urlaub 2012 - the beginning

alle jahre wieder sieht das blogger.com interface neu aus. und alle jahre wieder entdecke ich das im herbst, weil ich nur dann zum blogger mutiere. genau gesagt zum urlaubsblogger.
der grund ist einfach zu erraten: eva und ich fahren wiedermal in die weite welt hinaus:

to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations

nat hoffen wir nur bedingt, daß wir dorthin kommen, wo noch nie ein mensch zuvor gewesen ist ;)

diesmal gehts nach afrika: namibia

abflug ist am 5.11. von linz (ja, mit dem alter steigt die bequemlichkeit) und ankunft am 6.11. um 1400 in windhoek. dann 2 nächte im windhoek game camp, bevor wir am donnerstag unseren 4wd pickup übernehmen und dann richtung süden in die kalahari fahren. weiter gehts nach ai-ais und tiras berge (fishriver canyon), sesriem (je 1 nacht vor und im namib naukluft park zum sossusvlei besichtigen). danach machen wir mal ne camping pause und übernachten in einer hoffentlich ganz netten ;) lodge, bevors weiter nach swakopmund geht. 3 nächte swakopmund im sandfields-guesthouse b&b weiter über twyfelfontain und kamanjap in den etosha nationalpark.
im etosha haben wir 3 stopps geplant: dolomite camp, etosha okaukuecho camp und etosha namutoni campsite. und dann wars das auch fast schon. am rückweg nach windhoek noch ein stopp am waterberg plateau (aber nur zum campen) und dann 1 nacht windhoek und back home.

rückkehr nach linz am 28.11.; oder, um es in den "legendären" worten eines (neuerdings ex-) österreichers zu sagen: "i'm going home now". und dann isses hier entweder richtig winter oder noch warm, weil einer der grossen nutzen dieser reisezeit ist, die linzer nebelsuppe hinter sich zu lassen - und das wolln wir uns doch alle auch für heuer wünschen :)

sofern internet auch in namibia besser funktionert als in so manch literarischem meisterstück gelesen, werden wir nat. auch unterwegs bloggen und updaten.

on the way to final destination

i am typing this entry at bangkok airport during waiting for our connecting flight to krabi from where we will go to kohlanta by boat.
the days in siem reap where really great, besides the 2 days at the amazing angkor temples we also visited the floating villages in the thonle sap lake and had some real nice and cheap dinner and lunches at local restaurants and some street-kitchens. but the most special thing during that days was our guide, sahra. he s a very nice guy, gave us verry detailled information on all the temples and other historic or things of interest and was somhow like a friend to us during the days. he also led us to his home village at the coutryside bout 50km away from siem reap to see the circumstances most caambodian ppl have to live and also to visit the primary school he build up and organized himself to help all those poor children to give them a real chance for a better life by providing education to them. but to describe the things we encountered there more than a blog is needed, so u have to wait until we return (including some hundreds of pictures ;))

for now ill stop again and get ready for the flight

hope everrything is fine at home and the winter didnt start too heavy yet, we are now finally arriving at the sea and the white sand beach ;)

and eva wants to send greetings to you all :)

cambodia

ok, letz continue where we stopped before... we had a calm and nearly 2hrs flight from singapore to phnom penh. all the official stuff on the airport was quite quick and we even the pickup organized by the hotel worked out fine - so not even 1,5hrs after landing we arrived at the hotel. and after we arrived we had a very big smile on the face, because the place was just like paradise in the middle of a crowded, busy, chaotic big big city. after getting our very nice room we jumped into the pool and had a couple of cocktails in one of the pavillions next to the pool and relaxed the whole evening, it was just wonderful.

the next day we started our city tours with one of the most depressing station, the s-21 khmer roughe prision where they tortured and afterwards killed hundreds of ppl during 75 to 79. it was really hard stuff and as we got there by feet through, how we realized later the only really dirty and stinky street we met in the city, and so our feelings with phnom penh havent been really positive.
on recommendation of the french friend of the french hotel owner guy we visited the palace and silver pagoda in the afternoon, had some nice khmer food in a restaurant next to mekong and walked round beside the river in the evening. and of course we again had a nice massage, full hour full body and much pain ;) - but if its good for u...
we did the way back with a tuktuk as well as all other distances since experience in phnom penh and of course had to jump in the pool before going to bed in the hotel where pool is open 24hrs and u can have breakfast from 0700 with no end *gg* (doesnt help us getting up early...)

dispite of that the next day started quite early so that we made it to the russian market at 0815 which was recommended by the french friend of blabla... after walkin through all the shops selling things like watches, clothes, jewellery.... and also fresh food including pork, beef and fish we knew or better smelled why its wise to get there early in the morning. of course we (or eva) did some shopping ;) but finally we got back to the hotel for our breakfast at 1000. in the afternoon we went to the killing fields (a "small" KZ) but the ride with the tuktuk was also interesting going through the whole city and more than 15km. after returning we had some nice "streetfood" from 2 different places and in the end we ate too much of very tasty food and didnt even pay usd4 (and the sprite made half of this amount). all we did at night was - of course - drink cocktails, swim in and get a foot massage at the pool :)
the following day we just relaxed at the pool and were waiting for our pickup at 1145 for the bus to siem reap where we arrive in time at round 1800.

ok.... as i am too tired at the moment ill stop here with the detailled story (maybe noone will be interested either... who knows...) and continue later. just the information that i am writing this from a also very nice hotel in siem reap after our yesterdays evening arrival and a full and exhausting day in the ankor area visting a couple of temples (including the tomb raider place).

so more to follow of course, tomorrow we'll have another day at the temples and on wednesday morning we are proceeding to thailand.

greetings from india

hello home,

finally i got access to my blog. the problem last time was, that i had to use the hotels general managers pc and he doesnt seem to be allowed to blog from there ;)

as written below, we started our trip on saturday with a nice night in a real bavarian style, little hotel (were our car is supposed to still be parking), from which we departed in the morning direclty to the airport. flights were calm and during the 7,5 hours from zurich to delhi we had enough time to completely explore the a320's entertainment system. at 035 and on time we touched down in delhi, got our lagguage and arrived at the quite impressive and noble hotel round 230 in the morning.
after a short breakfast in the morning we started our full day delhi tour at 1000 with definitely too less sleep. we already met our driver for the next days on our way from the airport, and now we got to know our delhi guide. very nice guy, and he didnt just know austria, no, he has been vienna, linz salzburg and for 2 months attended the tourim school in innsbruck (he got invited bu a zillertaler whom he guided trough himalaya). during that day we saw lots of delhi, i guess all important sites and also got to know real traffic with the 2million vehicles from more than 16million ppl living there. very noise, no rules.... and in the beginning we were thinking bout renting a car in india hahahaha no way, we wouldnt have survived even an hour here!
but what also cant be overseen here is the poor ppl. many of them live directly next to the street in just a tent or a plastics foil tagged to a tree and a wall. its really really bad!
at the end of the tour we had our first real indian dinner, very nice and not relly hot and spicy yet.

next day, again quite early in the morning we departed to jaipur. for the distance of just 270km we needed 5,5hrs; but if u ever saq the indian highways u might know why it took so long. also no rules, chaos and any kind of vehicle on that streets: trucks, cars, bikes, bycicles, camels, elephants, horses, tucktucks.... and sometimes a herd of cows or sheeps just cross the "highway" or a cow just sleeps in the middle of the road... who cares ;)

but our driver is used to that so we made it to jaipur and our next top class hotel. the rest of the day was pool time, altough its not that warm around here. during the day in the sun its quite warm, but right after dawn temprature drops i gues to around 12C, so no shorts in the evening.
that evening i was more brave and tried a dish, the waiter warned me from beeing too spicy for a european... ha! in the end it was really unhot, maybe they were afraid of killing me and left the spice out ;)

next day was jaipur sightseeing with a new guide, we also did some elephant riding there. we aso made a walk through a part of the town with our guide and its really really busy there. as we are already used to that kind of towns from thailand, we handled it quite ok. again it was a long day and in the evening our driver picked us up again and we went for another real indian dinner. very nice again, more spicy and hot, but still no danger *g*

ok... time is running out.. so ill speed up (and next time, our non german speaking friends may please excuse this, i think i am going to write in german - its still a bit faster for me)

from jaipur we continued to agra next day, visiting some sights on route and, in the afternoon, went to see taj mahal.... its just breathtaking beautiful!
in the evening this time only eva had a real indian dinner and i just had some plain rice trying to convince my stomach to calm down again :(
today we did our sightseeing in agra with the fort and the baby taj and some other stuff again with a quite nice guide and also a german speaking one.

tomorrow we will continue by train to jhansi and change to car again there to reach our nex goal, khajuraho. after 2 nights there we will fly to varanasi, get the ganges early morning experince and fly to mumbai afterwards. from there we will continue to male via colombo, but just with a few hours stop there.

so thats it for this time, greetings to home and all of ya, i might write again soon, if i find another blog-able internet connectivity here.

cheers, greetings,
eva & /thomas

preperations in progress

ok, so lets restart that blog. this time chances are high to be a bit more active in here, because from today on this blog will become our vacation-blog for our trip to india and the maledives - yep, sound great huh?

at the moment looking out of the window i nearly dont see anything except of fog... so to be honest, its time to get away :)

we will be going to munich at the late afternoon, do a late checkin at the aiport and checkin at the hotel we are going to stay until boarding the flight tomorrow at 0930 heading to zürich and further on to delhi, where we are expected to touch down at 0035.
its planned to get picked up by our personal travelguide (and rentcar driver) from the airport and checkin to the hotel "the claridges" (looks great!) for 2 nights before continuing to jaipur.

we might get some indernet there so ill stop now and get back to my bag.

see u soon (we will be returning on 12th of december), and maybe read earlier :)

greetings
eva & /t

one night in eva hotel's t(h)ommy room

a bit later than thought we made it to cash our "1 night in the eva hotel - double room t(h)ommy" voucher we got from angie at our wedding to be used for our first aniversary. as we have been in france on that day, we postboned it a bit.
and as we know now, with a lot of advantages: the landscape looks great with the starting autumn and all the leaves getting colored yellow and red, and the weather was just gorgeous: blue sky and temperatures of 15C and more.
we were really getting hot on hiking up the alps and me getting a "nice" sunburn on the forehead and my nose ;)

and as usual i made a google map with all the important places and routes of this trip, which u can visit here.

besides of walking quite a lot (for our measurements ;)) we relaxed in the wellness area of the hotel and eva and me had a nice massage. a very nice dinner made the stay at the eva hotel quite a nice experience.

so, we both, eva and i, have to really really thank angie for this voucher!

the next day, after our second hiking experience, where we nearly passed the border between salzburg and tirol - if i would have know before we definitely would have proceeded the last mile - we visited zell am see for a small walk at the lake, watching some psychotic birds and having a nice cake and cafe.

so another great, relaxing weekend with eva reached its end.
i really have to look forward saving more time for that kind of adventures, its amazingly realxing and re-energizing to have no it equipment in reach.

back from vacation

finally and unfortunately my vacation is now over and i am back in the office.... - no further comments.
but let me sum up the vacation in a few words.
after a very, very busy day in the office on 18.8. with a lot of meetings and even more tasks that have to be fulfilled before leaving, i was done at round 2230 at night with the jobs stuff and also with packing my things - quite too many as i know now. on tuesday, 19th, we started our trip a bit later than planned at 0830. arriving a bit late in st. raphael at 1930 we searched for a camping-place realizing, that most of them are just full. so we took the first free space we found for the first night.
next day we continued to the place we've been 5 years ago - YES i found it ;) - got a place and settled there.
being quite lazy we stayed exactly on that slot during the next 12 days until we started back home on 30.8.
to sum up the 12 days:

• lying in the sun on the campingplace's beach
• visiting st. tropez (by boat), marseilles, grasse, aix en provence
• driving round a lot (and a lot of traffic jams on the route nationale 98 = street directly on coastline)
• having a lot of fun with eva *gg*
• eating tons of baguettes, croissants, moule frites and not to forget all the crepes
  
• meeting a jellyfish in the sea *damn*
• went running in the morning for unbelieveable 4 times! (first time ever during a vacation ever)
• resetting the medion navi for more than 25 times (but it lead us there and back and inbetween)
• savoring 12 days of pure sun, no rain
• ...
  

i could continue for a long time now, but whoever wants to know more or see some pictures -> just ask.
eva started her new job on 1.9. and i continued my vacation at home with frequent visits of the family doctor due to some problems with my shoulder and lake plesching to gain some more sun. and, what news, i found out, that just not having to work is quite relaxing, even at home. only eva was missing to make it close to perfect.