johansvennung(臺灣)

Still Summer at home

Summer: when the average 24h-temperature is over 10deg...

Its still summerin october...and an air balloon is spotted near the ocean, across the lake...

Warm weather...and sunny...Halloween is just 1 month away...and then its almost X-mas! jippi!

Some garden support in Gothenburg

I paid a quick visit to gothenbrug yesterday...

Helping out with some garden work...autumnis approaching...

And also got some nice tawianese food...

And mushroom...

And migneling with some kids...pretty fun and interesting...

I also tried some cheese cake and learned what "kvarg" is...

A short visit to the Book fair

Its a book fair in Gothenburg...

The theme of this years fair was "brazil"...but many countries were represented...

Omg...(swedish) celeb 1...

celeb 2...

Lund univs stand...

Omg...fjällräven...but not thatimpressivein sweden...

Celeb 3...

Cosy christmas cards...I should paint some...

Blur pic of Celeb 4...

Another blur pic on more fjällräven...

And some beer books...

And my reason to come here...Don Rosa comics...H havebeen collecting these since 1990ies...They made another 9 books...they say that this guy sells 7 times more than the other writers of donald duck...I can definitely understand that...

I passed by Studiefrämjandet for a short while...they are pretty good, gives money to random people who chose to study...

"春"...

And some free cakes...

Omg...Spirite Away...reminded me of juifen in Taiwan...I plan to make a anime movie my self...a short one...maybe about swedish society...

Later on I helpe my friends to fix their stand...

Windy days

Windy days are passing by...

Autumn water level is getting high...

I got a pucko when I at Eberths place was passing by...

Tried some chilli "hot like die"...

I tried both fresh and dry....

The later were less painful, I dont know why...

Eating it with salmon and local potatoes, to make it traditional you should boil, not fry...

Eberth the man, I will support his sis in the book fair tomorrow´n I will try to get autographs from local s celebs, I better not be shy...

Saturday hang out

I paid a quick visit to a cafe to have a swedish "fika"....today...

My parents are well know in ths city...joining them, I often have to stand aside and wait for them to talk to people...

I had a local bun...this city is very famous for bakeries, buns and fika...

Windy days in sweden

WIndy days are passing by...its around 16-17 degrees...

Many kite surfers on the lake...and some wind surfers...

Omg...I also spent time with my friend who enjoys a welfare state....he gets 10000sek (44000NTD) for doing nothing...in pension...he treated me a pizza so that I also can enjoy the welfare state...

Later on I saw a swedish movie...it wasnt as good as i was told...

Some time on the West coast...

I spent some time at the west coast today...

Made some pizza...like in the good old times...

With alot of cheese...

I also didsome garden work...

Removing a plum tree...

Omg...17 degrees....

And blue sky...shorts weather...however, sun sets at 19...autumnis approaching...

 

Heading west

I went west some day ago...

After some change of bonus card company..I realized that I can ship extra luggage for free nowadays...thats noce...

I also added a tie...since shallow people tend to treat people with ties better...

Some delay in flight made us get food at the gate...

Omg...so interesting...the taiwanese cusoms often laugh about china and other customs saying they are not suffcient...however thats not my observation...here they let lighers...shampoo botltes...etc pass, while they stop some wierd key instead...totally wrong logic compare to other airports...

Air China is also interesting...you can use a computer...but not a phone in "flight mode"...i didnt want a "no why" answer so i didnt ask why, I just observed people around me being asked to turn theor flightmode phone off and recommended to use computers instead..

Some tuesday morning events in Taipei

Its a normal taipei morning...

Endless scooters...going somewhere...

And more to come...probably several millions every day...

Convenient...

I was on my way to neihu, I had to go to a Pick-up point...its a nice area...pretty calm...and near the mountains...

 

Mondays events

I started they day with visiting a friend in central Taipei...

Buying some lunch for her...some Taiwanese food...at the night market...(but its day)...

I continued to find a special address...and never end to surprise myself...asking locals for directions...and get different answers from each one...

Omg...they have some interesting monopoly game there...

I also packed my bike...last time they said 2 times that everything was ok (when visiting the post office) until I was about to send it...then they rejected...thus I never feel safe here...we will c what happens...

Dammit...cospys tend to be closed on mondays...its a pity...i ended up with a chocolate smoothie at G2 paradise instead...

And after some night drivning...got a Le ble d´or honey beer, pizza and hamburger...

 

 

Junlin Barefoot Marathon

2 years ago I use to eat alot of costco food...

Last friday I did the same...pretty nice...

I later in the night headed south...and bought some malt drink near changhua...it was pretty sweet...

After a 5 minute meeting with my Paiwan aboriginal friend the trip went east...towards the mountain to eat aboriginal food outside Pingdong...in southern Taiwan...

Omg...nice aboriginal patterns...

...everywhere...

And military vehicles...

After asking people for 30 minutes we could conclude that there were no aboriginal restaurant in this village...we were recommended to head north...

Omg...a lizzard...the only thing i found at a geocache zone...last found was 2010...i guess this one is gone...

Finally after some mountain driving a epic aboriginal place was found...

With aboriginal art...

Of many kinds...mostly "indian art"...

And jewelery...

And cool toilet signs...

I guess they like to express themselves in art when doing handcraft...

Toilet art..

And cool stols...

Some china airline design...

...and T-shirts...

I might do a painting like this soon...

Just like in a swedish guide rouge restaurant...the visitors could see into the kitchen...(or maybe it was just a hole for serving...

More interesting furnitures...

Omg...I asked if they had alcohol in the tiramisu coffee and they said "no"...strangely enough another waitress told me that it contains Kalhua...maybe the same logic as "cheap is not meat" that my friend experienced in korea...

I had a nice plate with various of aboriginal dishes... 

And some photos with some Paiwans...

The toilet view was pretty nice...

The trip continued in the mountain area...

And passing the Badlands near jiayi so somewhere...

To Junlin...where I was suppose to run...

Some small competition...

It was still a little wet on tha ground...

I think it was 75 full marathon and 25 half marathon runners...

All barefoot...

Omg...so interesting...I use to walk barefoot as a kid in the summers alot...but I never done a marathon barefoot...

And a typhoon is approaching...it might feel like when i did my military service in the marines...

And thunder...

They had a display just like when i did my 12 hour marathon, so that I dont need to count every single lap...106 laps...

Round and round...i think a lap was 2-2.4 minutes...pretty slippery...and very wet in the typhoon showers...

The day after I was suppose to run another marathon in Tainan..but it was cancelled due to typhoon... :S so a visit to lugang was paid again (i was here some 6 years ago)...

Nice and cosy place...

With old japanese architecture..or old taiwanese...I wonder why they never design like this nowadays...

After the red brick path visit another site that i visited 6 years ago was visited...

The great buddha of changhua...

They ahve many great buddhas in asia and in taiwan...

I tried to find a chache here...

A door like in hobtown...

After some trip...I came back to taipei...and went for an all u can eat BBQ...

omg...they had coachroaches...reminded me of when I saw a rat...at a suchi all u can eat...its not easy to have a restaurant in taiwan...

Damn it!...typhoon times

Tomorrow I will run a barefoot marathon. according to plan...

On sunday I was suppose to run another marathon...(but with shoes)...

But my sunday marathon seems to be postponed...

Seems like my double marathon weekend wont take place after all...have to do with only the barefoot marathon which onthe otherhand seems exciting enough...

 

A hsinchu hang out

I paid a quick visit to hsinchu today...

...after visiting my friends new office in Zhongshan...

I deleivered some cider to my chalmers friends...

Omg...the old office in alphabetic order...the year before had a more hierarchical order...

I offered them som luxy coins (to a night club)...but they rejected...

We went to thefood court...most things are new at the food courts...

Or...more fresh...

Later I went to a beer bar...

They hadmany kinds of beer...

Even Swedish Norrlands guld...

Funny sign...

And many kinds of cider too...

I had somel ager...

Cory came there by motorcycle...

Omg...no mokus passenger onhis bike...sounds complicated...

A visit to Universal Studios

After Legoland I paid a visit to Universal Studios in Singapore...

Many people who I know have been here...its almost likea landmark of singapore...

Many people waiting at the ticker counter...

And they played the theme of Jurassic park...

Omg...tough for short people...

I got my ticket...didnteven need to wait inline...

And ofcourse many souvenir shops...

Omg...transformers...pretty cool logo...

And some statue of liberty monument...

Interesting, I use to paint this face a lot when I was young...

And longqueues to the attractions...

Some transformers rollercoaster...

Omg...so clever...single riders...for people who evaluate the ride more than the company...

They should have this at more places...

I was about to buy a jacket...but wanted to have a logo instead to put on the car...

Cap with logo...in thesouvenir shop...

Next place was an other rollercoaster...but no bags allowed...but they ahdlockers that were fingerprint based...

Pretty small lockers...but still enough...

They also offered single riders queue...

And had some interesting decoration at this place...inspired from jurassic park...

This was more like a train...

Omg...outside the park they had din tai fung...micheling stared restaurant...

And a hardrock cafe...

Back inthecity...

And the famous spot of singapore...

I had a kebab in the night...

And in early morning got some refund for things I bought in singapore...but i transfered it to my card...and they ended up chargning me for it...even if they said they dont...dont trust ppl here...i often tell myself, but end up giving them another chance :S

Heading back to taiwan..is this yushan, the highest mountain?

And is this xueshan?

I think that peak is Dabajian shan..

Which make this the holy ridge...

Its hard to know...

This is Hsinchu for sure...

Some mom in the seatin frot of me...the kid didntwant to put the seat belt on whenlandning, and screamed for 10 minutes...

Solution: let the kid decide...

And therest also saw the "fasten seatbelt" sign as decoration...welcome home...

"No birds" sign...this is taiwan allright...

Heading to Legoland

To leave Toiman island one needs to take a ferry for some hours to Mainland Malaysia. There after I will go by bus to singapore. It seems like Tioman island is a place where the Singaporeans go during weekends.

After my Tioman island visit I went to south west malaysia to Legoland...

Omg...another fjällräver bag...

In singapore they have a special bus route passing by legoland...

One needs to enter malaysia thought...

They also have hello kitty town...not sure what that is about...

Pretty touristic...

This is the second legoland park i will visit...even if it was pretty longtime ago i went to theother legoland...

Omg...lego sculptures...

And ATM...its all about the money...

And Lego darth vader...pretty cool... 

"but first, let me take a selfie..."...its pretty fun that darth vader is in the Selfie music video...

It was a long queue to take a pic...

Omg...some praying rooms...in muslim country...

And some roller coaster...

And Hans Solo...

One could get a diploma if a quiz was finished...

A selfie....

And some star wars world...

One had to count C3PO and RR2D2 characters...

Millenium falcon consisted of "19.200" pieces..

Omg...but in the quiz, that alternative wasnt an option...strange...

Pretty big...

And some cool ewoks world...

Ha, this sign is useful...its pretty common among "nouveau riche" (chinese and russian so far) to sneak ahead...

They really have many characters in lego...

Starwars...but I wanted Batman...

Omg...welcome to malaysia...a guy handling money...

And then holding salad andchicken...so gross...

Last time I was in malaysia it was the same...locals dont care about hygiene at all...in mcdonalds some lady wanted new french fries, sinceher were "cold", then they took her old fries and put inthe pile of new ones...mixed it andserved other people...no wonder people get sick here...

But when I ask them about this issue they dont seem to understand the concept about hygiene...

Pretty small meal :) 

Legoland...like the Hollywood sign...

And "4D"-movie...

with wind and water as a special effect...

Itwould b cool if they added smell too...

Next stop was some mini world...

Anchorwat...pretty old...

And myanmar...been there, donethat...

I also had somemalaysian money left that I wanted to use...

Maybe for a batman keychain...

Ha...one could also buy lego peices, meassured by weight...

I also tested a local lego burger...it wasnt that special...

More pics with lego characters...

Omg...finnally back in singapore I saw this green hotel...

And preparations for some formula 1 race...

I also passed by my favorite store here...the DC comic one...

They didnt have many of the things I wanted to buy thought... :(

Omg...another fjällräven bag...

And Kex-choklad in the store (swedish chocolate)...

Later on I treid some local kebab...

And checked the market...in "Little india"...

Indian food...pretty spicy...

But I like it alot...

Omg...so annoying...locals who dont respect sleeping people...so noisy in the morning, I had to take a pic of these indian/chinese people...(same happened in frankfurt ones...but then I managed to make them quiet)...

fake wifi

In tioman island

I had some blog problems. And suffer from really slow internet (meaning that the browser not even recognize any speed)...

Omg...a fjällräven bag insingapore...

And the "boat house":.. 

Started thenight by finding a cache...

Omg...kexchoklad (Swedish chocolate) is famous here...

And we can conclude that people insoingapore weight 68kg...

The hostel I stayed in had some swedish books...omg...

Next stop in early morning was Singapore downtown...

Taking us to theeastcoast of malaysia...

And some ferry towards tioman island...we also hadto pay some national park...

IT was certified by some reason...

And off we went...

To this place...pretty touristic...

Many tourists...a motirbike trying to get through...as usual in asia, people are walking side by side, not letting anyone in...

Omg...they even had rules in the restaurant...

Many people taking open water cerificate...

Omg...passbyers better watch out...

It was really a nice place...I wonderwy taiwanese never consider making taiwan look a little like this...

Omg...people are probably drinking alot here...

It is duty free...but notmuch cheaper...

It is possible to walk to other parts of the island...but the path is pretty small...most people transportby boat...

They have many mosquitos here...

And a buffet...pretty nice...

Malaysian food...i prefered the curry thing...it reminded me of the myanmar food...

Some local people swimming...

And boats on the sea...

"Flag of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations"...google image search is pretty useful...

In the early morning people were heading for some snorkeling...

Many chinese people...no one is expected to be able to swim...

The boat was pretty cosy...

They had bread to feed the fishes...

So that people can see the corals and watch the fish...

This island was famous for snorkeling...

We stayed for some hour...it was more or less the same everywhere around this island...

And they had sharp cliffs, so we were told not to climb the cliffs...some people did it anyway...

Poor indians...they didnt know how to swim...and had to be pulled by rope everywhere in the water...

It was interesting to watch...

Next stop was a bigger beach with bigger fish...

I tried to find a geocache...but it wastoo far away...

Omg...so small cats...

I also saw a snake...when I went out running...later we went back to the resort...pretty interesting steering wheel...

Lunch was served...

Omg...some chinese people wearing diving equipment...even if its forbidden...some people are so funny...thinking signs are "decorations":..

Its ok...i guess north europeans have the mindset tofollow rules strictly...but im not sure...

They had many bars nearby...they had some nice resting places at the beach...

I heard that the locals were not allowed to sell alcohol, and hadsome drunk foreigner somewhere whos only task was to serve drinks...but i couldnt find any one like this here...

I later on went for some trekking...

I asked for a "waterfall":..but thesign said "rockfall"...

Not sure what that was...but the locals told me to go here...

After some 20-30 minutes...I found this strange tree...

And a cave...

With many check points...

After half an hour searching, i couldnt find any waterfallla nd had to return to the village, since i didnt want to be out in the rain forrest after sunset...many monkeys and wild animals out there...

...omg, some strange looking stone...

And some strange branch...

Maybe this was the "waterfall"...

And some mandatory trash...

Omg...downmiddle is the pic of a waterfall...it seems to be pretty small..like a creek...

But i made it back before sunset...

Far away there somewhere is malaysia...

Time for dinner again...its nice to live at a resort...all inclusive...

With some fruit...but the cakes reminded me of the ones in taiwan...not made by flour...

They had mashed potatoes...it was awesome...

Later on...it was time to return to main land...

Omg..."Husqvarna"...some swedish company...

And Kopparberg in singapore...

But they spelled it "Koppaberg"...

In the night i was looking for some nice restaurant...

They had many places...i picked a kebab place...

Omg...they add servicecharge here too... :S

I also saw some fike add in the subway...

Last pic for this time of the "boat"...

a trip to inle lake

myanmar is not famous for fast wifi. my hotels 'free wifi' is a 56 modem. my browser recognize the bmp as 'no connection with server'...welcome tosouth east asia... :)

A taxi such drop us in inle lake...but the driver was told to drop us ome 30-50 km before...at a far away hotel...we insisted of getting to the lake...

The driver has some karaoke...onthe screen...

Many trucks were about to fall...over loaded...

Some monastery up oin the mountain...

The driver blowing the horn every minute...

And picking up locals who also were heading our way...

They were also restoring the roads at many places...that was good...the road conditions were not "tip top"...

More people to be picked up...

And dropped off...

Some song was played...that was a rip of the old coca cola song...or the opposite...

More people joining...

Omg,,,i reated a local with canides...she ust threw the trash out the window...

This kind of plastic paper...no wonder parts of south east asia is so dirty when the locals treat the nature as a trash can :S

Now all I see is trash..along the roads...

And somestrange duck boat...

More coca cola song...

And mountain in the horizon...

Omg..we are advancing to the mountain "high land"...

And we also got some flowers from some guy at the check point...

"entrance fee"...for foreingers...

But finally arrived...I heard that "inle" is a warp of the word "lein", which is a river in germany that is said to be equaly beatiful...

Tourist spot...many hotels...

But a pretty peaceful town...

And many locals who want to sell their boat service...

Somce truck trying to get out from a narrow T intersection...

And many tomatoes...from the floating gardens in inle lake...

And here is the river...someone blocked the road so its not possible to walk to the lake..as usual they want to keep it limited for taxi service..so that they can earn more money...

This guy offered 15USD for his service..

When we arrived a lady told us 35USD...not sure if her english was good or if she just teid to rip us off...but i got irritated and decided to go for the cheapest...

Omg a trashcan...I like...

Some houses has nice design here...

1usd is somcetimrs 960 myanmar money, sometimes 1000...many times its cheaper to use USD due to that the stores count it as 1000myanmar=1USD...

The cisty center...

And some cool designed stairs..."traditinal stairs" i was told...

And also the menu was interesting...

They had discount onmandalay beer...

Some local fish...

And the sun was setting...

I wanted to find a cashe today...

Omg...inlines field..pretty fun...

The lady who was in house arrest, and some other guy...many ppl have  their pics on the wall...

This is where I stay...

Cool elephant on some doors...

The fake Wifi place...

I spent 2 hours trying to figur out their wifi, before I went to their kitchen and found their wifi hotspot wasnt working...

Next day...time to hit the lake...

Omg...harpune...illegal in the rest of the world...almost...

Not sure if he caught anything...

But it looked like something was onthe hook...

Some other guy doing the same...

And some trash in the river..as usual...

Many boats heading out to the lake..andmany boats returning...

This wasa the driver..he only charged 13 USD....probably ripping us off...but still the cheapest I could find...

Other tourists...

Here he comes...

Interesting engine...

More tourists...

And of we go...

here is the furthest you can walk, trying to arrive to the lake...

Omg...our boat was faster than many other boats...

And after some 3-5km we reached the lake...

I heard their fish net (A round one) is uniqie...but i also heard that they put out fake fishermen for the sake of the tourists....

Omg...clouds looking like the intro to "the simpsons":..

Many houses near the lake...

And people hitting the water with some log...they called that fishing as well...

Some chicken on the pole...

And monastery...

This was the first site...

They pretty much look all the same...

Money money..."if you want to be rich, start a religion"...

In taiwan they sell fake money, in tibet they sell butter, here they sell "gold leaf" for the religous to donate...

The lake seemed pretty big...

only men can access this part...

The river seemed connected withanother river....

And the market is only open today...among all the days of the week..I was told...

But it wasnt that special...

Some medicine...

And artefakts...

Andmunks buying meat...is that ok?

Lets continue...

This reminded me a little of bangkok...some tuk-tuk driver who dropped u off some stores...at this place they made clothes...

From some lotus flower...

They chopped it of and got some thread out of it...

And later onthey made textile...

And the coloured it...

And ofcourse they had a hugestore... 

And accepted mastercard...

By somereasonI felt that these things were not made here...maybe madeina factory...

But their image was that it was hand made...

Next store was a silver smith...

It felt that they started to work, just cus entered...

Someother tourists...

ALso accepting card...

Nice place...I wanna build some hut like this home in sweden...

They change the poles when they get old...not sure how they quantify it...

This was a stop that we asked for...

Omg..some lady tried to sell things from her boat...

They had interesting things...just like in the market...

And bananas...

This is rings that ladieswearina regionsouthofinle lake...

Pretty heavy...

Their necks are pretty long...

The ping area in the middle is where these ladies come from...

Omg...eapongs...just like gurkhas, butnot that boomerang shaped...

It felt like htese girlsworked here just so people can take pictures... 

And some souvenirs...

Omg...like girafe...

After 20 years they have 20 rings...

They had nice earings at this place...

And the same buddha statues as I got as a kid at the Mongolian Barbeque in Gothenbrgs, packhusplatsen...

Omg...i strechet out my neck pretty far I think...

Next stop...a cat temple...and ofcourse souvenir shops nearby...

Many cats...pretty cute...

Not sure why, but I think its a tradition that the munks handle cats...

Some were very small...

And some religious things in the middle of the temple...

And the history of buddhism...

Many tourists came here only for the cats...

The temple loked like a djungle hut...

Nesxt stop a floating garden...

Mostly tomatoes were planted here...

When harvesting one needs a boat...

Later on we headed back to the city...

Where they repared the road...

Omg...garbage in the river...

And some rum...or something...many people were selling this red liquid...

Creeks everywhere...

This was the next goal...a munk monastery...

Omg...bananas...

It was open..but no munk here..."come back tomorrow, he is not here..." they told me...NO WAY i thought...since my bus were about to leave insomehours...

Luckily the munk came...after some hour...

Omg...nice plave...

He showed us some picutures...on how the lake use to look like...I guess global warmning and impact of humans affected the lake, and formed it as it looks today...

Healso showed memany visitors...

And gave me his address so that I cansend him a postcard...

Omg...he evenhad a business card...so prefessional...

He also inisted that we should take a picutre of him...

And he feeded me with bananas...

And showedsome geocache pitures...

It was a pretty cool cache...on the desk near buddha...

So clever...this guy gets visitors from all over the world...and practice his english when ppl comes...several hundred foreingers finds thisremote monastery...due to this...

A brown box...who knew...?

With nice view over the valley...

And fragile decorations...

His buddhist flags were also special...not like in Buthan, nepal or tibet...

He was a really funny guy...

Liked to joke and imitate things...

He also let nearby farmers store rice in the entrance floor of his house...

A must visit if you are near inle lake...

More construction work...

And some school kids finishing school for the day...

People at the hostel were working by cleaning the fence...

We were directed to a cab,to catch the bus...heading to yangon...

Nice south east asia feeling here...

Omg...no helmet...just like the taiwanese east and south coast...

A map over middle myanmar...and some famous sites...

A blur pic of some lady sreaming religous words inthe bus for some hours...

And a nice train bridge...

We stopped many times...some other foreingers got a much nicer bus...i guess the travel agency wanted toearnmoremoney so thechargd a "nice bus" -price but gave us a crappy bus...some people were kicking in luggage in the buttom, to be able to transport more things...

I like to go by bus inthe night...

Omg...scania office...

Later in yangon ariport I found this owl...I think my parents has one at home...

I also had somelocal food at the airport...

pretty expensive for beeing in myanmar...but i guess thats common for an airport...

Interesting "Test flight"...I wonder where that plane is heading...

Some time in Bagan

Im spending some time in Bagan...its like anchor watt I heard...

Getting help from some french people to negotiate...among the locals...

"wifi free"...means "no wifi"...

This is that part of Myanmar that reminds me of laos...(near a restaurant between Mandalay and Bagan)...

And the roads...usually a small stripe of asfalt...if you meet another car, u drive aside...

This is our bus...

In the restaurant they also had some snacks...

And some house...however the eating area was more like a roof without walls...

Finally arrived, as usual thebus drops you outside...so that u need to take taxi...(nothing can evenbe 100% here)...

Some girl...most people here has smartphone...atleast most people I seen...

Some french people...who negotiated the price to Bagan...

As usual...foreingers needs to pay...(the vietmanese side of myanmar)...

My germanfriend has a norweigan mom..he spoke norweigan...pretty cool...

After some while..we rented vikes and took off to see Bagan...

Temple after temple

And Buddha...

Golden ones...made of wook or iron...

Many locas come here to pray...the difference betweenhere and anchor what is that thisnever was hidden...so nature never really had any impact of this place...instead the locals come here to pray...

Some interesting patterns on the wall...

Ofcourse, as most religions...money is involved...the more you pay the the better your life might be...

More buddhas...

Most houses were red coloured...

"Come and buy, very cheap"...

Everywhere, one could see these temples...

This one looked different...

10 years ago you could climb many of the temples..I was told...

Now, there are a few ones that you can go up on...

Like thisone...

This one, I was told is the biggest one...far away from where I am...

Omg...somce japanese sponsors...

And local visitors...

Some sovenir shops...

And Pagodas... 

Locals taking pics...

And more space for money donations...

I was wearing my skirt as usual...I felt very local...

Omg...somce "smiley" betweenthe legs...

And some feet of buddha...

People were touching it..maybe itmeant luck...

Had to try too...

Another temple...

More sovenir shops...

More temples...they more or less looked the sameafter a while...

Some money collectionfrom the local munks...

A munk with an Iphone 5...

The trip continues...

They evenhad a university here...

And more Pagodas...

It was easy to get lost...we hace a map from lonely planet...and were heading to some special place...where you could climb a temple...

My friends wanted to visit this place first...

"no footwear"...

And some George Orwell books, from when he was here...

The loclas painted their face with this tree...for sun protection...

Finally foundthe temple that we could walk up on...

But it wahard to find how to get there...

"plastic bag free zone"...I like...

Some checkpoint...where they checked if you paid...(if u were a foreigner)...

Time to walk up...

Omg...a big area...

This might be why this is ranked as one of the top sites in asia, by lonely planet...

Temple after temple...miles away...

And steep up...I think some buildings were form the 12th century, and some were older...

People gathered up here to see the sunset...

Which eventually will come...

Just wait for some hours...

Many people from Japan, and vietnam...werehere...

Cameras up...

Omg...so many buses here to enjoy the sunset...

Or see the tamples in sunset light...

Also some people make money onchangeing money...this guy had a swedish 20SEK note... 

My frenchfriend wanted to take picture of a temple in the moonlight...

But it was hard to find the moon...

Some temples had light...it was pretty cool...

Well, here wasthe moon anyway...

I ended they day witha a Mandalay beer...I prefer theMyanmar beer though...

Every nowand thenthe electricity was shut down...just like in Kathmandu...however there it was ona schedule...here it was accidentally...

Myday in Bagan is over...

A day in mandalay

AFter some days in Myanmar...im about to put the locals on the same greedy list as vietnamese and nepalese...so stressful to always be charged more...

I found a euromean resturant not far from my hotel...

And I really wanted to visit the palace inthe city center...however...only the east entrence was made for foreingers...and the city center from the west..so many people took cab...to go there...it was aobut 5-6km... 

Pretty big area...surrounded by water...

And these towersaround it...

Some guards telling me that foreingers have to walk around...

One big difference in south east asia compare to home, is that here its accepted that foreigners get discrimintated...and we have to accept it...at home its alot of complains among immigrants that they get discrimintated and society puts efforts in reducing the discrimination...

Many people wanted to give me a lift, if a paid...its easy money for these...however it was very expensive...

I made a walk instead...

Omg...mandalay palace...a nice spot in mandalay city...with nice veiw...

The north entrance, is only made for the military...(as well as the south one)...

It was a normal working day so it was not that many people entering...

Some guy offering lift again...

Well at the mainentrance...they had propaganda on the wall...

Some big gate, when entering... 

And the we had to walk to quite a while to reach the palace...another reason for motor bikes to charge money...

And we got instructions only to walk on the main road...

Here is the palace...

Not that special...but many people visiting...

Like an acient city in kathmandu...

And many religious artefacts..

The floor was made of wood...pretty nice...

And many school kids were there...

They also had a museum...

And some green areas...

The is the whole palace...I spent some 5-10 minutes walking around...

Then headed back...

Pretty impressive wall...

I guess they could stand an attack, atleast some 500 years ago when they build it...

Next stop was a famous bridge...we were told by our first taxi driver that he couldgive us a "good price" (evenif i later on found out that it wasa scam...

More touristic areas...

The bridge is near a lake...

Omg...modern hairdo...

I had some myanmar beer before walking the bridge...

Omg...another discrimination sign...they mean "people who doesnt look like ethnical myanmar citizens"...so funny...

Some guys from yangon...they looked pretty rich... 

This guy charged me money for the toilet...which wasnt realla a toilet..more like a hole inthe ground...

Some nice stove with wood fire...

I tried some peice of chicken salad...

Omg...the coca cola is made in myanar...many people get bad stomach inmyanmar...atleast the coke canbe trusted...

And finally, the bridge... 

It was pretty good quality...no broken parts...

And some trees in the water...

It was filled with visitors...

And fishermen...

They also had somestands, that was made after the mainconstruction...for souvenirs... 

The bridge leads to some island...

After some 100 meters it makesa right turn...

Some pagodas inthe horizon...

And some fishermen, fishing while swimming...

Not sure why...

Some other "water tree"...

After some 20 minutes I was arrive to the end,,,

Omg..they heven had motorcycles here...(or maybe it wasnt an island)...

Time to head back...

Some boat offering taxi service...

This guy just got some fish...

Some signs well back at the beginning...

The svastika is frequently used here...(in the nazi-direction)...

In the horizonI could spot mountains...nice...I thinkthe himalayas starts somewhere here inmyanmar...

Greedy taxi driver...everyone fools you if you dont know the market price...no mercy... :)

Heading to Mandalay

The more important scenic sights in Myanmar is north...so its time to move north...

After observing the locals eating breakfast...

And getting some information about protests about the governments...

And watching locals talk to tourists...

And taking a cache-pic...

Omg...they have count down at the traffic lights...powerful solution...

Passed by the brittish embassy...

Andtheaustralian embassy...

Omg...so many Telenor shops in Myanmar...

Wow...sugarapple...I thought that was uniqie for Taidong...

And the mandatoy rainfall...

A snack was bought at this singapore restaurant...

And another cache-pic...

Omg...Myanmar beer glasses...it taste like Taiwan beer...

A lady was carrying her basket on her head...

Lunch was eaten at a local burger bar...

Pretty small burger...but it 8 people are 550kg they better not eat much...

Later a visit to the larger Pagola was paid...

The prices here is so weird...8000mynamar dollars to enter this place...its the same as a taxi from the airport, ot abus ride to half the distance of the country...or 10 postcards..or a dinner...conclusion: going by bus here in very cheap...

Somehistory about this huge Pagole...

It is 100 meters high...

...tourists pay to enter...locals dont...

Then everyone walks around it....

I became best friend with a local here...who was studyig japanese and korean...

Each small part of this pagola has a purpose....

This is my translator friend...

I also met up with a germanguy who will stay here for1 month...pretty impressive...(hisonly visitinasia ismyanmar)...

So many buddhas in different shapes at one place...

Omg...wearing my skirt...I almost went to the wrong...toilet...

Some blur pics of famous lions outside the Pagola...

Next stop was the bus station north of Yangon...

Just buying some alcohol before taking off...

These 2 beers...one is 8% and dark...pretty hard to finish...

I had peanut to help me drink it...and some dried beans...

It was a pretty nice bus company...

Serving food like in an airplane...having movies (even though the cut the movies...in the middle...20 mins of terminator 2, some part of lord of the rings...othermoviesthey showed the whole of...I also saw many nice music videos...)...

We also got covers....

Omg...a scania bus...they are pretty cool...its usually the bus company that chosses to paint Scanias logo on the bus...as a quality sign...

Early in the morning, the bus reached Mandalay...

Time to check the prices to get out of here...tomomrrow ill head to my main detination Bagan...

I went round for a bit trying to find a hotel for 15 USD...this was 18USD...ok enough...

Yangon day 2

I started off by having myanmar breakfast...

Beans, eggs and some pancake...and local banana...I heard that mango comes from the himalaya region..maybe I should try some since the himalayas starts here...

i later on in the day made a trip in yangon downtown. and also visited  the Shwedagon pagoda. there i met a german guy from berlin who Will stay here for a month. impressive. Me, im heading north now, the thing with backpacking with limited time is that i always need to be on the move.

Yangon (a.k.a. Rangoon) day 1

Feels a little bit like a mix between Nepal and Laos here...greedy taxi drivers and nice sellers...

A "nice" guy approached me on the street and helped me to find a "cheap" hostel...since the taxi driver just dropped me "somewhere" in the "hostel area", but with now hostel sign in sight...however he knew the owner of the hostel...

Omg, multi country socket...so professional...

20000 Myanmar money...at the banks they calculate 1000Myanmar=1:ish USD...but on the street they say 1000 Myanmar=1USD, so I think my hotel was pretty cheap compare to the alternatives I checked up...

(It was called "guest house"..with "free wifi", (I read that the internet in myanmar is very slow)...

After some hour I wentto try the local beer..they seem to have many brands...not sure if everything is produced inmyanmar or only bottled here...

I also some useful phrases in a guide book, that I try to memorize...

This is the name of the travel agency I went to after getting accomodation, i needto get to Bangan... a place thats ranked "top 10" in asia, according to lonely planet (what I heard)...bus is super cheap...it cost the same for a dinner as for crossing half of the country...

Each beer can has a stripe saying that "Tax Paid"...

Next stop was to buy this skirt that my friend Oskar bought when hewas here...and that I got to wear in Karlshamn in sweden...

This store had mostly skirts...but also shirts...they said that for guys its easy to make the skirt...but for girls they have to sew it up...to adjust...

They had many different patterns...very cheap...

 

Know I feel like a local...except for carrying a camera and a map and beeing 1-2 head taller than therest...

This is a famous building in the central aof yangon. many houses looks like this inthis country...prety interesting...like a sharp tower...

This is a local park...I was told that a geocache should be here...

I metmany nice people who wants to tractice their english on foreingers...to bad there are not that many foreigners here...

Some random trees...ppl must have thought that I was crazy walking around...looking for somethig thats "hanging" (since the hint for thecache was "hanging")...eventually I realised that no one found the cache for quite a time...but taking a pic at the place was enough...

Some randon guy, "Sai"...who studied myanmar litterature at the ocal university taught me how to get my skirt up in the right way...and to make a pocket...

 

Sais skirt....

Some castle near the park where I met Sai...and some other local people...

Some local buy trying to sell me some postcards...he had this tape to avoid dissiness...and some yellow circles on his face to protect form the sun..."only here boys can have it"..he answered when I asked why he didnt have it all over his face...just like in taiwan they have rules for how to protect in the sun depending on gender...strange...

He also said that he couldnt sell things in the park...due to this sign...thepolice might take sellers...

Andalso, no beer...too bad that I didnt see that sign in time...

Many people hanging out this day...

Omg... hugest lizzard in town (maybe 30 cm long)...(close to the size of the Komodo dragons in indonesia)...

There is no scooters here...thats pretty awesome...but else that traffic is very chaotic...

The post card kid later on showed us some "myanmar resturant"...

Its the rain season here in burma...

So people are used to heavy showers ever now and then...

The pavements are not covered from the sky as well as in taiwan...so people usually get wet when the rain comes...

Th epostcard kid brought his friend to...usually i dont like when people try to be extra kind, just to get money...it creates a mistrust, since I think they want to be nice...I told them that its enough to show me on the map, but they "insisted"...

More rain...

Finally, the myanmar restaurant...I later found out that this was recommended restaurant by Lonely planet..so in the foreigner empty Yangon, I met a woman from Melbourne who was walking a "lonely planet" tour in the city...

It tasted like food from Indonesia and india...

"A plastic bar with a screw"=a bottle opener...

Next beeron the list: "Myanmar"...typical lager taste...

Pesto orsauceI thought...some green chilli it was...

Omg...so many dishes...however only a small portion of each...

And these sugar balls were for dessert...super sweet but still very tasty...

Myanmar language...looks like Thai, or Cambodian...

I was told that its popular here since its clean...I guess this place does pretty well, when they are mentioned inthe lonely planet..to bad its not as easy for foreingers to enter myanmar compare to thailand...then these people here would be super rich (refering to a place in laos where all the foreingers went, since it was nice and recommended, and laos has on the border VISA for countries that generally has a population that is travelling

Omg...Yangon has a Sogo...

Typical archtecture of Yangon...

Omg..an ATM...seems like its a revolution going on here...with ATMs in Yangon...before I heard that on eneeded to bring USD that was totally new...but that seems to be history...I dont se as dirty notes as in nepal...but still the notes are far from clean here...

Typical Myanmar symbol...a Pagoda..

Electroncs are not much more cheap here than in Thailand i think...

This random store makes Jade jewelery...

Some water leakage on the street...the hammer is there to fix it up...

And I also found a mall...just like in the philippines and indonesia they have guards at each mall to check the bags before the locals enter...here, compare to singapore they jsut let me in...

But not that many cusomers on a friday afternoon...

Omg...bags of the lady who was in house arrest (Aung San Suu Kyi)...a reminder that im still in Burma...she will run for the president 2015...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi

The buses here drive with their doors open...

Omg, a store called Johnny...

This is the guest house where I stay..."Cherry guest house"...

A beer called "Skol"...sounds funny 

I had some local whisky before bed...to make sure to buy local products...

Omg...myanmar people are very light...68.75kg each...(550/8)...so practical to have ligth citizens...

In Yangon

Im on a short trip west...

An old but useful tie was traditionally put on before take off...

I passed by terminal 3 in Singapore Changi airport...some butterfly garden to look for a geocache...

Omg...they accept Euro in Myanmar...ppl always say "bring USD"...however I use ATM..it works pervect (so far)...

Dammit...I usually wear a tie when travelling, since many shallow people treat ppl with tie with more respect (i noticed)...however, when asking for a low taxi fair...a tie wil only destroy...

Myanmar has no rule about which side of the car the steering wheel should be at...I got a taxi with a "normal" let sided steering wheel (since its right side traffic), but atleast 50% of the cars seem to have their steering wheel on the right hand side...

Strange security logic

Many times when I travel, I make transfers...

It is interesting with the logic that the security guards have. So far Europe and New Zeeland (Aukland isratedasoneofthebest airports in the world) has consistent guards...but many times in asia they make strange decisions regarding safety...

Omg, at Taoyuan airport they are promoting te wild life of taiwan...the bear that is so rare in taiwan was painted and presented in a toilet...

I also passed by Singaport quickly...where I saw a fjällräven bag...maybe bought in taiwan...(hopefully made in sweden)...

Back in taipei

I came back to taipei today...

I made a quick visit to my friends company...to pick up things for a friend...

And after visiting some friends I went to Business Swedens office...at the world trade center , since it will b an eletion in sweden in some weeks...swedes can vote already if they want...

Omg...I tried to check each pile (from the political parties) to see which papers that others took...

This is the box...it was the same 4 years ago when I went here too...

Omg...so many swedish things...

Later I went to Brass monkey near taipei 101...

And atter that I went to Ximen...

I found a swedish flag on the ground...which I put up on the wall...

A quick visit to Taidong

I paid a quick visist to taidong some day ago...

Trying to catch a puyuma train down...but they are hard to get...

In taidong some strange guy was screaming some morning song...not sure why...

I went for some breakfast at a classic place...havnt been here before...but they had this business for decades...

Its some kind of wrap...

Wigh wasabi in it...

It was ok...

Next stop was a coffee store...taidong has so many coffee shops...

They focus alot on the modern art and interor design...

With menu in english...

And a house made of wood...i really like that...

And the drink was ok...pineapple chocolate...

Later I went to make some baozi...

It was fairly easy...i think...even if my result wasnt top notch...

But mine looked a little like the others...

They make about 500 peices every day...

We also got to try ours...

Next stop was the taidong airport...just a quick visit o catch a cache...

And later we went to my friends Johnnys house...where we wanted to take a rest...(means playing leauge of legends)...

And had some local food...

Omg...Taidong has a coldstone...

After watching a move called "the giver"...we went to the local starbucks...

I had some tea...they didnt have ttally caffein free coffee...

This was the next stop...a recently opened club...

After that we visited some bar that had Kopparbergs...

It was a dart bar...

I also had a san miguel...

And some platter...

They played nice songs...one was this one...

And this bar had dart competitions, and many professional players use to come here...

Some awards...

The next morning we ate breakfast at some chain store...

Tuna and egg sandwich...

Taidong has free wifi...(even if i never managed to access it)...

On each traffic light they put up a router...pretty cool... (the white thing)...

We also got inspiration on what to do from this book...

We went to the art museum....

Some old foreigner was also there...

There I had Kallops...(a swedish dish i think)..last time i had that was 2008 in Hongkong...when i asked for typically hongkong food...

We ended up reading fashion magazines...

To bad that the museum itself was closed...

So we headed down town...omg...they make holes for water to sip down the well by using PET bottles...

Next stop was an italian coffee shop...

Calles "table"...

They had many kinds of coffee...

I had butter coffe...i thin it was butter floating in it...

And some honey bread with chocolate...

And we later went to a park, watching an old guy play krocket...

The next stop was Taidong Bad land...

some strange cliff formation...

Made some long long time ago...

"East rift Valley" is a really touristic place in taiwan...

Johnny was taking pics..

The road here remindedme of france...

Exceot the beetle nut trees...

More pics...

We also passed some puppet show...in the middle of nowhere...

And sugar apples...a typical taidong fruit...

I also found this cliff...

Whish i tried to climb...

Omg...i succeeded after some tries...

Johnny wanted to take some pics...from distance...

They had some stair leading up on the rock..but im not sure what it was for...

I stood there for some 20 mins...

Then he said that I could go down...

After that we headed to an expensive pizzeria called "big ö"...

They didnt have Hawaii...

Some air balloon expo outside the wondow...pretty cool...

It was a Napoli pizzeria they told us...

We first had a shrimp and pine apple salad...

I tood the pineapples...from it...

Then when we got our ham pizza...

I had to manually add them..to make my Hawaii...

We ended the night by visisting a girl who wanted to study design in sweden...

They had many snacks that we ate...

They also played western songs...

And gave us coffee...

The father in the house was brewing it...

Later we got to see some glass art...

...of different kind...

And some painting...

Johnnys mom was also joining...she is very cute...

Omg...we just passed by a 7-11 to buy wine and cheese...and i encountered a Bunun girl...she was shy...

It was maybe 2-3 years since I had toast...

With some cabernet S...

The quick visit ended with that I finally got to try my puyuma train...

It was ok...

...inside it was very modern..but the put the AC on 15...so it was a little cold...

And the seat adjuster was also very moderna...

Just a final pic on the mountain between Hualien and Yilan...I always wanted to go up there...i think i seen a map that they have a wild hotspring there somewhere...

a Quick visit to the walami trail

ranked as there 6th must see's in Taiwan, i yesterday paid a visit to the walami trail on road 30 near Yuli at road 9...

Nanan visit center...here one needed a permit...it could easily be applied for in the morning...

Omg..I love maps...

Jiaminhu...I was there in february...

And some cool old trails that cross the island...

And other remot areas I really want to go to...

Later the permit has to be given to staff at the police station some 500 meters away from the visitor center...

Omg...many locals park on the road...

...some local ceremony...

And a waterfalll...

Not sure what they did but in september many aboriginals have ceremonies...

Road 30 looks a little like road 20...

I like roads like this...so remote...

And Yushan national park...its pretty big...

Later on the trai started...(road 30 wasnt that long)...

Many people walked this easy trail...

It looked alot like the trail form Hsinchu to Dabajian shan...

Omg...its famous for having wasps here...that are dangerous...

"Walami"...1068meters above sea level...its a 13km hike so pretty easy...

And traditionally a cool bridge to start the hike...

One needed permit to walk more than 4km...but I was onloy heading for another waterfall and a little longer...

1 km...

Omg...many aboriginal things...the bunun tribe use to be here...

Here is the water fall...

Not super big...

But still something...

"shan-feng falls":..

It also had a higher part...

The trail continues..it looks pretty nice...

And they had many information signs...all started "It is called.....in Bunun language"...

...they had this for almost any plant...

Many old people were walknig here...

Omg...a waterfall high up in the mountain...

They also had stairs after a while...

It was not as good view as yesterdays hike...but this was easier to go to ...and less steep...

its also famous for having anew cabin for hikers...but i think thats at the end of this trail...

Far away there...the trial continues...

I headed back...

Bunun rangers having motorcycles to get to the trail...

Yushan national park...with the highest mountainin taiwan...

Later A visit to a burger bar in Hualien was paid...

They had a menu in english...

The burger was ok...I had some Mulberry smoothie...not sure what that is...