Another five days in paradise (update)

You may have been worrying about us. That we didn't make our flight, or that the flight didn't make it. Or that Vietnam didn't want to let us go... We still have to tell you how much we liked it there. But for now, I'd like to tell you about today.

As Marley said it, you shouldn't worry, not about us, not about a thing!
'Cause every little thing's gonna be alright!'
We had a great day doing nothing. Well, first of all I should mention that Klaus and I are in Indonesia now, at lake Toba to be precise. We flew to Medan, had a better time in this busy city than expected (got lost and then saved by locals, people here are amazing!) and then took the bus to go south for some holidays. Yes, that's right! It's holidays, not traveling.
Because we're not really trying to learn the language, learn about the culture or get involved in any other possible way with the country. We weren't trying to, but it still happened, on this day when we did nothing.

Sleeping long, time doesn't matter. Our little traditional cabin on the lake is big enough to give room to breathe, but has a tiny door to crawl through. The lake is still fresh in the late morning and the breakfast is simple but filling. Then we spent all day lying in our hammocks, listen to the water break at the lakeshore, to the big bugs flying around and to great music. While reading a book. I feel almost overwhelmed by art, which sounds strange, but I had the feeling we're not giving music and literature the time and attention that would be healthy for us.

Eventually we HAD to go out and at least walk around a little; we found a place full practically new born puppies. It's cuteness hard to believe, not even thinking of describing it! And while we're busy cuddling, suddenly an Indonesian man walk over to us, singing. Yes, he was singing in full volume looking straight at me, in a language I didn't understand but with an expression saying: "This is a good day!" I looked at him, perplexed, then at Klaus, asking: "Is this really happening?" But Klaus just smiled, and so did I. The man kept singing like a long lost popstar and we cuddled and stared.

We went back to our hammocks, almost euphoric, read some more and when the sun set we lay on the floor listening to music. It felt like the best not-doing-anything-day ever!
Dinner was gonna be the highlight. And it is! I just got to read some sweet emails from home and to eat a great pasta. They like veggies here in Indonesia! The best thing is that we ended up in a restaurant where nobody else ate but which has a local pub across the street where people play the guitar and sing folk songs (and it has internet!). So we get live music all night, authentic music, stuff that even the chefs in our place sing along with. Believe me, it's hard not to be very content right now. On the risk of sounding overexcited: we have five more days in paradise, including buffaloes.

next morning
I really want to add what happened last night after dinner and when we went home. Nothing big, but it's the small things, you know, like salt...
We're lying in bed, somewhere in the neighbourhood people played the guitar and sang english songs, a nice sound to fall asleep to. Just when I was about to drift away, I heard them singing
"...don't worry, about a thing. Cause every little thing's gonna be alright..."

by Lia

weather, water and other curiosities

At first, forget all about you heard about Vietnam. Now listen.
It's like Thailand, just cooler. Greener. Better coffee. And the people...
Right now I can't think of a story to tell, buuuut... some interesting things at least.

It's almost been half a year since we've left, and we're so used to the constant heat, sweating all day and night, that's it became annoying but bearable. Walking into a room with a/c set on 25°C feels like walking into a fridge. And watching people in coats, on tv for example, seems like the strangest thing ever. Maybe once a month we wear proper shoes, ie. something else than flip flops. We like to shower multiple times a day, and also the amount of water we drink has doubled since we've left Germany. Shame you  have to pay for water here...

the best water is the one to swim in! - in Phong Na National Park with Philipp and Giacomo

By now Klaus and me look like two well baked buns, and though we put sunscreen on or wear long clothes, we seem to get more and more tanned. Hello, skin cancer! Lots of people in South East Asia cover almost every inch of their body, wearing a hoody, mouth cover, long pants or socks and even gloves! We were told different reasons for that, one story says that Vietnamese or Thai people don't want to get tanned because dark means farm worker and white means rich. Another explanation could be that the cities are so dirty from the cars and motorbikes that you can get an abscess on your skin if it's not covered. Both Klaus and me have been fine so far, but also we've always preferred being away from big cities.

Ankor Wat, 38°C, sunshine, people in gloves

The times we've been sick can be counted on the fingers of one hand (fingers crossed!), and for me this was mostly because of the sun. Stupid me sometimes forgets about water, tsts. Klaus doesn't seem to like some of the food, but so far the light medicine has always been enough. Luckily we had no malaria, no viruses, nothing. Though we eat in the streets quite often (no meat or fish), and we had been drinking strange water in Nepal for example. On top of that we cuddle every dog and cat we can lay our hands on, as you may have noticed. 

you can imagine my amazement seeing guinea pigs next to the street! (Ho Chi Minh City)

Asian people like chili and garlic, so maybe we've upgraded to immune system 2.0, or we're just sweating it all out. Most likely it is just not as bad as may have learned Asia would be. Just because we grow up in a sterile world with rubber gloves and tiled kitchens doesn't mean it's safer than a little wok in the street. Comparing sanitary systems here and there, I came to the conclusion that the word "clean" is an elastic term. Usually I rather sleep in a bamboo hut on a farm than in a hostel, as long as I have a mosquito net, of course. (keyword: spiders! or scorpions. or ants. I don't like ants anymore!)

common thing to see inside a street restaurant: Vietnamese people sharing food

The best thing so far has been couch surfing, as we're doing it right in this moment. You may remember Petch, the cool Thai with the pool we stayed with in Bangkok, and Franzi and Rob who showed us the most amazing waterfall north of Chiang Mai, and of course Niko and his beautiful wife and baby in Phnom Phen, Cambodia. Now, since some days we've been lucky enough to be hosted by Paul and Jyldyz in Hanoi, Vietnam's capital. Not only do they have a huge house, where we have 2 rooms and one bathroom to ourselves AND a kitchen we can use as well. Most importantly they are interesting, having lived in so many different places in the world; and very friendly and generous, for hosting us also for longer than we'd asked for, making us feel like we're at home. When you're constantly on the road, traveling from one place to the next within days, it's a feeling you can't beat to arrive somewhere. Here we have time to rest, let the impressions sink in, and to sleep until noon, nobody cares. For us, couch surfing often is like visiting friends that you didn't know you have.

Ok, enough cheesy text. I need to shower and eat some cake before Jyldyz and me go out shopping. Yesterday I taught her how to bake, today she will help me find something to wear in Halong Bay. We're a really good symbiosis!
Now some music instead of more photos, transferring our travel impressions of the last 3 weeks...


1. Kodaline - Love Like This (the Irish Coldplay, seen on MTV Vietnam)
2. Bastille - Pompeii ("...if you close your eyes, does it feel like nothing changed at all?")
3. Daft Punk - Get Lucky (dancing in Siem Reap, Ohrwurm everywhere)
4. of Montreal - Wraith Pinned To The Mist (Hostel Memories, same same Siem Reap)
5. C2C - Down The Road (best to be heard in all those endless bus rides...)
6. The Strangles - Peaches (billiard, cigarettes and traveling on the mind)
7. Patsy Cline - Walking After Midnight (heard in Phong Na Farmstay, last guys standing before midnight)
8. Band Of Horses - The Funeral (backpacker's ohrwurm, in memory of Giaco & Phil, hehe)
9. Parov Stelar - Chambermaid Swing (because we can't get enough of him, swing on!)

by Lia

Angkor und Phnom Penh

Angkor

Angkor wollte ich mir auf der Reise auf keinen Fall entgehen lassen, somit Kambodscha und Phnom Penh.

Lia hatte von Angkor nur gehört, ich kannte die Tempel von Bildern und assoziiere damit Abenteuer und Schatzsuche im Dschungel. Angkor hält was es verspricht.

Die Erkundung erfolgt per Tuk Tuk das einem durch das Erbe der Khmer fährt und einem alle Zeit der Welt lässt die jeweiligen Tempel zu besuchen. Unser Fahrer merkt schnell das wir Deutsche sind und damit beginnt,wie so häufig zur Zeit, eine Fachsimpelei über Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund und Arjen Robben...

Hobbyforscher bei der Arbeit

Wir nehmen uns zwei Tage für die Tempelwelt und fangen am ersten Tag mit den weniger belaufenen an. Dadurch hatten wir die Muse die weniger spektakulären Tempel ausgiebig zu erkunden und hielten die Spannung hoch für die großen und bekannten Namen.

Der erste Tempel!

Einen Namen hat Angkor Wat, beeindruckend in Größe und Detail. Wir verlieren uns für einige Zeit in den erhaltenen oder restaurierten Gemäuern und entgehen dadurch schattensuchend der Sonne.

Angkor Wat von hinten

Der Dschungel und der Tempel vereint

Ebenso berühmt ist Ta Prhom, über den sich die Wurzeln großer Bäume schlagen und sich wie gefrorenes Wasser über die Mauern ergießen. Hinzu kommt eine Szenerie, die wohl die der Wiederentdecker gleich kommt. An manchen Stellen ist er nur noch ein haufen Steinblöcke oder im Dschungel versunken, wurden doch die meisten Tempel von Japanern, Indern (die 1980 erst die Nymphen Reliefs in Angkor Wat mit Säure vernichtet hatten), Franzosen, Deutschen, Italienern usw. bereits restauriert und aufgebaut.

Es ist großartig sich als Entdecker zu fühlen aber es gelingt uns dort nicht. Entgegen dieser Mona Lisa der Angkor Tempel, erfreuen sich die abgeschiedeneren einer Atmosphäre die authentischer ist und einer Ruhe die uns nach Bangkok und Reisestress aufatmen lässt. 

Friede, Freude, der Anfang vom Tag

In Ta Prhom wird man getrieben von schwärmen von Touristen aus aller Welt und schafft es nur schwer ein Foto ohne sie zu schießen, dabei ist gerade Nebensaison. So ist das heutzutage, wir gehören selbst zu ihnen.

Wir sind viel gelaufen, haben die Tempel intensiv erkundet und unseren Spaß gehabt, aber es ist genug. Am Ende von Tag 2 haben wir keine Lust mehr, es ist heiß und schwül und nach dem Mittag sind wir vollgestopft mit Morning Glory. Wir sagen zu unserem Fahrer "no more temple. To much temple, please bring us home" 

Er lacht, wir auch.

Und alle sind gluecklich

Phnom Penh

Am nächsten Tag verlassen wir den Ort und fahren nach Phnom Penh. Dort erwartet uns bereits Niko, Anna und ihre kleine Zia. 

Niko ist Frisbeespieler und seit Jahren in Süd-Ost Asien zuhause.
Wir dürfen uns zwei Nächte in ihrem Wohnzimmer bequem machen und helfen Niko beim Babysitten.

Zwei Franzosen in Kambodscha

Am ersten Abend nimmt er uns gleich mit zum Teamtreffen des Ultimate Frisbee Teams aus Phnom Penh,Angelinas Orphans (übersetzt Angelina Jolies Waisenkinder).
Da wir gegen sie in Bangkok gespielt haben, kennen wir schon einige. Wir haben einen sehr lustigen Abend mit Pizza und real french fries, Bier und Tischfussball.

Auf der Party lernen wir einen Autor des Lonely Planets kennen, der in unserem Reiseführer als Frisbeespieler erwähnt wird und angeblich gute Noten für Gästehäuser verteilt, deren Lobbys groß genug zum Scheibe werfen sind. Dieser Mann setzt die richtigen Schwerpunkte!

Auf dem Heimweg gibt uns Niko eine Stadtrundfahrt durch die Nacht. Leere Straßen in Phnom Penh sind eine Seltenheit, daher düsen wir nun entspannt zu später Stunde an allen sehenswerten Dingen vorbei. Wunderbar! Sightseeing ist sowieso überbewertet.

Am nächsten Tag zeigt uns Niko seine liebsten Restaurants, in denen wir stundenlang reden. Wir machen  Besorgungen auf den Märkten, trinken anschließend daheim einen Fruchtshake nach dem anderen und schlendern abends über das große Olympiagelände und bestaunen Massenaerobic wie das in Asien so üblich ist und fachsimpeln dabei über allerlei weitere kambodschanische Hobbysportler.

Probier doch mal

1 1/2 Tage Phnom Penh wurden dank Niko zu einer unverschämt guten Zeit. Dafür konnten wir uns nicht genug bedanken, versuchten es aber trotzdem. 

Kurzes Update hinterher. Wir sind nun in Vietnam, inmitten des Mekong Delta. Wir verbringen zwei Tage in Can Tho, danach gehts nach Ho Chi Minh City! 

By Klaus

bull, sweat and beers: the Mekong Cup in Bangkok

Unbelievable but true: it could get hotter! Hotter than in India, during the ultimate frisbee tournament we never got to blog about. This time, we'll tell you all about our second Asian disc experience: 

the sportgrounds at the Thai army station

It was friday, may 24th, and it rained, the monsoon finally had arrived. Klaus and me were standing in front of a shopping mall, waiting for the pouring rain to ease, trying to figure out which street is "soi 13" to get to a hotel for the welcome party. Because hotel bars were the only place allowed to serve or sell alcohol on this public bhuddist holiday. It was a great meet-up, above all we enjoyed hanging out with the Chiang Mai players (we had been to practise there a few times) and drinking REAL beer, ie Belgian beer! Briefly we met EATDISC, the Singaporean team we'd be playing on but they were a bit shy and left early. The excitement of participating at a tourney where we don't know anyone led to interesting talks on this friday night, but the plan to get "some good sleep" failed miserably.

Saturday, finally, playing time, yeeeaaah! But why am I so dog-tired? Ah well, thanks to the noisy fan in our hotel room and the heat, this crazy bitch! We arrived on the fields at 7am, had some fruit for breakfast and sweat running down before we even started the warm up. Gosh, if not moving gets us sweaty so fast, what will happen after the games have started?
Our team arrived and brought a bag full of presents, including an amazing jersey ("Throw here" front print, 'Huck now" on the back) and cleats for Klaus and me. All of them seemed incredibly friendly - and young! The average age was 20, they said. We can add some experience to the team, we said. Still, this combination didn't serve as a winning concept against our first opponent from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, but we gave them a good fight. Above all I was glad that Klaus and me had ended up on a spirited and enthusiastic team, full of talented players, only lacking a bit of confidence.

lunch with pink pasta

We also lost the other games on saturday, but to be fair: it was only due to the weather. Especially after lunch I felt like I was fading out, being so exhausted from some lack of sleep and the HEAT. I couldn't play much of the third game, feeling dizzy whenever I turned, thinking: thank god it's cloudy. After the games were done, Klaus and me decided to skip team dinner and get some sleep for the party instead.
Unfortunately, after some good ultimate, a fantastic organization of the tournament and yummy yummy lunch, the party was a disappointment in the true sense of the word!
When we got there just before midnight, the party had been shifted from an Irish pub to the "red light district" in Bangkok, to a bar with a mechanical bull. Sounds fun, I know, that's what I thought, but unfortunately the bull was also ridden by teenage girls wearing hot pants, bras and braces. The woman controlling the bull, the boss, was a Thai person in her thirties, also in a bra and with a huge belly but no underwear (I wish I hadn't found out). If a guy got onto the bull she was trying to move it fast and throw them of (which was funny), and if it was one of her girls (who could have been her daughters) or another woman, she moved the bull slowly so it looked sexual. Above that, the boss tried to convince all female frisbee players to take off their tops while riding the bull, without success, and the Thai women lifted someone's dress sitting on the bull so everybody could see her g-string. It was humiliating for the player and shocking not only to me, but luckily not many of the Asian players had come to the bar. This stupid bar, where ugly old western men hit on half-naked underage girls. I had completely forgotten about this side of Thailand, the north was untouched and rural, but here in Bangkok, I suppose, it was normal. The one other player we knew from the HAT in India, Arjun from Bengalore, was also not having fun, we left together with him, the girl with the g-string, the guy with the bleeding nose (from falling of the bull) and some others. I was sad. No dancing. No chatting. No cheap drinking. Nothing like a frisbee party!

EATDISC in the fantastic ME KONG jerseys

Sunday, bloody sunday, you are so kind to me without a party! Unfortunately the weather wasn't, the sun was shining and all the white people knew what was awaiting them: either sunscreen in the eyes because you're sweating it off in a minute, or... sunburn. Nevertheless, EATDISC was fit and eager to win, so we played very well against "Angelina's Orphans" from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The were a nice team, so we let them win!
Finally, the coffee place next to the fields opened, I got my tired ass in it and as soon as the caffeine reached my brain it worked out a song for my team. It was a parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat it" and EATDISC loved it. We sang it about a dozen times and instantly won the next game against a team from Kuala Lumpur. ONLY because of the song... not.
Our next opponent heard it, got scared and refused to play against us. Well, they claimed it was too hot, they hadn't eaten and too many injuries but this was just a lame excuse. A Bangkok team had the same problem as we did - no opponent - so we just played each other for fun. They came in 5th, we ended up on the 9th place.

hanging out after games, just playin

Slowly everyone started getting drunk. Chucking a few beers here, having some vodka and cream poured in my mouth from one and some apple juice and cinnamon by another person, and hey - is this real Malibu?? Some teams played fun games, eg without spriting, or a beer can in one hand, or skipping instead of walking etc., the rest was hanging out on the sideline, literally. Just sitting or laying, drinking, not as an orgy, but like the party we never had the day before. Good songs to dance to, a spontaneous beer race led by a drunk Canadian, and some chats with Thai players later, the sun was setting and Chiang Mai had won the tournament. They had asked Klaus and me to play with them and I felt a pinch of regret, until I saw some EATDISC players doing the landshark. Oh yeah! They had warmed up a lot, we laughed a lot together, we will see them again a lot!

during the national anthem, actually it was our award ceremony

Happy, hungry and still quite tipsy we went downtown with the Chiang Mai players to have dinner and some game analysis. Many hugs and goodbyes later Klaus and me shambled from the taxi into our hotel room, tired, sunburned and very very happy.

Some of the best moments of the Mekong Cup were:
- to see how awesome some of the young guys from EATDISC were playing, and how confident the girls were
- how easily they accepted Klaus and me on the team
- how the soft grass made it impossible not to lay out, even for me
- the food served at the tournament was freshly made and half of it had no meat or seafood
- meeting players from all over South East Asia (and America)
- when everyone stopped warming up and froze at 8am for the national anthem and flag hoisting

EATDISC: everyone is an animal

I want to finish this report, finally, by saying a huge thanks to EATDISC for being such a spirited team, and to the organizers of the Mekong Cup, Piet and his wife, for doing a great job. I wanna be back next year!

water supply. can you drink more than you sweat?

by Lia


PS: Dear readers, do you think my blog posts are too long? Be honest, though it might not change a lot...