HFCAMPO, what do you teach? Surely not english? Telling them "dont go home for cny goes beyond english lessons?
Anyhow, totally agree with you on most points :)
"But this is CHINA", how many times have y'all heard that poor sell-out excuse, the last resort in any dispute. When you hear this, you've most likely stumbled accross something that can be disproved or improved :)
Well, i visited the palce the last few days. 3 and a half hours by bus from Kunming. Beautifull scenery all the way.
I found it to be a lovely refreshing and peacefull town, it seems modern and well-to-do, with a seemingly friendly and well mannered population. But...not much going on. It was almost impossible to find a barbeque after 11 and everything was closed down by 00.30. Stayed at "home 家" hotel, an excellent hotel for 150kuai. Western food is non existant in the town but along the river there's an expensive, plush coffee place (30kuai a cappuccino). There are a few places selling (thai inspired?) food not usually found in Kunming or China. Contrary to whats noted in the comments above, i found the air great (though locals said its usually much worse).
Being 50% minorities I was kind of expecting to see more minority costumes and manners but I saw nothing at all. The dialect is understandable.
Agreeing with Bluppfisk, The place is good for a night and a half a days visit.
In a country other than your legal domicile, as far as i know, you can only get a 1 month visa. At your domicile, you can get 3 months, assuming you have everything in order. In principle you shouldnt need an invite, but should have a detailed itinerary with hotel bookings etc. as well as your work contract. Any discrepency and they will throw the book at you. China does'nt seem to be prepared to accept backpackers anymore, so unless you have a reason for applying in italy (ie you have a home/job/spouse there) they are going to be tougher. I definitely think its become harder to enter china from europe in the past year. Hope it works out. Obviously you could pay somebody to invite you (eg a school).
Any recommendations about devices or where to buy? Ideally, id like one that i could take and use abroad. I guess a VPN would be needed to watch eg youku, cctv from Europe, and assume its possible to use a vpn with these boxes? Do I need a rooted one or can easily root myself?
Ive smoked pure tobacco in a villiage in turkey. I was drunk at the time but thats not why i puked.
the farmers take it in from the fields in cars, tuktuks, bikes, lorries, horseback, whatever. The schoolyard is covered with black plastic and the raw tobacco is spread out on it. Some sections are mixed with fruit, to be used for shisha pipesmoking. Anyhow, its not really dry before all the kids come and walk all over it. Up and down they walk, all day long, trampling and mixing the tobacco. An utterly disgusting stench rises and its everywhere. I think, it must be possible to smell this shit from miles away. Well, many of the 'real men', myself included, smoked it while its still moist. Using bits of coal to keep it burning. The coal enters the lungs as vapour but inside it crystallizes - after a few years smoking arabic pipes i had to quit, HAD to, because of the coal in my lungs. Well, i only saw the harvesting process once but the one thing that sticks in my mind is the kids feet. Surely they must be discoloured for the rest of their lives. Maybe even stinking raw tobacco for a lifetime, i dont know.
Then there's the social element. disclose.tv had a great show about a drug called crocodile which is methodically destroying some russian border towns, and everyone in them. Even in that case I could'nt distinguish any justification for legal OR SOCIAL persecution of the users. In the russian case, they were their own dealers, manufacturing the drug themselves according to recipies found on facebook and ingredients bought OTC at 24 hour pharmacies. So indeed, what to do? Suggest to start by seeing the users, ALL of them, as victims. ?
Hfcampo over and over tries to insinuate that being addicted to something is a choice that an individual makes. And a further implication is that the addict continues to decide to be addicted on an ongoing basis.
I dont think thats correct at all. Nobody ever decided 'im gonna try to be a junkie/chainsmoker/alco/obese'. Nobody. But how to formulate another counterargument escapes me at the minute. There are various opinons on whether the tendency to be addicted is genetic. However i think hfcampos post adequately describes why nicotine addiction is not (just) genetic, but also chemical. So on the one hand we have the chemical element (treat all drugs as poisons, and the addicts as victims) and on the other hand we have the physiological/psychological element (treat addicts as mentally/physically allergic to a 'harmless' substance). In neither of these arguments can i see a case for legal OR SOCIAL persecution of users. Dealers, however, including cigarette companies, knowingly expose substances to the public, in full knowledge that their profits generate hardship yet contribute absoloutely nothing to society. Except tax dollars and a need for rehabilitation.
american gothic was a fantastic tv show, 90's i think. great fun and entertainment, as well as a latent, intelligent philosophical proposal. sheriff calebs proposal was, more or less, everyone is guilty.
yapp, agreed. can't force someone to be free. i think id need to be high before i could continue down that line of thought :)
kafka & lou reed vs huxley & sartre in a king-of-the-ring tag team match? :)
Nice atmosphere and cosy but the western food is bad. I think they deep-fry the burgers. As a cafe - 4 stars (service is a little bit lacking at times), coffee and cakes etc are good. As a restaurant, 2 stars (western food is too bad, asian food is mamahuhu).
"All the Meat" only had about 3 slices of salami on it, so maybe i got the wrong order. Anyway, leaving that aside - soggy bread, ketchup as tomatosauce, and cheese was probably from a tube.
Potato wedges soggy as well.
I left half my meal, the only thing up to scratch was the coke and the service. Will not be back.
If the name of the shop is written in english then they should speak english, yes! A pokey shithole trying to give the impression of a quaint li'l ole bookshop. Pig-ignorant staff, never been greeted with a smile there, nor even greeted. If you must shop here, bring your own bag. 1 star earned for selection and the (for me) convenient location.
Laos extradites drug suspects to Yunnan
Posted byIve smoked pure tobacco in a villiage in turkey. I was drunk at the time but thats not why i puked.
the farmers take it in from the fields in cars, tuktuks, bikes, lorries, horseback, whatever. The schoolyard is covered with black plastic and the raw tobacco is spread out on it. Some sections are mixed with fruit, to be used for shisha pipesmoking. Anyhow, its not really dry before all the kids come and walk all over it. Up and down they walk, all day long, trampling and mixing the tobacco. An utterly disgusting stench rises and its everywhere. I think, it must be possible to smell this shit from miles away. Well, many of the 'real men', myself included, smoked it while its still moist. Using bits of coal to keep it burning. The coal enters the lungs as vapour but inside it crystallizes - after a few years smoking arabic pipes i had to quit, HAD to, because of the coal in my lungs. Well, i only saw the harvesting process once but the one thing that sticks in my mind is the kids feet. Surely they must be discoloured for the rest of their lives. Maybe even stinking raw tobacco for a lifetime, i dont know.
Laos extradites drug suspects to Yunnan
Posted byThen there's the social element. disclose.tv had a great show about a drug called crocodile which is methodically destroying some russian border towns, and everyone in them. Even in that case I could'nt distinguish any justification for legal OR SOCIAL persecution of the users. In the russian case, they were their own dealers, manufacturing the drug themselves according to recipies found on facebook and ingredients bought OTC at 24 hour pharmacies. So indeed, what to do? Suggest to start by seeing the users, ALL of them, as victims. ?
Laos extradites drug suspects to Yunnan
Posted byHfcampo over and over tries to insinuate that being addicted to something is a choice that an individual makes. And a further implication is that the addict continues to decide to be addicted on an ongoing basis.
I dont think thats correct at all. Nobody ever decided 'im gonna try to be a junkie/chainsmoker/alco/obese'. Nobody. But how to formulate another counterargument escapes me at the minute. There are various opinons on whether the tendency to be addicted is genetic. However i think hfcampos post adequately describes why nicotine addiction is not (just) genetic, but also chemical. So on the one hand we have the chemical element (treat all drugs as poisons, and the addicts as victims) and on the other hand we have the physiological/psychological element (treat addicts as mentally/physically allergic to a 'harmless' substance). In neither of these arguments can i see a case for legal OR SOCIAL persecution of users. Dealers, however, including cigarette companies, knowingly expose substances to the public, in full knowledge that their profits generate hardship yet contribute absoloutely nothing to society. Except tax dollars and a need for rehabilitation.
Laos extradites drug suspects to Yunnan
Posted byyou should see puerto rico :)
american gothic was a fantastic tv show, 90's i think. great fun and entertainment, as well as a latent, intelligent philosophical proposal. sheriff calebs proposal was, more or less, everyone is guilty.
therefore...tolerance.
Laos extradites drug suspects to Yunnan
Posted byyapp, agreed. can't force someone to be free. i think id need to be high before i could continue down that line of thought :)
kafka & lou reed vs huxley & sartre in a king-of-the-ring tag team match? :)