Disclaimer:
This is a personal blog and should be taken as such. So don't sue me if what I write pisses you off. Or if I write lies. Or if I give maladvice. Or if you fail to read through my sarcasm. Et cetera.
I like stalkers.
Is it in bad taste to quote one's self?
"The greatest of debaters are not only the most eloquent -- they are the most bruised, the most resilient, the strongest of heart." -- Andrew Loh
Quotes "How many times have you chickened out?" - Qu Hsueh Ming
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last." - Sir Winston Churchill
"Affirmative action is something the good don't need and the bad don't deserve" - A wise man
"The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation's greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us." - John F. Kennedy
"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were." - John F. Kennedy
"I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." - James A. Baldwin
"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is but a broken winged bird that cannot fly." - Langston Hughes
"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." - Sir Winston Churchill
"Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?" - Alfred Lord Tennyson
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." - John Calvin Coolidge
"We will either find a way or make one." - Hannibal
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"For evil to triumph, it is only necessary for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
"War begins in the minds of men, and it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must first be constructed." - UNESCO Constitution
"The proper study of mankind is man." - Alexander Pope
"My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death." - Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens): A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
"Patriotism is to support your country all the time and your government when it deserves it" - Mark Twain
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw
"Democracy is a system ensuring that the people are governed no better than they deserve." - George Bernard Shaw
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." -- Noam Chomsky
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
"When the people fear the government, you have tyranny. When the government fears the people, you have freedom." - Thomas Paine
"I sense a learning: that much dumber people than you end up in charge. Look at the way things are. I'm no fucken genius or anything, but these spazzos are in charge of my every twitch. What I'm starting to think is maybe only the dumb are safe in this world, the ones who roam with the herd, without thinking about every little thing. But see me? I have to think about every little fucken thing." - Vernon God Little, Act II
The mighty Neretva runs through the city while the bridge over it is a UNESCO Heritage Site. Destroyed during the war, it was rebuilt and now is again very pretty.
I swam in the freezing Neretva in my underwear ;)
Turkey is very popular in Bosnia amongst the Muslims.
Mostar itself is a very divided town -- half Bosniak and half Croat. Ethno-religious tensions run high; apparently this was so during the Croatia-Turkey Euro match.
My friend had this story: she was in the Croat part of Mostar and they wouldn't tell her the way to the train station because it was on the Bosniak part of Mostar. Instead, they told her there was no train station.
Turkish House
I was a jakun when I saw these -- grapes on vines? OMGOMGOMGOMG. The hilliness of the Balkans made it famous for wine-making once upon a time.
The Old Bridge (Stari Most) also gave Mostar its name. Apparently it was built by a disciple of Sinan.
Greco-roman-ish ruins?
Very slippery.
While the touristy part of Mostar was impeccable, there were still dilapitated buildings from the war in other parts of the city.
Bullets!
Attention! Dangerous Ruin!
Access to the ruin and vehicle parking forbidden!
But also notice that the car plate reads 666.
I initially thought that this was a museum or something, but apparently it is a shopping center that was shelled during the war and left to be.
This was on my second trip to Mostar after being turned away at the Croatia-Montenegro border (stupid Montenegro needs visas for Malaysians but not for Singaporeans; more on this later).
I met this Dutch dude on the bus -- and we split a room for cheap. This was a chess game at a senior citizen/pensioner center ;)
So some people jump off Stari Most into the Neretva to earn money.
These guys fake it most of the time -- they bend their knees and almost jump but then catch onto the railings on Stari Most -- until enough tourists tip them.
This was on the bus from Mostar to Sarajevo. Bosnian transport is more third world than Malaysia's -- even though we had tickets, there were no more seats on the bus.
I sat down instead of standing for two hours, and this was my view.
Trains, on the other hand, often arrive two hours late to their stations from schedule.
So Hutovo Blato is the largest swamp in Europe? or something and a migratory stop for birds on their Mediterranean route so it was supposed to be a big thing but we didn't see any birds.
Next up, we stopped at Pocitelj, which is a Roman-era city with a Byzantine fortress or something on a hill.
Very pretty.
This is for my mother, whose criticism of my photography goes something like this:
Aiya, why only take pictures of other people one?! Why don't you ask other people to take pictures of you?
This reminded me of Caesar III.
And I craved my childhood game so much so that I downloaded it from the web and played it for hours after Bosnia.
Baby.
And I watched the Germany-Spain Euro final back in Zenica. :)
