Hello, Mister!

Friday, February 11th, 2011 | indonesia, travel | No Comments

That’s what you’ll hear most frequently in the streets of Indonesia. On a good day, up to two million times a day (oddly, I’m not even exaggerating here). People waiving at you at the same rate. Toy superstar for the day. However, should you make the mistake to set foot into some of the more touristy territorial of Indonesia (think Bali or Gili Islands), then the conversations are more like the following (imagine this taking place within 15m of walking distance on a main road with lots of shops):

“Hello Mister, need transport?”
“No, thank you.”
“Hello Mister, taxi?”
“Nope.”
“Hello Mister, massage?”
“No.”
“Hello Mister, transport?”
“No.”
“Hello Mister, smoke weed?”
“Well … no.”
“Hello Mister, transport?”
“.”

To say the least, it can become a bit exhausting. Smile and wave, smile and wave. Don’t get me wrong, Indonesian people are generally really nice and generous (except in touristy centres like Bali where they are generally greedy and evil), but they just seem to be the worst organisers of mankind. On my four major attempts to travel somewhere in this enormously huge country, I’ve got delayed four times (two times over 24h). So if you plan to travel Indonesia a bit off the beaten path, bring patience. A lot.

Environmentally speaking, Indonesia is incredibly. I’ve seen active volcanoes (incredibly destructive), black beaches (incredibly secluded), tons of temples (incredibly massive), and real-life dragons (incredibly scary). Besides Java, Flores was an impressive place to visit, including the close-by islands of Komodo and Rinca. It just took three days to get there. Climbing Gurung Rinjani on Lombok failed, sadly, due to constantly bad weather; consider visiting during dry season, that might save you a bit of frustration. On the other hand, situations evolving out of totally unexpected (and at first glance disillusioning) occurrences are, sometimes, the best ones.

They make for those travel stories.

Land of the Forbidden Coconut

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 | singapore, travel | No Comments

Well it has been almost a month since I’ve visited Singapore, but for various reasons, I slacked on computer usage. But Singapore is sweet and it well deserves its own blog post.
Thing is, I am currently stranded once again somewhere in Indonesia; The forth (out of four) massively delayed travel attempt. This time, my flight got canceled and I have to wait a day for the next one in a town the Lonely Planet describes as “a place of passing interest“. Better than the last town I got stranded in, though (“not a pretty place“), and this one got some Internet. Time for a blog post.

Singapore turned out as a welcome chance from backcountry-Asia (they have cheese there! Actually, walking through a grocery store makes you feel like being in a Wal Mart, just a bit smaller and without those people too fat to walk for themselves and thus much more likable). Better, Singapore is to be best described as one massive shopping mall, seriously impossible to escape those. A hyper-modern place with fascinating people from all over Asia. As a matter of fact, I had a security guard astonishing me with better English than some of my university professors back home. This place is future.

I also had a heard-warming couchsurfing experience once again (including a maid), cheers to the beautiful people. Have to note, though, not to put pork in a Muslim’s family freezer ever again. Ouch. Plus, those Singapurians mean what they put on their DO-NOT-DO-THAT-signs. E.g., eating and drinking in the subway (definitely including coconuts), do not attempt (500$ fine), no, do not. Singapore, the Fine City.

Pure Poser Porn

Thursday, January 13th, 2011 | climbing, thailand, travel | No Comments

Yes, I did steal that glorious title from the cover story of an Austrian climbing magazine, but it stuck in my head ever since. The article was about bad-ass rock climbing near Krabi, Thailand, which is what I did, too. Maybe not as bad-ass though, but still, I tried. The article furthermore philosophizes how every climber worldwide strives for that one, that epic climbing picture or his or herself. Pure Poser Porn indeed. Well here is mine:

Jumping back down forced me on painkillers for about a week. Worth it, right? No pain, no gain, I guess. Celebrating New Year’s grooving to that climbing-dudes-backpacker-style-vibe right on Ton Sai beach, witnessing myriads of fire balloons eventually transforming into distant stars was also pretty hard to beat. Oh how I will do that again! Oh, and happy new year folks. I feel it’s gonna be a good one.

When you reach Bottle Beach

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010 | general | 4 Comments

… everything is gonna be alright. Play the Vid, play the Vid!

Alright indeed. And quite an acceptable place for (some not so white) Christmas. I just might get used to that. Life’s good.

Paradise Lost Found

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 | climbing, thailand, travel | 5 Comments

So I ventured on to Thailand to finally look into that thing that other call “holiday” or “vacation”: you know, beaches and such. Arrived in Bangkok and the rumors turned out to be true, love it or hate it. I loved it – my commonly applied battle plan to explore new, big cities – aimlessly wandering around the city and trying to get lost – proved to be excellent once again. The choice to couchsurf Bangkok as well – thanks, you beautiful people out there!
Hopes were high for the next stop, the tiny  island of Koh Tao. And, well, for a good reason – this place deserves the prefix “paradise”. A turtle-shaped tropical island, scattered with tons of massive granite boulders to jump on and surrounded my world-class (subtract the thousands of other divers, maybe) diving sites (oh, by the way, call me an advanced open water diver from now on – yes, I do get fancy about that). Beat that?

Of course I got suck here and don’t dare to leave just yet. How could I, why should I? Also met up with my two lovely friends, Betty and Manu, which whom I plan to share some adventures from now on. And Christmas – uuh, it promises to be a nice one, considering the constant temperature of 29 degrees and the fact that a Mango Lassie on the beach checks in at about the same price as a bottle of water back home.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Nepal: Facts

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 | nepal, travel | 4 Comments

I decide to through out some more pictures as eight are just not enough after all; and since pictures without text look stupid, here are some must-know important facts about wonderful Nepal:

• Driving on a local bus in Nepal boosts you to the same Adrenaline level as B.A.S.E jumping
• I am too tall for this country
• Driving on a local bus in Nepal features about the same survival rate as B.A.S.E jumping
• You can bargain the price of a beer in about any given restaurant
• By far the most convenient (and adventurous) way to drive on a local Nepali bus is on its top
• There are a few things that are available everywhere literally everywhere in Nepal: Coca Cola & Sprite (sometimes Fanta), Mars & Snickers (sometimes Twix), and Pringles (mostly greed and red ones). Tabbed water does not count to those things.
• Left-hand traffic also accounts for people – and donkeys
• Never try to save a few rupees on toilet paper – the experience is just not worth it

Nepal in a Nutshell

Sunday, November 28th, 2010 | climbing, nepal, travel | 4 Comments

My journey started the way any decent journey is supposed to start: with a major hangover and some Aspirin trying to fight it. Still digesting the, as I remember, two or three good-bye-Europe-beers I’ve had I was though excited for the trip afar. So to Kathmandu I flew (rhyme!).

And here I am, three weeks later. Each of those days here in Nepal featured such a vast amount of new and exciting impressions and experiences that I could write a blog post five to six pages long every day, still missing details. But because I’ve better things to do than writing blog posts and you with your busy life’s out there got better things to do than reading blog posts, here’s Nepal in a Nutshell.

To begin with, this is simply impossible. Nepal is one of the poorest and at the same time most astonishing and beautiful countries in the world. Everyone will tell you that, I can now approve. To study especially much of the countryside and beloved Nature, I’ve been on a trekking tour circling the Annapurna massive in central Nepal for the last 18 days. Without Internet, without a cell phone, and, sometimes, without electricity after all; utterly enjoyable.

The trek itself was not at all technically challenging, but carrying a 18kg rucksack for 250km and up a 5416m pass is a different story. But on the bright side, my pack got lighter and lighter every day as I kept using more and more toothpaste. I guess I could have packed lighter – so I carried my climbing shoes and chalk all the way for the sake of defining one (in numbers: 1) but world-class boulder problem at 3600m altitude (I propose V5/V6 – details and location on request). Furthermore, I found out the hard way that it actually gets painfully cold above 4000m. Anyway, the trek proved to be the perfect choice since I’ve witnessed a county so diverse that it was hard to believe that I am, somehow, still in Nepal. More, I felt like walking through four exceedingly different countries (with the common denominator that they served Dal Bhat in all of those countries) within just a few days: Starting deep in a rich, sub-tropical jungle, ascending to a desert surrounded by 7000m peaks, followed by a high alpine setting including snow showers, and finally strolling through rough Tibetan highlands with storm-like wind dusts.

Such a diversity is hard to grasp – if possible at all, only with a few days delay. Besides those almost unreal landscapes, the culture and people of Nepal deserve an equal share. To be honest, it takes its time to realize that you are actually trekking through a third-world country – and that that camera you just pointed to picture that cute little Nepali kid is probably worth more than this very kid will earn his or her entire life. I also started with the mission of not taking too many pictures – only the very picturesque moments should be covered. I kept to this mission – and ended up with 700 pictures. Here are some random four of them:

But as everything on this planet, also the Annapurna Circuit has its drawbacks: namely road construction. The plan to connect Manang to the main “highway” system destroys quite some otherwise peaceful trekking hours. So whoever is thinking of doing that trek should do it, well, now.

After all those days of walking and constantly moving on, I am now back to (well, relatively speaking) civilization in Pokhara where I’ll relax my tired feet and stuff my notoriously empty stomach – so if you’d excuse me, I’ll be lounging down at the lake, sipping on a Lassi and trying to delete at least 350 of those pictures. Ah, how peaceful a phenomena a lake.