Taro's Travels

(5)

If I'd done as much travel as I've done, I would have taken the Gecko's tour from Hanoi rather than from Saigon. I don't think that I would do Hanoi-Beijing overland solo, though.

(1,4,3)
It's been customary to tip drivers, etc, for services rendered. Quite what a driver has to do to not be deemed worthy of a tip is still a mystery. According to those tour members who did one optional extra, their bus driver managed to hit a dog -- and nearly its owner -- but still received his gratuity. He had, suggested our tour guide Tina, still done...

Average weekly income in China is about US$45, and is rising significantly year by year.

As of last Thursday, I'm finally in the black on my credit card (again) for the forseeable future... The hope is that between now and Turkey I save a lot, so that when I hit Europe I can starve in comfortable squalour.

Petrol costs about US$0.50 in China. In Cambodia it was about US$1.

The day before the tour started, Cameron had his wallet stolen. Apparently a girl in Saigon hopped off the back of a motorbike, gave him a hug, performed what can only be politely described as a bag snatch, removed his wallet while he was otherwise distracted, and absconded with it.

China's current notes have pictures of Chairman Mao on them - For some reason, the older notes I've seen don't.

On the one hand, if I'd done Saigon-Hanoi myself, I would have saved a week-in-Europe or more. On the other hand, I would have missed out on a really good tour (my estimation of Long's excellence increases daily!!)

I keep my cash and passport in a hidden wallet which attaches to my belt. It's infinitely more comfortable than my money belt, which only exists to generate heat rash, but I don't suppose that a skilled razor artist will be significantly deterred.

A rough but easy measure to work out how prosperous a place is is to compare the ratio of motorcycles to cars. A few places have had a lot of late model cars and/or work vehicles - Ranong, for instance.

Vietnam had some food that was not to everyone's taste - Dried cuttlefish, with chili, and a range of eggs - pigeon, pickled/charcoaled hen eggs, and fertilised duck eggs. Long bought one of these duck eggs, and Cameron and I tried some of the yolk, which was a little stringy and slightly hard but otherwise normal. Then Long turned over the albumen, to reveal the eye and beak of a partially-formed duckling. Urgh. On the Mekong river trip, we were offered deep-fried elephant fish at lunch for a goodly sum - it looked rather monstrous but I was told by someone who'd eaten it on another tour that it was tasty. You do need to worry about Schistosomiasis if you eat Mekong River fish, though.

I was expecting accommodation to be basic - but the Vietnam leg surprised me - consistently we stayed (at least) at three star hotels with buffet breakfasts. China's has been comparatively basic - many of the rooms have had neither air conditioning nor fans, only the hotel in Kunming provided breakfast, and most of the tour members moved out of our guesthouse in Li Jiang into a more upmarket hotel (I didn't since a/ I can cope with tepid showers and squat toilets, and b/ I'm cheap)

There are loads of billboards in China. Kunming was plastered with them. Advertisements are heavy on the television channels, too.

I watched Australia bow out of the World Cup in - of all things - an Italian restaurant in Cherating, Malaysia. It was quiet, but quite a good spot to be watching from nonetheless because snacks and drinks were quality.

At the train station in Kunming - which looks more like an airport terminal - a number of young beggars swarmed over some of our company - in some cases clinging to legs until they could be repelled, and in one case going for a wallet.

I've sure been dropping the pounds. I was 84kg at New Year, about 80kg when I left (I dropped weight after my food poisoning), and last time I weighed myself -- in Hanoi -- was 72kg. Did you know that people who drop weight are statistically more likely to die than those who keep it on? Did you know that statistically speaking, overweight females live longer than normal-weight males? No, I'm not planning on returning to Thailand to take the logical steps to improve my life expectancy. Guess that's why I'll <cough> only be living until 77.

A game of three-card monte was being run on the Cambodian side of the border with Vietnam. You see a fair number of card games being played - I'm guessing for money - and quite a lot of discarded cards lying in the street.

I've been lucky so far - the only things that have been possibly stolen were three cards: My medicare card, my ACT proof of age, and my YHA card. I'm also missing a towel, a good shirt, and a good sock, but I'm blaming careless launderers for those.

There are lots of scams reported in Yang Shuo. One apparently happened to an Intrepid tour group that were riding bikes. An elderly woman "fell" in front of one of the bikes, whereupon her relatives gathered round the unfortunate rider and demanded 20000 yuan - about US$2500. They eventually accepted a tenth of that but it was still not a bad morning's work.

The advertising for one cafe in Yang Shuo claimed not to sell Opium or Heroin. On the other hand, cannibis sativa was happily growing - doesn't it make a charming pot plant - at quite a few places around Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Hawkers continue to annoy. I need one of those T-Shirts they sold in Kuta - something along the lines of "No I don't want accommodation, postcards, carvings, a massage, drugs, food, a tshirt...". They were selling tshirts in Dali with the Chinese characters for "No Money", but given they were charging about $8 Australian for it, I thought the irony was a little too fine.

It's called a confidence game. Why? Because you give me your confidence? No. Because I give you mine. - House of Games, David Mamet.

In Phnom Penh, I was stopped by an Australian who said that he'd just been robbed of his bag, which contained his wallet. He was from Canberra; he spoke the secret incantations by which public servants make themselves known to one another. He asked for a few dollars to buy a meal while he sorted out a transfer of cash. He asked me which hotel I was staying at, and promised that he'd make sure I'd get it back. I gave him a few dollars.

[to be continued below]

Everyone in China keeps an eye out for forged RMB50 and 100 notes. There are a few anti-counterfeiting devices that are checked for: the metal strip embedded in the note; a watermark; areas of raised printing which feel rough when rubbed; and ink which changes colour depending on the angle of vision. An American physicist I met on the trip to Borobodur (Indonesia) was one of the people responsible for the development of this. The colour changing metallic inks are on lots of notes that use rag paper rather than polymer.

We've not done much train travel in China but on the two occasions we have, we've been in triple-berthed sleeper compartments - no doors, just open cubicles, so security is a bit of a worry. There are supposedly cushier four-berthed compartments past the dining car.

Almost everywhere is cheap to stay for the long-term. The real expense is getting from place to place -- and losing days or nights along the way.

If you're in Vietnam on a budget, you can actually be better off paying for a buffet breakfast and skipping lunch...

The only things I miss are familiar foods. Books and internet are reasonably available. What I really want is a hard (biscuitty) chocolate brownie. I would pay a ridiculous price for one. Unfortunately chocolate brownies in Asia are all of the cakey variety. I also want one Killer Python, a small quantity of different varieties of real cheese (except for Malaysia - and probably Singapore - "cheese" has been soft and plastic), roast chicken, and a pony for Christmas. Mmm pony.

(3)
We caught a 70 minute flight from Kunming to Guilin. In-flight entertainment appeared to be primarily advertising; inflight food was a packet of peanuts. I nearly caught a flight from Vientiane to Siem Reap before I realised that it would take a week of my budget. In Europe, on the other hand, I may be flying a lot since fares are (currently) so ridiculously cheap. (5)

I've generally felt safe - I'm more likely to be pickpocketed than mugged, and I have the advantage there that my clothes and backpack say "Other Targets More Profitable" - it's about the only use I've gotten from the bedroll on the back. I've only used my packsafe (metal cage) for my backpack a few times as I really don't have anything valuable in there, just stuff that's a pain to replace.

The tour leaders collect a tipping kitty and dole out tips. Long just gave tips as he saw fit; Tina likes to suggest a figure and get agreement, which is one of those things that's better in theory than practice.

(5,2,[2],3)
There's a Twin Peaks Cafe in Yang Shuo. They sell neither a damn fine cup of coffee nor is cherry among their varieties of pie.

One of the drinks that Ray exports to China has "Tongkat Ali", which is Malaysia's equivalent of ginseng -- Malaysia has an incredible range of Tongkat Ali energy drinks -- there's probably hundreds. I've seen far fewer ginseng drinks in China, but perhaps people use it more traditionally since it's sold in herbalist shops.

I've not seen a lot of overt Feng Shui such as bright-red tasselled octagonal frames for mirrors. Perhaps there's less to ward off here, perhaps things are gotten correct the first time around, or perhaps western users are less tasteful.

This afternoon I cashed the last of my US currency. The exchange rate was 7.879 yuan to the dollar.

I'm hoping to be able to afford an extra weekly hamburger and milkshake whenever the new Certified Agreement goes through... Preferably a European hamburger and milkshake. Incidently, I was joking with the Swiss couple and Bavarian Anna about the extent of my German knowledge "Ich bin ein Berliner", "Ich bin ein Frankfurter", "Ich bin ein Hamburger". "How do you say I am from Paris?", asked the Swiss guy. I paused. "Je suis Parisien?" He laughed as I unintentionally avoided his trap - apparently a "Pariser" is a "French Letter". My German pronunciation, BTW, apparently sounds Swiss.

[continued from above]

There was no repayment made, but I wasn't really expecting one. His clothes were somewhat ragged, but that's true of many travellers - at times myself included. The real indicator was just how brown his teeth were... Ah, Canberra!

I'll tip for good service, I'll buy from hawkers that fail to annoy, and I'll give to buskers from time to time. Beggars, on the other hand, I generally won't donate to - and I'm donating less the more beggars I see. Desensitisation, perhaps, as a particular fist-sized lump of muscle slowly calcifies...