The world becomes a lot smaller

Right, first up is a little housekeeping.

A friend of mine has recently starting blogging and I highly recommend his entertaining writing style. So may I introduce Mr Gareth Brown, Daily Express reader and KISS fan extraordinaire. He was good enough to mention me in his blog and in true you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-your-back style, I'd like you to visit him at afterlife13.blogger.com. Tell him I sent you and you may well get a free Double Decker or something (and I can virtually guarantee that the subject of chocolate will appear in his blog before long).

Now, back to more pressing matters of world travel and generally uprooting a perfectly comfortable, if predictable lifestyle.

Since my last blog entry a few years ago, I've done a little more reading up on possible destinations and that, coupled with one TV programme in particular, and one conversation with my acupuncturist (long story - will explain later) has made me decide to refine my journey so much that it's far too ridiculous to even dream of calling it a world trip.

Basically the more I read about China, the more I recognise that there is so much to do there and because it's such a vast country that I could spend my whole trip there if I wanted. A brief browse through the Lonely Planet guide to China (which, incidentally I will be receiving from my very kind brother and his family as a birthday present (which, incidentally is on the 12th August for those of you saving your pennies to buy me a present)) shows you that you can go to deserts, jungles, snow capped mountains for ski-ing and pretty much everything else in between (and no, I didn't just look at the pictures!). It has half of Mount Everest in it for goodness sake, and it's the 3rd largest country in the world after Russia (or whatever it's called nowadays) and Canada. And, as we all know, it has the largest population in the world at 1.1 billion. (Although I'm more impressed with India which has 900 million people but squeezes them into a land mass about a 3rd of the size of China). So, basically what I'm saying is that China is big, and I'd like to see lots of it, which will take some time. So I think I would be doing the country a disservice were I to visit it for 2 weeks as part of a world trip and claim to have been there. Very noble of me I'm sure you'll agree.

Now I know you're all on the edge of your seat wonder how the acupuncturist fits into all of this, like it's some kind of game of Cluedo ("I have deduced it was the acupuncturist, with an oversized needle, in the Buddhist temple") but it's a little bit dull. Basically she went to China in 1984 for a few months and stayed there for 6 years or something. Hearing her talk about the people and the culture just made it much more real for me though and made me decide that I had to see it, and as much of it as possible while it's still relatively unwesternised (for whatever term of relative you think appropriate).

So, we're off to China. Good. Lets take a look on the map and see where it is. Blimey, it's a big old place isn't it. And what's this bit hanging off the edge of it? Oh look - it's Korea. Handily split into North and South, with North on the border with China.

See, I have an interesting attraction to North Korea. I think it's the last closed country on the planet (but feel free to correct me on this). They just do their own thing and don't really care what the rest of the world thinks. Don't get me wrong, I'm disgusted by some of the things the regime does there - I've heard stories of babies being stood upon right after they've been born and killed in front of their mother. All because her father (that's 2 generations from the baby) did something or was suspected of doing something against the regime. Not exactly a regime that you're going to grow to love. But it's hard to deny that it's not a dull country, and any country which excludes disabled people and animals from it's showcase capital is a country worth knowing more about if you ask me.

You may be surprised to learn (as I was) that it's not as closed as you may think. It's reasonably easy to visit, as long as you travel everywhere with a government minder and arrange the visit through the North Korean Travel Agent (or whatever they're called - I guess it's their version of Lunn Poly). Apparently it's not cheap but to see North Korea as it is now (imagine - no McDonalds, anywhere!! - what bliss) is something worthwhile doing, in my opinion.

A few weeks ago, whilst watching the highbrow channel for highbrow people, BBC4, there was a programme on which I joined around halfway through (since I was busy doing other highbrow stuff). It appeared to be following a North Korean family but you got to see a lot of the capital and the day to day life there. It also went into the regime and how they run the country. In one of the nice coincidences in life, the people that made the documentary for the BBC actually run a company which runs tours to NK. You can check out their web page at www.koryogroup.com. They run a number of different tours from Beijing and everything is paid for except your drinks. You get a British tour guide who understands the country (apparently) and basically all the hassle is taken out of it. Considering I'm a virgin traveller (!) then it's good for me since I'd be likely to cause a diplomatic incident if I was let loose in NK.

So, I hope that's brought us all up to date on where we are. It's not only going to be China and NK, but I think I'll be sticking to Asia, Oz and New Zealand. All the other places will need to wait until I save more money to do them.