Great Eastern Journey, Mon, 08 Apr 13
Simon
at a Transit
in Europe, UK
This is it.I’m back home. The journey was a torture, I was exhausted and sick by the time I showed up home, but I’m back. It’s cold in here, but hey, I was on a street for more than a …
Great Eastern Journey, Sat, 06 Apr 13
Simon
at a Castle, City, UNESCO site
in Asia, India
Meat… Food that doesn’t burn… Appetite… Please… Looking at the sky in Delhi isn’t easy It’s horrible, how stomach issues can make one’s life miserable. I spent the last day in Jodhpur on feeling crap and not moving too much …
Great Eastern Journey, Sat, 06 Apr 13
Simon
in Asia, India
Some of the many thoughts of the journey: What do I want Normally, humans want to be happy. At the same time, a great majority has only very vague clue what actually makes them happy, and an even more vague …
Great Eastern Journey, Tue, 02 Apr 13
Simon
at a Castle, City, Desert
in Asia, India
The driver’s sidekick The journey to Jodhpur took the whole day, and began rather amusingly. First, explanation. Every bus here has not only a driver, but also a sort of sidekick who sells tickets and stands in the door all …
Great Eastern Journey, Fri, 29 Mar 13
Simon
at a City, Mountain, Temple
in Asia, India
Hippies pay for stay in paintings Pushkar is full of hippies. It wasn’t just yesterday’s party, the whole hostel is taken over by hippies, every hostel, the whole town is! Cool! My rooftop tent-shack I already met a few interesting …
Great Eastern Journey, Wed, 27 Mar 13
Simon
at a City, Graveyard
in Asia, India
Damn you, mystery noodles! So this is what the cow dung was for! Or breakfast pakoras, or hell knows what else. After ten days in India with no gastric problems whatsoever, the legendary diarrhea of doom caught up with me. …
Great Eastern Journey, Mon, 25 Mar 13
Simon
at a City, Temple, UNESCO site
in Asia, India
It’s becoming harder and harder to be a tolerant person and have understanding for cultural differences. It’s been a bit easier in Omkareshwar, but Khajuraho is a real challenge. I can get used to the filth and mess – I …
Great Eastern Journey, Sun, 24 Mar 13
Simon
at a Transit
in Asia, India
Q: What is the average ground speed velocity of a laden bus?Q: European or Indian bus? As it turns out, in India it’s about 30-35km/h (20mph). I just spent 25 hours on a bus to travel 730km from Omkareshwar to …
Great Eastern Journey, Sat, 23 Mar 13
Simon
at a City, River, Temple
in Asia, India
Bus driver’s flowers and trinketsAll busses and trucks are decorated like thatLooks like every second river is holy here… After some pretty spicy food (the waiter didn’t think it was spicy at all) I went to the train station. Despite …
Great Eastern Journey, Wed, 20 Mar 13
Simon
at a Cave, City, Museum, Sea, UNESCO site
in Asia, India
Tonight I couldn’t sleep for a new reason. You know how they say ‘don’t let the bed bugs bite’? Well, it’s not like you have a choice sometimes. I’m changing beds today. The clean waters of Mumbai In the morning I …
Great Eastern Journey, Tue, 19 Mar 13
Simon
at a City, Museum, UNESCO site
in Asia, India
OK, things are picking up a little. I guess the first shock has passed. I still think Mumbai is a horrible place and want to get out asap, but at least I saw a couple interesting things today. I guess …
Great Eastern Journey, Mon, 18 Mar 13
Simon
at a City
in Asia, India
How is India? It’s fucking disgusting, I want to go home. Airport staircase, mid level I felt bad taking pics of the homeless, so just some rubbish OK, OK, I’m not giving up just yet. But really. My current experience …
Great Eastern Journey, Mon, 18 Mar 13
Simon
in Asia, Singapore
Today is another transit day. I left Singapore with a delayed flight to Dubai (incidentally, it’s the same connection from Brisbane that was delayed ten days before when I got to Singapore, though this time the delay was only 1.5h), …
Great Eastern Journey, Sat, 16 Mar 13
Simon
at a City, Museum
in Asia, Singapore
Ha, updates day after day! You can really tell I’m back to civilisation! Back in the land of tall buildings Actually, there couldn’t be a starker contrast than between what I saw in Sumatra and in Singapore. Beautiful, wild nature, …
Great Eastern Journey, Fri, 15 Mar 13
Simon
at a Jungle, River, UNESCO site
in Asia, Indonesia
Sunday evening was even more musical than before. Some new people showed up, including Pandi’s band members, and we were playing Indonesian and English tunes until late night. The the guitars and djembe kept changing hands, some folders with lyrics …
Great Eastern Journey, Sun, 10 Mar 13
Simon
at a Cave, Jungle, UNESCO site
in Asia, Indonesia
I need to start from thankin Amanda and Ivan for telling me to go to Bukit Lawang. It was the best choice ever! I arrived to Medan in the evening. Quite a shock to the system, from the ultra modern, …
Great Eastern Journey, Fri, 08 Mar 13
Simon
at a Transit
in Asia, Singapore
Yes, road trips definitely suit me better. Gods how stressful is all this catching buses, making sure you’re on time, discussing with drivers when you don’t know exactly where you’re going, catching planes, waiting and wasting time! Argh, just give …
Great Eastern Journey, Thu, 07 Mar 13
Simon
at a Sea
in Australia & Oceania, New Zealand
Since it’s my last day on the road, I decided to spend some time on the beach – I won’t really have a chance to do that again probably until the end of the trip, and definitely not without staying …
Great Eastern Journey, Wed, 06 Mar 13
Simon
at a Park
in Australia & Oceania, New Zealand
Rotorua! Volcanoes rock! Yesterday was, as some locals told me, cold – 19 degrees. I went to the Waimangu Volcanic site to check out one of the youngest thermal areas on Earth. In 1886 the eruption of and around …
Great Eastern Journey, Mon, 04 Mar 13
Simon
at a Sauna/Baths, Sea
in Australia & Oceania, New Zealand
View of Wairoa Breakfast on a hill, as is tradition Everything hurts… What a perfect time for a spa! Fortunately there are tons around, just pick a road. After a breakfast on a hill (this has become a theme, I’m …
Great Eastern Journey, Mon, 04 Mar 13
Simon
at a Forest, Lake
in Australia & Oceania, New Zealand
Walls of green Technically, it’s a highway I`m writing today, so something clearly didn’t go as planned. I woke up and left Taupo at 6am, when it was still dark. The trees and hills tricked me from seeing the sunrise, …
Great Eastern Journey, Sat, 02 Mar 13
Simon
at a Lake, Waterfall
in Australia & Oceania, New Zealand
Moving on: Taupo. When I arrived it turned out that some bicycle race is talking place and half the town is closed off. I couldn’t get down to the lake, but a couple helpful people pointed me to an alternative: …
Great Eastern Journey, Sat, 02 Mar 13
Simon
at a Cave
in Australia & Oceania, New Zealand
OK, so everything today was awesome. New Zealand is beautiful!!! First, the caves. Waitomo is the largest cave complex in NZ, and even though only is small part is available to the public, it’s still huge. I went to all …
Great Eastern Journey, Fri, 01 Mar 13
Simon
at a City
in Australia & Oceania, New Zealand
Today stated off slow – I went to see the downtown with the goth guy whose name I don’t remember anymore. To be honest, I`m not terribly impressed with this part of the city. Lots of boring big buildings with …
Great Eastern Journey, Fri, 01 Mar 13
Simon
at a City, Sea
in Australia & Oceania, New Zealand
Auckland is awesome! Within the first few hours here I was on a boat, on a hill, in a tunnel, among villas, and at an acrobatics-burlesque show. But all in order. I arrived a bit late so instead of going …
Great Eastern Journey, Wed, 27 Feb 13
Simon
with Charlie
at a City, Park, UNESCO site
in Australia, Australia & Oceania
Shiny Sydney So many sex shops here! And tons of ‘massage’ places too… I heard so much about how boring and horrible and not half as good as Melbourne Sydney is from various Victorians, that now I almost feel bad …
Great Eastern Journey, Tue, 26 Feb 13
Simon
with Charlie
at a City, Park
in Australia, Australia & Oceania
OK, that does it. Too hot. A climate in which one cannot leave a bar of chocolate unattended for half an hour least it dissolves is not worth living in! Today was a working day. I dropped off Charlie to …
Great Eastern Journey, Sun, 24 Feb 13
Simon
with Charlie
at a Sea
in Australia, Australia & Oceania
Somewhat underslept, today we took off for a roadtrip towards the Great Ocean Road. We got really lucky – we didn’t have to rent a car, because Lisa offered us her mum’s. She’s awesome, isn’t she? Not only that, but …
Great Eastern Journey, Sun, 24 Feb 13
Simon
with Charlie
at a City
in Australia, Australia & Oceania
What a night! But in order. Australian chemists prescribe ukuleles for many ailments In the early hours of the noon we went to the Victoria Market – a huge outdoor market with absolutely everything. I bought a hat and almost …
Great Eastern Journey, Fri, 22 Feb 13
Simon
with Charlie
at a City, Museum
in Australia, Australia & Oceania
With Miriam and Adam, superhero posing On the next day laziness continued. Adam showed me his impressive collection of WH40K figures, took us for a motorbike ride, and after a good lunch we were off to Melbourne. Interactive shadows in …
Great Eastern Journey, Thu, 21 Feb 13
Simon
with Charlie
at a City, Park
in Australia, Australia & Oceania
Today we woke up at an ungodly 5.30am to catch a 6.30 bus to Bendigo. We almost saw the sunrise – the one moment when we could use the fact that everything is flat, we spent at the Swan Hill …
Great Eastern Journey, Wed, 20 Feb 13
Simon
with Charlie
at a Forest, Museum, River
in Australia, Australia & Oceania
Flatland I didn’t know that this is the smoke of the burning Grampians In the last two days I went to visit Charlie’s family. As soon as the train left Melbourne, we entered the edges of Nowhere. City ended and …
Great Eastern Journey, Tue, 19 Feb 13
Simon
with Charlie
at a City, Museum, Park
in Australia, Australia & Oceania
OK, body, can I please sleep tomorrow? Waking up at 6 am is not fun if there is a full day ahead of me… Today was the day of museum and gardens. The museum was OK, but not what I …
Great Eastern Journey, Sun, 17 Feb 13
Simon
with Charlie
at a City, Park, Sea
in Australia, Australia & Oceania
A random airplane show on the beach Today was a recovery day. I woke up still felling quite rough, so although the initial plan was to check out some museums, after the Farleys left I ended up just lying on …
Great Eastern Journey, Sun, 17 Feb 13
Simon
with Charlie
at a City
in Australia, Australia & Oceania
It got me. It really got me. I think that yesterday I was just too excited to feel it and managed to stay OK for one day, but the delay only made it worse… It’s like a monstrous hangover-comedown from …
Great Eastern Journey, Sat, 16 Feb 13
Simon
with Charlie
at a City, Sea
in Australia, Australia & Oceania
The beach has various attractions It’s warm! And there are palm and eucalyptus and gum trees! And the ocean is warm! And the sky is cloudless! Yes, I am quite excited. Charlie is out of order for an hour, so …
Great Eastern Journey, Fri, 15 Feb 13
Simon
with Charlie
at a Sea
in Australia, Australia & Oceania
Scotland said goodbye in its usual way – with rain. Actually, snow, then rain. Though love, that one. While sitting on the bus to the airport I finally felt it. Until today I have been very relaxed and perhaps even …
