Western Australia may be famous for its vast open spaces and large distances, but fortunately, there are also quite a few points of interest within a two-hour radius of Perth. One of these is New Norcia, Australia's only monastic town, a measly 132km from the big city. The settlement was founded in 1846 by Spanish Benedictine monks as an Aboriginal mission with the aim to 'civilise and evangelise', in accordance with the European ideals of the time. Until 1900 New Norcia was shaped by Bishop Rosendo Salvado. Born in a village in Galicia, not far from the Portuguese border, Salvado entered the Benedictine Order at age 15, where he climbed the ranks from monk to priest and finally bishop, until he was sent to Western Australia in 1846 to establish a bush mission for the conversion ... read more

Blog starts with 'via' again. Via Marang and Kuala Terengganu, we make our way to Kota Bharu in the extreme Northeast of peninsular Malaysia. A short look at the map confirms my suspicion that we're almost in Thailand already. KB is the capital of Kelantan, the most conservative and staunchly Muslim of Malaysia's states (more, so much more on that later). The city is also famous for its diverse cuisine, which for us was the main reason to go there. After the disappointing, pricey fare on Kapas, we wanted to indulge in great food once again. And that's what we did the next five or so days. Eat, eat, eat. For breakfast, we go to an Indian restaurant where I finally, finally get my beloved masala dosai, which turns out to be the best I've ever ... read more

On my 2009 SEA-trip, I'd already visited most of Peninsular Malaysia's West, so the logical thing to do on this trip was to head to the East Coast. Our first stop is Cherating, a pleasant little village on the Northeastern edge of Pahang state, bordering on the state of Terengganu. To get there, we take a bus from KL's Pudu Sentral Bus Station to Kuantan, roughly four hours eastwards. Once there, we jump on a decrepit local bus towards Kuala Terengganu and tell the metrosexual ticket collector to be so friendly as to tell the driver to drop us off at the right stop for Cherating. Less than an hour later, we are dumped on the roadside and make our way to the centre of the village. After a few tries, we find a chalet that's ... read more

As my train pulls into Prague, I watch the thick, overhanging clouds looming above the historic Bohemian city with concern. They obstruct the sun, bring rain, potentially spoiling the mood for everybody. Not the best conditions for a three-day music festival. Music? Indeed. I'm on my way to the 14th annual Obscene Extreme Festival. As the name suggests, this is not gonna be your run-of-the-mill summer rock festival with the occasional hard rock or heavy metal band thrown into the equation. What awaits me is three days of aural assault and straight up brutality. A closer look at the running order reveals band names like Gutalax, Human Scum, Splattered Mermaids, Vomitory, Necromorph, Bowelfuck, Rottenness, Vulvectomy and Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition. The genre these bands belong to could be roughly described as grindcore, although there are a million ... read more

Ah, Suzhou, pleasant little town, easy to navigate. I wish I could say that, but I don't wanna lie. In fact, though, most Chinese people would think of Suzhou as a small town, as it has only around four million inhabitants. Referring to the 2010 Census, that means there are still 20 (!) cities in China that are bigger than Suzhou. Probably only the Top 6-8 would be considered 'big cities' by most. This time I arrive by train, catch a local bus, which unfortunately again takes almost an hour to near my host's place. Slowly but surely I'm getting fed up by the time wasted using local transport. The sheer size of Chinese cities really takes it out of me. Once again I start pondering whether it wouldn't be easier to just stay in a ... read more