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Linguistics
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Ban Khlong Phrao, Thailand
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This place was Great
visited Dec 2005
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A good way of getting away from the ordinary life, from all the trouble on the home front, from all the pressure, is to go away. Far away. Thailand is pretty far away from Europe. It strikes me as a good place to escape the western world; on a decent distance from all the worries at home, but yet with the comforts and safety of the civilized world we’re used to, and with an attractive level of prices and a beautiful climate.
Koh Chang is surprisingly unexploited by westerners. The second largest island of Thailand meets most of the requirements for a dream vacation, but is sparingly visited. A few families, a few young couples, some groups of friends, and some lonely travelers looking for some peace and quiet. The guy in the reggae bar on the beach next to me ordering beer is one of the lonely travelers searching for peace. Babbling on in rapid English won’t do the trick of communicating with Bernard. Bernard is from Switzerland, just arrived, and is planning on staying for several months. Despite Switzerland being a country of many languages, English is not one of Bernard’s strongest assets. After having slowed down my English several levels, we’re starting to communicate. I seriously think that the trick of successful verbal communication is to mirror the language of the involved parties, listen, adapt, improvise. It works. Despite a very reduced English vocabulary, and with a few words in German and French, Bernard manages to tell basically his life story. He escaped Switzerland, away from parents, girlfriend, work, and if I understood correctly, the law. In other words, away from a whole lot of pressure. After only a couple of beers of conversation, it is clear that Bernard is certainly not a bad person. Now he’s in Thailand to find himself, figure out what he wants to do, meet new people, improve his language skills. Fascinating. Beers are finished, time to go, he thanks me for listening to his story. The pleasure was all mine. Good luck, Bernard.
posted Apr 21, 2006
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The Lost Soul
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Antwerp, Belgium
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visited Jan 2005
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The best way to meet extraordinary characters must be when traveling by train. Rarely do you encounter as many lost souls, in transit to wherever they think they need to go. Most people reach their destinations without any significant difficulties, but it puzzles me how this category of “extraordinary characters” are not stuck in transit for all eternity. Belgium is probably not populated by a higher ratio of “special characters” than any other country, but it is here this particular event takes place. Antwerp station in itself is a bottleneck for the transport between Amsterdam and Brussels, being a non-throughgoing station, where trains have to enter, and then back out again, losing a significant amount of time. No excuse for the guy who gets on here and sits down next to me however to misjudge the planning of his trip this poorly. He asks if the conductor passed already. He asks in Dutch. I ask if he speaks English. No, Dutch it is. I tell him that the conductor did not yet pass, and ask him where he’s from. “I’m from here” he states. Ok, fair enough. Then he asks the most peculiar of things: “Where are we?”. “Antwerp, Belgium” I answer, without converting the obvious thought “where the hell did you think we are…?” into spoken words. Now, even the most seasoned traveler could become disoriented and lose track of the current location. But, not even the most inexperienced first-time tourist would claim to be a local and then ask a fellow traveler for the whereabouts. Granted, there could be some linguistic difficulties involved, but in this particular instance the case was clear: this dude was completely and utterly clueless! On top of everything he had a connecting train to Germany in Brussels. “Any chance that we’ll make it on time?” he asks. “Well, doesn’t look good, we’re slightly delayed”. No need to get the guy’s hopes up, a quick exchange of looks and we both know that he’s screwed, German trains aren’t exactly known for waiting around the tracks for latecomers…Still, I wish him a good luck, happy to have had my first real conversation in Dutch ever. “Succes” is Dutch for good luck. This guy needs it...
posted Apr 21, 2006
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Counting Crowds
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Utrecht, Netherlands
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This place was Great
visited Jun 2004
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Holland is a great country in many ways. So great that very many people have decided to live there. Apparently it didn’t occur to all these people and all these people that Holland is quite a small country. Nor did it occur to the people who designed all the public places, public transport facilities, streets, etc. that Holland is a country of many people on a small area. This results in a country of crowds. Try shopping on a Saturday in Utrecht. Crowds everywhere. Try finding a seat on pretty much any train in to Amsterdam in rush hour. Crowds who are prepared to rip your body apart to get on that train before you do. Try making your way up the escalator when you get off the train in rush hour. Crowds, and you could find yourself standing in line for minutes – to get on the escalator. Try going by car around the major cites in rush hour. Traffic jams. Crowds. Try taking a walk on the pier or the beach in The Hague/Scheveningen. People everywhere. Don’t even get me started on Koninginnedag/Queen’s Day – that would take us to a whole new level on the topic of crowds. All these crowds can be rather frustrating, but seem to be natural developments of poorly designed and heavily underdimensioned facilities and places. One thing where the Dutch have not gone cheap is the network of bicycle paths. Pretty much everywhere, countryside or city alike, there are bicycle paths on both sides of the road, to enable a safe journey for frisky peddlers. One would think that this would prevent crowded paths, even in a country where the average citizen owns 2.7 or so bicycles. Not so. On nearly any bicycle path at any given time of the day, you will find people riding up and down those paths. Nice bikes, ugly bikes, strange bikes, all sorts of bikes. Try going from point A to point B in a for example Utrecht in rush hour by bike, and you will find yourself in queues of bicyclists. The unwritten rule appears to be that you keep to the right, allowing passing on your left. Like in the world of automobiles, there is always someone going faster than you are, and although it may seem harmless in comparison, you don’t want to get hit by an angry bicyclists trying to pass you. You simply have to fall in the rhythm of the traffic. Floats pretty well on the actual paths. Every now and then there is a need to cross the street though. Traffic lights for bicycles. People on bikes who you just passed or people on bikes you were just about to catch up with and pass yourself gather. Once again...crowds.
posted Apr 21, 2006
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Langoliers
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Kloten, Switzerland
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visited Dec 2004
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Anyone out there a Stephen King fan? Then you should know his piece “The Langoliers”, which also made it to the big screen. For those of you who don’t: Big airplane with destination somewhere on the US mainland. All of a sudden most of the people on the flight have vanished, with a few “lucky” ones left to their destiny. Manage to land the plane on some mysteriously abandoned airport surrounded by mountains (probably somewhere in Maine, considering it’s Stephen King…). No people, no communications, no other planes, not even any smells or sounds on the airport – completely dead. Dead, except for the langoliers coming closer and closer from the mountains. Langoliers are some flying evil creatures with big teeth. To speed up the story a little bit: the people from the plane (obviously) manage to fuel the plane and take off just as the langoliers are about to eat them.
Zurich international airport, located in the Swiss mountains in Kloten near Zurich, could very well be that creepy airport from the movie. It’s not abandoned – in fact it appears to be quite busy. Still, it gives a bit of a creepy feeling. It’s nearly clinically clean, quiet, and sterile. The staff is efficient, but seemingly completely emotionless. I have a little time to kill, so I decide to leave the airport to have set foot on Swiss ground. The outside is almost equally dull. A few buildings and a few cars passing by. But no people. I climb up a little hill with a view over the airport. The planes and the cars suggest the presence of life, but except for that everything is just quiet. You almost wish that the langoliers would come and turn the place upside down, wake the airport up, shake the place. But no langoliers show up. Probably got stuck in customs...
posted Apr 21, 2006
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Live And Let Die
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Goteborg, Sweden
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This place was Average
visited Jun 2004
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Nya Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden. Largest arena in the country. The arena that back in 1985 literally caved for Bruce Springsteen. The crowd back then got excited and carried away to the extent that they rocked the foundation of the building until it cracked. No injuries or such, but they decided to close the arena for concerts. Nowadays it’s improved and enhanced, and again open for big concerts. Paul McCartney puts on one of those big shows that requires a stadium of this size.
The arena is not completely filled despite the big name and a beautiful summer day, but still around 40,000 people have decided to come see the ex-Beatle perform. Three hours after the announced starting time of the concert Paul enters the stage. Performs some of his known songs, some less known songs. Even one of the most famous artists and song writers of our time has a few songs that are less known to the wide public. Regardless of the titles though, it is obvious that the man enjoys performing, the attention as well as the interaction with the audience. Even 35 years after the split-up of the Beatles, the songs live on. Sadly enough, two of the four Beatles do not. So, about halfway through the show, Paul announces before “The long and winding road” that “this one is for John”. The audience goes wild. The following song he dedicates to George. Ringo, who’s still around, has to settle with a few tunes from “Yellow Submarine”. If one should be critical, it’s a bit sad that Paul uses John to get the show started. He wouldn’t have to, the music speaks for itself. But, the crowd loved John, and the gesture of honoring an old friend with a song at a concert is quite harmless. Crowd pleasers such as “Yesterday” and “Let It Be” are obligatory – write songs like those and you can’t possibly fail to please the crowd. The highlight of the show is however from the post-Beatle era. “Do you like fire?” one of the band members asks. A bit strange to associate Paul with fire, but sure…A rather impressive fire show kicks off around the piano on the stage. The fire dies out and is replaced with the opening tunes to “Live And Let Die”. With a great deal of enthusiasm, Paul performs. Originally the theme song to the James Bond movie with the same name, but it is quite obvious that this is more than a soundtrack. The show goes on for some two hours, and is rounded off with the ultimate sing-along song. A song that everyone in the western word have heard. Most probably don’t know the lyrics, and even fewer know what the song is about. But, everyone can hum “laa laa laa lalala laaaaaaa lalala laaaa”. Wave your arms and sing a few “Hey Jude” for as long as you want. The Rolls Royce of crowd songs. Paul McCartney is very much alive, and he’s not going to let (the music) die.
posted Apr 21, 2006
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