Schon in Lüneburg haben Rici und ich geplant zusammen nach Sansibar zu reisen. Rici ist gleich nach ihrer Bachelorarbeit aufgebrochen und für 3 Monate auf Sansibar. Ich hatte leider nur zwei Wochen Zeit und bin am Tag nach der Abgabe meiner Masterarbeit geflogen, also vom 8. – 22. November. Los ging’s mit der Lufthansa von Berlin nach Frankfurt und dann weiter mit Ethiopian Airlines über Addis Abeba und Daressalam nach Zanzibar Town. In Frankfurt hatte ich 6 Stunden Aufenthalt den ich dazu genutzt habe mich mal wieder mit Antje zu treffen, die extra aus Wiesbaden zum Flughafen gefahren ist. Im Flieger nach Addis Abeba lernte ich Heike kennen, die auf dem Weg nach Uganda war um dort eine Behindertentagesstätte aufzubauen.

In Zanzibar angekommen bentragte ich ein Visa on arrival, was stressfrei verlief. Draußen vor dem kleinen Flughafen warteten etwa 20 erwartungsvoll grinsende Schlepper und zu meiner Erleichterung auch Rici. Sie war gerade angekommen und wir haben erstmal Wasser gekauft und dann auf unser Taxi gewartet. Wir wollten mit einem Freund von Rici fahren, dem sie noch einen Gefallen schuldete. Nach wiederholtem anrufen und etwa zwei stündigem Warten und vertröstet werden, erfuhren wir, dass das Auto liegen geblieben war. Stattdessen sind wir dann mit Marco, einem von Ricis Freunden, in einem anderen Taxi nach Kizimkazi gefahren, das Dorf in dem Rici damals FÖJ gemacht hat. Als wir an unserem Bungalow ankamen war es bereits dunkel. Dunkel bedeutet in Kizimkazi wirklich schwarze Nacht. Es gibt keine Straßenlaternen. Aber manche Häuser, vor allem wenn die Bewohner Abends Essen verkaufen, haben draußen eine Glühbirne. Aber auch die Brennen nicht immer, denn häufig wird nach Sonnenuntergang für ein, zwei Stunden der Strom abgeschaltet. Das liegt daran, dass Sansibar keinen eigenen Strom erzeugt, sondern vom Festland versorgt wird. Wird da der Strom knapp, wie es zur Zeit wegen Problemen mit den Wasserkraftwerken der Fall war, wird es auf Sansibar duster. In der Stadt wird der Strom jedoch seltener abgedreht als auf dem Dorf. Da es so wenig Licht gibt, wird man dementsprechend müde und wir sind oft schon um 9 Uhr schlafen gegangen. An dem Abend haben wir uns zuerst noch etwas zu Essen gekauft. Abends kochen viele Familien und bieten dann ihr Essen auf der Straße an. Für wenig Geld kann man sich dann etwas zu Essen aussuchen: Es gibt Reis mit Bohnen in Soße, verschiedene Brotsorten, frittierte Kartoffelbällchen und sogar Pommes. Das Brot wird übrigens normalerweise auch in der Pfanne frittiert statt im Ofen gebacken, weil nur wenige Menschen einen Ofen besitzen.

Ankunft in Kizimkazi

Unser Bungalow gehörte einem Freund von Rici und bestand aus einem Gebäude mit zwei Zimmern und Bad, in dem die Dusche jedoch erst angeschlossen werden musste. Wir hatten aber dafür noch ein Außenbad mit Waldblick. Die erste Nacht war krass laut, weil gerade noch Feiertag war und laute Musik aus der „Schweiz“, einem Treffpunkt der Jugendlichen zu uns rüber dröhnte. Die weiteren Nächte waren dafür sehr angenehm, man hat nur den Wind rauschen und die Grillen zirpen gehört. Auch tagsüber war es angenehm ruhig, was vielleicht auch daran lag, dass unser Bungalow am Ende des Dorfes an einem kleinen Abhang lag. Von dort hatten wir einen schönen Blick über das kleine Tal.

Willkommen bei Caveman Bungalows!

Sobald wir aber ins Dorf gegangen sind, waren an allen Ecken und Enden Menschen die Rici kannten und gebührend und ausführlich begrüßt werden wollten: „Mambo vipi?“ („Wie geht’s?“) – „Poa!“ („Super“). Rici wurde auch öfters gefragt, ob ich schon verheiratet sei. Nach einer Weile haben wir das einfach bejaht. Wo denn aber mein Ring sei? Natürlich Zuhause damit er nicht geklaut wird. Typische Gespräche mit Fremden und Bekannten liegen etwa so ab: „Wie geht’s? Sprichts du Suaheli? Aber deine Freundin spricht nicht Suaheli. Bring’ ihr mal Suaheli bei. Wie, sie ist nur zwei Wochen hier? Das macht doch nichts, sie kann ja nur ein bisschen lernen.“

Kizimkazi liegt direkt am Meer und ist bekannt für seine Delfintouren. Morgens kommen viele Touristen um mit den Booten zu den Delfinen zu fahren. Das geht aber nicht gerade tierfreundlich zu, wohl auch weil das Wissen über delfingerechten Tourismus fehlt. Als wir mitgefahren sind, sind auf vier Delfine sieben kleine Boote gekommen. Die Delfine sind eher vor uns weggeschwommen als zu uns hin. In Neuseeland bin ich ja auch mit Delfinen geschwommen, das ging aber weitaus professioneller zu und nicht auf Kosten der Tiere. Eine zweite Delfintour haben wir dann auch dankend abgelehnt.

Ricis Freund Omari arbeitet auch als Bootsfahrer und Tourguide und konnte uns für Freundschaftspreise zu den Touren mitnehmen. Er wollte uns gleich am nächsten Tag mitnehmen, aber da wollten wir lieber entspannen und unsere zwei Wochen planen. Also sind wir Freitag mitgefahren. Rici dachte wir würden auf dem Boot essen bekommen, also sind wir um halbsieben mit leerem Magen an den Strand gegangen. Zuerst wurden wir auf die Delfintour mitgenommen, bei der es aber leider kein Essen gab. Lange Boot fahren auf leeren Magen ist ungünstig, was auch manche Mitreisende festgestellt haben. Dank ausgiebigen Beobachtens der Küste konnten Rici und ich aber vermeiden die Fische zu füttern. Nach der Tour hatte ich eigentlich schon genug für den Tag. Sich zu verdrücken war aber umständlich, da zum Einen schon Omari mit einem anderen Boot und weiteren Touris auf uns wartete und zum Anderen hätten wir einen halben Kilometer durch seeigelverseuchtes Wasser laufen müssen, da vor der Küste eine Sandbank liegt über die die Schiffe bei Ebbe nicht kommen. Also ging’s weiter, was wir auch keinesfalls bereut haben. Wir sind zu einer Insel gefahren, zum Schnorcheln und spazieren gehen. Schließlich gab es Mittag auf einer Sandbank mitten im Meer. Ein toller Anblick und endlich Essen! Nachmittags sind wir noch an Mangroven vorbei gefahren, haben ein paar Kraniche und Affen gesehen und sind dann zurück nach Kizimkazi.

Sandbank

Den nächsten Tag war wieder Entspannung angesagt. Am Samstag haben wir eine Radtour nach Jambiani gemacht. Jambiani liegt an der Ostküste und es gibt eine Bungalowanlage, bei der nachmittags Affen aufkreuzen. Auf dem Hinweg hat es häufiger geregnet, will sagen, geschüttet, so dass wir einmal mit lauter Sansibaris in einem Häuschen an der Straße untergestellt haben und einmal in einer Art Forstbüro gelandet sind. Das war praktisch, weil Rici schon lange mal mit jemandem reden wollte, der sich mit dem (nicht vorhandenen) Wald auf Sansibar auskennt. Es gibt kaum noch Wald, die meisten Flächen sind verbuscht. Auch bei unserer Radtour gab es nur in der Nähe der Dörfer Bäume und ansonsten keine, also auch keinen Schatten. So war es ganz gut, dass es bewölkt war, und kalter Regen schadet bei der Hitze ja auch nicht. In Jambiani angekommen haben wir einen Spaziergang über die lange Sandbank gemacht, wo wir Algenbäuerinnen bei ihrer Arbeit beobachten konnten.

Blick über die Sandbank

Algenbäuerin

Zurück beim Bungalow haben wir gegessen, uns entspannt und wurden dann tatsächlich von den Affen besucht. Leider habe ich von denen keine scharfen Fotos. Die gleichen Affen gabe es aber auch ein paar Tage später im Jozani Wald. Auf dem Rückweg hat leider Ricis Rad den Geist aufgegeben. Irgendwie hat die Kette die Bewegung nicht aufs Rad übertragen. Ein paarmal konnten wir es Dank vorbei laufender Sansibaris reparieren (man nehme einen Stein und schlage damit auf das kaputte Teil ein). Aber irgendwann half auch das nicht mehr. Also haben wir bergauf geschoben und auf gerader Strecke habe ich Rici gezogen und sie später mich. Das war mir lieber und es ging letztendlich auch schneller als wenn wir wieder zurück ins letzte Dorf gegangen wären um das Rad zu reparieren. Ein besorgter älterer Sansibari aus Kizimkazi wollte uns den ganzen Weg begleiten, weil es bald dunkel würde. Er hat dann aber nach einer Weile gemerkt, dass Rici und ich mit Schieben, rollern, rollen und ziehen auch ganz gut vorankamen. Das war dann schon das zweite Mal, dass Rici auf einer Radtour das Rad kaputt ging. Mit ihren Eltern mussten sie auch den Platten ihres Vaters im Nachbardorf reparieren lassen.

Rad reparieren auf sansibarisch

Sonntag war wieder Ruhetag und Montag sind wir in den Jozani Forst gefahren. Der ist nichtmal orignaler Regenwald, aber der größte Wald auf Sansibar und in ihm leben auch viele Affen. Leider auch viele Mücken und weil wir nur so Naturzeugs mithatten, von dem wir bisher dachten es würde gut wirken, und ich nackte Beine hatte, war ich nach 20 Minuten Spaziergang mit Mückenstichen übersäät. 20 am linken und 20 am rechten Bein. Aber wie sagte Omari: Lass dich einfach stechen, die Mücken brauchen auch Blut. Aber für die Einheimischen ist Malaria auch so normal wie für uns eine Erkältung. Oft hört man: Ich fühle mich zur Zeit so schlapp, ich glaube, ich habe mal wieder Malaria. Absichtlich stechen lassen würde ich mich trotzdem nicht. So altruistisch bin ich dann doch nicht.

Affe im Jozani Wald

Nach unserem Besuch bei den Affen sind wir weiter zu einem Schmetterlingsmuseum gegangen und dann mit dem Bus zurück gefahren. Mit dem Bus kann man auch „Pakete“ schicken. Man schreibt einfach den Namen des Empfängers, den Ort und den Namen der Bushaltestelle gut sichtbar auf das Packet und gibt es dann dem Busfahrer gegen etwas Geld mit. In Kizimkazi selbst gibt es keine Post. Dafür muss man in den Nachbarort oder als Touri kann man vielleicht auch in den Hotels fragen.

Goldene Kokons im Schmetterlingsgarten

Fass für Juma Ahmada in Kizimkazi an der Haltestelle Juga

In der Zeit in Kizimkazi lernte ich auch Ricis Gastmama Hadija kennen, die Näherin ist und mir auch zwei schöne Bettbezüge genäht hat. Rici hat sie sogar komplette Bettwäsche genäht. Die könnt ihr auf ihrem Blog sehen: http://reisegedoens.wordpress.com/ In dem Haus von Ricis Gastmama wohnen viele Kinder, weil es auf Sansibar so ist, dass man seine Kinder auch mal für ein oder zwei Monate bei Verwandten oder Freunden lässt, wenn man zum Beispiel woanders arbeiten muss. In dem Haus haben dann alle Mädchen und alle Jungs in je einem Zimmer geschlafen und die ganz kleinen Kinder im Zimmer von Hadija und ihrem Mann.

Ricis Gastmama Hajida

(Eigene und aufgenomme) Kinder von Ricis Gastmama

Am Mittwoch hieß es Abschied nehmen von Kizimkazi und wir sind mit dem Bus nach Stonetown gefahren. Dort sind wir im Flamingo Guesthouse untergekommen. Was die Stadt so interessant macht ist ihre Mischung aus Völkern und Religionen: Inder, Afrikaner und Araber, Muslime, Christen und Hindus teilen sich die Stadt. Die Menschen sind genauso kontakfreudig wie auf dem Dorf. Sie fragen einen zwar nicht direkt ob man schon verheiratet ist, aber sie sind ebenso anhänglich. Nachdem wir zwei Nächte und nett auf dem Nachtmarkt unterhalten hatten, wurden wir unsere neuen Freunde nur los indem wir fortan einen weiten Bogen um den Markt machen. „Ich gehe jetzt mit meinen Freunden hierhin und dorthin“ kombiniert mit einer fehlenden Einladung mitzukommen, wird dementsprechend auch nicht mit „ok, viel Spaß“ beantwortet, sondern mit „Wir gehen noch wo hin? Cool, wohin denn?“ Freunde machen ist hier leicht, sie wieder los zu werden nicht so. Einen von ihnen haben wir trotzdem als Tourguide angeheuert und haben am nächsten Tag mit ihm eine must-do Gewürztouren auf der Insel gemacht. Insgesamt haben Rici und mich auf der Tour unser Fahrer, unser eigentlicher Guide, der Guide von der Gewürztour und zwei weitere junge Männer begleitet, die aus Pflanzen allerlei Assecoires gebastelt haben.

Rici und ich mit unseren Accesoires auf der Gewürztour

Die Gewürztour ging mitten durch die Nachbarschaft

Am Samstag war ich leider etwas krank, so dass wir nicht auf das stadtweite Taraab Konzert gehen konnten. Sonntag ging es mir aber wieder so gut, dass wir spontan eine Tour zur ehemaligen Gefängnisinsel gemacht haben. Tatsächlich wurde das Gefängnis nie als solches genutzt, sondern nur als Quarantänestation. Berühmt ist die Insel aber eigentlich wegen ihrer Riesenschildkröten, die in einem großen Gehege leben und tatsächlich gerne am Kopf gekrault werden. Geschnorchelt haben wir auch und sind dann schon Mittags wieder im Hotel angekommen.

Streicheleinheiten

Montag war es dann nochmal sehr heiß, was mich den Regen vermissen ließ. Ob man nun ein paar Stunden nichts machen kann, weil es regnet oder weil es zu heiß ist, macht auch nicht so den Unterschied. Und dann lieber Regen, weil es dann kühler ist. Abends waren wir dann doch bei einem kleinen Taraab Konzert. Leider war das Licht viel zu grell und die Soundmischung war schlecht, so dass man manche Instumente gar nicht gehört hat. Aber wenigstens habe ich „Tansanias größten Beitrag zur Weltmusik“ laut Lonely Planet gehört.

Taraab

Um Mitternach ging es dann im Taxi zum Flughafen, der sehr altmodisch war. Die Flüge wurden einfach auf eine große Tafel geschrieben, die Waagen waren große mechanische Waagen und Rollbänder für die Koffer gab es natürlich auch nicht. Im Flughafen war die Klimaanlage viel zu kalt, sodass eine Mitreisende sie kurzerhand ausgeschaltet hat. Der Flieger war zwar von gewohnter Größe, aber nicht mit Turbinen, sondern mit Propellern auf den Flügeln. Da ich neben dem Flügel saß, musste ich mein Essenstablett festhalten, weil es ansonsten vom Klapptisch vibriert wäre. Zum Glück ging der Flug nur ein paar Stunden und von Addis Abeba aus hatte ich eine ganz normale Maschine. Zudem einen wolkenlosen Himmel, sodass ich Sahara, Nil, Mittelmeer und die Alpen bestaunen konnte. Nach nochmaligem Umsteigen in Frankfurt bin ich dann am Dienstagabend gut gelandet und wurde von Jasper am Flughafen abgeholt.

Welcome to Cambodia

We shared a taxi with another couple to Siem Reap and arrived there after dark. We stayed the night at the hostel which payed commission to the driver and was actually quite ok. But the next we looked for a better place and found it. The owners even offered to send one of their employees to pick us up from our old hostel!

The employee turned out to work as a tour guide as well and as he was from our hostel, we found him trustworthy. His name is Tall and in the afternoon he drove us to Angkor Wat Historical Park for sunset. The park is only a few kilometres away and we drove there in a comfortable Moto, which is basically a motorised Rikscha with very comfortable seats. At the ticket booths we joined one of the queues for the one day ticket. The ticket are made with photo identity, so the ticket booths have the facilities to take digital pictures of every visitor and print them with the ticket.

We then drove to a nearby hill and joined the hundreds of other sunset pilgrims to the top. On the first part of the way we were accompanied by the music of a small local band who were sitting at the foot of the hill and created some atmosphere. Later we heard similar bands at other temples as well. If you wanted, you could climb the hill on the back of an elephant. But that was a bit too expensive for us. So we walked. On top of the hill we saw our first big temple ruin with very (!) steep steps. From further away the steps look normal and you wonder why all the people walk them down so strangely. But when you stand in front of them you see that they are in fact super steep. Nevertheless we climbed up and enjoyed the view. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see the sunset, but it was still a nice experience. When we came down, Tall waved enthusiastically at us and we boarded the moto to drive back to the hostel. In fact Tall was the whole trip super reliable. Most of the time he was right there when we came out of some temple and greeted us with a happy smile. So he must have really looked out for us!

Temple on top of the hill for the sunset view

Why are people walking down so strangely?

Because the steps are super steep!

The next day we started at 5:30 for sunrise at Angkor Wat. We were not exactly in time, but neither was our guide. It had rained earlier in the morning and he was afraid of the rain because of the nuclear problems at Fukushima. Which was still unnecessary because we were thousands of kilometres away and the accident happened just recently. But better the people are too careful than careless..

Angkor Wat was crowded with other sunrise viewers, but again it was too cloudy to see it properly. But therefore we had the temple nearly for ourselves as it was so early in the morning. Afterwards we drove to the ruins of the ancient capital Angkor Thom, which houses lots of other temple ruins. At its height, it supported 1 million inhabitants in its walls (although it seems too small for SO many people) at a time when London counted 50,000 inhabitants.

Angkor Wat crowded with sunrise viewers

Angkor Wat

Gate to Angkor Thom

After Angkor Wat the most famous temple is the Bayong, which consists of dozens of stone faces. They resemble one of the former kings. Similar to Borobodur, everywhere in the temple you are watched by one of the stone faces.

Stone face at Bayong

We walked to several other temples in Angkor Thom, which was beautiful. But around 12 we were so tired that we decided to go back for the hostel for a lunch snooze. After all we were already 6 hours on our feet!

Temple in Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom

Around 2:30 we started refreshed and drove to a former water basin and Ta Prohm, another temple ruin not to be missed out on. Ta Prohm is famous for the huge trees which grow on its temple ruins. After all we were much more impressed by Ta Prohm then Angkor Wat and the Bayong. That might be due to the fact that we have already seen ruins similar to Angkor Wat on Java.

Former water basin

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

After Ta Prohm we visited some more smaller and bigger temples and climbed on one of them (very steep steps!) to enjoy the view.

Most of the temples were crowded with tourists and there were also a lot of local salespeople who tried to sell souvenirs and food. A few were also very clever in exploiting our respect for their culture. It happened two times that we got inscents to put at the foot of a Buddha statue and after we were asked to donate. It’s hard to get out of that because out of respect you do not want to decline. But the amount of money they ask is still few.

All in all we took more than 500 pictures on that day!

On the way back we booked a cultural dance show and buffet dinner for the next evening and then drove home.

The next day we slept a lot and relaxed from our day trip. In the evening we could walk by foot to the dinner and show. The buffet was huge and diverse, but it didn’t taste amazing. Same with the dances, which were nice, but not mind blowing. But for the price we payed for it, it was still nice and we had expected a similar quality.

The next day we did our second day trip. We started again at 5:30 for sunrise at Angkor Wat and this time it was amazing! The original plan was to drive afterwards to some further away ruins, but as it was too cool wind for us to drive for about 40km, we decided to first see some of the other temple ruins around Angkor Wat. Later in the morning it became warm as expected and we drove to the sights further away. We arrived around lunch time at our next location. We had to walk up a hill to reach a spring and small river which contained several stone engravings. Most famous are the lingas, clusters of round stone pillars which are supposed to be phalluses. That’s why the place is called the “river of the thousand lingas”. The walk was very pleasant and we even saw some lizards and two parrots. At the river there was an elderly man waiting for tourists to guide and we hired him because he asked if we had seen carvings we did actually not see. Without him I am sure we would have only seen half of the carvings, so it was money well spent.

Overgrown temple ruin

More overgrown temple ruins

overgrown entrance

Some lingas

Stone carving near lingas

After that we wanted to have lunch at one of the restaurants, but the prices were ridiculus expensive, so we sticked to our cookies instead and drove back half of the way to Bantey Sray, which is honoured for its stone carvings, which are among the finest of the world according to the Lonely Planet. And they were!

Banta Sray

Banta Sray

As we did not have a lunch break, we had some spare time which we used to visit the Cambodian Landmine Museum. In spite of clean up programs, Cambodia still suffers from intensive land mining, which is why you should not leave the path, especially not to use the bush toilet. As the book said “Better lose your dignity than an arm”. Nevertheless Cambodia holds a sad record of limp losses. This is partly because areas can become mined due to floods which move the land mines onto fields which were safe before.

After the landmine museum we still had too much time left until sunset, which we wanted to watch at another temple. Nevertheless Tall already drove us there. As we had to wait for about an hour, we gave in to our stomachs and bought some fried rice at the food stalls after some bargaining. The sunset was beautiful, but unfortunately our camera ran our of battery, so we have nearly no pictures.

Sunset above ruins

Sunset above ruins

This day was definitely the longest day trip we ever did: From sunrise to sunset, all in all 13 hours! So we were very happy to be back at our hostel and have a rest. But we still managed to walk to the night market because it was our last evening.

For our convenience we booked the whole trip from Siem Reap to Bangkok. In the other direction I would never do it because there is a high chance the bus drives three times longer than normal too arrive when the border is closed so that you have to stay overnight at a commission paying hostel. But on the way back there was no way to make profit for them as we border is only about 2,5 hours away from Siem Reap.

Luckily we were right in that and the ride back went well. It was even cheaper and definitely more convenient as when we had done everything in single steps (getting to the border – get from the border to town – get a bus to Bangkok).

We still had two days in Bangkok, which we spent at the cinema, eating at my favourite restaurants, meeting Pook and Baal and also for packing.

On Tuesday we got up at 4 in the morning because our minibus to the airport was leaving at 5. Our plane left at 9 and I have to say that Air India is really great! The food was fantastic and everyone had an individual screen where you could watch some movies which were just released in the cinemas. Good that we flew during the day because I did not have time to sleep. Only the transfer in New Delhi was stressful because we had only one hour on paper and because our plane was late even less. Luckily we were not the only ones with that problem. But the employees in the airport told us to hurry, so we jogged part of the loong way to the gate. Where we were told to relax and that we made it. The plane even waited for another 15 minutes until all passengers were on board.

In Paris we arrived at 6 pm local time, which was Midnight for us. Luckily it was not too cold as we had no winter clothes! We went straight with the metro to our hostel, where we had to pay right away and in cash. So we had to find an ATM. We did and then bought some Kebab to eat in our room. At 9pm Paris time and 3am biological time we were finally in bed.

It was kind of hard for us to leave Chiang Mai. Not because we liked it so much, but first Jasper was sick for a day and then me. When we were finally ready to leave, we encountered long queues at the bus station and had the choice to either wait for 4 hours for our bus or leave the next day. We decided for the latter and went back to town. Too embarrassed to show up at our old hostel, we were looking for another one. The one we found had a pool!

The next morning we finally left Chiang Mai for good and after several hours bus ride arrived in Chiang Kong, the Thai border town at the Mekong. It was the first time for me that I had to clear emigration and immigration at a land border and I was impressed how smoothly it went. And as I was used to the thorough checking of my luggage and hand luggage at the airport I was also a bit surprised that no one wanted to scan my things. ^^ After emigration we boarded a long tail boat which brought us in a few minutes over the river. There it was, Laos. Immigration went smoothly as well, although we were lifted of 1 Dollar “working after 16:00” fee each.

View from Chiang Kong on the Thai side of the Mekong to Huey Xai, Laos

Setting foot on Laos

Having been a French colony, in Laos people drive on the ride side again. But it took us three days to notice this because in the first two villages there was hardly any traffic at all. The border town Huey Xai were we arrived consisted basically of one street.

Main street in Huey Xai

At our hostel was an elderly woman, who was actually recommended by the Lonely Planet to buy tickets with. She charged us 900 Bath for the 2 day boat ride down the Mekong river, which included pick up at the hostel. 900 Bath are a bit more than 20 Euro, so actually a good price. Until we discovered the next morning at the boat peer that we could have bought it there for half the price. No wonder the old woman complimented us for being good customers! At least we did not book the room for the next night at Pak Beng (where the boat stops for the night) with her. At the boat we had to wait 2 hours until we finally left, during which we were entertained two more times by people trying to selling us rooms at the boat.

At 12 we finally left (we got up at 8 because originally we were supposed to leave at 9 at the hostel!). The ride down the Mekong river was very pleasant. The seats were comfortable and we saw a lot of water buffalos, fishing rods and small villages on both sides of the river.

Water buffaloes

Fishing rods

Village at the river

We arrived at Pak Beng at sunset and there were loads of hostels who were waiting for us and after finding a pleasant one, we dined fried water buffalo with sauce, vegetables and sticky rice, which was one of the best meals I had on the whole journey! Apart from that it was quite hard to find Laos food. All restaurants had a lot of Western food for veery cheap prices. Only half of the dishes were Asian and few Laos. Pak Beng seems to consist only of hostels, restaurants and snack shops. The villagers are definitely lucky to live half way between Huey Xai and Luang Prabang! The restaurants openly advertise “happy” meals, which does not mean a toy, but marijuana, and young guys come and offer you opium.

Arriving at Pak Beng

Dinner at Pak Beng

"Happy shakes" anyone?

Main street of Pak Beng

The next day we left early in the morning and after another scenic river cruise arrived at Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is praised in the Lonely Planet as an ancient Asia which is increasingly hard to find. Especially the daily ceremony of the monks collecting rice in the early morning is recommended. We didn’t find much of “old” Asia. In fact we found it quite touristy. It is a beautiful town with beautiful landscape, but it did not feel “ancient”.

Luang Prabang (river is a side river of the Mekong)

Luang Prabang

We stayed one day to explore the nearby village, which is famous for its silk weaving and paper lanterns made of elephant dung or recycled paper. Mostly I wanted to go there to see silkworms and we successfully found a friendly local who showed us silkworms at different life stages. Before we took time to visit Wat Xieng Thong, the most important – and expensive – temple of Luang Prabang, which is truely beautiful!
In the evening we climbed up the city hill to see the sunset. We had to pay entrance because there was also a small temple on top, but it was definately worth it. We then booked our trip to Vang Vien the next morning and went shopping at the night market, which offered way better prices then Khao San Road.

<img src="http://worldinwords.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/img_2653-large.jpg" alt="View during our

View during a small hike

Wat Xieng Thong

Tree of Life at Wat Xieng Thong

Nearby village we walked to

Silk worms

Papermaking at the village

Monk walking over bridge

Sunset over the Mekong

Nightmarket of Luang Prabang

The next morning we got up at dawn to see the monk ceremony and it was exciting to dress in the dark to the distant sound of temple bells. When we stepped into the small lane outside of our hostel, we could see the monks walking past our main street. This was in fact impressive and felt “old Asian”. But as soon as we stepped onto the main street, that feeling was destroyed by the crowd of rude tourists who were nearly standing in the way of the monks and taking pictures with flash. You are supposed to keep a respectful distance and I don’t know if those people just don’t know or don’t care, but I felt quite ashamed of being a tourist these moments..

Monk procession

"Fremdschaemen" for disrespectful tourists

From Luang Prabang we took the bus to Vang Vieng. On the way we saw a lot of very simple villages at the cliff of the mountains we were driving through. The huts were only made from bamboo and we wondered from what the people were living there as there was steep mountain left and right the street for kilometres and only a small strip of land on which the villages were standing. These images gave us a feeling how poor most of Laos is. It is one of the 20 poorest nations on Earth, an economically least developed country. I have the impression that tourism is like the most important source of income. We have also seen a lot of water buffaloes and cows, sometimes they were just walking on the road in front of us.

Simple Huts

How to live here?

Cows on the road

Vang Vien is (in)famous for it’s tubing, which means floating down the Mekong on big rubber wheels. We did not have time to tube in Vang Vien, but we enjoyed the hammocks at our river bungalow. The next morning we had some time to walk around and enjoy the of course stunning landscape before we took the bus to Vientiane in the afternoon.

Our Bungalow

Ready to tube?

Vientiane is the capital of Laos, but not bigger than Phuket. There are no major sights, so we stayed only two nights because we wanted to see the Buddha Park, a collection of huge stone statues of all kind of religions which were ordered by a local shaman in the 20th century.

Giant Apple in Buddha Park, you can go in and on top

View over Buddha Park from the top of the Giant Apple

The next day we took the bus to go all the way through Thailand to Cambodia. I will write about that in the next entry.

For now enjoy the pictures in the slide show (I could not integrate all in the text):

I have already been to Pai two years ago and it still looked the same as back then. Small, with a river at one side and mountains all around it. Only that it wasn’t as lush and green because now the dry season is coming so the trees at the mountains lose there leaves. In the night we could also see one of the distant peaks burn from several fires. We chose to stay at the other side of the river in a bamboo bungalow (but with hot shower!) so we could walk to town and back over a rustic bamboo bridge. Pai is especially relaxed in the evening when most of the roads in the touristy part are closed for traffic and there are stalls and life music. At the river you can also listen to lots of frogs and watch the stars while in the distance someone is playing guitar. It is kind of a Hippie place, although we did not see many Hippies.

In the night it is nice cool because it is up in the mountains. You even need blankets at night. However during the day it gets very hot, so we decided to leave the next morning to Chiang Mai. Our plan is to go from here to Chiang Kong, where we want to cross the Mekong into Laos. From there we want to make our way down the river to ancient Luang Prabang and then continue by bus over Vian Vieng to Vientiane, the capital of Laos and where we will leave it to get somehow to Angkor Wat, Cambodia, before we take our flight back to Europe in Bangkok at the end of the month.

Unfortunately I cannot upload any pictures at the moment.

"Snore"

From the airport we took a plane to Phuket, Thailand. I had bad expectations because Phuket is a mass tourism island. But actually all the mass tourism is concentrated at the beaches and Phuket town is a typical Thai town for the locals. We stayed one night to take the ferry in the morning to KRABI.

On the ferry to Krabi (Phra Nang beach in the background)

As you mights know I’m still very fond of it and I wanted to meet up with Patrick and Tip, who had now opened a guesthouse opposite their travel agency: The smile guesthouse. They aim to provide a home from home and they are definately good in it, so we stayed several days and took great daytrips.

Smile Guesthouse

Rooftop garden at Smile Guesthouse

Me with Patrick and Tip and Tip's mother, sister and brother

As I had already done all good trips in the past (and would do all again except for „James Bond Island“), Jasper could just chose the ones which sounded best to him.

So we did the 4-Islands Tour:

Jasper at Poda Island

Tup Island

Happy snorkellers

And Kayaking in Ao Thalee:

Kayaking in Ao Thalee

Kayaking in Ao Thalee

Kayaking in Ao Thalee

Kayaking in Ao Thalee

And of course we went to my favorite beach, Phra Nang, and up to „the cave“ (from which you can walk to a small platform with gorgeous view, already excessively featured in older blog entries).

Longtail boat in front of "the cave"

We then decided to spend the weekend at Railey to watch the sunsets and sunrises over the sea and to enjoy the Railey nightlife and the beaches with fewer tourists. Luckily there was one relatively cheap bungalow resort left. The sunsets were great and the bars with fire shows and one with life music and one with amateur Thai boxing really nice. Just the cocktails could have been way better.

Railey East

Restaurant boats at Phra Nang Beach

Me at nearly sunrise

Monday morning we managed to got up at 5 for a rather disappointing sunrise (too cloudy). But therefore we went to Phra Nang beach because the day before we read on the newly set up information signs that you can watch hornbill birds at the far end. So we walked over the totally empty beach towards the birds. In the small bush, which also leads to the cliff from where you get to the cave, we first heard and then saw them. And on the way back we saw spectacled langurs, which are rare to see. And veeery young baby maquaces. Unfortunately our camera did run out of battery, so we do not have a picture of any of them. So here from the net:

Oriental Pied Hornbill:

http://www.green-jungle.com/30_birdwatch/02_khaoyai/khaoyai.html

Spectacled Langur

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2007-07/12/content_5433938.htm

To my astonishment it started to rain when we took the boat back to Krabi. Normally it is high and dry season now. So we arrived very wet back at Patrick and Tip. Nevertheless we stayed another day to do a Snorkel trip to Ko Phiphi and the inavoidable Maja beach, where they filmed „The Beach“.

Crowded Maja Beach

We had to chase some tourists away to take the pic

Lunch stop at Ko Phi Phi Don

Jasper at Bamboo Island, our last (Snorkel) stop

Just after we entered the speedboat after our last stop, it started to pour down heavily again. The waves were high and the ride very bumpy. Unfortunately one woman had a very bad time because she had a weak back. Our guide also started to hand out life vests on midway, so I became a bit nervous as well. But we arrived back safe and sound.

Due to two days of rain in the afternoon, we decided against the cave-snorkel-sunset-saefoodbarbeque-on-the-beach-and-nightswim-tour, the only tour which sounded very good and I haven’t done yet (so likely it did not exist the last time I was there). Instead we decided to say bye bye to Krabi for now and go to Bangkok with the nightbus. The journey was great because you could decline the bus seats very far and you had your own video screen in the seat before you, so it was like a train. The only bad thing was that all the movies were in Thai. So instead we watched Thai music videos, which are way more funny than Western music movies, I think.

Thursday morning we arrived in Bangkok and met up with Pook to eat at MK restaurant. The city centre of Bangkok is full of great international restaurants, e.g. MK restaurant, where you make your own soup, Sizzler, which had a huge salad bar and the Fudge Factory, where you make your own icecream (e.g. with brownied, cookies, M&Ms, all kind of nuts and sauces and waffles). Friday we also went to the cinema: There was no movie we really wanted to watch, but it was cheap with big screens (and great popcorn) so we chose „I am number 4″. Saturday we did a daytrip with Pook and her boyfriend Baal, which was a very nice day out on which we ate great saefood at the end. If you now have the impression that Bangkok is all about food, you are right. But in the end, that is what whole Thailand is about: Enjoying good food with good people at a good place. That’s why „Did you already eat?“ is a common greeting.

Meeting with Pook

By the way: The bunny is not because they start with the Easter decoration as early in Thailand as in Germany, but because this year is the „Year of the Rabbit“ according to the Chinese calender.

Preparing soup at MK

Daytrip with Pook (and Baal, who takes the picture

Tonight we take the nightbus to Chiang Mai and from where make our way up to Laos.

Our tour office offered a “Lava Tour”, which means a trip to the village Kinahrejo, which was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Merapi about two months ago. Tour participants were asked to bring a tree and some small money. When we asked our travel agent where to buy trees, he looked at us as if we were a bit stupid and told us “at the street”. He showed us a spot on our map and so we walked there. It turned out that the map was true in angles, but not in lengths, so walking 1cm on the map varied from 1 to 10 minutes.. Nevertheless we found two nice tree saplings.

The next day we started at 6 and drove towards Kinahrejo, a village at the slopes of Mount Merapi or better, the provisoric rebuilt of it – you cannot even say remnants because there are no remnants..

On the way everything was still lush and green, but close to the top, the landscape changed to burnt trees and destroyed houses. The hot ash rain from the volcano was devastating for the landscape around it. Kinahrejo and its surrounding tree plantations were totally destroyed. The village was roughly rebuilt with bamboo huts and the locals now earn some money from the disaster tourists. So they were happy about us visitors. We hired two motorbike guides, who drove us up the hill, where we planted our trees among others which were planted before (Our driver later told us that some people sent whole truck loads of tree saplings). Although there was already some regrowth, the whole scenery was quite end-world like and depressing. A black desert of burnt trees reaching until the horizone to the right side of the village, where you could see a faint tree line. This was in sharp contrast to the intact forest which could be seen to the left of Kinahrejo and not much further downhill. Devastating as it was, the impact of the eruption was limited to a certain area around the mountain. Nevertheless this area was still several square kilometres!

Huts where once Kinahrejo was in front of Merapi

The yellow sign says "warning, life danger

Burnt trees

A black desert until the horizone

Planting the first of our saplings

Planting the second sapling

Destruction and regrowth

A memorial hut was set for the village elder Mbah Maridjan, who was an expert for the spirits in the Mountain and went up to mount Merapi every day to pray and appease the spirits. He refused to leave his house because he claimed that he was at peace with Merapi. In the following eruption he has been burnt alive (barbequed like our guide joked) and became a local legend. Some more people died in the eruption as well. Although the government told people to evacuate, some elders returned every day to feed the cattle.

Upper part of the destroyed village

A hut and donation box as a memorial for Mbah Maridjan

The power of the eruption was not only demonstrated by the eradication of everything alive. Also the landscape itself was majorly transformed:

Metal melted when the lava cut it's way through the rocks

The eruption left a v-shape cut in Merapis cone shape

Sheer incredible was that ehe gorge next to the village, which has been a couple of metres in the past, was now several hundred metres, cut into the stone by the lava like butter with a hot knife! In the deep distance a small river was flowing, which has been underground before. Another deep gorge has been eaten at the other side of the former village. When you think of volcano eruptions, you think of destroyed houses and burnt landscape. But how to deal with a hundred metres deep gorge between you and your plantations, even if you rebuilt?

Giant gorge with excavated river

The provisoric rebuilt of Kinahrejo next to the giant gorge cut by the lava flow

Now after the eruption the government offers everyone who wants a piece of land, but on Borneo because there is no land on Java. Some people accept the offer anyway, although some of these return after a year to Java because they miss friends and family and the life is too hard at Borneo. Others decided to stay and rebuilt. Not the best choice because Merapi erupts regularly: between every few years and a couple of centuries. So it is a kind of gambling to stay there and rebuilt.

Who decides to rebuilt gambles high?

On the way back the landscape gradually changed from burnt trees and destroyed houses on ashen ground to some intact houses and green trees to finally lush forest and full villages. All this within only one kilometre.

Driving back along burnt earth

Destroyed hut

intact landscape a kilometre further downhill

The next morning we went on a trip to the famous Borobodur, one of the oldest and biggest Buddhist Temples in the world and a small world miracle by itself. The trip started at 5 in the morning and after we spent a couple of hours at the temple, we were back at 10 – in time for second breakfast.

The Borobudur is one giant block and was built on the base of an unfinished Hindu temple of an even earlier civilisation. It is one big symmetrical complex of different levels. It was inspired by the cone shaped volacano Mount Merapi, which towers and smoked in the distance. The mountain connects Earth with Nirwana and the Borobodur symbols this as well. For this each level of Borobodur has engravings on the inner and outer walls. On the first level the engravings display a very earthly life and with each higher level the motives become more spiritual. The idea is to follow the engravings around the temple instead of climbing straight to the top. By doing so you follow the story of enlightenment, which you reach once you arrive at the top.

Just from the building itself, we actually found the Prambanan temple complex more impressive than the Borobodur. Borobodur is a massive block of stone while Prambanan consitsts of several cone shaped temples. To summarize it, a small model of Borobodur as a souvenir does not look good, a small model of a Prambanan temple does. Nevertheless the landscape around Borobodur is much more amazing: wild mountains and endless palm tree forests compared to a small groomed and touristy park at Prambanan. Furthermore Prambanan’s main stupa was just in a renovation process, they fenced the temple complex and they built an atmosphere disturbing podest with green stairs in front of it (you can see at the first picture of Prambanan in the Prambanan entry).

So we definately took much better pictures at Borobodur. Please enjoy them in the following slide show:

And now the pictures in bigger:

Welcome to Borobodur

Sunrise at Borobodur

Sunrise at Borobodur

A new day begins at Borobodur

Buddha watching the gorgeous landscape

Each of the 72 (!) stupas contains a Buddha

Jasper in front of stupas

Whereever you are at the temple, a Buddha is watching (over) you

Buddha watching Jasper watching Buddha

Borobodur contains 5km (!) of engravings

View from Borobodur

Mount Merapi, the inspiration for Borobodur

Peaceful Buddha

Borobodur in full light

Mount Merapi

A lot of students at Borobodur (luckily only some wanted a picture with us)

Borobodur from the edge

Jasper (small) and Borobodur (giant)

Top of Borobodur

Borobodur from a distance

Jasper at Borobodur

As our time in Yogyakarta / Yogya was limited, we decided to do a tour every day. That was no problem at all because all tours started between 5 and 7 in the morning or in the afternoon.

After we arrived in Yogya on Saturday last week (5. Feb) we spend the afternoon walking around in the city, where we encountered a big fair. It had a far lower standard than a German fair, so no big rides and a lot of hand driven activities as well as pets and a lot of toys.

Fair at Yogya

Hand driven carrousel for kids

There is also a palace in Yogya, but it was closed because of the fair.

After we always got up early in the morning for our journey to Yogya, we decided to sleep long the next morning and then do the „sunset tour“ to the Prambanan temple complex. The tour started at 2 and when we arrived shortly before everyone was already ready to go. On Java, everyone seems to be overpunctual, including the tourists.

The Prambanan temple complex consists of the big Hindu temple complex and of three smaller Buddihist temples to its East. All temples were built by the same Hindu king because he married a Buddhist woman.

Prambanan temple complex

Small temple at Prambanan temple complex

Prambanan from a distance

We shared a guide with a lady from the US who was on our bus. That was a good choice, because he went up with us to one of the bigger temples and explained to us the whole episode of the Ramayana which was engraved in the upper walls of the temple. The most interesting part was the ending because it ended with a kind of last supper before everyone went to Nirwana in the next day. The supper shows a group of priests endulging in meat and fish, which they normally do not eat. One of them is pictured on a rocking chair to represent his struggle between desire and discipline. At the top of the temple was a small room with a Brahma statue, which was perfectly lit by the sunlight shining into the room (the rest of the room was quite dark).

View from temple at the complex

Guide explaining the Ramayana to Jasper and the lady from US

"Last supper" at this Ramayana episode

Brahma statue

After he was gone we had some time for ourselves, where we encountered several local school groups who wanted to take a picture with us strangers. Afterwards it unpreventable started to rain. So we seeked shelter with view of the temple. But after a while we took our umbrella and went to see the Buddhist temples. One was quite small, one was more a ruin than a temple, but the last one was quite big with two guarding statues.

We and students on a class trip

Eastern view of Prambanan

Prambanan feat. Jasper feat. Black Umbrella

Me at Prambanan

We at Prambanan

Locals admiring Prambanan

Buddhist temple with giant guarding statues

Unfortunately the temple complex was closed at 6 so we could not enjoy the sunset view, which was in full run at around 6:30. But it was a good trip anyway.

Prambanan just before sunset

While we were at the temple, I discovered a fascinating feature of Jaspers camera. If you zoom in from a distance, the background is much bigger as when you take a closer picture without zoom:

Small Jasper and Big Prambanan

Big Jasper and small temple ^^

We will stay here until Wednesday and then we will fly back to Bali.

Now we have got to book and plan our trips in Jogja (for the insiders).

Rice field around Ubud

Painter along the rice fields

On the way back we stopped at the organic restaurant (which caters non-organic if organic is unavailable, but if you want you can pick your own vegies in their garden), which had an amazing view over the rice fields.

View from the restaurant in the ricefields

Our next stop was the 24 hours shop which had restocked magnum ice cream. I have waited to find one for ages, because they all have got the commercial, but no one had the ice cream..

Our rest day continued in our swimming pool (yahaa) and at 5pm I was finally ready to sit outside and read my book. Yeah!

In the evening we went to our eat house, where we had some rice wine. That made me even more tired then I already was, so we did nearly not got to the very big celebration last night. It already started at eight with music and dance, but we went there shortly before Midnight because a gamelan teacher, whom we met in our eathouse, told us that after Midnight everyone will start to run through the streets to chase an evil spirit until the morning hours. But when we arrived there was instead a procession, music and theatre at a stage at a street junction. Everyone sat everywhere on the road to watch and so did we. But at 2 we were too tired because we had a long day, so we went back home to bed. Unfortunately this morning we were woken up at 7:30 by new Italian neighbours, who were talking non stop until we finally could not ignore them any longer and got up around 11.

Ceremony at Wednesday Night

Video made during a comedy sketch during the ceremony (apparently it was very funny ):

After all it was a very good day yesterday, though not really a resting day. Therefore Thursday we gave it another go with resting day 2, which was more successful (likely because Jasper had caught a cold and liked to take it slow as well.).

Apart from a big cycle tour on Sunday to the wood carvers in Mas the last days in Ubud were also more for relaxing, shopping (wood carvings) and writing emails / weblog entries. And of course to plan our next stops! I imagined Mas would be a small village with peaceful carvers, but instead it was just a couple of shops distributed along the loong main road. We bought some stuff (partly out of pity) at a wood carver who told us that he gets only few tourists because he does not pay commission to the tour guides.

Today we walked to the Blanco Museum, which is a small palace set in a garden area with some parrots. Inside the museum were a couple of pictures from Blanco, who has a unique style, but in spite of that the place is a bit „protzig“ (showing off) as I would say in German. But therefore we also got a welcome drink. We were also allowed to pose with the parrots, yeah!

Me and Parrot (guess a Tukan) at Blanco Museum

Me and more parrots (plus grey parrot and Edelpapagei (German) and welcome drink

Jasper and parrots

Blanco Museum

We also walked to the Water Temple in the Centre of Ubud, which we wanted to see since we arrived two weeks ago.

Water Temple in Ubud

Jasper at Water Temple in Ubud

Locals and Lotus

We also did a small walk towards Nicks Hidden Cottages, where Jaspers parents stayed when they were in Ubud ten years ago. The street towards started in central Ubud, but became quickly rural with a lot of ricefileds and partly even unasphalted.

Ducks on Rice Field near Nicks Hidden Cottages

We want to go to Yogyakarta next to see the magnificient temple Borobodur, We decided not to fly, but to go there overland to have more of a journey towards it (and for me to save some carbon emissions as well). So tomorrow we will leave for a three hour bus ride (or maybe go with Nyoman) to Gilimanuk at the West of Bali from where we will take the one hour ferry to Banyuwangi on Java, where we will stay overnight. The next morning we will take the eight hour train to Surabaya, stay there over night and then take the 6 hour train to Yogyakarta.

Here some more pictures from Ubud.

Giant stone statue at the entrance of Ubud

Roadsign Ubud

Men making Satee at the side of the road

Construction site with women carrying construction materials in baskets on their head (!)

Locals bathing in the river

Kids buying candy at small shop opposite our favorite eat house

Art market Ubud

Market stall

Kids playing in the lane to Sania's House, our first guesthouse

A few more words on offerings: Offerings are an important part of Balinese Hindu religion. They are a small sample of flowers, food (rice or candy) and often inscents arranged in small baskets made from plants. Every morning the women distriube a few offerings around the house to please the spirits. Shops also place them in front of the house, so you can often see offerings lying on the pavements. Balinese Hindus are not allowed to eat before they made an offering to the spirits. These offerings are placed at places which are connected to food, e.g. tables or the kitchen. At our guest house we also got a small offering every morning. The offerings themselves are later eaten by the chicken (true free range! ), cats or dogs which roam the streets.

Woman putting inscents in an offering for the spirits

Woman making small baskets for offerings

Buddha at Raka House with fresh flowers to please the spirits

Cat sleeping in front of our Bungalow