5 mois en Asie | |
More than two months I have been back home...
06:58, 30/01/2008
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Damn, it seems that time is flowing even faster back home than travelling.... Is it because my days are now pretty much always the same? Boring.
Well, my point is not complaining right now, but more thanking - once again - all of you for those 6 months!
More than 65000km/40000miles, by planes - okay, mostly by planes, sorry about that, Earth -, motorbikes, cars, vans and other taxis and tuktuks; by all kind of buses - some with AC, others with chickens - , trucks, boats; by walking, running, diving, renting, bribing, hitchhiking ... in burning suns, bloody heavy rains or freezing winds!!... As you can imagine, there are far too many things to be said about it for me to give you an adequate picture of my trip! 6 months in a few words!!! Just impossible. So I decided to chose a few pictures, representing each of the countries I have been to, and to tell you a few stories, which were striking to me, and made of that trip an unforgettable experience!
Well, enjoy! First, and one of my strongest experience, Indonesia!
 Bali... its beaches, its people, its hinduistic culture ! The Bintang beer is one of the 2 very good beers I tried -you can get- in Asia
Java, sunrise... And that huge cloud rising because of the heat of the sun, and flowing into a huge crater
Students of Borobudur! " Xcuse Mister, can I practice my English with you? Could you tell me about your education system? about the situation of the Muslims in your country??? " Euhhh.... Well ...
Anas Homestay, Sumatra My first night in the jungle... and my first earthquack!!! The Dutsh girls I was with did even not feel it - Hey, how are you doing Lara and Lina? -! A weird experience: you need a few seconds to understand why the walls are shacking... and it is already finished! It was awesome! ... because it was only a small one. 2 days and 3 quakes later, the most active volcano around was erupting. I almost forgot the leechies... The first evening was quite difficult, everybody being bleeding at the entrance of the "kitchen". But the morning after was even worse, because of the newly created paranoia: resting's prohibited!!
Second step, Malaysia...
Kuala Lumpur and its skytrain! The ACs are so strong there that it is almost cold outside!... Great thanks to Mr Bin Ahmad and his family for the very asian "KL in three hours - all included!", and the wonderful satay food!
Melaka, capital city of one the most powerful south east asian former empire, thanks to its geographic position on the west coast of the Malay peninsula. From the beginning of the 15th century to the independance of Malaysia in 1957, it has successively been a sultanate, first hinduistic, then buddhist and finally muslim; and then Portugese, Dutsh and English!! Its bay is mythical among sailors and merchants.
Beautiful Malaysian Islands!!! Tioman and Perhentian are from far the most wonderful islands I have been to! Incredible beaches, colourful fishes, frightening sharks... but also the possibility to choose between chilling and resting if that is what you want, or partying! Not to be forgotten its girls: the very beautiful - French of course! - one and the really lazy - and typhoidic - Swiss one!!
Lets not forget Singapourian people!! One of the funniest thing I have seen, but also among the most tragic one, is Singapourian guys snorkeling. They are taken by boat 20 meters from the shore, thrown in the water with lifejackets... and they just wait for the fishes to swim beneath them!! I must admit I am glad not being from Singapour...
Vicious Bangkok, touristy Thailand...
The palace of the King, Bangkok. Really impressive, but definetely kitsch!! That is buddhism... Thanks to Ben, a French friend of friend working there, and to the people he knows, I had quite a ... funny time in Bangkok!
The only temple not covered with gold I have seen, Chiang Mai. There I met Alex, a British guy I ran into 3 months later in a cibercafe in New Zealand! I also lost a camera and hurted badly my anckle during one harsh evening... Was hard...
Koh Phangan, just before the Full Moon Party... I had never been as tanned as at that time!!! And I look already so seek again...
August in China!
The Summer Palace, Beijing Awesome afternoon I spent there, under a bright sun and with Julie, a French girl just arriving from Mongolia! The day before I suffered one of the greatest disappointement of the trip - of my life, I should say -: I went to a "Secret Great Wall Tour"... and it was just so secret we just didn't see the Wall! Fucking clouds and fucking rain!!!!!!!!! I think I had been waiting for that moment for maybe 12 years...
At the end of a day spent in a unconfortable Chinese bus, we even went swimming with children in a huge river in the middle of rice fields! That evening, we found a place to sleep for 0.8€, but we had to cook our own food - not really good!!!! - ... Of course, the kitchen was also the bathroom there.
Talking about Chengdu, I have to talk about Cameron, an Australian French speaking guy I met in Beijing. At the time, he was just arriving from Mongolia, and knew Julie. We met again in Chengdu, where he was planing to settle down a few months, so that to teach English and learn some Mandarin. Thanks to him, I met the 4 itinerant clowns/musicians from Too Dumb to Die, some of whom had been traveling for 5 years playing music!! By bike most of the time of course, the easiest way to travel with a bass guitare... But also a few other expatriates, among whom was the owner of a pizza restaurant! It was so cool not to eat rice for once!!!!
Buddhist temple, Emei Shan, not too far from Chengdu. This 3500 m high holy mountain is supposed to be climbed up and down in a three days time, the objective being to see the sunrise at the top. I went there with 2 other guys, and as we did not have not enough time we took a bus up to the top, and tried to sleep there... At 5am we begun an 8 hours long walk down! Around 15000 steps!!! After half an hour, I got a tendinite to my right knee... I never suffered that much. But during a few hours, we were alone climbing down the steps, and that was worth all the pain! The atmosphere was incredible, the temples we crossed magnificient! But I ll never do that again.
For China even more than for the other countries, 4 pictures are ridiculous to transmit an experience. It is a country where you dont understand much of what is happening around you. If you add this to the huge crowds and the lake of English speaking people, China is quite an oppressive country. And I must say that at the time I was as glad to have been there than to leave!
Terrible Cambodia...
Boeung Kak Lake, Phnom Penh The backpacker area in PP... A strange place where you can find, a few hundred meters from one another, the recklessness of young tourists smoking cheap weed and drinking cheap beers, and the misery of local families living on wooden houses over the lake. I had a very weird time there, with 2 Cambodian women I met there. Those two friends both decided I had to be there boyfriend, and started a kind of small war with one another! In Phnom Penh, you can see memorials of the tragedies which happened in Cambodia since the Vietnam War... But to me the most terrible thing is that young people know almost nothing about it, as all those who knew something were killed! Pol Pot seems to have become a kind of God of Death, who killed relatives of all the people of the country. Easy to understand that strange sheer lunacy floating in the air...
Angkor Wat! Pearl among the pearls, the feeling invading you when you see for the first time the Angkor temples complex is just above description! So huge, beautiful... More than a million tourists every year come their to try to guess how life could have been at the time of the great empire. Bloody Asian tourists, it seems that the only thing they want is to be able to show their friends they have been their!
A minefield in Angkor temples complex?? Hard to believe that even there, the land has not been completely cleared! More than a milion tourists come to Angkor every year!! How can a country rise out of misery when you can not even walk freely everywhere?? I guess western countries did not find a way to make money in Cambodia...
Probably the most unbelievable - and unexpectable - experience I lived! Banlung, North East Cambodia Imagine a hot and rainny day at the end of monsoon season. The vegetation is very green, the roads really red and flooded. I even saw a truck riding making a 45° angle with the road because o it being so slippery! After a whole day sitting at the back of the motorbike of my guide - Mr Freeman, I hope you are alright! - and as the sun is setting, we are heading back to Banlung. As we finally reach the town center, a huge bird lands 3 meters in front of the bike! It is maybe 1.60m high, with a long neck and a red head, and it walks in the middle of the street!! No one seems to notice it, except for a couple of young teenagers, riding a motorbike, and bothering it by pushing it with their front wheel! But it does not care, and just keep on walking.
Imagine my state of mind!! I was almost ready to see it enter a bar and order a drink!...
Last, but not least! stop in South East Asia, Laos!...
Don Det, close to the boarder between Laos and Cambodia 4000 Islands, the most relax place I went to! There is almost nothing to do there, just relax in a hammock and enjoy doing nothing... The strange thing when you arrive there is that nobody comes to you so that to bring you to a hostel! As a consequence, you feel lost!...
Remains of former Angkor temples are everywhere in South Laos! Thanks to satellites, scientists newly discovered that the old kingdom used to be much bigger than believed until now.
3 days riding under the rain, between Takhek and Lak Sao! Among the
things I prefered are those days I spent on my own on a motorbike. My
point was to see a subterranean river, famous for being one of Laos
natural wonder. It had rained a lot the week before, and it was quite
adventurous to reach the village from which get to the river. The road
- red earth again - was so wet even the Lao people were pushing their
bike! After having crossed a few rivers, felt down more than enough to
be completely red, I managed to arrive before the night to the place
where I had hoped to sleep. There, I ate snails from the ricefields,
and dry leaves(...), before being welcome by a Lao ceremony! That was
an experience! The night there was not better, the house being half
open, and the rain falling as I had never seen it! The day after, few
new rivers were preventing me from riding back to Tah Khek... so that I
had to board my bike on a pirogue! Which did not prevent me from
crashing one more time on the last meters of mud before reaching the
road!!! Being on my own was a real experience, hard and sometimes
frightening, but cooool!
Beautiful New Zealand
Cape Reinga, extreme north of the north island
The first week of my trip in New Zealand, I rent a car with Rachel, a
Swiss girl I had met in Auckland. We took 2 hitchhikers from the USA to
Cape Reinga, the point where you can see the Tasman see and the Pacific
Ocean. Those two guys had planned to walk their way down to the
extrem south of the south island!!! I hope they were really good
friends. Thinking about them, it seems their walk is over - their site
: www.BackPackAcrossNZ.com -
Rotorua, North Island A very active volcanic area, with amazing colours! I went there with John, a guy from the surroundings of Chicago. Thanks to him I learned a lot about the people from the United States. And first of all that they are great children knowing how to have fun! In Rotorua, you can practice a lot of "extreme" activities, such as luging, zorbing, kayaking... On the website of Rotorua, they propose 10 reasons to go there. I ll add an eleventh one : Kat, from Hot Rocks Base Backpacker: she is worth being damned!
Close to the Farewell Spit, north of the south island! Wonderful sunset and good bier...
Around Dunedin, south island The last 2 weeks of my trip were kind of very relax... I spent most of my time sleeping by rivers, enjoying the sun and the cows! The tent has a nice story: it was given to me by Nikki, from the Jugglers Rest in Picton. This English girl used to travel a lot and then decided to settle down in New Zealand. When I told her I was planning to spend the next nights sleeping in a car I was a renting at that time, she offered to sell me a tent she had. But after a few talks, she changed her mind and decided to "offer" the tent to the travelers community! So she created a passeport for the tent, in which people had to write where they had camped, and asked me to offer it to another traveler before leaving the country! And she was expecting to see the tent again a few weeks later...! I really hope you did, Nikki, please tell me!
2 days at a Maori meeting, Temuka, south Island ! I had been thinking of getting a tatoo for 5 months...
I did it! It is a way for me never to forget what I have seen and
learned during those 6 months. I know it has, and will keep on changing
my life! ... Those 2 days spent at the meeting were absolutely amazing. As being the French guy who did get a moko -a Maori tatoo- I was really welcomed and even offered food and accomodation! It was really interesting to see those people happy to be gathered together, always ready to sing and laugh. But also there so that to discuss very serious matters, as legal auction against other tribes so that to get land back! Impossible to understand for a foreigner.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed those few pictures and stories! Leave a commentary: you just have to click at "x commentaires", at the top of this article! And don t forget to identify yourselves! If you liked the picture, they are much more of them: you just have to click on "album photos", and then choose the folder... Don t worry, French is very similar to Englsh, try your luck! As for me it was a real experience to rememorize all those moments I spent during my trip. And I must admit something to you: I decided that it was not yet the time to work as an engineer. I ll leave again, and I hope pretty soon as I am getting bored in Paris! To where? Well, probably south America. How long? Let say 6 months! Doing what? Probably try to settle somewhere and get a small job for a few months! But don t worry, I ll see the Machu Picchu... This article is the last one of the blog... Damn, I feel a bit nostalgic thinking about those 6 months! But don t worry, it won t last long... I am pretty sure I ll see some of you again! And until then, enjoy the world, and travel safe!!
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Qui suis-je ? Qui suis-je ? Livre d'or Archives Amis Album photos LiensLa Fanfare PistonLe site de Kokol à Bangkok Mon cousin, étudiant graphiste Je suis en amerique centrale!! RubriquesCambodgeChine Concours Généralités Indonésie Laos Malaisie Nouvelle Zelande Préparatifs Thailande Derniers articlesThis blog is over!!More than two months I have been back home... A Christchurch une semaine plus tot que prevue!! Allez un petit dernier!! toujours dans le nord!!! Amis |
I met a friend of mine, OuinOuin, in Hainan Island. The guy had been
working in China for almost a year and then could speak pretty well
Mandarin. Thanks to him, we were a group of 5 guys traveling out of the
beaten tracks, mostly in Hunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces. Damn,
the Chinese countryside is absolutely fabulous!!
Sichuan
food is one of the most famous in China, especially for being really
spicy! In Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan province, we ate a few hot
pots. It is so spicy even Chinese men are bare chested in the
restaurant! Kind of bizarre...
