Sperling Down Under 3 + Hong Kong Follow Up + News from Chiang Mai

HA! Today I finessed my laziness and started writing on this blog again, after struggling with too many excuses, why not to do it right now.

The most important news first:

SPERLING DOWN UNDER 3: I have reached the maximum capacity of data, I can upload for free on this blog. Logically, this is my last entry on the site. Of course, there is no reason to finish my blog activity in general – the simple solution is: Another sequel has to be launched! My journey becomes a trilogy by proudly presenting:

http://www.sperlingdownunder3.wordpress.com

The same question as last time could be prompted: Why “Down Under” if you write articles from and about China and Thailand? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to name it “Sperling Goes Asia”?

My travel started with the idea to start a new life in Australia, and so far this hasn’t changed. In fact, I am intensively pursuing my visa, which allows me to stay as a permanent resident in Oz. In the big scheme of things, my travels to New Zealand and Asian countries are just side tracks and detours, while finding a way to come back to Australia for good. As long as I post some of my upcoming posts from somewhere in kangaroo country, I can easily justify my chosen name-giving. 🙂

To avoid futile clicking on the link above, I have already uploaded a first post on my third blog, dealing with an in-depth review of the months I stayed and toured in China. Like, subscribe, share or simply enjoy the read and forget about that social media network hype. I don’t care about the numbers of blog followers and I don’t have to implement a view counter somewhere on my page. However, I was happy to see that my blog even got a view from Fiji! :-p

Hong Kong Follow Up: I ended my last post by telling you that I want to head out for some night pictures…and that’s what I did. In the past I had seen breathtaking photographs from Hong Kong at night, taken from a hill/mountain. I had dreamed of having such a view by myself and getting my own photos. Now there was the chance to realize that dream. My preparation and research where to go and how to get there, had not been profound at all. I knew that there was a cable car going up a hill, close to the subway station in the city centre. That’s all. I also read online about a bus connection to the main sightseeing spot on top of a mountain.

I strayed for more than 30 minutes downtown and asked several people, before I found a bus station with a line having stopping on the mountain. In review, I can tell you that there is a bunch of lines operating between city centre and that super-touristy summit. The cable car might be the quickest way, but certainly also the priciest. Besides regular double deckers, there are also minibuses with 16 seats commuting between peak and a lower terminus for HKD $9.50 (less than €1.00) per single ticket.

If I am talking about mountains and cable cars I should make clear, that it is not about Ngong Ping on Lantau Island, another must see in Hong Kong, but about the Victoria Peak. I had the strange misconception, that I would maybe the only person at night-time on a lonesome mountain top, walking off-track to find a sweet spot for a photograph. Once I arrived at the huge bus station on the top and saw the huge sculpturesque terminus of the cable car with hundreds of people in a long queue, waiting for a transport back to town, I knew that I was totally wrong. A shopping centre, multiple cafés, hotels, etc., this spot is everything else than remote. The peak platform has developed an extensive infrastructure to comfort and bleed tourists from all over the world. Therefore, I was surprised that it was still possible to go there for so cheap.

After 100 metres walk, very close to the cable car station, was a small stone-made, temple-like sight-seeing platform with a little pavilion and a moon gate, crowded by people with top camera gear, but also tablets and mobile phones…whatever you can use to take a picture.

(I have no photo of that platform, but to give you an idea how it looks, here are two links:

http://www.theodora.com/wfb/photos/hong_kong/lookout_point_victoria_peakt_hong_kong_photo_gove.jpg

http://www.asiabeautyspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Victoria-Peak-in-Hong-Kong-3.jpg

If the links are broken, simply search for images by using the key words “Hong Kong Victoria Peak”).

It was windy and cold – compared to the average temperature of 20 °C and more during daylight. After 15 minutes my hands were stiff due to coldness, but the view which absolutely matched my high expectations didn’t allow me to bother about this minor inconvenience. I took several pictures with different settings, mounting the camera on my gorilla pod for more flexibility and mobility compared to all the other photographers with their tripods (one guy generously offered me to use his tripod). Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attach the gorilla pod perfectly to the railing and on the head of a stone statue. The wind made my efforts to get a steady shot even harder. In consequence, I constantly fought with motion blur in my pictures.

After a while I had enough of all the tourists, swarming around like ants, but thought that I had to max out my experience and to justify the two hours I had needed to get from my hostel to the top spot. I decided to walk a small concrete path further up the mountain. The path lead to a road, lined with luxury villas and mansions. I followed the constantly ascending road for nearly a kilometre until I couldn’t go further, because it was a dead-end. I had already entered private property and was advised by a security guard to leave. For me it was not visible when the public road had become a private road, but I was not in the mood to argue and to investigate. I was there to shoot a photo not taken by millions of other tourists before. I reckon that not many tourists walk up the road that far as I did, especially not at night-time. Finally I found what I had searched for: a spot with a beautiful view on Hong Kong ,half-framed by tree branches,  where I could mount my gorilla pod on a railing for a long-exposure photo.

Maybe the photo is not as perfect and exceptional as I thought it would be at the moment when I took it, but I was and still am very happy to have a visual memory which feels more personal and unique than the average Victoria Peak night-scenery view.

Ceiling decoration of “The Peak Gallery”‘s entrance hall

I returned to my hotel at about 11:00pm, went to bed – too late as usual – and left my super-tiny, but by all means acceptable accommodation early on the next morning. The ride to the airport went smoothly and without any harassment. When I stepped off the Airport Express train with my heavy luggage, I was more than delighted. 3 metres in front of every carriage door were trolleys lined up for passengers to use. That’s what I call service! Hong Kong’s Airport looks modern, clean, albeit architecturally not as impressive as Shenzhen. Having seen a lot of airports in the last 16 months, I was really pleased with the clear signage and how well everything was layed out. As a traveller I have started to appreciate in particular big train stations and airports, which not only have friendly staff, but are designed thoroughly, so you don’t need to consult the information desk to find out where toilets are, your gate or a charging station for your electric devices.

Hong Kong International Airport

Did you know that Hong Kong Airport has its own subway train network? To reach my gate I even had to change the train! I was a bit under time pressure, since I had not expected to spend so much time to get to my gate after passing the security control area. I am used to delayed flights, but my connection to Chiang Mai was supposed to take off EARLIER than shown on my flight itinerary. When I arrived at my designated gate and read that the flight had rescheduled to another gate about 600 metres away, my stress level rose. I was the last passenger going on board, they had been already waiting for me, but at least they hadn’t called out for me by loudspeaker. 😉

After I had sat down on my window seat and verified that all my personal belongings (1.camera – check!, 2.passport – check!, 3. wallet – check!, 4. mobile phone – check! ) were at hand, all the tension fell off me and I was ready to come back to a place I feel so comfortable with, although it  lacks of huge, green parks, underperforms regarding air quality and does not satisfy my German standards in terms of architectural build quality and hygiene in general. But to be honest: Berlin is dirty in some parts, stinky and grey,too, – especially in winter. I still love the city, which was my home town for more than three decades. Ergo my final verdict: If you have to spend some time in Chiang Mai, be assured, it could be MUCH worse – so don’t complain too much, unless you love to carp about things like me! 😀

Chiang Mai: What have I done in the last 3.5 Chiang Mai weeks? I was and still am way more busy with my Australian visa – mainly organising and providing required documents – than I ever imagined. Currently I am in contact with different Australian translation companies to negotiate about the horrendous prices for NAATI-certified German to English translations. Besides that I went to an accredited hospital for another health check-up, because the one I did in Beijing a month ago is not accepted by the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Control.

Apart from the never-ending visa procedure, I am quite disciplined and restarted to do sports by jogging and stretching/work out alternatingly. I failed to keep up my discipline in the last week, but it is a good feeling to be able again to run for an hour without being too exhausted.

Another almost daily routine is learning Mandarin, basically vocabulary and a little bit of grammar. Compared to other languages it seems very difficult for me and my progress is quite slow.

All the other things I hoped to do, like learning new magic card tricks by watching tutorials on youtube, updating my unique expansion “The Dragonfly” for the abstract game HIVE, as well as frequent photo shootings at day-time and night-time, remained in the world of “What-I-will-do-if-I-have-plenty-of-spare-time”.

I am residing in the hotel Noble House again. They brazenly increased their monthly rate by 12.5%…but I will still get some indirect discount, when it comes to my electricity/water bill, so I agreed. Not much has changed in the premise: Rooms are tidy and clean, the staff is super friendly and I enjoy my spacious 30m² room (including a 6m² balcony). On the negative side, if there are annoying issues occurring – preferably a broken internet connection. The support and the time frame for fixing such a problem in particular, are unacceptable. The personnel tries to help, but often they lack in competence or it is just out of their sphere of action, so they can’t do more than excuse and request the hotel guest to show lot of patience.

The key factor for feeling so comfortable in Chiang Mai is definitely the food. I know where to buy my fruit supplies and the import goods like muesli and bread, and I know a handful of vegan/vegetarian restaurants which satisfy my needs. Besides that, affordable foot/oil/Thai/herbal compress/etc. massages, available at almost every time of the day/night are a bliss. You can choose between at least 300, probably more, massage parlours in and around Chiang Mai!

I have rented a bicycle again, but this time not a mountain bike – but a classic simple bike with gears. People ask me why I don’t rent a scooter. I never need more than 10 minutes to reach my desired destination, in spite of traffic jams. With a bicycle, I can always squeeze through somehow and I enjoy the “work out”.

It was on day 2 or 3 when I thought, somebody is calling my name. I ignored it, because I estimated the chances this to happen in Chiang Mai very low. When I stopped to talk to an old friend, a minute later someone approached me from behind, yelling: CHRISTIAAAN! It was Soraya….the women I helped to renovate her restaurant in May 2013. What a surprise! I absolutely love to see people’s face changing into a bright smile, when they see me and recognize me from an earlier visit. It happened to different restaurant staff, merchants on the Chiang Mai market, long-term guests of my hotel and the owners of the bike rental shop. It is undeniable proof that I haven’t treated these people too badly in the past. 😉 And it encourages me to continue like that.

For the remaining four days, before I travel back to China to spend another 4 weeks with my girlfriend Sakeenah, I try to be as productive as possible and to breathe the life style of Chiang Mai to the fullest, because I know, that I won’t come back soon, and that I will terribly miss that city. No reason for wailing – there is only one direction to go in time: (until time travel finally becomes available for everybody! 😀 ) FORWARD! What lies ahead looks already pretty promising. And the best thing is: if I am not happy with my upcoming future…I simply change plans and turn things upside down. BAM! Okay, in most instances, it rarely went the way I intended, but I see it as part of the challenge and it shuts out effectively any chance of boredom in my life! 🙂

Buddha statue @ Baan Phor Liang Meun’s Terra-Cotta Arts garden near Chiang Mai Gate market

Above, I have chitchatted so much in general, but I also like to share a very specific story with you, which happened to me yesterday. This accident had a huge impact on me, and I couldn’t think of anything else for hours.I posted it already on Facebook, but there is nothing wrong to republish it here:

A Chiang Mai Story about Life&Death:

I crossed the traffic light with my bicycle and entered the nearly empty Chiang Mai Gate Market. Suddenly I recognized a saurian with beautiful matte-green/blue skin texture, 2 metres in front of me. It perfectly blended in the concrete it was sitting on, while motionlessly taking a sunbath. It had a length of appx. 30cm, and a height of 10-13cm. I descended from my bike to take the camera out my bag. A young tourist couple were approaching the scene. The guy walked straight towards the reptile. I anticipated that the guy might not have spotted the creature yet. Indeed, he was not paying attention to the ground at all. The saurian, facing the other direction, remained inert. I looked at the guy, pointed in front of him and shouted: CAREFUL! …but it was too late. If the man had intended to swat that creature, he couldn’t have timed his steps better. The body of the unsuspecting fellow in stealth mode was covered by a large tourist shoe. It happened in a fraction of a second, but I noticed like in slow motion, how the animal’s body became deformed. The saurian opened its mouth cobra-like in surprise or pain, as if it wanted to swallow up prey of its own size. I started to turn around not to witness the cruelty about to happen. My inner eye envisioned already the blood splashing sideways out of the squashed critter. From the corner of my physical eye, I saw the guy freezing in his action. Then, he lifted up his food and the saurian spurted away instantly, looking for shelter behind a huge plant tub. Everybody was shocked: The guy not knowing what he had stepped on, his girlfriend watching a quicksilver creature passing by only a few centimetres in front of her feet, me observing the whole occurrence and most likely the almost flattened reptile, too.
I just hope that the little fellow’s bone structure was flexible enough to avoid a broken rip cage. I don’t know if my shouted warning had any effect on the guy’s reaction, but if it raised his awareness and caused him to stop his movement 3cm earlier than without my interference, it was definitely life-saving for that gorgeous, but too venturesome animal, resting in the middle of a market place.

Have a lovely day, everybody! I hope to keep you as my loyal readers also on my new blog http://www.sperlingdownunder3.wordpress.com . CU there!

Chris

Hong Kong

G’day, mates!

The workup of 8 weeks China will start soon, when I have some relaxing days in Chiang Mai to organize my life and all the stuff I kick down the road for a while already.

Now you get a fresh report of my short trip to Hong Kong, 3 days in total. The flight was – once again – troublesome. Sakeenah had given me a lift to the bus station in Jinhua, the transfer to Hangzhou Airport went smoothly, I arrived at 11:00am, 3 hours before my actual flight was supposed to departure. However, there was no MU595 connection shown on the terminal’s departure display. I moved to the international terminal – the same. After interviewing several help desk girls, I found myself contacting the China Eastern Airlines ticket office and was told that my flight was cancelled. Alternatively there was a connection available at 19:00. Great! 8 hours of waiting… By contrast with other modern airports, Hangzhou doesn’t offer charging points for mobile phones or netbooks. After trying several different power sockets, integrated in the structural columns, I had to accept that my plug couldn’t be connected properly in any of them. It was attached so wobbly that it simply fell off.  Not willing to give up easily, fixed the problem with sticky tape and spent the next hours on the internet and by editing photos. Shortly after 5:00pm I had a look at the time-table and still couldn’t find a Hong Kong flight at 19:00. There was some confusion at the China Eastern Airlines desk, but at the end they rebooked for me and I caught a plane at 19:15 and flew with Dragon Airlines.

Hong Kong welcomed me with unexpected warmth beyond the 20°C mark. Equipped with thermal underwear, winter jacket and 28 kg of baggage, I felt slightly uncomfortable. It took a while until I had calculated the optimal, most cost-efficient ticket variant for airport transfer to my hotel plus 2.5 days of sightseeing. It is interesting to recognize, that every city has a different fare system for public transportation. Some are more fair-minded than others but therefore more complex. The range stretches from plain simple systems (Beijing subway: where ever you go: 2 Yuan = 0.25 Euro Cent) to, in theory understandable, but in practise unclear, zone models like in Brisbane, where a ninety kilometre trip at off-peak time might cost only three dollars more than a 5 kilometre city-ride at peak-time.

I managed to hit the road at the right subway exit close to my hotel on first attempt and was yearning for a shower and some sleep, since it was already 23:40. The Chunking Mansions complex is very popular in Hong Kong and easy to spot. To find my hostel within this buzzing building was another story. Where the hell was block E, how to get there? Once I entered Chunking Mansions it felt like I had stepped into another world. Dodgy looking Indians, Pakistani and Afro-Americans everywhere. They asked me if I needed an accommodation, cigarettes, watches, mobile phones, what ever… . With a ton of luggage and a foreigner face it was impossible to escape from them. I made my way along electronic shops and currency exchange offices, oriental snack bars and trolley stores which were still open, although it was already midnight. I found a security guy who pointed out where to find the Block E lifts. Everything looked run down and I already expected a shitty room, but it came worse. The reception on the 7th floor was closed and ringing the bell futile. An Indian looking guy with a cigarette in his mouth came out of one of the other doors on the floor and approached me. He knew the receptionist and gave him a call. 5 minutes later, an extremely bored looking Indian guy appeared, mumbled something and accomplished the check-in procedure.  The good news were that I should reside in the new section of the Shanghai hostel, which was finished recently, the bad news were, that my room was located in another block. A staff guy helped my to move my duffle bag downstairs, to transfer to the lift of Block C and to  introduce me to my tiny, but brand new, 5m² room (this includes the bathroom!) on the 3rd floor. At 00:20am, I finally had arrived at my destination, knackered and sweaty.

The next morning I got up early to get some visa relevant documents, certified at the German Consulate. I went shopping (Chocolate, bananas, peanut butter, German bread & organic muesli – oh yeah!!!) and randomly walked around on the main island of Hong Kong. In the evening I headed out for a photo tour at the harbour area in Tsim Sha Tsui and enjoyed  the atmosphere of that vibrant city.

Hong Kong is sooo different from the rest of China. While I felt like an alien, a zoo attraction, even in metropolises like Beijing, Hong Kong is much more international. Faces of Westerners everywhere, as well as Arabs, Indians, Pakistani, all kinds of Asian looking faces and a bunch of dark-skinned Afro-Americans.
Now I understand, why Hong Kong has a different policy, although officially being a part of China. It has a different currency (Hong Kong dollars vs. Chinese Renminbi / Yuan) and even the power sockets are different (Argh!… I didn’t have a converter and couldn’t use any of my electric devices until borrowing one from the reception in the morning). The traffic is a revelation: Although there is plenty of traffic, nearly nobody honks the horn, people are driving more careful than in Beijing, Shanghai and the mainland of China. Downtown, pedestrians can walk for kilometres on bridges above street level. They span between the many office towers, so you rarely have to wait at traffic lights. Besides the overpasses, the subterranean network of tunnels, spreading from the subway stations, is well developed, too.

Fashion on the street ranges from Berlin-I-give-an-F-what-other-people-think-about-me casual  to high-class I-make-more-money-than-I-have-time-to-spend business look. In Hong Kong, business seems to be the engine of the economy and the attractor for foreigners to come here. Everybody tries to make money – in modern glassy skyscraper offices, malls with floors polished to a mirror, but also in dingy shops as in Chunking Mansions.  As a result, the general price level is fairly high, compared to other parts of China. At least, you get everything you want – presumed that you are willing to pay some extra cash. If you like to buy fake watches or mobile phones, you might negotiate a bargain…but if you want to make sure to get a 100% original product, don’t hope for a discount competing with online prices.

The city is cramped with architecture, but I like that the urban planning council seems to pay attention to keep the city green by planting trees, bushes and flowers – for example on the centre strip of roads. At night-time Hong Kong looks gorgeous, and it is a pleasure to roam through the city at mild temperatures. The air pollution is bad, but bearable due to its vicinity to the ocean, which provides for a more or less fresh breeze, at least for the direct coastal area.

I spent the whole day inside my slightly lighted room. It is time for me to use my last night here to explore some more parts of Hong Kong and to take stunning pictures with my new Lumix FZ200, which I bought in Xiamen 2 weeks ago.

Hope to be back with a new post with within a few days –

Chris

Hong Kong’s subway network

Subway train

My hostel room in prison cell size

5m² including the bathroom section (1.50m² max)

Toilet seat can’t be lifted without touching the sink

Chunking Mansions in the morning

Chunking Mansions

Hong Kong island close to the Admiralty

Hong Kong island downtown

model displaying the upcoming subaqueous Central Wan Chai Bypass

model displaying the upcoming subaqueous Central Wan Chai Bypass

Hong Kong island, view from the bridge leading to the Ferry terminal

Construction Site close to Ferry terminal

View on Tsim Sha Tsui from Hong Kong island

Conveyor at subway station Hong Kong Central

Art in the tunnel network around subway station Hong Kong Central

Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui

Tsim Sha Tsui

In Tsim Sha Tsui

In Tsim Sha Tsui

“Palace” in Tsim Sha Tsui close to the ferry terminal

“Palace” in Tsim Sha Tsui close to the ferry terminal

“Palace” in Tsim Sha Tsui close to the ferry terminal

“Palace” in Tsim Sha Tsui close to the ferry terminal

View on Hong Kong island from Tsim Sha Tsui

View on Hong Kong island from Tsim Sha Tsui

View on Hong Kong island from Tsim Sha Tsui

View on Hong Kong island from Tsim Sha Tsui

View on Hong Kong island from Tsim Sha Tsui

Welcome 2014 & 6-Weeks-in-China Quick-Summary

Belated Happy New Year and welcome back to another exciting year on my sperlingdownunder-blogs whose names are not matching my actual location anymore…but this might change during the year!

Let’s résumé 2013: How many of my last New Year’s resolution were successful and which events had the biggest impact on me?

Here is the “what I like to do in 2013” list from last year  (http://sperlingdownunder.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/welcome-to-2013/

I. Develop my skills as photographer     CHECK!

II. Deepen my knowledge about Australian architecture     CHECK!  

III. Restart to meditate     FAIL!

IV. Get a certificate in Thai massage     CHECK!

V. Visit New Zealand     CHECK!

VI. Learn a new language at least on a very basic level (roundabout 600 words and fundamental grammar)   FAIL! (although I started learning Mandarin in December 2013)

VII. Keep this blog alive until my 3 GB limit is exceeded. Maybe I will continue then on a second blog, or pay some dollars for more data space or finish my existence as a regular blogger in favour of other time-consuming stuff.     CHECK!

I am more than satisfied with the final score 5 out of 7! My hopes/goals for 2014 are (in no particular order):

1. Finding a fulfilling, well-paid job

2. Getting my Australian visa granted

3. Continue my development as hobby photographer

4. Learning to speak Mandarin on a level which allows basic communication for every day life

5. Starting to work out again (mainly running)

6. Improving and deepen the relationship with my  girlfriend and travel side-kick Sakeenah

7. Staying healthy and happy, even in the most difficult situations by advancing my patience and inner balance.

8. Keeping this blog (respectively most likely http://www.sperlingdownunder3.wordpress.com) active and more up-to-date than in the last months.

6-Weeks-in-China Quick-Summary: My plan is to release in the upcoming weeks several chapters of my recent traveling in China. I will go more into detail and post lots of referring pictures. For now, you I will give you a general idea of my China adventures so far and how I “evaluate” the quality of life here – especially compared to other countries I traveled to.

Ji De Wen (my Chinese name) defending the Great Wall of China against dark hordes of tourists.

At first I was shocked – especially because I thought that staying in Thailand had already prepared me for Eastern culture, cuisine, architecture, etc… . Basically I was fooled by my misconception that China is simply much bigger than Thailand and colder in winter time.

Traffic: TERRIBLE! Reckless driving no matter where you go. The most important part for a Chinese car or truck driver is the horn. They honk the horn at excessively at every occasion. Pedestrians are “pushed” away by honking aggressively or as a warning when rushing over big crossroads since nearly nobody cares about the traffic signs – as far as existing. Especially in smaller cities like Jinhua, it is not uncommon to drive on the wrong lane for a while and instead of giving way, people simply enter intersections and forcing orthogonal approaching vehicles to stop. But there is one positive thing I have to point out: Electro bikes, trikes and bicycles with additional battery support are not only available but much more popular than fuel-driven bikes. This helps, not to increase the air pollution which is already bad enough and also reduces the noise level on the streets. Interestingly I have never seen so many German cars in foreign countries than in China: VW, Mercedes, BMW, AUDI, Porsche… German engineering seems to be held in high esteem.

View from Sakeenah’s former place of work at the New World Center (Beijing)

Architecture: The Thai-principle applies: if it works, it is enough – efficient design is superfluous. If something looks nice – you better don’t look closely to avoid disappointment. The constructions behind the facade and in everything watched in “macro-mode” is of mostly of crappy quality and stunning simplicity. In the North of China, houses have central heating. Your only choice regarding temperature “heater on” and “heater off”. If you need something between “too cold” and “furnace” – you have to open the window. This is most of the time unnecessary because the insulation of walls, ceiling and windows is so abysmal, that 90% of the induced energy is diffusing to the outside within five minutes. According to the Chinese government, central heating is nonessential in the warmer south of the country. Still, the temperature may sink below zero °C at night-time. Instead of using the expensive air-conditioning systems to warm the room up, people wear winter jackets inside. North or south of China, it does not make any difference…mouldiness affects nearly every house – due to inappropriate maintenance, poor architectural planning and hideous constructional execution. As an example, the walls of my room under the roof in Jinhua had to cope with such a high humidity, that the wallpaper came off.

There are four categories of buildings in China: local houses, which look like a period of war has just ended, new residential complexes which appear decent on first sight but suffer of problems like bad insulation and sloppy workmanship; ancient traditional buildings made of wood or bricks which are maintained well as long as they have a value as tourist attraction and finally luxurious commercial structures, showing off with futuristic architecture, often designed by star-architects of high international reputation. As a result, I feel like a time traveller now and then… visiting old-world palaces in the morning,  shopping in space ship-like malls in the afternoon and sleeping in contemporary hotels which remind me of Eastern Germany architecture from the 1970s.

ancient building in Beijing

SOHO Galaxy, Beijing

SOHO Galaxy, Beijing

Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport

Abandoned building in a suburb of Jinhua

Agriculture: Vegetables and fruits are cheap. One reason is that Chinese cultivate crops EVERYWHERE – even on the small green strips at motorway accesses. Maybe this kind of guerilla gardening does not use as many chemicals and pesticides as usual in conventional farming but therefore the plants are “fed” with a high level of air pollution, rubbish dump and motor oil oozing away in the vicinity of the crops. I am torn between liking the initiative of the local people to supply themselves by cultivating land where ever possible and being disgusted by the lack of hygienic care they apply.

Panorama view from my accommodation in Jinhua

Salad crops in Jinhua

Salad crops in Jinhua

Market in Jinhua

Environmentalism: Solar cells on house roofs for water heating and electro-bikes …these are the most obvious positive accomplishments. Occasionally I see rubbish bins with separate holes for regular and recyclable waste. On the downside, people still have no feeling for the value of nature. Chemicals are dumped into lakes and rivers, huge areas are flattened and sealed with concrete, the abundant use of wrapping, plastic and alcaline batteries for toys and electronic devices is omnipresent, the exploitation and treatment of animals is plain hell (not asserting that highly developed industrial nations like Germany do a better job)… – it really hurts to watch all that and to realize: making money and keeping up a maximum level of convenience has a much higher priority than sustainability and ecologic thinking.

Culture & People: I have experienced a high-level of hospitality by lots of Chinese, most of them Sakeenah’s relatives. There are a lot of welcome social habits based on tradition. However, there are innumerous things I absolutely dislike:

I. Smoking – Non-smoker protection is pretty bad in China. Even if signs tell you not to smoke, not many people care about it. Hotel rooms and lobbies, lifts, restaurants, bus and subway stations, public toilets, banks and hospitals… you are forced to inhale poisonous air everywhere. Expensive cigarettes are considered to be a worthy present. At the wedding of Sakeenah’s sister Michelle, every guest accessing the restaurant, was supplied with a cigarette at the entrance. Being a person who refrains 100% from all kinds of drugs (excerpt chocolate! 😉 ), this behaviour is a big issue for me and decreases my level of comfort massively.

II. Noisy expectoration of phlegm – This is simply disgusting, but practised regularly all around, indoors as well as outdoors. While this habit is judged as disrespectful and inappropriate in western cultures, in China you will hear the sound of pulling up mucus secretion way more often than you wish and nobody feels offended.

III. Eating – Burping, smacking, farting, leaving food debris unwrapped on the bare dining table…not a problem in China – this is common throughout all social classes, at home but also in restaurants.

Like in Thailand, Chinese eat everything which is catchable. And yes…this includes also dogs – to approve this widespread myth.

After several weeks I am a bit tired of white rice and noodles as side dish for my daily vegetables with or without tofu. There is a huge variety of fruits and vegetables available, and the ways how to prepare them are multifarious – anyway, I miss western food. Veganism is still in its infancy, and not speaking any Mandarin makes it very difficult to live on a balanced diet while traveling. Sakeenah is a vital support for me as translator, asking and double confirming that our dishes contain no eggs, that the frying oil is of plantal origin, that the soymilk has no added cow milk powder and so on. In spite of these tedious investigation and interrogation, when ever we are hunting for food outside, it works somehow.

Summed up, I struggle a lot in China and find it hard to feel comfortable. I try to see it as a challenge and will hopefully adapt in a way which allows me to uphold my ethical and hygienic standards. To be able to stay with Sakeenah (my main reason to give this country a shot) and to bridge the gap until my Australian visa will be granted, I decided to reach out to grasp a job in China. Up to date, things look very good in this respect, although the time frame is rather uncertain. I might end up as English teacher in Beijing, but more details about this endeavour will be revealed in one of my upcoming blog posts.

My travel itinerary so far:

19th Dec 2013- 21th Dec 2013 : Shenzhen

21th Dec 2013- 07th Jan 2014 : Beijing

08th Jan 2014 – 20th Jan 2014: Jinhua

20th Jan 2014 – 22th Jan 2014: Shanghai

22th Jan 2014 – 23th Jan 2014: Zhujiajiao

23th Jan 2014 – 27th Jan 2014: Beijing

27th Jan 2014 – 2nd Feb 2014: Jinhua

2nd Feb 2014 – present : Xiamen

My personal highlights in China were a trip to the Summer Palace in Beijing and the Great Wall of China in the vicinity of the capital city and the visit of the ancient water city Zhujiajiao.  Architecture-wise, the SOHO Galaxy building and the Olympic City (especially the “bird net” stadium and the Aquatic Centre) in Beijing, but also the airport of Shenzhen were quite impressive. Biggest downer of the last weeks was without question the loss of my camera on the backseat of a taxi (a truly black Friday, 24th Jan 2014). The circumstances were extremely unfortunate and it was very tough to get over it since I loved this camera. Currently I couldn’t replace it yet, albeit I hope to get hands on the successor, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200, soon.

Me in front of a shop in Shenzhen

Stay tuned…I won’t let you wait another 6 weeks until my next stories from Middle Kingdom go online!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Chris

Elephant Nature Park & 3.5-Days of Bamboo Workshop & Everything Changed

…and you already thought this blog is dead! No, it isn’t although I agree that 3.5 weeks since the last post are definitely too long. I will not waste time with excuses but start right away:

Elephant Nature Park (10.11.2013): It happened about five weeks ago, that Sakeenah and I visited the Elephant Nature Park, a 250-acre sanctuary for Elephants, approximately 60 km outside of Chiang Mai City. Since the big flooding in Bangkok in 2011 – which was not only a catastrophe for the citizens but also for thousands of street animals – the park became home for more than 250 dogs, too.  The dogs get very well along with the elephants. Also lots of cats, some buffaloes and a few other farm animals have found shelter in the sanctuary.

There are several parks offering bareback elephant riding and circus-like attractions to entertain the thousands of tourists. Sadly, the elephants in these parks are not treated as they should. They get stabbed, punched and tortured in order to train them tricks or to make them accept people riding on their back. Normally, the mahouts, the trainer and carer for the elephants, have to break the will of the elephants when the they are still young. This procedure is cruel and severely violating animal rights. – Reason enough for me not to visit such a park. Of course, the organisations and companies running these parks try to appear in a good light but I am sure there are things going on behind closed doors, not meant for the tourist’s eye. The Elephant Nature Park instead has a different concept: no riding, no show, but education and giving animals in need a chance to live an unthreatened life. Except from a few young elephants, already born in the sanctuary, most of the gentle giants were rescued from other parks. Many of them have injuries and health issues. It is horrible to hear that humans were the cause for most of the injuries. Trainer who blinded them by shooting with slingshots in their eyes, used hooks for punishing, etc., etc. … not to forget exploded land mines which for example tore elephant feet to shreds! The list of horror stories which happened to these poor creatures is long. The entrance fee of 2,500 Thai Baht (around 56,00 €, AUS $85,00) is partially a donation. I can assure you, it is really worth spending that money and to go there.

We started at 7:00am. A minivan picked us up at our hotel. During the one hour drive, we watched a 30 minutes documentary about the park, the founding by a brave Thai women, the early beginnings of the park and the process of growing over the years. Currently, 35 elephants are living in the sanctuary. Plans to buy additional land to accommodate more elephants are closely related to the financial situation of the organisation. To run the park for a year sums easily up to US $250.000 – according to our tour guide. 2.5 tons of fruits have to be bought and fed to the elephants on a daily basis!

After our arrival we got a short introduction how to interact with the elephants and more important: how not to interact. For instance, approaching an elephant from the back or from the very front (the elephant’s eyes on the side of their heads can’t see straight forward) is a no go. Every of the big guys has a mahout, who is like a permanent companion, standing or sitting in close distance. Especially the blind elephants depend on their mahouts and have a trustful bond with them.   What all elephants like, is to get fed from the elevated platform of the main building. Compared to African elephants which have kind of fingers at the end of their trunk, Indian/Asian elephants grab food by entangling it. (as shown in a gallery photo below)

After the elephants had their breakfast we had a walk on the site. It was a strange feeling that we were not separated from the animals by a fence or trench as common in zoos. At first I was a bit concerned what would happen, if an elephant decided to smack down one of the annoying tourists they had to bear everyday. There is not much the mahouts could do to stop a jumbo with a weight of three tons. In reality all animals were peaceful and didn’t show any sign of aggression…apart from one elephant protecting a baby against an unimpressed buffalo grazing close by and a few young males called “trouble makers” for obvious reasons.

I learned a lot about elephants that day. To experience these animals live and to have somebody teaching you on the spot, made a huge difference compared to reading articles in magazines or on the internet. I am sure the knowledge I gained will stick in my head for ages.

Around lunch time I was prepared to snack my own supplies, although we were promised a vegetarian meal. It usually doesn’t live up to my expectations – but when I saw the buffet in the Elephant Nature Park with more than 20 dishes, about 90% of them vegan, I was super-happy and ate as much as a constrictor, ready to “stockpile” its body for the upcoming six months.

In the early afternoon we watched a herd bathing in the river. Later on, we were allowed to participate in the washing of an elephant who did not bother at all that we splashed buckets of water over her body. She was busy snacking fruits out of an even bigger bucket and stood solid as a rock. This washing of course was not a proper cleaning session but a set up for us. However, nobody was harmed and we got nice shots on camera. We fed the elephants another time before it was time to leave. The park offers voluntary work and wooden huts as accommodation for people wanting a more extensive and intense elephant experience. If I had more time and no other plans, I certainly would love to stay in the sanctuary for more than just a half day. The pictures in the gallery hopefully reflect the prevailing serene atmosphere of that memorable day.

Our tour guide Toni

food storage

injury caused by a land mine

Lunch from the vegetarian buffet

3.5 Day Bamboo Workshop (12.11.-15.11.2013): John, the Bamboo and landscape architect already mentioned in my last posts, wanted to use the opportunity of his workshop to create a prototype of a special space frame construction in preparation for the resort project in Pai.  A befriended Scandinavian architect, who also participated in the workshop, had come up with an innovative low budget procedure how to create the joints between the bamboo poles. Now it was time to see how practical his idea really was. Our group consisted of 8-10 members from countries all over the world: Luxembourg, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia… , some of the guys had an architectural background, some others where simply interested to know more about the material bamboo. The age distribution appeared to be quite diverse – from students in their mid-twenties up to guys in their sixties. The workshop took place in John’s bamboo factory (basically an open storage depot for bamboo poles with a main facility building including a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom and an office space) in Mae Rim, about 25-30km north of Chiang Mai.

After a short introduction about the material bamboo in general, the different species and the treatment against termites and fungus, we received the instructions how to build the space frame. It came in handy that I had created a small model made of wood sticks, so everybody knew how the result should look like. We made great progress on day one. We cut off tops of water bottles, cut bamboo poles to length as well as reinforcing bars. The latter ones should guarantee a strong connection between the bamboo and the concrete, filled in the end sections of every pole. The water bottle caps prevented the liquid concrete to flow out of the poles. The process of filling was tedious and consumed pretty much all the time we had on day two. We discovered various difficulties like dealing with nasty air bubbles in the water bottle caps, stopping the concrete to completely fill them up. John explained now and then how things should be done. Still, we often had to guess and some methods used were hit and miss. Most of us had no experience with techniques like welding or concrete mixing but this was the whole point of the workshop – learning by doing. The project was great team work. Everybody tried to help if someone struggled with a task and we had lots of good conversations sharing our knowledge and a bunch of stories.

Sakeenah had joined me on day one. She was still zealous to learn Thai cooking and Daow, not only a good massage teacher, but also a respectable cook, didn’t mind that she gave her a hand in the kitchen. In the evening all participants relocated to a 5-star resort in Mae Rim, a 15 minutes drive from the factory. The accommodation was included in the workshop package and we were astonished by the high quality because we had expected a much lower standard. The Scandinavian architect (I am bad with recalling names) held a lecture in a conference room and it was getting later and later. Sakeenah had to catch a flight to Bangkok the next morning. Her luggage was still stored in my hotel room in Chiang Mai. A taxi at night-time would have been rather expensive but with a little negotiation I talked the restaurant manager of the resort into offering us a lift in his pick-up truck for a fair price. To be honest, it was his idea, not mine but I gladly accepted.

After saying good-bye to Sakeenah on the next day around noon, I took a taxi back to Mae Rim, this time staying in the 5-star resort. It was a bit strange that I had to share the room with an old fellow from Australia – in fact we had to sleep in the same honeymoonish looking double bed. He neither liked the aircon running nor the windows open due to the mosquitoes which might have entered the room. Although the resort looked awesome and luxurious, the huts felt less comfy than expected. Other workshop attendants didn’t have this issue – but I was unable to get warm water out of the tab and the shower. Anyway – as a former backpacker, I am used to such conditions. 😉

On day three some major problems occurred, tracing back to incorrect handling and disregarding John’s instructions. We had nearly finished to assemble the upper part of the construction when too much stress caused a structural failure. A concrete tube had slipped out of the bamboo poles. We analysed what happened and found more poles affected by this problem. It was not the fault of the system but clearly ours for using too short rebars. They didn’t reach deep enough into the bamboo poles to form a plug behind the thickening of the bamboo section. It is hard to explain but basically the concrete had no sufficient grip inside the bamboo and would be pulled out when affected by stronger forces. Additionally, due to a lack of time, the concrete had not hardened enough and had not the desired consistency.

We had fabricated some replacements as a matter of prudence, but not as many as needed. We conferred how to deal with the situation. The use of steel cables might have been a viable solution…if we had had more time. Also the four big poles for the bottom part of the prototype had not been finished so far. Last but not least it had been too dangerous to put together a construction with a weight of several hundred kilograms in a height of three metres. A collapse during assembling… – no need to think about it! On a positive note we were blessed to spot these defects because to learn from mistake is much more powerful than to finish without any trouble and to remain unaware of the potential risks of the used techniques. Nevertheless, it was a bit disappointing that we were not rewarded with a gorgeous tree-like space frame construction after all the effort we had taken.

In the afternoon of day three, we did a trip to a bamboo plantation in the mountains of Mae Rim where John showed us how to recognize and distinguish different bamboo species. I was surprised that the plantation was more a native rainforest with some bamboo here and there than a monocultural growing. We finished the day off with a yummy BBQ at hot springs. Fortunately I had my bicycle lights with me, because after sunset it was so dark that preparing the food was nearly impossible without any artificial light source. That night I had the hut at the resort for myself. My roommate had quit the workshop already on day three, as well as other guys with a tight time schedule.

Only the morning of day four was dedicated to the bamboo workshop. John demonstrated how to create a so called “fish mouth” connection between bamboo poles and answered questions. At the end we all got a certificate and went back to Chiang Mai. I stayed another two nights at the Noble House and eventually headed to Kuala Lumpur for my work visa. The unsuccessful story about that has already been told in my last post… 😉

View from the bamboo workshop over the fields of Mae Rim

My space frame model for the workshop

crosscutting the bamboo poles

Rebars cut to length

Pouring the concret in while tapping with a hammer for uniform spreading

Cottage in our 5-star resort in Mae Rim

Cottage in our 5-star resort in Mae Rim

My 5-star accommodation for 2 nights

Tightening the joint

Assembling of the first square

Nearly finished upper space frame section held in place by an improvised bamboo scaffold

Fail caused by a too short rebar

Local playfull puppies

Local playful puppies

Swimming pool of the 5-star resort in Mae Rim

Leisure area in our 5-star resort in Mae Rim

Cloud formation while visiting a bamboo plantation

At the hot springs

At the hot springs

At the hot springs

Everything Changed: I will try to recapitulate the last 3.5 weeks in a shorthand report! It won’t be easy to neglect all the little details – let’s see what’s the best I can do:

After my return from Kuala Lumpur, Marc picked me up from the airport and we drove back to his factory in Mae Rim. This should become my temporary accommodation for the next six days and nights. I tested the couch for sleep comfort and noticed that it was way too soft for me. I put the thick couch cushions on the floor, covered them with a linen et voilà – an improvised bed much firmer than the couch in its original set up.  John and I started to work on the master plan for the resort project in Pai that evening. He surprised me by announcing that he had to meet up with his client in Bangkok the next day. While he was gone, I remained in the factory. I felt a bit stranded. No warm water (unless using the stove or kettle) and no internet access, except for the fluctuating weak signal I got from the coffee shop next door – but only when I sat in a corner of the kitchen. At night-time lots of cockroaches crawled around on the floor and the kitchen top. On my second day I got a lift from John’s workers to Mae Rim’s market – approximately six kilometres away. Mae Rim is not a real town – more a conglomeration of houses along a freeway with a little village on each side. Nearly nobody speaks English in Mae Rim and as a Farang you are a real oddity. Anyway – no problem for me to get at the market what I wanted and needed. I walked some kilometres back on the freeway until I stopped a white cab (the colour of the cabs define the routes and area they are operating in) for the last part. That saved me from another twenty minutes of walking.

After five days I had backache from sleeping on my improvised bed and was really yearning to return to civilisation. The factory is really to far abroad if you depend on public transportation. The only thing better than ever was the possibility to connect my 10“ netbook with the huge Sony LCD TV screen in the office. What a relief for my eyes!

When John came back from Bangkok, we cruised around with his car to find a place for me to settle down in Mae Rim. I inspected a garage and a very run down house, both equipped with my much detested toilets. They are embedded in the floor, you can’t sit on them and you have to flush with a scoop of water, taken out of a bucket nearby. (Take a look at the gallery of my post about Phuket)

There are some beautiful spots in that little village tucked away from the freeway but hands down I prefer to live in Chiang Mai on every day. In the afternoon Daow, John and I headed to a beautiful waterfall which stretched down in cascades for about one kilometre, so you can rest on different height levels and enjoy the scenery. In the evening we relocated to Chiang Mai and I booked another night in the Noble House. It was like coming home. This hotel has its issues (especially when it comes to internet connection) but in general I feel comfortable there and it fits my requirements in terms of cleanliness and luxury.

John brought the LCD screen, his Mac and a big printer to my room and we set up a temporary office in the hotel. Two days later I moved from the second floor to the fifth floor and all that office stuff moved with me. We worked during the coming week on the master plan for the resort in Pai. Daow and John were looking for a real office to rent in the vicinity of Chiang Mai. John found an old haunted house four kilometres outside of the walled city, surrounded by lush vegetation and a waterfall. The owner of the house agreed on the deal that we would do some architectural planning and renovation substitutional for paying no rent. I photo- and video-documented the premise. At home I started to draw floor plans and to build a 3-D model on my computer. Everything seemed to go well. I already considered to relocate soon to a flat in the middle of the office and Chiang Mai town. To buy a fast bicycle was another priority on my to-do-list. The only thing bothering me was my work permit which had to be lodged from Kuala Lumpur or somewhere else outside of Thailand.

On the 4th of December, John wanted to go to Pai for taking another look at the site. The first big presentation with the client was scheduled in Pai as well, two days later. It was getting late and we were struggling with the printer and the scale of a drawing. We were tired and he was tensed. I had already packed my luggage and stored most of it at the reception. At around 10 pm we stopped working without achieving our goal to figure out in which scale the drawing was printed out.

John carried his Mac and the model making stuff to his car. I tidied up the room and put the furniture back on its original place. I had already given my room key back which has an built in electronic chip, necessary for the electricity in the room. In consequence the room was rather dark and I had to leave the door open to get some light from the aisle. John came back, waited some seconds and started talking to me.

He summed up that the last two weeks of our work relation were not successful and he had decided that it would be better that we separate. He took some money out of his wallet and said that he would cover my expenses of the last weeks. BAM! I was totally taken by surprise…to say the least. That was the most spontaneous and unexpected dump ever happened to me. He was not willing to discuss, pointing out that he was tired and needed some sleep. Down in the foyer we continued our short chat. He agreed to transfer some more money on my bank account, he said sorry, entered his car and left with Daow who had waited on the driver’s seat.

I was standing in front of my hotel and couldn’t believe that all this was real. It had happened so quickly that I was not able to realize completely the situation. I had booked a flight to KL earlier in the morning, I had ditched my flight to Germany some weeks ago under the assumption that I would get a work contract, and I nearly had paid a deposit for a 22,000 Thai Baht bicycle some hours ago. – Now I was facing an expiring visa in less than two weeks to go and no back up plan.  All my hopes and dreams for the near future had been crushed within seconds. I talked to the receptionist, got the key for my room back and unpacked my luggage again. What else could I have done?

The promised money did not show up on my bank account, and after three days I wrote an email to John. He told me, that he would transfer the cash as soon as I had provided him with a bill of quantities and some screenshots of the 3D model I had worked on. These requested tasks were not finished yet and it felt like being blackmailed. I spent another two full days – more than 20 hours of work – to prepare everything he had asked me for. I suggested to meet up in person somewhere in Chiang Mai and so we did.

I was prepared to keep it professional and short: exchange data for money – money which was only a reimbursement, barely covering the expenses of my accommodation and the costs of my two useless flights – and then forget about everything. But then we talked, it turned out that John was not aware of the trouble he had caused. Unbelievable but true. It was not his intention to blackmail me and he excused for his short temper. He was impressed with the work I had accomplished in the last two days and we chatted for about a half hour. He paid me more than I had demanded. He even suggested a new try for our business relationship. I left this option open. Of course I still think that his radical decision to get rid of me was ridiculously stupid and unfair but I am okay with him now and have forgiven him. There is no use of carrying around negative thoughts which only do harm.

Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary reactions. – I made up my mind to enjoy my remaining days in Thailand and subsequently to go for a new challenge.

And that’ s what I did so far: I got my first shot of vaccine against hepatitis A+B in the RAM hospital in Chiang Mai, went three times to the embassy and picked up my visa a this morning. I bought an XL language course package, including an express course and booked two flights.

Folks, I am heading to CHINA! My flight to Shenzhen departures on the 19th. I have another flight from Hangzhou to Hong Kong in January 2014. It is mandatory to show that I have a flight out of the country, too. Otherwise they didn’t have granted the visa. Not sure if I will be on that airplane or not. Around Christmas I will probably stay in Beijing and meet up with Sakeenah. She already activated some of her contacts who will help me to find work as an architect or English teacher. Maybe I will have a job in China, maybe not. However, I am looking forward to a thrilling new adventure!

To leave you with some more exciting news: the AACA (Architecture Accreditation Council of Australia) has assessed my skills as “SUITABLE for the occupation Architect for the purposes of migration to Australia under the General Skilled Migration Categories”. They state that my submitted documents are “equivalent to a Bachelor degree/Bachelors degree with Honours, Bachelors + Masters degree“. With my ex-flatmate James as my online counselor, I managed to sent an “Expression of Interest” to the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship. It only took them ten days to reply. Last night I received an email: „Congratulations You have received an invitation to lodge a Skilled – Independent (Subclass 189) (Permanent) visa application“ –  Strike! Another big step on my way to settle down in Oz!

If you have made it that far, spending lots of time to read the entire post,  congrats…you deserve a medal and a certificate! I really have to rethink my way of blogging because I know that most of you will choose short and frequent posts over occasional epic essays…but hey – life isn’t always a bowl of cherries. I hope you enjoyed the stories anyway. 😉

Local market in Mae Rim

Mae Rim’s main street

Booth at the edge of Mae Rim’s main street

Little dirty toad in the kitchen of the bamboo main facility building

Mae Sa waterfall, Chiang Mai province

Mae Sa waterfall, Chiang Mai province

Path upwarts Mae Sa waterfall, Chiang Mai province

Mae Sa waterfall, Chiang Mai province

Mae Sa waterfall, Chiang Mai province

Mae Sa waterfall, Chiang Mai province

Power lines of a small village near Mae Rim

es of a small village near Mae Rim

Backyard of a bamboo supplier in a village near Mae Rim

Bamboo in the backyard of a bamboo supplier in a village near Mae Rim

Router installation on the 5th floor @ Noble House, Chiang Mai

My first Chinese tourist visa

Have a lovely day, everybody –

Chris

Kuala Lumpur, Visa Trouble, I Love Magic & Fun in Chiang Mai

Kuala Lumpur: Finally it happened: Instead of hopping on an airplane to Frankfurt around midnight, I went into town and am now residing in the Bodhi Lodge in KL (Kuala Lumpur). My single bedroom is only about 5.3m² in size and furnished with a thin mattress, two pillows on the floor, a small IKEA bedside table, a curtain in front of a small window and two banners showing traditional houses covered in snow – very funny to see that in a country with tropical climate. The free wifi internet connection is reliable and the speed is sufficient. The aircon works quietly, the hostel is clean, the atmosphere friendly and relaxed – so I am fine with my spartan budget-economic accommodation.

KL reminds me of Bangkok, probably because they share a similar sky train concept. The train runs above a main road on a concrete construction, raised on pillars, appx. 7-8 metres in height. The air pollution in KL is not as bad as in Bangkok and everything looks cleaner. The architecture, often designed to look fancy and eye-candy-ish, is more comparable with Singapore. The price level is in between Thailand and Singapore and so is the climate: not as humid as Singapore but more humid than Thailand; greener than Bangkok, maybe as green as Singapore in terms of plant density along roads. This impression is completely based on my personal experience and will not bear a scientific examination. 😉

concrete track foundation for the sky train@ Bangsar train station

rails nearby Bangsar train station

rails nearby Bangsar train station

Park@Petronas Towers

Petronas Towers

Park@Petronas Towers

Playground@Petronas Towers

Playground@Petronas Towers

Top of the Petronas Towers

Facade detail of the Petronas Towers

Facade detail of the Petronas Towers

Plaza of the shopping mall in between the Petronas Towers

Heavy rain photographed from the ground floor of a café@Petronas Towers

Ceiling detail in the entrance hall of the shopping mall in between the Petronas Towers

View to KL city from Bangsar train station

me@Petronas Towers

Visa trouble: After a short 3.5 hour nap at night-time, I had to start my first full day in KL with the task to gain a non-immigrant visa with a work permit. …right after breakfast! – I decided to try Roti Banana (pancake filled with banana) in an Indian restaurant only 80metres away from my hostel. The very helpful owner of the bodhi lodge, apparently a family run business, had advised me to give this vegan dish a shot. I loved it and had another two Roti Banana for dinner this evening. After breakfast, I faced a horrible surprise: The battery charger of my network had stopped working. Of course, the battery status was already critical so I had to shut my netbook down immediately. I tried different suitable adapters to fit my German plug into the Malaysian power socket. The idea was to exclude the possibility that only a lack of connection was the problem. Nothing worked. It seemed that a damaged power socket had killed my battery charger. To replace it part became immediately my priority no.1 since I depend on my netbook in so many ways.

I was also in need of some passport photos for my visa to be. On my way to the embassy, I stopped at a shopping centre to print out the photos I had stored on a USB stick. The two old fellows in the shop asked what the photos would be for. When I mentioned Thailand, they pointed out that official passport photos require a blue background. This is about to change but so far this is the law. For 15 Ringgits (about € 3.75 / AUD $4.50) I got eight cute little Sperling faces on photo paper. The same shopping mall housed several computer shops and one had already opened before 10am. I was lucky that a new charger with different interchangeable plugs had arrived recently. For a fair price of 85 Ringgits (roughly 20.00 € / AUD $25.50) my netbook could be resurrected and brought back to healthy battery life.

The Thai embassy recalled memories from the time when I waited for hours in a job center in Berlin-Neukölln. Nearly hundred people sat and stayed squashed in the waiting zone, staring on a LED display, showing the numbers which were about to be served next. The first 30 minutes I hang about outside in a big roofed bus stop-like waiting zone. It was bloody hot even in the shade, so I changed to the air-conditioned waiting area inside again. After 60 minutes I got the chance to  hand over my thick stack of documents, which probably was terrifying and annoying for the service personnel to look through. Therefore they let me persevere in the premise until the end of their visa application hours – just to tell me that I would need a letter from the Thai Ministry of Labour.

The application for that letter has to be done in Thailand and takes up to one week. GREAT! I contacted John and in the afternoon he told me that I better come back to CM asap with a tourist visa and that we could try the whole procedure again in some weeks. Honestly, I would have been surprised if everything had gone smoothly. Still, to fly to KL and back to Thailand, only to get this information, is rather frustrating. I am glad that John generously offered to cover my travel expenses, so this trip is at least no financial disaster.  Anyway, I spend the afternoon by walking to the famous Petronas Towers to take pictures, to hunt some veggies for lunch and to breath in the spirit of KL. I didn’t expect to find a lovely park behind the Petronas Towers, and the biggest playground area I have ever seen. There are ponds and pools for kids to play in, as well as a small lake with lots of fountains executing an appealing choreography by splashing water in different heights and angles in perfect functional interaction.

I bought sushi maki rolls with cucumber and a delicious fresh fruit juice in KL’s arguably most expensive supermarket, located in the basement of the shopping mall, right in between the Petronas Towers. Compared to Australian prices it was still very affordable. In the meantime it had started to rain heavily. That delayed my return to the hostel.

I Love Magic: When I arrived at my desired destination, Bangsar train station – only 200 metres distant to the Bodhi Lodge, I spotted a boost with the name “I love Magic”. Unsurprisingly the three girls working there sold magic articles. On first sight it looked like they offered all the cheap tricks you get in the magic kits which you can buy in toy shops. And in review I have to admit – they mainly do. Anyway: magic is mostly not about how sophisticated or advanced an illusion is. The magician’s ability to weave a story around the trick, his/her charisma and the level of entertainment is decisive. These things are the key to make sure that the audience has a good time. I had already passed by when one of the girls  cat-called at me and requested me to come back. A cute and very enthusiastic girl, namely Joanna, performed more than a half hour magic tricks for me. I have to admit: She did a very well job and left me more than once puzzled. Although I had seen some of the tricks before, I couldn’t figure out when and how she made the “cheating” moves. I felt set back in time when I was a kid. At that time, I endlessly enjoyed to wonder about the illusions of magicians who visited my kindergarten and school. I love it when people are passionate about what they do and Joanna seemed to enjoy performing magic very much. We chatted a while – of course she asked where I am from, what I am doing – all the standard stuff. I responded and asked the same in return. How bizarre! She actually had studied architecture, too, but was doing magic instead for five years already.

“I love Magic” boost@Bangsar train station featuring magician Joanna

I can’t count the people anymore telling me that they were working in an entirely divergent branch compared to their original profession. Sometimes, I thought that it was a waste of their skills and of the time they had spent to gain their certificates or degrees. After years and years of studying, they ended up with something they could have done completely without any previous knowledge. But now I see that most of the time these people enjoy what they do. And that’s essential – the only thing that really matters! It encourages me to envision myself to be a photographer, an inventor of machines, a composer, an author and film maker, anytime in the future. The limit is my imagination. 😉

Ultimately I bought two tricks for lots of Malaysian Ringgits, which I normally had spent to pay my visa. Not only I was buying them to know about the trick and to get the magic article but also to credit Joanna’s performance.  After the visa disaster and the broken battery charger, this unexpected happening made my day and lifted up my mood. Now I can’t wait to create a short routine, consisting of a bunch of tricks, and to present magic tricks to random people. A deck of cards, a ring, a chain and some more light articles are easy to keep in my backpack which I wear everywhere like a second skin. I really like the tought to become a hobby magician again, after abandoning this business for more than 20 years. When I was around 12, I regularly visited a magic shop and spend several hundred Deutsche Mark to buy all kinds of tricks but had only one public gig before my time was more and more consumed by other activities. I hope I will dive again deep into the world of manipulation, deception and illusions. It is so nice to see people enjoying things which they can’t explain with their ratio – and magic tricks are one relatively simple way to provide this wonderful experience.

Fun in Chiang Mai: It has been two and a half week ago when I cycled with Sakeenah to the Ringping Supermarket. On our way back, we decided to stop for a short photo session at the south-west corner of the walled city. Although it was very sunny and hot, we extended this spontaneous event to get more than just the usual snapshots. I jumped for at least 30 times and tried to instruct Sakeenah how not to cut off my head, leg or arm on the pictures she took . At the end it was exhausting work, but still with lots of fun involved, especially when we checked out the pictures we had shot and had to laugh about hilariously terrible facial expressions and awkward poses. Out of several hundred pictures, I picked my top ten for this blog entry.  Many thanks to Sakeenah for being so patient. The perfectionist in me hoped that she get the shots exactly as imagined, so I did particular jumps over and over again until Sakeenah had nailed the shot and  result lived up to my expectations.

The other pictures in the gallery show various places and animals in and around Chiang Mai; for example an enchanted garden close to the Chiang Mai Gate, full of beautiful terracotta statues, some of them broken or in the process of decay. The photograph with the sun light breaking through the crowns of the trees is my current desktop picture because I like it so much. 🙂

Temple area within the walled city of Chiang Mai

Walled garden with terracotta statues near Chiang Mai Gate

Walled garden with terracotta statues near Chiang Mai Gate

Walled garden with terracotta statues near Chiang Mai Gate

Walled garden with terracotta statues near Chiang Mai Gate

Former entrance to the walled garden with terracotta statues

Dog near Chiang Mai Gate

Sakeenah & me @ Ringping Supermarket

@ Ringping Supermarket

@ Ringping Supermarket

Dog behind an iron gate in a small soi within the walled city of Chiang Mai

Temple area within the walled city of Chiang Mai

Streeit dogs resting in a temple area of Chiang Mai

Street dog

Street cat

Temple area within the walled city of Chiang Mai

Temple area within the walled city of Chiang Mai

Temple area within the walled city of Chiang Mai

100% will power

X-Man

Meditation level: Asian

Skywalking: Done!

The art of power-farting

Taking the invisible sky bridge

Ascent ladder-style

Monkey business

Summoning the forces of levitation

Time for Super-Chris to lift off

As teaser, I will already announce the topics I’d like to talk about next time: The awesome day trip to the Elephant Nature Park and the 3-day bamboo workshop near Mae Rim.

Have a great day everybody!

Chris

Sakeenah + Flight of the Gibbon + Pai + Future Prospect

Sakeenah: Long term followers of my blog will remember Sakeenah, the girl I traveled with for 5 days on the south island of New Zealand. We kept in touch and some weeks ago she came up with the suggestion to make a detour and visit me in Thailand before heading back to China.

This became reality ten days ago, after she had overcome some very unlucky incidents. Firstly, she skyped with me while being at the airport in Christchurch. Distracted by our chatting, she missed her flight and had to buy a new one for atrocious NZ $850. After staying a few days in Bangkok she took an overnight bus to Chiang Mai. When she woke up in the morning, she found her backpack at the staircase of the coach – some bastards had stolen NZ $500 from her.

If all that had happened to me, I probably had completely freaked out but Sakeenah handled the situation with her unmatched easygoingness.
Originally I offered her to stay at my place only for some days until she had found an accommodation by herself, but now we try to get along for the entire two and a half weeks she spends in Chiang Mai. As before in New Zealand, this girl is pushing me out of my comfort zone in every way, every day. We are like cats and dogs, the contrasts couldn’t be much bigger. Having said that, I am very happy to have her around, since her refreshing personality enriches my travel experience and makes day trips more fun…apart from uncountable moments you will read about later on. In addition, I appreciate to get more photos of myself and to have her as my photo model on demand. 🙂

Sakeenah is obsessed with the idea to learn Thai cooking. I took her to one of my favourite vegetarian restaurants, she talked to the staff, found a member speaking Chinese, and three minutes later she had a job. It is not paid but at least she can eat there as much as she likes and she is even allowed to provide me with food when I show up at the restaurant.

What drives me nuts is her unreliability and lack of organisation, not to forget her suicidal manner in road traffic… and she constantly changes her mind. Within two minutes she wants to do three different things which are mutually exclusive. If I wouldn’t be affected by her actions, I wouldn’t mind, but somehow I am always involved and end up doing things I was not willing to go for in the first place. Besides that, she is taking way too high risks, pushing her luck to an extend which is mind-boggling. However, her list of complaints about my behaviour is surely not much shorter than mine about her’s. :-p

On the positive side, I have to point out her skills at bargain hunting and her outstanding ability to cope spontaneously even with the most inconvenient situations. She is like a little happy cockroach – agile, curious, often at the edge of being smashed but always finding a way out of the precarious position. Furthermore she is very sociable and meets tons of people within a blink of an eye – which can be an advantage (e.g. a free lift to Pai and back) as well as a disadvantage (e.g. a stranger knocking at my hotel room around midnight or a telephone call at 4:55am). Summed up, we enjoy each others company and try to find compromises although regularly annoying each other. Luckily, this never lasts longer than some minutes up to a couple of hours.

With these insightful information, I like to continue with the report on two recent day trips Sakeenah and I did.

Flight of the Gibbon: I had seen innumerable ads for jungle zip line adventure tours, but never really thought about booking one of them. It was Sakeenah, who triggered my research, which of all the available tours would be the best value for money. We opted for the most popular and most recommended “Flight of the Gibbon” tour. At 7:00am sharp, a minivan picked us up at the hotel and brought us to the rainforest site, a 90 minutes drive from Chiang Mai. We were equipped with a harness, a helmet and got a short security introduction by our two sky rangers, namely Tim and Ton. First rule: Never notch by yourself from the safety rope!

Tim spoke better English than Ton and was more active in his attempts to make sure everybody had fun – and indeed we had. Our group only consisted of five persons. Two Chinese guys, a Belgium women, Sakeenah and me. In consequence, the downtime between the zip line rides (33 in total) was low and we left the lofty treetops already after 90 minutes. Maybe my Canyon Swing experience in New Zealand had toughened me up – I was not scared at all when riding the zip lines. Especially in the beginning, I was more focused on how to get the best shots with my camera than to imagine how my chances were to survive a free fall from 30-50 metres height. The tour was nicely varying. Sometimes we had to walk through the rainforest to get to the next platform or to climb up or down windy stairs. Another time we were attached to the zip line with our hook on the back to give us the feeling to fly like a bird, superman or prey grabbed by an eagle.

The trip also contained two abseil experiences (15 metres and 40 metres).  To do the name “Flight of the Gibbon” justice, we walked down a short trail in the middle of the tour to see a Gibbon family, attracted by the food a guy at the bottom of the tree had provided for these hairy fellows. I reckon, the Gibbons are fed regularly to get them used to humans. Anyway, it was super-cute to watch the young Gibbon scrambling about the tree branches and cuddling with his mother.

Did I mention rule no.1 of the safety instructions? Guess who thought it would not apply to her? Yes, right: Sakeenah! I was scared and irritated when I saw her walking around unattached to the safety rope on a tree platform in 40-50 metres height. She tried to explain that she wanted to try if she could unlock herself from the rope and that she was in total control of the situation. I like adventures and thrill but this was plain stupid. Sky ranger Tom said: “Okay, not my life! If she dead, not my fault” but of course he was concerned, too. After some discussion, we continued and I tried to calm down. 20 minutes later I found Sakeenah unattached to the safety rope again. You can’t imagine how upset I was – even the sky rangers made clear that they would stop the tour right away when she were not listening to their advises. These are the moments when I really doubt her mental sanity. Later on, she indicated at least that she understood how irresponsible her actions had been. I am so hoping that she will develop maturity before she accidentally kills herself. After the zip line tour, we chose a free T-shirt at the souvenir shop and I bought photographs taken by the sky rangers.

Subsequently, our minivan gave us a lift to a beautiful waterfall nearby. Another 40 minutes later, we returned to the base camp and relished a delicious meal, which was included in the booked package. A live band playing traditional Thai music catered for our accompaniment.
In conclusion I really recommend the “Flight of the Gibbon” tour. The quality and fun depends on the sky rangers, the time of the day and the group size, though. Ideally you should book the earliest tour in the morning, get lucky to have not more than six people in your group and get entertaining guys like Tom and Ton as sky rangers who really took care of us in terms of fun and safety.
For Thailand the price tag of 3.600 Baht (€ 86.00 /AUD $ 121.00) per person is very high, even if you buy it heavily discounted for 2.900 Baht (€ 69.00 / AUD $ 98.00). I still can assure you that the overall experience is totally worth the financial investment!

Pai: I had heard some good stuff about this little Thai town and asked Sakeenah if she would like to join me for a day trip. Pai is famous for arts and its relaxed flair. Many foreigners with hippie-attitude have settled down there permanently or spend their holidays in Pai to find inspiration and to sell their work. 150 Baht per person for a one-way ticket from Chiang Mai sounded reasonable, but Sakeenah had met three Chinese guys in our hotel who had rented a car a week ago. They had traveled with it from the mainland of China the entire way down to Thailand. They didn’t speak English at all and appreciated to have Sakeenah as their interpreter since they really depended on body language and pure luck to find someone to speak Chinese. They told us that sometimes they simply took cash out of their wallet and let money do the talking. These guys around my age offered us a ride for free.

Gosh! The road through the lush green mountains was so windy that I became slightly carsick. After 3.5 hours we arrived in Pai, sporting a simply beautiful landscape. I thoroughly documented a site about 3km outside of Pai. Why? John, the landscape/bamboo architect I had met in Daow’s massage shop, one day before we departed from Chiang Mai had asked me for help. The existing resort at the mentioned site shall be expanded and transformed into a resort with a 4 star rating, yoga school, conference centre, restaurant and some other unique features. His task is, to develop a master plan for that area. You will read more about this project in the section “Future Prospect” below.

We cruised with our car up and down the main road to Pai in order to check out the romantic and picturesque resorts in the vicinity. Most of them offer huts or small houses as self-contained accommodations. The serenity of the area and the view you get in these resorts are stunning. With a price point of 700-1.100 Baht per night (€ 17.00 – € 26.00 / AUD $ 23.00- AUD $ 37.00) for a room / hut, I had not much to think about, being used to dorms in hostels which are more expensive than that. After some consideration, the Chinese guys booked a hut at the Pai Phaya Resort. I wanted to have a look at Pai first, because staying in an accommodation 3km outside of town without an own vehicle might have limited our choice of activities.

In general I prefer not to depend on somebody else’s car but of course the amenities and especially the view of the Pai Phaya Resort were seducing. I suggested to have a walk to town first to sort out our options. Sakeenah was not enthusiastic about walking and proposed to rent a scooter. It is very common to rent a scooter in Thailand even without appropriate license but it seems I am one of the very few persons in Thailand, who think about the worst case scenarios. My insurance company wouldn’t pay a single cent if I had an accident, another person got injured or an expensive object were damaged. Sakeenah of course didn’t bother at all and claimed to be eligible to drive a scooter. I refused, because I don’t have too much trust in her scooter driving abilities, apart from the fact that there was no scooter to hire at our resort. She didn’t give up and one minute later she had convinced the Chinese guys to let her drive their car. We are not talking here about an old crappy backpacker car, but a luxurious US $ 40.000 SUV Honda. She had never driven a car like that before. Moreover, the steering wheel was on the left side because the car was rented in China, a country with right-hand driving. She moved the car a bit forth, back and in quarter circles on the parking lot. After persisting asking, I found out that she didn’t even have the driving license with her. Unbelievable – I might be very German with a high need for safety, call me boring for all I care, but she had definitely gone too far that time.

I was very relieved after I had convinced her to get out of that effing car she had no experience with and no insurance for. The distance to Pai, about 1km according to the estimation of the resort manager, turned out to be 3km. We didn’t make it to midtown. I headed around the next corner to see, if the Walking Street of Pai was visible from there and left Sakeenah for a couple of minutes. When I came back, she was waving her arms, signalizing to return to her quickly. Within approximately three minutes she had organized a hitchhiking opportunity. We entered the pick-up truck and saved about 30 minutes time, compared to the time we would have to invest when returning to Pai Phaya Resort by foot. We checked in and joined the Chinese guys who drove to Pai in the evening for dinner. After that, they wanted to have a look at the Night Market. A vegan Chinese restaurant was about to close at 9:00pm but with some negotiating, the manager agreed to let us in. Noodle soup and fried rice were the only dishes they were willing to prepare for us, since the kitchen had closed already. We were thankful anyway and accepted the offer. To order à la carte we decided to come back for lunch again on the next day.

The Night Market at the Walking Street was lovely – not so overcrowded like in Chiang Mai. Sakeenah and I separated from the Chinese guys. I took some night photos and was busy setting up my camera. When I looked around, I noticed that Sakeenah had vanished into thin air. Great! She didn’t have her mobile phone with her and I could not communicate with the Chinese guys to make an appointment where to meet up. I tried to find their car but failed. I already thought about recruiting a Chinese speaking person so I could call our travel companions and figure out where they had gone. It was after 10.00pm and I feared to be stranded in Pai.

In Chiang Mai there are hundreds of tuktuks and taxis, unsolicitedly offering their service, but in Pai I couldn’t spot a single taxi. I strolled up and down Walking Street, concerned about Sakeenah – and myself, too. When I turned into a side street I saw Sakeenah at a boost, debating with a seller about clothing, although I knew that she didn’t have more than 40 Baht (€ 1.00) with her. While I was at the edge of panicking how to get back to our resort, this girl still set her priority on buying stuff. However, I was very eased to pick her up. Our first idea was to walk back. We passed a 7-Eleven shop (kind of mini-supermarket with extensive opening times). Sakeenah asked a Thai guy leaving the shop and approaching his scooter if he might give us a lift to our resort. – Surprise, surprise, he had to go exactly in the direction of our accommodation and let us mount on his scooter. 🙂

The next morning before 7am we had a nice walk, enjoying the early morning fog and the serenity of the location. The Chinese guys liked to head back to Chiang Mai around noon, so we returned to the vegan restaurant around 10am and I ate more than good for me. Sakeenah made contact with the cook, the staff members and were allowed to watch them preparing the dishes. She finally served the food instead of our waitress and would have spent the entire time in the kitchen if I had not requested her to come back and join us at the table.

The combination of too much food and the curvy road back to Chiang Mai caused carsickness once again. The Chinese guys dropped me off and let me walk for about 15 minutes before picking me up again one kilometre down the road. That helped to digest and saved me from vomiting my weekly supply of food I had stockpiled in my tiny stomach.

What a crazy, exhausting trip! Although it might sound that I had some horrible incidents in these two days, this is only partially true. In fact, I evaluate the journey to Pai as a memorable experience and the pictures speak for themselves. Quintessence for you: Pai and the region around is a must visit for every Thailand visitor!

Future Prospect: The last days have caused unexpected changes regarding my plans for the near future. I have stopped searching for work in Europe (I am a bit ashamed that I had only applied for 11 jobs so far) because John let me know that he might need a hand for his next project. He is specializing in bamboo constructions and lives in Thailand already for more than three years. Now he shall develop a master plan for a pocket of land in Pai. You can see the area in the gallery: It is the sepia picture with two cars on the left and a container on the right. The owner wants to extend the existing resort, add a restaurant, a yoga school and some more huts. The concept also allows for the connection of tourism with agriculture. The aim is to get a 4-star rating for the resort. In the course of the renovation and extension the rates shall increase dramatically and mark the top end of hotel prices in that area. John hasn’t worked in an office for years but wants to establish one Chiang Mai. He needs somebody to supervise the student volunteers. Furthermore he is looking for some support at the creation of the master plan portfolio.

There are a lot of difficulties to overcome but at the moment it seems that the chances to get a work permit for me look good. If things are going well, I will take my plane ride to Kuala Lumpur on the 17th of November but ditch the flight to Europe which I booked already months ago. Instead, I will enjoy spend some days in Malaysia and return to Thailand with a work permit, valid for 3 months. John has offered me a contract as an employee for that period. The salary we agreed on will be acceptable for me, taking in account that I will stay in close distance to Australia and will have a reference of a representative project. In preparation I will attend at John’s  3-days bamboo workshop for free. We will build a space frame prototype. With this kind of experience, he wants to build something similar on the future building site in Pai.

I am very excited if these plans become reality.  To participate in that project and to take influence on the development of the master plan will be a pleasure for me. As said before, nothing is set in stone yet, but I am positively looking forward to my potential future in Thailand. Even if it is only for three months, it will help me to bridge the gap until my Australian visa will be hopefully granted.

Road next to Chiang Mai Gate

Massage Course, Hotel Stories & 373 days of living abroad

Let’s start with a short small talk introductory: The weather in Chiang Mai is unexpectedly mild and cool due to the rain season. I even slept one night without fan support (eeehm…it is up to you how you interpret that, haha!). We had some days with temperatures below 20°C at night-time and only a bit higher at day-time; very convenient, but the high humidity made me sweat anyway, as soon as I rode my bicycle for more than five minutes.

Massage Course: Another successful announcement has to be made: I finished the 10 days massage course and received my certificate. As an authentic Thai certificate it has to contain at least one misspelling, grammar inconsistencies and layout flaws but I am probably the only one analysing the document that thoroughly. 😉

I will continue practising to become more independent from my course books. Once I am feel more confident I might try working on the Walking Street Market, held every Sunday on the main street in the walled city. It is a way for lots of massage students to get field experience and to make money at the same time – although the money is not my concern at all. For one hour foot massage I would earn 80-100 Baht. (€ 2.00 – € 2.50 / AUD$ 2.70 – AUD$ 3.35) The training was fun most of the time. Nonetheless it was hard work, physically and mentally exhausting. The first days, my teacher Daow and I practised in a 40% to 60% ratio. First she massaged me and explained every step. She pointed out to bestow consideration upon particular hand positions or muscles. Subsequently it was my turn to massage her and she provided me with some feedback: “Don’t press the bone, less pressure, change your working position, slow down…” . The following days the ratio changed to 5% to 95% in my favour. Six hours massage per day were tough. I suffered from backache and pain in the back of my knees. Sitting on the heels or on stretched feed was rather unusual for me and I couldn’t adapt to it within a blink of an eye. The problem to sit on the floor for a long time is an issue which most Farangs (people without a flat nose…to say it in simple words) have. Working on a desk chair for 8-14 hours per day and watching TV from a cushy couch does not prepare you well for learning Thai massage!

I did not only practise with Daow. My – more or less unskilled – hands had to deal with a massive +100 kg guy, a tall Russian girl, a young Thai guy, lots of tiny, fragile Thai masseuses and Daow’s sister. Whoever was around and available was told off by Daow to assist me as model. That was quite useful since different anatomies require different approaches regarding pressure and sitting positions.  – All my victims survived and were able to walk out of the shop without help.

Hotel Stories: In general I was very satisfied with the service of my hotel – the staff always tried to comfort me and delegated my requests if they couldn’t handle them by theirselves.

Street front of the Noble House

And exactly here started things to become a bigger issue and to annoy me more and more. Internet connection is crucial for almost every tourist and  in modern hotel, geared to Westerner’s needs I expect a reliable connection with an acceptable speed. The reality was and still is somewhat different. For an eternity of three days the network on my 5th floor was out of order. Every time if I or another guest complained, we were assured that a technician would come to fix the problem. Hours and days went by and slowly our patience dissolved into thin air. Not willing to hear the same excuses of the receptionist any further, four other guests of the 5th floor and me went to see the hotel manager. We made clear that the current status is unbearable and that we would not stay in the hotel if there wasn’t a quick solution to regain internet access. We got the promise that everything would be okay  on the next day at noon. In fact, it was nearly 3pm when the network was finally fully functional. The upcoming days the connection blacked out from time to time and the speed was at lazy snail level. I helped myself by connecting to a weaker network signals of the 4th floor but this only worked occasionally. I complained over and over. After another talk to the manager it turned out that a staff member could fix the problem by simply pushing a button to reset the router. The response time for dealing with issues reported by hotel guests is definitely too low, unless the receptionists can figure out by themselves what has to be done.

Thai electricians at work. The transformer box in front of the Noble House had to be replaced.

Four days ago, the hotel faced a power cut in the afternoon. Nothing unusual in Thailand but the special situation was that only the hotel was affected. I was assured that after coming back from the market, everything would be okay. Of course it wasn’t. A team of electricians (or maybe just ordinary guys, you can never be sure…- I don’t trust any Thai claiming to be a professional on his field before he has proven his skills.) was refilling the transformer, mounted high on a pole in front of the hotel, with oil. Apparently it did not change anything. It was raining, I was tired and the inside of the hotel was almost covered in darkness. I set up a deadline and told the manager that I was going to check in at another hotel for the night. Without air conditioning, fan, fridge and any light, it was unreasonable to stay in my room with hot, sticky air. At first, the manager offered me a red cab ride to another hotel where I could stay for free but I was not keen on relocating to the airport plaza outside of Chiang Mai. I chose the hotel for its proximity to the walled city.  I insisted on a refund for the night and persisted in the demand to look for an accommodation by myself.

The manager borrowed a torch for me so I could get my bare necessities and sleep one night elsewhere. When I made my way to my room the first time, and back to the exit, it was a bit scary – like walking through a ghost house at night. The emergency lights in front of the lift only lit up the staircase, not the long aisles of every floor. Unfortunately the emergency lights of the 4th and 5th floor didn’t work at all and I had to touch to maintain orientation. Slowly I felt the way to my room, remembering that I had to open the second door to the left. I imagined that in case of a fire or another reason requiring a quick evacuation, such an emergency precaution failure could cost lives. I was embarrassed and did not stop to make the staff and the manager’s aware of that until I got the confirmation that the emergency lights had been repaired.

Once i had exited the building, I exchanged telephone numbers with the hotel manager and agreed on 10pm as his last chance to inform me about the return of the electricity and the 100% operationality of the internet since I wasn’t buying the technician’s statement. He betokened, the power box would be replaced within one hour. Who would be amazed that I was right with my prediction? Ultimately, about two hours later at 10:15pm, I received the manager’s call. I had waited  a bit longer with the booking on purpose because I preferred to sleep in the room where I had settled down already for weeks.

The entire happening was really embarrassing and my thread of patience is now more likely to snap if further issues occur. No worries – I am still acting friendly and polite but I point out things which annoy me right away instead of keeping calm and being too shy to report inconvenient occurrences.

However, the breakdown of current spiced up my all-day-life and fills my treasure box of travel stories. …Always look on the bright side of life…

373 days of living abroad: I wanted to publish a résumé “One year of Traveling” eight days ago but procrastinated it for several reasons like internet connection trouble, tiredness and, I confess: pure laziness.

If I look back and recapitulate the ongoing since I left Germany on October 18th in 2012, it is nothing less than astonishing. Yes, I was ready for a new start on the other side of the world but I never had imagined a fraction of the stuff which happened to me. I am positively overwhelmed by the sheer diversity of plot life held ready for me.

Although I had often had to change and to modify my plans, I perfectly achieved one of my main goals: to push myself out of the comfort zone, to improvise, to catch opportunities as they arise, to make new friends and above all: to enjoy the freedom to do what I like on every effing single day. It is not easy to discipline yourself if you don’t feel the urgent pressure of getting a job right away. It is tempting to hang out and to do nothing. Fortunately, I am blessed with the drive to be creative, to evolve my personality and to be a helpful for others.

In consequence, I can honestly announce that I am very happy with my life! No doubt, that leaving home was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The life style of traveling was regarded by me as undesirable in the past. I love camping and being forced to cope with limited resources – but only short-term. To stay over a long period of time in hostels, to live in a small room in a share house for a half-year and to reside in a hotel room for weeks – was something I wouldn’t have chosen deliberately.  Now, I like to countermand my former sight and admit: I don’t miss anything and feel great. Oh,wait, that’s not correct: occasionally I do miss something: my ergonomic work desk including my stylish HAG Capisco office chair, a big computer screen, a wave-shaped natural keyboard to avoid repetitive strain injuries and my digital piano.

If the price for becoming more worldly-wise and to explore some of the most beautiful places in the world, is to relinquish the things mentioned above, I must say: it is a real bargain! 😀

At last, I’d like to say Thank You to all readers and followers of this blog which has not only become a public diary for me and my personal photo platform but also an evident proof of my achievements. Writing for and posting on this blog had a big influence on my journey. Your encouraging comments as well as my urge to share stories and pictures with you were often the reason to go out for night photo shootings, to hurry up finishing DIY projects and to undertake adventures which I reckoned to result in a good yarn. Without this blog I probably had spent more time playing computer games, surfing on Youtube and watching TV.

Stay tuned – and don’t forget: It might be exciting to read stories which happen to others but it is so much more rewarding and fulfilling to realize some of your own ideas spinning around your head.  Get up and move your lazy ass! Surprise yourself by taking initiative! …why are you still here?? GOOOOOOO! …And please let me know what you were up to. I will enjoy leaning back and read your stories! 🙂

Chris

Besides the “regular” travel pictures, I have posted some experimental shots, taken in my hotel room when it was raining outside. I couldn’t motivate myself to research jobs to apply for. Alternatively I thought that taking pictures on my bed might be a good contrast to all the landscape stuff I usually do.

Another day, I tried to photograph the rain drops splashing on the parapet of my balcony. The light conditions were poor and I was inexperienced with this kind of photography. I struggled to get the manual focus right. The high shutter speed I needed required a high ISO value, leading to nasty noisy pictures. Problems, problems, problems. –  To compensate the lack of image quality, I was forced to be more creative in the post processing with Photoshop. After all I am pleased with the results and glad things didn’t went as smoothly as I wished in advance.

Wall & ceiling of my hotel room

Altar on the parking lot at the backside of my hotel

Zoomed in view from my hotel balcony

My laundry (20 Baht per load)

Squirrel clambering on a bamboo scaffold

IELTS Test Result + More Patong + Review of 2,5 Weeks Chiang Mai

IELTS Test Results: My heart was beating faster when I tried to log on the IELTS website for checking my results on October 4th, 13 days after the actual test. At 4:15pm Australia Central Time the awaited data was supposed to be online. Apparently I wasn’t the only one trying to check the results on the page. Due to high server traffic the page could not be loaded but I kept trying and trying, and after an eternity, my results showed up on the screen. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had to check, if the personal data was correct and the band score referring to my test performance did not belong to a different candidate. SUCCESS! The results exceeded my highest expectations by far. Reading and Writing 8.0, Listening and Speaking 8.5, summed up to an overall band score of 8.5!

WOW! If you read in my last post, how I struggled during the writing module and in the speaking examination, you can understand that such a high score was something I did not dare to dream of. 8.0 was the magical number I tried to score, and now it looks like the test was a walk in the park for me.

Later on, I checked the requirements for the subclass 189 visa. It turned out that not the overall band score is decisive but a performance of 8.0 or higher in ALL modules. That was new for me. It means that a maximum score of 9.0 in three of the four modules and a 7.5 or lower in the remaining one had been a failure. I am so happy that I misunderstood this paragraph, otherwise I probably had resigned because doing that well was more than I thought to be capable of. However, this is officially the biggest positive surprise of 2013 for me. My chances to apply for my desired Australia visa  in 2014 have massively increased.

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Now I am waiting for the AACA (Architects Accreditation Council of Australia) to assess my German diploma. Once they confirm that my degree is equivalent to an Australian Masters degree or at least a Bachelor, I can create a portfolio with all required documents and lodge the visa application. From that point on it will probably take several months of waiting again. In the meantime they might ask for a medical check including an X-ray of my chest… . Assumed they have no objections concerning my health,  I have high hopes that the visa will be granted.

As you can see, it is still a long way to go but the first big hurdle – the IELTS test – is passed. As a side effect I can show off with the IELTS band score in my CV. To have an official record that my English language skills are close to native speaker level, will be definitely something working in my favour. (Although I am self-critical enough to know that in reality there is still a huge gap between the language skills of a native speaker and mine.)

More Patong: I reported about my first Patong impressions recently. What can I say about that touristy town after my 5-days experience?

Short and simple: I like it. I walked through a lot of small, nearly secret sois (soi = side street) and saw how life goes for the ordinary local people. Many houses are completely run down. They look dirty at least from the outside and the level of improvisation is stunning. Everything is created with the littlest effort possible to fit the minimum requirements. It perfectly reflects the life style of Thai culture. „We don’t need luxury – as long as it works it is okay“. Whatever Thais construct – it will not last for long, not survive a storm, earthquake, look pretty or satisfy any hygienic standards but they don’t worry about that. The contrast between my home country Germany and Thailand couldn’t be much bigger in this respect: The typical German demands highest quality standards, pays attention to detail, will have an insurance even for the most absurd catastrophes imaginable, will try to separate his property from the neighbours with walls and fences, close the front side of the house for more privacy, will tidy up everything with the aim to make things look like a glamorous magazine photo. Thai people in comparison will focus on the bare necessities, take higher risks regarding  safety precautions, keep houses and private spaces open or secure them with a $2-5 lock. Excessive ornaments and luxury are mainly applied to things related to religion.

Often, the decoration  in and at Thai buildings looks colourful and expensive, but if you get close enough, you will surprisingly notice that for example the gold is only a mediocre print on cardboard, the luxurious covers are only a fraction of a millimetre thick and the assembling of the parts is done atrociously sloppy. If something is not following this scheme you can be sure it was created for Farangs (Farang = Foreigner from a western country, characterized by a prominent nose and light skin) and the price will be multiple times higher than normal.

There is a lot of large-scale construction going on in Patong – mainly hotels. They don’t have to worry about shortage in space for real estate – still enough open area available. I would prefer though if not everything will be sealed with concrete. Old buildings are constantly replaced by new ones – maybe a good way to preserve undeveloped areas.  Apart from the historical constructions there are not many other buildings older than 30 years. Anyway, if you see how dirty the facades of many buildings look you would reckon they have to be older.

One day it was raining cats and dogs. A neighbour’s dog (suffering of innumerable ticks in his fur) followed me to my room after I had petted her close to the hotel reception. I opened the door and managed to make clear that she was allowed to come in. The dog  did not hesitate and followed me inside. She laid down at the entrance, later on under my bed. For more than an hour I was inofficial owner of a guard dog. 😉

On my fourth day I had the plan to go to Phuket Town, using a local bus for 25 Baht (about € 0.65 / AUD $0.85). I got a free scooter lift to the beach where the bus left every 30 minutes. I was so tired that I tried to rest a bit in a horizontal position with the feet still touching the floor. No kidding – in spite of the curvy road and half a dozen other people in the bus, I felt deeply asleep and the deputy of the bus conductor had to wake me up. I felt terrible, sleepy and having a headache. My stomach was upset and contributed to my general discomfort. I had no map of Phuket and no idea where I was. Trying to keep in mind where I left the bus in order to find the spot again several hours later, I strolled down a street and ate one of the spartan equipped restaurants. It was so basic furnished that you could transform it into a workshop, a video store or a supermarket within one hour. Desperately searching for a place to lay down, I had the idea to get a massage and sleep during the treatment. Phuket doesn’t have as many massage shops as Patong which is entirely focussed on tourists but it did not take me longer than 10 minutes until I passed one. The girl was not caring much about my sensitiveness and stopped the blood flow in my arms and legs  about 10 times for 20 seconds or more. No way I could relax and sleep while being massaged. The visit was still worth it because they had a toilet I had never seen before. The room was so small that it wasn’t easy to take a picture but as you can see in the gallery, it worked out not too bad. To flush, you scoop water with a plastic bowl out of a big bucket and pour it in the toilet. After the massage it was raining, raining, raining and I was not in the mood for further activities in Phuket, so I returned to the pick-up point and headed back to Patong already three hours after my arrival.

On my last day I bought a fresh pineapple from a fruit boost as I had done it every day before. I refused the discount of 5 baht for being a regular customer and had a last lovely chat with the lady who tried with me for 10 minutes to get a bee out of the glass box filled with fruits and ice cubes. After finishing our rescue action, I noticed a piece of watermelon next to the boost. A huge wasp, a fly and a toad were sitting on and next to the melon in adorable coexistence. Another time I thanked myself to (nearly) never forget my camera when I going out.

The same taxi guy who moved me up from the airport to the hotel, brought me safely back to the hotel again. I left Patong with mixed feelings. I would have like to stay longer but I was much more excited to return to Chiang Mai to see friends I had made earlier this year.

Night Life on Bangla Road

Night Life on Bangla Road

Night Life on Bangla Road

Bus to Phuket

Bus to Phuket

Phuket

Phuket

Phuket

Phuket

Phuket

toilet in massage shop

construction site in front of my hotel

my short-term guard dog

my short-term guard dog

😉

Toad, Wasp and Fly sharing a water melon piece

My Favourite Fruit Boost in Patong

normal Thai electricity cable installation

Review 2,5 Weeks in Chiang Mai: It was night-time when my airplane landed at Chiang Mai Airport which is a 8 minutes drive away from the walled city . In a very practised manner I quickly organized a taxi ride and was surprised how well I remembered the buildings and streets even in dimmed light. I met up with a friend who works in a massage parlour and spend my first night on the hardest mattress ever. She had just moved to another furnished flat so I couldn’t blaim her for that. Also the tankless water heater was not working with the result of taking a cold shower. That was even more motivation for me to find an accommodation for my own as quick as possible.

My first day in Chiang Mai was frustrating and staggering. I was full of anticipation to get the BMW X6 mountain bike back which I had rented  last time I stayed in Chiang Mai (often abbreviated as CM). Sadly, the owner had sold it for 10.000 Baht (around € 250/ AUD $350) and could only offer another mountain bike for 50% more. I rented a simple bicycle for 50 Baht/day. I considered the two-wheeled vehicle to be worth the upgrade from the simple city bike without gears and paid the 3000 Baht/months. It is a TREK mountain bike with awesome disc brakes. After some negotiation the dealer agreed to mount a back carrier for me. I only used it so far to store the heavy lock on it but who knows when it will come in handy for example after excessive shopping in the supermarket. – I liked my old BMW more, though! It felt like it was made for me while my current bike is just pretty decent. :´-(

After the disappointment with the forever-unavailable BMW bike, I walked – sun-protected by my umbrella – to the Ranahan restaurant. The kitchen front looked somehow different from how I remembered it. I got more confused when I didn’t see Ayee – the bar guy behind the juice bar counter at the restaurant’s entrance. I moved up the three steps to the seating area and was alarmed when I couldn’t see Rem or another staff member who worked there four months ago. I went straight to the kitchen and was shocked: only new Thai people I had never seen before, no Soraya, the manager, no Mr. Pong, the cook. It got worse: my tent construction was torn apart, half of it was still assembled, other parts were hanging down in pieces. Everything looked dirty and run down. The kitchen staff seemed to give an F about it. They had not taken any effort to repair the construction. I asked different staff how long they were already running their business at this place and if they knew Soraya. A women informed me that they moved in two months ago. She called several people with her mobile phone to investigate Sorayas number.

Finally I talked to her and she was flabbergasted that I was back in town. Ten minutes later she picked me up with her scooter and we drove to her apartment. It took me about one hour of interrogation due to her basic English before I comprehended what had happened: Six weeks after I had left, a big storm and lots of rain had damaged the tarp construction in the kitchen. One week later, Mr.Pung and Rem quit their jobs because they were constantly discussing and couldn’t get along with each other. For one week, Soraya tried to do everything by herself but she struggled and felt worn out, yearning to go on holidays. Although the restaurant would be closed during her time-out she would have to pay 10.000 Baht for rent per months.  The owner had increased the lease continuously and the costs for water and electricity, too. Soraya made the decision to give up the restaurant. The bar guy, who was in a similar position with his café and fruit juice bar, did the same.

All my modifications are still there: the postcards at the kitchen door, the chain lights, the paper umbrellas…but nothing is like before. I know: nothing lasts for eternity, but it was hard to deal with these radical changes which had happened only within a few weeks.

At least I had found Soraya again who was more than happy to see me. She offered help to find an accommodation. We cruised through the walled city for hours. The answer we got from the owners and employees was always the same: “We are fully booked!” Two places offered anti-charming looking rooms for 5.000 Baht / month and one receptionist baffled me by offering a room for insane 15.000 Baht. At this moment I hated the upcoming High Season wholeheartedly. In the early afternoon Soraya and I separated with the plan to continue our search the next day at 11:00 am.  For unknown reasons she did not show up and did not answer my SMSs. This was more than two weeks ago. Today, I saw that I had missed a phone call from her. I am excited to find out what happened.

I kept my search for an apartment up, walking through the city without a specific destination. With the help of some locals I discovered a vegetarian restaurant near the Chiang Mai gate which was marked on the map at a different point – meeh!  An English-speaking guy who had noticed me asking if the dishes were vegan, told me that I would be at the right place for that. I sat down at his table and chatted. At the end he asked me about my accommodation, I described my dilemma and he recommended the hotel 50 metres down the road. He is staying there  at a very affordable rate since six months already.

You guess it: That’s indeed the place where I settled down. It is a the “Noble House”. Its pricing exceeded the limit I had set for myself but for 8.000 Baht per months I get a nicely furnished, clean hotel room with modern bath, balcony, TV, fridge, aircon, free WiFi and room service, cleaning two times per week. I am provided with fresh towels, toilette paper and one litre of drinking water every time they make up the room . For that level of luxury I find the price reasonable, especially in the high season. The room they gave me first was on the other side of the aisle but stank terrible of cigarette smoke. On the second day I moved into another room on the same floor. It has colours which are women-ish/girly-ish but the air quality is better. That’ s what matters for me much more than the interior design.

The location of the Noble House is spot on. It is outside of the walled city but only 100 metres distant from the Chiang Mai Gate.  There you have a huge food market and some convenience stores open at least until 11 pm. Some market boosts are selling hot food the whole night – which is not unusual for Thailand. A laundry (three washing machines in an open shed at the side of the road) is in the very close vicinity to the hotel. For lunch I often go to the vegetarian restaurant mentioned earlier. They offer food in a buffet style. No matter how many different dishes you choose, you will not pay more than 25-30 Baht, maybe 5-10 Baht extra for a spring roll. A tasty full meal for less than a dollar is very competitive. The most useful Thai word I recently learned is „jaay“, meaning basically the same like „vegan“. This word is understood by every Thai and makes ordering food much easier, most notably at non-vegetarian establishments.

I needed some days to get over the disappointment respectively the broken tarp construction and the restaurant abandoned by all the people I had made friends with in April. What finally cheered me up was that so many people in Chiang Mai remembered my face and my name. There are thousands and thousands of Farangs (western foreigners) in Chiang Mai visiting the Night Market every day –  nevertheless, a women selling clothes immediately recognized me although I had never bought anything from her. This time I bought blue pants, very suitable for Thai massage, and we were both happy.

What have I done since I have settled down in my hotel? – I have visited the famous Suteph Temple on a hill 30 minutes outside of Chiang Mai, I prepared my CV and applied at least for two jobs, with hopefully 2-5 more  with every new day from now on. As mentioned before, I rented a good mountain bike and I met up with my former massage teacher Daow. I opted for  ten days Thai Massage + Foot Massage course and enjoy it so far although having an aching body from head to toe. I am not used to sit in a kneeling position for hours and hours. The course regularly starts at 10:00am  and finishes at 5:00 pm including one hour of lunch break. I say regularly because there are always incidents which require a change of the schedule. I get private lessons – so changing the appointment is not too difficult. Practising is fun but tough, too. As a further encouragement I will get a certificate at the end of the course. I have already completed five days of learning and look forward to the certificate I will receive at the end.

My plans for the next weeks – besides learning massage and sending out job applications – are to visit a local cinema and to take a tour to the only elephant wildlife park which is treating their animals in a respectful manner. Maybe, maybe, maybe, I will attend at a 3-day bamboo workshop outside of Chiang Mai in November, organized and guided by an Australian guy who is befriended with Daow.

My mountainbike for rent

Front yard flower in a mini-pond of the shop next to “my” massage parlour

My massage classroom

hotel room view: sunrise

Brain School on the opposite site of the massage shop

At Suteph Temple

Suteph Temple area

“Angry Bird” at Suteph Temple

Suteph Temple

Suteph Temple

Moth at Suteph Temple

Suteph Temple

Suteph Temple

Suteph Temple

Entrance to the Suteph Temple

Stairs to the Suteph Temple

At the bottom of Suteph Temple

At the bottom of Suteph Temple

Suteph Temple

hotel room view: Antenna and water storage on the roof of an adjacent building

playful puppies in a juice bar

playful puppies in a juice bar

playful puppies in a juice bar

my new bathroom

my new hotel room

hotel room view

hotel room view

my first hotel room in green

my old hotel bathroom

Workshop in the periphery of the walled city

Canal around the walled city

Flower at the canal

Flower at the canal

Moss on temple wall

Current status of the former Ranahan Restaurant

broken tarp construction in the kitchen

broken tarp construction in the kitchen

As always, I hope and try to keep you frequently updated…although I often fail big-time. 😉  5555555 (The number five is “ha” in Thai language. If Thais want to express laughter in written language, they simply multiply the five)

Good night – Chris

Urban Climb, Travel Preparation, Coolangatta & Patong – First Impressions

It happened again: my Photoshop version got corrupted and got stuck the moment I tried to apply a filter. After unsuccessful tweaking on it, I uninstalled the programme to reinstall it with the help of my backup version. How embarrassing – it doesn’t work. Not only I need Photoshop for presenting you better looking pictures, but also I depend on it for layouting and compiling my CV. Until I have found a solution how to cope with that huge annoyance, you have to bear my unedited photos.

Having left Australia doesn’t mean that you won’t see pictures from Oz. And it starts right here, right now while sitting on a round bistro table in my Bay View Resort hotel room. The circulating ceiling fan is running, the sliding doors are wide open and the view through the arcade on Patong and the ocean is really picturesque. The construction site close by decreases the ultimate holiday feeling experience a bit, but the noise of hedge trimmers, chainsaws and circular saws in the neighbourhood of my accommodation in Isaac Street were not less bothering, so I am already used to that kind of ambient sounds.

Urban Climb: The day before I traveled to Coolangatta, I decided to go climbing with James, Daniel and his daughter Ieva for a last time. I took my camera with me and tried not to worry about the chalk we used on our hands to get a better grip on the wall. Of course it would make my beloved Lumix DMC-FZ150 filthy dirty and the chalk could potentially intrude and damage it as well. – It was worth the risk. The camera survived and we shot some memorable pictures. I have no idea why the urban climb management doesn’t provide the hall with better light conditions. They surely don’t care about the struggle, photographers with small size sensor cameras have to go through, but they should at least care about the safety of their members and guests. Furthermore the colours of the different routes on the wall are harder to distinguish when the lighting is weak.

To remember this enjoyable activity, I showed full commitment…and ended up with several blisters and loss of epidermis. 😉 (as shown in the gallery)

Travel preparation: I was concerned about the 15kg weight limit for my checked luggage and started weighing all my goods and garment the day before leaving Brisbane. I reduced the amount of shampoo, threw away pairs of socks which had seen better days… To make a long story short: I optimized the heck out of the stuff I planned to take with me. Later, at night-time, I did the online check-in and noted to my excitement that the limit wasn`t 15kg as stated on my flight itinerary but 20kg. Wow! 5kg more immediately stopped the hassle which things I should take with me and which I should abandon. The next morning I tried to pack my backpack (the big green trolley I traveled with for the last nine months is partially broken, damaged and weighs 2kg more than my backpack I used as cabin luggage before). I compressed, rearranged, pushed and pulled but there was no way to get everything in that 50+15litre backpack. James, who generously had offered me a lift to Roma Street train station, suggested to go to a well sorted luggage shop first. For $45 I found a spacious (150 litre!) super light-weight (615 gram) duffle bag. I stored my backpack in it and added all the plastic bags with the bits and pieces I couldn’t fit in my backpack. The disadvantage of that duffle bag is its inconvenience of transportability. The straps are not suitable for carrying it on my back and they are too long for walking with stretched arms. Carrying more than 20kg in this bulky fellow (I still had lots of food in it to comfort me in Coolangatta) on one shoulder quickly caused severe pain. I padded my shoulder with a T-shirt and later on with a towel but it was still heavily aching.

Coolangatta: I said goodbye to James at Roma Street station and hello to a hurting back and sore shoulders. The 500 metres from the bus station in Coolangatta to my YHA hostel took me more than 15 minutes – an eternal amount of time for someone who could easily run the same distance in less than 90 seconds. The hostel was okay, nothing to rave about. I stored my bags and headed out for some afternoon pictures at the beach, reachable in four minutes by foot. It was very misty. The skyline of Surfers Paradise appeared blurred in reality and even more on camera.

In the evening I met Tony again, a guy who stayed at the hostel with his family. We did quite extensive small talk in the afternoon and now intensified our conversation. He is a hobby photographer, too. We shop talked about camera gear, showed each other our cameras, lenses, photos and eventually changed the topic to architecture, sustainable energy resources, politics and differences in cultures… . It was already after midnight when we quit our chat and I fell asleep short before 2am. At 5:40am I got up again, ate some of my cold pasta from the evening before and was more than thankful that the only person in the breakfast  room at 6am, a women at my age or even younger, saw me struggling with the duffle bag and pointed out  she had seen a trolley near the hostel entrance. YES! I jogged with 29kg of luggage to the airport, pushing the trolley like a baby stroller.

The flight with Air Asia was alright, albeit unimpressive. I used the five-hour layover in Kuala Lumpur to go online and scoffing more cliff bars – the perfect energy source for vegans while traveling (if you think I sound like I am paid by that company – nope I am not but I recommend products for free if they convince me without reservations).

Patong (Phuket, Thailand) First Impressions: At the airport in Phuket, my first contact with locals was to ask a security guard for a pen to fill in the arrival card. Shortly later, I fished my luggage out of the conveyor belt area and passed the custom control without any interference. I immediately spotted my taxi driver, holding a piece of cardboard with my name. Due to his lack of English language, it was a nearly speechless ride to the hotel. Whatever the speed limit in Thailand is, I reckon, it is below 140km/h – the top speed we reached that night. Some bold maneuvers to overtake cars, scooters and lorries on the left lane as well as on the right lane made clear that Thai people regard traffic rules as vague recommendation rather than as an official regulation.

To enter the hotel, I had to overcome some steep stairs… – have I mentioned how exhaustive it is to carry my new duffle bag? To my surprise the owner was not a Thai but a guy from the UK, named Trev. He is unable to leave the house since five weeks, due to his leg put in a cast. He told me that he was exchanging a bulb at a friend’s place. Although he had asked his friend whether the electricity was shut down or not, it turned out that it wasn’t. Trev was electrocuted, fell off the ladder, broke both of his legs and some other bones. Now, for moving and getting up and down the stairs, he is crawling on his knees which looks a bit odd.

Trev is a very helpful guy. At the night of my arrival, he organized a scooter lift to an ATM for me and subsequently to a restaurant. Narin, Trev’s girlfriend who drove the scooter, talked to the waitress to make sure that my Pad Thai (basically a simple noodle dish) would be vegan. Since the hotel is a bit abroad from the beach and shopping malls, Trev offered me that whenever I would need a lift I should give him a call and he would arrange it.

My room is really nice and clean. The mattress is very firm. I couldn’t find any ants or cockroaches. I have plenty of space and a perfect view on Patong as mentioned earlier.

After my dinner at midnight, I was hoping to find a massage parlour where I could cure my pain a bit after a 16 hour lasting, strenuous journey. Most massage shops were already closed at that time but finally I found one which was still open. Woohoo! I went to bed at 3am (6am at Brisbane time) and got up again at 9am. The heat, the jet lag and the excitement to start the next chapter of my travel adventure didn’t let me rest peacefully for long.

Patong shares some similarities with Chiang Mai, but in terms of architecture, the differences are significant: bigger buildings and a smaller number of temples and more green. The tree covered hills around the town are like a belt. Also the beach, the main attraction for tourists in Patong besides the nightlife on Bangla Road, is lined with trees.

So far I like Patong, especially because it is still low season until the beginning of October. Less tourists means, less hectic, more individual treatment in shops and a bigger chance to make a snatch.

Yesterday, while walking to the beach and along the promenade, I had a Singapore flashback when about a dozen tailors tried to sell me a shirt or suit – or both. They were very persistent but most of the time polite. I had a good chat with one guy in his air-conditioned shop for 20 minutes, after telling him clearly that I would not buy anything, so he shouldn’t be disappointing afterwards. At least he signalized understanding and seemed to enjoy the talk as well.

The female counterparts to the tailors are the massage girls, desperately trying to convince me that I am in need of a wellness treatment right away. I probably said “Thank you” and “Khrop kun kap” (“Thank you” in Thai) more than hundred times and gave them a smile. Smiling is like wonder weapon in Thailand. With a smile you can get nearly everything –  or in my case: avoid things without being abusive like massages, taxi services and buying suits.

My haul of yesterday’s walk into town consisted of an umbrella, (silver on the outside for sunlight reflection, and a with a green pattern on the inside) a pair of blue Nike Free shoes for 900 Baht (about €21.50 / AUD $31) and some groceries, including breakfast cereals and bread. The hotel staff supplied me with a plate, glasses, a sharp knife and a bowl. This increases my independence from going when I am lazy or simply yearn for classic European food. These little extras in hotel service are really appreciated by me.

view from my hotel room

staircases to the bungalows of my hotel

view from my hotel room showing the construction site

Waitresses in a German restaurant wearing traditional German “Dirndl”-dresses

Bangla Road – the party&event road in Patong

view from my hotel room

More stories soon…I am über-hungry and run out of bottled water. Lagon Khrap

Chris

PS: Lost my way  in Patong this late afternoon after walking for 10km and more. When I asked a massage girl for help, she discussed the matter with her friends for nearly ten minutes and consulted an older guy passing by. Even with the support of my Patong-Map and the hotel business card, she couldn’t figure out decisively which way she should send me. I had a theory but was fooled by the erroneous misbelief that she would know her town better than a tourist who arrived two days ago. She offered me a scooter lift. I agreed and advised her at an intersection to go right. She insisted that going left had to be the right choice. Like in Chiang Mai, many main roads only allow one-way traffic. In the end, we had to drive along the whole beach promenade before we could turn right to go back. After a 6-7 km ride we arrived at my hotel. If I had continued to follow the road instead of asking for help, I could have returned 20 minutes earlier, because the hotel was only about 500 metre distant to her massage shop! :-p Having said that, I am very pleased about the willingness of Thai people to help, not expecting anything in exchange.

IELTS Test, Chair Stacking & Festival of Lights

Surprise, surprise! I have changed my plan and will not post New Zealand pictures this time. Take a deep breath – I will . That promised blog post is just about to be postponed for some days. Instead you get a pure Australia entry – most likely the last one for a looooong time. I am leaving this gorgeous country (okay, not everything is perfect but everybody who knows me better, can confirm that I really NEED things to complain and carp about, otherwise there is something wrong. :-p) on Tuesday and I am not sure if I can drop a last post before that happens.

IELTS TEST: At this moment I am sitting in my room at 27 Isaac Street, trying to realize that I have done it and have no influence on the outcome anymore of MY IELTS ENGLISH TEST ! I disobeyed some advises of the online exercise material I had bought. For example: Don`t learn a lot on your last day before the test, make sure you have a good rest, blablabla . I did a writing module test from midnight to one o` clock in the morning and my brain was psyched up and kept me awake until 2:30 or 3:00am, so I didn`t feel too energetic at 7am when I woke up. I thought I had to do this exercise to feel prepared although I was conscious of possibly contradistinctive effects this last-minute learning session at night time might cause.

Enough introduction – let`s get straight to the main dish: How did the test go?? I would say “so-so”: The Listening Module was a bit harder than I hoped but maybe it was just me because my concentration at 9:15 in the morning wasn`t at 100% yet and my synapses were still playing ping pong with all kind of thoughts unrelated to the test. If I had to guess, I would say that about 5 out of 40 of my answers are uncertain, which would still give me a band score of 8 for that module.

The reading module went really smoothly. I had some time left at the end and could check my answers. During the period of test preparation I often was sure that all my answers were correct. After checking it felt like a punch in my face, when I had to realize five mistakes or even more. What I’d like to express is: self-assessment can be really misleading and unreliable. My estimation for that second reading module is a band score of 8 to 8.5 .

The 3rd module was the writing test. I knew, it would be my weakness – and indeed it was. I spent too much time on the first task, lost another two minutes for a toilet break and didn’t create a coherent text with a wide range of vocabulary and a proper grammar structure like intended . To avoid a penalty for undercutting the word limit of 250, I opted for a longer text instead of proof reading. I am really not happy with my performance of the second task. I have seen sample answers of similar writing tests and how they were evaluated. To pass with a score of 8, it had to be nearly flawless. Taking some misspellings, grammar mistakes and a lack of narrative structure in account, I reckon that my result will be about 6.5 to 7 whereas 7 is already the maximum I should expect.

While the first 3 modules took place from 9:15am to 12:20pm, the speaking module in a one-on-one session was held at 02:00pm. I was optimistic and tried to remember that my spoken English is pretty good (assumed I am in good mood, feel comfortable  and “in the flow” of a conversation lasting more than five minutes). However, I wasn`t astonished that my nervousness took over and badly interfered with the fluency of my speech. The examiner asked me questions about my hometown and about my bicycle. Subsequently he gave me a task I could prepare for one minute before it was my turn to talk about the given topic; in my case: What is your favourite dish, with who you would like to have it and where? I really disliked the question since I can`t think of a dish which stands out so much, that I would immediately feel the urge to chat about it to a large extent. I made something up but  I reck that my unease with the situation was apparent and affected my performance in a negative way. It became worse when I finished my statement before my time was up. The examiner simply asked: Can you tell me more about it and I was struggling to continue. Even in German language I wouldn`t have had much more to say. In summary, my attainments in the speaking module were below my expectation. Estimated score: 6.5 to 7.

Final calculation of all my predictions: Listening: 8, Reading: 8.5 Writing: 7, Speaking: 7. Average result:  30.5 / 4 = 7.625This would be round down to 7.5 . The chance that I did worse than estimated is higher. Yes, I believe I have a small chance to get a final band score of 8 but in 85% it will be a 7 or 7.5.

Chair Stacking: When I saw James and Ieva (Daniel`s daughter) playing with these colourful plastic chairs almost three weeks ago, the kid and architect in me were triggered at the same time. I couldn`t resist and grabbed some of the pieces and started to compete with James and Ieva. Quickly I saw that the ultimate challenge for me could only be to stack all chairs available. It took me three serious attempts but then I had accomplished my goal. 24 chairs formed an obscure sculpture with only one chair touching the table.  Intrigued by my success I headed for the next challenge: Who builds the highest construction? James did an amazing job and won with about 98cm. My hands were too shaky to win here. Instead I fought back in the next challenge: Who creates the widest construction? I tried to follow the concept to build a stable foundation first, before stretching out to both sides. It worked well although I did not reach the 50cm I was aiming for. 46cm weren`t too bad though. Some days later, I gave that challenge another shot and pushed my record to stunning 68cm. Unfortunately, it only exists a photo showing a width of 65cm. You have to trust me that I did a tiny bit better than that. Damn, who guessed that stacking chairs is so much fun?!

Brisbane Festival of Lights: Since several weeks there is a barge built-over with a stage-like construction, anchoring in the middle of the Brisbane River. I was wondering if this was a platform for open-air concerts. In a way I was right but not humans should guarantee big entertainment on that stage but light, water and abstract puppets, looking like over-sized humanoid insects, draped in fabric. Additionally the organisers had installed laser lights on several skyscrapers on the other side of the River. I couldn`t figure out why this so called Brisbane Festival of Lights takes place every year but I am glad it does – not only one day or weekend butfrom the 7th to 28th of September. Every night they perform two to three shows, depending on the day of the week. The promenade at South Bank was cramped with people. Dozen of tripods with camera equipment, I can only dream about, were standing in a long line along the quay and at the edge of the upper promenade level. After some discussion with a women who was embarrassed that I could potentially block her children’s view with my tripod (she blowed it up into a major issue that she was waiting already for hours while I had arrived only five minutes before the show started), I was allowed to stay. Later this evening I changed my position to get some pretty shots of Brisbane’s city skyline during the second show.

In case I don`t write a last entry from Brissie or Coolangatta at the Gold Coast (my flight to Phuket departures from there) before Tuesday – I already say GOODBYE to Australia – I hope I will be back soon!!!

Peace out
Chris

Bonus picture: The sunset was photographed by me on Thursday afternoon, 200m away from my home. In reality, the colours were not that yellow-red-orangish at all but if you expose a camera sensor to direct sunlight, sky colours may appear enhanced and all objects in the foreground are extremely darkened. It is not my intention to ruin your illusions how beautiful Brisbane`s sunsets are. I just thought I should tell you the truth about this particular picture. 😉 It was touched only briefly in Photoshop. There was not need to intensify the colours much more, the main effect was already achieved in camera.

Kayaking on Brisbane River & Snippets from Bangkok 2

Oh yes…you are right! What about my 27th promise to blog more often? Okay, I give up! No more announcements with precise terms or implications when the next post will be released. The only thing you can rely on, is my continuing supply with travel pictures and stories for you until I have posted all the material I amassed in New Zealand…and that`s a lot.

Kayaking on Brisbane River: Last Sunday, James, Daniel and me – the infamous Isaac Street gang – were heading out for some kayak action. Since my day/night rhythm is not in concordance with the sleeping pattern of my housemates, it was tough for me to adjust and to get up at 08:00am. When we arrived shortly after 09:00am at the “riverlife” terminal, the sun was already high in the sky and shining as if it was already summer. Spring season started in Australia officially on the 1st of September. The only difference to the real summer are the chilly nights and the lower humidity. So far, my favourite season in Queensland is winter, followed by spring. Temperatures between 21-30 °C and lots of sunny days, occasionally a bit of rain. Perfect!

The kayak experience was more than decent. We got a short safety introduction and were provided with life jackets and a waterproof sea bag for my camera. We paddled downstream but the tidal drift was inland. In consequence we had to work a bit harder on the first half of our tour. Altogether we covered approximately 5-6 km. After 40 minutes, the skin on the lower part of my thumbs was scrubbed off due to the unfamiliar work with a kayak paddle. I changed the fingering and went on, only irritated by the straps holding the back rest. I got constantly stuck in these straps and ended up with some small cuts on my fingers. You guys suspect it: I survived the nearly more than 100 minutes of challenging kayaking stoutly, with a minor loss of blood and the precognition of severe muscle ache in my upper arms. 😉

Snippets from Bangkok 2: Part 2 is basically the same like Part 1: Street impressions in the area around Sukhumvit Road, my visit at the Wat Pho Temple and a bit hotel stuff. As you can see, Thailand has remarkable electric cable installers. The temple area is highly commercialized and hosts a big market place including a food court. The guy posing with me in front of the reception counter is the hotel manager, a really friendly and helpful guy. Although the hotel might look luxurious, it is not in reality. Since the hotel was opened probably in the 80s, no major refurbishment of the interior design has taken place. Anyways, I had a good time there and the staff was zealous to satisfy my needs.

Thai people care a lot about their temples and Buddha. Everywhere you find small to medium altars and buddha statues, mostly located in the entrance zone of buildings. As much as they keep their sacred sites in good condition as less do they worry about hygiene and tidiness on the streets. They don`t bother to walk around bare foot and sit down, for example on the pavement, neglecting all the bugs, insects, leftovers and excrements. The discrepancy between religious life and business life in Thailand is remarkable – two completely different worlds. I really feel sorry for the thousands of animals carving out a miserable existence on the streets, but I reckon that the pets, often tied up for hours like the little cat on the bicycle basket without water supply, suffer a lot as well from the heat, fleas and no regular medical check-ups.

Prepare yourself for a big leap from Bangkok to New Zealand. I have hundreds of pictures waiting for you. In between, I probably will perform a recourse and show you the sequel of the “Singapore Review Part I”, published on the 6th of June 2013. To keep a healthy balance between present and past,. I will not omit to keep you updated with the most recent stories.

Cheers – Chris

New Visa Strategy, Sushi & Snippets from Bangkok I

Another 2 weeks are gone since my last entry. Time flies…and I promise another time to update my blog more frequently in the upcoming weeks.

New visa strategy: About 4 days ago I requested James to proof read the covering letter for my job application. I also told him that he shouldn`t hesitate to push me a bit when he thinks I am wasting too much time. We agreed on a cooperation and he came up with a priority list which tasks have to be done first, who I have to call, what to check where, etc… . During that progress we surprisingly found out that my visa is valid until the beginning of January 2014. I always thought the day I had to leave at the latest was the 4th of October 2013.

The website of the Australian Department of Immigration is really confusing and not well structured. When searching for a topic in particular you click on a link which leads to a passage containing another link and at the end you notice that you ran in a circle. Luckily James who immigrated many years ago from the UK to Australia had to deal intensively with visa conditions and regulations and as an English native speaker he had a better grasp of what some of the passages written on that page  in official language really meant. Walking through the dense jungle of different  kinds of visa we discovered a point based application leading to a permission of permanent residence. That special visa requires a lot of documents, skills assessment, an English test and much more but after counting all the points I theoretically could get, it turns out to be a possible way and worth a try.

With the help of Nasim, an old friend from my former running group in Berlin, I will get hands on my diploma and school certificates soon. He gained access to my storage cell in Berlin and fished the stuff out of some boxes in the back of my compartment. All my German documents have to be translated by an official translator before I can send them to the AACA (Architects Accreditation Council Of Australia). Hopefully my skills assessment will be successful. The process can take up to 20 weeks and there is no way to speed things up. Additionally to the AACA skills assessment I need to pass an IELTS English test. (IELTS – International English Language Testing System) To reach the required 60 points I have to complete the test with a very good result: IELTS-8, described as “Superior English”. The test consists of four modules (Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking). All modules are weighed equally. I need at least 8 of 9 points in each module. 9 points out of 9 possible are rated as “Native speaker level”. Although a lot of people have assured me that my English skills are really good, my optimism remains restrained since I know what exam pressure and overconfidence can do to my brain. I have ordered the master exercise package from the IELTS online for extensive test preparation. The prospective day for the test in one of the five IELTS test centres in Brisbane is the 21st of September. Four weeks to go in which I really want to practise as much as I can because failing will not only cause a delay in time but also another fee of $330 for a second try to pass the test.

At the moment my sponsorship plans are put on ice and I focus on the English test and the skills assessment from the AACA. A visa allowing permanent residence in Australia would be so much better than a sponsorship, limited to 18 months and some risks in case I lose my job during that period.

The big question is: what shall I do in the meantime while waiting for the result of the application (assuming I will get together all the required documents and pass the English test)?
I might stay in Australia until January and watch out for mini jobs like dish washing, cleaning, etc. on a basis of reimbursement which is permitted for holders of tourist visa. But what happens in January if my visa application is still proceeding? What if the visa will not be granted? I would love to go to Thailand at the end of September using the flight to Phuket I booked several weeks ago as a precautionary move. I could live there for about two months, reduce my costs of living and decide then where to go next. The downside of leaving the country would be that I am not allowed to reenter Australia after the 4th of October with my current visa.
Can I extend it, am I eligible to apply for another tourist visa before my latest visa has expired? I have to check that and find answers for all these questions soon.

I try to do one step at a time but the unexpected development concerning my visa options really messes up my head. Anyway, I am delighted and excited to have an alternative to the less pleasing seek for a company providing me with a sponsorship in order to get a working visa for 18 months.

Sushi: Last Friday I prepared my first home-made sushi since four months. As usual, it took a lot of time but it was also fun to experiment with coconut cream, roasted pumpkin dip and peanut butter beside the classic fillings avocado, carrot, shiitake mushroom, capsicum and Lebanese cucumber. Lots of my Facebook friends liked the photos I published so I thought you might like it with, too. Here you go:

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Snippets from Bangkok I: My stay in Bangkok endured from the 13th to 17th of April 2013. I realized that I never posted more than a handful of Bangkok pictures. Similar to my “Flashbacks from Chiang Mai” series I will please you in the next posts with more impressions of that vibrant city.
I didn’t know that my stay overlapped perfectly with the Songkran festival – Thailand`s three-day-lasting New Year`s event. Loud music on the streets, lots of water splashing and putting wet flour-like powder on the face are the main evidences for tourists to recognize that something special is going on. The most “special” thing I remember was the temporary death of my camera after a big water splash hit me sitting a tuktuk heading home to my hotel.

The gallery features pictures of my arrival in Bangkok, photos along and around the endless Sukhumvit Road (close to Nana place), my hotel room and impressions from the famous Wat Pho Temple area.

Forewarning: The linked video is über-shaky (even with Youtube’s shake-correction) and extremely amateurish. Still, it gives you an impression of what Bangkok’s nightlife is like. To keep a low profile I held my camera in an unsuspicious vertical position, a bit over hip height, while strolling through a small passage lined with bars.

Link to the (unlisted) Youtube video:

That`s it for now, folks – take care!

Chris

Total Sickness, New Housemate, My Birthday & Flashbacks of Chiang Mai III

Total sickness: In the big book of successful blog writing surely exists paragraph recommending to be always positive and to start with something uplifting. I break this rule and tell you that I had some of the most horrible days and nights in 2013 so far. I shouldn`t have mentioned in my last post that I am sick of being sick…the next evening I got 38,4°C fever, followed by sore throat and endless coughing, accompanied by a sneeze and spiced up with another evening of fever. I often had not more than 3-4 hours of sleep, and after one week my body felt shattered and worn out. I gave up my resistance to medication and swallowed Ibuprofen pills and similar stuff. Because recovery was not in sight, I let James buy linctus for me, called Cough Combat. The next evening I supplied myself with eucalyptus oil for inspiration. It was interesting to compare the different advice Australians and Germans gave me how to recover quickly. Some practices recommended by my housemates were completely unknown to me, and other methods which I had picked up over the years, seemed to be strange for my housemates. Sage lozenges are really hard to get in Brisbane, even in a pharmacy I could not get hands on them. However, this bloody cough stopped all the activities I had planned to execute – mainly concerning my application preparation and my running training. From tomorrow on, I will intensify my efforts again.

New housemate: Surprisingly Teagan wrote an email to James, Daniel and me, telling us that she wants to move out to live at a friend`s place short-term, and then search for a share house close to the university. The idea was to get a cheaper accommodation and to live with two or three of her best friends. Of course we were not happy about it. First of all we liked Teagan and she complemented our house well although she was not around most of the time or spend lots of hours enclosed in her room with her boyfriend. Another reason for our worries was the tedious process of finding a new vegan. Again, James put an ad on Gumtree and on Facebook.  After a few days Ryan replied to our ad. He studies architecture, lives as a raw vegan for nearly two years now and left a good impression when he dropped by to see the house. I have no clue how old he is but I estimate his age to be about 24 (edit: bulls eye – he is 24!). He moved in one week ago and I had no long conversation with him since then, so I can`t say much about him. Like Teagan he spends more time outside than inside and now and then his girlfriend shows up.

My birthday: Teagan left on my birthday but came back for the surprise dinner – a super-yummy lasagne plus garden salad created by chef James. Unfortunately I felt so miserable that I couldn`t eat much and sat on my chair more dead than alive, muffled in a fleece blanket. As official birthday present I got a $50 voucher for the Presents of Mind shop on Given Terrace in Paddington. My housemates knew that I love board games and remembered me raving about the huge variety of geek games this shop offers. In spite of my heavy cough I had a walk there the next day and spend about an hour inside, musing how to invest my voucher money . After sleeping on it a night, my decision was final. I chipped in another 10 bucks to call me now the proud owner of Robo Rally, a board game classic by Richard Garfield from 1994. This guy became famous when he invented “Magic – The Gathering”, a world-wide sold collectible card game. He probably made millions of dollars with it. I have read the rules of Robo Rally and set up a test game against myself. The real dedication will take place in the next days when I will urge James and Daniel to participate.

Also Teagan got a present – a kind of farewell gift: A rice cooker. She was delighted and appreciated the gesture. I will interview her after a while how often she already used the cooker. It is ultra-simple to use (A one button touch is all it needs) but in general Teagan prefers to cook with minimal effort…rice could be already too complicated *lol*.

Teagan & Daniel enjoying the birthday lasagne

Teagans farewell gift: a rice cooker

Flashbacks of Chiang Mai III: This is the last part of my flashback series, featuring the Nong Buak Hard Park which is located in the south-west corner of the old city of Chiang Mai. It spreads over 250m in length and 50-100m in width. Chiang Mai is rich in temples but lacks in public parks.  In terms of urban planning and for the sake of getting the air pollution under control I would suggest to lay out some more green but the government has probably other projects on their list. classified more urgent… like the development of areas suitable for new modern hotels for rich Farangs (that`s how Thai people call foreigners).

Additionally  to the park pics, I uploaded some arbitrary bonus photos according to my taste.

A short look on my windows screen clock – it is already 1:36am…argh! I will always be a night owl. :-p

Good night for everyone out there!

Chris

Brisbane Update & Flashbacks of Chiang Mai II

Brisbane Update: I`ve broken the barrier of stand still and work now every day a bit on my application. Arriba! So far I have translated two of my work references into English language, updated and retyped my CV. Thanks to my sister`s husband who searched and found the portable hard disk in my storage cell in Berlin, I could regain some images I like to use for my application. Once I have reinstalled Windows (bought it two days ago) and have Photoshop running again I will layout all bits and pieces I need for my application and write a prototype cover letter. If I have sent out at least one before my birthday on August 2nd, I call it a success although I am some weeks late compared to my initial plan.

Running training went well and 60 minutes slow jog including some longer speed-ups are no problem at all anymore. Unfortunately James is really sick since several days and lost nearly his voice. He infected me, too, but I am bravely fighting. I have absolutely no desire for sneezing and coughing at the moment. My throat is sore and feel weak though. This throws me back a bit but not too much.

Today I created a wooden frame for the poster with a Brisbane panorama I had presented to Daniel before I left Brisbane four months ago. Now it prettifies our living room and hangs framed on the wall behind the couch.

The gallery pictures were taken today in the afternoon. The collage with James at the Green Edge, a vegan grocery store, was shot exactly one week earlier.

Flashbacks of Chiang Mai II: I continue my random show reel series of Chiang Mai with my second and third week of my stay there. A lot of Night Market (some hundred metres outside of the old city of Chiang Mai) pictures and a few photos of my flat I lived in for nearly five weeks. If you like more information about one or more of these pictures… – don`t be shy and ask me your questions by dropping a comment!

Good night! Chris

HIVE Tournament & Flashbacks of Chiang Mai I

HIVE Tournament: No long introduction: bad news…I failed again! 😦 The Hive tournament is over and I seem to be the everlasting runner-up. We played on three nights and before the last game I was laying behind with 2:3. I had recovered from a 1:3 leeway. The tournament rules said that six games had to be played and a tie break if there was no winner after so far. I started the sixth game as the White player solid. But then my opponent “image13” managed to free his Queenbee and to set some bugs free which were pinned before. The Hive was already long stretched so he played his two Beetles close to his own Queenbee as “friendly defenders” knowing that from this position he could force a draw which would be enough to win the tournament.  This was a legit strategy and I probably had done the same if I had been in front after five games. I tried everything but could not reach a position to force him to release one of my pinned down bugs. After 237 moves and nearly reaching the +15 minutes time difference limit I had no other choice than to offer a draw. Final result is 2.5 points for me, 3.5 points for image13. Congrats to him. He had the edge this year mainly because he coped better with the tournament pressure and held up his concentration while I ruined my third game by a brutal mistake which lead to an immediate defeat in only 23 moves.

It was really kind that some of my board game friends as well as the web master of http://www.boardspace.net gave me credits for being an excellent teacher, training my own competition but still I was slightly frustrated. It sucked that I could not justify my number one rank which I own already since more than a year. I would have loved to get hands on the trophy of this tournament which is de facto the World Championship.

Maybe I can publish the new version of my home-grown expansion “Dragonfly” soon. I published it on http://www.boardgamegeek.com, the most comprehensive website about board games, some years ago and it became extremely popular in the HIVE scene. There are a lot of guys who want to see it in stores for sale. With a bit of luck this piece will be approved one day by the HIVE author John Yianni and become an officially released expansion set. Surely it would be implemented on boardspace.net, too, then and I had the chance to win a tournament featuring the “bug” designed by me. Yes, it is a sweet dream but not a completely unrealistic one.

Flashbacks of Chiang Mai I: My netbook has reached an unbearable level of slowness. Photoshop is not running even after a clean de- and reinstallation. I will secure some data, format the hard disk and upgrade from Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Professional or Premium finally using the 4GB RAM I had  bought instead the 2GB standard specification two years ago. To bridge the gap to my next update about my current life in Brisbane I will upload unedited shots from my last three months of traveling. I will also show you the not so pretty pictures. Sometimes they deliver a better impression of the real world than the polished photos. Part I is a cross-section through my first week in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Stay tuned, folks!

Chris

Aisle of my hotel for 3 days

Tha Pae Gate

hop on – hop off Taxi

Sunday Night Walking Street Market

Street to my hotel 500metres outside of the city centre

One of many automats providing cheap ozonated drinking water

menu with some funny misspellings

Brisbane Reloaded – Review Week I+II

There is enough structure in my life – my posts don`t have to be as organized as I am. 🙂 Isn`t that a brilliant excuse for a brainstormed mashup of my last two weeks? No? Ok – thanks for your opinion, I do it anyway! Next week on my site: How to lose 30% of your blog followers over night! 😀 My room is furnished and decorated. I might need more stuff to fill the boxes of my built-in shelves but this is optional. Besides that it doesn`t look much different than some months before. Of course it does if you watch closely. 80 new photos, no mosquito net over the bed, my first Brisbane bed sheet used to cover the windows of the front door to the veranda, a new table which was originally bought for the ensuite room and was relocated later on to Teagan`s room before Ali, the housemate who lived in my room while I was traveling, got it . It remained there and I see it as compensation for the $5 more I have to pay for the rent since I moved back in. The plant on the desk might look familiar to you. Again, it was an object James and I bought for the ensuite room. Then we decorated the small room with it which was taken by Teagan who just returned an hour ago from her “working holidays” in Bundaberg. To leave the bamboo sticks without fresh water for three weeks is irresponsible in my eyes so I moved the plant to my room.

Today I will buy a new SIM card to feel connected with the Australian society. Last Thursday it was James´ birthday. I baked a vanilla-banana- maple-nut cake, we presented him a $50 voucher for the Green Edge, Brisbane`s largest vegan grocery store, and went to the Loving Hut for dinner. After that we drove to the top of Mt. Coot-tha. As last time when we went there the view was stunning but too much particles in the air caused some shimmering which distracted the focus of my camera. I think I also tried manual focussing but couldn´t achieve decent sharpness. A photo of minor quality is better than none – therefore I put two shots in the gallery for you.

In terms of job research I confess that I was extremely lazy. Nothing done so far but it is really hard to start. Now I push my plans to work on my CV forward from one day to the other. Soon the pressure I put on myself will be too high and my slothfulness will have to surrender!

Yesterday I attended at a meeting for board gamers in the Kookaburra café which is only three cycling minutes away from my home. The guys from the Presents Of Mind shop I mentioned in my last post told me about it. It was a pleasant evening. We played Powergrid (original German title: Funkenschlag), one of the highest recommended games in the board game scene. Indeed it is perfectly balanced and heaps of fun. Not that it was overly important but I won by a landslide! :-p

The trophy of my desire

One of my all time favourite abstract boardgames for two players is HIVE. To win this game with hex-shaped tiles the enemy Queenbee has to be fully surrounded by bugs of any colour (White or Black). 99,5% of my HIVE games I play online although I brought the HIVE pocket version not only to Australia but also to Asia and New Zealand. Every year there is a tournament on http://www.boardspace.net starting in May. Since 2008 I am participating but never won . This time it is about a new expansion which will be officially released and available in stores some weeks after the tournament. It is the “Pillbug” which has a big impact on the gameplay forcing you to change some basic tactics. I made it all the way to the final – for the third time in six years! Interestingly, my opponent, a guy from Taiwan, was taught and trained by me about one year ago when he started to play HIVE. Obviously I did a good job. *lol* Tonight (12:00 pm GMT) we will play our first games of the match and I am hungry to win that damn trophy. The best 16 contestants get the Pillbug expansion when it is ready for shipping. This means I have already won at least something.

Running training: Two slow jogs about 40-45 minutes plus two workout sessions in my room including rope skipping in front of the garage. Intensity and duration will be slowly increased. In a few weeks I should be again on an acceptable fitness level.

Condensed in a nutshell the essence of my first weeks in Brisbane is that everything is going its way. I am only a bit behind with my job search schedule. My  reconvalescense from the sneeze I caught is complete and I am feeling well. My mattress could be less soft though. 🙂

A pleasurable week for everyone!

Chris

My new cute hot water bottle

Daniel brain-controlled by mad monkey

Given Terrace, Paddington

Corner Isaac Street/Patrick Street