How long until one misses the rain?

Precipitation is down 90% from average levels and there has been no rain or snow for months, literally -over 3 months now, and closing in on 100 days!

Every day is clear with blue skies and temperatures between minus 10 and zero. At what point does one miss the rain? I am not a farmer, so I don't mind -though I do consume food and prices continue to go up due to droughts. It certainly makes it nice and easy to cycle to work and even back from bars late at night.

Today, finally, Andrea and I went to Tesco. In the opposite direction to our nearby Carrefour, it is only a few seconds further in traveling time, but it is not a place I will be going back to. The bakery was absolutely appalling. It had only a measly 6 products that were supposedly freshly baked, yet, at midday today, 5 of the products were from yesterday, apart from the french bread. There was only one aisle of imported goods, which is not very helpful; and there was not a big collection of vegetables though. There were not many signs in English, and none of the products had any English names (Carrefour does). In fact, it is not just me that is not impressed; the store was practically empty compared to Carrefour which normally is packed on a saturday. Clearly the people are voting with their feet. And Tesco on the East 4th ring road is not a Tesco many people want to go to. Having said all this, there is also a Wal-Mart 200 meters away, and that is just as bad as Tesco. At least Tesco has some of its own-label products which is something that Carrefour does not have.

The last few weeks have been pleasant enough; dominated by the cold, a cough I picked up, and work. Soon Chinese New Year will take over, with fireworks and red all over the place. It also means some time off, though when it is this cold, we're not sure what to do! Maybe, just maybe, the weather will get a little warmer for a day or two, as the forecast is hinting at. Still, though it is called the 'Spring Festival', this is a misnomer. Spring is still a month or two (or more!) away yet!

By the way, lots of my photos are up online now from Indonesia. Some good volcano ones too. Check them at at www.flickr.com/adamsphotos

Want a mushroom?

That was one of the first questions i was asked a few nights ago as I walked
into one of at least fifty bars and cafes in Gili Trawangan, a 2-hour boat
ride east of Bali. Gili T as it is known is one of three beautiful, tiny,
islands that are just 10-minutes from Lombok, another large (Bali-sized)
island full of countryside and volcanoes. After turning down the man's offer
from some 'shrooms as they are known, I got a beer and chatted to some Irish
guys who were drinking some concoction of mushrooms. I saw them the next day
when I was scuba-diving and received confirmation they had a pretty powerful
effect!

Despite the large number of tourists packed onto the island and filling out
the multitude of guesthouses, none of which had more than ten rooms it
seemed, the island is beautiful, the rain held off, and there was a lot of
fun to be had in the evenings after enjoying the beach and underwater
sights. Unfortunately underwater Gili is no big deal -but then my standards
are high after being fortunate enough to dive at some of the World's most
beautiful places in Asia. If you want a nice beach, some great bars, and
some cheap accommodation (even the super luxurious was only 100 dollars a
night) then head to the Gili islands. If you do you might well catch some
Australians, who dominate the Bali area, and tend to have a beer in hand at
8am in the morning, no matter whether they are getting on a boat, or in a
clinic!

A brief stint in the Gilis led to a last day on vacation in Lombok's
capital, Mataram, which involved checking out the Mall since it was
pouring with rain and another motorbike ride out to a temple and to
Sengigi which is an old-school beach resort with a bunch of hotels and
restaurants along a strip of main road which is parallel to a
wonderful beach. Delightful in its own way I suppose, there were some
great restaurants -and hotel deals- to be had. Once again I
experienced the joys of renting a motorbike, and the challenge of
driving in a busy and crowded city packed with all kinds of transport
(including horse and carts) driving at various speeds. We did not have
time to hang out with the locals on the cliff roads, unfortunately, as
thrilling as it looked just sitting on bikes looking out to sea...

Other thoughts on Indonesia was that there was minimal language
difficulties, through transportation is slower than expected since
most people have their own transport, public transport is not as
necessary as maybe it once was. There were some surprises, like the
Executive class in the train, which was very plush with power sockets
by every seat for only a small amount more than regular class, and was
over half full of locals, who evidently quite like travelling in
style. There was very regular calls to prayer that were most notable
in the morning and evening, but though quite a few women wore
headscarfs, almost none wore Burhkas and a lot wore no head covering
at all, which is not what I was expecting.

To round out the top 3 of the vacation -after the smoking volcano (the
first we visited) and the motorcycle trip around the third volcano we
visited- I need to mention the village of two halves that was at the
bottom of the second volcano (you may recall, this was the one with
the turquoise lake at the top). A week ago, we spent a night in a
so-called homestay before the trek up the volcano, although the
homestay was the least homestay-like homestay I have ever heard of
with awful service, poor accommodation and tour group central. Yet,
100m down the road was a small village which at first glance was
nothing special, only remarkable as it seemed well laid out with small
alleys and all the houses in a line with small gardens. Yet, as we
walked further in we found that each house had put immense effort into
their tiny gardens and were growing crops, sometimes on 2 square
meters of land, sometimes just 1 tomato plant was being grown out of a
solitary plant pot. Each house was very individidualized with some
being quite well decorated, although others being total dumps. A
stroll through this quite quaint and somewhat strange village was
incredible -there were public bathrooms and a mosque and school to add
character- yet it was the tiny alleys, the small gardens, the
individualized houses and the people (kids, adults, dogs and all) that
packed out the alleys that made it special.

And then we got to the river that ran along the edge of the village,
or so we thought. In actual fact the river just separated the living
part of the village from the working part of the village. Across the
river was like going back 100 years. Everything here was muddy paths
and wooden barns (the other half of the village was mostly concrete
paths and brick buildings) packed with animals, and again densely
arranged. The fences surrounding the barns were perfectly built
without an inch of room for an animal to escape -for everything was so
close together, one escape could cause chaos. It was fascinating. A
village of two halves -the living and the working; yet both parts
exquisitely deisgned, quaint, picturesque and funtional. Probably the
most interesting village I have been to in a long while, and all
discovered on accident.

And so another warm vacation ends, and it is back to freezing Beijing.

When a motorbike points at a Volcano

First we were warned of the dangers of driving motorbikes into the north of Bali with stories of corrupt police officers questioning licenses (solution: pretend to be unable to speak English and shove a 5 dollar note their way) or gas fillers disabling the choke and charging a small fortune to fix it; then we put on our helmets and headed north. We managed to spend at least ten minutes gazing at the very unimpressive Gunung Kawa (some stone statues) which may impress some, but pale in comparison to sights seen elsewhere in Asia, and waited out a rainstorm drinking free coffee (not the Lawak coffee though which is too rare for them to offer for free; reason being it is made of coffee beans that have been eaten and excreted by a local animal which give the coffee a very special taste apparently, and take a long time to find and collect) and tea at local plantations. In mid-afternoon we arrived at Gunung Batur.

At first, there was nothing to see. We were at the edge of a crater, and the spot where we arrived was shrouded in mist and cloud, but as we descended down into the crater we could see a volcano cone in the middle, itself covered in cloud. Finding a hotel, we immediately set off and ended up driving around the central cone on a poor road, but one that took us through the remains of previous lava flows which were truly impressive. There was evidence of off-road tracks that local youth must have great fun playing on up and down the rocks, but I managed to resist driving over them as time was getting on. We just about managed to get back to the top of the crater, where we had been several hours earlier, but now with the mist cleared, to get beautiful dusk views of the crater, the cone in the middle and the lake at one end.

The next day we hit a small path that went up the opposite side of the crater through numerous small villages and up very steep paths that pushed our motorbikes to the limit to get more stunning views. At the top we continued around the outside of the crater; drove back down to the middle and up again and headed back to Ubud, via more tea and coffee samplings. It was a fantastic overnight trip -the freedom of the motorbikes, the countryside roads and the small paths around the volcano were incredible; probably the second highlight of the trip after the smoking volcano of Bromo a few days earlier. To top it all off, as we rolled into Ubud we went down a side-street and ended up watching a cock fight. Both Dad and I were surprised the the fight was over so quickly. Then we noticed each Cock had a knife tied to one of its feet which explained things. Anyway, two fights, a lot of blood and some interesting video footage later, we headed back for a night in another incredible hotel-cum-house-cum-temple.