...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 :)))

the world is a ZOO

You might guess where I've been next in Singapore. As the title says it already - the zoo for sure :) Was a nice place to go but not a noticeable experience at all :) I took some nice pictures but I had no "wuhuu"-experiences. So I don't need more talk about it at all.

My initial plan for Saturday was to go to a very close Island called Bintan (its in Indonesian). Actually I went up early (hell it was just 6 am) and went with some others to the ferry (which was also very close to heLL btw) I headed straight the lady for check-in and gave her my documents and then she asked me if I have already my visa for Indonesia. I didn't care at all...I just explained her that I will get in Indonesia a so called "on arrival visa"...the lady was still very nice and let me come up to a end with the explanation and then she smiled and said "I'm sorry mam, but turkey is not on the list for on arrival visa - so you need to apply for a visa before departure at the embassy. I can't check you in the meanwhile! I'm sorry!". Wtf? I asked for this suspicious list of countries which are considered for on arrival visa...actually omar, algeria, arabic states, of course european and a lot of other countries were on the list - but nooooooooooooooo TURKEY! People who know me a bit will guess that I damned the system, the non-effectiv diplomatic skills of turkey etc pp in this moment :) But no way out! Maybe the lady recognized my disappointment about not continuing the journey - she returned to me and told me that I could postpone the trip to next week and that it will take me about 1-2 days to get a visa :) Of course I took this opportunity for an additional charge of 5 SGP. So I might go this friday to Bintan - maybe I'll try to postpone it once more :) We'll see!
So I returned alone from the point of nowhere back to downtown and decided to go the zoo with the other people who decided to stay in singapore for the weekend :)
No beach for Dudu - but a nice trip to the Zoo actually and time to relax! Cuz afterwards I went to the place of Zaynab, Julie and Marie. They stay in a beautiful condo in Little India. We swam had a good talk and we ate indian food. Those who follow the blog will know that I'm not very happy with the food here in Singapore. BuT actually the indian food is really delicious buuuuuT after the dinner u're just done and all u wanna do after that is sleeping :)

So this was my startup for the term. Relaxed - easygoing :) Today I had my first two classes of the term - I loved it! All my scepsis was sooooooo unnecessary :) The lectors are nice, the topics are interesting. Love love love it!
I couldn't stop comparing all the time with vienna. I felt very sorry that we don't have that much foreign lectors at the WU. My prof of "world politics" is german and I was thinking of how lucky the asian students are because their teacher can provide firsthand information about the EU and about germany in special for them and give them the chance for a more realistic understanding of a very far away world. We use to talk about Asia in Vienna - but with Austrian Teachers - so its not that authentic as it could be with an Asian Teacher. I also felt sorry for not having that international flair in the classes. I was sitting next to some people from india, myanmar, vietnam, ... but locals not exchanges :) A very nice experience! Actually I'm seriously thinking of joining the MBA program in Singapore after getting my degree in Vienna. Back in Austria I'll start playing lottery :)

So thats all for the moment. I'm sure more impressions will follow during this week since the other classes are coming up and also the big "welcome party" in the flyer :) Take care of urself ;) GreetZ