This summer I went on vacation for three weeks with my wife and her parents,
to visit the country that invented kung-fu, noodles, silk, and gunpowder. 
China currently has a population of 1.3 billion people with a growing affluent minority
that nearly has the purchasing of the United States.

The country that is now modern China used to be comprised of many different
cultures, languages, and ethnic groups of which Han was the largest.
After the Communist revolution, many elements of the regions were unified,
including a simplified writing system based on Han characters.

Climate ranges from sandy deserts, to frigid tundra and tropical forests.

The fantastic city of Hong Kong is the most vertically built city in the world
and functions as a special administrative region with its own laws and government.
Hong Kong is the home of countless action movies and one of my biggest idols, Bruce Lee.

Another SAR is Macao, which was once a colony of the Portuguese.
It is home to the highest commercial bungee jump in the world at 233 meters.

China is working hard to grow into a new global identity,
but is making sure not to forget the values and culture that has held it together.
This picture is at a space observation temple in the middle of Beijing.

Nearby lies East Chang’an Avenue which crosses the forbidden city and Tian’anmen square.

It was exciting to see China from the inside and I look forward to
visiting it again in the future to see how everything has transformed.

Every year around May, the sun begins showing itself long enough to walk outdoors without a jacket on. Like clockwork, people start to pretend like we live in a tropical country, and go out to soak up as much light as they can. This is because they know what awaits them in a few short months. The summer is very pleasant though, with temperatures between 15 and 25 degrees. About 20% of the year looks like this:

Spring and Fall both show the same characteristics with the temperature hovering around 5 degrees and the sky mostly cloudy. This is what Sweden looks like 50% of the year:

Then comes the winter, where temperatures are constantly below freezing for about 4 months straight. 30% of the year Sweden looks like this:

This January, when the sun was at its absolute lowest and temperatures reached –20˚,
Danwei and I flew out of Sweden and landed in beautiful Singapore to celebrate our marriage.

The country has a population of a bit over 3 million people and employs a
free-market economy that as of 2010 is the fastest growing in the world.

 
Singapore lies a mere 137 kilometers north of the equator, right at the tip of the Malaysian peninsula,
which gives it a year-round tropical climate of about 27˚. In this picture Danwei is leaning on the southernmost rail of the Sentosa integrated resort.

74% Chinese, 13% Malay, 9% Indian, and 3% Caucasians result in a plethora of cuisines to choose from,
many of which can be found at outdoor food courts referred to as hawker centers.
Danwei probably enjoyed this aspect of the trip more than anything else. :)


A large portion of Singapore is a nature reserve with lots of wild and exotic animals. 
Here I’m holding a hawk that happened to land on my arm.
Luckily, that day I was wearing a leather glove on my left hand.


One morning I found a giant turtle. I fed him some apples and petted him on the head.


In summary, it was a fantastic trip with my wife.
I will definitely long to return to the awesome, modern, and beautiful country that is Singapore.

first three photos © higwall.com 2010 

Since I'll be getting married soon, my old-time friend Telly decided that it would be appropriate for me to have a bachelor party. Much to my excitement, he told me that he had planned for us to face off with the mountains of northern Sweden and go hiking for a week in the Vålådalen nature reserve! Well, the trip was incredibly fun. We hiked through rain, sun, wind, snow and all sorts of weather conditions. I even swam a bit in 1˚ water from melting snow! We hiked a moderate 50 kilometers in around four days, and relaxed for two days at very nice sites. Hopefully this will become a yearly tradition. Thanks buddy!

Now that I've started working at Microsoft, I thought it would be the perfect time to learn pretty much everything I know about computers from scratch... Well maybe not, but I've set up IIS on Server 2008 R2 and I have to say it was pretty easy and I daresay... enjoyable? Anyway, I'll actually post fun stuff on this blog now because the BlogEngine CMS does pretty much everything for me! Stay tuned.