from Then to Now

Dear readers,

i am pushing myself to finally write another blog entry.
it has been more than a month, the last time it has been so long between two entries was when i was in the middle of the pacific i think.
At least i have a good excuse 😉

Anyhow lets start at the beginning.
Rose and i explored the mountain springs of the Krabi-province. Blue pools and hot waterfalls were awaiting us in midst a beautiful jungle.
We were quite enjoying these natural wonders and relaxed a little before we took a bus that took us straight into a spooky Bangkok.
We met up with old friends Nico from Infinity and my friend Rawi that i met last time i was in Bangkok. Together we jumped into the Halloween parade on Khaosan Rd.
After Halloween war over we readied ourselves for the North.
Our Hotel-concierge recommended to go up early as the festival of lights “Loy Krathong” would be in full flow. So we jumped in the next available bus to Chiang Mai to catch a view of the lantern fest. It was breathtaking.
Like ghosts or ascending souls all over the sky the lanterns were flying.
In columns of thousands, never ending.
They were rising up to the clouds where the flames where extinguished by the moisture.
On their way up however they created a second starry sky.
The river was full with little floating candles which were joined by descending lantern paper.
Of course we joined the madness and wrote our wishes on a skylight and let it fly to unknown heights.
The next day, we were not really expecting anything and had just changed hostels, we got notice from the monastery: “Now is the time, the next opening is in a week”
We were confused, as a couple days later we got information, that we could just walk in.
But we quickly packed our necessities and i tried to contact my parents, so they wouldn’t be worried when their son suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth for a month 🙂

The monastery was intense to say the least.
Feelings that have boiled unknown, ideas and thoughts that presented themselves and memories well remembered and also long forgotten all tried to keep me from the present moment. Some still do.
Meditation is a great exercise to get calm, to discover inner truths and to build up grey matter in the brain. I hope it will be seen as necessary as brushing our teeth in the future.
But enough of that.
Now i am out and on my way to the next adventure 🙂

So Long
Ole

p.s. Pictures will follow soon.

Vagabonds United

Dear readers,
I have really relaxed for the last 2 weeks, so much so I am not even in the mood for writing. Luckily I have met up with my beautiful girlfriend Rose again and she agreed to write my first guest entry. I am happy, as she is a published author.
I hope you enjoy the fresh style.
Enjoy:

Hello Ole’s fabulous fan club! I am so very honored to have been invited to guest write on his most inspiring blog. Hopefully this will be the final push to start one of my own! https://initiationtowonder.wordpress.com/

So after a month and ½ apart, out of all our infinite choices Ole and I decided to rendezvous in Thailand! A mystical enchanted land and of smiles, elephants, monkey’s, jungle bungalows, massages, alien fruit, white sand beaches, golden naga temples and some of the most epic spicy delicious food on the planet.

We chose Krabi, because of its dramatic cliffs and the beauty of the surrounding beaches and islands. Ole was waiting for me at my gate from my flight from the Amsterdam with a sign saying Chaska which is my Mayan name meaning Star. He’s so sweet and romantic!
It’s the end of the rainy season here, high season starts next month, which we want to miss.
I booked a nice bungalow beneath the famous Krabi cliffs (Aonang Cliff view resort link) for us to stay while we scoped out the area the first few days. The place was so cute with a fabulous pool, surrounded by the towering cliffs, fan palms, tropical flowers, peacocks, baby bunnies and cats. We were so happy to be re-united and our bungalow was cozy and romantic. We relaxed to the sounds of thunder and rain enjoying our reunion immensely.
In the mornings we were awoken with the sound of Thai boxing at the gym next door. We explored the Aonang beach nearby, eating curries on the beach, enjoying mango shakes, mangosteen, spicy papaya salad and Thai massages.
The town is a bit of tourist armpit complete with a creepy red light district but the beach is lovely and we just took our free shuttle back to our cozy and peaceful cliff bungalow, away from all the touristic turmoil.

We were offered a very cheap deal to do a 4-island tour from our bungalow resort for staying 4 nights there. We’re not really your typical tourists so it was an experience. The Thai long boats they use here are pretty loud but super photogenic and efficient. Our funny tour guide lined us up like sheep and packed us into a unique wooden long boat. It felt like a elementary school trip. The tour was filled with deaf Malaysians talking in sign language. Our first stop is Pharaong Cave beach where we found herds of Chinese tourists, caves filled with wooden penises and young fit hotties climbing cliffs.
The beach and cliff islands are gorgeous although we only get 40min to look around. Then off to the next island for some zombie tourist snorkeling in life jackets. The place is overrun; the coral is sad but still beautiful. We manage to not have to use the life jackets and swim away from the masses and enjoy the beautiful fishes.
The next island is for a lunch break we set up our hammock and eat rice and veggies overlooking the white beaches and clear blue water of Koh Jub. There is no bathroom for all the tourists and there is a lot of them. Our guide says to go in the water. Eeeeeeeew…
At the last island (Koh Poda) we have a jam session with the monkeys, the place is trashed, filled with tourists and old falling apart buildings, despite that all it’s still so very pretty.
Just as we are leaving the afternoon rain starts and we get soaked on our way back to our bungalow.

We learned quickly that the best food is with the street vendors. Everything is so delicious and I’m amazed that Ole can eat even hotter stuff than me.
Even though the whole time we have been together he never eats spicy things? What a freak.

We moved to a bungalow on a beach called the Dawn of Happiness, the ocean is right out our window with the cliffs in the background across the bay. They are getting ready for a reggae party and have built a cool tree house DJ booth which they say I can DJ in. Lecker!!
We rented a motorbike and head into Krabi for the Sunday night market. We get caught in a rainstorm, its pretty exiting. In Krabi we eat so much delicious street food, Curries, morning glory, mushroom soup, quail eggs, amazing pad Thai, fruits, Thai iced tea and yummy sweets. It’s so fun and romantic.

ready to rock this shit

mmmmmangosteen

our first date on the beach in Aunong

The lovely shake lady number 1

Cock Cave

Piles of Penis’s

The next day we finally make it out to Railey beach to scope out a nice place to stay.
We arrive at low tide, which I cannot recommend if you have a ton of baggage, as you will have to walk through several hundred meters of knee-deep water.
I don’t like the vibe in Railey at all. It’s completely overrun by tourist hotels. It’s like a bad movie, back to back tacky resorts, and there is trash everywhere. There are a couple trashed restaurants that look as if an evil curse was placed on them and they are now abandoned, graffiti and garbage everywhere. Pretty zef. We look at a few places but the vibe is sketchy. We do find a bohemian rock climbing spot (the coffee house on the walking track to Tonsai Beach) and drink some chai and try to make friends with the jaded locals.
We go in a cave called diamond cave and play music on the stalagmites.
On Railey west the cliffs create this echo from the waves and all the longboats. It is not very peaceful, yet impressive. We climb over some rocks at sunset to Tonsai beach, which is supposedly a more bohemian spot with more young rock climber types. Its definitely mellower but the vibe is still edgy. We check out a few more bungalows but they are stacked like sardines and smell musty and gross.
After our trip out to Railey we definitely appreciate our beach bungalow a lot more, it’s so mellow and quiet compared to the madness.
The reggae party at the Dawn of Happiness was amazing. My DJ set got cut short as they were late setting up the sound system, but supposedly I was the first person to play in the amazing tree house DJ booth. The bass from my tunes sounded so yummy, it was fun. Then the bands started and Ole played Didge with the first band for 30min or so. He sounded so good.
Dancing to reggae on the sand in the jungle was so fun. We ate sushi and blew bubbles and danced the night away. It was lovely.
Now we are planning our last few days here. Looking forward to the possibility of horse back riding, kayaking, photo shoots, rock climbing, checking out a fossil beach, hot springs waterfall, tiger temples and an emerald lagoon.
Then it’s on to Bangkok for Halloween. We want to dress up as Howl and Sophie from Howls moving castle, or maybe Ganesh and Pārbati. Anyhow enjoy and thanks for reading Ole’s first guest writer on his fabulous, inspiring globe trotter blog!
Tschüs, Tschüs! Rosita.

This is it, all that has happened over here in paradise. I hope you enjoyed her post.

International media apparently covered that there was full on Ukranian-style riots over here, but everybody seems to disagree. It is just not the laid back thai style.
So everybody at home, don’t worry its fine here, very fine 🙂

So Long
Ole

Changes

For the last 2 weeks i worked as a cook in a beach kiosk.
I made money so i can afford to fly to Thailand.
I booked a ticket today.
The winter here was hard. people don’t heat their homes and most europeans agree that it is harsher than the european winters. Even though we get colder temperatures.
But the summer has started and i like it. Beaches with beautiful people tanning in the sun. Surfers waiting for the perfect wave. It feels like it has become a different place.
Yet i had enough.
I sold my car and i am getting rid of the stuff that i have accumulated because of it.
I am looking forward to the relaxed attitude of the Asians. It sometimes feels like most things here are about money.
I have an urge to not worry about money anymore to thrive and live, but australia seems so expensive you are on a constant survival.
It is going to be great to go back to asia, meditate and meet old friends before i go back home. Or maybe i will change my mind completely after meditating. Who knows.
I am looking forward to meeting my family and friends again, working in switzerland, and eventually starting to study there.
Loving life today, my job hired other people, so i am not working at the moment, but really enjoying my free time.
Here are some pix of the job.

The cook

The kitchen

The view

The Ice-cream

So long
Ole

The catwalk games

hello dear readers,
I have made a very fun experience.
I was a commercial catwalk model for the fudge hair show.
I cannot really describe what happened.
So much glam! Makeup artists, Hairdresser and choreographers, all dressed in the latest designer clothes. It was very stereotypical to be honest.
I felt like a mix between Derek Zoolander and Katniss Everdeen. Tributes of Panem.
It was so surreal but the best paid job i have had so far…i was basically paid for waiting around all day 😀

The hairdresser who was a star among hairdresser apparently liked me so much they flew me to Melbourne, where i stayed at the Hilton…wow.
They put my hair up like Bjoerk or Gwen Steffani and clothed me in Pink…after the makeup i looked more like Olivia than like Ole 😀
It was definitely an experience worth making!
so long
Ole

So much colored hair

green

like in another world

the pants i wore stood up…

hello my name is olivia!

That was us, the Tributes…

Citylife is so draining!

p.s. I am off to the forest!

Ecstatic dance and markers

I got a new hobby, painting on things.
it is so much fun.
Maybe i can make some money from it… lets see.

I also went to ecstatic dance today.
It is a place where people of all ages meet at 10:30 in the morning and dance for 2h.
Strange? Maybe unusual, but it is great. Like a club but at daytime and without the alcohol. It is called 5 rythms dance and is supposed to be a form of dance therapy because you get a little voice guidance from the DJ (she said she is not a dj 😉 ) concerning awareness to your body parts, emotions and some ideas and encouragement to try, like dancing with a partner.

It is a very cool platform, because you can just sit on the floor and wiggle around, shake, hop, jump, twist, shuffle, scream or just be an uncoordinated bundle of flesh and nobody judges you.
No peer pressure of who dances the nicest nor the fear of embarrassment in front of “future” partners.
People come to dance and vent nothing else.
Yay 🙂
So long
Ole
P.s.  a short little something 🙂

My neighborhood and the blue mountains

Hey ho

i moved to Coogee, 4minute walk to the beach.
It is very beautiful. To bad that it is so cold, and it started raining today… but in the morning you can sit by the beach.
It is wonderful to watch the waves crashing into the rocks and if you are lucky you see whales breaching through the sea.
You can put up your hammock in the trees and just enjoy life.
Last weekend i went sailing again, the boat “Mojo” looks like a spaceship and gets really fast. Our bowsprit broke while flying the kite/spinnaker so we lost the race. Next weekend it will be fixed and we will hopefully win!

The Beach next door

like a spaceship

the mojo

i carried most of this junk

my job as a plumber

and demolitionman

chillin

waves crashing, and wedding pie island in the back

the other side of the bay

these trees are fascinating

the trippy sculpture in the park

my home, bream st. 81

This weekend Rose and I went for a trip to the blue mountains. It is the mountain range just 1.5h west of Sydney and it is incredibly beautiful.
It is a place full with steep cliffs and waterfalls everywhere. We slept in our car, but it got soooo cold over night. It is winter here after all, and in the mountains it is even colder.
The next morning was so freezing my hands turned all numb. During the day however the sun came out and it became nice and warm.
We saw the 3 sisters, a rock formation with a special story:

Three sisters, Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo had a father who was a witch doctor.
His name was Tyawan.
Long ago there was a Bunyip who lived in a deep hole who was feared by all. Passing the hole was considered very dangerous, therefore whenever Tyawan had to pass the hole in search for food, he would leave his daughters safely on the cliff behind a rocky wall.
One fateful day, Tyawan waved goodbye to his daughters and descended down the cliff steps into the valley. Meanwhile at the top of the cliff, Meenhi was frightened by a large centipede which suddenly appeared before her. Meenhi took a stone and threw it at the centipede. The stone continued on its journey and rolled over the cliff, crashing into the valley below which angered the Bunyip.
The rocky wall behind Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo then began to split open and the three sisters were left stranded on a thin ledge at the top of the cliff.
All the birds, animals and fairies stopped still as the Bunyip emerged to see the terrified girls. As the Bunyip began to approach the girls, to protect them from harm, their father Tyawan used his magic bone to turn them into stone.
Angered by this, the Bunyip then began to chase Tyawan. Becoming trapped, in order to flee from the Bunyip, Tyawan changed into a magnificent Lyre Bird, yet in the process dropped his magic bone.
Tyawan and his three daughters were now safe from the Bunyip. Once the Bunyip had disappeared, Tyawan returned in search of his magic bone, yet this was never to be found.
The Lyre Bird has been searching for this magic bone ever since. Remaining in rock formation, The Three Sisters stand silently overlooking the valley hoping that one day he’ll find the bone and turn them back to former selves.
When visiting The Three Sisters, if you listen carefully you may be able to hear the Lyre Bird, Tyawan, as he continues his quest for his lost magic bone.

So there is definitely magic in these mountains, and as if planned, we found a magic gate that took us to an enchanted part of the jungle where we got a little lost, found some Ents, heard Dragons and saw a bigfoot on the street 😉

the blue mountains at night

and day

steep cliffs

the three sisters

the minne haha falls

mini but HAHA

the magic gate

so pretty…

me inside the ent

it this a bigfoot on the street?

Roses visa is up soon, so she will do a visa run to Fiji and hopefully be back soon.

So long
Ole
p.s. i haven’t seen a single soccer world championship game. But i am happy we won the title 😉

Winter in Sydney

My dear readers,

Last time I wrote was when I flew to Sydney to see Rose again. Now I have spent more than a month here. Being a plumber, a carpenter, a model and again demolition man.

Sydney has a lot to offer. It was vivid Sydney, where they illuminated several big buildings like the opera house with projections and had open museums and galleries through the center. But traffic here is like the design of a madman.

There seem to be quite a few nude beaches around. We accidentally stumbled across one when we went to see the beautiful camp cove. It was the shortest day of the year, but it was so warm that i dared into the water.

After midwinter it got really cold however. Snuggle weather. Like really!

Ludo came back from cairns and we spent his last days in australia together. We really experienced quite some adventures together! It was weird bringing him to the airport. Has it really been 5month again? In 3 weeks i will have been gone for 2 years. It feels like i am ready to come back. I am going to stay in sydney until beginning of august and then try to find a boat to asia where i am going to visit some old friends and finish my journey with reflection in a quiet place.

Thats the plan. But if you have been following this blog, you know that plans are made to change 😉

So long

Ole.

P.s. pictures follow if i have a laptop again 🙂

 

Resume

my last post was more than a month ago.
Wow, and i promised my family to write at least one per month…tsktsk OleOleOle…
I really do not enjoy writing blog on my phone though, so please forgive me 🙂

I wanted to hitchhike from the farm to Cairns, to find a job there.
But on my last day we went to the river nearby and i fell in love.
I decided to stay there for 3 days on my own in stead. It was delightful, the occasional pickup or quad driving by (it was the weekend) was little disturbance to the serenity.
It was good to be on my own again, after almost a year constantly together with other people this was the first time i was really on my own again, just for 3 days but still.
First the ship and then Ludo.
After 3 days we had a big goodbye dinner with everybody from the farm, and me and ludo left for Cairns.
Ludo also had a little disagreement with the owner of the farm about how to treat workers so we kind of had to leave 🙂

We stopped on the way to meet 2 German friends of ours and swam in a jellyfish proof ocean net. It felt like going into a swimming pool (20m by 20m), the whole benefit of the ocean was suddenly gone…well at least there was no poisonous stingers.

Next stop Cairns, camping is not allowed in the whole of Queensland (the state we are now in) so to sleep we always drove way out of town to find a hiding spot.
We did not make the mistake to park in a driveway anymore.
Our first night was abruptly ended when the farmer honked and asked us what we were doing, me still half asleep told him some story that we were lost on our way to look for a banana farm which settled him. I even asked him for a job 😉
So we found another great sleeping spot past the airport (-16.871436, 145.731880 google maps)
Once again we were hunting for jobs, and most of you already know what followed, we became Ricksha drivers, or how they call them here Pedicabs.
Also i took my first nickname ever “Red”.
It was pretty amazing, i dressed up as the pirate “Red Ryder”, and played my favorite music all night. I had a party, listed to music, worked my body and got money for that. Great!
I mean the disadvantages were that i started work at 6pm and stopped at 6am so i kind of became a vampire, i did not know what the weather during the day was because i slept at least till 4pm. Also i did not see anything in Cairns, that you could not see during the night. I enjoyed it anyhow.
But people in Cairns now know me only as Red, which was a pretty trippy feeling.
Even Ludo started calling me Red, i did not call him Blue.
I made a relatively good amount of money, enough to afford a flight to Sydney to see Rose again.
That’s where i am right now.
I let ludo travel alone for a while. I really enjoyed the time with somebody from home, but it was weird too. Both of us kind of associated the other with the person from our memories, but it seems people change over time.
I wonder how people are going to see me when i come home, should i keep the nickname?
I think i am going to stay with Olé.
I love you guys, thank you for all the comments.

our zombie parrot

ludo

and me as limepickers

solar eclipse

Ze chocolate bar

i mean the galaxy

my river retreat

i built a solar clock to keep track of time

the river

saying goodye to the goodtimes

australia being hostile

vinegar vs jellyfish

oh i forgot to mention the crocodiles

illegal camping

 

So now i am in Sydney again and am planning to make my way back north again, with Rose this time.
And i will try to write more regularly.
So Long
Your Ole

a backpackers life

hey all my readers, how are you?
and who are you?
It would be amazing if everybody who reads this, if i know you or not, leaves a comment saying “i do”.

Anyhow, back to topic, a lot has happened.
We left sydney.
It was a hard decision, should i stay in Sydney with my girlfriend Rose or travel north together with my best friend Ludo.
I decided to go work on a mandarin farm up north.
We took our time and stopped along the way.
We left on the birthday of my little sister, which i forgot.
And i am soo sorry for that.
We stopped and bought a air matrace and a body board for the big waves.
We took some hitchhikers slept in Coffs harbour.
A little town where we met up with a friend from the horseback riding trip.
He made ludo drink the supposedly worst beer in australia.
According to Ludo VB was “shit but not the worst i ever drank, that was some Spanish beer”
Then we continued, we went to a surfing spot called Skennars head, it lays very exposed and has gigantic waves. Also dolfins close to the coast 🙂
Then we went to a fracking protest with people chaining themselves to roadblocks, where i met my good old pirate friend Lev again.
It is scary what rights the mining companies have here in australia, a farmer has no right to the things under ground only above ground. so a mining company can come and drill on his property and there is nothing he can do against it.
We stayed in the camp for 2 days helping out and for the first time in australia we saw alive aboriginal culture…original australian culture…
They told some of their stories, and one of the elders held a touching speech that they are taking responsibility for what is happening with the land. We white people have no idea what is going on around us, he said, it it their responsibility (aboriginal people carry “the law” of the land/the earth) to bring balance.
The next day he left to a big meeting of 500 native australian tribe elders in the middle desert.
We went on to the mandarin farm, what shock was it that the farmer told us we couldn’t start working for another 2 weeks.
Luckily there was a farm job just 12h car ride away… and we were desperate for a job.
SO here we are.
In the middle of nowhere, charters towers is the name of the town, but we live 20km away on a farm. Picking Limes and pruning grape vines.
We already saw a zombie parrot, a baby python, tons of spiders with incredibly strong nets, kangaroos in the morning sun and hunted kangaroos by our farm dog smokey…he never catches any
The money is not very good, but the people are very nice.
I don’t really know what to do next, but our friend from Melbourne knows somebody who is in labour hire/construction in Queensland. I might try to ask him for help.
Also our car registration ends today, but it is a public holyday…no good.
Anyhow my dear readers, i will take care.

If you want to see pictures and videos, please click >HERE<! Ludo writes in german, but he has a computer. Yes my computer is falling apart.
And please write a comment.

so long Ole

one big country

Australia is so big!
I was very lazy the last month to read what happened to me please read here… >CLICK<
As it is in German, i probably should at least write a little bit of what happened.
One friend of Boinga (the tree house owner) got us to build a fence for her. our first real working experience. She was an amazing cook and a super nice person. We ended up earning 200 unexpected dollar.
That paid for our trip to another voluntary job in the “Victorian Alps”.
We went and helped out at a horseback riding tour for 2 weeks.
It was a cultural experience, on our first day i thought i can ride and then i had to be a cowboy and bring the cattle over into another meadow and my illusions were shattered…well a little the next day it went waay easier and i noticed that my boss was merely testing my riding skills. What a cheeky bugger.
I played cricket for the first time and found out that it is a lot of fun, but even if i get harassed now it seems like a coward-game 😀
You basically never take risks…but it was fun anyhow.
So after 2 weeks of driving jeeps in 4×4 through washed out mountain tracks we are now in Sydney.
We tried some WWOOFing but we fled pretty quickly as the atmosphere was not really nice.
We just bought a car and got loads of free stuff (incl. a gas stove, a guitar and 2 camping chairs) for just 500$ it still has one month of registration. We will probably use it and then sell it for 2000$ or just continue using it.
This seems just fair as we got ripped off in Melbourne.

so long
Ole
p.s. i am really lazy in writing blog as you can tell but once i edited my pix i am going to give you a picture “caramblogage”