Taxi stories

Taxis are naturally a necessity for any traveler, most of the time a fairly routine affair, but what sticks in the mind are the offbeat characters. To wit:

The black Panamanian in Medellin, Colombia. Definitely on something, this guy was the definition of a midnight party taxi. Speeding at 120+ km/h is one thing, but braking in time with the earsplitting techno beats from the solid sound system is quite another!

The Madonna-loving and English-speaking (1 in 100 for Taiwanese taxi drivers) guy in a tiny town in Southern Taiwan. Entered the taxi to "Like a virgin" and proceeding through "Material Girl" and the greatest hits, he kept humming and chatting away in meagre English. Possibly not entirely straight.

Classic porteño driver, who spruced up the ride with a monologue on the merits of salsa vs tango for female sexuality. More specifically, on which dance practise makes for the tightest ass (it is a Buenos Aires thing)! Sadly I have forgotten his eventual conclusion.　

Death by overworking

Probably not for this gentleman, dozing off the effects of soju on a sleepy summer sunday in Seoul. However, a friend of a friend working in Korean company Samsung revealed that last year 16 people died on the job, found slumped on their desks. A number the company has been keen to keep internal to not make waves in the media. Considering Samsung is just one, if a huge one, company among thousands in Korea, 16 is a crazily big number.

The Japanese of course have a word for this manner of passing on, karoshi, and at least some kind of official recognition of the problem, for instance lawsuits have succeeded against some companies. The extremely hardworking Koreans though, seem to have a ways to go still. Putting in an average of 2357 hours a year according to Forbes makes them top of the OECD countries and comes out at almost double that of those lazy Norwegians, Germans and Dutch. Work to live, people.

It has come to this

With the People's Republic putting on the totalitarian excercise in massive propaganda also known as the Olympics, what is the response from unassuming Taiwan? Prepare to be overwhelmed by the 2009 Deaflympics!

Mind the gap

Educational toy of the day is the gapminder. Worth spending some time with the animated national deveolpement from 1950 to 2005 in the two axes of life expectancy and income per person.

For instance, while countries like Japan and Norway sport steady, linear development, Argentina has a zig-zag pattern in tune with the extreme boom and (more likely) bust nature of that economy.

My destination of today, the Baltics, display a circular movement as they struggled to cope with the transition to capitalist economies in the 90s.

And interestingly the awakening bear, Russia, is probably one of very few countries north of the equator with a negative development in life expectancy! Easy on the vodka consumption, Mr Putin.

Are you man enough...

to travel with a huge, pink Hello Kitty suitcase? This Brazilian guy in Salvador sure was.

Furthermore, props to the Salvador airport for having the fastest luggage delivery I have ever seen, when disembarking it was already being loaded unto the conveyor belt. Plenty of smaller airports think 15 minutes is an acceptable wait.

Cash is king

Bring cash. Argentinian confidence in banks rival their lack of faith in the military, police and politicians. All for quite understandable historical reasons of course, having banks literally steal your account does not make for credibility.

Renting apartments for example, is done with cash. Stranger still is the fact that cash is also used for buying apartments. While the process of buying a house can be nerve-wracking enough in Europe or the US (especially these days), imagine the added stress of carrying around a briefcase of 100k+ USD on the streets of Buenos Aires. The atmosphere is pretty tense with buyer and seller sitting around a table counting a wad of notes before the final signatures can be made.

Buildings are popping up all over there place, especially in the trendy bubble of Palermo as in the picture. Prices have been rising phenomenally, but there is a limit to how much influence foreign capital can have. At the moment the costs of apartments are very much out of whack with the general Argentinian economy. So even though prices are still stupidly cheap from a European viewpoint, it is buyer beware, given the extremely cyclical nature of the Argentinian economy. The next crash could see prices dropping 20-40% and with the current centre-periphery conflict the situation is dicey. Rent, with cash.

Love means having to say you're sorry

It is peace in our time, though no love lost, as Uribe wisely dropped the machismo all too common in South-American politics and issued a formal apology for violating the borders of Ecuador. Also dropped were plans of dragging Chavez in front on an international court over his support to the FARC guerillas. The lowering of tensions welcome for Venezuela, who get a major part of their food supplies from Colombia, empty supermarket shelves not uncommon even when normal relations.

The tense meeting of the Organisation of American States in the Dominican Republic ended with the stone-faced trio of Uribe, Correa and Chavez shaking hands, but not until plenty of remarks were exchanged. Highlights include Ecuador's Correa dryly remarking to much laughter that the Dominican hosts better be sure that there were no terrorists on the island, or Uribe would come and bomb them. Uribe was not amused. Later on Argentina's Christina Kirchner scored a gender goal in honour of the International Women's Day, when observing that while women were often accused of hysterics, looking at the reactions of the three implicated heads of state caused one to wonder about male hysteria.

Finally, while tensions are momentarily down, these issues at hand are by no means resolved and are certain to emerge again in the near future. Ecuador is asking for UN troops on the Colombian border, while Colombian plans to publish incriminating evidence from the FARC laptops captured in the raid are sure to again aggravate the neighbours. Interesting times ahead.

Colombia: Friendly relations?

The situation is currently heating up in Colombia. Violating another country's territorial sovereignty is simply not the done thing. And that was what went down a couple of days ago. Colombian planes, while not themselves crossing into Ecuadorian airspace, their payload certainly did, and duly obliterated a patch of Ecuadorian soil. The target was FARC number two man Raul Reyes, who was killed along with a dozen guerrillas. Colombian forces then crossed the border to retrieve his body. The whole operation acted upon CIA-provided information, and was hailed as a successful blow against FARC by the Uribe government.

Naturally Ecuador did not enjoy this brief incursion, issued a strong complaint, closed the embassy and mobilised forces along the border, as did Chavez. Venezuela of course has a long history of unfriendly relations with their neighbours, and the Colombians presenting evidence of Chavez funding FARC is not improving matters. Worse, according to Bogota FARC has plans of building a dirty bomb, although the use of such a barbaric weapon seems extremely counterproductive to gaining popularity in a civil war.

At the moment then, tension is high. All the other South-American countries are appealing for peace and to avoid a confrontation. An armed conflict is simply bad for everyone, particularly so for Venezuela, whose military though much touted by the US as a major threat, is really something of paper tiger despite Chavez’ money-spending policies of guns over butter. In addition to the purges when Chavez took power they have no combat experience, in contrast to the Colombians who have been fighting a low-intensity civil war for decades. And of course, Colombia can rely on assistance from their big brother gringo allies, who would see a war as a wonderful opportunity to finally topple Chavez.

But a war would also be a tragedy for Colombia, its economy been steadily improving the last decade, crime has been massively reduced and generally people are positive about the future. An example is Medellin, where the local government has a commendable progressive policy of building libraries in the poorer areas, as pictured above. Furthermore, in spite of the horrible image the country has abroad, it is not any more a dangerous place to visit than say London or Barcelona. Unless of course, one has a particular predilection for long jungle treks. The country is something of a rare beast; a stable country in a civil war. A real war could destroy much of the gains from the last decade of reconstruction.

Colombian fireworks

The hour is three at night in verdant Medellin, when suddenly someone in the neighbourhood sets off a sizable fireworks display. A celebration? Yes, they just received a call confirming the latest shipment arrived safely in the US! This is a crazy place.

Dancing painter kid

Ginza shopping mall; this amazing multitasking dancer/painter/dj kid drew some crowds. Here painting a portrait of lady in the audience before progressing to landscaping. Yes, I am too lazy to search for a "rotate video" program so just tilt your heads!

More moments of cuteness

Road works is no exception from the cute overload, in this example also pretty practical in the many narrow streets.

And how about this Hello Kitty laptop?

These aren't the terrorists you are looking for

The black-vanned nationalists at it again slap bang in the middle of Shibuya, as always garnering less attention than the most mediocre of J-pop singers.

Since November Japan has adopted US-style immigration procedures including fingerprinting and photographing. Takes a bit of time and also includes a short interview as to the purposes of the visit. The fact that I flew into Nagoya but my hotel and destination was Tokyo caused some problems, having to explain that the reason was a air miles bonus ticket which only applied for Nagoya.

Of course, all officials were ever-so polite, but I cannot help think that the procedure cannot increase the tourism to Japan and most of all felt quite ridiculous. Particularly considering that the only terrorist act perfomed in ultra-safe Japan was done not by foreigners, but by Japanese citizens!

Forgotten movie magic

As the film festival is hitting town, I came across the relatively unknown Abel Ferrara effort The Funeral which turned out to be quite the gem. And with stellar performances from an amazing cast of Christopher Walken, Benicio del Toro, Vincent Gallo, Isabella Rossellini and not least, the late Chris Penn in loose cannon modus, how can you go wrong? A decidely unglamorous mobster drama, this is truly a movie for Men. Goodfellas too light-hearted for you? Watch this one.

Bergen Victor!

The unexpected wins are always the sweetest. This time the occasion was the return leg of the UEFA cup, Brann Bergen facing Club Brugge as clear outsiders. After wandering the medieval streets and canals of quaint, if touristy Brugge (not unlike Bergen in fact), the stage was set for some serious football.

Plainsclothes coppers insisted on us taking one specific bus to arrive on the designated part of the stadium. After hearing about the wrong-part-of-stadium Turks who got beaten within an inch of their lives a couple of years ago we were inclined to agree. Having encountered elements of "Flanders' finest" before I'd hazard there was some racist element to that event as well. In fact that's one anecdote that demands a write-up.

With Brann playing the best match I have ever seen, the 2-0 at half time atmosphere was one of intense euphoria among the less than 100 away supporters. Red card, a fully deserved 2-1 win and progression to the group stage crowned the night as police motorcycles prepared the escort into town. A tasty bit of frisson for the ultimately boringly safe life of this Scandinavian.

Note to self: Belgian beer sporting an average alcohol percentage of ca 7% can force less glamorous consequences.

Lost in translation?

Several people have asked me, Tokyo/Japan, is it like in the movie? The answer is yes and no.

First off, as a film LoT is definitely solid work, nice visuals and the charms of Miss Johansson do not hurt either. Recently watched it for the second time, this time after having visited Japan. Which naturally made for a quite different reading.

As a representation of Japan? Not good. But, as a representation of Japan seen from the viewpoint of a fresh-off-the-boat Westerner, it is quite accurate. The crazy J-TV channel switching, the karaoke-scences and the club Air are all right on the money. Bewildering alienation and the situation of being adrift in a very strange country, it is all there.

In my opinion however, you can be allowed this feeling for max 2-3 days, and then you will start understand how things work (using the subway, taxis with automatic doors, the no-tip system etc). Japan is different yes, but not *that* different. Being totally lost after more than one week means only having your own close-minded ineptitude to blame. Harsh but true!

Also, the film overly exoticises Japanese society but understandably so. I am certainly guilty of the same. After all, not very interesting telling people stuff like "you know traffic lights back home? In Japan they are exactly the same". So it follows that one focuses on the odd bits. And indeed there are plenty to go around, particularly on the margins of day-to-day life.

Kamikaze cookies

The gift culture is huge in Japan, sometimes with absurd results like these boxes of cookies commemorating the kamikaze museum at Chiran. When the salaryman takes his vaction or even a business trip, it is expected to bring gifts for his colleagues and most importantly, the boss. So every small place of touristic interest will have a gift shop attached. Or like this one, at the Kagoshima train station for the discerning business traveller who didn't have time to actually see the sights themselves.

I fought the law

Wanted posters are fairly common in Japan, even this one found in the ferry terminal on the remote island of Yakushima. There is no escaping the law, though coming to a small island where everyone knows eachother would be fairly stupid in any case. I like the iconic style of the photos on the top poster, almost Warholian. Doesn't hurt that the female criminal is hot in a sort of a dangerous way either.


And this is the typical Tokyo lawman. No, in reality more of an imperial guardsman in parade uniform on the one day of the year that the emperor addresses the people.

PR Robot

One of the most prevalent cliches about Japan is the robotmania. In fact robots are fairly rare, though there are some fanatics out there. This roboty contraption patrolled around outside a Shibuya shopping mall, sirens blaring and shouting something in Japanese.

In touch with the elements

Onsen, the refreshing Japanese hot spring baths. This is from the remote overgrown island of Yakushima, one third of the way to Okinawa. The island is mostly known for the gnarled 5000+ years old trees, but these onsen right close to sea are just fantastic. Note the divider between male and female sections.


This one is special in that it can only be used at low tide, at this moment it was about the be flooded by the sea, naturally salinising and dropping temperature drastically. There was no one around, lucky for me since my knowledge of the all-important onsen etiquette is somewhat lacking. Like the struggling English-speaker at the hotel said: "Please to relax yourself sir!"

Scandinavian invasion

Plenty of Scandinavian influence in Tokyo. Sweden brings culture and design to the party.


While Norway, as befits an economy based on natural resources, brings fish, as seen on this truck in the world's largest fish market at Tsukiji.