Koh Tao or a little less conversation

the final stop of my journey is a place of relaxation, especially below the water. I spent every day diving in one of the various dive sites around the island.

I saw the most beautiful things: corals of all colors, fish of all colors, mermaids and today a sea horse. I'm happy. Diving makes me happy.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be free.

A village close to Siem Reao or Sunday's duty

Ok, mom said I should go and get some vegetables for lunch, she gave me money and said I should walk. Well, I'm much quicker with the bike.

I know its not mine and it is too big. And I know my brother will kill me for taking his bike. But, well I manage. Sure. I'll be back before he'll find out ....

Saturday afternoon or how to impress a white girl

Angkor Wat or being just grant

When I went to visit Angkor Wat I put on my finest suit, cleaned my teeth, brushed my hair and manifested my broadest smile into my face. Well, i was going to see ANGKOR WAT. One of the seven world wonders. the biggest religious building in the world. A fusion of Hinduism and Buddism. Just the Grant. I was a little nervous.

But there was no need to be nervous because the grant lady was very kind and actuality she was not in very good shape. There were major construction and archaeological operations in progress, so she could not shine as bright and glorious as she might have liked. But she still won my heart by her greatness, her strength and also her courage to show me her weakness: aging. Grant old lady, respect.

The children of Angkor

While visiting the temples of Angkor always the same thing would happen upon arriving at a new temple: a bunch of very young kids, girls and boys would run to you and try to sell you something. Screaming "one dollar", "one dollar". Some little souvenirs, a necklaces, some postcards, magnets. Stuff of pour quality from poor children. I bought one or two things because I really pitied them. Sometimes I did not buy but gave them all my chewing gum I had left ...

Arriving after the daily monsoon rain at a small and less popular temple I was the first tourist who came after the rain had stopped and I had saw the kids playing just like children play. They played in the puddles of the rain water being just little kids.

Ta Prom or natures heaven

I visited Ta Prom for the first time very early in the morning. I was the only tourist, just some workers were around. It was my second temple though the one I visited before was like visiting a church: old stones, some carvings. You that kind of thing. But when I entered To Prom I felt like being the jungle that happened to home an old temple but was not going to get disturbed by it.

The trees are so high that the sky is barely visible and its roots are huge legs of any kind of animal or monster you can make up in your fantasy. Walking through this beautiful and magical place I felt like a little real explorer of course knowing that about 3 million other people probably had the same feeling. Though because i was on my own and also alone I could not just see the nature embodied in those gigantic trees but also here with all the noises you get in a tropical jungle. and I had wonderful company by a couple of butterflies in the most beautiful colors and shapes.

I came back a second time two days later, stopped taking pictures (well, not sooo many, at least) and just enjoyed this enchanted place. Heaven.

Bayon or eternal faces

Bayon Temple is the spectacular central temple of the ancient city of Angkor Thom, which is located just to the north of Angkor Wat. Built around 1190 AD by King Jayavarman VII, Bayon is a Buddhist temple but it incorporates elements of Hindu cosmology.Bayon is known for its huge stone faces of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, with one facing outward and keeping watch at each compass point. So once I entered the temple and walked up the steps I felt to be watched. And I looked up and I saw the most kind and sweet face and then I saw it again and again and again.

And after a little while I saw the differences, some face were broken others had green lips or little cracks and wholes in their faces. But still the kindness they radiated gave me a peaceful and happy mood and I left with a big smile on my face.

Angkor or how to approach a myth

I was soooo looking forward to see the temples of Angkor. I made it to one of the highlights of my journey and then I got stressed and confused: There are over 50 temples stretched out over 100 of squared kilometers. And the ticket I was going to buy was for 3 days. How should I manage all of this in just 3 days? Well, I did some meditation and then I just went with the flow. I got a book by a smart Italian scientist who knows a lot about the temple and the Khmer culture, and I got a tuktuk driver to drive me around.

I started very early in the morning, six o'clock and I had the first temple all for myself. It took me quite a while get an idea that this are not just old rocks lying around in the jungle but a track, a sign of civilization that is so hold and almost beyond my imagination. Moreover it is not my culture, it is not Christian "Abendland" I know but the wold of Hinduism, Sanskrit, India and Buddhism. So I needed some temples to warm up to it. After 10 temples in the first day I had an idea about the marvel, greatness and high culture that was alive for 5 centuries. And i loved it.

Rabbit island or my need for a holiday

After four weeks of hard, busy and sometimes tough traveling through Vietnam I decided that I need time for a holiday. So I picked a nice little island just after the border from Vietnam called "rabbit island". The island had just a couple of huts, some cows, some chicken, some dogs and a couple of palm trees.

Leaving Vietnam on motorbikes and a red road

On the last day of my visa for Vietnam we left this beautiful country via a land border crossing going to Cambodia that only a year ago was opened for foreign travelers. We were expecting a lot of questions and for sure some bribery. But in the end it was all dead easy as long as you keep a smile on your face, ask a couple of words in the local language and do not wonder why you have to queue up at thee different points and pay a little here and a little there. For example for a health check that summed up to the question: "Do you feel ill?" you pay 20 000 dong (about 1 Eur).

After we managed all that bureaucratic stuff we were rewarded with a trip through a beautiful landscape entering Cambodia with a smile and surprise. See for yourself:

CanTon or the Mekong and its floating market

Getting up at five in the morning to see the local people doing business on the Mekong. The river is huge and by the thought that this is just one arm of the hundredths of arms the river has in its delta you kind of thing an octopus is out there.


Being on the river I enjoyed the light, the breeze, the chatting away of the people. The river is beautiful this early in the morning and the river is soo dirty. Its never on the pictures or postcards but believe me the river is DIRTY. People just live and breath in this river, through everything in it, they bath here, wash there vegetables and, of course, use it as a toilet.


I saw many people who live on those boats which are sometimes really just the size of a nutshell. they live there with their whole family, dog and probably a couple of flees and other lovely little creatures.

Rain,a bus, and a chicken

The day I left Saigon, it had been raining for hours. It was seven when I got in the taxi to take me to the local bus station. On the way the road turned into a pool with car getting a under body wash and driver shouting out "Mekong". Though as I was going to see later the Mekong is a different story. Once arriving at the bus station I changed into a small bus, which was going to take me to big bus. Still pouring down like mad I saw all those brave Vietnamese people on there motorbikes just covered with a small piece of raincoat riding bravely through the dirty water road.

When we arrived with the small bus to change to the big bus I had the pleasure of stepping into all this dirty, smelly dark brown something called water and walk through it to get to the big bus which turned out to be also a small bus. So we were sitting like chicken on a bar and surprisingly enough a chicken was also traveling with us. The poor creature was stuck in a plastic bag give the occasional rail against its condition.

The ride through the rain continued for several hours though by the time we reached our destination the rain had stopped.

Faces of Saigon

Saigon or one million different kind of noises

Being in Saigon is being exposed to hundreds of different kinds of noises. They come from all different kind of sources: people, animals, things. They are in the air, in your head, in your legs, in your mind. And the noises never stop, they run 24 hours, every minute and every second. You cannot escape. Everything and everyone moves in the waves of the horns of the motorbikes, the yelling of the street vendors, the music coming from shops, restaurants or telephones. People scream, cry, laugh, spit, fart ....
Adding to the noises comes heat, dirt, heat, dirt, heat and dirt. its like a mad house, especially being on the road.

Hoian beach and people