COLOURED AIR

In the shower this morning, trying to sober up, I got to thinking about coloured air. As I watched the steam escape from the window, I imagined the cold air coming in to replace it. And then I started thinking how awesome it would be if all air was coloured. Hot purples, reds, pinks and oranges spinning and spiraling past each other en route to a higher place. Replaced by cool deep greens and icy blues quietly creeping along the floor. I thought I had really figured out something special. But now in the sobriety of evening I realize that such a rainbow of beautiful colours would only serve to block all the nice scenery that I love so much. And probably make driving pretty dangerous.

WHITE WATER RAFTING?

I recently visited a town called Mendoza. At the base of the Andes it is famous for it's wineries and rafting. The snowmelt from the huge mountains keeps the rivers pumping in what seems to be an otherwise arid landscape. Fancying a new adventure I signed up for a days white water rafting. But due to all the sediment brought down en route from the mountains the water water rafting was actually more like chocolate milk rafting. But regardless of this it was still very scary and thus, very fun. And I very nearly fell out of our raft at least once.

Our team; Two Mexicans, two Belgians, an Argentine and myself.
Paddling for dear life; I was scared, but I guess everyone else thought it was funny.
Approaching the rapids.
Facing the fear; our raft gets bashed between the rapids and rocks. No one died.

MATERNITY CLOTHES

During my first week or two in Argentina I was in constant amazement at how many pregnant women I seen out and about. 'Everyone must be super fertile here', I thought, 'Must be all that Argentine beef'. But today I realized why I have noticed so many round bellies. No one here wears maternity clothes. Normal tank tops and T-shirts have become belly tops with apparently no embarrassment. Realizing this (if it is indeed the case) got me wondering about our culture of maternity clothes and, essentially, covering up our pregnancies.

GLIMPSE OF THE ANDES

RED LIGHT DISTRICT

I'm in a city called Cordoba. I went for a midnight stroll last night to check it out. Coming back to the hostel just one street parallel of the main street I suddenly found myself in the wrong area. Four manly ladyboys outside a bar made me some kind of offer (or perhaps paid me a compliment) and there appeared to be a person posing on each street corner wearing a tight dress. Whether it was a man, woman or combination I couldn't always tell from my side of the street. But as I got nearer the city centre a figure appeared out of the shadows in front of me. With chest stuck out the figure flicked it's long hair, stepped into the light and said something in a deep, husky voice. As the street light hit the figure's profile I burst into a laugh. It was basically a tall, fat man with tits in a red dress. Five o'clock shadow and a deep smokers voice did nothing for his femininity, but I tried to swallow my laughter as to not cause offense or get beat up. And then at the thought of being beaten up I took a quick look around for any pimps. But once again burst out laughing as I thought 'perhaps the ladyboy is his own pimp'.

FLAT TYRE

My bus from Mercedes to Curuzu got a flat tyre last night. There was a loud sound followed by a dragging, grating noise. Nobody seemed to know what had happened and the bus driver didn't stop. He just let it slow down until we were scraping along at about five kilometres an hour. Since I couldn't see what had happened I had awful visions of a motorbike (and rider) being dragged under us by an apathetic driver. But ten minutes later we pulled into a little service station so I guess the driver knew what he was doing. And I even managed to catch my connecting bus to Cordoba :o)

TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL

This cool kid was just chillin' at Corrientes bus station, Argentina.

R AND R

I'm now in a small town called Mercedes in Northeastern Argentina. I've been here for three days staying with the family above. A friend at home put me in touch with Sam, a man from back home who has been living here since 1971. Sam and his family have been great to me. When not resting by the pool or eating home cooked meals I have been learning about local history and farming practices in the area (Sam's expertise). It's really been great getting an inside view and staying with such a wonderful family so close to Christmas. I could easily stay here much longer, but I'm catching a bus south tonight to see a city called Cordoba.Photos:
-The family; Sam, his wife, Norah and their son Nikko.
-Relaxing days, my clothes dry near an old polo field in Sam's garden
-Sam's house and pool

Buenos Aires Museum

IGUAZU FALLS

After a tough week in Buenos Aires (sick with a chest infection) I decided to get out of the city and into some clean air. Eighteen hours away by, surpisingly comfortable, bus lie these beautiful and huge falls. Right on the border of Brazil and both countries own half the falls. I went with some cool lads I met on the bus and we did the adventure tour. The adventure tour (which any old granny could do in my opinion) was a four wheel drive through the jungle, then a speed boat ride down the river between the two countries. Over some rapids and white water and up the waterfalls. The highlight was when our 'loco' captain took the speed boat under one of the falls and got everyone entirely drenched. But apparently this is normal.

TANGO

I had my first ever Tango lesson yesterday. To minimise embarrassment I went with some friends. We were hoping for a beginners class, but could only find mixed level. So after a couple of Dutch-courage beers we got on the huge dance floor. It was great fun, but we certainly didn't look like the people in this picture. For the most part I felt like a clumsy pubescent boy at a school disco. And the three Argentine instructors seemed to make a point out of picking on me, perhaps because of my joking around at the start of class. But after ninety minutes, all four of us beginners were able to successfully dance the first eight steps without falling over or stepping on each others toes. It was lots of fun and I'd love to go again.
Image courtesy of Google.

BIG MANLY HUG

Today I checked out the famous antiques fair in San Telmo. A few other backpackers and myself went for a sunday walk to check out the street tango and live music everywhere. The atmosphere was great with tonnes of different things happening. But the highlight had to be this big burly man holding up a sign saying 'free hugs' in Spanish. Just as I was asking what the sign said, the girl I was asking ran over and took a hug. We watched him for about two minutes and were amazed at the number of people making the most of his offer, both men and women. After a lot of harasement by my Mexican and Dubliner companions I also went over for a hug. He whispered in my here (in Spanish) 'Good luck, have a good trip, thank you.' I would love to say I felt great afterwards, reenergised and full of love, but to be honest I just a little quesey at hugging a strange man.

I'M HERE

Just arrived in Buenos Aires. Pretty cream-crackered (knackered) after my three flights and eleven hour stopover at gate ten of Sao Paulo airport (where there is absolutely nothing to do).
ButI'm here now and the weather is awesome. I'll be having a bit of a siesta before going exploring. Here's a couple of snaps to make you jealous of the blue skies. One from the airport road and one from my hostel balcony. As you can see, my camera is on the blink.

FAMILY LOVE AND PAINTBALLING

Went paintballing this weekend for my brother's birthday. Great craic, but plenty of hot heads. The highlight had to be when I attempted to storm the marines fort. After b¥sneakig to the top of the hill my cover got blown. I made a run and dive for the fort. As I landed inside I was quickly stamped to the floor as one of my brothers pinned me down with his boot across my neck and my lovely little sister shot me at point blank range in the back of the head. Gotta love them siblings :o)

BEIJING DAY I

04.08.07
Arrived in Beijing early this morning after a long sleepless night.
Taxi to Far East International Hostel, checked in a slept a couple of hours.
Dandered around Tienanmen Square, then picked up post restante letter from post office and tried to pick up train ticket (for Mongolia), but office was closed.Had dinner with fellow roommates Christian and David (Austria and Spain) , then boozed in the courtyard. Then a bunch of us hit Suzie Wongs Nightclub for some dancing.

Photo: My ticket for Suzie Wongs Nightclub.

XI'AN DAY II

03.08.07
Chilled day. Tried to sleep in as much as possible in preparation for my overnight ‘soft seat’ (non-reclining) journey to Beijing.
Checked out the markets and practiced haggling Chinese style (using a calculator).
Said goodbye to David at the station and went our separate ways. Glad I slept in late as sleeping on 'soft seats' is almost impossible for me. Especially with the woman across from me having the audacity to put her stinky feet on my chair right beside me.
Read a little, and dozed a bit, but couldn't sleep all night.
Photo: Sign in train toilet "No sprinkling. Take care of electricity"

XI'AN

02.08.07
Arrived super early in Xi'an this morning, about 5. Taxied it to the hostel with David. Checked into the wettest, most humid room I’ve ever been in and slept for a couple of hours. Hostel seems cool and half the price of Shanghai.
Queued up in the street at the ‘ticket office’ to get our tickets. I'm heading north and David west. No sleepers left, so both stuck with soft seats.
Then went to see the Terracotta Warriors. Met an American called Brad from Tennessee on the bus out there. He was doing 5 weeks volunteer teaching somewhere nearby.
We checked out the warriors together. Was good craic and Brad was good for a laugh, but the warriors themselves were less than impressive.
Headed back together and had a beer in a park.
Then Dave and me headed back to the hostel for a siesta.
Met a cool Israeli/American journalist and had dinner with him. He’d been in China only a month or two and his Chinese was awesome.
Had some lamb kebabs and Indian type bread down at the market with a bunch of cheap beers and then played drunken pool in another hostel.

SHANGHAI - XI'AN

01.08.07
Dave and I left shanghai for Xian. About 20 hours on the train. Hard sleepers.
Slept a wee bit in the morning then got up and chilled with some Chinese people.
Hard sleepers are good as you have a bed and a little space, but are still very sociable as there are no compartments. It’s like a dormitory on the train.
Chatter with university student called Candy. Really intelligent. Talked about everything and she seems very clued up to the outside world's view of China.I found the whole 'one child per family' quite hard to grasp. It was strange and sad to think that (probably) no one on the train had any brothers or sisters. Had dinner in the food carriage. Greasy,but filling and not too expensive. About 25 yuan each.
Read a wee bit and did our best to chill out in our cramped top bunk.
Once we figured out how to turn off the loud speakers which sounded to be booming out propaganda and terrible Chinese music we were able to relax.

Photos (from top): Dave trying to get comfortable on the cramped bunk, friendly and intelligent university student Candy, my attempts to sabotage the carriage radio - I covered the speaker in duck tape until we realised there was a speaker switch below it. Doh!

MAN IN THE MIRROR

If you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to a mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.

For it isn't your father or mother or wife
Whose judgement upon you must pass,
For the verdict in life that does count the most
Is the one staring back from the glass.

He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest
For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you know you've passed your most difficult test
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you've cheated the man in the glass.

Author unknown
-----------------------------------------------

When I was traveling in Australia I became friends with a great guy called Troy. We worked together at a campsite and often got drunk together on cheap four-litre boxes of goon (wine). Troy was young, but had already spent some time in prison. One evening over a few drinks at the campsite he recited this poem. He told me he had learned it in Baggo Road Prison in Brisbane. Apparently in the same prison a few years earlier a convict wrote this poem. The convict was on death row and wrote 'Man in the Mirror' four hours before his execution.

WHICH WAY'S HOME?

NEXT TRIP

In less than three weeks I'll be in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As awesome as it is being home and seeing everyone, it's time to go again. So it's off to a new continent for a look around. I have a return flight scheduled for the end of February, but if I like it out there I might just hang around. Why not?!

Image courtesy of Andy Warhol. Cheers Andy.

FAST FOOD NATION

Well, it breaks my little backpacker heart, but today I forked out for organic apples and fair trade bananas, something I rarely do because of the large price difference. I'm currently reading Fast Food Nation after years of 'not getting round to it' and realising just how important it is pay more attention to who is producing our food and how they are doing it.

SHANGHAI II

31.07.07
Went to Yuyan Gardens and Museum of Urban Development today with Dave and Karen. Both were nice, but not amazing. Museum had interesting model of what Shanghai will look like in ten years, and also a cool 360 degree cinema tour of the future city. The gardens were okay, but touristy and I'm a bit spoilt after so many Japanese gardens.
In the evening Dave and I went for an amazing feast at a Cantonese restaurant with Ping and her friend, Nina. Then off to a club called Babyface for a little dancing.
Last night Dave and me ended up eating on the street again. In the wee hours of the morning we hit our 'regular' noodle stall which is temporarily situated near our hostel each night. Always seems appealing after a loads of cheap Chinese beer. This time there were other customers eating too. Sat on tiny plastic stools amidst the city's rubbish we scoffed fried noodles and tried to make small talk. Three girls shared their dishes with us and were very nice, but not a word of English. A cool, but mean looking guy sat alone eating. When there wasn't enough stools to go round, Dave offered him his knee to sit on. He then warmed to us, but never smiled. He looked about 16 with a mustache and after throwing his chopsticks onto the street with a look of disgust, he offered us a cigarette each. Everyone in Shanghai reminds me of my friend Matt Porter.
Photos (from top): Urban Development plans for Shanghai, Yuyuan Gardens, Me, Ran and Dave in Ucool hostel.

SHANGHAI

29.07.07
Arrived in Shanghai this afternoon. Boat journey was awesome. Beautiful big moons both nights. Totally changed coming in to China. Very muggy, polluted, brown and busy.
Shanghai is huge and dirty; I like it. Great hostel near the Bund; free beer, decent lounge and brand new (not finished might be a better description).8 dollars a night, 20 boys per room. Ran the manager is fun and very helpful, if a little camp. Went drinking with David, Karen and Linns the Swede.
30.07.07
Visited Shanghai Museum with David and Karen. They're great travel companions and I'm glad not to be alone in Shanghai. Museum had some amazing old furniture and cool masks. Probably really old.
In town people throw rubbish everywhere. Great street food. Drink beer in the streets. Today 38 degrees and humid.
Not a word of English from taxi drivers or workers in hostel. Needed body language gestures to find toilet.
This evening met Ping (who works in the ferry gift shop) for a walk on the Bund. Bund is nice at night.Photos (from top): 1.David and Karen, excellent travel companions, 2.Dirty water coming in to China, 3.Old mask, 4.Ping and I on the Bund.

JOURNAL ENTRIES

No exciting adventures of late so I will post some journal entries from my trip home.

SHANGHAI FERRY 27.07.07
Departed 12:00 today. Still hammered drunk from messy night out in Osaka with Dublin Mark. Old Chinese man and his granddaughter in my room. Also a Japanese university student. Nice cabin. Beds have curtains, there is a sitting area, tv, table and window looking over sea.
Leaving Japan beautiful blue skies. Passing land most of the way; Kyushu.
Seen five dolphins from the deck and two flying fish.
Chilled on deck this afternoon with beers. Bout a dozen backpackers on board. From all over. Really cool to hang out with interesting but humble travellers who have been to many more places than me, but aren't full of themselves. London Ed was particularly intelligent and well-informed without being arrogant about it.

SHANGHAI FERRY 28.07.07
Chilled day and drunken night on board. Great craic with the lads. Played ping pong with some Chinese people, then beer up on the deck as the sun went down.

Photos: London Ed and Me, A lifeboat.

MORE BABY SNAPS

Bored yet?

LITTLE GANGSTER BABY

I took three-month old niece for a walk in the forest this week. She really loved it. Usually babies this age are pretty stupid, but I could tell by the way she was staring at the trees ans fascinated by the ducks at the pond that she was taking it all in. I think she'll definitely be a nature lover like her (already) favourite uncle Mark. And in the above snap it's clear she has a bit of 'What's up' attitude like a little mini-gangster that can't walk or talk yet, but can throw looks to kill.