If there is ever a rich country you consider to waste your money in, Japan should be your first choice. It is a country you can travel easily by yourself, everything is within a few hours reach with the bullet train. Almost everything is automatic, buying drinks, food, train ticket. rent a movie, wash your clothes, clean your ass etc. There are of course cheaper ways to travel, one of them meaning travelling with local trains with dussins of transfers. It's way cheaper than bullet trains but takes alot of time, I managed to finish the book 'Memoir of a Geisha' [View Full Entry]

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Still alive if anyone wonders:S The earthquake was near enough to feel the shake, but far enouch to do any harm. Anyway, right now I'm in Urumqi, Xinjiang provence, a place where most foreigners don't go to when they are in China and probably a wonder to alot of chinese too. Xinjiang is mixpot of chinese ethnic minorities, with uyghurs as the leading one (around 9 million of population), thus its full name "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region". It was once an connecting dot of Silk Road, between east and west. What is unique about uygurs is that they are totally different [View Full Entry]

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After having a bad cold in Beijing after Mongolia, it is time to move again. There is still no reply from the Olympics and I'm tired on sitting on my ass waiting, so I'm going to Xi'an for some days and after that Xinjiang. Havn't really walked around in Beijing that much because of the sickness, but the city sure looks different, more green so to say. The new stadium looks awesome, it will be the an eye-catcher during the olympic. I have a problem remenbering its name in Chinese which is "bird's nest", "bird's shit" would be an easier name [View Full Entry]

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Just came back from an unplanned trip from Gobi desert after one week, the price was so cheap that I couldn't resist, and it was worth every mongolian penny, or whatever they are called. There were five of us sharing the cost, a couple of Korea and a couple of Switzerland. We got into this modified russian ambulance and took off to the desert. Along the way we watched to landscape change from barren land to high mountains, from tanning heat to freazing cold, different animals and experienced sandstorms. The weather was unexpectable in desert, one moment it was clear sky, [View Full Entry]

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1. Mongolia uses Cyrillcs just like Russia. They changed it because it was easier than the traditional writings. The prounciation is still hard to learn though. Many older people understand russian. 2. The goverment is corrupted just as its russian brother. The gap between poor and rich is getting bigger. There are people earning money by polishing shoes on the street, while others driving shining jeeps. Roads are uncared for and dusty. 3. The inflation is going fast. Right now taking a bus is costs 200 T, which is about 1 kr. A hour of Internet costs 700 T. They don't [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Ulan Baatar from Ulan Ude yesterday, with bus. I had the choice of either taking a train or a bus, and desided for the latter. If I take the train, it will be stuck at the borders of Russia and Mongolia for eight hours, during the time they lock the toilets and search just everywhere on train for smuggled goods. Bus is more smooth at the borders, and I thought I had a better chance of explaining the migration card. And I turned out to be right, as usual (cough). I used my new-learned russian mixed with sign language [View Full Entry]

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Ulan-Ude is the last city I visit in Russia, it is located near the border of Mongolia. After been here several hours this place is still weird to me. More than half of population here is Buryats, a mongolian people that been divided into the Sovjet. Now centuries later, every asian-looking person on the street speaks russian. The other half are white peobple and mixed with exotic/weird looks. I don't know why I am fascinated of a such a mixed society of whites and asians, I could just watch them all day long. There are not many foreign tourists in this [View Full Entry]

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Damn it, my camera just went dead. I would have uploaded more picture, but maybe another time, because I am right now paying Internet by the minute. So in St. Petersburg all I did was to visit Hermitage and chasing the migration card. After two days, I left for Moscow, where I lived at a hostel just beside Arbat Street, the famous walking street in Moscow known for its artieri and creative atmosphere, I think. At the hostel I met unbelievly loads of peple. For exemple, there is one guy that only ate algers and pollen for food, his stomach has [View Full Entry]

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Our country has alot of stupid laws, if everybody followed them, the cementaries would be full The hostel manager insured me for the third time that laws can be broken in Russia. He never in his entire life met any police in Russia who did't take bribe. It all started when I crossed the border from Helsinki with a russian minivan only with russians. Due to some misunderstanding I didn't get a migration card at border controll, which is used by the russian goverment to keep record of where foreign people have been during their stays. If you stay in [View Full Entry]

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När Viking Line bestämde sig att locka kunder att storspendera på deras imponerade fartyg med 11 däck och 2500 hyttplatser med casino, pub, bar, sauna, minimart etc, plus en invardrar-arbetskraft med uzbeker och afganer, allt för att klara av den tufffa konkurrensen, räknade de nog inte med en sak: snåla folk som jag. Som deras nyblivna medlem fick jag åka gratis och t.o.m. en 4persons hytt då jag reste ensam. Alltså, genom att ha mig som medlem så har Viking Line tjänat in sammanlagt 0 kronor, plus förlorat inkomster från 3 andra kunder. Det kändes nästan lite kriminellt när jag låg [View Full Entry]

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