Hello everyone! This morning, I was once again back in the civilized part of the world. And also the expensive part. A cup of coffee costs about the price for a good hotel in Nepal. (Oo) But then again, it’s gonna be nice to be back in Sweden in a couple of days and see everyone!

I must say that Iran was a big surprise. I expected a country more like Pakistan, but the main difference from Europe was the government that imposes a strict interpetation of the islamic views on cencorship and women rights. Almost all people we met spoke well about both the US and Israel, and expressed frustration of living under a government that didn’t reflect the view of the people. I even felt that my opinions are more (if you allow the expression) anti-American than those of them we met.

On the first day in Tehran, just walking around seing the city, we met an Iranian girl who invited us to lunch and to meet her family. We then spent the rest of the time in Tehran with them and had really fun. It’s amazing how friendly Iranian people are and how easy it is to feel welcome. I hope I can come back and visit again and see more of Iran; the skiing is supposed to be really good at winter. ^^ Iran also has a long and really interesting history, but you have to imagine a lot yourself as the pictures of the leaders and Imam Khomeni are hanging everywhere. Not to notice the situation for women is quite difficult… I put up some photos when we went around, so go look at them!

Well, trip’s almost over, so everyone at home – prepare!

First, to calm some of our more worried readers, we will not go by land through Balochistan. After considering the most recent advice from the Pakistani tourist agency, it would seem too risky to try it. The prices of Iran Airlines were also quite resonable, so on Wednesday at 2 p.m. the plane leaves for Teheran.

Now for some of the more pressing concerns. As we found out only a couple of days ago the holy month of Ramadan, when the muslim world is fasting, is starting today. This means that during the daylight hours there is no food or water. And it is really hot here! (><) Bad planning I guess, but it will be fun seeing how seriosly people take it.

It’s a bit sad about now going to Balochistan, as all the people we have met so far in Pakistan has been so friendly. People are shouting ‘Welcome to Pakistan!’ after us on the streets, we are invited to peoples homes for dinner and to stay, and everyone is interested in speaking to us. It has made me think about two things;
First, and I feel a bid ashamed of saying it, but this kind of welcome would be quite different from what a person from Pakistan visiting Sweden would get.
Second, when we say we come from Sweden, people respond with happiness and great interest. On the contrary, I was watching an American guy introducing himself and as the people found out where he came from they became silent, and someone finally said ‘That’s a … good country’. So, it really makes a difference where you’re from here.

But, Balochistan is really not safe, so I’m convinced it’s better to fly to Iran. Maybe you heard that there was a major black-out in whole of Pakistan yesterday. Linus just read the daily news aloud to me that the response from the people in Quetta, the biggest city in Balichistan, was to go out and celebrate and shoot machine-guns in the air, cause they thought the Pakistani president had been killed.

Well, that’s it for now. We’ll (Insha’Allah) be in Teheran on Wednesday.
Happy Ramadan!

Having just seen one of India’s most famous attractions, the great and beautiful Taj Mahal, I’m really looking forward to moving on to Pakistan tomorrow. It’s been an interesting two weeks here but even though the food is really good, I must say India is a bit too dirty, too messy and much too loud for my taste. Apart from seeing the country and culture, I think the main reason people go here is to smoke some “good stuff”, which is readily available and is offered frequently from whispering people in the tourist area. For the sake of curiosity, I was tempted to ask what I’d have to pay for the good stuff, but as it’s quite hard getting rid of people here once you started to talk prices, I decided against.

Today also marks the day when Jocke leaves me and Linus for the sunny autumn weather in Sweden. (;_;) The last week has been tough on Jocke though as his long blond hair attracts the attention of the Indian men. People are shouting after him and are throwing kisses, but they look a little disappointed when they realize he’s not a girl… Quite entertaining.

Otherwise I’ve mostly been relaxing, eating good food and taking some vacation from travelling. It’s almost 50 days now since I left the safety in Tokyo, and it’s still a long way to go, so some r&r is well deserved. (^_^)v Oh, we have also been to the Swedish embassy and voted in the Swedish referendum. I threw mine on the Green party and a definite “Ja” for the automobile taxes in Stockholm. Hope no one gets upset

Miss you all!

I didn’t know what India would be like when coming to Nepal, but crossing over the border from Tibet the air got warmer, more vibrant and the smell of curry was flowing at us. It also got a lot more dirty and noisy. I thought Nepal would be more like Tibet, a rocky desert with nomad population, but here was green mountains, murmuring rivers and happy people trying to steal stuff from my backpack – like I though India would be. Quite a nice surprise, and since the British had been there during the colonial times everyone was calling me ‘Sir’. First we went down to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, and spent a couple of days there relaxing after the long jeep trip through Tibet. The way down there was quite interesting, and as some of you might know the Swedish foreign ministry (UD) discourages from travelling to Nepal due to the insurgence going on. The situation has settled the last months though and tourists have never been directly targeted. However the guerrilla is sometimes blocking the roads to get ‘donations’ for their campaigns, and after about 30 minutes drive we were stopped by the said people waving a big red flag. I felt a bit nervous, but our driver was really calm and seemed to have quite a nice chat with them before giving them about $3 per person. Apparently it helps being from Sweden and not from the US or Holland (the dutch are supporting the government with arms).

Apart from that, and the heavy military presence in the capital, Nepal felt really safe and I’d definitely would like to go there again for some outdoor activities. They have lots of trekking, river-rafting and so on, but as it was the monsoon season we had to settle for sailing and rhino safari. (^_^) In the south part of Nepal there is a big nature preserve where among other animals the black rhino and royal Bengal tiger lives. We had two Nepali guides with us while going on a five hour walk through the park heading for the one of the lakes where the animals come to drink water. The tigers are not usually aggressive towards humans, but incidents has been known to happen, so every time we heard something rustling in the high grass our guides stopped sharply and looked all around us. We (luckily?) never got to see any tigers, but one rhino appeared at the lake after we had been waiting for almost two hours in the watch tower. Really huge! We took great care sneaking closer trying not to alert it as they can be a bit aggressive, and we got about 50 meters from it. It was walking down into the lake, stood for a while blowing bubbles, kinda like we do with a straw in a glass of soda, and then swam over the lake and disappeared into the forest. The only tiger we saw was fenced in. It had attacked and killed over ten people and thus been captured and had to spend the rest of its life inside a 10×10 meters stockade. It looked kinda like an up scaled regular cat when it was playing around with a big car tire and sharpening the claws against a tree. Don’t think I would have last long in a fight…

Now that I’m out of China I can write a little more about Tibet. First of all it’s a bit strange about the regulations of getting in. You have to have a permit. This can be obtained by buying a government approved tour for lots and lots of money. Once you are in Tibet though you can do whatever there is to do, so it’s basically just a way of getting money from us poor tourists. I had read reports about the new train that just opened and that goes all the way to Lhasa and it seemed a good alternative to the bumpy two day bus ride, but foreigners weren’t allowed to buy tickets themselves and had to have the permit, which you couldn’t get without having a tour… arfg… Fortunately (but not entirely incidental) we met a guy in Xining who said he could get us train tickets in just a couple of days and no need for permit. He charged us about $100 each, got tickets from someone he knew at the station and then bribed the police not to check us at the train. And – it all worked out, the police officials at the station had the biggest smiles ever when we passed them on the way to the train, and once in Lhasa there were no checks. Hurray! =) A few words about Tibet too; I don’t have much to say about the Chinese taking over Tibet, such things has happened throughout history, but I felt a bit sad about the destruction of Tibetan culture that the cultural revolution had brought to Tibet and about the policy the Chinese government has that encourages Chinese people to migrate to Tibet on very beneficial terms. Most people we were dealing with in terms of business were Chinese, and I got the feeling that the Tibetan people were slowly being suffocated. A lot has improved in recent years though, like more jobs and restoration of some of the destroyed monasteries, but I still have the feeling that the Chinese doesn’t have much respect for the Tibetan cultural heritage.

Yesterday we arrived in India, and India is really like India – everywhere. It’s gonna be fun exploring this place in the short two weeks I have here before there is time to cross the border to neighbouring Pakistan. ^^

Many hugs!
Peter

P.S. Swedish passports really do suck. I’m travelling on a pink temporary one now since the real one broke in the gentle care of the Chinese.
P.P.S. I’d like to express my gratitude to the german people for building beer breweries throughout Asia. ^^

It’s been some quite intensive days the last week and as always when traveling it takes some time to relax and start enjoying everything there is to see. Right now we are in Xining and, except the toilets, everything is great. When traveling west from Beijing, passing through Taijuan, Xi’an and Lanzhou, people just got friendlier, the weather better (colder and less humid) and prices got lower. =) The hostel we are in now charge RMB15 (about $2) per person for a triple room and in the ramen place next door we pay about RMB3 ($0.4) for a big bowl.

One of the highlights on the way here were the Terracotta army and the tomb of emperor Qin outside Xi’an. Emperor Qin was the first person to become the emperor of China by defeating all his enemies and uniting all the warring states. His tomb hasn’t been plundered nor opened in modern times, so all there is to see is a huge hill overgrown with grass and trees, but you can guess the riches buried with him by visiting the Terracotta army about a kilometer away. It is about 8000 real-sized clay statues of warriors, guarding the tomb, and symbolizing the size of the army emperor Qin commanded. Still beeing in China, I haven’t been able to put up pictures from it, but when I get the chance… (^_-)

Today we went on a really cool tour outside of Xining. The landscape around here is green hills, and the yellowish muddy ground becomes visible in the steep slopes. The temperature is finally down below 30 degrees and since we are close to the desert the air is dry. Hurray! The guide told us that one of the stops for the day was in a temple where the child choosen to be the next Dalai Lama lives and is being educated. I felt quite sceptical about it, but thought that it might be a nice trip anyway, so we went there by local bus and minivan for two hours. The village was quiet and the people were all smiling and looking at us. We stopped with the mini-van outside the temple and our guide asked us to stay behind just inside the gate while he went to ask if the time was appropriate. We were recieved in a quiet room a few minutes later by the six year old boy and one of the monks, who were acting as the teacher and caretaker of the ‘young living buddha’. We offered a traditional gift of a silk cloth and were seated on the carpet in front and below of the boy. I got to ask a couple of questions which were translated by our guide and answered by the monk, while the boy quietly looked at us with big serene eyes. I got the feeling that the monks and the people living in the village really believed this young boy to be a living buddha and the one to become the next Dalai Lama. The current one is 72 years old now so I guess I’ll find out soon.

Tomorrow we’ll leave for the next city, and if all goes well, no problems will be involved. I’ll tell you about it later. I just hope the trip will be better than the nine hour night train with only standing tickets left. Trying to sleep on the not-so-clean floor in an old second class chinese wagon kinda puts things into perspective. (^_^)

Cheers

Arriving in Korea, I got a shock by the food! I’ve been eating japanese food for too long, and I guess my taste buds have grown back. The food here is so spicy! But, it’s tasty though and in a couple of days I’ll be able to handle it.

The trip to Korea took me through Hiroshima and Shimonoseki in Japan. You all know what happened in Hiroshima, so I’ll skip that part, but it was well worth the visit. Shimonoseki is a smaller city as far west you can get on the main island of Japan, Honshu. They are known for their fishing of fugu, the poisonous blowfish. If I hadn’t known before going there, I’d noticed from the huge amount of statues of fugu placed all over the city. Most interesting though was the walking-tunnel to Kyushu, so now I can proudly say I haven’t only been to the main island in Japan \(^_^)/

Korea feels a little bit like just on the way to China, partly cause I only have three days here and partly cause I don’t know much what to see. On the boat here though I met a guy from Hawaii telling me about an interesting phenomenon – couchsurfing. I usually try to find the cheapest places to stay when out backpacking, but this is a non-profit thing with native people lending their couch for a night in return for some social interaction. So I ended up sleeping on the couch of a guy from New Zeeland, who was in Korea teaching english. He had been here for four years so it was interesting talking to him, and I got the impression that teaching english here gives good money, but might not be that fun all the time since you don’t know the system and get screwed over sometimes…

Now I’m in Seoul though and tomorrow I’ll hopefully get a ticket for the ferry for China. I don’t know which city it goes to yet, so it feels a bit exciting not knowing where in China I’ll end up tomorrow.

(^_^)/~

And so, the time has come to leave Japan and return home. It will be a long trip going through all Asia, and I’ll hopefully come home in mid October in one piece. It’s with mixed feelings I leave here; some things I won’t miss – the humidity, the bureaucracy and not being able to get a big steak. (I have a quite funny example of the bureaucracy as recent as from today actually. I went to the post office to send home my nicely wrapped big box of stuff, and was a little worried about it weighing too much. Maximum allowed weight was 30 kg, and with some help from the staff I put it on the weighing-machine. The weight was 30 kg and 10 grams. The clerk explained to me that my box was over-weight, and it couldn’t be sent. Knowing that it’s no point to argue, I had to open my neatly wrapped box, remove 10 grams and close it again. Now the box wasn’t neatly wrapped anymore and I really hope it gets home in one piece.) Some things I will miss, and I guess most of all all the people I’ve gotten to know here. As you might have noticed by now, I’m not writing in the language of glory and heroes (swedish, that is), and this cause there might be some readers not familiar with the said language. It’s a long way between Sweden and Japan, but I do hope I’ll see you all again.

Now for the upcoming trip! Tonight I’ll get on the night bus for Osaka and from there to Shimonoseki by way of Himeji and Hiroshima. From Shimonoseki by ferry to Pusan in Korea, train to Seoul, and ferry to China where I’ll meet up with Limpan and Jocke. I wanted to go through the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), but Kim is a bit tough on tourism at the moment and won’t let me in. (;_;) Anyway, I’ll keep updating this page as often as I get the chance (witch might not be so frequently), and try to put up some pictures and let you know I’m still alive. (^_^)

左様なら、日本

Hi everyone! Even though I’ve been here in China before, I had forgotten the immense time it takes to settle the price for anything and everything you want to buy. I watched yesterday as a couple of french guys tried to buy a pair of shoes for Y450, and they really wanted them for that price, but finally settled for around Y500. We bought similar shoes for Y70 in the same shop and probably payed way too much. It’s fun haggling over the prices, but quite exhausting, so we’ve only spent around two days in the markets. The rest of the time has been spent sightseeing.

First of all, I met up with Linus and Jocke at the ‘Monument for the peoples heroes’ in the middle of Tienamen square in Beijing. We actually managed to find eachother there, but finding two tall, blond guys among thousands of chinese wasn’t really that hard. So far we’ve visited the major tourist sites here, i.e. the great wall, forbidden city, summer palace, the mausoleum… I visited most of it last time I was here, but the difference this time is that everything is beeing or has been restored for the olympics. I guess 2009 is a better year to visit Beijing since all the construction work ruins the feeling a bit.

Tonight the train leaves for Taiyuan, which is just a short stop on our way to Xi’an. I’m hoping for a little less haggling on the prices and a little more honest taxi drivers and restaurant keepers. I’m not hoping too much though…

Some short notes about South Korea; I wish I had had more time there to see Seoul and around, cause it seemed really nice. But, I found out they eat dogs here! (O_o) There actually are dog farms all over the place. I always thought it was the chinese eating dogs, but it turns out it was the koreans.

Hugs to ya all!

Hej på er allihopa! Här kommer en liten uppdatering om vad som hänt här i Japan den senaste tiden! Först och främst har besökarna från Sverige börjat trilla in, och det är så roligt att träffa er igen! Tiden går som bekant snabbt, men att jag varit borta snart ett år känns när jag återser er.

Gunnar och Moster Lena kom hit den nionde april och stannade i två veckor. Jag vet inte om det blev så mycket semester för er, men mycket att se blev det.

I mitten av maj var jag även på den stora sumoturneringen här i Tokyo! Naturligtvis vill man sitta på bra platser, så jag och en kompis åkte dit i tid tills biljetterna släpptes. Föga anade vi att köandet var uppdelat på flera dagar, så efter att ha köat i två timmar var allt vi hade fått varsin nummerlapp att använda nästa dag. Att tillägga är att jag var tvungen att gå upp klockan sex på morgonen. Nästa dag kom vi dit och blev inordnade i kön av några vakter som hade i uppgift att titta på folks nummerlappar och få oss att stå i den ordningen. “Varför inte sälja biljetterna direkt?” skulle någon som inte är van vid den japanska byråkratin kunna fråga. Slutligen fick vi iallafall ganska bra platser ungefär 20 meter från ringen, men mycket och tidigt köande blev det.
Det var helt klart värt det, för matchdagen var riktigt rolig. Turneringen håller på i ungefär två veckor och alla brottare är med varje dag, så oavsett när man går får man se alla. Dagen börjar klockan nio med de lägst rankade brottarnas matcher och efter lunch börjar de bättre sumobrottarna komma in, och det är inte förrän framåt fyratiden som stadion börjar bli full. Finalmatchen går klockan sex och då är stämningen helt enorm. Folk sitter tätpackade, dricker sake och skriker på sina favoriter.

Planerna för min hemfärd börjar nu ta form också. Varför flyga när man kan åka tåg? I början av augusti möter jag upp Linus och Jocke i Peking och åker vidare ner till Tibet och Nepal. Därifrån genom Indien, Pakistan, Iran, Turkiet och Europa för att äntligen komma hem nån gång i mitten av oktober. Vi kanske stannat till några dar i Prag på vägen och dricker öl. Höjdpunkterna på resan blir nog Nepal och Pakistan som har minst sagt annorlunda kultur.

För närvarande är Pappa, Moster Sussi och Maria här på besök. Först blev det några dagar i Tokyo och sedan åkte vi tillsammans till Takayama. Därifrån åkte de ensamma vidare till Kanazawa och Kyoto med lokaltåg, så jag var en aning orolig för hur det skulle gå. Det verkar dock ha gått bra och jag hörde av Pappa att de bodde i ett buddhistiskt tempel där morgoncermonin kl. 7 var obligatorisk för alla gästerna. Själv åkte jag från Takayama upp i Japans norra alper för att klättra upp på Hotake-dake, japans tredje högsta berg. John gjorde mig sällskap och bilderna kommer snart på fotosidan.

Hoppas ni har det jättebra där hemma! Saknar er alla!

Det mesta är bra här i Tokyo. Jag verkar ha klarat av alla kurser, och har nu ett par veckors ledighet från skolan att se fram emot. I en av kurserna var examineringen att lämna in en tiosidig sammanfattning av vad jag lärt mig, och efter att ha skrivit på den några dar gick jag till professorn för att lämna in. Professorn är en 60-årig japansk man, gråhårig, två huvuden kortare än jag och mycket respektingivande. För ett par hundra år sedan hade han varit samurai. Jag lämnar iallafall fram rapporten till honom och han står tyst och bläddrar i den några minuter. Han fixerar mig sen med ögonen och säger lugnt “I am not satisfied”. Han var med andra ord inte helt nöjd med vad jag skrivit, och jag lyckades som tur var hålla ett stort leende från läpparna. Några dagar senare och efter lite ändringar gillade han den dock bättre. =)

Vad jag för övrigt haft för mig visas bäst i bilder, så titta in på fotosidan. För er som kommer och hälsar på i sommar är bestigning av Fuji ett måste! På sommaren är det en aning lättare, och det går bussar ända upp till trädgränsen, men förvänta er ändå en lång tur, för ska man bestiga ett berg så ska man bestiga hela berget. Först ut att hälsa på är Lena och Gunnar, som kommer i tid till körsbärsträdens blomning. Japanerna har redan börjat prata om körsbärsblommorna, och killarna på labbet har flera gånger berättar om hur vackert det tydligen ska vara. Vi får väl se.

Lite hemlängtan börjar så smått krypa sig på nu, och jag tror att en erfarenhet jag tar med mig härifrån är känslan av att vara annorlunda. Går man på stan eller åker tunnelbana har man alltid ett par blickar på sig, inget ont i dem utan snarare av nyfikenhet, men det gör att man aldrig är anonym. En positiv sak är dock att jag är helt immun mot reklamutdelarna på stan, som helt enkelt hoppar över att ge mig. =)

Kram på er alla!