Mediatheque

Many libraries are morphing into multimedia centres or mediatheques unfortunately these new media centres are not ambitious enough.

This blog is an attempt to describe a better mediatheque ,one in which allows the community to come to read, write, listen, watch, talk, learn, play, create and relax within one building. Mediatheques will have the traditional library room where the space will not pretend to be anything except a space filled with books, here you can take a book and read in the relatively quiet library room. Adjoined to the library room are reading rooms and writing rooms for those that want a smaller room in which to study or read without the distraction of others.

The use of the internet is now common within libraries, internet computers will not be within the library room but given a space perhaps on the ground floor near the café and communal spaces. Other computers for writing and researching will be provided in quieter surroundings elsewhere within the building.

Music and film can also be found in today’s libraries, Mediatheques will have rooms for watching films and listening to music. There will also be music rooms with instruments to use for practicing and developing musicians, recording studios will be available, teachers available to teach not just how to play but how to produce, edit, dj. Similar areas will be available for making films and equipment available. Teachers would teach how to use the equipment and about all areas of film such as editing, cinematography, producing and directing.

Mediatheques will help recreate places for communities to come together. There will be a café and canteen where people can relax. Parents could come and chat to their friends while there children learn the guitar or what the latest Toy Story in the cinema rooms. Men and women could come and play chess or cards in the games rooms. Local groups and associations could meet in the conference rooms.

Mediatheques will be free allowing everyone to be able to benefit from the services provided. Staff would supervise and teach new users about how to use and respect the equipment  and also the consequences of damaging any of it. Local policemen and community support officers would take the role of security guards so that the community get to know their local policemen and through increased contact become more comfortable to engage with them and respect them.  Interaction between staff, users – both young and old –, police and other community figures within one place would form a more active and better community.

I understand why libraries are trying to update themselves to meet the needs of modern people but if they are going to do this then why not be more ambitious and try to make a difference to community life and become Mediatheques.

Whether the General Will Can Err

‎"From the deliberations of a people properly informed, and provided its members do not have any communication among themselves, the great number of small differences will always produce a general will and the decision will always be good. But if groups, sectional associations are formed at the expense of the larger association, the will of each of these groups will become general in relation to its own members and private in relation to the state; we might then say that there are no longer as many votes as there are men but only as many votes as there are groups. The differences become less numerous and yield a result less general. Finally, when one of these groups becomes so large that it can outweigh the rest, the result is no longer the sum of many small differences, but one great divisive difference; then there ceases to be a general will, and the opinion which prevails is no more than a private opinion" The Social Contract by Jean-Jacque Rousseau

This quote wonderfully sums up the effect that News Corporation taking over BSkyB, discussed here, will have on the ‘general will’.

Returning Character to our Shop Fronts

I recently bought Lost London: 1870-1945 a wonderful book showcasing a collection of pictures of London from the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. Many of the buildings and streets have since gone. Whilst dreamily flicking through I was in awe of Victorian shop fronts, they had so much character and beauty. Each shop had a hand painted sign, a simple well designed glass front. Many of the buildings had advertisements on signs or painted directly onto them. Why do they look so much nicer than the shop fronts of today. Maybe it is just because the pictures are in black and white and nostalgic but maybe it is something more fundamental than this. Back in Victorian times retail chain stores were not the norm on the high streets of London, most stores were independent. Being independent the shopkeeper would have had to look locally for people to fit their shop front. The signs would have been painted by a local sign painter, the shop fronts made by a local carpenter, the glass made by a local glasswright and fitted by a local glazier, the ornamental ironwork  by a local ironsmith. Each craftsman would input his own individual style into the shop front and each shopkeeper would use different combinations of craftsmen to create their shop front, ending up with every shop front and every high street with its own individual character.

This is a big difference to the character of shop fronts today. Chain stores understandably want all their shop fronts to look the same. Therefore an Argos shop front in Camden will look very similar to an Argos shop front in Lewisham. To get shop fronts which look the same chain stores use the same company to produce their shop fronts. This means that the character of local craftsmen is no longer seen in our high streets. Also our high streets have all the same shops - Pret, Starbucks, McDonalds, Subway, Tescos, Argos, etc… and each chain has the same shop front leading to high streets which  are monotonous, characterless places.

Shop fronts are protected in conservation areas such as Stoke Newington Church Street and Hackney Council does have a design guideline for its conservation areas which highlights the importance of the shop front keeping with the character of the local area and keeping true to the design of the building it is housed in. This is great for conservation areas and Stoke Newington Church Street is better off for it but what about everywhere else this will not affect many of the chain stores or high streets. I would like to see the reintroduction of character into our high streets by creating design guidelines which push shops to use local craftsmen to create the shop fronts, and by local I mean craftsmen that can walk to work. So Argos would have to get a local painter to paint its sign, a local carpenter to make the shop front and so on. Guilds would return and though these the power to dictate the character of the local area returns to the craftsmen from the hands of large chain stores. Since each area will have different craftsmen and different guilds each area will have a different character.

A more effective protest against tuition fees continued

So it seems I need some Statistics to see whether what I suggested in my previous blog is realistic.

Out of 639,860 applicants 95,575 were not from the UK i.e. either from other EU or non-EU countries.
Out of 639,860 applicants 481,854 were accepted
Out of 639,860 applicants 367,870 were from UK further education (FE) colleges and state schools and 176,415 were from UK grammar, independent and other schools (and the rest were non-UK applicants)

Let us assume that the numbers of non-UK applicants remains the same and so do those from grammar, independent and other schools. This totals 271,990 applicants. Therefore if no students from FE colleges and state schools applied then the universities would be faced with 209,864 more places than applicants. No applicants from FE colleges and state schools does seem unrealistic. For there to be equal numbers of applicants to places 57% of the FE college and state school applicants would need to apply. So is it realistic for 158,184 people from FE colleges and State schools not to apply?

If there are equal applicants to places then for the places to be filled everyone that applies has to be accepted. Assuming that those that were not accepted in 2009 meant that the applicant was below par then at least 79,705 below par applicants would have to be accepted to fill places. I say at least this number as in this statistic I have not included any of the possible below par FE college and State school applicants.

So it seems as though my original hopeful figure of a protest leading to third of places not being filled does seems a little unrealistic but maybe a situation where places are only just filled may well bring the same ridicule to the governments plans.

The statistics were sources from UCAS's 2009 Higher Education statistics http://www.ucas.ac.uk/about_us/stat_services/

Original blog http://leon-blogs.blogspot.com/2010/11/more-effective-protest-against-tuition.html

A more effective protest against tuition fees

On Wednesday I popped along to the student demonstration about the rise in tuition fees and the cuts to further education. I have never been to a demo before because I feel that marching along a road holding a banner saying “I shaved my balls for this” has no effect on the PM nor other MPs. What I think should happen is that if the tuition fees are raised then prospectus students should no longer apply for university. If a large proportion of the university places are not filled, perhaps a third of all university places, then the university system would be crippled and the government would be forced to reconsider. If prospectus students are serious about opposing the rise in tuition fees, and I believe that they are, then deferring their application for a year is not sacrificing very much compared with debts of at least £27,000. One year is not very long and there are plenty of things to do, they could go travelling or get a job or by way of further protest get job seekers allowance.

How will large numbers of students gain the confidence to do this? Well the NUS and UCU need to encourage such action by campaigning at schools and colleges across the country. Also teachers, head teachers and directors could also highlight the effectiveness that large numbers of students not applying would have. This kind of action is harder than marching past the houses of parliament as it will affect themselves the protestors - those that do not apply – and it will also affect others such as lecturers and researchers but they should remember that the consequence of not doing so will be much higher fees and this is worse.

Media Regulation

The news that Vince Cable has ordered media regulator Ofcom to examine News Corporation's £12bn bid to take control of BSkyB has returned my thoughts onto a subject I thought quite a lot about over my travels – How media influences what we think.

An amusing example I came across on my travels to demonstrate this is something that most Koreans believe and that is if you go to sleep with the windows and door closed to your room and you leave an electric fan on you run the risk of dying due to ‘fan death’.  Although no real, and by real I mean peer reviewed, scientific evidence exists to back up the fans causing the deaths but the Korean media continually report that people have died from the phenomenon. It is because the media continually report these ‘fan deaths’ that people now generally believe the myth. An English teacher I met on the flight home once asked his university class about it and found that almost everyone believed it is true and that they were astonished that he didn’t believe it.

It is not just in Korea where the media can influence the beliefs of the population. Everywhere in the world it happens, in China only government agencies can own media for the precise reason of controlling what information is fed to the public. Having an individual, company or government which controls a large proportion of the media means that they are able to push their own views and agenda on the people of that country.

Sending News Corporation, which already owns four national newspapers, to Ofcom as they try to take full control of BSkyB is not enough. Legislation should be introduced which limits individuals and companies to only be able to control one national newspaper and perhaps one television channel.  This will also have a positive effect on democracy and might limit the effect campaigns such as The Sun’s 1992 general election campaign against the Labour party which The Sun itself highlighted their influence by running the headline ‘It’s the Sun Wot Won it’ after Neil Kinnock’s Labour party loss.

The regulation should not just limit control of the newspapers but regulate the content. There should be a difference between News and Gossip and they should be clearly labelled as such;

News should have facts which are backed up with evidence – scientific facts used should have been scientifically peer reviewed; quotes and citations should be referenced so that they can be checked and scrutinised; quotes from interviews should have the entire script published so that quotes cannot be taken out of context. With the use of the internet this could be easily implemented, it may mean that journalists have a harder job but they should be held accountable for their reporting.

Gossip can be reported without references and scientific facts so that Celebrity gossip can still occur, bloggers and columnists can still thrive and news can be reported before the whole truth has materialised.

If this is implemented then perhaps newspapers such as The Sun will no longer be called newspapers but Gossippapers or better still Gossipers. This way people will know whether they are reading articles that are based on truth or on half-truths and possibly lies. If newspaper are found to be reporting news with non-peer reviewed scientific information or not referencing information sources that is to say not following the regulations then they should be fined for doing so and should be made to report that they failed to do so. This way people will know whether what they are reading can be trusted. It is not in the peoples interest to be influenced by media and neither is it in the governments interest either. 

Travel Log 24

I flew into Inchon International Airport (Seoul) and it lived up to the title of world’s best airport as everything just seems to go so smoothly and it so clean and really well designed.  I caught the last bus to Suwon which is a small huge city on the edge of Seoul and then a taxi to the Chinese couchsurfer and her husband’s apartment. They live in one of hundreds of the exact same apartment blocks which Suwon has and one of millions which exist all over S.Korea.

The busy travelling in China had tired me out and knowing that Japan would also be the same I had decided to take Korea easy and catch up on doing nothing for a while this is also easier because S.Korea gives British citizens a 90 stamp on entry and so I didn’t have to worry about when I had to leave the country.

So the day after I arrived I joined Nancy for a game of tennis with one of her university friends. On Sunday Nancy had planned to join her university friend to go bungee jumping as said that the price was only £20 so I thought sounds like fun lets do it. And off we went bungee jumping.

Bungee jumping is the most terrifying and most amazing thing you could ever possibly do. First you take a lift up to the top of crane which is 60metres high (a 20 storey building) then you wait at the top while you get cold in the wind looking and freaking out about how high you are. Then when it is your turn (I went first) you get attached to the bungee cord, then they open the gate for you to walk the plank to the edge of the platform all the while you are hanging on for your life. Then when you think you are at the edge they say that you have to step closer so that your toes are actually off the edge. Then once you really have soiled your pants they say you then have to hold your hands above your head and then on their count you jump – 5-4-3-2-1 and you jump (the counting was really quick). About half way down your heart starts again and you can scream and you do… really loud. Then you bounce up and down for a while before they lower you down. For the next five minutes your heart beats at a million times a second. So terrifying! So amazing!

After that everything else I did in Seoul was very tame. I spent four nights in Suwon and then a further week and a bit hoping from couch to couch in Seoul. One thing I will mention in Seoul is that they have the best tea I have ever had in a café. Real Earl Grey leaves in a teapot with a tea strainer – really good.

After Seoul I went to Busan where I was to catch the ferry to Japan. Again I really didn’t do much in Busan either. I couchsurfed at an American girls flat for a couple of nights and then moved to a Korean girl (Jiwon) and her family’s house. Jiwon and I went to see some pretty awesome cliffs.

Oh and since I also stayed at a Korean girl and her family’s house in Seoul I noticed that Korean families eat the same food at home all the time. Same for dinner as for breakfast. They have the rice and same side dishes ,of which there are many, on the table always and only one main dish changes and therefore it always taste very similar. I think this is strange – no variety. I think it is also possible true of Chinese families.

Next Japan!

Travel Log 23

I arrived in Beijing tired and soon got grumpy when there was no starbucks in the train station or nearby. I had forgotten to write down directions to the hostel I was going to stay in and needed to pop into starbucks to get a coffee and use the free wifi. I was also annoyed that the main train station didn’t have a metro line going to it. However I managed to get to the metro and find a starbucks and then find my hostel. The hostel I stayed in was a terrible hostel, not because of the standard of cleanliness or for any fault of the staff, they were lovely, but because of all the British louts on holiday in Beijing during Easter. One morning I woke up to find a couple in the bed opposite my and a couple in the bed below me, I find it a little inconsiderate for couples to share the bunk bed in a dormitory, they may not be doing anything naughty but it is just the thought that they could be that I don’t like.

The first day I arrived I unfortunately add to sort out how to get out of the country. I had originally planned to take the ferry from near Beijing to Seoul but the ferry left the day after my visa ran out and the late charge on the Chinese visa is £50 every extra day. So it took me all day to find a cheapish flight out of Beijing as all the Chinese websites which had the cheap flights would only accept Chinese credit cards.

So during this Beijing visit (I am going back to China some time again soon) I decided to skip The Great Wall and instead see the Forbidden City – very impressive and huge, the summer palace – very romantic (well could be if I went with anyone), the Olympic Park – also very impressive even if I don’t like the birds nest and I also went to see the recently constructed CCTV headquarters – quite incredible!

And well that is China … for now. I like China.

Next South Korea.

Travel Log 22

The last entry was rather long so I am going to give a really brief account of Xi’an.

Train – not as luxurious as the one to Xining but still comfortable. I talked to a Chinese boy, I spoke in English he in Chinese and with the little English he knew we managed to kind of understand each other. He gave me some chicken feet his mother had cooked for him. They were nice bit like eating chicken skin. I like em.

Couchsurfed at a Chinese girl and her parents house. Shared the sofa with a nice English fella of the name of Rob.

Rob and I went to see the Terracotta Warriors, I bought two to go with the two Granny and Granddad got me when they visited many years ago. Oh and we briefly spoke to the most beautiful Chinese girl – gorgeous.

Yuan, Rob and I went dancing in a club. Chinese girls don’t dance.

That was the two nights I spent in Xi’an.

Next Beijing

Travel Log 21

The train journey to Xining although the most expensive was also the most luxurious thus far as I was in a compartment with three middle aged men and a nice comfortable bed with electricity to charge my phone and laptop and hot water to drink tea and heat noodles. Wonderful, I had a very good sleep and arrived in Xining quite relaxed.

The couchsurfer I was supposed to stay with put me in touch with Clark, an American guy who has lived in China for a couple of years.  Although a little bit disappointed I wasn’t going to be staying with an American guy rather than a cute Chinese girl it turned out that Clark was one of the best hosts I have had as he was very knowledgeable about China and went out  of his way to make sure I had interesting stuff to do. Clark is an English teacher and when he was working he hooked me up with some of his friends which he thought might be able to help me out. The first a nice Chinese girl helped me to buy my train ticket to Xi’an the second a Tibetan girl showed me around the Tibetan Medical museum and then took me to the park where she herself took part in the crazy dancing – it is not really a crazy dance just a traditional dance like Morris dancing but the idea that lots of people go and dance badly in the park all day long is crazy – and most of the dancers are pretty bad and old. Well actually in Xining it seemed that rather than it just being the older people that danced in the park here lots of younger people joined in both male and female. In the evening we joined Clark at a club that showed traditional Tibetan dance and singing. At first the three of us got a table by ourselves and tried to order some drinks but unfortunately we had to order a minimum of £20 worth and thought that this was too much beer for two people to drink (Chukqi didn’t drink) and decided to leave however just outside we bumped into one of Chukqi’s old friends from her home town and he invited us to join him as he was out celebrating with his friends. So we joined them and has a wonderful night drinking and I learnt a lot about the drinking and celebratory customs of Chinese and Tibetans and saw some professional traditional dancers which I were a lot better than those you see in the park.

Xining is in the Qinghai province (where the earthquake hit recently) and since the problems with the minority people there; China and enforced the rule that you have to register yourself to the police when you arrive and if you don’t then you can get arrested and the people you are staying with can get into trouble. Registering took me a whole day as you have to take all sorts of forms to one police station get them to stamp it and then take it to another police station and give the stamped form to them. At the first station the woman clearly didn’t want to deal with someone that couldn’t speak Chinese and first of all said come back tomorrow. I told her that that would be pointless as I leave the day after tomorrow, she then said I need three photo copies of the documents and not two and that they didn’t have a photocopier so I would have to go somewhere and get the copies. So of I went to find a print shop. Luckily there was one nearby and the lady in the police station reluctantly gave me the all important stamp. I then had to find the other police station, the enter and exit police station, and I had to do this without a map and only a vague idea of where it was. Unfortunately the bus Clark had told me to get didn’t go past the one land mark I knew and so I got lost on the public buses ending up at the edge of town. I finally made it to the police station 15 minutes before it closed having been going around town for about 2 hours on the buses. The next day after climbing the hill in the centre of town I met up with Clark as that evening we had arranged to take the Tibetans out for dinner in order to repay them for the night they treated us to. Unfortunately they cancelled on us at the last minute and instead we and a few others treated ourselves to a nice Tibetan dinner. On the final day I went to see the biggest Tibetan monastery in China. It had quite different feel from the Chinese temples and the monks of course where all of Tibetan origin.

Oh and Clark invited me to talk to his English class about my travels so before I left I a really nice experience talking to the Tibetan and Chinese people about my travels. It was a really nice experience.

 

Next stop Xi’an and the Terracotta Warriors.

Warriors come out to play. Warriors come out to play.

Travel Log 20

In Chengdu my couchsurfing host that I had been in contact with for a month decided that she wouldn’t host me the day I arrived so I had to find a hostel at the last minute. Luckily I found a nice hostel and settled down there for a few nights. Although I liked Chengdu I didn’t see much there, a nice temple, some crazy dancing people in the people’s park, a few nice reconstructed ancient tourist streets. One thing I did do was go out for some really nice food with a few CSers. One night my host ordered enough food for 4 people and then didn’t eat anything herself which meant I had it all to myself ,so I tried my hardest to finish as much as I could but failed luckily this being China the whole bill only came to £7. Another thing I did was meet a couchsurfer, that used to work in the hostel I was staying in, for Chinese tea in the park. So although I didn’t see many tourist sites I did have fun hanging out with the locals.

Although Chengdu is the home to the giant Pandas I decided not to spend the money going to see them as I thought that it would be more useful saving it for later on in my travels it also meant I could stay in bed. I had also just bought the most expensive transport ticket of my travels – a £45 soft sleeper 24 hour train to Xining and was feeling poor. Unfortunately just after I bought the ticket the couchsurfer I had planned to stay with in Xining decided to tell me she was working that weekend out of town and that I should find another couchsurfer. Grrr!

Travel Log 19

Dali is an ancient city that has been partly reconstructed and partly renovated by the Chinese government. The city is set in beautiful surroundings with a 4000m mountain on one side and a huge lake on the other. The town itself although pretty has been turned into a tourist town and is backpacker central. It was quite quiet when I was there as it was the beginning of the season but you can tell it is a backpackers heaven because the old ladies come up to you and ask very politely if you would like some Ganja. So the town was unfortunately touristy but I did enjoy walking up the mountain and going to see the river under a very threatening sky.

   

From Dali I took a bus up to Lijiang which is another reconstructed ancient town more complete than Dali and also more touristy with every building filled with shops and restaurants and the streets filled with groups of Chinese tourists. Here I met a Scandinavian guy who joined me in eating cakes and drinking tea in the Prague cafe and watching the pretty groups of beautiful Chinese women wander by. Nearby Lijiang is the Tiger Leaping Gorge which is a river valley surrounded by huge mountains up to 5500m high. This is one of the most spectacular sights I have seen on my travels. We hiked up the mountain in the sunshine for 7 hours to reach a guesthouse to stay the night in. The guesthouse had the most amazing view of the side of the mountain and the river. The next day we tried to hike to another village to catch the bus back to Lijiang but unfortunately the new mountain road that was being built had a section that was not passable and we had to back track for an hour and a half. I got a little bit worried that we wouldn’t make it back into town that night and I might miss my bus the next day.

 

Luckily we caught a minivan back to the village we started the hike at and then got a minivan back to Lijiang. On the van two English guys recommended Mama’s guesthouse to us. This guesthouse was cheaper than the one we had been previously staying at and they offered a cheap communal meal of local Chinese food.

The next day I hopped on a bus that would take me to Chengdu. The bus had to wind through the mountains often stuck behind several slow moving trucks. On the journey (which took 25 hours) we went through a true Bladerunner city that had nearby power plants with flames rising from the chimneys, red and blue lit up skyscapers and shops. It was just like Bladerunner as we past in the middle of the night. We also past a lorry in a tunnel that one of the back wheels had completely fallen off and was in the middle of the road on fire and smoking out the tunnel and the lorry was sat there sitting on the three remaining sets of wheels. At about 4 in the morning our own tyre decided to give in and we had to stop and wake up a mechanic so that he could replace it. Another thing which made the journey memorable is that for the entire journey we had two babies crying and pooping. The mother would change the nappy on the bus and then put the used nappy in the bin next to your head (the buses were sleeper buses and the bins were in the aisle). Also one of the little girls on the bus was allowed by her mother to pull her trousers down and pee in the aisle this might have been to wash away the spit that is a constant feature on any bit of ground in China. Another thing about this being China is that the toilets at the toilet stops were the most disgusting things I have ever seen. What they are is a series of concrete holes in the ground in an outhouse where you stand and try to pee next to a guy squatting down taking a grunt, often these holes have not been washed for a few days possibly weeks and have a healthy pile waiting to be spread on the fields.

After 25 hours of the China experience we finally arrived in Chengdu home of the Giant Pandas.

Travel Log 18

The bus I caught was heading to Jinghong. Luckily our bus driver changed the $35 worth of Lao Kip I had as past the border you can’t change Kip and it would have become worthless. I had decided to skip most of southern Yunnan as it is said that it is very similar to Laos and after almost 5 months in SE Asia I was keen to move further into China. So I caught an overnight bus to Kunming where I was to stay with Richard a work friend of Ben’s that is studying Chinese at Kunming Normal University. We arrived at 7 in the morning, unfortunately the day I arrived was very cold and I was only in my shorts and the warmest top I had was a hoody. I later found out that the day before I arrived had been 25 degrees but now that I had arrived the temperature had dropped a good 20 degrees. This and the altitude (1900m) caused me to come down with a high temperature and cold and I was house bound for two days. The illness meant that although I was in Kunming for 7 days I didn’t see a whole lot. It also meant that I didn’t go to some towns nearby(ish) but since it is the wrong time of year to see rice terraces I don’t think I missed much. In Kunming I did go to some parks and see the spectacle that goes on in so far all parks in Chinese cities. The parks in Chinese cities are where the middle aged and retired go to sing and dance … badly, it is quite a sight and quite amusing.

Richards Chinese was pretty good and this provided a little more freedom and during my time in Kunming we went out for some nice food. On Sunday I went to watch Richard play football and after seeing how terrible everyone was playing I thought I’d better help them out. So on I trotted and within about 10 minutes I score a peach right into the top right hand corner. Unfortunately later on I got lobbed as the last defender and the game ended up 2-all.

After my time at Richards I headed on a bus to Dali.

Travel Log 17

After a 24 hours bus journey where we stopped at the border for 4 hours waiting for it to open I arrived in Vientiane, Laos. Here I stayed with Guy an American-Laos that now resides in Vientiane. Vientiane is a quiet, sleepy capital where we spent most of the time in cafés and bars, eating and sleeping. We also visited a few night clubs where the local ladyboys play (Guy is gay and so quite a few of his friends are ladyboys).  Unfortunately during this time my cut that I got when I fell off my bicycle in Saigon got infected and I had to visit the Australian embassy clinic for the doctor to prescribe some antibiotics – unfortunately I had to fork out a fair sum for the consultation and had I asked beforehand I may have gone to the cheaper clinic. Hey ho hopefully I can claim it back on my insurance.

So after I got my visa for China I took the bus to Luang Prabang a beautiful French colonial town, porbably the best preserved town I have visited on all of my travels. Here at 6:30 every morning people gather to give alms to the monks and snap them parading in the morning sun. The town is bordered by two rivers, one of which is the Mekong. Every evening a market blocks the road and the women from surrounding villages come to sell scarves, jewellery, umbrellas and other bits and bobs. After spending a few nights in Luang Prabang I took a bus to Nong Khiew on the Nam Ou river. Here I caught the boat to Muang Ngoi a quiet carless village which can only be accessed by river.

In the evening I joined some Australian travellers that were with a Lao fella that was offering every passerby Lao Lao – a homemade spirit drunk by most locals some of which is ok some of which is foul. We also joined the restaurant’s owners for dinner where “King Lao Lao” as he calls himself fried up some wonderful fish that he had caught earlier that day.

The following morning I joined other travellers as we waited for the boat upstream to fill up and once it did off we went through some amazing mountain landscapes and past some villages with people fishing, picking river weed, swimming, bathing and using the river for many other things. The boat arrived after four hours in Muang Khua. Here we saw the locals sort the grass they use to make brooms and play bamboo foot volleyball which they were amazingly good at with martial art like skills. In this town there was also a scary suspension bridge that had unattached metal sheets to walk across at a height of about 20 metres above ground.

Then the next morning I took a bus to Udom Xai. There isn’t really much to do in Udom Xai but I stayed a couple of nights to figure out what to do next whether to go straight into China on the bus to Kunming or to see a few more places in Laos. Having found out that my couchsurfing host in Chengdu, China would be on holiday until a few after I had planned to get to Chengdu I decided to stay a little longer in Laos. So I took the bus to Luang Namtha where I hired a motorbike straight away and rode the 2 hour drive through the mountains to Muang Sing. The drive was wonderful as there were hardly any traffic and every child I past waved and said hello. Just outside Muang Sing there are large watermelon farms and the workers were packing boxes due to be send to China by the side of the road. The tractors the farmers use to cart the watermelons around are strange contraptions – they are like a cross between a lawnmower and a small tractor.

In Muang Sing I met a Swedish fella and two Polish girls.  The Swedish guy had bought a Russian Minsk (a Russian motorbike) in Hanoi and was going to travel across SE Asia on it. The day after I arrived I, the Swede and one of the polish sisters went for a motorbike ride across dirt tracks and small streams to the Chinese border. The 2 hour ride took us through ethnic villages and fields and through some pretty landscapes. At one point one of the stream stopped us in our tracks as it seemed to be quite deep. Ladislav (the Swede) went first and got through with ease, so I backed up a bit to allow some momentum to get through the stream. However although I made it through without falling over by scooter was much lower to the ground than Ladislav’s Minsk and I got a little wet. Luckily it was the middle of the day and I dried off pretty quickly. The next morning I had a few hours before I had to ride back to Luang Namtha to return the bike so Ladislav and I took a ride through different ethnic villages. These were pretty interesting and some of the older locals still wore there traditional dress. Unfortunately as soon as you stop they rush up to you to try and sell you various bits and bobs that they had made. The route we had planned was supposed to take me to the road I had to be on to get back to Luang Namtha, however since we were effectively riding through fields and there of course weren’t any signs we ended up going around in a circle so I had to zoom back through the mountains to get the bike back in time.

Then the next morning I took the bus to China.

Travel Log 16

The day after I arrived Sab, Luke and Harry arrived and off we went to Halong Bay for a few nights.

The tour was nice – Halong bay was amazing, even though it would have looked better if the sun was shining. The tour included a trip to a very large cave, a trek up a slippery hill and a visit to viscous monkey island, a night on the piss and food which was … well – same same.

When we returned home the others had to leave to go south and I stayed in Hanoi to wait out the Tet holidays (Vietnamese new year holidays) . On new years eve I joined some other couchsurfer’s and had dinner around Thao’s house and then watch fireworks light up the cloudy nights sky. New years day I had a peaceful walk around the quiet ,chilly city, watching the locals in the temples and seeing some city sights.

After new year I hung around waiting for information when Hanoi would resume its services again. Unfortunately none of the locals seemed to know for sure. Three days after Tet I walked into the bus tours office and asked "do you have any buses to Vientiane, Laos" Bus tour guy: "we do but I am not sure when they are going to leave, maybe in 3 days time" Leon: "so buses will leave in 3 days, so they'll leave on the 20th" Bus tour guy: "well I can't be sure" Leon: "when will you be sure" Bus tour guy: " maybe on the..." pointing to the 23rd on the calendar Leon: "oh I see...??" and then I walked out. The whole town was like this no one seemed to know when businesses started again – it was very frustrating. If I hadn’t been in Hanoi during Tet I probably would have liked the city more.

On the plus side since everything in the city was closed and most couchsurfers were busy I did get to download 4 seasons of ‘The Wire’ and spent the spare time I had watching them.

Eventually services resumed and I headed to the Laos border.

Travel Log 15

So I quickly zoomed up the coast of Vietnam at about 30 mph – the speed limit here is silly slow. Nha Trang was my first stop – just a beach resort town nothing special – nice beach café. Hoi An next – pretty old town where apparently you can get cheap suits. The a quick five hour stop in Hue – here all I did was sit in a café as I hadn’t had much sleep on the bus journeys or the night before in the hostel and I found out that they pay the staff ridiculously small salary - £40 a month and charge £40 a night for a room.

Then it was off to Hanoi to meet up with the others.

Travel Log 14

In Saigon I couchsurfed at Hui’s place. Hui lives in a one room appartment with her Mum. So in the room was Hui on her bed her Mum on a fold-up bed and myself on the floor. Hui is an Architect and we had long discussions about the good and bad bits about Saigon, which I think is my favourite city so far mainly because of the obvious French influence. Saigon is swarming with motorbikes and scooters and it is really the only way to get about as walking is quite hazardous and travelling by bicycle means you can’t keep up with the traffic which again is a little dangerous.

The first day I was their Hui had to work so I borrowed her bicycle and when site seeing. On my way to the war museum the bike decided to automatically change gear from the one working gear to the gear which didn’t work. The chain slipped of the gear and my foot fell off the peddle. The bike didn’t have working brakes so I couldn’t stop the bike and lost balance falling from the bike in the middle of about 20 motorbikes. Luckily the riders have amazing hazard awareness and all flowed around me as I bounced along the ground, scraping of a nice layer of skin off my arm. I got up and took the bike to the side of the road put the chain back on and went to the war museum. In the toilets I cleaning my wound and a kind Japanese guy gave me a number of antiseptic wipes to properly clean the cut.

After that we both decided that the bike wasn’t the best option for travelling around the city and as Hui was off work at the weekend we both travelled on her motorbike. Hui also let me drive as she didn’t really like driving with both of us on the back – High five. Riding around town in amongst thousands of other mototbikes, driving up on pavements (they drive motorbikes on the pavements here Dad – you’d love it!) Great fun.

Oh yeah and this picture reminds me – I also went to a barbers for a shave in Saigon – my first ever shave by someone else and although he did slit my throat – he was a good experience. I also had a hair cut (first by a hairdresser for a long time) and a head massage. All for about £3.50.

After Saigon I zoomed up to Hanoi to meet Harry, Luke and Sabrina.

Travel Log 13

The Angkor temples are truly amazing. There are about … um … lots of temples in the Angkor Archaeology site and most people hire tuk tuks to cart then from temple to temple but being a loan traveller this was a little too expensive for me so I hired a bicycle for $1 and biked around the park.  There are lots of kids that hassle you at every temple and they always sell the same stuff, postcards, bracelets, water etc. They also always ask the same questions – like “where are you from?” and then when you reply England they say “Capital London, population 65 million people”. Its nice that they know this but its a shame they all say exactly the same thing. It is however quite nice talking to them about their school, their English is very good and they understand almost everything you say to them. In fact Cambodians have the best English out of any of the countries I have been to so far.

After spending 3 days wandering the temple sites and a few more days resting I headed off to the capital - Phnom Penh. Although quite nice Phnom Penh doesn’t really have many attractions – there is the Prison where the Khmer Rouge killed prisoners which is quite horrific. I decided to take a trip to the coast to hire a bike and ride up a mountain there to see a deserted French casino resort. Unfortunately when I got to Kampot I found out that a rich businessman has decided to build a modern super casino resort at the top of the mountain and is building a new road up the mountain. This meant that the only way to to get to the top was to take a tour for $17. This included a trek for 2 hours and a 40 minute ride in the un-cushioned bed of a truck. On the trek there were some really whiney German girls who moaned that they didn’t expect the trek up to the top of a mountain to be uphill!

The old French casino was interesting and had an amazing view over the surrounding valley over a high cliff edge.

  

After Kampot I headed back to Phnom Penh for a night, where I went out for Italian food with a couchsurfer and some of her friends.

Then I got a bus to cross the border into Nam

Travel Log 12

I caught a bus to the Thai border town of Aranya Prathet where I was going to stay for the night and cross the border in the morning in order to catch the bus to Battambang. However when I got off the bus I got a tuk-tuk (the first on my trip) and said Great Hill Hotel, the tuk-tuk driver said yes yes and off he drove to the Cambodian border. Once here I quickly changed my plans to stay on the Cambodian side. So having read that I should avoid the agencies selling Visas at the crossing I proceeded through the immigration controls. On the other side a tout, after some time, found me a taxi to Battambang which would save me having to stay at the border town. The road from Poipet to Battambang is notoriously bad and the taxi ride was a little hair raising – travelling at 100km/h in a rightside drive car on right side drive roads past bikes with no lights, carts with reflectors made from CDs and motorbike accidents. Scary stuff however I arrived at my destination – The Royal Hotel where I am renting an amazing room for $10 (£6) which has two beds a bathroom, tv and a fridge. Tomorrow I’m going to get my Vietnamese visa and maybe go to the circus.

The circus was fun, the performance was by teenage kids and all proceeds  from the performance go to help disadvantaged children of Battambang.

The next day I hired a manual motorbike and headed out to the Khmer Rouge killing caves. The receptionist told me that it was easy to get there “just head down highway 10 for 30 minutes and you can’t miss it”. So off I headed onto what I thought was highway 10. This soon turned into a dirt track, thinking that this can’t be Highway 10 I turned back and went back to the hotel to make sure of the route. Of course it was the right road they had just neglected to tell me that highway 10 was actually  dirt track 10. So I headed back and had a lot of fun biking down the dirt track , getting dust in my face from all the passing cars and looking at the Cambodian countryside. Cambodia is incredibly flat.

At the killing caves I hired a 12 year old guide to hop on the back of the bike and take me up the hill. We had a nice little chat about school what he wanted to be in the future and his family, which he carried a picture of around with him to show the tourists.

I then biked to a peaceful temple of top of a hill. On the way back I passed a dog which had been hit in the road. I stopped to help it off the middle of the road so that it didn’t cause an accident. However the locals came out of the house and looked at me as though I had hit the dog. So I thought I should probably leave and get back to town.

The next day I took a bus to Siem Reap for the wonder of the Angkor temples.

Travel Log 11

Traffic was terrible in Bangkok and so the bus from Koh Phangan dropped us off at 7:15am by a ditch out of town so that we could try our luck getting to the train station by 8:30am on the back of a donkey.  Although this seemed impossible the donkey, with lots of pointing a watches and ass whipping, managed to deliver us to the train station at 8:35am where since this is Thailand the train was delayed - “That’ll do Donkey”.

I stayed in Bangkok for a few days to figure out what to do next, buy a new phone and go to a nightclub. Nicky was in town and she decided to join me on my next trip to Khao Yai, a national park in which the waterfall from ‘The Beach’ is. The national park was very well paved which allowed Nicky and I to bike around the park to the most impressive waterfalls. Unfortunately since this is dry season the waterfalls weren’t as amazing as they look in the film but the were still very impressive. Another disappointment is that you are no longer allowed to swim in the lake under the waterfalls and you are definitely not allowed to jump off the top and I think had I tried I may have soiled myself before making the jump (it was a long way down – 25m about a 7 storey building).

I left Nicky behind and continued alone to Phimai, a small quiet town that has ancient Angkor style temple ruins. I stayed here for a few days to properly plan where I would go in Cambodia my next port of call.

Then I set off for Cambodia.

Travel Log 10

So back to Thailand I went to meet Luke and Sabrina on Koh Phangan. Having just caught the same boat as the others across to the island our host picked us up to taxi us across the island to our amazing chalet which was situated on a beautiful beach at Had Khom. There we swam in the clear blue sea, kayaked out to the rocks in the sea, took a boat trip around to another beautiful beach, bathed on the beach and ate at the excellent restaurant the resort has. Then came the night of total madness – The Full Moon Party. I won’t go in to much detail needless to say I went crazy lost my phone and wallet and … well clothes.

After recovering from visiting hell we hired two scooters and went into town to buy some clothes (I had to buy some shorts and flipflops which I had lost at the full moon party) After town we rode to Paradise waterfalls which was a nice little stream trickling down some rocks.  

I would put more pictures on here but I didn’t take many and am waiting for Luke to upload his to facebook.

Travel Log 9

Just a quick post about Christmas. Well Christmas in 35 degree heat didn’t feel the same at all and I did miss being at home for the celebrations. On Christmas day I had a Korean Christmas dinner which although it was very nice it didn’t match the dinner I would have had back home.

Travel Log 8

In Chiang Mai I stayed with Chris a friend from uni. Most days during my stay Chris would be busy with his Thai course and his English teaching job luckily I had been in contact with a CSer that was a tour guide to Chiang  Mai. So on the first day Chris dropped me off at a bike rental shop and I picked my Yamaha Fino which I rented for 5 days. I biked around town a few times to get used to the scooter and then met Nicky in Starbucks. She took the reins of the scooter and lead me to lunch. Over the course of the next few days she gave me the tour of the town and took me to dine at local restaurants and drink at local bars and cafes. Most evenings I hung out with Chris and his friends and zoomed about town on the bikes. One night I went to pick up Nicky so that she could join Chris, myself and the others at The Warm Up club unfortunately it started raining just after I set off and I got soaked all the way through and had to dry off at Nicky’s with the help of her hair drier. Nicky also took me to a cool Thai bar called Tha Chang where it seems she was quite a celebrity and we get a table specially brought out from the back  for us to be seated at. I find out later that this is because a big time Thai celebrity has been chasing her and told the bar management to take good care of her.

My tour guide Nicky

On Sunday Chris’ day off we drove to the hot spring to soak in the hot water. Unfortunately being Thailand these weren’t as nice as one would hope for and we had to settle for the swimming pool rather than a private hot bath once getting over this and the eggy smell the water had it was quite soothing. Once we got back into town Chris and myself took a Thai massage which I found quite painful.

On Monday I went on an epic journey back to Penang for Christmas. 

Some Machines

Travel Log 7

We were thrown off the bus at 5am at some random place in Bangkok. Turns out that a lot of tourist buses don’t terminate at a bus station in Bangkok but near Khao San Road a famous Bangkok hell hole where it is easy to find all sorts of scum and a cheap place to stay. However I was hoping to stay at a couchsurfers place and so decided to wander around Bangkok towards where the CSer lived hoping that this would pass a few hours until it was late enough to call the CSer. However although I had looked up the way on the net when I was in a coffee shop I soon got lost having not got a map. I ended up walking about 10km around town with all my stuff and then went I did call the CSer it turned out that they already had someone staying and couldn’t host me. So it was back to Khao San Road in search of accommodation. However when I returned I remembered another couchsurfer who lived in a hostel/squat called the overstay which the internet said to be very cheap. So I got a taxi there and it turned out to be very cheap indeed in fact free for those willing to sleep in the dormitory. The place was not very clean but you get what you pay for.

As I was in Bangkok I thought I’d relax and have a few beers and as a few of the guests were having beers for breakfast (1pm breakfast) I thought I’d join them and drink most of the day waiting for the Saturday night party to begin. At the party I met a beautiful Thai girl by the name of Gra Dai (or rabbit) who could speak fluent English and German and was there with some of her German friends. Over the next few days I spent time with her and we went to a market island on the river and ate in the local restaurants nearby her house and chilling out in the overstay popping out from time to time to see some sights in Bangkok.

Bangkok I found to be quite a smelly, ugly city with very few places I found interesting and I probably shouldn’t have stayed as long as I did.

The day before I left to go to Chiang Mai, I took a train to Ayuthaya to see the ruins of the ancient capital. There I hired a bicycle and saw all the beautiful ruins before heading back to Bangkok.

The next day I took a sleeper train to Chiang Mai

Travel Log 6

So Phi Phi island was beautiful.

The island is expensive however and I could only afford to stay for two nights. However whilst I was there I did go swimming with the tropical fishes and get absolutely soaked on the long-tail boat trip back in the pouring rain and rough seas.

I am currently in Krabi a town on the main land near Phi Phi islands not much going on here - went to the beach met a ladyboy at a restaurant - you know the usual. The ladyboy looked just like a girl only thing that might have given him/her/it away was his/her/its feet and maybe hands but I didn’t get to see his/her/its hands close enough. He/she/it invited me to join him/her/it at the bar he/she/it worked at after his/her/its first job at the restaurant where I was drinking beer. So I though hey ho why not I don’t have anyone else to talk to and he/she/it was intriguing enough and I might get to quiz him/her/it a bit over a beer. So he/she/it said that he/she/it was going to go home and that I should met him/her/it at the bar at 11. So I went back to my room and lay down for a second. I woke up at 1am and that was the end of that story.

Then off I went to Bangkok.