Happy new Year from Malaysia!

After Singapore, i walked over to Malaysia (literally)
In Johor Bharu, i took a bus to Melakka, i wanted to hitchhike, but i was to complicated to get to a big road..
and also the bus was only 9RM (Malaysian Ringit)

In Melakka i got a little city tour from my Couchsurfing host Patricia.

Pisa is not the only place where buildings stand crooked…
Blue Spider I did not have to pay for the fishy massage, i just had to stand still for 2 minutes.
it was really tickling, but sometimes a bigger fish came, and then it actually hurt
Me and Patricia The rikshas in Melakka all had incredible decoration, light and soundsystems with blasting techno music.. If you can tell me why there is a dragon in the Middle of the town, you get something.
Just write it in the comments.
After Melakka, i took the bus to Kuala Lumpur, again ery cheap and just so comfortable 😉

Me and Anita, my host in Kuala Lumpur Bata Caves of KL With sooo many monkey…oh i love them, i want to raise and train one myself 😀 Also if you comment please give me a proper name for this…err…Cow…bird..woman thing In  the chinese temple, giant incense sticks!! And even bigger incense spirals!
all of them were lit

 

So long
Ole
and please comment 🙂

goodbye Singapore..

Chistmas without cold temperatures is not a real christmas!
The spirit of cuddling under a warm blanket is missing…or something like that.
Well i did not really feel like christmas, so i did not miss anything.
(even though here everything is full of christmas lights, fake trees, santa hats and gigantic christmas sales)

the day before the 24th…i could just write December 23rd, but this would be too easy :).. i made a bicycle tour with Dieter (see last pic)
nice beaches..
If you wonder “what is the black line on the horizon?”
i could answer “it is my welcoming fleet” but i already told you that, so the market for transport is not as good as it used to be, so all the ships here are waiting for a job, and the space in front of the beach is the cheapest to park your freight ship.. is that a real word…freight?
On the other side of the beach they park the people…
the next day, i went to see the jungle, because there is a giant-hanging-tree-top-bridge(which was closed the day i went -.- )
the leaves were gigantic the tracks were extremely muddy (stupid ole, why do you enter the park directly after rainfall?) the plants were beautiful! And the climate was so extremely humid, i had to make a tourban, that i did not have a waterfall of sweat dripping in my eyes
…
do you even want to read this?
i should keep bodily intimacies to myself
 5cm = ~2inches big ants… Stesen Ranger is Malay(language of Malaysia..) and sounds like Station Ranger.
Why do they write it like that?
They wanted to make sure, it is not the English language (which it is, as Malaysia was an english colony -.-) but their own.

The first baby monitor lizard i saw (30cm)  some strange ?birds nest…maybe it is made by wasps thoughThe lakes in this national park are one of the main water sources of Singapore. They are, aside from some big-leafed algae, really clean The second monitor lizard/goanna (ca. 50cm)  A tree with green fur, maybe sombody can make a coat out of it and give it to lady Gaga as a christmas present. The third and biggest monitor Lizard, i understand why they call them dragons.. around 1,2 meters big boy.
It seemed weird, that the lizards became bigger and bigger every time we met one.
(we? yeah i forgot to tell, and make a picture. I met 2 really nice people, on my way, because the bridge was closed, so we continued the hike together…)
MONKEYS!!!!!….wait.. BABY MONKEYS!!!! The cool thing is, that in the contrary to India, these monkeys are really tame and don’t want your food. Feeding the monkeys is strictly prohibited and has a heavy fine…so you come very close to them If the water was deeper and with a little less leafs in it, this would be my new paradise..but i should not always be so demanding 🙂 The Bipolarity of Singapore: Nature and Men!Me and my host Dieter 🙂

 

The conclusion:
Singapore is an (European) tamed Asia.
A financial and business Center, where eating vegetarian, is almost impossible. As is seeing the sunset…
Tomorrow i will be on my way to Melakka…i am looking forward to it!
So long
Ole

p.s. the best food i had was Laksa soup…and i am so going to learn the recipe 😀

Sightseeing in Singapore

 

On December 21st the world stood still…

And then came the rain, an Armageddon indeed.
Litres of water pounding down on the street, Winds storming through the city.
nobody was hurt, due to the short duration of the rainageddon..it lasted for 15 minutes and then the sun was shining telling about a new era…or so they say.
New era or not, Singapore will know.
What we are so scared of in Europe (or at least Germany) is very common here.
Cameras everywhere, blocked pornographic websites, high taxes, high fines for everything (1000 SG$ for Littering, 500SG$ for eating in the Subway) and  Trains that run on TimeThe only strange thing about it is, it works.
Singapore is leading in fighting Corruption, has the highest Income per Person in whole Asia.
The City is growing providing drinking water from the tab, free concerts, good hygiene, a fabulous transport system and free really beautiful parks.

This tree is in “Chinese garden”, very beautiful and calm Park with an own bonsai garden.

Singapore has some districts, that are reserved for specific ethnicities: “little India”, “Chinatown” and “Arab street” (which is actually the Malay quarter)
Chinese dominate Singapore, then Malay and Indians, who mostly come from Tamil Nadu. I met a few from Chennai.

This Mosque is in Arab street, but in contrast to the Mosque in Chennai, this one isn’t allowed to blast out their prayers in huge speakers…they do it rather quiet.In fact, not even the churches are allowed to ring their bells.
Singapore is a free country, free of missionary or forced religion…so everybody is supposed to keep to themselves.

 

The “Banana-Boat-6-Star-Hotel” again…i found out the real name: Marina Bay Sands…whatever, i like mine better
This is a floating football (or soccer for my American readers [but i hope you realize, that american Football is not played with your feet 😉 )So i actually went to see the “art of the brick” exhibition at the Art&Science MuseumAll the following pieces are made completely from LEGO blocks, by Nathan Sawaya Except this one, this is me:   This is the Helix bridge…well its spiraly
It really looks cool…not?…it is boring though…
Oh i don’t like sightseeing..:-/
 Chinese Steampunk Architecture…creepy building They were serious about the price…5 damn SG$ for 3oz. of icecream!!! Traditional chinese architecture…not as monumental, yet happier Modern Singaporese Architecture, some people aparently see this as the only reason to see singapore.. 😛Singapore flyer…the biggest fairy wheel in the worldThe “Banana-Boat-6-Star-Hotel-Light-and-Laser-Show” In case anybody exept me wants to learn Thai-massage (whithout the happy ending of course 😉 ) i don’t want to hold you back…Singapore is a hard city for me.
I like meeting people, speaking, laughing, playing and maybe even dancing. But Singapore is so anonymous, everybody is busy and has their own plan.
I met some people, who helped me out, and some guys even showed me around a little, but it was very shallow.
I think i might have a culture shock…
From India to Singapore…lets see what the future brings.

So long Ole
p.s. Last time i forgot to tell you:
watch the Life of Pi!!! Beautiful Movie!

p.p.s. I know Singapore is a country, still i won’t make a quiz from here, that just seems odd..its an island city..tss
p.p.p.s. spot the differences

Travelpics from Mumbai to Singapore

Finally the last pictures of india 🙂
in a giant package.

The paradox of ?India?
Everybody knows its there, but who cares?The train ride from Mumbai to Chennai (26h for 5,5 euro)  The good thing about Indian security standards is the opportunities you gain.
For example sitting in an open train door at 80 km/h
Chennai club rules  The 2nd biggest beach in the World (Marina Beach Chennai)  But it is probably dirtier than the biggest one 😉 Do you see the guys in the back of the picture? Well, they saw me… A store for traditional indian clothing, H&M-Style Good Morning, Daawwg I got a 500rupee job of dubbing a movie 🙂 yay
The same guy actually came to me again 4 days later, to ask me if i want to act in one. I said yes, becauseit ment 3 days in Kerala with free food and accomodation 😉 and i got him to pay 500 Rupees in advance for my room in chennai…the shooting was cancelled, but i did not give the money back 🙂 This Mosque gave a prayer 5 times a day…like a beautiful song, right next to the guest housei am pure for sure: no meat, no alc, no drugs…and no girl The daily sunrise at the Yogashram  Balaji my Teacher And the 24 Mantras, before doing one cycle of the Surya Namaskar (sun greeting) you recite the Mantra depending on which number you are at.
(and the address of this very cool School)  The Garden of the Theosophical Society was amazing!
Peacock Tree

And i think this is the most coolest tree i found so far, it is a Banyan Tree.
Its roots come from the branches and descend right to the ground…  So this forest, which is around 250 square meters, is just one living organism… O.O  I just love the symbolic…i guess only Europeans see a paradox here.
Indians just see 2 powerful symbols of luck…  Around 5 tonns of coconut And around 10’000 BananasThe graveyard was …. different So these tombs hold the ashes and bones, but they are expensive to pay for…the yellow one is frequently taken care for…it is 5 years old If you don’t have so much money, you get a grave for down to 10 days. After that your bones are thrown on the pile…6 years ago the corpses have been burned here…the ashes are still there, even though they build a new house. The graveyard crew I don’t know about you, but i think this is pretty funny 😀 Last sunrise before leaving chennai (even though i don’t know when i took this foto…just imagine i sentimentally took it on my last day 😉 )Arriving in Singapore. I did not know the organized an event for me.
Somebody of you probably told them there is a big personality arriving in town…

…so they welcomed me with a Container ship armada They even put ships on 6star hotels…
(actually this picture holds 3 very famous sights of singapore..the lionfountain, the hotel thing (who cares for the name, its way to expensive anyways ^^) and the art&science museum So i am back in “Europe” now…just with more Asians 😉
so long
Ole

a second look on chennai and a farewell to india

(pictures from Chennai come, when i find an internet cafe)

the last 10 days i spent in Chennai…a city i did not seem to like for the first 7 days.
i was very keen on leaving the city, but i had to get my stomach tested (i will spare you the details of the stomach sickness-it was long and annoying/don’t ever drink tabwater, even if your indian hostfamily puts it on the table while eating…)
when i got the results it said i am healthy…but in the time the hospital took to test my samples i ate some bad pongal rice and got sick again…
so i always had something that kept me in chennai.
it is a big city, dirtier than Mumbai but with a lot more culture.
it took me a few seconds to realize the first part and some days for the latter.

as i said i was doing yoga every day with a very cool teacher Balaji (everybodys name in chennai is Balaji 🙂 )
that kept me up the first few days, i had a little down.
because it is impossible to get in the harbour, even the private one..they are very afraid of terrorists -.-
anyhow after i met a few cool people my spirits got slowly back to normal again.
there are some beautiful parts in chennai. (see the pictures ?tomorrow? )

And i guess that is something India tought me, you can see beauty in everything, and you can learn something from anybody (sometimes he doesn’t even know, that he tought you something 😉 )

i always described india as
“loud, dirty and extremely beautyful”
and i think i can still go with that.
It is these extremes that leave a strong impression, and also the paradoxes you can encounter.
India is a country, where the language changes every 200km and the food every 300km…it is like visiting different countries.
i have only been in 8 places in 3 month, and i have not even seen everything in these places…it is an own subcontinent, thats for sure:)

I met really cool people, that definetely had very interesting stories to tell, but on the same moment you realize everybody does. the only difference here is, that nobody is afraid of talking to you.
It is the mere opposite.
Everybody is talking to you. Indians want to learn something, most of them are not able to travel (due to money, family or culture), but still they are interested in other cultures.

The slogan of the tourist department is “Incredible India”
and i totally agree 🙂
so long
Ole

p.s. my favorite “indian” food (or at least food i ate in india)
-Dal fry (the dark thick one as well as the light yellow one)
-Thalis
-Dosa
-Malai Kofta
-Palak Aloo
-Paratha

tibetan food:
-momos!!!!
-thentuk
-tsoma
-tibetan pizza

chinese:
-madchurian

Mumbai and London, Fish and Shoes, Kids and City Trains

So have been in Mumbai for 5 days, checking out my possibilities to work on a cargo ship.
It is not going to happen, yet.
I need more time for getting my seaman’s passport or CDC,  in order to legally work on any commercial vessel.
So i am going to postpone this either to Singapore or Thailand.

Tomorrow i am leaving mumbai and go to chennai because the chance of catching a private vessel is much higher, and also the distance is not as far if i have to pay for a passenger boat.

But this is trouble for next time.

From Gokarna i took the bus to Goa, where i wanted to meet some friends, but i couldn’t find a host near them, so i spend a night with another CS host in Mapusa.
From there i took the train in general Class to Mumbai

On the station i met a baba with the name of Anand, who walked barefoot for the last 8 years, he was really nice, invited me for a tea, and even tried to organize me a seat in Sleeper class.
Which did not work out…

10 h drive..in this! Luckily i found a seat, BEFORE it was crowded.

Then i arrived at Thomas house.
(i seriously need to shave 😉 )
He has a big house and hosts a lot of couchsurfers, pretty cool guy!

Mumbai looks like i imagine London to be (i have not been there, but some english people agreed with me) pretty clean for indian standards, bus and train system…
Probably because it is the biggest harbour of India, and has a lot of victorian style buildings.

 

When i was wandering around in the city i found myself in funny situations a few times.

The kids gang, we played football together and i taught them a little bit beatboxing, in exchange, they took me to the Gate of India

on the way, we passed through a market…a little macabre for western standards, but the meat is fresh, which is not always the case here in india. (I don’t care anymore as i became vegetarian in Dharamsala)
The Gateway of India, very impressive building, but a lot of people!

relaxing

When we had the quiz some people did not recognize the color of my shoes anymore, so i went to one of the cleaners

and now they are shiny again 😉

Another funny thing happened to me, i followed my nose and came here:

The Mumbai fish market…well one of them

In India, it is funny, that whenever you leave the tourist trails, people handle you in a completely different more heartwarming way.
They are not used to white people most of the time.
And the people here are happy to see, that i am interested in them.

The city trains here a packed.
Mumbai only has 19 million inhabitants (New Delhi has 27 million) but Mumbai has less space, so it is way more crowded…in the trains.
The doors remain open during the drive, because sometimes you have to get out before the train stops in order to get out at all…
and if the train is to full, you can grab on to somebody 😉
But if the train is full, the normally have a good time together…

And one last thing happened on my daily sunset hunt, i was following the view, when i was in a slum all of the sudden.
Small indian children who have never seen somebody like my…
“who is scared of the white man?”
But in the end i could convince that i don’t bite and even the most afraid ones shook my hand 🙂
So long Ole

P.s. i think it is awesome that people read this, who i have never ever seen in my life.
If you do don’t be afraid to comment, or take part in the quiz…
if you have questions, i will gladly answer them.
This goes out to everybody of course 🙂

 

coolest guy in Hampi; the paradise Gokarna

Second Post in a row…[ i hope this doesn’t become a habit to bombard you with a huge amount of input and the be silent for a long time 🙂 ]

I forgot to tell you about one of the great persons in Hampi!!
His name is Gali, and he is an amazing musician.
I traded my melodica for the selfbuilt travel didgeridoo, which sounds amazing.
At sunset we made music together, and everybody was invited to play along and use the instruments he brought.

Gokarna:
I took the bus from Hospet to Ankola and saw this popcon seller with 6 fingers:

and arrived there at 00:30 in the night.
The bus to Gokarna would go at 5:30…
So what should i do?
A Tuktuk driver asked me if i needed a riksha for 700-600rup. but i said it was to much, so he handed me a card of a guesthouse he wanted me to stay.
I assumed it was his guesthouse, so i asked him, if he would take me there for free, if i took a room.
After 60km of driving we reached the guesthouse and i noticed, that this surely wasn’t his guesthouse, because it was way to big and fancy.
And indeed, he asked me for 600 rupees, he simply did not understand what i said. So after 10 minutes of diskussion i gave him a 500 note, we agreed on 300 rupees, but he charged 350…because of tips! Well, ok…what for?
When i asked him to repeat the words: “I don’t understand” he didn’t understand, and the security guard who was “translating” the argument didn’t either…so if you meet a riksha driver who offers you a free ride, be careful that he actually understands what you are asking from him 🙂

I slept in the guest house…things happen and it is no need to worry afterwards, and when i woke up i got rewarded!
Om Beach – Gokarna:
This was worth it!

In Hampi i heard from some people, that there is paradise beach, where you can camp on the beach and apparently there was a nice atmosphere.
so i walked from Om beach…
You pass beaches before reaching Paradise with great names.
Halfmoon and petit paradis.

I did not reach paradise for 2 further days, untis i swam there, but this is a different story 😀
I met some guys sitting around a fire making coffee

The two standing french guys were leaving the day i arrived, so i overtook their camp in petit paradis. (actually we made up this name but don’t tell anybody, eventually it will get established 😉 )
It was Awesome!!! I will go there again for a longer time period, and i can recommend it to anybody!
the first setup (the little water is freshwater, which i filtered with the pump, my mother kindly gave me 🙂 )the hammock, i moved it later on, because, if you want to sleep in a hammock, put it as streched as possible or you will strain your back and not find any sleep!

and if you don’t have one of these…you won’t either 😉the camp ( the hammock was moved under the washing line)view from the beachthe beach.
it was really cool, the stones were only in the front, in the water, there was smooth sand.
Also the freshwater well poured in the sea and formed small little streams, which were fun to play with!!when you are living in the jungle, you become very creative!
i also started to make coconut bowls (when you come to gokarna, buy some rough sand paper…you wont regret it)

Of course there are very touristic, yet relaxed beaches Halfmoon, Om or Kudli become more and more touristic, the closer you come to Gokarna.
A lot of small guesthouses with restaurants.
Because not everybody wants to stay in the jungle.
In fact i wondered why people call it the jungle…it is just a forest, isn’t it?

Giant butterfly’s in all different colorspraying mantises bullfrogs the size of a small cat10 different kinds of ants, from 5mm to 4cm

Snakes, mungos, monkeys….
This was Lior, my good neighbor from Israel.
Me and him one day were sunken in thought watching the fire, boiling coffee, not moving.
When all of the sudden he jumped, and i jumped too…the snake jumped too..everybody got a shock, the snake just as well as us two 😀
1,20 m and 5cm diameter, the biggest wild living snake i have seen so far…i still don’t know if it was poisonous or not, but it was an intense experience to have a wild snake (which might be poisonous) 50cm away from you.
On the picture it was on the wall next to Lior.

We had different visitors, drinking tea and coffee, cooking having fun.
One polish guy convinced me to swim with him to paradise, i had not been there as i said before.
It is only 10 minutes swim and very cool.

the polish guyme in a lungi

A small history of paradise:
Adam and Eve tasted of the apple tree, because the snake asked them to, god threw them out, because he wanted to have all the apples for himself.
So they went to gokarna, because coconuts, ananas, bananas and mangoes are better anyways 😛

I stayed there the last night for full moon having a very nice jam session with a group of russians, who brought all kinds of cool instruments.

go there and stay at least one night at the beach! bring some food, and share it with somebody, they will have pots and everything so don’t worry about it.
If you don’t have or don’t want to buy a mosquito net, buy some mosquito coils and some Odomos, and you will not have a problem!

So long Ole

Hampi

So i finally arrived in Mumbay, so i can actually get back to write about Hampi.

Hampi is a very beautiful place…
If it wouldn’t be so crowded!

I met soo many germans, it almost seemed to me that there are as many tourists as indians (i exaggerate of course 😉
But after the first shock i could see the beauty of the place, the (only) 500 year old ruins, that look like a few thousand years old and the rock formations look amazing!

It is actually possible to close your eyes, turn around a few times, stop and snap a picture…it will probably look good! 😀

This is in the Old Hanuman shrine, which is still in use!

In Hampi i stayed at the Hampi Childrens Trust. I helped school children with their homework and played with them. Volunteer work is awesome 🙂

When i arrived it was Hindu New Year, so a lot of firecrackers on the streets…sadly my pictures got deleted, so i cannot share it with you. Just imagine colourful mandalas on the mud roads (hampi is a village after all)
and small children playing with big fireworks…indian firworks

So After 3 days, it was kind of stressfull to me, because this side of the river wasn’t really relaxed, so i went to the other side of the river.

This is a Shivalingam. It represents the Penis Of Shiva. normally they pour milk over it, the milk then flown on the face of the sheep…it has something to do with fertility.
no comment(i am sorry for the many pictures that all look the same, but hampi really impressed me!)

Some history of Hampi:

Hampi was a big kingdom…the king got involved in aguements of the persians he normally traded with…so hampi got invaded.
500 years later UNESCO declared hampi world cultural heritage.
Hampi was a paradise for hippies before that.
After the tourism increased dramatically in “the most beautiful place of whole india”

In an Indian manner, guesthouses, restaurants and shops popped up everywhere…even to close to the ruins…after some time the UNESCO declared Hampi world cultural heritage in danger, because the shops got closer and closer to the temples.
the other side of the river does not have any temples so they had no problems, and a differnet clientel.
More backpackers and old hippies stay here.
A few monh ago the government, who desperatly tries to keep hampi a UNESCO place, tore down 1/3rd of the village close to the temples.
The inhabitants, owners of Guesthouses and shops, got a notice 3 hours before. the got relocated to a tent camp way off the main touristic area…most of them sell now fruits and drugs to survive.
the other side of the river got declared illegal, the owners of the guesthouses here went to indian high chord.
now they are not allowed to do any business after 22 o clock, but in india everything is possible, so the police gets some bakshish of some restaurants, or you havce to be really quiet.

I stayed at “arba mystica” AKA the “tipi”.

the restaurant is run by a english guy and his indian wife, really cool people. the wife is a journalist who gave me the cookbook of her grandmother 😀these are some of the people i met there.
I have to say, that i really like the Indian Backpacking community and culture.
It is a mix between outlaws, old hippies, musicians, mountaineers, Yoga practitioners and long term tourists from all over the world. Most of them are really open minded and interesting to talk to.

 

When going to hampi everyone should have seen the sunset at Hanuman temple.
The temple itself is not spectacular, but the sunset is.
And as i become more and more addicted to sunsets, i had to go there too. 😀

Oh yeah, i forgot to tell you, that it’s nickname is monkey temple, as Hanuman is a Monkey god 😉

So long Ole

p.s. all people that said i lived in 89 were right…i forgot to take my shoes away…that was to easy 😀
so please give me your adress over FB 🙂

p.p.s. The entry of Gokarna is coming tomorrow, as i might leave Mumbay soon to go to Chennay…i am really late with my entries…