family meeting - encuentro con la familia

it really feels great to meet family somewhere on the other end of the world. for the coming three years my brother bernhard will be living in adelaide with his wife antje and their two gorgeous sons niklas and konstantin. bernhard is working on his disertation at the university SA (south australia) while antje earns her money as a personal trainer and pilates-teacher.
the past days we spent doing excursions to a national park and to the coast seeing koalas, kangaroos, pelicans, albatrosses and incredible landscapes. i haven´t managed to take a foto of a kangaroo so fare, but i am sure that i´ll manage some time!!!
of course we also played some "footy" - football like american football with this egg-shaped ball ;)
generally speaking i am having a very relaxing and good time with my down-under-family.

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es una sensación genial encontrase con la familia en el otro lado del mundo. durante los próximos tres años mi hermano bernhard estará viviendo en adelaide con su mujer antje y sus hijos más monos niklas y konstantin. bernhard está trabajando en su doctorado mientras antje trabaja como entrenadora personal y monitora de pilates.
los pasados dos dias pasamos haciendo excursiones a un parque nacional y a la costa viendo koalas, kangaroos, pelicanos, albatrosses y paisajes increibles. hasta ahora no he llegado a sacarle una foto a un kangaroo pero lo conseguiré!!!
por supuesto jugamos al "footy" - football parecido al american football con la pelota con forma de huevo ;)
de todos modos estoy genial y muy relajado aqui con mi down-under-familia.

the big jump - el gran salto

getting up at 4am and rushing to the airport my farewell from thailand was rather short. when i woke up again we were about to land in melbourne, where the civilisation embraced me with clean air and working public transport. lucky enough my friend alexandra (from munich) invited me to stay at her living community and introduced me into melbourne´s night life. the city turned out to be full of interesting places to see and things to do maintaining it´s relaxed flair.
the first day alex and her flat-maids nora and nick took me to sorrento to the coast, introducing me to the more rural side of melbourne. in the evening we went out and had some "piss", the self-brewed beer by a homely bar with a pool-table. of course the pool-rules change from country to country with each one claiming them to be the international rules ;) how ever, we had lot of fun playing.
the next day i went to the city to explore the federation square - a cultural center like the museumsquartier in vienna - had a walk along the yarra river and went to the botanik garden with nora. all in all melbourne is a great place to be, a bit far away though ;)

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madrugar a las 4 de la mañana y irme corriendo al aeropuerto suponía un despedida muy rápida de thailandia. cunado me desperté denuevo el avino ya estaba a punto de aterrizar en melbourne, donde la civilización me dio la bienvenida con aire limpio y transporte publico funcionando. afortunadamente mi amiga alexandra de munich me había invitado a quedarme en su casa compartida y me llevaba al centro para introducirme a la marcha australiana. la ciudad resultaba estar llena de sitios interesantes y cosas que hacer manteniendo su ambiente relajado.
el primer día alex y sus compañeros de casa nora y nick me llevaron a la costa de sorrento para ensenarme el lado mas rural de melbourne. por la noche tomamos "piss", cerveza hecha en un bar emblemático de la ciudad con una mesa de billar. por supuesto las reglas del billar cambian en cada país con cada uno convencido de saberse las reglas internacionales ;) de todas formas nos lo pasamos pipa.
el siguiente día me fui al centro para explorar la federation square - un centro cultural como el museumsquartier en viena - y di un paseo por el río yarra y por el jardin botanico con nora. melbourne me parece un sitio genial, un poco lejos quizás ;)

back in / devuelta en bangkok

coming from the more relaxed north getting back to bangkok was quite a shock. starting with a very unfriendly taxi-driver who knew every trick to rip me of and in the end didn´t drop me of where i wanted him to. in the end i had to pay way too much and still had to walk with all my luggage through the busy kao san road in the rain imagining a thousand different ways how to torture the taxi-driver ;)
i found a nice and cheap hostel where i dropped my stuff and went of to find a nice place to have dinner and a beer. by accident i pumped into some friends i had met in chang mai and ended up drinking whisky-cola and playing pool with them. the next day i went to see the gran place until my friend arnaud arrived from cambodia so we had one more day together before he had to go back to europe. we did a big shopping-turn through siam square and had a thai massage and a cool beer to end a very nice day.

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devuelta de la tranquilidad del norte bangkok me chocaba bastante. nada más llegar tenia que discutir con un taxista muy poco amable que se sabia todos los trucos para timar a los turistas. al final tenia pagarle una fortuna y aun asi no me dejaba en el sitio que habiamos acordado asi que tenia que ir andando en la lluvia con todo mi equipaje maldiciendo al taxista ;)
encontré un hostal agradable y barato donde deje mis cosas para salir y encontrar un sitio para cenar y una caña fría. en un restaurante coincidí con unos amigos de chang mai y acabamos tomando copas y jugando al billard. el siguiente día fui a ver el gran palace hasta la llegada de mi amigo arnaud desde cambodia. juntos nos fuimos de compras a siam square y recibimos un masaje thai y una cerveza para concluir un día muy agradable.

burma without passport - burma sin pasaporte

this day had i all!!! i'd better go to some place and have a foot massage and then go to bed directly because other ways it would get too much ;)

as planned i rented a "real" motorbike (honda phantom - jopper) yesterday and drove from chang mai to pai (300km) in order to see some more of the country. the streets were in good shape but it was still dangerous as the thais love to spill water over passing cars and motorbikes. going with 60 km/h a basket full of water really hurts and even can make you loose control over the bike. as the water festival (songkran) will continue for the whole week there's no escape.
today i did a trip further up to the north in order to see some caves. as the signs where in thai and english on the way, but when reaching the spot, only in thai, i missed the caves and waterfalls and ended up in some god forsaken hole in burma (myanmar). i didn't realize, that the border was not a check point (there are lots of them all over the country) and the guy let me pass without passport after showing him my driving license and telling him, that the bike rental place has it ;)
lucky enough, i found out soon enough and managed to enter thailand again, not without having almost an accident some tricky sand road.
on the way back to known fields i found the caves and managed to see 3 of them. the first one i found on my own and climbed up half rotten and burned wooden leathers to the entrance high up in a rock wall. the panorama from up there and exploring the cave on my own were a remarkable experience and made me forget all the obstacles on the way there.
the second cave i explored together with a guide i found sitting on a tree. at first i didn't believe him that he was a/the cave-guide (in these little villages a lot of people pretend to be guides in order to earn some extra money) but as i went to a restaurant to ask the cook and after a few calls the same guy turned up, i had the evidence that he indeed was the guide ;)
armed with lamps we drove on our bikes on a little dirt road to a place in the middle of the woods i wouldn't have found on my own in a life-time. the cave turned out to be a coral cave with the remains of corals from ancient times (the guide told me 2000 years), when the sea covered that place. there were even stalactites and tiny diamond crystals (i am not sure though, as the guide spoke not more than 5 words of english).
the third cave i found without any help again, but it was small and partly flooded. on the way back i managed to stay dry applying a refined trick. i drove slowly towards the basket armed crowd making sure, they would stay en the side of the road. just in the last moment when people expected me to stop in order to receive the 756th new year blessing in form of a basket of water over my head, i shifted back and got all out of the bike it had and switched to the other side of the road. like this i reached pai dry and in one piece, thankfully leaving the bike parked for the remaining time of today.

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el dia de hoy lo tenia todo!!! casi mejor si me busco un sitio para recibir un masaje de pies y me voy a la cama por que si no seria demasiodo ;)

como tenia previsto alquile una moto de verdad (honda phantom - jopper) ayer y parti de chang mai hacia pai (300km) para ver un poco mas del pais. las carreteras estaban en buen estado, aun asi eran peligrosas por que a los thais les gusta echar cubos de agua a los coches y motos que pasan por su lado. iendio con mas que 60km/h un cubo de agua asusta bastante y hasta duele. la fiesta del agua no terminara hasta el proximo finde asi que no hay escapatoria.
hoy me fui de excursion hacia el norte a ver unas cuevas. las senyales eran en ingles y thai durante el camino pero al llegar solo habia senyales en thai. al final no encontre las cuevas y cascadas y termine en un sitio remoto en burma (myanmar). no me di cuenta que la frontera no era un punto de control como los hay en thailandia por todos lados y pase la frontera explicandole al oficial que no tenia pasaporte por que lo tenian en el sitio donde alquile la moto. me dejo pasar sin mas y por suerte me dejo volver a thailandia cuando habia realizado donde me encontraba.
en el camino devuelta estuve a punto de cayerme en un camino de arena (a veces las carreteras cambian a un camino de tierra sin razon aparente) pero al final encontre las cuevas. la primera encontre por mi cuenta y la explore escalando sobre escalones hechos de madera vieja y medio quemada. las vistas desde la entrada recompensaban por todos los obstaculos superados para llegar hasta alli.
la segunda cueva no hubiera encontrado nunca asi que contrate un guia con su lampara ;) la cueva resulto ser una cueva de corales (2000 mil anyos de antiguedad, cuande el mar cubria aquella zona). la tercera cueva encontre yo solito otra vez, pero no era pequenya y y parcialmente inundada.
en el camino devuelta consegui quedarme secco aplicando un truco sofisticado. me acerce despacio a las hordas armadas con cubos para que creyan que vaya a pararme para recibir el honor especial del anyo nuevo (un cubo de agua en la cabeza) por 500 mil septima vez, y cambie de marcha en el ultimo instante y pasar por su lado a toda hostia. gracias a dios llege a pai en una pieza... dejando la moto aparcada durante el resto de la tarde.

burned earth - tierra quemada

when my friend robert told me about the burning season i couldn't quite imagine what they meant, up in the north i understand. the thais burn down big parts of their landscape every year during the dry-season in order to obtain new soil for mushrooms and maybe some herbs. i did a 2-day trek into the mountains near chang mai and couldn't believe that i wouldn't be able to see further than 200 meters, walk on burned soil and do rafting on a river which had so little water, that we got stuck every few meters. i am wondering, if the water-festival during these days has something to do with the low water-reserves as well. the thais are celebrating the year 2552 and therefore they spill lots of water at each other during daylight for a week. of course they love to make tourists wet, so i bought a basket to give them a little pay back ;)

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cuando mi amigo robert me comento sobre la saison secca no me podia imaginar mucho, estando en el norte del pais entiendo perfectamente. los thais queman partes grandes de su paisaje cada anyo para obtener cetas y herbas. cuando hize un trek en las montanyas vecinas a chang may no me podia creer que no veia mas que 200 metros, andaba sobre cenicas y el bote de rafting se estancaba cada dos por tres porque el rio no tenia suficientemente agua. igual tiene algo que ver con las fiestas del agua, los thais clebran el anyo 2552 y para ello se echan cubos llenos de agua encima durante una semana. por supuesto les encanta ir a por los turistas asi que me compre un cubo para darles canya tambien :)

same same, but different

my friend simon has a t-shirt with the title of this post printed on and until now i didn't understand the joke behind it. the thai people use this expression referring on something similar, while "same same" should be exactly identical, but the thais are very wage in this respect ;)
having landed in chang mai i did what i do with all the new places, i conquered it ;)
first i checked out the cheapest way to the city, then i got rid of my luggage at some travel agency and rented a motorbike in order to be more mobile and find a place to stay easier. i even had time left to have a look around the city and take photos (i will upload photos as soon as possible...) of the tons of temples distributed all over the city. little by little i am beginning to understand the system and rhythm of this frenetic city and my lungs are getting used to the pollution.
the next day i took the rented 125cc (the same crappy bike i had on koh phangan, i might rent a real motor-bike for the following trip ;) and did an excursion to an impressive temple (doi suthep) in the mountains and to a hill tribe village. this urbanization could have been somewhere in the latin american mountains as well, the huts and even the people look alike. on the way back i met a very nice and interesting couple from mexico and we had dinner at a incredible restaurant mentioned in the lonely planet. i hope we manage to meet again, as i really enjoyed our conversations.
back at the guest house (i moved there on the third day) i challenged some guys at the pool-table and had a good time playing under rather difficult circumstances. the table was not totally even and the balls and sticks were quite damaged, so the balls sometimes unexpectedly turned to some other direction and stopped 1 cm in front of the hole. as there was no single room free i had to sleep in a dormitory which made feel like being at the army again, but it was fun after all.

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mi amigo simon tiene una camiseta con el titulo de este post imreso y hasta hoy no lo pillaba. la gente en thailandia usa esta expresion referiendose al algo similar, mientras "same same" deberia significar exactamente identico, aunque no me fiaria nunca ;)
haber aterizado en chang mai hize lo mismo que suelo hacer con cualquier sitio nuevo, lo conquisto ;) para empezar me deshice de mi equipaje en alguna agencia de viajes y me alquile una moto para poder moverme mejor y encontrar un sitio para instalarme. me dio tiempo hasta para dar una vuelta por la ciudad y ver algunos de los muchos templos que hay por el casco historico (subire fotos cuando pueda...). poco a poco empiezo a entender el sistema y el ritmo de este sitio frenetico y mis pulmones so van acostumbrando a la polucion.
el siguiente dia cogi la moto (una 125, igual a la motito que tuve en koh phangan, ya es tiempo que me alquile una moto de verdad ;) y hice una excursion a una montagna cercana a ver un templo impresionante y un pueblo tipico de la zona. aquella urbanisacion podria haberse encontrado perfectamente en america latina, las casas y hasta la gente se parecia mucho. en el camino devuelta conoci a una pareja mexicana muy maja y interesante y fuimos a cenar a un sitio muy chulo recomendado por el lonley planet. espero verles otra vez, a ver si conseguimos quedar sin movil.
devuelta en el alberge (me traslade alli el tercer dia) me puse a jugar al billard con algunos chavales. no era nada facil jugar en una mesa inclinada con bolas ya no del todo redondas y unos palos medio rotos pero nos lo pasamos pipa.

pp. los ordenadores thais no tienen acentos ni egne... disculpad mi ortografia.

Conclusions of living on an island – conclusions de la vida en una isla

Having spent more than a month on koh phangan it feels very strange to leave. It somehow feels like leaving behind a part of my life. I became very familiar with this place, got to know all the streets and short cuts and met many people who actually are living here. Thanks to thailandish friends I even got some insight into their culture and way of living and of course I applied some of their methods. One of them is to ride a bike with 3 persons on it, another is to have 3 showers a day and even shower your intimate parts rather than using toilet paper ;)
Generally speaking the live here is very easy, everything is within a circle of 10 minutes by bike and you can cross the whole island in less than an hour. As my schedule was quite complete with intense yoga-practice our trips to several beaches, temples and the jungle had to be a bit shorter (I have uploaded a punch of pictures in order to give you some impressions). the culture of this place manifests in many different ways, people use to be very friendly and polite and keep a respectful distance. I almost made a girl from a restaurant faint - I have been knowing her for the whole month already - as I gave her a kiss on her cheek. The Spanish salutation definitely doesn’t work here ;)
I have to admit that I´m looking forward to hitting the road again so hopefully the periods of my posts will get a bit shorter again. Tomorrow I will take the pane from koh samui to chang mai and explore the north a bit. To be continued…

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Tras un mes entero en koh phangan el hecho de irme en breve me hace sentir un poco melancolico. Me siento como dejar atras una parte de mi vida. He llegado a conocer este sitio muy a fondo, conozco mucha gente y su manera de vivir, las calles y atajos y incluso he aprendido alguna cosa de su cultura y algún método practico. Por ejemplo monté en moto con dos personas mas, me duché 3 veces al día y hasta sé sobrevivir sin papel higiénico ;)
Generalmente hablando la vida aquí es muy cómoda, todo se encuentra dentro de una distancia de 10 minutos en moto a la isla entera se atraviesa en menos de una hora.
Como tenía un horario muy completo por las clases de yoga nuestras excursiones a playas, templos y la jungla tenían que ser un poco más cortas (os he puesto un huevo de fotos...). la cultura de la población aquí se manifiesta de maneras muy diversas, la gente suele ser muy amable y educada y siempre mantiene una distancia cordial. Casi se desmayó una chica de nuestro restaurante favorito al darle un beso en su mejilla (llevo conociéndola el mes entero) así que el saludo español no funciona aquí ;)
Tengo que admitir que me hace mucha ilusión ponerme en marcha otra vez así que espero escribir en periodos más cortos otra vez. mañana cogo el avión desde koh samui a chang mai para explorar el norte. Hasta la próxima...