Coming very soon.... Short Journeys Cameroon. Oh, that rhymes!

Hello all
over the next couple of days I will be putting the finishing touches on the next in the Short Journeys range - Cameroon. Such a wonderful, beautiful slice of Africa. Today, here's a selection of photos from said country, and the cover of the book!
thank you all!

Andrew [World Journeys]
Twitter - @WorldJourneys75

Bamenda

Bali

Prescraft Centre woodwork.

Douala

Yaounde

Beach at Kribi

Top Ten Destinations Number 2: India

If someone was to ask me what is one country in the world that you should visit before you die, then I absolutely without hesitation would say ‘India’. Why? When you go there for any length of time you will certainly see poverty like you have never seen before. You will be confronted with some stark realities – beggars on the train with no legs on trollies for a start, endless slums. You will probably get sick. People will try to rip you off, you will face long delays on the trains, and no doubt you will be overcome by the sheer number of people in the cities.

Children in Darjeeling

However, it’s this dose of reality amongst the colours, the smells, the beauty of India which completes the picture and you find yourself faced with simply the most stunning, varied, adventurous country you can find on this Earth. Well, top two at least! I swore after one trip to India I would never ever return. I did twice, and would be up for another trip there any day someone gave me the tickets! You don’t just learn about India, or the world when you are there. You don’t just learn about history, colonialism, about the irrepressible force of life. You WILL learn about yourself.

Calcutta - remnants of the British Empire.

Ok so I’m being or attempting to be rather deep and philosophical here, but it is just the most amazing country on Earth. Over a billion people now, rickshaws, spices, temples, trains, dodgy people, amazing people, good honest people, cricket-mad, economy-growing, one day the world may well revolve around India, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Travelling by train is my favourite way to get around, and the Indian Railways are deservedly legendary. Yes, they don’t go very fast and you can experience big delays (my first time at Delhi station I heard a train being announced as 24 hours late for example), but they are the life and soul of India. People cook on the train, travel inside the carriages, on top of the carriages, between the carriages…

Gateway to India, Mumbai.

The food is spicy. There’s no way around that if you’re like me and haven’t even the slightest tolerance towards spicy foods, however I did find milder dishes in most places. If you like a curry, well, I don’t need to complete this sentence.

As for highlights. Living a day in India is a highlight. Nevertheless, I found Mumbai to be my favourite big city in India. You can see the home of Mahatma Ghandi, the gardens are full of people playing cricket, the bay has something epic about it and Victoria train station is really stunning.

Goa is wonderful to get away from the ultra-craziness of it all. You can party, or if you go down south in Goa you can relax with a lot more privacy. The beaches are as good as they get in India, even if you do have to share them with the odd cow.

Delhi streets

Delhi is, in all fairness, a slice of hell, so naturally where I spent the most time in India. It’s the central hub to most of the country, it’s big, polluted, crazy. I arrived there late one night in 1999 for my first taste of India, and believe me I won’t forget that moment. Leaving the airport to see thousands of people at around midnight waiting for loved ones to exit behind a tall fence.

But Delhi is not all bad. There is good eating, and you can find the backpackers’ area not so far from the station. Of course you don’t want to hang with backpackers all the time you are away from home, but in the midst of the craziness, and Delhi’s traffic is out of this world (the horns never stop in India wherever you are) the backpackers’ area is almost a bit of a safe haven.

But there’s a bit to see and do as well, from the Red Fort to Qutab Minar, and the beautifully elegant Baha’i temple.

Qutab Minar

Agra is a few hours south by train, and is famed primarily for the Taj Mahal. Give it its dues, it’s stunningly beautiful and not to be missed. I stayed at a little, cheap guesthouse just literally around the corner from the Taj when I was there in 1999. And then I saw my first Bollywood film the afternoon after I saw the Taj in the morning. Oh yes, don’t miss a taste of Bollywood whilst in India!

Varanasi. On the Ganges. Up at 5am in the morning to take a boat on the river as the sun rises. That’s what it is all about. Another sacred and special place in India. Beautiful, crazy, with more alleyways than you can poke a stick at. The life of India is the Ganges, and the BEST place to view it, experience it is Varanasi.

Amritsar and the Golden Temple. The centre of the Sikh faith, a golden temple surround by water. Unless the water is drained for cleaning as it was when I was there. I went by fire truck to the temple. It was pretty special.

Darjeeling – fancy a ride on a toy railway? Who doesn’t? Up in the mountains where it’s a lot colder, in a charismatic town with a Tibetan feel.

There’s so much more too… but there’s only so long I’m prepared to make a blog post. GO TO INDIA. I can’t promise you won’t regret it, but it will change your life in ways you might not have ever expected! If you want to know a little more about some of my experiences in India, then:

Dhaka to Dakar Chapter 3: India

Is a good place to start. Part of... 

Dhaka to Dakar Book 1: Journey Through Asia

And so 10 began, one remains…

10 – Slovakia

9 – Romania

8 – Mali

7 – The United Kingdom

6 – Japan

5 - Central Asia

4 – Laos

3 – Ethiopia

2 - India

What does Australia Day Meme?

I am sitting here in Ichinoseki as the snow falls down outside. We've had some decent temperatures this weekend, it's been over zero you see, but it seems that is in the past. Reputedly this is the coldest two weeks of the year for Japan. The forecast is not looking too awful - Thursday night was seriously cold, minus 13 or something - When I arrived at school it was still minus 11. Believe me, it may not be Canada-cold but it's cold enough for me!

And here I am blogging about the bloody weather, when it's Australia Day back home. The 26th of January is a date that commemorates when the first fleet arrived on Sydney Cove and British rule began in Australia to be changed for Federation in 1901 when we got our own parliament and Prime Minister. My plan, after the somewhat political nature of last year's obligatory blog post, was to get very upbeat and positive this year. But after reading what people are posting on Facebook and the like, I feel a bit less inclined to go that way.

BUT... you know Australia IS a great country in so many respects. And I'm not going to be all down on the politics of Australia today, or our 'Prime Minister'... yes I was using inverted commas deliberately. It is a great country because we are so lucky. We are lucky not only to have such a beautiful place to live, with space and good weather (believe me, snow in winter time is sooooooooooo over-rated). We are lucky to have a great deal of free speech. And we are most lucky to live in a multi-cultural society.

This is what essentially makes Melbourne such a brilliant city, above all else. You can see people from every origin imaginable in Melbourne, living in relative harmony, expressing their own cultures in a mostly peaceful way. Yes, it has its faults. Yes not everyone gets along. But we have communities from all across the planet.

I think we forget that we are so young too as a country and as a city. People get in a tiff saying immigrants should basically 'assimilate'. Ever since the Borg it's become a really ugly word, and frankly I think people's expectations for people coming to another country and assimilating within a few years is rather ridiculous.

And if 'assimilating' means letting go of culture and who you are, then it's a word that needs to be abandoned post haste. Australia IS a country of IMMIGRANTS. Simple as that. Think what today means for the indigenous Australians - the day they lost their land. It's so important that as a nation Australians NEVER forget this.

Memes. They sprung up seemingly from no where and now they are everywhere, and Australia Day is the time you see a hell of a lot on twitter and facebook feeds. This year Meme's are playing on use of 'Stralya' to mock the way some Aussies pronounce Australia. Take the one above which shows a child reaching for a beer. This underlines the divide at the moment in Australian society, some being I guess for want of a better word, 'intellectuals' bemoaning and almost being embarrassed by a culture seen as based on drinking and racism. Is that an unfair assertion? Then there is a group who see that group as trying to cut down, belittle and destroy what they consider to be Australia. Does the truth lie somewhere in between? One things for sure, the groups won't see eye to eye.

'White Australia has a black history'. I mean this is the sort of stuff I've seen destroy friendship on the book of faces. Maybe this is what is wrong with facebook. Opinions you wouldn't express in public are revealed on facebook. Of course, this meme is 100% true. 60,000 odd years Indigenous Australians are traced to this land. 1788 is only a fateful day that began White Australian history. Imagine then being an Indigenous Australian walking down the street seeing a white person wearing this -

This T-shirt was being sold by the supermarket chain ALDI. It was removed from stores for being racist. And you know, it is. 60,000 years of people living in Australia. It's really important that Australians have a little bit of respect for the Indigenous peoples of our country. And many do, please don't think that everyone feels negatively towards them. Just as we don't ALL feel negatively towards refugees fleeing their country and coming to Australia by any means they can to seek asylum.

Irony is sometimes lost on people. 

It doesn't mean Australia is not a great country. Hell, as a tourist you should have a blast and I encourage you to come. Uluru, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Kakadu, Sydney, oh and please do take a chance to get to Tasmania, it is really gorgeous. Australians are very friendly and welcoming and laid back which is the best thing of all I can honestly say living in Japan at the moment where it doesn't appear to be a good thing to be 'laid back' about anything.

There is however a political divide in the country that appears to growing wider. With people in one of two camps. Some would say it's left versus right, but it's not really. It's a series of issues that people feel strongly one way or another on. And the thing is, the variety of cultures in GREAT in my opinion. And should only be encouraged. If Australia can go forward with positivity and understanding, there is no ceiling. 

Australians on Australia day - in fact all those IN Australia on Australia, look at what is the same about you. Listen to someone's point of view. Extend the hand of friendship.

AND

I'm terribly sorry this became political again. 

Top Ten Destinations, Number 3 - Ethiopia

Huts in Lalibela

Back to Africa for number three as we enter the upper echelon of the top ten, countries that just blew me away. I had planned for many years to go to Ethiopia, it had been part of a previous itinerary that got changed, in fact it had been up there with countries I most wanted to visit even since I started looking into Africa around 2002.

Streets of Addis Ababa

In 2009 I finally took the chance to go there in a trip that included Dubai and also Jordan (a country that also was pretty special). I flew in to Addis Ababa on Emirates in November 2009 and spent a glorious 19 days in this astounding country. And just scratched the surface too, that’s something I am often guilty of.

Addis Ababa itself is in fact a decent African capital city. It’s very hilly, and has a bit of character, but is also reasonably compact (although probably in the end you will need to use taxis). The National Museum is worth a peek for the replica of the bones of ‘Lucy’, the skeletal remains of a woman reputedly 3.2 million years old. Okay, she’s just a skeleton, but for 3.2 million years old she looks pretty darn good. And if you’re like me you won’t be able to resist by talking to the skeleton in your best Desi Arnez voice and say ‘Luuuuuuuucccccyyy!’

But let’s be honest, you’re probably not like me. 

And that’s not a bad thing.

A priest in a church in Lalibela

Church of St George, Lalibela.

Lalibela, a small town further north of Addis Ababa best reached by plane is surrounded by stunning

mountains and contains a series of rock-hewn churches, actually dug downwards into the rock. They are brilliant! Full of fleas? Yes! But hey, nothing’s perfect in this world. But going from church to church via rock passages and taking photographs of priests in sunglasses, not much beats that! They date back some 700-800 years. They are a real wonder of this world. If you ever get the chance, go see them!

Gondar's citadel.

Gondar is a bigger city a half-hour plane ride away from Lalibela. There’s a big citadel/castle there which was bombed by the British in World War II (damn those Brits!) but it’s still worth seeing. Further north I went to Debark and from there into the Simien Mountains.

Here I went higher than (I think) I’ve ever been before (when not on a plane). The trekking experience was extremely challenging for someone who’s as unfit as I was, and still am. Around 20km a day, but it did get better after the second day when the altitude really hit me hard. The trekking is with donkeys, a guide and a scout with a gun in case animals attack.

Packing up the donkeys for the trek.

Speaking of animals there were a number of Gelada Baboons too see, antelopey type things and interesting black birds with a sort of Toucan-beak. We also had a cook, and the tent would be erected for us before we arrived at the campsite so that part was pretty cushy, it’s true. Still, my first time at over 4000 metres is one I will never forget, and a very special experience in my life.

Crossing the river.

Bahar Dar is back southwards towards Addis Ababa. It sits on the serene Lake Tana. Get on a boat and take it to the Zege Peninsula. It’s a beautiful stretch of land with a number of interesting monasteries and some wonderfully lush vegetation.

Not far also from Bahar Dar is the Blue Nile Falls. Getting to the falls, as with any journey in Ethiopia, is half the fun and almost the point of the adventure. You take a boat across a river, and then walk around a kilometre to get to a point below the falls, perfect for photos. I was lucky to go at a time when the water was

Painting in a church, in a monastery on the Zege Peninsula.

gushing, because the dam gates were open thanks to plenty of water up-river. It was a stunning sight, but warning that’s only because I was there at the right time.

And so that’s a VERY brief summary of my time in Ethiopia. I only went to the northern part of the country and I hardly covered much of that section, let alone the rest of the country. It’s my favourite African country (although I really enjoyed Cameroon and Mali is great too) and I would encourage people thinking of exploring somewhere in Africa, to consider Ethiopia.

If you would like to know more about MY time in Ethiopia, here’s a link to my ebook –

Short Journeys – Ethiopia

The top ten so far:

10 – Slovakia

9 – Romania

8 – Mali

7 – The United Kingdom

6 – Japan

5 - Central Asia

4 – Laos

3 – Ethiopia

Only two countries remain. What will they be? 

The Allure of Almaty

Today's blog comes from my book Short Journeys: Kazakhstan, now available on Kindle. I talk about Almaty, the biggest city in Kazakhstan, and one of my favourite cities on the globe. Please enjoy :)

Beautiful Almaty with mountains in the background.

The city of Almaty at times feels pretty rough and ready, yet at other times is really very pleasant. If you’ve visited Eastern Europe you’ll feel a certain familiarity in Almaty. After all, there are a lot of people of Russian and European descent there. It certainly is the most European of all the cities in Kazakhstan, and probably Central Asia. It has a thriving cultural scene, with various opera houses and theatres. It is also, for the most part, quite pretty sitting in a cul-de-sac surrounded by mountains.

Zenkov Cathedral in Panfilov Park.

I was there in June, a couple of days after they had had quite a decent earthquake. Apparently early in the twentieth century there was a devastating earthquake which had demolished a lot of the city. The one in June 2011 was smaller, but still around 5.5-6. Almaty was the old capital, but it moved to Astana in 1997 because of the central location and apparently to avoid earthquakes. There are a lot of tall Soviet style apartment blocks in Almaty – I stayed in one on the 12^th floor – giving a great view of the city.

The view from the 12^th floor was superb. It really allowed me to appreciate the city of Almaty, surrounded by mountains, full of culture, in a part of the world that doesn’t see a lot of tourists, especially western tourists. Why not? Well, people just don’t know a lot about Central Asia in the West. It’s time that changed!

At the opera in Almaty.

Almaty is a city of contrasts. In some areas the roads are sweeping and wide, and then there are leafy parks, with statues. Wander through the right park and you’ll find flowers blooming and artists with easels set up as they paint what they see. I visited a couple of museums; one was the Museum of Kazakh Musical Instruments where my friend and I basically had a woman play various Kazakh instruments just for us in a small auditorium. There are malls too, shopping strips and not a single McDonald’s to be found, only a place called ‘McBurger’, definitely not a registered American fast food chain.

There are buses all around the city, as well as trams and trolley-buses – buses which run off electricity coming from wires above the roads, something between a tram and a bus. I had never seen such a bus before I went to Russia, but they are still very popular across Eastern Europe today. Then we have the metro, which was not open when I was in Almaty. The metro however is open today, two years later, in good news for all living in and visiting Almaty.

Having said all that, I didn’t use a lot of public transport in Almaty. I used a combination of buses to get to Stan 

With the Beatles on Kok Tobe, which overlooks Almaty.

Tours and the Kyrgyz embassy, but where I could I walked around Almaty. I was there in June and it was pretty warm but not overly hot, and the flowers were blooming and with all the parks and trees it was a great city to walk around. 

In Almaty, don't miss: Kok Tobe, the Opera, walking around the leafy streets, seeing the new buildings and statues, and the amazing Zenkov Cathedral. The National Museum is interesting too!

Almaty - a surprising European city in Central Asia. A fantastic leafy and character-filled place, worth more than a couple of days.

[mirrored at Wordpress]

Japanese Girl and Boy bands, and what's the deal there?

So, you know today's pop music, perhaps more than ever before (let's be honest this is always an ongoing criticism) has become homogenised and samey? Well, here in Japan they have seriously taken that to another level, and quite frankly, it's a worry.

Yep. AKB48.

Sure, I've talked about AKB48 before, and for those outside Japan that may be the one primary example they know of. AKB48 is a group that supposedly originated in Akihabara in Tokyo. Every year there's a TV show and some members depart and others are brought in in basically the typical 'reality' TV style voting show over many weeks with performances and the like.
The group is divided into different teams who work together to produce songs and often one singer is chosen to be featured as the main singer for a song, and they keep churning out hits. Then there are concerts which presumably feature all the teams and girls and they all have to look extremely cute and sing a bunch of songs that, in all fairness, sound like they were written to underscore a commercial.
Sigh.

Cardboard cutout at Tower Records.

Kawaii! Supergirls!

It's a serious industry here, and my last visit to Tokyo I as usual visited Tower Records in Shibuya where I started to realise that there weren't three or four girl groups dressed like teenagers being cute and singing lollypop music, there were DOZENS. I saw CDs of groups such as Supergirls, that's 10 girls selected by mass audition again to sing commercial music, wear bright colours and look cute in a slightly sexualised way. Other groups that are popular are 'Perfume', and 'E-girls', which my students sometimes mention in class. E-girls seems to be made of 20-30 girls, split into three sub-groups called 'Flower' (I think I saw a CD for 'Flower') 'Happiness' and 'Dream'. And this is the way apparently girls want to be seen in Japan. As young and cute. Do you ever see a female singer, in a group or solo, actually be marketed as a 'woman'? No.
And so draw what conclusions you may from that. All-in-all Wiki lists 134 girl groups in Japan. There must be more.

The boys of exile.

And then there are boybands. Arashi, SMAP, Exile, Hey Say JUMP! and Sexy Zone to name a few. Ok, not so many - wiki lists a mere 34. But they are even more popular and they are a true carbon copy of the boy bands the west knows, reaching back to the 80s with New Kids on the Block. They wished everyone a Merry Christmas bizarrely with a host of Christmas albums available from Tower Records to 7Eleven! They dress up all Christmassy (in a country that believes Christmas Cake is sponge cake with cream and calls Santa Claus Santa-san) looking straight and serious at the camera.

Arashi in the Christmas spirit! 

It's seriously, overwhelming sickening. Look at this people in America, UK, Australia, heck all of Europe. This is the future of music. Everything is manufactured and nothing appears to come from the artists. No, you can't call the girls of AKB48 artists, they are the 'talent'. The managers here clearly see a used-by date for the girls especially, and that's early 20s. Not to mention that they are expected to be model citizens and if they are caught making some sort of discretion in public, like maybe having a drink too many, they will be forced to apologise to the entire nation and could be kicked out of the group. Boys and again, especially the girls. In fact, the girls from AKB48 are not allowed to date!
One girl - Minegishi Minami, was caught going into a boys apart. So distraught at being caught she shaved her head in penance! No, I don't think it's very healthy either! 

Think of their lives AFTER the fame is done with. What are they going to do? I don't know how many members they have had in total in AKB48, but maybe 100, maybe more. What's the future there? A 40-year old Maede Astuko? What will she be doing? Who will remember her? Maybe there's a spot on the end Japanese discussion panel shows they have for one or two, but those shows are 80% men, and 5-10% transvestite and usually the females members are young cute things.

Of the hundreds if not more girls in Japanese girl-bands today, how many of them could still be in the industry in 10 years? I'd say 5% if they are lucky. Many people think J-pop is strange and interesting, it's kinda fun like Eurovision. But when you stop and think about the reality of the industry here, you can't help but think of the people exploited as talent are in for a tough life once their 15 minutes has gone.







Mirrored at THIS page.

Top Ten Destination Number Four - Laos

Main street of Luang Prabang

Golden Stupa in Vientiane

Moving back to Asia, number four in my top ten of countries I’ve visited is Laos. My favourite country in South East Asia without a doubt, Laos has a little something for everyone except for perhaps the shopaholic. Nestled between China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Burma, Laos is not the most frequently visited country in the region, but that suits visitors to Laos just fine. Laos is a relaxing and slower-paced change for those coming from Thailand and Vietnam in particular, it’s a bit cooler and dryer, it provides the visitor with plenty to see and do, some good food, and a welcoming smile. In short, Laos the perfect getaway!

The capital, Vientiane, although not the most exciting of capitals, has a mixture of French-colonial old world charm mixed with temples and wide boulevards. Set on the Mekong, which provides much of Laos’ life, the capital is more of a big provincial town rather than a capital.

Visit and marvel at the Golden Stupa, see the replica of the Arch de Triumph, or stroll the banks of the Mekong at dawn or dusk which makes for a truly beautiful scene (and photo). Vientiane is just over the river from Thailand, and the perfect introduction to Laos.

Vang Vieng

Looking for excitement? Well, you might just find it in Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng has been a tourist Mecca over recent years, and that’s because of the tubing. Unfortunately, this is also the uglier side of Laos tourism. Hundreds if not thousands of young mostly white tourists descending on the town to go ‘tubing’, in itself a perfectly respectable activity involving sitting on a tyre’s tube as you float down the river. However, they lined the river with bars and it became a place to get absolutely trashed and party. On top of that, every year people died because they jumped into the river and hit a rock, or drowned. Tubing was stopped last year after another death, now it may have reopened but in a tamer form.

Having said that, you are not obliged to go tubing, and the area around Vang Vieng is really beautiful with rocky hills, winding rivers and greenery as far as the eye can see. Go hiking or rock climbing, or if it the idea tempts you, hot-air ballooning and you’ll see a different and breath-taking perspective on Vang Vieng.

Craters Restaurant, Phonsovan

I found the most interesting place in Laos Phonsovan. This dusty town is centred in a place which was heavily bombed from around 1964 to 1973 by America, and 30% of the bombs didn’t explode on impact. Today, there are still many out in the area in the fields, which could go off by someone treading on them. MAG is the institution in the area that has taken up the responsibility for removing these unexploded ordinances from the farms and countryside, aided by a team of mostly local volunteers. Visit the MAG centre in town and learn about the work they do.

Plain of Jars

Around Phonsovan, and the main reason tourists head there, is the Plain of Jars. Scattered over three sites are these giant stone jars which date back thousands of years. Their purpose is supposedly a mystery, although most concur that they are graves. It’s a breath-taking and eerie site, although other tourists taking photos make alter the errieness somewhat! I took a tour, which is pretty standard, and there’s no issues from unexploded ordinances if you follow the marked tracks and listen to your guide. The tour takes in a few other sites such as a Russian tank, and you’ll see places decorated with the shells of bombs and the like. For example, back in Phonsovan, Crater’s Restaurant.

Mekong River at Luang Prabang.

Finally, I visited Luang Prabang, a quietly beautiful town on the Mekong heading into the northern part of the country. There are plenty of restaurants and hotels here, but it’s a very relaxing place to go and the perfect place to while away a few days or a week doing very little. Day trips include a boat up the Mekong to visit the Pak Ou caves, taking in an interesting unnamed village on the way, or visiting the Kuang Si waterfalls, which are truly beautiful and a great place to take a swim and escape the heat. It’s like some lagoon in a tropical jungle.

Kuang Si Waterfalls

The town itself has a museum and plenty of temples to keep you busy. There’s a fashion show on some nights, and plenty of night spots if you are so inclined. You may be best advised to avoid the people pushing opium though! The buildings have a colonial air on the main strip, and you can sit at a restaurant on the street and wonder if anyone actually lives in Luang Prabang. Alternatively there are a host of river-side restaurants and at dusk the sunset over the Mekong is as stunning as any sight you’ll see in South-East Asia.

For this traveller, Laos was the perfect South-East Asia getaway. If you are interested in more information, tips and my thoughts on Laos, I have an ebook out on Laos – Short Journeys: Laos, available for kindle now.

Next time… well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it. Stayed tuned as next time we hit the top three, in about a week or so.

The top ten so far:

10 – Slovakia

9 – Romania

8 – Mali

7 – The United Kingdom

6 – Japan

5 - Central Asia

4 - Laos