http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/old-swat/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from old swat en-us Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:44:16 +0000 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:44:16 +0000 VIETNAM THE jump from Macau to Vietnam was a short one 15 hour planeride with the only service a can of coke or other soft drink for a handful of Dollars or a cup of Nescafe coffee for another handful of Dollars in a styrofoam cup.Arriving in Ho Chi Minh city previously Saigon is a pleasant revelation a large modern terminal with a number of ATM8217s and a welcome with an excellent map o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Kunming/blog-445451.html About Tibet Buddhism and kind peopleArrived in Chengdu on 10th of June. The next couple of days I spent finding my feet in town walking long distances to the Carrefour shopping centre and looking at all the nice things in bakeries etc. I then booked a tour to the biggest Buddha in the world which I visited with an American couple. A lot of climbing because a path leads up to the top and apart http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-435858.html Hallo thereThere is a large chunk of information I out of my bog at this moment thatrsquos the things we saw and did before we left the car. In all honestly I must confess that I donrsquot recall most of it without a map and without the pictures I took which stayed behind when I left my computer in the car. I deemed the computer too heavy to carry along based on my previous experience a ye http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Macau/Coloane-Island/blog-429343.html If you see a purple taxi you must be in Bangkok. Nowhere in the world have I seen a variety of colorful taxis like in Bangkok the capital of Thailand. Mostly Toyotarsquos Corolla the color varies from bright orange to red dark pink and dusty pink dark blue or light blue greenandyellow or any combination thereof. There must be thousands of them like in most big cities we visited but i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-380657.html From Kashgar we planned to take a normal linebus as opposed to local taxis to Sust over the border in Pakistan. This was going to taker two days and therefore we were not entirely surprised to find that the bus we were to board was a sleeper bus.We had been in the same hotel for a few days hotel Seman in Kashgar as when we came into China and this time we noticed the difference between a ldq http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Melaka/Melaka-City/blog-362671.html In Kunming after the operation with was in hindsight successful I was kept in the Nr 1 Peoples Hospital for three days for observation mostly on a drip and with a batch of pills periodically. On the second day I was allowed to walk in the passage and on the third day a Saturday I was discharged. Ann took care of the finances which amounted to R30.000 or 3000 Euro and that included a batch o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Xinjiang/Kashgar/blog-323747.html Kunming againPulled back from the brink.Many years ago in South Africa when I was still jogging regularly I experienced some chest pain every now and again. The doctor I consulted suggested I should visit a friend of his a specialist heart surgeon. I assume Xrays were taken although I canrsquot remember that and on the strength of what I told him it was decided to widen a narrow coronary a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Kunming/blog-317063.html Blog KunmingWe are in Kunming a town in the South West of China. We are in a Chinese Youth hostel called ldquothe Humprdquo where a large wall is decorated with pictures concerning the epic effort by American Pilots to fly supplies in for the allied forces in China who were engaged in the repulsion of the Japanese forces who had invaded Burma. The year was 1942 and just a week ago I read an a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Kunming/blog-305033.html July 1 2008A pretty long time has lapsed since my last entry. I did get back to Beijing spent a few days in Qingdao on the coast where I found the youth hostels 2 not all that welcoming and traveled back again to Beijing when I learned that Ann was about to enter China. But here travel plans made it difficult for me to stay and wait for her so back to the railway station this time with a tic http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Xujiahui/blog-293791.html Blog May 28285There is a lot of flagwaving on TV at the moment. Irsquom watching events around the preparations for the Olympic games the rescue of victims of the earthquake and a series of documentaries revolving around the epic struggle of the red army to defeat the forces of Chiang Kaishekrsquos Kuomintang in 1948 and 49. Also the invasion by Japanese forces in the 1930rsquos gets at http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Forbidden-City/blog-286028.html Blog May 23 2008After having reported my experience in the bath which proved to be the result of an earthquake it has since then grown into a national disaster easily overshadowing the preparations for the Olympic GamesTo give an idea about the magnitude of it here follow a few statistics of the catastrophe42.000 dead and 32.000 missing over 200.000 people injured and close to a million peop http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Tian--anmen/blog-279862.html May 1 2008According to the information in the ldquoLonely Planetrdquo on China the border with Pakistan opens on the 15th of April sometimes later. This year the border opened on the 1st of May and I made sure to be one of the first to cross it.A few days earlier I drove the camper up from Gilgit to Sust and witnessed the first sign of awakening spring and receding winter. It wasnrsquot c http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Xinjiang/Kashgar/blog-273106.html Seagulls and bare midriffs.Irsquove made many mistakes in my life.The latest one was based on the assumption that the weather in Holland and England would be mild since the temperature was going up in Pakistan. That proved to be a wrong assumption.When in September 2006 we started our trip towards the East in the revamped Land Rover we left behind our ldquoEuropeanrdquo camper the Renault http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Islamabad/blog-261873.html February 24 IslamabadItrsquos after the elections and after the results have been published. Only 30 to 40 took part and scores of women were prevented from voting although that is their constitutional right. It seems that in other parts of the country not everything went as peacefully as it did here but even with that as a consideration it all went a lot less problematic than expected. Of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Islamabad/blog-249154.html Sunday January 27India AmritsarLast Friday I went to apply for my Pakistani visa. For that I needed amongst others a letter of introduction from the Dutch Consulate. The day before I had made an appointment and promptly at 9 am I presented myself to Mrs Cuelenaere. Yes you read correctly not Rita Willemse or Tanja Bakker not even simply Mrs Culenare but Cuelenaere with two extra ersquos. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Punjab/Amritsar/blog-244158.html Nepal The road from the border to Kathmandu a mere 250 km took two days. The first 150 km has many very bad to worse patches the second 100 km is very good except for the last 10 to 15 km which has even worse patches than the first 150 km. I took pictures of overturned busses and wrecked vehicles and the idea of traveling by public transport has become less attractive. But having been convi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-238273.html Jan 5 Meham Left Sirsa after friendly curiosity of small numbers op pupils from high school next door had changed into blatant harassment. Like a bunch of flies they would not go away never satisfied with what they saw but always wanting . . . what I donrsquot know. What made me and the camper such an easy target for their not so friendly attentionAnyway I had stayed there for 3 or 4 day http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Kathmandu/Thamal/blog-236087.html After a pleasant stay in South Africa where we found that after almost three years prices have rocketed service provision has declined with power interruptions almost daily and the black population has become more selfassured and therefore much easier to live with we headed back to Pakistan. We left behind a country where deep divisions are created politically between a man who meant well http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Islamabad/blog-230226.html 16 November 2007.We left the car at the camping at Islamabad and found a taxi to the airport the 4week visit to South Africa to see our sons and to have a break from travelling had started. Flying is not something you can dwell on extensively. The most remarkable experience was the 8hour stopover in Abu Dhabi. Not so much the waiting and lack of proper conveniences as well as the construction o http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/United-Arab-Emirates/Abu-Dhabi/Jebel-Dhanna/blog-224743.html Loose loniesAlthough Karachi is a sea harbour there are no seagulls. Instead there are hundreds of buzzards.Pakistan has a male dominated social order. Very few women are seen on the streets and only evenings some do their shopping. It is not generally acceptable to sit next to a woman in busses and taxis. Close to 75 of marriages are arranged and social contact before marriage is very uncommo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Islamabad/blog-221777.html