The reason most people (including me) come to Cambodia: Angkor Wat! Or to be more precise, something I learned from my book: Angkor Wat is actually the name for ‘just’ the main temple. Angkor refers to the old capital of the kingdom of Cambodia during most parts of the Angkorian Period (802-1432). A long time. While Angkor Wat is so magnificient that the Cologne Cathedral looks like child play (except for one thing…we’ll come back to that…hm, maybe two ;)), 600 years are sufficient to build a lot more. The city of Angkor, Angkor Thom, was close by and has been built and abandoned twice. Some remains, those built from stone, the material reserved for the gods, can still be seen. The rest was made from wood, and it doesn’t need much imagination to figure out what happened to that. Hence, I put these documents under its own category “Angkor”, as this in fact is a city’s name. Continue reading Angkor (I) The Main Sights
Phnom Penh to Siem Reap
Today was mostly about getting from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, which is the place where you stay for visiting the temples of Angkor. My Phnom Penh Tuktuk driver brought me to the bus company and bid me farewell. The bus was highly comfortable with all seats on the top floor and me sitting in the very front, so I could also watch straight ahead through the wind shield. And: I was surprisingly the only foreigner. Only five other locals on the bus. During lunch break a westerner arriving with a different bus company joined my table. Apparently the same service, about the same price, but bus full. Well…this time I probably made the better deal with this more local company.
Continue reading Phnom Penh to Siem Reap
Phnom Penh – Culture, Busyness, and Genocide
After one month on the road again, starting off in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. To be honest, it took some self-conviction to leave the ease of life in Frankfurt, where I had not to work for the past month, know where to get everything, don’t need to pack things every other day, can meet family, friends, and colleagues. But Asia, even South-East Asia, is larger than ‘only’ China and Vietnam. And so I boarded a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok, changed there to Phnom Penh, and here I am, back in the backpacker’s life. Continue reading Phnom Penh – Culture, Busyness, and Genocide
IAA – International Motor Show Cars
IAA…that’s not really about Asia, but I have been to two Motor Shows in Shanghai, so I thought I simply have to take the chance to go to the IAA (“Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung” or International Motor Show Cars) right here in Frankfurt and see what’s the difference. The difference is clear right from the very beginning: In Frankfurt (nearly) all is about ecological locomotion. In Shanghai it was a mere display of car makers’ abilities: “We are here, we sell these cars.” Continue reading IAA – International Motor Show Cars
Future Plans: Cambodia, Bhutan, Thailand
Plans are becoming more and more clear: There is the already fixed date of 12-OCT through 23-OCT in Bhutan. Around that I planned a Thailand trip of about 2 weeks with two friends, which now is added after Bhutan. In order not to extend too far into the year I will likely visit Cambodia before going to Bhutan. One of the countries has to be the one on the edge of the raining season…
After Thailand there might be time for a quick look into Malaysia and Singapore. Continue reading Future Plans: Cambodia, Bhutan, Thailand
Frankfurt – Relaxing from all the Travel
I am back in Frankfurt, Germany, at least temporarily. After a last delicious Japanese dinner and a (Swedish ;)) massage I headed for Pudong Airport. Somehow the massage had taken half an hour longer than we had planned. Still, I was at the airport 1,5 hours before departure time. But nonetheless it meant I was the very last person to check in for the flight. Surprised me a bit, but so it was. And it certainly meant that I got the worst seat: In the middle of a row in the far back of the plane. I survived. The advantage was: In Frankfurt my luggage was out quite early. 😉 Continue reading Frankfurt – Relaxing from all the Travel
Shanghai (III) Technology Museum / Ocean Aquarium
Science & Technology Musem
That’s a huge game hall. I had not expected to learn many new things as I believe I am staying fairly much up-to-date on popular science. I just wanted to see how they present it. In the majority of the cases of the permanent exhibition you can’t really say it would be a ‘presentation’. The makers of this museum have taken a very playful approach, which by itself is nothing bad. In my eyes, though, the plays and games offered to experience a science or technology concept will not transport much knowledge about the concept as such. My best examples were right next to each other in the computer technology section: Pattern Matching and Olfactory Recognition (identify objects by smelling). Continue reading Shanghai (III) Technology Museum / Ocean Aquarium
Shanghai (II) Gaudi / Urban Planning
Yesterday’s visit to Paulaner Bräuhaus together with a friend proved to be necessary: I had lost a bit good German habits, like speaking German fluently, or cheering before starting to drink a beer instead of just taking it in by myself right away when served. The Chesse-Krainer weren’t so authentic, though. Hm…as far as I remember, maybe I’m wrong on my memory, too. Continue reading Shanghai (II) Gaudi / Urban Planning
Shanghai (I) Closing the Loop
The loop is closed: I am back in Shanghai, sitting in a Starbucks Café and drinking one Cappucchino after the other. It is a good feeling…not because the Cappucchino is good (it is OK, but can by no means compete with a real Vietnamese coffee), but because it is so clean and relaxing an atmosphere: Just sitting without being bothered by any hawkers at all. Especially after fleeing Ho Chi Minh City. In fact, this 20-million-people city of Shanghai gave me an odd feeling of emptyness: Just walk on the clean and broad pavement in the direction wanted. Cross the streets with a surprising sense of safety at traffic lights. An odd statement after all my complaining about the mad Chinese traffic between the lines of many earlier articles. Forget it, in comparison China is a kindergarten’s traffic education site. It is a good feeling of safe, clean, straight-forward, and fast transportation when leaving Shanghai Pudong Int’l Airport with the first MagLev of the day at 300km/h (in early morning and late evening the trains run with reduced speed for noise reduction), switch to a surprisingly empty subway, which brings you into the heart of the city in a time you probably just managed to leave a Vietnamese Int’l airport. If, that is, your immigration runs as smooth as in China. These two contries are still worlds apart. Continue reading Shanghai (I) Closing the Loop
Ho Chi Minh City (II) Walking
On my way south through Vietnam I had not found people who liked Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. I know now why: This city sucks. There’s nothing really worth seeing. It’s loud, noisy, dirty, traffic is mad, has way way way too many street hawkers (which makes sitting in a cafe a pain as you get interrupted every minute with newspapers, head-wagging plastic dogs, or piles of copied books) and motorbike offers (which makes walking along the streets a pain as there is a motorbike waiting every 10 meters). In the smaller cities I could bring up the effort to smile and say “No, thanks” and that usually ended it. But here I had to revert back to the rude way of entirely ignoring.
Walking had the additional pains of mad traffic and long ways, and my right big toe really hurting. The bruise from the diving fin there heals, but slowly. Continue reading Ho Chi Minh City (II) Walking