http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/pohl-position/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from pohl position en-us Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:57:15 +0000 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:57:15 +0000 On November 3 my around the world trip came to a finish. After 292 days 27 flights 20 World Heritage Sites 12 countries 14 if you count Hong Kong and Macau 35 tigers 5 pairs of sunglasses and too many bowls of rice to count I was back where I started my hometown of Marine in Illinois. I've regaled my mates back in London with many stories of my hometown over the years so I thought it http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Marine/blog-358823.html As September came to an end so did my time at the Tiger Temple. I wanted to stay long enough to witness one of the female tigers give birth but my Thai visa had run out and I was racking up the fines for each day I overstayed. Just my luck she ended up giving birth two days after I left but I would be back to visit. I had about 3 weeks to travel until I had to be in Singapore so I decided t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-342418.html I arrived at the Tiger Temple just as the day's activities had ended. The temple is located in Kanchanaburi province which is about 2.5 hours west of Bangkok near the Burma Myanmar border. The local bus I had taken from Kanchanaburi had dropped me off along the highway and I was about halfway into the two kilometer walk to the temple entrance when one of the staff members spotted me and gave http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Western-Thailand/Kanchanaburi/blog-331360.html We arrived in Bangkok just as the evening was approaching. As our taxi made its way from the airport down the new expressway flyover and into the city I marveled at how modern everything seemed to be. Skyscrapers dotted the skyline and new roads seemed to flood into the city. The place seemed very clean for such a large population around 8 million.After we had checked in Thelma and I went out http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-321489.html The hotel we were staying at in Phnom Penh had a partnership with a homestay in central Cambodia. It was on the way to Siem Reap so we figured we would stay there for one night enroute to Siem Reap. After a few hours on the bus we arrived at a small roadside town where we transferred to scooters and were shortly at the homestay. The homestay had maybe a dozen different units for people to sl http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-321468.html We arrived in the small airport at Phnom Penh and sought out a tuk tuk to take us into town. I had met an Austrian couple in Ko Phi Phi who recommended the lakeside for a fun atmosphere in Phnom Penh. The view from there is supposed to be brilliant at sunset. We arrived in the rain and I went to hunt down a decent place while Thelma watched the bags. The reality was that this place is probably http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-321428.html Our arrival into Thailand began from Kuala Lumpur on an overnight coach. We were unlucky enough to get the back seats and felt every bump of the way. After crossing the border we headed for Krabi where we booked a ferry for Ko Phi Phi a popular trio of islands off of the Southwest coast of Thailand. Ko Phi Phi Don is the biggest of the three and the only one with overnight accommodation. The http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi/blog-318186.html After the Philippines we headed towards Malaysia. We only had one week on the Maylay peninsula so we focused on Kuala Lumpur and Taman Negara. Thelma has a friend Rani who lives in Kuala Lumpur so we spent a week with her exploring the city and the jungle.Kuala Lumpur felt like the most modern city besides Tokyo that I had been to in Asia. I wasn't even afraid to drink the water. It was http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-316287.html I was sad to leave Boracay. It has probably been the best beach I have ever been to. However we had a flight to catch. Next stop Thelma's home town of Valencia on the island of Negros. We caught a small prop job airplane from Boracay to Cebu. This must have been the smallest commercial aircraft I have ever been on. I think there were maybe 15 passengers on board. There was sort of a parti http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Negros/Dumaguete/blog-314894.html A trip to Asia wouldn't be complete without at least one cock fight. I almost saw one in Indonesia but the legality of it there seemed to be a bit of a grey area. The predominitly Muslim country isn't opposed to the cock fighting per se but rather the gambling that accompanies it. Bali which is mostly Hindu seems to be more accomodating but I'm still not sure if it is legal there. At any http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Negros/Dumaguete/blog-306643.html I had gotten used to hearing all sorts of things outside of Thelma's house during the night. There seems to be a constant howling from dogs and the expected rooster wakeup call even the occasional falling coconut. On one Sunday morning though I was woken at 430 am to a horific squeeling noise which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up.I went outside and crept down the twent http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Negros/Dumaguete/blog-306640.html I arrived in Manila nice and early at 530 am from Jakarta. I headed straight to the hotel and took a nice long nap. I woke up in time for lunch and thought I would explore a bit outside. That is when the heat hit me like a slap in the face. The combination of heat and humidity makes being outside at midday unbearable and I quickly had to retreat to the confines of an airconditioned buildin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Manila/blog-306402.html Although Java is Indonesia's largest island I only really wanted to see two things there Mt. Bromo and Borobudur. It is such a huge island and I just didn't have enough days to explore it. Java is home to Indonesia's capital Jakarta as well. I have yet to hear one person say something positive about the capitol. It is just way too crowded and it lacks a proper city center. So my strategy http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Java/Yogyakarta/blog-303943.html After leaving China I had turned south to head to Indonesia and Bali was my first stop. Of all the places I have been on my trip this has probably got to be one of the least planned segments. I bought a Lonely Planet book on Bali and Lombok a few days before my flight left and I didn't even crack it open until my plane was in the air. I had a list of a few things that I wanted to see but had http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-295179.html After a brief few days in Kuta on Bali more about that in a future Bali entry I ventured across the sea to the Gilli Islands off the Northwestern coast of Lombok. My tour leader in China Arron had recommended the islands and I had heard them referenced for diving as well. The Gillis are 3 islands but Trawangan is the biggest and is more built up than the other two. Don't expect a luxury http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Lombok/Gilli-Trawangan/blog-293039.html A short ferry ride from Hong Kong is the town of Macau. Along with Hong Kong Macau is the other Special Administrative Region within China and with that status comes all the other goodies. You must go through customs to enter Macau it has its own currency its own international country dialing code and its own government. Macau was a Portuguese colony for 400 years before being handed back t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Macau/Macau/blog-294865.html I started my China adventure by staying in Beijing for a week and later ended up returning for a few days to meet up with Sean for our tour. It was my first impression of China after arriving from Tokyo and the contrast was stark from the moment I arrived. The pollution in Beijing and much of China is as bad as they say. I couldn't really see anything through the smog as our plane approached http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-284269.html Is Hong Kong part of China or is it its own country Technically it is part of China but the real answer lies somewhere in between. Some websites including this one still list it as being its own sovereign state. Entering Hong Kong you would be forgiven for thinking it is completely separate. I arrived via train from the mainland and had to go through immigration. For westerners it is http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/blog-284087.html After Shanghai I took an express overnight sleeper service back to Beijing. My brother Sean was on his way over to embark with me on a 2 week packaged trip around China with the tour company The Imaginative Traveler. Sean had wanted to visit China a few years ago but decided on Egypt instead. We don't get to spend as much time together as we used to so this seemed like the perfect opport http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-283200.html I arrived in Shanghai from Nanjing on the day of the earthquake about 30 minutes before it hit. Shanghai is far away on the east coast. The epicenter is in the Schezuan province which is pretty far away. I didn't feel anything and was as suprised as anyone to read about it on the internet within minutes of it happening. Although the mood on the television was as somber as it could be Shangh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-278746.html