to drift: Juli 2010

Freitag, 23. Juli 2010

The end...

... is always a new beginning.

I spent my last week in Singapore with Shopping and Relaxing. I met part of the Team again from the Groovy Grape Adventure in Australia and we had a blast. The most fun we had was doing the Xootr Tour and because I bought a new camera before my fourth Xootr-Tour I had a great opportunity to make new pictures.

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A rather boring flight via Dubai later I finally reached Germany yesterday. After 7.5 Month I am rather surprised to find a totally exotic country for me. They have so many strange things here and those germans are so totally efficient.

The immigration control for instance took me only half a minute while in Asia or Oceania I was rather put under a complete check. And I am happy that there where no stupid immigration cards to fill out.

After that I was greeted with the typical Frankfurt Airport. Organized Chaos and definitely the worst possible spot to enter Germany. Cold and uninviting, even the train station has this flair of futility and darkness. There are no cool street vendors offering me services that I don't need. Just the cold blooded automat that sells me a coke for thrice the price it is worth in Singapore.

I bought a train ticket for a price that would have taken me through half of SE Asia by bus. And You know what it is somehow my Germany. I expect it to be like that and it fulfills every single expectation. There are more friendly people around and sometimes they are helpful too.

Today I ate one of the local favourites again. Ahle Wurscht. It is a sausage and you eat it with bread. Stuff you need to see if you ever come to this country. You won't want to buy other bread or sausages anymore.

After a rather short day of getting my bearings again, I am preparing for a week in Berlin. My number one city of the world.

Donnerstag, 15. Juli 2010

The Temples of Angkor: Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon and Pre Rup

Temple Day again. The last of the temples missing in the Grand Circuit.

I am really impressed. I thought I have seen every style till yesterday but then there where again three temples that where quite different from the others and only the last two where repeats of themes I have seen before. All in all good invested money.

We were starting at nine this morning. Essentially it was to late. At that time to many other tourists where already polluting the sites. We should have been at the first temple at 7am. Most of the tourists are still at Angkor Wat looking at the sunrise and the others are still in bed or getting ready for breakfast. Heed my warning: You wanna do the temples as early as possible, at least this is true for the main temples around Siem Reap.

I won't write much about the temples. Here are a few pictures. You will find more as always in my Picasa Album.

Preah Khan

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My T-Shirt is saying: SINGLE beds available. The Siem Reap Hostel. Cambodia.
It was the winners prize while playing Beer Pong against two english medicine students. I don't know where my partner was from.

Neak Pean

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Ta Som

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East Mebon

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Pre Rup

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This concludes my adventures in Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor. Yes, it definitely was a late highlight. But there are so many of them. I always get asked that question which place I liked the most. The only answer I have so far. There is no best place but definitely a worst place and that is Thailand. Next time I need to go to Chiang Mai to change the opinion. Otherwise all the other places I remember have been great.

Tomorrow I will have a travel day again and I will be hopefully arriving in Singapore in the afternoon. I am looking forward to it. I am broke but still thinking about buying some clothes for home and maybe having a look at cheap electronics. Maybe I can get a real deal instead of "I make You cheap price".

Mittwoch, 14. Juli 2010

The Temples of Angkor: Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and others.

Oh man. It was 4.20am when my alarm woke me up. But it is what you need to do, if you like to see the fabulous sunrise above Angkor Wat.

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To bad it was cloudy so after waiting a while I decided to walk around.

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Damn many tourists had the same idea. Between those tourists locals try to sell coffee and rent chairs for a few bucks.

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As you can see on the next picture, this was what everybody was waiting for. The change of color.

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And I was really impressed by the moat surrounding Angkor Wat. Imagine you need to dig that.

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Next stop Angkor Thom. This is the southgate here.

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And it actually features the most impressive temple in my opinion. Bayon, the temple of the smiling faces.

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I made more pictures in Angkor Thom.

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We left Angkor Thom through the victory gate and visited a few smaller temples before reaching Ta Prohm, the Tomb Raider Temple. The best about this temple are all those trees having grown around the stone structure and seeing those roots hugging walls.

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The last temple of the day was Banteay Kdei or something like that.

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This concludes the small Temple Circuit after only four hours of sightseeing in Siem Reap. Tomorrow I am going on the Big Circuit. More temples :).

After the circuit I went to a pharmacy and wanted to buy some insect repellent. The nice lady gave me the most expensive product for 7.9 USD. It took a few seconds and I nearly paid the stuff before I discovered the cheaper philipinian product on an other shelf. Only 1.3 USD. Sometimes I really hate those vendors.

Dienstag, 13. Juli 2010

The Temples of Angkor: Beng Mealea

To much time at hand in Siem Reap. I was lazy. And then there was the world cup. Sleeping took place during the day. Games started here late at night 1.30am.

So what happened after my last post. Pub Crawl, where I obtained the Angkor What? T-Shirt from the bar with the same name. All the time I have seen one of those Shirts in Singapore or Malaysia I wanted to have one. Mission Accomplished.

I was to damn tired to watch Germany win against Uruguay, but I have seen the game at least twice on the next day. Strange but true. Everywhere you go there is a screen and it is showing games. Either live or repeats.

I watched the final on Sunday night and impressed the crowed with my prediction of the final score and the type of game they could expect. But that meant staying up till 4 o'clock on Monday morning. I spent the morning in bed and the afternoon in the indoor pool.

But today I finally managed again to visit a temple. The lonely planet praises this one as the one temple with a Indiana Jones feeling. So I decided to take a Tuktuk to this temple. 70km going in a Tuktuk one way. But actually it was faster and more comfortable than my last bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.

I saw fields and pigs and houses and stuff.

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Finally we reached Beng Mealea at first I was walking around the temple alone.

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And then I got a guide. Let's be clear. He attached himself to me. He pushed his right breast up and pointed in one direction. Strange greeting. I followed him because I was curious and he did not look dangerous. After climbing over a lot of stones far away from the wooden path. I finally understood what he wanted to tell me:

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After that he guided me over stones where a single fault in stepping correctly could have resulted in an injury. But wow I was finally like Indiana Jones (like the Lonely Planet promised) and I was missing my whip.

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Look at the next picture. I was walking this way.

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You are never able to do this kind of stuff without security equipment and signing your death agreement in Europe.

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All to fast the temple exploration was over and I was sitting in my Tuktuk going 70km the other way again.

Tomorrow I will do normal touristy stuff. Watching Angkor What at Sunrise. I need to get up at half past four. So good night where ever you are.