illegal alien

You would think that having spent so many years travelling that I would pretty much have everything down pat.

But somehow I found myself in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay - probably THE most despotic of all the South American regimes - with nothing in my passport to show I was actually there.

This is what is generally known as ¨not good.¨

Somehow I had caught a local bus from Iguacu in Argentina, crossed through a tiny bit of Brazil and entered into Paraguay without the bus stopping at customs.

Once I reached Asuncion, I ended up splurging on a taxi as it was getting dark and I knew the hotel was a long way from the bus terminal.

When the taxi pulled up in front of the hotel I was sure he had taken me to the wrong place.

It looked... well... too nice.


the hotel

The following morning, after meeting another solo traveller, Paolo from Milan,over breakfast, we both went to the immigration office a few blocks from the hotel and with Paolo´s Spanish had it all sorted in a blink of an eye.

No seriously - and remember this is South America - they issued me with a letter for customs really quickly. I can only think that a lot of stupid poor saps like me do exactly the same thing. (Go with it - I´m trying to alleviate the embarrassment)

I´m afraid to have to say that the nicest thing about Paraguay (or at least the few square metres I experienced)was the hotel. The countryside was...well...like a cup of really milky weak tepid tea.


scenic paraguay

Asuncion had so little to offer that Paolo and I felt we had done it very good justice in 3 hours.

Currently I am now in Montevideo in Uruguay and loving it. I liked the place 5 minutes into the bus trip from the airport. I have just returned from 7 hours of walking around town. It is fascinating with some excellent pieces of Art Nouveau and Deco architecture. The sun is shining, and the people are smiling, and I finally worked out how to get some damned money out of the automatic teller.


iguacu falls


more falls


yet more falls


ho hum


bored yet?


overlooking one of the cascades


...well they keep kerb-crawling

24 hours

I have been here for 24 hours and slept for 12 of them.

I have just eaten possibilty the worst cheesecake in the known civilized world (as the uncivilized have not yet progressed to cheesecake) It was the consistency of soft silicon rubber with considerably less taste. The biscuit base was a thin stain on the bottom with no resemblance to anything biscuity. On top of this extravaganza was a paste of something that could possibly once have been fruit. (A long time ago in another galaxy)

This was after ordering nachos which turned out to be a sea of guacomole on a plate with a flotilla of cornchip sailing around in diminishing circles as if being sucked down into a whirlpool.

I watched a motorcyclist ride a good 50 metres down a busy road clutching a subway sandwich IN BOTH HANDS - not actually eating it, rather trying to determine what was inside said roll.

Once darkness fell, a myriad of garbage-rummagers came out and descended on the city´s refuse.

I have just returned to my hostel to bump into a fellow student from COFA.


some b.a. graffiti


some more


the soap on a stick in my lunchspot bathroom. The action needed to use this phallic device meant it was preferable to be the only one in the bathroom at the time.


night time architecture


perfection... a cafe that also sells motorbikes. Or a motorbike store that has a cafe. (I prefer the first interpretation)

habla nothing

My Spanish is sadly lacking, and I have a tendency to pronounce everything the way the French do out of habit (French being the only language I have actually put any effort into bastardising)

So a lot of my questions are generally met with raised eyebrows and ¨Que?¨

Buenos Aires is currently cold and wet - and so am I. It also is a gridded city and looks like an old delapidated Canberra.

And its vast.

I´ve been walking all morning and dont seemed to have gotten anywhere.

But its great - after all - I´m in Argentina! (62)

(will add photos shortly)

priorities

"my name is Terry...and I am a caffeineaholic."

OK I admit it. I can't do without my coffee.

In the past I have given up smoking, alcohol, meat and fish, and...other things. But I cannot, nay will not give up coffee.

I tried once - worst 5 hours of my life. To heap horror onto the horror I replaced it with ... .decaffeinated That's like replacing Laurence Olivier with Ben Stiller.

(Ugghh.. I can't believe I've stooped to putting the words 'decaffeinated' AND 'Ben Stiller' on my blog.)

And so - the first, and most important item in my luggage has always been my plunger-mug. (Or 'cafetière cup' if you like) A brilliant invention up there with the kidney dialysis machine and Tim Tams.

It is a coffee plunger built into a mug. Add ground coffee, hot water, plunge and drink. It's an emergency make-do replacement when there isn't an espresso machine within coo-ee, and eliminates the need of that other abomination (shudder)... instant coffee.


my little preciousssss...

...but the malady lingers on.

I've been a little remiss with my posting it seems. I am still not over my pleurisy but it is improving slowly. But I have been busy nonetheless.

I have been working on a new piece of sculpture since early May - though not directly travel related it does pertain to my journey through life.

(See I can make excuses for just about anything.)

Here is a sneak preview!


(click for a larger view)

It is difficult to photograph - but in reality you can see right into the heart of the iMac G3 down to the circuit boards, disc drive and screws and washers.

I'm fairly pleased with the result.

*(If you are interested in seeing more of my mesh work click on 'My Art Website' link to the right under 'Worth a Butchers'. There are examples of my work going back 20 years!)

coffers and coughers

I have been a little under the weather for the past 6 weeks.

And with the trip looming I have been forced financially to keep working, which hasn't helped the healing.

Currently convalescing from a malady that this clue, if you know your Tennessee Williams, should enlighten you:



So with a fair amount of recuperation time up my sleeve I have had plenty of opportunity to spend on the finer details of my forthcoming adventure.

Here is an extract from my itinerary as it so far stands:


(click for larger view)

Yes I know it smacks of anal-retentiveness, but let me tell you - with dwindling days 'til my dotage, I am more and more conscious of the fact that I am not likely to get the opportunity to return to a lot of the countries I visit.

One of the remarkable things about the internet is the degree to which you can plan an overseas trip to maximise the time you have there.

These days I can achieve at least double that which i could in the days when I would simply set off with an out of date Lonely Planet under my arm.

I know many of you would hanker after those halcyon days where wandering like a will-o'-the-wisp seemed like the simple essence of backpacking travel.

But how often did I return home from a trip to be asked "And what did you think of the ------?" to which I could only reply "THAT was THERE???"

I am far better informed and prepared these days and thanks to the 'www' I save bucket loads of money by doing this pre-travel research.

y'know what I REALLY love?

...that I can sit in my local cafe in Sydney, Australia and book and pay for a room in a hostel in El Chalten Argentina.
The internet ROCKS!

guess where?

As I will be away for my birthday in October (no surprises there!) I will let you try and guess where I will be on the day.

Here is a little hint..........

wings, wheels and a rudder.

Now I have actually booked my flight it feels more real. So I have begun to sort out some of the finer details.

I fly to Buenos Aires on September 17th, and then a few days later I fly up to Iguacu Falls. These amazing waterfalls border 3 countries - Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. I will stay overnight in Argentina, cross the river into Brazil and then later walk over a bridge into Paraguay.

Then I head to the capital of Paraguay, Asunción, by bus for a couple of days and then fly to Montevideo in Uruguay. From there I bus it across to Colonia where I catch the ferry back to Buenos Aires.

A couple of days or so later I will probably fly to Mendoza so I can experience crossing the Andes to the capital of Chile, Santiago, by bus. The scenery is supposed to be spectacular.

From Santiago I head south by bus, stopping here and there (including the still active Volcano Villarrica which I hope to climb) until I get to Punta Arenas in southern Patagonia. From here I want to travel across to Tierra del Fuego.

Then it's a little north to Torres del Paine in Chile for a 7 day camping trek through the mountains, followed by another trip across the border back into Argentina to the Los Glaciaros National Park and the spectacular Mount Fitz Roy. After that I fly back to Buenos Aires for a couple of more days before heading home.

It might seem a little over-planned - but I intend to maximise every day I have for the 6 weeks.


trip route (click to enlarge)

uncharacteristically vacillatory

I know I had set my mind on Iran.

What you didn't know was that after that post below I had had a change of mind and then decided I really must do the Baltoro Glacier Trek in North Eastern Pakistan.

"What...are you MAD??!!" is the usual exclamation at this point - followed by lots of words like Taliban, bombs, hostage, death, etc.

But really, if you stopped listening to or reading the utter drivel pumped out by moronic journalists who regurgitate snippets of gossip and hearsay, embellished with puerile globs of their own bigoted and ill informed ideas about places they have never been to, don't understand and probably cannot even spell; then sure it probably isn't the best place to go.

There is a great deal of hysteria whipped up about Pakistan which serves various powers' vested interests in certain wars being fought in certain neighbouring countries.

Much of North Eastern Pakistan I believe has, in its remoteness and isolation, continued along much as it has always done unaffected (and possibly unconcerned) about troubles around the Afghan border.

The North Eastern Frontier of Pakistan has to have some of the most beautiful and extraordinary scenery of anywhere in the world. Try Google Image searches for any of the following: Baltoro Glacier, Mashabrum, K2, Hindukush, Hunza Valley, Trango Towers, Rakaposhi and Fairy Meadows, and you will see what I mean.

The North Western Frontier.........well I wouldn't go there for quids. Full of bloody wackos.

The Pakistan trip was all but a reality - to the extent that I had even bought the Pakistan/Karakorum Highway Lonely Planet. But something held me back.

Possibly the fact that I had absolutely no money.

But also I realised that if I was to get there it was most likely to be mid to late September and I know that the high pass, Gondogoro La, would be getting seriously tricky by late September. At the best of times one needs crampons and ropes to get over it.

So 2 days ago I went online to see if Pakistan flights had (wistfully) come down in price - when a small ad by Qantas caught my eye.

It said - "Sydney - South America - AU$1033.00 (incl.taxes)

It seems unbelievable. Usually these offers come with a swag of conditions such as: you must leave on a Thursday at 3.30am, travel in a group of 25 or more, stay 2 days, travel with a canoe and your name must be Nigel.

I quickly entered a couple of random dates around September - and sure enough, it was genuine.

I have had an Argentina/Chile trip semi planned in the back of my head for quite a few years - but getting to South America from Sydney was always very expensive. So this was too good to miss.

Guess what I'm spending my Economic Stimulus Package bonus on?

Thanks Kev.

Here are a few photos from the web to show why I am going:
(click photos to enlarge)


torres del paine at sunrise


cerro torre, los glaciares national park


iguacu falls


perito moreno glacier


patagonia


volcano villarica (must climb...must climb...)


mt fitzroy

I'll do Pakistan next year.

return to rightful owners.

Fifty years ago today, Tibetans in Lhasa were erecting barricades as part of the March 10th 1959 uprising against the Chinese invasion of Tibet. Around 86,000 Tibetans died in the badly outnumbered and short lived rebellion.

(Click here for a current statement by H.H. the Dalai Lama on the anniversary.)

In memory of the most incredible and beautiful country I have been to I want to add some notes from my journey there in 2002.

Often in defence of China, people will state that the Chinese have brought improved education, health and other benefits to the people. They also say the people were living a downtrodden feudal existence before the Chinese "liberated" them. These spurious arguments are naive and often made by people who have never even set foot in the country and have not witnessed the reality of the lives of Tibetans both in the past and the present day.

The truth is - Tibetans are third class citizens in their own country. During my trip across part of Tibet I witnessed several things that made me realise just how subjugated the Tibetans have become to their Chinese masters.

One was the subsidising of Chinese restaurants and businesses in order to make Chinese goods and services much cheaper, thus trying to price Tibetan businesses out of the market.

Another being the Tibetan written language, with regards public signage etc, which has been relegated to a very small scale in comparison to the Chinese characters. Also Chinese is now the official spoken language.


spot the Tibetan script (photo source)


lhasa shop

Once when driving across the Tibetan plateau we stopped to spend the night in a small town called Tingri - basically 40 - 50 mud brick dwellings scattered either side of the highway. On telegraph poles either end of the town were loudspeakers. All day long these blared out Chinese music, news and radio. You couldn't avoid it.

It reminded me of a scene from Scorsese's amazing film KUNDUN where immediately after the Chinese invasion of Lhasa, loud speakers are set up all over the city playing Chinese propaganda.

The young Dalai Lama comments "They have even taken our silence".


edge of tingri


tingri - the one horse town

Another moment during the trip, our group was waylaid on a coach back from visiting some ruined monasteries by some very officious looking Chinese officials. We were shepherded by them out of the coach and into what can only be described as an almost finished, newly built monastery. We were then all led around by officials into various parts of the buildings including a place where around a dozen monks were seated going through the prayer rituals.

However, the entire building and grounds felt horribly fake and sterile, and the monks looked uncomfortable and unhappy. As we, by that stage, had already visited numerous genuine and very old monasteries, the whole experience left everyone in the group feeling unpleasant and wanting to get the hell away from there.

This structure and our forced viewing was clearly meant to represent the generous nature of the Chinese in promoting and rebuilding Tibetan culture. It felt as plastic and as cheap and soulless as Disneyland.


a genuine one - ganden monastery


and another - samye monastery ( we stayed overnight here)

10,000

is the number of visitors to this blog as of today.

I lost the page counter on the blog's first page and don't know why it stopped working after 18 months or so. Fortunately I have also been running a smart little programme called "Google Analytics" which allows me to track the blog site via an interesting collection of varying data. (Interesting that is for those types that find numbers and graphs interesting!)

Although it does NOT allow me to know WHO is accessing the blog it can tell me some interesting things such as in the last 3 months:

- there were 1,288 visitors

- 57% were first time visitors
- 30% had visited 200 times or more (THAT surprised me!)

- they came from 454 different cities around the world


cities accessing the blog

- 69% used Firefox whilst
- 25% used Internet Explorer

- search engine keywords that led them to the blog included:

* "closing down" "soaps" "guest soaps"
* has anybody driven from vinales to trinidad?
* blundstone boots dangerous in icy conditions

It's a relief to know there are actually people out there looking!!

remembering sue

I know I am in danger of turning this blog into a memorial, but I wanted to mark the passing of a close and longtime friend of 20 years who took her life 9 years ago today.

Sue Howard was a very talented Sydney painter who won several awards for her work. I really felt that at the time of her death she was just hitting full stride with her creative development.


sue in my Paris studio

She and I met when we both worked at the 'salubrious' Old Spaghetti Factory in the Rocks, Sydney in 1980. (A nasty fast food joint that churned out third rate pasta for the masses.)

We clicked immediately as we both shared a love of artmaking and travel.

Many years ago she and I discussed how great it would be to be able to buy a little house in the south of France and settle there to live and make work. My desire was little more than a whim really, but Sue went ahead and did it. Unfortunately the fantasy was a long way from reality and she had many years of hardship because of it.

In 1995 I was awarded a studio through the Art Gallery of NSW to live and work in Paris. This was an incredible opportunity to spend quality time in a city that I have been to many times and love dearly. It turned out to be one of the best times of my life. Every day all I had to think about was either making art or wandering the streets of Paris investigating its lanes and alleyways, monuments and cafes.


the studio workspace

The studio was situated in the Cite Internationale des Arts, on the banks of the Seine right alongside Ile St. Louis (the smaller of the two islands) on the edge of the Marais. My studio was on a corner of the building that housed around 250 or more different ateliers. From my windows I could see the Seine, a beautiful old Palais and a Gothic arts library.


view from studio


night view from window


view from window

The Cite, I believe, has around 300 studios in several locations around Paris and they provide live in residencies for artists across all media - visual artists, writers, musicians, singers, dancers etc. My neighbours included a Swiss sculptor, a Croatian painter, an American Opera Singer and a Romanian concert pianist.


some friends made

One afternoon there was a knock at my studio door and when I answered there was Sue. She had travelled up from Italy where she had been staying to Sue-prise me! I almost fell over. It was incredible to be able to spend some time with her in that amazing city.


small abstract by sue (oil on paper 20c x 18cm)
(poor photo quality - taken under glass.)

the plan as it now stans...

Further consideration of my next trip i have expanded the idea to cover two of Iran's neighbours - Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

I have long harboured the desire to see Bukhara and Samarkand, so this seems like the perfect opportunity. Turkmenistan popped up as it is sandwiched between the two places I want to see.

Preliminary investigation seems to suggest that Turkmenistan will be the most difficult to organise. It appears the simplest visa to obtain is the transit visa which gives you about 3 - 5 days to skip across the country (which in itself seems to suggest there is not a tremendous amount to see in the place...)

I have found a place called Merv which has considerable historical significance, but a quick Google image search shows Merv is a long way to go for not a great deal.

So the plan so far is to fly to Iran - preferably Shiraz (to avoid backtracking), then continue on to Isfahan, Qom, Tehran and Mashhad in Iran, cross to Ashkabat in Turkemneistan and head overland to Darvaza in the middle of the Karakum desert.

Then I cross the border at Urgench and hopefully visit Khiva before heading down to Bukhara, Samarkand and finally ending in Tashkent. Will then try and fly to Norway and London en-route home.


proposed route (click to enlarge)


bukhara (photo source)


the registan, samarkand

germinating...

Now is as good a time as any to begin thinking about my next trip.

There are about a dozen potential plans sitting quietly in the back of my head - it's a matter of deciding which are the most desirable/practical/logical.

Kilimanjaro was a good example of all three. At my advancing age I seriously need to consider which places require greater physical stamina than others - and do them first! The Trans - Siberian rail trip has been on the back burner for years - but lets face it - I could be loaded onto a train in a hospital bed in my 90's to do a 10 day rail trip.

But I think I have settled on the next choice: Iran.

These images helped convince me!


landscape
(photo from here)


history (palace of persepolis)


islamic architecture (nasir-ol-molk_mosque shiraz)


mountains to climb (mt. damarvand)



Well - the idea has been planted - let's see what this year brings!