Going into the jungle with a George W. Bush hippie-clone, avoiding getting killed by a murder- coconut on a Robinson Crusoe kind of island, and drinking beer in a David Lynchish kind of karaoke-bar full of “sad young men”, are some of the experiences I had in south-Cambodia, but also here old ghosts from the Khmer Rouge, ruins of burned down villas, standing up like skeletons in the landscape. I just spend a few days here, but the impression of all the good people I met along the way, are everlasting ones. Driving out of Phnom Pehn felt like a [View Full Entry]

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In February, I bought a book. “Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos”. During the whole semester, it has been fighting for place in between of the fat, uninspiring Chinese grammar books. The original plan was to make use of this book in March. But somehow, I felt so happy about being back in China after my work-holiday in Norway - why go anywhere? I dislike tropical landscapes. Or maybe not really dislike. But I find them less intriguing than the vast steppes of Siberia, the crisp, shivering air in the Central Asian mountain ranges, the calm softness of the Mongolian grasslands, the [View Full Entry]

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Sometimes death stares at you with eyes wide open. Sometimes it’s just a sleeping child Crap aside. Let’s talk real life. You know what a school is? A huge building full of happy children. Or with the creativity of cruelty; a prison infamous for torture beyond your imagination Tuol Sleng prison where the Pol Pot-regime had its’ go at real human beings, makes everything else seem insignificant and ridiculous. This was my first stop in Cambodia - a country with this kind of a recent history deserves to be understood with these facts fresh in mind. Even just [View Full Entry]

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(h2)Om mani padme hum - or; bring me a shotgun!(/h2) In February, I bought a book. “Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos”. During the whole semester, it has been fighting for place in between of the fat, uninspiring Chinese grammar books. The original plan was to make use of this book in March. But somehow, I felt so happy about being back in China after my work-holiday in Norway - why go anywhere? I dislike tropical landscapes. Or maybe not really dislike. But I find them less intriguing than the vast steppes of Siberia, the crisp, shivering air in the Central Asian [View Full Entry]

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PART VII: MONGOLIA The art of satisfying Gods… . . . or listening in to the silence 2006. It is the right year to arrive in Mongolia. 800 years ago, in 1206, the great Dzhingis Khan founded the state of Mongolia, and soon the fellows from the steppes had gathered the largest empire the world had ever seen. Eventually it fell into decline because: Although the Mongols were good at conquering - they could shoot from their horses, sleep as they rode, they had no provisions that the enemy could destroy (they fed on bread and horseblood, if they were exhausted) [View Full Entry]

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<strong>PART V: SOUTH KOREA Where tigers and foxes marry I arrived in Busan on a very rainy day. It kept pouring down for a week. All the rain I was spared for in Japan, was to be found here. In fact, it seemed that all the rain in the whole world came down in this coastal town of South Korea. I checked in to a love-hotel, an invention for couples who need a hideaway for a few hours. But these love-hotels hold quite high standards, so I don’t mind staying there. The only difference from a normal hotel, is that you [View Full Entry]

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The three drunkards and the scotch-experience Taking the train to Russia was a bit of an experience! Most of the Russians come in groups by bus, so the ones travelling by train, are the poorest, most hardcore ones. At seven in the morning, there were about fifty, sixty of them, with maybe ten HUGE bags each, filled with goods to sell back home. A good deal of them had already had their dose of morning-vodka, and I somehow happened to attract the drunkest of them. At the train one man with a strange nose, that sort of hung down at one [View Full Entry]

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Ever tried miming your menu or home address? Ever had your eyelashes curled while having supper, or your back made into a huge mushroom pattern? Well, China is the place! „Bei” means “northern”. “Jing” is “Capital”. “Bei-jing”. “The northern capital”. (In early days the capital was in Xinyang - under the rule of Qin Shi Huang - who actually united China to one single empire, close to Xi’an, not far from the incredible terracotta army was found by farmers who stumbled across the heritage by chance back in 1974). [View Full Entry]

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PART IV: JAPAN With a license to shout A cry from Japan . . . This letter will be about contemporary Japan, rather than to retell the history, because truly - this is a country if contrasts and sometimes very weird organisation. Leaving Vladivostok, was not easy. I had got used to watch the trains on the way to cross the whole transsiberian line from my window. I loved that place! But from Vladivostok I went by ferry to Fushiki. Of course the departure was delayed with 6 hours, and only thanks to my friend Dima, I did not collapse of [View Full Entry]

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A prophets report I tried to finish this letter already two months ago. So I have had to make a lot of changes here. It is there (again) - a bit messy…. But I think you will manage…. I finished my lessons a few weeks ago, and I have been studying on my own, socialising (a lot) and done a few trips. However, we still wear hats, gloves and wintergear here, so its not very tempting to travel for a longer period. The other day I went with six girls to an island outside of Vladivostok. It was so hardcore cold; [View Full Entry]

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