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.