Tokyo - Seoul - Kuala Lumpur - Bangkok

As always, I have been neglecting my blog due to simply to much stuff happening and general laziness of course. Sorry about that. This means I gotta catch you guys up in this post and it will be a long one.. Sorry again.

So I got into Tokyo on 1st of November and as usual I got very excited to be in Japan. Still my favourite place in the world. The weather was surprisingly mild during the days with 15-20 degrees but the nights were fresh.

I met up with my buddy Joel, which I knew for six years (from couchsurfing.com) but never actually met in real life before. He was so kind to let me stay at his apartment for a week, and I had organised a couch-surfer to host me for my second week in Tokyo. I planned to properly explore this massive city this time around, as last time I did not had too much opportunity.

Tokyo is immensely expensive, especially in terms of accommodation, so having places to stay for free was important and freed up my budget to pay for food, drinks and other things such as club entries, museums etc. 

I explored all the major parts of town and took my time, walking 4-6 hours per day just around instead of using public transport. This resulted in me stumbling upon some quite amazing little side alleys and places I would usually never see. 

One of the more memorable discoveries was a massive graveyard where they had impressive headstones, 4-5 meters high and 2-3 meters wide, carved out of black marble. Walking through this place then led me to one of the prettiest temples I have seen so far..

Of course I also explored Akihabara once again, the worlds Mekka for Anime, Manga, Electronic goods and of course porn. It was crazy. I walked through one of those massive electronic stores, exploring level by level of that place. You could buy literally everything that you could ever need in terms of electronic hard and software. But then I reached a level that was just millions of porn dvd's and sex toys.. and they had three entire floors for this stuff. They must have never heard of the internet..

One other thing special about Akihabara is that there are tons of Patchinko-Parlors, Arcades, Maid Cafes and also great and affordable food at every corner. All of these things were fun but if I am getting into it, this post is going to get way to long. Do some research;)

My favourite areas in town were Shinjuku and Shibuya where the bustling nightlife of Tokyo lives. You see funny looking people all day and night, there are street-food stalls, hole-in-the-wall-bars (4-6 seats only), clubs and shops all over these areas. Oh and yeah, neon lights, a lot of them. It's actually what makes Tokyo great. The city only really feels alive when its nice and everybody is on the streets, filled with all these glowing signs, and filled with tons of sounds from all directions. I absolutely love it.

After two amazing weeks, I hopped on the plane to Seoul in South Korea. I got out of the airport and immediately regretted coming there because it was freezing cold! Japan was still nice and warm compared to what I was facing in Korea. And as you can imagine, I did not pack a lot of warm clothes for me trip. So Seoul ended up being a week of trying to avoid the cold and therefore not really doing a lot.  I explored a bit of the nightlife and the food and went to one of their famous temples but that's about it.

I was happy when I could fly out, back to the sun and into Malaysia. I landed in Kuala Lumpur and luckily chose an amazing hostel with a lot of cool people. I only stayed there for a few days but I made some great friends from all over the world. 

I moved on to meet my buddy Josh (the canadian guy I mentioned before - I met him in Lombok, Indonesia) in Langkawi. Langkawi is a big Island in the north west of Malaysia, bordering with Thailand.

It was great meeting Josh again and also his new travel buddy from Brazil, Joao (We just call him Joe, cause no-one can properly pronounce his name). 

We enjoyed a few fun days with another cool group of guys and girls. We chilled at the nice beaches (which unfortunately were riddled with dead jellyfish - so we didnt really wanna swim there either), took a motorbike trip around the island, climbed up some stairs in the jungle to find a beautiful waterfall and then it was over again. I had to leave for Bangkok as I offered to volunteer in a hostel there for a month, starting on 1st of December.

I took a plane from Langkawi to Penang and then flew into Bangkok from there on the 28th of November.

Quick input here on why I volunteer this month in BKK:

 

1. Because it gives me free accommodation. 

2. I got a bank account here with some additional travel cash on it.

3. I love this city, so one month here will be fun!

4. I need to kill time until my friend Robin arrives to travel with me.

Ok - moving on - I have spent about 20 days in Bangkok now, making new friends, partying a lot, eating a lot and just generally having a great time. The only thing that stood out was a visa run to Laos last weekend. 

If you read my whole blog, you might remember, I had done this trip twice before, back when I was living here. So it was nice to reminisce. And once again I met a lot of amazing people. 

Josh and Joe have arrived yesterday in Bangkok and another big group of friends I made on my trip should get here before end of the month. It will be a crazy new years - I am sure of it.

To all of you: 

Happy holidays and the best new years wishes!

Talk to you again, probably in February when there are new things to tell! (Pictures will be added at some point)

Indonesia

Brace yourselves - this is going to be a rather long one, as I am trying to put two months of Indonesia on paper.. or on blog (whatever).

Why did I stay two months in Indonesia? Well, I was more or less forced to by LionAir, back in Singapore... As always on my travels here, I only had a one way ticket to Indonesia, and most likely it wouldn't have been a problem to fly in like that with any other airline. But as LionAir is Indonesia's main airline, they seem to enforce their rules more strictly.

When I checked in, they confronted me with having no return ticket, which supposedly is required if you enter Indonesia for the first time ever. I have never read about this and later on many other people confirmed to me that they had no troubles getting into the country with just a one way ticket, but using other airlines. So they said, they wouldnt let me board my flight if I could not show a flight leaving the country, so I had to book at that very moment.

It was very annoying, I was holding up the line, trying to book a flight on my phone real quick and on the go deciding if I wanted to stay one month or two months. I thought to myself, Indonesia is so large, I will for sure fill up two months easily. So I booked a flight, two months from my date of entry. This later turned out to be a mistake. I just absolutely hate being bound by flight dates, hotel/hostel reservations and so on. It just is inconvenient on my kind of trip. I need the flexibility.

After getting in to Jakarta, I was underwhelmed by the city. I did not expect much, as I actually just got into town for a few days to do some sight-seeing and then planed to move on anyway. But to be honest three days in Jakarta is way too much. It is seriously the most ugly, third world city I have seen so far on all of my travels. And I compare here with certain cities in Myanmar which were also quite terrible in appearance.

On the upside, their people were very friendly, and as there were barely any foreign tourists, I was once again stared at like some movie star. People trying to get pictures with me, to have conversations or random girls yelling stuff after me. Quite fun, actually. But I was happy to leave for Bali.

Getting to Bali, I had to go through Jakarta's airport again, and only in departures, you  realise how terrible their airport really is (arrivals seemed ok). It seems to have been built in the sixties, with no security standards whatsoever. Unlike any other airport, you can bring almost anything through security. Three 1.5 litre bottles of water - no problem.. And they have two terminal 1... which makes no sense. I queued up on the first one, had to show a security guard my ticket and he told me its not the right terminal. 

He however did not manage to tell me where to go and there were of course no signs to be found to show me the direction. So I wandered around for 20 minutes to find my gate. Always fun if you gotta catch a flight. But it all worked out. I got to Bali after all.

And you know, Bali is painted as the most beautiful place on earth, the island of the gods. It might have been like that 10-20 years ago. Now its a mass tourism spot, mostly invaded by Australians, English, Germans and French people. So you can imagine, its all about party, drinking and fucking. It has become as bad as the local government actually is trying to get a law through that makes extra-marital sex punishable by law.. 

So beautiful Bali was a let-down from the first minute.. I must say, I got to Kuta first, which is close to the airport and the party hub of the island, so of course it was also a terrible place to start. But luckily I met a few nice German guys at my hostel (Kayun Hostel - Nice Pool!) to hang out for a couple of days. 

With one of them, Flinn, I went on a day trip to a north western water temple called Tannah Lot. It was pretty nice, but unfortunately the weather turned a bit just after we got there, so we didnt manage to get great pictures. Also the place was swarming with tourists. Literally hundreds of them.

Unfortunately, this always turned out the same on each of the nice places I wanted to visit in Bali. We always ran into hundreds of people. So it was impossible to just enjoy a place, or even just to take a picture, as even if you had a shot, someone would just walk into the frame. Or people were just sitting in the nicest spots to take a picture of for half an hour and not move..

Well, I realised my need to work on my university essay due to the upcoming deadline, and thought to myself, Ubud should be a nice quite place from all I read. Haha, how wrong I was.

I got to Ubud, and booked a week in a nice Hostel, which was supposed to have a great pool and outside area to chill out in the quite of the nature and there to work on my essay. Too bad, this hostel was just part of a bigger hotel down the street and just featured the pool area etc on their pictures, but it would cost $10/day to go there and actually use it. This trip really got better and better.

Ubud seems to have been a very tranquil and beautiful place in the past, but as always, tourism has ruined it in just a few years. Its now a town full of noisy traffic, bars, restaurants, stores, aggressive salesman and taxi drivers.. Not at all what I came for.

I met up with Flinn and his buddy again and decided to spontaneously join them on a volcano hike. So I had at least done something exciting. It was supposed to be a seven hour track up the volcano, during the night, to see the sunrise on the peak at 6 AM. 

Just too bad that our driver showed up over one hour late and we then had a huge discussion with them because they told Flinn they could take a third person for free. So all in all we were nearly two hours late when we started the hike. And our guide was pushing it hard to make it in time.

I can tell you, Mount Agung is pretty damn steep, and should only be climbed by experienced climbers as we found out a few days later. So me being terribly out of shape and a heavy smoker, I had to quit half way up as I simply couldn't make it, and did not want the Germans to miss their peak moment. Even those fit guys told me after, that they barely made it themselves and you could see it as they had troubles even walking normally after that.

Alright so fleeing from Bali, I went to the Gili Islands on my way to Lombok and well Gili Trawang turned out to be a party island. After nearly two weeks of not going out, it was a nice change of pace for a few days but I was also happy to flee to Gili Air then, which (at least for now) is still a beautiful tranquil island to relax and just do nothing all day on the beach (Except if you'd like to try a mushroom shake or some local hash :) 

It was the first place I really liked in Indonesia, and that being after almost three weeks, you might understand why I was more than looking forward to the end of my Indonesia experience.

I headed to the island of Lombok, which was highly recommended to me by my buddy Stefan, who absolutely loves this place. And he wasn't wrong. It was much nicer there than in Bali. A bit less lush in the south, as it can be very dry there, but very beautiful in the north!

Lombok was amazing, and much more what I was looking for. Much less tourists, which is always a good thing. Much less traffic, which is good for me, as I love to drive a bike around. Super friendly People, Spicy Food, beautiful beaches and lush vegetation to name just a few other things I liked.

To hold it short and come to an end here, my time in Lombok consisted of these major points:

-Extension of my Visa in Mataram (Super easy, much less hassle than in Bali).
-Exploring a different beach every day and just chilling there.
-Driving around and just see the nature, the villages, waive at kids and say hello to adults excited to see a foreigner.
-Meeting a great random group around this Canadian guy, Josh, which was a lot of fun to hang out with
-Having nice discussions, an afternoon out and a great time with Harry and the other staff from the amazing Tempatku restaurant in Senggigi (Seriously, eat there! Best food I had in Indonesia!)
-Saving a lone, four week old puppy from dying, getting her checked out at a Vet's and finding her a safe home in just two days despite Lombok being Muslim and not liking dogs for pets.

Additional notes:

-I missed out on Java and much of the other places in Indonesia which must surely be amazing from what I heard. I honestly must say, I was just so dissapointed by my experiences in Jakarta and Bali that I simply was happy to be in Lombok.  Lombok made my stay here in Indonesia a good experience after all, but I honestly can't recommend Bali to anyone. 

-Unfortunately, the tourist development in this country seems to be really fast so Lombok could be the same tourist trap as Bali in just a few years. Gili Air is already being developed heavily and will surely be much like the party Island of Gili T very soon too, so go now if you still want to see it. Otherwise tourism anyway always will slowly shift to new, non developed islands, as lots of people don't come here for party but to enjoy the beauty of this country. 

-Indonesia is rather expensive compared to other South-East-Asian countries. At least in the tourist hotspots you easily pay $10-15/night for a hostel and spend $3.50-15/meal. Be aware, they often add taxes and service charge on top of the shown price.. Always clarify.

Now of to Tokyo - I am so excited. Just two weeks of Tokyo, meeting old friends and so on but I absolutely love Japan! 

Pictures will be added when I get to Japan, as the Internet is  way better there.

Singapore

Singapore, the so called, lion city - a small country between Malaysia and Indonesia, not much larger than one single canton of Switzerland, but just as rich as our whole country. It has never been of much interest to me, as I heard enough stories, saw enough pictures and could imagine, how it would be.

However, as I was looking for a flight to Asia, back in February, remembering an article I once read. Supposedly, Singapore Airlines is the best airline in the world! So why not check out their website to see if there are any good offers. And lucky me, they actually had a special offer, for just $350, I could get a direct flight in an Airbus A380 from Zurich to Singapore. 

As background info to that; usually a return flight, Switzerland to Asia ranges between $500-$900, heavily depending on when you book and the cheapest options are usually connection flights with one stop in between. And as one way flights are usually more expensive, these can range around $350-500 (but still with a lay-over!). Therefore, getting a direct flight at $350 was an absolute steal.

So after months of waiting, preparing, paying bills and reducing my budget continuously, it was finally the 22nd of August, and off I went. 

It was indeed a very pleasant flight, with all you can drink "cocktails" (they are terrible, just take wine or beer) and snacks included. A nice infotainment system, that unfortunately did have some issues (strange in such a new plane) and most importantly, enough leg-room!

10+ hours later I arrived in Singapore and was greeted by steaming hot temperatures (at 6 AM), friendly airport staff and problems finding an ATM that worked for my PostFinance card... 

I drove into town, to little India, to check into my hostel, get a shower and relax for a bit before heading out to explore my area. 

Little India is exactly how you'd expect it, crazy busy, people yelling everywhere, funny smells and a lot of little stores, selling all kinds of stuff. I walked around a bit and after a while found the first Hawker-Centre (Or Food Centre). 

These places are amazing, with between 50 - 500 little food stalls, depending on the building size. You just walk around, looking at all the menus, ordering as you go, trying usually three or four things and spending maybe $10-15. It can of course be cheaper, but again, that depends on which centre you are in and if the food stall is famous or not. 

This is actually the only thing I really loved about Singapore. Their food culture. You can find amazing restaurants or food stalls all over the place. From all kinds of cuisines. However, it quickly can get expensive. Still cheap for Singapore but much more expensive than for example in Bangkok, where you find the same kind of outstanding food.

Now otherwise Singapore has been exactly what I expected. Its a very expensive city, where you pay $12 for a pack of cigarettes, $6-$7 and $18+ for a weak cocktail. Plus even its such a large city, nightlife seems to only exist on Wednesday (ladies night), Friday and Saturday, which is a joke, compared to any other major city in Asia.

But of course, its not all about nightlife, so lets have a quick look at what else you can do in Singapore; 

Shopping - not recommended, most stuff is more expensive than in Europe.

Sightseeing - They have nice parks, museums and  other sights, but most of them have high entry fees around $20-$50.

Hiking - I did not do it myself but it seems like they have some nice nature areas in the outskirts of the city to do some hiking and get nice photos.

Gambling - Not my thing but that's obviously what most visitors do here, its the same as Hong Kong / Macao

Otherwise I did not find much to do in this modern, hype city, and I was quite honestly very bored after a few days. I would only recommend a stay of max. three days, if you want to visit.

Good things to say: 

-Singapore has a great metro system, which is kind of affordable but offline at night.

-Taxis/Uber in Singapore are affordable! Maybe this could be applied to Switzerland!

-Singapore has great, wide streets, allowing for traffic to flow. Unlike Switzerland.

-Their Skyscrapers are amazing and allow for nice views of the city.

-People here are generally friendly and open and most speak English.

All in all, I was happy to leave Singapore after about ten days (way too long!) and to head to Indonesia!

Blog Reopened

I AM BACK!

Well, I was never gone in the first place, I just deactivated my blog for quite a while.

A quick recap; 

Since my last post, I have lived five years in Switzerland. I did not plan to be there for this long but it somehow happened. I worked as a customer service agent right after getting back, then changed into an office position and then made a jump into Account management. I had a two year relationship with a lovely lady from France and this was also the reason why it took me so long to let go of Switzerland once again. 

Travel wise, I have made many visits to Asia in that time-frame. Several trips back to Thailand, twice to Vietnam, once to China and Myanmar and some trips within Europe as well such as Berlin, London, Barcelona etc. But I do not want to tell old stories.

I re-started this blog as this is another attempt to live my dream - I probably will fail miserably again and return to Switzerland much earlier than I want to. At least I am realistic this time. But if you don't try, you cant win. 

I started travelling again, back in August, after having a blast at the last big music festival of this years season, celebrating with most of my friends just a few days before leaving for Singapore.

It took a while to re-open this blog as I had to edit all the posts since I started this blog. My English back in the day was just terrible. And please don't get me wrong, it's still far from perfect. But reading how I wrote back then made me laugh out loud. 

Additionally, it was necessary to take some stuff out and delete posts that I deemed were not needed. I gave the blog a general overhaul and included some google ads to hopefully generate some income to get this blog a proper domain at least. So please click on the ads, even if you don't buy anything.

I will write a post about Singapore and one about Indonesia in the coming days as a recap. From now on you will get updates more often ;)

Thanks for reading. Always happy about some comments!

Back in Switzerland

After my last post, I had to prepare everything for my return to Switzerland in March, but also for the arrival of three of my friends shortly before my flight back.

My friends arrived in middle of February and I had prepared quite a few things for their stay. After a jet lag day in Bangkok we  left for Koh Samed, a small Island just a few hours south of Bangkok.

My friends loved the beach and the heat in strong contrast to the snow and cold they experienced just two days before back in Switzerland. We spent the days and evenings at the beach, watched a fire-show, ate great seafood and just had a good time.

After two days we returned to Bangkok and left two days later for Chiang Mai.

The travel was quite comfortable as we took the overnight sleeper train instead of a bus. The ride not only was comfortable but also a lot of fun as there was a big party going on in the restaurant wagon.

The weather in Chiang Mai was amazing and it was beautiful there. The lush green of the nature and relaxed atmosphere in the mountain setting, just has something special to it. 



We stayed at a nice place (Thapae Garden) in a very quiet area near the inner ring but also not far from the night bazaar area. Our first day we spent walking around, eating and in the evening visiting the bazaar. 

Unfortunately the bazaar sells exactly the same things like every other market in Thailand, just mass produced souvenirs for the hordes of tourists. But there could be quite some good deals to be made if you know where and haggle well.

On our second day we went to the Tiger Kingdom, which is great as the Tigers aren't drugged like in other Tiger parks, so they actually walk around, are awake and you can even play with their pups!


After the Tigers it was time for the elephants. There we saw a nice show with elephants doing tricks and painting pictures. It was nice but as I am not very interested in elephants, I wasn't as excited as for my friends. 


The next day we visited the silk village, a producer of fine grade silk where you actually could learn how they make silk, and of course also to buy some. In compare with Europe the silk-ware there is very cheap and you should visit it if you want some nice presents for your mum or girlfriend. 

After that we ate lunch at a very delicious little place, I think it was named "Tamarind.. something" and after a quick chat with the owners we went on to visit a waterfall where we spent the rest of our day, bathing in the sun and the ice cold water.

Our last half day we just did some sightseeing at the temples before we took the train back to Bangkok. The last days I left my friends on their own in Bangkok and recommended them to party a little at the RCA (a famous party district). 


It was very hard for me to leave my life in Thailand behind me, for one as I failed my goal to start a new life abroad, but also because of the friends I made and the amazing times I had there. Plus its less than exciting to get back to a country where eight months of the year are in the -15 to +15 degree temperature range if you have lived in the endless summer of Asia for over a year.

Updates now will be less frequent, just if I got the time to travel I guess! Thanks for reading my blog!

!!!CLICK FOR FLICKR PHOTOS!!!

Change of Plans

It has been a while.. the last update was back in October. What has changed? Well a lot.

I just quit my job as a real estate agent. As much fun as it was and even I earned well at the beginning, it was not sustaining my lifestyle and living costs here, which forced me to make a hard decision.

I decided it is time to go back to Switzerland and try to get back into School. Thailand turned out not to be the place for me after all. I wish to have realised that earlier when my options were still wide open. But of course I still cherish my time here and all the experiences made! Never regret the past, just look forward.

Let yourself be this a lesson, if you want to go and live abroad, it is necessary to have a certain skill-set. I of course knew that beforehand, but I expected my work experience and education from Switzerland to be enough. However, Asian countries are quite restrictive in terms of allowing foreigners to legally live and work in their countries, mostly based on having a university degree.

Just a few weeks ago my friend Robin told me he will come to visit with his girlfriend and Elias, another friend of mine. So I am currently preparing everything for their visit, to show them around Thailand. 

After that, on the 7th of March I will head back to Switzerland.. So see you soon my friends. And I will update you again, maybe also with a travel review once and again.

Have to go, I am late for an appointment..

!!!CLICK FOR FLICKR PHOTOS!!!

Bangkok Living

Its time for another update - a lot of things happened:

After my arrival back in Bangkok, my plan was to open a business if possible, to be allowed stay in Thailand indefinitely. 

I made a business plan and did my research of where to open and how to source supplies. 

The simplest way seemed to open a bar and at first, everything looked good. 
I got the budget, the location and also a good concept.

But honestly, it failed at my motivation to run a bar in Bangkok. As there are thousands here already and my real passion lies with something else. 

However, I arranged a meeting with a law firm to discuss the opening procedures and requirements like licenses etc anyway. The Information they gave me were frustrating. 

I would need a Thai partner, without one, I couldn't open a business. But as I learned in the last months, it would be rather difficult to find a trustworthy Thai person. When it comes to money, Thais can get very sneaky. 

And next, for me as a foreigner, to get a working permit in Thailand, my company would need a capital of at least two million Thai Baht to get it granted. This was just ridiculous, as most companies in Thailand barely have THB 500'000 of funding.  

I was very disappointed by the situation, especially as my research showed that many other countries in the area would be much less restrictive. Even in China, it would be quite simple  to set something up. 


After sleeping over it and figuring out, if I should just leave and try my luck somewhere else, my decision was to try another way first. 

I researched the web to find other opportunities. And I found something that caught my interest. There are tons of pilot schools in Asia which are reasonably priced and internationally accredited. 


It would be possible to become a pilot in just a couple of years. And who wouldn't be intrigued by that. But of course there was again something stopping me. Money.

Yes you read right, the schools are affordable and I would most likely be able to pay the education on its own. But as the travels decreased my savings, the additional accommodation and food cost for another eight months would be impossible to cover. 

The frustration was back, because I got really excited at first about the prospect. And like always in my life, money stops me from fulfilling my dreams.

Some people might ask why I wouldn't ask my parents or friends for a loan. To be honest, I was taught that you need to work on your own to reach your goals in life. Being independent for many years now, I guess I am to proud to accept help.  (Edit: Five years later, I can tell you, I am not anymore, so if anyone wants to fund any of my business ideas or help finance a school, please get in touch)



Anyway, after that it was simply time to get a job. I committed to Bangkok and decided to stay for at least one more year here, learn Thai and  try  to assimilate to the culture and the people. 




I got a job  as real estate agent and rented a nice place right next to the Bangkok skytrain-station "Ratchathewi", right in the city centre. Next to the famous shopping mall MBK, Paragon-mall, the Siam-complex as well as Central world. (Edit: Five years later: I should not have gotten that place, it drained my finances quickly)



So that was a little update on my life so far. I miss my family a lot, but also especially my friends. The hardest thing of being so far from home is not to be able to spent time with my loved-ones and being unable to really share all the experiences made here. A normal amount of home sickness I guess. 




P.S. To be honest, I already miss travelling around Asia. I want to go back to China and Vietnam a lot. There is still lots to explore in  Japan and I still want to go to Singapore, India and the Philippines.. But this has to wait for now.

!!!CLICK FOR FLICKR PHOTOS!!!