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Sabah Thorny Stick - Alex White

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Life is too short to sit around all day, daydreaming. The journals here represent some of the best (or worst!) moments during my travels. There is also the entire day-by-day journal detailing my Summer 2005 Borneo trip. So far, as of the age of twenty-one, I have been to 62 countries on 4 continents.

Albania - Andorra - Austria - Belarus - Belgium - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Cambodia - Croatia - Cyprus - Czech Republic - Denmark - Egypt - Estonia - Finland - France - Gambia - Germany - Greece - Hungary - Iraq - Ireland - Israel - Italy - Japan - Jordan - Korea, South - Laos - Latvia - Lebanon - Liechtenstein - Lithuania - Luxembourg - Macedonia - Malaysia - Mauritania - Moldova - Monaco - Montenegro - Morocco - Netherlands - Poland - Portugal - Romania - Russia - San Marino - Senegal - Serbia - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - Syria - Thailand - Turkey - Ukraine - United Arab Emirates - United Kingdom - United States - Vatican City - Vietnam

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Joined on: February 23rd 2006
Last Login: November 18th 2009

Blog Entries: 49
Photos: 417

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Blogs & Travel Journals

by Sabah Thorny Stick, order by Date newest first.

By Sabah Thorny Stick
April 5th 2008

From The Suburbs Of Dakar Africa » Senegal » Cape Verde Peninsula » Dakar

Typical Dakar Transport

From the suburbs of Dakar: My room is between the toilet, if you can call it that - it's a hole in the ground - and a small area where goats are kept. The noise from the goats coupled with the incessantly busy courtyard area of the compound ensures that a good night's sleep is never achievable. Still, I'd rather do it this way than be a regular tourist paying a small fortune to stay in one of the numerous upmarket hotels that litter the coastline. You have a regularly cleaned room and a waiter to bring you drinks while you [View Full Entry]

By Sabah Thorny Stick
December 15th 2007

Belarussian Babooshkas and Sizzling Saunas Europe » Belarus » Minsk Voblast » Minsk

The Sauna Group
Artur on the left, me somewhere in the middle!

It was a short train journey from the Polish border to Brest, and the train was crammed with lots of bulky women, but possibly more packed with their even bulkier bags. It seems this border is a major smuggling and trade route, with goods unobtainable in Belarus being bought in Poland, then sold on. However, this is soon set to stop with Poland entering the Schengen area, making the visa process for Belarussians far more difficult. I was later told that the cross-border Belarussian traders have to change their passports every two weeks, as they are so quickly filled with Polish [View Full Entry]

By Sabah Thorny Stick
August 6th 2007

Get Me Gaegogi! Asia » South Korea » Seoul

Lizzie, Cheonggyecheon Stream

Aha, it's open! I had finally found it. I walked in, the thick smell of stew filling the air. The restaurant was empty except for two customers and about five staff members, all of whom looked inquisitively at this strange foreigner who had just entered. I took off my shoes, as is customary, and was guided to one of the floor cushions that flanked the long wooden table. I cleared my throat, smiled to the waitress and said, almost inquisitively, "gae-go-gi". She didn't understand. I said it again with more emphasis. Nope. Maybe she understood but didn't want to serve me. [View Full Entry]

By Sabah Thorny Stick
July 30th 2007

Nagasaki And The Hunt For Theo Asia » Japan » Nagasaki » Nagasaki

Peace Park, Nagasaki

I got talking to one of my room mates in the hostel, a Mr Vladimir Jon Cubrt, a half-Czech, half-Canadian guy. This was the first hostel I had stayed in with any distinct signs of life, and I wasn’t going to pass such an opportunity! We ate breakfast at a nearby takeaway place before getting a tram to Urakami, Nagasaki’s ground zero. Coming to Nagasaki wasn’t part of my original plan. The city, stuck out right at the bottom of Japan, seemed distant when studied on a map. Indeed, getting here yesterday certainly seemed end-of-the-worldly. The train followed the coast for [View Full Entry]

By Sabah Thorny Stick
July 28th 2007

Stuck In The Sticks Asia » Japan » Yamaguchi

Coming Into Miyajima Island

I ignored the alarm at seven, and almost the one at eight, until I realised that the sights of Miyajima island awaited me. I packed the semi-dried clothes that I had washed in the hostel sink, checked out of the hostel and put my bag in the train station locker. I was already sweaty, and the day was only just heating up. It was going to be a scorcher. The ferry to Miyajima island was short and cheap but gave me beautiful views of the temple gateway (or ’torii’), one of the symbols of Japan. As the island grew nearer, the [View Full Entry]

By Sabah Thorny Stick
July 26th 2007

Sleepless In Kyoto Asia » Japan » Kyoto

The Golden Temple
Stunning, just stunning

With a mother and young son on the seats opposite me, I desperately tried to get comfortable enough to close my eyes and doze off. Just as I was about to fall asleep, sprawled across two seats, a man tapped my knee and claimed I was laying in his seat. Now with nowhere to sprawl, forced to sit upright and sunburn ravaging my body I was so uncomfortable. The train journey was hour after hour of nothing more than light dozing. The lights in the carriage remained on for the entire journey, and even when I moved across the aisle to [View Full Entry]

By Sabah Thorny Stick
July 24th 2007

Our Uphill Struggle Asia » Japan » Shizuoka » Mt Fuji

Getting Prepared In The Gift Shop

I took more and more ever-deeper breaths the higher we climbed. The route was now becoming harder, the gradients steeper. On one long stretch we were walking on rubble, with a waist-height stone wall running alongside. Every step forward we’d slide half a step back. In another part, there were rocks that we had to scramble up. Finding somewhere to hold on to and hoist yourself up with was hard enough as it was, but then we were in the dark. Myself, my cousins, Simon and Becky, and my brother David were trying to get to the top of the 3,776 [View Full Entry]

By Sabah Thorny Stick
July 22nd 2007

Cousins In Japan Asia » Japan » Tokyo

Simon At The Low Quality Street Carnival

I woke up in a sweat at nine in the morning, on some bedding on the lounge floor. I felt so clammy, nasty and thirsty, but couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it yet, so I just continued sleeping until two in the afternoon, David having long gone to work. I just don’t know how he does it. It had been a crazy night - my brother and I had now been joined by two cousins. They, like me, had come to visit David in Tokyo. Simon, David’s age, is from Manchester. Becky, from Hull, is a year older than [View Full Entry]

By Sabah Thorny Stick
July 20th 2007

A Land Of Contrasts Asia » Japan » Tokyo

The Rock Bar (With Band Graffiti)

I felt I was now getting to know the real Japan. I may have found it in the multi-storey pachinko buildings, where the escalators only go up and the noise is deafening. Pachinko, a form of pinball, is an addictive craze that has swept Japan like a virus. Hour after hour, literal buckets of yen are spent sitting at a machine, dropping small silver balls into it in the vague hope of winning big. The real Japan may equally be found within the walls of a gigantic comic book shop. I was something else - I had seen nothing like it, [View Full Entry]

Leaving The Bar: Drunkenly Taking Pictures Of Strangers

By Sabah Thorny Stick
July 16th 2007

Tokyo No Ho Asia » Japan » Tokyo

The First Guys That Picked Me Up

After having planned to be awake at nine, I actually got up around half eleven. I said my goodbyes to Yazan, my Syrian Couchsurfing host, and descended the stairs of his tower block. I’d only been in Nagoya for one night, but I liked it a lot. It seemed very international and lively, with plenty of things going on. Sure there were the temples, castles, parks and nightlife like any other Japanese city. But Nagoya had more - live bands playing outdoors, a huge robot museum, a Walk of Stars (the city is twinned with Los Angeles), and just a different [View Full Entry]

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