Japan

Did I say Hong Kong was exp... oh, I`ve done that one. I`m now in Kyoto, having flown into Osaka. Its freezing cold -1`C out there. I have practically all my nice sunny clothes on at once. Ok,�@ok, I`ve just had 3 months of tropical sun, its about time I got some cold weather.
Kyoto is absolutely full of temples, castles, history, gardens - its quite a nice place. Far more expensive than Osaka, which had a castle and an aquarium. With an obscenely large whale shark. The only other gaijin out here seem to be english teachers. The hotels are really weird - I`ve just about got the hang of the shoes thing -don`t wear your shoes, ever- but the opening times? Restaurants closing at 6.30pm, hotels closing for 6 hour lunches, shops opening 10am including breakfast bars... maybe it`ll make sense in a week or so.
There`s a nice free internet connection at this university, I may be here often!

Hong Kong

Did I say Singapore was expensive? Whoops. Hong kong is.. less expensive than Japan is going to be, but still thrashes Singapore. Hong Kong does actually deserve the "bustling" and "vibrant" accolades, both of which my Lonely Planet fails to mention this time! Very good food, the source of Dim Sum, huge skyscrapers, weird artificial parks and a big hill. The book says the shops are real rip-offs with terrible reputations, but they are cheap. One of my friends bought a digital camera here (Nikkon Coolpix 885 if you're interested) and it was under 200 pounds, according to pricewatch.co.uk the best you'll do in Britain was 350. However, I don't actually need a digital camera.
Its very nice to be back in cold weather. 10-20'C feels like a freezer after the 32'C steambaths I've been in the last 3 months. Yes, Hong Kong is about as far south as Egypt, weird currents and stuff. Japan this Saturday, even colder.
I've been thinking about the most outrageous lies I've been told while travelling. I liked the "oh, so sorry, that hotel is full and it burnt down yesterday". Also the "I don't want your money, only a hundred rupees will do". A special award for enthusiam goes to the Kashmiri tout in New Delhi who patiently rang a non-existant number, had a conversation with himself for 10 minutes, and wrote down the huge numbers of people on the waiting list for every train for the next week. Of course, he had a car and driver available for hire seeing as I couldn't go by train... (None of the trains were full. This is an incredibly common scam). The airport in Bali that charges you 15$US as a service charge (over the airport tax), to provide no service whatsoever. The 3 Sweedish girls who want to go on a trek, but need 3-4 other people to fill up the group (told to us 3 european blokes... needless to say, the girls didn't turn up!). Taxis, everywhere.
I'm curious. Who's reading this? Send me an email on matthewharrup at hotmail.com (I'm trying to keep my email address away from robots).

Singapore

I've just had four days in Singapore, off to Hong Kong today. There's not a lot to see here, and its expensive, but the night safari was excellent and off course, drinking a singapore sling in the Raffles hotel.
For the night safari, there's a patch of rainforest left in Singapore that they've converted into an open zoo and filled with creatures that only come out at night. You can walk round the safe bits or catch a tram through the bits with fierce creatures in them.
Had a weird "steamboat" for dinner, a plate of raw meat and a pot of boiling water, it was like a do it yourself stirfry, except it was more a stir-boil. Never seen it before, but the locals were doing it so why not?

Indonesia

I can't make up my mind about Indonesia. Its had the best and worst accomodation, some of the hardest travelling, nicest places and complete slums. Its got unspoilt jungle except for the swarms of mutant bees hovering around your face, and I suppose that is actually natural. Huge volcanoes. Ancient temples that have nothing to do with the muslim/christian people - Borobudur and Prambanan. Bali, a tourist tout's dream. And lots of geckos. Geckos are really cool, one turns up in the room and ten minutes later all those annoying mozzies have been eaten.

Bali

So much for the plan! We went to the east side, changed our minds, went to the north, then to the south. For an island only 40 miles long it really shouldn't take 4 hours to get one side to the other. The north was really nice - maybe 10% full, with huge discounts on all the hotels. But it had black sand beaches that just looked dirty. We went on a dolphin trip, except the boat broke down and went around in circles for 2 hours.
I'm down in Kuta at the moment, Liz has just flown back to London. Its quite busy, but most of it is desperate hawkers who do not take no for an answer. It can get quite annoying, the sheer persistance of some of their attempts. Like moneychangers who keep saying "is that enough?" when they've given you half the ammount - they don't expect to get away with that one, they just want to wear down your defences so they can shuffle some money back to them (and they did even though I was watching carefully- bizarrely though, we went back and complained and got most of it back). Its a different attitude out here - no one is ripped off, but some people are better hagglers than others.
Having said that, its a very nice beach down here, lovely sea, very cheap accomodation (5 pounds a night double room/bathroom/swimming pool), very cheap and very nice food, a steady 32'C at midday... Ah well, its only money, isn't it?
I'm now planning on doing some diving. Well, some chilling out, then some diving.

Java

Java's been a bit of a disappointment really - far too many people in it, lots of hassle, nothing works as it should, and you have to add 50% on to all the given times. Jakarta was too hot and humid, Bogor rained all the time (aka "the city of rain", with 322 thunderstorms a year!), Yogya was "cultural" i.e. full of people doing "traditional" things for tourists that they'd never do normally.
I'm off to Bali tomorrow - the flight from here is 30 pounds, and it'll be nice and deserted. We'll head up to the east side, just under the volcano.
Lizzie - my girlfriend- has arrived, I may be frogmarched away from any internet cafes for the next two weeks. Hmm, I wonder if she knows this address...