked some food on the fire and went to bed as soon as it got dark as you can’t really do anything. Fell asleep to the sounds of animals roaming around our camp.

Our camp

Next destination was the border crossing from Botswana to Zambia and there to Livingstone. We met some Slovenian doctors in Maun and they were going the same direction as us so we joined forces. So far, the bus transportation has been fairly efficient (despite the fact that our bus broke down twice on our way from Gaborone to Maun) with delays every time but that’s normal. During one of these stretches to the border we had to stand for four hours in a minibus because it was too full, but that’s fine too! Border crossing was straighforward, a lot of touts shouting at you to take their taxi anywhere and trying to exchange money but that’s also normal hahaha. We got a taxi for a good price from the border to Livingstone where we were gonna spend some days just chilling and taking in the Victoria Falls. I had thought that Livingstone would be a really touristic place because of the falls but surprisingly it wasn’t. It was pretty chilled with not much to do except safaris and the falls. Our hostel provided a free lift to the falls in the morning so we took it. Right upon exiting the car and starting walking, people started shouting from behind us. We freaked out a bit and suddenly something was grabbing Olli’s plastic bag with our snacks in it. He got scared and let go of the bag and we saw it was a huge baboon who wanted to steal some food. Unluckily for Olli, the baboon got a nice, juicy sandwich from Spar. My sandwich was spared though! Victoria Falls was amazing. Better than Niagara Falls. You also got so much closer to them. We hiked around the national park for a while and got really, really wet. There’s plenty of activities to do around the area if you have money for it. White water rafting, bungee jumping, ziplining etc. As we are poor, we did not do anything hahaha.

After Livingstone we took a bus to Lusaka, which is the capital of Zambia and we were planning to go to South Luangwa National Park from there to do a traditional safari. We met up with a Costa Rican guy at the backpackers and he was on his way there as well so we decided to do the trip together. There is a great place called Marula Lodge in South Luangwa, which also caters for backpackers. Usually safaris are really expensive resorts but this was one dorms as well. We paid 225 US dollars for two nights, two game drives and meals included, which is really not bad. The lodge itself is located in the buffer zone before the national park which means that most of the animals are free to roam around there. In the morning you saw hippos just bathing on the river right next to your dorms. There were also elephants looking for food and the other day a lion had stumbled upon the place. Game drives were also great, we pretty much saw everything a person could wish to see on a safari and quite up close too. We saw elephants playing in the water, lions chilling after eating, zebras, baby hippos having a race and even a leopard getting ready to jump on its prey.

After Zambia it was time to move on to Malawi and get to the lake finally!

Cheers,

-Jani

A month of silence

Whoa! I just realised that it has almost been a month since I last updated this blog, sorry about that. I could say that I’ve just been really busy with doing stuff and all but that would be a bold-faced lie. I’ve just been lazy and I have never been a blog person even though I’ve tried. So here is just a summary of what I have been doing over the past month or so:

I got to Myanmar safe and sound as most of you might know already. First of all, it was nothing I would have expected. Long gone were the cars with holes at the bottom, in with the luxury cars of Lexuses and BMW:s (as the ban of imported cars was lifted some years ago. Yangon looked like any other regular big(ish) Southeast Asian city. Lots of hustle and bustle, chaos, people selling stuff on the street and a freakishly hot air. Though I should be used to it by now. I spent a few days in Yangon to devour all the sights the city had to offer but I was not the biggest fan of it. I was eager to see what else Myanmar had on offer so I got me a night bus to Mandalay. I had contacted a few people in Mandalay through couchsurfing to I had my local tour guides already booked for my stay hahahaha. Other was this really nice girl who had just graduated as as a dentist and she showed me around Mandalay, the U Bein bridge and took me to eat at some really great street food places where the prices were low. Other had just come from Bangkok/Italy, where she did her degree/did her exchange and we went for a dinner and hung out. She also drove me to the train station when it was time for me to take another night train towards Bagan. Bagan should and is probably on every tourists’ bucket list upon visiting Myanmar as it is a place full of beautiful temples, just like Angkor Wat (except prettier). You have also probably seen poster pictures of hot air balloons with a lot of temples below them. Yeap, that’s Bagan. I have to say, it definitely is just like in the photos. Drop-dead gorgeous on a sunrise/sunset. Especially if you get to find a temple with no people in it (like we did). By we, I mean these two French girls and a German guy who I met on the night train. We arrived to Bagan around 5am, pitch-black and went to search for a guesthouse. Found one soon and decided to go see the temples at sunrise. Rented bicycles and started cycling towards the direction the guesthouse keeper pointed us. It was a surreal feeling cycling on a dark road with no lighting towards an unknown destination. There was pretty much no one on the roads and you couldn’t see 2 meters ahead of you. Thank god for iPhone and the flashlight! We finally found a tall temple in time and climbed it and just sat down to admire the views, which were amazing. Did the same again at sunset! Otherwise Bagan does not offer that much activities but it is well worth it.

I wanted to see Chiang Mai on Northern Thailand before meeting up with Paula in Bangkok so I got a flight from Yangon to Chiang Mai. I also met up with Hanna again there as she came from Bangkok! We gathered this great group of people around us and had a great time there. We also took a tour with Hanna to Elephant Nature Park which I would highly recommend for anybody who visits Chiang Mai. It is a sanctuary for elephants which have been mistreated and abused by people. The sanctuary buys (and rescues) elephants from companies who use them solely for making money off of them. For example organising elephant shows, riding them or using them to beg on the streets of Bangkok. The elephants by these companies are tamed by abusing them violently to make them obey their new masters. They hit and poke them with sharp sticks and poles and tie their limbs together and make them live in really small, confined spaces until they are ready to obey. The Elephant Nature Park lets these elephants roam freely, feeds them and washes them. Each elephant has its own caretaker. At the Park you are not allowed to ride any of them but you can take part in feeding and washing them and just admire the magnificent animals playing with each other. However, some of the elephants who have been rescued recently are not really friendly towards people (for obvious reasons) so the caretakers advise people to keep their distance. Anyways, well worth a visit and you learn so much new information about elephants!

Being in Chiang Mai was great fun but it was time to take a night bus to Bangkok to meet with Paula! We stayed at her friend’s place in Bangkok for one night before taking a train towards the south. We wanted (or I wanted) to get to Koh Tao to do an open water diving course. On our way we stopped in Hua Hin for one night, which was quite horrible. Full of old Western guys with really young Thai girls (as there were a lot of girlie bars). Beach was nothing worth mentioning and the prices for food were expensive. Fortunately, stayed there for only one night! Another train to Chumphon, one night there and then a ferry to Koh Tao for some diving! We arrived there and started looking for an accommodation as we had not booked one. Took a taxi to Sairee beach as most of the diving centers were there. Paula spotted this one called Siam Diving Center and they had relatively cheap rooms so we decided to take a room from there. Went out to do some reseach on the diving school but the people at Siam were so great and Tripadvisor reviews spoke highly of them so we decided to just do it there. Also the accommodation was free if we did the course. The PADI open water course is like 3,5 day course. First it starts with theory and videos and quizzes and a final exam. Then you practice in a swimming pool and finally move into the sea. The theory part was easy and all the quizzes went fine. I started freaking out when it was time to move to the swimming pool hahahah. My regular ‘swimming’ has consisted of hanging by the pool and drinking beer. Never been much of a swimmer and first off, I had to swim for 10 minutes. Which doesn’t sound like a lot but for a person who has never swam before (properly and distances) that is quite a lot. Did it though! Next up was putting on the gear and practicing with them. I have to say, first time breathing underwater was something else. Actually, pretty awesome! We practiced moving and using the equipment and some various skills we might need in actual diving situations. The most problematic for me was taking the mask off underwater. Somehow I had the reflex of panicking as soon as water filled up my nostrils. I do realise that I don’t need to inhale with my nose but it’s just something that happens when you’re not used to it. I got really frustrated with this specific thing but luckily our instructor was great. Oh, I forgot to mention, we had just one instructor for the both of us so it was really personal teaching. Our instructor Nick was awesome, he was supportive and encouraging, taking time to explain everything and making sure we got everything. I also did not mention that I had a small fear of the ocean. The basically the open water course was something of a mental barrier for me. Conquering my fears and all that shit. Our first dive in the sea was awesome! A bit difficult but awesome as there is another world waiting for you underneath. Saw some many colourful fish and coral reefs and everything! The rest of the dives went quite smoothly (even taking the mask off in the sea) and after the fourth dive, we were certified scuba divers. I actually felt proud of myself hahahah. Only because it was a bit difficult for me in the beginning, but I got through it.

After the course and Koh Tao, it was time to move to Vietnam! First stop, Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon/Sai Gon or however you want to call it. First impression, better than Bangkok. I don’t like Bangkok, I don’t know why. We spent a few days there just walking around, eating dirt-cheap street food and we also visited the War Remnants Museum. Highly recommended but highly depressing. Like really, I almost started crying. It documents the Vietnam War by photographs and stories journalists and ordinary vietnamese people. Also some really sad picture of people affected by the Agent Orange. Damn those Americans! We also did a tour on the Cu Chi tunnels, which is outside of the city. Cu Chi was a village where people had built tunnels underground to battle the Americans (and succeeding). During the war there was like hundreds of kilometres of tunnels underground and they even reached Cambodian borders. Nowadays there’s not that much left but you could still go and crawl in the tunnels which was not really comfortable. Especially for a big Westerner (too many hamburgers). Now I am writing this from Nha Trang and tomorrow we’ll go do some more diving (without Nick 🙁 ).

Sorry for the lack of chronology. logic and just for the type of writing. I should have posted stuff earlier OR should have written a proper entry showcasing everything I have done but I am just lazy. And I have decided to keep this blog going until I am back in Finland. Not gonna give up! Even though it might suck. Fuck it, it’s for me as well as it is for you.

Peace!

-Jani

Paradise islands and terminal fees

So I had a flight from Siem Reap at 10.30pm and Hanna was leaving the next morning towards South of Cambodia. I took a tuk tuk to the airport which was 5 dollars for a 25 minute ride. Got there too early and had to wair for a while. Two hours prior departure I started queuing and when I finally go to the check-in counter, the lady told me that she cannot let me pass as I do not have an onward ticket from the Philippines. I tried everything but she wouldn’t budge. So along with a few other dumb tourists I had to queue for the only laptop at the whole airport to buy a ticket to somewhere for some date. The airport didn’t have a wi-fi naturally. I ended up buying a ticket to Singapore on the 16th of February as it was the cheapest one. Oh and they didn’t take a credit card to I had to run to the only ATM at the airport and queue for that as well. I was in a bit of a rush after paying for the ticket as my flight was leaving on 30min and I was still on the wrong side. I asked the official at the security if he would let me skip the queue as otherwise I’ll miss my flight. He smiled and said yes, if I give him my fake Ray-Bans. Gotta love corruption…wait what?

The flight to Manila went alright but upon arriving, I had to switch terminals as my connecting flight to Cebu left from another one. There was a free shuttle bus between the terminals but naturally it didn’t run during the night when I would’ve needed it. So taxi it is. In the next plane I forgot my Kindle in the small pocket of the seat in front of me soo the whole transfer from Cambodia to the Philippines didn’t go exactly as I had planned. So in Cebu I just got a taxi to my hostel and took a long nap as I hadn’t slept during the night. I was going to meet my friends Jenny and Anna (with whom I’ll be spending the next ten days or so) a bit later in the evening so in the meantime I went exploring around Cebu on foot. Cebu is really poor. It is quite a big city with like 3-4 million people, I’m not actually sure! There’s a lot of beggars on the street and children asking for money. Also the buildings are a bit run-down. Everywhere it’s quite dirty and the overall look of the city is not really pretty. Met up with Jenny and Anna around six and went to have to dinner to a japanese place. We also went to their hostel to grab their stuff as they will move in the same place as me because it’s better and cheaper! The hostel is owned by a couple with a few kids and their relatives are helping around there as well. They’re really welcoming, there’s a small breakfast included, a roof terrace and they even drive you around if you need to go somewhere (for a fee of course). Cebu Guest Inn, check it out if you’re ever in Cebu.

Next morning woke up around 4.45am –..–. We were going to see some whalesharks and go snorkling with them. We had to take a bus to the south of the island. The bus ride would take like 3-4 hours, give or take so we needed to leave early. We got a ride from the hostel to the South bus terminal and got tickets which were like a few euros. Scenery along the ride was really pretty with the sea on your left all the time but as the bus was air-conditioned, it was really cold! Got to the place and the snorkling thingy cost a thousand pesos (like 19e). It was a really cool experience as I’ve never done that kind of stuff. I also accidentally kicked one because it swam from behind me and I didn’t see it coming. It scared the shit out of me. We had some lunch at the place and afterwards got motorides to a nearby waterfalls which is called Tumalog falls. Nicest waterfalls I’ve ever seen! Hung out at the falls for a while and headed back to the main road and luckily there was just a bus going back to Cebu! The transportation took us like 8 hours altogether but it was definitely worth it.

At the waterfalls

Next morning Sini joined our little posse  and we decided to take a ferry to another island called Bohol. The ferry left from the port of Cebu and you had to pay a terminal fee of 25 pesos to enter the actual terminal after you had bought tickets. Ferry took maybe like an hour and a half until it reached Tagbilaran, which would work as our headquarters. We are planning to visit a Tarsier sanctuary, Chocolate Hills, see come countryside and hit up an activity park! The went quickly with the transportation and planning our next moves. The next morning we got a bus to go to the Chocolate Hills, which is basically in the middle of nowhere with just one road and jungles around you. The scenery was really great but unfortunately it started raining to I didn’t wanna get my camera wet and my iPhone just does not take good photos so below is a stoles photo from Google but you’ll get the point of the Chocolate Hills! Some say that the hills have formed out of heart-broken giants’ tears. Could be true!

Tears of a giant

Next stop from the hills was to get ourselves to Danao activity park which is a part of the Philippine’s eco-tourism. I can see why it’s eco-tourism, nobody can find it! No signs anywhere and no public transportation going there hahahaha. So from the hills we took the next bus going towards our direction, the closest village where we could reach the place. I don’t remember the name of the village anymore but it was small. We had grown hungry already so we stopped at the one and only place which served food. Had some rice, noodles, veggies and meat. Also something really strange which tasted really fishy. Anna ordered it and she took a bite and almost vomited. I found is just a bit bland. Not in anyway delicious but it didn’t make me want to vomit either hahaha. Here’s a picture of it if somebody recognizes!

We hired two guys from the village to drive us to the activity park. It was like 20km away on a really bumpy and rocky road but the views along it were nice. You couldn’t get any more country then these views were! The reason why we wanted to go the park was that it had “The Plunge”, a 75 metre free fall which we wanted to try. There was also a really long zipline over a nice gorge and river. The zipline was like 200 meters high and 600 meters long so definitely worth a try! When we finally got there, we found out that no freefall is available at this time, which put us down a bit as that was the main reason. However, we settled for the zipline which was also really cool. Never been on a zipline with just cables holding you while you’re flying over a gorge. It was exhilirating! For a fraction of a second I had a thought that what if this were to break and send me to my death but it didn’t! It would have been great to take some photos while ziplining but I didn’t trust my hands that much as to not drop the phone or the camera so no photos from there! But here’s a few retards;

Getting ready for the zipline!

After that, a moto ride to the ‘biggest’ town closest to catch a bus and surprisingly it arrived just as we arrived too! Little did we know, the bus took like 5 hours to get back to Tagbilaran while other buses would have been faster from different places. Well, what can you do!

In the evening we were planning our next move as we wanted to go to this island called Palawan as it supposedly one of the most beautiful islands in the Philippines. However, we did not seem to find reasonably prices flights or ferries there so after a few hours (and a few beers) of arguing and wondering, we took flights from Tagbilaran to Kalibo which is on an island called Panay. There our destination is Boracay island, which is just next to Caticlan, Panay. So arrival to Kalibo, a minivan ride to Caticlan, a ferry from Caticlan to Boracay and our day is over hahhha. Also, more terminal fees. At Tagbilaran there was like a 100 peso terminal fee and when we took the ferry we had to pay 100 pesos again in addition to an environmental tax 75 pesos. Come on! But we finally reached Boracay and our guesthouse there. Then we spent the next couple of days in Boracay. It is a really small paradise island with beautiful beaches, a small mountain and clear water. Activities include, diving, snorkling, sailing, helmet diving, getting drunk, eating, hiking etc. So basically a nice place to spend a week or so. Only problem was that it is getting more and more touristy. The beach ‘promenade’ (like 4km) was filled with Korean and Western tourists. But still, a paradise! We went out partying, took a sailboat on the sea to watch the sunset, bathed in the sun and chilled out.

Sunset

As nothing good lasts forever, I caught some bacteria again! The night before we were supposed to start our journey to Palawan, I got like 39.5 fever again and shivering attacks. So I figured I’d rather stay in Boracay for a few days more to get the fever off. I tried to urge the girls to just go ahead with the plans as they have limited vacation days and I don’t. They decided to stay at least for one night more with me so I wouldn’t die alone. The shivers, nausea, fever and a bit of diarrhea again continued throughout the day so I went to a clinic again. This time they spoke English and I was able to explain my symptoms myself. They took a blood and a urine test to determine what I had and surprise, surprise, some kind of bacterial infection. No idea what. So they gave me antibiotics for a week and some other medicine. Hopefully it stays away this time. Next day the girls left onwards to Palawan with a ferry and I stayed in Boracay for one more night until I left to Cebu to catch a flight to Singapore. I arrived to Cebu around noon on a Sunday and went just strolling around and the city and hanging out at the malls. Didn’t have the strength to do anything else as I wasn’t up to my full health yet. Next day went to see a movie alone! Jupiter Ascending, not the best flick to see but I spent like two and a half hours so that’s good. Had some delicious cheese popcorn, my god! My flight left at 7.55pm and I was at the airport quite early, getting ready for trouble ahead as I was flying again with Cebu Pacific. So no surprises there, the lady at the check-in didn’t want to let me pass because I did not have on onward ticket. This time I was arguing with her and made her call the manager. The manager apparently just told her to let me pass as the call lasted for about 30 seconds. Also had to pay an outstanding amount of 900 pesos for my luggage as I hadn’t booked it when I bought the ticket. I tried buying it as an add-on the day before but of course, the Cebu Pacific website did not work. Almost forgot, paid another terminal fee! This time 750 pesos. WHAT THE FUCK. Seriously, 750 pesos just to exit the country? Luckily I just had 800 pesos, otherwise I would have needed to go find an ATM and withdraw some more. I had planned to have some dinner at the airport because I figured Cebu-Mactan being the second biggest airport in the Philippines, it would have some good choices for food. WRONG. Like two possible options. I wanted to have some a beef teriyaki rice bowl which was the cheapest but the waitress told that they don’t have that one, nor do they have any other rice bowls. He went on and suggested a meal which was triple the price of the rice bowl. So settled for a crappy ham and cheese sandwich instead. Which, by the way cost more than the rice bowl would’ve!  To top the evening off, my flight was delayed for like two hours. These all are little things but when you’re tired and frustrated with nothing going right, even the small things accumulate and make you mad hhahahaa.

After being in Southeast Asia for awhile it was refreshing to arrive to a place where everything works properly and people don’t try to scam you. I took a shuttle bus from the airport in Singapore to my hostel and it cost my 9 Singapore dollars (5e). Took me right in front of the door. I would’ve taken a train but as my Cebu flight was late for like 2 hours, there were no metros running anymore. The next few days I spent exploring Singapore, going to the zooo and the night safari in addition to hanging out in Chinatown and Little India, I was also trying to plan my next move. I wanted to fly to Yangon, Myanmar and I actually bought the ticket before I realised that I would need a visa there and you cannot get a visa on arrival like in other Southeast Asian countries. Soo I was a bit freaked out about wasting my money on the ticket and not getting the visa in a day and a half. It was also the Chinese new year and embassies and most of the travel agencies were closed of course. I found one though, through tripadvisor and they get you a visa approval letter which you show at the immigration and then they stamp you a visa. So I contacted them and it took a few hours for me to get the letter. Good service! So with a plane ticket and a visa approval letter, I was good to go! Myanmar, I’m coming! My plan here is to spend a few days in Yangon, then catch a nightbus to Mandalay, do a day trip to Bagan to see some temples and do some hiking. Have to see how my plans work out hhahaha.

Peace out from Yangon!

-Jani

Southeast Asia and bacterial infection

Well hello! It’s been a long time since I last looked at this blog, sorry for that. I have been exceptionally lot with friends so I have not taken the time to look for an internet cafe and wrote up a blog entry. But I am alone again so here I am hahahaha. A lot has happened and seen many places since the last entry so I’ll just briefly (maybe) go through the events!

So my next destination after Guangzhou was Hong Kong and there I was to meet my friends Lydia and Winsy (both of whom I met in a hostel in Ulan-Bator). The train ride from Guangzhou took less than two hours and it was a direct train so that was cool. However, the security checks , passport controls and customs took a while but I guess it’s understandable since I was basically leaving China. I had booked a hostel for the first night as Lydia was working really late in the evening. When I was searching for hostels in Hong Kong I found out that surprisingly there’s little selection on dorm accommodations and they are rather expensive. At least considering what I am used to hahahah. I paid like 15 euros for my small bed in a small dorm room in a huge apartment complex called Chung King mansions with like 20 floors. Ground floor has shops and Indian restaurants while the other floors have apartment building and tens, if not hundreds of hotels and hostels. I had also read about the whole complex from hostelworld/tripadvisor and most of the comments were negative, stating that people felt threatened at night and it was dirty and cramped etc. And not just talking about my hostels but the whole Chung King mansions in general. In my opinion though, most of Hong Kong is cramped and people live in small flats and the population density if huge so you should always put things into perspective. If the local people live ins small flats, you can’t expect to get a big dorm room really cheap. I found my hostel satisfactory to my needs. The bed was alright and I felt that my things were safe in the room. In addition you had a key card for the hostel and another one for the room. So no complaints there. The only annoying thing was all the people trying to sell you stuff on the ground floor (watches, accommodation, drugs etc) but I should be used to it already hahaha. Explored the city for a while and went to bed rather early. Next morning I checked out and headed to the metro to meet Lydia at her university (by they way, one of the uni’s building are up on a mountain, how cool is that?). We met up and went to drop off my stuff at her place where I was going to stay through my visit in HK. She lives with her parents and her sister. We went to see some parts of HK, some parks and a lot of busy streets full of restaurants, shops, street vendors and basically everything in between. Checked out the harbor and the Avenue of the Starts which is the same thing as the one in LA, just with Asian superstars. Saw the handprints of Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Jet Li, Donnie Yen among others. There was also a statue of Bruce Lee and a huge crowd of people taking photos of it. So naturally I took a photo of people taking photos!

Then we took a ferry across to the other side of Hong Kong (which is the business centre) from where we were supposed to take a tram to the Victoria Peak but apparently Lydia didn’t realize it would be flocked with tourists hahahaha. I think it’s the single most popular tourist attraction in Hong Kong. It’s like a 100 years old tram line and also the tram itself. There’s only two trams going up and down so the queues are horrible. Even in January. So we decided to skip it this time as we were meeting Winsy in like an hour and a half to get some dinner. They treated me for some traditional milk tea (Hong Kong style) with some  good food of buns, beef, rice and eggs. 

After that we went to listen to some live music played by a Hong Kong band. They sang in English though but it was really nice! When we got back to Lydia’s place I met her parents and sister. Her parents didn’t speak English that well (her mom better than her dad) but we got along on sign language hahahah. They invited me for brunch the next morning and I accepted of course as it would’ve been impolite not to. However I was a bit nervours as we didn’t have a common language and I would be alone. It was unnecessary though as it went great. Had some of the best dim sum I have ever had and they just kept ordering more and more. Other part of the day I spent in the city and in the internet cafe searching for flight tickets for my next destination. I also wanted to catch the Victoria Peak tram to see the sunset to I started heading that way. Just so happens, I had underestimated the time needed for queuing there. I had to wait like an hour and a half to even get into the tram and by the time it got moving, it was already dark. So there goes my sunset. I was surprised at how touristy the peak was. What I had in mind was just a mountain peak with observation points. What I found was a shopping centre at the top with restaurants, stores and a Madame Tussaud’s wax cabinet. Nevertheless, the views were nice.

Found a Moomin shop!

Unfortunately the battery of my camera had died and I forgot to charge it so there goes proper photos as well. Not my  best day. Also had to wait another 30 minutes to get down again. After that I met up with Winsy to have some dinner.  We went to this place which served congee, a type of porridge with different fillings. I took one with preserved egg (it  was black) and some pork. No matter how strange it might sounds, it was DELICIOUS. Then just headed back to  Fanling to sleep. Next  day was the day to actually make a decision on where to go next. I wanted to do it spontaneously  in a way that I would just appear at the airport in the morning and buy a cheap ticket somewhere but I backed out  because I’m a coward. Ended up buying a ticket to Bangkok for the next morning. Took a lot of photos of Hong Kong  with my camera charged this time and went to the beautiful park called Nan Ling gardens, one of the most pretties  places I have ever been to. Unfortunately no photos now as they are in my other phone. Met up with Lydia and Winsy  for the last supper before heading off to Thailand. Had some hot pot, buffet style. So they bring you the soup and then  you can get all the ingredients you want from the buffet table. Also, unlimited beer. Spent a good two hours just eating  and then walked for like 40 minutes digesting the food. I had to wake up around 7am the next morning to catch the  airport bus and Lydia promised to come and see me off. The airport was easy to get around and quite organized. So bye  bye Hong Kong and see you next time!

When I arrived in Bangkok I was meeting my friend Hanna at the airport as she flew to Bangkok as well, just 15minutes after me! She had been traveling in Thailand for about a month and a half already. Gonna spend a few days in Bangkok and see what’s next. She’s going to Cambodia and wants me to joing her. The first thing about Bangkok was that it was freakishly hot. And I don’t mean like pleasantly hot but uncomfortable one. Even for her and she loves hot weather. It was all polluted and the air just stood still. We took an official taxi as we were too tired to get the public transport. Next destination; Khao San Rd. Now I know what you’re thinking, it’s a hell on earth and I kind of agree but we were new in the city and just wanted to get a cheap place to stay for a few days so that was the easiest way to go. So we got there and went to a few smaller streets just a stone’s throw away from the actual street to ask around for prices. We settled for a KS house, which cost us 495 baht (13 euros) for a twin room with a fan. Dropped our stuff and went to see the infamous street. It is quite horrible in my opinion and I did not like it one bit. Vendors pushing their stuff, tuk tuk drivers offering rides, massage, tourists, Burger King and McDonald’s fast-food joints and those tacky sleeveless shirts stating ‘I love Khao San Rd or Bangkok” and so on. Went to walk around for a bit, saw the Great Palace, lot of police officers and militia. In the evening we went for a dinner and at this point I started feeling ill (as I didn’t even want to finish my beer). I though it was just the heat and dehydration. Then went to sleep and I was feeling more ill. Didn’t help during the night either and I decided to just rest the next day while Hanna went exploring. First symptoms were a bit of fever and a bit of diarrhea. Didn’t eat pretty much anything during the whole day as I did not have the appetite except in the evening when I went to McDonald’s….I know, sad but I thought it would be a safe choice. I felt seemingly normal despite running in the bathroom every now and then so we decided to head off for Cambodia the next morning. Took a local bus to the train station (6,5baht = free) and bought train tickets for Aranyaprathet, which is the border city to Cambodia. Travel time supposedly was 4,5 hours but most of the times it is at least a few hours late. The train was really packed and moved really slow, luckily we had gotten seats. There was also a drunken Thai man wearing a US army jacket and purple teddy bear shorts. Stylish. He was rambling on for maybe over an hour, annoying everybody before the train security (?) took him away. Then, maybe an hour before the train was at its destination I started shivering like crazy and I couldn’t control it. I put on pants, long sleeve shirt, scarf and a jacket. Didn’t help. I checked my temperature and it was like 38.8 at some points. I also threw up once. I had some paranoia about contracting malaria but then again, I had only been in Thailand for a few days and so far hadn’t been bitten. Nevertheless, wasn’t feeling like a king hahahah. We decided to get a hostel from Aranyaprather and wait for a few days to seee if I got better. Found one called Siam Guesthouse for 580 baht with a wifi, hot water and an air-con. I checked my temperature again and it was already 39.6 so decided to get a doctor. Luckily one employee of the hostel wanted to drive us there and he worked as a translator for me as none of the staff at the hospital spoke English. The doctor who examined me spoke a little English and told me I had a bacterial infection from food poisoning. She prescribed me a whole bunch of medicine, like six different ones (they cost me 123 baht = 3,4 euros). Then we went back to the hostel to sleep and let the medicine do its work. My Southeast Asia tour didn’t start as well as I had planned hahahah. So next day Hanna went exploring again while I stayed in the room, reading my Kindle and sleeping. They day went alright, no shiver and no vomiting. We stayed there for two night before I was ready to head off for Cambodia. Oh and by the way, Aranyaprathet was a cool, small city to make a stopover on your way to Cambodia. Really chilled and not touristy as most people just pass it by.

The border crossing on the Thailand side was pretty straightforward, just through immigration, they stamp your passport and you’re good to go. I needed to get a visa for Cambodia while Hanna had an e-visa. I’m pretty sure I read from somewhere that the Cambodian visa costs 20 dollars but at the office it stated 30 dollars. Other tourists were a bit outraged about the price as they had thought it to be 20 dollars as well. I filled out an application, took a passport photo out and marched to the counter where they told me to pay 30 dollars. Didn’t want to start arguing about the price as I knew I could not win. I also have a flight from Siem Reap to the Philippines so I really needed to get to Cambodia. It took maybe 5min to get the visa and altogether the border crossings took maybe an hour. I don’t know how long it would take if you took a bus straight from Bangkok to Siem Reap, maybe it would take longer then. So enter Cambodia! And all hell breaks loose. Tens of taxi drivers trying to lure you in and scam you. Gotta love it. They even just followed us despite us ignoring them. We sat down for a while to do some planning. We settled for a free shuttle bus to the bus station (which I think was not the official bus station) as the tickets prices were quite high to Siem Reap. However, we did not know any better so we purchased 10 dollar tickets for the bus. The bus was supposed to take two hours but naturally it took three. When they finally dropped us off, of course it wasn’t in the city center, rather a bus depot somewhere. There were tuk tuk drivers outside the bus just waiting to take us to a hostel/hotel of their choice where they could get commission. We said no so he told us the price is then 5 dollars to the city center each, as it is far away and there are no tuk tuk drivers anywhere. Bullshit, it’s Cambodia, tuk tuk drivers are everywhere. So we took our stuff and started walking away. A few other people joined us and we had walked for maybe like 50 meters when we came across the first tuk tuk driver so we took it. It was 2 dollars to the city. After the ride we realized it was really close and we could’ve walked. Well what can you do! Next up was to find a hostel. Turned out to be harder than we thought. Every place was either too expensive or already full. Eventually we found one called Mommy’s, which was cool and the room set us back 5 dollars a head. We rented bikes for the next day as we were planning to go see the temples at Angkor. It’s like the main reason why people come to Siem Reap. The city itself it nothing beautiful and at times it is quite touristy with a lot of bars, restaurants and souvenir shops. So next morning we started cycling towards the temple area which was like 5-6 km away from the city center. It was really easy to get there as it’s pretty much a straight road. However, we tried to enter trough a ‘wrong’ entrance as we could not buy tickets from there. And the people at the side entrance told us that it is a really long way to the main entrance and that we should take a tuk tuk there, only 5 dollars per person. Another scam tittidii. Fuck it, we’ll just cycle. It took us maybe 20 minutes to get to the main entrance (so far away). Purchased tickets for one day (20 dollars). They take a picture of you and attach it to the entrance ticket.

The ‘main’ temple area is not actually that big and you can get through it in a day. It’s the other temples that are farther away that take time. We had only one day and were quite happy with it. The temples and the scenery were magnificent. After getting back to the hostel we were dead tired and didn’t wanna do anything. Despite this, we pulled ourselves up and went for dinner, strolling around the night market and took a great massage to top it all off. Next day was departure day (for me) and we went to do a little shopping for some shirts and stuff. Then somehow ended up doing a small pub crawl in different bars hahahhaha.

Next destination was the Philippines where I met more Finnish people! More on my visit to the islands tomorrow as I am too tired now hahaha.

-Jani

China travel

Later on the evening I went for a dinner with the Welsh guy, Owain from my dorm room and we finally got some Peking duck. You could see the chef just cutting thinly sliced pieces of it and then the waiter brought the slices to you fresh like A/C little by little. It was eaten together with a few sauces, some veggies and suprisingly, sugar. You were supposed to coat the skin of the duck in the sugar. It was a really sweet and savoury treat. All in all the duck was delicious and as it is like a Beijing thing, it was cool to try it. Afterwards we had some drinks at the hostel bar and another hostel which was opposite ours. Met some other backpackers from different parts of the world. Ended up eventually in our own hostel bar and met this Einstein looking old dude who was really quiet but every now and then said something hugely intelligent. There was also a guy from Montreal who was teaching in Beijing. He boasted being a great singer/songwriter and he gave us some samples of his songs and singing (not that good). In his own words, he writes songs about love (to get the ladies of course). He was also a bit drunk and ordered a pizza and tried to eat it, and I emphasize, he tried to eat it. It was an epic fail.

Next morning me, Owain and Michelle (a Canadian girl from our dorm room) headed for the Great Wall of China. Originally we were thinking of taking a tour from our hostel there the in the end, decided against it as it is so much cheaper to go there by yourselves. We made a decision to go to Badaling, which is the most visited one (hence the most tourists) but it also has some spectacular views of the wall. We had gotten some inside info about the Badaling not being that crowded at this time of year so we decided to give it a go. There are also two paths which you can hike up and the other is pretty much empty as it is really steep for most people to climb e.g. families, older people and small children. But as we’re not like most people, we were going to take that path. So in the morning we left for the train station to catch the train there but once we arrived, we found out that we had just missed one and the next one is in like hour and a half. So screw it, we’ll go to a bus stop. SO another metro ride to another place. And naturally as we are in Asia and all of us are Westerners, people tried to scam us. We got to the bus stop where there were people standing and it was supposed to be the correct bus. Next thing we know, this guy comes up to us and tells us that there are only slow buses to Badaling today, it takes 3 hours. We just ignored him and waited. After a while he comes up to us again telling the same thing and now offering a cheap taxi ride there. Luckily in the same queue were standing two American girls and a Dutch guy who had met a few Chinese girls and they showed us to the correct bus stop. So finally we go to the right bus and paid for our tickets (12 yuan =1,6 euros, not bad for a 70km ride). We arrived and started hiking up (by the way the entrance ticket was like 30 yuan). We didn’t actually remember which path, South or North was the emptier path but all we needed to do was just look at both directions and take a steeper one. It was just amazing as there were just a few other tourists taking that path in addition to us. It was great just hiking up the wall and thinking what was it like hundred and hundreds of years ago and when they were actually building that wall just going through mountains. Imagine standing guard in one of the towers in the middle of nowhere trying to spot enemies through the trees. Not an easy task!

However, to our surprise, the path wasn’t too long before it ended due to renovation. It took us maybe an hour, even less to get to the end of it. We were a bit disappointed on this though the scenery and the views were still great and totally worth it. Oh and if you decide to go to Badaling, take the left path, that’s the quieter one. Don’t remember if it was the South or North.  Next time I’m in Beijing, I’ll definitely visit other sections of the Great Wall, I was so awe-struck by it. Since we are tourists, leaving Badaling was not that easy as we thought. We wanted to take the train back to Beijing but had not checked the timetables so of course, with our luck the next train was in two hours. There were also many persistent taxi drivers trying to lure us in. We decided on the bus though. There was no rush so why pay more anyway. Though we didn’t actually know how far the bus stop was to we just started walking ahead and hoping it will pop up. SO after like 20 minutes we finally saw a stop with some Chinese people waiting for the bus. Some scam artists were also trying to hustle the Chinese, so seems like they try everybody! The bus came and we got on and passed our for the rest of the ride. We went to take a turn at the hostel (some coffee), took the last member of our 4-bed dorm with us and headed for Wangfujing street to try some weird stuff. There’s a food market which sells all kinds of creepy-crawlies on sticks in addition to normal food and desserts too. Ended up eating only scorpions, dumplings, squid and lamb skewers, I know I’m lame. The scorpions however, were really delicious, just like crunchy crisps. Owain tried some grasshoppers as well and apparently they were good as well, a lot more meaty than scorpions. After “dinner” we ended up in a hutong in some small cozy bar and settled there for a few hours. Got a taxi back as there was no public transport anymore. Luckily the last member of our dorm room, Haley the researcher speaks fluent Mandarin (she also lives in Guangzhou). Otherwise we might’ve encountered some language difficulties! So that was the last night for me in Beijing. Sucks to leave but I guess I have to move on. I have to say, Beijing was my favourite place so far and I definitely want to return again (once I speak some Mandarin).

So next morning was just packing (again) and leaving. I had a train at 2pm and it was one of those high-speed trains which travel like 300km/h so the trip to Shanghai took only 5 hours. It was fairly easy to navigate to my hostel as I now have a Chinese phone. Oh I forgot to mention, I bought a phone! A Lenovo, which cost me like 450 yuan = 63 euros. And by a phone, I mean a smartphone (damn smart too!). So far I really like it, it’s fresh to use something other than iPhone. However, most of the original apps are in Chinese hahahah. So now I’m a fluent user of Baidu maps and Sinoweather. You get used to it. So I had like a day and a half in Shanghai and I have to say, I did not like it one bit (sorry Shanghai-lovers!). It’s too crowded, too many freaking metro exits and too loong a tunnels of these same metro exits. The whole place is really not pedestrian friendly as you cannot cross roads from anywhere and you need to search for an underpass. I spent a whole day hunting for a light jacket and shoes as my winter ones are a bit too hot already. REALLY hard to find cheap ones. Even though the whole city is filled with shopping malls and department stores. It’s just that they’re all high-end brands which are not suitable for budget travelers. There probably are cheaper options but I did not know about them. I also went to check out Nanjing Rd. which is one of the most popular shopping streets in the world. Big mistake. I hate Oxford street in London but this was one much worse. Horrible place with every other person coming to offer you massage, women, bags, watches, suits or anything you could ever think of. Although you can get rid of them easily just by ignoring them but still irritating. They all prey on a Westerner who is walking alone on the streets. There is one good thing about Shanghai though, just on the corner of my hostel is a BBQ stand which appears every evening around 9pm. They sell all kinds of skewers of meat, bread and vegetables. All of them really delicious and cheap. I got two dinners from that stall and both of them cost me like 14 yuans each. Only good thing about Shanghai! No but honestly, my opinion is biased and only my experience. I am sure it would’ve been better if I had a local with me there or had I done some research on the place. Now it was just skyscrapers, shopping malls, department stores and annoying people hahahah. Well, can’t enjoy every place! Next stop for me is Guangzhou for which I bought a train ticket. It is a slow train (as I wanted to save money), which takes like 24 hours. The travel time is okay but I only have a seat for this train as there were no more sleepers. So it was bound to be an interesting ride hahahaha.

The trip to Guangzhou did not start well, I almost missed my train because stupid as I was, I went to the wrong metro stop of a wrong line. Anyone who has ever been to Shanghai knows that the line transfers are not exactly a quick thing to do. I had to try though as I wanted to leave the city hahahaha. Luckily, I was fast enough in running the stairs and tunnels to reach the correct line. I still had no idea how long the metro would take to the train station so I only hoped. I actually made it with plenty of time on my hand, like 7 minutes before the train departed! So I got in the train and realized it was going to be a horrible ride. Walkways were packed, all the seats were full and I was the only foreigner. There were ten seats in each row, six on the other side (so three facing each other) and four on the other. I had an aisle seat from the six-pack (get it, six-pack hahhaha). I guess I should be used to people staring at me by now but it turns out I wasn’t. It was awkward. People were observing my every move. When I took of my jacket and packed it in my backpack, people were staring. When I got up to get some hot water for my noodles, people were staring. I would’ve really liked to know what they were thinking! Or that I could speak Mandarin…The train behavior (at least in this one) was also a bit questionable: this one guy ate oranges and just spat out the seeds on the floor. Not something I would do. Not even “when in Rome…”. Chinese people also smoke on the train and all the carriage doors were kept open so the some lingered all around the train and as a non-smoker it was a bit uncomfortable. After a while of reading I decided to hit up the restaurant carriage to get a beer. Guess what, they didn’t have any! Settled for an ice tea instead, fail..Fortunately for me, a bit later people started getting off the train in some of the stops so the train got a bit emptier. I doubt many people take the train all the way to Guangzhou. At some point it also got really cold so I had to wear my fleece, scarf, jacket and gloves (almost through the rest of the journey). There’s also people selling stuff all the time so no worries if you are late and forget to buy food and snacks. China Railways have got you covered!

I have to say, I have gotten some perspective on traveling long distances during this trip. Now I seem to think to myself that “phew, almost there, only 10 hours left”. Which might seem like a lot but for me it’s a victory in itself on longer rides. If it’s a 74 hour ride, 10 hours is nothing. Even on a long, ass-killing seater train ride. So I arrived in Guangzhou and it was raining! First time during this trip. People were running like crazy and the other people were selling umbrellas. I was pretty much the only person without one. It was actually refreshing. Temperature was like 20 degrees so a nice change to a chilly weather. The hostel was really easy to find and it was GREAT. A big lounge are with a Nintendo Wii, a big screen tv, a pool table and a table football in addition to a huge variety of board games. There were also like eight floors (though I think only from floor 4 upwards there’s dorm rooms) so the noises could not be heard from the ground floor. Beds were bigger than normal and really comfy, also pretty much everything worked. So if you’re ever in Guangzhou, go to Lazy Gaga hostel close to Xiamenkou metro station. Somehow I also instantly liked Guangzhou. A lot of street vendors, not too many people (despite being the third largest city in China) and plenty of parks (I like parks).

I had agreed to meet Haley in the evening as she was flying from Beijing on the same day as me. She took me to this great dim sum place and I just keep falling in love with Chinese food over and over again. She just ordered plenty of small dishes for us to sample and everything was great. Even the chicken feet were alright, though not my favourite. They’re just a little boney, that’s all. Supposedly they grown on you if you live in China. After dinner we went to an “‘authentic Irish pub in the heart of Guangzhou”. The title itself was a bit funny hahahah. Apparently there are a lot of Irish pubs in the city. I also saw more foreigners than I have seen during this whole trip. I guess it’s a popular place to live for expats because of Guangzhou’s location . It’s one of the biggest trade cities in China. I actually didn’t have a specific plans for my stay there so the next day I just went walking around in some parks and seeing the ordinary lives of Chinese people on their old streets. Went to this large market area where they sell all kinds of animals for pets to people. Like puppies, kittens, mini pigs, rats, mice, parrots, pigeons, fish, stingers and such. Supposedly it’s also the place where SARS broke out.

I also heard that you could buy a shark from there but I couldn’t find it :(. At some point I realized I  had blisters on my feet and walking was torturous so I went to chill at my hostel for a few hours. In the  evening I went for another dinner with Haley. She took me to this restaurant which serves only   hot  pot. Allow me to explain the concept of it: first of all, there’s a table with a kind of a hole in the middle. You order various ingredients from the menu, like vegetables, meat and such. You can also  decide the broth (spicy or not, which flavour). Then they bring you the ”soup bowl” and put it in the  whole and heat it up. Then they start bringing you the items you ordered and you can just put them in  whenever you like. The soup itself has some basic stuff in it like corn, mushrooms, cucumber, tomatoes  etc. The menu had all kinds of different things: intestines, liver, chicken, pork, lamb, frog, brains and so  on. Usually the hot pot is spicy but Haley got us one which was split in half, the other being spicy and  the other for me. Thank god, I would have probably died screaming and crying if I had had to eat the  whole spicy half. As ingredients we had some cabbage, salad, lotus flower (?), dried tofu, pork and  chicken (which was actually frog because she accidentally ordered it instead). The whole eating was a  slow process and it took us more than two hours. So definitely not fast-food.  It was an interesting  experience and really good too (just like all the food I’ve had). The restaurant  also had a ”teaman”, who  kept watch all the time if we ran out of tea. Then he came running and  poured some more, gotta  respect that!.

 Next day was time to change places again as I was bound for Hong Kong and thus exiting mainland  China. My train leaves at 4pm so basically going to do nothing, just hang out and let my blisters heal. I  also went and bought me a protective case from a shop, cost me 1,5 euros. I also discovered a Tesco and  I had to go and see what it’s like outside of the UK. First of all, it had four floors so that’s quite a lot. It  was basically like heaven, so  many different fresh foods for sale. There were people cooking dumplings  and baozis and they were dirt cheap. A lot of fresh pastries as well and all kinds of meat and fish you  could think of. I also forgot to mention that  Guangzhou is known for its  food culture. The culture being  that they eat everything of everything. Meaning  they eat every single  part of an animal including the  feet, internal organs, head and brains. So you can get pretty much  everything there! Nothing goes to  waste, which is of course good but maybe not for me.

 Now I am in Hong Kong and probably will stay here until Friday but more on that later! Oh and I can use  Facebook and Gmail again woohoo!

-Jani

Enter China

On the road again

Some Baikal scenery

Buuz <3

The meat tray

 

The whole feast took us like three hours and by the time we were finally finished I was about to explode. We went for a few more drinks to an Irish pub (which played rock ballads) and I was at the hostel around 1am. And I had to leave for the train to Ulan-Bator at around 6am. Man I hate morning trains. I would’ve actually liked to stay a few more days in Ulan-Ude but since I had my ticket already I decided to leave. There is also a bus from UU to Ulan Bator which is actually cheaper and faster than the train soooo the train ride is a bad decision on my part.

 

So in the morning I hopped on board another train and surprisingly this time, I got some international travelers as cabin mates. Two guys from the States (actually the other is from Colombia originally). They both live in LA and they were coming from Vladivostok  to Moscow and are just taking a small detour to visit a friend in UB. We also met a couple out of which the other one is Danish and the other Norwegian. So even though this train took like 24 hours, at least I had some company with whom to hang out with. A small tip, do not take the train from Irkutsk to UB, it’s not worth it. Take a train to Ulan-Ude and then onwards. I think this might be a better option as it only takes like 12 hours and the border crossings go faster. With the train it took forever and somehow the train was really slow in general. Anyway, the first border crossing is in Naushki, Russia. A small village of some 1800 people and nothing to see or do. Endless tundra and mountains around you and two cafes, of which the other is closed indefinitely. Our train also left us and we freaked out a bit but supposedly it would come back. So we went to this one cafe that was open. It was pretty much out of everything and only had beers for drinks (warm as well). But what do I find in the fridge, the Finnish gift to the world: Koff. Picture my amazement, it’s not something you’d expect to find in a place so small and which has only a few beers on offer. I had to take one of course. I also convinced my American friend to try one (he said it tasted weird, not bad but weird).  After spending three hours at Naushki, it was time for the border people to check our train. They pretty much investigated (though they didn’t look in our bags, just asked us to open them). It took maybe like 45min and we could finally move onwards. The enjoyment didn’t last too long though as another check happened almost straight afterwards. They checked everything again on the side of Mongolia, in Suhbaatar. We got off the train as they basically kicked us out since they have to attach some more carriages for our train so we went to have some dinner at the train station. Also got some Mongolian currency with is called tugruk. There was a guy exchanging money in the train and the rates were actually pretty good so I got rid of my roubles. For dinner we had some buuz and I guess tea, which tasted really weird. Two buuzis and a tea cost me like 80 cents, so quite cheap. When we were finished and got out again we saw a huge line of carriages out of which none of them was ours and it seemed like the train was about to leave so we strolled back and forth the platform asking what the hell is happening. It turned out that our carriage was on another tracks and it would be attached to the long line of other carriages headed for UB. So despite our freaking out, everything went alright in the end. Though the whole border crossings and trains disappearing was a bit confusing at times. The train arrived to UB on time at 5.40am and luckily I had a driver waiting for me at the platform to take me to the hostel. I went straight to bed for some napping but was woken up by some Americans talking and laughing in the room around 8am so I decided to get up. I can sleep later then. Got myself acquainted with the hostel, took a shower and ate some breakfast. Then I got out to explore the capital of Mongolia a bit. What struck me first was how lively the city seemed. Then I realized it has so many cars and the traffic is pretty horrible. Everytime you cross the road you need to be careful, even if you have a green light. Here it doesn’t mean anything. Also the quality of the air is pretty bad. I think I read somewhere that UB is like the second polluted city in the world. And on some days you can’t actually see far ahead because of the smog. Didn’t do that much during the day, just exploring and had some lunch. We had agreed to meet around 7pm with the people from the train for some dinner and drinks.  Went to have some Mongolian food (naturally I took buuz again with some fried rice and vegetables). Then we met up with the Juan and Robert’s Mongolian friend Kenny at a bar which had some live music during the weekends. Now there was a Mongolian rock band playing but only for like half an hour or so. We ordered a bottle of Mongolian vodka on the table and had some local beers.

Everything was really cheap (and Kenny even said that that place is rather expensive so if you know where to go you could get everything cheaper. The whole bill for the     six of us was like 35 euros and that included a bottle of vodka, a beer for everybody, a coke, some chips and horse jerky). So not bad at all. Left around twelve as the place   closed and went to sleep. Now I am writing this at an internet cafe and the memory card reader which I bought from Irkutsk is not working….So I still haven’t been able to   get my photos out from my camera. Again, sorry about that hahahaha. I promise to try again another day. I actually have some nice photos from along the way, I just            need to get them out.

When I get the photos uploaded I will edit these posts again with the photos or just publish another entry just with the photos and captions. Stay tuned!

 

Greetings from -27c UB,

 

 

-Jani

 

Ps. I really hate this blogaaja blog, it just disagrees to work with me. It all looks good when I’m writing it but when I see the preview the text is in wrong places and almost everything is in one piece even though it’s not supposed to be. When I make some formatting changes in the writing section it just doesn’t show in the end result. So bear with me, sorry for that!

Russian hospitality

The trip from Helsinki to Moscow went alright. The Tolstoi train 31 was even on right on time. I had never travelled from Finland to Russia on a night train (or within Finland for that matter, strange right?) so this was also a first time experience. The train was rather empty in my opinion as many of the cabins had no passengers. I got my own as well. There was a complimentary bottle of water and a “gift” bag on the table (which included some cookies, yogurt, chocolate and such). The carriage attendant (or provodnitsa in Russian) showed me to my seat and took my ticket and passport. Naturally not speaking any English with some words of Finnish thrown in. Well nevermind, I’m here now. Being the Finn that I am, I almost instantly asked about the restaurant in horrible Russian. She fluently said “vaunu numero 15”. So I took my copy of Foreign Affairs and went to get a beer to kick off this holiday of some sort. After I got back, almost instanly an older Russian guy enters my cabin. He hopped in from Lappeenranta. Luckily he’s a business man of some sort, traveling quite a lot so he speaks English. We chatted for a while and started doing our own things. After a while, I realised that it is quite late so should get some sleep. Couldn’t sleep that well, guess I’ll have to get used to the sounds of the train moving and shaking seeing as this 13h ride is only the beginning of my train rides for the few following weeks.

Upon arriving to Moscow it was freezing cold! Luckily a friend of mine, Mira came to meet me at the station, otherwise I’d have been totally lost. She also mentione that it was -23 degrees, so a bit chilly. We took a few metros (again, totally lost) and went strraight to her place to drop off my stuff. I also met her mom who cooked me some breakfast! Nice. She was one of those cool moms that you meet! Then we headed off to see some sights in the freezing cold weather. Saw some nice parks and fairy tale castles in “christmas towns”. After a while we met up with Mira’s German friend who was in town and also his friend. We went for a lunch at one Chinese place called Lucky Noodles. Had some delicious egg noodles with pork and vegetables and some green tea and only roughly for 4 euros. In the evening it was time for a new year’s party, Moscow style! I was invited to spend the New Year’s with Mira and a small group of her friends (Marat, Jane, Altana Masia), of which all of them spoke English. In Russia they have a tradition to just eat and eat loads of food and drink champagne while doing that. Then just before midnight Putin gives out a speech and after that they write a New Year’s wish on a piece of paper, light it on fire and drop it in the champagne, then drink it. Naturally you won’t tell what you wished for. Kind of like the new year’s resolution I usually do. The reason for all the food is of course that they love food but also that they think they will have plenty of it next year as well. Sounds logical (I can be corrected if I’m wrong in any of these! We also played some games and had loads of fun.

I was Sherlock Holmes, though I wasn’t able to guess it…

Some point after midnight it was time to go outside and see how other people party. We went to the Red Square but it was actually closed up by the time we got there. A lot of police and miliisi around too. We played a game of who can spot a Santa the fastest (as there were a lot of people in Santa hats but not the whole costume), naturally I won so I made the others dance Usher in the middle of the street. Don’t ask me why. Took a taxi home, chilled and danced and then went to bed. It was amazing to spend this new year’s with the people I just met as it was easy to get to know them because we were only six people. They also made me feel like a part of their family which was awesome. On the day after new year’s everybody were a bit tired and were sleeping till late.

We were up with Jane quite early and watched some shows without a thought about dogs and kittens, in Russian hahahaha. She started preparing some lunch which consisted of some japanese fish, a few different salads and bread. When the food was almost ready everybody else found their way into the kitchen, I guess the scent of food must’ve enticed them hahahahah. We ate slowly and just chilled. After lunch we got ready to go out for some sightseeing. Took a metro (still lost) to the center and saw the Red Square, the Kremlin among others. The square was filled with people, tourists and locals alike. Hell on earth I might add.

     The new year’s marked the start of holidays for Russian people as they celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January so many have a few weeks of holidays. After sightseeing we ended up in a bar for some food and drinks. We stayed there for hours as some friends Marat joined as well. We started off with four people and in the end we were eight. It was nice to meet some more Russian people and I got some nice tips regarding the train rides, Irkutsk and Lake Baikal. I had so much fun that I even considered jus skipping the train and stay with these people for a few more days hahahah. Unfortunately I have already bought tickets for trains so it would’ve been a bad decision financially. Anyway, Jane and Mira prepared an awesome bag of food for me (supposedly it’s Russian tradition to bring along cooked chicken and some boiled eggs to that’s what I got among other food hahahahah). I also got a surprise gift from them which they had bought for me before they had even met me. A map of the world of which you can scratch all the places you have been on this trip, cool!

So then it’s off to the train station to send me off. Five people came to say bye to me and danced a bit on the platform as I was alresdy inside the train. Crazy Russians! It was a nice way to send me off and sadly I had to say goodbye. Though I kind of promised to go back soon in the summer when it’s a bit better weather. We’ll see ;).

Basic scenery along the ride.

Time to go

Alright, it’s almost time to go and leave this weather-forsaken country of Finland for the next six months. Backpack is packed with too much stuff I might add. But in my defence I have to take winter and summer clothing. We all know winter clothing takes up so much space and weighs a lot. However, I’ve thought about just sending them back once I will be in warmer climate so I’ll just send a package back to Finland somewhere from China.

My equipment includes;

• 5 t-shirts
• 2 sleeveless shirts
• 7 sets of boxers
• 5 pairs of warmer socks
• a pair of jeans
• a pair of long, cotton pants
• a fleece sweater
• a pair of sneakers
• a pair of flip-flops
• naturally a winter jacket, shoes, mittens, a hat and a scarf
• layers and layers
• woollen socks
• a small first aid kit
• a cap
• some hygiene stuff; deodorant, toothbrush- and paste, a razor, some facial moisturiser
• a phone, a kindle and an iPod
• cash and cards in different places
• a leatherman
• a fork, a spoon, a cup and some food for the train rides
• a trek towel, one of those which dries up really fast and is light
• a silk mummyliner for luxury (BOOYA)

I guess that’s about it. Plenty of stuff and some of them unnecessary I’m sure. But in my defence, I have never done this long of a trip so I’m bound to take too much stuff with me anyway. I’ll just get rid of them in case I need to.

So my train tickets all the way to China are booked, couchsurfing hosts confirmed and a hostels booked. Time to go. I’m probably going to be scared shitless when I step on the train from Helsinki to Moscow at 18.23pm , as I’m quite sure it will hit me that I won’t be coming back for like six months. I mean, I have travelled quite a lot and lived in a few different countries but as I said, not having travelled like this. Should be exciting! There has been an update on my travel agenda though. I will pop by the local Red Cross office in Beijing for some volunteer work. I don’t know what kind of work yet but whatever they might need help with. My boss here told me to just go see what is going on there. So let’s see what happens! I will try to keep this blog up to date but I can’t make any promises as I am really bad with these kinds of things.

Happy new year’s everybody (I will celebrate it in Moscow YEAH)!

-Jani

Introduction

So here’s a bit of a breakdown on this trip; my timeframe is approximately five and a half months so I will be back at some point in the middle of June. I will start off with a train ride from Helsinki to Moscow; spend the New Year’s Eve there with some Russian friends. On the first of January I will hop on board a long-distance train to Irkutsk, which is located in Siberia. There I have a couchsurfing host who will be waiting for me at the train station. Oh, and did I mention; the train ride to Irkutsk takes like 74 hours soooo lots of reading, sleeping and watching the country unfold. My plan is to hang out a few days in Irkutsk, see the Lake Baikal (which is the largest freshwater lake in the world with a rare flora and fauna) and continue onwards with my journey. Next I will take a train to Ulan Bator, which is the capital of Mongolia. Train there takes around 34 hours. I have a couchsurfing host there as well and I intend to visit the Terelj National Park for possibly some horseback. I would also love to see the Gobi desert though it probably looks a bit different in the winter than in the summer. Finally I will take a train to Beijing. After Beijing my plans are a bit open but most likely I will start moving south along the coast towards Southeast Asia. Time spent in the trains, Russia, Mongolia and China should be interesting as I do not speak any of the languages more than a few words! Guess I’ll just rely on smiles, body language and Russian vodka!

Hoping to see scenery like this eventually.

 

After China I intend to circle around Southeast Asia for a couple of months and also take a week in the Philippines as few of my friends will be there in February. After March I will change continents and travel to Africa. Eastern coast, mind you. Not the Western side with Ebola. In Africa I intend to visit Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi and South Africa. Despite this wide list, my plans are open so not quite sure where I will go and so on. Go with the flow and all that shit. Who knows, I might grow tired of switching places and end up spending weeks and weeks somewhere warm and beautiful, chilling in a hammock and drinking cold beers.

But as this is a bit of an introduction, here’s a little summary of what I have had to buy and spend before the actual trip, which hasn’t even started yet:

• An Osprey Farpoint 55l backpack (a present)  roughly 140-160 euros (obviously the most important equipment on the way, comes with an attached day pack)
• A silk Cocoon mummy liner 40 euros (a bit of a luxury but I heard many positive experiences with it so decided to check it out, it’s awesome!)
• A money belt, a headlight, other various “camping” stuff, 80 euros
• An Amazon Kindle 70 euros (got it, love it)
• Vaccinations
  • Yellow fever 36 euros
  • Cholera 59 euros
  • Hepatitis B
  • Japanese brain fever (2×120 euros) 240 euros
  • Meningitis 65 euros
  • Typhoid fever 35 euros

So altogether almost 450 euros on vaccinations! Sheesh. I do realize that not all of the vaccinations I took were completely necessary but I thought taking them wouldn’t hurt either, as I have never experienced any side effects on any vaccinations. I’m also thinking of taking some malaria medication in Africa but it remains to be seen whether or not I will get the prescription.

A bunch of this equipment were gifts and etc. but it’s just to give a rough estimate on what a person might need to spend. Everything of course depends on the individual. In addition to the aforementioned items I also bought a new winter jacket and boots but those I will not count, as I need them in Finland anyway.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the visas. I do need a visa to Russia and China (among many other countries but those I can acquire from the border). I got my Russian visa through a travel agency called Russian Expert, which is located in Töölö. Service was smooth and all I needed to do was fill out the Russian visa application, attach a passport photo in it and take my passport with me to the agency. The cost of the visa was 74 euros. When I did some research I realized that it would not be that much cheaper to do it without an agency. You would also need an invitation letter and the contact details of the person inviting you to Russia among other things so I just didn’t see the point in going through all the trouble.

For the Chinese visa I needed the application form (with a colour passport photo in it, not a black and white), a passport, copy of the passport, my travel itinerary in China and a hotel/hostel booking confirmation. I’m not sure how strict they are with the hotel/hostel confirmations but I decided not to risk it as it is said in the instructions. And my hostel was only 6 euros a night in a 4-bed dorm room so it was a good deal. Otherwise the visa was really easy to get and it cost me 60 euros.

For Mongolia the visa is not needed anymore. They have this some kind of a test period starting from June 2014 until the end of 2015, which states that people from Finland (and 41 other countries don’t need visas to Mongolia. As long as the purpose of the visit is tourism or business. It is possible to stay there for 30 days. Can’t complain, saved like 75 euros.

Ps. Weather forecast for the next week in Irkutsk and Ulan Bator -15 to -25. Not even bad.

Pps. Only six days until departure!

Have a merry christmas ya’ll!