Schundel's World Trip

Back in San Francisco

2007-05-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Many of you have been wondering "What happened to Ralf?" or "Where on this planet is he traveling right now?". Well, unfortunately all good things come to an end ..... maybe for new good things to begin. I returned to the US and my home San Francisco. I am still in the process of adjusting back to the 'normal' life and spend a lot of time re-establishing my business network and looking for my next exciting opportunity. There are still about 2 weeks of photos missing from my last stop in New Zealand and I really hope that I will be able to upload them as quickly as possible. In the meantime I would love to hear from you schundel@gmail.com.

New Zealand - Mount Cook

2007-05-13T16:47:00.001-07:00

Two amazing days at Mount Cook. The previous storm provided a wonderful snow cover, almost too much to hike in some areas. Had to hike through snow knee deep in my shorts :-)

More details and info to follow.

The trip towards Mount Cook ...

The trail towards the climb to "Mueller Hut".

One of many shots of Mount Cook. The light was very difficult to take photos since I was facing the sun at all times.

A view down from the hiking trail. At times it was almost climbing rather than hiking.

..... and another Mount Cook .....

The "Mueller Hut" at 1800 m, we had to climb straight up from 700 m, sometimes wading through knee deep snow, crawling on all fours or balancing on top of slippery rocks.

Captain Adventure with Mount Cook in the back drop.

Captain Adventure before crossing a hanging bridge on the way to Hooker Valley.

Another Mount Cook ......

New Zealand - Lake Tekapo

2007-05-13T16:33:00.000-07:00

Just a brief stop at Lake Tekapo on my way to Mount Cook. When I arrived the weather was absolutely awesome. The next morning on my hike I was caught by a storm and got soaked to the bones .... On the up side it provided a fresh cover of powder on the mountain tops .... beautiful. More details will follow.

Lake Tekapo, viewed from my hostel

Almost too dark, but I wanted to share the incredible atmosphere ....

After the storm .... the mountains are coated with a little powder sugar ....

The road to Mount Cook ... the drive was just awesome, blue skies, sun shine, snow covered mountains ...

New Zealand - The Beautiful South (Le Bons Bay)

2007-05-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

After only 3 days up on the North Island I flew down to Christchurch and picked up my camper van. Actually I got a free double upgrade and instead of my little van I got a honking big monster of an RV with shower, toilet etc. I stocked up at a close by supermarket and then took off towards Akaroa and Le Bons Bay. I enjoyed the ride, the landscape was just awesome, however I felt a little comfortable going on the left side with this huge car.

I will provide more details later ....

My little cabin ....

The bay viewed from the sea ....

Dolphins ....

A little penguin, fishing ....

New Zealand - Impressions of the North Island

2007-05-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

I only had a few days on the North Island. After a brief stay in Auckland I went up to Keri Keri and stayed in an awesome hostel called "Kaheo Farm Hostel". I used it as my base to explore the area. More info will follow later.

New Zealand - Report soon to follow

2007-05-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Hope you are well and happy. On May 1st I flew from Sydney to Auckland in New Zealand to start the last part of my journey. It is incredible how time has been passing by. It feels almost like yesterday that I took off and now I am already counting the days ..... 22 as we speak. New Zealand has been amazing so far, I am traveling to quite a few remote places without Internet access, so the first photos have to wait a little. After a few days on the North Island I went to the South Island ,,,, beautiful. More to come soon (hopefully).
All the best,

Ralf

Australia - Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

2007-05-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

More comments will follow soon.

Australia - Northern Territory, Darwin and Kakadu National Park

2007-05-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

The Northern Territory ..... Darwin .... quite a different environment, much more tropical, hot and very humid. On my first day I just walked around the town and tried to find the beach .... finally I found a little stretch with this interesting tree.

Kakadu National Park

Australia - Alice Springs and West Mc Donnal Range

2007-04-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

From Uluru I traveled by bus to Alice Springs. The first day I just relaxed and did some travel planning as well as catching up on my blog. I was weeks behind ..... The other day I did a trip to the West McDonnal Ranges close by.

No swimming in the sand .....

Gorges that have been carved by water many, many thousands of years ago. The rivers only "run" every couple of years, when it is raining sufficiently.

A "Rock Wallabee", cute little creatures that look like Kangaroos, but have the size of a large rabbit.

Roads without cars just meandering through the gorgeous landscape.

So you would think that this tree should be dead after falling down. Nope, more than ten little shoots have been growing into small trees so far.

Another gorge created by the steady flow of water ....

A "mine" for yellow ochre used by the Aborigenes for painting and healing medicines.

There was surprisingly much water in several Billabongs, so called permanent water holes.

Another billabong .....

The West McDonnal ranges in the distance .....

Australia - Ayres Rock (Uluru) and the Olgas (

2007-04-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

After starting my Australia trip in the two major metropolitan ares of Sydney and Melbourne it was about time to explore the "real" Australia, far from all the civilization and big city life. Ayers Rock, now called Uluru again (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluru) for more details) and the Olgas or Kata Tjuta (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olgas for more details) were my next destinations in Australia. They are located in the "heart"of Australia, the so called "Red Center". I got up early in the morning to catch my flight to Uluru. After about 2 1/2 hours we landed on the tiny airport of Uluru and I took a shuttle bus to the Outback Pioneer Hotel and Lodge". Quite a fancy name for such an establishment.

So what are they?

Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation located in the Northern Territory of central Australia. It is found in the Uluru - Kata Tjuda National Park, 335 km (208 mi) southwest of Alice Springs, 450 km (280 mi) by road. Uluru is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara, the Aboriginal people of the area. It has many springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings. Uluru is listed as a World Heritage Site for its natural and man-made attributes.

The local Pitjantjatjara people call the landmark Uluru . This word has no other meaning in Pitjantjatjara, but it is a local family name. In October 1872 the explorer Ernest Giles was the first non-indigenous person to sight the rock formation. He saw it from a considerable distance, and was prevented by Lake Amadeus from approaching closer. He described it as "the remarkable pebble". On 19 July 1873, the surveyor William Gosse visited the rock and named it Ayers Rock in honour of the then-Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. The Aboriginal name was first recorded by the Wills expedition in 1903. Since then, both names have been used, although Ayers Rock was the most common name used by outsiders until recently.

Uluru is Australia's most recognisable natural icon. The world-renowned sandstone formation stands 348 m (1,142 ft) high [863 m (2,831 ft) above sea level] with most of its bulk below the ground, and measures 9.4 km (5.8 mi) in circumference. Both Uluru and Kata Tjuda have great cultural significance for the Anangu Traditional landowners, who lead walking tours to inform visitors about the local flora and fauna, bush foods and the Aboriginal dreamtime stories of the area.
Uluru is notable for appearing to change colour as the different light strikes it at different times of the day and year, with sunset a particularly remarkable sight when it briefly glows red. Although rainfall is uncommon in this semiarid area, during wet periods the rock acquires a silvery-grey colour, with streaks of black algae forming on the areas that serve as channels for water flow.
Kata Tjuda, also called Mount Olga or The Olgas owing to its peculiar formation, is another rock formation about 25 km (16 mi) from Uluru. Special viewing areas with road access and parking have been constructed to give tourists the best views of both sites at dawn and dusk.

Kata Tjuta, also known as Mount Olga (or colloquially as The Olgas), are large rock formations located in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, 465 km southwest of Alice Springs at 25°18′00″S, 130°44′00″E. These domes cover 21.68 km² of Kata Tjuta National Park and are a magnificent sight. These rock formations are a remarkable group of 36 domes, made from a mixture of mudstone and conglomerate containing granite and basalt fragments. They are about 25 km from Uluru in the Northern Territory of Australia. The tallest of the group, Mount Olga, stands 545.4 m in height (197.3 m higher than Uluru). It is located at the eastern end of the Docker River Road.

The Pitjantjajara name Kata Tjuta means 'many heads'. The site is as sacred to the Indigenous people as Uluru.

The alternative name, The Olgas, comes from the tallest peak, Mt Olga. At the behest of Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, Mt Olga was named in 1872 by Ernest Giles, in honour of Queen Olga of Württemberg. She and her husband King Karl had marked their 25th wedding anniversary the previous year by, amongst other things, naming Mueller a Freiherr (baron), making him Ferdinand von Mueller; this was his way of repaying the compliment.

Sunrise at Ayers Rock (Uluru) ....

People climbing to the top of Ayers Rock (Uluru). I did decide not to climb since the Aborigenes ask not to do it as a sign of respect for this sacred site.

Ayers Rock from afar .....

Ayers Rock in the early morning, viewed from the Olgas with the sun rising.

The Olgas .....

The Olgas with the sun rising .....

Australia - Melbourne

2007-04-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

In Melbourne I visited a former work colleague from the good old Crossworlds Software days and Cameron whom I met in South America. It was great to have some local guides while exploring and enjoying this fantastic city.

For more details on Melbourne see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne. Hopefully I will have some more time soon to provide a little more detail.

Melbourne has lots of small Arcades full of cafes, shops and little restaurants. Very nice and inviting atmosphere.

Wine tasting in the Yarra Valley ......

Aussie Rule Football .... a mix of handball, soccer and rugby. A very fast and fascinating game.

Australia - Sydney ..... The Blue Mountains

2007-04-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

The Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, are situated approximately 100 kilometres west of Sydney. They are a range of sandstone geological structures that reach to at least 1190 metres AHD (in the Lithgow area). The Blue Mountains are not as the name suggests a range of mountains but rather a series of cliffs surrounding a plateau with rugged eroded gorges of up to 760 metres depth. A large majority of the Blue Mountains is incorporated in the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site and its constituent seven national parks and a conservation reserve.. On our way we saw many wild Kangaroos.

A view of the Jamison Valley ....

The "Three Sisters" .....

Australia - Sydney ..... more impressions

2007-04-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

After spending the Easter weekend with my friend Ian I moved into a hostel in Kingscross, in the heart of Sydney. From here I explored the city a little more. First I went to the Sydney Tower and enjoyed the incredible view of Sydney and the Bay.

Sydney from the top of Sydney Tower. You can make out Circular Quay in the center of the photo.

The Harbor Bridge viewed from the tower ....

Australia - Sydney ...... I feel like being at home ...

2007-04-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

After flying from Osaka to Seoul I arrived in Sydney (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney more details) at 6:00 am in the morning. Unfortunately my encounter with the folks from customs was a little unpleasant. At first I had to wait for over 30 minutes to get my luggage, then I had to get in line for another 60 minutes to have my luggage inspected. Especially the fact that "other people" got fasttracked without even a look at their luggage not exactly made me happy. Well, what I learned on this trip was not to get too excited about things I can not change, so my bad mood quickly went away.

I took a cab to my friend Ian's neighbourhood Woollahra, a beautiful neighbourhood with lots of old houses and had breakfast at "Zigolinis". Later that day we started a trip around town.

Although the weather sucked .... according to Ian it was "the worst drought in 100 years" .... when I arrived it was raining so hard the streets were flooded two feet deep in certain areas .... we went to "Bondi Beach" and did the "Bondi Beach Walk" and actually got a little sun.

My long lost twin brother Ian ..... since our happy reunion in India (we had been separated at birth) we have been keeping in touch.

The skyline of Sydney from Watson Bay .....

Captain Adventure and the Sydney Opera House in the background.

The Sydney Opera House ..... an amazing piece of architecture.

By now you should know my fascination with triangular buildings, of course I could not resist this one. We actually had beers in this pub before we continued our walk.

Sydney Harbor Bridge ..... the Bridge Walk is $ 150 (Australian), so we opted just to walk across it.

The Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House ..... what an amazing combination!

Well, I guess I liked the Opera so much .....

On our ferry trip to Manly .... a sea gull stealing food from the passengers.

I believe this is "Whale Beach" where we actually went for a swim. Everybody stayed close to the beach .... I wonder why?

Japan - Kyoto (京都市) and lots of Cherry Blossoms

2007-04-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I hate to admit it, but since we left Tokyo I have not really been able to work on my blog. Finally (all the way in Darwin Australia) I find the time. After 5 days in Tokyo we took the Shinkansen high speed train to Kyoto (京都市). We took the subway to the train station and once we had finished the ordeal to exchange our vouchers for the Japan Railpass we hopped on the next train. It took us over an hour, schlepping our backpacks from ticket counter to ticket counter around the huge Tokyo rail station until we finally found the right place. The ride was smooth and extremely fast. The Shinkansen is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan operated by Japan Railways. Since the initial Tōkaidō Shinkansen opened in 1964 running at 210 km/h (130 mph), the network (2,459 km or 1528 miles) has expanded to link most major cities on the islands of Honshū and Kyūshū with running speeds of up to 300 km/h (186 mph), in an earthquake and typhoon prone environment. Test run speeds have been 443 km/h (275 mph) for conventional rail, in 1996 and up to a world record of 581 km/h (361 mph) for trains, in 2003. However the French just recently broke this world record having reached 574.8 km/h (357 mph) on 3 April 2007. During the 8th century, when the powerful Buddhist clergy became involved in the affairs of the Imperial government, the Japanese Emperor chose to relocate the capital to a region far from the Buddhist influence. The new city, Heiankyō (平安京 "Heian capital"), became the seat of Japan's imperial court in 794. Later, the city was renamed Kyoto ("capital city"). Kyoto remained Japan's capital until the transfer of the government to Edo in 1868 at the time of the Imperial Restoration. (Some believe that it is still a legal capital: see Capital of Japan.) After Edo was renamed Tokyo (meaning "Eastern Capital"), Kyoto was known for a short time as Saikyo (西京 Saikyō, meaning "Western Capital"). An interesting historical footnote is that there was some consideration by the United States of targeting Kyoto with an atomic bomb at the end of World War II. However, in the end it was decided to remove the city from the list of targets due to the "beauty of the city". Kyoto is the only large Japanese city that still has an abundance of prewar buildings, such as the traditional townhouses known as machiya. However, modernization is continually breaking down the traditional Kyoto in favor of newer architecture, such as the Kyoto Station complex. having reached 574.8 km/h (357 mph) on 3 April 2007.

Picnic under the Cherry trees .....

More Cherry Trees ...... the colours were absolutely fantastic.

One of the many temples in Kyoto. I do not have my notes with me so I will have to provide more details later.

The Kiyomizu-de temple .... the veranda is supported by hundreds of wooden pillars.

Japan is the land of vending machines. You can buy many different things from these machines .... I found this vending machine alley in downtown Kyoto and could not resist.

Well, probably just a tourist attraction, but these guy were beating the heck out of a greenish mass that was later sold as a dessert. Of course I can not remember what it is called, but I am sure my friend Alex who was with me in Japan will pitch in with all the details.

In Nara (see http://wikitravel.org/en/Nara for more details) we visited at first a temple park. According to legend, the god of the Kasuga Taisha came riding on a white deer in the old days, so the deer enjoy protected status as envoys of the god. For this reason they have not ever been hunted and are extremely tame, so of them are actually rather aggressive in their pursuit of biscuits from tourists. Here you can see a little boy almost being attacked by deers ....

Tōdai-ji (東大寺) is home to the Daibutsu (大仏), the largest Buddha statue in Japan and one of the largest in the world, appropriately, the Daibutsu-den, which houses it, is said to be the largest wooden building in the world. It's listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The giant front gate, Nandai-mon, is guarded by two fierce, awe-inspiring protectors. (It's also swarmed by deer, who know this is the best place to come looking for a hand-out.) Through the gate is a stone path leading to the outer walls surrounding the Daibutsu-den. Follow the signs to the left to enter the inner courtyard; if you happen to have a stick of incense with you, join the crowd around the incense offerings before you head onward.

The giant Buddha ......

Did I say there were many temples ....

A very interestingly shaped house in Kyoto .... reminded me of some of the "triangular" shaped buildings in San Francisco. How narrow the rooms must be?

One of the gates to the Imperial Palace in Kyoto.

Our next destination was Osaka. We barely made it on the train and did basically not have enough time to make it from our entry point in car 9 to our assigned seats in car 2. The trip from Kyoto is only about 15 to 20 minutes. On our first exploration I took this photo. Due to limited space the highway has been built above the river.

My friend Alex in action. We were rushing from one architecturally interesting site or building to the next. It was very educational for me to see it from an architects perspective.

A shopping mall with a ferry wheel built on top of it. You would expect this in the US, but finding it in Osaka kind of surprised me.

More cherry blossoms .... people were just picnicking under the trees in the Imperial Gardens.

The Imperial Palace in Osaka from afar.

The moat with modern buildings reflecting in the water.

And the Palace a little closer. The elevator has been strategically placed on the one and only side where you could get a clear shot at the building. Hmmm .....

"Live Karaoke" in the park, who would have thought?

Osaka by night .... it was just one big flashing ad campaign.

Japan - Tokyo (東京都) ... Totally normal madness

2007-04-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

Tokyo, capital of Japan and home of approximately 12.5 million people in the Tokyo Metropolitan area and about 35 million in the Greater Tokyo Area .... and my next stop on my trip through Asia. I had altered my schedule a little to meet up with my friend Alex (from San Francisco) and to have a little more time to travel within Japan. We were supposed to meet at the Tokyo airport on the evening of March 27th, but although I waited for 90 minutes Alex did not show up. I assumed that something must have happened and that a message would be waiting at the hotel or in my email. I took the train into the city and then a cab to our hostel, the "Homeikan" (see http://homeikan.com for more details) a traditional Japanese guesthouse or "Ryokan". There was a message for me that Alex would arrive at 3:00 pm the next day. The next morning I checked my email and Alex let me know about the reasons for his late arrival from Hong Kong, where he was visiting his family). I went out to explore the neighbourhood and find a place for a "western" breakfast. I found a nice coffee house with sandwiches and excellent coffee ..... aaaaaahhhhhh what a welcome change.

I walked around in search for an ATM machine and thereby passed the "Tokyo Dome" and the amusement park "Tokyo Dome City Attractions". with a roller coaster in the middle of a busy intersection. In the attached Tokyo Dome Hotel I was able to get information about an ATM accepting foreign ATM cards and found the banking center in the nearby shopping mall.

My search for an Internet Cafe took quite some time .... Finally I found one of those gaming places I had heard so much about. They are a mix of Internet Cafe, gaming center, coffee shop and cheap hotel. You can rent a cube with a computer, or with a full fledged DVD set or even a bed couch to stay over night. The places are usually open 24 hours.

The biggest challenge for me was next to the absolutely incomprehensible language and writing the sheer number of people. It is so busy all the time and I am not really that good with large crwods. Especially during rush hour and late at night, shortly before the last metro it is absolute utter madness. Everybody is running around to me hecticly, many people checking their SMS while walking and then everubody pushes to get into the train. I almost got lost several times simply because I had a hard time orienting myself within this tidal wave of people.

The roller coaster of the "Tokyo Dome City Attractions", right on the corner of a busy street intersection.

There are actually quite a few channels running through Tokyo, a fact I was not aware of.

Flashing neon advertisements everywhere, it created a strange, somewhat surreal atmosphere. Later we would visit Shybuya Station, an area which was even more crazy.

The plaza in front of Shybuya Station, big advertisement screens all around you, lots and lots of people running around. A little hard to see on this photo, but thousands of people wait for the light to turn green and then rush to whatever destination they might have.

Space management, in a city as crowded as Tokyo a gas station might be a little different. Here the pump is operated "from above", you pull down the hose from the ceiling.

Tokyo has lots and lots of very interesting architecture. Well, I was traveling with an architect and so we visited many interesting buildings. Hey, but don't expect me to remember everything Alex told me.

Alex and myself on security camera in the biggest electronics superstore I have ever been to. Just the selection of photo cameras was amazing, everything from Nikon to Leica and Hasselblad.

More architecture .... the "Tokyo International Forum" an amazing building that reminds you a little of a beached whale. Alex and I had a heated discussion about "function versus design", with my support of the idea that good architecture should be a combination of both.

USB memory sticks in form of sushi ..... absolutely hilarious.

.... but the winner was a USB memory stick in form of a finger.

The "Maison Hermes" (see http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/hermes/index.htm for more) building, constructed only from glass blocks, no pillars ..... quite amazing.

A store selling pretty much chop sticks and nothing else.

Another very interesting approach, however it only looks really interesting at night. I believe that was the Louis Vuitton store ....

We visited the "Imperial Palace" in or better we walked around parts of it since it is closed to the public.

The Prada flagship store in Tokyo .... it cost a whooping $ 80 million .... it is beautiful, but not very functional, no columns, pretty much no storage space, but simply amazing to look at during the night.

Reflexions in the glass blocks of the Prada store ....

China - The Great Wall & Forbidden City (Beijing)

2007-03-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

Finally after another gruesome night train we reached our final destination Beijing. After quickly checking in to our hotel we left for an excursion to Tienanmen and the Forbidden City. Tienanmen was kind of a disappointment. Having heard so much about it (not only about the student uprising) it is basically nothing else but a huge open space covered in concrete, surrounded by the Mao Mausoleum, the National Museum, the "parliament" and the entrance gate to the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City

The entrance gate to the Forbidden City. Mao is supervising who is entering.

There were lots and lots of people walking towards the entrance, almost as many if not more than in Angkor Wat. I had a hunch that it would not be a peaceful strolling through the Forbidden City.

Bummer ..... most of the important buildings were covered in scaffolding to give them a new polish before the Olympics.

View through a partially open gate of the Forbidden City into the outside world? Or just a different part of the city?

Inside the city .....

Loved this sign ... no flowers to be seen, but you are not allowed to pick them.

"Mode of transportation" ... a bike rickshaw comes handy when you need a nap.

"Mode of transportation 2" - Oisin (from Ireland) and myself tucked into a small bike rickshaw on our way through the narrow alleys of an older part of Beijing, close to Tienanmen and the Forbidden City.

The Great Wall

The Great Wall, one of the wonders of the world, was enlisted in the World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. The Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus stretching approximately 6,700 kilometers (4,163 miles ) from east to west of China. With a history of more than 2000 years, some of the section of the great wall are now in ruins or even entirely disappeared.

We did a 10 km hike on the wall from Jinshanling towards Simatai, it was quite strenuous up and down many steps. We saw several well preserved areas of the wall (usually close to tourist areas), but also many stretches of wall in complete disrepair and crumbled to pieces. This photo was taken on a section where the wall and watch towers were not in the best condition.

Sometimes it was quite dangerous to hike along the wall. The steps and sidewalls were sometimes crumbling or had disintegrated completely..... and when you are afraid of height like me it is a little more difficult.

Unfortunately the weather was not too great, but I hope that some of the shots look good and will give you some impression how magnificent this structure still is.

The wall in this area was basically built along the ridge of the mountains. It must have been an interesting logistical task to make this happen. I assume the wall was started in several different locations and the building materials transported on the finished parts of the wall.

Unfortunately it was not a clear day, but I hope you can make out the wall on the far horizon on top of the mountain range.

Our last task was to climb down several flights of stairs and then walk across a rope bridge to the other side of the canyon.

China - Xi'an - The Walled City & Terracotta Warriors

2007-03-22T16:00:00.001-07:00

From the BaoGuo Monastery we took a bus back to Chengdu and then board another night train of 16 hours to Xi'an. I volunteered to stay with the smaller group and got rewarded with a bunk in the "soft sleep" carriage. These compartments only have 4 beds and a door. I actually was able to sleep for the first time on a night train. We arrived in Xi'an and I spend some time exploring the city.

"Mode of transportation" .... I caught this guy repairing his tuk tuk by just flipping it on its back. Could you do this with your car?

The "Muslim Quarter" was my favorite part of town. Small and narrow streets lined by shops, restaurants and food stands. It simply had a "real" feel to it, not the artificial fast erected buildings you see everywhere else.

This lady was selling steamed sweets. Honestly I still do not know exactly what it was, but it tasted awesome and was just RMB 1 (approximately 15 cents). She mixed some (white) powder (flour?) in a little form and added spices and raisins and other things and then simply steamed it for a little while.

This guy was welding big pots just on the street.

The Terracotta Warriors

The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses are one of the most significant archaeological excavations of the 20th century. Work is still ongoing (very slowly) at this site, you might wonder why only 20 archaeologists are employed. For my untrained eye it seemed that the larger part of the site still remains to be excavated. The warriors are to"protect" the remains of emperor Qin in afterlife. Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13 (in 246 BC), Qin Shi Huang, later the first Emperor of all China, had begun to work for his mausoleum. It took 11 years to finish. It is speculated that many buried treasures and sacrificial objects had accompanied the emperor in his after life. A group of peasants uncovered some pottery while digging for a well nearby the royal tomb in 1974.

Pit 1 probably is the most impressive of the current excavation sites. Large numbers of soldiers and horses are lined up in formation.

It was hard to find a good position top photograph and the lighting was a little challenging, but I hope you can get a feel for it.

The warriors from a different view point. Unfortunately many figures have been destroyed and none of the original weapons and decoration is displayed.

It must have been an amazing sight in its original condition.

Warrior figures still partially buried.

These figures are from Pit 2, where a lot of excavation work is needed. The official explanation was that the government waited for new technologies to makes sure the colourful painting / coating of the figures can be saved.

China - The Giant Buddha of Leshan

2007-03-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

We left Chengdu on a bus to Leshan, where we boarded a river boat to view the Giant Buddha from the Min river.

Me posing in front of the Giant Buddha.

The "Giant Buddha", work on the project in 713 and it was not completed until 90 years later. The statue is 71 meters tall (and that is seated) and is supposedly the biggest of its kind in the world. There is a walkway around the statue and in high season you have to wait for several hours to do the round trip. Quite impressive, but erosion is taking its toll all ready. Interesting that the statue originally was covered by a roof.

Small doors in China ..... I can not count anymore how many times I banged my head and almost knocked me unconscious.

Ma buddy the Buddha .....

Just in case you have not had enough of the Buddha statue ....

I do not know how they got a portrait of me into this temple .... just kidding, the fast in Thailand helped me to somehow stay in shape. According to the legend, this guy was once rich and beautiful with long curly hair. However because of that people always approached him and made it difficult to mediate and search for enlightenment. So he decided to get fat and cut his hair that the women would leave him alone .... so the story goes. I would love to give you more detail, but unfortunately Wikipedia is censored in China, so that has to wait.

I just love the "Chenglish" signs they have everywhere.

China - Mount Emei (Sichuan Province)

2007-03-22T15:00:00.001-07:00

Upon our return from the Giant Buddha we went to BaoGuo, where we stayed at the BaoGuo Monastery. At 6:00 am we took a bus to Mount Emei. It was freezing cold, foggy and the visibility was pretty much zero. There was still some snow and the trail was icy in some spots which made it quite treacherous to hike. Of course some creative shop keepers where already at work selling socks and bamboo shoes to help with the ice.

Just before we entered the gondola for the final ascent up to Mount Emei. We took this photo with some snow in the background.

Some more "Chinglish" signs for a little chuckle.

Really? Quite frankly the sign could not be more true, but I do not want to start ranting about the bathrooms now.

When we returned with the Gondola back to the valley we took another bus and then hiked up a small creek valley towards the HangChungPing Monastery. These workers were carrying slabs of rock up the mountain for a construction project.

Somehow this hike up this creek valley reminded me of the Black Forrest. It felt good to be in the nature, very few people around.

Well, we do not have monkeys in the Black Forrest, but there were plenty here. At some point they blocked the trail completely waiting to be fed by the tourists.

Once up the mountain we saw some more monkeys around the monastery. Some of them actually were carrying around their little babies at all times.

The HangChunPing Monastery were we stayed for the night. The last ascend was 1200 steps to reach the monastery gate.

The next morning on our hike back to the valley we encountered the workers again, carrying construction material up the hill. These rock slabs must weigh around 30 to 40 kilos.

A construction or better demolition site along the trail. No machines or power tools were used, these guys demolish the concrete structure with chisel and hammer only.

Somehow after all the busy cities we have been visiting it felt unreal to be in nature. It was beautiful, so please forgive if I have to show it once more ....

On our hike we encountered another construction site. It was interesting to watch these guys unloading these heavy concrete slabs without the help of a crane.

Trash and pollution .... it is really a big problem in China. Even in this remote mountain village people just dump there trash. In the past that was probably OK since everything was somehow organic, but now with all the plastic packaging it doesn't work anymore. Unfortunately old habits are hard to get rid of.

More "mode of transportation". I saw this guy transporting this huge piece of plywood on his bike.

And one more mode of transportation .... taken in the train by Kata, with Kieran and Katarina in our "soft" sleeper compartment, the first night train I actually was able to sleep a little.

China - Pandas and more .... Chengdu (Sichuan Province)

2007-03-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

After the trip up the Yangtze River we spent one night in Chongqing, a gigantic, fast growing Moloch of 30.000.000 people. I would say in the entire city you could not find a building older than 50 years. All boring but functional apartment and office high rises, lots of construction everywhere. There was not really much worth taking photos. In the morning we boarded a train to Chengdu in the Sichuan province.

Impressions from the train ride. Rice fields and the "rapps" (need to research the English word) everywhere. I loved the yellow fields rushing by the train window.

Did I say I loved the yellow fields ..... ?

On our first night in Chengdu we visited a "culture show" in which local artists performed. I liked this artist, she was juggling with anything you can imagine, one of the items was this table.

Another group of artists performed a dance with "changing faces". I do not know exactly how it works, but they were multiple face masks and change them frequently at such high speed that it is almost impossible to notice how they do that. Of course the photo does not to the spectacle enough credit, but at least it gives you some impression. In the background you see a big puppet. It was interesting to see that they made the puppet change the face mask as well and even spitting fire.

Pandas, pandas and more pandas .... boy these creatures are cute. We visited a breeding and research center, which is also kind of a Zoo.

This little guy was playing with a piece of bamboo. I took a full series of photos until he almost fell into the moat.

They call the "Red Pandas", but they are actually not Pandas. They below to the family of "Raccoons".

Of course I had to have a shot taken with the Pandas in the background.

More Pandas ... they were just happily eating up their bamboo.

Chengdu was actually one of my favorite cities in China. Although it is growing rapidly as well, it seems that they are trying to make the city look nice.

We visited the "Wenshu Temple" in Chengdu, probably I have seen too many temples by now since I was not too impressed.

Selling candles can be very tiring. This monk was overwhelmed and just fell asleep at his desk.

Another smaller Pagoda in the garden of the Wenshu Temple.

There were many quite modern and attractive buildings in downtown Chengdu. I liked the futuristic look of this one.

The city square is "controlled" by a huge statue of Mao.

The bicycle is still the major means of transportation. They even have parking lots for bikes ... and of course you have to pay.

I watched these construction workers for a little while. All the labor was performed manually, these guys are digging through a slab of concrete just with hammer and chisel.

The Chinese love to sing ... Karaoke is huge! Here we have a street musician performing close to our hotel.

China - Yangtze River and The Three Gorges Dam

2007-03-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

From Yangshuo we went back by bus ti Guilin and then boarded another night train to WuChan. Another 15 hours on a train with very little sleep. But there was no rest when we arrived, no, we boarded another bus to YiChang. In YiChang we stopped for a quick lunch, went shopping and then headed to the "Three Gorges Dam". It is an amazing achievement of engineering, however I am not sure how environmentally meaning full this building is. It almost seems that especially because there was so much critique from the West, that the Chinese government was pushing even harder to make it happen. Official numbers state 1 Million people that had to be relocated, my guess would be many more. Entire cities have been erased and the rebuilt on the hillsides, high enough to be outside the reach of the rising waters. These new cities have been built for purpose not beauty ....and it shows.

In front of the dam .... there was even a little hint of sun to be seen on the horizon. Hard to believe that the wall in the background is 185 meters tall and over 2000 meters wide.

One of the two double ship locks that will enable traffic of large vessel "around" the dam. The process can take up to 4 hours.

They even build an "elevator" to speed up the time to pass the dam, especially for charter boats. This "elevator: is built by a German company and will transport ships up and down in 45 minutes.

Our boat for the cruise on the Yangtze. Don't get fooled by the photo, it was much less luxurious than you would think.

The cruise reminded me a lot of the trip in Southern Chile. The "Gorges" a quite narrow, with high, steep hills on both sides. There was not much traffic, so it was actually quite peaceful.

One of the few remaining traditional Chines houses in the Yangtze Valley .... soon this will be gone to when the water level is raised one final time.

These small boats had been the major means of transportation for a long time. Farmers spent hours on the river to get to and from the market.

We did an excursion on these small boats into a side arm of the Yangtze. At times the water was so shallow that the boats had to be pulled by men. In the past the water of the Yangtze was very shallow and it was the job of the locals to pull the boats for money. Until not very long ago they performed this task butt naked.

Just loved the colors and reflections in the water.

More reflexions ....

A cargo ship taking on coal that has been mined in the mountains. In the background you can see shoots along the road. Trucks dump their load here and then the coal is sliding down the shoot into a pipe and into the cargo hold of the ship.

One of the new cities that have been built to house the displaced. As you can see all the buildings are very functional, they are build into the hillsides which required major effort to stabilize the hill sides to prevent land slides.

Another new city .... in the middle you can see parts of the old city wall with the gate. The wall and gate have been moved up from their original location to be saved from the floods.

China - Impressions 1 (Freezing my butt off in Yangshuo)

2007-03-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

First impressions from China ..... After interesting days in Hong Kong we took a local train to reach the border to China. It was much, much easier to cross than I was expecting. In Shenzen we boarded a night train to Guilin. Boy, 16 hours on a train, the sleepers so short and narrow that I was running out of ideas to position my slender figure pretty soon .... sleeping was basically impossible. In Guilin we took a bus and after another 3 hours we finally arrived in Yangshuo.

It is absolutely freezing cold by the way, I am freezing my but off .... but other than that it has been amazing so far. Yangshuo is probably a good starting point since it is fairly tourist oriented, so we gradually adapt to this culture. Below find some first impressions.

The streets of Yangshuo, at least in the tourist quarter it seems that the old charm of the city has been retained. Narrow alleys and low houses. Some of them probably old, many newer constructions in the same style. There are many shops selling fake products, art work and other stuff and also many restaurants and cafes. Unfortunately this changes as soon as you leave the tourist area. The charm disappears quickly and makes room for ugly but functional concrete buildings.

On the 2nd day we did a bike ride through the country side. It was beautiful. There are many small hills of limestone that have been carved by the water over many, many years. You can see some of them in the background. The landscape was something I had not seen before. Too bad there was no sunshine and blue sky, it was foggy, overcast and cold.

More of these limestone pillars or hills, you see them for miles and miles and miles. This photo taken from the top of "Moon Hill".

On our bike tour we encountered this farmer plowing the field with the help of a water buffalo. I did not see a single tractor this day, the fields were small and all labor was done manually.

The limestone hills reflected in a small fish pond. I just tried to capture this strange atmosphere.

"Moon Hill", the hillside has a natural round "hole" at the top. As an American I would say it rather looks like a doughnut than the Moon, but ..... The hike felt great. After so many days without exercise I really enjoyed working a sweat and climbing this mountain. It is actually possible to climb all the way to the top, which I did by myself. It was a treacherous hike, small muddy single trail, lots of rocks to navigate. Especially coming down it was so difficult that I had to crawl on all fours several times. However, the views have been worth the effort.

"Propaganda" ..... Could not help it .... The ad for the "New Socialism Country Model Village" .... we were wondering especially about the western couple kissing in the lower left corner of the billboard.

The night of the 2nd day we went to a "culture" show by the river. Hundreds of actors were involved in this production called "Yangshuo Light Show". Our tour guide compared it to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games .... he had a point there. Nevertheless I enjoyed the show very much, despite the drizzling rain and freezing cold. They were renting pillows and Red Army coats to keep you warm.

The photo shows a group of fishermen .... all of them in individual small boats, fishing together with their "red" nets.

A chorus of small children singing just in front of us. It was amazing to watch the smiles on their faces and the enthusiasm they had to perform in the rain.

In preparation of our cooking class we went to the local market to shop for food. It was a trip .... I was not sure if I should show the photos, but some of you said that they wanted to see things different from hoe so here we go. This lady is selling poultry, primarily duck, displayed on her table.

Don't ask me what this man is grinding here .... it seems pretty much every part of the animal is being put to some use .... and if it is ground to small pieces it is not that bad anymore. I decided not to show photos of dogs / dog meat that is sold as well. It was really difficult to see dogs in kennels, waiting to be slaughtered right there on the market.

An old man working the field close to the cooking school. No particular story behind this, just capturing how people live and work here.

The continuation of my beloved theme "Mode of transportation". Here we see a door being held by a passenger on a little scooter .... ready to take off?

Traveling in China

2007-03-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends,

After enjoying the warm weather and the beautiful beaches in South East Asia I am now traveling in China. From Hongkong we are moving slowly but surely towards Beijing and the Great Wall. I knew that China is big, but when you actually travel here you start to understand just how big. I have done several night trains of + 15 hours already and thank god there is only one more to come. It is freezing cold here and one of my first purchases was a fake North Face Ski jacket so that I could manage the cold weather.

China has been an interesting experience so far, I have taken many photos (of course) and will post them when I get to Beijing. The people are very friendly, extremely helpful in a genuine way and also very curious. After 2 weeks I amused to being stared at and the fact that my tour leader is 6"6' helps a lot since he draws most of the attention. Hope you are all doing well.Check back in in a few days and you will see some pictures of the Panda bears, the Terracotta Warriors,the "Forbidden City"and of course the "Great Wall".
All the best.

Hongkong - What a city ....

2007-03-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

Hongkong, a city I fund very intriguing, especially Hongkong Island. Soon I will add more detail.

The night market close to the hotel.

Neon lights everywhere ....

On Hongkong Island there are many small and steep little alleys leading up the hills. Full of shops, street vendors, cafes and restaurants.

The HK skyline from Victoria Peak .... simply amazing!

You feel you can reach out to the sky scrapers .... some of them are 60 stories tall and you "look down" on them from the hill.

The train leading up to Victoria Peak .... of course I was walking ... still cursing myself :-)

Skyscrapers galore ....

The "double decker streetcars" are quite a sight.

Hongkong Island viewed from the Star Ferry on my way back ....

Every evening there is a light show on Hongkong Island which is best viewed from the main land.

Dunno what the reason for this procedure was .... but it seems to bring luck to the store owner. I am sure Alex knows all about it. Right?

Hongkong - On my way to China

2007-03-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

This morning I flew from Bangkok to Hongkong. The first impression is that it is a city with probably the most sky scrapers in one place second to Sao Paolo. My hotel is not far from the market area and so I spent the first hours exploring. Tomorrow I will do some sight seeing and on the 5th I will be entering China. I am really excited about what will expect me there .....

Stay tuned for more updates and Photos.

Thailand - Impressions from Bangkok

2007-03-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

Just a few quick impressions from Bangkok. I hope there will be time to provide more details later.

The Grand Palace and Wat Pra Keo.

A closer look .....

I happend to walk through the gate just when the Royal Guard was changing ... lucky shot.

The "Reclyning Buddha" in Wat Poh, must be about 50 m long.

The Hilton Hotel, just found it fascinating at sunset.

My friend Markus and myself at the "Vertigo" bar on the roof of the Banyan Tree Hotel. Cool place ...

Amzazing views ... You literally sot on the roof, only a small reling separating you from the abyss .... it was windy and you ould feel the building swaying ...

Thailand - One night in Bangkok ......

2007-03-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

Being back in Bangkok (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok for more info) is quite challenging after the quite, peaceful and relaxing time in Luang Prabang. Bangkok seems to be full of energy, pulsating at all times, hot, noisy, dirty .... but also beautiful, exciting and very interesting.

My first day I spent most of my time exploring the neighbourhood. Just a few blocks down the street is an area called "Little Arabia" with lots of shops and restaurants run by Arabs. It was like stepping into a different world. Suddenly there were hardly any Thai on the streets, restaurants had lots of Hukka pipes ready for their guests, people were dressed completely different, different smells, sounds and looks everywhere. Especially nice was the fact that there were no sex tourists or prostitutes walking about, no massage parlours or such things. Well, sex tourism is the one thing that really annoys me about Bangkok. It is really shocking to me to see these old guys walking about with their young Thai girls (or boys). Anyways, it was like a little Oasis, but just a few feet across the street there were plenty such establishments.

At breakfast I met a girl (Sabine) that somehow looked familiar. I could not figure out where we had met before, so I joined her and after a while we figured that we met in Koh Tao at the dive school ..... funny. The world is a small place at times .....

After breakfast I spent my time going from one travel agent to the next to buy the "Japan Railway Pass" for my upcoming trip through Japan. Although I had the addresses of the certified travel agents from the Japan Railway Company website I was not lucky on the first several tries, however everybody was very helpful and so I finally found one agent that was not sold out. In the process I got lost pretty badly (simply because I did not know that Soi 23 (one of the side streets of one of the major arteries Sukhumvit Road) where the travel was supposed to be, actually split in two branches. I guess I picked the "dead" branch that ended at the gate to the University. I asked my way around and after a "chain" of helpful people trying to find somebody who knew something or spoke English delivered me to a group of students. One of them called the agent and then offered to drive me there on his scooter. I felt bad that I had already taken up so much of his time and declined politely. I was not walking for 5 minutes when somebody honked next to me and it was the guy on his scooter insisting to drive me there. Well, so I hopped on and was thankful for his persistence. Unfortunately the agent was out of the passes and so I kept traveling by Sky Train and subway to other agents.

Dinner was an experience .... I went with Sabine (the girl from the dive shop) to "Little Arabia" and after checking out several places we ended up in an Iraqi restaurant of all options .... We communicated with the waitress as good as possible, but had no idea what to expect and actually what we had ordered .... Well, the food was excellent. We "had ordered" hummus, a chicken curry, BBQed shrimp and BBQed Kebabs .... yummy .... a welcome change to the Thai spices. We went for drinks to a place close to our hostel and when we got back to the hostel after a nightcap we had to call security because the lock to the dorm was broken and the door could not be opened either from the inside nor the outside. It was absolutely hilarious. Well, finally they figured that there was another door behind the closet and the problem was at least temporarily solved.

The next day was my big sight seeing day. I took the Sky Train to the river and then from the main pier a boat upstream to the National Museum. From there I went to the Grand Palace and temples Wat Phra Kaew (where you find the "Emerald Buddha") and Wat Po (where you can find the "Reclining Buddha"). It was really hot and muggy and by 5:30 pm I was completely exhausted and went back to the hostel by ship and train. After a quick shower I had my final Thai Massage ...... no, no, no .... not what some of you may think ... a traditional "bone breaking" massage and then had my "last Thai dinner". Delicious, but soooooo spicey that I worked through a stack of napkins because it made me sweat ..... Around 11:30 pm I was able to get together with my friend Markus (who lives in Bangkok and was just flying in from Beijing) and we went to the Banyan Tree Hotel for drinks. They have a roof top bar on the 60th floor called Vertigo, with absolutely mind boggling views of Bangkok. It was wonderful and great to catch up, although we had very little time. I was in bed around 2:00 am and then got up 4 hours later to pack and head to the airport to catch my flight to Hongkong.

Thailand - Back in Bangkok

2007-02-28T13:00:00.000-08:00

Just arrived in Bangkok for two more days of sight seeing before I am taking off for Hongkong and then China. Stay tuned.

Laos - Luang Prabang Impressions

2007-02-27T01:32:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I was not able to add much detail to these photos in the recent days. I have been busy traveling and enjoying myself .... sorry. I will do my best to add more details soon.

Every night the people of the Hmong tribe host a market to sell their goods. The sell amazing handbags, scarfs, shirts, paintings, pants ..... for incredible little money. I bought some original black pants (yes I found one lady who was selling Elephant size) and also had a shirt custom made).

Mode of transportation .... just could not resist when I saw this tuk tuk being used to transport building materials.

Mode of transportation II ... This lady was scavenging for recyclable goods and had all the different bags attached to her scooter.

Barges on the Mekong River, these flat bottom boats are used as taxis, to transport goods or to live on.

Kayaking on the Namu river .... it was a lot of fun although Captain Adventure had a very hard time with the first 3 rapids. Every single time I went for a swim, loosing all my stuff in the currents before I figured out how to do it. But it was fun !!!!!

We visited the waterfalls of Kwang Si and there they had a big fenced in area where they held several of these black bears. These two had a serious fight going on ....

There was also another large area where this gorgeous Laos Tiger was held in captivity. She was rescued as a small cub from poachers. Majestically!!!

And of course there were the waterfalls too.

More waterfalls ....

Monkey Business ..... This guy fell asleep on the chair and his monkey was roaming through what little hair he had remaining on his head.

This dog puppy was chasing 3 little chicks .... it was hilarious to watch.

And then we got stuck on the Mekong ..... right in the middle we hit a sandbank and got stuck. We had to work pretty hard to get the boat going again .... the highlight of the day!

A fisher family living directly on the river .... I am sure they have to move during rainy season.

A small village and the shore of the Mekong. I liked the spectacular mountains in the backdrop.

Laos - Luang Prababang

2007-02-22T13:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I travelled from Siem Reap to Luang Prabang in Laos. More details will follow soon.

Cambodia - Temples of Angkor (Siem Reap) III

2007-02-21T14:00:00.002-08:00

Unfortunately I was not able to add much detail to these photos in the recent days. I have been busy traveling and enjoying myself .... sorry. I will do my best to add more details soon.

For Georg:

I was strolling through this market for local folks when I watched a woman scraping the skin and hairs of some pig legs .... I walked closer and saw these heads next to the stand. A little shocking, but that's life here.

Well, the market was not just about pig heads, they were also selling fish, fruits and vegetables and even had some gambling going on. I bought two shirts after haggling a bit and enjoyed being a bit like the first "whitey" ever at this market. Good to meet the people.

More temples ...

A gate to the temple, the surrounding walls have crumbled and it seems that this gate will soon have the same fate.

Local people selling fruits and vegetables next to the road.

And more temples ....

This guard was absolutely exhausted from watching tourists and making sure that they did not touch the carvings, so he fell into a peaceful sleep.

Did I say temples .... and this is only a small number of the photos of all the temples I took.

Buddha ..... it seems the Buddhists took over many of the temple remains for their purposes.

Unfortunately many temples and palaces are slowly falling apart. Time is running out and in my opinion it will be difficult to safe this amazing wonder.

Mode of transportation .... luckily I had the camera ready when this family of four was driving bye on one scooter.

Cambodia - Temples of Angkor (Siem Reap) II

2007-02-21T14:00:00.001-08:00

Unfortunately I was not able to provide a lot of details with these photos as of yet. I will do my best to add soon.

Traffic jam at the South Gate cars, buses, tuk tuks, pedestrians and ..... elephants.

Thousands and thousands of tourists crawling over the temple of Bayon ....

One of the many carved faces at the temple.

The amazing Bas Reliefs depicting battle scenes of the war with the Cham (Vietnam) and also simple scenes from day to day life. The carvings are hundreds of meters long.

Somehow I managed to get a shot of the backside of Bayon with no tourists. Yeah!

Climbing a 50 meter high temple is not easy. The steps were about 1/2 a foot wide and in many places washed out quite a bit, a treacherous climb. Especially when you are afraid of height like me.

The amazing symbiosis of nature and human buildings at Pra Thom. Slowly the jungle is taking control again and is creating these amazing fusions of men made buildings and trees.

Unfortunately many temples are in pretty bad shape. Only few are being restored and it seems none of the proceeds go back into the maintenance of the temples. Rumours say the money flows to Vietnam as pay back for the liberation of Cambodia. A French team is trying to safe this amazing temple that unfortunately collapsed a couple of years ago.

Nature is taking back what belongs to her ....

These trees seem to grow right out of the stone ....

A temple tower from the inside .... just loved the play of light and the geometry of the building.

Angkor Wat ..... boy there were thousands and thousands of people marching towards the temple. Inside it was an absolute madness and it was very difficult to enjoy. Nevertheless it was amazing!

Cambodia - Temples of Angkor (Siem Reap) I

2007-02-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

I just spent 4 days in Siem Reap, primarily to visit the temples of Angkor, such as the famous Angkor Wat and Bayon. I am usually a big history buff, but hard core temple visits for 9 straight hours in the heat of Cambodia really "templed" me out. Check back in soon for many photos (I took hundreds) and for more updates.

Thailand - Paradise found (Koh Phangan)

2007-02-18T14:00:00.000-08:00

After wonderful days in Koh Tao I was a little sad to leave the island. I took an early catamaran to the neighboring island of Koh Phangan. When I arrived there in Thongsala the harbor was full of young, tired and still a little overhung people ..... the remains of the famous "Full Moon" party in Had Rin on Koh Phanang. I had timed my arrival for two days after the party. Typically thousands of absolutely intoxicated young people party on the beach until sunrise and more ..... Since I had to go through Had Rin I planned to avoid the huge crowds. Upon arrival I took a shared taxi bus to Had Rin. The roads were so steep at times that the bus driver shifted into 1st gear and still we just barely made it. We got dropped close to the harbor and I "schlepped" my heavy backpack there to find a long tail taxi boat to Had Tien. After waiting for over an hour (I did not want to pay the 1000 baht "go now" fare) I saw two other backpackers taking off with a boat driver. I asked them if they were heading to Had Rien and since that was their destination I joined them. After an extremely bumpy ride of 30 minutes and getting completely soaked we finally arrived in Had Tien. This secluded beach can only be reached by boat or by hiking for 2 hours over a rugged path across the mountains from Had Rin. No streets and cars, very quite ......
I asked around for "The Sanctuary", which is the small retreat I had booked the fasting. I checked into the dorm room and immediately got in touch with some of the fellow fasters. For the first two days I had to prepare by just eating raw foods. I had a bowl of fruit for "lunch" and a small salad for dinner. The next morning I had again a bowl of fruit and a small salad for lunch. I was already starving without even beginning the fast. After lunch I passed the pH test and was allowed to officially start the fast. Now I was on a tight schedule for the next 7 days.

Fasting Schedule

07:00 am Psyllium / Clay shake

08:30 am Herbs supplement

09:00 am "Cleansing" procedure

10:00 am Psyllium / Clay shake

13:00 pm Psyllium / Clay shake

02:30 pm Herbs supplement

02:50 pm Lymph Flush (Carrot Ginger Juice)

04:00 pm Psyllium / Clay shake

04:00 pm "Cleansing" procedure

05:30 pm Herbs supplement

07:00 pm Vegetable Broth

I have top admit I was really expecting very strong physical withdrawal symptoms and cravings for food. It actually did not really happen. No stomach growling or hunger attacks. The really difficult part were the mental cravings .... the thoughts about food, about coffee, about beer ..... I even had very realistic food dreams ..... a piece of French Camenbert with a sip pf red wine, a grilled cheese sandwich (that did not have enough cheese), Alsacien "Tarte Flambe" (Flammenkuchen) ..... it was a little surreal. Later in the fast we started studying the menu of the restaurant to plan what we would eat as our first meal after the fast. Sharing "the fate" with other fasters really made it much easier and we laughed a lot about the "cleansing procedure" experiences and such .... Only on day 4 I did not feel well. I was extremely low on energy and had a hard time doing Yoga.

Every day I had a 90 minute Yoga class, went swimming in the Ocean, used the herbal steam room and of course had a massage, either a soothing oil massage or a bone breaking Thai massage. Boy, having somebody walk on your back is quite an experience. The last days I also started doing my Pilates exercises again. Day 7 I started feeling really good and day 9 I felt just awesome. I also did a lot of reading, for example I finished the book of my dear friend Shana. She did a wonderful job finishing her first book about a voice over artist in New York and hopefully you will all be able to buy it in stores soon. I liked it very much! Great book Shana!!!!

In summary I have to say that I simply felt I had found paradise. I have never been relaxed like this in more than 10 years. Doing Yoga and meditation everyday was also a great experience and I am not shying away from singing "oooohhhhhhmmmmmm" loudly :-)

In addition I feel that I earned some bonus points by loosing around 6 to 8 kilos (15 to 20 pounds). It is normal to put some of it back on as soon as you start eating, but it would be awesome to keep 4 kilos off. Anyways, it was absolutely worth it and I will definitely do it again. I feel good!

The small but beautiful Had Tien beach.

Every morning I had this spectacular view of the sunrise, reading my book and going for an early swim .... I miss it!

"The Sanctuary" where I was staying at the Wellness Center to do my fasting and detox.

Just another view of the beach. You can see 2 of the lomgtail boat taxis that are used to shuttle people back to Had Rin.

Thailand - Relaxing and Diving (Koh Tao)

2007-02-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

After a very interesting but also exhausting trip through India I continued my trip to Thailand. A quick stop in Bangkok to recover from a really bad cold and cough without really doing too much sight seeing. I simply tried to recharge my batteries, read and do some travel planning for the coming weeks. Only on my last day I ventured out and walked several miles through downtown Bangkok, watching the busy big city life, getting annoyed with all the sex tourists (unbelievable) and then had dinner ..... yeahhhh ..... at a German restaurant called "Bei Otto". It was good, but totally overpriced compared with everything else I have experienced in Bangkok so far. After a short stay of 3 days I traveled on to the small island of Koh Tao (close to Koh Samui). Life is passing on a different pace here ..... very relaxed and laid back. I am staying in a wonderful little beach resort (Sensi Paradise Beach) and have a little bungalow all to myself. Koh Tao is a divers destination and I completed a dive course "Advanced Open Water". Initially I had to fight my anxiety, even after several dives in the past I am still not fully over the problem to descend and breathing through a regulator. Somehow it does not feel normal to me and I always have the urge to go back to the surface and breathe fresh air, especially through my nose. Also, I had quite a few problems equalizing the pressure in my ears. Part of this might be caused by the cold that I have. The dive school ("Dive Point") I had chosen based on recommendations was absolutely great and the instructor s as well as the entire staff on the boat have been extremely professional and helpful. With every dive my fears diminished a little more and also my problems with the pressure. I was absolutely excited when I finished a deep dive to 30 meters. Not only could I actually enjoy diving without worrying too much about my ears, but seeing sharks very close by provided quite a thrill. I loved it and was almost excited to get back into the water for a multi-level dive. That very same day I also completed a night dive, which was something completely new and amazing. Everything is so different at night ..... however, when we met another group of divers I was a little confused at first since we had been just the two of us for quite some time. At first I did not realize it was other divers, suddenly their was some light and dark shades moving through the water. Nevertheless the night dive was an awesome experience and I want to do more.

The last days I have been just chilling, reading, catching up on my journal and pampering myself with massages and more ... life is good. Tomorrow I will be traveling to another island Koh Phangan where I will be staying in a resort to fast for 7 days, do yoga and meditation and of course have a massage every day. I will try to update my blog with some more details and photos over the next couple of days, Internet availability permitting.

Dive boat in Koh Tao ....

Just another sun set ..... (Koh Tao)

The beach (Koh Tao) viewed from my hotel.

India - Agra and the famous Taj Mahal

2007-01-24T23:26:00.000-08:00

Oh what a glorious name ..... Taj Mahal ....... mysterious tomb for love separated too early by tragic death ..... but before we got there we visited the old capital of the Mughal empire "Fatehpur Sikri".

The "Diwan-i-Khas" – Hall of Private Audience, the building is supported by one single central beam spreading cross beams to the 4 corners.

The mosque in Fatehpur Sikri, one of the largest in the world. It was kind of funny that on the one hand they make you of our shoes in respect, but it was totally cool to talk on the cell phone.

A kitchen in one of the local restaurants, finally I understood why preparing food for 12 people at the same time can be a challenge with only one gas burner.

A typical construction project in India, lots of people and primarily manual labor, no machines or sophisticated tools. Well, it gets the job done!

After a quick lunch on a roof top restaurant we continued our journey to Agra.

You walk through the gate and ..... wow ...... suddenly you look at the Taj Mahal and get all giddy and excited. It was definitely the highlight of the trip.

Of course we could not just take simple photos, jumping for joy to be there and see this magnificent building.

Taj Mahal viewed at sunset from the front, with the reflections in the pools.

Some monkeys posing for photographs in return for food.

The Red Fort in Agra looking at one of the main gates. The Fort was rather a collection of palaces than a military facility designed for warfare.

For those of you who would like to read some more facts:

Fatehpur Skri

It was the political capital of India's Mughal Empire under Akbar's reign, from 1571 until 1585, when it was abandoned, ostensibly due to lack of water. It is located in what is now Uttar Pradesh. Built in honor of Sufi saint Salim Chishti in 1571 by Mughal emperor Akbar. Fatehpur Sikri shared its imperial duties as a capital city with Agra, where a bulk of the arsenal, treasure hoards, and other reserves were kept at its Red Fort for security. During a crisis, the court, harem, and treasury could be removed to Agra, only 26 miles away, less than a day's march. Innovations in land revenue, coinage, military organisation, and provincial administration emerged during the Fatehpur Sikri years.

Diwan-i-Khas – Hall of Private Audience

It is regarded as emperor Akbar's crowning architectural legacy. Indeed, its numerous palaces, halls, and masjids satisfy his creative and aesthetic impulses, typical of Mughals. Fatehpur Sikri is a World Heritage Site. Some contemporary Indian architects, notably B. V. Doshi, have cited it as an important source of inspiration. Architect or layperson, this city generally captures the imagination and wonder of all who experience its urban spaces and see its buildings. Charles and Ray Eames, cited Fatehpur Sikri in the landmark 'India Report' that led to the conception of the National Institute of Design, India's premiere design school. It is here, that the legends of Akbar and his clever courtier Birbal must have arisen. Another of his navratnas, Tansen, perhaps had performance spaces integrated within the architecture of this fort.

Agra and the Taj Mahal

Agra is a medieval city on the banks of the Yamuna River in India. It was founded by Sultan Sikandar Lodi in the year 1506. It lies currently in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It achieved fame as the capital of the Mughal emperors from 1526 to 1658 and remains a major tourist destination because of its many splendid Mughal-era buildings, most notably the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri, all three of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Agra is a medieval city situated on the banks of the river Yamuna. It is generally accepted that Sultan Sikandar Lodi, the Ruler of Delhi Sultanate founded it in the year 1506. After the sultans death the city passed on to his son Sultan Ibrahim Lodi. He ruled his Sultanate from Agra till he fell fighting to Babur in the First battle of Panipat fought in 1526. With the Mughals started the golden age of Agra. It remained the capital of the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan later shifted his capital to Shahjahanabad in the year 1649.Since Agra was one of the most important cities under the Mughals, it witnessed a lot of building activity. Babar, the founder of the Mughal dynasty laid out the first formal Persian garden on the banks of river Yamuna. The garden is called the Aram Bagh or the Garden of Relaxation. His grandson Akbar raised the towering ramparts of the Great Red Fort besides making Agra a center for learning arts, commerce and religion. Akbar also built a new city on the outskirts of Agra called Fatehpur Sikri. This city was built in the form of a Mughal military camp in stone. His son Jahangir had a love of gardens and flora and fauna and laid many gardens inside the Red Fort or Laal Kila. Shah Jahan known for his keen interest in architecture gave Agra its most prized monument, The Taj Mahal. Built in loving memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, the mausoleum was completed in 1643. Shah Jahan later shifted the capital to Delhi during his reign, but this son Aurangzeb shifted the capital back to Agra and had his father imprisoned in the Agra Fort. Agra remained capital of India during the rule of Aurangzeb till he shifted it to Aurangabad in the Deccan in 1653. After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the city came under the influence of Marathas and Jats before falling into the hands of The British Raj in 1803.

Taj Mahal

Agra's Taj Mahal is one of the most famous buildings in the world and has been declared a World Heritage Site. It is the mausoleum of Shah Jahan's favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It is closed for visitors every Friday in observance of Muslim holy day.

Agra Fort

Agra's dominant structure, the Agra Fort (also called the Red Fort), was built by Akbar in 1565. The red sandstone fort was renovated and converted into a palace during Shah Jahan's time, and reworked extensively with marble and pietra dura inlay. Notable buildings in the fort include the Pearl Mosque, the Diwan-e-Am and Diwan-e-Khas (halls of public and private audience), Jehangir's Palace, Khaas Mahal, Sheesh Mahal (mirrored palace), and Musamman Burj.

India - Keoloda Bird Sanctuary

2007-01-24T23:13:00.000-08:00

At one point this must gave been an amazing place. In the days of the last Maharajah wealthy people from all over the world travelled here to hunt and shoot water foal. After many years of draught and not many funds to maintain the place it has pretty much dried up and hardly any migrating birds stop here to wait for spring anymore. Really said ....

One of the few large birds we saw .... grey ???? I am definitely not a twitcher (British for bird watcher) as you can tell by my vast knowledge.

"Kitsch photo" .... for lack of other interesting objects I took about 20 sunset shots :-)

A group of deer suddenly came to the water front to drink it was interesting to watch, especially when to male deer got in a little fight over the territory.

One of the many Parakeets, they were everywhere.

India - On the road again ....

2007-01-24T14:00:00.000-08:00

Just a few impressions from our trip to the Keoloda Bird Sanctuary.

A bicycle repair shop on the roadside.

The area we passed through was full of brick factories. Usually there a large fields were clay is mixed with water and the raw bricks are dried in the sun before they are carted to these ovens to "burn" them.

A closer look of one of these brick factories.

India - Jaipur (The Pink City)

2007-01-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

Jaipur .... the "Pink City". One could wonder why the city has this name. The colour pink, well it seems that there are many different interpretations ..... for me pink looks like pink, however wandering through the streets of Jaipur it seems that pink has a different meaning. Nothing I saw reminded me of pink. Well, Jodhpur the "Blue City" was at least partially blue, meaning that many houses were painted blue, but the colors in Jaipur looked more like (red) ochre to me. Our guide did not really have a good answer to our question and was a little evasive. Maybe ochre turns pink at sunset?.... oh well. Maybe I am just picky because I did not like Jaipur much ... it was too busy, chaotic and too dirty for my taste. Especially after visiting the beautiful and peaceful Udaipur with its amazing location on a lake there was not really much that I like about Jaipur. Most of the sights, except the City Palace were not well maintained and pretty run down, however there seem to be some recent effort to restore some of the former glory.

The Amber Palace beneath the Amber Fort in in Amber, the former capital of the Kachhwaha Rajputs on a hillside overlooking Maotha lake, 11 km from Jaipur. There were many construction workers busy trying to restore the palace to its old glory, but I am afraid that many things such as the wall paintings will be gone forever.

Bamboo scaffolding on the outer wall of the Amber Palace. After many years of neglect it seems that efforts are under way to partially restore the palace.

Elephants waiting to transport tourists up to the palace.

Different ways to transport goods I - amazing what you can stack on a bike riksha.

Different ways to transport goods II - a little more?

Different ways to transport goods III.

A roadside barber shop. I was amazed that there were actually quite a few and most of them frequented quite well. This one also provided head massages before a haircut, but it looked to me more like a serious head bashing since there was no gentleness at all in the massage, but rather heavy beating with the flat hand.

The Wind Palace .... built for the wives and concubines of the Maharadja near a busy business street full of shops, so that they could watch the "real life" going on in the streets below without being seen.

This is how the women would see the street and shops below through viewing slits carved in the marble.

Construction workers scraping of old mortar from marble slabs so that they could be reused for the renovation of the Albert Hall, which houses the City Museum.

The City Palace. The only sight I really enjoyed, well maintained with interesting museums.

For those of you who would like to learn a little more facts:

Jaipur (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaipur for more info), also popularly known as the Pink City, historically sometimes rendered as Jeypore, is the capital of Rajasthan state, India. Jaipur is also the capital of Jaipur District. Jaipur is the former capital of the princely state of Jaipur. The city was founded in 1728 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber. The population in 2003 was approximately 2.7 million.
The city was built of pink stucco in imitation of sandstone, and is remarkable among pre-modern Indian cities for the width and regularity of its streets. The city is laid out into six quarters, separated by broad streets 111 ft (34 m) wide. The urban quarters are further divided by networks of gridded streets. Five quarters wrap around the east, south, and west sides of a central palace quarter, with a sixth quarter immediately to the east. The Palace quarter encloses a sprawling palace complex (the Hawa Mahal, or palace of winds), formal gardens, and a small lake. Nahargarh Fort crowns the hill in the northwest corner of the old city. Another noteworthy building is Sawai Jai Singh's observatory, Jantar Mantar. Jaipur, with its rich and colourful past, resplendent with tales of valour and bravery is now one of the most important heritage cities in India, and is a must-see for tourists coming to India.
Jaipur is considered by many urbanists to be one of the best planned cities. Almost all Indian towns of that period presented a chaotic picture of narrow twisting lanes, a confusion of run-down forts/temples/palaces and temporary shacks that bore no resemblance at all to the principles set out in Hindu architectural manuals, which calls for strict geometric planning. Thus, for Sawai Jai Singh II and the Bengali Guru Vidyadhar (who belonged to the 'Shaspati' order of Hindu Priest Architects), the founding of Jaipur was also a ritual and a golden opportunity to plan a whole town according to the principles of Hindu architectural theory. The town of Jaipur is in fact, built in the form of a nine-part Mandala known as the 'Pithapada'. In the 19th century the city grew rapidly and became prosperous, with a population of 160,000 in 1900, and the city's wide boulevards were paved and lit with gas. Its chief industries were in metals and marble, which are fostered by a school of art, founded in 1868. There was also a wealthy and enterprising community of native bankers. The city had three colleges and several hospitals.

Nahargarh Fort Amber Palace

The Amber Palace complex overlooking the artificial lake south of Amber town is one of the most popular tourist sites in the city, famous for its mixture of Hindu and Muslim architecture, and offering elephant rides from the town up to the palace courtyard. However, although the structure is today known as Amber fort, the complex was initiatlly a Palace Complex within the Fort of Amber which is today known as Jaigarh fort.

Jaigarh Fort

The Jaigarh Fort on the hills above the Amber Palace complex offers stunning views of the foothills of the Aravalli range, as well as attractions such as immense underground water-storage tanks, a medieval canon foundry and an impressive collection of medieval cannons including the Jaivana which is reputed to be the world's largest cannon on wheels. Historically this was the original Amber Fort, although it became known as Jaigarh from the time of Sawai Jai Singh II onwards. Jal Mahal is located in Jaipur India, which is the capital of the State of Rajasthan. It is on the way to Sisodia garden. The rajput style "Water Palace" sits in the center of the Man Sarobar lake. The lake is often dry in the summer but winter monsoons frequently turn it into a beautiful lake filled with water hyacinths.

India - Udaipur

2007-01-16T14:00:00.000-08:00

Our next city to visit was Udaipur. Udaipur (उदयपुर) is a city and a municipal council in Udaipur district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is the historic capital of the former kingdom of Mewar, and the administrative headquarters of Udaipur District. Udaipur was the capital of the Rajput kingdom of Mewar, ruled by Ranawats of the Sisodia clan. The ancient capital of Mewar was Chittor or Chittorgarh, located on the Banas River northeast of Udaipur. Legend has it that Maharana Udai Singh came upon a hermit while hunting in the foothills of the Aravalli Range. The hermit blessed the king and asked him to build a palace on the spot and it would be well protected. Udai Singh established a residence there. In 1568 the Mughal emperor Akbar captured Chittor, and Udai Singh moved the capital to the site of his residence, which became the city of Udaipur. As the Mughal empire weakened, the Sisodia ranas, and later maharanas, reasserted their independence and recaptured most part of Mewar except the fort of Chittor. Udaipur remained the capital of the state, which became a princely state of British India in 1818. After India's Independence in 1947, the Maharaja of Udaipur acceded to the Government of India, and Mewar was integrated into India's Rajasthan state. For more info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udaipur,_Rajasthan

For me personally Udaipur has been one of the nicest places in Rajasthan so far. It is a cute and especially clean city (at least in the touristy old part of town near the Palace) and I enjoyed my stay very much.

The Lake Palace seem from the lake itself at sun set.

Local woman doing the laundry in the lake. Also many people use the lake as a big bath tub.

A sweets store in the shopping area of Udaipur. They serve delicious (but very sweet candies, and deserts) that they make on the premises. Here one of the employees cooks milk to evaporate most of the water and provide a naturally sweet base for a desert.

A construction project in the Lake Palace. It was always amazing to watch how simple, yet efficient these projects moved forward. However, again I had the impression that the women are doing the more physically challenging labor, e.g. carrying the mortar and bricks.

A dancer balancing clay pots on her head. She reached a maximum of 11 clay pots that reached almost 1,50 m high above her head, while dancing or marching on glass pieces.

Off course we need another "Kitsch" photo. The lake at sunset.

A view from the roof deck of our hotel. It had amazing views over the lake.

A view from the hotel roof deck.

A 5 star hotel in the lake itself where many scenes of the James Bond movie "Octopussi" have been shot.

Mode of transportation. Woman commonly carry large loads of fire wood, water and other goods n their head.

Cooking class ..... for several hours we learned how to prepare Indian meals, Massala Chai, Chiapati, vegetable cutlets and curries. It was a lot of fun and we got to eat what we cooked .... it was actually quite good. Here you see Liz (a.k.a. Frodo) and myself.

India More Impressions (Bhenswara)

2007-01-16T13:00:00.000-08:00

More text will follow soon now that I have Internet access again.

India - Impressions from Jodhpur

2007-01-15T13:00:00.000-08:00

After a long bus ride in a local bus we arrived in Jodhpur (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodhpur for more details). Jodhpur (जोधपुर), is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It was formerly the seat of a princely state of the same name, also known as Marwar. Jodhpur is a popular tourist destination, featuring many beautiful palaces, forts and temples, apart from a stark, scenic desert landscape. The city is known as the "Sun City" for the bright, sunny weather it enjoys all year. It is also referred as the Blue City, due to the indigo tinge of the whitewashed houses around the Mehrangarh Fort. Jodhpur is also known for gentleness of its people. Jodhpur lies near the geographic center of Rajasthan state, which makes it a convenient base for travel in a region much frequented by tourists. The old city of Jodhpur is surrounded by a thick stone wall. The wall has six huge gates called Nagauri gate, Merati gate, Sojati gate, Jalori gate, Siwanchi gate and Chand pol. In the center of the old city is a bustling market full of shops for textiles, tailors, spices, soaps, incense sticks and many other goods.

The new Umaid Bhawan Palace of Jodhpur.

The "recycling area" of the market. People collect all kinds of recycles and sell them here on the market.

Spices in many amazing colors .....

The Mehrangarh Fort viewed from the market.

A local store for construction goods and materials I dubbed "Home Depot".

The Jaswant Thada is architectural landmark found in Jodhpur. It is a white marble memorial built in 1899 in memory of Maharja Jaswant Singh II. The monument, in its entirety, is built out of intricately carved sheets of marble. These stones are extremely thin and polished so that they emit a warm glow when the sun's rays dance across their surface. Within this cenotaph, there are also two more tombs.

A small squirrel in one of the gun holes of the outer wall Mehrangarh Fort.

Jodphur is also called the "Blue City" due to the fact that many houses are painted in blue. Originally to indicate that Brahmans lived in the house, but also as a way to keep the house cool, it is supposedly also working as a good insect repellent. Here is a view from the castle.

Another view of the "Blue City".

The Jaswant Thada as seen from the Fort.

The Mehrangarh Fort is one of the most amazing forts or castles I have ever visited. It is wonderfully maintained and houses an awesome museum. It lies at the outskirts of Jodhpur city and is located atop a 125 m high hill. The magnificent Mehrangarh Fort (Jodhpur ka kila) is the most majestic and one of the largest forts in India. It was originally started (c.1459) by Rao Jodha, founder of Jodhpur. However, most of the extant fort dates from the period of Jaswant Singh (1638-78). The walls of the fort are up to 36 m high and 21 m wide; they enclose some exquisite structures.

India - Totally crazy New Dehli

2007-01-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

After a wonderful short visit for Christmas and New Years with my friends in San Francisco I started my trip to India on January 1st. I have to admit that I had a hard time leaving again. It was just too nice to be back home, although a little strange after being gone for such a long time. My friends did an amazing job welcoming me back home. Especially the surprise birthday party organized by Stefan and hosted in my old apartment by my friend and house sitter / renter Gerry was awesome. Thank you all for that!!!

After recovering from a wonderful New Years Eve party at Georg's a 12 hour flight brought me to Munich and after a short 1 1/2 hour layover I continued to New Dehli. We arrived at 7:30 am and after a very quick process through immigration and customs I got a pre-paid taxi to my hotel. The drive was quite interesting, many new impressions .... crazy traffice, holy cows on the street, veiled women in colorful clothing, but also lots of poverty. It was quite foggy and freezing cold ... well, so much about shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops all the time. My cab driver had a hard time finding the place, but finally we arrived and I checked into my room.

Once I had settled in I had my first Chai and met one of my travel group mates, Chris from Switzerland. We decided to venture out and explore the neighborhood of our hotel. Just two blocks away is one of the biggest market areas for clothing of New Dehli (well actually old Dehli) and we immersed immediately into a cacophony of noises and smells and new impressions. It is hard to put in words how it felt simply because it is so different. People trying to sell you things you have never expected to find here maps anyone? Or how about a big leather whip? Tuk-Tuk drivers following you for two blocks or more just trying to talk you into a tourist tour around the city, beggars hanging on to you trying to get some money ..... it was almost too overwhelming. Nevertheless it is very exciting and a great experience. We will see what will happen during the next days. We will spend one more day in Dehli before we begin our tour of Rajastan. Stay tuned for more.

On my way to India

2007-01-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

Hello All and Happy New Year!

Hope you had a great Holiday season. I just left San Francisco for India to continue my travels in Asia. I have spent a couple of wonderful days with my friends and had a hard time leaving, but I guess once I set foot in India this will change quickly. More later,

Ralf

Ecuador - The Galapagos

2006-12-29T13:00:00.000-08:00

Keeping my blog up to date is sometimes quite challenging. Sometimes you simply have a very slow connection, sometimes the changes you have made don't get saved before the computer crashes or there is simply no Internet available at all. This was the case in the Galapagos and so I was not able t create any postings at all. The plan was to get my blog up to date during my visit over the Holidays in San Francisco, but for many reasons I was just not able to do more than post a couple of pictures. Actually quite a few .... Now twice my comments have been erase due to computer problems and here you are now witnessing my third attempt. I promise to save frequently. Like in just now. Simply enjoy the photos and I promise to provide more details later, although that might be after my return to San Francisco in 2007.

Giant turtle in the Darwin center of Santa Cruz Island. Here eggs are brought in from all the islands to breed the eggs and raise the young turtles for abut 5 years until they are big enough to survive on their own.

A Land Iguana hanging out in the sunshine, soaking up the warmth. I got really close in front of him to make this shot. Nice hairdo ....

A "sinkhole" we visited on Santa Cruz Island. Te flora down in the hole is endemic to the Galapagos.

A lava tunnel from the last eruption many million years ago. In these tunnels hot lava was flowing into the ocean. The sea water cooled down the exterior and created the tunnels which extended further and further into the ocean.

The harbor of Santa Cruz shortly before our departure.

Sea Lyons hanging out in the surf. It was amazing how close we could get to them, it would have been no problem to touch them.

A Sea Lyon cleaning itself after rolling around in the sand.

A Sea Lyon baby struggling in the rocks.

A mix between Land Iguana and Sea Iguana ...

A closer shot, this example was about 3 feet long.

Of course there has to be a "Kitsch" shot, it is not coming out as great as in the original photo, but it hopefully can describe the atmosphere.

More Sea Lyons .....

Sea Iguanas hanging out in the rocks, soaking up the sun. They actually spend many hours a day sun bathing to heat up their bodies before they go hunting in the ocean for more than an hour.

A light house on one f the islands.

A big group of Sea Iguanas sunbathing.

The Galapagos are all about boobies. I would have never thought to hear me say that I have seen enough boobies for the next 5 years .... Well, these are actually birds and here you see a "Blue Footed Booby" posing.

A "Masked Booby".

An old volcano covered in eerie lighting, in the foreground a lagoon where there were many Flamingos.

Flamingos feeding in the lagoon. More pictures once I have worked them in photoshop.

A "stop sign" not to enter the breeding area of the sea turtles.

The beautiful beach where we watched the sea turtles.

A big crab running around the rocks.

The same volcano crater as above with a beautiful beach in the foreground.

A mail box installed on one of the islands. In the past sailors who came by could drop their mail and pick up letters for their destination harbor. All letters would be hand delivered for free.

Another "Kitsch" photo of an island in the sun set.

Happy Holidays

2006-12-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

A couple of days ago I was still in the magnificent Galapagos Islands and now I am back here in the cold winter of San Francisco. Well, it is not really cold in general (60 degrees), but considering that I was used to shorts and flip flops and about 90 degrees it feels like Antarctica.

My friends gave me a wonderful warm welcome and an awesome birthday surprise party .... it feels good to be back for a little while.

In case I have missed you with my Christmas eMail I would like to wish you a wonderful, merry, merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all the best for 2007. May the new year bring you all you are wishing for, but definitely lots of health, happiness, luck, love, peace and of course a good dose of fun too. I will be heading to India on January 1st to continue my adventure. All the best,

Ralf

On my way to San Francisco

2006-12-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

Hello,

It is December 19th and I am leaving Quito (Ecuador) for San Francisco. Will update my blog shortly. Look forward to seeing some of you in San Francisco soon. Have a wonderful day!

Cheers,

Ralf

Next stops:

San Francisco (USA)

Ecuador - Impressions of Quito

2006-12-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

From Santiago I flew to my last destination Quito in Ecuador. After a short stop in Guayaquil we reached the airport. Quito (official name: San Francisco de Quito) is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in northern Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin on the eastern slopes of the Pichincha ( 15,728 ft; 4,794 m), an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains. The city's elevation is 9,300 ft (2,850 m) above sea level (measured at the Plaza de la Independencia), making Quito the second highest capital city in the world. The city's population according to the most recent census (2001) was 1,399,378. In 2005, however, the estimated population was 1,865,541 (canton). The area of Quito is approximately 112 square miles (290 km²).

The new part of town is not really nice, although most of the tourist "life" happens there, however the old part of town is really beautiful, with lots of colonial style buildings and small little streets and alleys. It does not feel like a tourist center and it is primarily locals walking about and all the shops are geared towards the local population, very little touristy stuff. It felt like in every door entry there was a little business established, selling fruits and vegetables, meat, fish or different dishes. Sometimes I had no idea what it was that they were selling. I even ventured into a local hair dresser. I guess I was the first gringo customer ever and for about $2 I got quite a good haircut.

An old mansion being restored close to my hotel.

On Sunday there was an arts and crafts market in a park nearby. This band was playing and selling CDs. Very similar to Peruvian music.

I simply liked the contrast of old and new in this photo.

The "old" town was full of beautiful old buildings, the streets were closed to traffic except buses to convert the whole area in a pedestrian only zone for Sunday shopping.

The "Plaza de Armas" or main square.

One of the many little food stands in a doorway. I had no idea what type of food it was.

Again the contrast old and new, this small alley with old houses stretching up the hill side and on top some modern new facility (unfortunately I have no idea what it was).

In the park there were also lots of little food stands, fruit juices, BBQ and much more.

Chile - Impressions of Santiago

2006-12-10T12:35:00.000-08:00

Santiago, the capital of Chile is located at the foothills of a large mountain range. It is a very modern city and there is a lot of construction going on. Especially the new areas in the business district could be anywhere in Dallas or Boston, modern glass and steel towers hosting lots of office space. Nevertheless there are very many old parts of the city, personally I liked Bellavista the best, not much traffic, cozy atmosphere and lots of street cafes, bars and restaurants. A perfect area to enjoy the great weather. It was kind of funny to walk around in shorts, T-shirt and flip flops, enjoying the sun and warm temperatures, but then having Christmas decoration and lights everywhere.

I have to admit I did not do many "touristy" things and spend very little time exploring the city. After San Pedro de Atacama I was just too tired, physically, but also mentally. I took the time to relax, see a dentist to check up on the tooth that bothered me so tremendously in the dessert, catch up on my blog and just "chill" a little.

One of the many modern office high rises in Santiago.

The B&B I was staying at, the perfect place in a quite side street (next to the French embassy), just a few minutes walk from Bellavista.

After a couple of days I moved to a different hostel, the "Happy House Hostel" in a different part of town. The Barrio Brazil must have been a very wealthy neighbourhood in the past, now it seems to be getting slowly better after many years of neglect. I especially liked this little area with many old houses and a really good restaurant.

The "Happy House Hostel", one of the best hostels I have ever stayed at. A little more expensive, but it was worth it. An old refurbished mansion, high ceilings, hard wood floors, painted in many funky colors, cool interior design and an awesome roof deck. Almost a "home away from home".

Finally I started exploring a little. Nothing special abut this photo, I was just trying to capture the atmosphere for you.

More impressions ....

Of course I fulfilled my tourist duty in the end. I spent one day walking around the city, using the great subway system to explore as much as possible in one day .... I was exhausted by the end of the day :-)

The Presidential Palace .... when Pinochet took over many years ago it was set on fire and under mysterious circumstances Allende died. Interesting, just two days after I left Pinochet died and there were big demonstrations and protests right here. Glad I missed that.

Santiago offers an intriguing combination of old and new ....

.... especially here. The old church on the main square, right next to it an ultra modern glass high rise and kind of in between this huge Christmas tree.

Next to Bellavista is a mountain with a cable car going all the way to the top. from up there you have spectacular views of the city. Well, I went up there with thousands of Chileans since it was one of the most important religious holidays. Going up was no problem, but coming done there were lines hundreds and hundreds of meters long ..... finally I decided to walk, got lost and was completely exhausted when I finally returned to the base station.

The view from the mountain, unfortunately it was a little cloudy.

Extremely frustrated with Google / Blogger Beta

2006-12-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

May the powers of the Internet be with me. Sitting here in Santiago, Chile trying to update my blog and catch up on some of the days I have not been able to post recently. Unfortunately I can only post text. Driven by extreme frustration I have decided to make this part of my blog. Not that anybody at Google seems to be paying much attention, but it is obvious that there are some major, major problems with the new Google Blogger Beta product. There are already over 65 postings from extremely frustrated Google users trying to upload photos to their blogs without success. And I am pretty sure there are many more out there who have not participated in any Google group yet. When trying to upload photos into my blog, the simple error message states:

"We are sorry, but we were unable to process your request".

That's it, no further information. No acknowledgement anywhere that there are problems. Only once a Google employee responded to these postings so far, some users have had the problem for over 3 days. You might wonder when it will be resolved .....

Now this leads to a different issue, the complete lack of any support infrastructure at Google. Of course you could argue that it is a free service, however since Google is generating a ton of cash by providing this environment you would think that professional support might be adequate. Unfortunately you could also say, well it is a "BETA product" and issues like this should be expected. On a side note Google mail has been in BETA for over a year, if not longer and Google tried really hard to push over to Blogger Beta. Not that the new "BETA Blocker" has improved much over the former product. Many of the old issues still remain and the few functional enhancements for the template management do not really impress me much. Maybe I am simply missing something. However, I only want to maintain my blog and be able to upload photos efficiently, which has been a problem all along. But now it seems to have gotten worse ..... Maybe somebody at Google will read this and fix the problem.
End of rant.

Chile - Atacama Trip to the Lagoons

2006-12-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

Other activities in Atacama included at trip to the lagoons close to Atacama ("Ojos de salar"). At first we reach a salt lagoon with a salt concentration similar to the "Death Sea". It was amazing just to be floating around in the water and taking in the amazing views of the mountains in the background.

The lagoon was actually a deep green, however I was not able to capture the colors. Especially when my battery died and I was not able to take any photos.

Just floating ... it was a strange feeling ..... but good.

The next day I went horse back riding. At this point it was still fun. On our way back we entered the "Quebrada del Diabolo" (The Devil's Gorge).

Over thousands of years water slowly carved this gorge into the mountain. Unfortunately soon thereafter my horse slipped and I lost my balance and fell off the horse. Although I really know how to fall it was extremely painful. I hurt my shoulder, my elbow, my hip and especially bad was that I cut my hand and had a piece of rock stuck into it. Back at the hostel I decided to "operate" myself .... I was simply too scared to go to the hospital and have somebody torture me with tweezers to get the rock out of my hand. Well, so I tortured myself with my little cuticle scissors ..... boy was that painful. Finally I managed to pull it out. Yippeeeey :-)

Well, the aftermath was that I had to use Iodine to disinfect the wound .... ouch.

Chile - Atacama Trip to the Tatio Geysers

2006-12-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

Surrounded by an impressive scenery and arid beauty, the Tatio Geysers is a geothermal field of volcanic origin, where water and steam spring up violently from deep inside the Earth. The geysers are located more than 4,000 m (13,120 ft) above sea level, and therefore morning temperatures are very low. It is also the time of day, between 5:30 and 7:00 am, when the geysers are at their peak and streams can easily reach heights of 10 meters (32.8 ft).Nearby there are hot springs where you can enjoy a thermal bath.

I got picked up at 4:00 am to go to the Tatio Geysers. The bus ride was horrible, freezing cold (-15 degrees and the road was so bumpy that it was impossible to sleep on the bus. I do not remember exactly what time we arrived at the Geysers. Dawn was just approaching, we put on every piece of cloth we could find and walked around to look at the Geysers.

With the sun rising , the steam and the shooting water cascades provided a ghostly atmosphere.

The rising sun reflected on one of the mountain tops.

Hard to see, but this is Captain Adventure in full garb in front of one of the Geysers.

The rising sun, the mountains, the steam .... just another "Kitsch" photo.

.... and since you have not seen enough just one more :-)

Aaaaahhhhh .... after freezing our butts off we went to the hot pools nearby. The water was about 50 degrees Celsius at the hottest and a moderate 30 at the coldest spots. We soaked for about 30 minutes before we continued our trip. Lovely.

We drove through the high dessert and suddenly we reached this green valley with lots of birds roaming around. Beautiful ....

Once a big group of French photo tourists (they all had the most expensive cameras with big hunking zoom lenses) left the place I was able to take in the beautiful landscape.

The small creek lead to a lagoon where we saw lots of Flamingos, unfortunately we could not get any closer to have a better shot.

Chile - Atacama - Valley of the Moon and more ...

2006-12-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

San Pedro the Atacama is a small village of maybe 1000 people. However, it is quite amazing how many tourists you can find in such a tiny place. Pretty much all of the buildings as well as the road are made of Adobe. After a while the red dust really became annoying, it was everywhere. Especially when the wind picked up it was dusty as hell.

On my second day I ventured out to explore the ruins of Quitoro. It was about a 8 km hike round trip. Of course I underestimated the sun and paid dearly with a terrible sun burn .... will I ever learn :-)

"Pukara de Quitor" an pre-Inca fortress. Built in the 12th century and strategically placed on the side of a hill protected by a gorge over the river, the Quitor Pukara is an old Inca fortress that was taken over by Spaniards in 1540. It was built with large and small stones kept together by mud used as mortar. Despite the construction, the Pukara had to be restored for the first time in 1981. Since then, it was restored once again in 1992 by initiative of a Spanish organization.

From the ruins of the fortress there is a strenuous hike up to the mountain top where there is an old tomb grave (see above) and from there you can hike up another hill from which you have incredible 360 degree views.

A different view of the ruins.

The dirt roads of Atacama, quit charming at the beginning.

The "Death Valley", it was hot, the sun was scorching .... but the reason for the name of the valley was a little different. The legend says that old people of Atacama that felt death approaching went into this valley to die. However, no remains have been found until recently. At an unknown location close by archeologists are excavating a large burial site.

Sand and rocks ....

The huge sand dune is being used for sand boarding.

We also visited this huge gorge on our way to the "valley of the moon".

Valley of the Moon is a fantastic moon landscape that is a part of the Cordillera de la Sal (Salt Mountain Range) belonging to the Los Flamencos National Reserve. It is a small depression of salt ground, 1,650 feet (500 m) in diameter, that exhibits odd sculptural shapes. These are the result of a sequence of transformations on the earth's crust caused by the folding of the watery ground underneath the salt lake. Because of its lack of humidity, there is no life here, which has turned it into one of the most inhospitable places on the planet.

A huge sand dune in the "Valley of the Moon", we were there to watch the sunset and some folks hiked up the dune for a beter view.

Impressions of the "Valley of the Moon".

The sunset .....

The sunset changed the color of the rocks to a deep red.

Chile - Road to Atacama

2006-11-29T13:00:00.000-08:00

The road to San Pedro Atacama (Atacama) in Chile is quite a scenic trip, passing mountains of over 4000m, crossing two border controls (which are quite annoying by the way). The landscape is sometime barren as you would imagine on the moon.

A small salt lake on our way.

Some parts of the road were leading basically through dessert.

The closer we got to Chile the dryer the land around us. It seemed that the Argentinian side was much greener and the Chilean side was much more a dessert. Later we found out that it only rains about 15 mm per year here. I guess that explains why. Most of the water coming from the mountains actually travel subterranean.

Argentina - Salta The city

2006-11-28T13:00:00.000-08:00

Salta is a beautiful little city full of colonial style buildings. Below find some impressions of the churches and buildings as well as a picture taken from Cerro St. Bernadino. I just loved hanging out in the cafes around the market square, reading, writing in my journal or just watching people.

The church.

A photo of the city from the top of Cerro St. Bernadino, which can be reached on foot or by gondola.

Argentina - Salta I

2006-11-26T13:00:00.000-08:00

One my first day in Salta I participated in an excursion called "Tren a las Nubes", which supposedly should track the path of this famous train ride between Argentina and Chile. Of course no travel guide includes the information that the train is not running anymore. They closed it a couple of months ago to renovate the tracks and the trains. The plan is to open next winter, however given what I have seen (nothing) I highly doubt that it will be reopened any time soon. Unfortunately like so many other things in Argentina there was no maintenance performed for a long time. The tracks look completely worn out and abandoned. Anyways, we were three tourists, two girls from France (Severine and Claudine) and our guide in a little Renault Kangoo. We started out at 7:00 am in the morning.

Our first stop was Pumamarca and the "Cerro de los siete colores" (The seven colored rock), as seen above.

Next we went to the little village of Pumamarca. Nothing really exciting here, an old church and a arts & crafts market targeted at tourists. Not to mention the fact that I got ripped off in the cafe, but noticed too late.

Pumamarca has a lot of little dirt roads, no pavements. Due to the ever increasing number of tourists there is a lot of construction and I would not be surprised if the village will use its charme soon.

Our next milestone was a mountain pass reaching over 4000m. It was a little road winding up the mountain, our driver speeding a little and passing trucks and buses on the way up. You could definitely feel the change in elevation.

What goes up, must come down ..... We were approaching the salt flats of Salta (in the background), straight down.

There are a few workers who dig these squares to produce pure salt. The salt on the surface is pretty "polluted" with dirt and other things, so they dig these squares 4 x 2 meters approximately and use the sun to evaporate the water. Upon finishing of this process there remains 97% pure salt.

Simple tables made of salt rock .... but it looked kind of mystic .....

Of course you can not dig salt all day long, so some of the workers picked up some skills and carve art work out of salt blocks, e.g. little llamas and other things. They are completely wrapped up in cloth as protection against the strong sun and the reflections from the salt surface.

A cemetery on a hill top, people around here that you are closer to the goods on a mountain top, that's why many sacrifices, holy places and cemeteries are on mountains.

Riding on a dirt road through "nothing" .... however there were lots of llamas and also donkeys.

Not to forget the Vicunas (same family like the lamas, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicu%C3%B1a for more details) that we saw as well.

Finally we reached a little town were we had lunch, I do not quite remember the name. We were an attraction for all the little kids in town and everybody tried to sell us something.

Next we explored some old pre-Incan ruins on top of a mountain, controlling access to three valleys at the same time. There are a lot of speculations why the city was abandoned, but no facts.

The cactus are pretty much the only thing that grows on the hill sides. It produces a fruit that is eatable, the wood can be used as fire wood or create art work.

Finally we reached the train tracks of the "Tren a las nubes", see more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tren_a_las_nubes . The route with all its bridges (29 of them), tunnels (21), viaducts and protection against land slides and water is amazing. Also the zig zag approach that has been used to master the necessary gains in elevation. Here you see Captain Adventure crossing ''La Polvorilla'', a curved viaduct which is 224 meters long and 70 meters high.

Argentina - The Road to Salta

2006-11-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

A day with another long, long bus ride was ahead of me. This time the departure was at least in the evening, so I was hoping to find some sleep somehow. The ride was scheduled for 16 hours .... oh what a lovely thing. Before I left for the bus station I had a beer with an Austrian and a Canadian fellow at the hostel and after taking 2 Melatonin to numb me I was actually able to fall asleep pretty quickly. Well, until 7:00 am when the steward woke me up for "breakfast", I could not believe that. Oh well, I missed the sun rise this time, but took some photos until we arrived in Salta.

We drove through very green, lush mountains on our way to Salta. Not much traffic though.

We had this little truck in front of us transporting either bamboo or sugar cane, I was not quite sure. The bus driver almost pushed the poor guy off the road.

The closer we got to Salta the more rigid the nature became, bare hills endless roads.

Several times I tried to capture people riding on horses just next to the streets, finally I was quick enough.

Argentina - Mendoza

2006-11-23T13:00:00.000-08:00

On my first day in Mendoza I went on an excursion to the mountains. One of the stops was to enjoy the view of the "Aconcagua", the highest mountain in America (see Wikipedia for more detail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconcagua ). It was hard to judge or tell how big the mountain really is, because we have simply been too far away.

However, the "Aconcagua" with its 6,962 m (22,841 feet) elevation is quite an amazing view.

There was also a train running from Argentina to Chile, but for some reasons like in so many other places in South America trains are being abandoned as a mode of transportation, replaced by trucks. You would think that with the large distances trains would be the cheapest and fastest way to transport goods. According to our guide there are plans to refurbish and reactivate the tracks.

On our way home our driver was not only speeding, but also passing in a no passing zone. A truck was blocking his view and so he was not able to see the cop. They negotiated for quite a while, then went behind the bus where we could not see them. What do you think happened?

The next day I did a wine tasting tour. Our first stop was the "Weinert Winery". Some rich Brazilian guy bought a run down and abandoned winery in Mendoza in 1975 and turned it into one of the largest in the country. This barrel was manufactured in 1940 in Germany and shipped to Argentina. It holds 40,000 liters, approximately 60,000 bottles of wine.

Next we visited a small winery. I watched the guy spraying the vines with pesticides, the only protection he was wearing was a raincoat.

The grape crusher in the small winery. Their Malbecs and Cabernets were really good.

Our last visit was to a distillery. They make awesome, fruit infused spirits as well as Pisco and Grappa. The distillery was located in a very unique, modern building (see below.

Argentina - The road to Mendoza

2006-11-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

After a great time in Bariloche it was time to leave for my next stop, Mendoza. Not sure how I would survive 18 hours on the bus, but I guess it is all part of the traveling experience. The seat was really comfortable, however there was simply no room for my legs. The weather was beautiful and so I could enjoy the amazing, ever changing landscape. Please note that all the photos I took were made through the windows of the bus, so the quality might not be the best.

Simply loved the yellow traffic sign and the deep blue lake in the background.

No idea which area we passed through, but it was just beautiful.

Somehow I made it through the night and woke up just in time for the sun rise. Lovely!

Just before we reached Mendoza we had this spectacular view of the snow covered mountains (Cordillera Blanca), including the highest mountain in America (North and South).