Travel Blog: Day 170

My train to Chiang Mai ran late making the journey 17 hours instead of 14. Once I got there I explored the city on foot for a couple days. I found some geocaches and also went to the Chiang Mai women’s prison for my first Thai massage. Some of the women (the not too bad ones that will be released within the following 6 months) are given the chance to earn themselves some money by either giving massages or working in the prison’s restaurant. I mostly enjoyed my 1.5 hours massage (about 6 Euro). It hurt only a few times, and then mostly because I am everything but flexible. The following day I rented a scooter and went to the Doi Suthep temple. This place was full of tourists and did therefore not emit the quiet atmosphere one would expect. A few kilometers past the temple was the royal winter palace where I took a stroll through the garden.

My main activity in the Chiang Mai area was then a two day hike through the rain forest, including elephant riding and whitewater rafting. There were 12 people in my group and we were driven into the mountains where we the elephant riding was the first point on the agenda. I did not really enjoy it. The first 5 minutes were interesting but after that I just wanted it to be over. The poor things appeared drugged to me. When we were off the elephants we really started the hike – about 3 hours uphill in 35 degrees and really high humidity. Especially a slightly overweighed American couple had to struggle severely. But we made it to the top where we were shown our little hut containing of a single room sleeping 12 (just mattresses on the floor with a mosquito net for every two). The hut was on the edge of the mountain and also had a big patio from where we had a wonderful view over the valley. We were fed a pretty tasty meal and afterwards played some games with our tour guide and just talked till everybody was tired (which didn’t take long).

The next day after breakfast we started our descent which was a lot easier than the way up (surprise!). After about two hours of walking we arrived at the rafting place and split up in smaller groups to man the boats. Since it was almost the end of the dry season the water in the river was very low and the biggest challenge was not to get stuck. It was still fun but there was hardly any ‘whitewater’. After this we had a short ride in a bamboo float which our rafting guide nicknamed bamboo submarine – luckily I was the one standing in front steering the thing with a long pole while the others had to sit down….the bamboo float floated a few centimeters underneath the water so everybody was basically sitting in a puddle. After that we got fed some dinner and were driven back to Chiang Mai. It was a fun tour with fun people.

The same evening I boarded a plane that took me back to Bangkok where I stayed for another 3 days. Most of my time there I spent reading my book but I also did some geocaching, went to see the Grand Palace and went to the medical/forensic museum at the hospital. The latter was quite interesting…and gross. They had samples of all kinds of human parts floating in formaldehyde. While it was interesting to see how artificial heart valves work, it was shocking to see distorted babies on display. I remember some samples of Siamese twins and a baby with its intestines growing outside of its body. The forensic part of the exhibition showed hundreds of skulls, hearts, livers, lungs and whatnot – each with your choice of burning wounds, stabbing wounds, shooting wounds and so on. You get the picture.

Ok, that is it for today. I flew back from Bangkok to Sydney to continue my Australian adventure but I will tell you about it another day.

Travel Blog: Day 152

One Night Day in Bangkok

After a rough night on the train that hardly allowed me any sleep, I step onto the platform of Bangkok’s main train station at 5:40am. It is already warm and my shirt gets damp instantly. I find the luggage storage and drop my big backpack. Then off to find some breakfast. The “Dunkin’ Donuts” is still closed but I find another place that serves good cappuccino and chocolate donuts. I eat on the steps outside the train station and start walking at exactly 6:04. I figure I will go to Chinatown first because the Lonely Planet says that there is a market that is busy from 4am to 11am. I decide not to do any temples today because I can’t be bothered to put on long pants. Actually the pants would be OK – I could just store them in my backpack – but according to the LP you need to wear closed-toe shoes. And the thought of wearing my hiking boots all day is not very pleasant to me. I will to the temple stuff on another day.

The main streets are already busy at this hour but the side streets are still pretty much deserted. Just a few street merchants are setting up their stands to serve breakfast to the working population. Besides them there are only a few orange clad monks in the streets and a few stray dogs (and a couple rats). I keep walking to the beginning of the LP Chinatown walking tour. I wipe the sweat of my forehead every few minutes. I actually don’t get lost and find my way on the first try. This is not easy in Bangkok since street signs are scarce and there are dozens of different possibilities of translating the street names from Thai into Latin letters. So the signs do not necessarily match the names on my map.

When I get to Ratchawong Road I don’t dive into Chinatown right away but go into a 7/11 instead. I don’t buy anything – I just want to freeload on their air-condition and cool off a little bit. Ahh, that’s better.

Back out onto the street. Here the streets are a lot busier. The merchants have set up their little booths, offering stuff like plastic bracelets, umbrellas, shoes, Hello Kitty purses etc. They seem to have a very fine collection of about everything I am not particularly interested in. I see people wearing masks to protect them from the exhaust fumes and the smog. And, honestly, this is not the worst idea mankind has ever come up with.

I am still the only non-Asian and feel quite the explorer. I know that this is more attributed to the time than to the place, though. By 7:05 am I am through with my little Chinatown tour and I sit down to get some rest and some water. I also take some notes for this post ;-)

I decide to hit some of the shopping malls next. Maybe I fill find a good deal on a new cell phone. I start walking in the direction of the National Stadium and stop at a little coffee shop – mainly to get out of the heat again. I order an iced green tea and I am delighted to not only find an electrical outlet for my netbook, but also an open wifi. So I settle down for a while to check my mails, post yesterday’s blog and learn that Germany lost against Argentina in a friendly football (!) match. I am tired as hell. I write the beginning of this blog. I don’t really care to go back outside again where the heat is killing me and the heavy traffic is making things worse. I guess the shopping malls open at 10 so I have some time to spare anyway.

I leave the comfortable coolness of the coffees shop and continue walking towards the MBK – supposedly the cheapest place in Bangkok to buy cell phones. And, sure enough, the fourth level of the mall feels like a bazaar for cheap electronics. Except, it is not really that cheap as I am bound to find out. The prices for phones are higher than what I would have to pay in Germany. I almost give up but then approach one more booth where I see my beloved HTC Touch Diamond 2. The price I’m told is way too high but obviously there is a second hand unit. And the price on this one makes me think. I play around with it for a while and cannot find any flaws. So I somehow come up with the money and the thing is mine. The next hour I spend on the internet with my netbook to find the most important software I need on my phone. Amongst others is Glopus, a geocaching software. So I am finally able to pursue my hobby again. When the battery of my netbook is almost empty I decide to move on. There are a few more shopping malls nearby and I wanted to see the glamorous Siam xxx. By the time I get there I am really hungry. I see a Subway’s and decide to check what the sub of the day is. Guess what – tuna! Bad luck because I hate tuna. But behold! My luck is about to change. I come to a place where a fashion show is on. Three not too bad looking girls pose for some yoghurt….and somebody offers me a free cup of this yoghurt. So now I have something for my eyes and my stomach! I keep exploring the mall and come across several car stores. I have no clue how they got those cars to the third level but there are some really nice ones standing around: Jaguar, Lamborghini, Porsche, Lotus, Maserati – you name it. On some of the stores are little pictures telling you not to take photographs. The one on the Lamborghini I discover only after taking a picture. I decide not to delete it ;-)

I also find a bookstore and go looking for Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ because this has been strongly recommended to me. I find it and soon later it’s mine. Looking forward to read it but first I have to finish ‘The Saga of Guns N’ Roses’. It is an interesting story but poorly written. But I am not somebody to leave a book unfinished.

Buy the time I leave the mall it is already 3pm. I decide to go to Patpong, one of the city’s red light districts, since it is on the way to the train station and as an opened minded tourist I feel compelled to see this side of Bangkok, too. I hop on the skytrain for a couple stations and speed along over Bangkok’s congested streets. I am in Patpong in no time. As soon as I get into the area I see a bar that has a Paulaner sign on its wall. I walk over to check out the price – I haven’t had a wheat beer in 5 months now – but am approached by a guy trying to sell me a massage. He wiggles pictures of half naked women in front of me and tells me something about Happy Hour…”only 500 Baht!” (~11 Euro)

I leave it to you to make up your mind what kind of special massage this would be. Just let me tell you that you can get a regular one-hour Thai massage for as little as 200 Baht.

I try to get away from him, telling him that I don’t have enough money (which is true), and totally forget about the wheat beer. I walk down the main road in the neighborhood and it is definitely too early to get some red light atmosphere going. Most people are busy setting up booths for the night market. But I get similar massage offers all along the way. By this time I am actually only looking for something to eat, but the restaurants seem too expensive to me and the street food doesn’t look good enough. I try to convince myself that I am so hungry that I am not hungry anymore. I decide to get some cheap food close to the train station later and head for the park. Then I pass a McDonalds and get weak. Not so much about the food (which is really not good and not cheap incredibly cheap either) but more about the prospect of spending some time in an air conditioned room. So I tell myself that I will just have a snack now. While I eat my Chicken Pepper Burger I see a guy walking past carrying a big insulated backpack that reads ‘McDelivery’. I try to think if I have seen a thing like that ever before and I fail.

After the snack I do head over to the park. I see a few people doing aerobics, people skating and people just chilling out. A family feeds the fish in the pond and those things are big and all over the bread. The pigeons try to get their share, too, and I make a mental note to myself to finally find out the difference between a pigeon and a dove. Some of the pathways in the park feel like jogger’s highways and I, the lazy pedestrian, have to be on my guard. So I lie down in the grass and doze off until some music rips me out of my daydreams at exactly 6pm. I figure it is the national anthem because everybody stands up and looks toward the loud speaker. I have actually seen that happening before at the train station about 12 days before. It is about time for me to head back anyways. Before I leave I remember to take a picture of myself for my ‘A Picture Every Now and Then’ gallery. Have not done that in a few days. I make my way out of the park and this time I hop on the subway. Both the subway and the skytrain are very modern and clean. I usually like to take the subway to get around big cities because it is always easy to figure out - unlike the city buses. Try to figure out the buses in Buenos Aires if you like a challenge! As I pass through a metal detector the thing goes off. No wonder, I have tons of stuff in my backpack. The security guy dutifully asks me to open my backpack. Now, this thing is packed to the brim and has 5 different pockets. I open the first one and take out the book on top of it. He is satisfied with it and lets me go. This guy must have X-ray eyes.

Back at the train station I retrieve my big backpack and go buy some food and a couple of (okay, okay: three) small cans of Chang beer. This is one of the cheapest beers in Thailand and it claims to have 6.4% alcohol. Rumors are that this is only the bottom end of a pretty rough estimate and that nobody really knows the real figure. After this I try to find an electrical outlet to charge my netbook. This is not easy because all the outlets seem to be used to charge somebody’s cell phone. Damn these phones! I finally find an empty one and make myself comfortable on the floor next to it and start writing this post again. A voice from the loud speaker asks all the passengers of train 13 to Chiang Mai to board the train and I move obediently. I find my seat in the train and write the rest. I am tired as hell and my feet are sore. I have blisters on both of them. I definitely did not make the most out of this day. I was planning to go see the forensic science museum. But what the heck, I am on vacation and it was exhausting enough the way it was. The train is moving now. My day in Bangkok is over.

Travel Blog: Day 151

At the time of writing this post I am just 5 minutes into my 12 hours train ride from Surat Thani to Bangkok. The ‘good’ trains were full so I am stuck with a 2nd class seat without air condition. I seem to be the only non Thai in the whole railroad car and this train looks even more beaten up than the one I came south on. But this reminds me that I should start at the beginning.

I arrived in Bangkok in the middle of the night and stayed at a hotel close to the airport. The following day I moved into the city, to a place close to the famous Khao San Road. After being shown in the movie 'The Beach', this road became even more popular with backpackers from all over the world. I went there at night and dived into the buzz of street merchants, restaurants, bars and a huge partying crowd. Quite an experience! On my way back to the hotel I even saw a little elephant on the streets of Bangkok. This might be a normal sight for Thais but you sure don’t see that in any European city.

The next day at about 7pm I boarded an overnight train to Surat Thani, to eventually get to the Krabi region. The train looked worse than I imagined but I still had a good time playing 'Phase 10' with some fellow travelers and I actually got some good sleep. Once in Surat Thani it took a bus and a couple of vans to bring me to Ao Nang. That was a long trip to the beach. From Ao Nang you could take a boat over to a place called Railey - a beautiful piece of land featuring two beaches. Since it is cut off from the rest of the mainland by impenetrable rocks it is accessible only by boat. This was my first glimpse of the beach paradise that makes Thailand so popular with travelers. I did some hiking to a lookout point and after that down to a lagoon. The latter part of the hike was actually pretty strenuous and I don’t think it was worth the effort. The lagoon looked good but I thought the water to filthy to swim in. I finished the day with some quality time at the beach and, back in Ao Nang, with a cocktail. I missed the sunset, though.

I came back to Railey the next day to watch some rock climbing. I was only a passive watcher since my toe still hurt and I didn’t want to force my foot into one of the very tight climbing shoes. Talking about shoes – on this day my flip flops finally broke. It was actually a little sad, because they were very comfortable. But I’ve had them a long time – they carried me faithfully through 11 countries – and the sole was so worn, that they actually became death traps when I was walking on wet surfaces. Let’s see if my new ones will be as good as their predecessors.

From Railey it took almost a day’s travel to the island of Ko Phangan. Here I stayed for eight nights. The longest I have spent anywhere on this trip. One reason is that it is really a beautiful place to stay, definitely high quality postcard material. You can relax and snorkel and/or party all night if you feel like it. The beach in Haad Rin would fill up every night with people that want to have a good time. There was a lot of fire shows going on like jugglers etc. But if you wanted to do more than just watch you could participate in the fire limbo dance or the fire rope skipping. I tried the latter and burned myself slightly. It wasn’t my fault though. Some other guy jumped in and messed up and suddenly I had the rope on my neck. I also played a few games of Connect Four with these local kids going around challenging you for money. I only won one out of four games which made me a little angry. Next day I downloaded a few programs and tons of reading material about strategies onto my computer. Too bad these kids didn’t show up the next day because I had really smartened up by then.

Anyway, the other reason why I stayed so long is that one of the famous Full Moon Parties was only a few days away and I decided to go take a look at it. The little town of Haad Rin was definitely packed and the streets were buzzing. I met up with a few other people to have some beers and everybody got painted with those fluorescent colors. What people didn’t know by then was that there was hardly any black light at the beach. It was still fun. I will try to get a picture of what my back looked like. Be patient.

So these parties are huge rave and techno events. And if you know me than you will also know that I despise this kind of music. But with the help of some ethanol in different shapes I managed to have a somewhat good night. But for me once is enough. Make that whole thing a metal show and it would be awesome!

Like the other continents Asia took a toll on my electronic equipment, too. I lost the cell phone I bought in Australia…the third one on this journey to get stolen, break down or get lost. Also some sand somehow made it into my camera so it only works half of the time. And when it does you can hear all kinds of crunching sounds when the lens extends or you use the zoom.

Now, as I said at the beginning, I am on a train back to Bangkok. I will get there at about 5 in the morning and will spend the day exploring the city – I didn’t really see much on my first visit to Bangkok. Then, at about 7:30pm, I will get onto another night train that will take me to Chiang Mai. So beach time is over. Bring on the culture and the trecking!

PS: Book update

• 'Und morgen in das kuehle Grab' by Mary Higgins Clark (terrible book!)
• 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen
• 'Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less' by Jeffrey Archer
• 'Sonnenblumenland' by Miriam Sieber

Travel Blog: Day 138

OK, so nobody else wants a postcard? I put this question at the beginning of this post because I figured that lots of people only read the first few sentences that appear on Facebook…

But now to something completely different…as the world’s best comedy group would have said. I finished my last post telling you about my short trip to the Whitsunday Islands. To make it short: it was incredible! Best thing I have done in Australia! I decided to go on a boat which was almost brand new and had its focus on diving and chilling, rather than one of the big party boats. It was a little more expensive but it surely provided more luxury. When we got on the boat we were all rushed into the common are where some snacks were already waiting for us. There we were given some briefings about the life on board, diving and snorkeling etc. When we got outside onto the deck for the first time I instantly realized that this was going to be a great trip. The crew was caring and entertaining and ‘mom’ always kept us well fed. Honestly, this was the best food I had in quite a while! The boat itself and the other travelers were very nice – and luckily there was only one other German.

On our first day we made our way to Blue Perl Bay on Hayman Island – our first diving site. We only had 3 certified divers on board so all the others (obviously including me) made a little introductory dive there. We started in shallow water where we would get used to breathing under water….and then we were off. Saw lots of fish there (one Nemo) and I felt like being in a huge aquarium. The fish and the corals were way more colorful compared to my first dive in Columbia. This is not to say that there are no good dives sites there, it’s just that in Columbia we dived really close to Santa Marta harbor.

After the dive I went snorkeling discovering still more exciting things about the underwater life in the Great Barrier Reef. Back on board we had some snacks and later dinner. Then we would all gather in the common room to get a little lecture about marine life and were shown the pictures of the day on a big plasma TV. Some things that I remember:

• - Turtles eat jelly fish…and get high from that. Remember the turtles in “Finding Nemo”?
• - All Clownfish are born as males. There is only one female in every ‘family’. When this one dies the most dominant male turns into a female.
• -‘Loser Fish’ (I forgot the real name) stay together with their partner for their whole life. They are always seen swimming in pairs. If one partner dies, the other one dies shortly after. I personally don’t like to call these creatures ‘Loser Fish’…

After the slide show everybody went back outside to enjoy the sunset. When the sun was gone and the stars came out you cannot be surprised to hear that the view was amazing. With no big cities nearby polluting the night sky with their light, you could see a lot more stars that in your average Western European sky. I even spotted four or five shooting stars!

The next day began with breakfast in Tongue Bay where we spotted a few turtles coming up for their morning air. The rest of the day consisted of two more dives and some time on Whitehaven Beach – where all the ‘funny’ pictures were taken. The certified divers went for another dive at night time. Wish I could have joined them.

On the last day I missed out on the diving opportunity for two reasons. I was disappointed of the visibility on the afternoon dive the day before. And I quite possibly had broken my toe slipping on the stairs, so I could not put on my right flipper. I just went snorkeling instead…with only one flipper. Made me feel quite like Nemo with his lucky fin :-)

After that we motor sailed back to Airlie Beach where this great adventure came to a close at around 11am. If you ever go to Australia’s east coast this is something you should definitely do. And if you are into diving spend some extra money on a 3-day trip that takes you to the Outer Reef for one day. I’ve been told the visibility there is way better than close to the Whitsundays.

The day ended for me in a 10 hour night bus to Cairns where I am right now. I wish the busses here in Australia were as good as the ones in South America. I hardly caught any sleep. This is one reason why I am not quite eager to discover the city on foot today, even though I am leaving here again tomorrow. Next time you hear from me I am probably going to be in Thailand!

Travel Blog: Day 134

Remember I told you about the 7am bus I had to take early on my birthday? Guess what – I missed it. I woke up at 7:49 and hurried over to the bus terminal. Luckily it only cost me 4$ to get me a seat on the next bus. I phoned the hostel in Rainbow Beach to tell them I would come later and was told that I might have to move my Fraser Island trip back one day because I would miss the briefing. I tried to invoke some pity by mentioning that it was my birthday and the lady on the phone told me that we would ‘work something out’.
When I arrived in Rainbow Beach the briefing was just over, but Heidi (the woman from the phone) told me that I just needed to watch a couple of videos on my own and that I would still be able to go to Fraser Island the next day. She later brought me a big muffin with 4 candles stuck on top and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ for me. How sweet!
After breakfast the next morning our group (20 people) started checking the equipment and packing it onto two Toyota Landcruisers….under the supervision of Chris, our ‘guide’. Since this was a self-drive-tour, Chris would not come with us but he prepared us as good as possible. After the two cars were packed, he gave the drivers a quick introduction on how to drive a 4WD. Then we were off. I was first to drive in our half of the group (group 1, yeah!) which consisted of a Spanish guy, a French guy, an English guy, an Irish girl, an Israeli girl, two Swedish girls and two Finnish girls…and me, of course. It took us about 15 minutes to get to the ferry and only 10 minutes across to Fraser Island. This is where the fun driving part began. It was quite an experience to master the 4.2 Liter diesel engine and make the Toyota grind through the sand of the never ending beach. The island itself sure is beautiful. But with all respect – after driving along the beach for 2 hours, this part gets boring after a while. Especially because swimming is not allowed due to jelly fish and sharks.
Our first stop was Lake Wabby. A beautiful lake surrounded on three sides by rainforest and on one side by a massive sand dune. Have I mentioned, that Fraser Island is one of the biggest (or THE biggest?) sand islands in the world? Anyways, the water was really warm and enjoyable. Only the thousands of horse flies spoiled the experience somewhat. From Lake Wabby we drove further north to our camping ground, passing the wreck of the ‘Maheno’ – a former cruise ship which was later used for target training by the Royal Australian Air Force. At the campground we put up our tents, prepared dinner (hamburgers) and spent the rest of the night having a good time and consuming quite a bit of goon (cheap Australian wine that comes in 4 liter cardbox boxes) in the course of it. At one point we had a dingo visit us. He came as close as 10 meters. But we were all well instructed about what to do in a situation like this: if a dingo approaches you, you cross your arms in front of you and slowly move backwards. If the dingo still attacks you, you have to fight back aggressively. Since both of these actions sound somehow ridiculous when being attacked by a wild animal, they became a kind of running joke in our group. ‘Our’ dingo moved away without us having to attack him aggressively.
The second day was spent driving along the beach to Indian Head – the only rock formation on the Island – and afterwards to Eurong Resort, where we had lunch. From there an inland track called the ‘washing machine’ took us to our second campground. I was looking forward to be driving on this track but the constant rain made it really hard to spot the potholes. After we arrived at the campground the rain continued for another 2 or 3 hours so most of us just sat in the car waiting. The second evening was not nearly as lively as the first one since almost everybody was still a little hung over.
One the third day we finally got to see the main attraction of the island: Lake McKenzie. This is the perfect white beach and the clear blue water you will see on almost every Fraser Island postcard. This spot is incredibly beautiful. I just wish that we had had more time to spend there. After only a few hours there we had to get going to get back to Rainbow Beach on time.
So this was my trip to Fraser Island. I hope you enjoy the pictures. After the trip I spend another two nights in Rainbow beach before I went farther north to Hervey Bay. Here I spend only one night but was able to see the millions of bats that fly over the village on their nightly trip to Fraser Island. Quite impressive!
After a 13 hour bus ride I arrived in Airlie Beach today where I booked a 2days/2nights sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands starting tomorrow. When this is done I have completed the main things I wanted to do in Australia. I know that there is tons more to do and even in a year you cannot do everything, but I still figured that I initially planned to spend too much time her e. And since there are way too many Germans around here I thought I might as well go see some other country while I am down here. The result of these considerations is that I will fly to Thailand for three weeks to dive into a completely different culture.

Travel Blog: Day 126

Let’s start this post with a little anecdote: On my flight to Sydney I ordered a beer on the plane as I always do if it’s not before lunch time J The steward gave me the beer and at the same moment told me that this was six dollars. That took me by surprise since beer on all of my other flights on this trip (all companies belonging to the “one world” alliance) was for free. Not wanting to lose my face I gave him a 20 dollar bill. He said he was going to give me my change later. Luckily, a few minutes later a stewardess came by and handed me my 20 back, saying it was OK. I don’t know if my world renowned charm made the difference or if they just didn’t have any change. Anyway – this gave me a taste of what lay ahead of me when it comes to prices in Australia.

My time in Sydney I spent walking around the city (taking tons of pictures of the two main icons: the opera house and the harbor bridge) and on both Manly Beach and Bondi Beach. I also explored the night life in Kings Cross – an area famous for its backpacker hostels and strip joints – and spent evenings drinking wine in Hyde Park.

During my days in Sydney I learned a few things about Australia (incomplete list)

• Australia’s mainland was attacked in World War II by Japanese bombers
• Australia is trying to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018 or 2022
• Burger King is called “Hungry Jack’s” because there already was some take-away place called “Burger King” before the “real one“ opened its first restaurant

The next stop for me was Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast. Now, I don’t know why this place is called Surfer’s Paradise. In my imagination of paradise there are no high rise buildings casting their shadows onto the beach. Also in ‘my’ paradise there would not nearly be as much rain. To be fair though, the weather there isn’t always as bad as I experienced it. I did get a few hours in the sun and had my first cautious attempts on a body board…you might call it surfing for dummies.

I still had a great time in Surfer’s…but this has nothing to do with the settings…and definitely not with the weather.

OK, so now I am in Brisbane where I walked around the city again and spent some time at the city beach in the South Bank Parklands. I also used the day to organize a tour to Fraser Island. Tomorrow morning I will board a 5-hour bus at 7 in the morning that takes me to Rainbow Beach. There I will meet my 8 fellow travelers that will accompany me on a 3day/2nights tour to Fraser Island. Since there are no paved roads on the island the only means of transportation is by four wheel drive vehicles. Should be fun!

I haven’t written any postcards in a while. If anybody has not received one so far, just give me your address and I will send you one. Remember: I will not bring home any presents or souvenirs whatsoever. So those postcards are all you can get. Go for it!

And last but not least here is my updated book list. Can’t imagine that this would be interesting for any of you but I always wanted to start a list for my own and this seems to be at least a start.

• "Book of the Dead" by Patricia Cornwell
• "Blutzoll" by Elisabeth Egholm
• "The Broken Window" by Jeffery Deaver
• "Tomorrow, When the War Began" by John Marsden
• "Hollowpoint" by Robert Reuland
• "A Deadly Indifference" by Marshall Jevons
• "Frameshift" by Robert J. Swayer
• "Op-Center" by Tom Clancy

Travel Blog: Day 116

Since this is my last day in New Zealand (I will be flying to Sydney tomorrow) it is about time to tell you a little bit more about my stay here.

Lucas (the French guy) and I picked up our microcamper as planned and started exploring the country. Driving on the left side is not as hard as I thought. Actually it still feels more awkward to cross the street - never really being sure in what direction you have to look. What is a classic though is turning on the windshield wipers when trying to turn on the left turn signal ;-)

I will try not to bore you with too many details so I just outline our journey: we first went into the direction of Coromandel peninsula. From there we made our way south to Rotorua and Taupo and eventually to Wellington where we took the ferry to the south island

. Here we expored the Abel Tasman National Park, made a short trip to the Golden Bay and then from there went south to Fox Glacier. Next stop was Queenstown. Here I left Lucas and made the final trip to Christchurch on my own.

The beauty of the country is really amazing! Wherever you go - you are not going to see anything ugly. New Zealand is definitely a country for outdoor activities and outdoor adventures and I got my share. Started out with a rafting trip in Rotorua where we rafted the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world. The next day I went skydiving and the day after bungee jumping. Both those activities were absolutely breathtaking and too short!

Skydiving actually was way less frightening than I thought. I want to think that I was pretty calm the whole time until dropping out of the airplane. From then it's just pure fun! The earth is so far away that it is not scary at all. Jumping down from a 47 meter platform with a rubber rope around your ankles is a different story! But since I did something similar in Venezuela it was not too bad.

Lucas and I were doing a little bit of hiking as well - for example in Tongario National Park where we could see 'Mt. Doom' from Lord of the Rings. In Abel Tasman we rented a kayak for a day. Especially in Abel Tasman we were lucky with the weather. Let me just tell you something about New Zealand weather: it was not as warm as it looks on most of the pictures. For one thing we got quite a lot of rain. But even when it was sunny the temperatures were usually only around 22 Celsius (72 Fahrenheit). And since the ozone layer here is so thin the sun is really burning down intensively. For me it meant that I could only stay in the sun for a few minutes before I had to move into the shade....where I would get cold pretty quick because of the wind and the "low" temperatures. In the three weeks that I stayed in New Zealand I only went into the ocean four times.

So, for me New Zealand was the country of:

• green! Everything is green here. Have not been to Ireland yet but it cannot be a lot greener there.
• lots of nice people...many of them calling you 'mate'.
• cows and sheep. Yes, I saw lots of cows in the land of sheep.
• expensive internet access.
• beautiful nature.
• cars driving on the wrong side.
• good and cheap meat in the supermarkets.
• roadkill.
• volcanos and all kind of thermal activities.
• outdoor adventures.
• one lane bridges.
• polite bus drivers and passengers. At least here in Christchurch almost everybody would thank the driver when getting of the bus. And the driver would answer something like "You're welcome. Have a lovely day."
• glaciers in the middle of the rainforest

....and a lot more that I cannot think of right now. I am sure glad I came here for it is a beautiful country (I know I am repeating myself).

Now I am looking forward to exploring Australia!

Pseudophilosophischer Gedanke des Tages #8

Es ist haeufig einfacher gestossen zu werden, als selbst zu springen.

Travel Blog: Day 99

Ok, let me just tell you a few things about my long journey to NewZealand. The plane from Santiago to Los Angeles had a stop in Lima at around 2 am in the morning. This made it really difficult to get some decent sleep because they turned on all the lights and even checked all the passports of the passengers who remained on board. But after some more hours I finally arrived in Los Angeles and there I took a couple buses to get to Santa Monica to finally have a good old huge American breakfast :-)Then I just spent the day surfing the net for free at the Apple store and walking the beach. I also had a Erdinger beer at the same place where I had one with my sister almost 5 years ago. Little trip down memory lane.
At about midnight my next plane took me to Brisbane. Another 14 hours flight but I must say that the service by Quantas is really good. I slept a little better this time and arrived in Australia around 8 in the morning. At first I was shocked to see how expensive everything is. This is just so different from South America. A round trip train ticket to downtown Brisbane was 27 $ (Australian dollars and American dollars are almost 1 to 1). And that was hardly a 20 minute ride. In Brisbane I walked around the city for a few hours but couldn't take any pictures - the battery in my camera was dead. But since I will be back here in a few weeks I did not really mind.

Eventually the time came for me to board another plane (yeah!!) to finally get to Auckland, New Zealand, where I arrived at midnight...a time where public transportation was unfortunately not available. But enough complaining.

After I finally found a hostel and got some sleep I spent the next day exploring the city and planning the rest of my time in NZ. When I was sitting down next to the reception to write a note about looking for people to rent a campervan with, a French guy approached me and asked if he could join. So we spent the next few hours trying to find an affordable campervan which is not easy - it is school holidays in NZ and thus high season. We eventually found a 'micro camper' - a station wagon with a mattress in the back. But since this thing was only available from the 10th we decided to rent a regular car for a couple days and head north. We found another guy from Switzerland who wanted to join us on this short trip and hit the road. On our way to Cape Reinga, where the Tasmanian sea and the Pacific ocean clash together, we saw some great landscapes and some nice beaches. But we found out that 2 days for a trip like this is not enough. We did not really have time to explore the 'Bay of Islands' or go swimming. The weather wasn't that good either. It changes really quickly here and the nights were surprisingly cold. It was still a nice trip though but when we get our micro camper tomorrow we will hopefully do less driving and more appreciating :-)

Enjoy the pictures!

Travel Blog: Day 92

South America - A Summary

So, this is it. I am sitting in an internet cafe in Santiago killing some time until a plane takes me to LA...the first part of my loooong journey to New Zealand.

It feels like it's been more than three months since I arrived in Lima to start my exploration of this continent. And so much has happened. I traveled through Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay (only about 5 hours though...), Argentina and Chile. Since I had been to Columbia and Venezuela in the summer there are really not many countries left down here. But still so much to see. I wish I had had more time because I really feel that I need to spend more time in Brazil, Chile and Bolivia.

I have met tons of wonderful people here, both travelers and locals. The language barrier was a problem though. Of course you can get along with just a little or even with no Spanish but it would have made the experience so much better if I could have been able to communicate with the locals more. But I fear I am repeating myself...

So I have hiked a lot, been on a billion buses for about 200 hours in total, have visited 4 football games, read 13 books, have collected plenty of stamps in my passport and have seen some amazing things, both man made and natural wonders.

The continent has been good to me. People were nice (as mentioned before), transportation and accommodation were never a problem and even the weather was nice - especially in Patagonia. Oh well, I remember some rain in Rio but that was about it.

So now it is half time for me. The end is closer now than the beginning. Have the three previous months changed me in any way? I don't know. I have definitely realized that I should take more advantage of me living in Europe when it comes to travelling. I have a different perspective of distances now and everything in Europe seems so close. But besides that I am not going to get philosophical now. I think I have grown from all the experiences down here but I have not had a life altering sensation. I just feel like my horizon has broadened.

And here is a list in chronological order of things lost/broken/stolen:

• 1 towel
• 1 digital camera (Digital Ixus 430)
• 1 cell phone (HTC Diamond Touch II)
• my temper (only once)
• my hand
• 4 cans of beer
• 3 slices of pizza
• 1 wallet including about 50 Euro in different currencies, my German ID and a Visa card
• 1 Flashlight (Fenix E20)
• 1 empanada
• 1/2 pack of tomato sauce
• 1/2 pack of toast
• 1 bottle of red wine
• 1 chapstick

Oh, and here is the list of the books I've read recently (don't judge me by the selection):

• "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Wonderful book! Must read!!!)
• "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" by Michael Chabon
• "The Black Echo" by Michael Connelly
• "Tannöd" by Andrea Maria Schenkel

Now all there is left to do for me is to wish everybody here a great year 2010! That reminds me: I haven't told you about New Year's eve here in Valpo. To make it short, the streets were packed with thousands of partying people. There was a great vibe in the air. Lots of singing and guitar playing....and the fireworks were great as well. I do have some nice pictures of Valparaiso which I will upload later. I do not want the memory with my precious pictures get close to this virus infected computer here.

Next time I post I will be on a different continent. Cya!

Travel Blog: Day 89

Sorry that it's been so long - almost three weeks. I was kind of procrastinating. The problem is, that writing a blog post just gets more work the longer you wait.

Well here we go. Last thing I mentioned was that I got to Bariloche. I had some good days there. The area strongly reminded me of the Alps. Lots of snow covered mountains, lakes and lots of swiss or mid-European

architecture. In Bariloche I also met and Argentinia from Mendoza by the name

of Lucas. One day we rented a car and drove around the seven lakes, constantly stopping at all the wonderful viewpoints.

After Bariloche I took a very comfortable 21 hour bus ride to Cordoba. They ha

d warm food, good movies and even wine and whisky. Once in Cordoba I did not really do a lot. Actually I just did not find a lot of things to do. I walked through the city plenty of times. Went to an art museum and ate lots of ice cream. One day I wanted to

go swimming but the minute I stepped out the hostel it started to rain and it didn't stop for the rest of the day. But in Cordoba I met Olli again - the English guy I have mentioned before. We played some cards, cooked with each other (well, most of the times I just ate what he cooked) and had some good time.

My next stop was Mendoza - Argentinia's main wine region. I spend some more money on the hostel because I really wanted to have a pool. It turned out to be a good decision because the weather was really hot (35 Celsius / 95 Fahrenheit). On my first full day I went with some people out to the wine area and rented some bikes. We hit three or four bodegas and tasted some of the local wine.

Most of it was pretty good. We also got a really interesting tour at one of the places. It was just strange to see that the vineyards were not on small hills li

ke they are in Germany. Here they were just flat - like fields.

I also spent Christmas in Mendoza (I am talking about the 24th). I spent most of the day at the pool and at night there was a big BBQ. For me it was a strange setting for Christmas. I did not really get into the mood. The dinner was tasty though and later at night most of the people went to a club. By now I really should have figured out that I am not the club kind of person. In summary the Christmas was pretty weird. I missed family and also (a little suprising) the cold weather. I had a better day on the 26th when Lucas invited me to play football with his friends. We played for three hours and after that we had a great BBQ. It was just a perfect setting with all those nice Argentinian people who invited me into their home and treated me as a honored guest!

On the 27th I took a bus to Chile. The ride went through the Andes and there was some beautiful scenery. Too bad the border crossing took us about 2 hours because every piece of luggage was taken off the bus and put through one of those airport X-ray scanners.

But eventually I arrived safely in Santiago and found my hostel. I had only one full day there but this one was really fun. I met "Baba" at the hostel, a 40 year old German who has been travelling for 20 years. He has been to Santiago several times and knows

the city pretty well. So he played the tour guide for a Brazilian guy, two Australian girls and me. We took a walk through the city, starting in Bellavista - Santiago's bohemian quarter - and continuing through Chinatown until we got to the market area. There are so many different markets in a rather small area: fish market, flower market, vegetable market, meat market....

He then took us to some Chilenian beerhall for drinks and food. We each had a "terremoto" (earthquake) which is white wine with pineapple ice cream and fernet. Half a liter of that makes you really tipsy. So afterwards he took us for some coffee.

But not regular coffee but "café con piernas" or "coffee with legs". He was a little secretive about it and I was quite surprised when he lead us into a place which looked like a strip bar. And that is basically the concept of those places - there are lots of them in downtown Santiago. Except the women that serve you the coffee do not strip...but then they are not wearing a whole lot to begin with anyway. A really strange business idea!

To finish things off we went to a bar which is famous because Bill Clinton once drank a coke there. The half empty glass is still on display - I wonder what they did to it so the coke did not turn green....

The next day I took a bus to Valparaiso where I am at the moment. This is where I will celebrate New Year's tomorrow. I already have taken lots of pictures of this beautiful place but I will save those for my next post. I should have enough time at different airports on my way to New Zealand.

Happy New Year to everybody!

Lyrics Snippet #13

This song came to my mind fairly often during my time in southern Patagonia:

I see trees of green, red roses too,
I see them bloom, for me and you.
And I think to myself... what a wonderful world.

~ "What a Wonderful World" - Louis Armstrong ~

Travel Blog: Day 69

Wow, so much has happenend since my last post. I spent a couple more days in Buenos Aires. On Sunday I went to the football game "Boca Juniors vs. Gimnasia La Plata" in the Boca stadium called La Bombonera. The athmosphere was absolutely intense. The supporters only stopped singing during the 15 minutes half time break. Amazing! On Monday night I went to a percussion show called "La Bomba del Tiempo", which was also really entertaining - lots of rhythm!
On Tuesday I wanted to see the Andy Warhol exhibition in the Malba but when I got there I found out that the museum is closed on Tuesdays. So I went for a stroll in the park instead.
The next few days I spend in La Plata visiting a friend of mine who studies there. Had some fun times and explored some of the nice parts of the town.
After that my patagonian adventure started. I took a 15 h bus down to Puerto Madryn from where you can go to the Peninsula Valdes where I actually saw some whales! It was absolutely awe-inspireing to be so close to those giants of the sea. And there I met Olli again - an English guy I travelled with for a while in Bolivia. He, me and Paul - another English guy - afterwards went south to El Calafate to go see the Perito Moreno Glacier. I've never seen a glacier before and this one really is a terrific one to start with. It's a monster, it's huge. Take a look at the pictures, but even the pictures cannot convey the majesty of the thing. And my words don't do it justice. I guess you just have to go see for yourself. The glacier moves about a meter a day, and we are talking about a 30 km long mass of ice with an average height of 74 m above the water. The noises were incredible - like thunder without the lightning. And when a big piece of ice breaks off it is just undescribable. This glacier is one of those things that, the longer you look at it, the less you are able to comprehend it. And taking into acount the beautiful surroundings - snow topped mountains and condors circling above the scenery - it just felt like a picture painted by someone with too much imagination.
The same night the three of us took a bus to El Chalten where we started a three day's hike the next day. Just rented a tent and three sleeping bags and started walking. The scenery was (again) beautiful with the peak of Fitz Roy always towering above everything. After about 4 hours of walking we set up tent and had some dinner. Because at this time of the year it is light until about 22:30 (or 10:30pm) we decided to hike up to the two nearby lagunas (I forgot the name). After some time of exhausting hiking we finally saw the first one - a frozen and snow covered lake. After we climbed another small ledge we saw the other laguna. This one was not frozen at all but looked really cold - a deep blue color with some big chunks of ice floating inside. The whole picture looked so beautiful it was unreal. It looked like it belonged into some fantasy saga. I have to be careful not to repeat myself and to not use the same words over and over to describe the beauty of southern Patagonia.
The next day I hiked with the two others to a nearby glacier but then left to go back to our tent alone. I needed some time to myself to read, write and relax. The third day we started the way back and were rewarded with more beautiful views before we reached El Chalten again where we treated ourselves to a couple of beers.
On the next morning it was time for me to say goodbye to my fellow travelers because they were heading further south to do some more hiking and I was going north to Bariloche. This meant a 2-days bus ride. On the first day our bus broke down so we had to spend 5 hours in the middle of nowhere. But that was not too bad. I played some hackey sack (which I hadn't done in years) and played some other games and thus really got to know some of the other people on the bus. Because of the delay we got to Perito Moreno (the town, not the glacier) at about 2 in the night. Since the hotel still wanted 60 Argentinian Pesos for the night some of us decided to just spend the night partying. I turned out we were lucky because the little town celebrated its 82nd birthday with some live music on the streets. So we joined the locals and had a good time before we hit a nearby bar. When the bar closed down at about 5 in the morning we went to an ATM to get at least a few hours of sleep in a warm place. After about an hour the police showed up and had us move out. It was still a fun night and I was able to sleep a little the next day on the bus to Bariloche. This is where I got yesterday night after another 13 hours on the bus. Today I didn't do much. Just walked around a little and told some people over the internet that I was still alive. As always: Enjoy the pictures!

PS: I finished a few more books:

• "The Sum Of All Fears" by Tom Clancy
  
• "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
  
• "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
  
• "The Final Reckoning" by Sam Bourne
  
• "Stalin's Ghost" by Martin Cruz Smith
  

Travel Blog: Day 50

Update: I fixed the link to the second gallery (Iguazu Falls)

This is just a short one. It is 7:16 in the morning and one of the computers at the hostel in Buenos Aires is "free". I did enjoy Sao Paulo even though the city did not offer much to me except for the interesting architechture. At times it did remind me of NYC, though. It was also a rather expenisive place - one night club we passed required a 300 Reais entrance (ca 117 Euro). I also had the chance to attend another football game. The fans were really giving their best but it somehow could not beat the cheerful athmosphere of the Maracana stadium in Rio.
From Sao Paulo I took the bus to Iguazu and the falls were just amazing. I am not sure if I have used the word before but the falls really made me hold my breath. Especially the "Devil's Throat" seemed to me like a computer animation out of an "end of the world" movie. It was just so massive and unreal. I also went to Paraguay for a few hours to buy some cheap electronics - I really needed a new memory card for my camera. The one I bought seems to work fine but the 2 USB flash drives I bought turned out to be electronic waste. 40 Dollars just went down the drain.
I then took a plane to Buenos Aires today and tried to dive into the night life. The evening (night) was allright but getting back to the hostel really was a pain. It was raining really hard and I was almost out of money. I did meet some locals, though, who helped me find a cash machine and a taxi...
Enjoy the pictures.

Travel Blog: Day 41

The night in Santiago was great fun. Went to see some live Salsa which was really good. I ended up paying for a bed I did not sleep in, since I got back pretty late and got picked up for my airport transfer at 4:50.
The flight to Rio was uneventful and once there I got on a bus that was supposed to bring me close to my hostel. I had 2 people tell the bus driver to let me out at Rio Sul Shopping Mall - but of course he "forgot". So I got out at Copacabana beach and had only about a 30 minutes walk with all my luggage in a comfy 37 degree Celsius heat (98.6 Fahrenheit). The first night I didn't do much and went to bed early. The next day I spent with 2 Americans and an Englishmen by the name of Neil. We went first to Ipanema beach and walked from there to Copacabana beach where we set up camp. The waves were awesome and after some time of practice I succeeded in a few decent body surfs. But every now and then - when my timing was bad or the wave was just to big - the wave would just wash me away and would play with me like I was a ping pong ball. I didn't know where up or down was and was just tumbling through the water....so much fun!
At night we all went to Lapa where there is a huge street party at the weekends. Because of the absence of public bathrooms the dark side alleys soon started to smell rather unpleasant. It is also pretty dangerous there when it comes to thieves. Three of the people I hung out with that night got some stuff stolen. But it was still a fun night and I got to bed at about 6:30.
On Saturday I again did not do much except going to the Fluminense stadium with Neil to get tickets for the Sunday game against Palmeiras. At night we went the the club "Rio Scenarium" which was a really good but fairly expensive club. For me the night out in Lapa was more fun.
Sunday was then the day of the football game. Neil and I took the subway to Maracana stadium and there the party was in full swing. People were singing and dancing intensively even before they got to the inside of the stadium. And once inside they atmosphere was even better. It was just breathtaking and beautiful. Check out some videos here.
On the next day I decided to finally go see a doctor because the pain in my right hand did not cease. It had been hurting since the Halloween party when I punched a door because the security guard at Loki hostel would not let me look for my lost cell phone. I know it was a stupid thing to do so keep your smart remarks to yourselves ;-)
I did spend almost 5 hours at the hospital and it turned out that the metarcarpal bone ("Mittelhandknochen") of my right pinky was fractured. It only took me 10 days to find that out. Cycling down the Death Road was really painful but then I still thought it was just a very strong contusion. I don't even want to think back to all the times people shook my hand and squeezed really hard. But one remarkable thing is that in Brazil (as well as in Argentina) the public hospitals are for free so I didn't have to pay a single dime. To all my American readers I can only say: "Support Obama! Public healthcare is not a bad thing!".
I was planning to go to the Ilha Grande to hit the beaches but with my nice little cast I figured it wouldn't make much sense. I decided to stay a few more days in Rio instead and go to Sao Paulo from there. In Rio I went up the cable car to the sugar loaf - which at 17 Euro (25 $) is not really a bargain. The view from up there is worth it, though. I was lucky - just when i finished my 'round' a cloud moved in and you couldn't see anything.
Today I took the bus to Sao Paulo. At a mere 7 hours this is only a stone's throw for South American standards. I will take it easy tonight because tomorrow is Friday and I need some energy for the bustling Sao Paolo night life.