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Reports

During my travels, I received free accommodation for a night in exchange for writing a daily travel diary. This diary documented how I reached my next destination, the hosts who welcomed me, the food I was offered, and other experiences along the way. Below, you will find the archives of these extensive reports. Please note that English is not my native language, and most entries were written quickly, often around midnight. Enjoy!
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Tuesday, 12 March 2002

The number of emails had risen up to 500 this morning and it wasn’t only people. Also other Australian media has found me and wanted to meet me, or chat with me by phone or have me live in a radio show.

With another day at Stan Fung’s place I could take the time for this all, without having to worry about the fact that I am a guest at a new host. Stan and I understood each other very good. A lot of things are just fine to him, like it has always been like this. He is a very remarkable person.


Stan had a free day today, so he let me sleep in until 10am – as I had been busy on the web until quite late last night.

With over hundreds of new invitations of places to stay in Australia, I had to update my map of this country and that meant quite a job for me. Stan completely understood me and knew I needed some extra time for it. He offered me to stay another day, so I could do my work as good as possible.

But we had to eat also. And as noon had passed, Stan took me out to the nearby ECA-bar, where we had lunch (or better: brunch) on the terrace. I myself got more at ease to and enjoyed the sunshine and read the latest newspapers with Stan.

When we got back to the apartment, I immediately started to do my things again. Basically I had to put a dot on my map of every place where I have been invited. And that is ‘working’ for me, as Australia is very very big and most people mention the name of a suburb that I couldn’t find on a map.

I mean, try to find Kings Cross on a map of Australia, I wouldn’t have known it was in Sydney… But we both figured out where the most places were and the problem-cases received an email with a request on some specific information about the exact location.

Meanwhile I answered phonecalls, discussed with my backup team at home and told Irena what was all happening here. Stan went shopping for groceries, prepared juice of carrots, peers, apples, etcetera and helped me out with the mapping.

For dinner Stan took me out to the sushi bar Dai Do, just a few blocks away, where I enjoyed a sushi and sashimi set. It was the first time since I had sushi again [url= www.letmestayforaday.com/report/?id=222]after my stay in Port Elizabeth[/url] in South Africa and it was delicious!

Did you know that the Chinese restaurant in your town is most likely always Cantonese? I learned that Canton was the south of China and Mandarin the north. My image of China became less and less black and white every minute.

Things in China are also differently constructed than in the rest of the world. Tourists are seen as rich people in China. “There are no real backpackers like in Australia,” Stan told me. Most tourist in China stay in luxurious hotels, low-budget accommodation is about to grow slowly.

Stan is helping me out gaining more places to stay in China as he published about my stay on a Chinese characterized bulletin board. I have designated him to be my personal Chinese PR-manager from now. Stan had to laugh about that, but told me to help me out when necessary.

We went to the fancy Macleay Street Bistro on Macleay Street for a passion fruit ice cocktail and had to run home as the rain was pouring on us tonight.

Kings Cross is flamboyant. Not crowded, but very alive after all. Still it seems there are people everywhere around here.

The night had already ended and I wrote my report on my laptop as sleep was entering in my head. After this ‘working’-day the mattress was calling my name for the last time, tomorrow I’d sleep somewhere else again.

Good night Kings Cross!

Ramon.

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