Extra post!

This was something I contributed to a local fish forum (Petfrd.com):

___________

Hi all

as requested by Cloud79, i thought i'd post some pics taken (throughout Europe) during my 1.5 years working in Norway.

I did read a thread in another forum before, about how some of us fish forummers had gotten so deep into our hobby we would always look into a body of water (puddle, canal, lake, pond etc) for fishes, and realised i had "developed" into one of those guys... Even as my passion for the hobby died down a couple of years ago, subconsciously i still did this peering into lakes and canals, and even bothered to snap a few pictures of the life present.

As such, instead of boring you guys with pics of great landscapes, i scoured my collection of pictures and found those "fish-related" ones. Unfortunately not all of them belong to live fish, I thought it'd be nice to show how people in different parts of the world love their fishes.

enjoy!


Trout eye in aquarium around Hardanger, Norway


Dried fish head, Nusford, Lofoten Islands, Norway


Fish drying for export, Lofoten Islands, Norway


Christmas cod and sei, caught in Tofte, Norway


Fish in lake, around 7deg Celsius, Otta, Norway


Fish found in Polarium, an arctic aquarium, Tromso, Norway


Fish found in Polarium, an arctic aquarium, Tromso, Norway


Fish in a stream close to Rheinfall, Switzerland


Fish market in Fethiye, Turkey.
Just buy your fish, and have it grilled at a next-door restaurant.nice!


Fishes feeding on bread in Bohinj, Slovenia


Pile of fishes found along the coastal town of Nida, Lithuania


Finally, how the Dutch love it... herring, Schiphol airport, Netherlands

cheers!

ben

Have fate will meet...

Well, if one is not amazed at how I met Jamie (see earlier post about meeting people) in both Granada and Toledo (well, both are still Spanish cities) randomly, hopefully this post impresses.

I met an Australian backpacker in Selcuk, Turkey on 11 May 2009 on a bus ride. We spoke a couple of hours and she alighted at some place I don't remember.

Fast forward 48 days later, 1590km away, and I meet this same lady in my hostel (Hostel99, see previous post) in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic!

And no, I did not know her travel schedule, we did not keep in touch subsequent to Selcuk... it was just one of those "hey, I've seen you somewhere before" moments.

Totally random, totally cool!

The Kama Sutra room

Location: Hostel99, Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
Date: 27-28 June 2009

Hostel99 is a really cool hostel built out of an old Czech house, with great atmosphere, free wi-fi, a bar and bakery, rooms with names instead of numbers, and a large dvd collection to boot. But what really made my stay memorable was their Kama Sutra room.

So here's the story:

I was asking the receptionist where to get a towel, and he blabbered that the towels were in a cabinet around the corner. I was not really paying attention to the receptionist's specific directions, and entered the first room around the corner, thinking the cabinet would be inside. There was no cabinet in sight, but what I did see was a naked couple on the bed, without sheets, copulating....


My natural response - "Oh F#*k, Sorry!" and shut the door. I looked up at the door, taking note of the room name - Kama Sutra.

The towel cabinet turned out to be just outside the room.

Pub by the flooded river

I actually did clarify that the Kama Sutra room was a regular double room available for rent, and not a communal room for copulation.

Lesson learnt: Unless you're fine with strangers walking in, lock the door.

Afterthought: Just thought of the movie "Hostel". Maybe I was supposed to stay in the room, and get invited for some decadence... oh well...

How I lost my camera

I was at an internet cafe in Sarajevo, Bosnia on 20 June'09, to use up my last 15 minutes of credit. I had been there earlier in the morning and used up my first 45 minutes of internet time.

Where I lost my camera

The guy at the cafe told me the internet was not working due to the rain. This was not surprising, as my host had also told me the same thing the night before. I was just about to leave when I heard the sound of Winning Eleven being played on the PlayStation 3 upstairs, so I thought I'd join the people upstairs for a game whilst waiting for the internet to come up again, since I had done my sightseeing already, and I was also hoping to see how good Bosnian kids were at the game.
On the second level of the internet cafe were 3 kids playing. They were not really kids actually, more like 16-18 years old, dressed like any teenager would. They charged me EUR1 to play a game with them, to which I thought whatever.. and just joined in the fun.

War roses - mortar scars commemorating the mortar shell victims

I placed my camera (in its bag) and bag on the same counter as the TV. It was 2m away from me, 45 deg to my left and within view. Like this:

As the game went on, 1 kid came from the left and asked me questions about where I was staying etc, distracting me from the game, and focus from my camera, whilethe 3rd kid SWAPPED my camera for an old antique soviet camera AND a rock.

After the game (which I lost to a dubious penalty), I asked for a rematch which the kids agreed to, for free. But within 2 minutes of the rematch, they suddenly said they had to rush off and ran down the stairs.After another 2 min I thought it was strange to leave their cigarettes behind, so i did a check on my camera bag, and noted the swap had been done.

The kids had obviously gone by then.

SUCKY...

My host family, who did everything they could to console me

What I lost:

• damn decent camera
• Trust in foreign children

Lessons learnt:

• Locals always blame the gypsies
• Bad locals exist (I believe the kids were not gypsies)
• It is wise to back up your photos every couple of days
• When on holiday, take life easy. I felt much better the following day and carried on my travels
• You cannot outwit/understand organised crime alone
• The soviet camera is not worth more than SGD30

Berlin - There's just NO alternative!

I had heard so much about the alternative culture (and the kebabs) in Berlin, and hence I gave myself 5 days, the longest time I set aside for one city, to explore and immerse within. It was totally worth it! I made good use of my time there, seeing the famous/notorious tourist spots, joining a couple of "alternative" walking tours, staying at a hostel, couchsurfing and checking out museums, but the most memorable activity I took part in was meeting a bunch of couchsurfers to catch the sunrise at Teufelsberg.

Teufelsberg

Info extracted from wikipedia

The Teufelsberg (German for Devil's Mountain) is a hill in Berlin, Germany, in former West Berlin. It rises about 80 meters above the surrounding Brandenburg plain.It is an artificial hill with a curious history: it was built by the Allies after the Second World War from the rubble of Berlin during the following twenty years as the city was rebuilt. One estimate for the amount of rubble is about 12 million cubic meters, or about 400,000 buildings. It is higher than the highest natural hill (the Kreuzberg) in the Berlin area.The curiousness begins with what is buried underneath the hill: a Nazi military-technical college designed by Albert Speer. The Allies tried using explosives to demolish the school, but it was so sturdy that covering it with debris turned out to be easier.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) built one of its largest listening stations on top of the hill, rumoured to be part of the global ECHELON intelligence gathering network. The station continued to operate until the fall of East Germany and the Berlin Wall, but after that the station was closed and the equipment removed. The buildings and radar domes still remain in place.

Sunrise walk

Back to the couchsurfing gathering. I had been travelling alone in Berlin for 3 days, and came upon a gathering initiated by Ingre, an Estonian studying in Berlin. I had read about the place, and thought it would be cool to meet at 1am and do a short hike up to Teufelsberg with some CSers to catch the sunrise at 443hrs that morning.

I vaguely remember how I met Ingre… something along the lines of asking almost every blond at the station at 1am if she was called Ingre. But we managed to meet just as the train arrived , and I got to know Florian as well, another CS member, on the train ride. By the time the train reached the intended stop, there were 5 of us. By the next train, the group grew to 14 strong, of which 7 were drunk.

Couchsurfers - in all shapes, sizes, characters

It was another slight uphill walk to Teufelsberg, including a trail through some forest, and climbing through a hole in the fence. Apparently it was illegal to trespass. Apparently in Berlin, rules are broken more often than they are adhered to.

We arrived at Teufelsberg with time to spare before the sunrise, and explored the abandoned radar station.

Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and there was not much of a sunrise to appreciate, but we still had a great time taking pictures from the windy station, and finally settling for some breakfast .

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

breakfast

Getting photography assistance

I'm not a cam-whore, but on occassion I do like my face in the picture.

Unfortunately, ever since I got my DSLR, my expectations of my pictures have increased significantly, in proportion to the quality of pictures produced.

This experience happened in Essouira, Morocco.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

The problem

I am unable to take a decent self-portrait with my DSLR due to its bulk and weight. This is what I could manage, which does not capture the background which I wanted.

The Solution

Due to my limitations, I engaged the help of a local who was there with his girlfriend, admiring the amazing view of the sea. I described how I wanted to frame the picture in as simple english as possible. I even took a picture of him to set as an example:

My friendly assistant

The Frustration

However, after 3 attempts, the best he could muster was the below picture, which had the walls which I had hoped could be hidden. I thanked him for his efforts, got his email address, and promised to send him the picture I had taken for him (which I did send subsequently).

not quite what I wanted

The Perseverence and the End Result

And in my stubbornness, I placed my faith in another photographer, this time a fellow tourist, possibly from the US. After a brief description and 2 attempts, I got what I wished for:

Satisfaction at last!

G&* damn DSLRs!!! They take away the joys of photography at times!

Sharing a hotel room with a stranger

Trust - its easier earned for some people, like the person I entrusted my luggage with in Istanbul, and I had my experience of how it just might be easy to trust me.

It all started in Marakkesh, in the Riad Amazigh, north Africa's best-rated hostel (its really nice!). I had just checked in, and I caught sight of an asian girl walking by the reception. And my Singapore-sense just took effect - we made eye-contact, and we just knew that we were Singaporeans!

We got acquianted over a few drinks at the Cafe Arabes. She was Shuyi, a Singaporean based in Frankfurt, Germany, and she was travelling with her friend Tanja.

The next morning, we met at the breakfast table at the hostel. We were joined by a couple of English girls and a Jamaican.

Fast forward to lunchtime, and its Shuyi, Tanja, me and Jamaican girl (Sheree by name) eating and talking about our travels in Morocco.

Drinks at Cafe Arabes with Shuyi and Tanja

Both Sheree and I talked about visiting Essouira, and then out of nowhere, Shuyi blurted out," Stay at the Riad Jemalhi Mogador! Its only MAD 250 (EUR 25) a night for a double room! Since you 2 are travelling alone, why not share a room?" And then the words of reassurance - "He's Singaporean, he won't do anything to you!"




Sheree and I were both cool with that idea, and we did not talk much about it after. I noted down the name of the hotel, and left shortly for my Sahara adventure (see earlier posts).

___________________________

I'm Singaporean and I don't bite...

I remember sending Sheree an email from the Sahara informing her of my estimated arrival time at Essouira and hoped to meet her at the hotel. I was not having my expectations high, after all the unexpected events that had happened to me in Morocco thus far.

Fast forward 3 days later, and I found my way to the Riad Jemalhi Mogador in Essouira. The receptionist told me that it was fully booked, and I was thinking to myself "shit happened ..again.." when Sheree popped out of nowhere and gave me a welcome hug! I had a long ride from the desert, and it was just the pleasant surprise I needed.

And there - sharing a room with someone you met over a lunch for 2 nights.



During our stay in Essouira, I did tell Sheree that I did not expect to meet her there, and was curious as to why she would be willing to share the hotel room with me. Its not as though we could not afford to stay on our own.

Her response was that I gave her a "good vibe"...

I'm still wondering if that was meant to be a compliment....

Sheree having fun at Taros bar

Sebastian, cool french kite-surfing dude we met at the hotel, chilling at Taros Bar

Taxi adventure in the Sahara

I was on my second trip to Morocco, and I had learnt not to plan too much when in this "beautifully frustrating" land.

I had finally made my way to the Sahara this second attempt, and after my night under the stars, I made a spontaneous decision to spend another night amongst the sand dunes (after all, it was only EUR 5 a night for a relatively comfortable hotel).
It was meant to be a relaxing day, with sandboarding the only thing on my agenda. So there I was, noon in the Sahara, at Chez Ahmed cafe, having a berber omelette for lunch, with Ahmed and his Japanese friend (interesting lady, who moved to Morocco to improve her French. She taught social anthropology, if I remember correctly), and horror of horrors, I realised I was down to my last MAD 50 (about EUR 5).MAD 50 would only have covered my accommodation for the night, and I still had dinner to pay for, as well as the taxi fare back to Rissani (after which I would catch a bus back to Marrakesh).

I did not get stressed this (second) trip. I knew a screw-up would happen at some point... I just did’nt expect it to be my own! Ahmed offered me a berber omelette for dinner free of charge, and I could negotiate to have my taxi fare paid upon alighting at Rissani, where I could draw cash from the ATM.It sounded reasonable, but I could not bear to accept Ahmed’s hospitality. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the feeling of losing my “tourist spending power”, or the embarrassment that came with accepting a free meal from the restaurant owner that survived on tourists like me. And maybe I just did not want to take the easy way out of a screw-up.

I made the decision of using the last MAD 50 to share a cab back to Rissani, where I would draw cash and live like a king again, and share another cab back to the desert, where I would catch the sunset, and pay for my last berber omelette at Ahmed’s.

The adventure begins....
I left Chez Ahmed’s at around 1500hrs in the afternoon, and waited around 45 minutes for the first taxi to ride in from Rissani. Rissani is basically the largest town in the east end of Morocco and has the best links to the rest of the country. I haggled with the driver and managed to get a seat in the cab for MAD 25. The ride to Rissani took around 45 minutes, including a stop by policemen, who were “bribed” with bottles of mineral water.

Within 5 minutes of arrival in Rissani, I got my cash. Within half an hour of arrival in Rissani, I received:

• Ridiculously overpriced offer for a shared cab to Marakkesh
• The tour guide that sold me my desert tour package demanding me for tips , before he offered any advice on returning to Marakkesh
• Tour guide’s fat brother asking me to visit his father’s shop to purchase some souvenirs, boasting about his 5 girlfriends whilst walking there
• Cold farewell from the father after I insisted that I was not doing any shopping whilst on this trip

After 45 minutes of “adventure”, I finally found my shared taxi (the same driver that took me to from the desert). There were 4 of us including the driver. 500 metres into our journey, our driver got nervy, and told all the passengers to alight, and he drove off in a haste. According to one of the passengers, one of his neighbours from Merzouga, the driver had no taxi license, and this had infuriated the other taxi drivers as he was stealing their business!

The plan now, according to this fellow passenger, was to keep walking along the road, till he got out of his situation, and he would drive by, pick us up and resume the journey. And so we walked, for another 15 minutes, and we realised we had come to the edge of the town, to which it was just one long desert road for another 40km. We knew it was pointless to keep walking, so we sat by the road and waited for this driver. And we waited. And waited. For a good 1.5hrs.
I still remember thinking to myself, this could only happen in Morocco, and that it was moments like these that I would remember forever and tell my friends and grandkids about. Cars went by, motorcycles zipped past, old men on donkeys rode by, cheers rang, as Barcelona beat Chelsea in the European Cup finals. The sun set. And still there was no kid in a taxi. I killed off time by staring at the various people going by, and chatting with that one passenger that spoke good english.

Eventually, after 1.5hrs of sitting by the road, we gave up on waiting for the taxi, and a bus headed for the desert picked us up, dropping me at Chez Ahmend's at 2000hrs. My estimated 3hr trip took me a nice eventful 5hrs!

I recall not being extremely upset. I was actually pretty calm through it all, and my final berber omelette at Ahmed's did help soothe me quite a bit.

For only EUR5 a night!!!

What did irk me though, was the little boy by the side of the road, stopping me on my stroll back to the hotel to ask the "very important question" of" Sir, do you have any money?"

My thoughts:

• In Morocco, you do not need a plan to have an adventure-filled holiday. You can have no plan, and adventure will find you.
• Many Moroccans think that with a little spoken english, they are able to demand money from tourists
• I find it easier to accept people's hospitality when I have money, as compared to when I have none, though I still cannot explain why.

Luggage storage in Istanbul

I learnt that there are no lockers for baggage storage at the bus station close to Taksim Square in Istanbul, so here's what I did:

1. Board a metro train with full luggage, and show discomfort in maneuvering it through the crowded cabin. I had 4hours to kill before my return flight to Oslo.



2. Spoke to the person next to me when I got my seat. Asked about his career, and his plans. Shared with him my plan for the day, which was to find a place to store my baggage for 4hours so that I could visit the Chora Museum.



3. My fellow passenger was a retired Turkish doctor who had been living in Australia for the past 30 years. He was in Istanbul to visit his friends, who had offices around Taksim Square. He suggested I put my bag at his friend's office, and pick it up after I had finished my sightseeing.



4. Thinking that it was just clothes in the bag, I took up his offer. After all, even if the bag disappeared, the office would not, rite?



5. Upon alighting the metro at Taksim Square, we walked around 400m to his friend's office on the 3rd floor of a building, which turned out to be a company which provided accounting services. I placed my bag down and took off for the Chora museum


6. I returned 3 hours later, with 2 oranges for the office boss, picked up my bag and left Turkey with the best example of world-famous Turkish hospitality.

Chora museum, with the best church mosaics I have ever seen

Sharing an umbrella

I was in New York in mid-April for a week. It's a great city, and the fact that a junior college friend of mine offered me her vacant apartment to stay for the entire week was just the icing on the cake.

To repay her kindness, I took her out to dinner. The evening we met, it was raining, and we had to share her umbrella. Being the taller person/gentleman, I held the umbrella. She stood on the left, me on the right, and I held the umbrella in my right hand.

And she asked,"Why hold the umbrella with your right hand?"

Referring to the diagram on the left, it can be seen that the bottom scenario is more practical, as both parties get more shelter from the umbrella.
But it seemed like a chore to explain the entire rationale of doing so, and I would have probably shocked/scared her if she found out that I had actually thought through this meaningless procedure, so I guess the only smart thing to reply was," So that I can put my arm around you"

I have to admit I am not usually like this, and definitely not used to putting my arms around a Singaporean, due to our generally conversative cultural background. But as we were in New York, I suppose it was right to put away the old-fashioned thinking and be spontaneous.

She seemed to appreciate the humour and my guiding hand, and off we went to a great dinner at Landmarc.

Learning points:

1. I have the ability to make a discussion out of the most insignificant matters


2. There are tons of beautiful eligible women in Manhattan, New York, and some of them bring out the suaveness in me
3. I need a course on how to break down physical barriers with Singapore women.

Last minute couch in Bodø, North Norway

Ever since finding out about couchsurfing from my sister in April 20o8, I joined the community and have been trying to couchsurf as much in my travels as possible. By the end of my European travels in early June 2009, I would have surfed more than 10 couches, and probably hosted more than 7 guests on my Oslo couch, including attending quite a few parties and gatherings, and meeting members for coffee and drinks. My profile can be found at:

http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/bentse/

This post describes the bizarre fashion I found a couch in Bodø, up in north Norway.

I had befriended 2 Czech tourists at Å, and we met again at the Moskenes jetty and contined our chat about photography, the Northern Lights and travelling on the 3 hour ferry journey. I was headed toBodø, where I would have to spend the night before flying off the next morning back to Oslo.
Saying goodbye to the Lofoten Islands


An hour away from Bodø, I told them that I still had no accomodation for the night, and that I was trying to couchsurf there, but due to the extremely few members there, I still had no couch for the night, and was hoping to find a cheap hostel or hotel.

Marketa, one of the Czechs, told me that she was on couchsurfing too, and she had actually found a couch for the night. However, she was making her way south to Trondheim that evening, and was not going to meet her host. She suggested that I contact her host via sms to check if I could take her place instead. I thought it strange to send a request via sms, but on the other hand, there was nothing to lose, and so I did. To my pleasant surprise, the host, Arvid, agreed to take me in at this last minute notice!

I made my way to Arvid's place upon alighting the ferry. Arvid would be around 40, very fit (he had just completed a kayaking tour), and was a manager of a dance club. His apartment was still under contruction, but the furnished parts were extremely modern and typically Scandinavian in design (ie nice). We had a half hour introduction and chat, he handed me his housekeys, offered me his food, TV, DVD collection, gave me permission to bring a girl home, and he left for a party. That was the first and last time I saw Arvid. I took a shower and went out for dinner, and to meet Katherine, my colleague who was staying with her family in town. I was introducing Katherine the couchsurfing concept and thought I'd show her Arvid's place, which looked like a cross between a spa and a construction site. Whilst at the entrance to his apartment, one of Arvid's neighbours opened his front door, and asked in Norwegian if we were from childcare services. Puzzled, we replied no, and ignored him. Ten minutes later, at the front of the building, a lady popped open her window, and asked us the same question! Again we responded no, but this time I asked Katherine if she should call them, as this family might have been abusing their child. I guess they raise their kids differently up North.

Katherine left shortly after, I went back to Arvid's, watched a couple of DVDs, slept, woke up early the next morning, left the keys in the living room, and caught the flight to Oslo.

Lessons learnt:

1. Couchsurfing is extremely popular, and do not be surprised if you meet a fellow member in your travels, wherever you may be.
2. Generosity and hospitality continues to exist, and sometimes it might be easier to trust strangers than friends/colleagues/neighbours
3. I appear to be a trustworthy person

Getting around in the Lofoten Islands

I spent Easter 2009 in the Lofoten Islands, a group of islands in the north of Norway, above the arctic circle, famous for its breathtaking scenery and laidback atmosphere.



I had planned to spend 8 days there, to make my way from the northernmost island of Svolvær to the southernmost tip of Å.

I had checked out all the bus timings to make the journey possible, taking into account that it was Easter period and that the bus frequency would be much lower. However, I did not take into account that it was still the low season for tourism, and that most of the hotels, bed and breakfasts and hostels were closed in this period. To make matters worst, the hostel at Svolvær was too expensive for me to stay too long, and the cheaper accomodation was at Å, all the way in the south!

Problem - How was I going to explore the middle islands without accomodation there?


I took a bus to Å on the third day. I knew I had accomodation. I just did not know how I was going to see the other islands. I read and heard that hitchhiking in the north of Norway was common and I thought it was about time I tried. Somehow the Asian mentality in me was still not too accepting of hitchhiking as a mode of transportation.

Upon arrival at the hostel in Å, I befriended 2 fellow travellers, a Finn by the name of Jakke, and an Austrian girl named Martina. We had all arrived around the same time that evening at the hostel, and I found out that both Jakke and Martina were driving through the legendary Lofotens!

I took up Jakke's offer to be his co-driver and "tour guide". He needed to know which parts of the islands to visit, and I needed his wheels. Perfect. We set off early the next morning and drove to Eggum via Reine, Borg and Napp. Jakke was short of time, as he was rushing to Tromso to meet friends for a ski trip. He dropped me off at Eggum, about 10km from the bus stop, where my plan was to either hitch hike back to the hostel, or to catch the bus, whichever was earlier. I was in no rush. I still had 4 days to discover 2 other islands on my list.

Jakke's car Beach near Eggum

As though my luck could not get better, within 5 minutes of getting off Jakke's car, Martina drove by and offered to drive me around the islands with her 2 friends! It's hard to understand how charmed I can get... we went to Utakleiv, Unstad, Nusfjord, and she even dropped me back at the hostel. And thus, I managed to see all the parts of the Lofotens I had intended to visit, and I still had 4 days to go!

And thus ended my hitchhiking opportunities...

I stayed around Å for the remaining days, doing some hiking (limited by avalanches), cycling (to find an unsecured wireless connection), photo-taking, befriending other tourists and even watching a dvd purchased at the petrol station (out of sheer boredom).

Lessons learnt:
- Sometimes less planning is better (as experienced in Morocco as well).
- Travel with an open mind. Insignificant things are better appreciated.
- People are nice and are willing to help in general. You just need a thick skin to ask for it.

Interesting Moroccan sayings

I just find Morocco so fascinating, and that I have many experiences there to share... including the following things i picked up from my 2 trips there:

"For you my friend, special democratic price...."

"We don't push like Bush"

"No hurry like Ferrari"

"Moroccan men are warriors, and we have fire within us. We can f*** for hours!"

"Insha'Allah" - meaning God willing.