http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/galacticnick/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from galacticnick en-us Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:37:15 +0000 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:37:15 +0000 So there I was standing in line at my favourite dumpling shop minding my own business when my peripheral vision caught sight of what shocked my brain into disbeliefA bald burly man swaggering down the street in his gold embroidered silk pajamas and shiny white sneakers with enough bling blings to put a gangsta rapper to shame.I did a double take. The man not the man himself but the like of him http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-360679.html I remember watching a lot of latenight local TV programmes during my first trip to China. It was not by choice since local channels were all the hostels that I stayed in had. The content of the programmes best remains forgotten but a particular advertisement has left a lasting impression for the most part because it was on almost every channel It was an old school montage of scenic videos whe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Zhejiang/Hangzhou/blog-360007.html ldquo2356727963233761229025214240372031621966653112231237202242153007020445234331229035201199813520165311rdquoYoung man are you looking for a job Interested in being a hotel security guardI must have the look of a young migrant worker who stumbles out of the train station after an excruciating journey from his village thousands o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-359479.html The locals say that unless one does all of the following one should never claim one has been to Beijing. Climb the Great Wall. Devour a Peking Duck. And drink Er Guo Tou to onersquos heartrsquos content or until onersquos liver gives out whichever comes first.Checked checked and passed. I think I failed the test.But despite not receiving a stamp of approval from the locals I still hear http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-358931.html no words again. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Legian/blog-323034.html actually just plain lazy. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Java/Borobudur/blog-322915.html I left Cambodia with mixed feelings. On the one hand I have fulfilled my lifelong dream of visiting one of the world's greatest ancient monuments Machu Picchu you are next. On the other hand I learnt nothing else about the country its people and their culture. I have only myself to blame for turning this vacation into a checklist of sorts. Three days were all I had budgeted for Cambodia. And http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-287587.html Alone at dawn standing in the company of two hundred and sixteen faces of JayavarmanAvalokiteshvara depending on which legend you believe in almost brought a tear to my eye. Good times were spent chilling on the window ledge watching the ebb and flow of package tourists making a fool of themselves with the gargantuan gnarly roots. Sunrise at Sras Srang must be the most underrated attraction. An http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Angkor/blog-286506.html I shall preface this entry by declaring that while I am into history including mythology natural scenery and having my breath taken away by the grandeur and splendor of ancient monuments culture and the arts are more often than not lost or should I say wasted on me. Suffice to say Ubud was for the most part not memorable. As our bus pulled into Ubud one of the first impressions I had ap http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-257815.html I have been mistaken for a local in Thailand and a Korean in Laos. But me a Japanese I got that a lot in Bali especially at Nusa Lembongan. And I wonder why. I have neither the fairevenly tanned complexion nor the fashion sensibilities my unkempt eyebrows are a dead giveaway. It did not matter to the locals I looked more like them than a ChineseJapaneseKorean especially after a suntan gon http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/blog-256543.html It is fashionable to diss Kuta as one would Khao San Road or Bangkok for that matter. Yes Kuta appears to be the ldquoshit holerdquo like its harshest critics described. Traffic is busy around the clock. The beach is dirty. The streets and alleys are jampacked with as many of the usual suspects guesthouses restaurants and assorted shops as they can fit Then again what else do you expe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Kuta/blog-256224.html PenangStaying a stonersquos throw away from Lebuh Chulia where cheap and mouthwatering fare is readily available round the clock had its perks. I decided not to bother with online recommendations by selfprofessed food connoisseurs and just picked a roadside stall or coffee shop at random. So far I was not disappointed. After three days of feasting on local delicacies I gained back every pou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/blog-229453.html Armed with a couple of Bill Bryson's books and his usual cynicism galacticnick headed up north to Penang but not without stopping over at a quaint little town that is Malacca. These are his 10 random musings. 1. Malaccans if there is even such a word must be the most intuitive bunch on this planet. How the locals manage to figure out that the verandah outside XYZ minimart is the alighting and b http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Melaka/Melaka-City/blog-228224.html After a week of nonstop traveling all over the Sichuan province we were relieved and happy to stay put in Chengdu albeit for two more nights before we flew home. The provincial capital was recently voted the tenth happiest city to live in China. Hangzhou topped the list. Yang who moved to the city five years ago thought the accolade was well deserved. But as he said we tourists especially http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-226653.html On the bedside table in our room at Teddy Bear Hotel cozy friendly and highly recommended by the way was a copy of a pictorial book on Mount Emei. Flipping through pages of mindblowing images there was one particular photo that stood out. It depicted hundreds if not thousands of pilgrims prostrating in concentric circles around the gargantuan golden statue of Bodhisattva Puxian on the Gol http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Emei-Shan/blog-226651.html When I read It was written on our bus tickets that we were taking the luxury coach to Leshan I was skeptical. But it turned out to be true. I had never sat on a more comfortable bus. It was spotlessly clean and had plush seats an overhead flat TV screen and an attendant who gave us a brief introduction of Leshan and the Grand Buddha in both Mandarin and English although we had absolutely no i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Leshan/blog-226650.html After resting for two nights in Chengdu more about the city in another entry we embarked on an 11hour bus journey to the fabled fairytale wonderland that is Jiuzhaigou. Our driver was a road menace. He would honk at every vehicle pedestrian yak and chicken for no good reason whatsoever. The Caucasian girl who was sitting in the first row could not take his incessant honking anymore. She lash http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Jiuzhaigou/blog-226648.html The ancient town of Lijiang also known as Dayan is the proverbial tourist trap. Whoever coined the idiomatic expression was probably inspired by heshe saw in Lijiang. No doubt Lijiang with its traditional Naxi houses and cobblestone alleys is as every bit as picturesque as it is in the photos. And it is even more so at night when the red lanterns hung outside every house are lit. But the tow http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Lijiang/blog-226647.html Staying overnight at Kunming was originally not part of the plan. But after reading too many horror stories about the etiquettes or the lack of of Chinese tourists onboard sleeper buses in China you know the usual smoking spitting et cetera we decided to spend a night in Kunming and fly out to Lijiang the next morning. Kunming is nicknamed the City of Eternal Spring. Thus one would expe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Kunming/blog-226646.html Just when I thought it was going to be a near empty carriage with just a few passengers and an odd box or two of Beer Chang Donrsquot they sell them elsewhere in Thailand hordes of boisterous tourism students invaded the carriages just minutes before departure. It was barely 7 a.m. Some of us could hardly keep awake let alone deal with the deafening chatter. A few passengers vacated their http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-203658.html