Kambodsja, så skole i Thailand

Nå er det lenge siden forrige oppdatering, så det har skjedd en god del siden sist. Jeg har vært på tur en uke i Kambodsja, der vi besøkte Angkor Wat, S21 (en barneskole som under røde Khmer bler brukt som torturfengsel) og Killing fields, bare for å nevne noe. Mange sterke opplevelser som forteller en forferdelig historie om et land uten struktur. Ingenting fungerer i Kabodsja, og fattigdomen er brutal. Vi besøkte et barnehjem i Sieam Reap, hvor barna lærer engelsk og får god oppfølging. Barnehjemmet drives av veldedighet, og hovedsaklig av overskuddet til hotellet Earthwalkers som er startet av noen nordmenn i Sieam Reap. Sjekk ut http://www.earthwalkers.no
Veldig mange sterke opplevelser i Kambodsja som jeg kommer til å ha med meg hele livet.

Etter Kambodsja stakk vi innom Bangkok et par netter hvor jeg også feiret bursdagen min i en av Sørøst-Asias høyeste bygninger, kun slått av Twin Tower i Kuala Lumpur. Vi spiste fantastisk god buffet, og koste oss bigtime. Etterpå ble det pubcrawling i Khao San road. En uforglemmelig bursdagsfeiring.

Nå er jeg tilbake til "hverdagen" i Tiger Swamp i Thailand, og går på skole tre dager i uken. Har leid meg scooter så jeg kommer meg litt runt. Etter skolen skal vi ta en 18-hulls runde på en av Thailands beste golfbaner.

Har det fortsatt veldig fint, og har nå også fått en ny lærer. Det virker som om han er mye flinkere enn den forrige læreren, så kanskje jeg også tar til meg noe faglig snart..

Vietnam

Har akkurat kommet hjem fra en uke i Vietnam. For en tur! Jeg og OC bestilte billige billetter til Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) i Sør-Vietnam. Ante ikke hva vi skulle gjøre eller hvor vi skulle dra. Vi satte oss ned og leste i Lonely Planet og fant ut en reiserute som sikkert ville by på mange opplevelser, og det gjorde den. Vi tok inn på et fint hotell i Saigon. Første kvelden spiste vi på en liten restaurant i en bakgate, og vi hadde det skikkelig morsomt når vi så menyen. På menyen var det mange spesialiteter som horse sex organ, pidgeans, dog, pig brain, monkey brain osv. Vi snakket også med en vietnameser som sa at de spiser absolutt alt som er levende. Mus, rotter, løver, hester, hunder, aper, katter, tigre, elefanter, you name it. I løpet av turen smakte vi på lokale spesialiteter som en shot med cobrablod med cobrahjerte og cobrablære oppi. Det smakte helt forferdelig. Ellers smakte vi den lokale spriten som lages på følgende måte. Først putter de en levende cobra og en skorpion oppi en stor flaske. Så fyller de opp med risvin, slik at slangen og skorpionen dør etter noen timer. Så lar de drikke stå i tre måneder, før den kan nytes. Dette smakte faktisk ikke så verst, så jeg kjøpte med meg en flaske hjem.
Uansett, tilbake til Saigon. Første dagen leide vi en cyclomann (person som sykler deg rundt i et behagelig sete) en hel dag sånn at vi kunne komme oss rundt i byen og se det vi ville se. Vi besøkte noen lokale markeder og shoppet litt (t-skjorter koster mellom 10-20kr, alt etter hvor god du er til å prute), Etter det besøkte vi reunification palace og fikk en fin innføring i vietnamesisk historie, før vi dro til et krigsmuseum. Mange forferdelige bilder, foster i vann og ting jeg helst ville vært foruten å høre om. Rett og slett en helt forferdelig historie. Jeg fikk dermed en liten forsmak på hva som kom til å vente meg dagen derpå. Neste dag dro vi til Cu Chi med samme typen som hadde syklet oss rundt dagen før. Denne gang hadde han med seg en ekstra sjåfør og bil slik at vi kunne kjøre dit vi hadde tenkt oss. Fortsatt var det ikke akkurat dyrt.
De kjørte oss til Cu Chi hvor vi fikk gå rundt på en guidet tur i jungelen hvor mange slag i krigen sto. Vi fikk skyte med AK47 og M16, noe som var en ganske skremmende opplevelse. Vi fikk se hvordan tunnellsystemet til vietnameserne var bygd, og kravlet faktisk 100 meter under jorda i tunnellene. Helt forferdelig følelse å være så langt under jorda, helt mørkt og svært lite oksygen. Fikk litt følelsen av hvordan det kan ha vært å leve der. Det må ha vært helt forferdelig.

Ettersom at vi hadde stått opp klokken 5 denne dagen hadde vi forstatt mye tid, vi kjørte til Mytho, en liten by på bare 500 000 innbyggere ved Mekong Delta. (Mekong er en svær elv som går gjennom store deler av Asia, rundt denne elven ligger mange byer, og elven er en viktig del av Laos', Kambodsjas og Vietnams handel og transport. Samtidig er det veldig frodig mange plasser rundt elva. Veldig likt Nilen i Afrika.) Vi leide båt her og kjørte fra øy til øy og fikk oppleve lokalsamfunn på nært hold. Det var også her vi fikk smake altslags merkelige greier. En flott og sterk opplevelse. På kvelden kjørte vi til Cantho, hvor vi overnattet. Sto opp før soloppgang dagen etter (kl. 05.00) for å komme oss til floating markets og se på soloppgangen sammen med morgenrushet av lokale som skal handle inn for dagen. Her handler de på samme måte som i gamle dager, uten penger, kun ved å bytte kokosnøtter mot fisk eller grønnsaker. Cantho var en virkelig primitiv plass, uten en eneste turist. Kunne fortalt og skrevet om alt i Vietnam i timesvis, men jeg må snart runde av.

Kort fortalt så dro vi fra Cantho til Rach Gia, helt sør i Vietnam. Her tok vi en natt før vi skulle ta ferje til Phu Quoc, en øy nærme Kambodsja som skulle vise seg å være paradis på jord. På morningen hadde det blåst opp til storm. Dere i Norge har sikkert fått med dere Tyfonen i Kina, og dette var en del av den. Været var mildt sagt stygt! Vi improviserte som vanlig og kjørte en vanvittig sprø motorsykkeltur til flyplassen for å prøve å komme på et fly til øya. På veien punkterte vi, men fikk noen unger til å lappe dekket, så vi rakk akkurat flyet, men det var fult! Vi ble nødt til å fly tilbake til Saigon, for å så fly til Phu Quoc igjen. Mildt sagt meget tungvint. Når vi først var på Phu Quoc merket vi fort at det var verdt det. Mer fantastisk plass har jeg aldri sett, og dere kan nok ikke forestille dere hvor fint det var der. Samtidig var det ingen turister, alt var latterlig billig og vi ble behandlet som konger av alle de lokale. Vi leide en egen bungalow på stranda for 4 dollar natta. Egen dobbeltseng, kjøleskap, eget bad, egen strand, egen privat kokk og egen motorsykkel for 4 dollar sier vel sitt. Dama som dreiv plassen blei så glad for at noen leide hos henne at hun inviterte oss inn (ved hjelp av kroppsspråk) på den beste middagen hun kunne stelle i stand. Hun disket opp den dyreste fisken på øya, reker, ris, brød, saus osv. uten å i det hele tatt ta i mot penger for det. Hun nektet å ta i mot, dette gjorde hun av godt hjerte. Opplevelser som dette gjorde Phu Quoc til en uforglemmelig plass, og jeg kommer garantert til å reise tilbake til øye med kilometervis med hvite strender, azurblått vann og absolutt INGEN turister. Vi har funnet paradis, men vær grei; ikke fortell for mange om denne perlen. Vi vil ha den slik den er, og ikke enda en ny turistplass.

Kort sagt; Vietnam var helt uforglemmelig. En fantastisk uke, og jeg har timesvis med mer historier derfra på lager. Gleder meg til å komme hjem og fortelle om dette fantastiske landet.

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Sa wat dee krap (hei)

Nå har vi komt fram til Thailand der vi skal tilbringe mesteparten av tiden frem til jul. 28. september reiser vi til Kambodsja og 2. November til Laos. Innimellom disse turene skal vi nok få til en tur til Kina og Vietnam og.

Studiesenteret vi bor på ligger i Paknampran, en liten plass utenfor turistbyen Huahin, som igjen er 3-4timer med bil fra Bangkok. Her er det et fantastisk klima, og fasilitetene er meget lukuriøse. Kjempeflott opplegg med boblebad, bungalower, privatsjåfør, egen restaurant med billig og god mat, folk som vasker bungalow og klær og nær tilgang til strand og tennisbaner.

Thailand er skikkelig spennende. Kulturen er veldig fascinerende og alle ser ut til å være i godt humør. Har hatt to undervisningsdager og studiene virker helt greie og ganske spennende.

Siste del av reisen

Cairns

20-24.^th of August

Cairns seem to be backpackers’ paradise. There are hostels at every corner and you can see a whole lot of caravans as well. My impression of Cairns is that it’s a place that is formed to fit backpackers at the best way. There are a lot of pubs, restaurants, discos and snack bars where backpackers easily can get a job for some months. About fifty percent of the people I met in Cairns were foreigners. I talked to a Swedish girl that worked in a local snack bar. She had been travelling for a year now, even though her plan was to go home after six months. She had been travelling a lot in Asia. Now she basically lived at cheap places in Australia, and took a job every now and then. She had a great time and I would love to do something similar myself. I enjoyed very well in Cairns, basically because I find it very interesting to meet new and open people. I think backpackers tend to fit that description quite well.

I also took an open water course while staying in Cairns. That means that I now am a certified scuba diver, and can go scuba diving wherever I want for the rest of my life. Our instructor, Westly, was a very funny New Zealander that is a typical surf guy. He basically does whatever he wants, whenever he feels like doing it. He makes his money by learning students to scuba dive, but when he gets tired of doing that he travels around the world for a year or so. He seemed like a happy man, with absolutely no worries.

We spent a night at a boat called Kangaroo express. It’s a boat based on The Great Barrier Reef, especially for scuba divers. This is where I got to do my six first scuba dives. We did one of the dives at night time, and I actually got to stroke a shark. It was awesome to see all the strange fish species, turtles, corals and sharks. It was also fun to spend some time together with the people working at the boat. They all loved to have fun, and their cheerful mood amazed me.

Airlie Beach

25^-26^th of August

Airlie Beach was also a typical backpacker stop for those who travel on Australia’s East Coast. I don’t really understand why the place is called Airlie Beach, but I guess that there once was a nice beach there. Now the beach is so ugly that they’ve had to build an artificial lagoon with swimming pools, sand and palms. I think Airlie Beach was pretty similar to Cairns, and the place was formed by all the backpackers as well. Everybody has a friendly attitude, and they all just want to have fun together. People are more social than what is normal on typical tourism destinations. Our hostel was a very cool place to stay since there was a lot of entertainment. It was for instance live music, contests and volley ball.

Rockhampton

27^-28^th of August

Rockhampton was totally different to the other places we visited in Australia. It seemed like we were the only tourists there, and that I can fully understand. We used one day to go sightseeing in the city. Rockhampton turned out to be a ghost town without any people in the streets. All restaurants and cafes closed at three o’clock and it seemed like the city was asleep. The area where our hostel was located had a very Mexican feeling. The surroundings were shabby and I got associations to a trailer park. Rockhampton is famous for their steaks and I must say that I ate the best steak of my life on a restaurant there. It was incredible juicy and tasteful. It seems like Rockhampton is a town that keeps alive of their bulls. There’s no tourism industry there and I can’t really imagine that’s there’s any other billion dollar industry there.

The Mexican feeling got even stronger when I went out for dinner. Everything took very long time, and the service wasn’t exactly good. It was obvious that Rockhampton wasn’t used to tourist. For instance, I don’t even think there was tourist information in the city.

Outside of Rockhampton we visited a crocodile farm. We saw a lot of huge crocs and we actually got to hold a small one. The fellow that was running the farm seemed like a real special guy. He had dedicated his life to crocodiles, and it seemed like as if he wanted his children to take over after him. You could easily see that he really loved these mighty animals.

Brisbane

29^-30^th of August

To me, Brisbane was pretty much the same as Melbourne, just with some slight differences. It seems like as if Brisbane is a newer city. It’s even more clean than Melbourne, and it seems like as if everybody does what they can to keep it that way. Of course, all the warnings that say that you’ll be fined 150 dollars if you litter, probably plays a vital part. Even though Brisbane is a huge city with almost two billion citizens, it’s doesn’t feel as cosmopolitan as Melbourne. People don’t seem to be as stressed as they did in Melbourne. Things are more relaxed. The cafes closes at three o’clock as well, which I think is quite strange. Apart from some small differences, I think Australians are quite similar to Europeans, and that Brisbane could well have been an English town.

Sydney

31^th of August- 3^rd of September

I spent most of my time in Sydney together with my friend from Norway. He accidentally happened to be in here at the same time as me. We went sightseeing and visited Tangaro Zoo just outside of Sydney. We also spent a night at Bondi Beach, watching football and talking to different people. My impression of Sydney is that it is a very nice and well organized city. It’s very modern, and it seems like it never sleeps.

It seems like the local government have used a lot of money to make the city very esthetic and clean. There is a monorail train that goes in the city circle. The special thing is that the railroad is built 10 meters over the road. It looks very nice and modern and I think it’s a very good icon for Sydney. There are very many different nationalities and cultures living together in Sydney. I think it’s very modern in that way, and the way the people get along really is worthy of imitation. A guy from Fiji that I talked to in Bondi Beach said that Sydney is the best place to live for foreigners. He meant that the locals are so used to students, backpackers and tourist from all over the world that they consider foreigners as a part of their own culture. All the foreigners were actually one of the first things I noticed in Sydney. I think Asian countries stand for most of the immigration, and it seems like they really like it here. I guess it’s all the free jobs and good wages that make it so attractive for them. There’s also a lot of Scandinavians here, and especially Manly has a lot of Norwegian students. I guess many of us move to Australia because of the climate, the universities, the fact that there’s a lot of other Scandinavians and that we actually can afford to study abroad. My friend arrived here the day I met him, and as many others he’s going to stay in Australia for quite a while. He’ll take different jobs to make a living. I reckon it must be pretty difficult for many employers since the rate of labour turnover is so high. My friend got a job as a bartender the first day, so the joblessness can’t exactly be high.

Communicating with people in Sydney is very easy. It seems like since everybody are used to people from all over the world. They talk to me as if I should have been a local. It seems like the Australians always are in a good mood since they often laugh and tell jokes about everything. An Australian doesn’t really need an excuse to go and talk to whoever they want to talk to. There are many people that have started talking to me without needing any information from me.

After all, Sydney was a perfect place to end our International Communication journey, it must be one of the most intercultural cities in the world.

International Communication

Through our six weeks around the world I’ve met a lot of new interesting people. They’ve all been very different, and I’ve been amazed and shocked many times. I’ve got to experience the huge cultural differences versus for example Mexico and USA. I’ve met people living in a very isolated society in Fiji, and I’ve met people that very similar to Norwegians in Australia. I’ve also met many subcultures around at the different places. Backpackers, Indians, actors, fishermen and surf guys appears like very different cultures to me. Talking to these different kinds of people always gives me new challenges. Of course there is the obvious part that in Mexico we didn’t speak the same language, but there’s also many other elements that plays a vital part. Of course, I’ve met idiots and grumpy people some places as well, but I think that you’ll find idiots all over the world. I don’t think that any of the places have been better or worse regarding the population of grumpy and angry people. I guess I’ve just met some of the people on a bad day.

Communication in Mexico

There’s no question about that Mexico is very different to what we know in Norway. It’s a totally different culture, and we don’t have much common knowledge about things. The Mexicans are probably very well-informed in their field, but their general knowledge, as we see if, is rather low. Many of the Mexicans I talked to hadn’t even heard about Norway, and they thought that Europe was a big country. It wasn’t unusual to never been outside of Mexico, and I don’t exactly think their news stream from around the world is too big. I think they often consider general knowledge of thinks outside of Mexico as needless, and that there are many things that are much more important to learn. We learn about geography or history when they rather could spend the time on learning how to make a living. The society shows signs of the survival of the fittest syndrome, and everybody is struggling to be the fittest one.

A bartender I talked to in Zacatecas told me that his father used to work at a bar, and that he always knew that he was going to be a bartender as well. Therefore he had never cared about getting any proper education. He started to work very early, and found out that his most valuable knowledge was how to mix a Strawberry Margarita as quick as possible. When I was talking to him I either had to talk to him about my life, or he could talk about his. We didn’t really have much common knowledge.

Communication in USA

The most obvious part with communication in USA is that we’ve got very much common knowledge. We have adapted their lifestyle in many ways. We listen to the same music, see the same movies, eat the same food and have the same multinational enterprises. This makes it easy to chat about almost whatever you want. It’s very easy to understand what an American is talking about, and I guess they feel the same way regarding to us.

When I entered stores or restaurants in the US I was always met with a polite phrase, and they always called me bro, buddy or something else that’s including. I must admit that I found it a little bit artificial, since they weren’t really interested, they were just doing their job.

Some of them actually seem quite egocentric. I heard a story about some Americans that went out to a club in Mexico. At the club there were a lot of other Americans as well. They had a great time and said that the place was really cool, it was almost like home. Why do they travel to different countries if they like it so much at home. That attitude seems to be quite common amongst the Americans. One man asked me why he should travel outside of America when America is so huge? He could just travel around in America instead. Their way of communicating often show signs of this philosophy. Like for instance when I talked to Jamal, the conversation was mostly about him.

Communication in Fiji

In Fiji you’ve got the same phenomenon as you got in Mexico. Even though they speak English in Fiji, you haven’t got any common knowledge with them. Many of them have never been outside of Fiji and don’t know much about the rest of the world. It isn’t that long time since Fiji was a very primitive nation without any technology or influence from overseas. They’re modernizing very quickly, but still they’re way back on many areas. These huge culture differences makes if strange to communicate with the local Fijians about many subjects. You have to keep the conversation on a pretty low level. They are pretty fun to converse with though, since they use their body language and facial expressions much more than what we’re used to from the western culture. They laugh very much, and if they get engaged in the story they use their body to illustrate and explain. For example, the fisherman almost showed us a play when he told us about the birth of his newly born son.

Communication in Australia

Australia certainly is a very multicultural country. I think the locals are so used to all the foreigners that they consider them as a part of their own country. That has made it easier for me to communicate with Australians, and I don’t feel like a stupid tourist when I talk to them. In USA I kind of got the feeling that people talked to me from above, but in Australia I felt more equal. As in USA their daily talk are filled with polite phrases such as “how are you?” and so on. The difference is that it doesn’t feel that artificial in Australia. I haven’t really figured why yet, but I guess it might be because the conversation often continues, while in USA it stops after you answer. One of the few things that are different compared to the western culture, is that they’re more open to unknown people. It’s much easier to start talking to an Aussie than a Scandinavian.

Communication with different subcultures

When I went scuba diving in Cairns I got to stay with a lot of guys that fits the classic surf culture in Australia. They were people that first of all cared about having fun. They were joking all the time, and they had a very relaxed view on life. They taught me some International communication under water. We started with important signals as up, down, okay, I’ve got a problem etc. Then they went on to the funny part. They had made logical signals for expressions like stop fucking around, fucknose (who the fuck knows?), fuckhead, you fucking wanker and so on. Swearing is actually very easy to do under water.

I’ve met backpackers at hostels all over the world, and what most of them have in common is that they’re very social, and that they love to talk to new people. Many of them have a very interesting life story, like for example Phillip. There’s something special with every one of them, and that’s what makes it so funny to get to know them.

When I communicated with the fisherman at Fiji I didn’t know what to talk about, because I didn’t know anything about the fish species, and it seemed like he didn’t know anything except of Fijian fish species. This meant that first he was telling about his life, and then I told about mine. I think it is fun to hear other peoples story, but being able to discuss with different people are even more fun.

Endelig en ny oppdatering. USA, Fiji og Australia på notime.

Creel

31th of July

Travelled to Creel by autobus. Played billiards at Best Western in the evening.

1th of August

Went to the Indians in the caves, the waterfalls and lake whatever. Bumpy car ride on the roof. Gave bread and money to small Indian kids. Went horse riding in the evening.

2^nd of August

Started on a long journey, went to the huge canyon. Took the train to Los Mochis, slept at a hotel that was very nice.

3^rd of August

Travelled by bus for the whole day. Got stopped a lot of times. Checking the same bags on and on again.

I think Creel was a place that’s very different to others placed we’ve visited. I talked to one of the workers at the hostel, and he told me what he taught about Creel. He meant that Creel was divided into to two. One part was the part that lived by tourism, the other part was the Indians that lived as they had been living for centuries. He also said that Creel didn’t have any culture at all, which I disagree on. I think watching the Indians in the caves and riding into their village was a great cultural experience. I found it very strong to watch all these small girls going around and selling bracelets to us. They were very young, and shy. They all looked very scared of us, even though they tried to sell us things. We gave some of the small kids in the Indian village some bread and some money. I think they got happy, but they still didn’t dare to look us in the eyes or say thanks. Afterwards they went to their mothers with the bread and money, and then it looked like as the mother was satisfied with their work.

San Diego / Santa Ana

4^th of August

Arrived in Tijuhana, did the border crossing. Spent some time in San Diego, which was nice. Ate at McDonalds. Everything was clean. Fantastic to speak English. Very polite people. Almost artificial, but still they were very interested in us. Travelled to a fantastic hotel in Santa Ana. Nice night of sleep.

5^th of August

Went to the Newport beach. Chillin’ and hanging out. Lovely, just like in the movies. People blading, playing volleyball, tanning and a lot of nice chicks and huge hunks. Funny cab drivers, discussing politics with them. Very radical cab driver.

Los Angeles

6^th of August

Took the taxi to Hollywood. Big problems finding the correct hotel.

7^th of August

I went to see where all the celebrities live in Beverly Hills and Bel Air. I taught it was thirty bucks straight out of the window. It was very boring. I can’t understand why people have any interest in watching their estates. We also looked in some shops in Bel Air. They are just so filthy rich, it’s disgusting. In one shop an average customer spent incredible one hundred bucks. Some of the houses were amazing, but I don’t understand why they want to live in Beverly Hills. Having a lot of tourists driving by each day to watch their houses can’t be that fun. Later on I went downtown to watch the city. Amazing skyscrapers and a lot of shops. Noticed that nobody was living there.

The finance district was extreme. It’s so high class building, and armed guards everywhere. The metro worked very well, but there was very little people taking it. Sat up at night and talked to a midget actor, and a songwriter that let me listen to his record. It actually was very nice, so I bought it. It was a funny experience. We talked till early in the morning. He played some guitar for us, and we talked about his life and how he was planning on becoming a star. He had actually spent 150 grand on the record that I bought from him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he turns out to become famous. I helped him burning some records, so he promised me free backstage passes for the rest of my life.

8^th of August

I’ve noticed that there is a lot of signs that tells you what you can’t do, and how much the police will fine you if you break the rules. It actually seems like it’s working, because everything is so clean and tidy. During my days here I’ve been astonished of that everybody is waiting for green light to pass the crosswalks. Even though it’s a big traffic jam, and it’s totally safe to walk over the streets, they’re still waiting. I just thought that they didn’t want to take any risk or something, but Jamal told me that it’s because you’ll get a fine on 350 bucks if you walk when it’s red light. That’s extreme. I guess I’m lucky that hasn’t been fined already.

We spent the whole day at Venice and Santa Monica beach. It was fun to play volleyball, and we also talked to this seven years old girl that sold us some chocolate. She was working for her parents and was extremely mature to be only seven years old. When walking from Venice Beach to Santa Monica Beach in the evening we walked past some homeless people that were spending the night at the beach. One fellow was taking a shower in one of the public showers on the beach. I was freezing while walking on the beach, and there he stood in ice cold water. I guess he had a cold night in front of him. Seeing this kind of cruelty after watching all the celebrities houses from a limousine made me think about what kind of sick differences there are in LA. The world sure isn’t any fair place, but still I can’t stop feeling awkward when meeting poor people while travelling.

9^th of August

Today we went to Universal Studios. It wasn’t as fun as I had expected. In the evening we held our presentations of three interviews we had made with Hollywood people. It went okay, even though I hadn’t done much preparation. In the evening we ate all together at an expensive Italian restaurant. It tasted very well, and it was cozy. Me and OC then went to Rush Hour 3 at midnight. It was entertaining, but a very thin story, typical for Hollywood. In the night I watched a couple of movies at the hostel with this girl I met. She was originally from Belarus, but was living in Hollywood for some months. She was very cute, and it was nice to meet here. She talked a lot about Belarus, and I was surprised because it seemed very similar to Norway. It seemed like as if they had advanced a lot from the time as Soviet.

10^th of August

I went to the beach with Juliane and Krisitina for the whole day. I fell asleep for a couple of hours, so now my tan has finally gotten good. We were supposed to play some tennis at the end of the day, but we didn’t have time since we had to reach the plane to Fiji.

During my days here I’ve talked to a lot of people about the city, and there’re some quotes that I think is very suitable for the city.

“LA is not about what you do, it’s about who you are, and who you know”

“The people that drive around in fancy cars wants to make people believe that they’re filthy rich, those that are filthy rich take the metro.”

“This is LA man, this is the shit, NY is nothing, the money is here.”

What seems typical for the people living in Hollywood is that everybody is actors, artists or successful finance people. They are all trying to make the American dream come true. All the people we interviewed had a dream, and had figured out a way to reach their target.

11^th of August

11^th of August is a day that never existed for me. We skipped it, since we were crossing the date line while flying to Fiji.

Fiji

12-16^th of August

We arrived Fiji early in the morning. From the first second we met smiling people, and people that wanted to help us. When first seeing the hostel we were going to live on for the next four nights I got very amazed. The location was incredible. It was ten meter from the beach. There were a lot of hammocks on the beach, and I really felt that this was a place where I could spend the rest of my life. I’ve never seen a more idyllic place in my life. I spent the first day at the hostel, playing volleyball, bathing and gaining energy. The Fijians turned out to be a very happy people with a joy of life that I really envy them. They didn’t have any material values like we do in the west. One guy I went out fishing told me that he couldn’t be happier. He had a family that he loved, he was healthy and had his primary needs covered. They look at life in a totally different way then what is common in Norway. While we’re struggling most of our life’s to get a lot of money we often happened to forget what really matters. The Fijians truly demonstrated that happiness isn’t about money.

Their way of living is very relaxed, and they never experience any stress. To me it was quite annoying, since everything took so much time. In the start I thought that they just weren’t service minded at all, but I learned that it’s all about the “Fiji time”. Asking reception clerk about activating my key card could for example take five minutes, since she always had to do some other thing in slow motion first. Ordering a Pizza in the restaurant took two hours, seriously.

Many people we met in Fiji had never been outside of their Island. They’re living in a misconception about what the world is like. Fiji sure isn’t like the rest of the world so it must be very strange to not know about anything else. A girl I talked to had one big dream, and that was to travel outside of Fiji. I felt a little bit awkward since I had just told her that we’re travelling around the world for five months, without really having to struggle to get the money.

It seems like as if the island has an impact on everybody that’s visiting it. Everybody adapts the Fiji time way of living. In Mexico City and Los Angeles everybody was short of time. People were running around with a fully booked schedule, in Fiji they always have enough time. As the Spaniard say “manana manana” which means tomorrow tomorrow. Like as if they’re saying don’t worry, we’ll sort it out later. Everything is going to be alright.

When we interviewed some people we found out that Fiji had recently been through a radical alteration. The last democratic government was seemingly corrupt and they did a very bad job. Therefore the military put aside the government and took the power. There are many different opinions on that solution, but at least some things have been sorted out. The crime rate is much lower, but on the other side there’s less tourism since many people are skeptical about going to a country where there just have been a military revolution. Some of them didn’t like to talk about it. It looks like it kind of has separated the people in to two different political sides.

I didn’t meet any Fijians that didn’t speak English, which is quite amazing. I found out that it’s because they have English in school, and that they can’t continue their studies if they fail in English. Even though tourism still is a big industry in Fiji, they’re not that clinging as people working with tourist in Mexico or USA.

I did a lot of fun things during my days in Fiji. I went skydiving and on a one day trip to a small island called Malamala. On the island we went snorkeling and we played volleyball against some Fijians. They turned out to be in a good mood and were funny. I had a great time, and everybody was so happy.

Melbourne

16-20^th of August

When we first arrived Melbourne in Australia my first impression was that it was very westerly. It could well have been a big city in UK. Our hostel was very nice and clean, probably the best hostel we’ve been to. Actually everything is very nice and clean in Australia, even the water tastes okay. Melbourne turned out to be a city where I would fancy studying for a couple of years. I don’t really know why, but I have a feeling that the student life here is very good. I would love to live here since it’s a very sophisticated city, not very different to home, but sill with many differences. It’s winter here now, but still the weather isn’t at all comparable to a Norwegian winter. So the climate, the open people and Melbourne being a pretty big city makes me want to stay here for a long time. I think most Australians are very friendly, and it’s easy to talk to them. We did a couple of cool things as well in Melbourne. We visited the museum of Melbourne, which doesn’t really sound that interesting, but it sure was. We watched a documentary about dinosaurs at an IMAX cinema and watched many different exhibitions about humans and animals. It was informative and fun. We paid approximately half price on the museum since we were students. You get discounts everywhere in Melbourne if you’re a student, which is backing up my theory of Melbourne being a popular student town. The only negative thing about Melbourne is that it’s pretty expensive. Some things are at the same price level as in Norway.

I think the Australians are very proud of their own country and they do everything to keep it the way it is. For example they’re very strict on quarantine rules. You can’t bring anything from overseas without checking with the quarantine people at the airport. Elisabeth for example had a necklace with a shell from Fiji on her when we arrived in Melbourne. The quarantine officers were skeptical, but they allowed it. Bringing a banana for instances would have been impossible since they screen your entire luggage for fruit or anything else that might have bacteria on them. I’ve also seen some posters with hotlines you can call and tips

Honestly I don’t think there is so much to say about Melbourne. Both Mexico and Fiji was very different to what I’m used to so I got more strong impressions there. I also used pretty much time on the hostel, cooking food and just chilling.

Etter Melbourne har jeg vært i Cairns og tatt dykkerlappen. Svømte med turtles and sharks. Sjukt gøy. Nå har jeg dykkersertifikatet for resten av livet, og har fått meg en ny hobby. Dyr sådan. :-) Nå er jeg i Airlie Beach og skal bruke dagen til å chille på stranda. I natt er det nattbuss igjen. Oppdateringer kommer så fort som mulig.