Where Am I Now ?

Current Location: Beijing, China
Telephone: +86 1355 2722 012

Backlog of Updates from Asia

During the last couple of months in Asia, I lost some of the enthusiasm of updating this blog regularly, "writer's block" a writer would call it, I call it "laziness". Anyway, thanks to the encouragement from all those who complained, I have been catching up with my diary notes and will add links to any newly published, old updates, in this section. Just click on the links to read.

At the same time I am adding some bits from the last few weeks in Southern Europe, just look below this update for more..

Added 11/11/07
Wheeling In Ninh Binh (July 2007)
Historic HoiAn to Hectic Hanoi (July 2007)

Added 05/11/07
Wat? No Angkor? (July 2007)
Night(mare) bus to Vietnam (July 2007)
Mekong boat to Charming Champasak. (July 2007)

Added 04/11/07
Savannakhet, Pakse & Bolivean Plateau. (June 2007)
Khon Kaen & into the Land of Elephants. (June 2007)
Beautiful Buddha & Ancient Sukothai (June 2007)
Penang, Bangkok and Ancient Ayuthaya. (June 2007)

Added 30/10/07
Tea in the Cameron Highlands. (June 07)

Latest updates added at the top. For recent updates, scroll down

Drinking coffee with the Albanians

In Albania, many people asked my why I chose to go there, simple, I hadn't been there before!

After a cold overnight ferry journey from Bari, on a ferry with no more than about twenty people I arrived early morning in Durres, a port in Albania. First observation of Albanian life is that it seemed no one had a job and everyone sat around drinking coffee all day. There were lots and lots of cafes and all had plenty of customers inside and out on the pavements, all drinking coffee. So first thing I did was join in. Durres is nothing to write home errr, a blog entry about, other than it's fine, friendly and the people helpful. The seafront is a bit of a mess and does nothing to encourage people to the sea view tourist restaurants and hotels that have and still are being constructed there. The remains of an amphitheatre are ok, the old Byzantine city walls are worth a quick glance and there are plenty of places to drink coffee and eat doner, souvlaki, hotdogs or hamburgers . Worth mentioning is the amazing guesthouse, Tuschenis, which I, after roaming lost, was guided to by a friendly old lady. The house used to be home to the embassies of Italy and Austria and pictures of famous people, museum like furniture and mementos from around the world made it an interesting place to stay, and the lovely owners Josef and Alma were kind and helpful and made a decent Albanian breakfast.


After some hard work finding the right place to pick up a mini-bus, (every destination has its own bus stop in Durres) I took a trip to Kruje, perched on the hillside with castle, museums, old bazaar and good views. It was a decent day out. The kind and friendly Albanian hospitality shone through when trying to find a connecting mini-bus at the junction of Fushe-Kruje, I was guided to the right bus by a friendly lady who insisted I took the best seat left as she crammed herself onto the edge of another and then paid for my trip as we alighted! There was no arguing, she just would not let me pay. I lunched in a hillside cafe, surrounded by begging cats, dying to taste my yogurt and spaghetti napoli. Back in Durres, I found a bar showing Champions League football and had a fine doner kebap complete with fries inside, something I haven't had since Central Asia, yummy..

During my first few days here, I became aware of two more things about Albania. Firstly, they get regular power cuts, apparently controlled and with the intention of saving power, by switching off for around three hours a day, randomly, at any time, sometimes more than once a day. The result is a peaceful walk along a street can turn into a bit of an ear bending experience when all the businesses' generators kick in. Secondly, it's very useful to learn the words for yes and no (I learnt too late), because head movements are confusing and do not indicate what you think they do. From Durres, I went to the capital, Tirane.....

When in Rome...

Do as the Romans do, so I did, I ate pasta, pizza and queued for hours at the Vatican City.

Before I got there though, there I was in Rimini, friends heading back to wherever, but I hadn't booked a flight. Mmmm, I've never been to Rome I thought to myself, and it's just a few hours down the railtrack, people always rave about it, so off I went to the station and bought a train ticket to Rome. Unfortunately, the train was late arriving and I missed a connection in Ancona, I had maybe a minute to catch it, but the train left, not from a normal platform but from platform 2 North or something silly like that, Platfrom 2 was easy to find but 2 north was not an extension of 2, like they have in Netherlands, a 2A, 2B type setup. 2 north was hidden round the corner, by the time I found it, the train had gone, I wasn't the only one. So I wasted 3 hours wandering around Ancona and caught the next one arriving too late in the day to do anything worthwhile.

So, early start next morning and along with Steve who I met in the hostel, went off to see the Pope, arriving at the Vatican City around 9am, there was a bit of a cue to say the least, it ran along about 150m of a wall, round the corner for another 50m at least. What I didn't notice until the Monday was at the top of the queue, it went around the corner again for another 100m and then another 50m round another corner, ridiculous, and it wasn't even opening until 10am. In longest queue terms, second only to that at Fratton Park for FA Cup semi final tickets, Portsmouth v Liverpool in 1992. Well, it was too much so took a look at St Peter's square and the basilica. Then onto the Colleseum, queues here not so bad, just 30 minutes or so and we were in. From some angles, it's great, from others not so, I still think it looks better from outside rather than in, that's just my opinion.

After that, I kind of followed a tourist map to pick out a few sites, but in the end realised that in Rome you can just walk anywhere and you'll see something of interest. It is a pretty remarkable place, churches, museums, ancient roman ruins, fountains, sculptures, grand architecture, the city is full of it, I think it would take quite some time to get to know Rome.

On the Saturday, I had a good night out in Rome, watching South Africa win the World Cup final with some English people ;) and some USers , who needed some help with the rules, but I think they enjoyed it. Met a few people and just explored some of Rome's nightlife, that's what the Romans do!

Sunday the Vatican City was closed! I can't believe that really, if someone is given a country to themselves, then the least he should do is keep the bloody borders open seven days a week, especially where there is clearly an excessive demand to visit. Mondays it's only open a half day too, so I went along early again, was there before 9, doors opened at 10, I was in by around 11. Well, it's full of impressive paintings, sculptures and of course wall and ceiling murals, I don't have to explain to anyone what it's like, I think everyone knows the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's work etc. Glad I have been there and seen it, I won't go again though as there's just far too many groups and people there. Be warned!

Streaker in "Serene" San Marino

Arriving in Rimini from Ancona, we met up with a load of other Welsh fans in a designated bar, typically some British/Irish bar as was the case here. Sad, I don't like it, but at least I could find the people I wanted to see and then decide what to do. Found Rich and Em from Brussels again along with others from the boat and had an evening of interesting and educated debate over a few beers!

Next day, thanks to Dymock's Tours a bus was arranged to San Marino, the world's oldest constitutional republic apparently, which sits atop a mountain. We passed through the municipality of Serravalle, where the match was to be held in the evening and into San Marino the eponymous capital of "The Most Serene Republic of San Marino" by early afternoon.

Wandering around the centre of the city, contained within historic walls and defended by three towers, seems a bit of a maze at first, winding cobbled streets lead off in random direction but seemingly all meet up eventually and it's so small you can't get lost. Most of the businesses are restuarants, or souvenier shops, strangely selling, an array of dangerouns weapons, such as crossbows, samurai swords, machine guns and daggers, very bizarre. Really glad to bump into Mike Ings, his Kazakh wife and meet new son Daniel.

So, the game; first half Wales were ok, not great, but good enough to take a 2-0 lead against a poor San Marino, even Carl Robinson looked to have time on the ball in this game and played a dominant role in midfield! (cue comments from Phil). Second half we were shite, the most excitement was from a streaker, idiot, but provided some entertainment. The bus back was full of heated arguments about the match, players, the manager, the result, I was just relieved we had won the game, it doesn't happen often these days.

Athens' Acrapolis

Flew from Cyprus to Athens, stayed there just one evening, but was just enough time to get to see the Acropolis, which was a must do as I'd never been to Athens before. So on arrival, straight to hotel, dump bags and walk to the centre. On the way I saw a number of Lua Lua football shirts, the ex-Pompey star is now a hit in Athens where he plays for Olympiakos and still wears the number 32 he wore at Fratton Park. His popularity was clear by the fact his shirt was hung in front of the globally popular shirts of stars like Ronaldhino, Rooney, Ronaldo and Kaka.

The Acropolis was littered with heavy scaffolding on most sides, which thoroughly spoils the view, the crane sat alongside also didn't help. Good to see one of the most famous worldwide sites but pretty disappointing in its current state. On the way back we stopped for some traditional Greek food and were annoyed by one of those accordion players trying to entertain everyone. I really fancied following him after, wait until he was having his dinner some place, then stand by his table singing Welsh football songs and ask for money, see what he would do! Athens isn't that nice really, bit gritty and dusty, just a standard city in the main, except for the historical sites of course.

Next morning off to the bus station and caught a bus to Patras, crossed the Corinth canal, though I didn't see it, I was snoozing I think, and to the port for our boat from Patras to Ancona.


A twenty hour journey, there were twelve Welsh fans making this journey as a way of getting from Cyprus to San Marino for Wednesday's match. Perry kept us all guessing in the journey with his trivia quizzes and we played some poker with peanuts from the bar. Peanuts are better than chips as they don't get cold during the game, so you can still eat them after! Grabbed a couple of hours sleep on a couple of chairs, but was woken early when the cafe bar opened again and another day began. I went out on deck to get some fresh air and to wake up and caught a beautiful sunrise, the sky a multitude of rich colours made it worthwhile getting up so early for once. A few hours later an we arrived in Ancona, Italy.

Woeful Wales whacked in Cyprus

No sign of a job offer, so I decided last minute to join up with some friends to watch Wales play Cyprus in Nicosia. Flew to Larnaca and stayed a few nights. Got straight into the local ways by getting a souvlaki at a nice cafe and went in search of the local social scene. Strangely the bars were all staffed by Eastern Europeans or ex-USSRers, the first I went to had two Ukranian girls working, the next, two Moldovans, the next Romanians, the last one Uzbeks. Was fun chatting to some of them about my time in their respective countries, but the last two became tiresome as they wanted to be bought drinks to talk to them!! The Romanians just ignored me the rest of the time when i didn't buy them a drink, what a stupid way to run a bar! Next evening i met Paul from NZ who had escaped from home for a break after the heartbreak of seeing the Kiwis lose to France in the rugby world cup. He was still devastated. But he was a funny guy and we had a cracking night out chatting a lot with a Slovakian this time, what is it with Cyprus, why is noone who works in a bar here Cypriot?


Phil arrived the next day and we spotted Perry and some other Welsh fans around the town, evening before the game, was good to see familiar faces after not having been to a match during the last 16 months away.


Day of the game arrived, minibus to Nicosia, bit of a walk around the old town, with it's cobbled lanes, tourist shops and cafes. Went to the game and Wales were woeful. Despite taking the lead which gave some optimism, the second half we were very poor and ended up losing 3-1 to an average Cyprus team. Very disappointing. Another enjoyable but subdued evening out with a few people and the next morning I was glad to get out of Cyprus.

Wheeling in Ninh Binh

Ninh Binh is friendly little place near the coast a couple of hours south of Hanoi. There's not much to see in the town itself apart from friendly locals trying to usher you into their house for food/drink. The main reason to visit here is the beautiful surrounding countryside rich with karst hills, waterways, rice paddies, temples and small villages.


I arrived by train and stayed right next door to the station to save walking far. Along this street almost everyone has converted their housefront into a part time cafe or shop, a 'cafe' here being a plastic table and chairs outside the house, but it would mean that you got some real "home cooking" yes? Well, no, in most cases it was instant noodles from a packet. But they were all really friendly and always gave a handful of longan or lychee fruit to go away with. Strangely, everyone in the street had the exact same printed English language menu too!

The places worth visiting lie outside of NinhBinh and require transport. I tried to get a decent route map to get myself around, but noone was able to provide a good one and kept insisting it was difficult to get around, which is surely a ploy to get you onto their trips. So, I decided to hire a motorbike and driver for the day. First we headed off to Tam Coc, where I jumped onto a row boat with two ladies. They were mother and daughter and it was the mother doing all the hard work rowing. The boat takes you along the Ngo Dong river, through paddy fields with karst hills protruding all around, through some karst caves and to a couple of temples. It's a peaceful trip with beautiful scenery all around, similar to that surrounding the Lijiang (Li river) around Yangshuo/XingPing in China.


Not such a peaceful trip was the bike ride to the next location, a series of Buddhist temples and again the scenery along the way was fantastic even if the temples were not so. Located on a hillside with shrines carved into caves, the site was ok, but having seen many temples around Asia, it doesn't rank so highly. Oddly, here I found some young girls asking me for money, in French! Clearly some things from the French colonial period still linger on.

We then sped on the final stop, the ruins of a citadel at Hoa Lu, which reigned as the capital of Vietnam from 968-1009 during the Dinh and Le dynasties. Sadly, the citadel is almost entirely destroyed. The views and the crazy motorbike ride journey there and back to Ninh Binh though was well worth it, even if the citdel wasn't. Through small villages, past more paddy fields and surrounding hills, waiting for flocks of sheep to clear the road, gave a pleasant, if speedy look at the local life in the countryside.

That evening was the first night of the Asian Football Championships and so I went for a walk to find somewhere to watch. Only a few doors away from my guesthouse I found someone at home watching, with their doors wide open and sneaked a look. The viewer insided spotted me and dragged me into watch, his wife immediately gave me their now familiar English menu and I sat down to watch Thailand v Iraq. As we sat and chatted - as best as we could without knowing each others' language - I inspected his motorbike that was sitting in the front room and suddenly realised this was the guy who had been driving me around on his motorbike that day! I suppose I'd been looking at the back of his head most of the day and hadn't got to know his face so well.
Bit of a surprise! Anyway, his wife's cooking was sadly as unconvincing as his motorbike driving had been, but they were ever so friendly and delighted to have a visitor. I left with the usual handful of longan and good feelings about the residents of NinhBinh.

Historic HoiAn to Hectic Hanoi

Hanoi, well what can you say other than it's chaotic. Stepping out of the station after a long journey from Hoi An, during which I shared a cabin with a British couple living in the Cameron Highlands on Central Malaysia, where they taught at a local school, I was bombarded by offers of xe-om (motorbike) and car taxis, wherever I paused, I was approached. Fortunately they are not as persuasive as in some places, so was able to escape and made my way to find a guest house.

The most striking thing about Hanoi is the traffic, it's never ending, a stream of mainly motorbikes constantly passing by day and night. In the few places where they now have traffic light controls, it's amazing to see the stampede as the light turns green, hundreds, thousands of bikes just whizz off dodging and weaving their way through the traffic, never stopping, just slowing down to swerve around pedestrians and other vehicles that are heading in a similar or perpendicular direction. It's amazing to watch, a bit hairy to be involved as I was on a few occassions. The thirty minute ride to and from the football stadium was memorable, I didn't know whether to close my eyes or to watch alertly at the route, so I was prepared for any sudden weaving, slowing or other evasive actions. Of course the drivers know what they are doing and that gave me confidence, but it's strange to be driving just a leg's width away from another bike and see them swerve towards you, then edge away just in time. Roundabouts and crossings are unbelievable, slowing down, dodging and weaving and everyone just gets through with little problem, it's amazing! trying to walk across a road is another thing and takes some nerve and practice!

As for the rest of Hanoi, it's got heaps of chracter, old buildings, a mixture of colonial and Vietnamese, a mix of food places, some of which blend Asian and French style for some interesting cuisine, ad hoc morning markets, which seem to appear anywhere, generally nice people, though you have to watch them as they do try to take advantage of foreigners and a just generally non-stop scene of activity. I didn't love it, but it's certainly fascinating viewing.