I feel it is time to take this debate now, to explain myself, argue my point and elaborate how I think: I don't believe in global warming! Or rather that global warming is due to human activity.
a. I don't believe that human activity affects the weather on a global scale. I find it narcissistic to believe that we can, no matter how much we try, affect something that big. I find the arguments of proof of this to be lacking; mainly the statistics of temperature change. The thing is that we only have widespread reliable measurements since the late 19th century, i.e. less than 150 years. And the temperature of the earth is something that varies on a geological and astronomical scale, i.e. in periods of thousands or even millions of years. People today often speak of how weird the weather is and that each year has some extreme; last year for example it was the coldest winter in like ever and this year it was the warmest winter in like the same ever. For me this is definitely true, I have in my lifetime never experienced a colder winter than last year and neither have I experienced a more temperate winter than this year.
But I’m only 30 years old and I remember when I was young how people talked about the wicked winter of 1979 when snow piled up so high you could ride your sledding from the rooftops of Bjärred (in Southern Sweden). Not to speak of the winter of 1658 (often spoken of as the little ice-age) when it was so cold that the Swedish armies of Karl X could walk over the straits between Scania and Denmark and took the Danish king Frederik III by surprise.
b. And then there is the supposed relation between human activity and geological activity. I’m talking about how some people draw parallels between pollution, global warming and earth quakes. How people as soon as there is news of a natural disaster comments that there are more natural disasters these days. The hint is actually in the name, they are natural! I found it ridiculous and again extremely narcissistic that someone could believe that we humans could actually affect how the continental platforms move. And I shouldn’t even have to argue that even on as short a period of time as a hundred years the average frequency of earth quakes of various powers is followed pretty accurately. And again these are geological effects which should be viewed in periods of hundreds of thousands of years rather than decades. The only thing that is more frequent is the information we get about these disasters.
c. Notice that I’ve completely left out the fact that the ice around the poles of the earth are melting. That is because I don’t see any proof of the relation between the melting of the global icecaps and human activity. Earth is getting warmer though; there is no doubt of that. The changes to the sea-ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic region affects mainly the local fauna which is not really noticed by us unless you watch nature shows. But the indirect effect of melting sea-ice is that it accelerates the warming; ice is white and reflects sunlight while water is dark and absorbs it, basically creating a vicious circle where the more ice that melts the warmer it will get and the more ice will melt.
Directly worse for us is the melting of the land-ice in these regions. Most prominent is the land-ice of Greenland which all in all would raise the sea level of the world seas by over 7m (which would probably put my family home underwater!). And this is nothing compared to the ice sheet on the Antarctic continent which is ten times as much as the Greenland ice sheet. The Greenland ice sheet is melting/flowing into the sea at a fairly fast rate, but this process will still take hundreds of years, by which time the trend might have changed (in either direction).
Another secondary effect of the melting ice is changes to the ocean currents. The only reason the area I live in, and actually most of Europe, is at all habitable is because of the Atlantic Gulfstream. Sweden is actually so far north that it far north the American border, way into Canada by comparison, or similarly in Russian Siberia, areas that are nearly completely inhabitable. Not to speak of the Swedish capital Stockholm which is already on level with the Northwest Territories in Canada, Alaska and, well still Siberia. And Europe is still habitable even far North of Stockholm and people live far into to Arctic Circle. Southern Europe is also affected; take Madrid for example, which is on the same Latitude as both Beijing and New York, both cities with cold winters (I’ve been in Beijing when the temperature was below -20 centigrade), while Madrid very rarely have temperatures below 0 (average temperature in Madrid in December and January is just below 10 centigrade).
So back to that secondary effect, how the warming up of the polar caps and the melting ice (both sea-ice and land-ice) could potentially change the ocean currents over time. This is also very much a geological phenomenon and will most likely be a gradual change over hundreds or even thousands of years, but even small changes to these currents can cause great changes to the local climate in some parts of the world, like for example here in Sweden.
d. Having said this I still believe pollution is bad and that we should be more environmentally concerned than we are. Pollution is bad and the way I see it there are more direct effects than global warming. For example there are local health problems; I’ve noticed while living in severely polluted areas that people seem sicker, they age faster and feel worse. There could of course be other factors to this, like overwork and stress, which seems to be coinciding with pollution more often than not.
I have a personal experience however; I seem to have contracted an allergy to some kind of pollution. I noticed a couple of years ago that I had a constant cough and runny nose that I at the time blamed on a cold. After seeing a doctor who stated that I did not have a cold, that it was probably an allergy and gave me antihistamines. The drugs worked and I got better. Now that is not much of an argument that it was caused by pollution, that argument is that while I needed to take the drugs daily while living in a polluted there is no effect at all where I’m living now. This could of course also be attributed to other factors.
My main argument is then that pollution feels bad. After living in an extremely polluted area for nearly a year, where the local geography and climate made it even worse, I could feel the harsh treatment of my throat and lungs and there were few things I craved more than fresh clean air.
Even in places that are not considered comparably polluted you can feel a difference. For example while going on skiing trips to northern Sweden the air feels cleaner than it does at home in the South. The South of Sweden is still like a polished white surface compared to the sooth-black air many other places in the world.
e. I don’t believe in global warming but I do believe in local warming; I have lived in a big city where in the city itself the temperature very rarely drops below 0 degrees centigrade, outside the city, only a couple of tens of kilometers, however the temperature seems to be several degrees lower. And this corresponds to historical readings, where only a few decades before it used to be that cold where the city is too.
Another very obvious effect of pollution is sooth. When you have to wash of a thick layer of sooth from your balcony at least once per month there is obviously a problem.
f. Having said all this I think there are things we can do about it. For example when it is cold in warm places (does that make sense?) it tends to “feel” much colder. I’ve discussed this with local people and argued that where I come from it is much colder but I will still be warmer, for which I’m always (yes always, every single time) counted with that we have central heating systems. Actually, we don’t. Apartment complexes often have, but not always. We do have heating though. But, to be honest I had eating in those warm places that were cold too. The difference is not about heating, it is about insulation. Warming up places with heat pumps, infrared heaters or various other heaters doesn’t help much if you don’t have any insulation to speak of. I still don’t understand the idea to build huge buildings without any insulation, sure it is more expensive to build but you must make up for that in reduced heating, and cooling, costs. Yes, cooling costs too. When the outdoors temperature is 35 centigrade and the humidity over 98% every single household will start blasting their air conditioners, and with poor insulation a lot of this cooling goes to waste. The best way to be warm is to stay warm, not to heat up.
Like I said in the beginning, I don’t believe in global warming from human activity. Earth is getting slightly warmer though and the polar caps are melting. And pollution is still bad and we should do all we can to not waste energy or materials.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
How I lost my passport in China. Part 3 - The hot pot, the karaoke and the morning adventures.
We met up with Paul, Tiff and the others at the usual place where you can get everything you might ever need for a wicked night out. We started with hot pot and our friends had managed to both get me some gifts; a new backpack, some clothes, a Swedish movie and a porn (????), to cheer me up as well as getting themselves pretty drunk already. My mood was low during the whole dinner but there was no point in moping so I participated as well as I could. By 10pm we had managed to get both full and drunk and it was time to head over for the karaoke next doors.
The karaoke was awesome and wicked at the same time. I can't say much more than that we sang a lot, drank a lot and had a lot off fun.
I left at about 4am when most people were passed or passing out. I took a taxi back to where I used to live, with the regular communication problem. Weirdly the driver could not understand me saying renmin nan lu but he did get babaogei... I guess it comes down to tones and dialects...
Arriving near my old place I found to my dismay that I was out of money. In pure desperation I tried to get hold of anyone in Sweden and finally got both Maja and later Ville who could tranfer me some money, which was much needed as I had to buy some flight tickets in the morning (when it would be late night in Sweden). After all that hassle I once again calmed down and started walking around the area and found a new chaokao place just outside my former building entrance. Happily I bought some bbq sticks and was suddenly invited to sit down with the owner and two guys, of which one could speak a few words of English and the other two nothing. We still communicated well enough though and they bought me beer while I told my passport story to an interested but not in the slightest comprehending crowd.
After a while I went back to the hotel across the street but once I reached the door I realized I wanted massage (nothing dirty), so I headed back to the guys and asked them if they knew of any. They of course assumed I meant something dirty and gave me directions for both that and regular massage, I couldn't find that though. I did suddenly remeber about a proper massage parlor just a block away from my old home so I headed over there instead. Arriving at the place I just pointed at the longest and most expensive massage I could get (it is a proper massage parlor and most expensive does not mean sex as it might in some locations) and got the most amazing massage I've ever had for about two hours. It was a full body massage and the reason it was so good was probably because I was pretty drunk and tired which made me extremly relaxed. And it only cost me 130rmb!
When I left the sun was up and once I reached the hotel again it was already 8:30 in the morning. I passed out immediately and got about 4-5 hours worth of sleep before I had to check out.
The karaoke was awesome and wicked at the same time. I can't say much more than that we sang a lot, drank a lot and had a lot off fun.
I left at about 4am when most people were passed or passing out. I took a taxi back to where I used to live, with the regular communication problem. Weirdly the driver could not understand me saying renmin nan lu but he did get babaogei... I guess it comes down to tones and dialects...
Arriving near my old place I found to my dismay that I was out of money. In pure desperation I tried to get hold of anyone in Sweden and finally got both Maja and later Ville who could tranfer me some money, which was much needed as I had to buy some flight tickets in the morning (when it would be late night in Sweden). After all that hassle I once again calmed down and started walking around the area and found a new chaokao place just outside my former building entrance. Happily I bought some bbq sticks and was suddenly invited to sit down with the owner and two guys, of which one could speak a few words of English and the other two nothing. We still communicated well enough though and they bought me beer while I told my passport story to an interested but not in the slightest comprehending crowd.
After a while I went back to the hotel across the street but once I reached the door I realized I wanted massage (nothing dirty), so I headed back to the guys and asked them if they knew of any. They of course assumed I meant something dirty and gave me directions for both that and regular massage, I couldn't find that though. I did suddenly remeber about a proper massage parlor just a block away from my old home so I headed over there instead. Arriving at the place I just pointed at the longest and most expensive massage I could get (it is a proper massage parlor and most expensive does not mean sex as it might in some locations) and got the most amazing massage I've ever had for about two hours. It was a full body massage and the reason it was so good was probably because I was pretty drunk and tired which made me extremly relaxed. And it only cost me 130rmb!
When I left the sun was up and once I reached the hotel again it was already 8:30 in the morning. I passed out immediately and got about 4-5 hours worth of sleep before I had to check out.
How I lost my passport in China. Part 2 - The police, the registration and the hotel
My passport was in that backpack. Actually it might still be as far as I know, because who whould ever need my Swedish passport, excepting me of course?
We looked around everywhere we could think and asked bartenders in bouth Paname and the bar next doors but was met with nothing but indifference. We soon headed back to Tiffany's home far in the South of the city. I immediately called home for some assistant and after mom had contacted the Swedish foreign minestry I managed to calm down and get some sleep. From that point on and through the next 48 hours the only thing that was going through my mind was "it is only monetary".
In the morning I called the Swedish embassy of China's emergency hotline and got the advice to file police reports and make sure I got an official report which I could bring to either the Swedish embassy in Beijing or the Swedish consulate in Shanghai. I went out to meet my friend, Li Min (to whom I was supposed to give about fifteen hundred Swedish kronor/Hong Kong dollar/Chinese yuan worth of eye creams that was in the bag), and together we went back to Paname where we once again looked around, tried to talk to the staff of the bar and called the police.
The police here was actually very helpful and with Li Min's assistance I soon had a written report to take to the something something ministry of something something in Chengdu (I can't even remember what it was called to be honest). There we encountered our first major problem; it was already near 5pm when everything in China would close and remain such for the following four days, I basically had 15 minutes to finish everything or I would be a sitting duck in Chengdu for until the end of the holidays. And this is where the woman told me I need to go to my friend's home, find the closest police station and register there as I was staying in a local home and everybody visiting China must register where they stay within 24 hours. Now the problem of course was that she lives over an hour from where we were to her home, and even then we had no idea where the police station would be, and even if we did know that it would take slightly more than 10 minutes to finish that registration. This is not even counting that I had only been in Chengdu for about 17 hours, apparently that didn't actually matter, everything else had to be done by the book though.
She was not completely impossible though, actually she was fairly nice when it all came down to it; she suggested I check in to a nearby hotel immediately and she was willing to stay for another 30 minutes to help me out. So Li Min and I ran off to a hotel, that turned out to be outside the window of my old flat in Chengdu, checked me in and ran back to get the police report.
Calmed down now that we had done everything we could I went for clothes shopping, took a much needed shower and headed towards another night of wicked adventures with Paul, Tiffany and others.
We looked around everywhere we could think and asked bartenders in bouth Paname and the bar next doors but was met with nothing but indifference. We soon headed back to Tiffany's home far in the South of the city. I immediately called home for some assistant and after mom had contacted the Swedish foreign minestry I managed to calm down and get some sleep. From that point on and through the next 48 hours the only thing that was going through my mind was "it is only monetary".
In the morning I called the Swedish embassy of China's emergency hotline and got the advice to file police reports and make sure I got an official report which I could bring to either the Swedish embassy in Beijing or the Swedish consulate in Shanghai. I went out to meet my friend, Li Min (to whom I was supposed to give about fifteen hundred Swedish kronor/Hong Kong dollar/Chinese yuan worth of eye creams that was in the bag), and together we went back to Paname where we once again looked around, tried to talk to the staff of the bar and called the police.
The police here was actually very helpful and with Li Min's assistance I soon had a written report to take to the something something ministry of something something in Chengdu (I can't even remember what it was called to be honest). There we encountered our first major problem; it was already near 5pm when everything in China would close and remain such for the following four days, I basically had 15 minutes to finish everything or I would be a sitting duck in Chengdu for until the end of the holidays. And this is where the woman told me I need to go to my friend's home, find the closest police station and register there as I was staying in a local home and everybody visiting China must register where they stay within 24 hours. Now the problem of course was that she lives over an hour from where we were to her home, and even then we had no idea where the police station would be, and even if we did know that it would take slightly more than 10 minutes to finish that registration. This is not even counting that I had only been in Chengdu for about 17 hours, apparently that didn't actually matter, everything else had to be done by the book though.
She was not completely impossible though, actually she was fairly nice when it all came down to it; she suggested I check in to a nearby hotel immediately and she was willing to stay for another 30 minutes to help me out. So Li Min and I ran off to a hotel, that turned out to be outside the window of my old flat in Chengdu, checked me in and ran back to get the police report.
Calmed down now that we had done everything we could I went for clothes shopping, took a much needed shower and headed towards another night of wicked adventures with Paul, Tiffany and others.
How I lost my passport in China. Partt 1 - The wine, the flight and the theft...
It's been a long time since I last wrote here but the past few days events definitely qualify for something to write about. Actually I think it qualifies so much that I will have to be cutting stuff out for anyone to bear reading it.
Last friday me and my American friend Paul caught a flight from Shenzhen BaoAn international due for Chengdu, actually the "fun" started already before the flight when Paul in his eager to bring gifts for his friend Tiffany in Chengdu neglected the fact that you are not allowed to bring wine on the flight. We swiftly took care of that mistake in the taxi ride from Shenzhen bay port to the airport though. But this was of course not enough as he also considered it a swell idea to bring a couple of small bottles of wine on the flight, which of course was not allowed and the contents of those ended up in our bellies in about 30 seconds per bottle (there were two for us each) while trying to pass the security check. We then managed to, my fault admittedly, walk to the wrong gate and had to run for the last call, which for me meant a sprint like I haven't done in years (not saying too much as I never actually run).
In Chengdu we met up with Tiff herself and appologized for the missing wine. We had chaokao (bbq) and a couple of beer then headed to a nearby bar called Paname (I think I might have mentioned that place among my Chengdu blogs). The place has turend quite shady recently but it was cheap drinks and we had a good time. We were all sitting together talking to some people when I headed off to talk a bit from the bar, leaving my backpack with Paul and Tiffany. After a while they joined us and told me my bag was still over at the tables we were sitting at and we joked about how no one would steal a Swedish passport. Fittingly to the just past fools day I found the bag missing when I walked over there a moment later.
And that was of course when everything became a proper mess...
Last friday me and my American friend Paul caught a flight from Shenzhen BaoAn international due for Chengdu, actually the "fun" started already before the flight when Paul in his eager to bring gifts for his friend Tiffany in Chengdu neglected the fact that you are not allowed to bring wine on the flight. We swiftly took care of that mistake in the taxi ride from Shenzhen bay port to the airport though. But this was of course not enough as he also considered it a swell idea to bring a couple of small bottles of wine on the flight, which of course was not allowed and the contents of those ended up in our bellies in about 30 seconds per bottle (there were two for us each) while trying to pass the security check. We then managed to, my fault admittedly, walk to the wrong gate and had to run for the last call, which for me meant a sprint like I haven't done in years (not saying too much as I never actually run).
In Chengdu we met up with Tiff herself and appologized for the missing wine. We had chaokao (bbq) and a couple of beer then headed to a nearby bar called Paname (I think I might have mentioned that place among my Chengdu blogs). The place has turend quite shady recently but it was cheap drinks and we had a good time. We were all sitting together talking to some people when I headed off to talk a bit from the bar, leaving my backpack with Paul and Tiffany. After a while they joined us and told me my bag was still over at the tables we were sitting at and we joked about how no one would steal a Swedish passport. Fittingly to the just past fools day I found the bag missing when I walked over there a moment later.
And that was of course when everything became a proper mess...
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Sister visiting Hong Kong
Instead of doing a day by day posting I find it more interesting to post by activity and summarize what can be done when visiting Hong Kong.
I have divided our activities into:
Culinary Hong Kong (e.g. what we eat and sometimes cook here).
Play in Hong Kong
Tourism in Hong Kong (e.g. the obvious tourist attraction that everyone does)
Party in Hong Kong
and Shopping in Hong Kong
So far I have written part 1 only but I will update eventually and add more photos when Maja has given them to me.
I have divided our activities into:
Culinary Hong Kong (e.g. what we eat and sometimes cook here).
Play in Hong Kong
Tourism in Hong Kong (e.g. the obvious tourist attraction that everyone does)
Party in Hong Kong
and Shopping in Hong Kong
So far I have written part 1 only but I will update eventually and add more photos when Maja has given them to me.
Party in Hong Kong (part 1)
As of yet we haven't really been out partying; we had a few drinks near my home the other day and last night we drank some beer with the BBQ but otherwise we have taken it easy. On Wednesday we have plans to go out to a club with a friend and on Saturday I have arranged a big local party and BBQ to show Maja how we really party here, should be quite fun.
Tourism in Hong Kong (part 1)
So far we have hardly done anything touristy at all; we only went to Wetland Park near my home in Tin Shui Wai. But tomorrow we will go to Tung Chung and do the Ngong Ping 360 cable car and see the big Buddha and on Wednesday we will go to the peak. I also have plans to go with her to Ocean Park on Friday and we will see what we can do next Sunday.
Shopping in Hong Kong (part 1)
Maja was very eager to go out shopping as soon as possible when she came here, the only problem was that I have actually no idea where to take her to shop. We did however go out to Causeway bay and walked around inside SOGO and around that area for a while without finding anything particular, actually the main problem was that whatever she found and liked it was always too short for her. We also went to Mong Kok and I ended up buying a few t-shirts and cologne, Maja still didn't buy anything.
Today Maja is in better hands; she is out with Joyce shopping in the nearby smaller town of Yuen Long, I hope she can find anything suitable there. I think next week on Tuesday I will take her around on a shopping mall tour; New Town Plaza in Sha Tin, Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong, Telford Plaza in Kowloon Bay, APM in Kwun Tong and perhaps Mega BOX near Kowloon Bay and Kwun Tong. We will see how that goes. I will also try to take her to some outlet stores; there are some outlet sport stores in Tung Chung where we will go tomorrow and I think there are some in Aberdeen also, might go there on Sunday. Tomorrow we will also go to the night market at Temple Street in Jordan and maybe the ladies market in Mong Kok as well.
Today Maja is in better hands; she is out with Joyce shopping in the nearby smaller town of Yuen Long, I hope she can find anything suitable there. I think next week on Tuesday I will take her around on a shopping mall tour; New Town Plaza in Sha Tin, Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong, Telford Plaza in Kowloon Bay, APM in Kwun Tong and perhaps Mega BOX near Kowloon Bay and Kwun Tong. We will see how that goes. I will also try to take her to some outlet stores; there are some outlet sport stores in Tung Chung where we will go tomorrow and I think there are some in Aberdeen also, might go there on Sunday. Tomorrow we will also go to the night market at Temple Street in Jordan and maybe the ladies market in Mong Kok as well.
Playing in Hong Kong (part 1)
My main friend and contact for doing outdoor fun things in Hong Kong is my good friend and colleague from UK, Marc Rimmer, he has worked with outdoor sports in Hong Kong before and made some good friends in the field. So he arranged for us to go out wakeboarding with one of his friends and we had an awesome day playing in the water yesterday, but so exhausted now and muscle aches all over.
I think there won't be any more play like this but perhaps we will do something in the weekend and we should go to Ocean Park on Friday.
Me trying to wakeboard, I did get up on my second try
but I couldn't manage any other impressive feat.
Maja trying to wakeboard as well, and in fact she was better than me.
Marc testing out as well.
Finally Marc's friend and our instructor showing us how it is done.
Culinary Hong Kong (part 1)
Food comes in plenty in Hong Kong and so far we have managed to cover quite a few nationalities and styles; the first evening after Maja arrived we went out to a local Chinese restaurant (one of those with a spinning platform on the round table) and had a huge Chinese cosine dinner with Joyce and her family, I also got to try the weirdest Kung Pow Chicken I've ever seen, not even close to the real thing. We have also done Thai food in Thai Orchid in Langham place in Mong Kok, great spicy curry and some other stuff that both enjoyed together with Almen (Joyce's third sister). We went for an enormous lunch buffet at the Gold Coast resort hotel with one of the companies I’m involved with, spending nearly two hours constantly eating I managed to finish five plates; starters, main dish, salad, cakes and dessert and finally some more of the starters. Saturday we went to celebrate Almen's and Maja's birthdays with Indian food in Yuen Long, together with all of Joyce's family and also Ariel and Man, and after that we all went back to my place to enjoy two cakes, one that I made and one that Shirly's (Joyce's second sister) friend made for us, mine with chocolate and the other with mango and passion fruit, very yummy. Finally last night we had a huge outdoor BBQ buffet and spend about seven hours constantly eating and drinking.
This of course has resulted in some weight gain but I hope to fall back to my normal weight once Maja has left again.
We have a few more things to try out before Maja leaves; tonight we will have Joyce's own home cooked food, I think one day we will try another Indian food and probably one day for another restaurant I enjoy where you can get really nice white curry, I will post about the rest of her time here later.
This of course has resulted in some weight gain but I hope to fall back to my normal weight once Maja has left again.
We have a few more things to try out before Maja leaves; tonight we will have Joyce's own home cooked food, I think one day we will try another Indian food and probably one day for another restaurant I enjoy where you can get really nice white curry, I will post about the rest of her time here later.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Casino
It was pretty weird sitting there and watching Deming put down several hundreds of Hong Kong dollars in markers and sometimes doubling them and sometimes losing them all but the strategy is pretty simple; he starts out low and once they have doubled a few times he leaves it doubled then keeps going and lets it build up higher and higher until he finally loses it and he starts over from the beginning. It doesn't make any rational sense whatsoever, but just seeing it like that makes me believe that luck is a skill or at least a property, I still know for sure that if you throw a dice a million time there will be the same amount of each number, give or take a few (not enough to make any real difference), unless the dice is fixed of course. In the end he made quite a lot of money, I don't know how exactly much and I guess it would be private information anyway.
The second funny thing was the prostitutes; it wasn't until around midnight they showed up and at first I didn't realize what they were - I kind of thought that a flashy casino would really allow that kind of business going on but I was apparently wrong - so I looked around as we boys normally do and kept my eyes and a pretty girl if I saw one and soon someone deliberately bounced into me, basically blocked my way and asked me if I wanted a massage. Within the next few minutes I was approached, a little bit more subtly but still, two more times, and after I tried very hard to not look at all and took particular care not to make eye contact with anyone. I was still approached one more time and Deming was also approached once, despite being very careful not to look from the very beginning.
The second funny thing was the prostitutes; it wasn't until around midnight they showed up and at first I didn't realize what they were - I kind of thought that a flashy casino would really allow that kind of business going on but I was apparently wrong - so I looked around as we boys normally do and kept my eyes and a pretty girl if I saw one and soon someone deliberately bounced into me, basically blocked my way and asked me if I wanted a massage. Within the next few minutes I was approached, a little bit more subtly but still, two more times, and after I tried very hard to not look at all and took particular care not to make eye contact with anyone. I was still approached one more time and Deming was also approached once, despite being very careful not to look from the very beginning.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Swedes everywhere!
Saturday 8th November 2008:
First in the hostel, which is actually not so strange, I ran into three Swedes, two of them checking in and the last one using the phone for long distance call.
Later I had dinner with my friend Eva, we went to the same restaurant where Joyce and I met dad in Beijing the first time, which is where I got sick (not because of the restaurant) and threw up on the street outside two years ago. Anyway, we sat down there and ordered some food and I suddenly noticed a group of six slightly senior persons sitting at the table behind Eva that were conversing in Swedish, couldn't place the exact location though.
Later that night I had supper with another friend, Ying, that had come in from Tianjin to meet me, we just went to McDonald's actually and had a burgers when I noticed the crowd of five that seemed to be speaking in a very familiar way, I soon discovered that it was in fact also Swedish and to be more exact whiny Swedish, just like my good friend and former flat mate Kei! hoho
First in the hostel, which is actually not so strange, I ran into three Swedes, two of them checking in and the last one using the phone for long distance call.
Later I had dinner with my friend Eva, we went to the same restaurant where Joyce and I met dad in Beijing the first time, which is where I got sick (not because of the restaurant) and threw up on the street outside two years ago. Anyway, we sat down there and ordered some food and I suddenly noticed a group of six slightly senior persons sitting at the table behind Eva that were conversing in Swedish, couldn't place the exact location though.
Later that night I had supper with another friend, Ying, that had come in from Tianjin to meet me, we just went to McDonald's actually and had a burgers when I noticed the crowd of five that seemed to be speaking in a very familiar way, I soon discovered that it was in fact also Swedish and to be more exact whiny Swedish, just like my good friend and former flat mate Kei! hoho
Monday, November 3, 2008
20% to boot.
While me and my friend was passing the time outside security check in the airport we started my laptop and looked at some photos for 15-20 minutes or so. After I left her and got through security I had to pass more time so I brought it up again and started up, I found it on 30% battery power left and a claim that it would last 11 more minutes, 2 more minutes and before whatever stuff had finished loading I tried to find the wireless network and my computer died, low power!
I don't know if it just is too much stuff happening, if my battery is singing on the last verse or a combination of it, either way it sucks.
I don't know if it just is too much stuff happening, if my battery is singing on the last verse or a combination of it, either way it sucks.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The China probrem!
Quoting Southpark is fun but I really don't have the same problem with China as Cartman, my problem is more in the sense of my own planning this time; I arrived in Shenzhen in the afternoon and met my friend at the border we went to the train station together and she helped me buying tickets to Shanghai for Saturday. But oh see there are no tickets to Shanghai for Saturday, neither is there any for Sunday nor Tomorrow. SHIT!! Going on Monday would be too late since it takes a night and half a day to get there and I should leave on Wednesday anyway. DAMMIT!!!
Well fortunately for me when we found my hotel, which I by the way could never ever have managed without my friend's help either
* It's actually pretty amazing how much difference there is just walking those 200m across the border (YES THERE IS A BORDER BETWEEN HONG KONG AND mainland CHINA, doesn't that mean they are different countries?) suddenly no one can speak or understand English anymore. From being able to talk to most people and at least communicate with the rest to nothing at all; actually even my friend had a hard time understanding me. *
, I got online and found a cheap flight from Shenzhen to Shanghai on Sunday evening, all was relatively well again. I still started to worry about my other train tickets, would it be just as hard to get a ticket from Shanghai to Beijing and from Beijing to Chengdu? So I started to try to get hold of Wenying and Linna in Shanghai and Nini in Beijing. Beijing is actually not so urgent since its still nearly two weeks until I'm going there, but the Shanghai ticket should be in less than a week and I have hostel reservations in Beijing already so that might be a problem. But in the end that isn't the problem, the problem is instead Wenying and Linna, well not them themselves but their works; my main reason for going to Shanghai is to visit Wenying and Linna, I will see two other friends there but that is not why I'm going to Shanghai, and now it turns out that they are working really late next week, I mean REALLY late, we are talking home at midnight here. This basically means that I will be alone in their home from 7am to 12am for 2 days and from 7am until I leave on the third, great fun! - not.
So what I'm trying to figure out now is if A: I should leave sooner than Wednesday; call my hostel in Beijing and move the reservation forward one day (two won’t be possible), B: Leave later than planned; call and postpone the reservation so that I can stay in Shanghai until the weekend when Wenying and Linna are free to do something or C: leave it as it is and just live with it? Since my time in Beijing is pretty much fixed, due to the fact that I don't want to spend too much money staying in hostel and still want to have enough time to meet up with some friends in Beijing which makes 6 nights perfect, I will just move the arrival day in Chengdu, and since my departure date from Chengdu is fixed to the 21st, flight ticket already bought, I will shorten or lengthen the time there.
Well fortunately for me when we found my hotel, which I by the way could never ever have managed without my friend's help either
* It's actually pretty amazing how much difference there is just walking those 200m across the border (YES THERE IS A BORDER BETWEEN HONG KONG AND mainland CHINA, doesn't that mean they are different countries?) suddenly no one can speak or understand English anymore. From being able to talk to most people and at least communicate with the rest to nothing at all; actually even my friend had a hard time understanding me. *
, I got online and found a cheap flight from Shenzhen to Shanghai on Sunday evening, all was relatively well again. I still started to worry about my other train tickets, would it be just as hard to get a ticket from Shanghai to Beijing and from Beijing to Chengdu? So I started to try to get hold of Wenying and Linna in Shanghai and Nini in Beijing. Beijing is actually not so urgent since its still nearly two weeks until I'm going there, but the Shanghai ticket should be in less than a week and I have hostel reservations in Beijing already so that might be a problem. But in the end that isn't the problem, the problem is instead Wenying and Linna, well not them themselves but their works; my main reason for going to Shanghai is to visit Wenying and Linna, I will see two other friends there but that is not why I'm going to Shanghai, and now it turns out that they are working really late next week, I mean REALLY late, we are talking home at midnight here. This basically means that I will be alone in their home from 7am to 12am for 2 days and from 7am until I leave on the third, great fun! - not.
So what I'm trying to figure out now is if A: I should leave sooner than Wednesday; call my hostel in Beijing and move the reservation forward one day (two won’t be possible), B: Leave later than planned; call and postpone the reservation so that I can stay in Shanghai until the weekend when Wenying and Linna are free to do something or C: leave it as it is and just live with it? Since my time in Beijing is pretty much fixed, due to the fact that I don't want to spend too much money staying in hostel and still want to have enough time to meet up with some friends in Beijing which makes 6 nights perfect, I will just move the arrival day in Chengdu, and since my departure date from Chengdu is fixed to the 21st, flight ticket already bought, I will shorten or lengthen the time there.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Tap Mun
As usual when I have to get up early I can't sleep at night, I probably got about 3 hours of sleep but was still quite fine, since I had actually eating something which is usually the biggest problem, when I met Joyce and Kiu Kiu at Coi Hung MTR station at about 9.45am. We took a 10 minutes or so Light bus to Sai Kung where we met up with Joyce's friends and had breakfast with them (which I didn't know so I had already eaten something but not too much). After breakfast we took a real bus for about 20 minutes to where the ferry was and went on a ferry ride for another 30 minutes or so, then we finally arrived in Tap Mun.
The harbor on Tap Mun is on the east side of the island so we walked up the hills and found ourselves on the steeper west side after a rather short walk where an amazing view and strong winds met us. We played around with kites and other stuff for a while, which was a lot tougher than you might think, and after a while we had our picnic; everybody, except me, had made some stuff and brought with them, I can't even try to explain the food but it was very good.
A lot of photo shooting (neither of nor by me) later we packed up and started walking around the island, I would give it about the same size as Pottneholmen (one of the places we used to boat out to in Blekinge when I was younger) but a lot hillier. More marvelous views and photos later and a walk through something like a cemetery we got back to the harbor at about 4.30pm.
With all the travelling back, boats and waiting and a bus that I think took about an hour, it was probably around 8 when we arrived at Diamond hill MTR station so we stayed there and had dinner, very typical Chinese dinner with the spinning table and several really good dishes.
After a very long day I was totally exhausted when I arrived at the hostel at around 10pm, but having to check my email about the interview that I thought I had the day after I met some friends in the hostel common areas. Realizing that I didn't have any interview I had a few beers and suddenly it was 4am and I had had a few beers more so I basically went up to my room and passed out from exhaustion.
The harbor on Tap Mun is on the east side of the island so we walked up the hills and found ourselves on the steeper west side after a rather short walk where an amazing view and strong winds met us. We played around with kites and other stuff for a while, which was a lot tougher than you might think, and after a while we had our picnic; everybody, except me, had made some stuff and brought with them, I can't even try to explain the food but it was very good.
A lot of photo shooting (neither of nor by me) later we packed up and started walking around the island, I would give it about the same size as Pottneholmen (one of the places we used to boat out to in Blekinge when I was younger) but a lot hillier. More marvelous views and photos later and a walk through something like a cemetery we got back to the harbor at about 4.30pm.
With all the travelling back, boats and waiting and a bus that I think took about an hour, it was probably around 8 when we arrived at Diamond hill MTR station so we stayed there and had dinner, very typical Chinese dinner with the spinning table and several really good dishes.
After a very long day I was totally exhausted when I arrived at the hostel at around 10pm, but having to check my email about the interview that I thought I had the day after I met some friends in the hostel common areas. Realizing that I didn't have any interview I had a few beers and suddenly it was 4am and I had had a few beers more so I basically went up to my room and passed out from exhaustion.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Leisure
I have been jumping around a little when it comes to accommodation actually; the first 5 nights I saved a lot of money staying in a 4-beds dorm and only paying 70HKD per night, this really sucked though and I made a friend in a travelling Dutchman who also wanted something more private, so we got for his two last night a 2-beds room which cost us 175HKD each and gave us a king-size bed each and private shower and toilet.
After he left I spent one night in Tin Shui Wai, in Joyce's home, and left the majority of my luggage with my Canadian brother (he has kind of adopted me) who has a private room in the hostel, when I came back the morning after though there wasn't any other room free, not even a dorm bed actually, so I started looking around in the building, where there are about 20 other hostels, and found a private room for 250HKD, in which I'm still staying, have 8 days in total and might extend until I leave for China. I still hang out a lot in the old hostel since they have some nice common areas (remove nice it’s just a comparison and there because it's the only place that has any common areas at all) and I made some friends there.
The first few days when the weather was better I went to a public leisure pool in Kowloon park a few times, since I didn't have much else to do I tried to spend as much time there as possible but it got pretty boring after 1-2 hours. I have been trying to meet up with friends for lunches and dinners but most of the time no one is available, I did (fail to) surprise Joyce (Man had already told her I was coming) and we had Thai food and watched a movie, Connected which is a Hong Kong remake of the Hollywood movie Cellular. No point in counting all my lunches and dinners and movies now but I have tried quite a lot of different food and met almost everybody I know here I think.
I also spent two days in Tin Shui Wai, at Joyce's cousin Kiu kiu's request I had to come back and play with him, a lot of scrabble and other word games, he is a very curious little 6 year old now and I have had good times there.
After he left I spent one night in Tin Shui Wai, in Joyce's home, and left the majority of my luggage with my Canadian brother (he has kind of adopted me) who has a private room in the hostel, when I came back the morning after though there wasn't any other room free, not even a dorm bed actually, so I started looking around in the building, where there are about 20 other hostels, and found a private room for 250HKD, in which I'm still staying, have 8 days in total and might extend until I leave for China. I still hang out a lot in the old hostel since they have some nice common areas (remove nice it’s just a comparison and there because it's the only place that has any common areas at all) and I made some friends there.
The first few days when the weather was better I went to a public leisure pool in Kowloon park a few times, since I didn't have much else to do I tried to spend as much time there as possible but it got pretty boring after 1-2 hours. I have been trying to meet up with friends for lunches and dinners but most of the time no one is available, I did (fail to) surprise Joyce (Man had already told her I was coming) and we had Thai food and watched a movie, Connected which is a Hong Kong remake of the Hollywood movie Cellular. No point in counting all my lunches and dinners and movies now but I have tried quite a lot of different food and met almost everybody I know here I think.
I also spent two days in Tin Shui Wai, at Joyce's cousin Kiu kiu's request I had to come back and play with him, a lot of scrabble and other word games, he is a very curious little 6 year old now and I have had good times there.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Singapura
I think staying with Deming I seriously hurt his health both physical and financial, from the first night we had dinner with his friend Lynette, who is really cool by the way, and cute too for that matter. Who we also got to see a lot of the rest of the week, and after that we went to an Irish bar, Scruffy Murphy's, on the east coast. It is damn funny how everybody in Singapore knows every single place there by name and semi accurate descriptions; people always asked me where I had been and I never remembered the places, but there wasn't a single person who couldn't get it right on the first try when I said something like "Irish place somewhere on the east coast" or "Some shopping mall close this or that MRT station", truly amazing, I can probably do that in Lund but the size is slightly different.
Turns out that the people I met the most where the ones I had least expected to meet at all, except for Deming of course who I was staying with I mostly saw Yi Ling (one zero in Chinese) who came and met us at the bar that Evening. Yan Wei who I thought I would spend a bit more time with was really busy so I actually didn't meet her until Saturday lunch and later again on my last night in Singapore. Kelly too, who share my birthday, hardly had any time at all but we did go out for dinner, clubbing and finally a lunch too, with Elgin joining everything except clubbing. Kunshan and Glen I didn't see at all, nor did I meet any of the people that were in Lund same time as Yan Wei.
Day by day the story goes:
Turns out that the people I met the most where the ones I had least expected to meet at all, except for Deming of course who I was staying with I mostly saw Yi Ling (one zero in Chinese) who came and met us at the bar that Evening. Yan Wei who I thought I would spend a bit more time with was really busy so I actually didn't meet her until Saturday lunch and later again on my last night in Singapore. Kelly too, who share my birthday, hardly had any time at all but we did go out for dinner, clubbing and finally a lunch too, with Elgin joining everything except clubbing. Kunshan and Glen I didn't see at all, nor did I meet any of the people that were in Lund same time as Yan Wei.
Day by day the story goes:
- A few beers the first night with Deming, Lynette and Yi Ling, then I pretty much crashed at 1am when we got back home.
- Lunch with Yi Ling and a brief visit to IKEA to buy some Elderberry flower juice concentrate for Karen who I met for dinner in the evening. This was after waking up at 6.30am and wondering why the hell I couldn't sleep though, then finally finding that Deming didn't get up until 9.30ish. Meeting Karen was really nice, we had Chinese food at one of the central buildings on Orchard road, and she seems to be doing well with her work here and is as lovely as always.
The hours between lunch and dinner I spent walking in the really nice botanical garden and the national orchid garden. That would have been so much more fun had I not been alone and if I just had had a camera, I actually tried to make Lynette come and join me since she had half a day off, but unfortunately it was the first half of the day so that didn't happen. I ended up making my own way home and after some major confusion at bus stops I finally came back and crashed before the clock struck 10pm. - Again waking up around 5-6am I spent my whole morning at home and had lunch at a local place, but western food it turns out. The evening was my first club night but before that I met up with Yi Ling for some drinks, she had taken the afternoon off and we explored the central happy hours (still rather expensive I might say) and even before dinner I had gotten so tired I could hardly sit straight. Nothing to do but power through though and even though I might not have been the best conversationalist at the Italian dinner with Yi Ling and her friend at least I didn't fall asleep.
Deming joined us there and after that we went from bar to bar, meeting up with random people, friends of Yi Ling mostly, and had quite a lot of red bull vodkas. By around 1am we found our way to a club called The Butter Factory (for butter cookies I guess) where eventually Lynette joined us too. Still being tired when we got there I wasn't much fun I guess, but by the time they closed at 3am I had somehow turned around and gotten really energetic, so we headed out for the main clubbing attraction that Singapore offers (or so they say), Zouk, a clubbing venue that offers the most expensive drinks from multiple bars and several dance floors, we only had water and that was free.
We pretty much stayed at a dance floor for about half an hour until they closed it down and we had to move on to the next one, ending up at a pretty boring techno floor at 4.30 or 5am where I managed to drop my shades and dance them to pieces, which Lynette found rather fun and Yi Ling sorry, she actually offered to buy new ones, I think Deming didn't even notice it.
Eventually we gave up though and went for some after party food where I accidentally ate a piece of minced prawn that nearly had me throw up, I really don't take prawn. Yi Ling and her friend Marcus pretty much fell asleep on the way back but Deming and I stayed up a bit longer when we came back. Clubbing in Singapore is fun, but really expensive, entrance fees to places is around 20-40 S$, which is basically 100-200kr, and drinks are worse than in Sweden, Deming is really happy to buy jugs of drinks though, sharing on a few people, which is fun but it's probably not too good for his wallet.
to be continued...
Flying, flying and flying continued
Time flies and I've been pretty busy, but let's continue with what happened with the plug in my ear; I was trying really hard to get it out but my fingers are a bit too big to put inside my ear, I was actually worried I would have to sit with it still there throughout the whole flight, but finally I asked a stewardess for something to pick it with and she gave me a rather big pincer, it probably would have been easier had she helped me too since I couldn't see anything but she really didn't seem to want to do that for some reason, so I spent about 15 minutes in the lavatory and finally to my happiness I got it out.
The rest of the flight was rather uneventful, except that I was pumped with adrenalin from the battle with the earplug so I couldn't relax and fall asleep in the next 30 or so minutes. I did finally fall asleep though and the rest was just normal sleeping/watching movie to kill time. At Hong Kong international I exchanged my last 100kr bill to a 100HKD bill and 1.8 or so HKD in coins (which is a horrible exchange rate), so that I could call Joyce from a phone booth.
3rd flight was as boring as the other two with the addition that I couldn't sleep anymore, I watched Find Bill which was pretty good but it was damned boring anyway. And then finally we are back to where we started and Deming meeting me at the airport with uncanny timing.
Once arrived he took me to a local small restaurant and forced me to eat cuttlefish, it was alright but I'm still not giving up my seafood ban! Finally finally finally I arrived at my end destination; Deming's home, and once he went back to work I could take my shower and rest up for the evening fun times!
The rest of the flight was rather uneventful, except that I was pumped with adrenalin from the battle with the earplug so I couldn't relax and fall asleep in the next 30 or so minutes. I did finally fall asleep though and the rest was just normal sleeping/watching movie to kill time. At Hong Kong international I exchanged my last 100kr bill to a 100HKD bill and 1.8 or so HKD in coins (which is a horrible exchange rate), so that I could call Joyce from a phone booth.
3rd flight was as boring as the other two with the addition that I couldn't sleep anymore, I watched Find Bill which was pretty good but it was damned boring anyway. And then finally we are back to where we started and Deming meeting me at the airport with uncanny timing.
Once arrived he took me to a local small restaurant and forced me to eat cuttlefish, it was alright but I'm still not giving up my seafood ban! Finally finally finally I arrived at my end destination; Deming's home, and once he went back to work I could take my shower and rest up for the evening fun times!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Flying, flying and flying
24 hours later I landed in Singapore and with some marvelous Singaporean efficiency my friend Deming, who I'm staying with, arrived just about 5 minutes before I go out through the customs checkpoint.
The journey began in Bjärred at 5.40am CET when I had already been up pretty much all night, only excepting about 40 minutes when MaoSai had me realize I couldn't leave without staying in the bed with him for at least a while. Mom drove me to Copenhagen airport well on time - being well on time is pretty unusual to me and this is a going theme for this whole journey with early boardings and all flights arriving earlier than expected - and by 7.20 I had found my gate, at the furthest depth of Kastrup airport and after getting ripped at a money exchange booth (only getting about 186SGD for 1000SEK, which is an exchange rate of 5.4 instead of the going 4.7), and was boarded a short while later.
I have no recollection at all of that flight except that I saw some sandwiches served in the corner of my eye and that the flight was rather empty. At Heathrow I started out with terminal changing then I found a Cathay pacific information booth and managed to get my seat changed to lots of leg space seats on both my next flights (since I actually flew with BA to London they couldn't fix my seats in Copenhagen). About an hour or so left to spend before they even announced the gate for my next flight I tried TGI Fridays (the only place that didn't only have weird breakfast on the menu) and had a quite crappy burger.
Once again I was early to board, and I found that I had gotten a really nice seat with about 2 meters for my legs, that is until I discovered that people queuing for bathroom tended to step on my feet all the time. Finally I was ready to go to sleep, after being up for almost 24 hours, only excepting the 40 minutes before I left home and the hour or so on the flight to London, I was ready to pass out so I got my blanket, pillow and eyeshades and prepared to stick in my new super anti-pressure problem earplugs (for nearly 100kr at the drugstore in Sweden) when suddenly I realized I had pushed the left one a little bit too far into my ear.
to be continued
The journey began in Bjärred at 5.40am CET when I had already been up pretty much all night, only excepting about 40 minutes when MaoSai had me realize I couldn't leave without staying in the bed with him for at least a while. Mom drove me to Copenhagen airport well on time - being well on time is pretty unusual to me and this is a going theme for this whole journey with early boardings and all flights arriving earlier than expected - and by 7.20 I had found my gate, at the furthest depth of Kastrup airport and after getting ripped at a money exchange booth (only getting about 186SGD for 1000SEK, which is an exchange rate of 5.4 instead of the going 4.7), and was boarded a short while later.
I have no recollection at all of that flight except that I saw some sandwiches served in the corner of my eye and that the flight was rather empty. At Heathrow I started out with terminal changing then I found a Cathay pacific information booth and managed to get my seat changed to lots of leg space seats on both my next flights (since I actually flew with BA to London they couldn't fix my seats in Copenhagen). About an hour or so left to spend before they even announced the gate for my next flight I tried TGI Fridays (the only place that didn't only have weird breakfast on the menu) and had a quite crappy burger.
Once again I was early to board, and I found that I had gotten a really nice seat with about 2 meters for my legs, that is until I discovered that people queuing for bathroom tended to step on my feet all the time. Finally I was ready to go to sleep, after being up for almost 24 hours, only excepting the 40 minutes before I left home and the hour or so on the flight to London, I was ready to pass out so I got my blanket, pillow and eyeshades and prepared to stick in my new super anti-pressure problem earplugs (for nearly 100kr at the drugstore in Sweden) when suddenly I realized I had pushed the left one a little bit too far into my ear.
to be continued
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