generation on the move

Christian Berg Photography

2009-08-24T17:40:00.001+02:00

hi, have a new webpage now: christianbergphoto.de
would be great to get some visits there :))))

back in the streets

2008-10-05T19:37:00.000+02:00

on the stay

2008-10-05T19:25:00.004+02:00

everybody blogs nowadays it seems, even some of my closest buddies who i never thought they would started sharing their deepest thoughts and darkest secrets with the pub(l)ic... actually its a really good read...

does that mean i will blog more again... well... probably not, but maybe yes... who knows? and if U do, then U definitly know too much... *whistling a happy tune*

love, stargazer

lensbaby

2008-06-20T10:06:00.001+02:00

50mm

2008-04-13T16:58:00.002+02:00

digital rebel

2008-02-20T02:31:00.005+01:00

True, I did not blog in ages... lots of things happened. First of all I got a new camera (Canon EOS 400D aka Digital Rebel). And that is basically what I am doing now: shooting. I quit my job and try to become a professional. Sounds silly I know, but it is a dream I carried with me for years... It just feels like the right time, the right place...
Some of my recent stuff is on www.flickr.com/photos/cuulongden which I update more regulary than this blog...

coffee shop in go vap, ho chi minh city, vietnam

shots from the thanh pho

2007-12-01T17:38:00.000+01:00

after a long long time here some shots from the thanh pho again....

Cholon, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Cholon, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Cholo, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Fragments

2007-11-26T14:53:00.000+01:00

as most of you might know, i moved back to the thanh pho. this year i lived in four cities, three countries & changing places like underwear is not always easy, when we leave behind people and memories. this video visualizes a poem i wrote about memories and how they they become fragments of ourself. when i wrote it i lived in kuala lumpur earlier this year, and as i discovered some left over footage from my malaysian days, it was only a small step to bring all these fragments together...

skating hanoi

2007-09-11T09:05:00.000+02:00

watch out for this new clip from hanoi! thx 2 the steambubbler!

breakdance hanoi

2007-08-29T07:17:00.000+02:00

straight from the streets of hanoi, project coverage brings us these shots from an emerging hip hop culture. even though you can't see it in the clip, the guys performe in front of the lenin statue, close to ba dinh square in the very heart of the capital.
thanx & props to the steambubbler in Vietnam!

chow kit

2007-08-26T08:32:00.000+02:00

straight out of the urban jungle! chow kit is the name of our neighbourhood. probably not the most fancy part of the city, but colorful and interesting. the former redlight district is nowadays home to many indonesian migrants. besides that chow kit is known for cheap beer, nice streetfood and a famous wet market...

Its all about travelling

2007-07-30T12:38:00.000+02:00

a web classic - but still nice

ARt & KL

2007-07-30T07:55:00.000+02:00

Again and again I am stunned about the lively art scene here in KL. By that I mean everything from music over performance to film. The scene is not to big but a lot of things are happening here and make almost every weekend to an experience that most of the time ends with till-the-early-morning-discussions about... mhhh.. lets say.. essentials.

Saturday we have seen some of the performances of the Notthatbalai Art Festival 2007 - the festival still runs till end of this week, so if you are around: check it out!

so much from KL, I have to head back to my desk and work on my master thesis... bah!

Poetry Slam

2007-07-10T17:48:00.000+02:00

At a time when winter storms hit Germany, my close friend QoS and I developed the idea of a poetry and literature project. Every once in a while we would choose a random topic and spread our thoughts on paper (or nowadays, as keyboards replace typewriters, in our laptops) and share the fruits of our creativity. First we only wanted short stories, but as the project developed we soon realized that we are to much of freethinkers to limit ourselfs to one genre...
And as it always happens to us, the generation on the move, in these days, geographicly our ways parted again, so we have to share our ideas in the one medium that connects us all...

If you are curious enough and understand German, please visit us at sternundqos.blogspot.com !

Minsk

2007-06-25T08:08:00.000+02:00

Hanoi Rain

2007-06-14T13:43:00.000+02:00

Hanoi Summer

2007-06-14T13:35:00.000+02:00

what happend on a sunday

2007-05-28T08:59:00.000+02:00

after I discovered the quality of my girlfriends new camera.....

in the streets of KL

2007-05-28T06:24:00.000+02:00

Pirate Moon

2007-05-24T10:14:00.000+02:00

Lumut Sunrise... to make you jealous....

2007-05-24T09:53:00.000+02:00

Chow Kit Market Alley

2007-04-09T09:31:00.000+02:00

eventhough the city is ultra modern - in some backalleys you feel like in another asia....

Streets of KL

2007-04-06T10:10:00.000+02:00

a small market close to our house... with petronas towers.

new home

2007-04-06T09:59:00.001+02:00

at least for a while.....

Summer Wine in Asia

2007-03-09T23:19:00.001+01:00

Everything my friend have a look!

Bikes without Burden

2007-02-21T00:26:00.001+01:00

Bikes on NTMK 6
Originally uploaded by cuulongden.

hey everyone outthere.. tomorrow is my last exam, and i am just tired of learning.. so i spent some time with flickr.
there you can see some of my asia pics.. including a brand new set of motorbike shots from nguyen thi minh khai street in the thanh pho....

cheers

warning

2006-11-25T23:00:00.000+01:00

2006-11-02T03:00:00.000+01:00

bonjour Vietnam

To all of you in the thanh pho! I miss you, and I miss the country!!!!

Facts and more

2006-10-26T20:34:00.000+02:00

The grand trip around Southeast Asias islands is over and I am back in Germany, while Julia is still in Asia, hunting for a job...
Two weeks after returning it is time now to present some statistics about our trip. Don't be to bored ;-)

countries visited - 3

places visited (overnight) - 26

dot-com-millionaires met - 1

fancy hotel bars visited - 3

vulcanos climbed - 2

hours spent on the road - 138

lucky hormons - innumerable

haze n' higrise

2006-10-12T02:08:00.000+02:00

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Sing Sing Singapore

2006-10-06T06:37:00.000+02:00

Just a short note... back in Singapore (just for a few days though) and it feels just.. right! Went clubbing on ladies night, got wasted in Dbl O and Minstry of Sound, had mashed potatoes, ate Laksa, enjoyed stunning views from New Asia & icecold MRT rides.... all inclusive, you know?
LOTZ OF LOVE TO THE SINGAPORE CREW!!!!!!!! (you know who you are, don't you?)

mighty Rejang

2006-10-01T10:32:00.000+02:00

....a story of muddy water, timber, boats and longhouses....

Kapit, Sarawak - Malaysia

Song, Sarawak - Malaysia

Kapit, Sarawak - Malaysia

Sibu, Sarawak - Malaysia

Song, Sarawak - Malaysia

structures of nature

2006-10-01T10:25:00.000+02:00

Bako, Sarawak - Malaysia

Bako, Sarawak - Malaysia

Pulau Tioman, Malaysia

pitcher plant

2006-10-01T10:19:00.000+02:00

Bako, Sarawak - Malaysia

bearded pig

2006-10-01T10:16:00.000+02:00

Bako, Sarawak - Malaysia

stilts

2006-10-01T10:11:00.000+02:00

Bako, Sarawak - Malaysia

highway to hell

2006-10-01T10:08:00.000+02:00

What's wrong whith this picture?

Sarawak - Malaysia

shabby hotels asia

2006-10-01T10:01:00.000+02:00

Kapit, Sarawak - Malaysia

wicked words

2006-10-01T09:57:00.000+02:00

Air Itam, Penang - Malaysia

urban landscapes 5

2006-10-01T09:54:00.000+02:00

Johor Bahru - Malaysia

monument mania

2006-10-01T09:42:00.000+02:00

Kuching, Sarawak - Malaysia

Berastagi, North Sumatra - Indonesia

Cameron Highlands - Malaysia

island paradise

2006-10-01T09:32:00.000+02:00

Salang, Pulau Tioman - Malaysia

Salang, Pulau Tioman - Malaysia

Salang, Pulau Tioman - Malysia

Peninsula People & Borneo Blues

2006-10-01T09:29:00.000+02:00

It’s been a while since I last updated the blog. So what happened in the last three weeks? After some days in Georgetown and a soaking motorbike ride in a tropical downpour around Penang we headed toward Cameron Highlands, located in the Peninsula’s heartland.
To me the Cameron Highlands where a bit, hm.. Let’s use a phrase from the BOOK (Lonely Planet)… uninspiring. Because the overpriced tours in huge groups through the forest and to the tea plantations could not convince us, we chose to do a short trek on our own… it turned out to be one of our journey’s toughest as the path was really slippery, often overgrown and partly very steep… as there was not much to see but trees, it became mainly a sporty challenge…
Next destination: the pristine beaches of Pulau Tioman. If the Cameron Highlands where uninspiring the island of Tioman, just off the Peninsula’s east coast was the opposite… almost perfect! A pristine beach, crystal clear water… and loads of jellyfish.
After a short attempt to enter the jelly fished waters on the first day, on the second day we became more brave: equipped with snorkeling gear we entered the underwater world – at low tide, ahem… and it did not take long, until we found ourselves between clusters of small, but stinging jellyfish – ouch. Despite these odds we took a motorboat to the nearby coral island the next day, where I discovered the enchanting worlds of underwater life for the very first time... it only took five minutes to get me hooked. When the jellyfish disappeared the next day I spent hours in the water going up and down… anyway, Tioman is an expensive place for budget backpackers like us, and so after 4 days we hit the road again… this time to good old sleazy JB, where friends from Singapore, hawker food on the night market and a budget flight to Borneo waited for us…
What became clear to us very quickly, was that the travelers here (mainland Malaysia) are of a different kind then those in Indonesia. In Indonesia, there are just a handful of travelers around most of the time and we would socialize with everyone whilst in Malaysia its sometimes like standing alone in the middle of a crowd…s o in the ten days we spent here we hardly spoke to anyone… besides that, the people we met on the road in Indonesia were more experienced, and, despite the danger of sounding arrogant, more interesting. While the folks we met around the peninsula more seemed to be an extension of the often superficial party crowd from the Thai beaches… mhh sounds like I am becoming arrogant anyways…

So, finally we took off to Kuching in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, on the Island of Borneo… and as this trip also entered its final stage, traveling here was not the easiest part of all… so we were looking for the PERFECT PLACE to chill out and rest for a couple of days or even a week after several weeks on the road, and from that point view Borneo gave us a (to be fair, especially me – me apologizes to Julia for being in a grumpy mood quit often during the last two weeks) a hard time… It seems that there are only two things to do here. These are: jungle trekking and visiting tribes in their longhouses.
At this point there are some things I have to say. Talking about jungle trekking: besides the physical challenge of extreme heat and humidity, to me the topic of eco-tourism in Sarawak turned out to be a very Janus-headed thing: While Sarawak aims to be the worlds number one in ecotourism and forest preservation it also seems to be the worlds number one in logging the tropical rainforest.. As I don’t understand much about this, I will not deepen the topic at this point... anyway we had our fair share of trekking and we were rewarded for our sweat by seeing wild Proboscis monkeys and Pitcher plants in Bako National Park.
Talking about visiting tribes in their longhouses... this exact that kind of tourism I really do not like... taking a tour to visit some locals in their houses. That always seems to me like a human zoo… ok, we visited a longhouse as well, and we really enjoyed the performance of tribal music and dances combined with lots of rice wine… luckily we did not have to take tour to have this experience, but we got a private invitation, which enabled us to visit some Iban people on our own. To visit them we had to travel two days upriver the mighty Rejang.
So while Borneo did not offer us the chill out place we were looking for, it was really interesting experience. And what I have seen here will keep me thinking for a while…

Next destination: Singapore! Really looking forward to enter the plastic city again, and meet old friends. Cheers to: Julian, Sing Pou, Sisi, Maya, Linde... and anyone I might have forgotten….

urban landscapes 4

2006-09-05T06:53:00.000+02:00

After some incredible weeks on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java we finally arrived on the Malaysian peninsula... to me it feels a bit like a time travel as it reminds me of my time at the NUS in Singapore two years ago, from where we used to make weekendtrips all over the peninsula. So here some shoutouts to the fenangcrew: Jasmin, Camilla and the punny Pinnish feofle op course! (we might go to Slippery Senoritas tonite - do u remeber that place?)

Georgetown, Penang - Malaysia

the fog

2006-09-05T06:48:00.000+02:00

Gunung Sibayak, Berastagi - North Sumatra

purple haze

2006-08-31T10:49:00.000+02:00

Sumatra is origin and victim at the same time of the so called phenomenon of haze, a layer of smoke caused by forestfires mainly in Sumatra and Borneo. Here two pics that clearly show the effect of (not really severe) haze...

Danau Maninjau, West Sumatra - Indonesia

village on stilts

2006-08-31T10:39:00.000+02:00

Danau Maninjau, West Sumatra - Indonesia

jungle mosque

2006-08-31T10:33:00.000+02:00

Danau Maninjau, West Sumatra - Indonesia

monkey business

2006-08-31T10:28:00.000+02:00

Bukitingi, West Sumatra - Indonesia

roofs on fire

2006-08-31T10:25:00.000+02:00

Bukitingi, West Sumatra - Indonesia

smoke on the hill

2006-08-31T10:15:00.000+02:00

Bromo, East Java - Indonesia

riders on the storm

2006-08-31T10:11:00.000+02:00

Bromo, East Java - Indonesia

smell from within

2006-08-31T10:04:00.000+02:00

Bromo, East Java - Indonesia

moonscape

2006-08-31T09:59:00.000+02:00

Bromo, East Java - Indonesia

Sumatra Rain

2006-08-31T09:12:00.000+02:00

Its been some weeks since the last post, as it turned out that Sumatra has really poor acces to the internet, which means either no or terrible slow dial up internet connections.
Since the last update we travelled from Yogayakarta to Mount Bromo, one of the countries most active vulcanoes in East Java and from there we hit the road again to return to Jakarta, which was about 24 h on bus and train. From there we took a flight to Bengkulu Province in the Southwest of Sumatra. ADAM Air, our carrier for that flight has a really interesting logo, an Ikarus - better stop thinking about that...
Once in Bengkulu, where our old friend Sir Stamford Raffles used to be the governor for a while, we really felt to be in South East Asias backwaters. From there we enjoyed another 20 hour busride to the small mountain village of Bukitingi in the heart of the Minangkabau land. From there we took a jungle trek to nearby Lake Maninjau where chilled out for a couple of days. From there we went to Padang, the capital of West Sumatra from where we finally enjoyed another 20 hour busride (superexecutive, but nevertheless full of vomit after some hours ride on the curvy so-called Trans-Sumatran Highway) to the famous Lake Toba, home of the Batak people. Thats where we stay now, but tomorrow we will had toward Medan via the small mountain city of Berastagi. Unfortunatly our visa runs out in 4 days, so that we have to skip Bandah Aceh...
All in all, Sumatras nature is really wild and beautiful, but travelling appears harder here than for example in Vietnam, due to the incredible long distances and partly really bad roads.
The collapse of tourism after the Bali Bombs, Tsunamis, Earthquakes and Birdflue, to me seems more visible here than on Java. Especially the small peninsula of Tuk Tuk where we stay, appears as an abandoned ghost-town where once tourists used to be. For sure also the bad Visa Situation, with unextendable 30 days on arrival is part of this tourism crisis...
Enough for now. Enjoy some new pix!

java java

2006-08-12T12:52:00.007+02:00

On the road again. Indonesia for the first time. Julia and I started in Jakarta, the Big Durian and it did not take long for us to fall in love with this huge country. With its more than 13.000 islands and and about 240 million people it is almost a whole new world to explore. So discussions about destinations on the daily agenda. So far we left Jakarta (also the city seemed to be really cool its not a place for backpackers but more for living, I think) and headed towards Central Java were we set up camp in Yogyakarta. From here we explored the Temples of nearby Prambanan and Borobodur on motorbikes, and despite the left lane traffic it did not take long till it almost felt like good old Vietnam :-)
So far people and landscapes are great, in fact much cooler than I expected. In fact its really strange to be in this country, which is allways with bad news, like earthquakes, tsunamis, bombings and riots, in the media and it just feels fine...
Tomorrow we head for Mount Bromo in the east of Java and then the long trip beginns. First heading back west to Sumatra and then travel the whole Sumatra higway from the southernmost tip, reachable by ferry from Java to the northernmost tip in Banda Aceh, where we want to visit a friend. This whole plan of course might change a thousand times and it also might be quite ambitious for three weeks...
Enough for now! Enjoy the pix and dont hesitate to post some comments :-)

PS: this text should be posted on top of the indonesia pix, but the blog does not work so well.. so sorry for the chaotic layout...

buddhabar

2006-08-12T12:52:00.006+02:00

Borobodur, Central Java - Indonesia

templebar

2006-08-12T12:52:00.005+02:00

Borobodur, Central Java - Indonesia

smokey mountain

2006-08-12T12:52:00.004+02:00

Mount Merapi, Central Java - Indonesia

wild palms

2006-08-12T12:52:00.003+02:00

Prambanan, Yogyakarta - Indonesia

barbed wire

2006-08-12T12:52:00.002+02:00

Prambanan, Yogyakarta - Indonesia

warung

2006-08-12T12:52:00.001+02:00

Jakarta - Indonesia

sate

2006-08-12T12:52:00.000+02:00

Jakarta - Indonesia

boatox

2006-06-16T13:20:00.000+02:00

Mui Ne - Viet Nam

the gods must be insane

2006-05-15T16:38:00.000+02:00

Did you ever hear about cargo cults?

blog watch

2006-05-15T08:54:00.000+02:00

We travel the world and change places like underwear. We have friends in cities, we did not even know some years ago. We send e-mails around the globe without realizing that this was science fiction some decades ago, or when we were kids.
In this so-called global village our neigbours might have backgrounds, that are not easy to understand. But the effort to understand is the key to prevent violence. Because we are benefited by globalization, it's our responsibility to encourage this understanding. In a world, that gets smaller every day, it's important to eliminate racism.
This is the topic of the blog one of my friends recently published. Die deutsche Frage deals with racism in Europe. It's absolutely worth visiting!

Trip to the Delta

2006-05-02T13:56:00.000+02:00

It was Liberation Day when our friend Diep invited us to visit her relatives in the Mekong Delta for some kind of ancestor worshipping ceremony. Because Vietnamese are usually early birds there was no way to avoid getting up at 4:30 a.m. to hit the road at 5:30.

The hour of dawn is definitely the best hour of the day, though I rarely get to be awake that early. Streets are almost empty, it's cool outside, the air is fresh and the first sunrays coat the scenery with beautiful colors.

However, because of the public holiday, the highway was already crowded in the early morning. Once on the highway the girls put on masks to avoid the polluted air of thousands of exhausting pipes. I did not, and today, two days later I still can feel it in my throat.

When we reached the ferry crossing the Mekong from My Tho City, we had to wait almost another hour. Once we were on the ferry a really heavy tropical rain started, Rainy Season just begun some weeks ago. So in the end instead of the estimated two and a half hours it took us almost five hours till we arrived in Ben Tre Province some 90 km west of Ho Chi Minh City.

The country side roads had turned to mud so driving here was slippery fun. Anyway we were soaked after two hours of rain, and despite having lived in Vietnam for a long time, we did not bring any clothes to change during rainy season, so the next day I spend the whole day in bed with fever...

First we visited the grave of Diep's grandfather before we went to the relatives home, where we were offered a perfect lunch of sweet and sour fish soup and rice. The fish came from the relatives own fish farm. Then we lied down on one of the wooden beds to have a nap while most of the men spend the afternoon with heavy drinking.

The house was a typical country side house with a big living room with three big wooden beds, a hammock, a TV, and a big table inside. The main toilet was outside in the garden, though the word toilet does not really describe what you can see on the picture. Besides that, behind the house there where some goats, pigs and chicken as well as all kind of fruit such as jackfruit and sugarcane.

The afternoon Julia and I had a walk around the neighborhood and after the rain the air was humid and hot again, so I was thinking of the soldiers during the war who had to spent weeks in this hot and humid climate, without having a shower.

After sharing some beer and goat curry with the already drunk relatives and guests, we headed back to Saigon.

A really cool trip, though its hard to describe all my impressions. I hope the pictures can give you an idea.

rush hour

2006-03-22T13:35:00.000+01:00

Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam

super soup

2006-03-22T13:31:00.000+01:00

Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam

the streets

2006-03-14T09:42:00.000+01:00

Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam

"our house, in the middle of our street...."

2006-03-13T12:13:00.000+01:00

Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam

happy new year!

2006-01-06T11:58:00.000+01:00

to my friends all over the world: "happy new year!" - i know, i know, 2006 lasts for a while now, but i was without web the last week... i spent a great week in munich at julias place and we did lotz of nice activities like sledging in the austrian mountains....

winterdream - kala alm, austria

feeling dutch

2006-01-06T11:47:00.000+01:00

well, it took me a while to update my blog, but as i just got to know, that there are some people outside in the world, who read my blog every week (shout-outs to sergey in new york!!!) i think its blogging time again :-)
this is just a small capture from amsterdam where i spent some beautiful days in beginning of december, together with yvonne and bruno at the place of our dutch friends nella and clement, who we met about a year ago in Lao PDR.
(actually the pic is an old one and taken in summer - for better pics visit yvonnes blog -> "the surferbabe" in my linklist)

amsterdam - netherlands

Paradise

2005-11-22T00:39:00.000+01:00

2 Julia - in memory of a perfect trip....

2005-11-22T00:38:00.000+01:00

Phu Quoc - Vietnam

2005-11-22T00:37:00.001+01:00

Phu Quoc - Vietnam

2005-11-22T00:37:00.000+01:00

Phu Quoc - Vietnam

Daily Bonn

2005-10-19T19:51:00.000+02:00

spülboy & herr berg - joey's appartment, bonn, germany

2005-10-15T12:20:00.000+02:00

newlyweds - bonn, germany

my little sisters big wedding

2005-10-15T12:07:00.000+02:00

Last weekend my little sister got married. wow. big and happy day for the family, which doubled through this step. sun was shining through the church windows, and the whole atmosphere almost seemed hollywood. Dear Angelika & Martin: GOOD LUCK TO U!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-09-21T15:17:00.000+02:00

maria & oyuna - berlin, germany

2005-09-19T23:12:00.000+02:00

reisswolf & and1

2005-09-19T23:11:00.000+02:00

minimensch

happy berlin - no problem

2005-09-19T23:05:00.000+02:00

been to berlin this weekend in order to visit the reisswolf, one of my oldest buddies who just became proud father of a little boy called julius (der minimensch). maria (his girlfriend) and the reisswolf gave us a more than warm welcome. thanx a lot!!!! and always remember, if ur stressed, just wreck some cars and think of the onkels aus booooooooon.....

2005-09-19T23:02:00.000+02:00

alexander dome - berlin, germany

2005-09-19T23:01:00.000+02:00

curry wurst - berlin, germany

2005-09-19T23:00:00.000+02:00

feel - berlin, germany

2005-09-07T20:27:00.000+02:00

thinking

virtual smoke stopper

2005-09-07T20:22:00.000+02:00

well, fair enough, i lost my bet and so my head was shaved by good old thomas... anyway, i stopped smoking again today, because it is not worth it, especially with the cost here. 4 euros a pack, way to crazy!
those of u who know me well, know my eternal struggle about not-smoking and cheating to myself about this issue. so i ask for a new bet. what do u think i should do when i start smoking again? please send me your ideas!!!!

2005-09-07T20:21:00.000+02:00

after

2005-09-07T20:19:00.000+02:00

before

home again

2005-09-07T20:07:00.000+02:00

germany welcomed me with the best weather you can imagine. sunshine day and night. cosy 28 degrees celcius. after moving back to my old appartment, life starts to have some old patterns again. old friends drop by for a quick drink and stay till deep at nite. döner becomes basic nutrition. and i can listen to all my records again. anyway, saigon, asia, and my life there is always in the back of my mind. everyone out there take care and see you!!!!! love, chris at home

2005-09-07T19:54:00.000+02:00

homestyle

anniversary babes

2005-08-01T16:30:00.000+02:00

It was one year ago, when beeing on the move started for a small but very softskilled group of young fellas from the suburbs of bonn... yvi, reaggaebabsi, tom hengst and me (chris roxx) went to search for adventure and wisdom in the far east!
thanks for having the ultimate pleasure to be part of the singaporecrew!! All of u rule as shit!!! just a short memoryshot: the pond, the stairs, china black, ladys nite, double o, zouk out, thainachten, sentosa, pgp affairs, quickdrinks at dawn, smokes at the bbq pit, washing mashins making everything dirtier, the saatgut, laksa breakfast (or halfboiled eggs), getting wasted at tikibar, new asia, rocknroll!!!!!!

Appartment & Stampfi - Sai Gon, Viet Nam

2005-07-23T09:17:00.000+02:00

Family Affairs - Sai Gon, Viet Nam

2005-07-23T09:14:00.000+02:00

Living in the Thanh Pho

2005-07-23T09:12:00.000+02:00

After beeing sick for a while and than takin a trip to the North with my Sis I am back in the Thanh Pho (City) now.
The trip with my sister was especially nice because the two of us have not spent time together for ages. The Destinaions itself, I would see a little bit bias. Especially Sapa, the tourist center of the Vietnam's north. Even though the landscape here was definitly breathtaking, we did not feel very comfortable here, because this place is really spoiled by tourism. Of course we are tourists ourself, but still we know that it has not to be like it happened to us this time. Hiking through areas of ethnic minorities for example was more a kind of escaping the innumerable vendors "buythisoneformebuythisoneformetoo..." then having a possibility to enjoy the beautiful landscapes. For sure we know, that these people have barly another possibility to make a living but selling their stuff to the tourists, but that still does not mean we have to like it this way... Hanoi on the other hand presentet itself in a charming and relaxed way and we had lost of chances to consume nice food, walk around the lakes, or just spend hours talking and drinking beers and coffee.... Angelika, my Sis, returned to Germany now. (I hope that you have a good and easy time to get back to "normal" life again, that your cold is getting better, and that you keep some unforgettable nice memories of your journey to Vietnam!!!! It was great to have you here!!!)
Anyway coming back to HCMC was for me like coming back home, and I really enjoy my "living in the Thanh Pho"...teaching English, freelancing and just spending Time with friends, cruising the city on my bike, all these things are a good routine. (even though the appartment sometimes feels empty without you, Julia!!!! I can't wait for saturday...)
So its getting harder everyday to realize that I have to leave this place so soon. It seems to be a time of goodbye these days... But my friend Thommy already promised me that there will be some nurses waiting for me to take care of my mental health when I return... by the way I am still not smoking, and some people suggested me to not only to shave my head if I start again, but also my ass...well, fair enough.
The last days I was especially hanging out with my friend Adam, and we spent the days doing beautiful bullshit, like driving around the Backpacker's whistling River Kwai or playing childrens cardgames in coffeeshops...

Cathedral - Phat Diem, Viet Nam

2005-07-23T09:11:00.000+02:00

Boats - Ninh Binh, Viet Nam

2005-07-23T09:05:00.000+02:00

hoan kiem lake - ha noi, viet nam

2005-07-23T09:04:00.000+02:00