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Hi out there, I like to hear from you. | Log entries 11 - 20 of 63 | Page:
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Oct 13, 2010 06:00 PM Haiphong, Halong, Hanoi
Haiphong greeted me with numerous hotels, high rising and new. Tourism is the hit of the day. But the boat tour through Halong Bay was dreamy. The sea was quiet and sun was shining. And the rocks, black and silent, rose out of the water and changed the world in an unreal place. Hanoi in the evening was packed. All were up to see the parade even the babies were brought: Celebration of a thousand years of history of Hanoi.
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Oct 13, 2010 06:00 PM Hanoi, Hue, Danang
I left Hanoi by plane and was shown the Imperial Citadel and the emperors Tu Duc's Mausoleum, which he built with all his fantasies. He lived in his grave with his mother, who told him what to do, so he didn't need to think about politics, what he didn't like to do. All his wives and concubines, of which he had many, were with him, what didn't help him to father a child. He loved to read poetry in his tea house at an artificial lake. Really a beautiful place. Part of it only was destroyed by the French military. As you can see my guides are really teaching me.
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Oct 13, 2010 06:00 PM Hoi An, Qui Nhon, Nha Trang
Hoi An is a treasure, if it only haven't been dressed up for the tourists. But this riverside town has still its charm from the old times of the 17th and 18th century, when it was a trading post and when the Japanese and Chinese Merchants kept apart, dividing their quarters by a roofed bridge. It's homely and friendly. And in the evening no car or motorbike are allowed, you can sit and have a decent meal, talk and listen to classical German music.
I am not telling you how many towers from the first to the thirteen centuries I have seen, but there is one place which caught my soul: My Son, a religious center from the 6th to the 13th century, situated in a small valley, hidden away and protected by hills. It must have been a treasured place, where the Champa people celebrated the feast of the water, which was brought down from the mountains.
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Oct 13, 2010 06:00 PM Inmpressions of a traveller in Vietnam
What is the sense of taking a shower, coming back from sightseeing, sweaty and wet, when having showered and dried yourself, you leave the bathroom only to be wet again???
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Oct 07, 2010 06:00 PM Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Phat Diem, Haiphong
This country is irritating me. I saw landscapes with wide field of rice paddies where people harvested the rice, dried the rice straw and the rice on the streets,wortking silently and hard,women and mewn, using their bikes and morotbikes to get the harvest home,burning what they didn't need and finally cleaning up. I saw rice fields where high houses were built to the dozens, destroying the livelyhood of the farmers and fish ponds, poisened by sewage and chemicals, where even the mosquitos don't survive, I saw dead rivers, the banks full of garbage, but I also saw a beautiful, clean stream, winding through dark cliffs, where the ice birds are still living and the storks are raising over the lakes. I saw a quiet temple from old times, a place to meditate and to forget the world and the restlessness of the villages and cities. And I saw a catholic church, looking like a chinese temple, I couldn't believe it, beautiful and silent.
To be honest, my head is a whirlpool.
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Oct 04, 2010 06:00 PM Hanoi, people and bikes and noise
Yesterday was certainly not my day, I couldn't coop with this laptop in the airport. Certain things simply avoid me. Today it was Hanoi and I behaved like a real tourist, 7 hours walking around town!!! But then the pollution got me and I had to give up. But I am still alive, no car, no bike drove over me and sent me to heaven, although drivers license and traffic rules are mostly unknown, that makes - as Amanda told the audience - crossing a street a real adventure. I didn't get a panic attack although the town is packed because it celebrates its 1000 anniversary since days. Even my ears did survived although patriotic songs were played from all corners, not to talk about brass bands exercising for the great day, the tenth.
Now I have to have a nice sleep because tomorrow I am off to Ninh Binh and have to get up early.
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Oct 03, 2010 06:00 PM Soeul, South Korea, Airport
THE JOURNEY BEGAN YESTERDAY, EVEN WITH THE CELEBRATION OF GERMAN UNITY, TROWN FESTIVAL IN LEVERKUSEN, MARATHON RUN IN COLOGNE ALL TRAINS WERE ON TIME, EXCEPT MINE, WHICH WAS 10 MINUTES LATE. TEN HOURS FROM fRANKFURT/M TO SOEUL WERE SPENT WITH NICE FOOD FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURS AND A KIND OF SLEEP.
THE AIRPORT OF SOEUL IS QUITE ELEGANT, CLEAN, WITH FRIENDLY SMILING YOUNG WOMEN INTHESE SHOPS WITH THOSE INTERNATIONAL TRADEMARKS, WHERE YOUY CAN BUY WHAT YOU CAN BUY ALL OVER THE WORLD. BUT IS IS A RELAXED ATHMOSPERE, JUST RIGHT FOR ME.
i SENT THIS BEFORE IT DISAPPEARS AGAIN.
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Oct 22, 2009 06:00 PM Taipeh, Taiwan, Two Hours to spend in an empty Airport
What do I do? There is one coffeeshop, one of those you only enter when you are really thirsty, and nothing else. Shops to the dozen, you can't enter because they are for the rich ones or for men with pangs of consciousness because they forgot to look for a nice present for their wives and are now in a hurry. I even can't buy an English newspaper.
So let me see if I can't entertain myself by entertaining you. I should tell a story. Hmm.
In this country dreams come true. I saw monks, sculptures, walking up an alley with their offerings in their black pots, dozens of them. So I followed suite and was stupefied: In front of me was the largest reclining Buddha of the world, on with this inearthly smile. A monk had listened to the dream of a man and decided to give this dream reality. But he has its own dreams too, he wants to decorate the hillside behind the Buddha with golden stupas. As he went to work he got a rubber plantation as a donation to fullfill his dreams. Isn't this wonderful?
Or: A laquered black Buddha went swimming down the Irrawaddy. People rescued him and found out that the figure was made of bamboo and empty inside. So to protect the Buddha they built a temple over and around him and started visiting that he could feel at home in his new environment. Time went by and they wanted to show their respect so he became a golden Buddha. Another wonderful strory from a country in which Buddhism is ingrained in the people.
(David, I hope there are not too many mistakes. I am a bit tired and the spelling program doesn't work with this computer.)
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Oct 20, 2009 06:00 PM A wonderful Journey's End
Now I am on my way back to Yangon, Saturday I will be at home, driving through wonderful green, fertile landscsape with these small villages with the old bamboo and wooden houses. It is peaceful. Sun is shining. Temperature about 35 degrees. I am wet through.
So long.
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Oct 19, 2009 06:00 PM Mawlamyine, capitel of the Mon State
What a day! My head is spinning. It was the day of visits. Albeit it started so quiet with a visit to an island where monks live and meditate. But after that the local market overwhelmed me. In- credible activities and offers and - traffic. But I survived - just.
Next it was the largest reclining Buddha of the world, what made me speechless. Some monk fulfilled a dream, building not only the Buddha, but decorating a hillside with golden stupas. But there were more wonders to come. In a village a woman went into one of these wonderful wooden houses telling the owner: You have a visitor. Open the door. So I started visiting, not only this house, but a family of weavers, the house of my driver, the one of his relatives in the midst of a garden, where I learned about all these different fruits, especially one, named pomelo, tastes very good, and vegetables I didn't know anything about. And last not least I saw the palace of the Diamond queen and the tooth relict of Buddha. Now I am so full of Buddha images that it seems it will last a lifetime.
So long. Take care.
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