Hi everyone,
next blog entry!
Last one, from what I recall, was from Japan, which means I skipped a country in my reporting. I am now writing this from the back garden of a hostel in Melbourne, Australia.
But first things first. After spending a couple more days in Tokyo, I flew to Singapore, the officially last Asian country of my trip. I celebrated that with a good set of dumplings (from here on it's all fake!).
Other than that, not really that much to report from Singapore! When coming from Japan it's a bit of a letdown, and in fact a girl I spoke to in Tokyo who lives in Singapore asked me "why would you go to Singapore? All there is to do is working and shopping". Considering those two are essentially the two activities I'm trying to stay away from on my trip, there wasn't much left.
I *did* end up going downtown though one day, and yeah, other than masses of department stores (and myriad of those "hole-in-the-wall, we-all-sell-cellphones" shops) and thousands of shoppers populating the sidewalks, there's not much.
Oh yeah, one more activity that makes Singapore a tourist Mecca is the fact that prostitution is legal there. And of course, I ended up in a hotel right in the middle of the red-light district (that's what happens when you search online for the cheapest hotel in Singapore). I was initially going to try to get a back massage when I'm in Singapore, but given my location I gave up on that, since I saw myself having to explain "no, not THAT kind of massage, just a regular one!". Also, I hear that micky-ing (with optional organ removal) is a big danger in Singapore, so thanks but no thanks. I need my liver to taste some of the Somerville Slumbrew I'm hearing about.
The prostitution aspect also explained the huge number of Indians in that area of town (I was rather stunned when I arrived, thinking I hit the wrong country), as it's a popular sex tourism spot for them.
But, on to the next country!
Australia is - not surprisingly - very nice, and just the aspect that I can speak English everywhere is already a big plus. The big minus being that everything is outrageously expensive here when your account is managed in US dollars. The slope on my trusty finance spreadsheet graph has taken a dip down, that's for sure.
So, I arrived in Melbourne, and I ended up booking a bus tour that would get me along the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians (a mountain range in West Victoria).
Well, AWESOME!!
The weather was gorgeous (there was a big storm the night before) and I quickly chatted up some people who were very nice. I'll let the pics speak for themselves, it was a stunning scenery.
On the way to the Grampians (and our hostel where we stayed over the night), we were driving through the dark, and managed to run over 3 kangaroos. Sad, but apparently such a common occurrence that the driver neither flinched nor slowed down. His only comment was "sorry, nothing we can do for those anymore".
The next day, right next to the hostel we saw enough live specimen though, with shitloads of Boing Boing Boing (as Jessica put it today on chat) and a good amount of fist fighting and roundhouse kicks. See pics again for action shots.
So, that's Australia so far. I'm back in Melbourne, and interestingly it seems I will actually not see downtown Melbourne. Problem is that I need to laundry today (badly!), and I'm flying out tomorrow to Queenstown, NZ. And I'm dead tired and need to get up at 5:45am tomorrow (for a 9am flight, what's up with that?!)
Speaking of flights, I am also now in my last quarter of my trip, AND I know when exactly my trip will end, which is the 17th/18th of December! I realized at some point that I'm reentering Christian territory and that Christmas is coming up quickly, so I needed to make sure that I get my flights changed and confirmed (so far they had all still been "parked" in March next year). So yeah, the itinerary is that I will be in New Zealand for 13 days (until the 26th), then back to Sydney (and surroundings) until the 10th of December, and then 6 days in Honolulu! Then back to Chicago on the 17th, and depending on whether I get a flight on the same day or the next, I'm back in Boston then! Looking forward to seeing all of you guys again.
So, tomorrow I'm flying to New Zealand, and my plan is to drive through the country, camping in various places. Internet connection will probably be not so good, so it might be a while until the next blog!
( direct photo link )
Cheers,
Ralf
Bis denne,
next blog entry!
Last one, from what I recall, was from Japan, which means I skipped a country in my reporting. I am now writing this from the back garden of a hostel in Melbourne, Australia.
But first things first. After spending a couple more days in Tokyo, I flew to Singapore, the officially last Asian country of my trip. I celebrated that with a good set of dumplings (from here on it's all fake!).
Other than that, not really that much to report from Singapore! When coming from Japan it's a bit of a letdown, and in fact a girl I spoke to in Tokyo who lives in Singapore asked me "why would you go to Singapore? All there is to do is working and shopping". Considering those two are essentially the two activities I'm trying to stay away from on my trip, there wasn't much left.
I *did* end up going downtown though one day, and yeah, other than masses of department stores (and myriad of those "hole-in-the-wall, we-all-sell-cellphones" shops) and thousands of shoppers populating the sidewalks, there's not much.
Oh yeah, one more activity that makes Singapore a tourist Mecca is the fact that prostitution is legal there. And of course, I ended up in a hotel right in the middle of the red-light district (that's what happens when you search online for the cheapest hotel in Singapore). I was initially going to try to get a back massage when I'm in Singapore, but given my location I gave up on that, since I saw myself having to explain "no, not THAT kind of massage, just a regular one!". Also, I hear that micky-ing (with optional organ removal) is a big danger in Singapore, so thanks but no thanks. I need my liver to taste some of the Somerville Slumbrew I'm hearing about.
The prostitution aspect also explained the huge number of Indians in that area of town (I was rather stunned when I arrived, thinking I hit the wrong country), as it's a popular sex tourism spot for them.
But, on to the next country!
Australia is - not surprisingly - very nice, and just the aspect that I can speak English everywhere is already a big plus. The big minus being that everything is outrageously expensive here when your account is managed in US dollars. The slope on my trusty finance spreadsheet graph has taken a dip down, that's for sure.
So, I arrived in Melbourne, and I ended up booking a bus tour that would get me along the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians (a mountain range in West Victoria).
Well, AWESOME!!
The weather was gorgeous (there was a big storm the night before) and I quickly chatted up some people who were very nice. I'll let the pics speak for themselves, it was a stunning scenery.
On the way to the Grampians (and our hostel where we stayed over the night), we were driving through the dark, and managed to run over 3 kangaroos. Sad, but apparently such a common occurrence that the driver neither flinched nor slowed down. His only comment was "sorry, nothing we can do for those anymore".
The next day, right next to the hostel we saw enough live specimen though, with shitloads of Boing Boing Boing (as Jessica put it today on chat) and a good amount of fist fighting and roundhouse kicks. See pics again for action shots.
So, that's Australia so far. I'm back in Melbourne, and interestingly it seems I will actually not see downtown Melbourne. Problem is that I need to laundry today (badly!), and I'm flying out tomorrow to Queenstown, NZ. And I'm dead tired and need to get up at 5:45am tomorrow (for a 9am flight, what's up with that?!)
Speaking of flights, I am also now in my last quarter of my trip, AND I know when exactly my trip will end, which is the 17th/18th of December! I realized at some point that I'm reentering Christian territory and that Christmas is coming up quickly, so I needed to make sure that I get my flights changed and confirmed (so far they had all still been "parked" in March next year). So yeah, the itinerary is that I will be in New Zealand for 13 days (until the 26th), then back to Sydney (and surroundings) until the 10th of December, and then 6 days in Honolulu! Then back to Chicago on the 17th, and depending on whether I get a flight on the same day or the next, I'm back in Boston then! Looking forward to seeing all of you guys again.
So, tomorrow I'm flying to New Zealand, and my plan is to drive through the country, camping in various places. Internet connection will probably be not so good, so it might be a while until the next blog!
( direct photo link )
Cheers,
Ralf
---------------------- Deutsch --------------------------------
Hallo alle,
nächster Blog-Eintrag!
Der letzte, insofern ich mich erinnern kann, war ja aus Japan, was dann heisst daß ich ein Land übersprungen habe in meiner "Reportage". Ich sitze gerade in einem Cafe in der Nähe meines Hostels, in Melbourne, Australien.
Aber der Reihe nach. Nachdem ich noch zwei Tage in Tokio verbracht habe, bin ich dann nach Singapur geflogen, dem offiziell letzten asiatischen Land auf meiner Reise. Das hab ich dann auch mit einem leckeren Klößchen-(Dumplings)-Essen gefeiert. Ab jetzt sind´s nur noch Nachahmungen!
Ansonsten, nicht viel zu Erzählen aus Singapur! Wenn man von Japan kommt, ist es ein bisschen enttäuschend; ich hab mich in Tokio mit einer Mitbewohnerin unterhalten, die in Singapur lebt, und sie fragte nur "warum gehst Du denn nach Singapur? Da kann nichts anderes machen als Arbeiten und Shoppen". Was natürlich die zwei Aktivitäten sind, von denen ich mich fernhalten möchte auf meinem Trip :)
Ich bin dann aber einmal zur Innenstadt gegangen, und ja, außer Einkaufshäusern (und tausende dieser "Loch-in-der-Wand, wir-verkaufen-alle-nur-Handys" Läden), und natürlich Massen an Leute auf den Bürgersteigen, gab´s da wirklich nicht viel.
Eine weitere Aktivität die Singapur zum Touristenmekka macht ist auch noch die legalisierte Prostitution. Und natürlich war mein Hotel mitten im Rotlichtviertel (kommt davon wenn man das billigste Hotel in Singapur bucht). Ich wollte mir ursprünglich ne Massage buchen in Singapur, aber wegen meiner Stadtlage hab ich das dann sein lassen. Ansonsten hätte ich wahrscheinlich ne halbe Stunde erklären müssen daß ich keine "besondere Massage" haben will. Ich hab auch gehört, daß Singapur ein hohes Risiko hat, daß die die Drinks panschen (mit optionaler Organentfernung später), und das muss ja nun wirklich nicht sein. In Somerville hat ne Brauerei aufgemacht während meiner Abwesenheit, da brauche ich meine Leber noch um das anzutesten.
Die Prostitution erklärte auch den hohen Anteil an Indern in dem Stadtteil (ich dachte erst ich bin im falschen Land), da Sextourismus in Singapur wohl recht populär ist in Indien.
Aber, zum nächsten Land!
Australien ist, wie zu erwarten, sehr schön, und natürlich schon der Aspekt daß ich die Landessprache spreche, ist ein großes Plus. Ein Minus ist allerdings daß alles hier sauteuer ist, auf jeden Fall wenn man sein Konto in US Dollar führt.
Der Graph meiner Finanzen in meiner Excel Tabelle hat direkt nen Knick nach unten gemacht.
Nun ja, ich bin also in Melbourne angekommen, und hab direkt ne Tour gebucht, die mich an der Great Ocean Road und den Grampians (ein Gebirgszug in West-Victoria) vorbeiführt.
SUPER!
Das Wetter was klasse (die Nacht vorher hat´s fürchterlich geregnet), und ich hab auch direkt ein paar Leute im Bus kennengelernt. Die Bilder lasse ich mal für sich selbst sprechen.
Auf dem Weg zu den Grampians (und wo auch die Übernachtung stattfand), sind wir dann durch die Dunkelheit gefahren, und habe dann auch insgesamt 3 Kängurus umgenietet. Schade um die Kängurus, aber scheinbar passiert das wohl so oft, daß der Fahrer furztrocken weitergefahren ist, ohne den Lenker zu verreissen oder sonstwas. Sein einziger Kommentar war "Tut mir leid, für die können wir nichts mehr tun".
Am nächsten Tag, direkt neben der Übernachtung, waren dann aber zahllose lebende Exemplare, mit viel Boing Boing Boing (wie Jessica Webster heute sagte), und auch mit Boxen und Treten, wie man sich das so vorstellt. Ein paar Bilder hab ich davon auch.
Soweit zu Australien. Ich bin wieder in Melbourne, und so wie´s aussieht werde ich die Innenstadt nicht zu sehen bekommen! Das Problem ist daß ich heute Wäsche waschen muss (dringend!), und morgen fliege ich direkt weiter nach Queenstown, Neuseeland. Und ich bin relativ platt und muss morgen um 5:45 auf der Matte stehen um zum Flughafen zu kommen (für einen 9:00 Flug!)
Wo wir von Flügen sprechen, ich bin jetzt im letzten Viertel meinen Trips, UND ich weiß mittlerweile wann genau ich wieder in Boston bin, nämlich am 17./18.12. ir ist irgendwann aufgefallen, daß ich wieder in christlichen Gefilden bin, und daß es auch langsam auf Weihnachten zugeht. Deswegen haben ich dann meine restlichen Flüge umgebucht (bis jetzt hatte ich die alle "geparkt" im März nächsten Jahres), was dann heißt daß ich für 13 Tage in Neuseeland sein werde (bis zum 26.12.), dann weiter nach Sydney und Umgebung (bis zum 10.12.) und dann 6 Tage Honolulu! Danach dann weiter nach Chicago am 17.12., und je nachdem ob ich einen Flug am gleichen Tag kriege oder den nächsten, bin ich dann wieder in Boston. Freu mich schon.
So, morgen geht´s also weiter nach Neuseeland, und mein Plan ist durchs Land zu fahren und zu Campen. Internetverbindung wird wahrscheinlich nicht so toll sein, von daher kann´s ein bisschen dauern bis zum nächsten Eintrag!
( Fotodirektlink )
Bis denne,
Ralf
No comments:
Post a Comment