Yva and Peter heading east

2009-09-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

For all who have been following this blog it migrated to another address.

Well at least halve of it ...

So please go and check out Peters Blog!

With love

2008-09-22T14:30:00.001-07:00

Well dear all that's it for now, we promise we will be back very soon but until then come to London!

Bali, Bali, Bali

2008-08-22T00:04:00.001-07:00

Since 1st August we are on Bali and its fantastic! Internet here is bad and slow so will try to upload some images and smiles.

Bali, Bali, Bali

2008-08-21T23:58:00.001-07:00

Nyoman is The Man

The Gili Islands

Bali, Bali, Bali

2008-08-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

Galungan Celebrations and offerings at different temples

Kuching

2008-07-27T05:24:00.000-07:00

We are now in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, which is the nicest town we have been to in Borneo! The river flows through the centre and you can enjoy the sun set from the beautiful waterfront, there is beautiful street with small colourful Chinese shop houses and lovely white colonial buildings. We have rented a motorbike and are exploring the surrounding areas for the coming days until we fly out to our next destination Indonesia!

2008-07-27T05:18:00.000-07:00

Niah caves

Traditional Longhouse with human skulls hanging around for good luck

Shop in Kuching

Pitcher plants, eating flies and insects who drop into their pitcher, yummie!

The most amazing thing in Borneo is the sky, even during a normal day you look up and the clouds are going crazy

Miri adventures

2008-07-27T05:06:00.000-07:00

Once again we were back in Malaysia, the largest of its states Sarawak. Sarawak has a very fascinating history as it was ruled by the so-called White Rajahs of the Brooke family. Its wild and jungly but the most important thing it has is oil! Here Shell started its first drilling operation in Asia (did you know this Stu?!) and still has a very close relationship with the government.

In Miri we ran into Roz and Hans an Australian couple who left their farm to look for lost cities and civilisations. When we met them they were looking for a Japanese war ship that was destroyed during WW II somewhere around Miri but no one really knows where. They needed crew so we joined them for a what turned out to be a great adventure, we lived on their boat the Southern Sun, a beautiful ship and looked with their sonar for the wreck. Peter even dived down to look for it. The incredible thing was that we actually ran across an image that looked remarkably like a sunken ship-nose but it never showed up on our screen again… Unfortunately the weather turned bad and we could no longer go out at sea so after a couple of days we said good-bye and went further to Kuching. GOOD LUCK ROZ AND HANS!!!

Miri adventures

2008-07-27T05:05:00.000-07:00

The Southern Sun

Roz and Hans

Peter is also looking for the sunken ship ;)

Mazal and Helmee were great and took us to their farm and shared with us their daily life

This is the palm fruit that is grown for palm oil, one of Malaysia's biggest exports

Brunei impressions

2008-07-27T04:13:00.000-07:00

Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam
during the celebration for his 62nd birthday!

The Brunei Spice girls

A floating Shell petrol station in the floating city of Bandar Seri Begawan

2008-07-27T03:38:00.000-07:00

The view of the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque with its golden roof and crazy green lights!

We spent two days in Brunei and that was more or less enough, as we were totally disappointed to find a normal, rather slummy looking Asian city, with the odd mall and newly built mosque, instead of the gold covered capital of one of the world’s richest men. We also saw no trace of the supposedly thousands of Bentleys, Mercedeses, Ferraris, etc. that the Sultan owns, and we wondered where would he be driving them?!?
All in all people seemed to be content living in this benevolent dictatorship as education and health care are free and no one pays any taxes whatsoever!

Brunei

2008-07-13T03:29:00.000-07:00

And tomorrow we are taking the ferry from Labuan (where we are now) to Brunei.
On 15.07 its the Sultan's birthday so we are expecting to get an invitation for the party :)

Sipadan and Mabul

2008-07-13T03:18:00.000-07:00

After the jungle we headed towards the sea again, passing Sandakan and Semporna, to the island of Mabul, the island itself is nothing special but gives a great insight into water village-fishermen life. The amazing thing was diving in Sipadan, one of the top five diving locations in the world where even Jacques Cousteau was amazed. It was a truly spectacular experience with thousands of fish, sharks, barracudas, beautiful corals and tens of turtles swimming around us. Unfortunately no underwater picture capabilities yet...

A water village on Mabul

Kids fishing

and developing innovative means of transport

Beware of the smorkels!!!

and Yva posing as usual ;) these chairs were fantastic btw, you can always learn new things on every new beach!

Pictures of the days we pent in the Borneo jungle along the Kinabatangan river

2008-07-13T02:50:00.000-07:00

Mist over the Kinabatangan river, the second longest river in Borneo

This is more close to the actual colours

Our leader J, alias Sandokan, the tiger of Malaysia :)

J playing with a scorpion during the walk in the night through the jungle

Are we packed well enough? Will it save us from the leeches?!?!?!....

2008-07-13T02:02:00.000-07:00

Proboscis monkeys, kind of ugly but males have a long nose, a sign of masculinity and walk around with constant erection...

Jungle fruits ;)

Strange animal

Jungle group trek

Check out the boots, they should call these treks mud treks :)

Borneo

2008-07-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

We incidentally ended up on Borneo after our visa for the Philippines ran out too quickly! We are having great fun with all kinds of strange animals around here in the jungle of the world :) Have to run now as we are off to a special trek along the Kinabatangan river going to see more funny animals and not be eaten by them ;)

2008-07-02T20:14:00.000-07:00

Baby Orangutan

Eating is fun

So is stretching

It really happened, drinking caipirinhas with Sladja in Manila!!!

Some wildlife pictures

2008-07-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

First picture of a cousin of Nemo

A school of baracudas

and Jackfish

and two distressed divers!

Travel update

2008-06-22T00:18:00.000-07:00

Well after crashing on the beach for a whole day Peter decided that we have to once again do something meaningful (pfui!) so we started the Advanced Open Water diving course. It took five dives a lot of fun and fishes and here we are certified! Cheers Sander! In the meantime we were almost blown away by Fengsheng typhoon which hit the Philippines and the news. On our island it was only grade one but it caused massive amounts of rain, extremely strong wind, which made the house we lived in the give strange sounds, some power cuts and no internet for two days. But you can still dive during typhoon as we learned. Well, we have no desire to find out how the other grades feel like... It also caused a delay in our "schedule" as we were supposed to be already in Manila with Sladja :) but we will be there only tomorrow when flights resume.
So after finishing the dive course we rented a motorbike to see some of the bigger island of Bohol. It was a great drive through green rice paddies, small villages and incredibly friendly people. Our first stop was at a sanctuary for Tarsiers (we didn't think it was important but it was one of the two sights on the island). In the forest we saw the cutest little things with big popped-out eyes clinging to the tree branches. They are from some forgotten branch of the evolution tree, not really monkeys but similar and are so incredibly small and cute and can turn their head 180 degrees :) I realise it does not sound that exciting but have a look at the picture below.

We had lunch at a local market in a Eatery, a place with a few pots where the food has been cooked for the day and booming karaoke. It once again confirmed our lack of enthusiasm for Filipino kitchen.

Then once again through rice fields and forest off to the famous (at least around here) Chocolate Hills. Its not really clear how they were formed but there they are a thousand or so humps, which unfortunately are not made of chocolate :(. I liked the place very much but Peter is not very sure about the hills :)

So today is our last day (for now) at the beach, we head back to Manila tomorrow and then most likely to the island of Palawan.

2008-06-22T00:16:00.000-07:00

The Spanish-type churches, dear colonial heritage

Same with La Virgen

Rice paddies

Loboc river terraces

The cutest little tarsier :)

2008-06-22T00:14:00.000-07:00

The view from one of the Chocolate hills

The view of one of the Chocolate hills

Peter at the prospect of chocolate :)

Please choose!

How good to stop off and set out again

2008-06-17T01:46:00.000-07:00

How good to stop off and set out again,
How good to settle like that without being turbid,
Yesterday has passed; your sayings have passed with it,
How good to find a new saying for a new day
Ancient Sufi poetry

With this proverb in my head we left Istanbul. How good to set out again! How good to open the guide book for the place you are heading to and from unfamiliar, strange and distant reading to make an adventure and a friend! To fill it with experiences, faces, emotions and life!

And as if we never left we are back in South East Asia. It’s a bit strange to think back one and half years ago (I myself find it hard to realise this, while I write it!) when we first arrived in stinky sweaty and exciting Bangkok in January 2007 not really sure what to expect, whether we packed right, how is all this going to work out. Our arrival in Manila was very very different, now we knew it will be hot and humid, that even if we forgot something chances are we can buy whatever we need, and cheaper ;) we knew people will be friendly and helpful, there will be good food and exciting scenery.

The stop over in Qatar was an adventure in its own with the prospect of spending 14 hours at the airport taking a lucky turn and leading us to a comfortable hotel bed a very interesting drive through a new millennium city coming right from the dessert and a white heat I had never experienced before.

Manila was hot and humid a strange mixture of American culture and Asian under-development. A combination of a Spanish colonial heritage manifesting itself in beautiful churches, some old casas a few remaining plazas and the ubiquitous Catholic Church. This was followed by the attempted “benevolent assimilation” by the Americans, which ended officially in 1902 but continued for many years after and left a significant impact in the way the country and the business are run, the food the language and the way of life. Life mostly revolves around the air-conditioned shopping Mall and you can find all kinds of American pop-culture around (including ice cream with marshmallows!!!). But the people remained Asian, they are friendly, ready to help you (one even offered to borrow us money!!!!) and smile those big smiles carrying the warmth of the sun the instant you look at them ☺

We set forth to the beach, but it was going to take a while. From Manila we headed down towards the famous Taal Lake and Volcano. It was a beautiful hike in the burning sun (after with some difficulty we managed to shake off the horses, guides and kids) that took us to the crater of the still active volcano, smoking its anger away.
In the evening a massive rainstorm reminded us what rainy season in the tropics is all about with hundreds of thousands of litters of rain poured on us.

We travelled the next couple of hundred km. in a tricycle, jeepney (the coolest piece of driving machinery that uses some cars left after WWII by the Americans) and a bus to a town called Legazpi. On the way the scenery was just amazing, the sea was showing itself with a wonderful coast line covered in palms, beaches, islands and islets in between hills and mountains covered in palm trees with idyllic but very poor life passing by us.

From Legazpi (which is nothing very spectacular as most towns in the Philippines go) we headed to the small fishing village of Donsol, where we enjoyed a wonderful sunset and unfortunately not much more, as the beach there is noting special and the reason for going there was seeing the whale sharks but they had already left ☹

So from there we continued further south where we were told there would be a ferry to the next island, Masbate. The two-hour ride was great with beautiful small islands lone beaches and fishermen. Masbate did not impress us with its beach facilities, although the scenery was once again world-class in its beauty, so we decided to move on to the next island of Cebu. There are approximately 7 000 islands in the Philippines so ferryboats and island hopping is very popular and rather inevitable.

Somehow it turned out that getting information was more difficult than we expected and we ended up on a ferry boat that was going to take us overnight a few hundred km further than we planned, but what could we do, we were already on the boat and whether one island or another for us did not make that big of a difference ;) so we ended up in Cebu city and from there took another ferry and another tricycle to finally end on the small island of Panglao, near Bohol on Alona beach with Genesis divers. All this took about five days hundreds of kilometers, more hundreds of sea miles more different modes of transport and all this in the sweltering tropical heat! We were happy to crash on the beach, where we will be lazing until tomorrow, when we have to start doing serious work once again as we start the Advanced Open Water diving course!

2008-06-17T01:45:00.000-07:00

Doha, the older part of the city, which the Emir wants to destroy and build new glassy buildings

New Doha - under construction

Cheers from Manila

Welcome!

It's been a while since we had coke in a plastic bag :)

2008-06-17T01:44:00.000-07:00

Taal Volcano and Lake

The many-hour bus ride

Mt. Mayon - an active volcano

Having fun in a tricycle

2008-06-17T01:43:00.000-07:00

Our Donsol hut

The ferry ride to Masbate

The overnight ferry ride to Cebu

Our "home" on Alona beach, the top room is where you can find us

And our view :)

Together again!

2008-06-05T09:45:00.001-07:00

Well I am back in Turkey for a while now - and yes I did a lot of stuff :) But until now I was focusing on the food whenever I was not running or biking around. I hope I will be able to put up some pictures soon.

Since yesterday Yva and I are united again here in Istanbul. We again stay with our fabulous friends Nevra and Irem. In two days we will head for the Philippines - so the quest for happiness continues on the other side of the globe.

Back in Türkye

2008-05-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

Some of you might know my near perverse passion for land borders! İ got cured today.

İt took me a good 13 1/2 hours to get form Urümye to Van - 3 hours waiting for gas - 2 hours at the border (or something like that - İ tried to sleep as much as possible to preserve my sanity!)! Traveling is fuuuuun!

Waiting for gas!
Still in İran - Kendowan

Tabriz

2008-05-25T03:51:00.000-07:00

It was hot in Yazd, I had to get going - I also established too good relations with the hotel staff - guys you are great - specially the manager Mr Hassan!!

You know the feeling of settling in and getting lazy - I even was offered to work there - and I actually helped them with their network setup.
So I went to the Terminal and got lucky. I ended up in Zanjan but I had to switch buses on Azadi square - which is about the size of the first district in Vienna- at 4:30 in the morning - Thanks! The Zanjan has two features beside being extremely average - they are the major knife producer/seller (Alec I wanted to return a favour and buy you a really nice knife but there simply was nothing nice!)
Second Zanjan is close to Gombade-e Soltaniye "...one of the largest domes in the world , up with the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and St Paul's in London." (48m high 25m diameter)
The LP 2nd Edition rates it as a highlight of the region - I would say it is a highlight of the country. The size is stunning and the internal decoration is not comparable to anything I saw until now! Unfortunately the are renovating the inside of the dome and you can only guess the impression of this big room.
In Zanjan I met a very clever young men, Massud. We did a lot of things together and I was very happy when I realized there will be no bus until the following day that he invited me and I did not have to go back to the filthy lice infested hole of a hotel!
Anyhow yesterday I made it to Tabriz - and I am loving it.
Pity that I will have to leave tomorrow - Tabriz offers endless shopping in the bazaar and many interesting and largely underrated sights. The Masjed-e Kabud was closed the last time I was in Tabriz but the blue color of the entrance never let me go. The have restored and rebuild what was necessary in a nice way and now the interior is stunning. The colors do not translate into a picture though. If I could see only one Mosque in Iran - this would be it.
Tomorrow I will head to Kendowan which is a small town in the mountains and supposedly very beautiful - anyhow it will be a nice bike ride again. After that Oruemye to see my friends and exit to Turkey.

Gombade-e Soltaniye

Inside detail

Massud and a friend

In the park for picnic

Harmless ? fun
Waterpipe in my new favorite place in Zanjan
Tabriz - the view form my window
Masjed-e Kabud

Bazaar - what kind of dates would you like??

Elgoli - park near Tabriz
Practicalities - which side would you choose?
I rediscovered my passion for ferris weels!

Kharanaqh

2008-05-21T05:02:00.000-07:00

I spent two wonderful days in Kharanaqh.
This is a small Oasis about 80 km from Yazd. Yesterday the owner of the place I stayed and I went to look for the old road to Yazd. completely lost in the desert. We found an old well with nice fresh water and a couple of other remains form years ago - such as caves for stying overnight on the cross desert travel.

Sebastian

The Well

Desert flowers

Kharanaqh

Yazd

2008-05-18T00:49:00.000-07:00

I am still in Yazd - The place I stay in is becoming home already - it is very hot, laid back and very nice here. I enjoy to relax and restock after the two weeks of camping. Yesterday I went for a day trip into the mountain. My bike suffered from the rough conditions and my shoe broke :(

Still I am happily enjoying the desert!

together with my biking friends at the tower of Silence - Zoroastrian burial place
@the lesser known tower of silence in the middle of the desert - waiting for the vultures :)
from below

into an unknown valley
getting rough
finally - on A road again!!
the city of Taft

display of wealth - artificial waterfall
the main mosque in Yazd - an architectural masterpiece

Picture update from Yazd

2008-05-15T03:53:00.000-07:00

I am in Yazd and I am alone again!

We split up our small travel group yesterday - I made it save through the dessert and now I am here in Yazd doing not much until now :) I will base myself here for some time and explore the surrounding. Then I will most likely head back west - there is little left to go south east anyway.

PS Camping is over :) I will move in a traditional hotel tomorrow - for the time being I have my own apartment.

The pictures are somehow in chronological order and show the way from Hamedan to here.

Bisotun - bas relief
unnamed Madressa
Ali Sadr Cave
this is for Haleh :)
A lake in the middle of no where

Tomb of Daniel
same
Schoolbooks!!
Tagh-e-Bostan
same - this stuff is all really old!!

dinner

Shiraz

Persepolis and around

Iranian Hejab Fashion!

She was part of a student group (architects to be) studying Persepolis

Desert mosque in Abarku

This is for keeping ice in the desert
Goodbye

Yazd

Shiraz!!!

2008-05-12T04:56:00.000-07:00

There will be no pictures this time - too slow :( but I can tell you the last week was quite something. It is still the 4 of us and the Mercedes :)
We left Hamadan for Kermanshah, Korram Abad, Susa, Shushtar, Masjed-e Soleiman where we camped on an oilfield, Ize, Yasuj to Shiraz.
This rout is really of the beaten track. Camping is the only way of accommodation - whether its on 3000m at fresh 0 degree or in the lowlands with summery 40.
We are having fun but the group will split soon.
Tomorrow we plan to see Persepolis (Takht-e Jamshid) and Pasargadae then I will most likely head for Yazd 300 km through desert.
Or if I feel like swimming and heat - the Gulf! lets see.

Anyhow it is wonderful here, people are nice, sights are world class.

Iran I

2008-05-06T22:40:00.000-07:00

After a log time I am back online.
Philip and I have crossed into Iran without troubles and right in the bus to Sero Border (that's the one close to Hakkari) we met a nice Iranian / Turkish couple.
We have been with them ever since :)

The new travel gang
"No - I don't want to become a Muslim!"
Swimming in lake Orumiye is better then in the dead sea. And it was reasonable warm!
Our host - the father of Medi
Orumiye

The new mod of traveling. We do not know how long we will be together but now it is Hamadan plans made for Esfahan. I am quite happy that we do not have to cycle through this land. long roads, little infrastructure and many hills and mountains.
@Hasnalu

Takht-e Soleiman

One of the reasons I wanted to come back to Iran!

Our Campsite - It had 0 degree in the night - it was so freezing cold in the tent! Camping is fuuuuun!
Soleimans prison - 80 m deep

Tatvan - Van

2008-04-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

We made to Van and will head to İran tomorrow.
We will cross through Sero - which is the dangerous border crossing :)

So next time you hear from me it will be from Persia!!
So long...

Camping at Van Gölü

Breakfast with friends in Van
"Kebab"

Van Castle
Van cats

Yva on Skype

2008-04-29T08:45:00.002-07:00

Tatvan - Nemrut Dagi II

2008-04-26T23:51:00.000-07:00

There is a second Nemrut Dagi right next to Tatvan.
Philip and İ biked/hiked up yesterday.
İt was wonderful to stand on the edge of the crater and look down on the lake.
İn the crater we went for a brief swim (4 degree?!) and slept in total solitude for a hour.
The mountain is 2800m high and it was quite strenuous to climb up.
Back in Tatvan we engaged in serious cooking - Fish. Philip has all the camping equipment. İt was fun tho cook in a public park under observation of about 10 people.

Mardin

Hasankeyf

mishap - 300 meter from the campside

Hasankeyf

These gentlemen took us from Batman in their Mercedes

the ride up to Tatvan

last village on the way to Nemrut Dagi

going skiing in Tatvan next year ??

on 2100m - İ always thought they need it warm ?

on the way to the top

the crater

Tatvan

Dinner

Mardin - Hasankeyf - Batman - Siirt - Baykan - Bitlis - Tatvan

2008-04-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

Philip and İ are doing very well. İ forgot my camera at the hotel - so no pictures today - so sorry! We crossed from Urfa to Tatvan in two days - we planned a lot more for that stage.

This is the region you should actually not go to! Good news we made it without any trouble and once again all travel advice was far to conservative.

True - one must not be disturbed by all the military hanging around in every village and in between towns. But beside that all the people here (predominantly Kurds) are very confident in telling you that there is no problem.

We both did not like Mardin too much. The city is wonderfully placed on a mountain but is spoiled be tourism. (kids shouting: give me money!) We still had a good time the couple of hours we were there. On the way to Hasankeyf we passed through Midiat. İ am actually sorry we did not spend more time there. Nice houses and super nice people.

Hasankeyf was wonderful - we camped next to the Tigris and had great fish. The town is threatened by a dam project and will most likely be flooded anytime soon. This is a pity because there is a cave city and the remains of a really old bridge (Arab) besides a lot of other roman stuff.

From there we cycled / were taken to Tatvan. (quite an Odyssey: bike, truck, bike, old Mercedes, bike, pickup)

We plan to head along the northern shore of the Lake for the next few days.

Maybe we will also cycle up the other Nemrut Dagi (the Vulcan north of Tatvan)

The mountains are full of snow here - the climate is a very nice change after the desert of Urfa and Mardin.

The heat there was also the reason why İ skipped my Syria plans for the time being.

Malatya - Nemrut Dagi - Şanıurfa

2008-04-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

The trip to Nemrut Dagi was a lot quicker then expected - cause İ got a ride :)
The landscape is unbelievable - deep valleys - mountains - tiny villages
İ arrived in the evening at the right time for sunset. Fortunately İ could stay with the guards on the top of the mountain.
İ missed the sunrise :( in the morning around 5:10!
On the way down İ met my current travel companion Philip who is traveling in the same direction also on a bike.
Şanıurfa was the easiest city in reach after Mount Nemrut Dagi.

Malatya at night

On the way south to Nemrut Dagi

Traversing the mountain

on the western Terrace

mandatory picture :)

Eastern Terrace - the way up

Sunset magic

the little place on the left is where İ stayed for the night

at the end of the road :) (down)

PS. İ cant watch the video here and İ have no means to turn it - so sorry!

Western flank of the Mountain - Eski Kale

Şaniurfa

Philip

Malatya II

2008-04-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

Malatya - just chilling out. İ got a new chain 4YTL :) and should be ready for tomorrow.

38km/270m

Malatya

2008-04-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

Malatya - you know the feeling when you enter a city and you just like it.
Happened to me here. Good inexpensive accommodation; smiling people on the street; women on the street; shops; restaurants; everything - even a cinema.
İ decided to finally sleep twice in the same bed and did a day tour to "Old Malatya" - Battalgazi.
Turned out to be 50km/430m with the little detours İ included.
İ really like it here.
Unfortunately today was loosing day - tore my trousers, and somehow managed to loose my spare chain - which is very bad. Hope it turns up otherwise İ will have to find a local spare.
Well don't ask how it happened - İ still have no clue and have been cursing myself for the whole evening.
İ got a nice computer virus (which İ know from SE Asia - fortunately no pictures were lost; but İ have to say again: İ hate Windows! Thank God İ am still good enough in the DOS shell - even in Turkish:)

On the way to Malatya

İn the Seljuk Mosque with the local kids - great fun :)

the dome...

İ guess that is what the İmam is preaching from :)

the old parts of the building

taken by one of the kids

on the way back to Malatya

The mountains in the back are in my way to Nemrut Dagi :(

my bike is soooooo beautiful

want to have a weekend home ??

Divrigi II

2008-04-18T00:20:00.001-07:00

Divrigi

2008-04-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Divrigi World Heritage Site - not more.
İ spent most of the day in two buses and on the bus stop in Sivas. So not much to post.
İ will take pictures of the mosque tomorrow - promise!!

Tokat

Tokat Castle

Tokat

2008-04-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

After yesterday İ had an easy day planned. Zile - Tokat around 80 km flat - well as flat as it gets here. Until Pazar that is exactly what happened. Exiting Pazar there is a Seljuk Caravansary which İ wanted to see. There where three guys working there (turning the place into a restaurant). İ was invited for lunch and then the boss kept on telling me how İ can not miss Ballıca Cave.
İn the end İ gave in, left my luggage there and went to the cave. İ planned to miss it because of the 20 km detour (uphill).

When İ came to pick up my luggage İ again was invited to numerous cays and a ride for the last 25 klicks.
Tokat itself is so so. Admittedly it is raining now and it was dark when we arrived. The hotel sucks and İ did not see any of the sights which according to the lonely liar are plenty. (btw)

PS 55km /570mAscent

Zile

2008-04-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

Amasya to Zile turned out to be a wonderful stage! İ am sorry to bother all of you with this beautiful, wonderful, super stuff but there is really little to complain about.
İf you look at the map you will notice the big fat road from Amasya to Turhal/Tokat. İn the spirit of my dear friend Alex İ did not go for that. İ chose the little one leading into the mountains. İ did not end up where İ planned but the landscape and the people on the way more than compensated.
Even the town of Zile is not a bad place to be. İ got directions to the hotel (İ guess there should be more though) directions being: head for the highest building! And for sure that worked!
İ stay in a little suite with two! TVs for less then İ paid for a rotten hole in another town.
İn the mountains İ looked for shelter from a upcoming rainstorm. İ ended up with and invitation to a marvelous lunch - thanks! The guy was staying with his parents - his mother unfortunately is ill - he is normally working in Almaty. İ guess İ was lucky!

Still everything is blossoming and it is just wonderful to glide down a narrow road after a hard day with bloomy trees left and right.

on the way up

the village of Akyazi

Marble

on the way down

And now turn on the speakers!

Filmed from my hotel room - İ could identify at least 4 different mosques

PS: 60 km / 970Ascent

Sinop - Samsun - Amasya

2008-04-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

Mad some kilometers - with the bus. İ wanted to stay in Samsung initially, but the town (at lest what İ saw) did not look tempting. So İ continued to Amasya. İt turned out to be a good J-choice! This is a fantastic little city with lots of history. Ancient tombs, a castle and a lot of really pretty houses on the edge of the river in midst of lots of rocks! Tomorrow is bike day again though.

Sinop

2008-04-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

One week into the journey it is time to recapitulate.
The weather was perfect, the hospitality is unprecedented, the scenery it unbelievable, the roads are a pain! Still İ shall thank all these wonderful people on the roadside who invited me for tea, for conversation, were cheering when İ passed were offering accommodation and many things more.
Today's stage (Türkeli-Sinop) was a bit of a stretch - İ knew that in the beginning but you know - one always hopes :) 93 km 1302 m Ascent. Which makes it 350 km for those who care and want to give me a hard time about it :) İ would have opted for a bus the last 20 klicks but there simply was nothing. No houses (well some) no town, no nothing!!
Sometimes the map is telling the truth after all. Somehow though İ managed the insanely steep ups and downs along the coast. İ miss a honest mountain pass (x km up and then x km down) but this up down up down drives me nuts.
Well İ shall not complain - the first 30 km İ had exactly that but the rest...
One thing that kept me going today was the wildlife! İ saw about 30 turtles trying to cross the road ( İ nearly drove over one). Unfortunately some of them die trying to do exactly that. Guess turtle is on the road - car is coming - what happens?? Turtle stops of course. İ feel somehow attached to this weird animals. İ guess it is because my sister long long ago had one.
Tomorrow İ decided to take a rest and a bus to Samsung from where İ will head south away from the coast.

Typical coastal Town view

unbelievable colors which do not translate into a picture

My roadside friends...

Türkeli

2008-04-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

Dear friends. After a lazy day yesterday İ compensated today. Total yesterday and today around 90 km and 1300 m ascent.
Today İ stay in Türkeli a nice town in the middle of nowhere.

İ cant stop admiring the trees here

İf it would only be warm enough to swim...

That's what İ am sharing the road with.

PS. İ met Hassan and İ am right now taking care of his shop. InshaAlla there will be a couple of beers involved in the rest of the evening.

İnebolu

2008-04-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

Weather was not as great as the last two days, anyhow İ did not get wet!
İ cycled to Cide and run into the there-is-no-accommodation-in-any-reasonable-distance-problem. So İ took the bus to İnebolu. Very nice coast line - so happy İ don't have to pedal

The road along the coast

Tarmac - the stones are about 2 cm in size - makes smooth riding

that's what İ call a natural harbour

the houses in İnabolu are quit stunning

so is the mosque

Kurucasile

2008-04-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

Today was wonderful! Only the roads are a bit up and down!

The ups and down of Black sea cost roads :)
lousy 50km with 1262 ascent

Amasra in the mist...

finally out in the sun!

Spring! people tell me it is to early in the year to be here. İ could not disagree more!

Why do they always walk (or whatever turtles do) in the middle of the street. - İ rescued her/him to the side of the road!

half way!

Bodybuilders in Kurucasile.

PS İ was heading for Cide but with these roads - no chance. 20% and more accent are not for quick biking.

Amasra

2008-04-09T11:03:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day on the road.
Being a conservative Austrian İ planned a nice and easy still challenging leg.
Plan was to climb an easy 600m and then glide along a nice river to the sea. Total 80km max.
So much for the plan :)

İt turned out to be 96km and in total 1250m ascent. This still should not by any means be too much under normal condition but with a too heavy backpack (İ need to leave some stuff - but what??) on the Turkish equivalent of torture for stupid bikers (tarmac of the nasty kind) İ almost did not make it - almost.
Especially the last pass (only 350m above sea level but starting at 4m :) is a masterpiece of Turkish engineering. Just simply to steep to cycle :)

Conclusion: İf you (or İ in this case) want to avoid a late arrival don't 1.) trust any estimation of distance of any locals and local maps and 2.) check the elevation profile all the way.
Anyway İ made it safely and happy to Amasra which is a very nice place with two harbours and lots of tiny streets in between. Downside is that it was already to dark to take pictures when İ arrived here.

İncluding me we are talking about 110 kg...

The destination

The coast - the direction i want to head tomorrow! Lots of 'rampa'!

PS. İ got myself a beer!! :)

İstanbul - Safranbolu

2008-04-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

İ left İstanbul without any trouble.
Only the way how the bus people stuffed my bike into the luggage compartment made me worry for a moment - but what can you do?
Safranbolu is a little town around 150 km North of Ankara (N41.25243,E32.68730).
İt is famous for its Ottoman houses, and indeed is very pretty. The Pictures by no means come close to the real thing. Another intriguing thing is the river that runs through the old town in a gorge at some places about 15 m deep and only 2 m wide.

Heading on...

2008-04-07T04:17:00.000-07:00

Yva and I spent a wonderful week in Istanbul. We had fun in Troy and were enjoying the endless varieties of the Istanbul food scene.

Thanks to Irem, Nevra and Selin this stay was something special - and we will soon be back:)

Yva left back to Sofia and I will be heading for Safranbolu tomorrow to start the biking there - it will be cold, it will be uphill, it will be fun!

PS. Yes the weather was bad :)

İstanbul

2008-04-02T07:15:00.001-07:00

İstanbul is great...

My Visas...

2008-03-28T07:19:00.001-07:00

Some of you might not understand my happiness, but especially the Iranian one is not easy to get:) As a compensation it looks different every time. Turkey will follow on the border. Georgia no longer requires one - I hope they have a nice stamp though. Armenia... lets see.
If anybody has connection in the Pakistani Embassy in Istanbul or Ankara please let me know!

The quest continues on Monday in Istanbul.

Syria - where I never intended to go...

Iran - half way to Pakistan!!

Spring 2008

2008-03-20T01:25:00.000-07:00

Friends of our Blog. I heard complains and worries about our inactivity on the web.
The simple reason was that there was very little to write about.
Yva and I have been predominantly in Sofia and little in Vienna.

But...

There are 2 weeks left until we will be on the road again.
1. April we will spend in Istanbul for a week together, visiting dear friends and enjoy the nightlife of this fantastic city.

After that I will head east. Since yesterday my Iranian Visa is confirmed and beside that little can get in the way now.

Vitosa in January

Culture in the countryside...

Wildlife close up

Skiing in Bansko

guess who had a good time :)

Pork , pork, pork - who believed that "Stelze" is only existing in Vienna and Phnom Penh

Spring is here :)

Final Dinner in Kenia

2008-01-10T03:13:00.000-08:00

2007-12-28T06:46:00.001-08:00

2007-12-28T06:04:00.001-08:00

2007-12-22T03:37:00.000-08:00

Our first Video post

2007-12-22T02:25:00.000-08:00

Due to a broken down truck we had to move over to the road under construction - after a Caterpillar filled a rather deep ditch.

Mombasa

2007-12-03T00:23:00.001-08:00

We made it to Mombasa - great city - nice drive - only about 50 km bad road.
Hope we find a Internet cafe with USB...

Kenia... 200 km west of Nairobi

2007-11-29T01:24:00.000-08:00

Zebras, Buffaloes, Hyenas, Eagles, Flamingos and much more, but no usable Internet connection!
We have tonnes of pictures and videos and lots of stories and we promise to post them soon.

Incidentaly Rwanda

2007-11-10T08:29:00.000-08:00

Well, we are now in Rwanda :) promise when there is decent connection to write more :)

Uganda

2007-11-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

Well, there is no time for a post or pictures now, we just let you know we are safely in Uganda, the rainy season sucks and crossing the border took five hours. Hakuna matata!

Off the beaten track - or the Ukerewe experience

2007-11-01T02:26:00.000-07:00

As I wrote earlier the part of Tanzania around the Lake Victoria sees quite few tourists, as opposed to engineers and dealers working in the gold and diamond mines around the lake. To make it even more exctiting and "real" we decided to go to the island of Ukerewe in the lake Victoria (which is more like a sea, really), about three hours from the town of Mwanza, where we are staying. It was supposed to be quite "off the beaten track" and we thought an authentic experience. So we got our tickets for the local ferry and boldly boarded the vessel. Already at this point it was clear that we are going somewhere off, there was not a single white (or any other colour than black for that matter) face on the boat. The trip through the lake was quite interesting, passing a lot of islands and small dhow boats. Arriving in the town of Nansio, we headed towards some faded and collapsed signs which indicated accommodation and can you believe it, tourist information. The town looked quite wealthy (well in African terms) with some cars, a lot of bicycles, a big market and hundreds of people (so much for the remote and solitary experience we thought). We made it to the tourist office which was also a guesthouse and were greeted by a very friendly woman speaking little English and handing us out print outs of a web site which indicated the main sights on the island. One being a beach with crocodiles and the major one being a cross to commemorate the introduction of Christianity on the island. This event was marked by the local chief killing all the 100 priests and nuns that had come to preach, as he did not approve....
Well the choice of accommodation was limited: between a sterile hotel with long empty corridors, no visitors, completely soulless and the guesthouse where we were with very basic rooms, four bare and dirty walls and a tin roof ceiling which covered the whole house (this will be key later...) a window looking into the backyard where the neighbours cooked, washed, ate, sat and hung their laundry; the toilet was of course squat and the shower was nonexistent, if you don't count the bucket of water in the small room down the corridor - it does not get more "real", you practically live with the locals, the great aim of every traveller! So here we were, of course choosing authenticity over comfort (Ok, I admit it was my decision and soon I was going to regret it...) After we had a walk and dinner (chips and eggs, topped with suspiciously red ketchup) in a local beer place with Caribbean flare, loud music and fat ladies we retired to our room, it was hard to read or fall asleep as outside a party was going on somewhere and the music was blasting out loud, luckily around midnight the noise level droped and we fell asleep shortly, to be woken up soon of some strange moaning sounds. Quickly it turned out the couple in the next room was heavily engaged in love making, exchange of pleasantries (Asante! Karibu! - Thank you! You are welcome!) and other details which I do not want to indulge further in here. It was like they were in the same room, remember the roof?! and the whole house could hear EVERYTHING... this went on for some more hours and we all finally fell asleep to be woken up early in the morning by the roster for another round. So much for "living as the locals" we just fled the place as soon as we could and moved to the comfortable, clean, quiet soulless place :)

We decided to still give the island another chance, so we rented bikes and drove off the bike routes marked by the local tourist association trying to promote "green tourism" to the non-existent visitors. Peter complained about the quality of the bikes as we visited another major sight, a run down building of the German colonial administration looking like lost in the forest. All the way we were followed by children looking strangely at us and shouting Muzungu, muzungu (white). Down at the coast we met old Adolf (proud to be named after Hitler), were molested by a local crazy man who kept writing things on the ground in between our bikes, more children and increasing heat. For some unknown reason the bike trail disappeared and we were deep inbetween the villages, cows, bulls and fields of cassava. It was getting hotter and hotter and there was no real civilisation in sight and we had no more water and were extremely thirsty! Soon our hopes went up as we saw a little kiosk in one of the villages only to find that it was selling chinese underwear and soap... People stopped us and tried to communicate sth. with us, we tried to get information about the way to town out of them but none was successful... Well we somehow managed to get hot coke before we collapsed but it took another half an hour to find normal water... In addition the road got from bad to worse, my brakes completely stopped working and it was still hot.... Well we did make it safe and sound to town and out of the island but our taste for "off the beaten track", "authentic" experience has subsided...

Pictures

2007-11-01T02:15:00.000-07:00

biking on the island

in the orphanage

the radiator has a leak!

Women power :) (check the T-Shirt:)

local transport -nothing for people with high security standards :)

Looking for Hippos...
Did not find them :(

Hitchhikers

Mount Kilimanjaro

As close as we ever got to Mount Kili - the gate!

Roadside

Roads less traveled

Transport in Africa

North and Northwestern Tanzania

2007-10-25T00:59:00.000-07:00

Its somehow true that appetite comes with the food, however it does not mean that without food there is no appetite... so we hope you have not lost your appetite for our stories, just because you are not being fed...

Our trip took us past the 3000th km. and in the skirts of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa at 5895m (which we have decided to come back and conquer :), Mt. Meru (the second highest), to the beautiful hills of Lushoto, where we hiked with little Jonathan and tried local bier distilled from sugar cane which you should avoid even at the threat of loss of face; Arusha, the Geneva of Africa (well not exactly... and there is no lake nor fountain but a large office building which houses the International Criminal Court for Rwanda), where we were so overwhelmed with Safari offers that we did not do any but we went for a night out with our new friends Geofrey and Salome to a real African disco with great music and great moves. We tried to go through the Serengeti and Ngorongoro National Parks but their fees have become prohibitive (as Peter says) and we took the looooong way around. Bumpy roads, dusty villages and images of the endless streams of women carrying wood, food, suitcases, anything on their heads and babies on their backs; horse, donkey and ox-drawn carriages; colourful patches of buckets and clothes around the water pumps; Enter the 21st century!

The scenery changed so many times, with salt lakes and blue lakes, rocks that come out of the earth in the middle of villages, big Baobab tress, red, white and grey soil which defines the colour of everything around, mountains, hills and plains.

Along these roads we made it to Mwanza, on the Great Lake Victoria. Luckily it does not look like Darwin's nightmare ;) but the fish we had was really quite bad... We plan to go to a little island called Ukerewe, which is supposed to be quite off the beaten track (well, that is not so difficult as this region is very isolated and sees surprisingly few travellers).

on the road again...

2007-10-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

hello from a wonderful beach on Zanzibar

Our 20 USD place

lazing the day away

fun...

for those of you who can not be on the beach :)

the end of Ramadan is well celebrated

famous Zanzibar doors

practicalities...

Irente Viewpoint

Eating with Austrian friends on the Irente Farm (cheese, brown bread, topfen)

Waterfall on the way to Lushoto

Zanzibar

2007-10-13T05:18:00.000-07:00

We are now on Zanzibar almost a week. We spent a couple of days in Stone Town (I have to put links as technology does not allow to upload our pictures...) http://www.zanzibar.net/zanzibar/webcam/. This is a world heritage sight with small, small streets where even Peter gets confused :) It is very oriental, most women wear veils and the man traditional white gown (which I secretly call pyjama ;) and a little hat. The town is incredibly nice and lively, kids run on the small streets up until midnight, people walk up and down the whole day and especially after Ramadan finished yesterday, everybody is very festive with new clothes, henna, smiles. And if you manage to get away from the tourist stuff which is all the same wherever you go there is actually beautiful art and friendly shy faces. It's a place that can send you dreaming, cafes, restaurants, gardens, sunsets. You can indulge in this link below of the most beautiful and expensive hotel www.236hurumzi.com (in which of course we stayed (not) ;)
And the beaches! White sand and hundred shades of blue of the Indian Oceans, knotted beds and four days without shoes, it was just beautiful but I will not go on about this as I guess autumn is knocking on Europe's door ... Tonight is the beginning of Eid and there will be a big celebration which goes on for three days and of course there is a lot of food.

Sadly, it is not only pretty Sheherezade stuff, the island grew rich on the Slave trade and was the main export port for slaves to the East. Nearly 600 000 slaves have been solved through Zanzibar between 1830 and 1873. And then there is the poverty everywhere, houses falling down, bad roads, lack of schools and hospitals... paradise does not exist, its always built on someone else's suffering...

We are taking the night ferry back to Dar and tommorrow heading off to the old capital Bagamoyo and then further north towards Arusha, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti.

unpublished... our car flying

2007-10-05T09:58:00.001-07:00

Tanzania

2007-10-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

We crossed into Tanzania in the morning of 30 September and just a few meters accross the border seems like someone pressed the FFW button, we were in a country at least 15 years ahead! There were good roads, the towns actually had asphalt streets, there were shops, not only shacks and a much bisser variety of things to buy, the people looked chubbier and healthier, with newer clothes and happier faces. The secnery also changed dramatically, from the dry reddish bare scenery to lush green plantations, beautiful tea estates (picture below), banana plantations, corn, etc. Looked like somepone was actually working the land and was making a decent living out of it.
We made our way slowly North with amazing and changing scenery. The small town of Iringa surprised us with a lovely busy morning, the market full of people, women of all kinds of tribes in beutiful colours shining in the sun.
We are now in Dar es Salaam (Place of Heaven) its the biggest city we have seen so far in Africa with a lot of traffick and constant construction. However, amid the rising new concrete buildings (quite ugly...) are hidden nostalgic 18th century buildings with carved facade and tales of the past.
We will be heading for Zanzibar tomorrow, looking forward to relaxing a couple of days on the beach and plunging into 1001 night into this former sultanate. Its wealth came mostly from slave trade though, which puts an uneasy feeling...

Images...

2007-10-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

Under the waterfall

Overheating - go slower!!

Colorful...

... as the landscape.

Roadside vendors!

We did a hike through the roadside just before sunset.

That is what you get if you take the road through the Park.

Little people on the roadside...

Elephants and missionarries

2007-10-02T00:43:00.000-07:00

Obviously elephants :)

Elephant fight

Hipo-hipo-hipo

View from Livingstonia down to lake Malawi

After leaving the lake once again we headed to another real Africa adventure, elephant spotting :). We drove with our little sirence car (white bulgarian cheese) into the park shortly before sunset to see a large heard of elephants not even 100m away from us, not a care in the world. It was a fantastic welcome! Soon it was time to go and the heards slowly went down to the water and away into the forest, right in front of our eyes! When the show was over, we made a fire and cooked our food. It was now 7.30 pm and completely dark! The unfamiliar noises of wildlife were rather disturbing. The night was lit by an almost full moon and beautiful. In the morning we rose at 5.30 am to a beautiful sunrise and off we went on a walking safari, we saw hippos, kudus, bush barks and all kinds of other small animals. Then we came back and had breakfast, what a way to start the day.

Livingstonia was our next spot, where we spent a great couple of days walking and enjoying the scenery. The town was established by Catholic missionaries high up in the mountain to flee from malaria. It has the only stone house in the country and apart a place of great beauty is inspiring with the will and determination those people had. And the strenght of their faith...

We had decided to skip the Nyka Plateau and head for Tanzania!

2007-09-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

Jakarandas, my new favourite trees

The street market in Nkhata Bay

Sunset on Lake Malawi

Across lake Malawi

2007-09-24T02:27:00.000-07:00

Here we are in Nkhata Bay, it’s a small but lively port town on the Northern end of lake Malawi and here we are back online again! You, probably like us, have realised we will not be able to keep the same rate of writing and posting pictures on the blog as we did from South East Asia :( but we will still do our best to share with you our trip, images and emotions from Africa.
After spending two wonderful weeks in Lilongwe with Barbara and Roberto we had a chance to experience all kinds of aspects of their young ex-pat life. We had wonderful dinners and barbeques, great parties and lazing at the lake, long conversations about development… and we also had memorable experiences that will stay with us forever: teaching English and Maths (you can guess who did the math part ;)) to children in an orphanage, visiting a refugee camp near Lilongwe which hosts people from all over Africa, some having been there for the last ten years and not much chance of going somewhere else… Someone said that Africa is joy and sadness at the same time and no matter how hard you try you cannot miss either.
After we sadly had to say good bye to Lilongwe we spent a day at the Mua Mission http://www.kungoni.org/chamare.htm, established by a rather flamboyant and controversial catholic priest who conducts baptisms wearing a leopard skin as a sign of incorporating the local traditions into Christianity, apparently a process known as ‘inculturation’. He has gathered the most comprehensive and amazing compilation of local traditions, songs, tales, as well as masks and dancing costumes, which give a deep ethnographic insight into Malawi and its people.
From there we went down to the lake again and took the famous ILALA, one of the last Great African Steamers that were going on the Great Lakes, it took us on a wonderful three day trip on lake Malawi, which we enjoyed to the full with long strolls on the deck, fun with interesting people, jumping in the water at ports and great chambo (the fish in lake Malawi) and mashed potatoes.
We will stay one more day here and tomorrow we will move further on north towards the Nyka Plateau and Mwaza Park where we hope to experience another wonder of Africa, its wild life! They promise us hippos, elephants, zebras, cheetahs and they even promise us we will get interested in bird-watching … (not sure about this one but we are always open to new experiences :)).

Miss you and starting to revive the old idea of the big bus of friends travelling through the world together :)

Oh yes and the car is fine :)

We are heading off tomorrow

2007-09-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

We spent already a lot of time in Lilongwe, but now it is time to head off into the countryside.

We are proud owners of a brand new Pajero *lol* which is nearly as old as I am, but we hope it will take us to Kenya without any troubles. But before we head north we want to explore the south of lake Malawi...

My first car (not entirely true = I owned 1/6 of a car in America and now it is 1/2 of this)

Friends, Yva and the car :)

One of the local mosque

I had to take a picture of this one - I saw one of these in Herat Afghanistan, in an unnamed town in Cambodia and now in Lilongwe Malawi. Next time I might as well buy one of the famous PHOENIX Bikes :)

More Africa

2007-09-16T10:11:00.001-07:00

Captions will be added later - I have to go and cook now...

Africa...

2007-09-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

I was planning to have a political incorrect /funny/ first title, but after being here
for more then a week it would not be funny any more...

Africa indeed is different.

The trip down south was already a bit special - The check in Lady in Vienna told us: I can not check you in because you don't have a Visa.
Thank God it turned out that the Malawi Embassy, the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affair and the international check in system is wrong - you can get a Visa on arrival - even as Austrian.

Our local friends then picked us up from the airport and immediately took us to the lake.
Since then we visited the city, went to a village, saw dancing, went hiking in the north and are close to buying a car.
So everything is fine, and we are slowly getting into the African way of life.

BTW Internet is slow - not the "I can't download music!" kind of slow but "I am falling asleep while I am opening a page" kind of slow. So until we figured out a way...

Casa Alexandrova...

2007-08-24T02:25:00.000-07:00

The Entrance to the Casa Alexandrova...

The main house on the estate...
One has to notice the slate roof tiles - a specialty of the region...

The barn is currently the object in the best condition ...
... and stands next to a wonderful picnic spot.

The back of the house after we cleaned away bushes, thorns and nettles for several hours.

Open plumbing is standard in the region - there is a lot of work to be done until we can enjoy a hot shower in our designer bath.

But no matter how the house looks like now, it is a beautiful, fun place. Especially in this season the many fruit trees in the garden make it a worthwhile travel. Where else can you eat biological grown fruit from the trees...

Bulgaria, oh Bulgaria

2007-08-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

After a lazy week we are back on the road again.
There are many things to do, more to see and too many people to meet.

Through a Friend of Yva we were invited to a Church opening - with lots of famous people, high ranking clerics and a lot of nice local farmers living in the unspoiled countryside near Troyan.

Perfect hospitality in a beautiful setting - Thanks John, thanks Claire!

Next stop for us were the famous 7 Lakes in the Rila Mountains.

... sexy on 2200m elevation ...

The reason of us being there was the annual festival of the white brotherhood - there where about 1000 people up there - we are one of the many tents :)

... the dancing of the brotherhood ...

... high above the lakes - not dancing of course :) ...

and there is always time for an old hobby - highest point I ever flew!

Bulgaria - once again

2007-08-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

After a long month of separation we are back together in Sofia. Many friends we saw, many decided to visit. We are enjoying our stay here as always. Good food, nice company and perfect weather.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral - Bulgarians biggest church

We did a trip to Rila Monastery - the most famous Monastery in Bulgaria. (and if I only would have time to visit one place in Bulgaria it would be here)

Another view of the main yard

Frescoes in the entrance area of the Monasteries church.

More of the Frescoes...

Frescoes in the little church down at the cemetery, where most of the people never go.

... happy after a hard day of sight seeing :)

More Pics from Vlbg

2007-07-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

Top of Diedamskopf

up to the Schreibere Sattel

Schreibere Sattel - 1526 m - my new Favorite around here

Widderstein... (not by bike :)

... over the top ...

Nomen est omen - a place called Roßstelle

Some more impressions form Vorarlberg

2007-07-06T04:25:00.001-07:00

I did some really nice MTB trips, limited only by the weather which is very "humid" reading it is raining minimum once a day on some days for 24 h.

But there is a great alternative program - Culture!

I visited the Angelika Kaufmann Exibition in Schwarzenberg and the church she painted at the tender age of 16 with her father before she became a founding member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. She was also the chick who was on the old 100 Schilling note for those who dare to remember :)
More of Angelika can be found here.

The party level here unfortunately is directly comparable to northern Pakistan - must be the mountains :) - just that the thrill of AK74s is missing.

Schönenbach - only 8km form Bizau and a hub to the mountains..

The have great "Käspätzle" there only the price level in Vorarlberg is ruining the appetite.

The Angelika Kaufmann Museum in Schwarzenberg...

The church ins Schwarzenberg

Biking in the mountains...
and btw Google Earth also works offline:)

Vorarlberg - The Wild West

2007-07-03T01:27:00.001-07:00

I promised some people to keep them updated on my solo adventures in the Wild West.
It is very idyllic here and although there is little to do the time is flying. I am finally reunified with my mountain-bike and I am using is on every possible occasion. The transportation of the bike and all the stuff I need was a bit tricky. That was the reason why I decided to bike the last 60 km through the beautiful Vorarlberg Alps and send whatever I could not carry. I admit there is a more developed route but distance and elevation difference would have been similar - so why not go for the beautiful one :)
The good thing is that distances were a lot further when I was a kid and nowadays even the trip from Langen am Arlberg to Bizau seamed like a short one.
I apologize for the bad picture quality - my phone is still my only camera.

From Langen am Arlberg up the Flexenpass

Finally up

Number two - and yes I was a lot lower in between...

Not really qualifying as a pass in this area it is still a long and steep way up.

Finally there - Bizau

Special thanks to Stefan :) for making this possible.

Vienna

2007-06-12T07:12:00.000-07:00

For those who still don't know: we are back in Europe :)
MQ today

How to get from Bangkok to Sofia

2007-06-11T07:26:00.000-07:00

2007-05-26T20:51:00.000-07:00

We are back from where we started 4 and 1/2 months ago - in the sweltering heat of Bangkok and going through our last day in South East Asia with mixed feelings.
Was it worth it? Definitely!
Are we happy to go back to Europe? Looking greatly forward!
Will we do this again? Cannot wait for our next destination!
Although in the land of the Buddha, we did not find Nirvana and we again have far more questions than answers. What we did find though is warm and smiling people, great friends, free spirits and little acts of kindness. We met people that had lost their illusions, but had kept their faith in the small person. We saw poverty, sickness and pain and we saw happiness, faith and thousands of little children and how little it sometimes takes to make a difference. We saw annoyed shopkeepers tired of stingy backpackers asking for discount and we saw boatmen looking forward to the next season when all the tourists will come back, because it means he will be able to support his family. We saw again, one cannot change the world, but can change someone else's life and we are developing some ideas about that and will let you know soon so stay with us.

Well we are off to the airport but if you are ever in Bangkok on the weekend you DEFINITELY have to go to the big Weekend market at Jatujak :))))

2007-05-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

Here we are back online again, island hopping the last weeks has once again proven to be a very time consuming activity!
After finally visiting the Angkor Wat itself on our third day in Siam Reap we were notably impressed and started a long and very painful journey to Bangkok. The bus made the first 190 km in a little bit more than five hours on the muddiest road I have ever seen in my life (if you ever need to go from Siam Reap to Thailand: Take the plane!) and then we crossed one of the most bizarre border crossings in SEA and here we were again back in good old Bangkok (I feel we have not been giving Cambodia the space it deserves and promise to get back to it any time soon!). We had a night of luxury at the Sheraton (the usual backpacker standard ;) courtesy of my dearest brother Alek and headed of to Phuket. That was a bit of a disappointment as the island is rather big and you don't really get the island fever and everything is overpriced. So we headed off to the island paradise of Phi Phi (where The Beach was shot) for a couple of days of tropical rainstorms and a couple of days of gorgeous sunshine. We enjoyed enormously the fantastic beaches, the wild monkey attacks, the Bacardi colas at Philip's (a couple of bungalows and a bar at a small unknown beach on Phi Phi), the white sand and clearest blue water and not so enormously the boat trip which turned into a survival exercise, the blood-thirsty mosquitoes and sadly the rubbish almost everywhere on the island. We them moved to Phi Phi town to get a bit of a reality shock of all the vacationers with trolleys that had populated the area. Gladly we went diving (Divers do it deeper!) among the most beautiful marine life we have ever seen (again there is a movie which some lucky few will have the pleasure to see ;)).
conversations about the After this we decided to go a bit more off beat, again, and hopped on to Koh Yao Noi. This is a very serene, calm, green and extremely friendly island, which has managed to escape the hoards of mass tourism, we enjoyed the company of Laura and Antonio and rented a beautiful house together on the shores of the splashing sea in the midst of a beautiful garden at Sabai Corner. The days went by biking around the idyllic island life, snorkeling around the islands of the National Park and lazing on the lonely beaches. Of course we also had long and enlighteningmeaning of life, the universe and everything ;) (Colin if you ever read this, it was great fun). A flight booked in a weak moment however was going to put and end to this bliss, once again we were off to Bangkok (feels almost like home now), enjoyed a buzzing night life on Koh San Road and took the train to the old capital Ayuthaya. Its unbelievable how many places there are still to see after more than two months in Thailand...

Pics

2007-05-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

Apsaras in Angkor Wat

Peter and Yva in Angkor Wat

Philip's Beach

Bamboo Island - fun fun fun...

Lon in front of Philip's Bar

more...

2007-05-19T05:12:00.000-07:00

Mermaids

Free Phi Phi !!!

Planet of the apes (on monkey beach)

Koh Yao Noi

Puppie

and more again...

2007-05-19T04:16:00.000-07:00

Laura , Antonio and Pepe in our house on Koh Yao Noi

Laura being hungry

Island trip...

Where do we go from here??

That's all folks!
For now :)

The Temples of Angkor

2007-05-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

And we have pictures again!

We are already awing away the second day of our three day visit to the Angkor temples. I will spare you all the historical, religious and mythological data, which you can get from the link above and instead follow the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words.

The terrace of the Bayon, the temple with 216 faces: is it a god, is it a king or is it someones enormous ego?! Probably all of these combined in the Khmer king Jayavarman VII

Preah Neak Pean temple once set in the middle of a lake, surrounded with four more lakes, look for the same construction in a new Las Vegas casino complex

Faces of a tower

The temples give in to the moving soil

Pres Rup temple

2007-05-02T08:12:00.000-07:00

View from Pre Rup

Stupa

Guardians at the gate of Angkor Thom

Preah Khan Temple (Sacred Sword)

The jungle taking over

2007-05-02T06:26:00.000-07:00

And even more

Stone carving of apsara dancer, found in most temples

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Here we post some unpublished pictures made during the making of Tomb Rider!

Phnom Penh and Mondulkiri

2007-04-26T22:42:00.001-07:00

We have been extremely bad at keeping you properly updated on our Cambodian travels, there is no real excuse to this... However, there is an excuse for not posting pictures and that is that out camera card seems to have a cold or a virus and we (Peter) has not been really able to find the programmes he needs to fix it, but bear with us...
We spent excessive amount of time in Phnom Penh with our dear friend Keith, doing it the ex-pat way: with car, driver, excellent steaks, home made Amok fish (traditional Cambodian dish) and Singapore slings at Le Royal (arguably the best bar in town).
But so much for luxury, we set off to the mid-East Cambodian province Mondulkiri. It was all going so well! We left Phnom Penh early afternoon and planned to arrive around 19h, conservative estimate! Unfortunately we had not planned the crack in the radiator, the flat tire, the horrendous ditches in the road up from Snoul, and a fallen apart universal joint of the drive shaft (I hope you all know what that is ;) which eventually forced us to stop in the middle of the road, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. It was another excellent opportunity to have a beer :) After some time the rescue service came (I was also surprised they actually have such things here ;) with a white Toyota that looked like it needs help itself. Well slowly but with our spirits still up we set of behind the white Toyota to cover next 30 klicks in about 2 hours. It turned out that the Toyota DID need help as it started overheating ... Eventually, we had to leave the car about 20 klicks from San Monorom (our final destination) and finished our epic journey with the Toyota taking us the final mile at about 2.30 am. And it was all going so well!
Mondulkiri has a population of about 2 people/km2, bad red roads, beautiful jungle, waterfalls and elephants. The people are mainly from different hill tribes. The capital, San Monorom is a small dusty village with one main paved road, a dirt air strip, a monument of mythical animals and, well that's about it. But it is really a very serene beautiful region with cool air, even more friendly and smiling people, laid back and relaxed atmosphere and very slow internet. They say it has a lot of potential but as far as we are concerned that road leading up to here is about the worst stretch of road we have seen in our trip so far, so as long as that is there... don't expect a large tourist influx.
We will be heading back to Phnom Penh hopefully tomorrow (if the car gets fixed...) and then of to Angkor.

P.s. Wolfgang, we did go up to Bokor Hill station, but you are officially recognised as crazy if you actually did that by bike ;)

2007-04-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Haleh this one we took especially for you :) on the roof top of the Equinox bar at THE expat party in Phnom Pen, you cannot tell but we are all dressed 80s style ;)

Cambodia

2007-04-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

Here we are already seven days in Cambodia. The beginning was a bit quick and before we realised it we had crossed half the country (stopping shortly in Kratie to see the sweetest and very rare sweet-water Irrawaddie dolphins) and there we were in Phnom Pen. Its a very lively and very pretty city with a long promenade along the Tonle Sap river, beautiful French colonial buildings (again) and really cool bars and restaurants. The international community has been very present in Cambodia since the beginning of the 90s, with very dubious results but contributing if not for much else at least to a rather exciting scene and a vibrant night life. Its very telling though, as all the foreigners are gathered in the bars and restaurants and the Cambodians are gathered on the other side of the street, as a dinner here would cost about a monthly salary for most of them.
We had a great evening with Heike starting off with some Spanish tapas and rounding off with some drinks at the FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club) watching from the roof terrace the world go by below us. We got some VIP treatment from Keith (you are great!), a former colleague of Peter who was out of town but was very kind to send us his driver who took us for two days around the major sights in the city: the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, the National Museum, a beautiful building with a lovely garden and full of Khmer statues, Wat Phnom, the hill which was established by the old lady Pen, hence the name of the city, after she found four statues of Buddha floating in the Mekong... and sadly the Toul Sleng prison, where in the period 1975-1979 thousands of peoples were tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge. Everyone who was perceived to slightly disagree with the regime and its leader Pol Pot or was just in the way of transforming the Cambodia into an agrarian society, was kept, tortured and later killed.
Sadly the whole country bears the scars of this and the consequent civil war and one just keeps thinking: Oh this place would have been so nice...

Khmer New Year 14,15,16 April (actually Buddhist New Year celebrated in the whole SEA) was starting to kick in, although we did not get as much water splashed on us as we expected, so we moved out of town towards the seaside Sianhouk Ville to cool down a bit. The beaches around here are a distant reminder of Thailand but they gave us a very colourful and lively insight into the way Khmers relax and enjoy themselves.

Sudden Lao - The Bolaven Plateau

2007-04-07T01:41:00.000-07:00

Wat Phou - the little Ankor

Transport on the Mekong is fun!

Bolaven Plateau - there are many waterfalls, coffee, bad roads one can explore.
But if you go swimming beware of the Pa Pao fish...

some waterfalls are pure magic

Southern Laos

2007-04-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

Coming into Lao we got different opinions from people that had already travelled there and most of them were rather sceptical about the south. As we went down in the main Route 13, the Mekong got bigger and the heat even more so. We sweated to the last drop of bottled water in the long bus rides along nicely paved roads, stopping every half hour to offload and upload endless amounts and diversity of THINGS, I guess it was a good way to cool the motor down as well. We passed Thakek, highly dull, sleepy and unexciting border town which had two main positive characteristics, a beautiful sunset over a full Mekong and buzzing truckloads coming in from Thailand in the morning. And on we go again on the sweating, bumpy ride, 7 hours down to Pakse which is the main city in the South. Its a nice place, with friendly customer oriented, service providing entrepreneurs: a very well English and French speaking guesthouse owner who studied in Poland "back in the days"; a friendly Indian running a restaurant, and I mean literally "running", and serving the best chicken tikka mesala around; nice local guys running an internet shop, who offer also international calls: "Hi mummy!". All in all, with the exception of Paxe, we found the people in the south equally shy and laid back as in the rest of the country, with only occasional incidents where you wonder if the language barrier is the only problem ;0) We visited the sixth century Temple of Wat Phou, a beautiful Khmer temple set in the foot of a hill dominating the whole area and similar to style and beauty but not magnitude to the Angkor temple.

We rented a motorbike and spend the last four days driving around the Bolaven Plateau. Cultivated by the French for farming because of its rich soil the plateau is amazingly undeveloped, growing mostly coffee and tea with small villages scattered along the road, pigs, chickens, smiling kids, pot-smoking old women, its all there, no deserted colonial villas though... we did not find a lost tribe but we enjoyed ourselves greatly and it was a refreshing breeze coming from the tens of waterfalls scattered around the plateau that kept us cool.

Our next destination is the 4000 islands, its an area on the border with Cambodia where the Mekong enlarges to a 14 km width where a lot of small and not so small islands emerge. We look forward to a couple of relaxing days and then we are in Cambodia.

Kong Lor cave

2007-04-07T00:23:00.000-07:00

The trip to the Kong Lor cave took us to one of the most scenic and breathtaking places that we have experienced in our SEA trip.
It was getting late, around 6pm (and dark!) and we were still driving on the dusty road in our fully loaded songtew (small local bus). The ride took us into what seemed like a very wide plain surrounded by mountains and with only a dirt strip of orange road going through it, a scenic ride indeed with the already familiar smiling child faces shouting "Sabaidee" or "Bye-bye" (both are supposed to mean Welcome :) somewhere at the end of the road the mountains rose again and hid the cave we were heading to.
It was all very nice but the further we went into the plain, the farther we went from 'civilisation' and we were getting more and more sceptical about the promised homestay for 5$. When we finally arrived one thought had firmly established itself in our minds: "We are stuck", whatever this place was we had no means of getting out of it or getting anywhere else. It was very quickly, very clear that we had a very minimal way of understanding each other with the sweet elderly man that came to greet us. And then he showed us onto the terrace of the place and a beautiful picture revealed in front of us. What turned out to be the restaurant was overlooking the Hinboun river and a scene of serene harmony between nature and man; the sun had already set and the dark was quickly folding in, the cliffs were rising high, the river was flowing quietly, like they had for millions of years; and below the villagers were fishing with fish nets around the little patches of land that had been turned into small vegetable gardens and would become river again when the rainy season came, like they had for thousands of years. We were in awe and our little 5$ hut was worth every cent of it, not to mention the green plant in the little vase. This place was great, it was like we were in the land that time forgot in a four star hotel!
The morning was as scenic and beautiful as the evening and the toast, orange jam and tea that we had for breakfast were the beginning of a great day. We declined the kind offer of the old man to take us to the cave for 33$!!! and instead decided to walk 3 km to the cave entrance and get a ride there. Although it was relatively early, around 9 am the sun was already burning as we walked towards the nearest village. Again, the insight into this poor and yet peaceful and content life was confusing, the people lived in wooden houses with very little of anything that could be called furniture but had the inevitable TV set and satellite dish, the kids were running around half or totally naked but they were there and were many, the mothers were either laying around or doing some house work but none of them was angry or stressed or depressed.
We walked further on and were finally greeted by the Boat Committee, this is where all the man we did not see in the village were, sitting around a guy with a big book who took your money and made us write our names and country in his big book, than another one took a picture with his very first-generation digital camera: it all felt a bit odd "That's the last they will see of us" we thought. Then our boat driver came and we went down to the lake and boarded the piece of wood they call a boat around here, not very stable and we had a 7+ km ride in the dark and wet cave ahead of us ...
The trip was amazing! The cave was huge, up to 90 meters wide and 100 meters high at places and about 7,5 km long, the only way in and out was on the river, we had to get on and off the boat as the river got shallow, it was totally dark with the only light coming from our and our boat masters headlamps. At some point we stopped and one of our guides took us for short walk up to the stalactites and stalagmites that had formed high up over some rocks, the sand was soft it was damp and exciting. The whole trip lasted about an hour very quiet and very dark, when we came into the daylight again it all felt surreal! The trip was a real thrill, there was so little infrastructure in this cave that it might have been a very similar trip which discovered it in the first place and we were part of it :)