The Wanderings of busman7

So everyone is looking for an update??

Well after 2 weeks here trying to get my head around what I had experienced in the past 3 months I have managed to relax enough to get 3 good nights sleep in a row & now with my blog rants out of the way can get on with the travel info.

Firstly my theory about the burgeoning middle class in Asia is proving accurate as here on the island by far & away the majority of tourists are from South Korea.

Also I noted about 4 years ago a change in a few of the Chinese attending the Great Lakes College summer camp, they were spoiled rich kids! Now in talking with Mario the ex-pat Italian owner of the Luna Rossa hotel where I am staying he has noticed this year for the first time some Chinese coming to the island for holidays.

Only spent a day in Manila & then only left the hotel to find an ATM then came here where the prices aren’t bad at around $30 CAD for a beach front resort or $20 for one near the beach, around $6 for western food  or under $2 for what the locals eat.

The beach vendors are pretty laid back & not a problem (No time share morons) & have only noticed 2 beggars doing their daily rounds.

At the little place on a side alley where I get breakfast most days for 80 pesos I met a family of about a dozen Philippinos visiting from New Jersey who introduced themselves & we had a good talk at breakfast a couple days ago, not some thing likely to happen back in North America.

Have me a couple ex-pat Americans lucky enough to be able to do their jobs on line so have the best of all worlds!

Also a good place for any one looking for a wife as Philippino girls welcome westerners as potential husbands.

Other than that it’s just a beach town & I am not really a beach person. Have a flight booked for Bangkok on Tuesday, had considered going back & giving China another try but costs the same to fly to Bangkok as Hong Kong & Thailand is a lot cheaper + I still have a bad taste in my mouth about China & the theft of my Lonely Planet guide when I entered the country.

It,s true what they say about first impressions being lasting & that is what I will always remember China for; the police STEALING my book!!!! That coupled with a bunch of kids dressed in soldier suits harassing worshippers in Tibet doesn’t make for warm & fuzzy memories of that country!!

Actually from reports I have heard & my experience so far in Asia I have a feeling that I just might cut my time here shorter than planned & after OZ return to Guatemala for the balance of the winter. But time will tell!!

Well I guess I am now really an ex-pat though I still have a Canadian address.

The reason being that in my travels I have experienced enough to see through the propaganda fed us in the North American media & the lies told by our politicians but when I express my views in my blog I am attacked as being naive.

However in discussions with fellow travelers & ex-pats, no matter where or what country they are from there is general agreement.

When I wrote that I had visited a Chinese Traditional Medicine Clinic it elicited the following response “Careful, could be melamine or some other crap in that $100 placebo you purchased. I wouldn’t trust any of the meds – natural or not? from China”

I had in actuality visited, by request not part of the packaged tour, the Beijing Traditional Chinese Medical health Preservation Research Center where I was seen by a professor there (won’t mention the name in a public blog). This consultation was at NO charge with no pressure to purchase the prescribed meds which had all ingredients listed on the package. As I have no family doctor in Ontario since mine retired & I joined the other 900 or so thousand forced to use public clinics, I took advantage of the opportunity.

So when this good Canadian makes such a moronic statement on my blog I took offense. Then a friend of mine in response to another blog entry accuses me of “not being nice” to the person that made the offensive remarks as “he is a nice person”. Then goes on to say that if I continue in this vein I will loose blog followers.

I fail to see how a racist bigot can be classed as a “nice person”, only in Canada EH!!

As any one who has been following this blog knows in the beginning I stated that some entries might not be popular & I am not writing this for money or recognition of any sort but as a log of my experiences & feelings at the time they occur so I can look back on them in the future.

I could care less if any one reads or follows it but it is open for any who care to do so!

Until now I have never deleted a comment but there has to be an exception to every rule & life is too short to waste time on close minded individuals so I will not approve any more comments from Oncearound.

An ex-pat Canadian enroute to residence in Guatemala!

Traveling 1/2 way around the world then flying most of the way across Asia & overlanding it back in 2+ months has taken it’s toll as I have been at a resort on the beach on Boracay Island now for ... [Continue reading this entry]

The first thing I noticed about China (I do NOT recognize China’s claim to Tibet) was upon awakening in the morning on the train from Lhasa to drab, dreary, mud colored shacks of the Chinese rural population. This was in ... [Continue reading this entry]

Firstly I want to bring my readers up to date on the status of my mother, my children took charge & rescued her from incarceration in the bowels of Brockville General Hospital where she was serving time in purgatory due ... [Continue reading this entry]

So the busman arrives in Beijing after a 48 hr train ride on the piece of crap Bombardier built train from Lhasa at 08:30 (rush hour on a Monday morning) with no hotel reservation. As warned, practically no one in ... [Continue reading this entry]

Just to let all know that I am in Lhasa Tibet & won't be updating blog until I leave China also can't access facebook here.

Those words from Laxmi, my guide at The Jungle Lodge pretty much sum up the Bharatpur district of Nepal which encompasses Chitwan National Park or as an American with a house near there said on the bus ride down from ... [Continue reading this entry]

For the fourth time so far this trip my Capitol One Master Card that I carry as a backup saved the day when my fancy new BMO chip credit & debit cards “that work at any ATM in the world ... [Continue reading this entry]

The biggest day is apparently today with some streets blocked off & others nearly impassible but the whole city having a grand party & they really love their fire crackers. However some are still working as I managed to submit ... [Continue reading this entry]