lasagna!

It's a rare find to get a real lasagna!

So to my surprise I find it in an Italian restaurant in Amsterdam. When I lived here it wasn't on the menu...

Thomas lasagna is ok. Bechalme sauce no mushrooms, and decent minded beef...

Does penguins...

... have knees?

being social at cafe de jaaren

All on facebook!

Joking...

Red light district in Amsterdam

Still has a swan. Business as usual.

Samsung galaxy tab 10.1

Hong Kong Computer & Communications Festival

Enchanted forest?

Electronics and gadget supply shopping on Sham Shui Po.

Sky pics Hong Kong

Hot in Hong Kong

Today nicely hot. But not like it was in Shanghai where it was to hot when I was there last. In China and on Hong Kong its not unusual that people takes off there shirts even in the middle of there city, even if they don't have good bodies but well most have haha.

76kg asian trash!

No, or rather, it's not the asian equivalent of white trash, even if it is the same. I just like the colours. I'm not sure what the incentive for recycling is in China and Hong Kong but it seems worth doing for some people even on relatively small scale.

Fire everywhere!

Walking through the streets in Hong Kong there are people burning stuff everywhere!

Well the stuff is mostly paper and incense. Something special tonight?

Yes. Full moon. The asian calendar follows moon instead of the sun.

Got frames - now what?

New physical hackerspace in Hong Kong!

I cover back to Hong Kong and the guys just got a physical location! Sometimes I joke that in order for a hackerspace to find a place in need to leave. It's almost true, now has happened in San Francisco, Sydney almost, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing. For all but San Francisco and Beijing I asked around when there was no hackerspace and some half year later there is meetings and then space!

I won't speculate on cause and effect...

But I like that they keep popping up!

Foods

Food, especially vegetables are delicious in China as they're daily sold at markets by the farmers themselves. Maybe you think farmers market, well its rather that supermarkets don't sell fresh stuff and veggies are bought freshly on the streets...

Thinking back to western cities, most don't have to many places to but really fresh locally produced stuff. With scandals like in Germany where organically produced stuff kills people and USA where mega tons seemingly of Turkey meat is being takes because of salmonella causes questions about safety of larger scale production. It's only increasing profit for few, not farmers and you'd think they could do safety and quality checks cheaper on larger scale, but the crass reality seems to be that they don't.

I heard China put up USA on ebay. Will see what happens...

Meetings

My principle is that if somebody takes pictures of me, I'll take theirs too!

So I got company for a few hours. They were leaving to go back to chongqing in the afternoon. She was working in Lijiang in the tiny music store at one of there pictures.

She's been guiding them around for the two days they'd been there. She starting her work at 4 so she has time before then.

She kept calling the boy who was taking photos of me "she". Its funny. Other guys look at pictures and think not its a he. He didn't like it but made no big fuzz.

Again, the record store is interesting. Keep reading to hear about traditional business principles in China....

Lijiang local flavor

Walking around in China even in a touristic place you see people living life. I think for me this is a big appeal in Asia and maybe for many travellers. It often seems to me that life one can live in west is very isolated, lonely, etc maybe in name of efficiency of business or something else like personal freedom.

Lijiang Mufo palace

Typical Chinese palace. Seemingly devoid of living spaces. The calligraphy seems to be done by a foreigner Haha not very beautiful. My companions today are from my small hotel. We finished sight seeing at 5pm. I hadn't eaten lunch, they were heading home. I realize afterwards that I should just invite them to eat. Ah well...

I'm reminded how staying in hostels you sometimes connect with other travellers, more about my hotel later...

Cats and dogs domesticated but free

One thing you notice in China is that dogs and cats run free mostly. They don't bark. They move when cars come. Even if lying down in there middle of the road. In China there seems to be some harmonious way of living including people. Well more on countryside than in cities. But even in cities you can escape the western sterility of human business style contact by just ducking into the side streets. Southern China seems more relaxed than further north.