Resuming it up in pictures and words

After a couple of days, I managed to trim the trip pictures down to around 180.

The Australia Show

Here are my quick thoughts on Australia, build up with the cunning use of a list and bullets:)

Australia...

• has the most uncommon and straight-to-the-point road signs I ever saw;
• is HUGE and I mean, REALLY HUGE;
• has an immense desert in the middle with a big red rock in its center (Uluru aka Ayers Rock);
• has the cities as far apart of each other as capitals in Europe;
• 's Queensland is packed with German backpackers;
• has some decent beers, but the best one is still James Boag's from Tasmania;
• is going through an economic boom, people have money and everything's expensive;
• 's ware transport is via trucks, which makes food prices fluctuate directly with the petrol's;
• can be extremely hot;
• has fantastic sceneries;
• has the most amazing sunsets;
• has some VERY touristic spots;
• has some GREAT music going on and I would like dedicate a "The Panics" song, "Get Us Home" to australia (it's unfortunately only a short clip);
• has the best public radio service I can remember of, Triple-J;
  

Australians:

• are easy-going, talkative, like to take a piss at themselves and have no problems expressing themselves;
• avoid the sun as if it was the devil, the skin cancer warning ads are real shockers;
• are real binge drinkers, they just don't know when to stop (just like brits);
• love to party (just like everyone else);
• have a great girl fashion item, the hot pants! Remember Kylie Minogue's "Spinning around" clip?
• have a great coffee culture, some places (like Perth) even kicked Starbucks (who likes that stuff?) out;

The city of:

• Melbourne is my favorite, alternative, cultural, flat, green, clean, the buildings look old, very classy, has a cool graffiti scene;
• Sydney is busy, large, expensive and not so alternative, lots of buildings are very modern and has a great harbor area;
• Perth has a small population and everything is so far apart, hence a desperate car need, but there are cool places and it is becoming more and more expensive;
• Brisbane has a nice Southbank, is kind of a mix between Melbourne and Sydney, tiny though;
• Cairns is totally tourist oriented, not very interesting indeed

These are my opinions based on my experience. I am sure some people would for example prefer Sydney over Melbourne. The fun factor was so influenced (totally influenced in fact) by the people I met, being it friends made in Europe (Judd, Noel or Mike), local CSers or my favorite travelmate, Heydi.

I would recommend anyone (who likes to backpack) to travel through Aus, being it alone or not, for at least 2 months. I leave a word of notice though, take some cash with you because it is NOT a cheap country, prices are very close to the european ones and there are LOTS of things to do and see. Couchsurfing is a really valuable asset to make the interaction with people living there a lot better. If someone's there to just go out, party and shag all the girl/guys he/she meets at a pub crawl, he/she is better off staying at hostels and leave CSing the f*** out of it. On the long run, the most affordable way to travel is to buy a used car, but make sure you know what you're buying:P

Getting to know the aborigines must be interesting and I shamefully admit I only read stuff, attended exhibits at the state museums and heard what people had to say about them:( There are lots of places where people can have the aboriginal (good and touristic) cultural experience, throwing the boomerang, playing a didgeridoo, painting... but then again, it's only part of their culture, the part with "Crocodile Dundee" written all over it and where no serious issues are explained. So a choice can be made, to get to know the dark side or not.

I hope to make this my last post about Aus. One month has passed since I got back to Munich and during that time, I managed to change some little but meaningful things about my CS activity and the way I see people and travels. The ideas for my next travels having been adjusted, I am decided to not travel alone anymore. In fact, more than ever, I believe that traveling with one's girl/boyfriend is a really tough test for the relationship and I sure will "use" that in the future. It's like cutting the crap and removing all the vernish by putting two people together 24/7, sharing the same space, meeting the same people all the time, experiencing each other's initiatives and influence on the decisions to make - every day, the path to take has to be chosen, everyday, at least one decision has to be made, being it simple or not. I particularly like sharing the "leadership", I could never be with someone that would always leave decision making to me or would write the whole travel plan without any room for flexibility.

Cheers to Australia and the Australians!

Aussie, aussie, aussie...

Oi, oi, oi!

Cheers guys,

n.-

London

... and I will not use the (oh-so-)usual "London Calling" expression!

Aaaanyway!

So here I am, arriving at the end of my visit to the city. Staying with a friend close to a main subway line is sooo good and I've been out there (almost) every day sightseeing and visiting galleries.

There's absolutely nothing like friends. Once more, the network has been expanding and I had the chance to enjoy Gabi's (friend of a friend) company, a very cool lithuanian girl currently not too busy and available to check out exhibits and landmarks with me. I've actually been graced more than once by meeting people in this fashion and also patient enough to put up with me and my exploration needs.

One of them is Lucy, one of the housemates of the place I am staying at in London. We spent saturday afternoon in Camden Town (mainly at the Lock) just before it got struck by a fire. Luck has been on my side. Not only has the weather been brilliant - cold but sunny - but checking out the Camden Lock was great. That place crawls(ed) with alternative life. There are lots of little stalls that sell everything from indian coths, wooden jewelry to whacky t-shirts, shops like cyberdog - a delight for every trace/psytrance lover. At the Lock, one can pass from one yard to another, then to converted horse stables housing some more shops, food stalls, quiet squares with some nice pubs, a canal hosting water taxis. The place is swarming with people and life, the main street is usually packed and access to the subway requires some patience as the flux of people going in and out is controlled to not overload the platforms. Too bad it burned down but I am sure they will try to get it back up ASAP. Even Pete Doherty is willing to play at a fund-raising beneficiary concert.




Back to Gabi... Following Hedda's recommendation, we went to the largest Hindu temple outside india located in London!!! Walking out of Neasden station, a very elucidative sign greets us "Going to IKEA, Tesco or the Swaminarayan Hindu Temple"...













Being the orderly people we are, we humbly follow the next signs, walk past Tesco... then past IKEA... enter a neighborhood and suddenly, after a 15min walk, at the end of a row of little houses we can see what is a building almost totally out of... context. This whole path and experience was described to me by H but I could not imagine I would still be surprised like that.







I reckon that walking down the street and having the first far glimpse at the building's silhouette is an experience of its own. Once closer, this is what we saw.

The detail on the marble stucture is just too amazing to explain. The story of its construction is quite impressive "Using 5,000 tonnes of Italian Carrara marble and the finest Bulgarian limestone, it was hand-carved into 26,300 pieces by 1,526 skilled craftsmen...". Cameras are unfortunately not allowed inside. Visiting the temple is free of charge, only the "Discover Hinduism" exhibition has a charge, but it's nothing. This place is not known at all, although referenced in the official london tourist guide, it is easily overseen being devoid of any bold note of attention.

There are way too many things to see in London, all that is cultural or artistic is of a huge volume. I managed to check out:

The TATE Modern and its permanent exhibitions. The main hall has a specially commissioned temporary piece called Shibboleth conceived by Doris Salcedo, it's related to racism, but I'd recommend to check the link. The main hall is huge and as the picture depicts it's a crack in the floor crossing the WHOLE hall.

The remaining exhibitions are very good even if I only kept to the free ones.

The previous day I checked out with Gabi and Amy two excellent ones at the Hayward gallery. "Laughing in a foreign language" (this link looks like a good information source too)is specially funny and interventive. It went from modified Jokemaster toys saying things like:
Q. Did you hear about the guy who's a dyslexic-bulimic?
A. He eats, and then he sticks his finger up his ass
... to Barthélémy Toguo and his Transit series from which I remember 2 scenes: he puts on a clean street cleaner outfit, buys a TGV ticket and boards the train. Cutting a long story short, most of the people next to him change seats and soon the wagon is almost empty. Just remember that he's black, and even if the outfit is spanking clean it still is a cleaner's.

The other one is created following his frustration with security checks at border control where his luggage would ALWAYS be checked. He one day flies back from Camroon with luggage-looking wooden blocks... brilliant.

The second exhibition at Hayward is about the russian artist Alexander Rodchenko! Compare picture one, two and three. The first two are his.

One of his quotes: "We as artists have the duty to experiment". I can but imagine if it wasn't for experimenting artists, where we'd be today...

Tomorrow, thursday, is my last full day and again, no rush... I'll calmly see what I feel like I might miss.

I don't feel like I have much more to tell about London (as I saw it). There's lots going on, lots to see, lots to do... I have the sensation that Lisbon, although having "only" an eight of London's population, supplies the same feeling that it will never stop and keep you forever busy.

Yeah, I have some pictures of the London Eye (the ferris wheel), several bridges (among them "Wiggly wobbly", also called "Millennium Bridge"), some interesting signs, places... so I'll just leave this one to say goodbye (You say goodbye I say Hello).

While not totally keeping my eye off Australia, I was eager to see how the Australian apology to the aborigines would be accepted. The whole question is quite bipolar. While some ask why a gov't should ask for forgiveness for something done in the past, others believe this gesture is an example other nations should follow. I personally am in favor of the apology but then comes the extra argument that the gov't should compensate ($$$) for the stolen generations and other racist behaviors. The previous gov't was not the most emigrant-friendly around, judging by the Pacific Solution (I already posted about it I think...). One thing is true, every city I visited had at least one exhibition about the aboriginal people, showing the good and the bad things that were done to them.

n.-

G'day mate

And so starts the aussie adventure.
We landed 5 hours ago in Perth, after a 6-hour long flight from Brunei.

I confirm, Brunei is a very boring place and Malaysia is certainly worth the trip. People are always very friendly although they tend to say "OK" or "yes" to everything we ask about. We later do notice that they did not understand the question at all. No worries though.

Our last night in Brunei was particular. We stayed in the same (and only) Youth Hostel in Brunei, where I met Kaku, a japanese backpacker, Arnaud and Severine, a french couple, a german bloke and some bruneian kids. The night was spent with some heavy Poi and Juggling practice at the hostel entrance. All 4 of us, Kaku (learning Poi), Beck, Bron and I taking the whole area for ourselves. Portishead was the right music for the moment, a slow and moody beat influencing with some drama the improvised choreographies (my Behind-The-Back 3 beat weave is half through).
Aus is much drier and for the present being, cooler (as in cold) than Malaysia. They are optimistic and expect 38˚C for christmas day:D

Going through aussie customs was... fun. I was submitted to a small interview in order to make them understand what I am doing here. Illegal immigration is a problem, my actual visa is only valid for 3 months and I am not authorized to work. If I'd want to move in here (which may well happen), the sponsorship of a company might be required to obtain a bigger or permanent visa.
Other than that, they did not like our juggling balls. After opening a stitch of one of them and seeing that they are filled with seeds, these got confiscated. Now the funny side is, my swiss army knife was in my hand luggage and they just ignored it. They are seriously more worried about pests brought in by travellers than about people trying to hijack a plane with a McGyver knife.

Tomorrow's a big day, I want to meet up with another traveller and see if we can establish a travel plan to ride together. I hate traveling alone (even if backpacking involves meeting heaps of people along the way).

Still, pics are for later...

Cheers mate,

n.-