Home Sweet Home
Mood:  happy
Topic: Trans Siberian
After 31 days of leaving London, spending 10 hours on 3 planes, 25 hours on 3 buses, 137 hours on 5 train, 7 countries later I arrived in Singapore. And boy am I happy.

Southen Africa next. Time to stock up on travelling gears, catch up on rest, and most importantly, quality time with family members.

Swiss Army Knife
Mood:  sad
Topic: Trans Siberian
As Tolstoy would have explained, as he did painstakingly in `War and Peace', when something happens, good or bad, it is difficult to attribute the cause to a single source, as we are used to thinking. The twin towers were destroyed because Osama wanted it annihilated. China was modernized because Sun Yat Sen wanted it changed. The characters no doubt played an important part but the event, or phenomenon was nearly a result of a chain of smaller happenings, the lack of the smallest one would break the spell and disrupt the result.

A few days ago I booked a flight from Beijing to Shanghai deciding to treat myself after weeks of train rides. Until the evening before I was planning to set aside a generous amount of time to get to the airport. Then the son of my mother's friend very kindly decided that he would take time off work and send me to the airport.

Unfortunately, he was caught in the jam and was very late. Upon a wait of 35 minutes, I decided I was in trouble and hailed a taxi instead. The cab driver must have been a reincarnated F1 racer, and miraculously got me to the airport in time. I checked-in by the skin of my teeth. Tragically, in the mad rush, I left my Swiss army knife, a generous gift from my work colleagues from London, in my hand luggage.

The sharp eye custom officer found it. I tried to check it into my main baggage but the counter was close by then. It was confiscated. I was devastated and cried my way down the isle of a very full flight full of inquisive passengers and kind stewardess.

If I hadn't flown. If I wasn't late. If my mother's friend's son hadn't decide to pick me up. If I hadn't forgotten to check the knife in. If the security officer wasn't as sharp-eyed. If blardy George Bush didn't spread his damn American paranoid disease around the world. Just the lack of event I would still have the knife in my hands today.

Mongolia
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Trans Siberian
Day 24/32, 6/8/2004

"Mongolia is a very special country, you must always remember that," I told Baiela, my young Mongolian guide who was fresh out of school with a novel curiosity about the world.

Firstly, it is the only nomadic race known to have created an empire as vast as the one conquered by Chinggis Khan. In fact the empire was so massive it was often regarded as the largest ever known to the history of mankind.

Secondly, they are the only Orientals (vague term I know, but they are most certainly genetically closely related to the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans) who are keen on sports. In spite of China's recent achievements in the Olympics, historically the people were never fond of athletic work-out (with the exception of Martial Arts but that was mainly for self-defense purposes). The Mongolians, on the other hand, enjoyed a good exercise almost as though it is of second-nature to them. Horse-riding, archery, wrestling, boxing. We should be glad that few Mongolians in history were ever politically ambitious!

I enjoyed my short stay in Mongolia tremendously. Not only was the scenery gorgeous, the people were amazingly kind and helpful. Once our van was stuck in mud in the middle of no-where, and several men who were passing by immediately dropped whatever they were doing and spent the entire afternoon in scorching sun the help us pull out the vehicle. One family I visited was housing another Mongolian passing by their camp. Unfortunately he got drunk and smashed one of their bowls and screamed vulgarities at the hostess. She was shaken, but I had no doubt that she would still have sheltered that very same man that very same night regardless. I suppose in a country where the conditions are as harsh as Mongolia, it is practically a necessity for people to help one another unconditionally.

Russian-Mongolian Border
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Trans Siberian
Day 20/32, 2/8/2004
On the train from Irkutsk (Siberia) to Ulaanbaatar, plenty of passengers were Mongolian, and they often mistook me to be one of them. Yet it was impossible to communicate as I speak no word of Mongolian.

As we were entering the Mongolian side of the Russian-Mongolian border, I became a little apprehensive. I held a Singapore passport, and I was supposed to be one of the very few nationalities allowed into the country without a visa. After the customer officer, a very solemn looking lady in a military uniform scrutinized my passport, she kept it aside, claiming that she will return in a while, while other passports were simply stamped and returned on the spot. About 20 minutes later, just as I was starting to sweat, 2 giant uniformed men marched onto the car looking for `Singapur'. By the time they reach my cabin, many passengers had their head out of their cabin looking for some action.

To my bewilderment, one of them asked me in Mandarin if I spoke any Chinese. My eyes lit up immediately and I said "Yes!" Then he began a string of questions, mostly to do with my trip, while the other man was examining every single page of my passport. The entire car was quiet, I almost felt everyone was holding their breathe listening to the two of us converse in this strange (and beautiful) language. Finally, the Chinese speaking man told me "Don't worry, we are only being cautious because we hadn't seen the new version of the Singapore passport before, and we just wanted to make sure." I uttered a chuckle of relief, and that broke the tension.

It was almost amusing by then, the two man and several Mongolians beside them looking at all the exotic stamps in my passport. "Hm... Brazil... Ah... Argentina..." they murmured amongst themselves.

"Don't worry," the man assured me once more, smiling this time, "We were curious about your passport. Have a safe trip and goodbye!" The other man returned me my passport and they promptly marched off the train.

And with that I arrived in Mongolia.

Lake Baikal, Siberia
Topic: Trans Siberian
Day 17/32 30/07/2004
Olkhon Island Lake Baikal, Siberian Russia
So ends the day exploring the island of Olkon, largest island of Lake Baikal, largest lake in the world in volume of water. Its capacity equates to the volume of the 5 great lakes of the USA combined together.

I stayed with a local family. On the island there was no running water and no electricity. It was blissfully quiet at night, though that was about to change as the government promised electricity by next summer. Already the cables had already broken the monotomy of the Siberian landscape.

Leonid, my Russian guide proudly told me "There are 3,500 species of animals and plants in Lake Baikal, out of which 2,500 are endemic. Do you know what `endemic' means?"

"No idea,"

"It means that it is found only here and no where else in the world."

The natives of Siberia are the Bruyats, whom are of Mongols desendants. It was very interesting for me because at that particular point in time I was going through a transition period from Europe to Asia.

One of the evenings I visited a summer student camp, various teenagers from schools in Irkutsk, the nearest city to Lake Baikal. They were extremely welcoming and very interested to meet a foreigner. Although most of them speak barely more than a few words of English, some of the girls were contented enough to be seated next to me at the camp fire. Luck has it that one of the older girls (16 years of age) spoke very good English and began to ask me many questions about my travels and about Singapore.

Good Provodnitsa Bad Provodnitsa
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: Trans Siberian
Some backdated entries. I tried to be more consistent in updating the blog, but sometimes time and location simply do not allow this luxury.

Day 13/32, Day 2/4 on the train (Moscow to Irkutsk)
One of the provodnitsa (car manager) is very kind, the other is very cold. And their looks are so clich? of the `good provodnitsa bad provodnitsa' characters. The good-natured one was a plump lady with rosy cheeks, often jolly and cheerful. The unfriendly one was a thin scrawny woman who is perpetually grumpy except to men. Seems like they are on duty on alternate days, so I guess today is my lucky day.

At one of the stops this morning the jolly provodnitsa dragged me out of my cabin, locked the door to assure me of its security and made me leave the train to get some fresh air, and some re-supply of food.

Day 6/32 Riga - Latvia
Topic: Eastern Europe
Riga is more glamorous than Vilnius. I arrived at my hostel later last night and by 11pm I was a hungry grumpy o'bitch prowling the streets for cheap takeaway. Admist my desperate search for food, I did notice a rather lively night scene.

I found the people of Lithuania and Latvia rather impressive so far. Considering that it wasn't very long ago that they had broken away from foreign rule and communism, the people are well-dressed, educated, stylish and very dignified in a European way. It wasn't to say that I was expecting otherwise, but in contrast to the other Eastern European cities I have seen (Prague and Budapest), Vilnius and Riga lacks filth and grime of a over crowded urban region.

And there was a near complete absence of shops selling cheap souvenirs.

Stupid things I had done so far
Mood:  accident prone
Topic: Eastern Europe
No. 1:
I lost two pairs of expensive sunglasses, and I don't even know how I lost them. The hostel in Warsaw claims not to have seen them, neither had my friend in London. *sigh*

No. 2:
I missed my bus from Vilnius to Klaipeda (both in Lithuania) because I forgot to set my alarm clock one more hour ahead from Polish to Lithuanian time.

No. 3:
I spent 1hr 20 mins in an internet cafe out of the 2 hrs 40 mins I had in Nida and didn't have the time to go on a 1 hour cruise which I assume was to see the sand dunes. That was all that I came to Klaipeda for.

No. 4:
I left my towel at Hotel Ruta yesterday after laundry. I have no towel now.

Day 5 (18/7/04), Klaipeda - Lithuania
Mood:  loud
Topic: Eastern Europe
Today is only day 5 and already I am feeling very lonely. While it is rather hard to bear at the beginning, I have a feeling that eventually I will get use to it and be numb to the bone. Each morning I wake up at a different room, and it always takes me a few minutes to remember where I am and why I am doing this.

Actually, I am still wondering about the second question.

Damn you, damn you all!

Vilnius is pretty but also pretty boring. Can't believe it is a capital city! Then again, the entire country has the same population as Singapore, and the entire population of Singapore lives in Singapore city. Now I am in Klaipeda, but see none of the promised beautiful costal sand dunes. Perhaps I am simply not looking hard enough. Tonight I am heading to Latvia, country no.43. Obessesions obessesions!

What is love when love is not returned? It merely turns into infactuation which if left untreated mutates into obessesion.

Day 2: 15/7/04 Warsaw
Mood:  not sure
Topic: Eastern Europe
My experience with the capital and the country is brief, but I reminded myself that it will be brief too for the many other countries that I will be visiting in the next 4 weeks. Afterall, I am technically speaking, not travelling but embarking on a really long journey home that encompasses a combination of public transport (planes, trains, buses and more trains). These cities I see in between are bonouses of a really long ride back to Singapore.

If there is one thing I should remember about Warsaw... well, I would like to make it two things, really. Sofie, a kind lady I met on the bus who took me to a free but magnificant student concert. Secondly, the strangeness of the architecture of Warsaw - most ancient buildings are destroyed in WWII but the reconstruction are so well done that UNESCO had many listed as World Heritage buildings. The perspection of the actual age of the buildings are strangely distored.

Mood:  sad
Topic: London
If I hadn't lived this long in London, will I be less sad today, two days before I leave this place for good?

Old Friends
Mood:  happy
Topic: London
My final few days in London, and a little while before I hit a really long road. I am taking this time to catch up on email, and on long-lost friends. It was wonderful to hear from familiar voices, especially some I had not seen for a while. One reply of email was particularly unexpected and made me rather pleased today.

Stand-by for action
Topic: London
I am on stand-by mode, due to leave at the end of the week but am held back by administrative glitches and red tapes. *Sigh*. A traveller ought to be resignated to last minute changes and sudden departures, yet it is never fun.

Horseman
Mood:  on fire
Topic: London
Yesterday I met up with a distant memory from the past. It was surreal, as though I was being confronted by the left-over of a character that was once defined as `me'. `Horseman', that was the nickname a friend of mine gave him. When I contemplate about the episode that happened more than 2 years ago, all that I could feel now is a great deal of embarrassment, even amusement. Rather than going into a whole load of sentimental crap on how great it was to reconvene with an old `friend', or mull about how strange life is when it surprises you at each corner, what I truly hope to get out of this revival of impression is a sensational jolt that could round up the end of my London Life Part 1. Nothing of those half-hearted bullshit, bring it on a hundred and one percent. A temperament addicted to roller coaster rides is not able to settle for anything less.