"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.