vivez sans temps mort http://www.inevitablebacklash.com Lukas Bergstrom's weblog en Copyright Lukas Bergstrom 2002-2008 Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:19:32 +0000 lukasb@gmail.com Panpan's blog http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1994 Panpan's blog~
You think I'm crazy, my buddy Panpan just moved to Saudi Arabia . . .

In categories: People/Friends, People/Weblogs

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1994 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1994 Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:19:30 -0700 On the Aegean http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1993 Having dinner with Ozge's family on Turkey's Aegean coast. Ozge is shocked that a bar has opened up next to her grandmother's house, where we're having dinner on the porch. We can always tell when we're getting close to her grandmother's when we hear the "thump, thump, thump."

Dessert: the honeydew melon gets mixed reviews, but the cheese is definitely a no-go.

Ozge's uncle: "Why didn't you go to ____ to buy the cheese?"
Ozge's mom: "I did go to ____."
Ozge's uncle: "He shouldn't sell you cheese like this. I'll have a talk with him."

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1993 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1993 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:54:22 -0700 Meze http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1992 I'm in Turkey right now, travelling with Ozge. It is such an incredible luxury to be travelling with someone who speaks the language and understands the culture. Turks are very warm people but outside of Istanbul there are few people I would have been able to communicate with on my own.

Ozge's depressed about the number of women she's seen in headscarves. She thinks there are more than the last time she was here. She's been having despairing conversations with other secular-minded Turks about it. I didn't get her reaction at first, but basically there's a cultural war on here, and she sees the headscarf as primarily a political statement, not a simple religious preference. And if she sees a woman in a chador - well.

Also, the call to prayer would be more pleasant to listen to if it wasn't amplified. Every minaret has a loudspeaker on it. Every one.

Apart from that: the treasures of half a dozen empires over the last 3000 years, fabulous food and drink, you know, that kind of stuff. Istanbul is obviously one of the Great World Cities, and since I prefer cities to beaches, Ozge had to drag me out. But I'll be back ...

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1992 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1992 Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:01:05 -0700 The Boys and the Subway http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1991 The Boys and the Subway~
Nothing to do with my trip, but worth a read.

"Have you heard of Peter Pan?"
"No. Have you heard of Metro North?"

In categories: Other/Transportation, Arts/Humor

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1991 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1991 Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:39:10 -0700 Georgia http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1990 Georgians like to eat, they like to make interminable toasts and then drink, and as wikitravel puts it they "believe that guests come from God." Anyway they like fattening their guests up and getting them soused, maybe they were hiding some Hansel and Gretel ovens somewhere. It would fit with the lovely European old city.

Bewildered by the ready availability of espresso and pastries, I barely made it out of Tbilisi. Travellers that did reported incredibly weird shit in the mountains. Georgia has been a Christian country for a long time, but I don't know any variety of Christianity that includes sacrificing goats and leaving their heads on little shrines that women aren't allowed to approach.

Istanbul tomorrow to meet Özge. Looking forward to a shave and (through her) being able to communicate with the locals for the first time in months. I've been constantly astonished at the friendliness of almost everyone everywhere, but after a while you exhaust the possibilities of pidgin English/Russian/Mandarin. "Ah! Los Angeles!" <big smile, thumbs up> "You like name of interlocutor's city? Yes?" <big smile, thumbs up> "Eat, eat!"

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1990 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1990 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:44:29 -0700 Verti-go http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1989 Woke up in Bishkek yesterday at 4am, dressed and said goodbye to the hosts at Nomad's Home, who'd hosted me for a total of three weeks off and on.

Taxi to airport, watch Russian teens say goodbye with studied cool. Flight lands in Moscow, rush to make connecting flight to Baku, Azerbaijan.

Before leaving Baku customs for waiting embrace of taxi drivers, mental rundown: guidebook? No. Any idea where train station is, or how to say "train station" in Russian or Azeri? No. Ready? No? Ok go.

Taxi driver convinces me to take bus, which rumbles 12 hours to Georgian border. By this point, concerned-looking Georgian man has adopted me, and keeps on eye on me through passport control. Emerge from three separate passport checks smiling ... and then see waiting cattle pen and realize I've only cleared the Azeri exit side of the equation.

Dawn. Taxi from border to old city. Shuffle along in a daze, mapless and lost, before finding Internet cafe. Trudge across bridge, through streets to unmarked door in unmarked house, where plump smiling Irina welcomes me to her guesthouse. She asks my name but "many people, many countries ... maybe I call you just America."

Think I'll stay in Tbilisi for a bit.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1989 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1989 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:48:07 -0700 Photos I wish I'd taken, #1 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1988 In Urumqi, China: a storefront office with several earnest, formally dressed employees hunched over phones. On the back wall, a giant logo in English: MORAL SUBLIMATION.

In categories: Photos/PhotosIWishI'dTaken, Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1988 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1988 Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:45:03 -0700 More Bishkek http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1987 There's another American in my guesthouse; he said there's a book title that describes life in Bishkek: "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City". The guesthouse is filled with travellers waiting for visas for half a dozen countries in Central Asia and the Middle East, marking the days (literally: there's a book where people can scratch out days like prisoners. I've been waiting eighteen days for an Uzbek letter of invitation, I've got a shot at #2.)

The city was built after WWII, so it doesn't have a lot of sightseeing value. The local cuisine can get monotonous, although it's nice to be able to get bread and cheese after east Asia. And Bishkek has its share of drunks, crooked cops and young men looking for a fight.

But it's a lovely city during the day, filled with trees, parks, broad Soviet squares. The other guests at Nomad's Home have been wonderful (there's a self-congratulatory saying among backpackers that the weirder the place, the cooler the travellers you meet.) Went hiking for a couple days and met some people on the trail who shared everything, selflessly, which is not always easy to do when you're wet, cold and hungry. I couldn't get these people to accept a beer in return back in Bishkek. A Polish guy gave me the shirt off his back after I told him I liked it. And the guesthouse itself is basically an extension of a Kyrgyz family's home, which may help set the tone.

All that said, where the hell is my Uzbek LOI?

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1987 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1987 Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:41:12 -0700 Waiting http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1985 Spent the weekend in Chopol Ata, a little beach town on Lake Issy-Kul frequented mostly by Russians. The most eventful part of the weekend was picking our way around a rocky field for a few hours until we found some petroglyphs. But the town was quiet and the lake was lovely, and the guesthouse had a garden filled with roses.

Now back in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan's capital) which also has more Russians than Kyrgyz. I have to think that life is frustrating if you're a young Kyrgyz: your country's economy isn't exactly booming, and many of the best jobs are taken by the same people that occupied your country for the better part of the 20th century.

Letters of invitation are still in process (I hope) so: walking around, sitting in parks, reading, trying to avoid crooked cops.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1985 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1985 Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:35:06 -0700 Joining One Acre Fund http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1984 This September I'm moving to Kenya to start a full-time job at One Acre Fund, a microfinance organization serving farmers in Kenya and Rwanda. I'm very, very excited.

In categories: OneAcreFund

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1984 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1984 Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:47:24 -0700 Possible escape from visa hell http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1983 I'm not sure how Genghis Khan managed to sweep across so much territory, given all the consulates to visit, letters of invitation required, etc ...anyway, I'm in Bishkek. I need to be in Istanbul around June 12th to meet Ozge. Not a huge amount of map to cover, really.

_Option 1_
-Wait 7-10 days in Bishkek for Uzbek visa
-Bus to Tashkent, Uzbekistan
-Wait 7-10 days for Azeri visa
-Wait 7-10 days for Turkmen transit visa
-Overland through Turkmenistan
-Ferry to Baku, Azerbaijan
-Overland to Georgia (no visa)
-Overland to Turkey and Istanbul (no visa)
-...and arrive a week or two late.

_Option 2_
-Wait 7-10 days in Bishkek for Uzbek visa
-Bus to Tashkent, Uzbekistan
-Wait 1-2 days for Kazakh visa
-See touristy stuff in Uzbekistan
-Overland to Aktau, Kazahkstan
-Fly to Baku, Azerbaijan
-Get visa on arrival at airport ($100)
-Overland to Georgia (no visa)
-Overland to Turkey and Istanbul (no visa)
-...with time to spare.

(thank you, this guy)

update: except ... flights from Aktau to Baku are supposedly $700 or so. Maybe not.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1983 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1983 Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:28:15 -0700 Written on a toilet stall in a Xi'an hostel, next to penis jokes and "I was here" in six languages http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1982 "One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."
- André Gide

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1982 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1982 Sat, 07 Jun 2008 03:50:49 -0700 Kyrgyzstan! http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1981 In Cambodia I met the director of the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan. I mentioned that I was going to Kyrgyzstan and he laughed and said "why?"

I'm here to tell you, friends, that that man is an idiot. Kyrgyzstan is lovely and unique and weird.

Had the first "oh my god i'm gonna die" moment of the trip yesterday, riding a horse in the mountains. I don't know why they even gave me that whip.

Probably going to apply for an Uzbek visa so I can visit Tashkent, Samarkand and other cradles of Central Asian civilization. Or I might fly to Berlin - want to visit Berlin before the trip is over, and events have transpired such that my trip will now be a bit shorter than I planned ... don't worry, these were good events.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1981 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1981 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:29:41 -0700 The margins of China http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1980 Kashgar is on the western edge of China. Historically it's been home to the Uighurs, a central Asian people, with everything that implies: Islam, kebabs, wonderful hospitality, and totally unplacable physiognomy (I've seen Uighurs with facial features that could be at home anywhere between Paris and Beijing.) Now, as far as Beijing is concerned, it's another potential Tibet - a troublesome ethnic minority demanding an unacceptable degree of autonomy.

Met Gezet on my way to the Sunday market. Never quite figured out his age but I'll guess seventeen. He explained that he was studying English, and invited me to his house, where his mother cooked us lunch. He was quite keen on having me join his English class, so I promised to show up the next night for it.

When I did, a nervous-seeming Uighur man came into the classroom and asked what I was doing there. Turns out that the Chinese police don't like having foreigners in Uighur English classes. Instead I spent an hour talking to a couple of young Uighurs outside the classroom, both studying English. They told me Uighurs would rather study English than Chinese; the young man confided that he didn't like the Chinese much.

A friend of mine met a young Uighur man in Turpan who said that the Uighurs would soon rise up against the Chinese. He claimed that there'd already been a clash between Uighur men and Chinese soldiers northeast of Kashgar, and that 200-300 Uighur men had been killed. When I asked Uighur people whether they heard about this, they changed the subject - the closest I got is that someone said he'd heard "a little" about it. It's plausible though; the call to prayer is outlawed due to a previous Uighur uprising.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1980 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1980 Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:59:07 -0700 The Running Man http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1979 Fought my way on to the train in Xi'an (we have assigned seats, people!), stowed my bag, and feel asleep in the middle bunk. Woke up in the desert. Frankly, I feel a bit cheated, was expecting some sort of gradual transition. But I saw camels! I'm not sure I've ever seen any outside of zoos and camel rides at fairs.

Got off in Urumqi, which the guidebook warns is just another Chinese city "with a few kebab sellers." That said, it does feel a bit closer to the end of the earth. Glad I headed this way.

About to follow some helpful directions from another traveller to the Krygz visa office, which hopefully hasn't moved since last May. If it's true that I can get it in three days - and if I can arrange transport across the border quickly in Kashgar - should just make it out without getting jailed by the PSB for overstaying my visa.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1979 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1979 Mon, 26 May 2008 21:53:56 -0700 West http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1978 After getting a rude shock on visa extensions, I wasted a few days in Xi'an doing some hard-core dithering about my next move. (Also hanging out with a couple very cool people from France and China, about which more later, maybe.)

I planned to have a pretty leisurely jaunt through the desert in China's Xinjiang province, on the way to Kashgar for the border crossing into Kyrgyzstan. Without the visa extension that turns into a hectic sprint. So the smart move would be to make it easy on myself, head east to Beijing, hang out a few days and hop a flight from there.

Bought the train ticket to Beijing. Woke up the next day with a sick feeling, and realized I couldn't get excited about Beijing. I've spent a lot of time in cities recently, and as much as I'd love to see New Weird China, I've been looking forward to the Torugart Pass, and watching east Asia turn into central Asia, for too long to give it up now.

So I ripped up* the ticket to Beijing and booked a 33-hour train journey to Urumqi. Maybe not the smartest move, but it won't be boring.

(*that's Chinese for "got a refund at 80% face value")

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1978 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1978 Sun, 25 May 2008 05:52:40 -0700 Arithmetic http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1977 Question 4: Lukas has a visa lasting 30 days. He can get an extension to his visa, but only for 14 days. If approved, the 14 days begin on the day the extension was applied for. The visa extension takes five working days to process.

How many days can Lukas stay in China if he receives one visa extension? For extra credit, how does the answer change if there is a weekend during the last five days of his original visa?

Update:I can fly from Beijing to Berlin for $578. Tempting.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1977 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1977 Thu, 22 May 2008 00:57:40 -0700 Come to Sichuan province. Really http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1976 As I've said, Chengdu wasn't hit all that hard compared to the smaller villages closer to the epicenter. However, I'm hearing a lot of travellers who were planning to visit Sichuan provinces say things like "no, I should stay away, I'd just drain resources."

Actually, most of the tourist circuit is just fine. The biggest worry for a lot of people here is that the flow of visitors has dried up completely. Just got back from Emei Shan, one of China's four sacred Buddhist mountains, and there was hardly anyone else there. That doesn't happen in China. There are 1.3 billion people here, millions of travellers at any given time, and this is high season.

So in the unlikely event this reaches any travellers that are trying to make a decision: come. Spend your money on local food and board. Try and volunteer if you like, although I don't know anyone that's been able to, they're flooded with people who want to volunteer. But come. People will be happy to see you.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1976 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1976 Mon, 19 May 2008 03:09:49 -0700 After the rain http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1975 Well, don't believe everything you read: they didn't shut off the water in Chengdu, and now I have a bunch of bottles that are 10% juice, 90% sugar. Trying to figure out of the trains are running to destinations near Chengdu; a lot of the tourist destinations (temples, mountains) in Sichuan are now closed. In the meantime, I'm having some of my favorite food of the entire trip. I now realize that I knew nothing about Chinese food before I came here. Nothing at all.

Oh and also: Kenya. Maybe. Wish me luck.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1975 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1975 Fri, 16 May 2008 00:35:53 -0700 Aftershocks http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1974 The aftershocks keep coming; the most recent was around 11am this morning, almost two days after the quake. Rumors were flying for a while about a second quake that was supposed to hit around 5pm yesterday, then it was scheduled for 10pm to 2am. ("Don't go to sleep!" they said, "the buildings won't be safe!" We slept like stones.)

My friend Laura used to work in public radio in the States, so affiliates keep calling her cell phone for an "eyewitness report". We find this hilarious because we have only a street-level view in a city that was mostly fine. We haven't even seen the pictures yet from the villages that were hardest hit.

She has to tell them that there's little obvious damage in Chengdu, and unlike the villages near the epicenter, few people have been hurt so far. There have been power outages, some people are sleeping outside, either by choice or necessity, and many shops and restaurants have stayed closed since the quake. But mostly the city has hummed along with just an extra current of nervous energy.

Today though, one rumor came true: they shut off the water supply. Everyone remembers the contamination of the water supply in Harbin by benzene, and no one knows what could be happening to Chengdu's water. So people are in full-on food and water hoarding mode; I have a backpack full of orange juice bottles myself.

By the way, for friends and family: I'm hanging out with three people here, all of whom live in China and speak Chinese. So we'll be alright.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1974 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1974 Tue, 13 May 2008 23:56:23 -0700 Earthquake http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1973 Got off the sleeper train from Kunming to Chengdu ten minutes before the earth started shaking. We were at a bus station and we figured that we were standing on hollow ground, with buses driving over ... but then the tremors got stronger, and stronger, and lasted longer than we could believe.

We boarded our bus after the earthquake, and started a two-hour bus ride through China's fifth-largest city. It's normally twenty minutes, but people had fled buildings all over the city and were trying to get home to family they couldn't reach over the overstressed cell network. A couple times we saw crowds running for safety in the middle distance and realized we were in the middle of an aftershock.

Got off the bus and the US Consulate was closed, of course, so Laura couldn't apply to get her stolen passport replaced. Found a bar nearby and ordered some beer. Spent a couple hours waiting for the power to come back on, and a couple more hours trying to find a hotel with an open room.

Finally checked into a hotel, where they wouldn't let us into our room since the government was "checking things out". Eventually a hotel official came by to tell us we could go to our rooms. We asked him some questions, and that's when we found out that five to ten thousand people were thought to be dead.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1973 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1973 Mon, 12 May 2008 09:32:22 -0700 In China http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1972 Wake up in Luang Nam Tha, Laos. The guesthouse advised me to be half an hour early to the bus, as it might fill up. It fills up, slowly. People come, deposit bags and wander off, returning half an hour or an hour later. Sit. Wait. Fidget. (No, I'm still not good at this after almost 3 months in southeast Asia.) A couple hours after I get there the pickup truck starts driving toward Boten and the border.

The Chinese officials who screened me were probably just bored. They spoke good English and there was no one else coming through at the time, maybe that's why they methodically took apart my bag. Well, one of them methodically took apart my bag and the other one pulled out novels and started reading the opening sentences aloud, and asked questions about some photos I'd brought. "This is your girlfriend?" The other tried to be exhaustive and went through all the items in my first aid kit.

"That's medicine. Antibiotics."
"That's medicine. Diarrhea."
"That's medicine, for my stomach."

But he missed my iPod and digital camera, which probably would have interested him more.

Next stop was the nearest town, Mengla, on the way to Jinghong, the local provincal capital. Get into minivan. Sit, wait, fidget. A couple Israelis were the last to board. They told me how disappointed they were with how touristy China was, and we argued about the Cavs' chances against the Celtics.

Meanwhile the landscape starts out pretty similar to Laos, hot flattish jungle. My first hint that I'm in a different kind of place comes when we pass through a 3km tunnel, a perfect white tile cylinder projected straight through the earth. Then the scenery starts exploding around me as the road winds through the hills; huge, steep rock faces, deep valleys, constant changes in elevation.

We reach Mengla and buy tickets for a bus leaving in 15 minutes for Jinghong. Starving, we dash into a noodle shop, point at plates on someone else's table, and sit down. Inhale food and get into a larger bus that takes us through more jaw-dropping scenery, until we reach Jinghong, which in scale and apparent wealth (relative to most of southeast Asia) is pretty jaw-dropping itself. Walking around at night you get a sense of energy lacking in much of southeast Asia, which seems pretty sleepy by comparison. And to cap off this day of days, when I get into my $4 air-con hotel room, my TV is showing the Spurs-Hornets game.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1972 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1972 Wed, 07 May 2008 01:37:28 -0700 Back in Chiang Mai http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1971 Yesterday picked up a Chinese visa in Bangkok and boarded an overnight bus north to Chiang Mai - there are many, many buses in my future. The bus left from the backpacker hub of Bangkok; it was a sleeper, which in my case meant a seat that reclined close to horizontal but also yo-yoed up and down with every bump in the road. Our drab, industrial transport was passed on the road by dozens of airbrushed, spiffy-looking luxury buses decorated with the kind of colored lights beloved by Thais.

Twelve hours later, the bus stopped outside of Chiang Mai before loading us onto minibuses. These deposited us in front of a guesthouse (a typical harmless scam, we'd been told we were headed to the center of town) that tried to hook us as soon as we touched pavement. I and a kid from Mexico grabbed our bags and walked five minutes to the center, before going our separate ways.

Over coffee and breakfast I decided to give myself a night in a bed before tackling the next seven hours of bus ride to the Laos border. Before finding a guesthouse I found an Internet cafe. Using the adrenaline left over from arriving in a new city, I finally finished revising my resume and writing a cover letter for a non-profit job I might apply for. Two days to decide.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1971 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1971 Sat, 03 May 2008 03:12:10 -0700 T minus http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1970 Fingers crossed, I pick up a visa for China in two days and start the journey north. In the meantime, hanging out with a friend in Ayutthaya, an hour outside of Bangkok. Someday I'll sketch a map of my travels and the first two months will be a bunch of circles that all link up in Bangkok.

Met an English guy last night, a writer who lived in San Francisco for eight years. Sitting at a table with a bunch of Thais and Westerners, trading toasts. Turns out saying "Chuck D!" is a very polite toast in Thai.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1970 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1970 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:35:10 -0700 Fuck http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1969 Ok, so there's Tibet and the Olympics. And now, China's push for order and control is affecting their visa requirements. Current rules for Chinese tourist visas require:

-A round-trip airplane ticket
-A hotel booking for the length of your stay

... neither of which I have, of course, since I was planning to enter overland from Laos and find guesthouses along the way. Additionally, rumor has it that China west of Chengdu is closed to tourists, which would make my overland trip to Kyrgyzstan difficult. Oh, and I may not be able to stay in the country longer than thirty days at a time.

If everything was easy, it wouldn't be fun, right?

-Holes in the net?
-A shortage of good news

Man, this sucks.

In categories: Travel/Vagabond'08

]]> http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/comments.pl?id=1969 http://www.inevitablebacklash.com/entries/1969 Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:06:53 -0700