dear all, due to the tragic death of my mother my trip has come to an end. by now i am back in adelaide with my brother and his family trying to realize. as soon as possible i will fly home in order to give support to my family and find a way to move on. some day i will continue my adventures and of course i will share them with you again. big hug,

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hola a todos, por el fallecimiento trágico de mi madre he abortado mi viaje. ahora mismo estoy con mi hermano en adelaide y en pocos días me volveré a austria para apoyar a mi familia y buscar una manera de seguir adelante. algún momento continuaré mis aventuras y, en cuanto lo haga, las compartiré con vosotros. un abrazo,

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hallo an alle, auf grund des tragischen todes meiner mutter habe ich meine reise abgebrochen und bin momentan wieder bei meinem bruder und seiner familie in adelaide und versuche die geschehnisse zu begreifen. so bald wie möglich werde ich heimfliegen um meine familie zu unterstützen und einen weg zu finden nach vorne zu schauen. irgendwann werde ich meine abenteuer wieder fortsetzen und, wenn es soweit ist, sie wieder mit euch teilen. es umarmt euch,

volker

brothers in arms - hermanos unidos

with freshly charged batteries due to spending time with my down-under-family, playing "footy" with my neffews and simly relaxing and feeling at home, my brother bernhard and i broke up to sidney to make it a less secure place for the following 4 days. some friends told me, that most people either loved sidney or melbourne but not both cities. i guess we are an exception, i really liked melbourne and sidney is simply amazing!!! the views are stunning, and sometimes we just couldn't believe that we actually were there!!!
we strolled around china town, darling harbor, manly beach, the circular quay, took the monorail (a train like a roller-coster about 5 meters aboth the street). of course we went to the most famouse opera house in the world and even were lucky enought to find affordable tickets for a concert of some orchester playing schubert and jaikowski. espeshially the second part of the concert was overwhelming and made us loose notion of space and time.
we concluded the evening with a glass of whine (or two, or three, ...hang on) on the terrase of the opera bar just next to the water inhaling the atmosphere of the opera house and the near by harbor bridge and the bay.
the following day we met my german friend claudia and went to the famouse bondi beach watching surfers hunting waves. in a 2 hours walk we followed the cost to coogi beach taking tons of photos of the changing landscapes and urbanisations. we ended up with two more friends of claudia's in newtown - a less known district of sidney with cheap eateries and cool bars - having good thai-food (by now i should know what i'm talking about;) and great fun together. as we went on to meet two more friends in an irish pub it just become impossible to get any sleep before the early morning.

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con las pilas recargadas, por haber estado con mi down-under-familia, jugando al "footy" con mis sobrinos y relajándome y sintiéndome en casa, mi hermano y yo partimos hacia sidney durante los próximos 4 días. me contaron algunos amigos, que o a uno le gusta sidney o le gusta melbourne pero no ambos. parece que soy una excepción, me encantó melbourne y sidney me parece alucinante!!! las vistas son increíbles y a veces no nos lo podíamos creer que nos encontramos allí realmente!!!
dimos una vuelta por china town, darling harbor, manly beach, circular quay, cogimos el monorail (un tren como una montaña rusa). por supuesto fuimos a ver la opera mas famosa del mundo y incluso tuvimos la suerte de encontrar billetes baratos para un concierto clasico. la sinfonía de jaikowski nos hizo perder el sentido de espacio y tiempo. concluimos le tarde con un baso de vino (o dos, o tres, ...) en la terraza de la opera bar justo a lado del mar inhalando al ambiente de la opera y del puente (harbor bridge) y la peninsula.
el siguiente día quedamos con mi amiga claudia y fuimos a la playa famosa llamada bondi beach observando a los surfistas. en una caminata de 2 horas seguimos la costa hasta cogi beach sacando un montón de fotos. terminamos con dos amigos más de claudia en newtown - un barro menos conocido de sidney con restaurantes geniales y bares muy acogedores - cenando comida thailandesa y riéndonos mucho. continuamos la vuelta para encontrarnos con dos amigas austriacas en y irish pub por lo cual no llegamos a casa antes del amanecer.

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 :)