Asia 2003

From Germany via Russia to Mongolia

2010-01-18T21:16:48+00:00

Eisenach - Moscow - Ulan Batar

We started on January, 12th from the train station in Eisenach, Germany - first heading for Berlin to catch the late afternoon train to Moscow. Fun already starts here since neither the train personnel or anyone else seems to understand us anymore. We already stepped into a different world. Well, until the border to White Russia it doesn't really matter.

The cabin feels somehow strange too, three beds on top of each other and barely space for the legs in front of the beds. However, with hands and feets we talk to Kolja, our cabin mate and get quite some interesting facts about nowadays Russia.

After midnight we ran into some trouble with the White russian customs, who don't stamp our valuta declaration. This can cause a lot of annoyance when leaving Russia again, so be warned if you are going to go on such a trip!

Moscow, Km 2000

We reached Moscow on the following day in the evening and find our lift Eugene from the train station to our guest nanny. No hassle. Perfect!

The next day it was fairly warm in Moscow, just about 5° below 0. So we explore the city centre by feet, the Red Square, Basilius Cathedral and the GUM shopping centre. Kremlin and Armour chamber are fairly expensive to vistit but very impressive too. Seldom seen so much pageantry on a single spot! Afterwards I cannot stand diamonds nor gold anymore. ;-)

Very nice indeed too, strolling along the river Moskwa behind the Kremlin, heading for the Red Square. Just to mention, the city centre of Moscow is, in terms of standards and prices not much of a difference to other european metropols. But communication can indeed become a problem, only a few expensive places offer english service. Nevertheless Moscows city centre seems to be a fairly secure place, lots of police men frequently check out the tourist spots for strange characters and may check your passport as well. However, by now I would prefer to visit Moscow in Spring. =)

On January, 15th Eugene brings us to Jaroslaw station. Our train to Ulan batar will depart from there. We have some spare time so we do some shopping and wait outside, perhaps looking a little bit stressed in between the crowd in this freezy dark night, looking for the right platform to start from, asking people here and there. As so it came, one of our bags went its own way in a split second. Containing our Digital camera, the dictionaries and "Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy". As one can imagine, we were pretty annoyed about that, but there was no help to get at all. No one wanted to understand us and our train was about to depart now too. Well then, into the train we went, fighting our way through the Mongolians who where moving huge packages through the small gangways. Welcome to Asia! After a while we find our cabin. In there two Mongolian women, of course only speaking Mongolian and a little bit of Russian. They offer us big bottles of whiskey. We introduce each other with hands and feets. We even tried binaries but that didn't help much eihter. =) Weird though, there are always other people coming and going in this cabin, bringing some stock in or taking other things out. A big trading train so we guess.

Next morning we manage to upgrade to a first class cabin for something like 45$. Cheers to corrupt train personnel! So, one more time packing and moving our belongings through the waggons, circling around the always packed traders. However, after that we have a very pleasant ride in this train and a cabin for only ourselfes.

Past birch trees and small villages with wooden cottages the train goes, and it really looks like in those old russian fairytales. Snow everywhere. The vastness of the Taiga. But as well, obvious massive cuttings on those "endless birch woods". Very often you can see there are only a couple of trees in a row beside the railroad, and nothing behind them.

Jekaterinenburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk - the train stops in the bigger cities and our mongolian friends use these opportunities to get out and sell fur coats, hats and other clothes to the already waiting Russians on the platform. What looked funny for us was indeed a rather hard business. In Ulan Ude for instance another crowd was waiting at the platform when our train arrived. They fought with our Mongolians to prevent any sales. We usually used those stops to stock up beers, cigarrettes and food. For lunch we mostly had Soljanka and in the evenings I played some Chess with the Mongolians or just talked with that russian cook with the wounded hands that were black of the dirt and pused by some weird illness. Nasdarowje! Once in a while we meet English speaking people in the train, students on their way back home, a member of a famous Russian Rock band or a russian gynaecologist who is living in Mongolia since a couple of years already.

As we woke on the fourth mourning of our Transsib trip, slightly CO poisoned and half frozen because the heating system in our waggon seemed to be broken, we get Lake Baikal to see in the rising morning sun. Majestic, frozen. Fishermen sitting next to little wholes in the ice trying to catch some fish. Mother nature,the mongolian meaning of Baikal. We are at KM 7600 on our trip. In the evenning we reach the border. With the help of a friendly English speaking Russian and a rather harmless Customs deputy we have no hassle without our Valuta declaration. Phew! Normally Customs is pretty tough here, checking every hole in roof or bottom of the train from smuggling stuff.

Ulan Bator, Km 8300

We reach Ulan Batar, the capital of Mongolia by 8 AM the following morning. My mustach freezes instantly when getting off the train. Once again we are brought from a chauffeur to our guest family, where Mrs. Gaja welcomes us with a nice breakfeast and first bunch of facts about the city. Perfect, thanks!

After this refreshment we go out to discover Ulan Batar. The city itself has the beauty of mainly socialistic architecture with a few modern buildings here and there. As well, a number of temples or palaces from the Khan times are to be visited. A little bit off the beaten track you can find those typical mongolian tents, Gers - they are using since Dschinghis Khans time. The Mongolians typically wear western clothes, but here and there you can find those traditionally dressed Atamans.

We wore our Low Budget Thermo wear to withstand the -25°C at least a little bit, but after a short time our feets were frozen anyhow. Therefore, sightseeing was really exciting, since most of the temples and palaces are just wooden buildings without heating =) On the way back we discovered how bad smog can be in an area where heating is mainly based on coal. What a thick black fog! Pelmeni, a sort of meat dumplings then in the evening at Mrs. Gaja place - delicious! The following day we have the same game again, sightseeing in freezing temperatures. But warming up in a German restaurant then with beers =) A tribute to the Mongolian winter...

The day before we depart to China we have a day-trip to Terelin, the so called Mongolian Switzerland. In summertime a tourist area but now there is no one here except us, some locals plus a few animals. So we learned a lot about Mongolian traditions as well as Mongolia nowadays, the changes in politics and society, recent oil discoveries and the Mormon influence.. To the progress!

After a vistit in the National Museem Of Nature which is famous for its Dinosaur skeletons we have one more meal with our host. She even organized some Airag, the traditional fermented horse milk. Then a visit to her husbands own museum, his dinosaur eggs and the stone plants he once picked up when hiking through the Gobi. So quick it all went and it was already time to say Goodbye to our hosts hospitality. Just to mention, in Ulan Batar you will have way less problems to find a cheap internet cafe or English speaking people then in Russia. In the morning we moved on to Beijing, going by train for hours through the Gobi desert. We don't see a single plant but once in a while there are some sort of small deer, camels and horses plus some Ger villages. With us in the cabin are a dutch couple, Tracey and Erik. They going pretty much a similar way, heading for China first and then for Southeast Asia, coming from Moscow themselves as well. It's gas to talk with them and the hours go really quickly. I almost forgot to mention some more funny characters, a part of the Mongolian circus, who are building human pyramides. Pretty tough looking guys. =)

If you got curious about Mongolia and want to discover this very remote pieve of Earth yourself, please visit my friends page WWW.ALLMONGOLIA.COM. There, you'll find much more information!

In China we have a stop somewhere in a little valley at the Chinese Wall. Perfect sunshine outside. Amazing view, the Great Wall climbs up to mountains and rocks with the same angle!

Yangshuo and Guilin - China

2010-01-25T18:04:21+00:00

After a quick and unexpectedly boring flight we reached Guilin. Palms surround the airport and the shining sun welcomes us. By shuttle bus we go into town , along ricefields and bizarre tower-like rocks, growing like cones out of the otherwise flat landscape. We overtake motorbikes loaded with dozens of living chicken and ducks that are just somehow bound onto the bikes. Already used to strange habits from Beijing we just took it as another local custom. Here in the south they keep try to keep the animals alive until shortly before cooking. They don’t have fridges so that’s the way to prevent the meat from going bad. Sounds strange, doesn’t it?

We check in to a cheap hotel near the train station, have a little rest and then go for a walk. Those cone-like mountains - which are really fascinating - also appear in the middle of the city. Just add a spoon-full of south-asian flair, dozens of tricycled cabrio taxis and the smell of the little table based street- kitchens along the sidewalk and then you are there...

We seem to be the only tourists. Everywhere people smiling friendly at us, and offering support in the shopping center. For diner we ended up in a traditional cantonese restaurant. Usual way to eat here is out of a big copper made coal kettle in the center of a water-filled pan in which you put noodles, vegetables, ham, snakes etc... for cooking plus an integrated exhaust system for barbecuing chicken sticks. There were dozens of strange & exotic dips to be mixed together as the waitress explained us. I have to admit, she did a great job & we had a perfect cantonese diner for a fairly reasonable price.

As one of the oldest tourist areas of China - even the old emperors came here - Guilin has a lot of sightseeing attractions. After an extensive walk through the city we visited the terrific Seven Stars park with its caves and rocks. There you can find camel like looking rocks, a beautiful bonsai area, ponds with huge goldfishes, a zoo with a Panda bear and yet another attraction - a tiger for touching, hugging, sitting on and taking pictures. I wonder how many tranquilizers he gets a day. =)

We climb up a rock & contemplate in small wooden pavilion - unique! A little cheeky icebird played „You won’t take my picture“ with us. Afterwards we visited the Seven Stars Cave with the inscriptions of some old poets and emperors. The day was almost over when we reached Guilin’s splendid center including its glamorous shopping streets. And saw, in contrast to the real local perimeter, the common western fast food stores again...

There are two big wooden pagodas mirroring themselves in the middle of a lake, illuminated with colored light in a beautiful small park. The next day we visited the Reed Flute Cave and a few other sights. The cave as well as Guilin itself is a good example for the tourist exploitation of the area, there are almost no nice spots without entrance fee around the city. The famous Elephant trunk rock on the riverside, behind fences and cashiers. From a dump I took a picture of the „Mountain of Unique Beauty“. China and the government controlled tourism...

Without any chance we try to get a boat with the locals for the 80 kilometers down to Jangshuo and therefore decided to take one of the expensive river Li - tourist tours. After I digested my anger about the lack of individualism with some of the local Liquan beers I actually start to enjoy the landscape together with all those tourists, shoulder by shoulder starring at those rocks reaching out of the fog . On the river itself there are fishermen in their long wooden boats, on the riverside women washing clothes in the yellow water of river Li. Kids waving. A rotten monastery a little bit further down the river. Three boats ion a row... Diner!

We reach Jangshuo. At the dock a number of souvenir sellers and hosteses advertising their hotels welcome us. Jangshuo is a small picturesque town in the middle of this unique landscape, and probably because of this it became a central spot for „ordinary“ tourists and drop-outs from the western world, who teach English, organize climbing tours or do whatever else to earn some Yen. The streets are full of hotels, hostels and restaurants, there are bikes for rent everywhere as well as lots of tourist shops. English is common language here again.

When I mentioned the subtropical climate initially, I now have admit that with the high humidity along the river and just 15 °C it did not feel really comfortable. Besides, the air conditioning on top of our room obviously just warmed up the air above our heads. A bit of bitterness in the otherwise paradise-like Jangshuo. Never mind...

After a nice evening out we celebrate Chinese New Year with John and Judy, the staff of our hotel, starting Chinese fireworks from the river and drink green tea later on in the lobby, warming up on a glowing coil grill.

Next morning loud drums wake us. Out of the windows we spot two huge nicely colored dragons made of paper and clothes, carried by two groups of men, dancing and fighting together. Accompanied by a group of drummers and visitors the group moves to the majors building, erecting a human pyramid to get presents from the second floor.

Walking through town we meet even more “dragons” with their entourage. We end up at a Open Air theater performance and have no difficulties to watch it above the heads of the Chinese. When we arrived in Jangshuo there were so much Americans and European tourists around, but now the town seems to be crowded with mostly Chinese tourists who came here to celebrate their New Year. For some of them we seem to be the first Europeans they meet. Some of them even ask if they could make pictures with us & themselves.

On a walk outside Janshuo we meet Jade, a Chinese woman on vacation. Together we walk to the next village and get to know so much about rural China, where she comes from originally – about areas without electricity and money, where people still live their ancient traditions. Hard to believe, but later on we should see this ourselves.

Make sure to taste the local Liquan beer - it is fairly cheap and after a few of those big bottles it makes a nice high. And the day after is an unforgettable experience too. So, don’t be shy! =)

After a few more days in the area we are departing from Guilins train station, heading for Kunming, the last big Chinese city on our way to Laos, which we have to reach soon because of our Visa limitations. With us is a bunch of funny Irish lads with their Chinese friends and of course, liters of Liquan. They are going to go to Dali, same direction. With them, the hours in the train just fly away, past the beautiful landscape, past the mountains and forests and the omnipresent rice fields, cultivated by the many Chinese hands…

Beijing - China, Km 9600

2010-01-25T18:08:34+00:00

Forever it seems to take reaching the train station of Beijing, going past small wooden huts close together in narrow dirty lanes as well as areas of hypermodern skyscrapers made from steel & shining glass. What a contrast - welcome to China! Together with Erik and Tracey we have Beijing roast duck this evening and drinks plus some very expensive zigarretes in our hotel afterwards. While walking we get first impressions of the hectic life in this 14 million people city. Masses of pedestrians, bicyclers and last but not least heaps of cars moving along the wide highways or through small lanes. Chaos without friction. The shining red of the chinese laterns, mixed with the neon ads & all those weird smells & noises. Definitely a different world! On the following day we head for Tjanmen & the Forbidden city. Approx. 0°C, windy, grey sky, it is snowing. We slide over Tjanmen into the Forbidden city, 5 € poorer & with a smile from Mao's picture over the entrance gate. Huge area full of wooden temples, gates & towers, houses, little gardens & shrines, dragons, butterflies radish. After a few spots we hide in some painters showrooms, chatting with one of the painting students for a while. On the following days some more sightseeing & Beijing discovery tours like the Palace of Heaven. We try to make plans how to continue our journey. Since Chinese New Year is close, prices are expected to rise sky high in Beijing and transportation will barely be available in these days, because the Chinese themselfes will travel a lot. In the end we have to take a flight down to Guilin, a bit north of Hongkong. Our lacking preparation takes revenge here. However, a trip to the Great Wall in the Badaling area with our dutch friends using public transportation is a little difficult but very interesting and much cheaper then the regular tour prices. But Jesus, it was so cold up there! Strong winds made the smile freezing instantly. The girls gave up. Erik and I didn't. Running instead of walking up the wall actually helped a bit. =)

Small hint, besides the usual western Fast Food chains there are a number of nice dumpling restaurant chains - a great alternative for tasty & cheap food. Plus, never forget to take your hotels business card with you, probably your taxi driver will not understand the name of your hotel or the street. Reason, the way Chinese is spoken differs a lot from the way it is written with our roman characters. To go by taxi is reasonably affordable, just make sure the Taximeter is switched on when you start!

Kunming - China

2010-02-14T06:17:53+00:00

Now the journey starts to get messy. We err around for hours looking for the right bus station and have a hard time again exchanging those traveler checks. No soul here seems to be able of speaking English. And no one seems to understand where we want to go to, even showing the place in our map doesn’t help much. After a while an old lady brings us to a bust station. It is the right one now & some other fellow takes care of us now. We get our tickets and are brought to our bus, a really old half wrecked thing in which about 30 small beds are mounted in two levels and three rows. With this we are supposed now to reach Mongla at the boarder to Laos in about 30 hours time. God help us!
Faith was with us and sent two Europeans, Jarik and Janita, both speaking quite some Chinese. Now we feel not that much lost anymore, even though we get to hear about the forthcoming roads and so on. At first we are quite happy and take over the five beds in the end of the half-empty bus.
Of we go now, in the shaking squeaky bus, at first driving on nice even highways but soon entering rural area, driving on small gravel roads deeper and deeper into hardly developed areas. Rocks climbing up to our right and deep valleys falling down to our left. Huge trucks coming from the opposite direction. Scary… Primary forest here. From time to time we stop for a break or to pick up more passengers in tiny villages. Dusk, then black night. At least we don’t see anymore where we are passing through. The big holes in the road that our driver seems to find with perfect accuracy make us flying in the back of that bus, hitting the top beds first and then landing on the hard beds again. Sleep? Forget about that! I just remember that slanting axle on our bus and think of my family at home and the things I still wanted to do in my life =).
Dawn. New hope! We survived and with us the bus. Now we stop in a slightly bigger town and pick up a few more passengers. This is the end of our comfy spacious 5 beds. We get a Chinese with ragged Army clothes, his wife and their small child as neighbors. Of we go again, on the same bumpy narrow roads. As usual in China the little fellow just makes his business inside the bus. Mama catches the remains with a piece of paper and throws it out of the window. Daddy has a smoke. Me too.=) An old Chinamen in front of the bus has a big pipe that looks very familiar to me. I join him for a while and talk to some young Chinese guys about computers and gambling.
In the late afternoon we reach Mongla. We get to know that it is still three hours to go into the village on the boarder. But after some negotiations about price and conditions Jarik, Janita, ourselves and the backpacks are squeezed into a minivan and off we go again! The scenario is stunning – wooden houses on stilts, rice fields, water buffalos are dominating. Like on a painting I always wanted to paint, like in a half forgotten dream I must have had once.
We are exhausted when we arrive. A muddy street, a very cheap room. Cold shower, a dump bed. A big used pipe in the corner of the room again. For two more € we get diner, beer, a haircut and a head massage. Great – this is what we needed after the past two taxing days!

Laos

2010-02-14T06:18:43+00:00

Quite early in the morning we got up off our dump beds. With plastic bags on our feet against the 10 inches high mud on the street we march in the pouring rain towards the boarder to Laos. Good bye China!
We have breakfast in Boten, the first village in Lao after we had to wake up the banker man to trade a few Yen into a big bundle of KIP, the local currency. One € used to be 10.000 KIP, where the biggest piece you can get is a 10.000 KIP note. The four of us share a big portion of fried vegetables with rice for about 5000 KIP. The bus which is supposed to bring us from Boten to Udom Xai doesn’t really follow a strict timetable as it seems. And he moves even more slow then the one in China, the street is more narrow and bumpy too. However, there is almost no traffic here, so why should one build up highways. =) We stop here and there in little villages to pick up a few locals. It is a colourful tribe up here in the bush, in the remote mountains of Laos. No electricity in the small villages of tiny wooden houses on stilts, the villagers sitting underneath them with their families. Wu Wei – the art of doing nothing. Smiles on their faces. Way less rice fields then in China, way less people working so it seems to me.
We reach Udom Xai in the afternoon, find a cheap hotel near the bus station and go out to discover town. The first traces of tourism, some English announcements on the bus terminal. A good meal, then a walk through the tiny rows of a market. Everything looks small somehow, except the golden Stupa on a hill in the middle of the town. Up there we fall down to the holy grass & relax in the mild sun of this evening.
The next morning - Jarik forgot to adjust his alarm clock to Laos time – we get up extremely early. =) So we catch the first bus to Luang Prabang, just after the monks had their daily ceremony on the bus station, blessing every small shop and getting some sticky rice in return.
Fog takes off the valleys of the primary forest as we creep along the serpentines of the mountains. Almost untouched the nature appears here and something in me screams “Stay still, you are in a fairytale” when we stop in the middle of nowhere for a pee. But the more we move southwards the more traffic we get. TV sets now in the small cottages and huge naked areas on the hills, where someone just burned all the primary forest away. We get back to Civilisation.
In Luang Prabang we even see regular tourist busses and menu cards priced in € and $ instead of KIP. But therefore everyone speaks some English again. We spend some time beside the river Mekong silently flowing here probably much longer then humans are on this earth. The river knows… A few of the more then a hundred Buddhist temples we visit as well. Similar to Mongolia, we can only spot very young monks here. Perhaps because of the Communists who just banned all that until a few years ago.
We just stay for one night and then head off torwards Vangvieng, a small town between Luang Prabang and Vientiane, the capital of Laos. There we stay for a few days for a real rest after all those kilometres. Well developed in terms of tourism you can get a lot of activities here – guided hiking tours in the hills and into the many caves, river rafting with tubes or kayaks. We just walk around by ourselves and visit one of those caves with torches and an old Laos who doesn’t carry a torch and doesn’t stop talking for a second either. Nice! I meet an Ex-Manager, victim of the strange business period. We chat happily on a bar beside the Mekong. For now, this is the end of hectic and stress. Really good Caipi Mekong drinks (Laos Whiskey, Lime, Sugar and ice) for some 80 Cents. Is this paradise? =)
In Vientiane we sort our Visa for Thailand. A two meter tall German monk in those orange clothes, perhaps about 35 or 40 years, is sitting behind us in the embassy, talking to a young Laos monk using some scattered English. Strange. We visit a few more temples or walk through the streets. A nice bar on the riverside. A big number of Lao doing some aerobic. Small motorbikes everywhere. Prices are quite high here, compared to what we used to pay in Vangvieng or Udom Xai. Very often prices are in Baht, the stronger Thai currency. Or Dollars.
We rent on of those motorbikes and go for a nice trip to a place they call “Buddha Park”, a collection of big Buddha and Shiva statues from former times, half rotten. There is a huge sphere-like building, maybe 6 metres high. It has an open mouth as entrance gate, contains three different levels you can climb up until you are on top of the sphere watching the huge sculpture of Shiva with her eight arms. Inside there is another sphere with the meaning of Heaven, Earth and Hell perhaps. Very impressive! The entrance fee is really low here. By lunchtime there are herds of tourists climbing on the statues...

Thailand

2010-02-14T06:19:27+00:00

Thailand welcomes us with a very modern hotel directly on their side of the river Mekong at the so-called Friendship bridge, being a present from Australia to Thailand and Laos. And a bunch of TukTuk drivers - those Thai style taxis – who are trying to get you onboard in any way. Sometimes they are just crooks, be warned! We have a really hot lunch dish at the local market before departing with an air-conditioned VIP bus to Bangkok. Inside the bus we freeze, outside we sweat. Obviously we are not used to these modern conditions anymore. =) Pretty sealed roads in a fairly even landscape. We make good progress towards Bangkok. Along the road there are lots of shops and gas stations and dusty white stone houses, barely any wooden cottages or farms to see anymore. But neon lights everywhere at night. The street lives here. Always. Much traffic - anytime.

After midnight we reach Bangkok, catch a taxi to Khaosan Road, the Backpacker area of Bangkok. We are welcomed by massive throng, noise and smell of a busy nightlife area. It is rather hard to find a suitable room for us, either they are occupied or just to expensive for those holes. After a while we find a place, the Green House just a few steps off Khaosan. Beer despite the limitations of local laws. =)

Kron Thip – City of Angels as Bangkok is called in Thai. We start to have a closer look at the city. A walk to the Royal Palace, then going on to the Banglamphu piers where we go for a canal cruise trip in those long tail boats. Long tail boats are lean long boats (as the name says) with huge diesel engines mounted in the back. Maybe they are a little bit noisy, but I should get more used to their noises…

It is very romantic to cruise through the canals of Bangkok, past the small cottages directly by the water, where kids bath and their mothers wash clothes. Behind there are the skyscrapers of modern Bangkok. We approach silent, remote appearing areas with better houses and very nice gardens. In those moments you can feel what they meant with “Venice of Asia”!

We miss the Floating market but instead visit Wat Arun, that huge stunningly with ceramic shard decorated Temple of Dawn. Ceramic shard mosaics showing flowers, men and gods. Fantastic! For diner we sit in a restaurant just on the other side of the river to watch the sun setting down behind Wat Arun and afterwards watch the same shining temple being nicely illuminated.

On the following day we visit the Royal Palace, a huge complex of temples, houses for living as well as administration. We walk along a sheer endless wall, thoroughly covered with a paining of all the blue and green and red Buddhist gods and men in armor fighting. Strange, but very impressive. We watch the Jade Buddha in his temple, wearing his heavy winter clothes. He has clothes for every season, made of gold and uncounted gems. I keep wondering what this has to do with enlightenment. Perhaps as much as the Cologne Cathedral with Jesus Christ. =) Decent clothes are expected when you enter the Royal Palace. Thousands of tourists daily. Glowing heat and numberless picture taking hobbyists…

I am looking forward to Koh Phangan, the last planned destination for this trip. Just to relax from all those miles – to swim and get sunburned again after all the time in Ireland (where sun doesn’t shine that much =)

The cheapest way, even compared to the local transportation is the so called Joint ticket, bus plus boat in one ticket. Separated from the real Thailand. The bus just stops once, at a particular expensive place for tourists. Thanks guys!

We reach Surathani the next morning and eventually get on the boat. We are happy now that the long journey is over for while. Now it is time for nothing but reading, swimming and sunbathing… What a joy to be away from the concerns of civilization, from those things I won’t change like SARS, war in Irak and all that stuff that just makes me sad. I have fun, get a lot of people from all over the world to know, hike & swim and do not write a book. Tai Chi - Chinese meditation in the rising sun. Weeks pass by on the fly. I don’t get a job in Singapore as initially expected. Nor anywhere else in Southeast Asia.

Japan

2010-02-14T06:20:27+00:00

After weeks of Wu Wei on my little island and almost at the end of my budget, nevertheless still willing to settle down in Asia I have one more idea - to find work in Japan. As I heard from some people, the chances for German or English speaking people to get work as language teachers are supposed to be fairly good. I even got the invitation of a Japanese friend to stay in his flat in Tokyo for a while. Well then, I shoulder my Backpack, go to Bangkok and my aeroplane to Japan. In the early morning hours I can see the white top of mount Fuji glisten in the rising sun out of the plane. What a view!
I am well accommodated in Tokyo and have good fun with my friends, who are introducing me to the city, teaching me some Japanese & showing me how to survive with a few Yen in one of the most expensive places in the world.
Life in Tokyo is unbelievable, the crowds of people rushing through the train stations and all the city centres like Shibuya or Shinjuku with no obvious friction. The perfect maschine. Timing is everything. This the Opel-managers already tried to teach me years ago - phrases like "Chioto jikan ni" - Just in Time - were often used in the plant I was working in.
I make fliers for English lessons that I distribute in front of a university. Not much of a financial success, but a new acquaintance. After two weeks without earning a Yen I decide to move on, discover a bit more of Japan.

By train I go out of Tokyo. In the pouring rain and with the backpack on my shoulders I climb up to mount Takao. It is foggy in the forest, sweat runs down on me in rivers but I do enjoy the physical practise. The temple on top of the mountain is beautiful, just like one can imagine to ancient times here in Japan. In my mind I am a Zen priest or a Samurai and even though I don't understand much of the Japanese Characters written everywhere life feels great in this very moment! After days in the big city I am happy to be back in the nature again. The home made bread form last the day before tastes great up here.
A little later I hitchhike to Kofu in the Yamanashi district. When I arrive in the evening I share my remaining bread with the homeless on the train station and get a place to sleep offered by them, on a bench inside the station, later on I meet a Nepalese man in a bar who offers me a bed for a night. We talk about computers and Japanese girls all night. =)
In a small village not far away from Kofu I find a really nice accommodation, a traditional style house with Shojis and Tatamis inside and a nice Bamboo tree outside. The owner speaks English and German fluent. He plays Bach on his Keyboard and reads German books. We have wide platform for communication. =) I see Fuji again, right behind corner. Together we cycle to Kofu to visit his friends in a German bakery. Just one problem I have here, I cannot get money on the banks here. So I help in my landlords household and garden instead. I even get a job offer, to teach kids in a kinder garden for two hours a day but too much I doubt if this was the right thing to do. So I go on, in the shining morning sun and in the best mood down to Kyoto.
Hitchhiking works out very well, carpenters take me down to Shizuoka and showing me the Green tea plantings uphill before dropping me off at the central park of Shizuoka where I have a rest. Then I walk on, cross the city to reach a motorway. People I meet on the street smile, me too. A couple in a huge Mercedes picks me up and take me almost to Nagoya, telling me about Japanese traditions and sweeties. A seed reseller brings me close to the Sekigahara area. After a day almost only speaking Japanese I feel tired but since it is still bright outside I dare it, try to make the last kilometres to Kyoto. It works out, an old Japanese almost drives me to the train station in Kyoto. The next day it rains & I spent a few hours in the Osaka library, where a big bunch of homeless seeks shelter from the miserable weather too.
When it stops raining I go for a walk around Osaka and end up in a bar that was recommend to me already in Thailand. After a long abstinence I got drunk from just three beers. I spent the night at the train station first, but later on decide to stay out. Coffee in the Christo bar at 2 AM. Enlightening and warm. I decide to watch sunrise from the coastline, but on the way there I meet a guitarist and his drunken friends outside the subway station. He ruins two more of the strings of his guitar when playing his songs for me. We sing anyway and have a good time, Friday morning at 6 AM =). Another Japanese I meet when actually watching the sunrise from a subway bridge. He is watching the sunrise as well, and after some chat he invites me for breakfast and shower in the flat of his girlfriend. This recovers me fairly well & since the weather is fine I decide to visit Osaka castle. In the park surrounding the castle there are big settlements of those blue plastic tents, where the homeless live. At least they have a nice park here, unlike the homeless in Tokyo, sleeping on the concrete riverbanks of Sumida or beside the subway lines. Victims of the once prospering Japanese economy. Oi toi de - other topic...

I watch the morning exercise of a chapter of the Japanese army and contemplate about the sense of all the screams of their leader, almost willing to participate. After visiting Hideyoshi's main tower I finally do require a rest. I am lucky, I get a nice sunny park bench a little bit away. After a while I am back alive, stay a little longer beside a nice pond and enjoy the peace and harmony of moment and place.
In Kyoto I stay for a few nights at my Swiss friends place who gives me good tips for getting around in Kyoto, the job opportunities and leisure activities. I apply for another job in a kinder garden and while waiting for their decision stroll around Kyoto, watching temples or hanging out in the Goethe institute reading library or using their internet. At night time I am often at the river Kamogawa banks, where the young Japanese drink and play music or start fireworks. In a youth hostel I get a few travellers to know, students from Australia or new Zealand with working permit visas and quite good Japanese skills from school. With two of them I go for a walk to Gijon, the Geisha quarters, and later up the hill. Last night in Kyoto we go out again, going down badly on beers and Absinth. =) I don't get the job in the kinder garden, and so I decide to go back to Tokyo where I have at least a place to stay. Sayonara Kyoto!
By Shinkansen I go back to Tokyo. I have a few more excursions in and around Tokyo and try to get work. An invitation to a nice birthday party of a friend. Finally, on the last evening I met a young lady I am writing emails with since I am in Japan. We have coffee in the Tokyo twin towers, watch the sneak preview of "Hulk" and have a good diner. No job, no money so I decide to go back to where it all begun - back to germany. What remains are the memories of a great time, good friends who helped me a lot in Japan. Doumo arrigato. Matane. So omou imasu. =)