Singpore - Høyåsveien 76

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At the airport in Singapore a familiar face came to pick me up. Alicia had just finished work and together we went to Tanah Mera to my friends from my last stay in Singapore.  We met Nivas again and I dropped off my stuff. It had been six months since I had been to a Singaporean coffee shop and it was nice to get some food and Tiger beer.
During the daytime I beat my roommate in Bowling and had great lunch with Nivas and his French couch surfer. We chatted and watched old Indian movies. I had the time to read three Sherlock Holmes books too. With Ranford and some other of Bucket’s friends I had beers in the evening. We went to a nice beer market with live music. I also attended a cs meeting at the garden at the bay which was nice. Bucket and I had Sunday dinner with her parents, which was very nice. They even served fish I found tasty!  The days went by and the last day Farhani showed me around the local market before Alicia saw me off at the airport. From the airport I headed to Europe!
I decided to end my trip and go back home. On my way I stopped in Munich to attend Bernhard’s and Anita’s wedding. We went sightseeing in Bavaria and ate and drank a lot of good food and beer. Berni’s mother kept on insisting so who am I to say no? The wedding was perfect and so much fun. I made so many new friends, both Germans and Norwegians. The food was delicious and the beer magnificent. Adding good company to that and we got a great party! After the wedding I stuck around four days and chilled out at the foot of the Alps. We went hiking and swimming and enjoyed the great weather.
After leaving Germany for Salzburg, and making sure I took Ralph’s house keys with me so he had to drive all the way there and back to get them, I walked around in Austria once more.  I was checking out the buildings and the surrounding “Sound of Music” mountains until Berni and her boyfriend Greg showed up. We went to Furschl am See and stayed with her brother and family. Again swimming in the beautiful green lake and enjoying some weissbier. Against Greg I was winning in check and losing in football. This didn’t concern me as we all know which sport is the most masculine one. After two days in Austria I wasted a day getting to Berlin in traffic and good old Goldie picked me up in Berlin. Together with Sarah, Lena, her Italian stallion, the ambassador padawan and Carsten we had beers in Berlin until Andreas and I got too tired and went to bed. The next day we went to a beach party at the river spree and the sweatiest wg party I’ve ever been to.
After saying good bye to Andreas I left for Norway. My last flight was of course delayed and I ended up knocking on my sister’s door at 00.30 am and telling her I would attend her marriage. The next day she took me to Oslo and I met Torhild and Artux for breakfast. Dølle was still sleeping so I went home towards Skien. I tried to hitch hike, but never got longer than Drammen. The only ones picking me up were a Norwegian, a Kenyan and an Iraqi Kurd.  I gave up, took the bus home, walked to the house and surprised my parents that thought I was in Australia.

There were some blank eyes and laughter and my trip was over for this time. Thank you all for giving me an exceptional experience and memories for life!

Hugs and Kisses!!!

Veni, Vidi, Vici!!

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Hualien - Singapore

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I took a train ride down the east coast of Taiwan to Taitung. From there I went down to the harbor and took the ferry over to Green Island. The island was a prison island but Is now mainly a small resort area for Taiwanese. I arrived and started looking for a place to sleep. My plan was to stay a night or so, but everything seemed to be fully booked. At a nice inn I started chatting with the family that ran it. After a while they asked me what my budget was and told me I could stay with the son Jonny and his friend, since they had an extra bed in that room. The family was super nice and slowly adopted me. From now on they were all mom, dad, meme and didi. I slept and ate with them and they took me out on the trips with their guests. I biked around the island which is probably the hottest thing I’ve ever done. After a couple of days some more cool guys came, Shayne, Romain, James and Bear, and they took me out diving. We had three dives that day and one of them was down at almost 40 meters. I enjoyed my stay there a lot and ended up staying five days.

After mom helped me bribing the ticket officer at the ferry, which gave me back some money, he didn’t want that much; I got a spot and headed to the mainland. James and his family drove me to the train station and from there I took the train to Chaozhou. My hostess Kai took me home and gave me a room with a bigger-than-king-size bed.  We went out to eat a famous local ice cream thingy and then for a walk at a university’s campus.  After some more local sightseeing into the night, we went to see her friend Youling and eat some pig. The next day we went to check out some local aborigines and make some pearls. We had a nice dinner with Kai’s friends on top of the mountain while enjoying a double rainbow.

Kai’s mother gave the both of us a ride to Khaosieung. Kai left for Taipei and I went to see my new host Josh from America. We went to a couple of parties together, including a pool party, and just chilled out and had food at the night market. An excellent host with a chilled out attitude was what I needed. A very nice and relaxing stay before I took a VIP bus to Taipei with private tv and Nintendo emulator.  In Taipei I stayed my last three days with a sweet Swedish-Taiwanese couple and their daughter.  They had time off, so they could hang out with me and help me out with my last chores in Taiwan. At the end I also visited Taipei 101. I got to the airport and cruised down to Singapore!

Taiwan was great and the hottest place I’ve ever been to, regarding both weather and chicks. I had a great time and thanks to all of you for hanging out with me! 

Taipei - Hualien, Taiwan

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I arrived in Taipei in the rain and took the bus into the city. Hana, a girl from couchsurfing, was willing to show me the night market before I met up with my American host Grant.  I met him and his friends at 11 pm, and he wondered if I wanted to go out. It was lady’s night at a club nearby. I accepted and it was the beginning of a four night in a row clubbing streak. This was only interrupted by a visit to the tailor and a local sightseeing lunch with Ariel.  The last night out was at a pool party. I met some cool English hedge fund bankers from Hong Kong and they took me out. It was pretty sweet with loads of champagne, private tables and fancy bars etc. The three I was most with was a brilliant Rahul, which seems to be the name of all British Indians I meet:), Greg, English bloke with style and the American Ice pick. Why Ice pick? He just walks up to ANY girl you point at, brings her to you and there you go. Incredible.

After this ordeal I haven’t been drinking much and won’t be in the future. I was a wreck. I moved to a new host, Hana from earlier, and spent a couple of days at her place watching South Park on a big screen and eating good food. It was exactly what I needed. After a visit to the national palace museum, I left for Hualien with the train. There two small 19 year olds showed me some local tea and candy. I found out it is very clever to contact students, because now they have vacation and can show me around daytime.  My host in this city was Summer and I stayed with her, her cousin Barbie and friend Laurence in a very cool house.  The next day Yi Lin and csdcg, the young girls, met me with a bunch of their high school friends and we went to a café where the guy did card tricks. Then I got on the back of Racoon’s scooter and we all headed to the stony beach. After passing a couple of big intersections at red light, I laughed and said “Red light doesn’t mean stop here, hehe”. She answered “what lights? Ah those, I didn’t see them. I didn’t know there were lights here”. That made me sweat a little. At the beach we all enjoyed the stones and the weather and went happily back after a couple of hours.

The next day I went to Taroko national park. It’s very beautiful and Taiwan is truly a treasure island. I had a proper walk in the park and then I took the bus back to Hualien. Summer and I went for dinner and got trapped by the rain afterwards. Her scooter refused to cooperate and we had to cab it home in the end. I was supposed to go to Taitung the next day, but Summer convinced me to take a day trip to Shitiping. After a nice bus ride south, I got to a great coast with a lot of furious waves splashing on the rocks. I spent some hours enjoying the view there before I went back to a last night in Hualien. 

Tokyo - Osaka, Japan

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In Tokyo I woke up to yet another terrific breakfast made by Keigo. We played a couple of rounds of shogi with his nephew as spectator and then went to his sister’s cake shop. We needed a birthday cake for Izumi.  We were going to celebrate in a park with some of Keigo’s friends. Turns out one of them had birthday as well. It was a great evening and we spent it eating cake, snacks and drinking beer.  

The next day, the last day in Tokyo with nice weather, I spent inside making origami. I had loads of fun and impressed myself with some of the results which you can all admire in my pictures.  The next day would be my last and hectic day in Tokyo. Keigo and I got up early. On our two hour trip to Chiba we picked up Izumi so that we could play shogi on her lap in the subway. In Chiba we went to a theme park with stuff from the late Edo period. The buildings and everything was cool, but I was there solely for one reason; to dress as a samurai. Izumi got her Kimono and Keigo and I got our armor. We played around for an hour or so, having shit loads of fun.  We had a last supper together at my favorite place, Family Mart. They watched me hitchhike off onwards to Fukuroi.

After some interesting rides with an old couple, a Bolivian and (maybe) an old school Yakuza guy (he missed his pinky) I arrived in Fukuroi at my hostess Emi Suzuki. Her father does not make cars. His daughter, however, makes good food and that was exactly what was waiting for me when I got inside. Nothing says “Håkon will be your friend forever” like having a warm meal with a cold beer waiting for him. I repaid her by beating her 6-1 in connect-four.

The next day Emi was ready to hitchhike. She made a nice sign and we hit the road. We easily got two rides which was all we needed to get to the barbecue.  It was a brilliant day and we enjoyed good food and company under a glowing sun.  Emi got a wonderful red tan.  Back home again, she got to play Super Mario on my computer while I was making a photo album. Somehow Mario gets girls more excited than I’m able to. This is kind of sad, since I’ve been spending a major part of my life playing computer games. I should have gotten some tricks from the Italian stallion.

In the morning I left for Osaka, hitchhiking the last stretch. My last ride turned out to be a kyukushin fighter and was going to Poland to compete. He ended up driving me all the way to Tennoji Osaka although he was going to Nara. What a guy! In Osaka I met up with Aska again. The last two days in Japan I spent with her at the elementary school she went to, playing with kids. It was fun and they got to carry my bag and receive some stickers.  Aska and her mother made some more delicious food for me and I made an origami penguin to show Chris off. Before I left Japan, Yuichiro from the party bus met me and Aska at the station. I gave him the photo album and a bottle of Sake before I parted with the two.

Japan was awesome and a remarkable country to visit! I had so much fun and met so many nice people! Germans are generally not like Mengele anymore and in the same way the Japanese are far away from unit 731. Thanks to everybody who hosted me and everybody that picked me up all around Japan! I hope you will get your reward in whichever heaven you believe in. If not, come to Norway and I’ll give you a beer! Domo arigato gozeimas!

Katachikanei!

Gero - Tokyo, Japan

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After the police left us, Rocky and Ikumi invited me in to the local community house where they work. We chatted a bit and then went for the local onsen. After a long weekend, it was good to go to bed early. Rocky works with local tourism and the next day a Japanese couple wanted to do some canyoneering. I came along as his Norwegian assistant and we brought them safely up a small creek and back again. We had a good dinner together at the center before Ikumi and I went to the Onsen. This mountain town is very nice and relaxing and it felt good to have some rest. The next day would be very slow and I didn't do much. I made another Perl script that compresses my GPS coordinate files. I also went to the onsen hehe.

Third day in mountains would be pretty sweet. A local school class with kids was coming and I was the assistant again. The kids were very cute and polite and it was a joy taking them through the course. They were always laughing and smiling and some of them were climbing better than monkeys. And they were all nice to each other; they even held hands with the weird ones and stuff. After we were done we had lunch together and took the bus back. At the center they lined up and greeted us and then sang us a song. It was like a different world from a screaming school class of thirty kids at home.

For the fourth time in four days I went to the onsen. This time I went with the kids and teachers.

After a last good night sleep in Maze, Rocky sent me off with lunch from Ikumi, who fed me well every dayJ. On my trip to Tokyo I had no less than seven rides, not counting Rocky. One guy was nidan in karate and one crew from Nagoya was really cool and got four in the backseat to make room for me in their massive Toyota Tundra. Two funny guys got me to a service area where a guy picked me up in a Mercedes S550. Why not arrive in Tokyo with style? I got to my first host Mika in Oyama area of Tokyo. She was working in the evening so I met up with my friend Keigo that I met in Fukuoka and we had some family mart beers and watched football.

Unfortunately my host got sick during the second night, but I invited myself to Keigo and he let me stay at his place. After a trip to the museum the following day, I waited for him at Roppongi. There, a student called Shota approached me with some ramen questions since he saw I was eating my daily instant noodles. He was a cool guy and I invited him to join us for the bar. Soon Keigo came with his friends Izumi, who smells remarkably good, Sayaka, Yasutaka, Mutsumi and Kenta, or Tokugawa as I call him. At the bar Shota was too young, but we got him in and everybody had a great time with “drink as much as you want for 1000 yen”. I appreciate the help I got from Sayaka and Keigo on the way home.

The next days in Tokyo were very relaxing. Keigo, Izumi and I went walking around downtown on Sunday. Monday we added Sayaka and went on a daytrip to Kamakura. We had a great time and Keigo took us walking forever. We also saw a big Buddha and played a lot of shogi, Japanese chess which Keigo has taught me. When Keigo was busy looking for work, Izumi and I went to Akihabara to celebrate that she got a job. In the evening we met up with Keigo to watch the football match between Japan and Australia. It was cool to see all the enthusiastic Japanese in a crowded pub.

That’s it from Tokyo now!

Osaka - Gero

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After yet another delicious breakfast in Osaka, Aska and I headed up to Kyoto with the train. Kazu, my next host, met us at the station and we dropped off my stuff in his apartment. We then went to Toei studios to see how samurai movies are made and enjoy the little theme park. On the way home we dropped off Aska at her friend's university and went back to Kazu's place. He is a super fast walker and we criscrossed the city's east side for the sightseeing highlights. We finished with a beer with one of his entrepreneur friends. Regular Japanese work a lot but this guy had hardly time to breath.

I got to borrow Kazu's bike and went cycling the next day. I visited Aska and her friends at the university and then I headed to the golden temple. Kyoto has loads of nice houses and old buildings and it's fun just to get lost in all the streets. When Koza came back from work, we went to a big electronics mall and then for a nice dinner. My last day in Kyoto was spent checking out Nijo castle with the nightingale floors and cycling south in the city checking out a hill with loads of Toris (Japanese shrines). It was nice and I got lost in the hills there so I got myself some exercise getting back to my bike. In the evening we did something cool. Kazu took me to a ninja restaurant. You had to go through a maze where ninjas snuck up on you and you got to eat shurikens and stuff. It was sweet.

I parted with Kazu Saturday morning and thanked him for a great stay in Kyoto. I took the subway to the end of the city and hitch hiked with a mother and daughter up to the highway. At the service area a great guy came over and asked me if I wanted a lift. He then took me to a bus that soon would be filled with 11 happy Japanese guys and me. They were on a weekend trip and had coolers with beer and snacks ready for me. After a couple of beers they asked me if I could change my plans, which I certainly could. One guy had cancelled so I got to be the twelfth samurai. I joined them for the weekend and headed to Takayama. 4 beers b4 12 o'clock - I knew it would be a great Saturday! On the way we stopped at the biggest water wheel in Japan and had lunch. In Takayama we checked out the city and float museum. The city has big floats on wheels that are pulled through the streets when they have festivals. They are up to several hundred years old. The town is very nice, built in old Japanese style. A lot of places we could test the local sake. At the bed and breakfast, we had a million dish course where we could drink as much sake and beer as we wanted. I ate more fish with these guys this weekend then I have my entire life.

A night with many snoring room mates and little sleep didn't stop any from having beers at breakfast. A second sightseeing in Takayama followed and then we left for Shirakawa. It was a beautiful town with houses that look Swiss to me. We enjoyed a stroll around and then had a great lunch. The guys gave me two beers and some snacks and wished me the best of luck hitch hiking down to Gero. I parted with the brilliant crew and now even more people on the planet walk around with Norwegian flags on their cell phones. I should get an embassador job or something. I feel like I'm doing a good job spreading a positive image of Norway haha. Everyone that stopped to pick me up in Shirakawa were going in the wrong direction. Eventually a guy from the parking spot came with a bus ticket to me. I'm not sure if he was super nice or had gotten orders to get rid of me. Nevertheless, I gave him two beers and went with the bus. An exciting weekend was drawing to an end.

I thought this would be the end of this post, but when I was trying to walk the last 11 km from the bus stop in the rain, a police car stopped in front of me. After some chatting I got in the back and they got their pineapple candy. They drove me all the way to the fishing center in a village called Maze. There my new host Rocky awaited me! His wife said the police tried to be serious, but she felt they enjoyed driving me around. Also, the rookie driver needed training hehe.

Truly an exciting weekend!

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Himeji - Osaka, Japan

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After a good night sleep, Adam and I went for a trip up north from Himeji. He used to live there some years, so he knew everything and it was so cool to have a guide to tell me everything. There had been a massive flood there some years back and he showed me the traces of it. We checked out some castle ruins and some cool caves with stone formations created by the earth's magnetic field. After a long trip we ended up in Kinosaki, a small, cute town famous for it's hot springs. We bought a pass for all the onsens and went to five different baths. It was a great day and we weren't home before 1 am. After a last lazy day in himeji, I started the next morning hitch hiking to Osaka.

After four rides and a subway I was at the meeting point in Osaka. My next host Aska and her friend June picked me up and we walked around in Osaka while they explained me different things. Finally I saw all the cos play people, those who dress up as maids etc, and we went to one of these photo booths where you draw on your own pictures. It was surprisingly fun. At the end of the day, her mother waited for us at home with a great big meal. I showed them the outfit I had gotten from Himeji and they started complementing it with small ribbons and swords and what not. It was fun to have a little carnival. At the very end I got to borrow a yukta, a kind of bath robe, and wooden shoes and we left for a sento, another kind of hot bath.

Aki and Mutsu met us the next day for a walk around Osaka. We checked out the streets with cos play people, strange department stores and Japanese sex shops. We then went to Osaka's "red light district". It's a normal residential area with a grid of small streets and old houses. The houses have a big open entrance and an old woman selling a younger girl, which is all dressed up and sits on a pillow with spot lights on her. Kind of interesting. Aki took us to a store he used to work in and we stacked up some beer and snacks and went to the river for some evening drinks. They had a friend working as a host at a bar close by. His job is to look like a final fantasy figure and talk to girls that want better company than drunk, stupid guys. Good concept actually, I wonder if it would work in Norway. We ended the night at 12 o'clock and got the last train home.

The next day, like every day, a wonderful breakfast awaited me, with everything from curry and rice to toast with sesame something. Aska's mother is so amazing. Aska and I went to the aquarium to check out some fish. The area also had a big market and some nice souvenir shops. They also had a belly dancing show but Aska wasn't impressed. Afterwards we went to Osaka castle to learn a bit about the downfall of Toyotomi. We got kicked out of the castle when it was closing time and hurried back home to meet her entire family for dinner. Another great day.

The instant noodles were invented in Japan and the museum is in Osaka. We went there and learned about instant noodles and it's inventor. We got to make our own cup noodles and it was very cool. After checking out Korea town, we went home and had more great food and and origami night. Folding paper is awesome! In the evening we met up with some high school friend's of Aska and watched them play sketches, football and arm wrestle. Last full day in Osaka we had a lazy day since it was raining, but I found a great water melon ice cream. We also did origami again hehe.
Kyoto next!