A Review of 2018

Yes, I know it's not the New Year for most people but today is the Chinese New Year of the Pig and I can't help but reflect on my life in the previous year as a naturist when I am abroad.

Here's a review of my naturist lifestyle in 2018 in (roughly) chronological order.  I will let the pictures tell the story - with minimal comment.

Faroe Islands in April (or was it March?) 2018. Bitterly cold. Could hardly take off my jacket, let alone all my clothes:

 It was so cold outside that I could only go naked in my room. This is Raska milk, the largest milk producers in the Faroe Islands.

I bought a pair of reading glasses in Vagar. They give me a rather respectable grandfatherly appearance and I'm not even anywhere near being a grandfather.

The beer in the Faroe Islands comes in very attractive bottles with fanciful names.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Around late April or early May 2018. A strict Muslim country that has been known to come down really hard on any form of public nudity, even when it takes place on a deserted island. I could only be naked in my own hotel room.

Lauterbrunnen in May/June 2018. There's a waterfall on the right of the photo.

May/June 2018.  I bought a hat in Zermatt which affords me good protection from the sun but everyone thinks I look clownish in it. But I don't care. I like it.

May/June 2018.  Lovely view of Lake Geneva. You can see Switzerland's most famous castle in the distance, to the left of the photo.

Same view as above. Reading in the midday sun.

2nd half of 2018:

BACK IN ASIA

July, 2018.  In a bar in Krabi, Thailand. There's nothing remotely naturist here but I thought it's good to show what I drank in a bar in Thailand. We naturists are decent folks!! Abstemious too. LOL

In a cable car going up to Kitzsteinhorn, Austria.

Drinking Lattela, a famous Austrian yoghurt drink.

Drinking Almdudler, a quintessentially Austrian drink which needs some getting used to.

A bit too much for a snack.

At a restaurant (the name of which eludes me now) up on a mountain.

In the same restaurant I was in two years before and did roughly the same pose I did at that time.

Group photo up on a mountain.

Lunch time but there are no crowds to worry about. You can sit anywhere and you get a great view wherever you are.

I'm on the top of the world.

This particular trail is unique. It feels like you're on Mars. It's somewhere in the Tyrol region of Austria but I need to check Google Maps for the name of the place.

Drinking buttermilch. 

A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!

This is where the Sound of Music was supposed to be but I don't pass off easily as Julie Andrews.

My throne

At the waterfall.

Group photo

AUGUST 2018

At the house where I stayed. It's just next to the Elbe River in Saxony.

Forgot the name of this mountain but it's beautiful.

Simply exhilarating!

Lunch with a splendid view

Cave exploration.

Posing with John

Just as the guy who took the pic thought that was all, I heard a train and I got him to take more pics. Like most selfie lovers, I love having a train in the background as my pic is taken. I have hundreds of such photos but I won't bore you with all of them.

Rowing down the River Elbe.

At an ice-cream parlour in the heart of town.

I love trains and railway lines.

Lovely view of a town.

At the National Park

The view is truly breathtaking

Cycling into the Czech Republic

A train!  A train!

This is the border of the Czech Republic. We had cycled more than 25km.

One wrong step and it's my eternal rest.

Group photo

It was a steep uphill and I told myself to continue pedalling but though the spirit might be willing, the flesh was, alas, weak.

Towards the end of 2018: In Bali for a break. The only place I could be a naturist in was my hotel room. If you are wondering why I needed so many power points, I had to charge my phone, my cameras, my laptop and my watch. This is the new age when everything has to be electrically charged. Only someone my father's age still wears an automatic watch.

Oops, I forgot to include this pic and will insert it now. I arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 8 Dec 2018 in the middle of high alert because of a government-approved giant rally to affirm the continuation of  racism against non-Malays and non-Muslims  in Malaysia. In Malaysia, the main victims of racism are the non-Muslim Chinese people and that includes me. Even though I am a foreign visitor, I am indistinguishable from any Chinese Malaysian and the Foreign Ministry in my country issued a travel directive against unnecessary travel to Kuala Lumpur on this day. When I took the skytrain into KL, I was a little nervous. There were huge pockets of people wearing t-shirts that extol the supremacy of the Malay race and telling Malays to 'rise and take action'. Anti-ICERD slogans were everywhere. I went straight to my hotel room which happened to overlook a part of Dataran Merdeka where the largest racist rally was to be held and sat naked at the window. I was on a very high floor in the hotel and there was no way anyone could see me but if they could, they might easily have mistaken me for  a fair Malay since I'm extremely tanned and could easily pass off for a Malay. Racism is all about skin colour and it's totally wrong. But the whole context of my visit to Kuala Lumpur makes this photo rather memorable to me. I love Malay food, I speak the Malay language almost like a native and I like Malays generally and I'm used to the anti-Chinese rhetoric made by Malaysian leaders but a racist rally in the heart of the capital of Malaysia in the 21st century was something quite new and disappointing.

This is roughly my 2018 review. I hope 2019, the Year of the Pig, will be even more exciting. When it comes to having fun, we should all go the whole hog.