Massah?

I wonder at which point we should have realized it. When we entered the hotel through a rather unwelcoming hallway? When we were asked if we want the regular or VIP room? Probably latest when we were led into small, separate and dimly lit rooms. And absolutely latest when the guy asked me giggling "Beautiful girl?"
I replied "No, just regular massage!" But it was too late.
There is no need to describe the lady that came  after a few minutes. I decided to wait until just before the happy ending part before cancelling the whole thing. A once in a lifetime experience with no need to be repeated.

The motorbike tour through the highlands was great! I met Hai again with whom Johannes and I did a similar tour during the round the world trip. I was very happy to see him again and the tour was - again - fantastic! This time, we rode the motorbikes ourselves, a very different (and thrilling) experience. Some pictures are already in the gallery.

Now there's only one and a half days left. We've already done the most important sightseeing (Cu Chi and Mekong) here in HCMC. So let's just relax and have a tasty coffee!

Nha Trang

Nha Trang has become a Russian "satellite city" recently. Menus and signs are sometimes written only in Russian and even Vietnamese will talk to you Russian. Apparently there are nonstop flights from Moscow to Nha Trang.
We finally got the beach, heat and sun we were looking forward to so badly here! The beach is beautiful though full of tourists. I took a run along the beach and discovered that the southern end is almost deserted - a perfectly quiet place to relax!
Our bargaining skills improve day by day. There is almost nothing that cannot be bargained: hotel today 15$ -> 12$, fruits 40 kVND -> 30, beer at the beach 30 kVND -> 20.
We met Hai today - the man who guided Johannes and me through the highlands during our round the world trip 7 years (!) ago. We'll do a similar highland tour starting tomorrow morning, yippee :)

Climate

To be honest, we didn't expect it to be as cold as it is - although we're prepared for even snow since we wanted to trek Fansipan.
Sa Pa in the north was really cold, as already mentioned. Felt like about far below 10 degree C sometimes but there was surely a big deal of humidity chill effect.
Hanoi got quite chilly too during the night making a sweater necessary.
Now that we're already south of the "Wolkenscheide" (north of Da Nang) which separates north an south Vietnam we expected it to be at least at lot warmer here. We were wrong.
Tonight we're taking the sleeping bus to Nha Trang. The weather forecast predicts about 30 degrees maximum :)
By the way, it's apparently Buddhist New Year today!

Toilet Paper?

No need for that anymore! We got used to the "Asian way". I know it seems really awkward to wash one's butt with a naked hand and water at first but after some practice it's as normal as brushing teeth. Besides, billions of Asians can't be that wrong, can they?
We're lying around in our room in Da Nang right now, digesting some delicious seafood (a grouper). We spent the last days trekking through mountain villages near Sa Pa. It was freaking cold there (it might even snow) but we enjoyed the trek as well as the company of our local guide "Sue" (at least that's how her name sounds). We stayed at the local people's houses so we got a little insight into their simple housings.
Typing on the mobile sucks, so I'll stop now. Check the pictures if you haven't already - I'm updating the album constantly!

Hanoi

Vietnam seems astonishingly up-to-date concerning communication technology. At least here in Hanoi, mobile data connection works perfectly (with a 550000 VND [1 Euro ~ 28000 Dong] SIM Card, 60 min international calls included). Therefore, you can expect picture updates in the Vietnam 2.0 Album at any time.
We went to the water puppet theater yesterday evening. If you ever come to Hanoi, skip that.
Concerning traffic: We saw a T-Shirt that describes usual behavior very good (although there are actually very few traffic lights at all). It shows a traffic light and indicates 'red' "I can walk", 'yellow' "I can walk" and 'red' "I can still walk". Also sounding the horn is very common and totally different in its meaning compared to home. A honking Viennese car driver might think "ARE YOU NUTS!?! GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY YOU STUPID BASTARD!" while a Vietnamese car driver or motorbike rider is usually more like "Hm I think I should blow the horn in order to warn those guys that I'm coming. Dim dudeli doo, hmm, hmm. Uh, thanks for giving way!"
Try Koto Restaurant at Hanoi (close to the Literature Temple) - charity mission and absolutely delicious meals!
Tomorrow we're going to enjoy Ha Long Bay and after that we'll trek around Sa Pa (northern region mountains). Sadly we cannot climb the highest mountain, Fansipan, because of fires in the forests. Anja and I somehow feel like having a déjà-vu.
Sadly we cannot climb the highest mountain, Fansipan, because of fires in the forests. Anja and I somehow feel like having a déjà-vu.
PS: Okay, you'll never get that joke without knowing that Anja and I weren't able to climb Thailand's highest mountain last year due to wildfires. I was so very sure I posted that...

Vietnam 2.0

Announcement on short notice: I'm going to Vietnam again! This time with Anja and her brother Philipp who's just about to finish his studies. Actually, it's his post-student- & pre-job-life holiday, so it's gotta be amazing ;)
We are planning to go on a trek to Fansipan (wiki), Vietnams highest mountain (3100 and something meter). We'll start the journey in Hanoi and end up in Ho Chi Minh City, so we've almost got the whole over niiiiineeeethooooooousand km long coast to explore and enjoy! Well, it's actually "only" about 3000 km (wiki) but that's still about 3000 km more than at home.
Alright, look forward to the pictures and stories restlessly!

Update 2.2.14 @ Frankfurt:
Waiting for connecting flight, found German interpretation of science (link should work now)

Within 24 Hours …

… Anja and I've been walking through the hot streets of Bangkok, eating delicious spicy food and enjoying the sun, and just now I've returned from cross country skiing just in front of our door. Awesome holiday!
I still owe you some stories and pictures, so here we go:
The trekking in the area of Chiang Mai was not as expected, but exciting anyway. We ate frog, squirrel and spider, had food and rice wine together with local people, took pictures and played with the cute and interested children at school, and - of course - walked a lot through the jungle. One day our skilled guides (for some reason, we had two of them) prepared lunch in the jungle. They chopped big and small bamboo stems and made chopsticks, pots for cooking the rice, noodles and vegetables as well as cups out of it.
Our "main" guide Singh is a real "jungle man". He carved different tricky games out of bamboo and even a bamboo-gun (which is, of course, not a real gun). Thank you, Singh, for your company! We really enjoyed the trip.
After that we took two successive night trains to Chumporn (which is usually spelled "Chumphon", probably to prevent childish tourists like me from making fun of it…) and a ferry to Koh Tao, which means "turtle island". Actually, we saw no turtles there, but I guess there were some of them some time ago (before the tourists came), and now the name still attracts tourists. However, the island is more famous for the nice beaches and the corals which you can explore by snorkeling or diving. We enjoyed ourselves there, hanging out at the beach or relaxing in the hammock just in front of our bungalow, walking through the small city center at the Mae Haad pier drinking mango shakes, or having some Thai massage (the reliable ones - without "happy ending"…).
Now that we're back it somehow feels unreal being surrounded by snow and cold after three weeks of heat, sun, sand and the sea… we like it!

Picture update, starting here.

Photo Update

for Chiang Mai Trekking and our first day on Koh Tao - here.
Stories later :)

Offline for Trekking

We're going on a trekking for 5 days starting tomorrow. We'll hike Thailands highest mountain and be with hilltribes. Sounds exciting!
Today we had a boat tour at the Ping river in Chiang Mai. The guy doing the tour was funny. He told us a lot about the history of Chiang Mai and showed us a "man tree" (check the pictures). When he started saying "We keep the river clean and clean! Clean and clean!" repeatedly, I was quite confused - until he said something about "Cleanpeace"...
We arrived here in Chiang Mai yesterday morning after 15 hours of travelling by train (we were smart enough to take the night train with beds an AC) with 3 hours delay. I guess I'll never again complain about the Austrian OeBB.
Our favorite dish (by now) is definitely sticky rice with coconut milk and mango. Mangoes here compared to what you get in Europe is just not comparable. And the salty-sweet sticky rice and coconut milk do the rest. It's freaking delicious!
Alright then, I'm looking forward to writing about the trek!

Pimp my TukTuk

Okay, yesterday we decided to go out in the evening. So we asked the first guy outside the hotel how much the taxi to Banglamphu is. 500 (about 12 Euro), wow, waaaay too much. So we went on and asked the first Tuk Tuk driver. 150. Too much. We talked him down to 100. That was quite fine. But we didn't expect that:
Usually, a Tuk Tuk has no "Unterbodenbeleuchtung", no sub-woofer, no flashing disco lights and no fat speakers. This one had. Take a look!

Bangkok 2013

I couldn't remember that there are that many "Hilux" in Bangkok... but I remember the spicy food - and I love it!
Anja and I (okay, honestly: I) already got into many tourist-traps like "The Wat Pho is closed today until 1pm, but I can get you to with TukTuk! Only 40 Baht!", but Anja saved us :)
Today's highlights: eating Durian (adding schnapps afterwards for health security), 45m lying Buddha, cooked peanuts, using the hotels rooftop pool (coming soon)
Here are the pictures.
PS: Anja and I are not using our Austrian SIM cards. So, in case someone wants to contact us urgently... or just for fun :)
Anja: +66838693235
Wolfi: +66838693086

What's next?

Alright, I guess I can't let 2012 pass without any post…
So, here we go!
Well, there's not much to tell besides an announcement: I'm going to travel around Thailand again in February 2013! Meanwhile, I'll check my "old" Thailand pictures and posts.

Schengen?

Denmark will reintroduce permanent border controls coming Tuesday (read more [german]). Luckily, we'll pass the border already on Sunday ;)

Btw: I enabled anonymous commenting :)

Where the sun never sets…

Three days ago Anja and I packed the car full (very full!) and started driving north. About 1300km later we're in Kiruna now!

The axe museum and shop in Gränsfors Bruks were closed (surprise, surprise - it was Sunday…). However, we managed to get into the museum using our special people-skills. Thanks to the lady working at the restaurant!
Yesterday I couldn't resist to go to a salmon fishing spot which was mentioned in a tourist guide. It turned out that you have to rent the equipment (because of diseases) for 30 SEK and pay for the fish you catch (69 SEK per kg, including guts :)). Well, it's not very difficult to get a salmon on the hook when there is plenty of them caught in a cage, even if your equipment is a fishing rod with the top broken off. At least it was delicious ;)

After a day of driving in the rain we're in Kiruna now, the northernmost city of Sweden, famous for ore mining. We had some delicious elk and reindeer meat together with - I'm tired of saying it - creepy expensive beer.
The highest mountain of Sweden (~2000m) is quite close, but the weather forecast doesn't promise nice hiking weather. Therefore, we'll probably head Lofoten (Norway) maybe with a short stopover in Narvik - just to see how it looks in summertime :)

The Scandinavia Picture Album has magically expanded…

Gotland, Canoe and Axes

Wow, the last 10 days were intensive! For about a week, Anja, Hermi, Luis and I cycled the northern part of Gotland (including Fårö) where we saw Raukar and sneaked to Ingmar Bergmans house but didn't catch any fish. The following three days we joined Caro and her friends to paddle from lake Rusken to Rymmen (close to Växjö) where my fish-counter increased by 70cm pike as well as a small and a quite big perch. All of them delicious!
Thanks to our Portuguese, Canadian, German and Austrian company - you guys were great!

I'm rather exhausted from paddling and driving and we're going to leave Uppsala for good today to head north. We'll first go to Gränsfors Bruks to see (and probably buy because I won't be able to resist) Swedish hand-forged axes.
Meanwhile, enjoy some impressions of Gotland!

No snow but a lot of light, fisk and Russ!

Well, I'm soon finished here (at least with studying) and then the Scandinavia trip will be executed!

Årstider - Seasons
It's now already a lot of daylight here. I remember when I came here in the beginning of January, it was almost completely dark from 4 pm to 8 am. Yesterday I went to a party and it was still some twilight on the horizon at midnight and rather bright again at 3 am. When Anja and I go to North Cape next month I'll be even more impressed :) and probably sleepless.
The snow here started melting exactly on the first day of spring (March 21st) and was almost completely gone by easter. My last cross country skiing trip was on March 30, but it was already kind of crappy. I could find some snow at Holmenkollen about a week ago, and also many lakes were still frozen when the temperature was already around 20°C.

Fisk
During easter holiday I had a really nice vacation with Anja and her parents. We went sightseeing to Uppsala and Stockholm - where we discovered Eriksberg beer and Västerbotten cheese - and had a perfect time in Västervik. For me, most interesting about Västervik was that it is famous for its rich population of huge pikes (gädda på Svensk, gjedde på Norsk, Hecht auf Deutsch ;)) and also salmon, perch, herring and other delicious fish which obviously feel comfortable in the brackish water of the Swedish archipelago ("Schären"). So I packed my angling rod, bought damn expensive fishing equipment (lures and stuff) and was eager to catch huge fish!
Nothing the first day.
Nothing the second day.
And by the afternoon of the last day I had already lost 5 lures which are now all drown in the water, pierced through straw or water plants, except for one which is hanging in a birch (which was the point when I eventually gave up, kind of frustrated).
But Petri seemed to have mercy with me and lead us - on the last evening - to the place where one angler was standing next to each other. It was the harbor. And there were herring (strömming) swarms just a few meter below the water surface, snapping for everything that looks edible (through "fish-eyes").
Well, an hour and 20 swedish kronor (~2€) (for a lure with 6 hooks on a single fishing line) later we were also standing there. What should I say? Herrings are easy to catch, so 2 more hours and we left with 130 fish. We still have some left in the freezer.

Russ
When the Norwegians graduate from school they have this custom to put on red trousers and get really drunk all the time to perform rather weird tasks to get some badges to put on their hats (I've been told one of the more "difficult" tasks, but I'm not going to explain it here…). They call it Russfest (which is actually pronounced "Rüss") and it takes place from May 1st to 17th (the Norwegian National Day) which is actually during they have their final exams… I heard quite a lot fail just because they don't manage the balance between partying and studying. However, it's nice to see that they appreciate this custom, no matter what skin color, religion or gender.

Okay, there are new pictures added here and in the new Album.
Have fun!

Nordic Ski WC 2011, Holmenkollen

Victory :)

Holmenkollen WM 11

Narvik - Too Cold or Out of Order

"Let's go as far north as possible!" Okay, we did that. And where is the apparently only place far north where planes from Oslo and trains from Uppsala intersect? It's Narvik!
But it seems that ore is more important than people. Anja and her friends, who came from Uppsala by train, had to switch to a bus some (hundred?) kilometers before Kiruna (Sweden), because it was too cold for the train to go on… at least that's what they told them.
Well, the tremendously long (I tried to count the wagons - when I got to 69 it stopped and I still couldn't see the end…) ore trains from Kiruna to Narvik had obviously no problem with that. And they went just a few meters past the (in Norwegian terms) "cheapest" hostel of Narvik. All day. All night. And they aren't very quiet :)

Uh, yes, the Polar Zoo was one and a half hours away from Narvik - by car (therefore unreachable for us). But that's not worth mentioning on the tourist website. And the sauna at the hostel is out of order but still praised on it's website.

Well, I'm whining far too much. It was a fantastic weekend! We stayed partly at Henning's very nice couchsurfer's flat and enjoyed ourselves there while watching HD movies (huuuuuuge TeeeeVeee!) and having salmon for dinner. Skiing at Narvik's even on Sunday deserted downhill slopes with fresh snow while watching the fight between orange sunset and blue clear sky led to the hard decision of what to concentrate on.
And the last night's clear sky performed finally the North's famous "magical show"…

Enjoy the pictures :)

Frozen inside

Hell, my window got an ice-layer during the night on its inside! I should stop turning the heating off at night… especially when it's -15°C outside.

Norwaaaaay!

Okay, I finally managed to scrap some time together to write this post :) Not that I'm so much into studying, but, let's say I never got bored (not even now!) and of course I wanted to wait for some interesting things to happen that I can write!

There are (too) many pictures from our New Year's Eve trip to Berlin. Well, in fact it's pictures from Berlin, not from New Year's Eve.

Maybe I should shortly describe (although most of you probably know) the overall plan:
Anja, Hermi and I are on Erasmus exchange studies in Scandinavia now. That offered the opportunity to get (t)here by car and add a few days of vacation previously. And that's exactly what we did!
Since we got a car here now Anja and I plan to do a big Scandinavia trip after the end of semester.

Right now I'm sitting in my student's flat, it's dark and cold outside :) Since it's Friday, I'm supposed to get drunk today… Here in Ås on campus, the place to have some beer is called "Samfunnet", and it's open every Wednesday and Friday. The Norwegian ritual of partying is as follows: Have a "Vorspiel" (yes, that's how they call it), that is, have some drinks before you go to the club because it's bloody expensive there. Expensive here means that 50 Norwegian Kroners (NOK) for 0.5l beer is the cheapest you can get. Try "50 NOK in EUR" in a search engine of your choice…
Many people are already really canned when they head for the club. Then, you spend a lot of money and do extreme par-taying within about 2 hours, because no one could afford being there longer.
When you go home and you think that wasn't enough, you can add a "Nachspiel"…

Enough of that. Most of the other exchange students haven't been here the last three weeks, since the "real" semester starts next Monday. Therefore I haven't met many people yet. Anyways, I accidentally got to know a student from my university who's even studying the same subject. I was walking around in the city center of Ås when I heard a voice behind me murmur "… he is from Austria!" So I turned around and answered: "Yes! How do you know?" "You're wearing Waldviertler!" she answered.
And that was the story of how I was recognized by my shoes.

Ok, I don't want to drown you in text. I'll try to add some short stories continuously. For now, check the snowy pictures!