The End Has No End Part I

In the last installment I was in Taiwan. That feels like a world away – which, technically is true. I've spent an extraordinary amount of time traveling in the last two weeks, just to get to that particular place at the right time. Hours and hours on end in the train, or the bus, a lot of boredom, but also a lot of laughs and drinks with fellow travelers and friends.


To give you short overview of my travels since then: I got back to Hong Kong, crossed the border into China and made my way to Guilin, famous for it's karst mountains and spectacular views. From there I got a bus to Changsha, a non-descript Chinese city which only claim to fame is being close to the small village where Chairman Mao was born.


The reason I went there was because I wanted to meet up with a very good French friend from Vietnam, Cedric, who was staying in this city with his American-Vietnamese girlfriend Kim. It was a great deal of fun seeing my former housemate and to celebrate my birthday with him. Fortunately, we were taken out for traditional dinners (which in China involves a lot of drinking) by the host family of Kim. They even bought me a birthday cake; I can't remember the last time I had one.



After spending a good amount of time in Changsha, I spent close to twenty hours in the train to check one of the “must-see places” in China: The Terracotta Army in Xi'an. Thousands upon thousands of clay soldiers buried by the emperor that first unified China two millennium back.


Tasked with guarding the his royal highness in the afterlife, they still form a spectacular sight lined up row on row in battle formation. It took the emperor close to thirty years to build this unusual tomb, and thirty years after it's discovery new pits with broken and toppled over warriors are still being found.



The big prize was in sight. After another night train, I finally found myself in Beijing, the capitals of capitals and what a lovely place it was. My time there was defiantly too short for the great amount of sights in and around the big city. In no particularer: Tianemen Square (in Dutch, Plein van de Hemelse Vrede), the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and a ten kilometer hike on top of a ruined but authentic stretch of the Great Wall.



Beijing was another meeting point. This time two Brits, Cath and Joe, both former colleagues of mine from my time teaching English in Hanoi. We've been together ever since, because all three of us were planning to do the same route back home.

The great Trans-Siberian railway. In general, it's more popular to do it in the eastern direction, from Moscow to Beijing, rather than the other way around. I guess it has to do with logistics, it's quite difficult to obtain Russian tourist visa's, though I got lucky when I managed to get mine in Hong Kong.



From Beijing to Moscow, the train takes seven long, ardenous days. But we were quite interested in Mongolia, so we decided to have some downtime in country best known for it's retarded kids (I know, bad joke) and that great military leader and “barbariannn” Chingis Khan (pronounced as Jingis Ghaan).

For even more adventurous adventures go the second installement!

The End Has No End Part II

Out of the Blue

Taiwan. When the Portuguese “discovered” this island roughly the size of the Netherlands off the coast of China they aptly named it Ilha Formosa: the beautiful island.. Nowadays it's also known as the “other” China. That's Taiwan summed up: beautiful and democratic. And also ignored as a sovereign nation by the world, though paradoxically at the same time being in the spotlight of international relations.


I've been staying with the family of my good friend Wai for the last two weeks in Hong Kong. But we both agreed that staying in the city for such a time would be a bit boring. So, taking a map, we decided to make a little detour to somewhere close and easy.


Taiwan is only on hour and half away from Hong Kong, no visa problems, the weather is good and flights are plenty (it's still difficult to fly directly to or from mainland China – flights get redirected through “neutral” countries first).

I didn't know what to expect when we arrived at Taipei International Airport. I knew I was going to a relatively well-off country. Something akin to South-Korea or Japan; neither country I visited before though. People would have money, skyscrapers, big cars. The electronic consumer good manufacturer of the world. All of this was true, and a bit more. Though less clean and less organized than Hong Kong, but more expensive.


Taiwan is a really unique country in that, apart from two dozen “important” nations such as Tulavu and Benin, it isn't officially recognized by the majority of the world. Also, Taiwan is the only country in the world, apart from Vatican City – but even the priests have a special observer's status –, that doesn't have a seat in the United Nations. One other big surprise were the people. The Taiwanese were the most friendliest, open en genuinely nice people I've met in a long time.


How come? I would have expected otherwise: shunned by the world, isolated, David versus Goliath. But here you have it. Proud, friendly people. They don't consider themselves Chinese anymore, but Taiwanese. They've been apart from China, being de facto a completely different country for close to a hundred years. First as a colony under the Japanese and then after the Second World War and the “reinvasion”by the Kuomintang lost out against the communists in the civil war of 1949, as the Republic of China.


It's a beautiful island with plenty of places to discover and a climate that's surprisingly quite tropic. Taiwan was formed by two continental shelves pushing against each other and upwards. Much in the same way the Himalaya's were formed a plenty many years ago. On one hand this gives the Taiwanese a beautiful mountain range covered in lush jungles through the middle of island. On the other: frequent earthquakes.

Now I do not know how Hong Kong manages to be a lot colder and still lie further west and a bit to the south. Guess it has to do with an island being out of the blue. That beautiful sea, the Pacific Ocean, manages quite impressive to give Taiwan a pretty good climate all your around. For the history buffs there's plenty of old temples and monuments to visit. My personal favorite: the old VOC-forts in Tainan. Though I didn't really the like the giant statue of the Dutch surrendering to the Chinese.


One other thing I noticed where the frequent fly-overs of military aircraft in almost all the cities we visited on the island. F-16's, older generation fighters and AWACS aircraft could be counted on to disrupt the peace and quiet almost every five minutes. Just after we left, there was a training accident and three pilots got killed. And of course a earthquake struck in the south injuring close to a hundred people.


I can honestly say Taiwan was the nicest surprise in Asia. Unfortunately we only time for a very short stay. Wai had to go back to the Netherlands and I had to take care of some business in Hong Kong before heading back into China. Luckily when we came back to the big city the weather had changed favorably. No more rain or cold. The sun started to shine and the people began to smile and let me leave the subway before barging their way in.


Secretly, between you and me, I think it was a bit of that Taiwan spirit that manage to sneak on board the plane before take-off and flew back with us.

Year of the Tiger

It's a special day today. On this day, exactly a year ago, I left for the great unknown, taking a plane and flying half-way around the world to Southeast-Asia. It's been one year on the road. Happy anniversary to myself!

Back then I didn't know what to expect, nor did I know where I would end up in a year's time. There was a real possibility that I would have been home again. When I left, I didn't have that much money on me. But, in the back of my mind, I knew I would try to make it whatever the odds. And I did it.

Two years ago I visited Hong Kong for the first time and you could say it was love at first sight. It took me a while, but I made back to this bustling city. How much I try, I'm still awestruck by the place. It's clean, modern, energetic, busy and the vista's are unbelievable. The second time around the admiration has only deepened.

Driving from the airport to the city you see huge skyscrapers, apartment blocks three times higher then anything you see anywhere else, green mountains, huge suspension bridges and in the waterways and bays countless ships, in all forms and sizes. At night, Hong Kong lights up. The skyline is still the most beautiful I ever seen.

As you may know, it's officially the year of the Tiger. Chinese (and Vietnamese for that matter) don't celebrate the New Year the way the Western world does: on the 1st of January. No, they do it according to the lunar calender. And the new year started in China with a big bang on the 13th of February. The only downside was the weather: unusual cold and rainy for the time of year – though not as freezing as back home, in Europe.


Being fortunate enough to visit Hong Kong for a second time, I was especially lucky to see the city during it's new year celebrations. Together with my old friend Wai (remember him from Vietnam?) and his family we saw the amazing fireworks spectacle in Victoria Harbour, had front line seats during the annual Night Parade and witnessed traditional “lucky” Lion dances on the street and in shopping malls.

I haven't only been in Hong Kong for the last two weeks. I just got back from a little detour to the “other” China: Taiwan. The beautiful island left a lasting impression. But to make things a little bit more manageable, for me and for you, you can read all about that in the next installment.


For the moment I'm staying for a couple of more days in Hong Kong, organizing my onward travels. Not that I mind at all. Big city, bright lights.

Halfway Home Part II

Note: because of the accumulated backlog, I'm updating The Great Escape in two installments. This time, it's less about my travels and more about the unique country, it's problems and virtues I'm currently travelling in. The first part can be read here.

One thing can't be denied. Chinese are getting more and more aware of their country's power and influence. They don't accept critism from the West anymore. They are telling the rest of the world: we are doing it our own way.

Internet censorship? That's for social stability. Tibet? Internal matter. Domestic market closed for international corporations? Chinese companies first. Some of it is understandable and maybe some of it rightly so.

On the other hand, too many times is China hiding behind the excuse of being a “developing” country and shying away from it's international responsibility. Or they retreat back behind their Chinese Great cultural wall: we have Confucius; our culture is different; we have five thousands of years of history; so we play a different ball game.

If that doesn't work, they can always revert back to the most childish one: the West doesn't have the right to say these things after years and years of abuse, neglect and bullying.

You can see all of this travelling around. There are the obivous signs of economical progress. Big, wide boulevards, huge construction sites, fast food restaurants, department stores, gleaming, new super highways, big SUV's and all-terrain vehicles. Money, status, pleasure girls, corruption, poverty and a serious lack of respect for the environment.

And there obvious signs of the “different” attitude of the Chinese. They find it kind of strange that the white monkey's (that's me) don't speak Chinese at all. Go anywhere else in the world and the traveller will find it strange that the local population doesn't speak English.

The last couple of weeks I have travelled and stayed with Frank. Together with another Dutch friend, he lives, works and enjoys himself in Kunming, the provencial capital of Yunnan. The so-called “City of Eternal Spring” has a population of six milion. That's as big as Hanoi or Saigon in Vietnam. It was a great base for exploring the province.

Frank speaks the language, immerses himself into the culture and country and has plenty of Chinese friends. Chinese people don´t really talk about politics and I actually haven´t had any discussions about censorship or democracy. He was an invaluable help showing me the “real” China. Going south, to small cities, talking with the people from the street, going to kareoke bars and sauna's, tasting genuine Chinese food. Without him I wouldn't have had such an valuable experience.

I also “did” the tourist route, going north. It was a bit different from the typical, banana pancake trail in Southeast Asia. Tourism in China doesn't mean Western tourists, but domestic tourism. So a lot of Chinese taking a lot of pictures of unimportant things. It was nice though, and eventually I did manage to get to Shangri-la, high up in the mountains, close to Tibet.


Travelling like this was a lot harder. China is not easy, especially not when you don´t talk the language and when you can´t read the characters on signs and buildings. Walking through the streets, or trying to get a bus to a different city or ordering something at a small, dinky street restaurant almost felt like trying to access websites that before were easy to get on, but now were behind a closed door, the key thrown away. The feeling of being disconnected is frustrating.
Coming back to the Great Firewall: it serves two purposes. Not only does it blocks websites that are considered detrimental to the Chinese cause, but equally important, it enables Chinese companies and websites to set up shop and copy succesful concepts without having to worry about foreign competition.

An interesting pattern can be seen here. China is not only known for the being the world's workshop, manufacturing everything from shoes to oiltankers, but also the leading nation of counterfeiting consumer goods. China is the world's greatest copycat.

As far as the Chinese are concerned – they don't give a rat's ass about possible complaints or what the rest of the world thinks about this. Or them. Because for the Chinese, China is the world.

On a personal note: as you might have guessed from the title of this post, I have decided to head back home. After being on the road for more than a year, living out of my backpack, I'm starting to feel tired and the strain. I feel the definite curse of travel fatigue. Though I can't say exactly when, I'm planning to be back home in the near future. How? The long way of course.

And at the moment I'm in Hong Kong, that lovely city, finishing up celebrating the Chinese New Year. Welcome to the Year of the Tiger! Grrrraaauw...!

Halfway Home Part I

Note: because of the accumulated backlog, I'm updating The Great Escape in two installments. This time, it's less about my travels and more about the unique country, it's problems and virtues I'm currently travelling in. The next installment will be in a couple of days. Enjoy the read!

For once, I am not to blame for the lack of updates on this weblog. Ever since I set foot in China, I haven't been able access certain websites such as youtube, facebook and even this site, blogspot. This is not a new phenomena and I'm not the only one who has this problem. I'm currently being denied access by the Chinese government thanks to the so-called “Great Firewall” a pun on that famous Chinese feat of engineering The Great Wall.


It's internet censorship and technology in it's greatest form. Not only normal websites, such as facebook.com or blogspot.com which enables your average netizen to start a blog, get blocked, but also websites the Chinese government deems offensive (such as pornography), the Chinese version of BBC, websites that belong to outlawed groups like Falong Gong and even individual search strings.

It doesn't matter if I'm on Google or Wikipedia looking for “subversive” material. For example, if I would look for Tianamen Square (Plein van de Hemelse Vrede) or Tibet or the Daila Lama, the search result will automatically get blocked.

There are ways to get around the Great Firewall. Using proxy servers, little software tools, or in my case, hopping over to “that other” China: Hong Kong. Because, even though this magnificent, former city state is nominally a part of China, it's still independent in many ways. And one is internet access. And Hong Kong is where I'm currently at.

The Chinese government calls it “monitoring and control” to safeguard the social security (whatever that means) and to keep all those evils and propaganda spawned by the Western cultural world away from the pure and innocent Chinese. For all intents and purposes, it means that China (with it's 360 million internet users) is outside “the internet” and using it's own, domestic version.


A lot of the blocked sites are renowned English digital domains, which is for the average Chinese internet user no big concern. According to some sources an astonishing amount of ten million Chinese speak English. Sounds alot? That's 0.77 percent of the total population (of 1.3 billion people – 1.3 miljard voor de Nederlanders). Everything in China's version of the internet gets replicated – in Chinese. So Google becomes Baidu, Youtube Tudou and the copycat of Facebook is Xiaonei.

This is just to show that China is big. Very big. I've spent the last month in the southwestern most province, Yunnan, and even now I've only scratched the surface of this magnificent province with it's diverse landscapes and people. And that's only one region. Travelling through Yunnan made me realize, maybe really for the first time, how big China actually is and the ridiculous amount of people that live here.

The last couple of weeks I have travelled and stayed with a Dutch friend from the old days. Together with another Dutch guy, he lives, works and enjoys himself in Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan. The so-called “City of Eternal Spring” has a population of six million. That's as big as Hanoi or Saigon in Vietnam. It was a great base for exploring the province.

Frank, (check his excellent Dutch blog here, and his English blog here) speaks the language, immerses himself into the culture and country and has plenty of Chinese friends. Chinese people don´t really talk about politics and I actually haven´t had any discussions about censorship or democracy. He was an invaluable help showing me the “real” China. Going south, to small cities, talking with the people from the street, going to karaoke bars and sauna's, tasting genuine Chinese food. Without him I wouldn't have had such an valuable experience.

The Chinese have a feeling that they are going somewhere for the first time in recent history. The big question is: are they going forward , to being a respected, international player, into the future or are they going to go inwards, closed off, unwilling to deal with the big, bad (Western) world, much like previous incarnations of the Chinese empires in the days of yore.

Like I said before, I am in Hong Kong staying with the family of a friend from previous travels (remember Wai from Vietnam?). Chinese New Year is just a couple of days away. It's been a while since I've been in Hong Kong, but this place is magical.
Don't worry, I'm back from the internet void. Expect Halfway Home Part II in the next couple of days.

Year's End

Lời chúc tết (Greetings from New Year!), or well, that's what the Vietnamese dictionary says. Best of wishes for 2010 to everybody who's reading this blog, back home and abroad. My time is almost up in Vietnam. I'll be leaving in a week's time, up north towards the mountains and that great big country yonder: China.


Christmas and New Year's aren't really celebrated in Vietnam. Though that's not really true. On Christmas Eve, we had a great night with colleagues and students doing “Vietnamese” stuff: a lot of drinking, cheering and eating dog. That's right, I ate a dog. Morally repulsive but by that stage my taste buds weren't objecting and didn't get tickled negatively.


The big festivities happen around Tết-holidays. For the non-Asians here, Tết is the Vietnamese equivalent of Chinese (Lunar) New Year and, depending on the lunar calendar, falls in the end of January or early February. This year it will happen on the 13th February, when I'll hopefully be in Hong Kong.


The month of December has been quite uneventful. Working took a great deal of my time. Watching the Vietnamese football team lose against Singapore in the SEA-games (Olympic Games for South-East Asia) and a couple of hours later finding all the Vietnamese celebrating their second place position by racing down the street and waving flags was quite amusing.


I grudgingly had to accept three little kittens into our house and found them violating my room, computer and bed on more than one occasion. I threatened my flatmates multiple times that I would eat one of them. But hearts and minds – and I these damn felines won over mine.


After working for almost six months I can honestly say that I enjoyed my time here – with some ups and downs. Almost everybody that I meet that lives and works in the capital of Vietnam has the same experience: the good days are great and plentiful, but the bad times suck monkey balls. Traffic starts annoying you or maybe the people. Rolling blackouts, corrupt cops or the government blocking websites (such as Facebook!). It could be the language barrier, the culture or the smog and pollution, the irresponsible behavior of some or just simple boredom.


Living in Hanoi is easy, until you want to get stuff done. Sometimes I started doubting myself: I lived in South Africa before, I have been to some difficult countries and area's of the world, why do I have troubles in Vietnam? It's safe, plenty of stuff to do, other Western people to meet and mingle with. Not all is what it seems to be.


The American magazine Business Week published a list of “Hardship Posts” in 2009: places in the world where living is difficult because of climate, crime, pollution or other things. Apart from the usual suspects (Lagos, Nigera; Jakarta, Nairobi, Mumbai) surprisingly Hanoi and Saigon also make the list ranked 11th and 9th respectively. Read the article.


So it's not all in my head. But then you have the days that the sun is shining, the people are smiling and traffic just eases along. There is so much to be found in this city, so much history. Little temples, parks or lakes tucked away behind huge hotels and apartment buildings, alleyways that lead to cozy and beautiful courtyards, crooked houses and broad tree-lined boulevards. Many times it felt I was discovering new things everyday. Like somebody once told me: this city is all about the details.

I'm going to miss Hanoi and Vietnam, I'm going to miss the friends that I made here, both tourists, expats, students and colleagues But it feels good leaving when the feeling is still good.

Thanks for the great times and a big hug to everybody!