Double post, dubbelpost. 2013-01-07 – 2013-01-20. Oulu-Kemi-Haparanda-Gothenburg

This will be the last post on this blog. I have not updated earlier due to the chores I have had to do and this post will be brief. During the two weeks that this post encompasses I spent time with family and friends, no interesting sightseeing. From Oulu to Haparanda, via Kemi, I travelled by car, but there are trains (and buses) between Oulu and Kemi and buses run from Kemi to the Swedish border city of Haparanda. From Haparanda I took the bus departing at 13.45, arriving in Luleå at 16.10, costing me 100.80 SEK (I have a special card with which I get a discount), regular youth price for the journey is 128 SEK.

The train station in Luleå is a short stroll behind the bus station, a 5-minute walk. From the train station I took a night train to Gothenburg, departing at 16.35, arriving at 11.00. As I am a member of the railway operator SJ’s customer loyalty programme I got this trip for free.

Below the travel map for the week 2013-01-07 – 2013-01-13.

And for the week 2013-01-14 – 2013-01-20.

And that was it! Travelling overland from Singapore to Gothenburg is obviously possible! I have updated the Costs section as well and I will add travel information in the Transportation section once I get the time to do that.

勿行！

Onko sinulla tullattavaa? 2012-12-31 – 2013-01-06. Moscow-St Petersburg-Oulu

Monday began with a trip to the World Heritage Site Novodevichy Convent in Southeastern Moscow. Usually they charge a fee to enter, but today the gates were open and people were let in for free. Impressive buildings indeed! After glancing at the nearby Olympic Stadium I went to Kafé Avokado, a vegetarian, vegan and raw food restaurant and ate a delicious vegan New Year meal. In the evening I went with two Indians and a Tunisian from my hostel to the Red Square to see the fireworks, here I got my only picture for the week.

Waiting for the fireworks at 2012-12-31 23:45!

Tuesday I did not do much as entire Moscow was closed down due to the public holiday. In the evening I took the train departing from Moscow’s Leningradsky Station at 21.00 to St Petersburg, arriving 06.45 in the morning the day after. As I bought the ticket through an agent it was somewhat more expensive than when buying at the station, at the station it would have cost about 950 RUB for a platskart ticket.

Wednesday I walked to the Peter and Paul Fortress, but as the church is currently undergoing renovation it looks a bit ugly. I had a headache during the day, probably because I had slept in a bad position on the train, so I went to sleep fairly early.

Thursday I visited the State Hermitage Museum, or simply the Hermitage. The first Thursday every month is free entry for everybody, meaning that had I been there later than at the time of opening at 10.30 in the morning I would not have been able to enter as they restrict the amount of people who are allowed inside simultaneously. I walked around for several hours until my legs were exhausted, then I passed by St Isaac’s Church before returning to my hostel.

Friday I took the Allegro train at 11.25 (St Petersburg time) from Finljandsky Station to Kouvola, arriving at 11.45 (Kouvola time), where I changed trains onwards to Kuopio, departing at 12.52, arriving at 15.38, where I changed trains once more to Oulu, departing at 15.45, arriving at 19.48. The entire journey from St Petersburg to Oulu was booked directly from VR, costing me 107.05 EUR.

The border crossing between Russia and Finland is very smooth when travelling by train, as the border formalities are conducted while the train is moving. First the Russian border guards enter in St Petersburg and check your passport on the way to Vyborg, the last Russian city. After the train has crossed the border, the Finnish border guards enter in the village of Vainikkala and do the same border check while the train continues towards Helsinki. If Vainikkala is your destination, the Finnish border formalities are conducted at Vainikkala railway station. If your destination is one of the cities before Helsinki (except Vainikkala), you must ensure that the border guards have checked your passport before exiting the train: if you notice that you are approaching your destination and your passport has still not been checked, you should call for a border guard. Customs declaration forms and arrival cards are available on board the train.

I did stay in Russia for more than 7 working days, but I do not know if my Russian visa was registered and I had no registration slips, something that might cause problems at the Russian border when exiting according to some sources. The border guard did however not ask for any registration slips, only my migration card obtained when entering Russia was of interest, as well as the visa itself.

Saturday and Sunday were both lazy days with my family!

Travel map.

勿行！

U menja nje jest… 2012-12-24 – 2012-12-30. (Ulan-Ude)-Irkutsk-Moskva

As it happens, my camera got stolen in Irkutsk, so I will upload my last pictures here, the rest shall be text. I know very well who took the camera and I did take precautions, but I forgot that my camera was in my jacket pocket, which he could easily access.

Good morning Irkutsk! The train station was rather confusing and of course nobody spoke English, but I did manage to find the machines where I could print my Russian train tickets as well as the left luggage office. The left luggage office is located in the cellar (no signs anywhere): walk down the same stairs that would take you to the traveller’s resting centre (or whatever you would call them) and you will find the left luggage office. 90 RUB for one bag for one day.

As it would take 10.5 hours before my train would depart I went for a walk. It is possible to take the tram from the train station to the city centre but it is not particularly far to walk either, just turn right when exiting the station and continue along the road to the big bridge, the city is on the other side of the bridge. Irkutsk was not a particularly fun city, not much to see or do. Above the Christmas tree on the big square.

My Christmas lunch!

The little, dark character on the throne is me.

The last picture in my camera, taken in the café where the camera was stolen. As the camera was taken right after I had emptied it I did luckily not lose any pictures!

After leaving the café I took the train to Moscow departing at 18.21 Irkutsk time on Monday, arriving in Moscow at 04.11 Moscow time on Friday. I bought the ticket through an agency, but the price at the station is 4 441 RUB. The train was really hot, the first two nights weren’t too bad but the last two nights I could not really sleep. Not much happened, I read the two books I had with me and played Nintendo DS. Klarade av klockpatiensen för andra gången i mitt liv, det måste vara ett årtionde sedan sist! Korthus lyckade jag däremot sämre med.

I did go out for a walk to buy some food in Novosibirsk (49-minute stop) and Yekaterinburg (32-minute stop). The train stops regularly at major stations for a longer time when you may go out to buy something, but remember to bring your train ticket (and valuables) with you!

When the train arrived in Moscow 2 minutes too early on Friday morning (the train ran on schedule the entire journey, tag lärdom SJ!) I had slept only two hours, I was somewhat tired… The metro began running at 05.30, I took it to my hostel where I was allowed to check in early, so I slept for a couple of hours. I did however not do too much on Friday, I just bought some food and walked around in the neighbourhood.

On Saturday I went to the Red Square to see that Lenin’s Mausoleum is closed until April (major disappointment!). I walked around in the State Department Store and headed then for Ulitsa Arbat, a pedestrian street with shops and cafés. Had some delicious blinis at Shokoladnitsa (tack för rekommendationen Ouliwei!) before returning to my hostel.

On Sunday I first went to Gorky Park to ice skate, such fun when you don’t have to do it with school! Besides, the ice skating area in Gorkij Park is different from anything I have ever seen: paths were covered with ice, making it possible to skate around in a large area complete with music, cafés and restaurants (where you would enter wearing your skates!). Entry is 240 RUB for students (information that was only written in Russian, everything else was in English as well) and it includes rental of ice skates if you pay a deposit of 1 500 RUB. You will be given a card with a picture of an ice skater (along with some other cards and receipts): guard this card well as you will need it for everything: entrance to the area, getting your ice skates, depositing your shoes at the shoe and bag storage, getting your shoes back, returning the ice skates, exiting the area and getting the deposit of 1 500 RUB back. When returning your ice skates, do not lose the receipt as you will have to show this receipt alongside with the ice skating card to get your 1 500 RUB.

After ice skating I went to Izmailovsky Market where they sell lots of Russian souvenirs and old Soviet artefacts at fairly reasonable prices (at least comparing to the State Department Store).

For pictures of the places I visited in Moscow, google! The weather has been really ugly, so pictures would not have been particularly good anyway.

Travel map.

勿行！

長城不開! 2012-12-17 – 2012-12-23. Peking-Badaling-Ulan Bator-(Ulan-Ude)

I am sitting in Russia now, albeit being in the Asian part, it already feels like Europe. No longer do people assume that I am a 外國人 simply by looking at me! It is Christmas today, although I can’t really say that I have any Christmas feeling. Here the 24th of December is just a regular working day, so you don’t really notice it either. Ulan-Ude is in parentheses above as that was the last city I was in before the week ended, I was actually travelling by train to Irkutsk.

Pictures!

My roommates at the hostel in Beijing sure were confident, leaving their Visa cards in the room without supervision.

Good morning (rather good day, but I had just had breakfast) Mao! In return for helping a couple take a picture of themselves in front of Tian’anmen, they took a picture of me. I came to Tian’anmen Guangchang to visit Mao’s mausoleum, forgetting it is closed on Mondays. Well, well, I still got my train ticket to Mongolia at the ticket agent’s office, not too far from Tian’anmen.

After I had obtained my ticket, I went to the Summer Palace, 40 CNY to enter, Beigongmen station on Line 4.

Apparently the lake at the Summer Palace is a popular strolling spot.

Although the signs urging people to stay away from the ice were placed pretty much every 200 metres, they must have been blind.

Walking along the lakeside.

Time to visit the number one sight in Beijing: the wall. I took the suburban train from Beijing North to Badaling, costing 6 CNY one way, lasting for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. In the morning there are several trains departing to Badaling, in the afternoon there are several trains back (at other times the trains are more infrequent). No need to buy tickets too early in advance, there are no assigned seats, you just pick any vacant seat you can find (and December being off season, the train was more than half empty). You also don’t need a passport to buy these train tickets, as you do when buying tickets to regular long-distance trains in the People’s Republic of China.

Badaling main street. In case it is not noticeable in the picture: the entire street was covered with smooth ice, making the hill from the train station to the wall very… exciting to climb.

The wall was closed when I arrived there, as the wall looked the same as the street in Badaling and obviously they don’t want people wandering off along the wall, breaking their legs. After half an hour of waiting and some persuasion by the Chinese tourist groups they opened a short section right above the entrance, after which I could ruch on top of the wall to take a picture of me on the wall before the tourist masses arrived. 45 CNY I had to pay for the fun. Oh yes, it was freezing, the wind was blowing very hard, whereby the -15 degrees felt like -273.15 degrees.

Bra att de sälja äkta kaffe vid muren, vore ju trist att få falsk vara!

One last cup of 珍珠奶茶 before leaving China!

Between Beijing and Datong. On Wednesday morning at 08.05 I took the train from Beijing main station to Ulan Bator. This train continues on to Moscow and departs only once a week, on Wednesdays, from Beijing. As I bought my tickets through an agent, I paid somewhat more than the official price of the ticket (1 198 CNY). If you have time, you can purchase tickets along the way, I did not have time to wait several days for the next train due to my Russian visa validity. The trip from Beijing to Ulan Bator lasts for 29 hours and 15 minutes, arriving the day after at 13.20: we were only 1 minute delayed.

At night in Erlian. The train stops here for a couple of hours, during which you may choose to either stay on the train or to disembark, but once you have made your decision you can’t change it, as the train leaves the station. I chose to go for a stroll in Erlian, but everything was closed and it was pretty much dead. The Mongolians on the train (about 90% of the passengers) bought vast amounts of food at the supermarket inside the train station (entire boxes and suitcases filled with food): especially fruits are considerably more expensive in Mongolia than in the People’s Republic of China.

Welcome to Mongolia! By the time we crossed to border to stop at Zamin-Üüd (several alternative spellings) I was so tired that I fell asleep after the border guards walked away with my passports: they returned about an hour later, after which we left.

The father in the kind Mongolian family I was living at in Ulan Bator (or Ulaanbaatar). Note that although traffic moves on the right in Mongolia, several cars have the steering wheel on the right as weel (covered by the newspaper in the picture). I have not taken too many pictures on my first day (it was so cold to take out the camera), but a not so pleasant thing happened my French roommate when we ate lunch. He forgot his bag with 700 USD and his passport at the restaurant when we left, they were nowhere to be found when he returned. The next day he went to the French embassy, got a letter granting him the possibility to leave the country and the first thing on Saturday morning he took a flight back to France (originally he had intended to stay longer in Mongolia). Actually, he almost missed his flight on Saturday too as he overslept, but in the end he did manage to catch it.

Some sightseeing in Ulan Bator. Say hello to Gengis Khan, sitting on a throne on Sükhbaatar Square in the heart of the country.

Sükhbaatar Square.

Do I need to add that it was cold? -30 degrees plus wind. Originally I had intended to walk to Zaisan Memorial, but halfway there (about half an hour from Sükhbaatar Square) I decided it was too cold and I turned around.

Instead I went to State Department Store to listen to ABBAs Happy New Year, which was played all over Ulan Bator (and here in Irkutsk too) as well as to purchase some postcards. The souvenir shop on the fifth floor has a big selection of souvenir items, but it is expensive indeed. A complete Mongolian warrior suit for 3 000 000 MNT, someone?

Inside the Museum of Natural History (2 000 MNT to enter for students), most well-known for its dinosaur skeletons. Several dinosaur fossils have been found in Mongolia. You are not really allowed to take pictures of the dinosaurs, but I took one anyway of this baby something (I think it is a Shieldon, if you are familiar with Pokémon). They had much larger dinosaurs too, but I didn’t dare take pictures of them.

 

Crazy bird feeding at Gandan Khiid (3 500 MNT to enter), one of the most important religious sites in Mongolia. One could only start to think of Hitchcock’s film. It was possible to buy a bag of some food for 1 000 MNT, but I am in principle against feeding wild animals (same as with the monkeys on Bali).

 

Some buildings of Gandan Khiid.

 

I have only heard about these vegan restaurants and by accident I stumbled into one in Ulan Bator! Of course I had to try. It tasted nice, not the best meal I have ever had, but good.

 

On Saturday evening I took the train at 21.10 (Ulan Bator time) from Ulan Bator to Irkutsk. The trip lasts 33 hours and 45 minutes, arriving in Irkutsk the second morning after at 07.55 (Irkutsk time, 02.55 Moscow time that is used on all trains in Russia). We arrived 2 minutes ahead of schedule. The ticket costs 79 450 MNT if bought in Ulan Bator (but as said before, I booked through an agent a long time ago).

 

Morning in Sükhbaatar, the place for the Mongolian customs check (although Sükhbaatar is not right at the border, there is actually a station in Mongolia after Sükhbaatar where the Mongolian border guards exit). Apparently it was -40 degrees now (according to my kupemate’s smartphone). It did not feel too cold anyway as the air was completely still, not windy like in Ulan Bator. The scheduled waiting time at the Mongolian-Russian border is more than 9 hours and indeed, we stood about 5 hours in Sükhbaatar, then we moved to the Russian side in Nausjki (Swedish transcription) where we stood for another 4 hours. The actual border check does certainly not last this long, instead the train just stands.

 

Welcome to Russia! The border town of Nausjki is really tiny, but there is a small grocery shop just down the road of the train station. Do note that you need roubles now: on the Mongolian side of the border a currency exchanger boarded the train: 47 MNT for 1 RUB, a fairly reasonable exchange rate. MNT are really hard to exchange outside Mongolia, so unless you plan on returning to Mongolia soon or if you want to keep the crumbled and dirty banknotes as souvenirs, exchange them now.

 

At 23.02 (Ulan-Ude time, 18.02 Moscow time) we arrived in Ulan-Ude, the last city before midnight. I did not see any ATM in Nausjki, but as the train stops in Ulan-Ude for 40 minutes you have more than enough time to use the ATM inside Ulan-Ude station.

Travel map of the week.

 

And now my visited countries amount to 48.

 

勿行！

我沒有現金! 2012-12-10 – 2012-12-16. Vientiane-Kunming-Peking.

My Nintendo DS is now in Moscow time and once again I have access to uncensored, good speed Internet. The costs section has been updated too. Here are pictures from my second week of my trip home.

Before my departure from Vientiane I had to have a fika at the Swedish Pizza and Baking House. A chokladboll for 9 000 LAK.

Lao countryside. In the abscence of a railway from Laos to China, I took a bus from Vientiane North Bus Station, located in the middle of nowhere very far from the city, departing at 14.00 on a Monday Lao time (it should run every day), arriving in Kunming 04.00 the second night after (although we were 6 hours early, so I arrived in Kunming already at 22.00 the day after my departure). The ticket cost me 798 000 LAK through an agent in central Vientiane for a bed on the sleeper bus.

Here but no further. At the Lao border post in Borten (sometimes spelled Boten, but the passport stamp says Borten) 7.00, waiting for it to open. The air was cool, some 15 degrees.

Our bus. The roads in Laos are horrible, so if you have a hard time sleeping unless it is completely still and quiet, I do not recommend taking this bus.

Welcome to the People’s Republic of China!

Having a late breakfast in Mengla, the Chinese border town in Yunnan province. I had a hard time finding ATMs: there are indeed several ATMs in Mengla, but they do not accept my foreign card (MasterCard), so I was running pretty short on cash. Surviving on 17 CNY for one day is possible, although I would have preferred to have a bit more in my wallet.

Yunnanese countryside. On the Chinese side the road was excellent, such a relief after Laos! There is a motorway pretty much all the way from the Lao border, meandering high up in the air on viaducts (as in the picture) or deep through mountains in tunnels.

First activity in Kunming: visit a 中国银行 (Bank of China) ATM, well-known for accepting foreign cards, for cash and off to eat dinner! My bus from Laos arrived at 22.00 at Kunming Southern Bus Terminal very far away in the suburbs. Public transport was no longer running at this hour, so I had to take a taxi. I was really glad that I was in China, as now I could explain my lack of cash to the taxi driver, who was very helpful and took me to a Bank of China ATM and he used the taxameter without fight!

Good morning Kunming! Picture is from 金碧广场 (Jinbi Guangchang) in the heart of Kunming where I had my accommodation.

Autumn leaves. My autumn of 2012 consisted of these three days in Kunming.

Autumn flowers along the street. I really came to like Kunming, the city centre had many streets that were closed to cars, so it was fairly pedestrian friendly for being a Chinese city.

Enjoying red dates in a park.

I am inclined to suspect that the founder of this Chinese brand (the signs called it Zhongdaeyu) has found some inspiration from another, well-known international brand…

December is strawberry season! 1 kg delicious strawberries for 10 CNY!

My final day in Kunming I made an excursion to 筇竹寺 (Qiongzhusi, Bamboo temple) on a mountain to the west of Kunming. Kunming is located 1 900 metres above sealevel, which wasn’t noticeable other than when I walked in stairs: I got very easily short on breath. It was not better at Qiongzhusi, but as long as I walked slowly, it was just fine.

This wonderfully cute child came to talk with me at the temple. Our conversation:
He: Hello! 我会说英语！
I: Hello!
He: 你的家在哪里？
I: 我的家在欧洲，离这里很远。
Then he went quiet.

Checking out the coins people had dropped inside the dragon’s mouth.

Chaos at Kunming railway station. 45 minutes before departure people were already pressing against the gates to be the first to board the train.

I took the T62 to Beijing, departing Kunming at 21.38 on Friday, arriving in Beijing on Sunday at 11.06 (although we were one hour delayed), costing me 539 CNY for an upper bed, hard sleeper. Chinese railways are, as are the motorways, excellent and the journey was really smooth, especially when comparing with the awful Thai railways.

On the countryside between Kaili in Guizhou province and Huaihua in Hunan province.

Power!

Not only was it strawberry season, it was also tangerine season. I bought a big bag of them at 5.80 CNY per kg, delicious!

Snow!!! Between Shijiazhuang and Beijing.

First thing to do in Beijing: laundry. Here my clothes are hanging in -10 degrees on the roof.

Travel map.

勿行！

Pintu keluar kecemasan. 2012-12-03 – 2012-12-09. Singapore-Johor Bahru-Kuala Lumpur-Hat Yai-Bangkok-Nong Khai-Vientiane.

My journey home has begun! In less than 4 weeks I should already be finished with backpacking around, then two weeks of family visiting and finally home in Göteborg.

On Monday morning I had my third exam. Once again the macro exam was too long for the time assigned to it, but I should get enough points to pass it.

I got my shoes repaired at the local shoe doctor for 8 SGD! As new Birkenstock sandals cost from 120 SGD and up, the 8 SGD were more than reasonable. Now they are as good as new!

Items I do not want to carry mailed home, bags packed with necessities, non-necessities donated to flatmates and rubbish thrown away. As we would say in Shanghai (from All Saints, Rock Steady): I’ve got my bags packed baby and I’m ready to go…

Farewell Commonwealth, for the last time!

Once my final exam in EU politics was written (it went well too) it was time to begin my journey home. Instead of travelling by bus all the way to Johor Bahru, I took the MRT from Bras Basah to Kranji (with a change at Dhoby Ghaut) and from Kranji with bus 170 to the border crossing at Woodlands. Here I encountered some problems, though. Singaporean law kind of requires you to hand in your Singaporean ID card upon departure from the country and I was told this should be possible to do at the border gate. At Woodlands they however seemed utterly confused over the issue and I was told I must do this at the Immigration and Customs Authority headquarters at Lavender. As my train from Johor Bahru was leaving in 2 hours, I most certainly did not have time to go all the way to Lavender to hand in the card, a stupid formality that pretty much everyone ignores, so I simply told them I would be returning to Singapore the week after and that I could return the card then. After some consideration I was given the permission to leave, but I certainly learned not to try to be too lawful. Once I am at home in Sweden I might send the card to them by mail, if it is that important to them to have an expired ID card.

After the hassle at the Singaporean border gate in Woodlands, Malaysia went really smoothly: stamp in without any problems.

I took the train from Johor Bahru Sentral to Kuala Lumpur Sentral, departing at 14.18, arriving in Kuala Lumpur 20.25 (we were pretty much exactly on time).

On my way! Now I really felt like the trip had begun: travelling to Johor Bahru with SBS Transit was still too well-known to me, once on the train to Kuala Lumpur the journey really began!

As the train from Johor Bahru arrived on time, I had slightly less than an hour to change trains at Kuala Lumpur Sentral. At 21.20 the night train towards Hat Yai in Southern Thailand departed, although we made several stops in the beginning due to some trouble with the electricity supply. The locomotive itself is run with diesel, but inside the wagons there should be electricity to the air-conditioning and lamps.

Wonderful dinner bought at the food court at Kuala Lumpur Sentral: fried chicken with rice and lemon sauce! Yummy! Travelling with night train is so cosy, I can just lie down in my bed, eating, someone else cleans it!

Some 2 hours delayed at Padang Besar border station between Malaysia and Thailand. I had to exit the train with my belongings to go through the customs formalities, but this was probably one of the easiest border crossings I have ever crossed: Malaysia simply stamped me out and the Thai customs in the same building did not care the least about my arrival card (on which I had to invent a hostel name because I had no accommodation in Thailand), he just stamped me in and waved the next person to step forward. All in all the customs formalities took some 10 minutes, but then we had to sit and wait for the train departure for an hour.

Welcome to Thailand!

Thai food in Thailand = just food? As I had expected, this was too spicy for me to enjoy.

From here my train to Bangkok should have departed an hour ago, but the tracks were still empty. I asked the personnel working at the station when the train would come, they said it was delayed. You don’t say?! We finally left about 1.5 hours behind schedule, I was dying of boredom at Hat Yai station. The service was scheduled to depart at 14.45 and arrive in Bangkok at 09.00.

Inside the Thai train. In Thailand the trains are not air-conditioned like in Malaysia unless you specifically purchase a ticket to an air-conditioned wagon: guess where you found all the foreigners on the train!

Morning on the Thai countryside. At 09.00 we were nowhere near Bangkok yet: we finally arrived there at half past twelve.

Hua Lamphong station, the main station in Bangkok. As I still had 7.5 hours before my departure from Bangkok, I decided to go out for a walk after leaving my luggage at the left luggage office on the station. 50 THB for one day, but remember to lock your bags and do not leave any valuables inside, as apparently this left luggage office is known for things missing from bags that have ben left unlocked.

A few kilometres to the northwest from Hua Lamphong you will reach the impenetrable wall of the Grand Palace.

Do not worry if your clothing is not appropriate to visit the palace: you can borrow clothes for free right inside the entrance gate, but you have to pay a deposit of 200 THB per article. I chose however not to enter the palace, as it would only remain open for one more hour and the entrance fee was fairly hefty, 400 THB, so I deemed it not worth the money.

More tanned than ever after 4 months in the tropics! Here I am back at Hua Lamphong, chasing a café with WiFi!

There were lots of cats inside Hua Lamphong waiting area, all of them very interested in my bag!

This time my train left on time! At 20.00 I departed to Nong Khai with a scheduled arrival time of 08.25. 2 minutes before departure the four Germans (or Austrians) in my car decided to go out for a walk: they had not returned upon departure, so I was thinking they might have missed the train, but somehow they were on it, as about 45 minutes later they suddenly appeared again.

Rushing to the Lao border in a tuktuk. At 08.25 we had not yet passed Udon Thani, so once again the train was heavily delayed. In the end we arrived in Nong Khai at some time past 11. There are plenty of rides waiting right in front of the station. I paid 40 THB (too much), which was a surprisingly okey offer considering the stories about 100-200 THB rides to the border gate. 30 THB is about the correct price for a foreigner for the journey (according to various Internet sources), but I felt that 10 THB was too little to start an argument about. Unless you have a lot of baggage you can actually walk to the border, as it is really close: upon exiting the train station, turn left and walk until you reach the main road, here turn left and cross the railway, at the next big crossing there will already be signs directing to Vientiane to the right. All in all the walk is probably something around a kilometre.

Crossing the mighty Mekong River! Crossing the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge on foot to Thanaleng in Laos is not really recommended, although there might be locals walking across it. Luckily there is a bus shuttle service driving back and forth all day long costing 20 THB. Tickets are sold at the ticket desk right after Thai immigration has stamped you out (there was no queue and the official simply stamped me out, all in all I spent less than a minute at the Thai border).

Welcome to Laos! As a Swedish citizen I could obtain a visa on arrival for 32 USD (1 USD was overtime charge for entering Laos outside office hours), all I had to do was to fill in an application form and an arrival card and hand them a photo and the visa was glued to my passport and I was stamped in.

I’m a millionaire! 1 000 000 LAK! There is a defunct ATM right before Lao border checkpoint, but after you had been stamped in there was another one working (it is on the departure side where people leave to Thailand).

Once I had withdrawn my money my luck continued: the public bus to Vientiane bus station arrived at the same moment! For merely 6 000 LAK I was taken the 20 kilometres or so to Vientiane.

Showering was a top priority, considering that my last shower was on Tuesday and I had been sweating for several days since then!

The day before my departure from Singapore I had accidentally found this Vientiane treasure on Google Maps! Apparently the owner is Swedish, but the workers are local.

The kladdkaka, chokladbollar, kokosbollar and blåbarsostkaka were all really tempting, but this time I felt for a proper Swedish pizza! It had oregano on, a spice unknown in Asia!!! The size was also proper, taste was as in Sweden (at least to me, I have not eaten Swedish pizzas for several months) and it cost merely 44 500 LAK!

At the Mekong riverside, Thailand on the other side of the river.

My room at Vientiane Backpackers, nice wall-paintings!

That Dam, built for the protector dragon of Vientiane.

The famous night market at the Mekong riverside park.

Laos being one of only five remaining communist countries, you still see lots of hammers and sickles around.

French legacy. Although independence from France was far from easily achieved, the street signs in Vientiane bear French names.

The Arch of Triupmh (Patuxai), built slightly taller than the Parisian equivalent from concrete donated by the United States to build a runway at the airport, thereby the name ”the vertical runway”. For 3 000 LAK you can climb to the top.

The park/square below Patuxai. Vientiane being a very ”low” city (very few tall buildings) you do get a very nice view from the top of Patuxai.

So if I am not allowed to pass a grass, does that mean I have to walk across?

Pha That Luang, the national symbol of Laos.

Ooh, had I found this when I had more LAK I would have probably paid a visit. Apparently the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is present in their fellow Communist country. I have however no idea about the closeness of the Lao-DPRK relations.

Travel map for the week. The costs section has been updated, but due to the slowness of the Internet connection, I have not updated the transport section. I do not want to spend the entire day on WordPress, I have to see my Youtube subscriptions too before going to China, where both WordPress and Youtube will be blocked!

And now I have reached 47 countries.

勿行！

Negative serial correlation? 2012-11-26 – 2012-12-02.

Right now is my last day in Singapore, items have been sent home, bags are packed (except for the things I am still needing) and tickets, accommodation and other important things are in order. My 4 months here sure passed fast! I also have to say that I hate the new WordPress picture uploading tool.

Below some pictures from my last week in Singapore.

I went to The Star Vista at Buona Vista MRT station, a large shopping centre with an especially large variety of restaurants to get pizza, but pizzas were tiny and ridiculously expensive.

Time for the first final exam, the one in econometrics. The exam was really difficult and the questions were really tricky, but I knew she would be asking this sort of awful questions, so I was well prepared. I would be very surprised if I fail this exam.

I like the dog reading on the left! MVH ej hundvän

Some more local desserts, these are called ang ku kuih. Not too exciting.

Next up was my exam in international economics. Felt like a breeze after econometrics, I should have passed this one too.

Flowers blooming on Orchard Road. Beautiful!

Messing around on H&M with things that I have no intention of buying! I think I turned out older with this outfit, perhaps something to consider in the near future?

At Prada on Orchard Road. My friend wanted to find a bag, I was embarrassed to death to sit inside such an exclusive shop and wait…

Time to visit Ikea to see if they have lussebullar!

No lussebullar, such a pity… I took this Christmas food plate, it was edible. Not too great, I don’t like ham, neither do I like mustard.

勿行！

Underpass. 2012-11-19 – 2012-11-25.

Exam period has begun, I just wrote my first exam, I think I will pass it. 3 exams to go!

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Swedish krona, I went to the pictures! I had some Swedish cheese doodles too to be consumed during this special occasion.

To better motivate my studies, I went to East Coast Park beach, as there I won’t have access to the Internet. Luckily the sun was not shining, so no need for sun block.

Yummy, frozen yoghurt with nuts, raisins and chocolate chips at Plaza Singapura.

Bridge to ”the Southernmost point of Asia”, as they describe the place, on Sentosa.

As my studies on the beach on Monday were so successful, I decided to go to the beach again, this time Palawan beach on Sentosa. On working days it is not too crowded on the sands.

Oopsy daisies, the washing machine emptied the water right on our floor.

I have never really enjoyed Philadelphia cream cheese, but I think it is pretty okey now.

勿行！

Oishii! 2012-11-12 – 2012-11-18. Singapore-Johor Bahru-Singapore

My regular tuition has ended, so now I am just studying for my exams. Boring! Luckily the worst (=most complicated) exam will be first and the easiest last. Pretty much everything that can be booked in advance on my trip home is also booked now.

Monday was Deepavali Eve, which I began celebrating by going abroad to Johor Bahru! Once again I used public transport by SBS, costing slightly less than 2 SGD one way from Singapore to the city centre of Johor Bahru, using my EZ-link public transportation card. This time I did however have an important reason for my trip: I came here to buy train tickets at Johor Bahru Sentral railway station, which is located right below the customs, immigration and quarantine building (signs inside the CIQ building show the way to Johor Bahru Sentral, really easy to find and close too). It is apparently possible to buy tickets on the Internet too, but I have enough experience with these online purchasing services in this part of the world that I prefer to buy in person whenever possible. The service at the railway station was slow albeit the large amount of people working behind the desk: they seemed to be on break simultaneously. Eventually I did get my tickets however.

Before rushing back to Singapore, I strolled around the city for a while and found a Baskin Robbins ice cream bar in City Square Shopping Centre, a lot cheaper than in Tokyo!!! Underneath my ice cream, M&Ms and hot fudge sauce I have a brownie. Mmm.

In the evening I went to Little India in Singapore to see Deepavali festivities. Little India was full of people and cars, everything stood still! At midnight there were fireworks and people were screaming and cheering, having fun. Interesting to see.

Dessa attans vandaler som gå runt och rita streckgubbar överallt!

My computer almost broke down one morning when I plugged it in with my old adapter: it had always made such noise. I opened the adapter and saw that there were burn marks everywhere, so I decided to buy a new adapter! My adapter might also be the reason why my Nintendo DS and computer battery went from being in excellent shape to electronic rubbish, dead as rocks, as it seems highly unlikely that all my electronics would die within weeks from each other. Therefore I decided to buy a new adapter, which doesn’t give a single sound when plugging it in (in picture)! I urge you not to buy Clas Ohlson’s adapters if you are shopping in Sweden.

Saturday morning at 08.30 did not seem to be a too popular time to have class. As Deepavali, which occured on Tuesday, was a public holiday all our classes were moved to Saturday, Singaporean style!

I wouldn’t be too sure about the ”enjoy” part of the text, the salary seems awful for the price level in Singapore!

Yummy, chicken teriyaki for the fifty-eleventh time this week, this time at Yoshinoya! If you haven’t eaten teriyaki sauce yet you really have to try it! I am eating it virtually every day! In fact, as I am writing this, I am a bit hungry and the chicken teriyaki offer at my local food centre’s Japanese food vendor is getting more and more appealing…

I did some scouting around and finally I found some pre-owned Nintendo DSes for 79 SGD at Qisahn on the fifth floor of Far East Shopping Centre (not Far East Plaza). Mending my old DS would have cost 90 SGD, as it is so thoroughly broken, so I decided to buy a ”new”, pre-owned one.

As I realised that I will leave Singapore soon I decided I should start trying out some local delicacies sold at our supermarket. These ”pea buns” were drier than sand in the Atacama Desert, I won’t buy them again.

As Johor Bahru is too close to depict on a map, I won’t have a travel map this time.

勿行！

Zink. 2012-11-05 – 2012-11-11.

My last week of regular tuition is on! The end is near! Last week was not too exciting, some pictures were still taken.

Rushing across the footpath in fornt of our house. It was actually pretty large, close to 10 cm long, although it might not seem like it on the picture.

Yummy, the best of Taiwan available on North Bridge Road!

My highly lacking documentation was apparently enough to obtain a Mongolian visa!

I went to this shopping centre above City Hall MRT station (Raffles Place Shopping Centre or something) and for the first time ever I ate teriyaki food (chicken teriyaki) at the food court. OMG, the tastiest sauce in the world! I really should have had some while in Japan! Although the food I ate in Japan was wonderful too, there is no such thing as disgusting Japanese food! And yes, as you can see, Christmas decorations have appeared in Singapore. Orchard Road looks terrible.

An interesting discovery: there seems to be oat milk in Singapore too, although blended with cow milk. The next time I went to the shop, they had run out of this, though. Unfortunately, as with everything here, they have added sugar… Oats are sweet as they are, adding sugar is like putting ketchup on tomatoes!

Zinkensdamm, Plattan (Sergels torg), Tantolunden, Medborgarplatsen (?) och Bagaremossen (?). Rätta mig om jag haver fel, i synnerhet de två sista är jag osäker på, jag är ju ej stockholmare. Probably Swedish-designed earphones for sale at my university! The names are at least very inspired by Stockholm.

勿行！