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
Tag Archives: Asia
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
Nha Trang (II) Open Water Diver Course
No new pictures, sorry, at least nothing exciting. I had kinda promised an article by now, hoping I would have had diving pictures, or at least pictures of me right before a dive, but I haven’t. There was another guest on the boat today by chance taking a picture of me while doing my first “backroll entry”, which means sitting on the edge of the boat and rolling backwards over board into the water (you have seen that in James Bond movies), which must look quite great. But I couldn’t find that lady later after the dive in the Rainbow Bar, grrr….
Continue reading Nha Trang (II) Open Water Diver Course
Map of Vietnam
Map of Vietnam, updated as of 24-AUG-2007, leaving Vietnam from Ho Chi Minh City. Continue reading Map of Vietnam
Nha Trang (I) Discover Scuba Diving
Nha Trang as a town is not exactly exciting. That’s not what you come for. What you come for is beach and water.
Beach
Yesterday I just walked up and down the beaches without actual lying down or going for a swim. It was by all means way too hot for beach. I have seen locals at the beach early in the morning (I am talking about 6am) or late in the evening (when the sun is more or less gone again). Inbetween none of the locals is so mad to lie down and get fried by the sun. The beach is all to the western tourists. But even they aren’t so numerous. Continue reading Nha Trang (I) Discover Scuba Diving
Hoi An (II) My Son
My Son
(not to be pronounced like your own male offspring, but rather like Mee Soon, with both vocals relatively short), the intellectual and religious center of the Cham kingdom, partly dating back to the 8th century. Described as the “most stunning sight to see in the Hoi An area” it is a tourist magnet. As such it reportedly gets very crowdy. Some people I asked told me it is not worth the visit, others were amazed. But all agreed it is too crowded. Lonely Planet says so, too, and suggest a visit in the early morning, which would give you the best atmosphere. Continue reading Hoi An (II) My Son
Hue (IV) Citadel
Hue Citadel
As Hue had been Vietnam’s capital for an extended period of time there are also some remainders of the rule of the Ngyuen Dynasty right within the city. And only this day (11-AUG), the day of my leaving in the afternoon, I found the time to visit them. Continue reading Hue (IV) Citadel
Hue (II) Perfume River and Tombs
Today (09-AUG) was the full day tour on a “Dragon Boat” (see later what that one looks like…hasn’t much to do with Chinese dragon boats) along the Perfurme River of Hue, with visits to Hue’s most famous Pagoda, a temple, and three of the many tombs around.
Continue reading Hue (II) Perfume River and Tombs
Hue (I) Micracles / Getting There
Weltschmerz on the 13. (laptop had broken down), oh so beautiful a world the day after…yesterday afternoon and today was my day of miracles. I am writing these lines on my last day in Hoi An, the stop after Hue, but I am way behind with my articles. Had hoped to find more time in Hoi An, but instead I met a lot of people who drank a lot of beer, and who would I be to stand back? So I am still behind with the articles. Pictures are all selected, but writing takes time. And then there was the laptop’s breakdown, from which it against all odds recovered! At the moment the display works as always. I’ll be careful and expect the worst, but maybe a daily prayer will help. Continue reading Hue (I) Micracles / Getting There