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Anthropos Bug: The wonders of China (Part 6 of 6)

Anthropos Bug: The wonders of China (Part 6 of 6)

Taipei, Taiwan

November 6, 2014

  This is the first entry of my third travel journal. I admit I haven’t been making as many entries as I should ever since I arrived in Taiwan. I’ve spent most of my time writing my second novel, Signe. It’s now time to remember all the things I’ve done up to date and go through whatever notes about my trips I’ve written on my phone. The time to catch up is now…

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Anthropos Bug: The wonders of China (Part 5 of 6)

Anthropos Bug: The wonders of China (Part 5 of 6)

Urumqi, China

August 11, 2014

  Due to the recent terrorist attacks by Kazak minorities in China, military and police security is everywhere in Urumqi. Even on the way to the city, in the middle of the highway, we had to stop at various check points and show our IDs.

There are combat vehicles and police in every corner of the busiest streets and the BRT (light public transport) doesn’t allow…

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Anthropos Bug: The plains of Mongolia (Part 6 of 6)

Anthropos Bug: The plains of Mongolia (Part 6 of 6)

Khovd, Mongolia

July 23, 2014

  I’ve come to the conclusion that it is impossible to leave any Mongolian city before 12:00 in the afternoon unless you have your own car. It doesn’t matter how early I wake up, I haven’t managed to catch a ride before that time. And if I try a transport at the station, they don’t open until 10:00 and even then they will likely drive around town picking up things…

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Anthropos Bug: The plains of Mongolia (Part 5 of 6)

Anthropos Bug: The plains of Mongolia (Part 5 of 6)

Altai, Mongolia

July 22, 2014

  As I predicted, my friendly hosts tried to find me a car going to Khovd, refusing to understand the concept of hitchhiking. I chose to try and hitchhike to Bulgan rather than take the transport to Khovd, but after two hours of waiting for a ride I gave up and took the next transport to Khovd I saw. It seems that I’ll have to stay yet another night in Mongolia.

I…

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Anthropos Bug: The plains of Mongolia (Part 4 of 6)

Anthropos Bug: The plains of Mongolia (Part 4 of 6)

Telmen, Mongolia

July 20, 2014

  Everyone in the ger was up bright and early the next morning. They said goodbye to me and left. I took down the tent, gathered my stuff, and began walking towards Uliastai.

I hitchhiked with an old couple who drove me 80 km to Telmen.

Many of the people who have picked me up come from Ulan Bator. They are heading to their countryside lands for the summer holidays.

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Anthropos Bug: The plains of Mongolia (Part 3 of 6)

Anthropos Bug: The plains of Mongolia (Part 3 of 6)

Tosontsengel, Mongolia

July 19, 2014

  The driver took me to her sister’s ger some 20 km from Ikul. The experience was unforgettable.

Some of the things I drank/ate:

Fermented horse milk

Sheep cheese and bread

Vodka made from horse milk (?)

Sheep intestine soup

Yak cheese (it is so hard I mostly sucked and grinded my teeth on it. It could not be cut or chewed)

Sheep penis (apparently this gives…

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Anthropos Bug: The plains of Mongolia (Part 2 of 6)

Anthropos Bug: The plains of Mongolia (Part 2 of 6)

Ikul, Mongolia

July 18, 2014

  Yesterday to go from Tariat to the White Lake I had to walk most of the way. Only one person gave me a ride for 1-2 km because he was heading to a nearby village. That’s 1-2 km of the 10-15 km I had to walk.

Once there, I set up my tent next to a Christian youth group. Only one of them spoke English, but that was enough for them to welcome me into their circle.

The…

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Anthropos Bug: The plains of Mongolia (Part 1 of 6)

Anthropos Bug: The plains of Mongolia (Part 1 of 6)

Tariat, Mongolia

July 16, 2014

  In Karakorum I met Alan, a 22 year old Israeli who has been traveling for the past 7 months. He began his journey in India and then went to Nepal and Thailand; I think he also visited China before coming to Mongolia. He’s a very friendly and talkative guy.

He just bought a couple of horses a few days ago. One horse is for him to ride and the other one is to carry…

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Anthropos Bug: The wonders of China (Part 4 of 6)

Anthropos Bug: The wonders of China (Part 4 of 6)

Karakoran, Mongolia

July 15, 2014

I took the Trans-Manchurian Railway from Harbin and made at stop at the Chinese-Russian border town of Manzhouli. I wasn’t planning on going back to Russia, but apparently there is no other way for third-country citizens to access Mongolia from Harbin. And I thought going back to Beijing and then trying to find a train ticket to Ulan Bator would be a waste of…

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Anthropos Bug: The wonders of China (Part 3 of 6)

Anthropos Bug: The wonders of China (Part 3 of 6)

Harbin, China

July 3, 2014

Chinese vocabulary (as always, written my way):

nihao – hello

bu – no

sheh – yes

obudo – I don’t understand

odo – I understand

due – correct

budue – incorrect

wabaola – I’m full

piong – hello

umeatah – Let’s go (Harbin colloquial?)

tsunimade – fuck your mother

tsazhontsaod – your mother is a whore

wambadouze – turtle dick (insult)

Polto Licoh – Puerto Rico

***

In…

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Anthropos Bug: The wonders of China (Part 2 of 6)

Anthropos Bug: The wonders of China (Part 2 of 6)

Beijing, China

June 20, 2014

  I met Olivia, a girl from Brazil, in my hostel in Beijing. She will soon take the Trans-Mongolian and Trans-Siberian Railway all the way until Saint Petersburg. And she speaks Russian so well!

***

Olivia tells me that her grandmother’s sister died on her grandmother’s birthday. Apparently she went diving on a lake and never came out. In order to ease the pain,…

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Anthropos Bug: Korea, the Northern one (Part 3 of 3)

Anthropos Bug: Korea, the Northern one (Part 3 of 3)

Beijing, China

June 19, 2014

As far as I understood, military service in DPRK is not mandatory. However, it is strongly encouraged that you do serve because it will help your career.

***

It always felt so odd when we took a tram or took the touristic buses because, with the exception of the subway, everything was completely reserved for our use only. There were no locals inside. And it made it…

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Anthropos Bug: Korea, the Northern one (Part 2 of 3)

Anthropos Bug: Korea, the Northern one (Part 2 of 3)

Beijing, China

June 19, 2014

  Children in DPRK are shy, but they will eventually wave at you and smile. They are no different from kids anywhere else around the world. They run the same, jump the same, make mistakes, are cheerful, and don’t hold on to pains or grudges.

Something happens in every society in the world where kids get lost. They stop being so cheerful and playful; they become…

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Anthropos Bug: Korea, the Northern one (Part 1 of 3)

Anthropos Bug: Korea, the Northern one (Part 1 of 3)

Beijing, China

June 6, 2014

I arrived in North Korea (DPRK) on the 25th of May, 2014 with Koryo Tours. In order to get to DPRK you must go with an organized tour along with two government-trained tour guides.

My passport wasn’t stamped. They gave me a booklet with a stamp, which they took back when I exited the country. I didn’t really get a lot of time to see it because the hotel kept…

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Anthropos Bug: The wonders of China (Part 1 of 6)

Anthropos Bug: The wonders of China (Part 1 of 6)

Pyongyng, DPRK

May 27, 2014

  Lot’s of rain in China. I was two days in Hong Kong and, although the rain wasn’t very bad there, apparently it was worse in the mainland, causing flooding all the way from Shanghai. My train to Shanghai was delayed by seven hours, all of which were spent stuck at the Hong Kong train station terminal.

Naturally, locals and tourists alike were complaining; they all…

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Anthropos Bug: India, the land of contrasts (Part 11 of 10)

Anthropos Bug: India, the land of contrasts (Part 11 of 10)

Newark, USA

May 4, 2014

An Indian guy I met in New Delhi told me that while he studied in the United States he traveled to Puerto Rico for a few days. He and his friends went to the beach one evening to smoke weed. A police officer approached them with two women holding his arms.

Allegedly, the police officer confiscated the weed and told them that if they didn’t want to get arrested they had…

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Anthropos Bug: Home for the holidays

Anthropos Bug: Home for the holidays

San Juan, Puerto Rico

April 30, 2014

The following are some very short annotations of stories that came up during a conversation at a friend’s place. They are either their own personal stories or things that happened to their friends and family.

An old woman at a hospital asked her family to stay in the room because she could feel that death was lurking in the next room.

There was a man falling…