ASIA

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BANGKOK & PHUKET (first time after covid)

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We’ve been traveling to Japan in April, and I felt like writing everything down, as soon as we came back home, instead of starting with this post about our trip to Thailand in February. This doesn’t mean that Thailand was less enjoyable.

As always, Bangkok really convinced us with its never ending magic. There are always a few corners in the city that are left undiscovered. This would have been our 6th or 7th time in Bangkok, and still we weren’t bored for an hour.

However writing about your trips and experiences abroad, kinda feels like comparing it to a book or a record. There’s always a right moment for a book or a record, even if you kept it at home for many many years. But one day, it comes up in your head, that “right now” would be the perfect moment to dive deep into it.

And that’s how I felt, writing about Thailand. I’ve already written a couple of posts about our trips to Thailand. I felt like repeating myself with this one.

BANGKOK.

So usually Bangkok is the springboard, where we first land in Thailand, and then move on to the next destination on our journey. It was supposed to be a short trip for only 6 nights in Thailand. It was the first time for us, returning to “Siam” after the pandemic. And also the first time traveling to this country with a kid. Imagine not going to Khao San at night, as we were traveling as parents this time. But guess what, she was all part of it. The binge drinking nights are somehow over, however we still enjoyed some cocktails at the parallel street Rambuttri Road, which is more laid back, and also more quite. But we walked through Khao San at night, and witnessed the madness. Well when we started our first day, in the old neighbourhood Talat Noi, nearby the busy streets of China Town. We opted for a different location, just to change the scenery of our Bangkok experience. We stayed at the Photo Hostel, which was a pretty nice hostel (with private rooms). The owner, who was a dutch expat, and a professional photographer, was very welcoming. Some of his work was hung for display on the walls of the coffee shop. It wasn’t a party hostel. Right outside of the hostel, you could step into a neighbourhood filled with street art. It was old, kinda dirty, but arty. The busy mainroad of Chinatown was nearby, and it was actually the first time we visited Chinatown in Bangkok. It was pretty cool, especially at night, with the all the lit neon signs. A paradise for photographers.

We met up with Vanessa’s parents at our usual rooftop bar (SALA ROOF TOP), which offers a splendid view onto Wat Arun, which is divinely lit at night. A beautiful spectacle to witness, while sipping on your drink. And it was nice to see, how much her parents liked it as well. The view over the lit temples at night is just mesmerizing. Surrounded by such much beauty, the golden and colorful temples, are coming with a hint of spirituality all over the city.

“MUENG BURAN” is an authentic, but still artificial theme park, in a suburb of Bangkok. You are entering the entrance gate of a huge park, where you gotta pay an entrance fee, and you gotta add some bahts to rent a golf caddy or a bike. Yes, you read correctly, a golf caddy. Inside the park, you will have the exact location of ancient temples, and old remaining houses of ancient villages. However they refurbished the buildings, to make them look nicer. However the architecture is still very appealing, even though you might think, that you’ve seen all the temples in Thailand. The park is huge, and you really need a vehicle to make it through the heat, to visit all of the locations in the park. And still we had missed a temple or two. It sounds like a tourist trap, but in my own personal opinion it’s not . It’s artificial nowadays, but still a fascinating place for photographers.

By coincidence, we noticed a photograph of a huge golden budha at the photo hostel. And my girlfriend told me that it must be in Bangkok, which I didn’t believe, as I was supposed to have witnessed most corners in Bangkok. We asked the owner of the hostel, and he approved that the photo was shot in the city. It’s a new buddha statue, that they finished only a couple of months prior our trip. It’s huge! And is located right in the middle of the city, surrounded by a poorer neighbourhood.

The worshipping place is free to visit, and it’s actually a cool trip to walk through the small local village, until you reach the buddha statue. At least calculate 2-3 hours for the whole experience. On our last day, we went to the mandatory stop at Chatuchak weekend market. We also visited its beautiful park, guess the name, Chatuchak Park.

The only tourist trap, we had experience must have been "Asiatique The Riverfront", which is supposed to be a night market, next to a harbor. It attracted a fancier kind of crowd. The restaurants were rather a mix of local and international cuisine. Half of the shops were empty, high probably due to the pandemic. Asiatique Riverfront, might be one of the few things that you can skip in Bangkok, or just don’t expect too much when you get there.

PHUKET.

Phuket is one of the few cities, where people will give you an eye-rolling look, when you’re mentioning the city’s name. It used to be one of the major tourist hot spots of Thailand, a city were you would encounter many wild British and Russian crowds. A friend at work, however told me that he enjoyed Phuket a lot more than Kho Samui, as there would still be untouched corners on the island, that would be quite beautiful.

As for myself, I was more attracted by the city center, as Phuket Old Town looked quite photogenic, as far as I could tell from the google-search images. Was I dissappointed ? Not by the look of the city center, however rather about the size of the town. It’s majorly only 4 blocks, and it takes you less than 1 hour to just walk around the main corners. There’s really not much going on. Foodwise, it is way less appealing than Bangkok, everything has been adapted to mass tourism. There are a few small & cosy restaurants, but you can count ‘em on one hand. So you can really do everything that is located in and around the city center, in 1 day. The “Chillva Night Market Phuket” included. As we weren’t visiting on a weekend, we missed the Phuket Old Town Market. The Chillva Market was a nice alternative, to at least witness the busy thai nightmarkets, while being in Phuket.

On our first day we bumped into our driver, whose name was Ake. Considering the prices of the rental cars, and how much he would charge us for being our driver for a whole day, we opted for the second option, so we wouldn’t have to worry about driving home at night, or driving back home while being super tired.

Did we do any special out of line…no the usual things you would do as a tourist, however we enjoyed doing them and discovering the island. Among the main spots that we visited were:

  • The Chalong temple

  • The Big Buddha

  • Ma Doo Bua Cafe

  • Nai Thon Beach

  • Samet Nangshe

We do appreciate visiting thai temples, as they are often quite beautiful, and somehow we don’t seem to get tired of worship places. Especially the thai temples, that are super colorful, adorned with golds and sparkling stones. The Chalong temple enclosure regroups some worship buildings with lots of greens and palmtrees around it. Stopping by to walk around for 30 minutes, won’t be a waste of time. Definitely a must see, while in Phuket.

The Big Buddha is the most popular landmark in Phuket, due to its size, and easily recognizable from afar. The first big buddha statue I ever saw, was the one in Hong Kong. Both seem to be very similiar as far as I can remember. The one in Hong Kong is nicer though, due to its location and surroundings. But while in Phuket… it’s definitely on the to-do list.

Ma Doo Bua Cafe, became a favorite spot among the tourists, and it’s actually just a restaurant. From the outside it doesn’t look that appealing, however the backside of the restaurants reveals a unique photospot to take some instagram footage. There’s a big pond, with huge lotus leaves, and obviously you gotta stand in line, to wait for your turn for taking some photos of your beloved ones.
Our food for lunch was great, the restaurant is beautiful on its own, and you get a very nice view while sharing some dishes. We didn’t regret waiting in line for 20-25 minutes waiting for a free table. If I remember correctly, you only get the chance to take some photos, if you get a free table at the restaurant.

The distances to drive, aren’t short ones. As we were heading towards Samet Nangshe, which is located outside of Phuket, further north, we decided to stop by at the Nai Thon Beach. It was quite a nice, and much less crowded than Koron Beach, the first one we visited. We enjoyed the refreshing dip into the ocean, while Ake was waiting for us, to take us to our last and most memorable spot in Phuket.

Samet Nangshe, could be considered as the Halong Bay (Vietnam) in Thailand. Except that you don’t need to jump on a boat, and drive away from the coast, until you get to the main spot of the rocky bay. Samet Nangshe’s Viewpoint is located on the mainland. However you need to jump onto a special "4x4 SUV” that takes you to the viewpoint, as the roads are crazy steep. Maybe you could walk there, however it’s not reachable with a normal car. Reaching the viewpoint, you’ll notice that it was worth it, driving almost 90 minutes to reach Samet Nangshe. As for myself, it was my favorite spot among the sightseeing we did in Phuket.

And after a planned out day, we were glad that we didn’t have to drive all the way back to our hotel, thanks to Ake.

On our last day in Phuket (we only stayed 3 days), we decided to do some last shopping and walking around Old Town, until we would be heading back to the airport in the evening.

Getting back to the airport can take easily more than an hour, depending on the traffic.

Phuket was enjoyable. Would I recommend it, yes, without a doubt. We’ve been in Krabi before the pandemic, where we stayed in Ao Nang. Ao Nang was less appealing than Phuket. The coolest part of Krabi, was the boat ride to Phi Phi Islands, and spending a night there. Phi Phi Island is also reachable from Phuket. I guess Phuket would be more enjoyable, if you rent a scooter, and discover the surrounding on your own. While writing this post, I had to correct myself numerous times, because I wanted to describe Phuket as an Island, however it’s reachable by car from the mainland so it still belongs to the mainland of Thailand. However Phuket definitely feels like being stuck on an island.

Would I turn back to Phuket? Probably not. As there are still so many places left to discover in Thailand. And the only thing that bothered me in Phuket, were the distances you had to drive to get from point A to point B. Nothing is really close. That was the only downside.

In the end we enjoyed getting back to Thailand, for the first time after the pandemic, and we made the best out of our 7 days. Especially traveling with a kid. And we figured out, that Bangkok is still more fascinating than some of the “islands”. Can’t way to get back to Bangkok anytime soon.




































































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Seoul & Osaka

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In 2014 I visited Japan for the very first time. It blew my mind. I fell in love with that country. And after a memorable 5 days trip to Japan, I promised myself I would turn back every single year.

And I did, until Covid happened. Japan closed its doors for tourism for almost 3 years.

Beginning of this year, visitor were allowed back to the country, and we couldn’t wait any longer to get back. The very first trip together with my girlfriend was in Japan. And now it was about time to show our daughter that beautiful country, where mom & dad came together.

Osaka over Tokyo.

So far I’ve visited Tokyo twice. Don’t get me wrong. Tokyo is amazing. It’s the big japanese capital. It’s diverse, entertaining, photogenic, crazy and peaceful at the same time… but I can’t help it, to still appreciate Osaka a lot more than the capital.

It’s the soul of Osaka that fascinates me more than Tokyo. This trip would be my 6th visit in Osaka. And still I keep going to the same places as if it would be my first holidays in Japan.

Why did we choose Osaka as our destination in Japan? It’s perfectly located to do several daytrips around its neighbouring cities: Nara, Kyoto, Arashiyama, even Hiroshima (which isn’t too close).

NARA.

We decided to visit Nara on our first day, as we couldn’t wait to see the smile of our daughter, while she would meet up with a deer for the first time. The deers run freely through Nara’s several parks. You can pet & feed them. It’s fascinating everytime again. The deer-parks are surrounded by walking paths, the famous gigantic Todai-Ji temple, a pagoda, cherry blossoms during spring. Nara has that typical japanese village vibe, which attracts way too many visitors.

This year, it was the first time for us, where the deers wouldn’t eat the animal-cookies, tourists were buying, to feed them. Usually they are mostly loved by the deers, however this year, they were over-fed as too many tourists were heading over to the deer-city. We were visiting Nara on a sunday, and it was packed with people. Due to the crowds, it lost some of its magic. However it was still a memorable experience.

Nara is easily reachable by train from Osaka, and it takes about 40 minutes.

The same day, in the afternoon, we headed back to Osaka, to the Expo Park, to meet up with our friend Yasuyo who had organized a BBQ afternoon with other japanese friends, who wanted to practice their english. It was a great first day, with lots of laughters and enjoyment.

KYOTO & ARASHIYAMA.

Kyoto must be the most cultural city of Japan. It used to be the capital of Japan before Tokyo. It’s so diverse, and has so much to offer. We headed to Arashiyama, a suburb of Kyoto, as we opted for another animal experience for our daughter, the monkey feeding.

It may sound like a tourist trap, but it ain’t. As soon as you step out of the trainstation, it feels like walking towards a village from a japanese fairy tale. Beautiful rivers and its wooden bridges, an alley full to tiny charming shops. An enchanting bamboo forest (one of only a few in Japan), this one’s the most famous one. As already mentioned. the monkey park, where people walk into a cabin, and the free monkeys are climbing around that cabin, to wait until they are being fed by the visitors.

It was the first time, I ever did the river-cruise with a small paddle-boat. It wasn’t as easy as it looked, paddling against the stream.

The different shades of green in the background of Arashiyama’s forests, make the landscape look like a painting. I love spending time in Arashiyama, everytime again I am visiting Osaka. This year, like already mentioned, it was packed with too many tourists. Maybe it was because of the sakura season, that it attracted more tourists than usually, or was it the golden week? People were eager to get back to Japan after covid, the same as we did.

And of course, I wouldn’t forget about the mandatory green mochi filled with bean-paste. Every time again I would have one at the same stand, where I had my first matcha-mochi in 2014.

On our last day of this trip, we decided to head back to the center of Kyoto, nearby Kamo River that runs through the middle of the city. We passed hundreds of shops, walked through the Gyon neighborhood, until we reached Hōkan-ji pagoda. It’s such a picturesque city, it may feel like you’re stuck in a japanese fairytale.

HIROSHIMA.

I wanted to bring my girlfriend to a new city, she hasn’t visited yet. Hiroshima was a nice option, because of its history, the part of riding a shinkansen (rapid train), and the bonus of visiting another deer-village, the island of Miyajima.

As we spent a limited time in Japan, we didn’t want to lose half a day, while spending a night on Miyajima island. So we decided, to do a one-day-trip. We started with the Peace Memorial Park, where you can witness the only building that wasn’t completely turned into ashes, when the first atomic bomb hit the city in 1945. We moved on to the Hiroshima castle, which was less impressive that I had in mind. And from the castle we headed straight to Miyajima Island, which took another 35-40 minutes by train.

It was my second time at the Peace Memorial Park. I’m not sure if I’m the only one, however as soon as I started reading the informations noted on the monuments, I felt the same sadness inside of me, as the first time I was visiting Hiroshima. Knowing how many lives were ended, seconds after the blast of the bomb, at that exact spot where we were standing.

The ferry ride to Miyajima, is quite beautiful. And so is the island. The only concern we had, was that all the shops and restaurants were starting to close after 16:30 (4:30pm). We were hopelessly looking for a restaurant, as we haven’t had lunch yet, and really wanted to try Hiroshima’s okonomiyaki, their most popular savory pancake dish. After a lovely 2 hour stay on the island, we headed back home with an empty stomach. Around the time, when we reached the island 15:30, the tide kicked in, and we were able to walk nearby the big red tori gate. I’d rather have watched it standing in the water, surrounded by moving waves. You can’t win all the time.

Hiroshima is easily doable within a day, train rides included. However rushing through the main interest points, will still be stressful. I would suggest, to spend a night on the island, if you have the time.

Osaka, Namba.

We spent most evenings in Osaka, as it never disappoints. It’s a never-ending shopping paradise, there are just too many shops to explore. The neon lights at night, are giving the city a film-noir futuristic look, as we know it from the movie bladerunner, which was highprobably heavily inspired by Osaka’s city look.

Streetfood is amazing and cheap. Within the same street, you’ll get a big variety of food options. We love Ramen, Gyoza and kushikatsu. You can hardly find bad food in Japan (well we did in Arashiyama).

Weirdly it’s been the first time that I noticed the boom of Gashapon madness. “Gashapon" are vending machines with tiny toys that are wrapped in a plastic ball, and are being sold for 300-400 yen on every street corner. They toys are weird, cool, cute, and the whole thing can get very addictive. We spent quite some money on these toys as our daughter loved them as well. Everytime we had too many coins in our pockets from the train rides, we spent them at a gashapon store. I witness these toys before at the airport, or bigger train stations, however now they’re literally at every street corner.

Another mandatory visit would be the Shinsekai area, with its eyecatcher the Tsūtenkaku tower. The neighborhood is super busy at night, and offers many charming restaurants. The whole lit up alley is super photogenic, maybe the most instagramable spot in Osaka. We also visited Tower Knives, which offers a big vareity of japanese knives, with a great service, and you can add any name-carving to your selection. After having bought 3 kitchen knives, this year I opted for the Higonokami, a traditional pocket knife, just a cool souvenir, to remember this fantastic trip. And while being amazed about the knife madness happening at the shop, and the great service, I bought another small kitchen knife for my home-bar, with the engraved name of Valentina, our daughter. 

This year we discovered the unusual Yasaka Shrine in Namba, Osaka. When you think, you’ve seen it all (temples), there’s always another shrine or temple, that will impress you with its unusual look. Yasaka is one of time, as it is built in the shape of a huge green dragon head.
We spent another dinner-night with Yasuyo and Odie, in an underground Izakaya, to end this trip in a proper way. They introduced us to japanese dishes, that we wouldn’t have ordered by ourselves, and our daughter and us, we got spoiled with too many presents.

 

2 days in Seoul.

To reach Japan, we had a stop-over in Seoul, as the flights were supposed to be cheaper through South-Korea, compared to flying straight to Japan from Europe. It was a bonus for Vanessa, so she would get a +1 on her list of visited countries.

Seoul is different. It’s not Osaka, it’s not Japan. I was my second time in Seoul, and I liked it a little bit better now, than the first time. That’s mostly the case, when I turn back to a country, that didn’t impress me much, for the second time. While flying towards South-Korea, I watched a new korean movie called “The Brokers”. I love korean movies! And the scenic views, that were shown in the movie, made me quite curious about the rest of the country. It will still be hard for South-Korea to win my heart, as I will always compare it to Japan. However i’m pretty sure that we will do a roadtrip in the near future, to discover more of South-Korea. For a country that releases so many great movies, there has to be something special about it.

On this trip, which was very short, as our flight got delayed, we were super limited in time. We rushed to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was super busy, and 50% of the people were dressed up in Hanbok clothes, traditional korean clothes. After that we jumped to Bukchon Hanok Village which was super crowded, almost impossible to snap a descent photo.

Strolling through the streets, along many cute shops, we had a coffe, and visited the Gwangjang Food Market after sunset. They have so many food stands in the indoor food hall, however the food variety is rather limited compared to the numerous vendors. The food we had, was ok, nothing comparable to thai food. But we enjoyed the whole vibe. And it’s definitely a cool place to take some photos. We also noticed the stand, from the Netflix streetfood serie.


I was shooting an endless amount of photos on this trip. Check the photo gallery button below.

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Kuala Lumpur & Singapore

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Flights became super super expensive during the two weeks of christmas school holidays in Luxembourg. We were endlessly looking for affordable flights, however without any luck. Flights to Thailand reached the 2k limit (a single ticket), other destinations like Guatemala just came up with a horrible flight schedule. In the end we ended up booking two city trips, of two cities and two countries I haven’t visited yet:

  • Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

  • Singapore, Singapore.

Well after having visited most asian countries, you could think “Kuala Lumpur …oh just another asian capital.”. However it was just the perfect match for us, as we have been traveling to asian- and arabic cities. We discovered both worlds, both cultures… and suddenly both world fuse together.

Bali, Thailand, Vietnam, … you will find minorities of the muslim religion. However in Kuala Lumpur it was the main religion. It was a melting pot of muslim, hindu and chinese culture. And it just felt different than any other previous country we visited prior this trip.

The airport of Kuala Lumpur is located further away from the city center. It easily takes between 60-70 minutes to make it to the airport by uber/taxi. Everything is quite cheap in Kuala Lumpur. And you get endless food options. Arabic-, halal-, chinese-, indian food… you never get bored while looking for the perfect dinner place.

Uber which is crazy cheap in KL, makes everything easily accessible. Our hotel was located in the Bukit Bintang area. It was the heart of the city center, surrounded by a couple of muslim corners, where you would find endless options of restaurants & supermarkets, a night food market, and millions of shops (shopping malls).

Every Uber we booked was between 1-5 euros.

The highlight in Kuala Lumpur was the majestic Batu Caves Temple. It’s definitely an eye catcher. It’s for free. If you get there early in the morning (around 10am) you still can avoid the crowds that show up during mid-day. The big golden statue, the colorful steps, the hindus, the inside of the cave.. this all sums up to make it a crazy photogenic place. Definitely the highlight in Kuala Lumpur.

Jalan Alor. 

Jalan Alor was located next to our hotel. It’s one of the most popular street food markets, maybe the biggest one? It wouldn’t beat the ones we’d visited in Thailand. However it’s worth a visit, especially at night with hundreds of hanging red lanterns. We opted for a delicious Iraki Restaurant, called “TARMA” just around the corner.

Petaling Street Market.

Petaling Street Market is part of the chinese neighborhood. The main street, is packed with stalls, that sell all kind of crap nobody needs. However the whole area has a couple of cute restaurants, an indoor market, plenties of street art. It’s definitely a spot where you can easily spend some hours and take some photos. Besides the market street, it feels authentic, and we tried to make it back at night for dinner, as it seemed to become very colorful at night, however due to the rainy weather we couldn’t make it back on our last night in KL.

The Federal Territory Mosque

From afar we could witness a beautiful mosque with a huge dome. We decided to visit the mosque as we were kinda attracted by its size. As we were entering the building we were greeted by security, and they informed us that we had to visit the mosque with a guide. The first moment we were hesitating, as it mostly comes with a donation, many attempts to slightly convert us into muslims (kind of). We weren’t in the mood, to hear the stories of how great their religion is. It was just too warm outside for this kind of activities. However we ended up in a small office, all three of us, dressed up in religious dresses. Our guide was Shahira, a lovely older lady. We couldn’t see her face, as she was wearing a facemask, due to covid. The tour lasted almost an hour, and it turned out to be pretty interesting. The whole tour was for free, nobody ever asked for a donation, no attempts to convert us… super friendly people, doing an effort to show tourists their place of worship. We donated a couple of bucks, as the whole ambience was super welcoming. Just the opposite of what I’ve experienced in Morocco.

Later I noticed, that we headed to the wrong mosque. During the whole trip I wanted to visit the pink mosque. So that’s gotta be for the next time.

Petrona Towers.

Obviously they’re part of the city’s landscape. But they’re only magnificent at night. At nighttime both towers shine like a pair of diamonds, and you can see them from almost every corner in the center of KL.

Not too far away from the towers, we went to the Heliport Bar, which seemed to be a cool bar, at the top floor of a skyscraper. From the bar you would walk up to a helipad (during the day), that transforms into a rooftop bar at night. We paid 20$ entrance, even though Valentina wasn’t allowed to make it onto the helipad. So we decided that we would enjoy some drinks, and just have a sneak peak individually on the helipad to take a great photo of the splendid view of the Petrona Towers. While having our drinks it started raining like hell, and they had to close the access to the rooftop. Unlucky again.

Thean Hou Temple

This one is definitely an eye catcher among all the worship places in Kuala Lumpur. What makes it very “picturesque” are the countless hanging lanterns filling up the roof-level of the outdoor area of the temple. Needless to say, we didn’t pay much attention about its history, we tried to get a couple of descent shots, while having only a couple more hours left in Malaysia prior our flight to the next destination. You get a descent skyline view from the temple. In its basement you can try some local food. As it’s located a little bit further out from any busy street, we had a hard time finding an UBER, as there was no wifi connection nearby.

Definitely a great spot to take some fancy photographs.

And this is how the first part of our trip came to an end. After spending 3 nights in Kuala Lumpur, we definitely enjoyed our time there, and made the best out of it, despite having a couple of hours of rain in the evenings.

The kindness of the local people, the cheap prices, and the diversity ,in general, that Malaysia is offering to the tourists, convinced us to come back in the nearby future, where we would love to explore the beaches & islands of Malaysia, and Malacca a charming city nearby Kuala Lumpur.


SINGAPORE.

This was my first time visiting Singapore as a destination. However I already had a 10 hour stay in Singapore, due to a connecting flight to Bali. Back then, I really didn’t enjoy Singapore. After discovering one of Indonesia’s most popular Island, Singapore felt rather dull. However as we looking for a second destination on this one-week journey, Singapore just felt like the best option. I had absolutely no expectations for the second part of our trip.

Mostly, every time I visit a country, I didn’t like at first sight, it keeps growing on me after getting there for a second time. And this was the case with Singapore.

On my first trip, I rushed from the airport, to Little India, the Marina Bay Sands shopping center, and the Garden by the Bay. Everything felt artificial, kind of like Dubai. It was a melting pot of multiple cultures, but didn’t really had a face of its own. I think back then, I was looking for photogenic spots, busy streets, … the stuff I encountered in Bali.

On this trip, I somehow started to enjoy these same aspects of Singapore, that I didn’t like on my one day visit in 2018.

Traveling as a family.

Maybe it was the fact, that we were traveling with a one year old kid, that made Singapore more enjoyable. Singapore is super clean, getting around in the city is super convenient, it’s safe, and it offers lots of indoor activities as well, if the weather won’t show its best smile.

Little India.

As we haven’t been to India recently, I really enjoyed spending some time in Little India. It’s not as photogenic as India itself, but it has a very similiar vibe, especially in the evening or the early morning. Little India is busy, it’s colorful, it smells like India, and it’s full of Indian people dressed in sarees and dottis. And in comparison to other areas of Singapore, the food in restaurants is quite cheap.

Chinatown.

I read several articles that Chinatown in San Francisco, would be the biggest community outside of China. To me, it seemed that Singapore’s Chinatown was way bigger than the one in SF. The restaurants along the main road, were super packed in the evening. Most of them, were serving authentic Chinese food. It was loud, stressful, and the food was different, from that what we were used to eat in chinese restaurants.

The beautiful Buddha Tooth Relic Temple was our favorite spot in Chinatown. I’d recommend to visit the temple at night. It looks way more impressive when it’s dark, due to the red shining color.

Kampong Glam.

The hippest among all the cultural neighborhoods was the Muslim area called “Kampong Glam”. Haji Lane is colorful, packed with street art, hip shops, it’s not the kind of street you would except in a muslim neighorhood, nearby a big mosque. The food variety is endless, from Mexican, to Thai food, and several Arabic restaurants.

The Sultan Mosque is quite the eyecatcher with its golden dome covering the antique looking building.

Sadly it was the only place in Singapore, where people were bothering us, and asking us constantly to visit their restaurants.





The Bay Area.

The Marina Bay area, is quite touristy. Its mall is very posh, and you won’t find any budget-friendly shops. The food court is interesting though, as it offers every food you can imagine. As for the kiddy part: you can book a canal boat ride through a canal that goes through the mall. I think it’s 15 to 20$ per boat. Next to the foodcourt, is a digital playground for kids.

The famous lit trees at the Supertree Groove, start their show at 7:45 pm, and there’s another show at 8:45pm. One night we were passing the magical garden after 10:00pm and whole place was dark, all the lights were turned off. Just as a reminder that the trees aren’t lit all night.

The park is quite big, and it’s definitely enjoyable to have a walk through it.

From the garden, you can walk through the Marina Bay Hotel, to reach the shopping Mall. You gotta cross a bridge, from which you can witness the inside of the expensive hotel. Its fantastic roof-top swimmingpool is only accessible for their hotel guests. Next time when we will be in Singapore, we will try to spend at least one night at this hotel, just to get access to its pool area.

Eats & drinks.

Drinking gets quite expensive. One afternoon, we went to the Raffles Hotel, to stop there for a drink, as the cocktail “Singapore Sling” was invented in that particular place. To witness that historical bar, we had to stand in line for 20-30 minutes. Prices per drink, were insane. One “Sling” was 35us$. They were delicious… what else would you expect from a 35$ drink? As we really enjoyed the vibe of the bar, we went for a second round. They were serving free peanuts, and you were allowed to discard its shell on the floor.

It was funny to watch the people leaving the door with a big smile on their face, while we were waiting impatiently in the entrance queue. I guessed everybody was feeling tipsy after two or more drinks… or maybe it was the satisfying smile of a happy customer.

The bar is worth the visit, their Singapore Sling is the best I ever had.

Even the salty check, wasn’t able to remove the grin from our face while walking out the door.

Night Food Market.

Lau Pa Sat Hawker Centre is big food market, that attracts many tourists and locals as well. It’s a place where you can find cheap food in Singapore, as some restaurants can get quite pricy. As for myself I was overwhelmed, as I had way too many options to chose from. At first sight it seems easy to get lost among the hundreds of people running around ordering their favorite dish.

Singapore is full of colors, full of flavours, it’s clean, it’s convenient.
You get in touch with the 3 main cultures: arabic, chinese, indian. It’s all a melting pot of diversity.
If I could choose between Dubai or Singapore, I’d go for Singapore in a heartbeat.

Maybe as a solo traveler Singapore isn’t the best option, however as a group of friends or family, it’s definitely worth the visit for a couple of days.


































Vietnam 2.0 (Ho Chi Min, Hoi An, Hanoi)

It should have become my second trip to Vietnam. In 2016 I really did have a unique experience while traveling across Vietnam, by bus and night train. This time, we’d visit Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and Hoi An. I was looking forward to visit Hoi An, as I missed it on my first Vietnamese adventure.

However it turned out as the worst start I ever had for trip.

VISA MADNESS.

Well, partially it could have been our fault, as we have been lazy with the VISA ON ARRIVAL procedure that you need to apply for, prior the departure. The official website says it wouldn’t last longer than 3 days to get the approval.

On Monday I filled out all the form for our family (3 visas), on Friday morning, the day of our departure, I still didn’t get any approval in my mailbox. After sending a mail already on Thursday, and not getting a reply, I decided to make a phone call to Vietnam, as we really needed these letter form to make it onto the plane.

Reaching a clerk on the line, I told them, that our visa hasn’t been approved yet, and that we would need them by tonight. “Sorry sir, it’s 5pm, too late. We can’t help you, change your flight”. I told them, that we couldn’t switch our flights, as our holidays had to end within a week, due to school holidays. Changing the schedule of our trip wasn’t an option. But they just didn’t mind and wouldn’t help.

So I tried several offices, and I always got the same response “weekend will start in one hour, sorry can’t help” (due to the time difference). Devastated about canceling our holidays, we tried every website or facebook account which could be helpful, so I made another phone call to a service we found on FB, which mentioned they would approve emergency visas within an hour. After telling our situation for the 10th time, same response “sorry it’s almost weekend, can’t help”. I replied that they mentioned on their website about the 24/24h service, and that we need the visas for tonight, however we would land on the following day in Vietnam, and that I would be willing pay any price. “Wait! Please get in touch with my supervisor”. So we managed with a LOT of luck to get emergency visas for 150$ per person. I was in touch with a young lady on whatsapp, and she helped us through the whole procedure. In the end, it worked out. It was a shit load of money, as we already had paid for the initial visas, but we didn’t want to cancel our holidays, so we agreed to pay the amount of 450$. In the end I gave her another 50$, as she was the only person among 10 contacts, who was willing to help us.

So the moral of the story… don’t believe what they say about the processing time. After this mess, I’d recommend to apply for the visa at least 10 days before your departure.


Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh, who used to go by the name of Saigon, was our city of arrival, as we planned to visit our friend Craig, who moved from Luxembourg to Vietnam two years ago. So it would be great to meet him again in person, while we’d be visiting Vietnam.

We were so glad that we’d made it and that in the end the whole visa thing turned out well.

As soon as we reached the hotel we headed out to get some street food, as it was already pretty late (10pm).

We should also mention that we got scammed by a taxi driver. Outside the airport, we just stood in line, to get onto an official yellow taxi, to avoid any kind of rip off. However, even while jumping on a so-called official taxi. The taxi meter rose pretty fast, and quickly reached the 25$ after only a few minutes driving. So I texted Craig, and he mentioned to never pay more than 12-15$ for a taxi. By then, we reached the 35$. I told the taxi to stop, as I wouldn’t pay the amount. He told us, that the gas prices went through the roof lately, and because of that, the prices were way more expensive than they used to be. We bargained for a set price of 35$, otherwise we would just drop us in the middle of the main road. Traveling with the baby, we agreed to pay. Later at the hotel, the staff told us to take a photo of the license in the windshield, and call the police, so the taxi driver would lose his job. Upon reaching the hotel, I handed over a money bill (worth 50$), and the driver tried to rip me off again, with turning back less money.

First the visa issues, now this… it all started so well. :)

Ho Chi Min was cleaner than I thought, but less “asian” than I expected. It just looked like a regular big city, with lots of tall concrete buildings. The street food, didn’t look very inviting. So our first dinner consisted of 2 grilled rice paper, with spring onions, some meat and french cheese on it. It wasn’t great.

On the second day, we started with some street markets, tourist shit that we love. And it felt great being back in Asia, as it was the first time after two years, due to the pandemic. We visited the main sights in HCM that we wanted to discover: the pink church, the book street, the old post office, and the 42 Nguyen Hue Coffee Apartment.

If you’ve visited Hanoi before, Ho Chi Minh, might look less appealing, because it’s more modern, less sketchy, and people seem to have a higher standard of living. It just wasn’t like the Vietnam that I had in mind after my last trip.

Ho Chi Min people, however were the nicest I had met in Vietnam. They were kinda talkative, and trying to socialize with us. So many locals wanted to take a photo with our daughter. All the people we got in touch with, were very helpful and welcoming.

Foodwise, it wasn’t as great as Hanoi for example. You really had to know where to look for a good restaurant. Streetfood didn’t seem that appealing to us. Everything was super cheap though, you never had to care about money.

A surprisingly cool evening happened to take place right in front of our hotel, as Vietnam was playing against Thailand (soccer game). Guess who won? Vietnam of course… the hell broke loose! Suddenly after the end of the game, millions of scooters were cruising through the city center, chanting, screaming, pushing the horn, singing… it was just a huge party all over Ho Chi Minh. And still they all celebrated with the biggest respect towards pedestrians, and the police force. No fights, no dangerous speeding. It was pretty unique moment, to be part of it.

During the day we walked through the Bui Vien avenue, which is comparable to Bangkok’s Khao San Road. Quiet during the day, but crazy lively at night. The party road of the city. As we were traveling with a 1 year old daughter, we thought that we should skip this part. However I can imagine, that we would have loved it on our early trips.

Meeting our friend Craig was kind of the nicest part of our Ho Chi Minh experience. We met up twice and had dinner with him in places where we might haven’t found by ourselves. The pho (vietnamese soup) was the best we had for only 3-4$. His neighbourhood was fancy, and quite different to the city center. We were glad to get invited for a drink at his place, just before he would leave it for his next destination Indonesia in the upcoming months.

Hoi An.

We took two inland flights within 7 days in Vietnam, and all these went flawless. Traveling by plane was so easy and stress-less. And the tickets were crazy cheap as well (25€ per flight).

Hoi An was the next stop. Our friend Craig warned us, that Hoi An would be super touristic. We didn’t mind, as we really wanted to witness all the things we knew from google or Instagram : colorful lanterns, boat rides on the river, great Vietnamese dinners in the evening, traditional colorful clothing… we wanted the whole experience.

Hoi An, already offered what we were missing in Ho Chi Minh. The rural life, the locals, tiny street markets, all kind of street food, open air bars… it just seemed more authentic to western tourists who wanted to experience Asia.

It took us 10 minutes walking to reach the old town of Hoi An, which was the most famous part of the city, we all the tourists were gathering together. Despite being touristic it was crazy beautiful, and so photogenic. Especially during evening hours when the lanterns were lit.

The Old Town feels like a maze, because it’s divided in so many tiny alleys which all look alike after a while, and it’s hard to not get lost. In between the alleys you will find street markets, services for boat rides, colorful lanterns hanging all over the city. As soon as you start getting out of Old Town, you will bump into a row of tailors hunting for tourists to make them buy tailored clothes for a super cheap price. First we tried to avoid them, however on our last day we figured out how cheap a suit would be, and that they could have it done within 3 hours. Just before leaving for the airport, two different shops brought us 2 complete men suits, 4 men shirts, 3 women dresses (all hand made) for 350$. Their service was insane… they were working super fast, and the tissues we used were completely different to what we are used in Europe. Getting something done by a tailor, will be a must on our future trips to Asia.

Besides the city center and appreciating our fancy hotel Hoi An, we didn’t do that much. We enjoyed the sights and colors of the Old Town, fueled up the sunshine, and tasted some Vietnamese food. It was a beautiful experience visiting Hoi An.

The gentleman (pictured on the middle photo above) was selling black&white photoprints on rice paper in the city center of Hoi An. The smell of antique wooden furniture in his shop, the black&white prints all over the entrance and his walls inside the shop, gave this whole place a special vibe, and many people were stopping by to watch these photos of war. The shopkeeper told me his story about the war versus the U.S., as he was navy soldier during war times. He showed me his bullet wounds on this legs, when he get shot by the Americans. This conversation was very deep and interesting at the same time. As I bought a couple of photos, he allowed me to take a portrait of him.


Hanoi.

After 6 years have passed, I was curious about getting back to Hanoi. On the way from the airport to the hotel, so many memories popped up, that I had forgotten about, however seeing the buildings and the streets, the memories felt like it would have been only a year appart.

As we arrived very late at night, we decided to start our exploring of the city on the next morning. Hanoi just felt like the complete opposite of Ho Chi Minh. It’s more chaotic, it’s dirtier, it smells bad in some areas, however it’s definitely how I had Vietnam in mind… authentic.

Around Hoan Kiem Lake, most streets are covered with trees, they are super lively due to the high traffic, and the endless shops and foodstalls along the road. You mostly just walk on the road, as there’s no space on the sidewalk due to the parked motorbikes.

Hanoi is a big city, however if you plan your daytrips well enough, you can see most of it within 2 days. That’s what we had, 2 nights. As it was the first time for my girlfriend in the city, I wanted to show her what I had found most fascinating in and around the city: the Hoan Kiem Lake, Long Bien Bridge, Ho Chi Minh-Mausoleum (which wasn’t accessible due to road blocks), the crashed B52 bomber, and its worn down neighborhood.

We definitely loved the area around Hoan Kiem Lake. It’s the right place to watch people. The red bridge on the lake always looks appealing while walking by. The shops around the lake, and the coffee places nearby makes it an enjoyable place throughout the day. Especially on weekends, where they will close the main roads, children are allowed to play on the streets, and it’s even more lively.

Walking towards Long Bien Bridge, you do walk through some smelly and rough blocks. It doesn’t make Hanoi really appealing. However I do love walking upon the bridge, seeing the crazy motorbike traffic passing by, getting a view over endless fields, and just seeing that old rusty bridge in front of you. It felt as intriguing as the first time.

The small pond where the B52 bomber had crashed, was just a mess, the water is filled up with trash and seaweed. I wouldn’t even take a photo. The walk towards Quang An, took us almost 90 minutes. In the end it wasn’t fun anymore, as the sun was burning our skin, and we just wouldn’t find any water on the stretch that leaded along the Ho Tay lake. Quang An just felt like the westerner’s area, where you would find many fancy dining options, and designer shops, however without any Vietnamese customers. It just didn’t feel right. Obviously the restaurants looked promising, however the vibe wasn’t right. A place were rich folks loved to hang out. There was absolutely nothing interesting in the neighborhood, even though Quang An was praised online, to have become to new hangout place for the hip folks. I prefer the run down places, that seem more authentic, and they come with a communist vibe. Well we enjoyed our ramen never the less.

On our last day (our departure back home was around midnight) I visited the surroundings of the Nhà Thờ Lớn Hà Nội cathedral, as I was looking for a poster-shop that used to sell communist propaganda posters printed on rice paper. Back then, when I was visiting Hanoi for the first time, I was amazed by the graphic design of those vintage prints. Sadly the shop didn’t exist anymore. But luckily a new one opened in the same street. The artshop “Collective Memory - The House of Curios” had opened next-door, and it was way more arty than the mentioned poster shop. I was welcomed by the nicest shop-holders I had met in Hanoi. After a little chat about the world, they recommended me a unique dining experience on our last night at Chả Cá Thăng Long, to get a proper typical Vietnamese dish before jumping into the airplane. It was quite an experience, as it felt like a hidden place. The restaurant was a big beautiful villa hidden among palm trees in a private entrance. We were sat outside among the locals. Without any big talks, they started asking for drinks, while setting up our table. They only offered one fish dish, quick and simple. The fish gets served with greens, that you cook all together in a wok, right on your table. The food was excellent! The location was beautiful, and it was relatively cheap compared to what it looks from the outside.

Definitely the perfect farewell dinner for this beautiful one week trip in Vietnam.
















Dubai - We did it

Another destination, that I always tried to avoid. The mecca of mass tourism, pulling travelers into the void of luxurious hotels, credit card wonderland, and bragging with record breaking architecture. There’s just no stop for the imagination and budget of creating a new modern world. Dubai is different, Dubai is big, Dubai is rich, … so was it really that bad for someone who seeks the simple and authentic travel experience?

How did we ended up in Dubai by the way? We only had a week off in April for the Easter holidays. Still many countries didn’t make it easy to enter their country, with covid-testing, PLF forms… we wanted a hassle free one week holiday, with pleasant weather conditions. The price for the flight tickets, were among the cheapest we had found, so we told ourselves “Why not?”. Initially we would have loved to witness the World Exposition that took place in Dubai, as it seemed to be something out of this world. Once again, there was no limit in creativity and hi-tech, for Dubai’s world expo. However we just missed it, as we were too late by only a few days.



Do you really need to visit Dubai ?

In short…. No. Definitely not. Was it that bad? No it was alright.

Let’s make it super easy, with a pros and cons:

  • (-) it’s really expensive

  • (-) Dubai is huge, it takes time to move from A to B

  • (-) Emiratis are hard to meet & find

  • (-) No bars.. only in Hotels or at the beach.


  • (+) the weather is always great

  • (+) you get all kind of food, everywhere

  • (+) shopping, shopping, shopping

  • (+) you can easily stay a week in Dubai, without getting bored


Yeah, you need a well packed wallet to enjoy Dubai. Taxis aren’t that cheap, as you usually spend 20-30 minutes to reach your destination. Dubai is huge indeed. Prior the trip, I expected the size of Vegas, just a main road, surrounded by hotels and shopping malls. But no, I was so wrong. From our hotel at Jumeira Beach to the Dubai Mall, we needed at least 25 minutes by train & walking. Because of the traffic and redlights, it would have taken us easily 15-20 minutes by car.

When you’ve made it to the Emirates, you expect to get a full blast of arabic culture. Sadly the only experience you get is paying for the experience. Buying arabic fragrances, fashion accessories, or arabic food…nothing comes for free. And you hardly ever bump into Emiratis. The employes that will serve you or offer you any service, will 99.9% be an immigrant, mostly form asian or african countries. It was fascinating to see, how many people were from Pakistan, India or Sri Lanka. Don’t get me wrong! There’s nothing to complaing about that… however if you visit Italy, you expect to meet Italians, in France, you wanna hear the french language, while someone brings you the wine or baguette to the table. However in Dubai, it’s all english, because of the huge melting pot of different nations in Dubai.

You can make it your own way in Dubai.

You wanna spend money, just go for it. You feel like spending your time at the beach, you can do it. You wanna be adventurous, go sky diving or deep-sea diving. You can do whatever your feel like in Dubai. Again it’s not the most authentic place, and you gotta wave with bills, to make it happen.

During our one week holidays, we obviously visited some of the major attractions like the Frame of Dubai, Dubai Mall and Burshkalifa. Why not? We tried to get a more local feel, while visiting the Souks, however it was just another tourist trap. We crossed the river by a tiny wooden boat and headed to Al Seef, which comes up with a different face of Dubai. You get the vibe of an arabic old town, which was totally ok to visit for an hour, walk around the alleys and souks, but be prepared for the hassle.

If you aren’t in a rush, their metro network is really good, and you can reach almost every destinaion by train within the city.

As we booked our hotel in the JBR (Jumeira Beach Resort) area, we wanted to spend time at the beach as well with our baby daughter. The hotel was 15 minutes walking away from the beach, nothing’s really close in Dubai. On our first day, we were all satisfied that we got a sunbed and umbrella, and we thought it would be for free, as no one showed up for the bill. Later we found out that you pay 35€ for a sunbed, but you had to pay in front of the beach, and register your spot. Luckily we had a free afternoon at the beach, but disgusted afterwards to spend 70€ for 2 sunbeds at the beach. So we avoided the cosy sunbeds, and visited a waterplayground with our daughter during the week, which was super cheap. She was happy, and we enjoyed the watergames while the soil was burning during midday.

In my opinion JBR is a great location to book your hotel. It’s definitely touristic, that’s all you see in the streets, tourists. But you got everything you need to spend your evenings walking around: restaurants, shops, playground and games for kids, ice-cream and coffees, and everything is very safe and accessible for pedestrians. Some people love all-inclusive resorts, because they don’t have to leave the resort at all during their stay. Actually the worst part for me, spending your holidays in a hotel. So JBR in Dubai, gave me the feel of a resort, but it was right in front of the hotel, and it felt more like a small village, and you actually had to leave your hotel.

The most memorable tourist attraction for us was the Global Village. It looks like a theme park, but as soon as you step inside, you see all the signs with the names of the countries. Every country that is listed in the park, has its own area, where you can taste specific foods from that country, or specific products that come from the given countries. For example, for accessing “China” you had to cross red wooden bridges, to access a gate surrounded by fake brick walls, fake temples, chinese music… it was just insane, how pretty they decorated each section, with lights, colors, music, costumes… At some point we were rushing through the countries, as we couldn’t wait to try all their food and drinks. In the end we went to a floating marked (which looked like the ones in Thailand), as we were craving Pad-Thai. The food was excellent, while we enjoyed our minutes in Thailand, the country we’ve been missing for the last two years.

no PCR, no mosque

After doing lots of touristic things, we were looking forward to see the beautiful mosque in Abu Dhabi. It only takes 40-50 minutes to make it to Abu Dhabi by car. Getting there by taxi, will cost around 80-100€. Which is totally ok, considering the price we pay at home in our country. We felt it was worth the price.

Even from afar, the mosque looked mind blowing, it reminded me of the Taj Mahal, which gave me the same impression, when I first got to see it. As soon as we stepped out of the taxi, we headed towards the entrance, and decided to have a bottle of water first. While we were giving some water to our daughter, a family from Thailand asked us if we would be visiting the mosque, and they told us, that they were denied entrance, because they couldn’t present a PCR-test, that has been made maximum 14 days, prior the date of our visit. We couldn’t believe it. We made it to Dubai without any test, restaurants were open, no masks, nothing…. and for that mind-blowing beautiful mosque, we needed a PCR. At the entrance, obviously they didn’t let us in.

Later we were told, that if we would have flown into Abu Dhabi, we would have needed a PCR-Test for the flight, as laws are different than those from Dubai. Disappointed to took some photos from the outside, and called another taxi to get back to Dubai. I hope that I will get the chance to make it to that mosque one more time, maybe with a longer layover in Abu Dhabi.

Solid Tiki Bar

Just before making it to Dubai, weeks before, I totally got into the world of “TIKI”. There’s a ban for alcoholic drinks in public, so don’t expect to grab a beer in the street. However some fancy bars are hidden inside the bigger hotels. For “Trader Vic’s”, you’ll find the bar at the HILTON Hotel at JBR Beach.

It’s located on the 2nd floor of the hotel, and you’re free to visit the bar, even without being a guest a at Hilton’s. Just to make it short, there were 2 main dudes who started the tiki thing “Don the Beach Comber” and “Trader Vic’s”. So I felt pretty excited to visit one of the few “Trader Vic’s” bars left. The hotel bar, definitely hits the tropical beach vibe, with all kinds of wooden artifacts, tiki statues, and maritime lamps.

The drinks, which got served in fancy tiki-mugs, were excellent, however rather on the expensive side. Expect to pay around 12-15€ for a drink. Food was good, but for finger food, it was pricey as well. The music wasn’t, what I was expecting in a tiki bar, however we definitely enjoyed our 2 visits there. Our daughter enjoyed it as well.

 

Seek and find

Obviously you’ll find some hidden gems in the city, if you prepare well before visiting Dubai. It definitely has a lot to offer, however 85% of all these attractions, won’t be or fray, and most will be super touristic. Through Instagram I discovered a beautiful “Iranian Mosque”. If you look it up on social media, you’ll notice the 100’s of beautiful photographs of influencers swirling around the colorful tiles of the mosque. It took us 3 attempts to find the right mosque (the one we wanted to see), it’s located right across the “Iranian Hosptial” (look for that one on Google Maps). There are a couple of Iranian mosques spreaded through out the city, but the previous one, is the most photogenic.

Walking around Al Seef (old town), you will discover some cosy bars or restaurants, colorful street arts, and the souks. It will be less expensive, as visiting the top of Burj Khalifa. As far as I can remember, they were selling tickets at the Dubai Mall to get on top of the worldfamous skyscraper for 180€ (190$), per person. So buying two tickets to get on top, would the price we paid for a flight ticket.

So we decided to opt for cheaper experiences, like spending time at the waterperk with our daughter at JBR, which cost only 8€.

Another scam, was the aquarium at Dubai Mall. From the outside, the aquarium just looks fantastic, with its fascinating aquatic world behind the glass. The colors, the fishes, the lights, they’re just mesmerizing. So we stood in line, and paid 50€ per person for the whole experience. The Aquarium on the ground floor, actually isn’t bigger than what you see for free from the outside. After walking through the amazing tunnel, in which you will spend not more than 2 minutes, you will get to an elevator, that will bring you to the next level, where all the tourists come together for a walking tour through a kind of park. It was funny to see the penguins, however we just walked through the whole thing, as it just felt lame, paying that much for just another tourist trap. In the end it wasn’t worth the money.

You can’t go wrong with food and shopping in Dubai, however opting for crazy adventurous experiences, will come with their price.

Would we turn back to Dubai?

To be honest, if we would be desperately reaching for the sun during our coldest winter months, and i’d fancy some cosy times at the beach, and enjoy some delicious food in the evening, watching my daughter play at the beach, i'd make it back to Dubai. People who are fond of all-inclusive resorts, definitely will enjoy their holidays in Dubai.

However if you’re looking for an authentic and more eye-opening experience, fly a little further and go for a better and cheaper Asian destination.











Make these moments count.

What happened to Instagram and all those jaw-dropping blog-posts about the ever travelling “so-called influencers” these last months? Due do the pandemic explosion of the covid-19 virus, which drastically changed our daily routines within a couple of days. Flight companies stopped their activites 3 months ago, bloggers aren’t posting anymore, and travel-photographers lay down their cameras.

It seemed like the whole world stood still after the forced restrictions that we had to sustain. Will we ever be able to travel again, like we used to?

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The first month actually didn’t feel that bad, staying at home, and having endless free time for your hobbies and the people who lived under the same roof. Running and cycling had become a daily habit. We started to spend less money, and we started to enjoy our own neighbourhoods.

However I have to admit after my 4th week in a kind of “lock-down” situation I missed spending the time abroad, hearing the sounds of a foreign language, eating a different cuisine, enjoying drinks at sunset with sand between my toes. The time off, gave me many occasions to reflect on what I went through these last years.

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I clearly remember my very first “solo” trip to Norway in 2013, to visit my couchsurfer friend Martin, who back then, was living in Oslo. It was the first time when I decided to leave the country all by myself, to recover from a severe breakup. This trip actually was the spark that ignited to the fuel for solo-traveling. I discovered how fun it was to discover a city by yourself and get in touch with way more people than traveling as a group of friends.

Since then I’ve made it to my own bucket-list destinations, sometimes even multiple times: Japan, Cuba, Israel, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, India, Vietnam…

Initially when I started this blog, I praised the way of “solo-traveling”, as it allowed me to get to know myself better, and it made me the person that I am today. There were moments of pride, joy, laughters and tears, however nothing will make those memories fade away.

Things have changed since 2013. For the last 2 years, I discovered beautiful places with my girlfriend by my side. Was it a big change? Actually no. I guess because, she and I, we were surfing the same wave, while we were traveling. Sharing a hostel, getting drunk on cheap booze, socialising with locals, walking around like college students on a budget trip… all this, wasn’t a big deal, and we barely had to set compromises. Now that I’m turning 38 this year, I’m slowly turning my back to those wild binge drinking nights, and looking for a more quiet and cozy bar that play smooth soul and jazz tunes to drift away into the night.

I can definitely agree, that both ways of traveling are totally fine, as long as the attitude stays authentic. I’m also pretty sure that this kind of traveling won’t change, as soon as kids starts seeing the light of our world. Parents shouldn’t blame their kids for their boredom in life. Stay curious, and keep that hunger for discovery alive.

These last days I really thought alot about my most memorable trips. Surprisingly the drunken nights weren’t those special moments. This comes from a person who loves to drink!

For me, it was rather the words that were spoken while sitting in a bar, or while sharing a cup of coffee. The last handshake or hug before saying goodbye. Or those seconds that froze time for the lenght of an eye-blink, like in Varanasi at sunrise. Those special moments, made me go back multiple times to the same place, as I was craving for repeating pleasant moments. Japan took over my heart within a heartbeat. I really wish that I could make it back to Japan this year. It would be my 6th trip to “Nihon”, every consecutive year.

Making new friends in Japan. Meeting the locals in Havana in a worn down bar. Getting smashed with buckets of water in Myanmar for the Sonkran Festival. Celebrating an indian wedding without alcohol. Feeling lost among the “ultra orthodox” in Jerusalem, but still being blown away by the cultural differences, those things in life, that money can’t buy.

I got a new laptop, my first one within 15 years. It kicked in with a tiny motivational swing to create a new video with passed experiences. Once you go through older videos or photos, by chance you can find an old gem of a scene or shot, that slipped through your catches while traveling. I edited a bunch of never used footage, that didn’t make it to the final cut back then. Shots of people we met on the road, however which didn’t really fit in the video back then. I’m glad to tag “Ishan”, “Shyam”, and “Ekko” to the video above.

We can’t wait to strap the old backpack around our shoulders and step back on the path that we were following for many years. I miss the sound of the sea, the stars in the asian skies, the tuk-tuk engine noises, the dirty flip-flop feets, and the street-food you can buy for a buck.





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Laos: Luang Prabang & Vang Vieng.

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It was about time to close “the golden triangle”, after numerous travels in Asia. The Golden Triangle is the area where the borders of the three countries Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet. We didn’t manage to get to the pre-mentioned area, however after this trip, I could cross the three countries from my traveling list. Laos was still missing.

What to expect in Laos? Last year we visited Thailand several times, and went on a Mynamar journey for almost 2 weeks, and added Cambodia as a two-day pit-stop as well. Would Laos be much different than those countries? Would we notice a difference?

As we weren’t keen on visiting another major city, like Laos’ capital Vientiane, because the bigger cities usually look pretty much alike, we opted for two more laid back destinations in Laos: Luang Prabang & Vang Vieng.

We definitely didn’t regret our decisions on visiting both cities without our one-week-holidays.

Lao’s culture & vibes.

The major difference of Laos, compared to Cambodia and Thailand, is the quietness within the cities. We were told that random honking isn’t allowed in Laos. The traffic is visibly less dense as in Thailand or Vietnam. There are way less cars and motorbikes in the streets, and you definitely can hear it. Driving around is easy, you don’t have to pay that much attention while driving, and can enjoy the surroundings and sights along the streets.

During our seven days in Laos, we didn’t see any beggars, nobody ever asked for money. Except for a few tuk-tuk drivers who were asking for a ride, after leaving the market areas, not one single person ever bothered us.

Bargaining was useless, at least for myself, as food, drinks and local crafts were so cheap, that I would have felt ashamed to ask for a lower price. The food dishes were mostly 20.000 kip (which would be 2$ for a meal), drinks were less than a 1$. During happy-hours we ordered two cocktails for 2.8 $. How can you bargain for a better price, considering that the locals and merchants won’t get rich with those prices. Because of the kindness of the Lao people, and the fair prices they offered, I mostly felt like tipping with every money I spent.

The main local crafts were things made out of bamboo, handbags, tshirts, totem bags, bamboo straws, coffee and spices. The prices ranged from 10000 kip to 60000 kip (1-6$). Everything seemed super cheap in Laos.

You definitely need to rent a scooter/motorbike if you wanna move easily around the cities. The city centers of Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang were rather small, however if you wanna visit the touristic sights it will easily take 45 minutes by scooter.

“Sabaidee” is how they welcome & greet you. The temperatures were quite mild, chill at night and the early morning, which means you don’t need a fan or A.C. while sleeping. During the day the temperatures reached the 28-30 C°, however they fell less warmer than in neighboring countries.

Foodwise, expect the same like in Thailand, lots of stir-frieds dishes, with any kind of noodles and rice, delicious fresh spring rolls like in Vietnam, and they tend to serve sticky-rice more often than in Thailand. We spent most of our evening strolling around the night markets in Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, as we always managed to find stuff to spend money on. The food at the night market was also pretty cheap, and always deliciousl.

Luang Prabang.

We flew in to Luang Prabang from Bangkok. At the tiny airport, we got our visa on arrival. We didn’t had to pay any tax, nor did they use our photos, as they took our portraits with their webcams. There was a sign, that people from Luxembourg, had to pay a fee of 35$ upon arrival, but they let us through without any hassle.

At the aiport I paid 7$ for a 7-day data-sim-card. Transportation to the hotel was 50.000 kip (around 6 us$ / 5 euro). No hasseling either… we paid for the van-ticket inside the airport, and headed towards the closest driver outside the building.

We stayed for 3 nights at the "Villa Chitchareune 2" guesthouse, where we were welcomed by the whole family. The hosts were super welcoming, and they proudly showed us their newly built guesthouse, which was sold-out on daily basis, during the time we were visiting. The guesthouse rented scooters/motorbikes for 11$ a day. They also offered transportation to various touristic attractions. We managed to book our bus ticket to Vang Vieng for 11$ per person. You could catch a bus to Vang Vieng or Vientiane 3 times a day.

Luang Prabang doesn’t have that much to offer, as compared to other popular asian cities, but it’s more the peaceful vibes and streets that I really in enjoyed in both cities. You will always a side alley to check out, or a restaurant to have dinner at. The times we were visiting there were more restaurants and bars in the city that tourists. Laos tries its best to attract and satisfy the tourists, but there’s just too many options left, and sadly too many places remain emty. You will find a street with at least 20 bars and restaurants next to each other, and only one or two of them are really busy, and the few left are trying to attract the customers.

We went for the Kuang Si Waterfalls which were worth the visit. Driving across several villages til you reach the entrance of the park makes the journey even more interesting. Before reaching the 4 different waterfalls, you will walk through a bear care center, a rescue shelter for brown bears.

The Tat Sae waterfalls were dried out during the high season. The route through the country side was less charming than the one for the Kuang Si falls. Tat Sae is only reacheable by boat from the mainland. After the boatride, just seconds before paying for the entrance fee, a croation tourist advised us not to pay the entrance toll as there wasn’t one drop of water in the pond. Nevertheless we enjoyed the boatride, and managed to meet a lovely french family on the mainland.

Another amusing fact of Laos was, that we always bumped into the same people; people that you would recognize from the airport, or people that you noticed at the different tourist spots. The french couple that we met in Luang Prabang, wet met them again at the airport. We also met two german girls once in Vang Vieng and later on in Luang Prabang.

In the early morning around 05:30 many tourists were rushing towards the Sakkaline Road, to witness the morning alms of the monks. Hundreds of monks were leaving their monastries to collect food on the streets. The locals, but also many tourists, would hand them bowls of rice, as the monks aren’t allowed to make money. Therefor they’re heading out to collect food on daily basis. We were told that the monk would also share their food with poor kids, who are welcome to step into their temples and ask for support.

The sad part about the morning alms, which actually has been part of the monks’ daily lives for ages, have become a major tourist attraction in Luang Prabang. As it happens before 6:00 am, it’s really not easy to get a descent photo of the monk parade. Too many people are using camera flashes, and it just doesn’t look authentic anymore.

After the alms most of the visitors will visit the small local market, where mainly food is being sold, or small locals crafts. I almost fainted while we were passing the food lane, where almost any kind of food was being sold. My girlfriend just told me “don’t look down”, so I guessed that it could either be a horrible looking insect or a spider, and I kept on moving forward without looking around. A couple of meters she told me, that she recognoized the hairy legs of a tarantula moving underneath a wooden cage. Thanks for telling me!

The top of Mounth Phu Si, which is located right in the hear of Luang Prabang, gives you an amazing view all over the city. We were told that you need to climb up 300 steps to reach the top. Considering the height of the hill, you easily reach the top withint 10 minutes. At the entrance, we bought a tiny wooden cage with two living birds inside. We felt bad about the the captivated birds, so we bought one and released the animals on top of Mount Phu Si. The locals told us that it was just another “good luck charm”. Handing over money to local merchants they would also hit the floor three times with the money bills, as a ritual, to attract good luck.

A less entertaining spot to visit would be the “Old French Bridge” nearby the city center, which only allows motorbikes to cross it. You have to follow a small wooden lane on each side, which isn’t that easy if you’re not used to it, as hundreds of bikes cross the bridge in the same line within a minute. The architecture of the “old bridge” reminded me of the ones in Hanoi (Vietnam).

A must-visit bar would be the bar/restaurant “Utopia” which gives you the balinese feel of a hipster hotspot. The backyard offers you a beautiful view over the river, surrounded by palmtrees and a couple of bridges (Old bridge and the famous bamboo bridge). The bar is pretty laid back during the day. You can’t go wrong with their food and cocktails. It’s a little bit pricier than the usual local bar, but the view in the backyard is worth it. The “Utopia” bar offers morning yoga classes, starting at 07:30 am. I guess you won’t get a better view for saluting the sun.

Vang Vieng.

Vang Vieng was supposed to be Lao’s backpacker town. We expected heaps of wild backpackers keeping the village alive at night. But this wasn’t the case. Maybe due to the corona virus, the season was less busier, than it’s supposed to be.

Vang Vieng was a less attractive city than Luang Prabang. The city center wasn’t that pretty, however the countryside outside of the city was quite impressive, and made it all good again. Vang Vieng had even less to offer then LB. The main attractions were it’s 5 “blue lagoons”, two high view points, and a cave. That’s it.

The city center hosted a night market on daily basis, however nothing comparable to the one in Luang Prabang. During our stay, the busiests bars was the “Sakura” club with loud electronic music, and a nearby irish pub. Once again, in Vang Vieng, way to many options for food and drinks, but hardly enough people to fill them up, except the usual two to four popular places.

Getting to Vang Vieng from Luang Prabang takes between 4 and a half to 6 hours. We took both options, the local bus and a private van. The van is faster, but you get less leg room, as they carried all the luggage inside the van. Both cars also do half an hour break, as the drivers get free food at the stations where they do the halt.

On our first day we visited “Blue Lagoon N° 2”, and I was disappointed that it was just an amusement park for western tourists. We left the park immediately. The road to the lagoons are a real pain in the ass, as you have to drive your scooter on very rocky roads, filled with holes and sandy paths. In some areas you can’t drive faster than 15-20 km/h.The second day we drove all the way to the lagoon N° 5, as we were told that it was the most natural one, that didn’t look like a theme park. It was all worth it. The ride was very bumpy, but we enjoyed spending an hour at the lagoon, sunbathing and playing with the landlord’s puppies.

My highlights of Vang Vieng was definitely the view point on top of Nam Xay. Climbing up big rocks, wooden ladders, and slippery sandy paths, wasn’t easy. And I gotta admit that, even for a 37 year old fit guy, it was kinda risky, walking the hill back down again. Everybody was very exhausted after climbing up the mountain for about 20-30 minutes. Walking down-hill was less exausting, but you had to be more careful. On top of Nam Xay there’s a a vintage motorbike, on which one you can take a photo with a breathtaking background.

Another hidden gem would be the private backyard of the hotel & restaurant “Vieng Terra Villa”. It’s supposed to be only accessible for their customers. However as we walked inside the lobby, there was nobody available to ask, if we could take some photos. So we walked our way to the backyard, which offered a magnificient view over the rice fields. After having shared the spot with a couple of spanish tourists, to take our photos and videos, I went to the waiter at their restaurant and gave him a tip, for letting us do our thing. Just be respectful and don’t bother the people who have rented the beautiful bungalows next to the rice fields.

We were glad that we visited Vang Vieng, to make up our own opinion about it. However in the end we’d frankly recommend Luang Prabang over Vang Vieng.

Useful informations.

  • The maximum amount of cash that you can withdraw at the local ATMs is 2.000.000 kip (which are 200 $ / 200€). In Luang Prabang we noticed that 4 out of 5 ATMs wouldn’t work with our Credit Card (VISA) from Luxembourg. So get some cash in advance, in case you’re traveling around for a few days.

  • It was one of the few countries, where nobody ever bothered us for using my drone. Some of the people that watched us flying up the drone, approached us to have a look at my phone (liveview of the drone). Just be gentle and show some respect towards the local people. I mostly filmed at the countryside, where I wouldn’t bother any tourists, nor locals. In the center of Luang Prabang you won’t be able to use it, as the city is located too close to their local airport.

  • Everything closes around 23:30. Most of the restaurants already close around 22:00 (10pm). The hippest and loudest bars in Vang Vieng would close at midnight. There’s definitely no nightlife in Laos. If you wanna get a few drinks and enjoy your evening, start earlier. The night markets close early between 21:30 an 22:00. Just before hitting midnight, the whole city is litterally dead.

  • While moving around from city to city, get a Mini-Van as you can save some time compared to the slower bus rides. Our bus-trip from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng took 6 hours, the mini-van to get back just took 4 and a half hours.

  • If you rent a motorbike for a day or two, the rental-company will ask you for your passport. Our first guesthous actually did the same, they held back my passport, unil we would check-out or not use their motorbike anymore. I know, it’s not fun, to not be in possession of your passport in a country like Laos, however it’s the only way how to rent a motorbike.

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New Year's Eve in Nepal: Kathmandu & Pokhara

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Vanessa and I, we spent 1st of december in India at a wonderful wedding. Not even a month later we headed back to another country, where hinduism was a big part of the country’s culture. It was about time to visit a new country, this time it was Nepal.

 

We were hopelessly looking for fair flight deals during the winter holidays, as every single destination was super expensive, the prices bursted up to 1500 - 2000 euro a ticket. There weren’t many destinations available, that we really wanted to visit, for a price we would/could afford. Nepal and Egypt popped up, and Nepal was a clear winner. After having become a fan of India over the last two years, the landscapes, the buddhist and hindu culture, the food, … it had to be Nepal.


New Year’s Eve in Nepal.

Nepal was one of the few countries, where we got our visa here in Luxmbourg. We got the travel-visa of 15 days at a lawyer’s office in our capital, and paid around 20 euro for it. It took about 10 minutes to get the stamp in our passports.

To be honest, I didn’t know much about Kathmandu, nor Pokhara. Being a regular customer at our local nepalese restaurants, I didn’t see a big difference between India and Nepal. Now after having turned back, I would understand, why nepalese people would feel offended if they are getting compared or equalized with their neighbouring country.

After 3 flights we landed in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu. The arrival was quite an experience as it almost took an hour til we could reclaim our luggage. While waiting for our backpacks, hundreds of cardboard-boxes popped out of the baggage carousel. Many of them were lcd-tvs. Huge screens landed on the distribution belts, however no luggage. We had to be pretty patient until we noticed our bags after almost an hour later following our arrival.


Kathmandu.

“Same same but different” the classic quote among asian people. We headed towards the exit, where we were asked for a taxi. The ride to the center of the capital was 700 nepalese rupees (around 5 Euros, 6 us$). We approved, however without a dime, a clerk brought us to the nearest ATM, where we already got introduced to a tourorganizer, the same guy who would be the translator during our taxi ride… the same trick that happens in every asian country. Everybody wants the white folks’ money.

25 minutes later we arrived at our wonderful hotel “Kantipur Temple House” located in Thamel, the busiest and lively neighbourhood in Kathmandu (touristwise). I usually don’t like spending much money on accomodation. However after having compared the Temple House with other bargain hotels, this one just looked like a whole different league. It had the feel of an old castle / temple, with free early morning yoga classes. The look of the whole building was magnificent, and because of that, I went for the 200$ for 3 nights. The only thing I didn’t know was, that they didn’t have any heaters in the rooms, as they considered themselves as an ecological hotel.

Later we figured out that barely no one owns a heater a Nepal, except the richer community. And it really gets pretty cold at night during the winter months. As our room didn’t get heat up, after winter season kicked in, it was obvious that the space between the concrete walls of the room remained pretty cold all day. They offered us a mobile electric-heater which we could stand right next to the bed. It helped keeping us warm at night. What an experience.

We strawled through the streets on our first day, and really liked the worn down looks of the alleys that formed the maze of the city center. We already got lost after an hour as all the alleys looked alike, and there were just too many in the Thamel neighbour hood.

Many temples, grey buildings, thousands of wires that formed the powerlines, millions of scooters and many free-running dogs, made the vibe of Kathmandu. It kinda felt like India, but much colder.

Right away, the first minutes, locals approached us, to start the usual smalltalk, and they introduced themselves as art-students, that they were being thaught how to draw mandalas, and if we were interested in visiting their academy. The academy was actually just a little art-shop, that was selling Thangka paintings (traditional nepalese paintings). The people who would bring us to the shop would get a commission if we were willing to buy something. Suddenly everybody was an art-student in Kathmandu, the ages ranged from 16 to 45. And it got pretty annoying all over our Nepal trip. This mainly happened in Kathmandu though.

The nicest stupa in Thamel was “Kaathe Swyambhu Shree Gha Chaitya”. It’s charming side were the hundrest of pigeons flying up as soon as you approached the golden stupa. Besides the the holy golden monument and Kathmandu’s Durban square, there wasn’t that much to do. As the little temples (type of chappels) all looked the same. We enjoyed the locals shops, and vendors on the streets selling all kind of local products. However we decided to book a sunrise tour for the next morning and get out of the city to visit Nagarkot and Bhaktapur. Two totally different cities.

Nagarkot & Bhaktapur.

We paid around 70us$ for the whole daytrip (35$ per person). They picked us up at 5:30 at our hotel to drive up to Nagarkot which would take a little bit more than an hour, to witness the sunrise over the himalayan mountains. As for myself I think it was worth the drive, even though we didn’t know that we would have to get on a balcony on the backside of a hotel, to witness the sunrise.

After being outside without movement, we were happy to heat ourselves up during breakfast, as the hotel offered a pretty inviting buffet in the early morning. Nagarkot’s sunrise was ok. But I wouldn’t consider it as an absolute must-see while being in Kathmandu.

We drove down the serpentines from the top of the hill to the city of Bhaktapur. While approaching Bhaktapur in the morning, with freezing temperatures outside, it felt like being in Mongolia. The suburbs looked very poor, many buildings were left without windows, the foundations of the houses left barely untouched. I enjoyed the views of the deserted cold streets of Bhaktapur. I asked our taxi driver if he could stop for 20 minutes, so that we could walk back to a group of three women, who were sitting on the frozen ground and channting mantras at 07:30 am. Fascinating.

Weirdly I would have loved to spend more time in those alleys and watching how people would live in those neighbourhoods, instead of visiting wooden temples. Below you can witness a couple of shots from those streets.

The city center of Bhaktapur looked like the durban square of Kathmandu. It seemed bigger, but kind of the same. We strawled along the alleys, checked out some shots, took some photos and went to our first Thangka Art shop, where I fell in love with the beauty of those tradtional paintings. They carry an endless amount of details, painted in all shapes and forms. We bought two painting at the shop, while being educated about the pantings by the charming shop owner.

Spending the day outside of Kathmandu, was worth spending the 75$, just to witness something slightly different.

 

Temple Tour.

As we pretty much enjoyed our driver. We decided to book him again for another day, which would only cost 35$ for a whole day, as we didn’t book him through an agency.

We visited 4 different spots surrounding Kathmandu: the monkey temple, the crematorium, the city center of Patan and the fabulous Boudhanath stupa. Considering it was just a temple hopping tour, it was quite diverse as the several locations didn’t look alike.

My favorite part, was the cremation temple Pashupatinath, as it reminded me of the burning ghat in Varanasi (India).

The main golden stupa in Boudhanath looked pretty impressive as well, as it was the biggest stupa we witnessed on our Nepal holidays. And their shops also offered the best prices for singing/healing bowls. The prices went down from 25.000 to 8000 rupees for a big-size bowl.

 
 


Pokhara.

After having spent 3 nights in Kathmandu, it was about time to head over to Pokhara. The travel agent in Kathmandu told us, that mostly all the planes from KTM to PKH would usually be late, and that people who booked through a nepalese agency would get a certain priority. This actually wasn’t true. Online we found that, that the delays are mostly due to weather conditions, as fog in the mountain areas or landing sites could become pretty much dangerous for the flights. We booked through “swoodoo” (online website) and book a one way flight from KTM to Pokhara. It was about 80$ a person. The flight only took 25 minutes, however it was delayed by two hours, as almost every airplane at the domestic airport was delayed. We arrived around 12:00 at the airport, and landed in Pokhara around 15:30. Still we were lucky, that it didn’t take longer.

(Days later, to get back to Kathmandu, we decided to book a taxi, which took a little bit more than 6 hours. It was only 110$ for 2 people. The cons are that it takes longer (6hours vs 3 hours), but you can enjoy the landscape sceneries from the taxi, and you can ask the taxi driver to stop to get some photoshots. As our morning of depature was crazily foggy, we were glad that we opted for the taxi, as the planes weren’t able to fly, because of the unlucky weather conditions. We left at 07:00h and arrived at KTM after 13:00h.)

After our arrival in Pokhara, it only took us 15 minutes to get to our accomodation, nearby Phewa Lake. Instantly we noticed a big difference in traffic. There way less cars in Pokhara than in the capital. The citiy seemed much more peaceful and less polluted. It was like comparing Bangkok to Chiang Mai.

On our first day, we explored the neighbourhood of our hotel: Lake Phewa, the shopping street nearby the lake. As we landed on the 30th of december, there was a big celebration on lakeside. The party went on for 3-4 days. In the evening after sunset (around 17:45), the streets got pretty packed with locals and tourists. There were stages with folk dancers, people were chatting and selling endless street food. It looked quite festive for a new year’s eve, which actually isn’t the nepalese new year, which is being celebrate in april. Never the less, everybody enjoyed the party.

There wasn’t that much left to do in Pokhara, except for hikes, paragliding and even more hiking. The more ineresting hikes would last severaldays, a minimum of 3-4 days, to witness the beautiful lakes in the mountains. The Anapurna hikes would last more than a week. We were on a tight schedule as we only stayed for 4 nights, and were planning to celebrate NYE in the city center.

We went for 2 smaller hikes. A 2 and a half hour hike up to the World Peace Paghoda, and another 2 hours to get back in town. And a total hike of 6 hours to get to Saranghot for the sunrise and get back. As we felt sick during our days in Pokhara, we took a taxi on top to Saranghot and decided to walk back down. The took the wrong path and it took 4 hours to get back to the lake side.

Walking up-hill for the sunrise isn’t actually that interesting as you’re walking through the dark, and the only thing that you will see further from a distance, would be the city lights.

Downtown you could go a for a boatride on the lake. You can take the paddles yourself (550 rupees / 1 hour) or get a boatmen (750 rupees an hour).

We visited the “Old Bazaar” as we were expecting a colorful market. The only things that remained of the “old” market, are wore down houses and tiny shops, that sell tobacco, chips and drinks.

Along the lake there numerous bars and restaurants, which look pretty charming in the evening.

But I guess if you’re not a fullblood hiker, it’s hard to kill the time in Pokhara. We were glad that we visited PKH as it was the complete opposite of Kathmandu, and the locals definitely were nicer as well. There were zero beggars in the center of Pokhara.

Obviously for the new year’s eve festivities the whole city was on fire. It seemed like the streets were more packed than in our country Luxembourg, where we come from. Forget fancy! We grabbed some cheap street food, bought a bottle of wine, emptied the wine from the bottle, followed the crowds and watched a live band, who was later announcing the classic 30 seconds countdown for the new decade. Following that, we went to the bar “Busy Bee”, where we stayed the rest of the night. The evening started with a live band playing loud Metallica & Nirvana songs. After the gig they played some dance tunes. We met some folks at the bar, and got to know our new friend Ishan from Kathmandu, who was just visiting Pokhara with two of his european guests. His first night drunk as a hindu. The night ended with grilled chicken skewers, the part that I couldn’t remember the next morning.

Last night in Kathmandu.

We had to spend one more night in Kathmandu, to get back home through their international airport. It was a last busy day, as we still had a few things on our list that we wanted to bring to Luxembourg. And we really wanted to buy a handmade healing bowl, as we were introduced to its healing power, and meditating sounds

In the last early morning, we went out to do some filming in the streets of Kathmandu, when the locals started to spread out their boxes and getting ready for the street markets. While we were passing by a group of colorful women, all dressed up in traditional clothes, we noticed a slimmed down buffalo that was attached to a lamp-post. We remembered the cow later, as I was about to film the animal, but then I thought we should move on to more interesting spots in the city.

Approximately one hour later, as we were looking for an ATM in the alleys of the “maze”, we passed by the same spot, and witnessed how the local had already put down the buffalo on the asphalt, and started to bind all legs together with a rope. The locals were building up a human shield around the grounded animal to avoid tourists filming the scene. It was obvious that they were about to slaughter the animal, as the whole scene took place in front of a tiny temple. Seconds later, the first blood drops were staining the pavement. Moment later they decapitated the animal and put its head inside the temple.

Because of my job I already had witnessed a couple of human corpses and too many dead animals. I wasn’t shocked. Even as a kid I could watch my uncles slaughtering rabbits and chicken in the backyard of my grand-father’s house.

Later on, while thinking about what just happened, I concluded that it actually was more impressive and shocking, because of the way they were dealing with the animal. As soon as they got the cow on the ground, a choir of older men, started chanting mantras, and playing musical instruments. Kids, teenagers, adults were watching the scene. Some were holding the rope to avoid the animal to get up on its feet. And it wasn’t just slitting up the throat, to kill it. The animal got decapitated in the most cruel way, while making a celebration out of it. Just for making an offering to their god, and hoping for a better next-life. This became one of those travel memories that we won’t forget.



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An indian wedding in Kerala

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This is going to be a kind of different, but special post, as we flew back to Kerala for an indian wedding. Who would have thought, that I’d turn back to India for a 3rd time, after my less amusing first trip to Dehli and Agra 3 years ago. And guess what? I’d love to get back to Kerala a 4th time.

Last year, 2018, we did a trip across Kerala, and spent new year’s eve in Kovalam. I could cleary notice a huge difference in mentality and kindness in southern India, compared to its northern part. Everybody was so kind, and we were threated like kings & queens.

This time we landed in Calicut airport, to start our journey towards Kanjirapuzha, a little town next to Mannarkkad, which was located 4 hours driving away from the popular city Kochi.

We landed around 04:00 am, passed the immigration as quick as we could, and expected to get out of the aiport, to meet our driver. Around 04:40 there was no sign of a driver, nor a working ATM, nor a SIM-card selling point. Where could we go without driver, without any money, and not being able to contact someone through whatsapp or phonecall.

In the end we managed to call our good friend Vinoy (in exchange for exegaretaed roaming costs), who arranged everything, and just moments later, we were on the road east-bound.

I felt great being back in Kerala, the sunny state with millions of palmtrees and millions of smiles in the streets. It took us a little more than two hours to reach Mannarkkad. We were lucky to check-in at a small hotel, to borrow Vinoy’s hotel room for a couple of hours to get some sleep, before he would pick us up, with the other folks from Luxembourg, who were coming for Vinoy’s wedding.

We went out to get some cold drinks as we were melting in the hotel room. Vanessa entered a jewelry shop, as she wanted to get fancy for the wedding. People started entering the mentioned shop, to introduce themselves, shake hands and ask our names. It seemed like they’ve never met any caucasians before. As soon as we left the shop, the same show went on on the sidewalk. So many people gave us a big smile and tried to interract with us, eventhough some barely spoke any english.

The “selfie” is a huge thing in India. “Selfie please!?” we heard it a million times. The funny part, was that they’d rather go for a selfie, than getting a proper group-photo with us. They all went for the selfie, straight arms out and pressing against us with a big smile, to get the typical selfie iphone shot.

In the afternoon, we met up with Vinoy, Kamilla, Joana and Nicolas. We were also introduced to Vinoy’s friends and cousins. After a couple of photos we headed to our resort “Diga Resort” in Palakkad. We had the whole resort for ourselves, as it mainly consisted of three huts. The location was pretty scenic, as we got a view on the nearby water-dam. Everybody was exausted from the traveling journey to India. We had a little nap and socialised in the early evening, played some drinking games and ended up drunk by the end of the night. As we initially had planned to go out for dinner, which didn’t turn out to happen, the host of the resort, brought us some free delicious grilled fish and chicken. They were happy to have some foreign tourists at their resort.

 

The house party.

The next morning we all woke up with a hangover, and went for a quick indian breakfast at the resort, in the owner’s kitchen. It felt like having lunch at grandma’s place, but we loved it.

Our friend Sham picked us up, and the long day was about to begin. We went back to Mannarkkad to get dressed up for the wedding. Vinoy’s family made us a present and offered us dothis and saris. We entered a pretty fancy shop for indian standards, and all eyes went on us. Again lots of smiles, handshakes and selfies. After a while the manager showed up as for a photo with all of us… after that, there was no more turning back. We acutally took over 30 photos following the first one.

The ladies were all happy about their clothes and jewelries, they definitely felt like princesses out of an indian fairytale.

After spending almost 2 hours at the shop, we headed towards Silent Valley, driving uphill the serpentines towards the mountains. We were told that we couldn’t get inside the national park, as there were issues with a group of Maoists (a form of communism which has been banned in India for security reasons). We had a stop, where I could fly up my drone and take some beautiful landscape photos. Straight after that we went for a lunch-curry.

We headed back to Mannarkkad to meet up with Vinoy and his family, who showed up all the way from his hometown Trivandrum.

After getting ready back at the resort, and already being late, we made it to the house party around 7:30 pm (instead of 5:00). The pre-wedding party took place at Vinoy’s wife house. They hosted around 200 guests. The whole evening was mostly about dancing, singing and eating. Once again, we felt like VIPs among the indian, as we were offered the front seat of the show. The younger guests invited the white folks on stage for dancing, and thought us their indian dancing moves. Everybody was so kind and felt super happy just for being part of it.

Our first wedding party without alcohol.

The big-day ceremony

The celebration was split up on two different days. The previous night happened to be the celebration party, and the ceremony the following early morning was the official part of the wedding. The ceremony took place in a nearby convention center, where approximately 700 people were invited.

Traditional indian music, lots of colorful saris, the beautiful bride, it all felt like being in the middle of a movie.

The ceremony was mainly split up in the three main parts: the official wedding, the delicious post-wedding lunch, and the indian selfie experience. It happened again. Almost every single relative of the couple’s family wanted to take photos with us. Children, older people, the husbands, the wives… they all wanted a photo with caucasians in it. We felt once again super popular.

After mid-day most people left the place, and we had to as well. We had booked a taxi Kochi for all of us, because that’s where we split up, some moved on to Goa, Nicolas flew to Sri Lank the next day. And Vanessa and I, we headed back home to following day.

 

Kochi.

After having spent 2 and a half days in the Mannarkkad area. We checked out Kochi on our last day of this very short trip. After having spent over 4 hours in a taxi, to get to Kochi with our friends from Luxembourg, we decided to book one night at a nearby airport hotel, this time it was a fancy one. However we didn’t know that we were 1 hour away from the more popular sights of Kochi.

Right outside our hotel we managed to get a tuk-tuk which would bring us to Fort Kochi for 1000 ruppees. We didn’t know that it would take that long, and that we had to get on a short boatride to get on the “island”. On our way we witnessed the beauty of the backwaters, and the chinese fishernets along the palmtree-shores. It reminded us of Allappey’s Backwaters. I was pissed, that i didn’t pack my drone for the last day, as the scenery was rather beautiful, and I would have loved to take some photos from up there.

Our tuk-tuk driver Martin, was a very gentle man. Eventough communication was a mess, as he barely spoke any english, he still tried so hard to exchange some informations about our lives. We felt happy to show us his city.

Fort Kochi had the feel of a hippi island, everything seemed more laid back. Lots of trees, fishermen, graffitis, streetart, a small street market alley along the waters. It had a vibe of its own. I definitely would have loved to spend the whole day at Fort Kochi, however we had to pay attention to our schedule as the flight was leaving at 7pm.

While passing by the only 9 remaining chinese fishernet installations, we were approached by a handful of fishermen, who explained us, that they would bring up the nets from the water, between 150 an 200 times a day. A group of slender men would be pulling ropes with their bodyforce to get the nets high and check for fishes catches. We were allowed to try it ourselves. They also told us, that the tsuanami from 2004 caused a lot of dammage. The wooden installation were destroyed, and the waves brought too much sand to the shores. Due to that, the fishermen catch a lot less fishes than they used to.

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On our way back to the hotel, Martin asked me if I wanted to drive his tuk-tuk. I gladly accepted his offer, and sat behind the steering handle. Driving a tuk-tuk in India, priceless.

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Thailand for a week: Bangkok, Krabi, Phi Phi Islands

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My 3rd time in Bangkok within 18 months was still as exciting as my first trip to the capital of Thailand in may 2018. We only had 1 week off to choose a travel destination for the All-Saints holidays in november. We were craving for sunshine, as autumn had already kicked in at home.

As I’ve never been to a thai island, we went for Krabi and Phi Phi as it was supposed to have reached the end of the raining season. The high season of the lower south-west coast of Thailand shoud start beginning of November.


 

Bangkok. (part I)

We landed on an early sunday morning around 05:00am in Bangkok. Passing the customs & immigration was flawless. There was barely no traffic around that time, and a cheap taxi-ride took us straight to our first accomodation “Vivit Hostel”, which was located within walking distance from Kao San road.

We already booked a night at the hostel for Saturday, so that we could check-in around 06:30 in the morning. After a one-hour nap we headed towards our first floating market “Taling Chan”. It took us less than 15 minutes to reach the market by cab. Using the mobile-app “GRAB” makes life cheaper and easier in Thailand, and many other asian countries.

“Taling Chan” is the only floating market that is located in the heart of Bangkok. I guess it’s not the most beautiful market, but it’s the less touristic one. We really felt among the locals, as we were the only white folks around. They merchants were mostly selling food (thai dishes) on their boats, and handing it over to the customers on the floating wooden platforms.

You could find the usual souvenirs, jewelries, spices, and clothes that you would find on any market. However the local scenery and the lovely women on the boats made it a different experience. “Taling Chan” was definitely worth checking out.

After the floating market, we headed towards our favorite market “Chatuchak” followed by the Ratchada Train Market (night market). On our second visit of the train nightmarket, we finally figured out, that you could get the famous instagram shot of the scenic market from the 4th floor of the nearby shopping mall. Pass through the entrance of the mall, take the escalator to the 4th floor and step inside the parking lot. On the edges of the parking you will notice other visitors taking a photo of the colorful market stands.

To end our first night in Bangkok we visited the quieter parallel road to Kao San called “Rambutrri Alley” (Soi Ram Butri) and enjoyed a few cocktails at the ending part of the alley.


Bangkok. (part II)

After visiting Krabi and Ko Phi Phi during the week, we headed back to Bangkok for one last night on our Thailand trip. We decided to book a night at the charming hostel “Time Sabai 134”. After having spent a bunch of nights in 4 different hotels/hostels in Bangkok, Time Sabai 134, made it on top of my list. If I get back to Bangkok I will definitely book a private room with them, as the hostel is located only 5 minutes away from the lively area of Kao San Road, which gives you many options to opt for, for example Rambutrri or Phra Athit Road which offers a few music bars.

On our last day we headed back to Chatuchak weekend-market, which surprisingly was a lot busier on friday night, then on the usual sundays when we visited the market. After the shopping tour we headed to a hip bakery shop called “A pink rabbit & bob” where we enjoyed a carrote cake and a well prepared americano. After the piece of cake we moved towards the rooftop bar of the hotel “Sala Rattanakosin”. It was my second visit at the rooftop bar, as it’s one of the few places where you get a beautiful view on Wat Arun Temple at night. They turn on the lights of the temple at 18:30 (6.30 pm). Enjoy the drinks and the views!


Krabi (Ao Nang).

Krabi was supposed the become my first thai-island-feel holidays, even though it’s still attached to the mainland. The main shore along the beach of Ao Nang definitely looked like the scenery I knew from travelblogs & tv, except for the weather, as rain season hadn’t come to an end yet.

On daily basis the rain kicked in around 4pm in the afternoon, for one or two hours. In the morning we had summerish weather.

We decided to chose our accomodation in Ao Nang as it was supposed to be more lively than Railay Beach. In my opinion Ao Nang wasn’t that lively by the end of october. There was one tiney alley that had the feel of Bangkok’s “Kao San” or rather “Soy Cowboy” as the road was packed with escort girls. The bars right across Ao Nang’s beach, looked like american sports bars filled with pool tables and loud music. None of the places were really packed the nights we passed by, and they didn’t look very inviting.

We spent most of nights at a local food court, and one tiny open-air bar just next to it. The bar was run by a couple of outgoing and funny thai women. The cocktails were only 150 bath which was about 4 euro, and they played traditional molam music all night long. As soon as we took place at the few stools on the bar, they asked us to play our music on their wifi speakers. I love interracting with local people over a drink or two, as you get to know funny facts of their culture and daily life.

As for the rest Ao Nang didn’t seem to be that interesting.

We booked an island hopping tour, which turned out as a disappointment, as far as the snorkeling goes. They advertise the tour as a boat tour, followed by snorkerling. The water was so cloudy that you barely couldn’t see anything in front of you. There was almost no aquatic life at the spots where they let the tour-members out of the boat. One of the island had a tiny beach, that was just big enough to carry all the tourists on one spot for an hour, where lunch got served around midday. The food was okay, but far from delicious. We made the best out of it, and took a sunbath on Hong Island, which looked pretty at first sight. However there was a big construction ship parked between the main rocks of the lagoon, that totally ruined any photo you’d take of the surroundings.

If we would have known better, we wouldn’t have signed up for the tour.

The same day we participated at another thai-cooking class. Vanessa and I already did the class in Chiangmai. We almost cooked the same dishes as the ones we did on the previous class. At the end, I was glad, as we were thought a slightly different way how to prepare the curry pastes and coconut-soup. The cooking class was 1300 bath per person (around 35 euro). The transfer from and to the hotel was included in the price. At the end of the class, each one got a book with all the recipes. Check out “Siam Cuisine Thai Cookery School” for further informations.

We were so busy during our one week in Thailand, that we didn’t manage to book a scooter to discover the area on our own. Because of that, I can’t really tell if Ao Nang is worth visiting or not. For the few days, that we spent on the shore, it didn’t seem that appealing to visit it a second time.

The transfer from the Airport to the hotel was around 150 by van (per person), or 700 for a private taxi.

Ko Phi Phi.

To reach Ko Phi Phi from Ao Nang, we had to book a ferry, which was 350 baht per person. The boatride took about 2 hours to reach the docking-pier of Phi Phi Island. At first sight we were amazed by the beauty of the island: blue clear waters, palmtrees in front of the resorts, a walking path on which many people were walking barefoot, lots of wooden huts… all these details that gave you the feel of an island.

Tourist wise, it wasn’t too packed. During the day, the main streets were much busier, than in the evening. After 6pm, you did notice that many people had left the island, as we were told that the last fairey to Krabi would leave at 15:30 (3.30pm). Was it still low-season during our stay? We couldn’t tell, as November was supposed to attract many visitors. At night the streets were rather empty. A handful of bars were filled with younger crowds. The beautiful restaurants were left almost unattended. We didn’t care too much.

On our first day, we visited the two View-Points, which was a pretty though exercice, climbing hundreds of stairs with 34°c degree. The hill was quite steep, but the effort was all worth it. On top of the hill you get an scenic view all over the island. After all my travels, this view definitely made it to my top 5 most scenic spots.

As the streets seemed deserted at night, we headed towards the venue “Reggae Bar”, a crazy dive bar, where you see live muay thai fights, and the visitors can earn a free bucket (filled with booze) for 3 rounds of sparring with another spectator. Even though the “amateur fights” with helmets and shin-protectors, were less impressive than the thai fights, they still were entertaining enough to make us watch almost 7 fights.

Snorkeling was definitely on our checklist for Phi Phi. We booked a longtail-boat for 3 hours. The booking was only 1500 bath for the two of us. The boatman confirmed that we could do the trip from 07:00 til 10:00. You get the benefit of chosing your starting time if you book a privat boat. I really don’t see the point of booking a tour with a speedboat, if you have 8 other people on it. We got the chance to leave the bay at 07:00 and reach Maya Bay, famous spot from the movie “The Beach”, only 20 minutes later. We had Maya Bay all for ourselves for over half an hour, til the first tourists reached the spot as well. It was a pleasure snorkeling on that famous spot, with lots of yellowish fishes among us. The beach of Maya bay was still not accessible, as the government decided to ban human traffic on the beach for about 2 years, to let the reef and aquatic life recover from mass tourism.

It was my first snorkeling experience with aquatic life below my feet. The boatman took us to 4 different spots. It was mostly us with two or three other tourists enjoying life underwater.

Our accomodation “Mama Beach Residence” had the perfect location for being on the lower west side of the small island. It was 10 minutes walking away from the main pier, where all the cruisers docked in. Surprisingly the sea was still crystal clear in front of our hotel, despite the numerous boats floating by. We had a wonderful frontyard patio with a wonderful ocean view from our room. For 80 euro a night, with sea-view, we couldn’t complain, and were totally happy. The breakfast, which we usually miss around 90% of the time, was quite delicious. Lots of homemade pies and cakes, fresh juices, .. all you can ask for.

After our “snorkly” morning we headed back to Ao Nang on with the last cruiser-boat at 15:30 (3.30 pm), where our trip came to an end. We packed our stuff, and took the flight to Bangkok next morning, where we just spent another night.


Thailand never disappoints. This was my 3rd trip to Thailand within 18 months. The kindness of the thai people, the best asian food (nex to japan), and the cheap prices makes me always coming back. Maybe on our next trip we will take classes for a Tok-Sen training, or I’ll get my back covered with traditional bamboo sak yant tattoos. Godspeed! Til’ next time.



This photo was taken at the ZEUS CUSTOM BIKE SHOP in Bangkok. If you fancy hip clothes, coffee and motorbike culture, this place is for you. Definitely a hotspot for all “Deus Ex” fans.

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10 days in Myanmar {Yangon, Bagan, Inle Lake, Mandalay}

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If you went through a couple of my blog-posts you might have noticed my passion & love for creating videos while traveling. This means, that I also enjoy watching travel videos of any places in the world. I just love the aestethic visuals mixed up with music and sound effects that can recreate a visual portrait of a city or a country.

I really was amazed by this particual video about Myanmar on Vimeo. {click on the link to watch it}.

After having watched it a couple of times in a row, and after having fowarded the link to numerous friends and started feeling the urge to absolutely visit Myanmar as soon as possible. It quickly made it onto my bucket list. Obviously I had to create my own travel video of beautiful Myanmar on this 10 day journey. You can watch it below.

 

We only had 14 days left for our whole trip. As we were landing in Bangkok, and wanted to pass through Cambodia, before landing in Myanmar, 10 nights was all we had left to spend in Myanmar (also known as Burma).

Ten nights isn’t too long if you’re planning to visit the most popular cities: Yangon, Bagan, Inle Lake and Mandalay. We also had Ngapali Beach in mind, but considering our tight time-schedule we just couldn’t manage to visit their beautiful beaches.

Yangon.

Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon) is a popular travel destination because of its truely beautiful Shwedagon Pagoda. The gigantic golden pagoda was the only reason why we spent one night in Yangon. The taxi-ride from the airport to our hostel was around 13.000 kyat (which would be 9 us$), and the ride took almost 40 minutes due to heavy traffic.

You’re absolutely right if you’re going to tell me that you can’t discover the beauty of a city within a day. We booked a night at the Bodhi Nava Hostel. We checked in around 8pm, and went straight towards the golden pagoda in the city center. The neighbourhood was pretty rhough. I didn’t expected it to be that bad. It definitely reminded me of worn down areas in India. After walking 15 minutes uphill and leaving hundreds of steps behind us, we made it to the holy temple.

Already from afar, through a dark narrow street, you just had to follow the golden glow in the sky. You just couldn’t miss it!

The sadest part of our Yangon experience was the fact, the Shwedagon Pagoda was under construction. At first sight you wouldn’t notice the scaffold along the tip of the golden monument. I was kinda disappointed, as the temple was the main reason why we made it to Yangon. We managed to get a lovely photo of it, however it just wouldn’t be as beautiful as without the scaffold.

On the following early morning we manged to visit a second temple called Sule Pagoda, which was located downtown in a busier neighbourdhood. It was less impressive than Shewdagon. Not too far away, we visited Bogyoke Aung San Market. As we expected a busy market with local crafts and foods, they mainly sold clothes and jewelry.

The surrounding streets were actually nicer to walk through. The colorful colonial housefronts reminded me of Cuba.

The first temples you witness in a particular country are always pretty enjoyable. However you rarely experience memorable moments inside a temple. That’s why I’d rather stroll across unknown streets and hoping to find a local gem, that you wouldn’t find in travel-guide.

So after spending less than 24 hours in Yangon, we were looking forward to our trip to Bagan, the city of the thousand pagodas.

Bagan.

After a 2 hour flight we made it Bagan. Right at the airport we had to pay a tax for visiting the archaeological sites. Every visitor has to pay the tax of 25.000 kyats. (15$)

A cool thing about Bagan is that most hotels aren’t far away from the airport. Your taxi will easily reach it within 15 minutes. Expect to pay 8000 kyats (5us$).

In Bagan you'll find the largest and densest concentration of Buddhist temples, pagodas, stupas and ruins in the world, many dating from the 11th and 12th centuries. The main bigger pagodas look absolutely magical at any part of the day. We were passing by the first ones on our way to the hotel at night. It was mesmerizing to witness those rocky temples rising up on both sides of our car as we got closer to our destination.

We just couldn’t wait to explore Bagan by ourselves. Some hotels will offer e-bikes or bicycles to explore the thousands of temples in and around Bagan. I’d highly recommend an e-bike as temperatures get very high during daytime.

Where to start? To be honest I have no idea. There are so many pagodas spread over a large area, that it’s really hard to tell which one are the nicest. The more impressive ones are close to the main road that connects Old Bagan with Nyaung-U.

You can get decent views from the smaller ones at sunrise or sunset. Most of them are closed with fences and it’s illegal to climb on the rooftop or the tip of the pagodas. However for a small tip locals will bring you to pagodas where a guard will open the gates for half an hour an allow you to climb up the pagoda to witness the beautiful sunset over the holy land.

While riding around on our e-bike a Bagan local asked us if we would like to buy one of his paintings. If we would do so, he would lead us to one of the pagodas that we could climb up. Obviously they all get a part of that money, even the corrupt guard, who shouldn’t let people get onto those holy monuments. On the mobile app “Maps.Me” you will find some informations if you hover over the single pagodas, and users will keep the status updated, if the rooftop access is still available or not. While we were in Bagan most spots on the mobile map were highlighted as “closed”.

There isn’t much else to do in Bagan except visiting Pagodas, relaxing at the amazing pool at your hotel, and enjoying a little bit of luxury for a bargain. I’m not even sure if you’d find a hostel in Bagan, as most hotels look pretty fancy.

Talking about nightlife, there’s none. Surely there are always people on the streets, some restaurants are more packed than others, however there’s barely any nightlife with bars, clubs or any other busy places. We spent 3 nights in Bagan, after spending an hour at a local restaurant, we mostly headed back to the hotel, as we couldn’t find any interestings bars along the road.

I wouldn’t recommend more than 3 nights in Bagan. As it can get pretty boring after a couple of days. Besides the endless pagodas, you can visit the charming Minnanthu village, where you’ll get a 30 minute tour through the village, and get introduced to the daily life of the villagers and how they create things (pottery, scarves, food). It’s touristic, but it’s worth stopping by while you’re in Bagan.

In Bagan there’s a Viewing Tower right in the middle of the deserted dry lands. The spectacular hight of the tower offers you a 360° view angle in any direction. The entrance ticket allows you to visit the tower twice a day. Sadly we didn’t get back for the sunset. The downside of the tower is, that most pagodas are pretty far away from the tower. Therefor the photographs from the top of the tower look less spectacular than the ones taken from the top of a temple.

As we were spending our days in Bagan during the waterfestival “Thingyan”, the streets were always busy with younger folks trying to smash a bucket of water into your face. Most of them respected your backpack, and just pured the water of your clothes. I would recommend you to buy a small waterproof bag that would carry your wallet, mobile phone and money, as there won’t be any dry spot on your body after you drive passed three Thingyan-stands.

We had enough of Bagan after 3 full days. I enjoyed every minute in that beautiful area. The locals were once again very welcoming, everything looked quite authentic, except for the luxurious hotels.

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Bagan is one of the two places in Myanmar where you can buy a hotballon-ride at sunrise. Sadly the hot-ballon business stopped around the 10th of April, because of safety issues. I guess they stop in april, as temperatures were just too high (everyday they were over 40°C). Even though we were pretty sad, that we couldn’t do the ballon-ride, we managed to save the insane amount of 300$ a person. As a couple we would have easily spent 600US$ for enjoying the flight over the pagodas.



Inle Lake.

After Bagan we flew straight to Inle Lake. It took us less than an hour. We didn’t know what to expect in Inle Lake, as the lake itself is quite big. We checked the location of our hotel on google maps, and distances seemed pretty far to reach the different attractions that Inle was well known for.

After landing at the tiny airport, we found out, that only taxis could bring us to our hotel. There weren’t any buses or trains. As the taxi-rides in Yangon and Bagan were pretty cheap, we were shocked how much we had to pay in Inle: 50.000 kyat (~ 30 Euro / 35 US$). I know! We wouldn’t complain about those taxi rates in our country, however paying 5 times the price we paid in Yangon, wasn’t really putting a grin on our faces.

The ride from the airport to our hotel took about 80 minutes. Obviously a bus would have taken ages to reach it. We spent 3 nights at a Novotel-Hotel, as we were exausted of our first week of traveling. To that point we already had taken 7 flights, and we decided to move on a little slower during our last days on holidays, and opted for a fancier resort.

It turned out that there wasn’t any public transportation in Inle Lake except for the cabs & the boats. The hotel would offer boat-rides for tripple the price that a local boatman would charge you for. So we decided to walk to a boat-station that was located 20 minutes away by foot.

The hotel handed out complimentary bikes which would make the trip the wooden bridge easier. On our first day, walking to the bridge, we randomly met a young local guy, whose name was Ekko. As we seamed lost, while we were looking for a crossing, that would lead us to that bridge, he introduced himself as a boatman, an offered us a convincing cheap ride, that we gladly accepted. The young man, always with a big smile on his face, brought us to a monastry where buddhist monks were supposed to live. Dens groups of people were noticeable from further distance, but there weren’t hardly any monks around the crowds. I turned out to be another tourist attraction.

The single boat rides from point A to point B can easily last more than an hour. Even though it’s just a lake, it felt more like the sea! As there wasn’t absolutely nothing else left to do around our hotel area, we met up with Ekko on daily basis and asked him to show us the different spots surrounding the lake: long-neck tribes, cotton & silk fabric, pottery factory, pagodas, monastries, floating villages, floating gardens… and so on.

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Actually Ekko introduced us to all the sights & things we knew from several travel videos. I guess we’ve seen it all at Inle Lake, even though it was,’t actually how we had pictured it in our heads. It all seemed like a “watch and buy”market. Without any doubt, some parts were quite interesting, as Vanessa was able to play around with the clay and try to make her own ashtray at the pottery factory. Well the factory was just a tent, with a chair, where a 15-year-old girl showed us how to make cups, plates and ashtrays. But in the end we didn’t regret it. They will give you a free introduction to their crafts & makings, but they’re making a living out of their creations. So expect to spend a couple of bucks while visiting those places. It will make them happy!

Another charming lady, showed us how to make a sewing cord with the stem of a lotus flower.

The cherry on top, was the afternoon where Ekko, our boatman took us to his lake-house and invited us for a cup of tea. It was a 2 storey wooden house, where he lived with 8 relatives. And we got to know that Ekko won a price in a hospitality apprenticeship endowed by a partnership with Luxembourg. What a funny coincidence. Who would have guessed that we would bump into the luxembourgish flag in a Village where almost nobody would ever have heard about our tiny country.

 

Mandalay.

Mandalay was the last city we were visiting on your 10 days in Myanmar. We didn’t really know what to expect. As we visited a couple of wonderful places, Mandalay just couldn’t beat the land of the 10.000 pagodas (Bagan) or the refreshing boat rides at Inle.

Mandalay was already pretty tough with its temperatures that were reaching 43 °C during the day, and the nights just wouldn’t get cooler. After checkin-in at the hostel (Ostello Bell) we were told that most of the shops would be closed because of the buddhist new-year, and that chances would be very low that rental-companies would offer us a scooter for our last 3 days in Myanmar.

It was about time to install the mobile app “Grab”, which is very popular in Asia. It’s the asian “UBER” which works pretty well in Mandalay. The hostel gave us a discount-code for “Grab” which would offer us two cheaper rides a day. On “Grab” you can either choose to get picked up by a scooter, a tuk-tuk or by a car. Scooters & tuk-tuks are obviously cheaper than the 3rd option.

It was pretty hard to find jaw-dropping places in Mandalay. Of course there were a couple of Pagodas and temples left to visit, however we had seen too many them.

The popular daily “Zay Cho” market where they sell locals crafts, clothes and food was closed on those 3 days we spent in Mandalay. The jade market, where they evidently sell all kinds of jade-stone gifts and jewelry was closed as well. Luckily there was one of those train-markets, where a train would just cross go straight through the market, there’s one nearby Bangkok, and another one in Vietnam as far, as I can remember. This was our first time at of those train-markets.

We headed to the top of Mandalay Hill, on which one another temple was located. The ride to the top was fun, as we were sharing the back of a van with 16 other people. Prior jumping on the van, we thought that 8 adults would be the max that would fit onto the small platform of the van. I was wrong, 8 more people would fit! Most of those locals were smiling at us, as if they never shared a van with white people.

Mandalay Hill wasn’t that spectacular, however we enjoyed walking down the path to the bottom, and witnessing how some citizen were living on the street with a fridge, a stove and a tv-set. The whole scenario reminded me of a studio or living room set up on the sidewalk.

We visited a shopping-mall, as we were desperately looking for places to discover and kill our time. The Diamond Plaza mall could have been a shopping place in North Korea. The ground floor was packed with fancy stores that we knew from Europe. However not one single customer was at that shopping mall, except both of us and another caucasian family.

My own highlight of Mandalay was the U Bein Bridge, which is supposed to be the longest and oldest teakwood bridge in the world. We enjoyed spending an hour on the bridge and its nearby market. Actually the coolest part, was the charming village, at the other side of U Bein Bridge. The little village, was actually the perfect image of what I expected Myanmar to be: welcoming & smiling locals spending their free time outside of their homes in the streets, monks, kid-monks, worn down schools, … the authentic street life, without tourists. I could have spent a whole day in that tiny village, enjoying the views, walking around and taking photos. We bumped into a stray dog on the wooden bridge, that kept following us all across the village, got into a brawl with other streets dogs, and followed us til we left the village.

We spent our last night at the restaurant “Mingalabar" where we got introduced to the typical myanmar traditional dishes (btw. Mingalabar means hello in burmese). The whole menu seemed very authentic, however my sense of taste wasn’t ready for some of its flavours. I had a hard time swallowing down some of the dishes. It was funny to see, that most restaurants were packed with caucasion people, obvisouly tourists, except for “Mingalabar”. Nightlife…there was none, and I’m pretty sure we didn’t miss it, or went to the wrong places. Most hotel bars were empty, even the roof-top bar of our hostel wasn’t very lively at night.

We skipped the boat ride to Mingun, as it would have all been for another pagoda… a white one. Definitely a nice pagoda, but just another pagoda.


I pretty much enjoyed every single city we visited on our Myanmar trip. Maybe my expectations were too high, for a country that opened its doors for tourism approximately 20 years ago. The locals, the hotels, the restaurants are doing their very best for making you feel at ease. Everything is relatively cheap for westerners. Don’t compare it with Thailand or Vietnam, as those two are easily travelable. Myanmar people are the nicest ones I’ve met of all my asian destinations i’ve been to these last 5 years. I’m pretty sure in 10 years, everything will have changed so rapidly in Myanmar. Visit the beautiful country, before it becomes another “asian hot spot”.



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Bangkok, Cambodia & Myanmar

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During the easter 2-week-schoolholidays in april we decided to visit Myanmar. As the flights were much cheaper for Bangkok, we decided to have two pit-stops in the thai-capital. As we were coureagous and eager enough to visit a 3rd country, we opted for Siem Reap in Cambodia, mainly because of its Angkor Wat temple.

We flew from Luxembourg, to Bangkok, followed by a flight to Cambodia, where we stayed for 3 nights, and last but not least Myanmar. As we had planned to visit the 4 most popular cities of Burma, we opted for inland flights as well. The bus-route from Yangon to Mandalay, would last 12 hours. The bus fare was about 20$, the flight would be as cheap as 50$. Instead of losing too much time on a train or bus, we decided that we would move around by airplaine, obviously with low-cost-airlines.

In total we were sitting on 12 different aircrafts on our two weeks adventure ! Considering that the temperatures were reaching the 42°C degrees, it was a pretty exhausting trip.

Obviously I will write a seperate blog-post about Myanmar. In this one I will summarize our adventure in 3 different countries within lees than two weeks.

 

Bangkok.

Exactly one year later, I made it back to Bangkok. I was so convinced that I would return to Thailand much earlier, however things or plans don’t always turn out as we expect them to. After my first trip to Thailand in 2018, I fell in love with the laid back, but respectful, attitude of the country. I was looking forward to get back.

In the beginning of the trip, we only spent one night in Thailand before moving on to Siem Reap. We landed pretty late, and the weather was rainy, so it didn’t turn out to be an joyful night. We passed by the busy khaosan road and fled towards a much quiter street for a delicious pad-thai.

On our way back home we spent two more nights in Bangkok, enough to get to know new areas of the capital city. My girlfriend was curious about its markets, so I took her to the Chatuchak (or “Jatujak") Market, which only takes place on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. It’s a huge market with all kinds of things: food, fashion, books, kitchen tools. We spent 3 hours at the market, and there were still so many market-shops left to discover. Just next to Chatuchak, we spent another hour at “Camps - the Vintage market”, which is a pretty hip spot ! It was my second visit, and I enjoyed as much as my first time. You will totally enjoy “Camps” if you’re into cheap but trendy clothes, cafe-racer bikes, foodtrucks, ramen!, and craft-beers. It had a more laid-back vibe than the busy Chatuchak.

After two markets, we didn’t had enough of our shopping spree! We jumped on a cab, which took us to the Night Train Market. Again.. a huge market.. with all kinds of things to spend money on. There were a couple of bars nearby the market, that hosted live-music. The sweetest part was, that all the customers of the bars were thai. It was a much enjoyable and more classy area than the mentioned khao-san road. No douchebags, no loud thai teenage-girls.

On our last day, we were trying to get to see a Muay Thai fight in Bangkok. We found a couple of useful informations online. Every sunday the local tv-channel “Channel 7” hosts free muay-thai fights. If you make it to the Channel 7 building before 13:00h (1pm) you will high probably get a free seat for the show. As we totally forgot the change the time, as we came from Myanmar towards Thailand (which is 30 minutes late), we made it to the fight-arena around 13:40. We had to pay 200 bat (5$) per person for a ring-side seat. A pretty cheap deal compared to the usual 50$ you have to pay for a muay-thai fight. We watched 4 fights, until we decided to get back home, and head to the airport. It was a pleasant experience! Even my girlfriend who isn’t into brutal fight-sports, enjoyed the show. The fights are broadcoasted live on tv! Expect around 500 people in the arena.

 

Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Obviously we made it to Siem Reap for the famous Angkor Wat temple. For a long time I thought there would only be one big main temple in Siem Reap, until prior our departure I learned that there are many more temples located around the main Angkor Wat. It actually takes a couple of hours to quickly visit the hot spots of the archeological & historical sites. Some people would easily spend two to three days to get a more profound tour of the temples.

We’ve spent 2 nights in Siem Reap, which was enough to get a first taste of Cambodia and its number-one travel destination. It took about 15 minutes by scooter to reach the temple area. We rented a motorbike for about 15$ a day. After signing the rental-deal we were told which bridges in the city center we should avoid, as it would be illegal for foreigners to ride a scooter in Siem Reap. I’m not sure if it was just an over-cautious tip to avoid trouble, or if it was actually prohibited to ride the bike. We passed a couple of cop cars, and uniformed officers, at some points even without a helmet, and nobody ever stopped us.

You can either buy an entrance ticket for Angkor Wat for 1 day or a 3-day-pass. The 3-day-pass was pretty expensive, around 60 us$ !! per person. In Cambodia all the prices are listed in US$, and you actually pay with US$ bills. The prices in the menus at the restaurants are all listed in US$. Dollars everywhere.

At the airport the tuk-tuk drivers told us that foreigner aren’t allowed to ride a scooter around the temples. That wasn’t true! We visited all the temples on our own, and didn’t get in trouble for a second.

I’d definitely recommend visiting Angkor Wat for sunrise or sunset, as it will offer a nice photoshot opportunity with the reflecting sun in the pond just in front of the temple. The hundreds of tourists however will ruin the vibe. Even at 05:40 in the morning the place was packed with a huge crowd waiting for the sun to rise up behind the holy building.

Is there anything else to do in Siem Reap? Not that much! There are a couple of floating villages which are supposed to be pretty interesting to visit. However during our stay in Cambodia, the temperatures easily reached 42°C. Due to the higher temperatures the riverbeds around the floating houses dried out, and it all looked more like a dusty village. The ride from our hotel to the floating village was packed with lovely landscapes, however the village itself wasn’t worth the 1-hour-drive, as there wasn’t much left to see.

Siem Reap could be quite lively at night. There’s the “PubStreet” right in the heart of the city-center, packed with too many bars, but not enough tourists or locals. Every bar has its music-box turned up to the max, which can be rather annoying if you hear 10 differents songs playing at the same time. Pubstreet was loud and flashy, but among all the noise, we managed to find a laidback bar, where we could enjoy a couple of drinks. The center offers all kind of restaurants, local food, italian, indian, you have a hard time to satisfy your cravings. On our second night we went for street-food, where we paid 2$ for a noodles or rice dish.

As almost every asian city Siem Reap has a night market. If you’ve visited 3 night-markets in your life, you might have seen’em all. This one wasn’t much different.

In Japan a friend told me, that she had a bad experience with too many unfriendly locals in Siem Reap. We couldn’t share the same oppinion. The only unfriendly person we met was our tuk-tuk driver at the aiport, as he wasn’t amused that we refused his offer for a private-tour to the temples.

 

Myanmar.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, definitely was on my bucket list for the last couple of years. After having watched many travel videos of Burma on vimeo, I was blown away by the lanscapes, the pagodas and the special vibe videographers captured on their trip to Myanmar.

However the higher your expectations are, the higher are the chances that you could be disappointed. This actually gets worse when you have a specific idea what your travel videos or photos should look like when you get back home. My expectations were very high! I carried all my photo equipment, which consisted of 4 lenses, my fuji xt2 camera, a go-pro, and a gimbal, to our trip across the country.

As our trip was limited to a maximum of 14 days, we only got to spend 10 days in Myanmar, and we planned to see as much as possible of the country, so we chose to make it to the more popular cities like Yangon, Bagan, Inle Lake, Mandalay.

It takes between 6-12 hours by bus to move from one city to the next one. As we were limited in time, we opted to travel by airplane. The lowest faires were as cheap as 40$ for a 1 hour flight. Myanmar makes it easy for travelers to move around, you’ll easily get a cheap taxi, the airports aren’t too far away from the city centers. The mobile app “GRAB” is a must if you wanna get around Mandalay. It works the same as “UBER”, but you can choose between 3 different transportation options: car (taxi), tuk-tuk or scooter. As we were traveling as a couple we mostly grab’ed a tuk-tuk.

We visited 3 different countries on this trip, Thailand, Cambodia and Burma. We often asked ourselves what would be tippicaly “cambodian” or what would make “Myanmar” easily recognizable among the neighbouring asian countries. We couldn’t really tell! As for myselef I refered to Cambodia as a mix of Bali-Vietnam-India.

However Myanmar’s landscapes were easily recognizable by the endless amount of golden pagodas that were spread all over the cities. I can’t remember having witnessed this kind of shaped pagodas all covered in gold (some were white) in another asian country. You could spot them from afar in the mountains, on a hill, next to the river.. pagodas everywhere!

The traditional skirts men were wearing was definitely typically “burmese”. I first noticed them in Bali where they were called “Sarong”, then in India where they’re called “dothi”. In Myanmar it was the “longyis” that were worn by all the men. Even nowadays 85% of the men are wearing the longyis.

Number 3 would be the thanaka face painting, that women (also men) are using as esthetic cosmetics and as sunscreen to avoid sunburn. Thanaka is a white/yellowish paste made out of tanaka wood (the wood is rubbed on a wet grindstone or glasspaper. The mixture of water and the wood-dust makes it a paste. Women are wearing the thanaka as stripes, leaf shapes, or just plain circles on their cheeks and forhead.

As my expectations were very high, concerning this Myanmar trip, I have to honestly admit that I wasn’t blown away by the country. After having visited numerous asian countries, naturewise or citywise, Myanmar wasn’t that much different. For my personal taste, I missed the lively vibes you get to see in Bali or Thailand. After sunset, the streets got quiet, the locals were having food on a streetfood corner, and then slowely faded back into their homes. Obviously as myanmar people have low wages, they can’t afford to spend a night in a bar or restaurant. There wasn’t any kind of entertainment for tourists at night. We were lucky to discover the water festival that took place across the whole country 3 days before the buddhist new year. The locals, especially the children and teenagers were throwing water at us. The waterfestival is supposed to “clean up” the people with water just before sliding into the new year.

In Mandalay there wasn’t really much to do. We felt bored after 2 days. We definitely spend our 3 nights at the best hostel in town called “Hostello Bello”. Despite the welcoming staff and their fancy happy-hour, the nights remained quiet! Many restaurants were almost empty, bars weren’t available, coffee shops were closed in the late evening.

In Yangon, the night started around 11pm (23:00h), the point where are the restaurants and bars shut down. The same counts for Bagan and Inle Lake. Inle Lake was even worse, as most of the hotels were isolated on the outskirt of the lake. There weren’t any bars or restaurants where you could mix up with the locals. And we really missed that!

Myanmar was definitely a beautiful country, and we got to discover a lot of new things! Especially the locals were super welcoming. After all my traveling these last 5 years, Myanmar has definitely the nicest and moste welcoming population of all asia. Many adults were waving at us, as were driving by on a tuk-tuk. Children would touch our arms as they don’t get to see caucasians that often. Everytime when we handed over a tip, they stared back with a surprised look, as if they wouldn’t understand why somebody would leave them a dollar or two. They showed so much grattitude for every coin you would give them as a tip. I really fell in love with the kindness of the myanmar people !

Everything that impressed me in Myanmar travel videos, turned out to be a touristic attraction. Around Inle lake you’ll find the women of the long-neck tribes. As we were expecting a whole village, it turned out to be a ware-house where we were shown how the long-neck women were creating the handmade scarfs. The two long-neck women were very kind but it definitely didn’t feel authentic. The same counts for the traditonal fisher-men on Inle Lake. The real fishermen were casually dressed up in sportswear. The ones that were wearing tradional clothes was a made up show for tourists.

In Bagan we visited the Minnanthu village, where you were introduced to the daily life of a villager. Without a doubt, Minnanthu was worth the visit, however the tour felt once again like a tourist attraction. The women in the village started working as soon, as we approached their cabin or their tiny farm. It all looked like a made-up show.

I will write a separate post about our experience in Myanmar. I’m happy that we made it to Myanmar, and don’t regret it all. However it didn’t feel as authentic as Japan or Bangkok. It’s understandable that Myanmar is trying to attract tourists, as the country opened its borders for tourism only 20 years ago. They’re far behind Thailand or Vietnam, but they’re catching up!

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Kerala: Kovalam, Alleppey, Munnar

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As we planned on staying in Kerala for 8 nights, time realy wasn’t on our side. Distances in Kerala are quite significant, which we didn’t expect at all, considering Google-Maps showing us 120-150 km routes. Because of the traffic and the narrow roads, 120 km could easily take up to 5 hours of your prescious time.

We landed in Trivandrum, as we were planning on spending New Years Eve on the beach, and we opted for Kovalam, because the surroundings and its red-white striped light house looked very charming.

Kovalam.

Kovalam’s beach was nice, nothing more nothing less. The restaurants at the beach front were quite alright for indian circumstances. However when you moved further away from the back alleys of the shore, the surroundings got pretty odd. There wasn’t an ATM nearby. You’d find plenty of roadstalls selling the usual stuff, chewing pan, sodas and biscuits. On New Years Eve, we were part of the few younger folks walking through the sand of the beach. Bars and restaurants were busy with older people, mostly europeans.

There was nothing going on late at night. Selling alcoholic beverages was prohibited if the bar wouldn’t pay a pretty expensive authorization. Some bars would sell the booze under table and serve the wine, beer or spirits in coffee mugs. For half a bottle of red wine we paid 10 euros / dollars on NYE, which is insanely expensive for indian people. Of course we had to hide the bottle under the table, in case the cops would show up.

Kovalam had its charming side, because only after one day, the locals would start recognizing you, and you’d get in lovely conversations with them. Of course always having in mind to win you as a customer in their shop or restaurant. The weather was flawless, even at night we had t-shirt temperatures. The water of the sea was pretty warm and the palmtrees bordering the shore made Kovalam a pretty place.

One day we drove up to Varkara with a rental scooter, it took us 5 hours in total to do the roadtrip. Varkara looked different than Kovalam, less buildings, more greens. In the end I can’t tell you which beach I actually prefered. We enjoyed the scenery along the road while heading up north. But I guess the 5 hours driving weren’t worth it, to spend some hours on a beach.

Initially we planned on staying 2 nights in Kovalam, but we extended our stay for one more night, as we didn’t want to rush with the usual check-out and packing our backpacks after the night of NYE. Honestly 3 nights in Kovalam is too long, as there isn’t much to do in the area. You can do daytrips to Varkara, the center of Trivandrum which gives you the feel of a city-vibe, or driving down south to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial (which we didn’t do, as it would take another 5 hours of driving in total). The scooter rental rate was a bargain, as we only paid 300 rupees per day (4 euros/dollars).




Alleppey and its backwaters.

After driving up north to Varkala, we figured out that Alleppey would be quite a ride. The distance between both cities is around 160 km which takes up to 5 hours driving.

A local told us that you can reach Varkala by train, however the train only leaves in the early morning and only once a day. So we opted for a taxi, which would cost us only 40-50 euro/usd, hassslefree, with an A/C, and you can sleep in the back of the car. Easy!

Alleppey is well known for its charming canals and its bigger lake on the northern side. That’s what we saw and what we got. In Alleppey we visited the city center, however the town looked like any other indian city. Our pleasant part of Alleppey was definitely our stay the “Bamboo Lagoon Resort”. The Bamboo Lagoon had the feel of a guesthouse, as there weren’t more than 10 to 12 rooms for rental. We had the chance to get one of the 3 rooms of a cottage that were very close to the river’s edge, facing the backwaters. Opening the doors in the morning was very beautiful as you could witness the beauty of the house boats passing by, watching the local fishermen in their canoos, or just observing the neighbours taking “a shower” in the river. It definitely felt more like India, than Kovalam’s beaches.

There wasn’t much to do on the “island”, as you had to a 1 minute canoo-trip to reach mainland. For one day only it was very pleasant to saviour the quietness of the resort, spending an hour in a hammock and watching the boats passing by. You could book a boat from the hotel and do a canal trip through the back waters. The boat cost around 500 rupee an hour (5 euro/uds). It would lead you through different canals and offer you a scenic view of the neighbourhood.

Unluckily on our first day we were told that on the following day, violent riots could take place in the city as there was an issue with a nearby temple, where women were granted access to use the temple for the first time ever. The radical religious fanatics obviously didn’t like that, and the use of violence was expected. So the only way to get to Munnar was to leave in the early morning at 01:00 or 02:00 am, or we would have to stay a second night, and spend all day at the resort, as driving with a taxi or buses was prohibited for security reasons. We decided to leave at night.

However we were already pretty sure that we would stay one more night at the bamboo lagoon on our way back home to the airport.

Munnar.

Munnar was a contrasty destination in comparison to the backwaters and the beaches of Kerala’s coastal region. Munnar is a located in the mountainous area of Kerala. It looks very green and hilly and the temperatures tend to be much lower at night.

Our roadtrip to Munnar was quite an experience. In the end we can have a good laugh about it, however the behaviour of our driver was rather dangerous than hilarious. The taxi driver picked us up at 01:30 in front of the bamboo lagoon resort. We put our stuff in the trunk and our journey began. After a couple of minutes the cab was stopped by the local police. They asked where we were heading, as it wasn’t allowed to drive out because of the riots that would high-probably happen that day. We were allowed to move on.

On the road I noticed how the driving behaviour of our driver changed: accelerating, breaking, accelerating, breaking.. and it went on like this. I instantly knew he was too tired to hold the road. After having hit the sidewalk numerous times, the driver decided to have a break and sleep for 30 minutes. Later on he told us, that he hadn’t slept for almost 24 hours.

We arrived in Munnar just before 07:00am. We stayed at the “Kaivalyam Wellness Retreat” for one night only. Before checking in we didn’t know that the resort had a fully-packed schedule with activities for their guests: free yoga classes, free tea tasting, early morning visits of the tea plantations, and many many more. They even gave free cooking classes 3 times a week. Obviously the cooking classes didn’t take place when we were visiting… as for myself, I’m always missing the best parts while traveling. Bummer!

The Kaivalyam Retreat was most definitely a beautiful place. Surrounded by endless trees, different kind of plantations (black tea, cardomon), it felt so refreshing breathing in the mountain air with all those scents outside of your room.

After having checked in, being led to our room, taking a shower… we notice the beautiful tree houses outside of our window. The lovely owner of the hotel, was so kind to give us a kind of upgrade, and let us move into one of the few tree houses that were available. Spending the night in a tree house was already worth the 5 hours we drove in a taxi to reach Munnar.

We were looking forward to discover the mighty green hills that we found on Google. Sadly during our visit, most of the tuk-tuk drivers were off work, because of the on-going strike all across Kerala. So it wasn’t possible to get to those greeny landscapes, as they were located 15 kilometers away from our resort.

Nevertheless, we were enjoying our 30 hours in Munnar. The 07:00 am yoga class was fun. It was interesting to witness the indian point of view about yoga, its flow, and how they practice it. We were executing all the asanas on traditional matt, rather a rug, and it kinda felt like I was doing yoga for the first time.

This was pretty much our Kerala trip.

So during a whole week, 7 days, we managed to visit 4 different cities: Kovalam, Varkara, Alleppey and Munnar (and we made it back to Alleppey and Kovalam on our last 2 days). Obviously we couldn’t experience all the parts of that beautiful state. But we experienced enough, to agree that it’s worth doing the drip. The whole trip changed my view of India, as it wasn’t actually that fun the first time I visited the country.

If you’re a fan of Bali or Srilanka, you will love Kerala.

Namaste to all the lovely people that crossed our path on this trip, … we met too many lovely ones!

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Back to India: Kerala & Varanasi

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Most of my friends and relatives wouldn’t believe me, if I was telling them that I’d travel back to India.

In 2017 I visited a couple of cities in the northern part of the country: Delhi, Agrar, Varanasi, Vrindavan. Back then, I wouldn’t hold myself back shouting out loud my disappointment about India on social-media, as I remembered the wise words of a friend “you either love or hate India, there’s nothing in between”.

Follwing my India trip in 2017 I stood rather on the “hating” side, than among the appreciating crowds. However I had never argued about the fact that India’s culture had so much to offer: the mesmerizing colors, the scents of spices and flowers, the fascinating beliefs and rituals of the Hindu religion, the mouthwatering indian dishes… India has a lot to give, even though sometimes it can hit your nerves in the roughest way.

Reaching the last days of the year on December 2018, I headed back to India. How did this happen?

  1. After my exhausting trip in 2017, I told myself, I would never again travel through India by myself.

  2. And the second condition would be the southern part of the country. I would give India a second chance, while visiting the south, famous for its beaches, palm trees, and yoga retreats.

A quick stop in Delhi at the Humayun Tomb

A quick stop in Delhi at the Humayun Tomb

We decided to visit the state of Kerala on new years eve.

The fact that my girlfriend is a total Sri Lanka aficionada, I felt like adding Varanasi to our India trip. Kerala doesn’t look that much different than Sri Lanka. Adding some contrast to our trip would make our journey across India more interesting and versatile.


Varanasi.

Writing a second blog-post about Varanasi would be pointless, as I mostly visited the same spots and areas as I did in 2017. We booked our 2 nights at the lovely Ganpati Guesthouse, the same guesthouse that I stayed at on my first trip. The room was flawless (for Indian standards)!

On the first day we checked out the surrounding area of the guest house. The "burning ghat” was located very nearby. As the darkness kicked in, the scenes of the flames dancing over the dead bodies covered with piles of wood, was rather surreal. I knew that we weren’t allowed to take any photographs during the cremation of the deceased.

Sometimes you gotta act very naive or stupid, to get lucky with photographs.

As we were standing long enough at the bottom of the stairs, observing how the flames were decomposing the body, a family started asking where we were from. Obviously, like many indians do, one of them asked for a photograph with us. We agreed, and as a returning favor, I asked if I could take a couple of photos of the cremation. I respected the ritual in the deepest way, took out my camera and shot a couple of photos. I was kinda happy that I managed to get some descent snap of that holy place.

The next early morning we headed to “assi ghat” around 05:45 am, to watch the sun rise, surrounded by chantings, pranayama sessions (breathing yoga) and watching the locals go wild during their morning rituals.

2017 I was blown away by the beauty of the sunrise and the diversity of the morning sounds that came with it (chantings, loud breaths during pranayamas, the fire ceremony, Bon Iver playing on my Ipod). All of this together made it to an unforgettable experience, as it felt like being ejected backwards in time.

2018 things had changed. “Assi ghat” looked less crowded. A peer down the river had been installed. The thing that blew me away this time, was the delicious masala chai that was served close to the main square. It was the best chai I’d ever had. Still being very cautious about what I eat and drink while traveling across India, I couldn’t hold myself back and bought 3 chais that day. The lovely gentleman explained us how to do the “best chai” in his own proper way. Just because of Varanasi I finally know how to brew the “best” masala tea.

I also learned, that if you travel with the least expectations, you will enjoy your trip a lot more. I expected to be really annoyed by boats-men and local salesmen. They were less hard on tourist than my previous year. Eventhough Varanasi blew my mind the first time, I even enjoyed it more on my second visit.

We passed by the “Vishnu’s Tea Emporium” as I read on trip-advisor it would offer a unique tea experience. I had the typical tea-shop image on my mind, the tidy western shops, with all kind of teas and smells. As we walked by the “Emporium” we missed it twice as it just looked like a small, dirty and untidy living room. It didn’t look like a tea shop at all. Following the recommendation of a friend, we stepped into the shop, and a couple minutes later Vishnu welcomed us. We got our second introduction how to make proper Masala tea, starting with a plain tea sample and adding each ingredient (ginger, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon..) step-by-step. After our initial shock of the tidiness of the room, we appreciated how much love Vishnu put into his tea ceremony. We bought two tea bags and a masala-spice-mix to thank him for his time and service.

Varanasi is very picturesque old city that comes with “that special vibe”. You can feel the holy spirits within the city. You will see hundreds of very poor people, you will see too many smiles, you will hand out unlimited change and tips, some people will annoy you, others will make you happy with their grattitude, but in the end Varanasi will leave a unique memory within your heart.

During a tea-break we had a short conversation with an older british lady, she told us that she’d stay in Varanasi for 2 weeks. I asked her if she could recommend us some hidden gems of the city, however all we got was the answer I had expected. She told us, that she would spend most of the day along the ghats next to the Ganges River. It was my second time in the city, and all we did, was spending time on the river-walk. That must be the magic of Varanasi, being happy with almost nothing, just enjoying the views and having a masala chai.

While traveling as a couple, you will get used more easily to the poverty, the dirty streets, the endless honk sounds, after one day you will go with the flow, and witness the uniqueness of the probably oldest city on earth.



Kerala.

If you start talking about the south of india, about their beaches and yoga-beach-bums, Goa normally would pop up in most people’s heads. Kerala is just the state below Goa.

The main reasons we were visiting South-India, were the summer-ish weather, the local cuisine, and the glimpse at the indian culture. It could have either been Goa or Kerala. We opted for Kerala as it seemed less touristic than Goa. And we could get a change of scenery within hours.

Kovalam and Varkara are beach destinations, 150km further north you can explore the back-waters of Alleppey, from Alleppey heading north-east you’ll reach the greenish hills and mountains of Munnar. All this sounded very convenient for a 10-day trip through India.

I decided to write a seperate blog-post about the single stops on our journey through Kerala. Writing down our experiences in Varanasi took more lines that I expected.

Briefly I can summarize Kerala as a wonderful experience, as my expectations of India were very low. After bumping into too many rude and unwelcoming indian people in the north, I witnessed how lovely the indian people can be in the south of India. During our 10 days we didn’t experience one single unpleasant moment while interacting with numerous locals.

The local people we bumped into, were very friendly, welcoming, generous and helpful. Especially taxi-drivers were super friendly. Their job wasn’t the easiest, as traffic in india can be a severe pain in the ass. Some of the drivers had to drive 5 hours straight to drop us at our next destination. The drives were chaotic, the cab-driver had to stay attentive during those 5 hours. And the maximum we paid for 4 to 5 hours rides was 4500 indian rupees {50 euros/dollars}. We decided the use taxis to move inside the state of Kerala. Besides doing shorter trips with a rental scooter, taxis would be the quickest way of transportation and we wouldn’t lose much time during our 8 days in the south.

Obviously bus and train rides would have been cheaper and would have offered much more of a backpacker-feel, however some trains only leave once a day (early in the morning) and the rides would take up to 9 hours. As we wanted to visit 4-5 different areas within 8 days, taxis with a driver, was the optimal choice.

Prior our departure, I was convinced that we’d rent a car and do a roadtrip on our own across Kerala. I knew that traffic could be very harsh in Delhi and Mumbai. I didn’t expect this to be the case in Kerala. The main roads weren’t as congested as in the north, however the streets in Kerala were at some points very narrow. While driving around on our rental-scooter, we had to swerve buses driving on our lane towards the oppostive driving direction. Animals and peoples were sharing the road with us. Long story cut short, driving in india is very adventerous and be quite dangerous sometimes.

As we reached the middle of our trip, we were involved in an accident. That moment I thought that we would get in serious trouble, because it actually was our fault, that someone got injured. Surprisingly the police officers that showed up didn’t even ask for our passports. The locals surrounding the spot of the accident almost ignored us. Without any hesitation we paid cash for the damage we caused, and the taxi driver moved on and dropped us in Alleppey.

In Trivandrum we met up my friend Vinoy’s family. They picked us up and dropped us at the airport, they invited us to their house were we got cooked a delicious indian dinner. The whole family was very welcoming. We even got presents after leaving their house.

During our whole stay in Kerala we felt like - King & Queen. The hospitality of the locals was out of this world.











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From Taipei to Keelung

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Taiwan isn’t the usual destination that you’d go for while planning to visit Asia. Most people would choose Thailand, Japan or Vietnam over Taiwan in a heartbeat. However choosing the perfect summer holidays during the months of July & August isn’t the easiest part, because most asian countries are hit by the summer monsoons.

Thailand and Bali are well known for their rain-season during the european summer months.

While circling around the asian continent on a world-map with my finger, the tip of my index, landed on Taiwan. Two of my friends used to live in Taiwan, that’s why I only heard good things about the country. But I aslo gotta admit that I barely didn’t know anything about Taiwan, except for the city-name of Taipei and its skyscraper the “Taipei 101” building.

After finding out that there are several national parks spread all over the country and that there’s a pretty coast called Kenting which is also know for its surfing spots, Taiwan sounded very inviting.

And chances of getting wet was less probably compared to other popular asian countries.


Taipei.

When I heard Taipei, I thought Hong-Kong. From several photos and videos that I’ve seen form the capital of Taiwan, it pretty much reminded me of the fascinating city of Hong-Kong. Hell, I was wrong.

In my opinion both cities are totally different.

Hong-Kong is such a photogenic city, that you will get endless opportunities to take beautiful shots with your camera or phone. You can hop from cabs to subways and land on a boat and just cross the river within a couple of minutes. Hong-Kong has a bustling nightlife. Get on a funicular and make it to Lantau Island. Temples, skyscrapers… HK got it all.

After my first two days in Taipei I still couldn’t feel the vibe of the capital. There were a couple of dull temples spread all over the different areas of the city. Blocks that were packed with shopping malls, the 101-Skyscraper that you could stare at from further distances. The shopping streets were very busy from the early after-noon until the late evening. Streetfood-markets are very popular, you’ll find quite a few and get all kind of dishes that costs about a dollar or a euro.

At the food markets we only bumped into locals. The pannels were written in chinese and it was pretty hard to figure out what we were eating, as many of the taiwanese people don’t speak a word of english.

Even though the streetfood wasn’t the best one, the foodstalls weren’t the cleanest, I still enjoyed watching people strolling over the market and observing the “chefs” preparing their food.

To be honest, there wasn’t one single tourist attractioni in the city that I really enjoyed. Good nightlife spots were very hard to find, as the popular bars are spread widely appart. So you always gotta use a taxi or public transportation to make it to a busy bar or club. We spent two nights at the gay-district as it was easy to spot and you could buy an “all-you-can-drink” ticket for 15 bucks.

While staying in Taipei we drove to several parcs and suburbs with a rental-scooter. The rides were fun, but the trips weren’t really worth it. Especially after having visited amazing cities likes Osaka, Tokyo, Hanoi, HK, Bangkok…

We were often asked by taiwanese people “why are you vistigin our country?”. I seemed like the locals weren’t used to see a lot of tourists in their city. On our last day in Taipei we crossed a very laid back, but huge american guy, he stared at us, raised his hand, put a smile on his face and yelled at us “hello white people!”. That was pretty funny, because we realized that he was actually right. During our 10 days in Taiwan we met less than a handful caucasians.

Keelung.

Keelung is a city closer to the northern coast of Taiwan. It took us a little more than an hour to reach Keelung by train from Taipei Mainstation. After getting off at the final stop, Keelung instantly felt different than the capital. There weren’t any skyscrapers, no fancing shopping malls, it all looked more laid back.

Obviously the city center looked more “taiwanese” than the capital. Right in the heart of Keelung, there was a harbor, a canal with many bridges and the famous Keelung street market. At first sight I was more attracted and impressed by Keelung than Taipei.

As we planned to spend 5-6 nights in Keelung, quickly it turned out as a bad idea. There was even less going on at night than in Taipei. Keelung definitely beats Taipei with its beautiful coast, and its scenic road that surrounds the northern tip of the island.

You easily could do a couple of daytrips from Keelung. We rented an electric scooter and visited Shifen and Jiufen.

Shifen is a tiny village, located south-east of Keelung. It takes about 40 minutes to reach it by scooter. The special spot that makes Shifen pretty popular among tourists is its “Shifen Old Street”. A tiny alley, reserved for pedestrians, on which a railway-road passes straight through it. As soon as the train passes, tourists jump on the rails, trying to release their sky lantern.

Visitors can buy a blank lantern for 5-10 euro/usd. They will write or paint their wish onto the 4 blank sides of the lantern. The vendor will put a gasoline-soaked cloth on the inside of the lantern, lit it on, and with a light handpush, the landern will fly towards the sky. It actually was a lovely place watching all the lantern flying high.

You could see it as a cheap way to make good money. However, as for myself, it was the first time that I had the opportunity to release a lantern. Not far away from “Old Street” there was a hanging-bridge and cute little train-station.

While being in Shifen, get back on the scooter and visit the Shifen waterfalls. Nothing impressive, however as there’s not that much to do in the area, it’s worth the trip.

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Jiufen is another village, located in the mountains, not too far away from Keelung. You might have seen beautiful nightshots on Instagram with uncountable red lanterns, that photo was high-probably taken in Jiufen. Depending on the weather you can get a jaw-dropping scenic view of the northern coast from the outskirt of the village. We visited Juifen twice, once at night, and once during the rain. It was hard to get descent photos of the views that the vista-point had to offer.

The most famous part of Jiufen definitely is the covered streetmarket, seperated on different levels. Upstairs, downstairs, all the alleys lead to food, drinks, tea- & souvenirshops. The place is crammed with visitors. Hard to guess if it’s a tourist-trap or an authentic market, as we were the only white folks among the crowds.

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Considering the food, both of us got tired of the street food. After a couple of days we got bored and slightly disgusted by the smell of greasy food, seeing living frogs in a glass-jar waiting to get thrown onto the grill, the scents of stinky tofu. It was fun on the first day, after having bought some fresh fruits, followed by local fruit-juices and a big bowl of fatty noodle soup. You will find a couple of indoor food-courts that will serve all kind of asian foods, from thai to japanese dishes, and that was where we mostly had lunch. Foodwise, in my opinion, it was the least pleaseant food I had in all Asia, even though I can’t argue that we had good foos as well, like an amazing shrimp ramen at night, or my favorite nut-pastry in the morning.

Another cool thing that we discovered in Taiwai, was the electric rental-scooter from the company “Gogo Ro”. In Keelung barely nobody would offer the usual scooters for rental. The easiest way to move around the Island, was the Gogoro electro-scooter. The bike was packed with 2 removable batteries, that lasted around 60-80 km. As soon as you reached 40% of battery-power, it was about time to open google-maps and look for the closes battery-charging-station. Some of the gas-stations were equipped with those power-stations, where you’d stop by, remove both batteries from the scooter, and put them into a big white wall. The station would “spit out” two batteries that were fully loaded. The good thing about that, you wouldn’t have to pay for gas, as the batterie-exchange came without further costs. The electro-bike was way faster than a gasoline scooter. However the unpleasant part was, that you could drive up to 90minutes - 100 minutes, and then you’d have to ride your bike towards the closest gas station.



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Bali ~ Ubud, Uluwatu, Canggu

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So after having spent 10 fabulous nights in Thailand, I had to choose my next destination for my pre-summer trip in june. I was pretty sure that it had to be Asia, as I just came back from a very satisfying visit in Bangkok & Chiangmai.

It was about time to break my solo-traveling routine, because a good friend was about to join me. So after a few seconds of brain-storming we came up with Japan, Bali or Thailand.

Since my plan was learning how to surf in 2018, we shared the same thought that taking a first surfing class as a 35 and a 39 year old young man, would be a pretty cool experience. Surfboards, cafe racers, beaches and jungles... we opted for Bali. And besides all that I would celebrate my 36th birthday on the island. It all sounded like a lot of fun.

Sadly two weeks prior my departure my good friend had a motorbike accident and got badly injured with a broken foot. This meant that I had to travel on my own. Back then I couldn't tell why, but I really wasn't in the mood for visiting Bali all by myself. Maybe because we know Bali from dreamy photos on Instagram, where you get to see endless photos of couples, engagements, weddings, ... It all sounded like "noooooope. this is a lovers' destination".

Ubud.

I started my trip in Ubud. I was told that Ubud would be super touristic and packed with Yoga people. Actually I do love yoga, but I can imagine, being surrounded by gurus and spiritual nerds, that this could become pretty annoying. I booked a bed at the "Pillow Hostel", because their rooms looked pretty descent, and they offered free yoga classes in the early morning. Sounded pretty ok! However because of the daily rain showers the yoga classes didn't take place on the open-air rooftop.

I knew about the rain-season before traveling to Bali. So I wasn't disappointed about the rainfall, mostly during the night, and couple of hours during daytime. Luckily there were some days without rain as well.

What to do in Ubud? Well I won't list any super fancy touristic spots, that I would highly recommend, or any must-try restaurants. All I can tell, go rent a scooter! You will definitely not enjoy Ubud without a scooter, if you're not doing any yoga-esque activities. There's a daily market in the very center of Ubud. The streets are packed with shops, the restaurants are filled with tourists. You hardly won't meet any local people on a night out.

I really wasn't keen about renting a scooter, in a country, where people drive on the left side of the road. I haven't been riding a motorbike for too many years. Then came the slippery roads because of the rain... So many reasons why I wouldn't rent a scooter. I overcame my doubts and went for it... I rented a scooter for a day. From that point I knew I would rent a scooter any time again.

I discovered so many cool spots around Ubud and I met local people. Locals let me join a very religious ceremony in a hindu temple. They first denied when I asked if they would let me in. As I told them that would carry a long-sleeve shirt and a sarong (a traditional skirt for men) in my bag. They were so surprised about that, that they let me check out the temple.

I met several groups of kids, who were trying to bring up their giant homemade-kite in the sky. They told me that this would be a balinese tradition, and later on my trip I noticed several spots where the sky was packed with colorful gigantic kites. Beautiful!

I visited the holy bathing temple called "Tirta Empul". Everybody knows the temple from the photos. Before going to Bali, I knew that I would find this bathing temple on the island. However I didn't know that all the people I had seen on the photos, taking a shower under the several fountains, were tourists. If Balinese people jump into the bathing pool to get under the fountain, they do it in the early morning around 5 am (05:00). So expect to bump into a lot of tourists while visiting the temple.

The "Pelingghi Meru", a pagoda-like structured temple, is another eye-catcher you will find on many photos. It took me almost 2 hours to reach the temple by scooter from Ubud. But I really wanted to visit that place. As I arrived in front of the pagoda I was surprised how small it was. It looked very tiny. And again packed with too many tourists.

I always enjoyed the scooter-rides through the suburbs of Ubud. Lots of nature: rice-fields, palmtrees, lakes, beautiful sunsets. So many spots to take a lot of beautiful photos.

Have a couple of stops at the coffee-shops on the side of the road and you will be surprised how many lovely conversations you will get with balinese locals.

The "Tegallalang Rice Terrace" is definitely a must-see. You can easily spend 1-2 hours on the rice fields, take many beautiful photos, enjoy a coffee, and get an instragram-cliche-shot one of the many giant-swings located around the ricefields.

Even though I didn't like the center of Ubud, because of the tourists, I gotta admit that Ubud was my favorite city among Uluwatu and Canggu.

With a scooter you can visit endless waterfalls which are located pretty close around Ubud. There's so much to do, even though you won't get that impression of Ubud at first sight.

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Uluwatu.

Well I decided to have a stop at Uluwatu for 2 nights because it's supposed to have the cleanest surf beaches of Bali. Uluwatu is well known for its huge waves on the shores, which brings fabulous surf spots with it. All this sounded like a cool place to hang out. Every monday night there's a huge party at "Single Fin's". It's pretty packed and a great time is almost guaranteed.

However no one tells you, that Single Fin is located on a private ground, where you gotta pay a fee to drive in with a car or on a scooter. Expect, once again, only tourists among the crowd, as balinese people can hardly afford a beer in that kind of restaurant/bar.

I wasn't in a party mood on that monday night, so I didn't make it to the party. I visited the restaurant on the following day, and all I found out, was that I didn't like the place. The cheapeast gin&tonic was actually pretty expensive for a longdrink in Bali. However you can enjoy a pretty descent view towards the sea and watch people surfing. If this is what's you looking for, nice view, fast food and watery drinks, go for it!

I stayed in the very center of Uluwatu where there was barely nothing that would a attract a 36 year old guy on a scooter. Laid back restaurants, street food stalls, hundreds of supermarkets and clothing stores, and some surfboard-rentals.

To get to the closest beach it took me about 10-15 minutes on a scooter. It was called "DREAMBEACH", and it was actually a pretty nice beach compared to the rest of the beaches that I had explored in Bali. However you had to pass two security check-points, and at the end of the ride, you had to pay parking fee to park your scooter.

Uluwatu was the first place, where I booked my first surfing classes ever. In my opinion the waves seemed to be huge, and as a newbie, they seemed very scary. I only surfed for about 90 minutes instead of two hours, because my arms couldn't manage the paddling anymore against those monster waves. And I wasn't too keen about the surf trainer either. But I was glad that I took the classes, as it took some courage from my side, to get into the water for the first time with a board.

In Uluwato you get the chance the visit the "Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park". It's actually very touristic but I had the possibility to witness one of the biggest statues I'd ever seen. Would I call it a must-see, definitely not, however if you gotta kill some time in Uluwato, the park is definitely worth it to spend an hour or two at.

Before I forget about it... there's a popular Hindu Temple in Uluwato, everybody knows about it, everybody wants to visit it. Go for it!

Canggu.

Canggu is supposed to be the hipster hang-out spot of the whole Island, and it definitely was the case. "Pretty Poison" offers you crowded nights on tuesdays and thursdays, big crowds hanging around the skate-bowl and cheering up the skaters. Their menu offer 4 different descent cocktails and a couple of beer brands. Hip people, trashy rock music, skaters everywhere, pretty girls... you get the vibe, it feels like Venice Beach! The first night I went to Pretty Poison, there was a concert inside the venue. Actually it was a very sweet rock band, which I'd rather watch play, than watching topless skater dudes in the bowl.

I loved the quote above the bar "Someone told me there's a girl out there with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair".

Cafe-Racer fans definitely know the brand "DEUS EX". It's a pretty chill hang-out spot (bar & restaurant) where you can witness the coolest bikes and the coolest custom-made surf boards on the island. They have a "DeusEx" shop where you can spend some money on clothes and other stuff. I went there on daily basis to have lunch. The food was flawless, for a reasonable price. I loved their polenta fries and falafel salad. The music at the restaurant and the indoor design was a plus!

I took another 2 surf classes in Canggu, and I had the pleasure to meet a much nicer surf trainer. The beach wasn't as nice in Canggu, as it was in Uluwatu, however I enjoy the surfing sessions a lot more, because the waves weren't as huge as in the south.

Besides the hip rock bars and hip surf shops, there were so many things that bothered me in canggu. The main reason was the huge amount of tourists, australian tourists. Every bar, restaurant, club, beach spot was packed with tourists. There wasn't a place where I would bump into local people in the center of Canggu. The only locals that I met was at the local tattoo shop "Bold & Bright Tattoo", where I got tattooed. I loved the tattoo artists, they were very welcoming. And I turned back home, truely satisfied about my traditional old-school dagger tattoo. The price was totally a bargain compared to the money you gotta in Europe or the USA for a descent tattoo.

To be honest, I didn't like Canggu at all ! On Instagram everything looks so hip, fancy, and photogenic, but it real life it definitely wasn't. And all those thousands of tourists killed the vibe of the city. I was actually happy to get back home, after my iphone got stole a scooter drive-by while I was walking back home on my birthday night. Happy Birthday Frank!

 

If I ever should get back to Bali, I'd definitely spend more time in the north of the island, where you won't bump into as many tourists as in Kuta, Seminyak and Canggu.

Be cautious about your belongings at night. The guys from my hostels told me that I was the 3rd victim within a month, who got robbed by dimwits on a scooter.

Bold & Bright Tattoo.

As I just mentioned, my iphone got stole on my birthday night, as I was walking home in a very lonsome way... drunk & texting through a shortcut that all the scooters use to get quicker around the city center. While I was busy texting with my friend, as there was no one to celebrate with, a scooter approached me and grabbed my phone out of my hand. The driver just blasted away at full speed, impossible to run after him.

I felt devastated... aallll my photos from Bali were gone, my videos, my contacts, my text messages. And of course I had to spend a shitload of money to buy a new phone. Besides the stole phone, I had planned to get two tattoos at "Bold & Bright". Their prices were pretty much affordable compared to european or US tattoo rates. However knowing that I had to spend the money on a new phone once I'd be back home, I decided to cancel my appointments. 

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Ocen, the tattoo artist, was the nicest person I crossed path with in Canggu. There was no problem with canceling the appointment, even though he told me he could lower the price if I still wanted to get tattooed. 

The next day after waking up I decided to call Ocen, and get one tattoo done. Despite low expectation, or maybe high expectation in some points, Bali had a kind of "wow-effect". It was the first time I ever felt the island vibe on a trip, because I was used to experience the big city life while traveling. It was the first time as well, where I jumped on a surf board, and for a long time I knew somebody would be waiting for me when I get back home. So I decided to bring a lasting souvenir back to Luxembourg. Ocen was very welcoming on the day I had my appointment. He showed a lot a patience and he asked funny questions when I told him he should add a special letter to the tattoo. We talked about tattooing & music (his favorite band was Alkaline Trio), while Matt Skiba's solo record was playing in the background. 

I turned back home totally satisfied with my fresh tattoo, that cost me around 200$. 

I loved their wifi-code "bolderthanyours". 

 

 

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4 Nights in Bangkok.

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It took me too many years to visit beautiful Thailand. Years ago Thailand used to be one of the most popular tourist destinations. This kept me from visiting Thailand. Nowadays it's gotta be Bali... everybody wants to visit Bali. So I thought: this gotta be it! Now is the right time to give that asian country a try. All I can tell after these few lines, Thailand hit me unlike any other travel-destination. I'm already planning to get back this year, for a second time.

Way too many people told me to skip or avoid the capital Bangkok. After all the photos i've checked out on google, the reviews and stories I read about Bangkok, I was so convinced that I would enjoy the busiest city of Thailand. 

One of the main reasons why my few days in Bangkok were worthwhile, had probably to do with the lovely human encounters I experienced. It all started with a simple thank you at the airport. This might sound pretty goofy, but I think the way thai-people are thanking you, with folding both hands together and rising them upfront to the face, is just the most sincere way for showing your gratitude.  After visiting quite a few asian countries, this was the first thing that I noticed at the airport: "Khob Khun Krup" (thank you for men). My first thought "ok, cool, that's a thai-thing".

Of course the taxi ride, struck my mind as well. It took me almost an hour to get to my hostel, because traffic is usually very busy in Bangkok. With a pretty good tip, the cab-ride cost me less than 10$/€. 

After checking in at the hostel, I noticed that all the guests had to take off their shoes, before entering the main areas of the hostels (bathroom, kitchen, garden, dorms...). It definitely felt like far away from home. 

I stayed 4 nights in Bangkok, and all I've seen was the main area, the pretty much touristic center surrounded by temples. Of course you do have many small alleys, where all the local people live or hang out. However I didn't manage to make it to the skyscraper area on the east side, or to the north the more rural area. 

Temples, temples ... and even more temples. It was obvious, like in Korea, Japan, Hong-Kong... I would do many temples, and after a while I would be bored by temples. The high & colorful "prangs" which are the most eye-catching parts of the temple, were pretty much fascinating. "WAT ARUN" and "WAT PHO" were the ones I enjoyed the most. While riding a tuc-tuc across the city, you will notice those diverse temples along the road. There are just too many temples in the city. 

Just a quick reminder! Taxis are way cheaper than tuc-tucs, because they're using the taxi meter. I wouldn't bargain or set a fix price, because the cabs in Bangkok are dirty cheap! Tuc-tuc driver don't even bother for the low-price rides, they'll just send you to the next driver.

The Grand Palace was definitely a very beautiful tourist attraction! The colors, the architecture, too much gold glitter, walls filled with precious stones, ... it's worth the visit! However the place was so crowded that I just left my camera in my bag, you couldn't get a descent shot of the place. And it was the only temple/building where I wouldn't get in with shorts. They're renting pants or you just can a buy cute elephant pants as a souvenir.

The "Golden Mountain" temple is worth checking out as well ! As you will have to climb up too many stairs, however at the end you will be rewarded with a beautiful view all over Bangkok.

Is there anything to do besides temple-hopping?

I was really looking forward for the floating market. The old ladies on their boats, the scents, the colors, the water... all that would have made a lovely photo shooting. However I was told that the floating market take place on weekends. The best ones would be outside of the city, approximately one hour driving. 

Chatuchak is the biggest weekend market in the city. I was visiting Chatuchak in the very early evening on a sunday, when some of the stalls were already closing. It's mostly about food & fashion. Sounds boring huh? Trust me it's very hip! I bought around 7 shirts & t-shirts. Most of them were around 2-7$ a piece. I really loved the design, you could sell them easily in Europe for triple the price. They had all kind of street food you could expect. I spent an hour at the market, and I enjoyed it a lot. I'd definitely go back on my next trip to Bangkok.

Very nearby was the "Camp - Vintage Market". That one was the cherry on top! Such a cool and hip place right in the center of Bangkok. I'd never expected to discover London's "Camden Town" in Thailand. Old trailers as coffee-bars, vintage cars with surfboards on it, cafe-racer shops, super trendy clothing stores. There was a live band playing soul-music. It was very beautiful place, less crowded and definitely more classy then London's twin-market.

Khao San Road.

Hate it or love... ? Ok, nope, you won't love the place, but you will definitely enjoy the place. "Khao San Road", also know as the "backpacker street", is the main party road in Bangkok. Why "backpacker street"? Well I have no clue, but I guess, because all the people look like surfers or backpackers. No fancy clothes... flip-flops, shorts, tanktops, that's all you see on Khao-San. 

I visited Khao San Road on my first night. And I did expected the worst! While walking through the party-mile totally sober, my first thought was to leave that place.  I reached the end of the road and fled towards the "Soi Ram Buttri", which is located only a couple of footsteps away. "Soi Ram Buttri" is the total opposite of Khao-San. It still feels backpacker-like, but it's a very quite street. The same alley will lead you to the main-road where you will find quite a few music bars. I went to "JAZZ HAPPENS". It was tiny charming jazz bar. The perfect spot to start the evening. I was the only caucasian at the bar, and I found it very welcoming that the band was switching from thai to english just because of me. Gotta love thai-people!

 After some greasy finger-food, and a couple of gin&tonics, I felt ready to get back to Khao-San road. I stepped inside a bar that had a japanese name. And that was the place where the madness instantly kicked in. The topless male bartender greeted me, asked my name, and gave me a free shot. The thai people next to me at the bar, didn't take long to start a conversation with me. I paid a shot, they paid a shot, the bartender gave another shot for free... After way too many drinks, I left the bar with a thai dude, and we headed to the nearest streetfood-grill. That's where I made new friends again... short after that I woke up in my hostel bed the day after. I had a hard time remembering how I got home.

The next evening I walked back to Khao San Road, because it was the closest place to my hostel, where life was happening at full speed. I passed by a group of thais who started smiling at me, a couple of girls and one guy. As I felt kind of not-ready, no drinks yet, I smiled back and moved on towards the end of the street. One of the girls started running after me, and said "Hey Frank!". I  asked her how she would know my name, and then she started laughing "You don't remember us ???". I gently replied with a "nooooope". I joined the group of people and got to know my thai friends for the second time within 24 hours. 

So if I gotta summarize my last paragraphs, give Khao San a chance. Even though you might bump into tons of rubbish people, i'm pretty sure everybody can have a blast, or at least a fun  night, in that street.

3 guys & 2 girls.

3 guys & 2 girls.

Canal Boat Ride.

If you wanna get away from the bustling city center, you can jump on a boat and get ride through the canals and along the river. It's not gonna be a beautiful boattrip! The water is pretty dirty, you will see a lot of wooden cabins, worn down houses of the locals, too many tourist boats crossing yours, and of course the floating market rip-off. One single person on a boat, approaching you to buy a souvenir or a beer for the boat-driver, is considered a "floating market". 

It's definitely not a must-do attraction. However I was glad I bought a ticket for the boat tour. I had a whole boat for myself. I managed to get a couple of descent shots on my camera, and you discover Bangkok from a different angle. After all, that wasn't how I expected Bangkok. Never thought I would ride a boat through several canals for almost an hour.

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Obviously I was checking out Bangkok at a slower pace this time. There's still so much left to discover. All I can tell, I wasn't disappointed at all !

I got to know quite a few lovely people in Bangkok. They told me that Thai people don't eat with chopstick except for the pad-thai dish, they introduced me to sticky-rice and to laughing gas.. so many unimportant things, that I still found it very interesting. And the thai people just loved my most stupid questions about Thailand, which seemed so obvious to them.

I will write a seperate post about the second city I visited in Thailand, Chiangmai! 

Chiangmai, was different, maybe better, but Bangkok was afterall a joy-ride.

 

 

 

Shalom Tel Aviv.

In the daily news you hear a lot about Israel, mostly about the not-so-enjoyable things that happen in their country or on the borderline with their neighbor territories. However despite the headline-stories about war scenes, rocket alerts from Gaza or the recent knife attacks from Jerusalem, I was always intrigued by Israel, even though I absolutely didn't know anything about the country. 

An israeli friend from Germany told me about the "Purim" holiday that takes place between the months of February and March every year. You can compare it to the carnival from Germany, where people get dressed up in costumes and go out partying in the streets. Even the religious citizen are allowed to get totally drunk during Purim. It's supposed to be the most funny and exciting holiday of the year. 

To me, this sounded like the perfect time to visit Israel. I do love the nightlife when traveling, and I love meeting new people who can update my knowledge about their country's culture. 

Just for your information, most European citizen don't need to apply for a visa. And you don't get to fill out any papers on board. Just pass the passport-control, where you will be asked a couple of questions and that's it "Welcome to Israel". 

I remember that the people inside the airport and at the train-station were very very welcoming, and helpful to get me on the right train. When I was about to get out at the  "HaHagana" train station. I noticed the luggage scanner &metal detector at the entrance of pretty small train-station. Outside one single person was guarding the entrance, while holding an automatic rifle. I figured out that the Israelis take their daily safety-precautions seriously.

Tel Aviv.

Prior my trip to Israel, I decided to book 5 nights in Tel Aviv, and then moving on to Jerusalem for 2 more nights. Knowing that "Purim" was taking place, having been informed about "Shabbat" (the 7th holy day, where public transportation isn't available), I decided not to rush. However in my upcoming post about Jerusalem I will tell you, why it was a rather bad decision to spend more time in Tel Aviv than any other israeli cities. 

Tel Aviv is supposed to be very famous for its liberal vibe, fantastic nightlife and apparently it has a worldwide positive reputation in the gay-scene. 

I don't want to consider Tel Aviv straight up as an unattractive city. However in my own personal oppinion, there's not much to do in the city. As a travel-photographer I do love to take photos that shows the very unique culture of a country. I wanna take portaits of local people, of food, of  eye-opening architecture. So that I can bring up the special vibe & flair of the place i'm visiting. The vibe of Tel Aviv was definitely not easy to capture on photos or videos. 

The shore of the city was definitely one of the attractive spots of Tel Aviv. Just along the beach-walk you would bump into all kind of people: tourists, sporty locals, fishermen, surfers & the older generation chit-chatting on a bench. Walking the beach-walk up north will lead you to a boring lighthouse. Walking south-wards will lead you to Jaffa, the muslim Oldtown of Tel Aviv. 

I really liked spending time in Jaffa, it's a rather small neighborhood. The Old Town definitely differs from the rest of Tel Aviv's architecture. You can notice its muslim influence. Walking away from the coast will bring you the flea-market. It's rather a mix of flea-shops and flea-stalls. 

Vegetarian foodporn in Israel.

Just next to it, you will have an endless selection of restaurants and bars. Both really look very inviting with lots of colors. However during "Purim" only a very few ones were very busy in the evening. I can't complain about the food, every single food I had in Israel was super delicious. By the way, just in case you wouldn't know (I didn't): Israel is supposed to be the "mecca of veganism". Israel's people (the jews & muslims) do cook a lot of vegan dishes.

SAROMA MARKET was one of the few fancy places I discovered in the city. The indoor-foodcourt offered every kind of food, from morrocan pitas, to sushi, to italian pasta. I loved the colors and the touch of industrial-vintage-modern design of the market. Right outside of the foodcourt is an outdoor shopping area, it's a mix of parks, playground and fashion shops. SAROMA was a pretty area compared to the worn down houses of the Florentin neighborhood that I passed through every day. 

 

BEST RAMEN OUTSIDE OF JAPAN. I love ramen, I tried so many ramen soups, when traveling I love discovering new ramen places, it's all about ramen. All I can tell is that I had a WONDERFUL ramen at the ramen-shop right next to my hotel "Hiro Ramen Bar by Aharoni". Yisrael Aharoni is an israeli celebrity chef. There are two of Aharoni's ramen restaurants in Tel Aviv. Don't miss the opportunity to get some mouth-watering japanese dishes. I tried'em all, from salads, to gyozas, to japanese-oriented cocktails. I spent 5 nights in Tel-Aviv, which means I had 5 ramen in total at Aharoni's place! 

Nightlife.

What really surprised me, was the fact that everything is pretty expensive in Israel. Restaurants aren't cheap, booze ain't cheap at all, which means the israeli nightlife experience can have a heavy  toll on your wallet. I spent my holidays in the well-known hostel "Abraham Hostel" in Tel Aviv. Even at the hostel's bar you would easily pay 7-8 €/$ for a glass of wine, Gin&Tonic were about 10 €/$ for the cheap-brand-cocktail. 

Despite the expensive little-pleasures-of-life the city offers a great nightlife all over the week. I can't tell if it might have been because of Purim, but any day of the week, most of the bars we visited were totally packed. I will list you a few to check-out, some that are pretty popular in Tel Aviv:

  • KULI ALMA.

Kuli alma is a very arty cafe/club, colorful walls, stickers and posters all over the place. The crowd is pretty hip, and they still offer fair prices on drinks. The music varies from electronic to hiphop. Definitely a place to stop by for a drink while doing a pub crawl with friends across the city.

 

  • BUXA.

Buxa a small bar/club in a  basement, which got a special vibe. We had a hell of a night during Purim. The tiny size of the club makes it pretty easy to bump into people and start a chit-chat. It's right on Rothschild avenue.

 

  • RADIO EPGB

Radio is another basement bar. We were there for a hiphop night, great music & lovely outgoing people. I really loved the place. The dimmed lights in the club and people dancing all over the bar gave this place a really welcoming vibe. Loved it! 

 

  • JIMMY WHO

Many israelis told me that JIMMY WHO wouldn't be a cool place at all. I was visiting JIMMY WHO on a wednesday, it was my last night in Israel. I LOVED it. Around 22:00 (10pm) they had a funky live band playing pop & soul music. After the show the DJ played some dance music... the whole bar packed with people and too many pretty women. I was doing a pub crawl with the hostel, and was disappointed that we left too early for the next bar. The only negative part were the prices, we paid almost 20$/€ for 2 shots of Vodka. Definitely not the place where you wanna get wasted.

 

Summertime in Winter.

Even though I didn't enjoy the city that much. I would give it another try though and turn back during the winter season. The weather was lovely every single day, t-shirt weather in the afternoon, sweater temperatures in the evening. 

The food discoveries were definitely my highlight in Tel Aviv. Go for Falafels, Tahini, Shakshuka, ... you will never get tired of the mediterranean/arabic food culture. I loved "SABICH" pitas, it's a grilled pita bread filled with eggplant, tahini, hummus, 2 hardboiled eggs and a diversity of prickles. Yum! Their pastries, a fest! 

I stayed at the Abraham Hostel in Tel Aviv, and the one located in Jerusalem. Abraham-hostel offers their own tour-service called "Abraham Tours", where you can book pretty interesting and affordable day trips or city-activities. One of the cool features, was the shuttle from Tel Aviv's hostel to the Jerusalem hostel. No need to get your luggage to the next bus-stop or train station. 

I will post a more in-depth review about the hostel and my booked Abraham-tour in a couple of days.

Jerusalem was definitely on the winning side of my trip. Keep your eyes open for my next post about the capital of Israel. 

 

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Osaka never disappoints

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In May 2017 I visited Osaka for a third time, and it definitely wasn't the last time. After visiting Tokyo twice, and Osaka twice as well (prior the recent trip), it was obvious that I was rather the Osaka-kind-of-person. This time I wasn't walking around all day with a camera in my hand. I enjoyed my little moments in the city, observing people, having coffee, eating street-food, and meeting up with old and new friends at night.

My recent trip to Osaka wasn't meant to bring back home the best photos or videos, to convince my friends and blog followers how awesome the city is. People who have been following my posts on this blog or on Instagram, should know by now that I'm a big fan of Japan. 

After being around most corners of Osaka, there wasn't much left to discover, however I never felt bored while walking through the streets of Namba. Let's start with the coffee places.

This was the first time, where I was hunting for good and hip coffee places.

The best coffee bars I visited were located in Amerika-mura (american-village). As you can figure out by the name, the neighborhood is heavily influenced by the western world. It's packed with western clothing brands, american bars, but the hippest coffee spots as well. My favorite bar was "LiLo Coffee Roasters" because of it's interior design; the staff was very fluent in english, and they had too many coffee-accessories for sale. Right next to Lilo's place, was another awesome coffee bar called "Streamer Coffee Company". At first sight from the outside I thought it would be a skateshop pimped up with a coffee-corner. I gotta admit that Streamer actually had the best coffee I tried in Osaka. It's not as cozy as Lilo's corner, but it's definitely worth a try.

Arashiyama

What would a trip to Osaka be without witnessing the beauty of Arashiyama? Arashiyama is well known for its spectacular bamboo forest. The bamboo forest actually doesn't take that much time to visit, think about 15-25 minutes. It's always hard to get a descent photoshot of the path leading through the forest, because there are just way too many visitors, any time of the day. However Arashiyama is always on my list, when visiting the Kansei region. I just love the whole vibe of the village: mountains, rivers, cute little shops, food stalls, japanese people dressed up in kimonos.

For the first time, I decided to visit the monkey forest. You gotta walk up a very steep hill for about 25 minutes, til you reach the top of the monkey place. You'll get a beautiful view all over Arashiyama and Kyoto. You'll get the chance to feed the monkeys, who'll be eating out of your hands. The coolest thing was that the visitors will walk into a cabin, that feels more like a cage, and you'll be feeding the monkey from the inside through the fences of the cabin. So it doesn't feel like a zoo, where animals are captivated for the visitor's pleasure. The monkeys are jumping and climbing freely around the cabin. Those monkey hands felt like baby hands grabbing for food, it definitely was worth the way up to the mountain.

If you're looking for the "kawaii" (which means cute in japanese) side of Japan, you should stop by at the Katsuoji Temple. I heard stories about it many times, but never made it to the very north of Osaka, because it takes about 90 minutes to get there. You gotta use two different trains which will lead you to the Senri-Chuo station. Outside of Senri-Chuo station you will have to catch a 40 minute bus-ride that will drop you at the entrance of Katsuoji-Temple. However the last bus will leave the train station around 3pm or 4pm. As lucky as I usually am, I had to use a taxi (single fare was 35 euro / us$). I left the temple about 5pm, and bad luck stroke again. No buses after 5pm, no taxis around the temple. Me and a 14 year-old chinese boy walked down all the way to the city. The walk took us almost an hour. I couldn't speak chinese or japanese, and the chinese teenager couldn't communicate in english or japanese. But at the end we somehow managed to jump on a bus, that brought us back to a train station after almost 2 hours. 

After visiting a couple of japanese cities, you easily get fed up with temples. Katsuoji however was different, in a funny way. The whole place is packed with daruma dolls, which creates a unique atmosphere. 

The daruma dolls at Katsuo-ji Temple are called "Kachi-daruma" (winning daruma). The darumas are eye-less goodluck charms. People are supposed to draw an eye on the doll's face when they make a wish, and draw in the other when their wish comes true. When one's daruma-doll gets both eyes drawn in, it should be brought back to the temple. 

Last but not least, the Taiko Bridge of the "Sumiyoshi Taisha" shrine. Again, after having witnessed numerous temples in Japan, it gets harder with each trip to be impressed about wooden temples. I have just seen to many temples in Japan. However I haven't ever seen a round bridge like the Taiko Bridge in Osaka. The first one I have ever discovered was outside of Asia, at the Japanese Garden in San Francisco. That's why I decided to jump on a train towards the Sumiyoshi shrine. In my opinion, the shrine didn't blow me away. However the bridge sourrounded by trees and a pond was worth the shot.

 

Nightlife in Osaka.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, that one fact that I really enjoy about Osaka is its nightlife. I mean it's not always that easy, to get in touch with japanese people. Some of them are too busy for a conversation, some are too shy or insecure to communicate in english and some don't understand any english at all. Most of the japanese people, that I had the chance to get to know, were having a drink in a bar or they worked as bartenders. It's just the perfect place to get into a chitchat. In Osaka it's even possible to bump into the same person on the same trip, which hardly ever happen in any other big city.

I wouldn't brag about Namba for being the best place to go out, because there are just too many streets or bars left to discover. Some bars or clubs will always remain undiscovered for many tourists, because they aren't barely visible from the outside. I remember a club called "Bambi", where a french expat took me to. We took an elevator to the 7th floor, and as soon as the doors of the elevator opened, we stepped out right into a club. It's very common in Japan to get on top floors for having dinner or a drink. That's why locals know the best places to check out.

As far as my experience goes, I'd recommend these places while going out in Osaka. They're all reachable by foot and only a couple of minutes separated from each other.

Bar Zerro {Namba}

The Zerro Bar is a bar packed with locals, tourists, and expats. It's usually very busy. Most of the bar tenders are pretty fluent in english. Every time I went for a drink I met people from all over the world. It's not the coolest place, but if every other bar is empty, you'll definitely find some people at Zerro.

Cinque-Cento (500) {Namba}

Cinque-Cento means 500 in italian. That's where the bar got its name from, because every drink or meal on their menu costs 500 yen  (4 € $). The drinks are served in average size glasses, and they don't look as fancy as in a cocktail bar. But you can get a Moscow Mule or a Maitai for a very fair price. All of the bar tenders were very friendly and easy to talk to. While drinking and talking to them, they could tell you some fascinating facts about Japan. "500" easily became my favorite bar in Osaka on my last trip. And yes, you also get some finger- & fast-food for 500 yen.

 Mustang-Bar {Amerika-Mura}

On my recent trip I didn't make it to Mustang, because I couldn't leave "500" and because Mustang is located in Amerika-Mura, the neighbor-area of Namba. But on my two first trips I had a blast at Mustang. The main reason was most definitely because of the bar-owner Neil (or Neal), an expat from Israel. Neal is high probably the craziest dude in Osaka. He used to be very entertaining and made every customer laugh with this harsh jokes. "Mustang" is a very small bar, recognizable by its ceiling, which is covered by hundreds of hanging bras. Apparently drunk women started to undo their bras, and hang them on the ceiling. I guess it's just another prove how crazy it can get at Neil's bar. 

Kamasutra Karaoke Bar

The last episode of my nightly adventures took place at Richard's Karaoke Bar called "Kamasutra". Richard is an expat as well. And it was damn funny coincidence that I made it to Kamazutra. Six or seven years ago work colleagues told me about their crazy night at a karaoke bar where they were introduced to the bar owner called "Richard". After a drunken night at 500, some japanese people took me to a karaoke bar. It was my first time ever at a Karaoke bar. After ordering another round or trinks and starting a chit-chat with the man behind the bar, I figured out his name was "Richard". I took out my phone, to check out if the photo of my friends at "that" Richard's place was the same one where I was sitting. Richard burst out laughing, because he was still remembering the night where my colleagues were visiting him. "Those crazy guys from Luxembourg... that was a hell of a  night!". Sometimes the world just seems so small, when coincidences like this one happen. I went back to Kamasutra one more time before leaving Japan. I had a blast every night!

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- GANPATI GUESTHOUSE - {Varanasi}

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As you might have read in my blog-posts about my India trip, I sounded pretty fascinated about this little gem of a guesthouse. I tried 'em all during my journey in India, cheap hotels, one fancy hotel, a hostel and this guest house. Maybe it was the perfect match with the city, the calm laidback athmosphere at this guesthouse & the spiritual vibe all across Varanasi. All I can tell is that, Ganpati fulfilled my expectations, and that this guesthouse made me feel, like I initially expected it to be.

I remember when my friend José showed me his photos of Varanasi and a couple of images of this guesthouse. Both just matched perfectly together. When I was trying to book a room at the website "booking.com", I was told that the guesthouse was sold-out during my stay in the city.  But luckily a week later, I got to manage to book the last room available. 

GANPATI was the second "hotel" I checked-in at in India, and without any doubt it was the place where I instantly felt at home. I got a warm welcome by the guesthouse-staff and you could really feel, that the clerk at the front-desk, made some efforts to explain me how the boat-trips work, how to get to the roof-top restaurants, how much I should pay for the different services along the ganges river. I didn't feel like a living dollar-sign at this hotel. 

I read some unpleasant reviews about the guesthouse, so I really didn't know what to expect. Once I figured out that I would get room number 7, right in the middle of the courtyard, I felt really happy. There are lots rooms which are facing towards the river, however the ones in the center of the building, seem more peaceful and colorful. 

All room-doors were locked with a golden-shiva-lock. Everything was very charming about this guesthouse, the colors, the vintage locks, the scent of the rooms... The rooms weren't fancy at all, but you aren't asking for any kind of luxury when checking-in at a guesthouse. The rooms were very clean, the bathroom as well. The bathroom lacked some space, but it didn't bother me at all. 

I loved staying on my bed during the day, with the yellow room-door wide open. You could hear the calming noise of the water-fountain.

On the roof-top there was a restaurant, that was serving food til midnight. Their menu consisted of only vegetarian dishes. The dishes were very simple, but I couldn't complain. The waiters were extremely friendly, and the food was very cheap. During my 4 days in Varanasi, I only had food at their restaurant, because everything just seemed perfect. The food tasted fresh, and of course I didn't get sick of it.

 

There's a main-exit that leads straight down to the ghats, right to the river's edge. On the rooftop you can enjoy your breakfast or lunch with a beautiful view all over Varanasi. What can I say? There's nothing to complain about.

 

When I was checking out, I told the staff, that I took the room's hand printed laundry tote bag, because I wanted to keep it as a souvenir. I offered them to pay for it, but the lovely man at the desk told me I could keep it for free.

As soon as I left the guesthouse, I got one last "namaste" from the door-man. Everytime I left or entered the guesthouse, a "guard" opened the door, put his both hands together close to his chest and greeted me with a "namaste". I loved GANPATI GUESTHOUSE, it was one of the few lovely experiences I brought back home from India.