Boris's Travel Log

Squirky Saigon

borislauser — 2005-01-30T10:27:01Z

Saigon is loud and squirky! But again a unique experience. After I arrived dead tired after an exhausting bus ride I walked around looking for a budget accomodation but didn't seem to find anything appropriate until a nice old lady asked me: " Are you looking for a cheap room?" Yep, I was! So I followed her into a dark narrow alley away from the bustling loud street and she brought me to a private house of an old lady, who first looked a bit grumpy but turns out to be really lovely. There was no hotel sign or whatsoever. Just a room in her private house among two others she is renting out to tourists. Quite funny but the best option I could pick I figure!
Then walking out of the hotel and looking for a place to have dinner I bumped into two Swiss girls who I met in Hoi An in my hotel there! Small world.
The next morning I met up with Dai, a really great and stylish Vietnamese guy who is a friend of Bu, who I met in Hoi An! Of course he is tailor as well and loves fashion and design, as you can see! We had coffee and went out for dinner last night.

The afternoon yesterday was rather depressing. I spent it in the War Remnants Museum and the facts and especially pictures I saw were truly impressive and shocking! It didn't add to the current attitude towards and image of the United States! Sad to say! The effects of the millions of tons of biological warfare used probably striked me the most!

But back to some more pleasant tales. In between Hoi An and Saigon I spent one night at the beach in Nha Trang and one night at the quiet fishing village of Mui Ne! Nha Trang is rather like the Nice of Vietnam, with a livelier night life and some plush bars and a busy tourism scene. Also the beach is like that, long broad sand beach dotted with palm trees and big hotels behind!
Mui Ne on the other hand is a quiet little fishing village, if you stay away from the touristy upscal resorts! It's famous for its fish sauce that you can smell everywhere miles ahead! I stayed with two Belgian guys as the only guests in a lovely place directly at the beach. It was a little run down but the owners were just the most lovely people and the beach view was perfect! This is taken just outside the door from my room ;-)

The next morning I got on a motorike after dealing with a friend of the brother of the owner of my guesthouse for about 40 minutes about the prize. Well, it takes a while to explain that half of 60 is 30 and not 40 ;-)) Maths is definitely not a strength of fishermen! But the trip was worth it and I almost felt like in the Sahara when I got to the white sanddunes that surround a little lake close to Mui Ne.

Tomorrow I will probably go to a 2 day tour of the Mekong Delta so stay tuned for some pics of the floating markets!

Goodbye Hoi An

borislauser — 2005-01-26T10:56:56Z

Well, Hoi An didn't seem to let me go and I actually only left it last night with a little teardrop in my eyes :-( I had a really good time. I felt almost like a local, even working an afternoon in the clothes shop of my friend 'Jay'! Wohoo, exciting :-) Well, not exactly the career goal I wanted to achieve ;-) But Jay and her sister were just the nicest people, it’s impossible to say no! They invited me over for lunch almost everyday, and last night even brought me on their motorbikes to the bus!
Since my last blog entry I was also invited to the wedding of the son of the family who runs my guesthouse. Here's me with the happy couple and their parents:

Great times and quite different from German weddings! First the couple is required to visit the buddha shrine in each of the familie’s houses. Since the family of my guesthouse owns 3, they had to make a big tour in the morning going from house to house to light some incent sticks and put them in front of the buddhas! Then, around 11 am, everybody goes to the restaurant. For some reason, the bride changes dresses! Then, the usual picture and video taking and welcoming of all the guests! After that, the BIG eating starts! 6 courses of Vietnamese delicasses, accompanied by lot’s of beer! Throughout the lunch, guests sing songs in Karaoke style on the stage and the more towards the end of the dinner, the more people started to dance! The most impressive was a 70 year old grammy (somehow related to the couple) who finished a whole glass of beer in one zip, after cheering with us on the table! The bride changed dresses one or two more times during lunchtime! I still haven’t found out why! At about 3 pm, everybody was full and wasted enough and the party was over!

Despite all the great times, I felt that I had to move on now. I really loved this place but as soon as I step out of the little world of the local family and the clothes shop, I was still the walking money bag and every minute someone yelled at me: ‘Hey, motobike, hey wanna buy something? Hey where are you from? Hey have a look at my clothes shop!...’ It leaves a bit of a sad aftertaste that everything here is about selling and the money of the tourists! And I am part of this process of development myself even though I don’t want to!

In any case, it was a great time I spent in Hoi An toghether with the family of the Minh A guesthouse which I will never forget! Few nights ago, there was the full moon festival in Hoi An! Nothing like Thailands full moon party, but a beatiful setup of candle lights along the river and some traditional music and arts performances all over in the streets and tiny alleys of Hoi An! Very beautiful!

I am in Nha Trang right now, heading further south towards Mui Ne either tomorrow morning or in the evening, depending on whether I go for a little diving trip tomorrow morning or not!

Hoi An: Haute Couture in Vietnam

borislauser — 2005-01-17T11:39:46Z

I am stuck in the shopping paradise!! The past week I spent in the quiet town of Hoi An, designing clothes and getting them tailor made within hours! It’s unbelievable! And I think I just discovered my new profession: clothes designer! Doesn’t this almost look like Armani…

Or Gucci…?? ;-)

You can definitely get addicted to it! But it’s also worth it! Where else can you get tailor made suits for about 30 – 50 $ ??

A tutti gli Italiani: Roma non e piu la citta della moda, pero Hoi An! Vabbe, al meno e meno costoso qui ;-)

Sono in un posto bellisimo in una casa vecchia (del otto cento) tutto in legno con una familia carinissima, qui mi invita tutti I giorni a cena, a pranzo e sono solo simpaticissimi! La piu bella esperienza que ho fatto in Vietnam fin ad ora. Ho fatto amici con tanta gente qui. La familia e grande (come tutte le familie vietnamesi), cosi la sorella della ragazza del hotel ha anche un negozio per fare vestiti e ho gia fatto un sacco di roba li! Non so come portare, pero ci trovero un modo! E poi a Roma vi faccio vedere!

I met the nicest people so far on my trip in Vietnam! The family of one of the tailor shops I bought clothes invited me to their daughter’s engagement! Big fun I tell you. Great food and lot’s of ‘Bia’ (beer). And of course they were perfectly well dressed with ‘home designed’ clothes! Hanging out here for a while, I meet more and more local people. The other night I met two tailors and had a few beers with them and next day one of them showed me his factory where they make all the clothes. It’s incredible here. The tailors sometimes work overnight just to get the orders for the people done until they are leaving!
All the people here are extremely fashionable, it’s like walking in a museum! But at the same time the traditional Vietnamese life style blends into this world of Haute Couture and chique and fancy restaurants! So right next to my guesthouse is the daily market where the boats with daily fresh fish arrives, all sorts of fruits and vegetables and all the other kitsch clothes get sold. And throughout the town there are plenty of temples and places where people worship and hold traditional ceremonies!

I am staying in one of the most beautiful and oldest houses (about 180 years old) here in Hoi An. The family who runs the place is just the nicest family I have met so far on my trip! They invite us for dinner almost every other night and are helpful in just about anything you would like to know or do.
(picture still missing)
One of the owner’s daughters runs a tailor shop across the street and she’s just the greates person. I design clothes on a piece of paper and show it to her and explain her the materials and the style and then she makes it just perfect|! And she makes the changes until it IS really perfect! And on top of that she invites me for lunches and last night even to come with her and her family to Karaoke!! Great fun! Imagine 8 people in a tiny room with a couch a television, 3 microphones and a few beers and a remote control to choose out of a repertoire of about 10000 songs! I leave the rest up to your imagination ;-)

In two days I am invited to the wedding of the hotel owner’s son. I think I will have to stay another 2 nights and do some more shopping :-)

Hue, a surreal experience

borislauser — 2005-01-10T13:25:01Z

I had a very surreal and bizarre day here in Hue. If it is due to the weather (it is rainy and cool), the bad sleep in the night bus or if it is really that bizarre, I haven't figured out yet! Only looking around me in the internet cafe is quite funny: surrounded by Vietnamese young who each has at least 10 yahoo chat windows opened and hacking into the keyboard!
But the story of today: After checking into my hotel (great room on the rooftop with view over the whole city) and dropping my laundry at the hotel laundry service, I went just to check out the neighbourhood, planning only on a quiet coffee somewhere. What happened was quite different! One of the usual 'Hey where are you from?' made me answer ' Germany' and there you go "Oh great! My aunt lives there and has children. Very nice to meet you!!" And a few moments later I found myself on the back of his motorbike an off for a 6 hour tour through Hue and its vicinities.

He first brought me to a place to have some breakfast: Pho, the usual noodle soup with onions and some greens and sprinkled with nuts on top) and then showed me a few Pagodas (all of them more or less in ruins due to the bombings), and the countryside around Hue. Well and then talking about the culinary pleasures of Vietnam, we came across dog meat and there we were, a dodgy restaurant on the outskirts of Hue, where we sampled 4 different plates of dog meat and had a couple of beers together!
After that he dropped me off again and (of course ;-) asked for a little contribution for the gas and for his daughter. But I guess 4 $ is a fair prize for a private city tour ;-)
Besides that, the business sense of the Vietnamese doesn't change as you go down south. I went to the hairdresser afterwards and after quoting a prize of 20000 Dong (1,3 Dollar) I got in! After the whole procedure the guy said : " Ok, it's 50000 Dong!" Hum???? Did I misunderstand? Well, after insiting on the initial quote, he admitted :"Oh, solly, yeah yeah, 20000!" Yep, the Vietnamese have an almost stronger sense of dealing with money as the Middle East!!
Tomorrow I will continue to Hoi An to get some tailor made clothes. So bargaining will be my major activity during the next two days. I better go off now and strengthen myself with some dinner in a restaurant closeby run by mute-deaf people, serving (hopefully) something else than dog ;-)

Bustling Hanoi

borislauser — 2005-01-08T08:58:04Z

Hanoi is a bustling and incredibly interesting city! I just spent my whole morning sitting at a corner cafe, sipping excellent Vietnamese coffee (yep the coffee here is indeed very good!) and watching the people and their busy lifes! The major means of transport is the motorbike! About every second person in Hanoi drives a motorbike! This accounts for very adventurous street crossings! Who thought Rome has the craziest traffic maybe assured that it can get MUCH worse! Almost everything gets transported on motorbikes, sometimes you cannot even see the bike anymore, because the box or the canisters completely cover the bike leaving just enough space for the driver. And wandering the streets you almost can't escape the constant "Hey, YOU!! Need motobike? Vely cheap!! hey hey!!"

Life in Hanoi is outside on the streets. People work, chat, meet and eat on the streets and every corner is just equally busy! In terms of food, the Vietnamese eat just about everything that can be cooked fried or steamed! I had the famous 'Mien Luon' for lunch, basically fried Eel with glass noodles, egg, some greens and accompanied by some soup and a sweetish red sauce and the obligatory fish sauce! Delicious :-)

But it gets even better! Last night I had WHOLE fried frogs with fish and chilly sauce! And believe it or not, you eat them WHOLE! That means the head and the bones as well! If you switch of your mind, they are actually very tasty ;-) Elodie and me sampled already quite a few other culinary delicasses before (like steamed frog and fried pigeon). I haven't made it to try the famous dog or snake, but who knows, maybe i still get a chance ;-)

The overall pace in Vietnam is very different from all I have seen so far on my travels. People here are much more lively, have a greater business sense and Western influence is ubiquitous. I met a recruiter from a London college yesterday at lunch who confirmed my first impressions: "The Vietnamese young are much more clever than their neighbours!". You can see it everywhere: They try to sell you just about everything and for incredible prices. You need to be firm in bargaining if you want to survive the shopping experience here!
Nevertheless, traditional cultures blend well into the bustling modern day life and create a truly interesting mix. You see people playing Go and Chinese chess on the streets, people making traditional arts and handicrafts, worshipping in temples or practicing Thai Chi along the lake! However, the youth seems to change a lot and Western culture strikes hard. Almost everyone has a mobile phone, the young dress up and spend all their money on clothes, hairstyle and prestige items and go out to the new 'hip' bars and night clubs to impress! I had a little chat with a nightbar owner last night and he told me that the average wage of a waiter sums up to about 80 - 100 US$ a month! Not an awful lot considering that normal rent for Vietnamese is already about 40 $ a month and a beer in a bar is about 1 US $ !
People here hardly have any holidays! Maybe one year a month and they spend it maybe at the closeby Halong Bay or some beaches there, since they cannot afford the trip to further away destinations. However, the gap between the 'normal' and the rich seems to be quite significant, since you see a lot of people driving around in Mercedes and dining in top notch places! Concerning business, Vietnam is definitely facing a period of rapid growth over the next years!!

Well, I am going to take in a little more of the city spirit before I continue down south to Hue with the night bus later on.

Oh I haven't talked about Halong Bay yet. The whole thing was a bit touristy. One of these all inclusive bus tours with the regular bus stops where they try to sell you the usual items for 5 times of the regular price and put you for lunch in a shitty restaurant. But we still had a great time out there. The nature was just beautiful! Over 3000 island and rocks with the most grotesque forms (as you can see in the picture below... kazzo ;-)! Almost magical. And we spent the night out on the boat in a cozy bay and had a great seafood dinner, the crew prepared for us.

Happy New Year from Hanoi

borislauser — 2005-01-03T12:17:04Z

After a long night train ride in more or less comfortable hard sleepers we arrived at 4am this morning in Hanoi. The city was absolutely dead and after some difficulty we managed to find a hotel room. The usual difficulties: "Hey you!! You need hotel? Cheap cheap, only 8 $ per night and free internet and breakfast and bicycles and everything...!!" Ok we go there, walk our lungs out, arrive and what do we get? "Oh solly, no cheap loom anymole, only loom fol 15$! Wanna see?" BASTARDI!!! But we managed and woke up a few hours later in another world. The sleepy city turned straight into a bustling nightmare of cars, bicyles, motorbikes, streetvendors and shops. But it's wonderful after the days up in the Sapa mountains and a shoppers paradise. We spent the day eating Vietnamese delicasses (frog, pigeon,...) at the Dinh Lang Thuy Da Restaurant overlooking the lake in the Old Quarter of Hanoi and shopping for silk, DVDs,... Right now we are in a bustlig internet cafe surrounded by Vietnamese kids playing online internet games. You can't imagine the noise :-)

Sapa was nice, even though very touristy. We spent New Year's Eve in a restaurant celebrating with a bunch of drunk Vietnamese.

We danced with them to Modern Talking, drank Vietnamese wine (not the best in the world ;-) and had a great time! On the 1st and 2nd we did a trekking tour to some nearby mountain tribe villages of Mong and Red Zar people. The nature was beautiful, rice terraces as far as you can see surrounded by steep mountains.

And the people we stayed with were incredibly nice. We had dinner with a Mong family and played cards with their kids after. Good times. Only the tribes women started to get on our nerves trying to sell something on every house we passed on our tour.

Tomorrow we will continue our way to Halong Bay!

Happy New Year from Sapa

borislauser — 2004-12-31T09:28:25Z

After some true hardcore travelling in Northern Laos and Northern Vietnam, we arrived just in time for the New Year in Sapa, a busy mountain town in Northern Vietnam close to the Chinese border! It's been a very exhausting but beautiful way to come to this place! We left Vang Vieng finally on the 27th and got on the busy local chicken bus. The corridor full of stuff from the people and hardly a space to sit but we did the 20 hours overnight trip and arrived in the early morning hours in Sam Neua. From there we caught just the next pick up (open air, juhuuu) to the border town Nameo, where we finally left Laos and entered Vietnam. There the adventure only just begun!! After an hour of running back and forth between some offices and signing 100 papers followed by luggage examination (if we carried weapons...), we went on foot to find out how we could go further from there! well, not that easy as it turned out. We crossed at a border with no money exchange and no public buses that would go on from there into Vietnam. So the only way was to hire a private car that brought us 3 for 30$ to a hill tribe town Mai Chao (an over 5 hours ride on windy roads, well worth its price!!), where we stayed overnight in a bamboo house and got served some nice food prepared by the local family. At least so we could celebrate Elodies birthday a bit :-)
Next morning we had to be brought on motorcycles to the 5km away cross roads where a bus would pick us up to go to SonLa. That was another 5 hours trip. We arrived in a dusty town where they wanted to make us believe there is no more bus to continue towards Sapa and that we'd have to stay overnight in one of the guys hotel! Yeah right. We didn't believe it and walked to the street to catch a hike. And see there, a bus to Dien Bien Phu passed and picked us up! After some wild discussions with the bus driver, we could pay the fare in US Dollars (we still had no local currency!) and continue! After some more wild discussions and Elodie drawing a women sitting on the toilet, the bus driver was convinced of the emergency and stopped the bus for a toilet break :-) Well, you need to be creative in this country!

Vietnam is an incredible change to Laos. Everything seems to be much faster and busier. People here are much less relaxed and time seems to matter again! Actually very much, considering our bus rallye this morning!! I felt like in a race car Nintendo game, only that I was in the screen and not in front!!
But we safely arrived and are ready for our well earned massage, sauna and a New Year Eve's celebration tonight, if we can find that here!!

Happy New Year to all of you and a good start off in 2005!!

Laos and time...

borislauser — 2004-12-28T04:16:55Z

There is no such concept as time here in Laos. I think the word doesn't even exist!! We were supposed to be in Northeast Laos near the Vietnam border today, but actually we are still in Vang Vieng. Well, after waiting for the bus from 3pm until about 4:30 pm yesterday afternoon a bus was approching very fast and despite the waiving of our ticket seller, just passed! We didn't know what was going on, but after a few hectic words with his friend he directed us to his pick up and there we took off, to the ' Chase the bus to Sam Neua' car rallye! It was quite adventurous! He paced down the road, constantly junking the horn, slmost killing all the bicycle drivers along the road and in the end stopping in the middle of the road and meant: " Nevel mind! Tomollow! Solly! "
All righty, we are ready for another try!

Merry Christmas from Vang Vieng

borislauser — 2004-12-26T12:48:39Z

Merry Christmas to all of you out there and back home from Vang Vieng in Laos!

It's wonderful here and in fact I am very glad to spend it here, rather than in Southern Thailand at the moment! So for those of you worried: we are perfectly fine and felt nothing from this massive earthquake! Thanks god. It's truly a tragedy and I feel deeply with all the people that got caught in this catastrophe and are still struggling down there at the moment!
I passed a wonderful Christmas in Vientiane! Christmas Eve I spent with Karen and her friends in a French restaurant in Vientiane where we got served a delicious 7 course French dinner. What a delight after my upset stomach :-) Yesterday morning Elodie arrived safely in Vientiane and after picking her up at the airport and some airy tuk tuk rides (the local motorbike pick up taxis) the Christmas marathon continued at another of Karen's friends house, where we had a really chill relaxed Christmas day brunch right by the Mekong. Thanks again Karen!

Great times :-)
Today, we made our way out of Vientiane on the last two 'seats' in the VIP bus to Vang Vieng! Well, the seats where small plastic chairs they put up for us in the gangway between the regular bus seats ... but we arrived and had a great afternoon watching the sunset with a cool bear at a lame riverfront bamboo bar! Tonight we'll be checking out the full moon party! So merry Christmas again to all of you back home!! We'll be heading out east towards the Vietnam border tomorrow.

Diarrhea in Laos

borislauser — 2004-12-20T11:08:57Z

...is no fun! This is definitely not the country to get sick. The past 4 days were pretty tough. It cought me on my birthday (yuhuu, great timing ;-) and since then I am spending more time in the bathroom then elsewhere, but oh well, I guess that's the common risk you take when travelling here in these countries. Just that here noone understands you, you know!? 'I am sick, I need a doctor, hospital, do you know where?' Answer: "You want to go waterfall? Today ol tomollow? I have tuk tuk, only 4 Dollar, for you!!"
or
"Can I have the steamed rice with Chicken? But not spicy please I am sick!!" "yes yes..." what do I get? Chicken with Ginger and Chilli!! But I guess what doesn't kill you makes you only stronger!

Yeah, and after seen a clinic today, it definitely makes you appreciate our Western health standards back home! Wohoo. but i am settled with some pills, rehydration salts and diarrhea medication, which should bring me over the overnight busride tonight down to Vientiane. There I can stay with Karen in a real appartment (thanks so much, Karen!!) and hopefully cure it until Christmas! More tomorrow...

Und noch ein Geburtstag!!

borislauser — 2004-12-19T12:21:40Z

Jup, mein Daddy hat heute Geburstag und dazu wuensch ich Dir alles alles Liebe Papa!! Und ganz exklusiv fuer Dich (und die paar Millionen anderen Internetbenutzer) schick ich Dir einen Geburtstagsgruss aus der Mitte der UNESCO Weltkulturerbe Stadt Luang Prabang.

Das Foto ist vom Huegel in der Stadtmitte von dem aus man die gesamte Stadt und die beiden Fluesse, Mekong und Nam Ou ueberblickt! Der Zettel in meiner Hand sagt eigentlich: ‘Happy Birthday Daddy, from Luang Prabang’ aber man kann’s leider nicht so gut lesen :-(

Birthday in Laos mountains

borislauser — 2004-12-19T04:44:59Z

Ich bin wieder in der Zivilisation gelandet, nach 1 Woche Nordlaos und tiefster Pampa! Es ist mal wieder so einiges passiert seit meinem letzten Eintrag! Zunaechst war ich ja erstmal 4 Tage in Bangkok nachdem ich aus Myanmar zurueckgekommen bin. Und das war erstmal ein Schock! Und Hammerzufaelle noch dazu. Der erste war gleich am naechsten morgen nach Ankunft, als ich um die Ecke von meinem Guesthouse beim Fruehstuck sitze und gerade die Zeitung aufschlage hochblicke und Anna treffe! Anna arbeitet auch in der FAO in Rom und ist gerade auf 3 Wochen Mission in Vietnam wegen der Vogelseuche! Und nur einen Tag auf Durchreise in Bangkok um einen Representanten in der FAO zu treffen! Kleine Welt!
Dann hab ich noch einen Abend und den Samstag mit Antonio verbracht, der gerade fuer eine Woche auf Konferenz in Bangkok war! Hier sind wir gerade beim Dinnner in einem der besten vegetarischen Resaurants, in denen ich bisher was: May Kee Dee’s (der Name erinnert wohl ein wenig an McDonald’s aber die Qualitaet des Essens ist meilenweit davon entfernt!)

Und als wir so am Freitag Abend auf der Khao San Road entlanglaufen, treff ich doch glatt nochmal Adrian (mein Studienkollege) und seine Freunde die gerade den letzten Abend in Bangkok verbracht haben. Krasse Zufaelle, echt mal!
Sonntags gings dann ab mit dem 15 Stunden Nachtbus in den Norden nach Chiang Mai! Angekommen erstmal in einem Guesthouse eingecheckt und auch gleich wieder weiter auf eine 3 Tages Trekking Tour in die umliegende Jungle Landschaft! Die Naechte waren saukalt aber alles in allem schon ein Spass. Ein einstuendiger Elephantenritt durch das Dickicht und eine 1 einhalb stuendige Bambuflossfahrt waren neben Wandern, essen und Einheimischen Tanz im Bergdorf bei Lagerfeuer mit auf dem Programm!

Wieder in Chiangmai zurueck hab ich mir noch einen Tag lang ein Motorrad ausgeliehen (2 Dollar fuer einen Tag!!). Fuehrerschein wollte hier keiner sehen und das fuer eine 150cc, die schon mal 100 faehrt!! Damit bin ich dann durch die Pampa geheizt und an zu einem Hoehlenkloster gefahren, wo ich mit dem Obermoench eine Weile geredet habe. Der konnte ziemlich gut Englisch und hat mich eingeladen, eine Woche lang zum meditieren zu kommen wenn ich moechte! Sehr netter Mensch!
Den letzten Tag habe ich dann noch kulinarisch verbracht und habe einen Thai Kochkurs gemacht, so dass ich euch alle ein wenig verwoehnen kann, wenn ich zurueck bin :-)
Dann gings weiter nach Laos. Ich habe den Bus von Chiang Mai an die Grenzstadt Chiang Kong genommen. Von dort aus ging’s mit dem Boot ueber den Fluss nach Huey Xay und ich war in Laos! Die Welt war sofort komplett anders. Sehr viel weniger entwickelt, kein Internet Zugang in der Stadt (und von da an fuer eine Woche, die ich in Nordlaos zugebracht habe, bis auf hier und da eine ultralangsame Telefon-Dial-Up Verbindung) und sehr viel weniger turistisch als Thailand. Mir war das von Anfang an sympathisch. Hab dann dort auch gleich Patrick und Brooke und Itai getroffen, mit denen ich die folgende Woche in Nordthailand verbracht habe.
Aller Vorwarnungen zum trotz hatte ich gleich am ersten Abend ein exzellentes Dinner! Eine Art Fondue auf Laos Art, wo man sein Fleisch und Gemuese auf Holzkohlen in der Mitte vom Tisch grillt! Scheint hier sehr beliebt zu sein! Und der ganze Spass fuer 2 Dollar :-)
Die naechsten Tage waren von langen muehsamen Busreisen gepraegt. 10 Stunden fuer 200 Kilometer !!! Aber die unbeschreibliche Landschaft und die Athmosphaere wenn man an den Bergdoerfern vorbeifaehrt machen alles wett! Die Leute sind fast so nett und gluecklich wie in Myanmar, auch wenn nicht jeder auf der Strasse winkt und lacht aber annaehernd.
Die letzten paar Tage waren wir dann in Nong Khiaw und Muong Ngoi, zwei verschlafene Staedtchen am Nam Ou Fluss in den Bergen, wirklich zauberhaft. Die Unterkuenfte sind absolut schlichte Bambusbungalows (hier ist unser Bungalow in Muong Ngoi)

und die Zeit scheint hier stillzustehen. In Muong Ngoi habe ich dann auch meinen Geburtstag verbracht! Junge Junge, was fuer ein Tag. Nach dem Aufstehen hab ich kurz mit der Mama von unserem Bungalow geredet und gefragt ob man auf den gegenueberliegenden Berg klettern kann. Ja ja, kein Problem. 2,5 Dollar pro Person und mein Freund bringt euch. Und Mittagessen und alles inklusive. Also hep, los ging die Tour! Dass das ganze in ernsthaftes Felsenklettern ausartet konnte man ja nicht ahnen!! Also wir dann so am Steilabhanag haengen und uns fragen wie wir wieder zurueckkommen meinte unser Guide dass wir wohl doch heute nicht ganz bis zum Gipfel gehen. Also auf den Aerschen wieder abrutschen von Fels zu Fels und Baumstamm zu Baumstamm! Aber wir haben’s geschafft und haben uns unser Mittagessen verdients;-)

Back to civilization

borislauser — 2004-12-05T09:23:13Z

Time warp! I am back to present tense after being shifted back about 100 years in time for the past 3 weeks! Yeah, that’s what Myanmar was like! I figured myself in Asia as it used to be years and years ago and nothing seemed to have changed! Among the most common public transport are still the numerous horse carts and trishaws (three-wheeled bikes). And if you use the ‘modern, air-coned’ overland buses, there’s bound to happen something on the way! Once, half of the bus had to get off to push the bus because we got stuck. A few times we had to stop for about 2 hours because of a flat tire or some other things that needed to be fixed! But the best was the story of Marcos (a fellow traveler from Spain I met in Yangon). His bus driver managed to have two accidents in 15 minutes. After the second one, the whole bus got up, grabbed their money back from the driver, dumped him there and took off in pick-ups to make the rest of the trip! So traveling in Myanmar can be quite adventurous ;-) Time is not really an issue here. My plane back to Bangkok had 4 hours delay !!! It actually arrived 4 hours late at the airport in Yangon and was ready for boarding again 15 minutes after !!! Security check??!?!? You also don’t have to be too fixed in your mind on where you want to go. We wanted to go to Kalaw (which was on the way to Inle lake) but the bus driver forgot to let us out in Kalaw, so we only realized an hour and a half after (at 3:30 in the morning) that we are way past. All right then, let’s go to Inle Lake! ‘No problem’ according to the bus driver ‘you can get a pick up back to Kalaw in just about 3 hours’ :-) Well, we still ended up in Inle Lake and in the end it turned out to be more than worth it. I think this picture here I took at dawn during our boat trip says it all:

Myanmar people are the most lovely and beautiful people I have ever met. Everybody greets you with a warm and hearty smile and asks you where you are from and where you are going to. And they help you out wherever and whenever they can without asking anything in return! If only all the people in the world could be like this. There are also the most bizarre and unusual people. Check out this old women in a temple in Bagan smoking the biggest cigar I have ever seen. I don’t want to see an X-Ray of her lungs ;-)

Myanmar people are truly happy people, they are laughing a lot and almost never complain! And that all despite the suppressing military regime. It doesn’t make life easy for the Myanmar people. They try to control the flow of money as much as possible. I had to hand over the five US$ to the taxi driver under the seat!! Locals are only supposed to have local currency. It was also interesting that the official exchange offices would give you 450 Kyats for 1 US$ whereas the normal black market rate is at about 950 Kyats per Dollar. I didn’t quite understand this tourism policy! As a tourist you also get registered anywhere you have to pay fees to the government (like entrance fees to Bagan or using government transports like the ferry boat from Bagan to Mandalay). They write down your passport number and names so they always know where you are. Private businesses are not allowed anyways, but people try to make their living doing all sorts of handicrafts and selling it to the tourists. An average worker (for example a silk weaver) earns about 800 Kyats (about 90 cents) a day!!
But still people are so happy and smiling and just satisfied with what they have. And this is surely due to the prevailing Buddhist culture and to the fact that most of the people in Myanmar meditate a lot and follow a life according to the Buddhist principles. In fact, it must be the country where people worship the most. Wherever you go, there are temples and monks as far as you can see. No wonder we met many on the way. Here, I am with two monks we met in a Monastery on the bottom of Mandalay hill.

Monks have the highest status in the country. Everybody supports the monks freely with donations. They get served food everywhere they go, they can live for free in any monastery they like to and overall have just a very high social standing in the country. Despite their poverty, people donate incredible amounts of money to the monasteries throughout the country. The money is mainly used to maintain and restore the monasteries.
Well, one might think what he or she wants but after having done a ten day meditation course myself during the second half of my stay in Myanmar, I can at least partly understand the whole culture! If everybody in the world would follow this meditation and practice it at least for a little while daily and follow the path of Dhamma on his day to day life, the world would for sure be a much better place and there would be much less fighting and suffering!
The course was extremely demanding. I sat for about 10 hours daily meditating, i.e. observing my breath and body sensations, broken up by 1 – 2 hour intervals to eat or get some sleep I haven’t gotten at night.

We had to get up at 4 am every morning !! And overall, no talking to other people throughout the course (except your teacher). It was a really interesting experience and I can only recommend everyone to try it out once. You explore yourself in a totally different way. Lots of things come up during these 10 days and I haven’t gotten proper sleep for the last four nights. But in the end you come out really peaceful and you see many things in a different light. Here’s me meditating in front of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon after the end of my meditation class.

It was a really peaceful ending of my trip to Myanmar :-)

Off to Myanmar

borislauser — 2004-11-09T20:29:48Z

Allora, sono le 3 la mattina e devo alzarmi alle 6 per andare in volo a Myanmar!! Non ci credo... Boh coninuero in tedesco, se no, non ce lo faccio mai finire la storia...;-)

Ein Tag voller Ereignisse! Zuerst nach langem Schlaf aufgestanden und Kaffee mit den Maedels hier von der Unterkunft geschluerft! Dann mit Adi und seinem Kumpel zum Mittagessen verabredet. Das Menue zu lesen war die erste Herausforderung da es an einem Strassenstand war den mir das Maedel hier empfohlen hatte. Hab dann einfach mal auf Empfehlung von ihr Suk Khi (oder so aehnlich) bestellt was sich dann als sher wuerzige heisse Thailaendische Fischsuppe herausstellte!
Frisch gestaerkt habe ich dann heute wohl alle Transportmittel durchprobiert, die es hier in Bankok gibt. Transportiert wird entweder per Boottaxi, Skytrain (futuristische Hochbahn), Bus, Taxi oder Tuk Tuk (dreiraedrige Motorraeder). Die ersten drei hatten mich in die Innenstadt zum Elektronikparadies schlechthin transportiert! Auf 5 Stockwerken alles was das Elektronikherz begehrt!

After a little stopover at KHao San where I booked my flight to myanmar I shopped some clothes for the evening and got dressed and ready for the Bed Supper Club!! Supposedly the hippest in club in Bankok!! Running late (as always ;-) I missed out on public transport so I bargained a Tuk Tuk driver down to 80 baht to drive me to David. After a 'stormy' ride between horning cars and yelling drivers, I arrived full of dust but safely at his place (wuhuuu, Thai drivers must have learnt from Roman motorino drivers...) He welcomed me with Jenny, a friend friend of his working at the UN in Bankok, and some delicious Thai Food, after which we headed off to the famous Supper Club! And you didn't promise too much Dave ;-) cool spot.
Well, then I will catch my remaining 2 hours of sleep now. I will be offline for the next 3 weeks, since internet access in Myanmar is restricted and the last ten days I will be meditating in a temple, so no communication at all... but stay tuned on the beginning of December and I'll be back with a summary!! cheers to all.

Un abbraccio a tutti, e a Dicembre!!

Shopping Shopping Shopping

borislauser — 2004-11-08T11:22:09Z

After a nice sleep I got myself a great shower and weaponed with a fresh mango shake (for 50 cents :-) I got drowned into the endless shopping of Banglampuu (around Khao San Road). Traffic is crazy in Bangkok and you seriously have to watch out not to be killed by one of the frequent tuk tuk's (3 wheeled motorcycles) or taxi drivers!

It definitely has something of Porta Portese in Rome and reminded me right away again of this years shopping in Beijing. Fake clothes as far as you can see and everybody promises you the best price. I took my time and just looked around. And just lookign, I couldn't believe what I saw, afer I heard someone calling " Ja Boris...!" , No way. I met Adrian, a friend back from University, who just arrived today in Bankok to travel in Thailand for 4 months! The world is small indeed!! well, then, I am off to get ready for tonight. Hasta la vista!!