Vacation in Austria

I spent the entire last month vacationing in Austria. I mostly traveling through Upper Austria between Vienna and Salzburg. The following are some photos I took during my travel.

The border between Germany and Austria is wide open. There are no border guards, except a small sign telling you that you are entering another country.





For 6.99 Euros, young boys in Austria can practice safe shaving with this kit:






I saw these Skinhead and Neo-Nazi graffiti scribbled on a couple of park benches near Germany-Austria border:






The trip to Austria is not complete without visiting the Town of Fucking, and it is fucking beautiful:









and Oberfucking, or Upper-Fucking:




The word "Schmuck" means "jewelry" in German, "idiot" in American slang, and "foreskin" in Yiddish. Thus, I always laugh when I see a "schmuck" shop sign.




If you thought the Japanese had some strange ingredients on their pizzas, but Austrian are not too far behind with their creations:

Corn Only


Corn and Ham


Tuna fish and Onion



Teletubbies, or Telechubbies, are selling mobile phones






Dildo accessory for Apple iPod for those who really wanted the full experience. (This product was featured in Gizmodo)








These two gargoyles looked like they were talking on mobile phones:




Police talking to fur protesters near Stephenplatz in Vienna. Normal people can't afford fur, and rich people don't really care about the cruel extraction process, thus the protest is pointless.



more of them in Salzburg:




"Arian" and "Aryan" are just one letter difference, however they sound the same on the phone. I am curious if Hotel Arian get any foreign visitors, or they just assume it is "Whites-Only".




The Japanese restaurant's sign literally says "Sushi, Tattoo, Fresh fish". ( 刺身 means "sashimi" in Japanese and "tattoo" in Chinese.)




At the Salzburg Fortress' Torture Museum, my personal favorite of all torture instruments is the Pear of Anguish.



It is inserted into a person's vaginal, anal, or oral cavity. As the key slowly turns, four blades would expand outward.

Mask of Humiliation


Finger Clamps


The Ol' Spiky, aka. Chastity Belt. I love the heart-shaped anal hole.


Scenes of Torture



The sculpture is titled "Cloth of Peace", but to me, it looked like Anubis from Stargate SG-1.

John Safran vs. The Mormons

video: windows media or quicktime

Like many people, John Safran likes to enjoy his Saturday mornings peacefully at home. Unfortunately, his Saturday mornings were often disrupted by religious door-knockers, especially the Mormons or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS). Thus, John decided to turn the table around by knocking on the Mormons’ doors and see how they would react when he preaches to them about the book of Origin of Species and Atheism.

Urban Sprinting

video: windows media

In this undated episode of Balls of Steel, Neg has created a new form of sport called "Urban Sprinting".

The rules are simple:

1. Find a shop with a security guard (or rent-a-cop)
2. Set off the shop's alarm with only with the anti-theft tag, not the actual merchandise (that would be shoplifting)
3. Run towards the nearest burger bar and see how long the security guard will chase you
4. Celebrate the victory with some "...fucking chicken nuggets"

In 2005, Tom Cruise was promoting his film War of Worlds in London, Balls of Steel's lead man squirted him with a water pistol, which Cruise was not happy about. The incident gave the show an enormous publicity boost.

No More Dummy Rummy

Donald Rumsfeld, aka. Dummy Rummy, has resigned as of Nov. 8, 2006.

Here is a collection of memorable moments of him as the Defense Secretary of United States. (video: windows media)

Kazakhstan Greatest Country in The World

(Click here to sing along with Kazakhstan's National Anthem)

Kazakhstan greatest country in the world
all other countries are run by little girls
Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium
other countries have inferior potassium

Kazakhstan home of Tinshein swimming pool
it's length thirty meter and with six meter
filteration system a marvel to behold
it remove 80 percent of human solid waste

Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place
from plains of Tarashek to northern fence of Jewtown
Kazakhstan friend of all except Uzbekistan
they very nosey people with bone in their brain

Kazakhstan industry best in the world
we incented toffee and trouse belt
Kazakhstan's prostitutes cleanest in the region
except of course Turkmenistan's

Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place
from plains of Tarashek to norther fence of Jewtown
come grasp the might phenis of our leader
from junction with the testes to tip of its face!

After watching the film - Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which obviously was meant to be a mock-cumentry, I was surprised by how much of what Borat (aka. Sacha Baron Cohen) said and represented about Kazakhstan were true.

According to Eric Weiner's article in Slate.com, Kazakhstan does have a problem with prostitution.

In the 1990s, Kazakhstan was a big exporter of prostitutes, and human trafficking was a problem. Now, given wealth amassed from the oil boom, prostitutes are even more popular, and the country is importing them, as well. Every evening, one street in Almaty is packed with prostitutes looking for customers, and newspapers devote pages of classified ads to "massage girls."

Although Kazakhstan does not have "Shurik" (Borat described it as "shoot dogs in a field and have a party"), but Buzkashi is a legitimate sport.

Buzkashi (literally "grabbing the dead goat"). In this popular game (a precursor to polo), players on horseback try to control the "ball"—the headless carcass of a goat or sheep. Then they have a party.

In the film, Borat called the nation of Uzbekistan as "assholes", that is true. Many Kazakhs dislike the Uzbeks, and the two nations have squabbled over territory in the past.

Tip Jar - The Book

I was delighted to receive an email yesterday from Dr. David Sutton of Southern Illinois University.

Dr. Sutton is an anthropology professor and currently working on a book being published by Berg Publishers about the anthropology of tipping. He asked me if he could use one of my photos in his book, with proper acknowledgment of course.



I have been taking photos of tip jar signs for over a year now. There are many people post photos of tip jars in Flickr, I have started my own little group of tip jar signs, cleverly named “tip jar sign”. So far there are 13 members, including myself. I don’t particularly care about the tip jars themselves, but only the notes attached to them to draw customers’ attention.

Besides the one that will be used in Dr. Sutton’s book, two of my other favorites are

“Tip Me, I’m A Pirate” which I took on Sept. 19, 2005 – Talk Like a Pirate Day



And “God Saves a Kitten” which is a parody of the parody of “Every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten”.

Montreal, Canada

For last two weeks I was in Montreal, Canada.

The first interesting product placement I noticed was in my hotel's vending machine:



Perhaps a closer look?



Next to the vending machine above was this beer vending machine:



Thanks to Montreal's Japanese Garden, you can also dress up your flat with labels from Sake bottles. 乾杯!



The garden also do not like Adidas:



In order to enter for this contest to win a trip for two to Italy, you must have basic math skills to solve the problem. I did got the correct answer (it is -2), then I read the fine print about this offer is only valid for Quebec residents.




There is a variety of american airline that can take you there. There is abundance of cheap flights, that make everyone go airlines. The alaskan airlines offer discounts every 2 months, and so do the ata airlines.