A new spring in "The middle kingdom" China.

It is truly humbling to finally be here! Great Wall, Badaling.




On the 16th of April we arrived for the first time in China. Coming from autumn in Australia to blooming Beijing was an exciting experience. Beijing is preparing in every way for the Olympic games, and we are lucky to be a part of it all. China is in a big change, and the country is fastly developing.

I found this very interesting, therefore I share it with you:

China is called Zhongguo in Chinese. The character zhōng (中) means "middle" or "central," while guó (国 or 國) means "state". The term can be literally translated into English as "Central Kingdom" or "Central Country" , the less accurate translations are "Middle Country" and "Middle Kingdom".

Scholar Chen Jian states:

"I believe that 'Central Kingdom' is a more accurate translation for 'Zhong Guo' (China) than 'Middle Kingdom'. The term 'Middle Kingdom' does not imply that China is superior to other peoples and nations around it - China just happens to be located in the middle geographically; the term 'Central Kingdom', however, implies that China is superior to any other people and nation 'under the heaven' and that it thus occupies a 'central' position in the known universe."

Sinologist Boyé Lafayeete De Mente states:

"A more accurate translation of Zhong Guo is "Middle Country," and to be still more precise, "Central Country," with "central" being the key word... Whoever it was that first began calling the country Zhong Guo was using the word "central" in the sense of "heart," "main," or the place where everything starts, and from where everything is controlled."I found this interesting because many things HAVE started here.





The pizza - (which I for a long time claimed to be Italian), spaghetti (or noodles), tea etc., a long list of food and things, like many types of virus, are originally coming from China. I find that this is where it all (or at least pretty much) started, and this is where everything seems to happen.

Beijing is hyper modern. And you could almost guessed it was a western city. Not much remind you that this is a communist state.





For us it is powerful to be here, the oldest sivilization in the world which have had human beings walking around since at least 70 000 years! You get humble, you get totally amazed.
This is a country arising in the global picture. China is a developing giant with a booming growth.

Many have predicted that as the US now have been sneezing, the rest of the world will catch a cold. It doesn`t seem to happen to China. And it is undescribably interesting and cool to be here and feel it happen, talk to the people, learn about their culture and feel the change!
Economically, in the short run America is still strongest. China still has a long way to go. Many people around us is very poor, the government struggle seriously with the healthcare system for the chinese people. And as the rich are getting richer, the poor is getting poorer. But slowly in their own tempo they have been building stone by stone, all by them selves. They have build up the country without having slaves to do it for them illigally. America can`t say the same...

Beijing is hyper modern. And you could almost guessed it was a western city. Not much remind you that this is a communist state.





A happy new owner of a jade bracelet. Many of the chinese women wear it all the time. They say that the jade protects women from harm and that it is good for woman health. Tro kan flytte fjell! I simply think it`s pretty.





Monday, May 5th:

We are right now in Shanghai when I write this. Actually this is the first time (!) I have been ajour with the blog! It has been so intense travelling, partly without having Internet access to our computer - which makes it impossible to upload pictures etc.

We are working a lot during this trip. It is long hours doing trip-planning,logistics, organizing, work due to accounting etc. We are working on our cultural study and making our film documentary (on culture differences). The project is time consuming, but of course fun to work on.





Our stay in Beijing has been amazing. The picture under is taken in the Forbidden City:



Bjørn Christian had a meeting with a client in Switzerland and I was all by myself for some days. I have had a pretty hard time to adapt all the impressions and feelings I have by being here - it is so powerful!

We have been couchsurfing in Beijing with two different chinese families, which apparantly was an unforgetable experience. To have an insight to the real chinese daily life is very meaningful and giving. We will never forget the days we had in Beijing with our hosts.

Huitao Xue and his wife:






Hai Chen (8 years old) and I playing (communication = bodylanguage):

The sound of silence in Korea

On the 14th of April we left Sydney and arrived in the evening at the best airport in the world (three years in a row) - Inchon Seoul.





The airport was clean and silent. I even found that they posted a coloured photo of the cleaning assistant to the schedule!

Considering the fact that Seoul has over 10 million inhabitants we found it interesting that it was so silent here, in the airport and generally in the city.




As you may guess, we were of course on a way to a new host to do some more couchsurfing. We had been invited to a Korean family for two nights and we were very excited. Luckily we were picked up at the airport by Seongyong Ha. This poster is the first thing we saw when we came out, and we had a good laugh :)

Our profilename on CS is Oddbjørn Sæther Nørbech. We have melted our names together since we have only one profile. And the natural name on our unit is Oddbjørn. So he assumed one of us was Oddbjørn and the other Nørbech :) Cute misunderstandings like this really make the day!





Seongyong Ha invited us for a Korean dinner the same evening. He turned to be a very generous host. We thought the plan was to surf his couch, but he told us that his apartment was too small. So then he booked a very nice hotelroom for us! Although we insisted to pay the fee, he insisted back. He paid it all for us..





The typical Korean food excists of many different sorts of vegetables that is usually served very spicy. On the table in front of you there is usually a pan, where you fry bacon and other sorts of meat. Very tasty and highly recommended!
Seongyong Ha also served us Korean beer and wine - not recommended....





Eating Korean lunch on the floor. The dishes were so many we couldn`t count them.
Very healthy, diverse and tasty.




Seoul has all new buildings and skysharpers made in the recent years except from Gyeongbokgung, which is one of few exceptions.

Seoul was almost entirely destroyed in the Korean War, but in the 1960s and 1970s good economic times helped to rebuild the city very rapidly. In the 1990s, some important historical buildings were restored, including Gyeongbokgung, one of the royal palaces of the Joseon dynasty.

We went there to see it. Impressive!











Seongyong Ha and one guy from the Hotel staff tried their very best to make the Internet work for us. Unfortunately they didn`t succeed, but anyway we were too busy to care. We were checking out the fancy toilet in the bathroom which had electrically warmed seat and plenty of cool lightening functions! Korea is hightech!




During our short stay, we experienced a whole lot! Two days! It felt like a week. Seongyong Ha took us out both days to eat dinner with him and we also went to his sportclub to play a badminton match! Before we went back to the Hotel one night, he took us to a karaoke-bar. We had a lot of fun!




I am buying ricecakes - a Korean speciality.

With love from Down Under :)

It was beautiful to arrive in Sydney, Australia, 22th of March. After being in India and Thailand I lost 5 kilos in one month(nothing sticked to me) and our stomachs were totally out of balance. Then it was nice to come to Sydney and be served food which contained our normal bacterial flora. After two days we were back on track. Finally we could eat salads and vegetables again without being scared of spending the day on the toilet...That was a huge relief the first days in Australia. When we had put ourselves together again, we could fully enjoy beautiful Sydney.

What a place on earth! Everything here is so delicate, the nature, the parks, the surroundings. And Sydney has got it all - whatever you want, whenever you want it.

The people are very open, laidback and friendly. They have an extremely charming dialect which you start to love right away. People say to the bussdriver: "Thank you mate, have a nice day!" before they get off. If you did that in Norway, everyone - including the bussdriver would think you were crazy...





There are plenty of perfect surroundings in Sydney. We have a full-time job in documenting all the breathtaking moments we experience. Sometimes it can be difficult to manage more than one thing at a time. To film the Operabuilding AND having control of your tongue is one example...





Bjørn Christian is particulary happy to be in Sydney! Yoooouuhhhoooooo!!





In Sydney we had the pleasure to meet two cool aboriginals that teached Bjørn Christian how to play their aboriginal instruments.





Through couchsurfing we were lucky to be invited to Bondi Junction were we could surf Jean-Pierres couch. It was just an amazing experience to be at Jean-Pierres place. Our referance we gave him describe it all right:

"We love Jean Pierre: the personification of relational Laissez-faire, the great observer, the wise man with the diverse life, and possibly the best conversationist we have encountered. We felt so well around Jean-Pierre, and his other CSers, like a home away from home. In Norwegian there is a saying that "were there is room in the heart, there is room in the house", so we conclude that Jean-Pierre has a huge heart. Hope to see you again soon!"

Together we made food, had good conversations and exchanged culture experience. Here we all (Jean-Pierre, Bjørn Chr, Caroline and myself) eat "Oddbjørgs surprice-pack": Salmon (typial Norwegain) with vegetables in folie with potato. The two new friends from France said it tasted good, so I believe that is a huge compliment.





Jean-Pierre also cooked for us one evening. Delicious french vegetable soup :) Yummmi yummi...Jean-Pierre told us that this dish is perfect to enjoy in the autumn and winter. He used to eat it a lot as a child in France.
It was strange to experience that it was autumn in Australia now. I suddenly started to long for christmas - in March! The season-jumping that follows when travelling the world makes us very confused!




Travel goes on. Allthough it was sad to leave Jean-Pierre, we couldn`t surf his couch forever. After about one week on JP`s couch, the couch was ready to serve a now surfer.
We left some of our luggage at JP`s place, packed our backpack and took off to Woy-Woy, about 1 hour trainride north of Sydney. It was never really that obvious why we picked Woy-Woy as our next destination. I assume some of the reasons could be: cool/funny name, looked like a nice lake-area, beautiful nature, and our curiousity to see Australia outside Sydney. JP never really understand what we wanted to do in Woy-Woy: "Why do you go to Woy-Woy?"





Thoughful on the train to Woy-Woy. Beautiful scenery outside the window.





In Woy-Woy we met Kay House, also through couchsurfing. She let us stay for four nights. Kay is previous Miss Wales, now retired - but still beautiful. Considerable and friendly host.





Kay also let us wash our clothes. It shows how happy I am! When you travel like we do then fresh and clean clothes really make your day! I were thinking why I never before valued doing laundry back home...





Soon we realized that choosing to visit Woy-Woy was clever. Beautiful birds all over, cacadues, pelicans, you name it - they happen to like Woy-Woy just as much as we do.









And then we got introduced to the Woy-Woy fresh oysters. We could actually go pick them ourselves on the beach - lots of people do. But we had them fresh from the fisherman with souce and lemon - and we paid almost nothing. We had them for lunch four days in a row.




Palm Beach, for everyone who loves "Home & Away" (we can`t say we are the biggest fans): This is one of the main location for the TV serie production. Anyway this is a very beautiful beach!





We have to admit we felt a little bit home and away here...




After coming back from Woy-Woy we had the chance to visit Grant Robinson, who luckily lived a few meters from Bondi Beach in Sydney! What a catch! Couchsurfing is really fabulous! This scenery is what we woke up to every morning the next week we stayed at Grant`s place. We couldn`t have stayed a better place than this in Sydney!
















Grant and Corrine enjoying a glass of wine. They are a lovely and charming couple.





Grant invited his friends over for a barbeque. Great company, great food, great evening!





The couchsurfers! Look folks, we have travelled around the world for 7 months, been around each other day and night, 24/7 - and we are still in love! :)




Grant took us up to Surrey Hills on a concert. We had a lot of fun with him and his many friends. This is Matty, left.





Bjørn Christian in one of Grants many costumes. Well, don`t you think he rules this outfit?







Grant has his closet full of different funny costumes. Many cool hats. This is one of them.

Great Grant! Great apartment, great location, great friends, great discussions, great fun, and above all: great guy:-) Grant likes to "play it by ear", cruising around with his great number of friends who meet up anywhere at anytime, and always have a great time together. We were lucky to get a little taste of it all, and enjoyed every minute. There were just too few minutes! We feel that we have new friends in Grant, Corrine and Matty, and will stay in touch.

After we left Sydney, we missed JP a lot, but also Grant, Corrine and Matty a great deal. These people really made our Australia-surfing unforgetable.