Merry Christmas

My dear readers,
I send out some surprises allready, but i am sure most of them haven’t arrived yet.
Thats why i am giving you another present right here.
it is once again picture time:

Stunning sunsets at lowtide, we tried to reach the buffalos, but it was so muddy we could barely walk

1237 steep steps to the tiger temple

A cheeky wizard greets us half way up

999 steps

well thanks for the warning

Exhausted we reach the top. thankful for a cup of water.

but it was definitely worth it

thunderstorm is approaching, we better walk back down the stairs

our trip to the hotsprings…watch the drowning kids

We reached Chiang Mai just in time for Loy Kratong the festival of lights.

Every little dot is a lantern

and thy got caught in cables

and trees, luckily there was no fire

And then we went to meditate. This is the library

the ordination hall

and the oldest temple with a buddha statue from the 1400s

every Full-half and new-moon it is time for Buddha day

we give offerings to honor the tripple gems, buddha, his teaching and everybody that followed his teaching to enlightenment

the lighting of a candle or an oil lamp represents the light of wisdom illuminating the darkness of ignorance. the burning of incense represents the fragrant scent of morality. flowers represents the aspiration to achieve the body of the Buddha with the thirty-two marks of the Buddha as well as the teaching of impermanence.

My little “kuti” where i lived and also meditated quite bit.

shaving day

offering alms food for the monks

After we were out of the monastery we celebrated Bodhi Day on top of the mountain in Doi Suthep

with an amazing view

and magic powers

Celebrating our one year aniversary with the most delicious Pizza ever!

And now for all the fans of furry animals…i give you tigers!

We played music for this girl, she loved it and her friends joined in too.

Now we take a night train to our next destination… what an adventure.
So long
Ole

A bestialic beauty: Vanuatu

For everybody who does not understand the title, Vanuatu is beautiful, like a rough untempered diamond.
It is incredible.
I feel like i have been transported to jurassic park or lord of the rings. The rough beauty of this place is breath taking!
We arrived in Espiritu Santo on the 4. of november and visisted the Blue Hole, a lagoon in midst of the mangroves. The ride through the forest, i am afraid my vocabulary of complete awe is limited, was incredible. It looks so untouched, you expect dinosaurs to appear around the corner. At the blue hole, we had loads of fun with a rope swing that was connected to one of the trees from Avatar.
From E. Santo we went to see pentecost, where we anchored next to some dugongs, beautiful creatures. We had a long walk through a paradisical island, little villages, crystal clear streams, coconut trees (i just love them 🙂 ) and lava rocks. (please forgive me, i just list this stuff as if it was nothing, but its just so many cool things that happen here) We picked up some hermit crabs which we raced in the evening.
After that we had a short crossing to the next island, Ambrym with two active volcanos.
We climbed one of them.
The trip that was expected t take 8h took us 12 instead…11h of straight walking. I voluteered to carry the camaera eqippment of our filmmaker…lets just say it was quite a workout 🙂 but the view was unique, we saw plants which should be extinct and a vulcano, sadly it was very foggy while we were up there, so no lava, instead we had “lord of the rings”- atmosphere… but we could see the glow of the boiling rocks from our boat.
We also went to see the Custom Kastom dancing, which turned out to be a tourist trap, but who cares the dancing itself was quite cool. The dancers stomped so heavy the floor was vibrating.
Yesterday we had a short stop in a bay with fantastic coral, the most alive we have seen in a while.
It is quite scary to see all this coral dying everywhere. The whole aquatic ecosystem is based on them. Without corals there are no breeding grounds for fish, without fish there is major trouble.
It is 12o’clock, we now suffer the effects of the global warming made in the 60ies, the worst is still to come. (excuse my pessimistic worldview, i can’t help it)

But enough darkness, i got some colors for you:

arachnophobia?

there shall be light

perfect paradise, with rainbow!

root tunnel

our Team

Avatar!

welcome to paradise (@nicolas edwards)

the kastom dance

Flying foxes en masse

Tarzan (@nicolas edwards)

ancient plants

ropeswing acrobatics (@ Nicolas edwards)

MUSCLE!!! (@nicolas edwards)

the fellowship of the ring

Vulcanos!!

our expedition

ash planes

in lack of a good name: P P P

 

First off, i would like to thank these 2 guys to fix my broken laptop screen and give me equipment to fix my camera! That was pretty cool, or blazin’ what ever expression you prefer 😉 I got invited to play Didgeridoo in front of a whole kindergarten school 🙂 The crowded Kata beach of Phuket  And me making best of it 😉 Patong, the redlight district…and no i have not seen a Pingpong show…and i am not sure i willstill Patong, but its a different aspect 😀  Thai snacks, sadly i haven’t found insects yet…My time in Phuket i spent making my stcw95 certificate which allows me to work on comercial boats now, as some of you already know. But my free time i spend with Diego and Julia. Diego was another couchsurfer at my host and Julia is an italian girl i picked up sitting alone on the beach. We had a lot of fun together, going from one jamsessio to the next. Diego plays amazing guitar and Julia works @Italian Job it Kata, wich serves great hot Chocolate and coffee. Julia 🙂   And Diego Well, then my camera broke down… 😦 but Ole is a clever fellow, he used his phone instead, not as often but at least i can give a few more impressions Of this: I want one of these! they are amazing! The Buddha here needs to cover its face because there is so much dust from the building sitethe Belltree   Survival at sea day at my STCW-course And so i leave the russian-italian mass tourist place of Phuket, the umbrellas are down, and Ole takes a 24h busride…and is in chiang mai…goes to the Monastery (see last entry)…and is here now!

Eye and her friend took me up to Doi Sutep. And Doi Pui, where there is a small little mountain village

From there we went to Wat Doi Suthep. A beautiful monastery on top of the mountain.
Random fact: the stairs have 308 steps

Ole receiving a blessed wristband There is more than just hitting a gong, you can pet it to 🙂
the  result is just as  powerful…a wisdom for life? 
Fred and George

Ringing the lucky bells for Eye’s birthday

After that, i experienced normal daylife in Chiang Mai…
..
..
..
Chicken on bikes!

Look at this face, thats the real Willy Wonka! i am sure! the Dickhead bike 😀 

Going to the GIANT night market @ChiangMai Walking Street on Sunday…WOW…so many shops and people…incredible

i just couldn’t resist 😉

this actually tasted better than i expected and yes the redone is a pure fruit+ice strawberry shake from fresh strawberries 😛

 

Ok I really want to buy one of these awesome shirts!
Please write in the comments which one!
THANK YOU!!! 😀 😀 😀 

Maybe this is a good description for many Thai people And this is a smart band setup in a busy road 🙂

Ok guys and girls, i know the last 10 minutes have been a lot of input, but brace yourselves for the Thailand POSTCARD QUIZ:

1.)Which of these beautiful woman is in fact a guy? O.o

Number 1? Number 2? Number3? (black dress) or Number4??

 

2.)What in gods Name is this?

3.) How is PPP a good title for this post?
Be Creative!

Write a comment!
I only respect comments that tell me what shirt looks best 😛

So my dear reader thats all the pictures i had…well almost i deleted a few…in fact i uploaded so many pictures in this post, WordPress does not allow me to add more…so i have to delete a picture to give you the sunset you deserve after this joyride 🙂

So Long ole

Here you go! You deserved it! Thank you for reading. Please Comment if you want to get a postcard, or have questions, or like me, or follow me, or ask for pictures of something, or give me a task, or recommend something, or tell me to write about something you are really interested about, or introduce yourself, in short give me FEEDBACK…please 🙂 

p.s. i totally forgot to tell you that i start my education as a Thai-Masseur tomorrow…and no that has nothing to do with a happy ending.
p.p.s. hang on a moment who said a massage with a happy ending has to be sexual? i hope all my clients will have happy ending of their massage…i don’t want unhappy clients, they don’t tip 😀

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…

manali? amazing!

Manali is a beautiful place!

The Mountains are amazing! and the food is tasty.
The park in manali looks like k\cut out of Lord of the rings

There are Marijuana plants on every corner, and a lot of Hippies and Baba’s (Indian Holy who is allowed to smoke Changa)…i wonder why.

I guess that this is why there are so many tourists…

My further plan is to leave manali next week. I asked a friend for work and he tries to organize something.
Working in india…i am exited.

What else can i tell?
MONKEY-BABY!

It i strange how fast time goes by…i started travelling almost 2 month ago…it does not feel like it!
Some impressions from manali:

Indian Barbwirethe best chocolat-cookies in Manali and probably the whole wide world…i will investigate @dylans cafe
Wool shop…so comfortablemore monkeys..i really love the monkeys
but they are pretty scary if you walk home at night 🙂the amazing tree in the amazing parkprayer mills in Tibetan exile monasterythe rainbow cave
(i went there today)at the cave there was an even more amazing tree!sheep at the waterfalldouble rainbow
I promised you pictures, and i hope these are what you expected

I am looking forward to work and i will definitely share my experiences on the Indian job market

So long Ole 🙂