Donnerstag, 1. Oktober 2009

BIG THANKS BIG TIME




I am blown away about the amount of people have read my blog !




All the time I meet guys, that I haven't seen in years, and they tell me, they've read my blog, AMAZING :)




BIG THANKS!








to be continued!




Samstag, 12. September 2009

chill-out in Kuta

Hi

this is probably my last post for my wonderful journey.

Im staying in touristic Kuta, enjoying hot weather, a wonderful swimmingpool, cheap food, etc.
I'll stay here until i fly home, on the 17th. Feeling very lazy, no more motivation for another ricefield or temple.
I prefer digging deep into some memory-improving exercises. Can already memorize an entire shuffled deck of playing cards in perfect order in under 10minutes by seeing every card once.


Back to Germany soon!




Thanks for reading my blog! Appreciated.

to be continued...

Dienstag, 8. September 2009

Kuta

Now I am in Kuta, the magnet for all sunny boys and those who like to get owned by big waves.

Accomodation is quite expensive here, so I rented myself into a hotel WITH SWIMMING POOL11!11!!!! First time in this journey. Is one of the cheapest Hotels i could get.

Next thing i did was, getting a massage! First time ever. I always ran away of them, in thailand they are EVERYWHERE, but this time i thought, it's maybe a thing you should do, when you are around here. Anyway its 10x less the price then in Germany. 2,50euros for half an hour.

But anyway, i describe it like this:

first it was a fight, then a war, and finally i didnt want her to stop.


Now, after it, im full of oil, even in my hair, and i cant take a shower because my towels are in laundry until tomorrow. I could go into the pool, but then i have to wait for an hour or longer to get dry. and it is dark, no sun to dry.
So ill just go around with a odor de mint ;)


I was at the beach and there are some pig big waves ^^ went right into them, i love swimming with 'em.
Tomorrow i rent a board for the day for not more than 40000 Rp. about 3 euros. The rest of the time i have here, ill learn how to surf no matter what (if i like it)
no school. dont need that shit ^^ maybe...

no pictures so far.

cheers.

veit

Sonntag, 6. September 2009

Mittwoch, 2. September 2009

bromo and kawah jiaen


Last 3 days i spent driving and wandering around in east Java, visiting 2 volcanoes, watching the sunrise from volcanoe bromo's viewpoint and climbing the volcanoe Kawah Jiaen, into its crater with a big source of soda and a big lake full of soda.

In Jiaen, there are hundreds of worker walking up and down the volcanoe, carrying a heavy load of soda on their shoulder. Everone of them goes up the mountain, climbs down to the crater, gets a load of soda, climbs back up to the top and goes down the mountain again. all in all 3,5km and the soda weighs about 60 to 80kg. Real man's work! Each one of them has the most impressive shouldermuscles i've ever seen.

Unfortunately i lost nearly all my pictures of the 3 days, because the computer crashed while transferring them.

Now i am on Bali, with 3 belgium girls and a french guy. Met them on the 3-day-trip to the volcanoes. Bali is cheap and beautiful so far. Tomorrow we go on a carride across the island, and are going to visit some popular places.

cheers,

veit

Samstag, 29. August 2009

temple borobodur and pleasent dinner

ok, these were the last temples for my journey. I guess i saw enough now :)

but those last 2 were really good anyway and i had to see them. really big.

but 10 dollar entrance fee for each one of them is waaaayyy too much for me, thus i only visited Borobodur, the famous one. Maybe its for restauration, then i gave my fair share, i guess.
As you see, Borobodur is very impressive! Wonderful view over Java and volcanoes.

The guide from the travel agency took me and my group to a second temple, but i didnt pay the entrance fee, just watched from outside and then waited for my group at a deerpark. very nice and cute. ^^

In the evening, I went out for dinner and this really nice indonesian family invited me over at their table. I had a really pleasant talk and food with them. They spoke english very well, and the one guy, Herry, told me about his stays to Europe, also Dresden/Germany. He lives in Sydney at the moment. Enjoyed it!

I again found some new food which looked strange, but that i really like now. Plain egg, which is brown and Jackfruit, fried i guess. really good.




bye

my 'good morning' BigMac had again a massive load of salad in it. I dont know where that comes from.

Freitag, 28. August 2009

BigMac's, toothkiller and durian

Today i ate at a McDonald's, a bigmac menu, really good. but the abuse of salad is unbelieveable... there was more salad in the burger than in (where is a lot of salad in it???maybe in a saladburger)... but you get the idea.

then i went to a supermarket, where there was one huge box full of durian fruits. the fruit, that is known for its unstandable smell.
it really has a strong thick smell, which filled the whole supermarket (a relatively big one), but for me, its not unpleasant. its not even annoying. So I went to a little shop in order to try it, and it was really really good :)
it's said that you either hate or love it, and that most people cant go near it.
I liked the taste. its a very rich taste like onions, melted onions. the flesh of the fruit is very creamy.
After this one, i bought some sweet stuff. i dont know what it actually consists of, but its basically a colored, meatball-big, ball with coconut and A LOT OF sugar. its as sweet, that it hurts. i cant eat 2 of them; after one, i think im fat. But it was as good, that I HAD to eat all of them; the white ones tasted like durian. need to get those again.

tomorrow i will visit Borobodur. a huge temple from forgotten times. shall be pretty good!
bye.

Donnerstag, 27. August 2009

Photoupdate





Photos made on the train!

Mittwoch, 26. August 2009

Ramadhan and me

Hi

Now i am in Yogjakarta, i nice town in Central Java.

Right now, its Ramadhan.NO FOOD, until 6pm. I hope i wont starve ^^!




YOU GOTTA BE KITTEN ME!








As a good traveler, I maybe should have checked that before, but i didnt ^^ so it hit me with full surprise!

i arrived on java on 24.08., and will go back on 22.09.
Ramadhan is from 22.08., until 22.09.



but as bruce lee says: "be like water my friend", as well as: "BAM!",
i decided to go to bali soon, the island right east of java. It's said that ramadhan is the hardest time to travel, also because of the totally overfilled transportsystems (a lot of the people return to their families in that time) Bali has more buddhist population and is more touristic, so it's easier to travel there. Even though i prefer to stay away from touristic areas.

Jakarta and Bandung, the 2 cities i've been to, where not really visit-worthy.
Yogjakarta, on the other side, is really nice, very beautiful and a lot of sightseeing. Here i will stay a little bit, then im going to climb 2 volcanoes, and off i go to bali, where i'll stay for the rest of my journey.



I AM HUNGRY!!!









The only food i find in the daytime, is vegetarian spring rolls,... really good, but...


AS EVERYONE KNOWS A TIGER EATS A FLEISCH




They have McDonalds here, so i know where to go if it's too urgent. Even though i prefer streetfood. Who never know what you get, but mostly very good.



Cheers!!!




Montag, 24. August 2009

Indonesia, jakarta

Ok
i arrived in Indonesia today. pleasent flight with no turbulences, thus little bit boring.

jakarta is pretty dirty and where i stay, it makes the impression of a village, a village with 8.5 million inhabitants.
i guess ill leave tomorrow for Bandung.

got some springrolls, pretty cheap, 7 cents per piece, but unfortunately, spring rolls are pretty much the only thing you can buy here.


people told me anyway, to leave jakarta as soon as possible. theres nothing worthy to visit.

I went around with a Taxi anyway, and what i saw was not bad at all. The center seemed very modern.

im pretty tired, had only 3 hours sleep. im going to sleep after this.

bye

Donnerstag, 20. August 2009

UPDATE

updated ko tao with some nice pictures!

("")(o_O)("")

@lumphini park, a lizard like this, tried to rip me my fried chicken. had to be careful with the tail, which they like to use as a whip.



back to bangkok
ooouhhh, nothing interesting here...
just chilling out all day reading, eating and eating.

my thought processes are like this right now:

...hm, have to stay consistent with my workout...
...where do i get good food for 20baht...
...iam hungry but i dont want same old rice...
...maybe some french bakery stuff again, but that is also already "same same but different"...
...maybe some chicken? nahh, had already too much of it...
...damn, so many food and i dont know what i want...
...thats too spicy...
...ok, i have still 200baht to go for that day, i.e. about 4-5 meals...
...am i supposed to do something right now?...
...maybe i go to lumphini park...
...lumphini park is too far away...
...cant afford the 7 baht for the bus...
...maybe i go to the supermarket...
...@ the supermarket: damn, what did i want at the supermarket?...

and least: ...the internet is cheap, i dont have anything to do, why not write some crap on my blog, that people continue coming back to it, checking for an update, and finally get crap like this...

cheers!

Samstag, 15. August 2009

update

I UPDATED THE FULLMOON BLOG.
Should be interesting!

Freitag, 14. August 2009

general info

im not really in action these days SO TAKE THIS!!


my favorite music these days: nightwish - kinslayer, stargazers, ever dream, ... the classics!

my favorite movies: fight club, heat, snatch, casino royal ... watched any of those several times now. fight club, i guess, 10 times.

my workout every day to stay fit!: 35 pushups, 60bethaks, 30 situps, 30 other situps (dont know the name) and this 3 times, pretty exhausting

books: Schattenlauefer von markus heitz, 3 books in one, pretty entertaining! 1400 pages

saving money, in order to rent a motorbike tomorrow and get the experience of driving one!

favorite food: fried cashewnuts with rice and pork, very good!

favortite drink: probably beer, but cant afford one, so its water!




need a new book, and some ideas where to go before my flight to jakarta/indonesia but i probably will stay here few more days. very relaxing.



the dogs are soooo damn lazy around here, lying in the way all the time, BUT VERY VERY CUTE! the smallest ones use to bark the loudest!



CHEERS!

Mittwoch, 12. August 2009

Ko tao by foot 2

Hi
Today, once again i didnt want to afford a bicycle for 2euros/24h, or motorcycle for 3euros/24h ^^ too expensive :D

I discovered little more the east of the island, like the day before, but now i had a map!1!

I found a beautiful beach, no pictures sorry, where the water was cristal clear blue, never seen that before. water is 30 degrees. went snorkeling again. very nice, but water was FULL of snorkelers.

So i decided to go rockclimbing! I loved that as kid, climbing around, climbing too high, that my father had to get me down again :D:D:D

the coast of ko tao is surrounded by rocks, big rocks. so i decided to go to the next beach by climbing the rocks. was very very nice. was my workout for the day. even though is was way too hot. fortunately had enough water with me. \
I guess i managed about 1km of rockclimbing and jumping over gaps, HIGH ADRENALINE :) but not erally dangerous.
Until the gap got too big between the next rock and i could only cntinue by jumping. that was little bit too adventurous for me, so i turned, which was a good idea, because by the time i came back to the beach, i was totally exhausted and destroyed by the sun.
But the trip was totally worth it! Had amazing snorkelspots where noone else was, saw a little shark and paradise underneath surface!

I guess, the sun had a pretty hard effect. i am very dizzy now and totally destroyed. so ill go sleeping soon. now is 8pm. something too eat, a good movie and then ZZZzzzZZZzzz

CHEERS

Dienstag, 11. August 2009

Ko tao by foot

hi
today i tried to explore the island by foot, but i only got to the next bay ^^ its very very nice there and i 'tried' to go to the next one, but the way was too weird. didnt find it. and it was very very hot and the sun destrozed me totally.

the one bay i visited was very good for snorkeling and i borrowed mask and snorkel in the morning.
i actually saw a shark, about 1m long and a black tip on his back. very nice. actually looked like a real shark, not like these lame fake catsharks, that dont look like sharks at all... or they at least dont look like they can kill someone. but the one i saw, did look like that :) make sense?

today i didnt spend a lot of money, so i can eat a lot :)

peace out

Sonntag, 9. August 2009

ko tao

!!!UPDATED!!! 20.08.09

the bungalow resort on ko phangan, where i stayed, VERY BEAUTIFUL!
the bay where my resort was, nothing special

nice bay

On rocks like these, i jmped and climbed around!


fried cashewnuts with rice and pork, the best meal ive found, ate it every day at least 2 times!!! 1,20euros



beautiful bay




maybe polly, i dont know the name


dog, exhausted from his fight with the can



the fish smelled a lot! actually bangkok, lumphini park



tz, that dog was so funny ^^ at the bungalow resort at ko tao



Hi
now on Ko Tao, near Ko phangan. will stay here for a few days. very nice landscape and prices are OK.

Went diving today, 2 dives. Unfortuantely i had again problems with my ears. Needed very long to go down and it hurt a lot... coudlnt enjoy the whole thing very much. Even though its very nice!
am not really sure whats up with the ears because i dont have a cold, like i had in egypt because of the air climate systems, which nearly ruined the diving.


Internet is 2 baht/minute. on ko phangan it was 3baht/minute.still expensice,so i stop now!

Cheers,
Veit
g

Freitag, 7. August 2009

Fullmoon Party

Hi

Im on Ko Phangan right now, the party island in THailand with the famous Fullmoon party.
Ive been there the whole night and it was absolutely amazing. about 20000 people on a 2km beach. PLAIN FULL \,the whole beach.

i lived at a beach on the other side of the island, so me and 13 other guys had to go by a jeep from the bungalow company. 15 guys in one jeep!! 6 in the front, 9 in the back. I was in the back... i didnt want to miss out the nice view. no legspace, and i couldnt feel my feet anymore after a few minutes. but nice conversation and very nice nature at night.
who has played war-videogames like farcry or crysis? i didnt ^^ but anyway its the same atmosphere i guess ^^ sitting in the back of a jeep, in perfect nice islandlandscape, full moon, palmtrees (is plamtree the correct word? i dont know, you probably know what i mea0n, coconut and stuff) and you wait, people talking, until suddenly somethiong explodes and the enemy comes out and the action begins! unfortunately nothing exploded and no action happened until fullmoon party.

when we arrived at the party, they charged a entrance fee to get to the beach... 100 baht, 2 euros!!1!! unbelieveable! charge me money for the beach, no way i pay that ;)
so i went a little bit offroad and sneaked through some bush and finally got into a hotelresort, directly seaside. so i sneaked into fullmoon party for free! :)
but actually nearly noone paid because most guys lived at the beach anyway. only the ones who came from outside were charged.

i didnt hear anything, that something happened on the party, but when i saw a lot of drunk people dancing on the 1st floor of a disco, oustide on a balcony, with no safety bars... damn, i was kind of worried. i heard that somebody fell down, but i guess he lives.

one guy wanted to sell me ecstasy. i tried to convince him, that he better throw the drugs into the sea and sign up at some other job, but he didnt understand. maybe his english was too bad ;)

someone managed it to rip me off my wallet, ...
shit happens.


cheers,.

Samstag, 1. August 2009

moving waterfall - rare natural miracle, but very common




damn, its hot here, i guess the climate around here, is the hottest i have ever experienced.
as soon as i go out of the house, i can change my shirt. sweat,sweat,sweat, feeling very uncomfortable ALL THE TIME... you know, all the rich people running around in their cool clothes, and then comes the sweaty smelling, extremly good looking, but unfortunately smelling german guy who left his house 5mins ago. the people here dont seem to have this problem. maybe they know some tricks. maybe they stopped to drink. id like to know.

today, i somehow made it work that my shirt was wet above the shoulder, not like usually, under it... at the axle, where i normally have a waterreservoir, there is no sweat at all. different country, different sweatareas.

i guess this is pretty much the only issue that would hold me back to live here.

but sweating is probably healthy, so at least i live longer than the people around here Muhahaha.

cheers,
veit

Freitag, 31. Juli 2009

ariel, his cousin antonio and ariels sister,whose name i already forgot and not to forget her little daughter i rarlely see

Ariel: likes electronics, always had good camera, digicam, videocam and netbook with him! is a cook, so yeah, he cooks really good!
Antonio: cooks very good! is on his way to become a cook.




Hi,
as you know i am in macau right now, stayin' in a way too expensive guesthouse, but i guess there is no cheaper.
Through Ariel I first heard of Macau. I met Ariel in Bangkok, the 3rd day of my trip. he was in bangkok for 3 days for visit and 2 days we spent together visiting several places.
He said I should come to Macau and 2 weeks later I really decided to come here and I dont regret one bit of it. I cant even understand how I didnt think about going to Hongkong when Iam around SE asia anyway. Because i always wanted to see HK, which is 65km from Macau.
Antonio and Ariel and his sister work in a restaurant. Ariel in a different one than antonio and ariels sister. Antonio and his sister start at 3pm, so i came to them midday. then, when they leave for work, ariel comes home for a 4 hour break of work. so i meet up with him.
they are very very generous, and they always want to cook for me, and they cook very very good. when they are working, i go to see casinos i havent been to yet. at midnight we meet up again, and again there is food and beer :)
Ariel showed me around many many places. so did antonio. they do this everytime they have visitors to macau and ariel usually takes them to hongkong, like me. very nice!
so im glad i met ariel in bangkok, otherwise i wouldnt be here, which i would truely regret.
Cheers,
veit


Donnerstag, 30. Juli 2009

hongkong

Hi


Ariel, and I went to Hongkong for 2days.
we left in the morning from macau with the ferry and went right to sleep on the 1hour trip... not that there wasnt anything interesting to see, but when you went to sleep at 4am the night before and stood up at 6:30am to go to hongkong, than you probably feel like an hour more of sleep maybe worth it.

At Hongkong we decided to have breakfast in a McDonald to worship the chinese culture a little bit more.
we also had lunch in a mcDonald
and the next day again breakfast and lunch... i wonder, what else than the price, is the difference between a cheeseburger and a quarter pounder burger.

The ferry terminal is not far from the central district of Hongkong and well-connected to it with a passage above the street.Hongkong seems to be the city with the most dramatic weathershifts because you often find yourself, from one moment to antother, like a wall, in extreme hot, highly humid places, which suddenly changes into icecold dry climate. im not sure but it might be related to the buildings... the 0815-veit-body however doesnt like that too much and reacts with massive eruptions of sweat.

i guess i mostly looked like half dying, while everyone else probably thought, what my problem was. i'd like to give you an olfactory taste (taste of my smell at that time)... wet 24/7
especially the bands of my rucksack were not reasonable at all. i didnt realize that at first, and i always thought:"whats that smell?" because my shirt didnt smell a lot at first.
the smell followed me, like when you unconciously step into dogcrap and you dont know where the smell is coming from.

in the evening we met up with 2 friends of ariel, philipinos, who helped us to find a room. we actually booked ourself into a guesthouse in the red light district, and we were the only ones who wanted a room for overnight, which surprised the owners. but anyway it was the cheapest and nearest and it was already very late. and the rooms were really good ^^

we then went to the "peak", a hill in hongkong, where you get this AMAZING view of Hongkong, unfortunately i dont have a sharp photo of the skyline. the one you see below is the best, but doesnt come close to the view you get up there.

next day we visited more of the city, other island, where you get a good view on hongkong island
and walked around a lot. Hongkong is actually very compact so you can walk everywhere, even though the transportsystem is very good.


We visited a big buddha on a mountain of a big island next to the Hongkong islands and a village which apparently values some german old, nearly forgotten times.

In Hongkong:























never seen a city like that...



amazing, stuffed full with skyscrapers, even the flathouses are about 200m high.
...i have many many pictures...


cheers,veit







Dienstag, 28. Juli 2009

Macau! Las Vegas of the East and why its worth the name!






















Macau, Macao, Kakao!



I LOVE THIS CITY RIGHT FROM THE START



the moment i landed i got a somehow european feeling, and it totally looks like a european city with a lot of asian guys. and its overall modern, new and fresh. Especially when you know, that the new Macau only exists since maybe 3 to 4 years.



And the nickname 'Las Vegas of the East' is very appropriate.Casinos and Hotels everywhere, and not tiny, not-so-interesting ones like you might think when you think of a las vegas fake. Macau copied many Casinos one-to-one from the las vegas casinos, and the Venezian is actually the biggest casino in the world and this complex is really HUGE!

I saw amazing buildings and shows, and this is only today, there are A LOT more to explore here.

of course, i met up with the philipino guy i met in Bangkok and who offered me to come to Macau, very very friendly guy, did thousands of photos :)


in the crowntower there was this huge lightshow, unfotunately we didnt have the videocam around, so i only have crappy 16secs with my cam.

unfortunately it is prohibited to make photos in the gambling areas and the casino didnt offer free food so far... and the smallest bet i saw was 25HKD, about 2,50euros, too much for me





here is everything from Hard Rock Casino to Wynn and now i dont have enough time for details.



tomorrow i go to HK for 2 days, after that i continue to explore Macau.



cheers

Mittwoch, 22. Juli 2009

vang vieng und tubing

HI
i am in vang vieng right now,which is popular for tubing.i did it yesterday, and the name is a nice metapher for party,alcohol and drugs. ive seen funny things here, especially the high people. you get a tube, (reifenaehnlicher schlauch) on which you can go down the river, making stops at several bars where you can chill out. it was fun.
best for me were the "swings, where you climb a roundabout 7m high platform where you can swing like tarzan and finally let go to jump into the river. had to do it.

Today i rent a bike and went to a cave a few km outside the village. it was pretty hot and i sweated like never before. the way was only mud, and my bike had no protection against dirt, so i looked like crap when i arrived at the cave. i went into the cave alone and realized pretty fast this is harder and more dangerous than i imagined. it is a cave that goes into the mountain about 500m, the ad said, and you have to climb a lot. and the rocks are damn slippery. i can say, i am really lucky, that i came out there with no injuries or worse. i also had my flipflops on, which are not really good for exploring a cave with big slippery rocks. so i decided to go on barefoot.

after 20m in there you cant see anything. plain darkness. so i went on with my bikelight,which maybe wasnt the best idea, but i didnt want climb down the mountain again to the shops, to get a real headlight. i rejected the offer of such a lamp in the first place because i didnt look closely and thought the woman wanted to sell me something, which i learned always to reject.

the dumb part was that i went very far in there and thought i wont loose orientation. i always had my way in mind but when i wanted to go back i realized quick that i totally lost orientation and felt lost, no one around, pretty far inside the cave. i eventually got a feeling which i maybe had the last time as 10 year old kid in london where i got seperated from my family in the tube. fear of death i guess. hm i also had the feeling of a good adventure.
i still knew which direction i had to go, but i felt very unsure and lost because in the total darkness everything looks different from a different angle. so i didnt find the way i came from anymore.

luckily i found a glimpse of sunlight shining in the distance, which i found by wandering around, trying to accept that im going to die in a laos cave. definetely not a place i want to die. if i have to die here, i prefer getting eaten by a tiger but those lazy animals dont show up that often.

so i luckily could find the way back and after this adventure i decided to just go back to the village, in a restaurant near my guesthouse and watch family guy all day, WHICH THEY PLAY IN THAT RESTAURANT ALL DAY! SEASON 1 to 6!!! DAMN I LOVE THIS PLACE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WNrx2jq184

tomorrow i go to vientiane but im not keen on staying longer in this country, i will probably move back to bangkok day after tomorrow.


my camera is not working properly anymore. "write protect"it says but the cards are not write protected... so no photos anymore at the moment. sorry

cheers,lg

veit

Montag, 20. Juli 2009

laos, luang pragang und vang vien

Hi
until now i dont like the laos people. everyone is trying to rip you off, except some very nice people, like the owner of the guesthouse i was staying in uang prabang.

very expensive,its like they are trying out how far they can push the tourist prices.
the nature though is fenomenal.

the main vehicel seems to be the cow here, though i never actually saw someone riding one, but they are just everywhere on the street, a lot with an engine damage because they dont move at all.

the food is strange,strange,strange, especially when i went to the morning market in luang prabang, i saw the craciest food, like these wormlike fish (aal in deutsch aber ich bin zu faul das englische wort nachzuschauen, v.a. weil die maus hier so schlecht ist, das ich mich wieder drueber aergern muesste wie lange ich brauch um eine uebersetzer seite aufzuschlagen.lieber schreibe ich diese sinnlos lange erklaerung)


this food here is pork belly, like how i like it in the schweinebraten, but this one is grilled. was really good. the beer laos is also really good.


so i guess i stop now because i dont want to get negative about laos. nature nice, people mostly untrustworthy moneyhungry whatsoever


goodbye!
veit