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South-East Asia

September 2014 - March 2015
  • Claire and Karsten
A 182-day adventure by Claire Read more
  • Claire and Karsten
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  • Claire and KarstenTravelerSouth-East Asia
    2
    1

    Singapore Zoo

    November 1, 2014 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We went to the Zoo yesterday! Keeping up Claires travel tradition made her fall into french mode right upon entering the Zoo. The Zoo was pretty cool - except for the daily Singapore rain which trapped us inside a food court (OH NO) for like 2 hours. With the climate they have you can imagine the alleys full of green vegetation always giving you the feeling to be in a (very clean and tidy) jungle. The zoo is actually located within one of the few areas in Singapore where there still is primary rain forest. But of course this very part is not natural anymore. We saw some decent shows but what was more fun was the Night Safari. An extra zoo which you can only visit after sunset at 7.30pm as all their nocturnal animals are most active at this time. A zoo in the dark is a nice thing. So you can go see a tiger being fed really close. It was like just 1 meter away, only separated through a thick layer of glass. The African Lion is definitely more impressive than the Asian one. With the low light and when not moving, the animals sometimes looked as they were stuffed. And most importantly, we saw a Slow Loris (!!) climbing a branch just in front of us very slowly of course.

    Soon, we'll head into the city, after it stops raining and our laundry is done!    Read more

  • Claire and KarstenTravelerSouth-East Asia

    Singapore

    November 3, 2014 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    God, big cities are exhausting. And fun! Singapore sure is both. After our day at the zoo we went to explore the city itself. Little India, the Muslim Quarter, the Colonial Quarter, the CBD, Marina Bay, Gardens by the bay and Chinatown we did on Saturday. Quite a walk. We were impressed by the last one, one of the nicest Chinatown we've ever seen: of course there were dozens of shops as usually in cute, well kept streets with nice small houses. There was one central place where people were dancing some known choregraphy.

    The bay is definitely better at night although already quite cool during the day. On the evening we saw a sound and light show (projection on a fountain/wall of water) in front of the Marina Bay Sands hotel, that was impressive!

    On Sunday we climbed the highest mountain in the state of Singapore. Towering at 116m above sea level sits Mt. Faber. But we didn't hesitate and started the tiring hike to the mountaintop which took us a whole 20 minutes!!! We continued along walkways called the Southern Ridges. Both the mountain and the Ridges offer unique views on the city and Sentosa Island south of Singapore. Very nice.

    After being in a 12 people shared room, we decided to treat ourselves with a very good hotel (but still not the Marina Bay Sands) for the last night.

    Unfortunately, the restaurants that we had checked on Saturday and planned on going to the next day were closed on Sunday, so good restaurant will be for Vietnam...    Read more

  • Claire and KarstenTravelerSouth-East Asia

    2 in 1 Wrap-up

    November 3, 2014 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Before to start, we must say... it is one month you get regular news from us but we didn't get much from you guys! Don't hesitate to write us mails and explain what's happening in your lives!

    The Malaysian stuff:

    - Malaysia has a majority of Muslims, so except in really touristy area, it is more respectful for girls to cover up: long pants and t-shirt during 2 weeks for Claire

    - Hold hands, kiss or show affection in public is frowned upon (in Indonesia as well actually), kissing can actually lead to jailtime in some regions, so keep our distance

    - opposite to that, public burping, spitting, snorting, throat clearing and singing along to the music you hear on you earphones are condoned. Same applies to Singapore

    - both countries are multi-ethnic. The majority is Malay but there are large minorities of Chinese and Indian people and in Singapore a lot of Westerners

    - Since Melaka was an importantport for spice trade, a lot of Chinese and Indian merchants settled there hundreds of years ago. They married local Malay women, and their descendants have specific names, "Baba-nonya" and "Chitta" respectively

    - there are a lot of people in Germany jerseys on the streets. Non-german people! But no jerseys of other national teams. Probably all bandwagon fans!

    The Singapore stuff:

    - The streets are calm and extremely clean. No chewing-gum on the floor... no wonder, chewing gum is actually forbidden to avoid it being thrown on the pavement in the first place

    - We didn't see any beggars or homeless people. The only person we encountered who definitely looked poor was fishing in a pond. Makes you wonder a bit if they are exceptionally taken care of - we doubt it - or if they are just kept out of sight

    - Although restaurants are very expensive, it is possible to buy relatively cheap meals in hawker centres and mall's food courts. But it isn't so easy to find a restaurant on a Sunday

    - KL and Singapore are similar in that regard that they try to lure the rich people of the middle east to their cities. Both cater to their needs and are shopping heavens with countless luxury hotels

    - you also notice right away when you are in a big Western-style city such as KL or Singapore. While in the smaller towns and especially in Indonesia, everybody smiles at you and says hi this isn't the case here. First, they are much more used to tourists and white folks. But second, it also is a lot more anonymous in big cities. Same development as in Europe    Read more

  • Claire and KarstenTravelerSouth-East Asia

    Saigon

    November 4, 2014 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We were greeted by pouring rain, outlandish traffic and very persistent street vendors. Yet somehow, we don't hate it. Quite the opposite. We actually kinda like it here and it is more than the happy hour beer price of 40 cents! There are nice buildings in this huge city, the backpacker area is fun (as long as you take care of your wallet) and the food is great. 

    We arrived on Monday and successfully took the bus instead of the taxi from the airport (40 cents instead of 7 EUR). Finding the hotel might have proven difficult, but one guy on the bus got off with us, brought us to the door step and said goodbye. Made our day! In the evening we explored the area a bit and ended up at the Bui Vien street, that turns into a bar at night. The traffic still flows through it, but on the sidewalks hundreds of small plastic chairs are placed and beer, cocktail and shots are served. One could easily spend hours there just watching drunk Germans, street vendors selling all kinds of stuff (books, dried Calmar, knifes etc.) and other backpackers looking for their hostel. Absolutely great!

    Today we walked around again to see some of the sights of HCMC. Notre Dame or the Independence Palace for example. Because we walked a lot these days we got a little foot massage after that. Very nice.

    Tonight we went for dinner and drinks with a girl we met in Melaka. We're totally part of the backpacker community now!    Read more

  • Claire and KarstenTravelerSouth-East Asia
    22

    Cu Chi Tunnels

    November 6, 2014 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Yesterday we went to see the famous Vietcong tunnels in Cu Chi. The tunnels themselves were super small. Remarkable if you think that people actually lived down there for years to survive. You can enter in a small section of the tunnels. 3 different levels with one being so small that we would have had to crawl to move forward. We were to sissy to do that but went into the other two parts where you still were far away frombeing able to stand.

    You can see some parts of the old tunnels which are now made accessible for tourists, like a kitchen, an armory or a hospital. And then you get to see a little 20 minute propaganda video, which is fun for 5 minutes. All in all, the visit was definitely worth it. Some downsides though: a LOT of tourists, some them drinking beer all the way through this museum. Also, they have a shooting range there, where one could fire some guns like ak47 and other stuff. Quite disturbing to wander through a place like this and hear constant gunfire. Or, if you want to phrase it positively, it sets the atmosphere.

    In the evening we met with a couchsurfer who is teaching English at university and his students to speak some English with them. First we had some street food together and then sat down in their class room to just talk. This is supposed to help them build up some confidence in actually talking in English and we think that it is great initiative on the teachers side to make that possible. That was really fun and a great conclusion of the day.    Read more

  • Claire and KarstenTravelerSouth-East Asia
    1
    2

    Saigon

    November 6, 2014 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    After mentally preparing ourselves to see the awfulness of humanity at the War Remnant Museum, we found out - when we arrived there at noon - that government buildings close for 2h during lunch pause. We are now not sure anymore if we are going to find the courage to visit it tomorrow morning...

    This afternoon we went for a great cooking class! We cooked 5 different dishes, our favourite being chicken with lemongrass and the most surprising being a salad with green (not ripe) papaya, dry beef, and more. We also learned how to cut like a pro and the rest is a secret ;).

    After the course - to cap off our stint in hcmc - we had a drink on a roof top terrace (first wine for Claire since the wedding, pure happiness ;). Unreasonable prices thought. Beer 60 cents.

    As to the traffic, we will just defer to the video at the bottom of this paragraph. Sometimes it is even worse. In the video you see the street we had to cross every day. You just have to make sure you are aware of buses and cars as they won't stop for you. Motorcycles will navigate around you somehow...most of the time. 
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqPSsu7XQ74    Read more

  • Claire and KarstenTravelerSouth-East Asia
    1

    Cần thơ

    November 7, 2014 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    After eating a good Phở (beef noodle soup) for breakfast we directly went to the bus station (yes... we finally didn't go to the war museum...). We decided to go directly to Cần thơ, the major city in the Mekong delta instead of starting by a Mekong delta tour from Saigon which were either private tours and thus too expensive or with a group of 25 people and full of tourist traps. Neither was too appealing.

    We arrived on the afternoon and booked a street food tour on the evening. We were with an Indian family and our guide brought us to different places in the city and explained us typical dishes for real Vietnamese people. In the programme: pork barbecue (that is just the name, no barbecue involved here), special muffins with green beans, pork and shrimps made only in one place (deep fried twice, it can on be excellent ;), eggplant stew, mouse, sticky rice (sweet colored rice in a waffle with coconut and sugar) and... duck embryo (Claire was the only brave one but all wanted to see ;) a very good experience overall! And yes, you also read mouse in that list. A typical dish for the Mekong Delta but less common nowadays because of the pesticides used on rice fields which are the major source of food for mice.    Read more

  • Claire and KarstenTravelerSouth-East Asia
    35

    Cần thơ

    November 8, 2014 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Our friend Dunja was leaving in Cần thơ for some months so we had the opportunity to meet her friend Linh, who showed us around. We started with a Dunja pilgrimage: we ate in her usual lunch place, trying her favourite dish and drink ;) then we walked around the city for 4 or 5h, it was quite calm since it was afternoon and no one wants to go on in the sun (not because of the heat - it is the coldest season here, only 30° - but because no one wants to get tanned).

    Linh left after the walk and after some rest we went to a restaurant where Karsten had a claypot dish and Claire tried a vietnameses pancake. The idea is to roll the pancake in mustard leaf (which tastes like wasabi) with some raw vegetable and dip it in a fish sauce.    Read more

  • Claire and KarstenTravelerSouth-East Asia
    1

    Mekong-Delta

    November 10, 2014 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    The last 2 days we spent on and around the Mekong, mostly in the rural areas close to Can Tho.

    Sunday we slept in for the first time in weeks. Completely relaxed we got ourselves on a couple of bikes (yes, bikes again) and cycled through the countryside. We rode on small roads through villages and were able to get a glimpse into rural lifestyles. We saw an open air temple built into mangroves, were greeted like a hundred times by local children and could try a couple of fruits like milk apple, water apple, jackfruit or mango. The pineapple was better in Indonesia ;). We also represented our countries well when asked by locals to chuck a round of beer with them.

    Today we spent most of the day on a small motor boat visiting 2 floating markets, the main attraction of the area. We got up at 4.30 to be at the first one around 6.30 to see it live and bustling. The first was the floating market of Cai Rang, one of the biggest in the Delta. Mostly bigger, motorized boats come here to sell goods from their farms. For example you could see a boat full of pineapples anchoring here for 3 or more days till all its fruits are sold, then going back home and coming back in the next few days. Between those bigger boats you can see smaller boats buying those fruits and vegetables - it is almost exclusively that, fish and meat for example are sold elsewhere - for their local markets or selling coffee to the vendors. The second one was a smaller, local version. There you could get most stuff necessary for a daily life. Fruits, veggies, clothes etc. There was even a small convenience store floating around. After that we drove into the smaller canals of the countryside and floated along rice fields and fruit gardens.

    All in all those were 2 trips well worth our money because you really get a feel for how much the local livelihood revolves around the Mekong. From gas stations for boats, people washing their clothes and themselves in or catching their lunch from the river, rice and other fruits kept alive with Mekong water to housing and everything that comes with it: the Mekong is what makes this region work. If you have any more questions about the region or especially about how man made climate change affects the people's livelihoods, please ask away! Dunja will answer all your inquiries in German, French or English ;).    Read more

  • Claire and KarstenTravelerSouth-East Asia
    1

    Mekong-Delta

    November 10, 2014 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Just some more pictures for your viewing pleasure.

    1. Cai Rang floating market
    2. Ditto. Here you can see the poles on the boats. On those they hang the fruit they are selling at the moment. If the boat itself is for sale, they would flag coconut leafs
    3. Empty rice field    Read more

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