http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Sken like a Ribble fluke/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Sken like a Ribble fluke en-us Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:28:44 BST Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:28:44 BST Here in Sydney what happened Well Karl a bit of a ditherer dithered in the direction of MalaysiaSingapore and I got word that Bob and his fishpot were not leaving for quite a while so I thought bugger this for a game of soldiers and took a flight to Darwin.Good job really. One day in Darwin and I came down with some mysterious tropical fever thing I musta got in Timor. The doc wasn't th http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-6352.html After being scarred for life by the experience of simply attempting to book a ferry to West Timor I eventually succeeded in making the crossing to Kupang. The story of how I eventually got the boat is even more ridiculous than my previous tale but I'll spare the details.Since Flores I have ceased being a 'tourist' and my time is spent either being a lazy sod or trying to transport myself a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/East-Timor/blog-5366.html Do a Google search on 'Flores' and you will see that this far out Indonesian island gained worldwide attention last year as the place where they found a little 'hobbit' person's remains. Only about 12000 years old it is supposedly a previously unknown human relative. Ardent evolutionists and creationists have been jumping up and down in their armchairs about it ever since.The scenery in Flores http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/blog-5034.html Two thousand and something metres above sea level. Makes the air thin and things cold. This is the summit at Mount Bromo in Java just before sunrise. An active volcano that goes 'poo' every 15 minutes releasing a sulfurous whodunnit. I had read in the guide book that the scenery at sunrise was pretty damn good and I must admit it was spectacular. On the downside is that everyone else has rea http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/blog-4718.html After blowing my budget to pieces in Thailand with the dive trip I decided to hot foot it through Malaysia thought it was a bit crap last time and couldn't be arsed to give it a second go and make my way to Jakarta in record time.It was a fairly painfree journey to the port of Melaka Malaysia if you consider 36 hours on a sleeper train and 3 buses painfree does this make me a 'gurutrav http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/blog-4324.html The Thai alphabet has 48 consonants 24 vowels and 6 'tones'. They really should do a version of Countdown. Love it or loathe it Khao San Road in Bangkok is and always will be the backpacker capital of East Asia and you will often run into people you met in other parts of Asia. This time for me Bangkok was a waiting stop before a dive trip in the south. I whiled away the time spending a ton http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-4039.html In Luang Prabang they had started up a cookery course so I put my name down to learn how to cook some stuff that tastes eerily similar to Thai food. The restaurant owner ran the course and was very enthusiastic always prefering the sound of his own jaw flapping to silence. So as well as making chillibark beef hotpot don't ask I can now write his resume from memory and tell you which famous http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-3702.html After a great experience in China I WILL be back soon it was time to cross into Laos don't pronounce the 's' you sound like a twat. Laos is in the stone age compared to China but it has an amazing laidbackness about it. It is like a migraine that suddenly lifts you forget you had it. Nobody beeps their horn you can breathe air that doesn't smell of cigarettes and there is a lot le http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-3181.html For the first time since my Middle Eastern adventures I felt the heat of the sun. It is as if I have tunnelled through a block of snow thousands of miles thick and am on the other side. The scarf gloves and thermals are in the bin the parka is in the post along with a helluva lot of sooper cheap dvds of questionable authenticity. Heat. Mmmm. So there was a plan to go back north to some g http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-3015.html Everything is hunkydory in China The government is the best ever and getting better Well it is if you believe what you see on China's English language news channel CCTV ironic name let's rename Fox News to CIA. Scary thing is it ain't that different to ours just less subtle....And the worst toilet in the world 2004 award goes to the internet cafe I used in Xian. China has the wors http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-2855.html Unless there is a huge war Beijing is gonna replace Washington DC as the new capital of the world so learn your pinyin Boys. Oh and if this is communism then I am Chairman Mao.The people in China are very friendly and helpful and some even have a sense of humour. Walking down the street a bunch of people are giggling and pointing at the westerner HelLoOo more giggles. The best way to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-2651.html I wish I had a photo of myself jumping onto the moving train as it pulled away from the station at the Russian Mongolian border. The timetable said that we were stopping here for 5 yes five hours so there seemed to be no problem with going onto the platform and using the loo but I when I emerged the train was moving away from the station all the doors were shut and I may have used the word http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/blog-2501.html The Russians can be real miserable looking sods when they want to be although not quite as much in the east and lets face it they have more to moan about. To 'fitin' in Russia and therefore not shine out too much as a foreigner who may as well be walking around naked with Euros sellotaped to himself it seemed necessary to go native and adopt the 'stoic look'. It reminded me of my favourit http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/blog-2392.html In Battlestar Galactica two hapless aliens come down to 1980's LA in order to rescue the Earth but seem to spend most of their time trying to fit in and inevitably end up getting into countless cultureshock japes. As I emerged from the train into the new day in St Petersburg with Spanish guy in tow Miguel acting as tour guide that is exactly how I felt. One must at least try to fit in if o http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/blog-2291.html There was a controversial experiment performed in the 70's where one person had to ask questions of a subject and give them electric shocks of increasing voltage enough to kill if they got them wrong. The point is that it was a trick the person getting the shocks was faking it. The real subject of the study was the person giving the supposed potentially fatal punishment to see if they would co http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/Riga/blog-2192.html Why is it that the Poles are smiling friendly and happy all the time The weather is godawful and it is Drizzleville Tennesee. It is like being in a black and white film or the colourturneddown dystopia of Twelve Monkeys. Maybe it is because they invented vodka. The country is an oasis of helpfulness in a desert of miserable sods.Since my last blog I have been to Budapest back to Prague http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Lesser-Poland/Krakow/blog-2052.html The Czechs are a funny lot. It is as if the person that they spoke to just before you really pissed them off and so they decide to bite off your head for asking simple questions like directions. What is really surprising is that they can be sweet as honey just afterwards. I find that piling on heavy sarcasm just adds to the culture clash but it is great fun.3rd NovI am staying at a hostel in http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/South/Cesky-Krumlov/blog-1954.html If a hotel is recommended by the Lonely Planet it is NOT CLOSED An inclusion in the travellers' bible is a licence to print money for a hotel owner and usually an excuse to raise the price. In some places additional premises open with similar names to confuse the traveller and skim the extra business generated. When I arrived in Shiraz the evil taxi driver took me from the bus station to http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Iran/blog-1650.html Before coming to Iran a lot of people told me this story about a traveller who upon seeing an antiwestern demonstration in Tehran flag burning etc. goes up to the most angry looking demonstrator and introduces himself as English or Inglistan as they say here. The angry man's face softens and he gives the traveller a warm smile and handshake and says 'you are very welcome in Iran'. As i http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Iran/blog-1575.html Two certainties come to light when travelling 1 Taxi drivers are scum worldwide 2 There are only two words in the world for tea tea thete etc or char choicachai etc.I made the right move when crossing the border from Syria to eastern Turkey cross at the rarely used border post in Qamishle far east Syria to reduce the amount of time spent trying to cross Turkey to Iran. The Lonely http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Iran/blog-1459.html