Everybody comes to Chiang Mai do learn Thai Massage… I wasn’t tempted to stay to long in a city with so much pollution, I had spent too much time in Bangkok before (Chiang Mai is still very pleasent compared to Bangkok) and then I heart about this possibility:

Learning Thai Massage for 12 days in a Lahu village 80 kilometres north of Chiang Mai and do Yoga and Meditation. I had to go there! 

It was a great experience for me and a fantastic possibily to meet people with the same interests and that are in the same flow…

http://www.thaiyogamassage.infothai.com/

Ein spitzen Fest! The greatest fun I have ever had! And also the wettest party I’ve ever been at…

The Sonkran Festival is the traditional Thai version of the Buddhist New Year that generally lasts from the 13th to the 15th of April each year.

People clean their houses and wash their clothes and enjoy sprinkling perfumed water on the monks, novices and other people for at least two or three days. They gather around the riverbank, carrying fishes in jars to put into the water, for April is so hot in Thailand that the ponds dry out and the fish would die if not rescued.
Water splashing is one of the famous afternoon activities. People go to the beach or river bank with jars or buckets of water and splash each other.

In addition, preparation for making merit, generally to Buddha’s monks, is very common. On Songkran Day, there is usually an early merit making by offering foods and things to monks, unleash birds and fishes (as another mean of making merits), praying for the dead relatives, watering Buddha image, etc.

Songkran also conveys another meaning of Thai social values. It is the time when all family members get together, more or less like Thanksgiving or Chrismas, due to the very traditional way of Thai lifestyle. During this special family reunion, the younger will water the elder and elderly to pay respect and gratitude, and will receive blessing in return.

What was the Sonkran party in Chiang Mai like?

Put your camera in a plastic back leave your secure place: 30 seconds after stepping on the street you are wet to the skin.
People stand in front of there houses and shops with buckets, water pistols, water hoses and walk or drive around the city on pickups, motorbikes or Tuk Tuks. You are in a moving parade getting buckets of water (ice water in the worst case ) and flour poured over your head from every direction, even from below since there are heaps of children. You should arm youself to give it back to the people or you will have less fun.
In Chiang Mai you usually take the water from the canel that goes around the old town. Or you buy big bars of ice and use the ice water to freeze the people that sit on the pick ups. You see a lot of shivering people…
I had a bucket and fell in the chanel while having a battle with some Thai guys. Actually, I did not fell but somebody pushed me…he got a big bucket of the yellow water right in his face for that

See my fotos on facebook

I haven’t seen it that extended but actually they burn forest everywhere…

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pablito/sri_lanka/1175071620/tpod.html

After my body was not sore anymore from that one-week-Muay Thai-I-try-kickboxing-experience I left the organized and touristic Thailand to Northern Laos.

This country has my great sympathy! Traveling here is as charming and time taking as in Indonesia. Spending 10 to 13 hours to travel on dusty (muddy after rain) and windy roads for a distance of 300 kilometers brought me back to the feeling of being on a jouney and not on a holiday.  Travellers meditations is looking out of an open bus window and watching beautiful landscapes and villages passing by.

It’s mountainous in the north of Laos, there is djungle but also a lot of logging and burning for agricultural reasons, and you see village after village with houses, all made of bamboo, and with dogs, cows, pigs, chicken and children, all sitting on the road (not even moving sometimes when a car comes through). For the hours at night, when there’s no electricity in the villages, the children invented a game to entertain themselves and the travellers: They wait in bunches in the darkat the roads and scream at the bussses and cars that come by to scare the travellers. It’s a good way to let you forget that you have been sitting for 8 hours already in the driving cage without any possibility to move your … feet.

The people in Laos are not as open as many Thai people. They are friendly but shy and a bit reserved. If you get a smile from them it feels like a great present. It’s so honest and warm.

I’m too lazy to write a lot in the moment, but check out the Thai Boxing Gym I am training with these days:

http://true-bee.com/uk_gallery.html

And see my pictures on facebook

Soon more!

After almost half a year in Indonesia I am now in Bangkok.

I have to think about where to go next. The last months were very intense and I have to get my power back to travel alone.

Give me some time, I’ll write about it…

My Birthday party was…perfect! 

See mor pics here:  https://fotoalbum.web.de/gast/anjapola/My_Birthday_2007_in_Maninjau

…waiting for Christmas, my birthday and the New Year Party, which I will all celebrate between volcanos and at a beautiful lake in Maninjau.

Maninjau is good place to stay longer, you find  everything here: many nice people and friends (I also  met Alice again); real beauty and some love, too; delicious and hot Padang food; beer and smokes with a beautiful lake view (good for chilling)…

So, I think, you don’t have to worry about me…

Enjoy your life!

And: Selamat Hari Natal! (Merry Christmas)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Maninjau

Ordering beer in Makassar
I’m with three American guys in the hotel next door of ours for having a drink and we’re waiting in the lobby restaurant for the staff to take our orders. We have been waiting already for 15 minutes but nobody of the staff hanging around in the hotel with nothing to do shows up at our table. We had mentioned our wishes for 4 Bintang beers when we came in, we thought… Now all staff has left the lobby and disappeared in a room behind something that could be called a bar. I keep an eye on the back door of that room and can catch a guy’s gaze. The instant we want to call him to our table, he jumps back behind in the room, obviously hoping that we did not see him… We wait several minutes more, then I go to the bar, call for the waiter and… can finally order our drinks.

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At Manado Spa
‘Do you want a coffee, a ginger tea or a tea?’ the girl asks after finishing the massage. ‘Oh, a ginger tea, please.’ Alice answers. – ‘Ginger tea we don’t have.’ – ‘… ????’

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Plumbers wanted for Hotel Celebes, Manado
We have a problem with the water in our bathroom. The tap has been broken off while I was in the shower and now the water is coming in a strong stream straight out of the wall. I am not able to put the tap back in the wall, to much pressure, so we call the hotel staff.

They cannot fix it at once and suggest to give us another room. ‘But is has only one bed’ the girl at the reception says through the phone. ‘Ok,’ I answer, ‘I’ll have a look.’, thinking that it will be alright for Alice and me. The room boy brings me to the room and I have a look. Yes, there is only one bed. Big enough for two people who are VERY close with each other: It’s a single bed, about 80 cm wide only.

We can stay in our old room cause they are able to stop the water later, with a professional wooden stopper. They seem to be prepared for incidents like that, having plenty of stoppers in stock. … Guess what? After we were one night in the Tangkoko National Park, we get another room with a working tap. – I have already left Manado when receiving a email from Alice (who stayed a day longer in the hotel): ‘Guess what? This morning the tap in the bathroom broke off…’

It seems they have a serious problem with the water pipes in this hotel…

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How to price food in Manado
For the evening we are out in a Warung (Food stall) in Manado with ok food, nothing special. When we got the bill, we are startled. Weren’t the prices in the menu for beer and fish different, cheaper? So, we ask for the menu again, wondering why it takes so long till we finally get it. Eventually, when we get the menu, we experience that they have changed the prices with tipp ex…

Unbelievable… Orang Utans used as sex slaves:

http://www.viceland.com/int/v14n10/htdocs/yo1.php?country=us

Klimavandalismus in Indonesien (in German)

http://deutsche.wordpress.com/2007/11/14/greenpeace-zerstorung-der-torfmoorwalder-wegen-des-booms-fur-palmol-klimavandalismus-in-indonesien/

It takes me 36 hours to get back from Kei to Ambon… A very slow ferry…And its cowded and dirty… brr. I can’t find a place where i can imagine to stay ans sleep 36 hours. And I swear this will be my last ferry ride in Indonesia! Schnauze voll, how a German would say,

But… then I get a place at the bridge! Like a VIP. I can sleep and relax there without being harassed, and the crew is spoiling me with food and coffee. Meanwhile I can learn about the business of sailors…

Frying Bananas

Ship made in Germany

My primary plan to go to Papua I skip when I have been one week in the Kei Islands. The beaches are great, the people overwhelming… and I stay 4 weeks.

There are only few white tourists in the entire archipelago. And you don’t meet them. Not, when you cruise around Kei Kecil (the smaller of the Kei Islands) by Ojek (motorbike) and not, when you go to the bigger and mountainous island Kei Besar. The locals only tell you, that there are other whites, but really, you hardly see them. That’s what I enjoy.

My favorite after four weeks of visiting the main islands is still Pasir Panjang on Kei Kecil, which means Long Beach. Long beaches are a lot in the world, but this one is special. Three kilometer of blending white sand, fine like flour, framed by coconut palms and a sea in shades of green and turquoise. Perfect and picturesque, waiting for your camera. Except on weekends (when the locals come for picnic) you have the whole beach for your own.

After one very quiet week at Pasir Panjang I need a change. The beach is nice, but I’m feeling slightly bored. I finish two books in this week, and there’s nobody really to talk. There are two white couples staying further away at the beach, who I meet sometimes, but they want obviously to be for their own. And my Indonesian is not good enough yet to have long chats with the locals. The food in the place is good, but not very varied. Fried bananas every morning seven days long… enough is enough.

Thus I go to Tual, the capital of Kei, to the Homestay of Esther Rahajaan, not sure if I should stay or leave the next day. I have bought my ticket back to Ambon when I decide to stay. Esther offers me the possibility to stay there with there family in Kei Besar. Without further ado I sell my ticket. Next day I am off to Kei Besar.

Pasir Panjang in magic lights every evening

Kei Islands

My new friend at Pasir Panjang (Homestay Evalin)

Pasir Panjang – the raining saison starts now

…

Kei Besar! The people here! I will never regret that I stayed longer.

There are no hotels in Kei Besar, I stay in several villages (Weduar, Ohoiwait, Elat) in the houses of cousins, aunts and friends of Esther Rahajaan’s family, and they host me like somebody of their own family and that’s exactly how I am feeling.

But as a single woman traveling in Indonesia you always get the undivided attention of everybody. Especially of male and children. I feel several times like the ‘Rat Catcher of Hameln’ (‘Der Rattenfaenger von Hameln’) when I walk through a village being followed by at least 20 children. And, of course, as a white single woman you are always surrounded by marriage-motivated male… It’s almost a bit annoying sometimes, you have to realize: In Indonesia you are never alone, never… except in your room.

Anja and a lot of ‘rats’ – children and…

…male with palmwine (Tuac, Sopi)in Ohoiwait

Kei Besar -East coast

Kei Besar – West coast

Ohoiwait Village

Ohoiwait Village

The island Kei Besar is so different to her smaller sisters. Very mountainous. In main parts it is not possible to drive around by car or motorbike since there are no roads. You travel by boat if you have to go in another village. The few roads which exist are steep and dangerous, leading through the mountains and through dschungel. At my arrival I am witness of a small accident: a man falls from the bike when its front wheel rears up at a steep hill like a wild horse.

What else? Dancing with Raja Hans the traditional Menari in Ohoiwait; enjoying the local palm wine and flirts of the young men; laying on the beach at night and watching the stars; walking hours and hours along beautiful beaches? Watching the most beautiful cloud constellations of the beginning raining saison, swimming, snorkeling, laying in the sun…? So many memories..

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Raja (King) Hans

Menari in Kei Besar, Ohoiwait Village

Beauties

This is Ampi Notanubun, age of 22 or 36? – whatever is good to flirt with a white lady

…

What I have to say about snorkeling in Kei Islands:

A bit sad it is to see the corals while snorkeling. I snorkeled at different beaches of the main islands and there are so many dead corals, destroyed by bombing of fisherman and in the troubles years ago. In parts it looks like after a nuclear bomb, everything razed to the ground. But what I have to say: The corals that survived or recovered are very beautiful and they show all colors you can imagine! Doubtlessly there are better spots in the Kei Islands for snorkeling in the hundreds of pinpoint islands around than I saw.

…

Visit the Kei Islands!

I warmly recommend the places and people I stayed with:

- Homestay Esther Rahajaan in Tual-Un, Jln. Dr. Leimana (at the left side of the BNI Bank), tel. 0916-21913, mobil. 08134 3406007 – she will give you the contacts of her family in Kei Besar and help you.

- Ibu Rina Ur, Elat (Kei Besar), Jln. Depur

- Poly and Juni Rahajaan, Weduar (Kei Besar)

- Mama Fanny, Ohoiwait (Kei Besar)

…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Islands

Kota Ambon

07.-10.11.07

The girls of “Rumah Kopi Lela” where I have my morning coffee every day

Ambon

Sunset in Cafe Panorama in Ambon

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Banda Islands

03.-06.11.07

On the ferry to Banda – you are never alone in Indonesia, never!

A ferry arrives in the harbour of Ambon at night

Pelni ship in Bandaneira Harbour

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Three days only in Banda Islands! Cause there’s no boat the following 14 days, and I have still have to extend my Visa in Ambon.

There are not many boats anymore between and to the Islands of Maluku, since the “accident” in the years from 1999 to 2002 happened, everything has changed (read above in the Ambon part). Traveling in Maluku takes a lot of time which I don’t have, not now.

So I stay only three days, although it’s worth staying here much longer. And I am able to do and to see the Best of Banda Islands. By a fishing boat we sail from islands to island for snorkeling. It’s great. It’s like an f… aquarium! There are drop offs just right on the beach with rich coral garden and plenty of huge and colorful fish. You can see everything here just while snorkeling, what you see elsewhere only when you dive. And diving is very expensive here with 110 USD for two tanks, due to the fact that there’s only one dive shop in Banda that can dictate the prices monopolisticly.

I don’t dive here but always think how it would be in the depth when I see the drop offs only from the surface of the water… well, next time – with more time, more money!

The beautiful Banda Islands – white beaches and corals

Bandaneira with the fort Benteng Belgica

Sleeping volcano vis a vis Bandaneira

View from Benteng Belgica in Bandaneira

Hatta Island – with the best snorkeling in Banda!

Manado 28.10.07

Alice and I arrive in the modern city of Manado after 2 days of traveling by boat and car. We are still in Kadidiri in our minds and still sad that we left. Why did we leave? We didn’t really want. For me it is the first time that I left a place and didn’t feel ready for it. That is actually not my way to travel…

Manado is ok for an Indonesian city, it’s kind of relaxed and we enjoy staying here. Going to the Internet cafe every day and trying to forget Kadidiri. Next door of our hotel is a Spa and we have very painful Thai Massage and Shiatsu Massage there… (It wasn’t like that in Thailand as I remember.) And sex (seks) is not aloud here…such a pity!

Alice on the terrace of Celebes Hotel – with harbour view
Manado bemo – public transport is not a problem here…

No Seks at Manado Spa

Seksi (Sexy) pants at Manado Spa

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Tangkoko National Park

30.10.07

From Manado we go for 2 days to the Tangkoko National Park in the far north of Sulawesi to see some wild life. It’s the home of the tiny Tarsier monkeys, black Makakes and the amazing Hornbill Bird.

Black Makakes and a French fotographer of Geo. (Cool Job!

The tiny Tarsier, it’s a monkey! (Only to be seen in the mornings or evenings.)

I’m getting the first dread lock of my life.

Wedding Party in Togean Islands

26.10.07

Santo, one of the guys from the Black Marlin, is going to marry this Friday (Nov 26) and we are all invited to the wedding party. We had fun as you can see…

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15.10.-27.10.07

When I arrive in Kadidiri Island I am sure that this love would last forever! Well, I stay only 2 weeks here… But I will come back! It is such a great place! For everything: Diving, chilling, dreaming, loving, snorkeling, swimming, playing pool and ass memory. And Ada in the Black Marlin Restaurant is the best chef ever!

Kadidiri Island

Isn’t it nice view from my bungalow in the Black Marlin Dive resort?

Another bay…

…another island – they are all beautiful!

Alice & Anja

Dive Master Lani & Dive Instructor Harold enjoy playing the Ass Memory (here with there favourite…)

Thierry! We really missed you after you left Kadidiri! You are such a funny guy and is was a bit quiet without you…

Good by to Harold and the dogs

I didn’t know anything about Sulawesi but I didn’t expect being surprised like that! Sulawesi rocks more than Bali! It’s a crazy and beautiful place, and I really felt in love here.

On the ferry to Sulawesi

I arrive by ferry in Pare Pare and take a bus to the Sulawesi’s capital Makassar. Makassar is a hot place. Too hot to stay longer than necessary. I spend only 3 days here and leave to Tana Toraja then.

Makassar 05.10.07

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Tana Toraja – definitely not a place for vegetarians!

07.10. -11.10.07

I stay in the town of Rantepao and spend 5 days driving and walking through the valleys. One night I stay in a traditional village. There’s a sight every 10 km, the area is packed! And after each mountain there is a valley with rice fields and traditional houses much prettier than in the one you drove through before.
Mamasa Valley

Traditional Village

Thousand rice fields between mountains

I have never seen such a wild place before. How can I describe what is going on here? The area called Tana Toraja lays in the South Sulawesian highlands and is home of the Torajan people. It’s a vast, pretty and mostly unspoilt area of traditional houses, unique architecture and fascinating culture. Go to a funeral ceremony here, and you almost forget Bali’s cremation ceremonies!! A funeral is the most important thing in a life of a Torajan and some people work almost all their life to earn the money for it. How is a funeral like here?

How big a funeral is depends on the social status of the dead person and his family. The more money there is, the more impressive the ceremony. And without proper funeral rites the soul of the deceased will cause misfortune to its family.

They build extra houses for all the guest that come and kill hundreds pigs and buffalos in sacrifices. The soul of the deceased will be carried by the animals to the afterlife. They bury the dead in graves, and if a baby dies before it was one (or three?) month old it will be buried in a tree and then grow with the tree. They make Tau-Tau, life-size, wooden effigies of the dead. Since it takes a long time for some families to save the money for the funeral, they “store” the coffin with the dead in the house sometimes up to 4 years! The body are prepared these days to eliminate the smell but in former times they weren’t!

I didn’t become a specialist in Torajan culture since I stayed only a week there. You better read a more reliable resource if you are interested. I am simply impressed, how much there was to see of culture, and how beautiful the landscape is.

Traditional clothes at a funeral

Rice Terasses

Funeral Ceremony

Live stock market in Rantepao

Animal killing at a funeral

Baby Graves

Stone Graves

Cave Graves

Very expensive albino buffalo – to be killed at funerals…

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From Rantepao to Ampana

12.10.-14.10.07

Leaving Toraja to the coast of Central Sulawesi takes days. The winding roads through the mountains remind me of Flores. But here the smell of the cloves they dry along the roads follows you.

After 16 hours in a bus I arrive in Tentena. It’s the end of Ramadan, and there’s no bus on the weekend. I’ll have to wait. The landscape around the village is pretty, there’s a nice lake and I wish I had a bicycle. It is also very quiet, and I am almost a bit bored… But in the evening somebody knocks on my door – it’s Alice, a french girl I already met in Makassar. She’s on the way to Ampana with some others and they have a car. Lucky me. I don’t have to wait now for the bus!

Cloves are being dried along the road

Lake Poso at Tentena

No tourists and no forest in Samarinda

I fly straight via Jakarta to Balikpapan in East Kalimantan and take the next bus to Samarinda the same day. After two weeks in Singapore I don’t want to stay any longer in a city but in the dschungel among natives and Orang Utans

Well, I have to be in another concrete dschungel first. Arriving in Samarinda I hope to find other tourists for a nice trek and to share the costs for guides and boat chartering. But there are no other whites in town, what I find is guide over guide over guide, all looking for a job. Or better, they find me. I experience there is a well working network in town: If a tourist arrives they start ringing up each other. The first guide gets the fish in the majority of cases since most tourists are too lazy to compare prizes and want to leave soon for a tour.

I have been waiting for 3 days and still there is no other tourist. I take the guide who had shown up first in my hotel, cause I’m also a lazy tourist and because I’m already staying in his house. Jumaid had invited me to stay with his family while waiting for other tourists. Good trick… For Indonesian rates I pay a fortune for a three day trip to the Lakes of Tanjung Issuy. Compared to western countries it is still ok, and since I could have a look at his poor living standard I don’t feel to bad with the high price.

Just the night before we leave there is a new tourist in town! The information is given by my guides daughter who works next to the hotel. I manage to meet him but he doesn’t want to come with me due to his own money restrictions. John is a student of philosophy from London, 23 years old. He wants to go all the way up the Mahakam River to Long Bagun and stay there for a week. Since I have already paid my guide and cannot cancel the tour anymore we arrange to meet in Muara Muntai three days later.

Two weeks on the Mahakam River and hunting with the Dayak people

Borneo is not the exotic wild sight I had expected. You have to go a long way into the country to see forest in Kalimantan. Along the river there is almost everywhere farmland instead of dschungel.

The lake trip with my guide Jumaid is nice though, I see many birds like Kingfishers and Marabus, stay in traditional Longhouse (there don’t live native Dayak people anymore though, it’s a home stay now) and watch the life in the fishing villages. But Jumaid seems to be bored to do his job and we don’t talk a lot although he speaks quite well English. I am happy when he leaves me in Muara Muntai, where I’m waiting now for the boat with John on board!

There are only two boats a day going upriver from Samarinda to Long Bagun, and I don’t know exactly what time they will drop in at Muara Muntai. I spend exciting 4 hours at the pier waiting for the boats. He is on the second and I jump: On the moving ship in the middle of the river- from a small boat that brings me.

For that you can figure the distances: Getting to the village of Long Bagun takes 3 days from Samarinda, getting back to Samarinda another to days.

John and I stay there 6 days among the Dayak people in Long Bagun. Don’t expect a tribal living there, those people are quite modern these days. More (or less) officially they are all Christians, cause everybody in Indonesia has to have a religion. And they can’t be Muslims since they love eating pork.

But for two days we go hunting pigs and deer with born-and-bred Dayak hunters, running through the rain forest with spears and dogs (those small people are quite fast, eh!), up and down, through small rivers, using machetes to make our way. Is that fun? Being dirty, dripping with sweat and collecting leeches on our legs, washing the sweat and dirt down with the water from the river, sleeping in a houseboat with 15 persons, watching TV in the midst of the dschungel, eating tradional food made in banana leaves – is that fun? Yes, it is fun! If you don’t mind blood, sweat and mud

I’m happy though that we neither catch a pig nor a deer, that we don’t even see one of them. To be honest, I didn’t really want to be the wisdom of a killing… But, unlucky pigs! The hunter find them on the next day and bring us the meat into our home stay. Already cooked.

Visiting the black Orang Utans of Kutai National Park

Before I leave Kalimantan to go to Sulawesi I head for Sangatta in the Kutai National Park, 6 hours north of Samarinda, to see Orang Utans. That’s what you actually come for in Borneo, don’t you?

I bring my own food and a mosquito net and stay 2 nights in the Orang Utan Research Center, that was founded by an Japanese scientist in the 1980ies. The monkeys are always around there and easy to see. They sit in the trees eating Jackfruit or sleep. And they are black! I didn’t know, there are black Orang Utans!(I’m happy now I bought a new camera with a good zoom in Singapore…)

It’s almost a bit like in a zoo, they are used to humans. But, well, they still live in the wilderness even if it is only in a small area of protected forest. One of the last places, Orang Utans can live wildly. There’s not much forest left in Borneo. There were bad fires some years ago that destroyed a lot of old, big trees. And there is logging, illegal and legal.

When you go to Sangatta from Samarinda there is only logging and burning, even in areas that are part of the Kutai NP. It’s so sad to see that. And it is not better in other parts of Indonesia or Malaysia. Most people here just don’t care. They have to deal with their current lifes and refuse to think of the future.

What can we do?

For further information check the following pages:

www.orangutans-sos.org

www.actionnetwork.org/campaign/neusex

www.eu-ldp.co.id