Kunming.
One of the many temples in the city.  Read more!

This dog will not be eaten.
Repeat--this dog will not be eaten.
A true, golden retriever in Kunming--another sign that Yunnan is years ahead of the rest of southern China.  Read more!

Hunter S. Hogglett
Fear and loathing in China.
Kunming Style.  Read more!

One of many war propoganda posters... The reds coming to destroy all that China has built... Interesting, considering that most of the Chinese treasures were all destoyed during the Cultural Rev, compliments of Chairmen Mao, who is the most idolized in China.  Read more!

The first real sign of Christianity since being in China. On occasion, you will see a church or two that is run down, but this is a gleaming sign of all the foreigners that are in kunming. Obviously, this church is getting some funding from somewhere...  Read more!

Ahhh, the cook and his special Bijo. Until this point, I thought all bijo was simply rice wine--but I now stand corrected. This was lemon bijo--and it was delicious--but the hangover was somewhat unbearable--like being poisioned--slow and deliberate.
I could not turn it down, however, as it is considered very rude to not drink with the host. Luckily, he usually didnt push the issue.  Read more!

This one is for my mom.
She is always worried that I dont get a cake on my birthday and I am not sure that I shared with you that I did actually get one on my birthday. As I turned the big 33 this year, I had a cake put in front of me--and for a chinese confection, it wasn't bad. The topping was a wierd, slightly dodgy lemon whipped topping that was slightly too hard to be real. It was quite an interesting specimen, but delicious.  Read more!

If you have been keeping up with my blog while I have been here in China, you have probably picked up that a number of things really get under my skin here.
I unveil yet another installment of the Tim Hogg China really sucks because.....
This is a picture taken at one of the only places in the country where they don't serve just Chinese food-- this is KFC.
KFC and McDonalds both have very wierd and strange ways to market their products. It is, afterall not in the average Chinese persons budget to eat at McDonalds of KFC, so they have to make the most of out of the experience for the people to come and make it seem like it was a smart move to come to China. One of the ways that these companies are very effective in their marketing is with the kiddies.
Here we have a textbook example of a busy day at KFC. These children are all in line having a bit of exercise while they wait for their greasy, fatty food that costs way too much. This is how they get so many people to come--they make it fun for the kids to come. Exercise all you want kids--but that food you are eating is still going to make plumper than the chickens they serve you.
Which brings me to an interesting side point I am sure I have brought up before-- Chinese people dont eat the breast of the bird--they think its the worst part of the bird and it usually ends up in processed foods. But the key is that they dont call it the breast--its called the "chest". You cant even get the chest at KFC, but you can get the head and the feet.
Lovely, I know.  Read more!

Ahhhh yes, the hotpot of Chongquing.... This was right about the time where I was really beginning to feel ill about the food--and we went out for hotpot--which is known as the spiciest dish in China.
I was a little ill from it, but i was quite selective about it and made them do the ying yang hogui--which is a traditional hot pot (red and very spicy) and a non spicy white broth hot pot, which, to my dismay, was made with fish heads and cow intestines for flavor. ICK.
It wasnt horrible, except for the fish eyes I almost ate at the countless bones that kept getting in the food--but the meat was dodgy and the other things were not really to my liking, but I didnt want to upset the hosts, so I kept eating slowly wondering how angry it was going to make my bowels.
I am alive to tell about it, so it wasnt that bad...  Read more!

For some reason, old Chinese men remind me of my dad's father, who passed away many years ago. This is one of those people that I have seen on my travels. These two people are farmers in the highlands above the town which I visted. They were insistant after talking with them that we hike up to the top of a long hill where their farm was so that we could get some shots of the city. It was a rather long hike which yeilded no spectacular scenery except to watch these amazing farmers climb up to their home, cigarettes a blazin.... Exactly how I remember my grandfather--minus the hiking.  Read more!

I have an real appreciation for this photo as it really shows the simplicity of the Chinese. It fits quite well with the old style of the buildings--this moment is timeless...  Read more!

This is the first of many pictures that I am going to attempt to upload this evening as I have finally gotten a cable to charge the battery on my laptop. This was taken in Zhongquin, a small minority village near chong quing.  Read more!

Back in the zhou

I am safely back in Chenzhou, where the weather is trying to decide if it wants to be winter or allow the tides of Spring to come forth and take its claim.
Thus far, winter is putting up an impressive mark upon this small city in the mountains. It makes for a fairly depressing time here, especially when you have spent the better part of your vacation amongst 85 degree weather in Thailand and the south of China.
I am here to do a job, however.
More pictures and such are on the way and I am going to be getting back into my work mode much more in the coming weeks in the hopes that I will actually get enough content written to make the decision if I want to try to publish it all or not....
So keep your eyes peeled. Read more!

These will be the last images that you will have the privledge of seeing for awhile as I head back to China in a couple of days and dont think I will have much time to be updating the blog. Today is the first day in a week that I have seen clouds--it seems like it is going to rain today, the air is very humid and thick--it would be nice to see a little rain, but I am sure that I will be seeing it soon enough upon my arrival back in Chenzhou.
It has been a good time here in Bangkok--easily the best city I have seen in a long time.



These pictures are all of the the grand palace and the Emerald Buddha temple--without a doubt the largest compound in Thailand. It was an amazing 250 bhat to see it, but well worth it. (250bht is about 8bucks)











Ahhhh, a monk. Actually, this is a monk that I caught smoking, so I asked to take his picture to remind me of him. Every male must become a monk in Thailand for at least two weeks. I didnt want to ask this monk how long he was in for....





And finally a shot of Patpong....
This is about all I was allowed to take before being threatned to have my camera smashed. :) Read more!

China Google

Google limits China searches
The Associated Press and Bloomberg News
PREV of NEXT


SHANGHAI, China — Google launched a search engine in China on Wednesday that censors material about human rights, Tibet and other topics sensitive to Beijing. The Internet search giant defended the move as a trade-off granting Chinese greater access to other information.
Within minutes of the launch of the new site bearing China's Web suffix ".cn," searches for the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement showed scores of sites omitted and users directed to articles condemning the group posted on Chinese government Web sites.
Searches for other sensitive subjects such as exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, Taiwan independence, and terms such as "democracy" and "human rights" yielded similar results.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin said his company's decision to self-censor its Chinese search system followed a change of heart over how best to foster the free flow of information.
"I didn't think I would come to this conclusion, but eventually I came to the conclusion that more information is better, even if it is not as full as we would like to see," Brin told Reuters in an interview in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum conference.
Google, whose high-minded corporate motto is "Don't be evil," had previously refused to comply with Internet censorship demands by Chinese authorities, rules that must be met in order to locate business operations inside China, the world's No. 2 Internet market.
"I know a lot of people are upset by our decision, but it is something we have deliberated for a number of years," Brin said.
The voluntary concessions laid out Tuesday by Google parallel some of the self-censorship already practiced there by global rivals such as Yahoo! and Microsoft, as well as domestic sites.
Google's move was prompted by frequent disruptions of the Chinese-language version of its search engine registered under the company's dot-com address in the United States.
Government filtering has blocked access or created lengthy delays in response time. "The practical matter is that over the last couple of years Google in China was censored, not by us but by the government, via the 'Great Firewall,' " Brin said.

=6;}
else if(navigator.userAgent && navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf("msie")>=0 && (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Windows 95")>=0 navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Windows 98")>=0 navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Windows NT")>=0))
{document.writeln('');document.writeln('on error resume next');document.writeln('plugin=(IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.6")))');document.writeln('');}
var pr_redir='$CTURL$';
var pr_redir_def='~';
var pr_bust=Math.random();
var pr_pos='';
if(typeof(prInst)=='undefined'){var prInst=1}else{prInst++}
if(!plugin){pr_pos='&pos=g'}
var prs="ads.PointRoll.com/PRServe/?ad=821Q392005123021317"+pr_pos+"&pub=stltimes&num="+prInst+"&size=300_250&code=no&hide=~&redir="+pr_redir+"&defredir="+pr_redir_def+"&bu="+pr_bust+"&r="+Math.random();
document.write("");
//-->
on error resume next
plugin=(IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.6")))
','300','250','3','1',136821,89546,'0','324',212);" onclick="pr_trk('ac',136821,1);" onmouseout="if(typeof(prRoll)=='function')prBExit(event);" shape=RECT target=_new coords=73,212,148,248 href="http://clk.atdmt.com/NMK/go/sttltqm20140000034nmk/direct;at.nmkqm200002032;ct.1/01/&0.8807395555187043">','300','250','3','2',136821,83617,'0','324',211);" onclick="pr_trk('ac',136821,2);" onmouseout="if(typeof(prRoll)=='function')prBExit(event);" shape=RECT target=_new coords=2,211,69,248 href="http://clk.atdmt.com/NMK/go/sttltqm20140000034nmk/direct;at.nmkqm200002032;ct.1/01/&0.8807395555187043">','300','250','3','3',136821,85103,'0','324',0);" onclick="pr_trk('ac',136821,3);" onmouseout="if(typeof(prRoll)=='function')prBExit(event);" shape=RECT target=_new coords=0,0,1,1 href="http://clk.atdmt.com/NMK/go/sttltqm20140000034nmk/direct;at.nmkqm200002032;ct.1/01/&0.8807395555187043">
Google already notifies users of its German and French search services when it blocks access to material such as banned Nazi sites in Europe.
"France and Germany require censorship for Nazi sites, and the U.S. requires censorship based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. These various countries also have laws on child pornography," he said.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires U.S. Internet service providers to block access to Web sites violating copyrights on materials such as music or movies.
"I totally understand that people are upset about it, and I think that is a reasonable point of view to take," Brin said of Google's compromise.
China has more than 100 million Web surfers, and the audience is expected to swell.
"There is no question. Google would tell you that going into China is about making money, not bringing democracy," said John Palfrey, author of a study on Chinese Internet censorship and a law professor at Harvard Law School.
Chinese Internet users said Google's move inevitable was given Beijing's restrictions on the Internet, which the government promotes for commerce but heavily censors for content deemed offensive or subversive. "Google has no choice but to give up to the Party," said one posting on the popular information-technology Web site pcOnline.
Google senior policy counsel Andrew McLaughlin said the company wouldn't host its e-mail or blogging services in China that can be mined for information about users, and would inform users if information had been deleted from searches.
Technology analyst Duncan Clark said Google probably hopes to avoid the bad publicity incurred by Yahoo! last year after it provided the government with the e-mail account information of Chinese journalist Shi Tao, later convicted of violating state secrecy laws. Read more!

The bus that I took through Lao--the hell journey that I think I have described earlier-- I think...
Ahhhh, my first dish of Pad Thai at the border. After living with Chinese food for six months, this was a welcome change... Delicious when washed down with a lovely Pepsi.
Some famous Thai Soap opera star--Click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see his lovely eye make up.
The bus as a before picture....
NEVER TRAVEL THROUGH LAO AT NIGHT ON A BUS.

I dont quite know what to say tonight. I have been in Bangkok for three days now and could imagine spending the rest of my life here quite easily. The weather is constantly beautiful, the people are for the most part friendly and happy--except for the foreigners and the tourist industry that surrounds supporting all of these people seeking their various conquests from the European sex vacationier (which makes me a little ill when I see 50 year old fat men with beautiful tiny Thai women hired for the week) to the touring fiends looking for the cheap deals in the public market (I can't talk too much about that one-- I have bought some nice masks for my collection and about 3bucks a piece and some fake Polo shirts, etc)...
All of this is a part of the Thailand that I am growing to love--but the real key is the low prices of everything and the access to most things--the language is fascinating and the culture, beyond the sex markets and the bustling downtown where I am living is curious. Buddhism lives here like I have never seen it.
There are some great pictures I have not uploaded to my computer as of yet, but they will be here soon enough. These pictures should be enough to keep you going for awhile.
I leave on Tuesday and begin the trek back to a cold and rainy China, but the trip has gone, for the most part, very well and I am glad that I opted for the long journey to here instead of staying in China as was planned a couple of weeks ago...
Special thanks to Mom and Dad for sending a little extra cash to get me over the hump in these last weeks--to Cliff for floating a little my way and for Andrew for making me see all sides of Bangkok--its an amazing time fo sho.... Read more!

One Night in Bankok

If I never leave this country, it is going to be okay with me.
24 hours in the most beautiful country on earth. 18 hours in one of the most fantastic cities on earth--I am at a loss for words. Why I have not been to this place before remains a mystery to me, but the fact that I am here now leads me to believe that I must come back here again and again.
I am staying with Andrew in his apartment in the hospital where he works. It is centrally located in Bangkok, with the center of the sex city just blocks away. We visited last night and it was most interesting. The most beautiful women and men who look like the most beautiful women--all for hire.
But that is not what makes this city amazing. Buddhism abounds--temples everywhere--pictures will be available soon enough...
Time passes--must go and see the rest.... Read more!

Thailand Arrival

I have safely arrived in Thailand, but what a harrowing adventure it has been....
The original plan was to go from Kunming in the Yunnan province down to the "banna" region and take a cargo boat down the Mekong River to Thailand--basically the same place that I am at right now.
Problems began in Kunming when my cell phone was stolen in the enormus Bird and Flower Market. At that point I had decided that it was probably a much better idea to just stay in Yunnan and not go further south. I quickly recanted this concept and decided to abandon the comforts that I suddenly developed in Kumning and bought a bus ticket for banna that night. The ride from Kunming to Banna was long and difficult. The road was washed out in several areas--I was trapped in a tight sleeping bus for 9hours as I made the journey south. In the morning, upon our arrival, I headed directly for Mai-Mai Cafe, which has the most up to date travel information for the region. It was a little early--8am, so I ordered breakfast, a lovely omlette with bacon like pieces of meat, black mushrooms and onions--all in all a lovely feast. I then asked the waitstaff about getting the boat down to Thailand and she informed me with a frown that there was no ships until the 6th (tommorow) because of the Chinese New year. Sad.
I was really looking forward to making it to the Mekong river and relaxing.
I would not be allowed to relax at all.
I had travelled on the sleeper bus with a guy from Harvard who was studying Chinese at Beijing University. He saw a couple of friends of his from college, one who was heading to Laos in half an hour. Another friend of thiers, Jen, had recently done the trek to the other side of Lao, near the Thai border and said it was fairly easy to accomplish.
With that said, I was on my way with them. We booked a ticket heading for Lao (it is called Lao by the native people -- I was told that the French Bastardized it by adding the S) In a matter of moments, we were on the bus to Lao. This was a fairly amusing, but very long ride through the south of China on what we thought was going to be a bus, but it turned out to be a Toyota like minivan--packed with rice and locals going from town to town--read--it took a long, long time to get from point A to point B--but it was done.
We stayed in a boarder town for the night, still in China. Prostitutes and massage parlours everywhere--it will hopefully be the last of dodgy chinese food I have for a long time. The next morning we went to the bus station and boarded another, larger minivan for the border--which was about 1.5 hours away. We cleared customs much quicker than I thought we would--no checking for anything from the Chinese government--which was quite amazing considering the amount of heroin that passes through the region.
Once in lao, things changed quickly. Buildings give way to huts--Chinese food turns into grilled squirrel ([pictures later)
Once we arrived in lao, it was another 1.5 hours of bumpy roads and difficult travelling until we reached the town. Once there- I lost my travelling buddy. She was staying at the border for a couple of days and then moving into the dense forests of Lao. I quickly booked a ticket to get to the other side of Lao--I needed to get to thailand--no need to spend extra time.
We arrived at 2:30pm.
The bus to the Thai border was supposed to leave at 3pm, but there were not enough people to make the journey, so we had to wait for the bus to come from the capital city to connect it before we could leave.
"But it will be here at anytime"
5hours later (and 3lao beers) it finally arrived. After much negoitation, my pack was tossed on the top of the bus, with the slaugherted pigs and chicken crates and we were on our way.
This was the most harrowing experience- I have ever EVER EVER had. Mountain passes made of clay, road washouts--all in the middle of the night--the scariest roller coaster ride for 6usd and 9 hours of terror. It was amazing-an experience I am glad that I did, but will NEVER try that again.
We arrived at 330am on the other side of the Mekong from where I am now. I cant tell you right now how nice it feels to be here. What an amzing journey--but one that I am not likely to repeat for quite some time.
There are many more details to tell, but it will have to wait for another time. I have three and a half hours here and want to see as much as possible before heading to Bancock to watch the Superbowl and enjoy the 90 degree weather.
Its nice to be alive. Read more!

  Read more!

  Read more!