Visa in hand

To our amazement, obtaining a Chinese Visa in the Philippines(hard country to spell) was easier than outrunning an overweight person.(because a baby has reactions, so taking candy from one wouldn't be a justified comparison) It actually only took one working day, and the lady wasn't hesitant at all.

I already said we're going to Japan tomorrow, but I'll let you know a little bit about the Philippines. It's dirt, poor and corrupt. But everybody loves basketball, so I love it. I'm watching as many NBA playoff games as I can. They air a 9am here. I also have defied doctor's orders, and have played a couple of games again. The arm feels good, and I really think playing is good for it. I just have to avoid getting tangled up and getting too physical. The doc said I have some torn ligaments, and in the beginning of May, my motion was only 70%. It's way better now. Chris' scars have fully healed too. He's only a little bummed, because he doesn't think his scar is going to be permanent. You're not equal to the locals unless you have a big motorbike scar over here....

We had to stay put in Manila, to sort out the passport. After crashing and burning earlier, we didn't leave any room for error. Sitting on the same plane as the Harlem Globetrotters was pretty cool, watching their game howewer, was not... But we've both agreed that we want to come back to this country, and spend more time exploring it. It is by far the cheapest country we've been in, which is always positive. But it's damn HOT!!!

Remi Elias

Satan i Japan

Its pretty obvious what this means in english, Satan in Japan. This refers to an expression we made up more than a year ago. And when we made the Great Bucket List 08, one of the things to do was to be Satan i Japan. This proved difficult, because all the money we get our hands on, were saved for this trip. And seeing as though we were going to Asia anyway, we decided to postpone Satan i Japan until we alread were in the neighborhood.

What we're actually going to do is still not certain. All along we knew we had to go to Japan, and be Satan. I'm sure it'll come to us when we're there. We're so lucky that we have a skilled photographer with us. Kristian, from Chris' class in college, has been working in Shanghai, and is going to join us for a couple of days in Japan. So we're going to be in Japan, we have a photographer, I guess all that remains is to find out how we're going to be Satan....

Remi Elias

O China, why do thee hate us so much?

We are increadebly upset with China right now. Bottom line is that we paid for 6 month multiple entry visa in january. It cost 1000NOK, and if you go to the website, its there in black and white. (http://no.chineseembassy.org/eng/lsfw/fdlqz/t300745.htm)

However, as we discovered at KL airport yesterday, the visa we have is only for 3 months. Our visas say 'entry before 12APR2009' and 'issue date 12JAN2009.' Earlier we understood this as the date we to enter the welcoming country for the first time. But we were wrong, terribly wrong. After staying up all night, afraid to miss our flight from Bali at 7:30 am, this was the last thing we needed. The only positive side, was that we were many hours early. After trying all embassys we could, we finally got through to the Chinese embassy in Norway 20 minutes before boarding closed. I had the pleasure of aquainting a very humble and service-minded individual, who enlightened me on the status quo. After telling our side of the story, he replied: "When people request 6 month visa, sometimes we give 3 months, sometimes we give 4 months, sometimes 5 and sometimes 6. You should check your visa before travel."

I was amazed. Is this really how you treat other people? The answer 24 hours later is without a doubt, yes! The expired visa situation has snowballed into so much bullshit that I don't even have the energy to type it. Basically, we're skipping China. If they don't want us there, then we sure ass hell don't want to go there either. We have 1600NOK credit at Air Asia to spend, so we're going to the Phillipenes, followed by Japan. Unfortunately, we have to enter China to get home, so the last 3 days will be spend in this country that I have learned to dislike. I'm not going to say hate, by I will definately use that word towards their embassies in Norway and Malaysia.

A tired and pissed of Remi Elias

PS: The worst part is that we actually had to spend ANOTHER two nights in Kuala Lumpur. It's actually our fifth time here, and once was enough...

17th of may celibrated Bali style!

17th of May marks, as all Norwegians should know, our independance day in 1814. (I actually had to double check with Chris for the year. I blame the celibration yesterday for this) For the first time of our lives, we were away from home on this national day. Luckily, we happened to be in Bali surrounded by a bunch of other Norwegians. We met up with some girls who studied a year in Singapore, making us about 20 people. The day started at 4:30pm at the beach. Some of the group went earlier to the beach, but the biggest party day in Norway is the day BEFORE 17th of May, so the day started at 4:30 for me. Two of the girls had the whole day planned out, with games on the beach, followed by dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. At the beach we were seperated into 4 teams and were given different tasks. Of course my team won.... Chris made me say that his team were runners up.

A funny coincidence at Hard Rock, was when we realized that the merry people sitting on the big table next to our bigger table were Norwegian too. Therefore the group became even bigger, and we felt as patriotic as ever. A highlight was when we turned down the music and sang the national anthem, followed by three 'hoorays for the 17 of May,' and finished with some classical "her blir det liv RAI RAI."(unexplainable)

Tonight is unfortunatelly our last in Bali, a beautiful island. The highlight of this day was when I flew a kite from the back of a motorbike, with Chris videotaping from the bike infront. We have to get up a the terrifying time of 5:30am tomorrow, to fly to Shanghai, with a couple of hours in KL. Our plans for China havent really been made(surprise), but we want to see Beijing and the wall. If possible, we'll sneek into Mongolia too.

Hope everybody had a nice national day back home, we're off to the "Best restaurant in Indonesia," called Queens Tandori.

Remi Elias

The magic of an open calendar

We're currently on our third day i Na Trang, and were determined to leave this place today. But we're not the quickest cats in town, so we didn't get up until 1:30pm, and we didn't reach the ticket office until 3:30pm. By then we were set on going to Dalang, 5 hours inland from Natrang. However, the last bus of the day left at 4pm, and there simply wasn't enough time. We already settled that we didn't want to go on a 10-12 hour bus ride up to Hoi An and Hue, because that would result in us taking the same bus back down again 4 days later(a 24+ hour ride!!) Bummed and looking for other trips, a moto(motorbike taxi) comes up to me and askes if i want to go to Dalang today. I answer that I did, but the last bus already left(all the time aware of any way he might try to scam or trick me. Not the most honest people these Vietnamese, and especially not the moto's).

This man said he was an easy rider, and could take me on his big motorcycle. We wee actually talking about cruising around with an easy rider in Dalang the next day, and asked for a combo deal. He wanted to take us to Dalang tonight, and onward to Ho Chi Minh for the 8th, when our scheduled plane to KL is set. Now my scamdar was on high alert(scam radar), and I was very sceptical of this man going back and fourth to the shop with information and price suggestions. Then, all of a sudden Papa Hahn appears. It seemed like the others respected him, and backed down. When replying we were Norwegian, he showed us a book with comments by 3 Swedish girls, on how great his services were, and how much of the unwalked path they were able to see with him. My scamdar level dropped dramaticly, and Chris was super psyked for the get go. Onward, we went into his "office" where he showed us the route and detailed information of each stop. He had Chris at easy(in easy rider), and I was fully convinced at this point too. 55 USD a day, which covers everything(probably not food, but what can you expect).

Therefore, a day that started with us planning a 10 hour trip up north, ended up in a crazy two wheel adventure! That's how I like to travel....


Remi Elias

Nha Trang

Heisann!
Naa er i i Nha Trang vietnam! her er vearet noe varierende med skiftende skydekke, er regnsesong her naa, saa derfor var det jo litt ugunstig aa dra til vietnam, men saann gaar det no.. er egentlig ikke saa veldig gale..

i dag har vi veart aa vandret rundt i byen, en ganske saa spennende by faktisk.. vi har ogsaa flydd drage!! dette foregikk nede ved stranden, var stort sett bare lokale og oss som flydde drage, men det gjorde det jo bare ekstra kjekt..










็

seriost

naa drar vi videre, fra ho chi minh til mui ne..

her i ho chi minh har vi veart aa sett trafikken, og saa har vi veart paa krigs museet, sett hvordan amerikanerne tapte krigen her i vietnam.. vi hadde ogsaa en tur paa en takresturant aa spiste BBQ, noe av det beste vi har spist her nede..

naa drar vi videere.. the bus is here, sier damen...


Over og ut!

Christian