I live in the "Tourist Alley"

Ok. Its my own madeup name. Its funny how many tourists congregate. I don't feel like that. I walk sonewhere where there are only locals. Today I decided for mostly veggie food. It was good. The deep fried whole egg. The potatoe soup. The tofu. So good.

I went to visit the temple in th Ho Hoan Kiem lake. Its beautiful lighted in the lake during the night. Daytime its ok. Had a big "stuffed" turtle.

I walked to the river. Felt more like countryside village.

Then had hotpot for dinner with Tu and a friend of his.

All in a nights work

Tourguide "To".

This package in my hand is shampoo. The first day I didn't know. It looks like maybe mouthwash? No writing indicate in English that it is shampoo. I used only soap that day.

Yesterday I was invited to my friend's home. Had good food met his father and sister. Good. First time I see a vietnames home. The buildings are narrow and have often 5 floors. They live near the university. We passed by a classroom randomly located on the block. It was packed. This was in the eve.

Later I went back to Hoan Kiem lake and talked to this guy. He is studying and soon finishes as tourguide. But to find job may be difficult. Meanwhile he approaches tourists and try to sell books. I explained I don't need anything. At least he tried. Instead he stayed and we talked. His spoken English was quite good. At some point he bought some tea for us. The night was a bit chilly. But no rain. On course of the night various people pass by. Some "offers" are funny. Others are sad.

At 1 we went for a drink in a night club. It was pretty hightech in light installation and had high blinkelichtfactor. Mitch would have liked that part!

Then we went to a dust cafe and ate cirn cobbs grilled there till late. Drinking tea.

Hanoi is the place for strong tea on the street. Didn't really find it in Saigon. Coffe is better choice there.

But in conclusion. Sleep is good.

A good day...

Starts in a cafe with some vn coffe w condensed milk. It's strong. Like espresso. The essense of coffe. I had a sandwhich too. Bahn (sounds like "bun" probably not coincidence languages are connected).

The greenish picture shows my teapot drinking vn style tea = super strong!

I filled my cup. The girl who sat at my table with here designerfriend corrected me and poured a half cup for me. For some reason she now has my email and phone and vice versa. Hmmm. Haha. She works as reporter for finance group.

Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi

Having "german" food with my friend from work (US) who moved back to Vietnam.

Picure of temple in the night in the lake. I think this is very special for Hanoi. Nice walking about the lake.

Breakfast before going to airport to fly to...

Boiled egg. Deep fried veggie (I hope). Tofu. Pickles. That soup must be bittermelon. No way I can eat that. Really bitter. Also not sure if price right - 50,000. Ca 2.5$. I'll survive! Ending w ice cofffe w milk.

Highlite of day - Window's cafe

My friend Bao take me to Window's cafe. I have to say that vietnamese cafes ate pretty wonderful. Good music. At some point they played Swedish rap! I never heard before! I need to drink often. I feel dehydrated often. Here I have a coconut in a dust-cafe (on street).

Btw. Regarding my shirt - nothing stolen from hotel. But seeing same shirt that I only seen 3 times with three owner is pretty strange. I boight mine in Harlem nyc. The other guy was a big black boy in SF. He said: cool shirt big boy. But apparently it exists in china too...

Scary moments?

Ladder and metal sign transport.

Me and bread.

Visit temple.

Guy pick up kids but wearing "my" shirt fron harlem. He say buy in china. I'm afraid my suitxase stolen from hotel as this shirt very inusual.

Last places I dont go when abroad.

Great street cafes and life in Saigon

Me and some new friends the guy on left makes drinks at roadside eatery. Truck melting in heat. People preparing sugar cane sticks for eating or making juice (delicious). Lastly viet strong coffe with milk and a pot of tea. I think you can mix. But I can only drink essence of coffe (strong w milk and sweet). Tea afterwards taste much better.

Now I'll head to chinatown and some temples.

This is how Darwin looks like

It has beetroot, fried egg, pinapple slice, sallad, tomato on the burger.

Its really warm and humid here. I feel like I'm overheating. Drinking icewater now. Will soon get back to airport.

Breakfast at syd airport

Yrowing away stuff till 540 this morning. Got up at 829.

Now waiting to board flight to Darwin and after 5h wait there to Saigon (HCMC).had trouble. Haf to by exit ticket from vietnam as I dobt need visa. Luckily I had my laptop with me. Puh. Ok.

Calm now. Breathing in. Breathing out.

moving out

Since I came to US I've been practicing "Moving Out". When I move out, I don't move somewhere else - I don't move in!

How can you do that? Well, you could think I should have perfected it by now, but it's still a lot of work. But I used to put things in storage. In San Francisco, I have a storage unit which is 8" * 8" * 8"1/2 - it's full! Totally full. What do I need, what do I want to keep, actually mostly on my books! Some day I'll go through it all.

Soren took my bike this morning, he will host it and hopefully put it to good use!

Two Chinese guys (one from Fuijen province where I'm going!) picked up 5 pieces of furnitures for my friends from China. These guys study cookery. Soren studies servers. :-D. The receivers study computer communication, and work as tech writer.

Man, got so much stuff! Now need to go through what to bring on my trip and what I can give away to Salvos and what I want to keep in storage in a nice persons place. The latter will be limited to two small suitcases...

Oh, and I'll take most of my books to a second hand bookstore and see if they can be nicely recycled and reread by some other people.

"I wonder: if I stand still, will the world move, so I can travel effortlessly!"

--
.sigh

"You will step on the soil of many countries."

Hi friends!

Recently I've gotten approved to take a personal leave for a few months, back in Sydney around beginning of July...

As you may know I had my bout of hospital stay and heart scare, and considering health aspects etc, I've decided my body and mind needs a break. It seems now that all medical issues are resolved.

There are things that I've put on hold since I started working in US in 2000. With only 2 weeks vacation a year I haven't been able to focus to build up those aspects and get deep enough into them but I will now have time to do some of them.

I'll spend some time traveling meeting old friends I haven't seen for maybe 15 years all over Europe. But the first and one main point is to travel to Wuyishan Mountains in China where I've been invited to stay some months, practicing Tai Chi with a friend and teacher and see if and how I can help build up the spiritual practice center they're starting. This is a joint plan that was hatched 2 years ago and is now starting to move.

To keep up with me you can email me on jsk@yesco.org, I'm on facebook etc. Best source of what's going on may be to ask to be added to the http://ozbl.org blog site maling list where I send occasional pictures with a short reflection about something that captures my interest and that I want to share. It'd seem that if you "follow me on Buzz" you'll see the messages there too.

all the best,..

   Jonas

--
.sigh

One (+) year of "read" books

Custons house library

For the first time in 1.5 years I enter the public library in Sydney. It has many interesting design elements. I feel happy walking around there.

Unwanted books at sydney library

Android auto spell correction.

Sometimes it isn't helpful. Like "semla" became "semblance". Doesn't make sense. Maybe I should turn it off?

The first semblance in 12 years.

Its a Swedish fat-tuesday-bun. Cardemum bread filled with almond paste made with milk. The inserted at top by lifting a "hat".

Courtesy the Swedish church Sydney. Now off to meditation.

Misty mountains in Sydney

John recently requested more pics of misty mountains and of me.

I wonder if these will do?

Implications of tall buildings?

I'm reading Robert Silverbergs "The World Inside". It describes a society where there are many more billions if people and where people live in vertical cities of 1000 stories with 800k people in them. They don't go outside. They live all inside. Sex is free and "nightwalking" encouraged. Removes tension from people. Making more lifes (babies) is the "God bless" purpose of life.

Now at the same time I'm reading Daniel Quinn's "Beyond Civilization" that talks about how our meme currently is to spread. Like some religions. It may not be sustainable. We will slowly change.

The question is what we may become. How many people do we need. One alternative maybe a "one child policy" like China. But I'd expect them to try to get rid of that. When they get more mechanized farming. The question is where they'll go. As obvious in many parts of China. They'll go "up" - vertically. Like is already evident in Beijing and Hong Kong and most Chinese cities.

And it makes sense. Its more  environmently efficient. Less harm. But in long term its just paving the road for more.

One nice thing however is that the do practice urban planning in China. Its not like New York where there are only tall building. Only. Instead they build with space. Parks. Plentiful of Parks. When is the last time San Francisco tore down some blocks built new buildings and also built a humongous park.

One could say that China cares about people. Not individuals. They're not "rich" enough yet. But they build spaces for people. Public spaces on San Francisco aren't friendly. Doesn't allow for life. The city and police prefers people to be indoors and spend money in establishments. Even marketplace are private - mallls. You'd think a rich society could build spaces for people. But sadly enough. US is not a rich society. Its only has many rich individuals. The homeless are the only ones who seem to be allowed to "inhabitate" public spaces. And they are often seen as nuisances. But in fact they may be the ones who are really alive. They may understand our society better than most of us.

So where do we go from here? Up?

Well I think I may go up! Up in the Chinese mountains for a while. The opportunity is imminent.

Yours.

Special antiriot police squad met us this morning

[resend, one morning in HK]

First on our walking path from the house, two policemen walked behind us. Then we had to pass through these guys. They were friendly though. They were doing some big operation with people running all about.