Mr Huttunen, we have moved you from 50C to 5H

There's something very sweet in that sentence when you have 9-hour flight ahead of you. I bet the guy who was on the waiting list is also happy to get the seat 50C.

Mo' what?!?

I took the skytrain to Mo Chit today. The ticket is merely 70 cents and the train is air conditioned and clean. Mo Chit is the station close to Chatuchak weekend market. Luckily it was a cloudy day because it can be intolerably hot in there. You can by anything from there: furniture, clothes, lamps, soap, beer and squirrels. You can also see fighting cocks. I must say that the animals are not treated very nicely there. I would also assume that cock fighting would be illegal but apparently it isn't.

SIM or not SIM

For many years I managed with my corporate Sonera SIM-card. Eventually I noticed that the Internet access at the hotels costs too much. If you buy a flat-rate SIM with unlimited internet-access, you will save a lot of money. As I checked in to Amari Watergate, the receptionist asked if I want to take the Internet as well. The Internet Access would've have cost tens of dollars for the week. I bought a prepaid SIM for 6 euros a week with unlimited access. It's EDGE but still it's cheaper than the hotel's deal. I think it's aboout time that the hotels will have a look at the prices the mobile operators are charging. This is the second place where the mobile, wireless access, is cheaper than the WiFi access in the hotel room. If you happen to be in Bangkok, I recommend .DTAC SIM card with around 6 euros/week for unlimited Internet access over EDGE.

Bangkok Rain, Mekong?!?

I listened to the The Cult's Bangkok Rain and The Refreshments' Mekong on the way here. "Bangkok's rain keeps on falling down" or "Bangkok's pissing rain" which one's closer? At this time of the year it rains, at least once a day. Every guide book from Bangkok shows a picture of the Floating Market . However, the guide book I bought from Akateeminen Kirjakauppa tells that the floating markets in Bangkok are not as "good" as the floating market 100 kms outside of Bangkok... I have been here many times but I have never visited the Floating Market. Apparently all pictures of the floating market have been taken on Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. Tomorrow I will go to the weekend market J.J or Chatuchak market. I have been there before, but I'd like to see the inhuman animal market again... Maybe on Monday I will take a taxi to the Floating Market.
I haven't been to Far East Asia for a long time. After I landed I noticed that this is one of my favourite places. The food doesn't cost anything and it's delicious. Today I ate twice and both dishes cost less than 3 euros and both dishes were delicicous.
I have been here at least 5 times. 2 times I stayed in Siam City Hotel. Not bad. The best thing about Siam City is that it's close to the MTR station. So it's easy to get everywhere. I have also stayed in Amari Watergate Hotel. The best thing about Amari Watergate is that it's close to Pantip Plaza. It's a little bit futher away from the WTR but still within a walking distance. However it's practically on top of the Pratunam Market so if you're into cheap clothing, this is the place to stay. 50 euros/night is not much for a luxury hotel.
So tomorrow I will go to Chatuchak and on Monday to Floating market. How much do you think that a taxi to Floating market will cost?

Good cab, bad cab

Hotel Sheraton near Leblon and Ipanema is a little bit better location than Intercontinental in Sao Conrado. It's not perfect but OK. But they charge amazing 14 euros a day for the internet access. Nowadays Internet access should be a complimentary service as it doesn't cost much to the hotel to provide. I have actually quite nice view towards Ipanema, but also a view to the Vidigal favela. Actually, it is quite pretty, at night and from afar.
On Sunday I walked from the hotel to the end of Copacabana and back. About 15 kilometers and it started raining in the end. Having a chopp or two every couple of kilometers. At Copacabana, I saw a tattoo gone bad. A surfer had a tattoo in his back which said Ocean Therpy. "A" had been added later but of course it was smaller than other letters because it wouldn't have fit otherwise. Rule number 1: Do not take a tattoo from a guy who doesn't know English. Rule number 2: Don't take a tattoo on you back because you cannot check the spelling yourself, until it's too late.
Each day I take a taxi to Barra de Tijuca. From Barra back to the hotel, the taxis always use the meter and the price is about 30 reals. The morning is a different story. I hear explanations how the taxis wait here by the hotel many hours before they get a ride. Or how it takes such a long time to drive back to the hotel from Barra. That's why I should pay 40 reals. This morning I was tired of working late last night and I said to one of the drivers that I don't care how long do you have to wait for a client or how big is the traffic jam from Barra to the city. I will pay for the ride to Barra and nothing else. I also said that I could also take the hotel driver. The taxi guy said that it would cost 60 reals. That's true, but I am not paying the ride myself so I don't care. At least the hotel cars have safety belts and suspension. However, I managed to get the price down to 35 reals. I wouldn't care but they think I'm a tourist and that the more they screw them the better. In Barra, my driver said that he can take me there tomorrow also with 35 reals. Even this is too much, but this guys is being honest and not inventing stories how difficult it is to get back. It's their job for God's sake.
Let's see how many Brazilian escort service google ads this blog entry will get.

Madrid, 19 years after

Last time I was here was about 19 years ago and I must admit that the only thing I remember is Gran Via, Chamartin and Plaza de Espana. So, yesterday I took the train and headed towards the city. I had no idea where I'd have to step out so as soon as I saw something familiar, Madrid-Chamartin, I jumped off the train. It turned out that the train station which I remembered from our inter-rail trip was not located exactly in the city centre but actually quite far from it.
So, I continued with metro to the Gran Via station.
Today, I took the train to Atocha station and it was located much closer to the action. It is actually quite difficult to find a decent dinner around here if you want to eat something more than tapas or french fries and a lousy steak. However, jamon is plenty and always available. It's quite expensive, though. Everything (except the train ticket) is actually quite expensive. Thailand has taken over Spain as a cheap holiday destination.

Treinta in Tres Cantos

There is 30 degrees Celsius in Tres Cantos. But "it's not the heat, it's the hotness"... The air is very dry here so the heat doesn't bother at all. Tres Cantos seems to be a middle-class suburbia which is very neat and clean on any standards. It is about 20 km north of Madrid and there's a convenient train connection which takes only 25 minutes and costs amazing 1.85 euros. Also, a metro ticket inside Madrid is only 1 euro. Maybe this is what it should cost in Helsinki also, if they want people to use mass transit.
I am staying in Hotel Foxa Tres Cantos and, surprisingly, one movie comes to my mind when I walk the corridors... A better option would've been Que Fierro which is located next to the railway station but the station is only a 5-minute walk away from here as well.

Bad day in the office for Frau Wewerka

Holiday Inn City Center, my choice for accommodation in Munich. Very good breakfast and excellent location only two stops from Marieplatz. The only drawback is 22 euros for a day on the Internet. I don't think I have seen this kind of price before, anywhere. So I had to find another solution. My German colleagues said that there probably won't be any cheap alternative. Still, I decided to try. I went to the Vodafone shop and they had an offer for me: 4.95 euros/24h unlimited surfing. Valid until the end of August. I bought the prepaid 19-euro CallYa starter kit (10 euro credit included) and started surfing with my N95. In five minutes I received an SMS saying that my account was depleted. What could be the reason?
I have not been a prepaid user before so I had no idea what I had done wrong. So I went back to the shop and they said that I shouldn't have used the phone but, for example, a USB modem. Apparently it was the Vodafone live access point that took all my money. I bought some more credit and tried again with my Huawei USB HSDPA stick. This was a mission impossible. Even if I asked the access point name from the customer support, I was not able to use the stick. Customer support asked me to install Vodafone connect SW because my Mobile partner SW did not work here, for some reason.
Finally I gave up, deleted all Vodafone SW from my PC and tried with my N95 and a USB cable. Nokia PC Suite did the trick. I just pressed One touch access and the connection was activated. I am very happy with the speed and the quality of the service. And the price isn't that bad considering that I only need it for 4 days.
What has Frau Wewerka to do with all this? Nothing. She works in a bookshop at Karlsplatz. You should've seen her face when I bought the book (see the picture). The cover says it's a huge success in Germany.

Frankfurt airport and the toilet paper

Bring your own soft paper with you. The toilet paper at the Frankfurt airport looks like that it has splinters of wood in it. And it certainly feels like that.

"Armed response", "Response and reaction"

How would it feel to live in a neighborhood where every house has a sign where they threat to kill you? This is Johannesburg, South Africa. Unemployment is 37%... I bet there are nicer places in South Africa but I just don't get to go there. I have to admit that I have met a couple of very laid back and funny guys here so it is sad that there is the threat of violence everywhere. "Your favorite security store" sells electric fences at the shopping mall. "Darling, can you bring some milk, cereals and an electric fence". Can you imagine? There are a lot of gated ommunities and every house has a fence around it. It reminds me about my taxi driver in Rio who said: "Why do you think we have so many fences in Rio? Because we like dogs so much"... :-)
I just had dinner outside the hotel. I was in a restaurant in .Centurion shopping mall. After finishing my dinner, I asked the waiter if he can get me a taxi. He said "sure" and asked me to wait in the table. After half an hour he came and said that my taxi has come. He took me to the driver and I saw that there were two guys. I trusted that they're OK
because the restaurant had booked them for me. We went to the car, which did not have any taxi sign or a meter in it. I guessed that they are just some guys who do this for the extra money. To make sure where I was getting into, I asked how much would the trip cost. They said 150 rand which is quite a lot, but still there wasn't any real taxis anywhere. So we took off. They took me to my hotel and then I asked "I bet you cannot give me a receipt". They laughed and said "of course we can, we're professionals". Really funny guys like my "official" driver Joe, who takes me to the office in the morning.

Consequences of loadshedding

6 hours ago I didn't even know what it meant but I had suffered to consequences without knowing this word. The power is cut briefly every day. Today I learned that this is intentional and the power is cut for an hour every now and then. Usually starting on the hour. There is a brief outage before the generators kick off and start producing electricity for the building while the power lines don't supply any. While I am writing this, the power was cut at 7 pm. It came back at 8 pm. During this hour the generators of the hotel took care of providing electricity. Unfortunately there might be a brief interruption to the Internet connections, as well.
The government is planning to support energy saving by moving into daylight savings time in June, forcing the industrial units have holidays on alternate days, forcing the closure of commercial markets by 9 pm, banning neon signs and switching off half of the street lights.
P.S. I think it's a good idea to go home on Saturday. Tensions rise as the USA killed 12 people with a missile strike on Pakistani ground near the border with Afghanistan.
P.P.S. Three people were murdered in Lahore yesterday. TheNation published the pictures of the victims, dead of course.
One more piece of news: An angry mob killed 2 bandits and tried to burn their bodies. You don't see this every day in Finland.

Alcohol in Pakistan

Basically only non-muslims are allowed to drink alcohol and even they need to apply for a permit. Yesterday I bought a bottle of beer from room service. First I had to fill up an application. Among other things they asked what religion I confess and what is my father's name. I am not sure if they are going to call him to ask if I am allowed to drink beer, yet.
Anyway, finally I got my beer. It was domestic because all alcohol here is. I could tell from the etiquette that Murree beer has won several medals in USA, France, London and Ceylon, around the end of the 19th century... I must confess that I did not drink the whole bottle of this celebrated beer. I wonder how the domestic rum tastes? Maybe I will have to try tomorrow. It would be shame not to visit Rumor, the sports bar. I am, after all, the owner of a "Temporary Gold Card" to this establishment throughout my stay here. My permit to buy alcohol is valid for the whole month.

Unity, faith, discipline

This is kind of a motto of Pakistan. It was the first catch phrase I saw when getting from the airport to the hotel. What can you say? I am practising discipline by staying in the hotel for 3 days.

Istanbul, Turkey, again

I have Kia's camera with me but I don't have the cable or the memory card reader so I have to post the pictures taken with N95. Yesterday I saw a demonstration which was related to the demonstrations last week on 1st of May. Nothing happened, eventually, but there were a lot of policemen preventing the demonstrators from approaching the statue of Atatürk on Taksim square. I took some pics but unfortunately they are still in the camera... I will post them later. I have avoided the dessert made of strips of chicken breast and carrot juice (which tasted like fermented beet root juice) which I had last time I was here... I will also try to avoid them for the rest of the stay. By the way, Kimi and Heikki will be here for the weekend but I won't.

Sao Conrado and Rocinha

I stayed a week in Sao Conrado which is plagued by dengue and poverty. Not much to say. Nothing to do really except avoiding mosquitos. Rocinha is in the end of the road in the picture.

Trimming grass in Curitiba

This picture reminds me of the Kummeli sketch where the employees had to draw who gets the best tools. I guess these guys lost.
One more thing about Curitiba, the taxi drivers here also rounded the fare down. Just like the guy in Slovenia.

"Well organized for a Brazilian city"

This is what my brazilian colleague said about Curitiba, Brazil. Well, I have been here less than a day and I haven't noticed anything special, yet. However, this is also what other people on the Internet have noticed. Luckily my colleague also mentioned the weather. Being in Brazil one would expect warm weather but Curitiba is a bit chilly this time of the year.
P.S. You are not supposed to put the used toilet paper into the toilet bowl in Brazil but into the bin next to the bowl. While I was browsing the Internet to check this, I found these very amusing but also useful instructions. For example, the I broke the first rule in Bangkok last year to the amusement of Minna and Kia when the hotel plumbers came to fix the problem which wasn't originally caused by me but the previous guest.

Better things to do

I can think of many better ways to spend 4 hours on Friday evening than spending it on the Frankfurt international airport. Having your nails pulled off at the nail-pull-off parlour, for example...

The most honest nation in the world

I am in a city where you are most likely to get your lost mobile phone back. According to Reader's Digest, Slovenia is the most honest nation in the world. Interestingly some of the most successful East European countries are on the better half of the list. A week ago I had a bad experience with a taxi in Warsaw and this week in Ljubljana I paid 40.50 euro fare with a 50 euro bill. The driver gave me 10 euros back. Amazing. The wireless Internet access in Hotel Slon costs only 5 euros a day. Also amazing compared to some other hotels who charge almost 20 euros a day.

Soup of the day

I had an exceptional food experience today in Gospoda Kwiaty Polskie restaurant in the Warsaw old town. I am not very keen on eating soups but I decided to have a go. The waiter recommended polish rye soup. The soup had some sausages and boiled egg. It was really excellent. I don't know which one is better, the kidney soup I had in Hungary or this. The main course, pork neck with devil's sauce and fried potatoes wasn't as good.
On the way back to the hotel, I decided to take a taxi. When I sat in, the driver said, in bad English, that the trip (about 1.5 km) would cost 50-60 zlotys. I heard 15-16 zlotys and he showed the taxi meter. I was happy that he used the meter. Then we left and he said "very expensive" "private taxi" "Stare Miasto (old town)", meaning those tourist suckers. I asked, did he say 15-16 and he said no no, 50-60. I said no way and he stopped the car. I gave him 10 zlotys and he left quite angry, probably cursing in Polish. The price was on the window of the car and it was 9 zlotys/km. Unfortunately he left so fast that I did not get the picture of the license plate or the taxi number... The meter was rigged somehow because it actually showed 50 zlotys after a one minute drive. In the beginning the meter showed 6 zlotys, a normal starting price. In the mornings I take a taxi and it costs 40-50 zlotys and I get to ride 40 minutes. This taxi tried to charge the same amount for a two-minute ride.
Anyway, the soup was great. When in Warsaw, try it.

Ei sillanpäätä taata, kiväärilla saata

Warsaw looks like the streets were built for military parades, long and straight. Maybe they were. This is the 41st country I have ever visited, at least according to Visited countries website. On the website you can click the names of the visited countries and you will get a map which looks something like this:

Ice fishing at Saikari

Very small perch, but it's OK because this was probably the only chance of ice fishing this winter. By the way, the picture was published on this blog directly from the spot it was taken. If you want to see more pictures from Saikari and Niinivesi taken by me, check the Google Earth...

All done

See a tasmanian devil (my favourite animal as a child) - check








Pat a kangoroo (btw - it's not dead) - check







See the pelicans being fed at the Entrance - check









Tomorrow back to Sydney and maybe visit the Bondi beach. Minna wants to see it.

Finally some sun

Three days left and we finally find a place where the sun shines. Terrigal, I had never even heard about the place. When we were in Katoomba for the second night, we browsed the Lonely Planet guide New South Wales to figure out where we would go next. The book recommended Terrigal. As the Lonely Planet recommendations have been correct for so many times we decided that we will go to Terrigal. We booked a room for three nights in Country Comfort which has an excellent location near the beach and near the Esplanade. There are some interesting tidal pools and lots of beach life. Tomorrow we are planning to go to the Entrance to see the Pelican Feeding and hopefully we will also se a tasmanian devil, my favourite animal from my childhood.

Govett's leap and the falls

One of the major views to the grand hole is from the Govett's leap near Katoomba. In the middle of the picture you can see a lookout to which we took a small hike. Kia was quite tired on the way back up.

Tin Can Church in Lowther

On the way back from the Jenolan Caves to Katoomba, we saw this funny looking church made of tin plate.

Jenolan caves

After a disappointing visit to one of the places Lonely Planet calls ghost towns, we headed to the Jenolan Caves. We took a tour (Lucas cave) which sent us into the mountain for 1 km walk, including 910 strenous steps. The guide was quite funny and had been working there for 38 years. After 910 steps in the cave, we had to climb the same amount of steps back to the Carpark 2.

Minna, Kia and three sisters

From Hunter Valley, we drove to the Blue Mountains. We expected excellent views as the Blue Mountains have some quite big holes in the ground. As soon as we arrived and found an accommodation from the Three Explorers Motel , conveniently located just a couple of hundred meters from the Echo Point, we went there to see the big hole and the Three Sisters. We climbed down the stairs closer to the first sister and you can see Minna and Kia quite high up above the tree tops.

Unnecessary sign

About 200 metres from the Cedar Creek Cottages we saw this sign. We thought it was unneccessary.

One more night

Minna liked Hunter Valley so much that she insisted to stay one more night. But she also insisted that we shouldn't stay in a standard hotel but we should have something special. We drove back to the Hunter Valley information center and asked about accommodation. They had a bulletin board for last minute accommodation deals and we decided to book a cottage from Cedar Creek Cottages and Stonehurst Wines. It was even recommended by the Lonely Planet guides. It was actually quite far from Cessnock so we decided to use the BBQ amenities at the cottage. We bought some chicken kebabs and wine and set up the grill.As we had not had new years sparkling wine yet, we tried the Stonehurst wine from the minibar of the cottage. We stayed in the Gardeners cottage which was one of the three cottages by the patch of Shiraz grapes. I have to say that it was one of the best accommodations I have stayed in. Excellent breakfast was included and some port wine for the evening. There were a lot of spiders and their webs in the garden but luckily Kia noticed the big one on the porch only after we had slept the night. She wouldn't have slept at all if she'd knew that there was a spider on the porch as well. Neither she liked the bug. We asked if we could stay for one more night in the cottage, but it was alredy booked for someone else for the next night.

Above the Hunter Valley

Finally my Manfrotto comes in handy. A picture from the Bimbadeen Mountain lookout. Mountain View Road is one of the things you must do at Hunter Valley. I don't remember driving this before so this was the first time for the whole family.

Evening snack in Hunter Valley

After some wine tasting and Smelly Cheese Shopping Minna and I had an evening snack. Kia also had some cheese which tasted like Kippari.

The easternmost point

After leaving Surfers Paradise, I wanted to see Byron Bay and the Cape Byron lighthouse. The weather was still quite windy and rainy but we were able to see the lighthouse, the surfers and the town itself. We were in Byron Bay for only a brief time but it felt immediately better than Airlie Beach. Of course Airlie Beach had the Reef but that's it. I would rather spend my holiday in Byron Bay, if the weather was any better. Now we just moved on. We planned to take the Watefall Road to New England Highway but it was impossible to find a motel with vacancies late at night. Eventually we drove from Byron Bay to Newcastle. Much further south than we had thought. I was tired and Minna tried to keep me awake. Surprisingly we found Battery energy drink, Made in Finland, from a gas station at Port Macquarie.We arrived at Raymond Terrace at 4 am in the morning and after a 5-hour sleep we headed towards Cessnock and Hunter Valley. Learning from the mistake we made yesterday, we booked a hotel immediately on arrival. We chose Best Western and tommorrow we will change into another one.