http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/the soul cultivator/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from the soul cultivator en-us Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:58:12 BST Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:58:12 BST We flew into Kuala Lumpur and headed for China town at the silly o'clock dark morning time where predawn life was starting to wind down. Tired drunks clutched beer wearing ickle foam cooling jackets torpid travellers slurping noodle soup saying nothing to each other. Listless hookers passed me by giving me the once over. City cabbies played roulette with weary nocturnal mortals who had enough pa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Selangor/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-315590.html Monday I was told by the more experienced travellers that Kuta is the arm pit of Indonesia and to save international blogging face we needed to get our barrings and move on. But in reality we could not be bothered to do this and have stayed here for five whole interesting weeks.Today I went to so called stinking armpit beach of Kuta to have long rest in perfect sunshine. I laid down creamed up http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Kuta/blog-308910.html One morning I accidentally crushed a large beetle shaped insect beneath my bare foot this made a loud crunching noise which made me feel a bit sick in my mouth. The cleaner man at our hotel looked at me in a pleasing kinda way then said 'Its OK good riddance to it'. I asked him what he meant He told me that all insects are scum and that he believed they were once the human souls of all the real http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-307684.html To fully experience Bali I was told I must attend a Balinese family cremation as the Balinese send their dead to the Nirvana realms with such a passionate show of love and creativity this was one thing I could not miss. Within 24 hours of arriving into Bali I found myself stood in front of a grieving family home in a strange village called Sangeh which is north of Kuta and East of Ubud. I wond http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Sangeh/blog-304403.html Bali means Island of the Gods its religion is 93 Hindu which expresses itself through the many hourly daily monthly bimonthly yearly twice yearly decade end of century beginning of century summer autumn winter spring birth 3 month of age 6 months of age reaching 17 and adulthood teeth filing ritual promotions demotions weddings and death the final cremation ritual that las http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-302150.html Old Kuta Town.........My days turned into dusk I slept. Dawn turned back into days I slept more. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Kuta/blog-294303.html With his enemy is controlled by themI suspect that the neck cracking skyline of this fine city of Shanghai was completely inspired by a certain new romantic influence of later day 20th century circa nineteen hundred and eighty when a young team of visionaries from Sheffield Yorkshire called themselves 'The Human League' came up with something really great. There are no other words to describe Sh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-291820.html We arrived by train on Tuesday afternoon then left by train on Wednesday night.I was too tired then to find anything out and Im too tired now to write anything. This is what happened in between..... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Luoyang/blog-289825.html The night train from Pingyao to Xi'an kept judding to a halt and the AC didn't work I was still grieving the death of my second camera and did not sleep at all. The train arrived 3 hours late into Xi'an and within seconds of exiting the station a man ran up to us to asked if we had anywhere booked of course we didn't so he gave us 2 options of youth hostel one right by the station which felt w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-289135.html We stayed in dusty Da Tong for one night and one very full day this was more than enough. The CITS agent mentioned that we could then we couldn't then we could get a direct train to Xi'an his story continued to change hourly or he could possibly get us a direct train to a place called Pingyao which I had noted in my note book some weeks ago as 'Pingyao a promising place of much interest and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Pingyao/blog-285798.html One hundred evil ones should be forgotten.The Chinese have not had a great 2008 year so far. The Chinese New Year kicked things off in February with freezing sub zero blizzards that killed off a lot of the countries live stock and farming produce this devastated the countries food supplies. In March the violent rioting escalated with the monks and lay people in Tibet then Chinese security forces http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanxi/Datong/blog-284065.html It seemed that the one hour time difference from Vietnam to China thankfully didn't really put us in that jet lagged zone it was the 43 hours of virtually no sleep lying horizontal on the same train that did. There were no touts at Beijing station to push us around screaming 'cheap price' grabbing all our bags insisting they take us to their cheap hotels I actually felt slightly at a loose end http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-280768.html I had been in a total head spin for weeks regarding the cheapest and most time effective way of entering China then touring China all within 30 tight visa days. Where to start I had checked out flights while in Cambodia back in March which were roughly around 150 from Hanoi to Hong Kong suddenly in May they had jumped to 350 inclusive of tax from anywhere in Vietnam to anywhere in China. Alth http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-278811.html 67 things I noticed while back in 'Nam1. A Vietnamese superstar recently sued a Vietnamese blogger for defamation of character2. An alien was found in Vietnam it looks like a semi melted plastic silver blow up bought from The Pound Shop sprayed with metallic car spray surrounded by the cast and crew from the Asian version of Ant Dec's 'Autopsy' film.3. Miss Universe 2008 is to be hosted in N http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/blog-274962.html .....Take My Hand Come With Me.I knew the minute I opened the tour bus from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay that we were in for a great time. The energy from the other travellers radiated even though some had just got off the night train from Sapa and were whacked out from trekking. Stu had to have a couple of days rest between these two trips as he got very sick which meant I got to play Florence Nighti http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-274739.html The tour operator showed us photos of two classes of sleeper train the first was a beautiful wood lined cabin with sultry low lighting clean looking mattress pillow finished off with a vase of fresh flowers. The second option was a grey blue Formica interior with low lighting clean looking mattress and pillow but was much cheaper so we booked the Formica cabin as dwindling budgets dictate. T http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Northeast/Sapa/blog-273443.html Ng4327901i Tr7891ng Tr7885t Linh H7891n Soul CultivationThe vile sleeper bus dumped us off somewhere just out side the city of Hanoi I hobbled around trying to find a toilet as my bladder didn't quiet know what to do with itself weather it needed to piddle burst bleed or burn like fire as I had to hold it in for a mind numbing 10 hours. We found Hanoi's old quarter by the me http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-273023.html After leaving Hoi An and laying horizontal in a sleeper bus for seven brisk hours we arrive in the town of Hu7871. The English pronounce it 'Hugh' the Americans pronounce it 'Huuuuuu' as if half way through an awkward sneeze the Vietnamese pronounce it 'Hoooaaaay' like they are clearing their throat. If I were to walk completely naked through perfumed air I would still be wearing too much it http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/North-Central-Coast/Hue/blog-271252.html We took the 13 hour sleeper night bus from Na Trang up the coast to Hoi An. Some points to know about these night buses....... 1. It is best to get a lower bunk near the front as there is more max head room to sit up and it doesn't make you feel sick. I think the leg room of the lower bunk is longer than the reclining leg length of the upper bunks as all the tall people from Sweden laying on top http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-269131.html The greatest invention to come from within Vietnam is the open ticket sleeper bus this way of travelling is a first for us so far we paid 37 which got us from HCMC to Na Trang then we will be going on to Hoi An Hue to finally reaching Hanoi which is many many miles away hopefully arriving sometime before our visa officially runs out. The bus picks you up from your hotel and each journey was http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Nha-Trang/blog-267893.html