paris to tours: here and now

Dear friends,

so i checked my post and was absolutely amazed that it has been a hit. people have been checking it out hoping for an update and even hassling for an update. didnt realize people actually enjoy me rambling on about shit. i smelled my shit this morning and yeah, they do smell pretty good. i think it has some pizza from last night's dinner and chicken from lunch.
the sudden break from posting was not because i was slacking off but many things happened over the last 2 weeks. very emotional. lets recap ... there were ...

1. joy
2. happiness
3. excitement
4. breakdown
5. depression
6. frustration
7. adventure
8. inspiration
9. amazement
10. emancipation
11. pain
12. laughter
13. etc

yes all of that in the last 2 weeks. very emotional. but all is good now. some how everything always work out in the end. all the pieces somehow do fall into place. i am back and will be posting again. so this one will be a long one.

also i am very impressed that people like matt on and keong found their way into my post. i guess word of mouth is the best publicity. btw everyone, start spreading word about my new film. there will be plenty of sex and nudity in it. all hot models. it will be out in july 2008. start spreading the word guys ...

now back to the posts.

Thursday 4th Oct: Annecy
Day 21

(annecy - farewell)

had an amazing time with Chai I. exploring the city, went kayaking and then went jumping into the freezing lake. she is as crazy as me. tried some amazing french food for lunch and dinner. still i missed a good asian meal.

Friday 5th Oct: Lyon
Day 22

(lyon - ruins and churches)

ok arrived at lyon. after having such a great time in annecy, it was difficult to leave. was feeling quite sad. lyon is a nice place but i would have enjoyed it more if i had been there before annecy. hostel was packed with students. and the youth hostel was like so far up the hill. the climb up there was a killer. anyway the cathedral up the so called mountain was amazing. it has the most decorative interior ever so far in my trip. worth the hike. found the opera house and wanted to see an opera. but there were no show till next week. what a shame. instead, sat down by the steps and looked at people walking by. and interesting experience. this is what i concluded.
1. a common waiting ground
2. every guy who arrived, picked up his cell to make a call
3. girls are fashionably late. only guys seemed to be waiting for their dates
4. people just litter. a chick walked by and dumped some magazine on the floor

saw an interesting couple and decided to stalk them for a bit. its unusual to see a couple both good looking. rare find. look at every couple out there, usually one looks good and the other is a big disappointment. i mean just look at your partner, or look at yourself in the mirror. BINGO !


(lyon - city)

Saturday 6th: Paris - Part 1
Day 23

(paris - the arrival)

Arrived at Paris gare de lyon. was great to see stephane standing at the end of the track at 11.00am like he said he would. great day to arrive because it was "white night" - one night in a year where the entire city comes alive with are installation - from 7pm to 7am. people are not suppose to sleep. gawd knows why the french calls it "white night" (a literal translation from french) which is suppose to mean "sleepless night". also the rugby was on. french against new zealand. cant imagine the chaos if they lost. anyway the french won and the city went wild. great atmosphere and a great day to arrive. i was taken around paris the whole night and literally saw the whole of paris by foot. it was great. weird feeling. even saw the church featured in the davinci code.


(paris - at first glance)


(paris - white night)

Sunday 7th paris: Paris - Part 2
Day 24

(paris - free museum day)

slept in. first night in my entire trip i slept through the night. it felt great and the couch was terrible comfortable. it was free museum today. so we went to the pompidue center. great exhibition, great company. another great day. of did i tell you that stephane is such a great chef. nice french food yet again.


Monday 8th: Paris - Part 3
Day 25

(paris: me being a typical tourist)

so i did the eiffel tower because i had to not because i wanted to. queued up for 3 hours before i got to the top. and when i was up there, i felt like i was in america. it was bombarded with insipid american tourist. really cant take them anywhere. a friend once told me that if i wanted to feel at home, go to the base of the eiffel tower. everyone there is asian. well he is wrong. its an american village. the view was great. saw the entire paris except ... the tower itself. what a dissapointment. you dont see the icon up there. also my sunnies screw came off again. damn. need to find an optometrist to get it fixed.
done it and never had to do it ever again.

went to the louvre next. was huge. was also packed. this time its worse. the louvre was hijacked by chinese tourist who just wanted to snap pictures and not appreciate art. i was constantly asked or pushed aside by those fucking chinese tourist who kept telling me that i was in the way of their pictures. fucking hell. well. for all you chinese out there, if you want to feel at home in paris, go to the louvre NOT the eiffel tower. the eiffel tower is for americans !

my day ended well. went to Pigalle - the french red light district and did the sound walk (a present from mei). was so so good. and amazing experience. i came in my pants. thank you mei.

a little side trivia.
what does the red light district in paris and sydney has in common ?
a large coca-cola sign ! yes ! coca-cola is the proud sponsor of pornography ! everyone GO SUPPORT COCA-COLA !

Tuesday 9th: Paris - Part 4
Day 26

(paris: legend and the opera)

Exhaustion. was super tired and slept in. decided to cook the french dudes a chinese meal. went hunting for come chinese ingredients. went to olympides and its like a whole chinatown in an apartment block. i found the biggest chinese grocery store. it was huge. 4 times the size of randwick oriental store. felt at home when i heard people speaking cantonese in there. wow. i even got to use cantonese in there.

went to visit the opera house and later to see edith piaf. she looked so much at peace and was surrounded with flowers. what an icon. what an amazing person. she gave me her blessings and i moved on.

that night i whipped up a good chinese meal. i had some 'man tao' for entree, for mains, i stirred fried some pork with oyster sauce, japanese tofu with eggs and boiled some 'kai lan' with some more oyster sauce. yummy. i thought it was a great success except for the rice. we chinese are so used to cooking rice with a rice cooker. it was my first time cooking rice on a pot. man it was embarrassing. a chinese burning rice. fucking hell. i later got some tips from adraain on how to cook rice with a microwave. (another embarrassment. a chinese asking a caucasian on how to cook rice ! urgh !) and for desert, i made "tong yuun' with ginger soup. the look of their faces was priceless.

also, i got some japanese green tea. what a life.


Wednesday 10th: Paris - Part 5
Day 27
ok this is the day i broke down with depression. i didnt leave the house at all. but later got the strength to get out of the house to go to the palais de tokyo. i decided to cancel nyc trip and the funny thing is that my throat miraculously healed.

Thursday 11th Strasbourg - Part 1
Day 28

(strasbourg- germany ?)

had to get out of paris. also i decided to go look for Chai I. tried to catch the early train to strasbourg but the early train was sold out. (8.24am) so had to catch the 10.24am. had time to go to air france to try to cancel the tix. i was told that it cant be cancelled and its non refundable but she also reminded me about travel insurance !!!! what a champ.

anyway when i reached strasbourg, i changed my NYC trip to the 2nd of nov. cant waste the tix. and dont trust travel insurance. wanted to go there for halloween but it doubled the cost of my ticket and i thought the hell with it. will be celebrating my 26th birthday in NYC !!! woo hoo. so if anyone wants to give me anything for my birthday, just give me cash. email me for my bank details :P

strasbourg is close to the german border. lots of germans there and more people speak english here. saw the cathedral and smiled. they were right again - i was told that when i saw the cathedral i will like it. i saw it and i loved it. i was smiling again.

unfortunately, my cough has came back again.

Friday 12th Strasbourg - Part 2
Day 29
went to watch the film about the astronomical clock in the cathedral. was so boring that i almost fell asleep. they had a demonstration of the clock after the film. yeah a few wooden figurines came walking out of the clock, a baby banging on the bells and a chicken going coo coo. big deal. and all the tourist was like wow and impressed, taking photos and shit and i was like, u must be kidding me. right after the clock done coo cooing, a souvenir stand about the clock IN the cathedral miraculously opened. i was like u must seriously must be kidding me. who the fuck would want to buy these shit. but then again, insipid americans.

the town itself is pretty cool. nice old looking buildings. decided to track anti clockwise back around france since i had 3 weeks to kill before heading back to paris to catch a flight to NYC. so next stop, carcassonne. but its too long of a distance. so i m going to break it into 2. i will go on a side mission to valence :)

Saturday 13th: Valence
Day 30

(valence)

so i got lost on the way to the station. typical me but anyway when i got to the station, major power failure ! total chaos at the station. managed to get on board the train anyway.

arrived at valence. nice little town. the rugby was on. french versus england. it such a small town that literally everyone was out in the streets watching the match. feels like there were only some 1000 people living in this town but anyway i am on a secret mission here ;) well, its a secret, so if i post it here it wont be a secret anymore right ?


Sunday 14th: Carcassonne - yes again
Day 31

(carcassonne - reveisited)

its actually feels good to come back to somewhere familiar.

met this canadian guy who just had a bad luck streak. he arrived last night and the hostel was packed out and he had to sleep in the park, freezing cold. also he had his passport and all his money stolen and is stuck in france for the next 3 weeks until his passport get reissued. poor thing.

had another good look around the old city and crashed into bed early.

Monday 15th: Carcassonne - still there.
Day 32
to all you soon to be travelers. monday in france is dead. most shops are closed or the only open at 3pm. so dont even bother considering shopping in france on monday and most museum are closed on tuesday. and u think australians are lazy. meet the french.

had a really good conversation with a group of people at the youth hostel. this is one of the best part in traveling. meeting people, hearing their stories and be inspired. their conversations are enough to convince me to catch the next transport out to czech republic. so i thought i need to get back to paris and catch a plane to prague. and getting to paris from here is a killer. so i decided to go to tours and try to see the chateaus, and then catch the train back to paris and then to czech. went to the train station and bought an overnight train to tours. gawd. 8 hours on the over night train. but i have never taken a night train. so will be worth the experience.

went back to the youth hostel and made myself dinner. its so damn embarrassing to see the french and canadians cooking rice so successfully using a pot !!!!! gawd what has become of this world ? the guy at the reception offered to drive me to the station at 11.15pm. great. yes that same guy who i got to change my bookings last time i was here. was very tiring talking to him but had to be nice - free ride. i guess everything comes with a price.
weird thing was as we left, he said "say good bye to the old city because you might never come back."
i casually responded "nah. i will be back !"
when we reached the station, i realized that he forgotten to give me back my membership card. so he drove me back to the hostel which was in the old city. and it suddenly hit me. "see i did tell you i will be back !"
hah.

Tuesday 16th: Tours - Day 1
Day 33

(tours- amboise)

what a ride on the train. uncomfortable as it is, i managed to get some sleep. checked into the hostel and decided to go see some castle. and guess what ? i saw Chai I there. whoa. impressed. anyway, we hung out the whole day and went to see leonardo da vinci's house. all the excitement, i lost my cap. urgh. and my hair is so out of shape and i have nothing to hide it. gawd. i m devastated. also my chest is starting to hurt.


Wednesday 17th: Tours - Day 2
Day 34
rained in the morning and declared "lazy day today". went walking around the town. lovely little town. went and had tea in a little tea house. very relaxing. unfortunately my chest is hurting more. so made an effort to go see a doctor. was quite difficult because he spoke little english. but was an interesting experience. you walk into the clinic. u see people sitting in a room. no reception, nothing. just a few chairs in a room. then the doctor comes walking out from another door and call for the next in line. when its your turn, you follow him in to the room. anyway it was worth the money because i had physical contact with the doctor !!!! he examined me and even took my blood pressure. all that for 22 euros and 20 minutes of his time. he wrote the prescription and handle the money all by himself. in sydney you pay like 40 bucks for 2 minutes. and most of the time the doctor dont even touch you. doctors in sydney are ripoffs !!!

anyway he told me i had a chest infection. didnt give me any antibiotics because i didnt have fever. instead, he gave me some panadol for the pain and some cough syrup.

found a cinema that showed movie undubbed. yay ! finally got to watch a film !!!! you dont what it is like to not watch a movie in the cinema for such a long time. it was great. went to watch "this is england". felt soooo good.


Thursday 18th: Tours - Day 3
Day 35
decided to stay here and heal. Chai I was supposed to leave for st-malo today but all trains and busses were on strike. whole of france. so she is stuck for another day. i slept the whole day and just went out for dinner. my cough got alot better but my chest is not feeling good at all. did had a good dinner to finish the day.

Friday 19th: Tours - Day 4
Day 36
couldnt get out at all because my chest hurt so bad. had to stay in bed the whole time. forced myself to get up at around 4.15 pm. went out for a walk. need to get some warmer clothes as its starting to get really cold. cant hold out with my summer clothing much longer. looked around but found nothing worth buying. also went walking by the river and see the sunset. was nice. still i hope my chest dont hurt so much.


(tours - and the sun went down)

xxx. j.