Nobody drinks coffee in Finland. At least they don't drink it in the morning when it makes sense. If you search far and wide you can find a coffee shop, but then it won't open until 10:30am. I can't see how these people survive. Had to leave.

I'm in Stockholm now, about to catch up on much lost sleep. Did a night train from Kemijarvi to Turku, then a day wandering around in search of said cuppacino, then straight onto the night ferry for Sweden, with no cabins available. Got in to a hostel this morning, and ended up in a room with 5 loud italian guys who proceded to pack and talk for 2 hours. Yessir, sleep sounds good.

The midnight sun was cool!

written by  Jason Kester on June 16, 2004 from Stockholm, Sweden
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, the Trans Siberian and Scandenavia
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The train got in at 7am, and the hostel I wanted opens at 8, so I killed an hour walking along Nevsky Prospekt and checking out an old monastery. Fine so far, but the hostel turned out to be full. Went back to the train station where there is an internet café and found and booked a different hostel.

Walking out of the station I took a wrong turn and didn't realize it until I was a mile down the wrong road. Cut across town, managing to pass roughly every tourist site in town, and finally made it to where I wanted to be. Only to find that this hostel has no sign out front. And I didn't have the address written down.

No phone number, no address, no sign. Three hours had passed by the time I made it back to the same internet café and purchased another 5 minutes online and a pencil.

Lucky for me, they actually honored my online reservation, so I'm sorted. I was close to booking a ticket to Helsinki for tonight. I figured I'd seen the whole town anyway, and clearly it didn't want me here. But life is good again. I think I'll go sleep away the afternoon.

written by  Jason Kester on May 31, 2004 from Saint Petersburg, Russia
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, the Trans Siberian and Scandenavia
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The train was fun, though not quite the grand adventure it's made out to be. Mostly it was the easiest part of my trip thus far. Just hanging out in one place for 4 days and talking to people in German (nobody speaks english in Russia, but they usually understand some German.) Every few hours, you get to step out onto the platform for 15 minutes and buy more Piroshkis or sausages. Got two books read!

written by  Jason Kester on May 28, 2004 from Moscow, Russia
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, the Trans Siberian and Scandenavia
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Mongolia is really cool. It's like you took eastern Washington, made it 100 times as vast, covered it with a nice lawn and added Yaks. Not a fence to be seen outside of town, and not much in the way of towns. We drove for 8 hours and passed one village on the way east from Ulaan Baatar.

My cyrillic skills are coming along, which in nice, otherwise I'd never find my way back to YnaaH baatap, or anybody to sell me some byy3 or xyywyyp for lunch.

Tonight I hop the train North, so I'll be out of communication for at least a week. Got a pocket full of Roubles and a smile on my face. This should be good!

written by  Jason Kester on May 18, 2004 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, the Trans Siberian and Scandenavia
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Not at all impressive. But it was nice to see the Sunrise over Beijing, and we found a good restaurant for a breakfast of steamed dumplings and wonton soup. I woke up at 4:30, and am just now getting started with my day.

written by  Jason Kester on May 6, 2004 from Beijing, China
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, the Trans Siberian and Scandenavia
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There are no tranquil pools that you can sit by and think about life. They have tranquil pools of course, but they are surrounded by hotels, Ferris wheels, aerial tramways, and filled in with gravel so that they can be converted into a Hot Spring.

Beijing is cool though. It's big but not dense. I could deal with living here. Apart from that though, you'd really need to know Chinese well enough to find a remote village if you wanted to see China in its unaltered version.

written by  Jason Kester on May 6, 2004 from Beijing, China
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, the Trans Siberian and Scandenavia
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It's a strange place here. They really love tourism. Everything worth visiting has been developed in the Disneyland model. Bigger is better. Take a place with amazing views and natural splendor, then add roller-coasters and aerial tramways to make it even better. Most tourists are Chinese, in giant package groups.

It's the Chinese labor holiday this week, so everybody is traveling to all the tourist sites. And when everybody in China does something, it's quite a thing to see. Yangshuo was pretty crowded when I first got here, but on the first it just went insane. You simply could not walk down the streets because the people were too thick. Hotel prices are tripled, you can't find an empty seat on a train, and even more tourists are flocking everything. It would be amusing if I wasn't in a hurry to get to Beijing. As it is, I'm essentially trapped in the South for the next 7 days.

written by  Jason Kester on April 30, 2004 from Yangshuo, China
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, the Trans Siberian and Scandenavia
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Vietnam is still groovy. Found a little roll-your-own springroll place on the street the other day, where they give you some wrappers, a bunch of mint leaves, and a giant platter of raw pork. I thought you were supposed to die if you ate uncooked pork, but the place was packed with locals and none of them seemed to care. Still alive, for the time being.

I'm on the train to China tomorrow night, for some climbing and chillin' in Yangshuo. If it were up to me, I'd take the next 2 months to go through China slowly, then maybe another month for Mongolia and Russia. Unfortunately, the Russians are not too flexible with their visas. I committed to the dates thinking that 5 months in SE Asia would be plenty. It seems that no amount of time is ever quite enough.

written by  Jason Kester on April 22, 2004 from Hanoi, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, the Trans Siberian and Scandenavia
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Went Indian tonight. It was good too, but I fear it will only send me back into the fried wontons and white rose with renewed vigor tomorrow. I may never escape this accursed town!

So yeah, I've found the place in SE Asia that even my mother would enjoy. Clean, nice, four zillion tailors (I'm having a silk shirt made for $8, but only because I didn't bargain very hard.) Hot water, A/C if you want it, good coffee. Everything you could need, and cool spring weather to boot. Book a flight to Danang, and catch a shuttle on down. I'll probably still be here.

written by  Jason Kester on April 10, 2004 from Hoi An, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, the Trans Siberian and Scandenavia
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