March 31, 2006
Levi's Photogallery
Levi, my travler partner from the last few hours in China, overland through Vietnam and Laos to Luang Prabang, has updated his online photo gallery. Under the Vietnam and Laos galleries you can find a few pictures of your truly! Check it out at www.neotes.de/
Posted by stu at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2006
Package from Thialand
Last week my final package from Thailand arrived here in Zürich. The most exciting item was my new pair of slippers from the Luang Pabang (Laos) night market. Second on the excitement list was my $3 refugee blanket that kept me warm during my first week in Laos. The rest of the parcel contained books I’ve read along the way, my malfunctioning iPod (confirmed dead), the unused underwater camera case for my stolen Sony DSC-T1 (grrrr), and the carry bag for my new Canon 350D with manuals. The week before, a tube with handmade paper from Laos and a painting arrived. Sadly, the tube was dented resulting in damage to the painting. The handmade paper is fine and I plan to use it for little projects and wrapping gifts.
Posted by stu at 08:21 PM | Comments (1)
March 08, 2006
Life back home
So, I have been back nearly three weeks now and my PADI Advanced Open Water card showed up today, which is very cool. It is not clear when my next diving opportunity will present itself, but I look forward to it. In hind sight, more of my times should have been dedicated to diving because it is so much fun and healthy.
I still have not managed to process all of the mail. Specifically, the financial paperwork is just sitting there waiting for me. This seems to have made up about two-thirds of all the mail...the rest being junk mail, subscriptions reminders and a few Christmas cards.
The job hunt has been in full swing since stepping off the plane, and we have had lots of snow. Yuck. Another reason to spend my days diving off Krabi.
Posted by stu at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)
February 24, 2006
Going home
My last evening in Hong Kong, and South East Asia for that matter, was spent checking out of the hotel and enjoying a long dinner with my friend Alice on the Kowloon waterfront. (I had a vegetable curry with, strangely, fruits in it like grapes and pineapple. Alice had a veggie pizza.)
After dinner it was time for me to head for the airport and I caught the A21 bus for HKD36. It was a double-decker and I scored the top front right bench. It was only then that the “I am leaving� feeling set it. It was mildly surreal. 
Once arriving at the airport with plenty of time to spare for my Swiss International Airlines 00:05AM flight LX139, I headed for the business class check-in desk. On presenting my upgraded economy ticket, the check-in clerk informs me that my ticket is for yesterday’s flight. Because I had changed the flight after buying the tickets, they put a little sticker on the ticket and did not issue a new ticket. So the ticket was a little bit ambiguous and I misread it. Stunned, I asked her what was going to happen next. First she said I had to pay a rebooking fee and then “Well, the flight is pretty full so we probably you probably will have an economy seat.� I took my glasses off, stared at my passport and sunk into a deep depression. This is costing me money, I’ve lost the business class upgrade, and might not even be able to reclaim the miles spent on it. I put my Travel Club Gold card down on the check in desk and asked her to do her best. She went over to the manager and told me that I was on the flight and on priority standby for a business class seat. I thanked her and headed for immigration and the terminal.
I was pretty much convinced cattle-class was my fate for the 13-hour flight. Twice I asked at the check in desk how things looked and they informed me that they were reorganizing the now full flight and that we would know once the passengers actually boarded the aircraft. 
Thirty minutes later when boarding began, the attendant put my boarding pass into one of those little ticket machines, but it spit my ticket back out and she gave me a new boarding pass—seat 4k. Business class, baby! I nearly did an American football touchdown dance on the spot.
The flight was pretty comfortable and I slept a good eight hours, read some, and watched a movie about an intern doctor in a San Francisco hospital (Reece Witherspoon) who was in a coma because of a car accident. Total “chick flick� but I was really into it and actually teared up and sniffed a bunch. Nobody seemed to notice in the noisy, dark aircraft thankfully.
The newish Airbus 340-300 landed about 6AM, I breezed through immigration and customs and was met by my friend Nina who’s been watering my plants. Very nice of her. Once home I jumped straight into my initial day back in town. First things first: grocery shopping. Second, register with the Swiss unemployment bureau (RAV). Third, start the process of going through five months of paperwork. Ouch. Fourth, make some calls and write some emails to meet up with my Zürich friends.
I am home now, although it doesn’t feel like home as it did before leaving. There are lots of little story snippets that will make the blog in the coming weeks, post mortem analysis of my trip, etc. So keep on visiting for a while.
Posted by stu at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)
February 18, 2006
Three final days in Asia and Hong Kong
After my exhilarating chopper ride, my last three days in Asia degraded into one folly after another. On top of that, my tolerance for travel was minimal. The HeliExpress port was at Sheung Wan station which required an MTR ride with a switch to get to TST where I walked to my room at the New World Renaissance Hotel on the northern shoreline of Kowloon. The ten minute walk was bearable with my pack and all. The NWR is in the New World Center where they had several early automobile displays, including this 1920s vintage Chevy Capital.
Quickly I checked into room 1430, ripped into my pack to find some clean clothing, turned on the television and drew a bath with bubbles and all. Time to unwind. After about three minutes in the tub I heard someone enter the room through the front door—I freaked out and yelled “who is it???� “House keeping� was the reply. “I’m taking a bath, not now� was my agitated response. “But may I come in?� the housekeeper pushed. That is when my weakened patience lost it and my vicious retort was “No! Just get out!!!� That did the trick, but by then I was livid.
So, I called the guest services number on extension 10 to complain, explaining that I had just checked in, there was no reason for housekeeping to be popping in, especially without using the door bell, and that I just wanted to relax in my bath. The lady on the other end said she would look into the problem and rectify it. Quickly, because I’m getting the chills standing there naked in my room talking on the phone, I jump back into my nice, hot bath.
Ten minutes later there is a knock at the door, which rudely disturbs my recently regained relaxed body.
“Who is it???�
“Room service.�
“GO AWAY!!!�
“We have a complimentary food tray for you, sorry to disturbed you.�
(I’m looking through the peep hole now.)
“GO AWAY! I am trying to take a bath!!!�
I’m really furious at this point and call the guest services line again. The woman professes many apologies and blamed the disturbance on language issues and that the house keeper did not know that I was taking a bath. Bull shit, is my initial though.
So, for the third time in twenty minutes I hope back into the bath and find myself heating up the now lukewarm water. Ahhh…
OK, an hour later I’m relaxed and refreshed and clean like I haven’t been in months. I feel good. Time for some Internet—but it’s not working. I call up the service desk who promises a technician in the next hour or so, but I start messing about with it and discover that both of the two Ethernet cables has the little clip broken off. These cables are cheap, 25cm kind of things and there is no excuse for this in my professional opinion. Bloody hell, the room is running nearly US$230 a night! My expectations were higher.
The next day, after my blood was stopped boiling, I contact the Director of Guest Services, Peter Cheng, and detailed list my complaints as concisely as I could. He promises to look into events and get back to me. Later that day he invites me to breakfast the next morning and “comped� me a late check out and the previous morning’s breakfast. (A good $150 worth of food and services.) When we met on the 24 floor ‘Club Level’ we talk about the network cables—there is just no excuse and he realized it (or at least told me so.) As for the room service foul-ups it comes down to communication problems and language misunderstandings. I can understand that but it certainly got my knickers in a twist at the time.
I spent most of my three days in Hong Kong working on the blog and picture gallery. The view outside my hotel room was not so impressive, but the four cheese penne pasta that room service delivered was. Unfortunately, it was too cold to hang out by the pool or I would have just read books, cooled off in the pool, and
Posted by stu at 02:03 PM | Comments (5)
February 15, 2006
HeliExpress flight from Macau to Hong Kong
After waking up the next morning I pack my bags, hop onto the ferry/heliport terminal shuttle bus where I buy a 1800 Patacas (US$235) helicopter ticket to Hong Kong—flight EA115 at 1pm on one HeliExpress’s Sikorsky S76C+ twin-engine, 12-seat helicopters—tail number B-MHH. While in line to buy the ticket I met Blake, an American guy involved in the construction of one of Macau’s newest hotel and casino, The Venetian which is due to open in 2007. (He is guy in the black and yellow striped shirt in the picture.)
After only ten minutes in the departure lounge about six of us are ushered out in order to the waiting aircraft which is already running. A short taxi to the landing spot, about 25m, and we are off! Lucky me, my seat was just behind the copilot and my view was pretty good. We flew over bridges, ferries in transit and lots of little islands. Check out the HeliExpress flight from Macau to Hong Kong photo gallery for the 36 photographs that I took.
After only fifteen minutes we approach Hong Kong Island and land near Sheung Wan station. We disembark the still running helicopter, are guided down the stairs and some guy carries my 16 kilo pack down for me. We cleared immigration and customs in record time…it must have been three minutes maximum for the entire thing. Quick, easy, exhilarating and a complete blast. But, damn, that was expensive.
Posted by stu at 06:19 AM | Comments (2)
February 14, 2006
Exploring Macau
Once I arrived in Macau and speed through immigrations and customs it was off in a taxi to The Emperor Hotel, another four star establishment. More and more I’m realizing that I’m at the end of my rope with hostels, keeping track of every little thing, and crappy showers. I want to be clean, secure and alone for a while. So, The Emperor Hotel it is. After a nap and cleaning myself up I head out to explore town. Macau is bigger than I realized and my lodging is pretty much in the center of the business, hotel, casino and ‘spa’ area of town. After walking around a few blocks I give up trying to navigate anywhere interesting and enter one of the famed gambling venues of Macau, the Pharaoh Casino. They require a membership card to enter, which is free but they scan your passport. (How many of you can say you have a year’s membership at a casino in Macau, eh???)
After looking about the two floors of the casino for half an hour I head back for my room and crash for the night. They games are just different than what you would see in Vegas and that intimidated me. I’m not really a gambling kind of guy anyway.
The next day I woke up, grabbed a map from the hotel and set out with my camera. The first areas on interest were some of the local parks, like the Comendador Ho Yin Garden…which is now a hotel construction site. Fact is, Macau is just booming with construction. It is crazy. So next I head for the shoreline to the south where I check out Alameda Dr. Carlos D’Assumpçao park which was still intact. At the part there were these funny little animal things here and there that was just plain…well…Chinese in nature. The park lead me to the sea and the Status of the Kum Lam and Ecumenical Center. Nothing to exciting, so I head east towards the art museum which was very deserted.
Near the art museum there was a horse racing track done manufactured to look like ancient Greece with volcanoes and all. It was a real Vegas like thing to see. The Sands is located there also along with the ferry and helicopter terminals. Currently, The Sands is undergoing an expansion which eats away a little bit more park space. So far, I’m not impressed and was thinking Macau was a mistake. I’ve got this thing for cemeteries and pictures of tombstones so I trek my way to the St. Micheal cemetery on Est. do Cementerio. It was really interesting and I can’t wait to add the pictures to my tombstone gallery. The tombstones varied more than any other cemetery I’ve been to and was an odd mix of Christian and Buddhist traditions and in three different languages: Chinese, Portuguese, and English. Some of the graves were as old as the early 1800s.
This put me in the area of Monte Fort which was packed with tourists. Regardless, I made my way up top where the fortress has an amazing view of the city. A few photographs later I head down to the adjacent Ruins of Saint Paul’s cathedral which is just basically the front façade—very popular with the picture taking tourists. This lead me down towards the ritzy shopping area and city hall, known locally as The Institute of Civic and Municipal Affairs.
These last few kilometers of walking have definitely shown me the more attractive, architecturally interesting parts of Macau. But the Chinese zest for the new glass and steel future is very evident. My feet are still hurting from my walking about in Kuala Lumpur with knackered flip flops so I head back for the hotel for a nap, some television and photo processing. That evening I head back into the Pharoah Casino and proceed to blow through 700 Macau Patacas within an hour and so give up and end the evening at the hotel trying to finish off No Logo.
Posted by stu at 06:32 PM | Comments (0)
A day in Kuala Lumpur
This is my third time in Kuala Lumpur and I am staying, semi-luxuriously, at the New World Renaissance Hotel in downtown near the Petronas Towers. It is also beside the Pakistani embassy, which is really pretty. A taxi takes me there for 10 Malaysian Ringgit, about US$3.75, for a five minute ride which I now realize is a total rip off. Once I arrive at 5am I discover that they won’t let me check in until late-morning. I am so beat from the journey that I agree to a full nights charge just to get some more sleep. It was worth the extra 245 Ringgit (US$65) and a mistake to take a bus that was arriving that early.
Waking up at 10am was good, rather than sleeping all day. My time in KL was limited to just 30-some hours, so I quickly set upon a walkabout of town. First stop was Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) where the Petronas Towers are located. These pair of buildings are one of my most favorite illustrations of modern architecture at its best.
At 1483 feet (452m) tall, the tallest building in the world at the date of its completion [1998], measured to the highest point. However, the Sears Tower in Chicago still has the highest occupied building floor, more than 200 feet higher than the highest occupied floor of the Petronas Towers. -- www.greatbuildings.com
There I roamed around inside the shopping mall, had lunch (Caesar salad and veggie pizza) and took some photos. Apparently you are not 
supposed to take photos as I discovered after lunch. When taking this picture of the ‘no pictures’ sign a Malaysian woman approached me and we spoke for a while. Very friendly—offered to take me out to dinner with her sister (who was going to university in Zurich) and grandmother.
Later I walked down to the Indian district for some photographs, then Medeka Square which in the heart of the old Colonial District. There was even this old establishment placed called the Royal Selangor Club where the British used to toss back gin and tonics, run their empire and other old school stuff. I snuck up and took a picture…half expecting to be intercepted and arrested. There were lots of interesting bits of architecture around that are up in the photo gallery now.
My few hours of walking around in failing flip flops started to take their toll on my feet, so I headed back for the hotel, slept, ate, and slept again until the next morning. I checked out about noon and took a 75 Ringgit “Taksi� to the Kuala Lumpur International airport for my 115 Ringgit flight to Macau on Air Asia’s 15:20 AK52, a barebones Boeing 737-300.
Posted by stu at 04:41 PM | Comments (2)
And onward to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
After staying in Krabi an extra day, I start a 20 hour, 850 Baht journey to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At 1030 in the morning I board the first of three Toyota minibuses that takes me to Hat Yai. There I’m passed on from one travel agency/private bus stop to another via minibus. After three hours in town several of us board my third minibus of the day and head south for the Malaysian border at Dan Nok. This is a heavily trafficked, efficient border post and we were through Thai and Malaysian immigration and customs in less than half an hour. After we get back on the road the minibus driver takes us to Georgetown on Pulau Penang island via many stops to let people off, mostly in Butterworth.
It is about 10pm when we arrive at the travel agency in Georgetown where I wait for over an hour. At about 11:15pm a big, VIP bus pulls up and I plop down into seat 3A. Soon we are on the road, and I’m fast asleep. Our arrival was at a painful 4:45am in Kuala Lumpur. Ouch.
Posted by stu at 07:44 AM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2006
Blogging update
I’ve been trying to catch up on the photo gallery lately and putting less time into the blog. In the next few days we should see blog entries about my painful trip to Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur itself, Macau, my trip from Macau to Hong Kong and my final exit. There is so much more to say and work on that I expect regular updates to the blog for weeks, if not months, after I return to Zurich in a few short days.
Hold on to your mouse kids, there is more to come.
Posted by stu at 06:20 PM | Comments (0)
