..time to say goodbye

...5 months have come to an end. Im standing now infront gate c15 waiting for my flight to Dubai and after 13 hours of flying I should hopefully reach home sweet home Vienna. Im trying to figure out if Im happy about it or not. I guess Im bit of everything. Its definitely not the right time to go back...there are still so many people I wanted to share more moments with and there are still so many things to explore in Singapore - to learn about Singapore, about Singaporeans. Not being able to do all this things makes me feel sad, buuut theeeeeeeeeeeen comes the excitement about going back home, meeting all my lovely friends and somehow settling down and starting to be productive again. Im tired of traveling around - Im bit jaded with the a bunch of new impressions. All of them are still in progress. But the main part of the exchange people left Singapore already - and when all the people are gone - Singapore felt bit lonely! So everytime I was in Havelock it felt like "the right time to go back" - but then in the evenings when I was gathering with few people left or with local friends..it was like "nooooooooo pls...i wanna stay bit more". Gathering is fine - but if u have nothing to do during all day - like no work, no studies (and if ure too broke for shopping) - Singapore gets bit boring as well. Or maybe its because Im used to this high stressed way of living. So Im really looking forward to study seriously again :) I missed working my ass off for my courses :)) My dedication for the courses here in Singapore were not overwhelmingly impressive :) Im quiet suprised about the results...50% input, 100% output :) I wished it could work in Austria this way as well :P

...yes daaaaaarlinnng! shopping, transport, mushrooms!?

Just came back from Bali. Im bit disappointed by this trip. I expected Bali to be THE place to be. I expected the sea to be beautiful, the beaches to be great and the parties to be unforgetable. None of this. The sea and the beaches in Legian and Kuta were more or less gross. They were way to dirty to enjoy. The parties full with drunk people which were sometimes way too annoying. And it kept raining for quiet long time..for a short trip of 8 days. After seeing Koh Phi Phi Bali is really not impressive at all - more its ugly :). But I guess for all the surfer out there a nice spot...but way too overrated!!!

..no transport, no masa, no sunglasses, no boom boom..THANKS

My last long trip in South East Asia was to Vietnam. I was bit doubtful at arrival cuz all the people who came here before told me all this bad stories about the Vietnamese people and about the country in all. So we arrived in Hanoi International Airport in the middle at the night / btw im still angry why I choosed such a shitty time to go to a foreign country which supposed to be not that safe at all. I dont know where my mind was while booking. Anyway. We knew that the airport cabs cost around 15 USD - but we wanted to check if there is a nightbus to go to sapa. So we negotiated or at least we thought we were negotiating two stops for 15 usd. When we got to the bus terminal we recognized that its closed...and so we didnt get out we just wanted to continue. BuuuuT the cab driver asked for another 10 usd to drive us to our hotel. We started discussing with him our initial negotiation. But he spoke not one single word english. So I managed to make him call his boss at the airport..and after arguing with him for half a hour on the phone, he accepted to bring us to our hotel. So this was not a nice welcome to Hanoi at all. The city itself was bit scary. All the men offering transport all the time...and being dropped off in the middle of the centre without knowing where to go..was not the best introduction :) But we managed to find a place to stay and also a place to eat. Not the best food!! Vietnamese food is again not my taste at all :) We also booked straight ahead our first tour to Halong Bay. The bus took off the next morning at 7...around 10 am we were in Halong City and got to the Ferry to Halong Bay. It was freaking cold in Halong City and more in Halong Bay. The fog, the wind and hunderds of ferrys in this bay..was amazing to see. Somehow mystic as well. Very nice experience. Tough i was freezing...i really enjoyed every second of this trip. The night after our day trip to halong bay we continued our trip with SAPA. We took the nighttrain to Sapa, which takes around 10 hours. Since we are economic backpackers we of course took the seats and not the sleepers. But was comfortable tough. My plan to prepare for my upcoming exams during this ride was of course also not that successful. We slept :) With one eye open because we were afraid that our stuff could get stolen. We arrived in SAPA quiet early. Right after check-in, breakfast we did a 6 hour hiking with 2 villages to stop by. There are several minorities living in SAPA (which is btw quiet in the north of hanoi), and you can distinguish the different minorities from different villages by their head clothing. Different tribes have different colors our different way of wearing their traditional clothes. They followed us during the whole walk..trying to make friendship so that we buy things at our final destination. They try to manipulate your buying decision by using their sweet voice "you may buuuy this fromm meeee". :) They are all really very lovely. Even tough its a lot of show behind all this. But their way of smiling right into your face is, I believe, really honest. After Sapa we really had a exhausting trip back to hanoi and in hanoi things got even worse. We arrived again very early..and in hanoi everything is dead at 6 am. We had a hard time to find somewhere to sit and have a cup of coffee...when we found a place...all of us were so damn tired that we just ordered something but then forgot about drinkin cuz we felt asleep :))) crazy...we had to kill around 8 hours till we could fly to ho chi minh - so we changed from restaurant to restaurant :) The ones with WIFI were the prefered ones :)

So we arrived the night in Ho Chi Minh and this city appeared to us much nicer than Hanoi. I dont know maybe its because we got used to the system and so we didnt had a culture shok anymore like we did have in Hanoi. Anyway we got to this backpacker area and the day after we went to a wonderful trip to Mekong Delta. A lovely place. You're always on the water..driving along the lovely houses on the rivers crusing through this "islands". Very very nice! Since we just had four days in the South..we went to Mui Ne with the NIghtbus right after our Mekong Delta Trip. Mui Ne is actually just about Sand dunes, red and white ones. Its crazy how this country is build. On the one side in the north there is this green paradies with rice fields and

mountains...then in the south there are this wonderful beaches and then sand dunes like in a dessert. A great diversity. I was not aware of this since I got back from vietnam. Cuz once youre there..its exhausting. You cant be laidback and see what happens. You always have to be

careful..especially in the big cities there is not a lot space where you can just relax. But if I look on this country and on my trip from the distance...its really a great place to go. and there is so much more to see still!! Im looking forward to go back...SOOON!

Thats the second time Im writing in/from a thai city. This time the exchange fever brought us to Bangkok. Obviously its a must-go in South East Asia. So nice the beaches and islands of thailand might be, the cities are definitely not :) This might be due to this huge amount of dirt and mostly because of the Thai People self. I don't feel like they are the most friendly people out there and definitely not the honest ones. Even when making business with you most of them are not friendly and almost all of them try to cheat on you. I was really annoyed by bargaining and even more when taking cabs. You have to insist on using the taximeter but in most cases you have to repeat this twice or even several times and sometimes the cab drivers just drive away. But you really need to insist on otherwise the probability to pay a higher price is more likely. The same thing is with Tuk Tuk. I think as a tourist you really should avoid taking TukTuks. First of all they never bring you to the place you want immediately. They always stop in one or more shops where they get commision for bringing in people. They don't care if you wanna go there or not. They just do what ever they want! Sometimes they offer you free ride just to make you accept and mostly they get mad at you when you don't buy something in the stops. Its crazy. Taking the cab is more safe in that way – but keep in mind to insist on the taximeter!!

Whatever. Our residence for the first four days was great tough. We stayed in Prince Palace in Saphao – a huge hotel with great facilities for such a good price. Unbelieveable. We really enjoyed this kind of accomondation after craby hostels all over South East Asia :))) Today is the last day and since some of us took the flight for today I moved to another place. Judy and me took a hostel in Soi Rambutri in Khao San Road – this is the backbacker heaven. People from all over the world and all of them are packed with their backpacks :) its amazing! Its definitely another face of Bangkok – a more lovely one btw :) The accomondation itself was a downgrad of 300 Prozent compared to Prince Palace with spiders and all those things which makes a backpackerheart go crazy :)) I have to admit that Im still not backpacker enough to enjoy those craby places but Im trying hard. And as we can see I survive everytime :)))
Bangkok is these days very popular. Whole world is looking on the protest against the new

goverment. The pro-Takhsin people protest the government and claim them for cheating and breaking the democracies. Whatever. Its not as bad as it appears from the TV. The famous places like the area around victory monument and democracy monument are full with people who wear red shirts. They eat, sleep, protest, bargain, sing, drink, party there all this time. Crazy. They sleep in their tents – hang out their clother to dry on the trees and take a shower on the street :)) But most of them were really nice. They were happy to see some western people and were really eager to take pictures with us and more to let us take pictures of their posters. I guess they are really into this and they really want the world to know about their message so we were a good opportunity to bring the message out to others probably.
Regarding sightseeing we were really on a shortcut. The city is so exhausting and going to one place takes so much time that doing more than 2 things in a day is almost impossible. We went to the Golden Mount and to the Golden Palace which are definitely the most-goes of Bangkok.

Golden Palace is so amazing big and so colorful – its impressive how much defined work it must have cost to build this „little town“. After this two station we also took a boat trip. The canals of Bangkok are btw the most convenient and fastest way to get along in this city. But you really need to be fast. The boat will not wait for you to get off – either you make in few seconds or the boat is gone and you might miss you stopp. The possibility of missing the stopp is really high cause the boats are full and sometimes getting out of it will take some more seconds..but this is not their business I guess :)
Beside shopping and little sightseeing we did a lot of party (maybe thats the reason why we couldn't do a lot of sightseeing). In case of parties bangkok was really a great place. Beside the exaggerated clubs like Bed Supperclub there are also some hidden ones. You shouldn't rely on Tuk Tuk Driver who take you to those. :)) The first night we were in a very suspicious club because the tuk tuk driver told us this is the best club :)) No it wasn't the best. My favorite ones were definitely Scratcydog and Narcisso – both open till 5 which is quiet rare because clubs around here close usually around 2. There is also this great street called RCA – which a lot of chillout-bars and live music but again closes very early. :)

All in all Bangkok was Fun and tough there is a lot to do and to see I wasn't so impressed at all. I guess its about the people and also the fact that prostitution and this stereotypes of western men with young thai ladies and also a lot of with young thai boys made me feel uncomfortable. I guess that the outback of Thailand is much nicer – like the islands are. But the touristic big cities couldn't catch me at all.

Just came back from Hong Kong. After weeks of travelling somewhere in the mountains or countryside - arriving in such a big city was really different :) I mentioned maybe before that I really enjoy big city - so I did Hong Kong :) The chaotic design of the city (actually more it looks like there is no design at all) and the hectic way of living - love it! The skyliner were amazing. We went up to the

peak view point and had a great view to the harbour...wow! just breathtaking!

Its propably not the most ecologic city :)...the lights are never turned off - never sleeping - everyday 7/24 action in this city :) I would love to know how much energy they need :))

The last day I was alone in this huge city and I enjoyed that even more. I had my own shedule doing what ever I wanna do and in fact there is a lot to do in this city. I don't even mention the shops - I think stayin there for an exchange would definitely be my ruine...I thought singapore is crazy in shopping matters..no..hongkong is worse :)) Anyway I think HK is definitely more exciting than Singapore. It is more lively, more colorful, and not that "perfect". There is way much more creativity in this city than in singapore where sometimes everything is too straight forward. I hope I can go once again at the end of my exchange :)

...its almost 5 am and Im waiting for the girls to wake up so that we can take the cab to the busstation and then the bus to the CLARK AIRPORT in Angeles close to MANILA.
Past 8 days were almost all this kind...we arrived...took a bus...got off...took a hostel...took a tricycle...took a jeepney...took a bus :)) never slept that long in my life...everytime I got into a bus I felt asleep..even in the tricycles hahaha...that was fun..I felt asleep while the ride...and woke up few min after arriving back in our hostel in banaue hahaa...so fun..when I opened my eyes the tricycle was surrounded by 10 or more guys looking and laughing at me :))))
So we arrived 8 days ago in Manila low bugdet Airport Clark and took directly a nightbus from Baguio to Banaue - was quit a long exhausting ride! But we survived. We got there around 7am I think - found a "nice" place to stay for very good price and after resting for 1 hour we took our first trip in the Phillippines. We went to Bantan / it was an exhausting Hiking-Trip of 6 hours. We went to the rice fields and then I went down with the guide to a waterfall...the girls decided not to go...but I don't know why I was very enthusiastic of hiking :) maybe because I didn't think about the way back...cuz this was just struggling then :)))) but proud to say: I made it! I think it was more or less 30 km walk - but very steep! The rice fields we have been to are btw one of UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE PLACES...if u go there u will understand why! So impressive...this giant terraresses made by humans almost 2000 years ago. Actually they were discovered very late in 1995 - I think by americans. Why so late? Maybe because its really at the end of nowhere without road connections - in the mountains! After this exhausting trip we - especially me - needed a rest so we went early to bed - was not really hard work cuz at 9 in Banaue everything is closed and the day is done :)

The day after we took a jeepney to Sagada - to the northern part of luzon. Great feeling to ride

ON the jeepney . Was bit scary - but great tough! U may can imagine that the roads there are not the best ones...so the ride was a rollercoaster feeling :)) We met 3 nice filipinos - working for the government in the women empowerment department..so nice guys like all filipinos we met in the north :) great folk...so lovely, kind, friendly, open and honest :) In Sagada we continued our exhausting hiking-trip :) The first day we went to the caves. In the past they used the caves for the coffins - this was the last rest place. You still can see the coffins - some of them are older then 200 years! the last one was brought in the 80s I think. The caves were beautiful, but scary

as well. It was not always a easy walk down. You have to pass big stones, rock formations and struggle through very small holes :) But then u get the a place with water terrasses...impressive!!! its like the underworld version of pamukkale...great!!! We then went to the rice fields again and theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen to a beautiful waterfall. There were only kids - and I have to admit that i was really jeaulous - they have a playground like this to grew up on. Thats amazing. How used they were - wow...each of them was jumping in and swimming and climbing on the rocks...even the youngest ones :) great! The water was freezing btw !! but the kids enjoyed :)

After this trip it was time to leave :(( I really loved Sagada. The silence, the good air, the friendly lovely people...such a lovely peaceful place! amazing. BuuuuuuuuuuT after Sagada we arrived in

VIGAN - the northest destination of our trip. Sagada was lovely...but Vigan - undescribable. Such a authentic, so romantic, so lovely great place! As usual we had no rezervation for a hotel - so we just got off the bus and had a look in the city without having a plan. but we were lucky - we met a filipina and she took us to a hotel she stayed before. GREAT one!! Infront our hotel there was this nice restaurant called "dos meal restaurant"...healthy food - but more interesting great staff :) they invited us for having some drinks afterwards - was really fun. The next day they organized a birthdaycake for me and balloons...I didn't expected so much regard from foreign people. Great. I think those people were the main factor of our trip. We really met filipinos and talk to them - asked them a lot. It was not a touristic trip to some

lovely places, to the nice beaches - no we really went to the people. And I m really happy about...cuz all the people we met were so nice, so kind. The women from the restaurant cried when I left and said goodbye and gave her a hug - thats so incredible!! And it was so honest. ah!

Our next intention was to go to the hundred islands. we were told that the trip by bus will last at least 4 hours. But after 4 hours we were still not there. We kept on asking..and always got the answer "almost there, almost there" :)) then 10 hours were gone and we were still not there...so we decided to stay in the bus and go driectly to manila. I was bit afraid of Manila cuz we heard so

many bad stories about this city. When we did a little citytour on us own...I didn't like the city at all. I couldn't live there. We took a carresa (carriage) for a trip and this turned out to be a nightmare. The driver seemed to be very nice - but at the end he was a psycho - turning mad for money. He wanted to charge us 2500 pesos for a ride which is worth max. 400 pesos. We refused to pay and then he got angry. He refused to let us go before we pay. And threaten us. Veronika managed to get off and then he really got mad and wanted to drive away with zaynab and me in the cab. wow...I was so scared. I start screeming at him and gave him some money

and told him that we don't have more. after I got off - I continued screeming on him like "thats not nice - not fair" hahaha I think he really don't care about that :)))) But the moment when he

grabbed my hand and refused to let us get off the cab - I was sooooooooo scared - I hated Manila :)))) But then we went to Oldtown - and there we went to a lovely place called Barbara's...helped

us to calm down. It was not the money - it was his madnes which drove me crazy. I can live with being overcharged but being threatened is really not what I expected. But 1 single bad experience in 9 days - is a good quote for such a huge country - so therefore I don't mind. AT the end we even enjoyed this crowded dirty city manila. I think Philippines is my N* 1 trip of all trips so far and very hard to outbid :)

...long time no see :)

heLLo everybody,

I haven't been bloggin for a "long" time now for just one reason: everyday life in singapore :) after two months I think we all reached some kind of this monotony of everyday life here in singapore. So when Im not travelling there are no more overwhelming experiences I wanna share :) I still love being here - and now things getting more familiar to me I love it even more. But unfortunetely getting used to things effect my inner desire to write about things I see and hear around.

But just to keep some of you guys updated about the stuff going on here, here a short upgrade. University is getting more and more real in this whole exchange experience :) But Im one of the lucky ones - my courses are not that hard...but sometimes challenging tough!...I had a "debate" last week - not fun! really not fun! Im confident with having debates in german but not when it comes to english :) Was quite challenging and not my best performans of all times :) but never mind!...show must go on..after recess week (which is from 21 - 28th Feb) is the second debate..so hope I can compete better then :)

Last week Ive been to Muse concert here in Singapore. GREAT! I really loved it! I think for the first time I really missed my friends a lot!! I know that being with them on this concert would be gorgeous. So I was bit sad about this fact :) But fun tough. A lot of fun. All this asian guys going crazy hahaha I love it!

After Bintan I stopped travelling for a while :) Cuz I needed to focus on School and also on my budget. Therefore I deserved the upcoming weeks full of travelling :) Im looking forward to Vietnam for 10 days in the recess week - I suppose this gonna be one of the "top 3" travels of this exchange. So I think after this trip or even while this trip I will have a lot of things to post here and to tell you about :) Im totally excited.

EDIT: Plans changed :) No Vietnam in the Recess WEEK!! I got a msg from the vietnamese agency which provides e-visa to travelers: Sorry, we really want to arrange visa for you to earn money with you but we cannot because our business license not cover for your country :)) Since the embassy is closed for CNY reasons I can't look for another solution. Never mind, so I just postponed my Trip to Vietnam for one month - I'll be there hopefully End of March! Recess Week is time for PHILLIPPINES!! Im sure thats gonna be great to!! my bday is comiiiiiiiiiiiing :( 1st time without friends around! sad! but never mind..phillippines will be consolation in that case :)))

So till then...take care! enjoy urself!

...lonelyplanet...lonelyisland

greetings from bintan / indonesia

while writing im waiting for my cab which should be here in around 15 min to bring me to the ferry station at bintan ressorts. bintan is an island of indonesia. honestly I didn't like it here that much more i would say it was/is a waste of money. nothing to do at all. the sea is not beautiful. for me it was a we off to prepare for the smu/week. and to get a teint but i wouldn't pay that much money once again for just this kind of trip. if u are alone here u can't move to the other islands that easy cuz its a) too expensive to so and b) i didn't feel very safe alone. I was in the city on my own...and i didn't feel that comfortable with that. the majority of the people out there were men and all of them kept on starring at me and talking to me in bahasa. maybe it was because I looked lost or something and they just tried to help me..haha thats the optimistic view to things ;) anyway let me tell u something about bintan. bintan is a very close island (1 hour from tanah merah ferry station singapore) to singapore and is probably the favorite destination for all singaporeans who are sick of the big city life and who wanna enjoy sun, great beaches and the high value service. So u might guess right...the majority is rich and business people..the stereotyp of a real singaporean :) people use to ask me if Im rich when they see my singaporean student pass :)) anyway...I didn't enjoyed all this things..cuz after kho phiphi the beach was not beautiful, the water to shallow..so no way to swim! U could walk at least 1 km without ur knees getting wet!!

So most of the time I spent at the pool doing nothing than reading, doing some prepare work for mondays classes and having small talks with the people around.
The other half of the day I spent with thinking about a handful girls who were covered with hajibs. I don't know why but I felt angry with their dad and mums. I mean...what could justify this hajib for children who not older than 5 years? I tried really hard to think as an strong muslim but no way out. There is no reasonable sense in doing that. I mean...this kids should be kids in a very neutral way...by imposing them wheels you make them aware that they are more than children...that they are women! So that all they are burden with this huge responsibility of being a women in such a patriarchic society. They are not discriminated because of their ha-jib by other children or people..but I'll lay odds on them throwing it away if they could and just keep on playing with their brothers like normal kids do. I don't get the point of this urgency for making from children little women! Wtf?...Let them enjoy their anyway limited freedom of being nothing more than a child without any obligations set from the society. I would love to ask this women who btw was also covered from head to toe why in hell she is doing that with the kids. I would go for it when it comes to a women - I can understand and tolerate but in case of children all my logical sense for this ideology is out of order.

I can't get it! And I definitely know that this is not that kind of Islam I believe in!! If someone should proof me that "THIS" is the right one - I rather would convert to another timbuktulululu religion than accepting this as the most adorable way of living - not when it comes to the point of children!

So to sum up Bintan-Islands was boring, teaching, relaxing in all! I liked the kidness of the people around but all in all not the best trip ever!

take care

same same but different

..while Im writing my blog Im possible in one of the nicest places to work on something or write about something or to read...Im on koh lanta an island close to koh phi phi one of the most famous islands in Thailand. Great here! Luv it. Though its peak season / there are not that much people. compared to koh phi phi there is nobody at all. the whole beach is reserved for the five of
us :) great feeling. (that was there..now Im back again and have just my room to continue with the blog) The sea is also beautiful - for me maybe a bit too rocky :) but never mind.
we arrived on wednesday night to a very suspicious time in phuket - also a very suspicious city with suspicious lookin cab drivers :) thx got we managed to get a hostel although it was very late...was not the best but also not the worst choice ever :) Hotel called On-On-Hotel - choosen from the LonelyPlanet! The district was not refreshing at all. Everything seemed to be dirty and I must assume I was a bit scared about the people at the reception. Normally u hand in your ids when checking in..but not here..he didn't ask for nothing...just for th emoney :)...the room itself..okey not in a bad situation..but "nice, clean" is something different :)
It was just for one night - so we just took it and prayed to god that everything shall be better next days in pp and koh lanta!
we took the cab to the port very early next day...first destination was koh pp from there we were supposed to move on with another ferry to koh lanta! from phuket to kohlanta around 4 hours I think. But on boat I lose all my sense for time. Great to lie there and look to the horizont and the interplay of forces between the boat and the waves..just greaT!
In Koh Lanta we checked in another hotel than we booked online :) We were told that the one we booked is very outside and too far away from the beach - so we just followed a lady tó another place :) We got 2 bungalows for 5 people..and there we go. We just passed our stuff and went down to the beach..impressive to see the beach so empty..such huge...so beautiful...but empty :) was happy about it...don't like crowded beaches! After hanging around in the sun, having lunch and swimming bit...we experienced the THAI MASSAGE! wohuuuuuuu..great thing guys! never felt that good after a massage...just pitty that we decided to take the massage so close to the sunset..cuz when I was lying on the bench and trying to relax...all the fckn mosquitos came out their holes and disturbed me :) not fun! but even tough..great great great!
Then 3 of us (who had the massage) got almost lost..while we were getting our massage it got very dark - and finding back to our hotel was not fun :))) We walked walked...passed the hotel went back :)) It felt like looking for a place in the middle of nowhere which doesn't exists at all. I was looking for a minimarket which I thought was straight next to the entry of the hotel - the girls for other indices :)) ahhaa not fun that second..but afterwards its stupid and funny :)
The dinner introduced thai food to us..andddddddddddddddddd I love it! so delicious! the vegetables..the rice...the mushrooms...the chicken..and all of them not fried..not full of oil...boah...:) for my part I was really over the moon...haha that was the heaven after all this weeks with the fried food over here :)))
After dinner we set off for a huge party at the focus bar. But how to find a bar u've never seen bevor without any signs?...:) we could have take a cab (tuk tuk)..but noway..they looked more suspicious than the evil darkness of the night :)) so we kept on walking...ended up in the garden of a hotel and thx god we met a very kind concierge. He drove us all one by one with is little motorbike to the place we wanted to go. Haha we got to the FORCE BAR but no HUGE party far and wide :)) just a little one with fire show...nice tough! but Im not sure if that was worth to struggle that way through the night :))
The next day we went to the eliphant farm and had a ride on them. Great feeling. But afterwards we saw them bound with chains..Ive no idea if eliphant farms are ethic or not..on the one hand..no way..no ethic! but on the otherside..Im so glad that I had the opportunity to ride one! great experience to be so close to one!..I used to love them always but now I love them even more :)) This fantastique ride was followed by a little introduction into the art of producing rubber! There are a lot of gum trees around..and they produce so stuff for cars (no idea how to call them). for one "matress" u need 3 cups (made from coconuts) of fluid gum! no idea how long it takes to collect all this fluid! the cubs are not very big but it takes quite long...my mum always says "lakes can arise drop by drop" (not sure if u can say that like this..acutally its a very famous turkish saying and means more or less "from less make more" :) ) By the way Koh Lanta is the place where the movie "The beach" was shot.
After we left Koh Lanta and took our ferry to the party island number one KOH Phi Phi (PP). The surroundings looked quite promising. Also in Koh Phi Phi we had troubles to get to our booked hotel :) We found out that the place we were supposed to go - was the worst place ever..so we changed once again our mind..and went to another hotel. We pretended to be just 3 people - and booked for one - but all 5 of us stayed in a hotel..there was plenty space for all us..I don't know why we can't do that officially..but thats the way it goes..just one extrabed in case of more people :) I was scared that we could be catched..but everything was okey :) We managed that also very good! haha at the end..we got a fantastique hotel with a great view and a poooooL...for no money viewed in this light. PP self was fun..great place to shop..to party but not to stay at the beach. We took a boat trip the second day..and it was awesome. Our first stop was "monkey beach" where monkeys are supposed to be - but we saw none of them :) the sand there was unbelieveable...never been to a beach like this before! great water..great sand...great area!...after that we did some snorkeling..was afraid at the beginning..cuz I have always this respect when jumping into unknown waters..but from the second i got in and had a look...wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...I can't describe it. The variety of fishes...the corals...the interaction between fish and corals and all the other little tiny animals in there...wow! just incredible! Im so sad that I experience that so late and not long before...when I went so many times to the sea!
After snorkeling we moved to Maya Bay - also a great place...especially the water..wow...turquoise in its perfect purity! Followed by Bamboo Island. A natural reserve with a great landscape. The silence there was impressing...never saw such a place. this is the place of the question "what would u take with u on a lonely island" :) What followed is just party also in its purity :PPP :)

On sunday we left for Phuket. We checked in our new hostel called "sunwest" next to pink lady a stew :))) Lucky us...was a nice place again! After checkin we set off for dinner and after thatsome guys had a "great" idea...going to the ping pong show. Naive as I am I haven't heard about this show before..no idea what it might be...I supposed it might be a striptease show...but then I got a little introduction...and even tough I was thinking of play of ping pong balls...no its not! it was the most disgusting thing I've ever been to!!! The whole beach area is really "disgusting"...all u can see are women waiting for some tourists to hang out. A lot of stereotypes of "big white men" with money and lot more! Looks like
all people are having fun..but Im quite sure that the majority is forced to work there..cuz they are not provided with other opportunities to make money. But maybe for some of them this is the easiest way to money...although I fear it isnt...hanging out with this kind of disgusting guys is definetely not "easygoing" at all...but no idea at all!.


So that was my trip to Thailand...the second trip out from singpore! Looking forward to Bintan/Indonesia this weekend. Have to check my visa tomorrow.

Take care people ;)
luv

...jungle drum!

..the last two days I spent in the middle of nowhere straight in the jungle and it was just awesome. Veronika, Zainab, Lucie, Sofia and me were at Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. We just had two days to discover everything but it was fulfilling at all. I loved it! We went there by bus and it took us about 9 hours but it was more fun than I thought it could be. The buses here are very comfortable and so even this 9 hours were fine with and I didn't recognize how fast the time flew :) We had dinner in little india and then we started our trip from beach road with the bus line konsortium – heading Tanah Rata – Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. At the pass control I was shivering because I was afraid hearing a „mam – you are not allowed to enter without visa“ hehe..but this time I double-checked everything so actually there was no need to bother at all :) Anyway...I tried hard to get some impressions from the bus drive..but despite all my effort I felt asleep and woke up only for the stops and finally at the border to Cameron Highlands.
So our final destination was Tanah Rata – a small town located in Cameron Highlands. Very quite, very small, and full of stuff which strawberry pics on them and full of banks + 1 Starbucks + 1 KFC! Against all idialism I had a coffee at starbucks..hehe I'm sorry guys but there is a lack of local good espresso – sooo hope ur sense of „political correctnes in case of enjoying asian stuff in asia can forgive me“! ;) Anyway...after arriving we headed right away our hostel called „Daniels Lodge“. Very nice place – but only for the few seconds u stand infront of it...once u get in and see your doss its totally disgusting :) Okey disgusting might be some kind of excessive but sleeping in a mixed „dirty“ dorm next to a 60-year old man who aspirates sounds all night long is not fun. This place was really messed up! But thanks got the people there were very nice. We met some very nice guys and had long chats with them soooo the time in this mixed sleeping area was very limited to the minimum :)))) One of the guys we met was from Myanmar. Very interesting background. He flew from Myanmar because of the strict military regime and he is some kind of a rebel in their view cuz he complains and critizes the regime! So he flew from his home, parents, friends five years ago. He left his education, his secured future and his quite comfortable life behind to end up in malaysia as an worker in a electricity company with no legal legitimation so no rights to claim good working conditions no right to claim for equal payment etc! He told me that he sometimes feel very angry about himself for the decision of making some choices whether being with or against the system he was used to live in. Mostly when it comes to the point of education. He almost had his degree before leaving..and now...he has nothing at all...somehow he doesn't exist for the legal world cuz he has no permissions to live in malaysia, work in malaysia or somewhere else. Getting the status of a refugee is quite hard job. He told me that it is frustrating to work side by side with people who have no education at all and being aware of your own skills but not being able to make use of them! So we have on the one side a man who would do everything for his studies – and I'm sure there are a lot of people which share his fate and on the other side we have US – those people who study without any borders and without struggles and who are used to complain all the time about how hard it is to study and all this blabla and main part searching for the easiest courses and easiest way to get to a degree. The fact that we have all this opportunities let us forget the reasonable use of this opportunities at all maybe. Sustainability is not only for the nature of proper importance – no - maybe we should learn how to study sustainable at all – how to get the maximum knowledge in a reasonable time and not the highest degree/grade in the shortest time which the tendency nowadays is. While we were planing our trips to I don't know where – he was just sitting there don't being able to say where he is going to end up. His way of life, his story and his perspektive for life is somehow a slap straigt into your face – especially if you are always surrounded by privileged exchange students who just struggle to find a common sense where to go next for travel.
Anyway...back to Cameron Highlands. Since we didn't had that much time we booked our first trip straight after arriving at the hostel. We chose the trip called „country side“ which includes a trip to the highest point of cameron highlands afterwards a trip to the tea plantage followed by a visit to a strawberry farm and butterfly house. Was quite nice. But after our second trip to the jungle..mainly redundant :) The climate in cameron highlands provide a good place for tea plantations. So all trips include also a trip to those. After a ride through the plantations they bring you to the Tea House BOH where you get a short guided tour in their old factory (which is now just set up for the turists) and then you can enjoy a cup of tea at the terrace of the tea house with a glorius view to the surrounded tea plantations.
Our second trip was a fullday trip (from 9am to 6 pm) to the jungle, tea plantation again and to the time tunel (history of cameron highlands, some pics of old times when british army was there, …).
The most impressive part was of course the jungle. We first visited a indigenous people in their jungle. Our instructor told us that the malay goverment offered many times to those people living in valeys of the jungle to settle down in the cities. Some of them accepted but after a short time they went back to their villages because they couldn't manage the noise and also the way of life there. He also told us that the indigenous people are not used to work all the time. They just work when money is needed...as soon as the requested amount is gained they skip working! We took some photos of children there. I'm not sure if it is very „ethic“ to take pics of children and stare at them like staring at monkeys. Actually thats their home and we go there and behave like we are in a zoo and take pics of them. But I couldn't stop it. I wanted to take this impressions with me and somehow transfer this to others and just keeping it in your mind and describing won't help even tough also pics don't tell you their story at all. After our visit in this village we got to our truck and tried to make our way to the biggest flower on earth – called RAFFLES FLOWER! It grows at the end of nowhere in the middle of the jungle – 2 hours walk up – and then 2 hours walk down :) Was fun at all. I enjoyed it! Seeing the mentioned flower was not spectacular for me..but the walk up/down and then the swim session in the waterfalls...just awesome! I could take this trip once a week :)))
So this was my first trip outside from Singapore...I suppose I'll go to Malaysia once or several times more to do more backbagtrips :) It is nice there and now I now a bit more what useful things u should take with you to make your trip easier :) I'm curious about Thailand - Phuket and Khoi Phi Phi – Im sure that its going to be fun at all – beach- sea – sun – people – lot of party hehe a great contrast to those days in cameron highlands :)))