Foreign culture at your doorstep

Of course, the best and most obvious way to experience foreign culture is to pay a lot of money to physically remove yourself from your country to get yourself to the foreign lands themselves... There is however, if you live in Australia, a much cheaper alternative, and that is to stay home. Today alone I've experienced 4 different cultures, all distinct, and all here in Australia.

The last few days has been spent with an Indian family, family friends, who are currently staying at our house on the Gold Coast. Today for lunch I was invited by a bunch of Korean and Taiwanese students - who I met by chance on the train home from the airport. We first went to buy ingredients at a Korean store in Brisbane - it was huge, full of Koreans and full of Korean produce. We next went to a Taiwanese store, again full of Taiwanese stuff. So for lunch, amongst other things we enjoyed Taiwanese pearl tea, Korean 'manju' (dumplings) and 'teok pogi' - which is rice-cake in chilli sauce. Nice, but not what I actually miss from Korea...

Then tonight I'm lucky to be staying in the home of a good uni friend who is Sri Lankan. Dinner involved papadums, rice, pickles, salty things, curry, etc...

Australia has it all, apparently...

Australia

Well, I'm back 'home'. I arrived at my parent's new house in the Gold Coast on Christmas Eve. I went down for a few days to visit relatives in Newcastle over Christmas, and only yesterday I arrived back in the Gold Coast.

Ah, Australia, the First World, one of the most comfortable countries to live in on earth. It's gorgeous, there are endless trees all round, the air is clean, the roads are perfect, the beaches are sublime, it's modern, safe, friendly, relaxed and we are free from oppression. It's just about perfect.

So why don't I want to stay here? Well, it's just a little boring. It's predictable. There's no chaos. Chaos occurs in virtually every country except Australia, and also brings with it higher death tolls, inequality, poverty, corruption, oppression and destitution. So, it's morally wrong to say chaos is a 'good thing'. But, well, for reasons I don't fully understand, at this stage of my life I'm enjoying being on the move and experiencing new places. When paternal instincts kick in and I want to 'settle', well, Australia will probably be a good place to do that.

Bags packed, but don't want to leave...

Well, tomorrow morning I'm supposed to leave Bangkok. I'll fly to Singapore, spend a night there, then return to Australia.

This is it! The end of my super-trip. Today happens to be exactly one year since my last day of work in England. In truth I don't quite feel like this is the 'end' of Yoni's travels as I don't plan to start working in Australia yet. I'll be out of there by March, potentially, I just have to choose a place I'd like to go.

How about a summary of this year's travels? This year I've been to the following 15 countries:

Australia
Bhutan
Cambodia
China
  Hong Kong
  Macau
England
Japan
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Malaysia
Papua New Guinea
Singapore
South Korea
Taiwan
Thailand
Uzbekistan

People often ask me: 'So, which was the best?' I tend to go for a diplomatic: 'Well, they each have their own appeal.' But for fun's sake, I'm going to try to assign 'top 3's' in various categories of my choosing:

Most hardcore (a measure of screwed up administrations, remoteness, inhostpitible geography/climate, grot, security, and lack of toilet hygiene)
1. Uzbekistan, 2. Papua New Guinea, 3. Kyrgyzstan

Most extreme nature
1. China, 2. Bhutan, 3. Kyrgyzstan

Most heavenly food
1. Japan & Thailand (tie), 2. Laos, 3. Malaysia

Friendliest People
1. Laos, 2. Taiwan, 3. Bhutan

Quirkiest Culture
1. Japan, 2. Bhutan, 3. Kyrgyzstan

Prettiest Girls
1. South Korea, 2. Kyrgyzstan, 3. Bhutan

If anyone cares to suggest another category I'll happily attempt at assign more 'top 3's'.

Well, time for me to sleep. zzzzzz

More relfections

When you travel you generally use your time differently from when you are at work. As a traveller you have a few key tasks and these are that you have to sort accommodation for the night, you need to sort transportation out of wherever it is you are, you need to plan where you want to go and how to get there, you need to find food and you need to see sights. Outside these activities you're generally left with a lot of time to yourself. The amount of time you have to yourself is even greater if you're staying in a place for a long time - because accommodation is sorted, you don't need to plan for the next few days, you don't need to sort transportation to anywhere and you've seen all the sights.

So, as a traveller, you find yourself having to fill this free time. If you have somewhere comfortable to sit you can often fill this time reading. If you're on the move or you can't find a park or don't want to pay for a seat, then you're left wandering the streets with lots and lots of time for reflection. It's nice, I suppose, to have a time in your life for reflection - not something I found I did much of when I had an office job. You can reflect on all sorts of things - the smells around you, girls, why the street dog by your side has no fur, girls, the nature of the universe, girls, what you want to do with your life, girls, how pleasant it is not to be working... And such things.

I've been fortunate enough to have a number of people to see in Bangkok, so a lot of my time has been spent with friends. But, I've had lots of time to myself and have pondered the above in great detail. Today I read a book about Buddhism - it's about time I learned something about this religion that's followed me around my travels of Asia... The most resonant advice seems to be: don't think about girls so much. Good advice probably.

Passing time in Bangkok

I haven't much to report. I've spent the last few days around Bangkok and at the family home of a best friend who lives about an hour outside of Bangkok (in an ice-factory). Notable activities include chaperoning my friend to his ex's sister's wedding - which involved little more than showing up in not entirely disrespectful dress, and prancing from table to table eating cocktail treats; accompanying my friend's family at various furniture shops - they need furniture for their new house (which is not inside the ice-factory); eating Thai food and cleaning the many messes left in the wake of my friend's tiny nephew and niece.

In Bangkok itself my task has been to eat more Thai food; to meet friends; to soak up the atmosphere of the place (generally smog), roaming the streets of this my old home city, reflecting on various things & trying not to think about Korea. 2008 is a bit of mystery for me. 2007 has been carefree fun. I realise now I'm actually going to have to find work in 2008. But I'm not sure where to go. I have an idea where I'd like to go - but not sure if I'll be welcome. Hrmmmmm... Decisions await me in Australia in the new year.

Photos!!

My digital camera might be dead, but my ultra-cheap, ultra-flimsy film camera lives on, and I've just had some photos developed. I've updated all my previous photo-less blog posts from Sichuan, Yunnan and Laos with relevant photos, so please check them out. Beware the quality is atrocious, some made worse by the fact that I opened the back of my camera exposing several shots to the light - they come out kind of green. But in a way we can say that the poor quality of the photos reflects the hard-core nature of the adventures they capture...

So please, browse through my older blog posts, I've updated all of them with photos. Here are some highlights:

Sichuan




Yunnan




Laos

Laos, Cambodia, Thailand

Laos
Last few days in Laos spent thinking about things on buses and on hammocks in the country's sleepy south. Encounter a culinary curiosity - Chinese girl I'd been travelling with buys hard-boiled egg as we take a toilet stop on our bus. On opening it seems a little darkened, after breaking through the white of the egg we're left with sight of a baby duck. She didn't eat it. Another curiosity was deep-fried spiders (tarantulas), but that was in Cambodia...


Cambodia
Not a particularly developed country, a rough, grubby place. Our bus takes us on car-ferry across a river, only our boat has no power, we get stuck on a rock. After being freed we free-float down the river, and ricochet off the river bank. Eventually a tug-boat rendezvous with us and takes us to the other side. Cambodian highlight is of course the famous Angkor Wat & surrounding temples. These are a series of stunning ruins of the ancient Khmer civilisation amid jungle in the flat plains of Cambodia. The temples are epic - some with stone walls kilometres in circumference. The temples are sublimely proportioned, and as you approach them up close you find intricate and beautiful engravings. Tag along with a Korean girl, nice opportunity to talk about what we each miss in Korea... ;p

Thailand
3 hours in traffic on arrival back in my favourite city of Bangkok. Fireworks outside as we are at standstill on highway - we arrive on the King's birthday, which is a pretty big deal here, he turning 80 and revered nearly as a god. Most Thai's wearing his colour, yellow, and crowd the streets as do yellow flags and lights. Bangkok is excellent, very pleased to be back here, will meet with friends and eat good food.