Time Lapse

Day 3

Sitting in front of the Royal Palace, I try to recall the feelings of yesterday to write something down. It's funny how the cultural distance between two experiences impacts your impression of the time lapsed between the two experiences.

The ballet was a mixed experience. The Opera House is a great building with sharp angles and querky geometry vaguely reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House. The ballet named 'Back to the Future' was in three parts. The first two seemed inaccessible to a ballet layman as I drifted into a nap (deciding that this was actually a better use of my time). All was not lost, however, as part three (the main event) explored a range of Physics concepts of time - helped significantly by the narration! The concepts seemed disconnected (although in the same vein of time), but in general focused on the depressing nature of time running away from us.

A nice picture was painted: time is a lake, getting deeper and deeper, and we are pondskaters flitting around in the present to drop down into the past when we die. The water metaphor was also used to describe time as a dimension.

On the outside, one can also climb onto the roof of the Opera House, which is pretty surreal and magical. It would have been nice to stay up there longer but it was blitz cold.

The morning was past with a visit to the Nobel Peace Centre and Viegesland Park. The exhibition at NBC was Targets, and showed different nations' depictions of the enemy. There was also a great audio recording of an interview with an ex-Israeli sniper, who interestingly described killing an unarmed person as embarrassing. It must be one hell of a rollercoaster ride being in the army as a killer.

Viegesland Park was a nice park, and the sculptures interesting. They capture different emotions very effectively, but all of them seemed to be unhappy emotions. The theme of the day was actually quite stern. The different elements drove me to infer that happiness is more temporary than unhappiness. Something drives happiness, but unhappiness is the low entropy state that needs displacing. I guess the exact opposite of this is the key to happy living!

Despite the underlying theme, or maybe because of it, Day 3 was another feast of new and diverse experiences! Lovely.

For the love of God

Day 2

I do enjoy a day of exploration. This morning I bussed over to Bodgey, which is museum central of the museum capital of the world. Time to get my culture fix.

I started off with the Fram museum. The Fram was one of the most important polar exploration vessels, built to deal with and take advantage of polar ice drift. The museum had a huge amount of information on the past, present and future of polar exploration putting giving me a new perspective on the geography of the world. Robinson Crewsoe made me want to explore the world by boat, and this enthusiasm was rekindled with the heroic(ish) stories of voyages to the North pole. The museum really had a lot of different elements, from the Fram ship itself to a bizarre simulation of a ship being crushed under pressure from the ice! Brrrr...

The Kon-Tiki museum was also very interesting and had a different angle to exploration by sea. This simple raft had the purpose of understanding the original flows of people to Polynesia. However, I could not find a connection to Norway... So I won't go on about that one.

The afternoon took a different track. Another enjoyable public transport experience - the metro this time - going up and up to Holmenkellem. This is the site of Norway's famous ski jump - renowned for a great view of Oslo. We did drop a degree or two, and it did feel like even more of a ski town! Venturing out of Oslo centre certainly was worth it for the impressive structure of the ski jump. A lift to the top yielded no views of the city because of the mist, but (oh boy) imagining I was about to do a jump at the winter Olympics, staring down the ski slope was very intimidating! The skiing videos on big screen in the auditorium were unbelievable. On the way back I caught sight of a Buddhist statue and the eternal flame of peace. Seemed completely random, but made the experience in Holmenkellen feel even grander.

Another session, another experience. Back to my favourite Aker Brygge to the Astrup Fearnley Musee. I was warned that it was interesting / weird. In this regard, it certainly did not disappoint! The Good Morning America exhibition was cool, but fairly standard provocative contemporary art. The other exhibition was Damien Hirst's, which focused on different portrayals of death. None of them positive! How's your eternal peace flame? The finale of the exhibition was a real skull covered in diamonds, and the message boiled down to "you can't polish a turd" (but maybe a bit more sinister!).

--> Oslo, good range, good range.

Os High

Day 1

It feels like a long time since I visited a European city. The feelings are lying, but at least they are honest.

The cold, crisp air when stepping off the plane was a refreshing change from the smacks of heat we all usually look forward to. This immediately gave the place a ski town vibe. As well as the sensation of air on face, it's funny how small things like pavement styles give a city a distinctive feel.

Knocked out nicely on the coach from Rygge to Oslo, but what I did see were combinations of Christmas trees greens and autumnal oranges making for quite a moving picture. Naise.

Oslo town seems to be full of stereotypical culture with a vast number of museums, art galleries, scuptures and historic landmarks. I think I spent 2/3 of my waking hours today deciding which museums to hit in the next few days! I am looking forward to nailing my combination of adventures while also just chilling and vibing off the city.

Spent the evening in Aker Brygge, the harbour aka "New Oslo". Really cool area with fancy restaurants and bars with outdoor heated seating areas along the waterfront. Randomly ended up at this Asian restaurant (called Asia) where I had a beauty of a dish known as raw pad thai.

Tomorrow is the culture day!

Over and Out

The final day has arrived and it feels how I expected it to feel. It has been quite an unbelievable journey over the three months (four including India), and will be unrecognisable to life in England, which is good to really appreciate it. To be good things must come to an end otherwise they would not have been a good thing. ("Death is the best invention in life" - Steve Jobs.) And they say "time flies when you're having fun", but this journey felt nice an epic both in duration and stature. I don't think time can really run away from you if you focus on this moment, since at any time it is only this moment that exists. The world may run dynamically through this moment, but the concept of this moment can be seen as static. I have found time goes slower that way. And I like it. 

That being said, this morning I listened to a couple of songs that have recurred during the trip and I began the reminiscing! I am very grateful to circumstance that I got the opportunity to experience what I have experienced. Over the last few days a couple of people at the hostel asked me what the highlights of my trip were, and without thinking much I came up with Tongariro Crossing (trying not to fall in a live volcano), Ayers Rock (trying not to pass out from dehydration), the night dive at The Great Barrier Reef (seeing sharks by torchlight), and The Full Moon Party (surviving that second bucket). Danger is the theme here! 

Through my experiences, sightseeing and learnings in the last four months, I think I have attained what I wanted to achieve on this trip. A couple of days ago I was able to sit and do nothing for two-and-a-half hours waiting for a train, entirely calm and happy. Now this is on the back of a hectic few months and I am yet to prove it to myself in 'normal' conditions, but it does exhibit some of what I believe I have learnt during my trip: depend on nothing material for contentedness. This may make no sense without explanation, and probably will still make no sense even then. 

Staying largely in the hostel for these two days in Bangkok has highlighted the traveller community and the hostelling element that I really liked throughout my trip. "The traveller" is a different people to those in the real world: he/she is relaxed, very friendly, adventurous, and goes with the flow whatever it may be. That is generalising a little too far, but I was a big fan of such people that did make up a large proportion of the people I met. It has opened my eyes to a new world of people!

It has been fun. (I wonder if I will now continue to narrate my life?) Thanks for tuning in. Goodnight and Godspeed. 

xoxo 

The Grand Palace

Okay so I lied in my last post. I remembered some advice given by a poster in New Zealand (see attached photo). I did a little exploration in the direction of the ferry to the Grand Palace, and saw no signs of carnage! My journey was not cut short by Suthep (the protest leader) and his clan. The Grand Palace (the home to Kings and the government between 1782 and 1932) was richly ornate and resembled a series of giant temples. It was architecturally impressive and I am glad I went for it, but after seeing what I have seen (particularly the temples in Chiang Mai and the Nizam Palace in India), I was by no means blown away by this must-see attraction of Bangkok. 

State of Emergency

Interesting. A State of Emergency has just been declared in Bangkok in accordance with the escalation to violence of the anti-government protests! There have been a couple of explosions and a few night-time shootings in the last week since the 'shutdown' in Bangkok begun. No one knows whether the violence is by the so-called 'corrupt' government or from the protestors' side. The State of Emergency means that the police can arrest people without charge, ban group gatherings and make certain zones off-limits. The last time I read the words 'State of Emergency' was in Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom! 

I was always planning on keeping a low profile for these final two-or-so days in Bangkok, but I think I shall now just hide out in the hostel (beside collecting my suit)! Luckily, the hostel is exceedingly nice for a Thailand budget accommodation and there seem to be friendly people here. According to the reports and people's experiences, most tourist areas are unaffected, but I believe it is not worth the risk on the final day of my travels! It only really means not seeing the Grand Palace, and I think I have already seen more spectacles than I can absorb during this travelling spree anyway! 

Diving Koh Tao

(Written 18/01, 18.10)

After a nasty ferry ride over, on which many people chundered everywhere, I arrived at Koh Samui to Ban's Diving Resort. It is like a little village of divers, and it seems this part of the island (Sairee beach) is just full of dive centres! I actually felt quite strange here at first having been in a very personal and homely guesthouse in Koh Samui where I knew everyone to being the loner! 

I had my two dives this morning, and I can see why Koh Tao is such a popular diving area! The first dive (where we hoped to see a whale shark!) was not so spectacular, but the second one rivalled the Great Barrier Reef. With vast numbers of big and colourful fish, and seemingly fluorescent coral, it was quite the underwater habitat! 

(Written 20/01, 13.06)

I have really enjoyed my stay on Koh Tao. The whole place is just full of dive schools, and bars and cafes on the beach. In the dorm I met three cool Aussies, a Canadian and a Swede to form something of a crew for these last couple of days - pretty entertaining bunch! I went for probably my final hike of the three month trip to find a mountain-top viewpoint at the southernmost point of the island. The walk was pretty dirty down the main road until I reached the mountain when it suddenly became challenging, but highly picturesque. However, I think my main of Koh Tao will be sitting on beanbags on the beach, sipping a Chang beer and being entertained by people playing with fire (once more)!