World Travel for 23 years! :)

[BaguaKicksAss]

Hong Kong is such a fantastic place to spend some time in. Lived and worked there for a year back in the 90s. Never a dull moment. Street food is fab, such variety and exotica... yum! Dim sum/congee/iced tea in the mornings, stir-fried veg and roasted goose for lunch, and even when you feel like indulging, 5-star hotel brunches for a song! These afternoon tea sessions are a fave among locals and tourists alike, with the widest menu choices on the face of this earth haha!!

 

Its not an expensive place, except for having to rent accommodation long-term. Space is a premium here, and people have been known to make millions just from selling a few parking spaces in the city core.

 

Safe enough to explore on your own, any time of the day or night. Its a city that literally never sleeps.

 

And lots of places and names to dig around where spiritual/energetics expansion is concerned.

 

 

 

As for Malaysia, my home country, its even more diverse than Hong Kong in terms of culture and customary practices due to the cohabitation of mainly Chinese, Malay and Indian folks who live here. Same with Singapore. Both these countries are tops where travel safety is concerned, with Singapore having a slight edge. The only thing i dont like about Singapore is the over-emphasis on cleanliness, almost to the point of dictatorial. No smoking in public, no chewing gum, no this no that. A nation of perfect citizens... (hmmm....)

 

But, do they have Bagua there?

 

I heard that Hong Kong is quite expensive?? Or just perhaps compared with China. I love the dim sum restaurants here (we have a very large chinatown and whole suburb with asian people and restaurants here . So I've had a LOT of dim sum, would be awesome to try it in Hong Kong, as all my favorites are from there. I'm not much for large cities and lots of people though, so it is likely I would try every single street vendor (oh wait a minute, they are safe to eat? Awesome!) then get out of town heh.

[suninmyeyes]

That is one thing which is a bit annoying about some other countries I travel to, they never heard of PLATONIC, hello? lol

This is very interesting , cultural differences -- the way life is expressed geographicly can be different in some ways .

In many cultures there is no male/female friendship at all , in some places friendship is not AT ALL same what we would consider friendship and intimacy between friends here in Europe .

But yeah it is ANNOYING not to be able to move around freely in some places around the world becouse of being female .

Even if wearing a "wedding ring" I have noticed... I could perhaps learn the word "lesbian" in several different languages .

Beware becouse being a lesbian is a strange concept for a lot of cultures .

It is just plain wierd , if not highly unnacaptable .

 

Anyway two women -- a lesbian couple spend a month in Haiti(out of all places) and loved it a lot , but got approached a lot and found it extremly annoying, even though one of them is so butch ( and has little moustache even ). She told me she never got approached by man before for ever and does not understand what happened . lol

Tragi comedy .

 

 

In Egypt at least they compliment you first ROFL .

 

Lovley , what a gentleman ! hahah

 

Thank you for saying this, I'm glad that it is generally safe. Generally when I travel I avoid the tourist places like the plague.

 

 

How well do you know the language? Unfortunately I don't at all. Not that this has stopped me in any other country, but China could be different. I'm wondering if I would need to hire a guide/translator or not?

I dont know if you need translator for China , I never heard of anyone having one , translator would never cross my mind as a must for travel to place where I dont understand the language , but it may be a good idea depending what is your purpose ..

 

That whole heart open up thing, yes definitely, I have found overall that folks in the various third word countries can be amazingly open and loving, giving, and so forth. It is a nice contrast sometimes. I always find it interesting that some can be living in poverty, terrible conditions and so forth, but usually still be smiling and genuinely happy .

I find that there is a physical poverty and poverty of spirit , and they do not necessary go hand in hand .

 

Hmmm, I'm not so sure about going alone or not, it is difficult to tell. I mean either gender in this. Whenever I travel I tend to dress down (actually I do all the time anyways lol, but I put a conscious effort into it when traveling), and I feel this helps. Still though the shoes I wear are a year's worth of income for some folks. I feel I could probably go alone if I made at least a few contacts before I left. The couchsurfing thing would most definitely be viable. Also if there are any hostels. Also the hotels tend to look after folks, especially if a woman is running it. I only felt slightly unsafe twice in Haiti, once when my friend and I went to the market alone (we were given hell after by our Haitian friends for doing that), and when I was carrying a rather large sum of money through town (though in that case it was likely more my fears).

 

 

I found Haiti to be less safe than Egypt (Egypt's economy is run on tourists so we are taken care of, and we are always right in a police dispute), in Haiti, not so much lol. Still though the people treated us well, and didn't try to scam me like in Egypt.

 

The couchsurfing was so much fun, it was in an apartment full of women, and they were trying to teach me Haitian dancing and even invited me out dancing with them . One of them even came with us so I could see the local cemetery.

 

Also a woman I know of lived in Haiti for about 8 years, and I mean in the backcountry of Haiti!!!! That is pretty impressive. She is from the USA.

That sounds like fun .

Yes I have met/heard of women living in so called dangerous places by themselves , so inspiring .

 

No I did not, thank you . That reminds me how much I would just LOVE to cycle around Albania for a year. Albania is gorgeous, and most of the roads would work for this. The only thing is... bicycles in these various countries tend to suck, and my good bicycle would likely get stolen within a few minutes, or at least parts of it. Not that they don't where I live now, but still lol.

 

I am sure you can find a good bike in Albania in capital ... In that blog there are women who have been on the road for 1 or 2 years and none wrote about their bike getting stolen ..

I cycle at least 6 days a week for at least around an hour on a a low quality bike and am fine (too many bikes got stolen ). Long distances do not require and amazing bike either , just good enough .

Edited November 24, 2013 by suninmyeyes

[suninmyeyes]

There will always be horror stories and naysayers telling you how dangerous places are. If you listen to all of them, you might as well never leave you house.

 

I just met a Finnish woman who said she would never go to India because of the recent gang rape stories whereas I found India to be the most peaceful, friendly and nonviolent place I had ever been. Who is right - no idea - that's up to you to decide.

In my expirience India is extremly sexist and can be disrespectful towards women who do not fit into a good "wife category" . Incredible really , some man just help themselves and feel very free to grab parts of a woman on street or public transport . It is not unusual , it does not mean that it happens to everyone , but it is so much more common occurance than in Europe for exampl

 

 

Do love India a lot , as it is very special place and have met some lovley people there , but this discrimination aspects really puts me off .

 

 

In comparison to Thailand for example which is a breeze where man are predominatly just super cool . I could dress in normal clothes and was left alone without comments and constant stares , very friendly people who know what importance personal space means .

Edited November 24, 2013 by suninmyeyes

[BaguaKicksAss]

In my expirience India is extremly sexist and can be disrespectful towards women who do not fit into a good "wife category" . Incredible really , a lot of man just help themselves and feel very free to grab parts of a woman on street or public transport .

 

Do love India a lot , as it is very special place and have met some lovley people there , but this aspect really puts me off and would need a lot of deciding before going back there for that reason .

 

 

In comparison to Thailand for example which is a breeze where man are predominatly just super cool . I could dress in normal clothes and was left alone without comments and constant stares .

 

*Must focus more on wrist locks, so as to keep myself out of prisons in india for maiming inappropriate groping guys*

[C T]

But, do they have Bagua there?

 

I heard that Hong Kong is quite expensive?? Or just perhaps compared with China. I love the dim sum restaurants here (we have a very large chinatown and whole suburb with asian people and restaurants here . So I've had a LOT of dim sum, would be awesome to try it in Hong Kong, as all my favorites are from there. I'm not much for large cities and lots of people though, so it is likely I would try every single street vendor (oh wait a minute, they are safe to eat? Awesome!) then get out of town heh.

I trust You would be pleased to see this, BKA... http://cstang.www3.50megs.com/baguazhang.html

 

 

Hong Kong would be expensive in some ways, but it is a city 'hidden' with plenty of delightful surprises (sights, food, travel, accommodation, etc.) -- there is a big expat community in HK and once you are able to make a few friends who have been living there for a while they will (hopefully) fill you in on all the nitty gritty details of how to live it up on a few bucks a day. Not sure about now, but back in those days everything was so cheap! For me it was like a paradise cos then i was big into shopping, gadgets and sound systems, all of which are were so much cheaper compared to other South-east Asian countries.

Edited November 24, 2013 by C T

[suninmyeyes]

*Must focus more on wrist locks, so as to keep myself out of prisons in india for maiming inappropriate groping guys*

Some Indian women told that in this case one should take of their shoe/flip flop (!) and smack offender on the face with it . This is meant to be hight of degradation and way to bring others positive attention appropriatley in this kind of situation so people will understand what is going on .

[BaguaKicksAss]

Some Indian women told that in this case one should take of their shoe/flip flop (!) and smack offender on the face with it . This is meant to be hight of degradation and way to bring others positive attention appropriatley in this kind of situation so people will understand what is going on .

 

Thank you very much for the tip!

[Formless Tao]

I have found that the travel with at least one other person just isn't going to happen (at least until I hit my first hostel over there that is hehe), so planning for it to just be me. I have tried to entice all my martial arts friends over there though! However also most north americans that I know personally, would not be willing to travel in the same conditions I am (hostels). Yes I have definitely heard that before about an asian woman traveling with a westerner, sometimes they get called some pretty horrible names as well apparently. It is unfortunate. The Cambodia and Vietnam trips must have been awesome . It is so beautiful over there from all I have been told about it. My fellow hostelers have convinced me that at some point in my life I need to go. I tend towards a backpack (customs just loves this, not lol) and no jewelry for these very reasons . That scenario is always a little unnerving! LOL When I first went to Mexico, it took me a few days to get used to machine guns everywhere! I do have a photo of myself with a group of Mexican police holding their machine guns and me doing the peace sign thing . That sounds amazing . It is definitely a place I would like to travel to. The magic of the area fascinates me, as do the artifacts. I have some that I bought here about 25 years ago, and they most definitely do have a life to them. This is what first interested me in the area. Now that I know one person who has a house/family over there, and another that lived there for 10 years or so practicing the local martial arts! Oh most definitely about a local, I traveled through Albania that way, it was wonderful! I was taken to places tourists would never know about or be able to get to. Him telling people I was Canadian convolute helped at times too ROFL. They actually stopped some road work that would have taken hours to let us drive through hehe. The best part was a castle in the middle of nowhere no one really visited much.. given the keys and allowed to go look around, entire place to ourselves! We took the opportunity to perform a few rituals of course. The caretaker also said that yes we could stay overnight and bring a few other people if we wanted. Sooo tempting for the most awesome retreat ever. I have heard about that aspect of china! I'm guessing some knowledge of the local language is necessary, or no? Probably easier in the larger cities. Definitely the large knife in india thing. I guess it might be handy that I train martial arts. Not 100% failsafe obviously, but helps I'm sure. While staying in an ashram though, damn! I even keep that stuff in mind when traveling to the USA! Aside from dangerous, I also think it's quite rude to wear expensive jewelry in countries where people can barely afford food. I also wear a moneybelt when I travel overseas and keep just a few small bills in the section where I pull money out to give to someone.. Yes it took me awhile to adjust in Egypt to that idea, not sure why it took so long there compared with other places. The funny thing is that quite honestly I experienced more and longer culture shock in TX than I did in Egypt! I'm not joking.. Thank you for the advice and encouragement, and your awesome travel stories, FT .

My mum only knew the Chinese herb names, body parts and some very basic Mandarin and she managed. I find that body language and hand gestures work wonders when we dont know the local language

 

When I went to Vietnam I carried just under $10,000.00 USD for a Korean friend who lived their. I put $5,000.00 in one money belt and gave it to my wife to carry and I carried the other $5,000.00 in a second money belt. After we got through customs I carried it all

 

On the way back from Vietnam I kept my Swiss army knife in my hand luggage by accident and I got told of by a customs officer. Embarrassing ;p

 

Anytime BKA. I love traveling, travel stories, sharing tips, tricks and experiences...I have many more travel stories

 

Peace FT

Edited November 25, 2013 by Formless Tao

[Marblehead]

Did I tell Y'all about one of my trips to Mexico?

 

I'll tell it again just in case I haven't.

 

My second trip (vacation) to (I was still in the Army then) Manzanillo, Mexico was during a change of station leave and I was carrying my Harley on a trailer behind my car.

 

One day I wondered what I could do for excitement and decided to ride my Harley up a nearby volcanic mountain just to see how far up it I could get. Almost one-half way up the ignition wire on my Harley shorted out and the engine died. So the question now is: What am I going to do now? I had no tools with me.

 

After recovering my hearing I hear voices a little further up the mountain. So I start walking to see who is there and hope that they had a pair of pliers I could borrow to splice a good wire to the ignition and get the bike running again.

 

As I approach as see the first person, a man, I immediately notive that he is under arms. (A shoulder slung rifle.) I continue to walk a little further and see more men (no women) and every one of them is under arms, either rifle or pistol. (I think: What the hell have I gotten myself into now?)

 

No need to turn back as they have already seen me. So I keep walking toward them. A couple of them turn toward me and watch me approach. I reach the first person and explain, in my very imperfect Italian, what had happened and asked if I could borrow a pair of pliers. One of the guys goes to a truck and gets a pliers and hands it to me. I say thanks, walk back to the Harley, do the repairs and ride up to the guys and return the pliers, another thank you and I am headed back down the mountain.

 

Likely the guys were growing someting they needed to protect. Hehehe.

 

 

About ten, maybe fifteen years ago that volcano erupted. Did some damage in the city of Manzanillo as well as other places.

 

Ah!, moments to remember.