Singing in my dream.....

I don't mind waiting a lifetime

Even if it's gambling with time

I could dare the waiting elsewhere

Love could be the future we share

the only warmth in Fall

Beautiful Fall, its getting cold but the only warmth you bring is the thought that he is coming home to me..

Just in case you are wondering where we have been, we are still deep in the abyss of thought...

With each struggle I find myself closer,
Closer to the beginning of us.
The reason why we exist is simple,
Yet it only dawned upon me now.

Time may have shaped every thought and situation,
Words and actions seem weakened.
But the pain must only be worth it,
For our dream and hearts remain unchanged.

that i did always love

THAT I did always love,
I bring thee proof:
That till I loved
I did not love enough.


That I shall love alway,
I offer thee
That love is life,
And life hath immortality.


This, dost thou doubt, sweet?
Then have I
Nothing to show
But Calvary.

-emily dickinson

Time can preserve many memories, yet can destroy all. :(

the coming of 2008, the going of 2007

How and where and when should I begin? The year 2007 has gone by, too much has taken place, too much moving about, too much happiness and accompanying tears... Does anyone still believe that love can be modern enough to survive the times yet old-fashioned enough to last forever? Most good stories begin with a quote or phrase which engraves the first impression in your mind, for me I shall begin with a picture:

I still wait,
as Penelope waited for Ulysses,
as Juliet waited for Romeo,
as Beatrice waited for Dante.

And a new love, begun.

For the first time in endless months of worrying, I finally went straight into a shop and bought a dress which we will tie our commitment to each other for eternity in. It was like a dream come true for me because I overcame the pressure of trying on gowns and finally had an idea of what I would look like on our day.

I picked something which is part oriental and mostly, befitting for my figure. I think I will do without a veil nor a tiara, but favour a pulled back hair weaved with little white daisies in it! I will carry, in my hand, your bouquet and your heart, waiting with diamond tears. I walk down the long magical aisle towards a life together, smiling the biggest smile of a new phase, beginning.

And a new love, begun.

I say, yes, I do, to be with you, in all times of difficulty and sickness, to love and care for you always.

Finally. Almost a full circle to 4 years.

Chinese New Years 2007

Traditions. Customs. Mysteries. Legends. Songs. Children Stories. Games. Moral. Understanding. Point of view. Ethnic. Respect.......Our worlds can be so different, coming from two different cultures.

Its part of Irene's and my life to learn about the other. Its part of our life to teach, show and introduce the other into the above mentioned. This time it was Chinese New Year. Something far more complicated than our New Years and honestly I have not fully understood. So I think i will have to go back next year and try again. This time Irene won't be there, since she will still study in Germany...but this time I will beat big uncle in Manjhong.

Well let me sum up what happened, letting the deeper meaning for next time:

The whole trip started weird, since I missed my flight in Medan. I could sleep over at a friends place and catch the flight the next morning. But I flew straight to KL instead of Singapore, because Irene left Singapore with her parents already in the morning. So we met in Kuala Lumpur. We met the first relatives in the city her mother grew up.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!REAL SATAY. Compared to the Sate in Indonesia, this was a festival of taste!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Sorry, but I haven't had such good sate/satay for quite some time.)

However, arriving in her uncles place Irene went from ??? to ????....

And her mother helped Irene's aunti cooking for the big night!

After moving our clothes to her cousin's new house, the fiesta began. At first Irene's uncle explained all (probably pretty annoying for all since they had to hear it again and again, but I think he did for me, I really appreciated it) the story and the meaning of the God of heaven. How the people try to trick him with treats and candy so that he gives some of the luck and money to the people and stays with them.
The food afterwards was gorgeous. I know we had Mrs. Tan fabulous Curry and Steamboat with Fish and Meatballs, Fish, Super shrimps. meat, pork, chicken, veggies..., but the rest was unnameable, but very yummy.

The eating went on for hours until midnight, when Irene turned 24. Here you see Irene, Mrs. Tan, Mr. Tan and her cousin. Her brother was not able to come, since the army did not give him vacation for the celebrations.

Soon this is official!

This is not the full family...only a part of it!

There are no pictures showing me playing...or better loosing Majongh, but that's ok...We visit a lot of relatives the next day before we head once again to Genting. We met Mr. Tan's one brother and played our beloved Ghost Squad, before we went to the Casino and won back every send we spend for the whole trip. All in all it was a very nice trip....Irene's Parents gave me a Majongh game, since i liked it so much. Now I am practicing for next year...I have to win!

love is everywhere

Seems to me life has a warped way to tease our relationship, I am right now in Germany, he, in Indonesia. But, life is still good. :)

a totally innocent one day insight into Banda Aceh

Ok folks, this post might or might not be based on a biased opinion, but well its Banda Aceh. :) As Matthias is working in Aceh, I have often heard about his rave experiences in Indonesia. From then on I have secretly cultivated a love hate relationship with Aceh. Finally, after 8 long months of hesitation and falsified impressions, I went on to courageously confront them! From Matthias's stories, I get the idea that Aceh:
1) harbours one of the strictest practices of Islam. You basically know what I mean.
2) enforces the local law that no local women can go out sleeveless, with anything shorter than above the ankles, with open toed shoes. In other words, we are all dressed fairly indecently here.
3) does not allow free love. Thank God we are so liberal.
4) mass produces rice since all they could eat is nasi all day long. I quite appreciate the variety we have here in Singapore.
5) houses their expats the most comfortably, judging from the pictures I have seen.
6) segregates the expats and the locals. Well...
7) is still suffering from the post 2004 tsunami attack. The country needs more help.
8) needs to import huge quantities of power generators since its always required in cases of blackouts, which is highly frequent.
9) requires internet towers built in your backyards to ensure the smooth running of internet connection. Which by the way, is the third party between me and Matthias. It's a total pain in the ass I tell you.
10) will not welcome me since I am Asian, looks like one of them and do not wear a head dress!
Ok, I know all these points sound ridiculous and severe, but they are indeed ridiculous and if they are ridiculous, they are ridiculous for a good reason. Let's move on to see the real picture of Banda Aceh!
Lets start with the dangerous motorbike ride through the busy streets of Banda Aceh... You really never know how many motorbikes you get on the extremely polluted streets of the city. Motorbikes everywhere and the most amazing sight would be the things they carry on their rides. Little boy sandwiched between his father and a heavily pregnant mother with an infant in her arms, sacks of rice, long bamboo poles... everything that is prohibited in Singapore, you get it there. And *GULP, 70% of them do not wear helmets nor 30% of them have their headlights on at nights. We abide by the law with our helmets!

Starting from what everyone would like to know, what has become of Aceh after the tsunami in 2004? The borders for the wasteland seemed never ending... I had to imagine the city standing right before my eyes.

Seems like they found a use for the remains of the disaster...

I supposed everything has been left the way it is ever since then? I just cannot imagine what you can still find beneath the waste sludge...

The biggest electrical company power ship that got washed 5 km inshore by the waves.... Look what could even be crushed beneath it.

And accompanied by the smaller fleet... Stopping for some gas.

On the way once again..

See what's in the distance? It's not a new house being built, rather it is something that was standing before. Or still standing now. At least part of it.

I'm always amused by the mobile 'coffee shop'! It's like the ice cream uncle we catch along Orchard Road, except that he was selling rojak, bak so mee and fruits.

Reminders that stay: ''The owner of this house is still alive. Tsunami 26 Dec 2004.'' Translated from Indonesian.

Here we go. Time for new houses. However some aren't equipped yet with electricity and water lines since the start of the construction, so u can't really blame the people for not moving their asses off the Red Cross shelter homes.This is supposed to be the most beautiful new house donated, from the Turkish. Probably the rooves look better.

This was the hot topic after the tsunami as well, the only monument that was so close to the sea yet the only one that remained undestroyed after the disaster struck and washed out millions of homes. Was it really because of a religious reason? Or if u study science like me, u know what I will say.

Finally we made it to the beach at Lhokna. I couldn't help thinking what would be my immediate reaction when the coastline suddenly draws back and we should expect a tsunami in 30 minutes. Matthias said he would climb towards higher grounds, starting from the mountains next to the beach. See here:I mean, I really wouldn't immediately think about doing that! With 30 minutes, how far can u climb? I thought I would actually just take the motorbike and ride as fast as I can away from the pre-disaster scene! However life goes on perfectly normal post disaster....And beautiful beautiful sunset for the final verdict...

If u ask me again, Banda Aceh is really: 60% no rules, 30% natural and 10% rural, which makes it totally 100% interesting! If you are somebody who hates to get sweaty, prefers toilet seats rather than squatting pans and totally has no sense of adventure, I suggest u never visit Banda Aceh. Look at Matthias's disbelief, he couldn't believe I LIKED my short trip to Indonesia so much!

Winter 2006-2007

Winter can be wonderful in so many ways...




for one it's always a merry affair filled with so much laughter, when everybody comes home and never forgets a good friendship.










For two, it gives u an even better reason to drink..






For three, skiing really hurts when you keep falling but imagine the euphoria at going high-speed down the snow covered slopes...



For four, more merry drinking after skiing!! It's even better when u have suffered out in the cold the last 2 hours before..

For five, oh the glorious injuries are usually equivalent to the amount of fun...

For six, u always know where to find the sun even during the darkest days of winter...











For seven, every little city hides little Christmas goodies in every corner...








For eight, it is a beautiful season for love...




For nine, lights and decorations makes everything a cause to make merry..








For ten, family love is inexchangeable and invaluable!

Good that we always have food

Duesseldorf, however needs a chapter for itself. At least to hail Christian!

Shooter

Ja meine lieben, an solche Geschichten im Kino zu glauben, ...

Don't know where to start ... its quite confusing and all so happy. 3 years ago, we met in the o-bar, 4 weeks later in the canteen.....then i skip some parts ..., but most influencing indeed have been the 3 months of 24 hour chatting, the "hello-again" in Paris, and .... flop.... I was lost in her arms. But its quite warm and comfortable...I can tell you. It is all I ever wanted and all I will ever need. Wie sagte Ben Becker doch einmal in einem seiner besten Filme: "Ja meine Lieben, an solche Geschichten im Kino zu glauben, das waere die Rettung. Grosse Sehnsucht, ewiges Glueck, und am Himmel immer Sonnenschein. Wenn man den ganzen Zauber doch nie durchschaut haette. Aber frueher oder spaeter ist das ganze Spiel den Einsatz nicht wert. Wahre Liebe. Hmpf. Eher wird's Fruehling am Nordpol. Ein beruehmter Trompeter sagte einmal: die Dunkelheit ist die eigentliche Beleuchtung der Menschheit." Irene, Du bist die Dunkelheit im meinem Herzen. Du bist die grosse Liebe meines Herzen. Und daher werd ich Dich naechstes Jahr auch zu meiner angestammten Frau machen.

Our two years celebration on Tioman. A perfect time to hide and a perfect spot to carry out my plan. The preperations took me 3 months. Not that I had to plan much, and planning is one of my biggest hobbies.But the ring.....oh my lord. I think I know all jewelery shops in Singapore by now. Well.. and then ... I mean...WHAT DO YOU SAY...HOW DO YOU SAY IT..

I can of course not tell you what I say to make her say "YES", because these words are only for Irene to hear. But all went perfect. We left our home in Clementi at 7, went to Tioman by cap (its still only 80 RM). Took the ferry...

And got one of these posh bugalows with A/C.

Unfortunately Irene had to write her BLADDER paper. This paper accompanied us throughout the whole one week vacation. It was the first paper we did together. Jaja, she the content and I did the layout. But it was fun. It was actually the first real holiday we had after months.

But Irene had no idea. I was actually raising the topic of marriage during the day. I even asked her if she thinks it would be appropriate to ask her parents before I make my proposal and admitted that this would most probably be the most scary part. Indeed it was, but I took this obstacle already 5 weeks ago, back in Singapore.

Well, so I prepared the evening.

We had no kitchen so I was not able to cook, and had to buy some BBQ stuff. Squids, Potato, Steak, Pepper, Onion, Tomatoes. I got the champagne out of the fridge, lit the candles, and noticed that all I forgot was a reasonable dress.

Well..in the the cover of "celebrating our 2 years anniversary", we had a really romantic dinner

After we had lunch and I smoked like my 4th cigarette I had to admit Irene that I have no present for her for the 2 years anniversary. I told her that I thought about something handmade, like a drawing or a CD. But all I eventually came up was a poem.....and well....with the last 2 lines, trying to speak louder as my heart beat, sitting on my knees, the ring in my hand.... The expected "WHAT" was shot straight in my face, and so I was able to come up with the official wording. It took Irene about 10 seconds....it took me aout 10 years...But she said "Yes!"

So now it is perfect. This year we gonna marry. And by the time you read this here...even my parents know.

The date for the German Wedding is chosen. The 06th October 2007. We will celebrate in Lemgo, where else. The Metropole itself. You will get all information on the blog: www.the-big-big-day.blogspot.com

We are very sorry that we cannot invite all of our friends and buddies we would like to. Lemgo is big and has everything a metrepole can offer (of course), but caused by limitation of ability to organise everything from Singapore and Banda Aceh, we had to choose a place which is uncomplicated for us, but therefore limited in space. The sad outcome of this decision is that we had to cut the list of invitees bloddy. Irene and me are very sorry for that and thank you for your understanding. We are also aware that many friends, esp. from Singapore won't be able to show up. The chinese wedding will take place one year later in Sinagpore, for those who cannot afford to fly over or take a week off.

By the way....golf in Tioman is quite nice




And we got a A+ for this bladder paper!

Mum and Pop in Singapore

The first picture...the rest are coming as soon as I find my charger

Halloween in Rio

Carneval in Rio? Well....next time

Halloween in Singapore. 6 Busses packed with costumed people (about 15 from us), some bottles of vodkas and a VIP ticket for all clubs. We hopped from club to club (7 in total), took a drink in each, occupied MacDonalds (give me beef, how, bear that want not die spoke) and still danced when lying in bed.

War ein wirklich doller abend. Koelnreif!

We started early to think it is better to stop

Irene and Cyrstal

What a timing!!! Judith and Andi made it in time to Singapore

Miri shot the chicks only - Da brutal LINDE

Miri (change your haircut Miri) and EBRU

LINDE or MIRI and EBRU


Irene made Rio happening

But we had fun like shit!

The first few months in Aceh

How are you? I hope everybody is as well as I am right now. I think it is once again time to tell a short story about my whereabouts. It is one of these stories or call it “quick snaps” of my life; to keep you involved and updated. But it is difficult to begin this time. In the small update I gave you 4 months ago, I told you that I finished my internship in Sri Lanka and eventually got my first job. Fortunately, during my 10 days in Germany between the assignments, I had the time to meet some of you and some of you took the time to meet me. It was a blast!!!! And packed with surprises!!!! Unfortunately it did not work out with most, not even thinking about you guys outside Germany. Well, I think it is the life I choose at the moment and therefore we have to stay in contact via mail, msn and skype. However, I miss you and I am sorry that I am so lazy with writing. But let me begin to catch up.

Well, I am in the middle of nowhere right now; in a 4-wheeldrive jeep. Next to me is Iwan, my friend and driver on the steel. Christine, our intern, is at the back. We are driving on 3-8 meter wide pists, build and left unfinished by AUSAid (the Australien Development Cooperation – it seems they have been drunk when planning it). The last 5 hours we were driving though probably the world’s worst Tsunami Impact Region, packed with housing programs from various international agencies, crossed a thousand proforma bridges, saw probably 35 refugee camps and some hundreds emergency tents in the …. yeah right, in the middle of nowhere. The night begun, and so the adventure. The problem in real life adventure is that it is quite boring until something real is happening. So I listen to the latest Indonesian Pop-charts my singing Iwan has on tape.

It seems that some of you did not get the mail I send in late April, so I should start from the beginning and also tell about Aceh itself, the job I am doing here and the insanity that is going on. The problem is that everything is quite connected so please forgive if I jump in the topics sometimes. About 10 weeks ago I got a job with GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) in Aceh, Indonesia. Aceh if you (Es laeuft gerade “1,2 Polizei”-ich glaub ich sterb) probably know attracted quite attention since the Tsunami (Tsu – Wave; Nami – Harbor) was not “the wave in the harbor”, but the wave who took the harbor in a whole and all that was around. Aceh, on the tip of Sumatra, was the most affected region by the Tsunami 1 ½ years ago. The destruction makes the damage the Tsunami caused in Thailand or Sri Lanka look minor. About 230.000 people died. About 215.000 are missing. The Province Aceh, (at least until the election next November) called Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, with the capital Banda Aceh lost 97,5 % of their GDP from one day to the other; actually within 3 hours.

It is very difficult to describe what has happened here, and impossible to imagine. These 4 satellite pictures show quarters of Banda Aceh.

I don’t know if they can show a bit of what has happened here… Yes, I think they do. Probably better than being here today. In fact it is not only very hard to imagine when you are on the other side of the world, but also hard seeing when you are here.

The destruction was so massive that everything hit by the wave in the area vanished. Actually the second wave was the only one recognizable being a wave. The first, third and fourth were more an extreme increase of water heights; it pond up to 30 meter because the water was blocked by the mountains on the one side and the pressure of the sea pushing the water from the other side. The worst destruction however was caused by the current when the water was withdrawing. The main impact area is nothing but wasteland nowadays. Even though Banda Aceh was not one of the main impact regions, whole quarters and suburbs of the city are completely gone. These impressions can still be seen all everywhere. In many minor affected suburbs you can still find curiosities.

Can you tell me what is wrong with these pictures.

Yes. This electricity boat will probably never get back to the sea anymore. The “waves” carried his boat 5km inland and smashed it onto houses, cars and people. Other boats followed.








I climbed the electricity boat to give you an overview, what it means when people say Banda Aceh was destroyed. The picture in the middle shows you a quarter almost untouched by the wave. You see (in the front of the picture) that the houses are very close to each other and that you probably could walk through the city from one site to the other, by stepping from one window in the other. The second picture shows you a quarter of the capital 5 km inland.

All white / shiny roof tops are new houses! The old houses are red by rust. Imagine, these pictures are taken 1 ½ years after the Tsunami and only Germany alone promised 500 Million Euro for reconstruction for all three countries hit by the Tsunami, and Indonesia definitely got the biggest piece. NGOs like Care International or Oxfam (the latter was just accused to be involved in a corruption affair – this can cost your hand in the Islam dominated Province Aceh) have each about 200 Million $ for their own. Almost all countries have some activities here (BRR published a list on the net – 6 pages! - even the Italian) and housing programs were and are very popular (the reason is more that they are so easy to implement and impact is easy to measure). But they have to hurry, due to the grant prohibition for 2007. But isn’t that massive. They did so much and still so less. However, the activities in the whole region are very widespread. The most activities, like ours, are concentrating on the east coast. The impact was not as massive as on the other side, but due to the higher density of population, villages and therefore economic activities, the destruction was worse. Our program “Economy Recovery and Microfinance” (ERMF) is among the other 4 GTZ programs (Technical Vocational Training, Administration and Registration, Local Government, Health) the biggest program and split into two main activities: “Economic Recovery” and “Microfinance” The Recovery component deals with a “In Kind” - Grant Programs (This means under the title “Back 2 Business” we grant micro and small enterprises productive assets up to 500 Euros, to enable them their restarting of their business – we give out 1 Million Euro for fishing nets, sewing machines, small generators, but also build new lakes for prawn farming, a dike, etc.) (Gunnar is dying when this is over). Other major programs, which – other than the Grant program that ends this November – is our BDS (Business Development Services) programs as well as a project to support the economic economy by improving the political and business environment. The picture shows our project focus region.

(SORRY BUT I COULD NOT UPLOAD THIS PICTURE YET...WILL TRY TO FIND ANOTHER ONE)

These funny roads of a total length of 200 km from Banda Aceh (BA) to Lohkseumawe are in a good shape. Even though they are pretty dangerous, our drivers can bring you here in less then 6 (!!) hours. Ok, you really should not sit in the front when having an easy heart. True. But I think this is quite typical for Indonesia, and if you are not able to read in cars it might be a bit boring, but at least it is reasonable.. Well…. Being lucky (or not?), I am not forced to go to Lohkseumawe more then once a month…or two months. The people from economy recovery on the other hand have to travel almost weekly and more and more like Gunnar, a friend and tempan sekantor (Kollege) is even moving all the way down.

I am back in my field of microfinance. It is very nice to find another region with such less and poor microfinance services to work on like Sri Lanka was Even though the SL has quite much activity ongoing but the quality was, is and regarding the war nowadays will probably stay very bad for some time!. The projects I am involved in are mostly focused on capacity building and product development. I am working together with the local university to develop a range of coursework modules for their bachelor degree, even conducting lectures myself at the university (quite funny), work together with Technical Service Providers (TSP) to establish some sort of regular trainings, trainings for trainers, setting up a banking labortarium for on the job trainings, as well as the implementing of Management Information Systems. But one of my most favorite projects is in the starting position: The establishment of a new rural bank in Lhokseumawe with local shareholders with local shareholders. Yes, it probably means that I will have to travel this 6 hour route some times, but it is a perfect project, especially, because one bank is planned to work on Shari’ah principles. If I get the contact to the other BPR opening here in Banda Aceh, or find a 2nd one we can open on convenient banking principles... It is my phd-thesis I always wanted. But I still haven’t talked with my supervisor about that., but an external PhD, within a year…why not? Or half working and then in 2 years? hehe.... And perhaps we can also work together with Hannah from CGAP (a pretty need organization) to experiment with new, alternative delivery mechanism. (I hope you are as excited as I am Hannah!!!) The rest covers pretty much organizational and management issues of the program and of course … thanks to Dirk….ppt-presentations. What a shame. I mean, I like doing them at home, with a glass of wine, a cigarette, and good music. But I am in Aceh. It is interesting how the Islam - Quran can be interpreted.

We have 2 restaurants. The highlight is the “Pace Bene”, an Italian with 3 dishes. There is no cinema. No pub. No theatre. No funpark. We have one extremely expensive café, promoting “Bali, Jakarta, Aceh”, instead of “London, Paris, New York”. We work between 50 and 84 (my personal record) hours a week. We don’t want any special treatment. We like what we do. But a beer from time to time would be nice. I mean, being German…….we need food. Honestly, we are very happy here. And we get our beer. But we have to do it "illigally". Its not 100% cleared yet. I am not sure if the short description of my projects sounds interesting for you, but for me it is a almost perfect. Never had so much fun! You should also see my hacienda. Well…..see….This is the entrance. At night we have torches all over the place!

This is the living room, this is our garden. But at least we have Mangos, Coconuts, Strarfruits and Guave. We will no get Papaya and Bananas.

OK , we still need some time with our garden, and actually it changed already. Now we have green and some more plants. This weekend I gonna try to build a BBQ. Because one day Irene will come and all who know her, damn she can eat.

Here we can go up to our rooms and this is my room. (above) And here…this is the view from my balcony, from which you enter my room. Leave the door of the toilette open….this view.












You can also see the volcano. We live a bit outside but close to the office. We are surrounded by nature. Literally! We feel the nature everywhere. The mountains are a few steps away. We have a natural pool some minutes down the road. The earthquakes are lull us to asleep. The volcano gives us some nice fireworks from time to time.
The Hacienda I live in I share with Sonia, Claudia, Eva (all GTZ though). We have so reinvest in the house. By this we build on our dream palace; the garden, the interior design, the projector. We really like it. We have mango trees, Coconut palm trees, Guava Trees, Star fruit trees and vegetables in the garden. Next months I will hopefully have a goat and therefore soon a bbq place in the garden.

Another way for me to escape the work and to relax and also to get new energy is Singapore. Irene and I just found a nice room in a condo close to NUS. Irene was recently accepted for a master program, jointly offered by NUS and TU Muenchen. She received a full scholarship by BASF and will come for her studies to Germany in June 2007, after her 10 months coursework at NUS. I will try to fly every 2-3 weeks for a weekend to her and enjoy theatres, cinemas, good food (the Indonesia kitchen is quite limited to Rice with Rice, or some Noodles. Pork is of course forbidden, and chicken is not too safe, since the birdflue spreads out in Sumatra.) and our relationship.. The distance is about 3 ½ hours by plane and the costs do not exceed a weekend relationship between Munich and Berlin. Yes, I am very happy at the moment. We listen to Iwan’s tape for the 4th time now and I really regret that I did not by an Ipod yet. But finally, with the first sun light and 12 hours later (230 km) we arrive in Melouboh. The adventure I promised was not a fake, but began with the next day. In the following few days we traveled through the west coast and visited about 17 loan and savings cooperatives in a jointly program with BRR – The Ministry of Reconstruction. BRR, is selecting 63 of these cooperatives for a (each) 40.000-70.000 Euro grant program ... it is a dicsussed approach. We joined their staff being in an observer role. I really enjoyed the trip in the beginning. It was a good opportunity to see more from Aceh and from the reality we face when implementing our program. Here are a few to give you an impression.

To get an impression of the landscape, the people and the living conditions on this very tip of Sumatra. Again and again the affects of the Tsunami are visible all over the place. Difference between the old and new coastlines, however, is only visible from the air. But indicators of a shift of the island are to be seen everywhere. The leftovers of bridges, 100 meter inland, the wasteland, lakes and . Where ever you go you can see the destruction of infrastructure and houses. The line of tents and refugee camps, the temporary buildings seem not to stop. When we come to a MFI we normally face the absence of reporting books, member lists and account information. The Tsunami took everything. But they did not take creativity of the people to get on money. And suddenly a motorbike crashed into our car. Doing 2 mistakes at the same time, we left the car and stayed for discussion. The next mistake was to believe the BRR people, that we just have to bring this guy to the hospital, pay 5 Euro and leave. Christine and I were quite helpless, because we could not just leave the guy there, and only with 5 Euros and no police… But it came back anyway. After we visited the last cooperative this evening, our people suggested to visit the village of the guy who crashed into us. “We have, of course to see how he is!!!!” When we arrived at the village we were sitting in the circle of wise men within minutes, and had to defend ourselves. The our people withdrew for a coffee and after some hours completely. Christine (able to speak a bit Indonesian), the frightened Iwan (almost not able to speak English) and me (I had 10 lessons so far) were alone. They showed us a totally damaged motorbike (Good that I made a picture right after the accident that shows the minor damage the biuke and the major damage at our car) and explained us that the poor fellow broke at least his right leg (so far) and has to fly to Singapore for treatment. The minimum amount we have to pay is 1000 Dollar. JUHU!!!!! At this point I really have to explain that the motorbike crashed into our standing car! After some hours of discussion and a furious brother, we finally called the police who took my driver into jail – for god sake I was not a tourist, but employed by the German Government. It took us 3 days at the police station, various discussions and several phone calls (the best was the one of my supervisor: “Matthias, I will send you a helicopter! Now! I will get you out of there! I am serious. - but I could of course not leave Iwan alone there. It would be quite unfair and I don’t want to know what they would have done with him) to have a report, stating that it was not our fault, the poor fellow will go to a local hospital and not to Singapore or to a shaman, that we will only pay his hospital bill and the damage on our car, when my country director called from BRR Headquaters. After a small chat between the official of BRR and the local police president, the police apologized and let us go.

Irene and me will come to Germany over Xmas. Hope to see you for a nice little PARTY! Matthias

Happy Birthday to the man who lived 29 exciting years on earth!

Matthias is officially 29 on the 9th September!

Special birthday cake made with Double Whopper and bacon and 29 potato candles!

We eventually made a nice little potluck party at my new place, nice music, nice company, lots of spicy food and alcohol overdose. That was all we need.
Girls holler!
From left to right: Elizabeth, me, Crystal, Carlos (my clueless flatmate)
Carlos could only get high on alcohol in Singapore. I think he is probably high on weed in Germany right now.
Revenge of the white flatmate: Protests against our flatmates' Maoist's rules, led by Carlos.

Blackforrest birthday cake baked by me with love. (I wish)

Happy Birthday my love.

Party In Maninjau

Finally we have the first picture of Indonesia, even though they are probably not the pictures you are watining for. However, you see first of all some faces of our expats living and celebrating the informal and therefore "pre-" housewarming party of the rumah maninjau. Our lovely home.

The rumah maninjau is the hacienda of Claudia, Eva, Sonia and Matthias

Paulino and Petra

Hans Henning und Svenja

Claudia and Sonia

Paulino and Micheal

Natsuko and Matthias

Isabella and Christine





Oliver, Claudia and Hans Henning

no comments




Paulino's Cheese - Sandwich


Paulino's Chicken - Sandwich

Paulino's Shrimp - Sandwich

Convocation ceremony!

And so, I graduated with my Bachelor's!

Yay!!! Don't we look like Harry Potter's mates?

Jocelyn, Lee Wei, me and Crystal...

Receiving my degree on stage from the Dean... ehehehe

My parents and I...

The Kiss...I'm sure Crystal is blardy happy we don't have to slog out any more over night lab reports! Will update with more pictures from that day. Matthias I'm still waiting... Yay.

Viva World cup!!!

The next afternoon is my convocation ceremony but first, we are going to support Germany in the WC finals!!! Look at what he did, I think I don't even have a chance to be anti-German!

Deutschland wieder Weltmeister!!!!!!!!

Natives of Malaysia

A visit to another one of Malaysia's best kept secret, Kuala Kubu Bahru, brought on a series of reflections. It sure is strange how I always need nature to rejuvenate, both spirit and soul. The cleansing power Mother Nature always has on me is amazing, it clears my mind and heart and everytime I am back in the greens, I feel so at home. KKB is situated in the Malaysian state of Selangor. The travelling was a real hassle because the place was inacessible, we had to make many bus transits before we finally made it to the native home village at night (we started the journey at 7.30am in the morning!). The good thing was, I had Siyun and Cleo with me, 2 really sunny young women thus the long journey was never a bore.

The home for the Orang Aslis, known as the aborigines of Malaysia. The story was, their home used to be situated in a valley, which is now a reservoir for a dam. They were relocated as part of the government's dam project, thus the reconstruction of totally modern brick houses away from the valley. I was actually looking forwad to experiencing a more native way of living! I mean, physically but the way of life is still native compared to what we city people have... Only 20% of the natives received education, the rest are happy with their simple way of life, only the seasons matter to them, not time nor age.

Introducing the Orang Aslis...

their heartland....

and Antares, the guardian of Magick River. Antares is one of the people I've met who made an impression on me. He is one who has lived his life and lives with a fierce passion for life.

Me at the camping ground...

Me and Anoora, the wife of Antares in the bamboo palace. The bamboo house is Antares's construction of love for his beloved child wife, Anoora.

There's even a TV on the left side of this picture! Sorry if I had made it sound like I was visiting the Kung Bushmen tribe.

Definitely au naturel living...

Some guests of Antares.. they were seeking the same purpose as we were, spirituality and a peace of mind.

Start of the trekking trail..

The mother fall...

Crossing one of the many rivers. Some had currents as high up to our chests.

Getting close to the mother fall...

The jump!

Me, Cleo and Antares...

Butterfly props, as Antares put it.

Immersing ourselves in the natural jacuzzi bath, the hot springs! We went at nights because firstly, the weather during the day time coupled with the springs will literally boil us. Secondly... more privacy, no indecent exposure of the human anatomy.

And on the last day of our trip, there was a festival going on in the tiny town of Kuala Kubu Bahru, it was the festival celebrating the arts. Kids from all over the town were gathered and each group or organisation will perform their speciality. Be it a song or dance, every performance was unique in its own way because their efforts expose their virgin celebration of the arts. I was so touched I actually cried!

Children from the KKB town learning Caporeira, the Brazillian martial arts. Oh this was for the sake of a cultural exchange between the various schools and organizations.

Antares's segment, the showcase of tribal music.

Some of our kids with a play on stage.

I am in love with nature, I am afraid of nature. The reason why men fear is that they do not understand their surroundings or situation. I always tell myself, nature does no harm to men, but ironically, I got my ear infection from the river waters. Haha..

Vienna with Familiy before I took of

Und die ganze Affenbande bruellt.....

Before I fly off I had a chance to relax one weekend with my parents at my sister's place. As the days before to Germany, I brought the sun to Vienna this time.

Impressions on the beautiful city Vienna

The street are really different to Banda Aech. You are thrown back to the 19th century...

and to the 21st

Or all mixed up



... the orangerie

The nice one with parents getting old is that they need a break and a glass of wine at least 3 times a day!

The holocaust temple in Vienna

Taking a break a la Range ... Vine, Bread, Cheese, filled peperonies, dried tomatoes...life is good

Watching my sister when working with her monkeys ... well actually it was me working ... Cutting all the fruits and mixing them with worms

Happy with guiness....my sister

I am just to white...I really should shave my head again and get tanned!

Enjoying time with us!!!!

Love ya

Sigh. I am still waiting for the pictures of my trekking trip I did last weekend. Getting restless and I am just unable to keep my butt glued in the comfort of my home. And I am longing to hear properly again. The ear infection I have is killing me. I have been rather camitosed ever since I got home.
Got home Sunday night.
Had high fever on Monday.
Saw the doctor on Tuesday and she said, "oh ur ears are pink and healthy and it must just have been the common cold. ENT. When u have a flu it affects ur Ears, Nose, Throat." I was so relieved to hear that.
On Wednesday I went to work and it got worst. My left ear was in so much pain and I can't sleep at nights.
Thursday, the other ear got blocked as well. Ok my cold cannot be this bad I thought.
Friday I woke up in pain. Went to see another doctor and the first thing he said when he looked into my left ear was, '' it's an infection. I don't know if ur ear drums might have bursted already. '' Oh my god, I am going to lose an ear!! He said something like I might have gotten the infection during my trekking trip, that the river water might be dirty. How would I know? I couldn't hear.
Saturday, I started on a course of antibiotics. I thought I was going to be well soon. Furthermore I had done nothing the whole week that my patience is wearing thin. How can I have so much energy in me but no where to dispense??? I'm frustrated. So ok, I decided to go Velvet. I was happy but not only 15 minutes in the club, my head spun. I threw up so badly in the club toilet that I had to leave an hour after I arrived. Not only once but 2 times.. and another on the ride home in the cab. What's happening? I think I must have been cursed by some psychomaniac stalking me.
Sunday I woke up feeling nauseous. Is this how somebody pregnant really might feel every morning? It was a terrible feeling, having to drag ur feet out of the bed on a Sunday morning. I decided I was a little better and went to catch a horror thriller movie. Arghhh what a wrong choice, the gruesome scenes just made me threw up my breakfast and lunch! It was the worst day of my week. I threw up every hour, during the movies, during the ride home and during the soccer match when Brazil was playing. I was totally bedridden.
Comes Monday and that was it!!! I went to the doctor again and found out that the antibiotics was too strong for me. Good, I thought that was really the end of me.
Tuesday.. Wednesday... my restlessness is just building up. I wanna do something!!!! Just give me something to do apart from lazing in front of the couch, apart from eating and reading in bed. Well actually, i just want to hear properly again. I want my left ear to be able to share what my right ear hears.. I want to be able to concentrate on a fairly intelligent converstaion without having to say 'huh' every minute. I want to be lazy and be able to pick out 2 to 3 converstaions at the same time.. and even that, be conscious of my surroundings.
Sigh. Fuck the ear infection man.

...we'll better be soon

Well.....I would also like to thank for the chance we got after all we went through. Even this may for some people not even be a chance to live in singapore and indonesia, only for a year, before Irene will have to follow her career to Germany for some time; but for us it is like a dream comes true. And therefore I would like to welcome you to the 2nd round of our life.

Finally we did it! We shortend the distance down to 2 1/2 hours, airport - airport. This sounds more scary that it is....the price is almost the same as Frankfurt - Berlin, and esp. since I have a real job now, we can afford it more than once every 3 months. My first job. Man, you can't imagine how happy I am. I never expected to be where I am right now and for the next 2 years, everything looks quite pinky! As soon as Irene starts her posh master's program, we gonna share a small apartment or a room at a good friend's apartment in Singapore ( I hope the 2nd - Linde, please!!!) Life is beautiful.

However, here some pics from my stay in Germany...when I was there in May for 10 days. I had to sign my contract, see all kind of doctors and most important seeing you! I missed most, of course, but I could fit in some and some could fit in me. Thank you. You made me come home! Whereever I was. You are home where you are understood, right Lotte?

BBQ in Colonge.....

For the people who don't know her...Sonia will be my new flatmate in Banda Aceh

Some of the BBQ crew....it was a very relaxing day! A shame Greg was not here!

A short stay at Mozart to relax, shower and kill the gin

and then to cologne's purple club....Duesseldorfer's party got lost on the way :(

This is Linde (next to Andi and me)....the flatmate in spe for Irene and Me

Lotte (, Niels, Marco, Jens and Max) were present as well, no question about that.

but time flies....like always

And some come when other go....

(Well some more pics will follow here, but I need my software/my notebook first)

But to tell you what my beloved girlfriend did in the meantime....becoming a bikini model in a girls magazin...

Always better when we're together...

Sorry that this space has been empty for a month or so..... Matthias just got accepted for a job in Aceh, at least an hour closer to me now and he is back now in Germany for 2 weeks to tie up loose ends. As for me, I just received news that I got accepted for my Master's programme with NUS and TUM!!!! Will be doing the course in NUS for the next 10 months starting in August, polishing my German as well before I am ready to take up Germany again. Hehehhee...
So here begins Round 2, the next 2 years of our relationship. Only God knows what he has in store for us.
If u are patient, we'll definitely be right back with more pictures.

no comments....

Irene & Matthias in Malaysia, 2006

Here we are once more, one of the many little trips we like to reward ourselves with, actually it is really more of an excuse to pack as much time alone together whenever we see each other on our countless special days...
Destination this time : Malaysia

Give us trekking trips anytime, we both love to get down and dirty and rough it out. :) This time, we went camping in the world's oldest rainforest... Taman Negara, it is located in the Malaysian state of Pahang. We haven't really been prepared for this trip :

number 1) the monsoon season was a major worry - the buses don't even run from singapore to the rainforest because most of the roads there was flooded at this time,

number 2) I cannot ignore the fact that we might be constantly battling some bloodsuckers in the rainforest - leeches, YUCKS,

number 3) we only actually made out a plan on the day when we were supposed to leave - that doesn't include packing and having tickets for a ride there.

Damn. But still we made it, after one whole evening of bargaining in Johor for the fare rides, we finally took the KTM (train), some waiting in a hotel lounge for a bus ride and lastly, a 3 hour boat trip on the river straight in to the rainforest.

6 hours night train..

Lesson learnt : Kiss in public at ur own risk. Even sharing the sleeping bunk in this train will invite disapproving stares. We are still in Asia afterall, we have to respect the public's opinions.

We have to take a river taxi every time we want to go from let's say, the camping ground to the restaurant, costs about 1 ringgit.

Oh that reminds me of something ridiculous.

Cost of park entrance : 1 Ringgit

Fine when u are caught without one : 500 Ringgit.

We had been the only ones camping out in the open. At first we were discouraged by the park rangers because of the monsoon weather but well, a trekking trip cannot do without camping. A big surprise awaited us in the morning though, we woke up swimming inside the tent. Oh, Mother Nature.

Some pictures about the hiking..... the Canopy walk.

Some vodka and Carcassone...

That's not all folks.... to be continued.

Irene & Matthias in Malaysia, 2006 - Continued

Continued....
This is a scene u will never see in Singapore, our bus ride out was interrupted by a flooded section of the road. How did we get across? Of course, by hopping out of the bus and on to a little boat where a boatman will paddle us across, where the 2nd bus awaits...

On our final day of the trip, which was also, coincidentally, Valentine's Day, we went to Genting Highlands. Being a child again had never been so funny!

The Super Toboggan -- Feel the speed!!

Poor Matthias was over the weight limit for this...

Riding the water boats...

Poor Irene didn't know where the direction controls were..

And...... in the Rolling Thunder mine train's tunnel.... God, how many of u people love these stuff?

Christmas 2005

This was where we both spent our Christmas eve 2005, along the beautiful Esplanade riverfront. We decided that making a little picnic dinner of sushi and champagne was our idea of a romantic Christmas eve dinner instead of dining in overly expensive restaurants for Christmas turkeys.
This was our second christmas together in Singapore, the first being in Germany with Matthias's parents. (no white xmas though :( ) (Comment from M: We gonna celebrate this year again with my parents and the plan is to go straight after xmas for some skiing to austria....with Lotte and Niels, Tobi und Marion, Andi und Judith, we will see who will join...but it looks like a couple vacation...)

Do u know why I think this was really romantic? Well, we actually had almost everything we could ask for for a romantic setting : Live jazz (is it? or what music, i forgot), beautiful scenery, good food and of course, really nice presents for each other. :) Not forgetting to add on, we actually had a live audience! I don't know if this is really not a common thing to do here but we had so many passer-bys smiling in our direction and this picture was even secretly taken by a photographer who later even approached us to put the rose in place.. Haha. Perhaps it was the warmth of the Christmas spirit, perhaps all the sane people were packed off to the expensive restaurants.. :)

Sushi picnic = $30
Champagne = $60
Strawberries = $3
Cost of that smile = Priceless












What could be the mystery beneath the pink-wrapping?












And some more of the pictures taken by the secret photographer when we were unaware....

And of course.... the beautiful Merlion city! :)

Some more pictures from the Christmas we shared....

This is Matthias and Family Tan....he stands out...true

I just want to show you Irene's most favorite hobby....tearing her face apart

Singapore in Xmas light....in some ways it reminds me quite of New York

The show of Kapila

The This art we owe to Kapila. One of our friends, trained in ballet, with a scholarship of the Goethe Institute for modern dancing (Berlin 2004), took some volunteers into a workshop and choreographed some showes in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately I could only visited one of those, but I took the chance to keep it forever in my heart.










The moon dance is avialable as video with me if you like.



We all owe Kapila and I am sure to speak in the voice of all my friends in Sri Lanka that I am happy to be part of a revolution in Sri Lanka. Mixing modern art with Sri Lankan traditions. I wish you all the best and much success my friend. You see Kaipla himself in action here.

Faces of Sri Lanka

We are in the process of consolidating our blogs with the goal to come up with the IRENE and MATTHIAS Website!!!! Hehehehe......The design is finalized and Kailai is working on drawing the framework. You can be excited.

So long I transfered the pictures from my SRI LANKA BLOG here as well and will also load up some older picture of my last trip with my friends (see below) I made the week before I left. The Faces of Sri Lanka, however, is a fine collection. another blending show you can find on http://www.davidinsrilanka.blogspot.com. find out yourself what is better: Canon or Nikon. The show of Kapila was actually recently repeated in Barefoot (Colombo) with massive success. These picture were used for the flyer! My friends....well.....what can I say. Friends!

So apologize that these pics are already some months old. The first of Banda Aceh will come as well....give a one or two more weeks.

Enjoy!

Friends from Sri Lanka

Tripping in Sri Lanka

On the first weekend of the Sri Lanka trip, Matthias and I went to Kandy. It is another city in Sri Lanka but located higher above ground compared to Colombo. Kandy is supposed to be a religious city where u can definitely find more places of worship and cultural stuff, which I am really interested in. Matthias presented me with first class tickets for a train ride, first class meaning u don't have to be packed off together with the many people who is on the train ride as well and being subjected to molestations and thefts. Hehee. (Sorry, different country, different definition.) No, I am kidding, the ride itself was amazing.... the real difference lies in being able to absorb the sceneries of the countryside when u're travelling in the comfort of first class seats and fans!

Sorry folks, I wish I can show u pictures of Kandy here but Matthias forgot the camera for this trip... what a pity! But I will pick out a few interesting things I saw in Kandy which leaves an impression on me...

Anyway I thought I could escape from the heat once we get to Kandy because it is higher up on the grounds but the heat was still sweltering.... Only in the day time though, it is always raining past 4pm, really wet country. The city itself is a busy place, buzzing with peddlar activities, local people going on with their daily routine life; indian restaurants and cafes packed all the time, round the clock.
My favourites : The mixed fruit juice stall -- U pay for pure fruit juice blend, its yummy and cheaper to drink comparing to eating fruits.
The fruit stall -- I love the way the peddlars call out when they are trying to sell u coconut drinks... They have only small yellow coconuts (we have green in Singapore), they chop the tops open on the spot with their parangs and serve u with dirty straws!
The weighing scale along the streets -- I found out how the locals weigh themselves, they would usually have peddlars along the streets with the bathroom scales and a sign next to it 'Weigh urself for 8 Rupees'.
Issin't it amazing how the locals earn a living?

The famous Tooth Temple is located at the heart of Kandy, where worshippers throng the place every day and night to do their daily prayers. The temple has a history about how Prince Sidharta became Buddha and of course, about the powers of the ancient tooth relic. It draws many religous local worshippers and tourists who have heard about the Tooth Temple alike.
Besides the temple located in town, we made a cultural hike out of the city areas to visit other Buddhist and Hindi temples.... they all share a common thing, they have histories dating back to at least 800 years old, intricate wood carvings and architecture which is really an interesting sight to absorb.
Now I wished I had shown more interests in my history classes during my secondary school years, I would perhaps have been more prepared for this Kandyan trip! :)

Last but not least... I saw the traditional Kandyan dance! We went to a performance featuring the dance together with their fancy costumes... and at the end of the whole segment, there was even a performance on fire walking. Totally cool. Last time I saw a fire walking performance was long ago during Vesak Day in Malaysia.

Alright finally I do have some pictures here... Matthias and I went on another trip during my stay in Sri Lanka, to Hikkaduwa, this beautiful beach paradise for surfers as much as for people who just want a nice relaxing weekend. It is just a couple of hours bus ride away from Colombo and honestly, it is a tourist paradise because the whole beach is just always thronged with foreigners... the only local people u see are those who are working at the beach lodges and cafe bars...

It never seems to rain in Hikkaduwa... always fine weather! And fine waves for surfing!











And here where we lay.....














At Rita's, we get the most amazing garlic toasts for breakfast....











And some more pictures of the beach....

Surf boards for rent!

What is the difference between daylight and sunset?

Daylight....

Beautiful beautiful beautiful sunset.....

On the 2nd day of the trip, Matthias and I decided to rent a bike to ride around the little village of Hikkaduwa and finally make our way to the rainforest for a little trek. It costs only 10 Sing dollars to rent this bike for the whole day, and it looks like it is only going on its virgin trip, so brand new! We have initially estimated that we will be able to get to the rainforest in 4 hours, provided that the roads on the maps are really existing, and make our way back to Hikkaduwa by the time the sun sets..... But 6 hours later, we still didn't have the rainforest in sight at all. No surprise at all that our estimation was wrong, we could only go maximum of 60km/hour on this scooter but the real culprit were the roads!! The winding roads.... whenever u reach a corner u always sound the horn to avoid oncoming vehicles.... and perhaps the distances on the map... we never made it.

However, we did have a lot of fun riding the scooter through the villages. We received star treatment along the way... everyone along the streets waved and called out to us when we rode past!

Here comes the Scooty Pep hero!!!

And some pictures I took as we ride along the villages....

Plantation plots....

Ah lunch...... so YUMMY!! It took us some time to find something like a restaurant which serves what we wanted, we went from village to village until we almost ended up lunching at some fly-infested little hut. Good that we didn't miss this! Look at the food!!!!!!!

Look at Matthias...

We finally decided to visit the rock temple located in the hills...

And after that the waterfalls...

It was already close to evening when we got to the waterfalls and the rock temple... giving us a couple more hours of daylight to ride home. The streets at nights are not supposed to be so safe to be riding on because u don't get streetlamps every 100 metres.... we were lucky that it was not raining! And finally, after 9 hours of riding.... we made it back to Hikkaduwa at midnight, tired, hungry and with splitted butts.

Irene visits Colombo!!

Introducing..... Sri Lanka! The beautiful litttle island off India packed with cultural riches and many thousand years of ancient historical sites. For those who are curious and want to look up the island on the map, it is actually the land chipped off India (look South), surrounded by the vast Indian Ocean. It is more than a dot on the map, at least larger than Singapore island.
The really good thing about having Matthias working at different locations is that, I get to go wherever he goes! So as u people can guess, Matthias is right now located in Colombo, the heart and capital city of Sri Lanka, working on a development project for the GTZ.
We had 10 days for 2 short trips... and the rest of the days when Matthias was working, it was up to my own to explore the city he currently lives in. I would agree with him that living there long term would probably induce a love-hate relationship between u and the country. Do not get me wrong, Colombo is in many ways beautiful. It faces the Indian Ocean, it has beautiful sunsets and what I really find attractive about the city alone is the people. Sri Lankans have been amazing. The smiles on their faces seem to be a permanent feature and they go all out to help u even without u having to ask. What I mean is that, although they are simple people, their smiles have been the most genuine. Perhaps they are especially receptive towards tourists, or perhaps, like what most of u would believe, that they depend heavily on tourism as a revenue, thus if they have an opportunity to make a single cent out of u.... heh.
The hate part comes when u go out alone and are greeted by smiles and plaqued by never ending questions from EVERY SINGLE PEOPLE u see on the streets. They are so persistent and tuk-tuk drivers never leave u alone even if u ignore them. Yes I know, the people have been so friendly but sometimes, it is tiring not having some time alone without having tuk-tuk buggers trailing u. Haha.... and of course, there have been perhaps, the language barrier. I noticed that even though they don't know the answers to ur questions, they will never say they don't know. Wow.


Stalls selling food and drinks dotted along the Indian Ocean coast.... what I never understood was, every stall is the same.
The sunsets here are so gorgeous... Matthias told me that it was because of the dusty streets which rewards them with the beautiful sunsets. Hehe.





And impressively.... modern.
And the World Trade Centre.... when I was waiting for Matthias to get off work. :)

Some more pictures of Colombo.....

The Buddhist Temple by the lake... what's its name again? Seema Malikkaya Temple. Oh my lord, I have a good memory.

Sri Lankans consists mainly of Sinhalese and minority of Tamils, the majority being Buddhists and also, Hindus. The cultural history is so rich, u can see them in the number of temples and also, the design of the temples itself. I mean of course, this picture I have here is of a simple one, u'll have to visit the bigger ones away from the city itself.

Oh I think this is quite amusing. The picture u see here is actually that of a hospital's laundry... it is hung out to dry next to the extremely dusty streets of Colombo. :)

Of course.... not forgetting, the food is YUMMY!!! I still missed it some days...

The Kottyu man!! Chicken or Egg Kottyu, anyone? YUMMMMMM.

Irene and Matthias - Anniversaire 2005

Irene and Matthias on the Philippines, 2005

Philippines......Honestly I did never really know anything about the Philippines, besides that the ADB has its Headquaters in Manila, and i linked Manila with crime and shooting. YOU? I mean, what did you really know about this country. Green, yes. Rice, ok. Well...lets find out.

On my first trip back into the arms of my beloved bao bei, we decided to take once again the advantage of AirAsia and to go for our most favorite shared hobby. Tripping....so lets get some strenght, namely Mee Mee Hoon (yummy)and of we go...

Our first stop was - after we left Manila (or better Pasay City) as soon as possible - the Pagsaghan Waterfalls, close to St. Cruz…about 100 KM in the South of Manila. The 3 ½ hours ride made us realize being back in Asia. The streets gave us no chance to read or to drink (and we tried it) and made us realize that we will have to skip even more of our stopovers, due the max. speed has been 50 km/h, which was seldom reached because the bus would have jumped higher than a meter and moreover had to stop every few km to pick up people or traders.

The falls have been very nice. It takes a 45 minutes canoe ride (the prizes are set by the government and it is even forbidden to tip, because some years ago the skippers took exorbitant prizes, which made the government interfere.) through a canyon, where they shot most of the jungle boat trip scene of “Apocalypse Now” and even when we were there they shot a new movie, but we could not find out which one. It was almost the only place we met tourist (mostly Korean) for the whole trip.

We went on to San Pablo to find out that the train schedule for the only train track on the Philippines has been reduced to one train in each direction a day. Of course we did missed the train to Naga, where we initially planned to hike on the Mt. Mayon (the most dangerous Volcano worldwide – still extremely active (last burst 2002) and you can see the lave lake from the edge (only about 40-50 meter below)).

Skipping Mt. Mayon as well we stayed in San Pablo, that has about 7 Volcano Lakes and explored the surroundings. Oh….I forgot. FOOD. We had our first real contact with local food in San Pablo. The food varies between pork, beef, chicken and fish + RICE. The chicken is good – it is roasted. But the rest consist mostly only of innards, and the fish is not cleaned – but fried. The Sate is small or big intestines…..I did not ask for the rest….but it tasted mostly like pure fat. Well….they have quite a range on breakfast biscuits and cakes; that makes the breakfast to a feast compared to the rest of the day.

We stayed in San Pablo to go the next day. The experiences this night have been quite nice. The Philippines are at least 1-2 time zones behind Indonesia (, which is 1 hour before Singapore-they cheated). But for the same economical reasons as Malaysia (that is normally one hour behind Singapore as well) the Ph did not adjusted there time and kept the same time zone as Singapore. This means……..it’s getting dark at 6 pm and due electricity is rare and streets lamps are actually not existing, your options to walk around are quite limited. So we joined some street gambling and some bingo and returned early to our hostel (300 Pesos a night for both (55 Pesos are one US$)).

We spent the day by walking around the lakes, looking for other lakes, Shopping on the local food market, buying some beer fot the nights

, in which we played Carcassone...like always. :) But before that the kids showed us how to jump!

The Jeepneys are the local buses. These are restovers of the World War II, but the creativity of the Philippinos worked wonders.

i

A kiss of a dragon.

Trycycles are of course everywhere. The Philippines are not different!

The next day we went to Banaue which is like 400 Km (11 hours) in the north. We really hope it was a misunderstanding, but they sent us to Baguio first. Baguio is 250 km north from Manila and only 100 km west from Banaue, but it took us another 8 hours (bus left at 8pm) to go from Baguio to Banaue…..we have reached the mountains !!!! We have no idea why we have been sent to Baguio, because there are direct busses to Banaue from Manila – where we had to change anyway. The people on the PH are really amazing and not to beat regarding openness, friendliness and kindness. Perhaps they just did not know.

Mein Mund an Deiner Brust

Irene, Du bist wirklich wunderschoen.

However, Banaue. It is known for its rice terraces. They are called the 8th world wonder. I don’t know if this is true, but they have been amazing.

We walked around the area the whole day and even went into the terraces for a 3 hours “hike” (with flip flops). A young girl was as friendly to show us around – but took 250 Pesos. It is really amazing btw. My most favourite topic “microfinance” is present everywhere, what gives me some good opportunity to annoy some people with my questions. Every village has at least 2 Rural Banks and almost everybody in the Philippines has a job. But you can not only see that, you feel it when in contact with people. Of course they ask if you want to buy something, but they stop with your first “no”. And kids are stopping begging immediately when giving some candy. Money is not that important than in the rest of Asia, what makes life as a tourist very comfortable. On the other hand….I have been main attraction wherever I came to. Not only that everybody smiled and laughed or even waved to me….many came and said “hi” and “good bye” and touched me, shook my hand and some even blessed me sometimes. It is weird but you feel good seeing so much friendliness around.

One of the 8th world wonders....

The next day we took a tricycle to Batad junction, from where we hiked for 3-4 hours (we have been quite out of shape) to this village, Batad, that is truly in a different world.

No cars, no streets, no telephone, no nothing. To walk around means to walk on the terraces or trough the “gardens” of the inhabitants. They have some paths, esp. where it is quite steep, but even those crossed the “gardens” of them. Still. The people smile to you and invite you….They talk to you and show you around (e.g. the waterfall), share their food and homes….the kids played with you.

It was really nice and even the food was 3 times the normal prize, it was the first and only good food we had. And if you have a chance….you really have to drink original rice wine….it is really yummy – and strong, my lord!!!!!

We went to bed quite early to get up at 3 am, hiked back in the dark with ONE headlamp, to reach the junction at 5:45 to reach Banaue at 6:45 to get the bus to Dangupan, that is close to the 100 Islands national park, to spent our last days at the beach. The 13 hours ride, changing in Baguio has not been the best. We arrived in the night, and spent 1 day around this area, a bit spoiled, bought some local CDs and spent the next day on a lonely beach…..with sun and rain in a good mix.

It has been really a nice trip and we CAN recommend the Ph for further trips. Due almost everybody speaks English (science is taught in English and almost everybody went to school (10 years – or at least elementary school for 4 years – the government schools are free of charge and private schools are around 1000 Pesos a months)) and the people are very open, it is not to difficult to come around. The problems of the limited travel speed should be better in the south due you have to take a boat all the time, but the street are worse – I wonder how? Still…..most of the deep south is strictly to avoid. Bohol and everything that is further down is No-Mans-Land. The government has no influence at all, terrorists groups and war lords are ruling everything, esp. in the Muslim areas, and fights are ongoing. It was btw the first time the Lonely Planet was a bit short on almost everything and for a 2 year old edition not up to date at all…….a shame

c u next time...

Life is beautiful

It's not a myth that Italians are a proud bunch of people. Their country is blessed with gorgeous sights, every inch of their architecture so intricately filled with history and also down to the very fact that Shakespeare's legend of the most famous lover of all time, Romeo and Juliet lived and still lives in Italy. Spaghetti, pizza, the San siro stadium, AC Milan, branded goods and style, romance... randomly as u name it, it says 'Made in Italy'. It's no wonder they are proud.

Some more pictures we have from May 2005 surprise trip to Italy...
Another one which involved sleeping in tents, sadly the tent went too many places and right now, its resistance towards rain water is running low. We were at a camping ground in Venice, just outside the city since no vehicles are allowed to drive through. In this camping ground we were surrounded by just caravans and the families making vacations travelling around in them. Our vacation vehicle was a cute yellow car loaned to us by Matthias's mom with the usual camping equipments in them.

Venezia camping site....

Matthias with his outdoor cooking skills, looks simple but he whipped mean spaghetti out of it.

Breakfast from top left clockwise direction: Fresh milk, coffee cake, Quark (something like yogurt), pretzels, chocolate spread, bread and shrimps (SO YUMMY).
The 2nd mode of transportation next to on foot... river taxis. Charming! I can always imagine flute music accompanying these boat rides...

I am around 168 cm tall.. so apparently, the Italians of the past were much shorter before evolution, or was this built for war matthias???

The city centre square of Venice, we never needed a map, all u have to do when u explore is to be lost, trying corners and little streets and every turn u get a surprise.

Little Andi (I remember the boy's name) was so amused by the pigeons he went around trying to catch them... So many thousands of those filthy birds!!! Argh!!!!

Lorenzo Il Magnifico, one of the important historic figures who made Italy as what it is today. Don't ask me for the detailed story about him, Matthias can tell it like he knows the person himself! Like I said, Germans are always extremely good in their history facts, issin't it?

Random beauties....

Random beauties trampled...

Not forgetting one of my favourites.... Spaghetti Vongole!!!!!!!!! YUMMY!!!!!

These are only pictures of Venice, too bad I can't show u Pisa and Florenz from the trip as well...

I remember what u said to me during the trip, 'Life is beautiful.' Indeed it is with u.

Irene and Matthias beim Bastl, 2005

Irene and Matthias in Italy, 2005

It was the first real trip we did on our own, without the need to pretend that we are just vistiting friends....it was the first time we saw each other since Irene left me in Paris - almost 5 months ago. Now she came for two weeks. Living in Darmstadt and working in Frankfurt, there was nothing much to do. So I took Irene the same day to one of the destitnation in Europe she hasn't seen yet and wanted so badly.

After a stopover at Marions and Tobi in Munich, we crossed Austria. Mum's car was packed to the fullest, with tent, loads of food, some flowers, and yeah...no tapes and somewhere in upper Italy, she found out about the destination.

The second one is always inside out!

Venice is properly one of the most romantic cities in a way....

Pisa on the other hand is quite old and falling apart. Still, you know that you can climb the tower again????

The food was of course amazing and we seldom spent so much on food before. We just could not resist the spagetthi vongole and a good pizza (Jambon + Rucola wins).

We have more pics somehwere...we will present more later......