Adrian Tritschler's stuff
My website, an agglomerative mess, probably half-eaten by a grue
© 1984 - 2024 Adrian Tritschler
Then home; Myrtleford — Melbourne
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Adrian Tritschler's stuff
My website, an agglomerative mess, probably half-eaten by a grue
© 1984 - 2024 Adrian Tritschler
Buchan — Mallacoota
Mallacoota is one of those places that I’ve always heard about, but never visited — hence the reason we wanted to go there on this trip.
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Melbourne — Buchan
Three very tired people go on holiday.
After Steve and Anelyn’s wedding yesterday we all woke up tired and a little hungover… OK, Jo and Cam were only tired. Breakfast and packing for the week took place in slow-motion, but amazingly we managed to get into the car and away only a little after noon.
Cameron announced it was his lunch time as soon as we got to the outskirts of Melbourne, treeless farmland devoid of rest-stops or picnic areas, the first available place to stop was a detour into Nar Nar Goon — and with a name like that how could I resist.
Hokitika to Christchurch
Trying for a smaller meal for once, we had a plain toasted sandwich for breakfast, then poked around in the greenstone shop while Hoki prepared for its Christmas parade. Nothing much of interest in the shops — nothing under a few thousand dollars that is! A little curious that from memory of my visit in 1980 it was all tikis and figurines, now it seems to be all spirals — “koru” — and other geometric shapes.
Where?
A snippet via Digg, I don’t normally like Flash, and I think it could be done as a plain graphic anyway, but here’s a map that shows just how little of the world I’ve seen.
[http://www.travbuddy.com//flash/countries_map.swf?id=4707] Updated 2007-Dec-31: Ugly, and it seems to break my publishing stream, so I’ve removed it “for now”. 2017-Nov-13: Amazing, another ten years on and a change to a new publishing system and the site hasn’t succumbed to bitrot, the browser still supports the embedded flash object, and my logged data still exists.
China — Day 15: Leaving Beijing (北京)
It was meant to be our shopping day, a last chance to look around the markets, visit the Silk market, and gather up some presents for nieces and nephews — unfortunately Jo was still very sick this morning so we spent almost our entire time hunting up the English-speaking SOS clinic.
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Where? Much later I found a customisable map that shows which provinces I visited, so much of the country to visit the next time I can go there:
China — Day 13: Beijing (北京); Tianenmen Square and the Forbidden City
The weather in Beijing (北京) is officially “cloudy” — there is no smog.
In preparation for the 2008 Olympic games, large numbers of new parks and trees are being planted all over the city, and a huge steelworks has been closed and moved to another city to clean up the air — Beijing’s air anyway, the unvisited industrial recipient city gets all the pollution now. Car numbers are supposedly to be capped at three million to limit congestion and pollution, but nobody is quite sure whether this will happen, or whether money and privilege will just make for a black market in unofficial cars.
China — Day 12: Xiahe (夏河) to Lanzhou (兰州) by bus, fly to Beijing (北京)
A traveling day; bus from Xiahe (夏河) to Lanzhou (兰州), lunch, back in the bus for the trip to the airport then fly to Beijing (北京). Eight in the morning to ten at night.
Once again our bus driver proved his worth; there was another huge thunderstorm last night — a thunderstorm that I slept through — and the river was even more swollen and flooded and brown than the last two days, the roads were covered in rock-falls and the road-works detours turned into churned up bogs.
China — Day 11: Kharnang and back to Xiahe (夏河)
I think Jo and I were the only two in our room who slept well last night; Damian and Amy were both feeling sick, Dan snored a bit and claims that he never sleeps well when he stays here, Julie says she spent the night rolling back and forth between Damian and Dan — not used to sleeping between two others!
After the tremendous thunderstorm last night it was clear and sunny again this morning, I ducked out for a short walk around the place, then Jo and I took off for a longer walk before breakfast, happy to get out and see some of the place without the local children hanging off our arms.
China — Day 10: Xiahe (夏河) and Kharnang
Afternoon bus trip off into the Tibetan grasslands, up from Xiahe at 2900m altitude to around 3300m crossing the rolling green hills, then back down onto the plains to visit Tsewey Monastery and on to Karnang — also Kharnang or the Chinese Ganjia Baijiao City — to spend the night, Karnang hardly classifies as a city, a population of maybe 500, unpaved roads, no shops and a mass of single storey mud houses inside 1000 year-old city walls.
China — Day 9: Travelling to Xiahe (夏河)
Dan claims that on every Intrepid trip he takes there will be a poetry challenge on one day. Today is the day, and the theme is the yak. A limerick is hardly befitting such a solemn beast, however, here’s my contribution to the arts:
I met a hairy black yak,
In appearance, a shaggy old sack.
I approached the wrong end,
In an attempt to befriend…
…and ended up flat on my back.
China — Day 8: Around Xi'an (西安)
City walls, drum and bell towers and the Little Goose Pagoda.
China — Day 7: Xi'an (西安) daytrip to the Terracotta warriors
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it was not what I was expecting!
China — Day 6: Luoyang (洛阳) to Xi'an (西安)
A long time in the bus….
China — Day 5: Shaolin and Buddhas
Grey, grey skies….
China — Day 4: Shaolin
As it says on the ticket:
As the famous touristy attraction in the world and 4A level scenic spot firstly announced by State Tourism Board, Shaolin scenic spot enjoys rich humanities sight, antique natural sight, massive Shaolin Buddhist and Wushu Culture and elegant & rare geological wonder. Centralizing within 2.1Kmof coral area of coral area of scenic spot, the humanities sight mainly includes Shaolin Temple, tower forest, Damo Hole, First Ancestor Hut, Second Ancestor Hut, etc.
China — Day 3: Shanghai (上海) and the train out
A day to ourselves today, just be back in time to get to the train! At 08:30 or so we’d packed our things and checked the bags into storage at the hotel, then walked off towards the old town. A long way to walk, but neither of us had much of an idea how to go about finding the right bus, or how to flag them down and pay. Breakfast again of mysterious tasty bread-things from a stall, then roughly south and east zigzagging along the streets and trying to stay in the shade — it was already hot in the direct sun.
China — Day 2: Shanghai (上海)
After a day of travelling, last night I slept like a log, but surprisingly still managed to wake up around 7:30 this morning. Off to find something for breakfast out on a street stall before our first group event — subway and walk to the Shanghai museum. Temperature already up around 30 °C as Jo and I headed off at semi-random around a few corners and bought a pastry-thing and a bun-thing from a street vendor.
China — Day 1: Shanghai (上海)
An hour and a half this morning in Changi airport in Singapore, time enough to walk around and look at the pools of Koi and orchid gardens, then back on the plane for the flight to Shanghai (上海).
Long queues at Chinese immigration, video cameras everywhere filming the arrivals in the hall, then quickly through a very perfunctory customs check and out of the airport. Do we change money insider or outside the immigration?
Step #1
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single zone one Met. train.
Oh well, it sounds good, sufficiently Confucian for the start of a fifteen day trip through China. The 9.30 pm to Spencer Street station — err, make that Southern Cross station. The station looks almost complete now, totally empty and desolate at ten o’clock on a Sunday night. Foolishly, Jo thought we’d be able to buy a coffee while we waited for the bus to the airport … not a chance!
The trip that wasn't
Every year the radio station RRR and Intrepid travel get together and have a trip somewhere in the world that’s a Triple-R trip — every year until now that is. For eight years enough people have signed up for it to be held, this year the time was right for Jo and I and the place looked right for Jo and I. We signed up, we paid our deposit, then yesterday we were told that the trip’s been cancelled.
Half a day left in Ho Chi Minh city
Vietnam morning traffic Its hard when there’s only half a day left somewhere before you leave. You don’t want to waste it, but in the back of your mind you don’t want to be late for the bus, or the train, or the plane…
Unfinished building works One last big walk around district one, stopped to chat with a man who liked my hat. There’s that big half-constructed concrete monstrosity in the middle of the multi-lane road, turns out its a major new shopping centre, supposedly opening in early 2004… I guess it didn’t make that deadline!
Rainy Hué, sunny Saigon
The rain cleared for a couple of hours again this morning, after breakfast at Thu’s we could get out for almost two hours of walking without getting rained on! Down along the Perfume river, viewing the sad-looking tacky cruise boats, then back around through a local market and past the Vietnamese Olympic swimming pool. I didn’t know that Vietnam had ever hosted the Olympics, but there was the building, plastered with the Olympic rings…
Still raining, still in Hue
Sometime this morning the rain actually stopped for a while! We even thought the sky was clearing up. Then it started back up again and settled in for the day! We sat in the Khuyen Trang restaurant having banana pancakes for breakfast and decided that there was nothing for it — we’d just have to go out and get wet! The cyclo riders were all hanging around inside the cafés smoking, there are no fares to be made in weather like this.
Nha Trang boat trip
Seven o’clock and chainsaws started up directly outside our window — even more surprising considering we are on the fourth floor! The trees next door in the grounds of the large yellow utilitarian Vietnamese government building are all coming down. Some young kids have got up onto the roof and are running around hiding from each other, strangely at odds with the guard-post on the road and the military look of the rest of the building and grounds.
Nha Trang
Last night I had trouble getting to sleep in the train, partly due to the novelty, but primarily worried about waking at the right time and not missing our stop! I needn’t have worried, the conductor made quite a show of opening the compartment door and letting me know that Nha Trang was the next stop.
Hustle and bustle at the station, even at 5.40 am, we stepped outside and had to run the gauntlet of cyclos, taxi drivers and motorcycle riders, all busy touting themselves or their hotel — even though it is only ten minute’s walk from the station to just about anywhere.
Mekong delta trip, day 3: Chau Doc to Ho Chi Minh city
There was torrential rain all night, I guess the rainy season hasn’t quite ended yet! At 06:30 there was a hammering on the door, telling us to get up in the dark and get ready, otherwise we’d be late. Breakfast out on the balcony watching the rain fall along with Gemma and Jacquie, then race across the courtyard to get in the bus, trying to minimise the amount of rain exposure.
Mekong delta trip, day 1
Bus, boat, boat, boat, another boat, big boat, little boat, tiny boat, back on the big boat, then back on the bus to the ferry boat.
The Mekong delta has a lot of boats! Over the course of the day I think we must have travelled on at least one of every type.
A comical start to the day, a mini-bus picked us up from the agent where we’d booked the tickets, then spent ten to fifteen minutes winding around the block to the real travel agent where everyone had to get off the mini-bus and onto the real coach!
A day in Ho Chi Minh City
Spent the morning walking around and around the backpacker area down near the river in district one, breakfast in an alley-side café. Breakfast seemed a long time coming, banana pancakes shouldn’t take long to cook… we found out why when a girl on a scooter came flying up the alley and handed over the bag of bananas to the cook! Nobody seems to have anything at hand, they just run out and buy it from someone who does.
Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City?
Uh oh, too long passes between flying the flight and writing about it. Sad-looking airline breakfast, an hour waiting and walking around and around in Kuala Lumpur airport — nothing much to do, after the first circuit of the terminal we just kept on going around… Sit and watch local flights take off and land, finally time to get on the plane for Ho Chi Minh City. Not sure yet what to expect…
Travels, day 30: Home
A four in the morning landing, hobble along to retrieve the bikes and the luggage. Time for quarantine and customs with the bikes, the boxes had to be opened to check for mud. AQIS staff polite and helpful as I’ve always found them, they even handed us tape to fix the boxes back up.
My sprained ankle Outside to catch the shuttle bus into town, and the first major problem of the trip with carrying bikes on public transport.
Travels, day 29: The short day
A blur of plane travel — a long, drawn out, uncomfortable blur. I took my shoe off and my sprained ankle swelled up so much that by Singapore there was no hope of putting a shoe back on. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get it comfortable. Even under the seat in front, airline hostesses managed to kick it as they served meals. Pointing out my bandaged ankle only seemed to elicit a “sorry” in addition to the kicks, but didn’t stop people tripping over it.
Travels, day 28: The long flight home
stats. Today 0km Trip ??km Where? Milan(45.4666667,9.2), Heathrow(51.4666667,-0.45)
Travels, day 27: Milan
stats. Today 0km Trip ??km A bad night’s sleep due to the noise, the sprained ankle, the heat, and the stuffy room. In the morning I somehow managed a one-legged shower in the miniscule shower cubicle without flooding the bathroom or falling over and further injuring myself.
Where? Milan(45.4666667,9.2)
Travels, day 26: Peschiera, Verona and Milan
stats. Today 0km Trip ??km Where? Peschiera(45.4333333,10.7), Verona(45.45,11), Milan(45.4666667,9.2)
About
ajft looking stylish and black
…The Owner
There’s not much more I can add to who I am.
…The Site
Vanity site? Technology experiment? Learning tool? Blog? Journal? Diary? Photo album? I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you…
I experiment. I play. I write and I take pictures. Some of the site is organised around topics, other parts are organized by date, then there’s always the cross-references between them.
Its all been here a fairly long time. Like the papers on my desk, or the books on the bedside table, the pile just grew… and it all grew without much plan or structure. I try not to break URLs, so historical oddities abound.
Long ago it started as a learning experiment with a few static HTML pages, then I added a bit of server-side includes and some very ugly PHP. A hand-built journal/blog on top of that PHP, then a few experiments in moving to various static publishing systems. I’ve never wanted a database-based blogging engine, so over the years I’ve tried PHP, nanoblogger, emacs-muse, silkpage and docbook before settling on Emacs Org mode for writing and jekyll for publishing. But the itch remained… I never really liked jekyll and the ruby underneath always seemed so much black magic. So now the latest incarnation is Org mode and hugo.
…The ISP
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