Philippe's World Tour @philippemueller - Tumblr Blog

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PMA ist ein Studio welches Tradition mit Gegenwart verknüpft um heutigen Bauaufgaben gerecht zu werden und den Nutzer ins Zentrum zu stellen.

and here we go.. our official new Homepage. A bigger one will be made soon!

#pma #philippe #müller #architects #ag

… Around the world in 2 years..

That was the initial idea. This was the time I gave myself to explore the world before starting a serious life back home in Switzerland. Like everybody else, I thought that this part of my life is going to be different. Somewhat a break from reality. A gap year. Or two. Before going back to my old life. That's how I started into this trip. And it has been amazing. I've met a lot of awesome people with interesting stories and I fell in love with an amazing women. After about a year into my travels starting from India I began to realize, that traveling to new places, meeting new people everyday wasn't what I wanted to do for my second year of the journey. I started to miss my work. A reason to be. Just visiting new places and learning about countries wasn't good enough anymore. Especially because one travels quite fast due to short visa allowances. Usually thirty days per country. So one has the choice to either stay in one country at one place, or use the time to see as much as possible. At the beginning I chose the latter one. I thought since I’m probably going to be there just once, I’d rather have an overview on what the country is like. And if I have missed something, or I really liked it there, then I can always go back later.

The pace I was traveling on was too fast to keep it up for a long time. It might have been different if I travelled for only a few months. But two years. Not possible. From traveling the world, it came down to traveling Asia and the Pacific Region. But still it was traveling as a tourist. And the whole experience remained shallow and ephemeral. So even narrowing it down (yeah it's still a gigantic region if you look at the world map) didn't really help. I wasn't as happy anymore. It was not about being in these beautiful places. It was about being with the right people. And I wanted a purpose. I wanted to stay longer and possibly work in a country. To really feel and experience how life there really is. Not from a tourist point of view.

After a short trip to New Zealand to meet my girlfriend I decided to change my itinerary around and go to Japan to work for 6 weeks before going back to New Zealand. I met up with my amazing Japanese friends who showed me everything that architecture had to offer in that limited time and managed to kind of work voluntarily for about a month at Dot Architects in Osaka. I immediately started to feel better. Work. Having a purpose, an agenda. Then I went to Auckland, to help out with my girlfriends Master thesis. Making plans and building models. I felt even better. So much fun.

What seems to be obvious now wasn't so obvious to me then. But when people ask me what country I liked most, I tend to mention India, Bhutan, New Zealand and Japan. And why? Because I worked there. I had a special relationship with that place. A longer lasting one.

After her graduation, Ji Min and I moved to India where she got a job an architectural office. So I was thinking about what I should be doing now. Since I wanted to work too, I had either the option to find a job somewhere, or.. Just start my own practice. And that's what I did. I first started to work on little things and did some strategic development studies for my fathers company. And on April 22nd my office, Philippe Müller Architects came to life. A proper office. In theory. But without the physical part. I worked out of Mumbai for projects in Switzerland. And I’m still doing it. It's been exactly four months since I officially got my own office. I even got a first initial homepage set up. Check it out: www.pmarchitects.ch

And there is some more news: We're moving back to Switzerland in October, where Ji Min is going to join PMA! I'm so excited.

The past two years made me realize many things. The most important one is this: The Idea of a gap year, where one 'get's out of reality' and afterwards go back to regular life is a sad one. Why is it necessary to break out of your regular life? What makes you wanting to leave? And why is it called your regular life? I don't want to see it like that anymore. I don't want to go back after these three years I’ve been abroad to slip back into my old life. This traveling life has become my reality. I want the same excitement and experiences that I had during my travels for the rest of my life. And how is one going to achieve that?

Doing what you love, with the people you love.

We only have that one life. We should make the best out of it. As Steve Jobs once said:

„Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.“

#worldtour #real life #let the adventure continue

Bali - Indonesia

After spending the last few days in Melbourne, we made our way back towards India. With a short stopover in Bali to get some sun on the beach and to relax before starting to work. I was already told before, that if you want to see Indonesia, don’t go to Bali. And of course it was true. The nature on the Island is pretty nice and tropical, as one would expect. We took the advice not to go south and went straight to the west coast to Balian Beach, where we met up with an old school friend of Ji Min. We went to see a beautiful waterfall in Pupuan, where we got surprised by the rain, drank some Kopi Luwak Coffee and enjoyed the black sand beaches. Next stop was Banyuwedang, where we went to get some sealife and snorkeling experience. The underwater world was pretty alive and the reef had a great variety as well. Beautiful corals. Our last stop was in Ubud. A super touristy town on the bottom of a volcano. Luckily we found a place a bit outside, where we had the place almost to ourselves. Great to have been there in the off season. The setting is great. But the vibe is certainly not. Too much artificial touristy stuff. What a shame. It could have been a dream.

#world tour #bali #indonesia #banyuwedang #balian beach #pupuan #waterfall #naya gawana #trigger fish #attack #ubud

Melbourne, Australia

Our first stop after leaving New Zealand was Melbourne. Famous for it's architecture. Ironically. There is nothing great about it's architecture. At least not of the new one, where one can see the struggle of the Architects to create a building that is more attentionseeking that the one next door. It's a shame what people can call themselves Architects these days. It shows once again that a certificate alone is not enough if awarness is absent. Luckily there are some older buildings still intact and will hopefully still be there when contemporary architectural wave has passed.

#world tour #australia #melbourne #museum city #indoor is better than outdoor #flinders street station #sean godsell #mpavilion #acca #David Shrigley #National Gallery of Victoria #Takahiro Iwasaki #reflection model

New Zealand - North Island

2 Months i spent on the North Island of this beautiful country. Despite everyone claming South Island to be more diverse in terms of nature, i'd definitely disagree. There was everything. From Forests with gigantic trees to sanddunes, spiky westcoast bushes to soft vegetation on the eastcoast, snowy mountain to scarce volcano landscapes. Well.. I shouldn't have to add more to that.

New Zealand - South Island

Tile Land Japan - It's been quite a while since i've been to Japan. And i was kind of missing out on reporting on that properly. Sorry for that. :) The ones of you who follow me on instagram: http://instagram.com/mp85ch/ will have a better understanding of all the amazing events, people and buildings i've encountered. And since it wouldn't make much sense to post them here again, just hop over and have a look there.

I had a great time following up with my friends from Studio Mumbai that i met while working in India. The first week i've spent with my friend Shoichi in Tokyo, where he showed me in and around town. What an incredible city. The next month i was more or less working with Wataru in Osaka. I could take part in three projects and could head over to Shodoshima Island where i started an amazing Tour d'Art for a few days and saw some of Tadao Ando's probably best work. Amazing Stuff. My last week i travelled back to Tokyo over Takayama, where i met Takumi and saw the beautiful Japanese Alps. Back in Tokyo i met up with Chiaki, Parva and Rakesh. Former clients of the Studio. In these 6 weeks i've seen almost everything in wanted. Unfortunately i wasn't able to travel the west to meet Yoshihiko, Nozomi and Amo. But i'll definitely do that the next time i come to this beautiful country. Can't wait to go back there. I thank everybody that i met there. You've made this trip incredible! Thanks.

You may wonder why i put these tile images up here on tumblr. This is something that was very fascinating to me. Before i went to Japan i had this romantic view on how it might be. And in Studio Ghibli and most Ninja or Samurai movies one get's to see these beautiful wooden houses. :) I was hoping to see some of them while being there. Unfortunately, most of them are gone. The only ones left were the ones in Open air museums.Instead, i saw all these brick builidngs everywhere. In the cities, in the outskirts and in most villages as well.. Only when i looked again i saw that most of these buildings were actually out of wood and just tiled! It's quite interesting. Tiles wherever see. In all kinds of coloures and shapes. Well, mostly earth tones were used. Very humble looking buildings. Simplyfied speaking (yes i know, it's very much simplyfied) i'd say there were two main building expressions: calm and screaming. The calm buildings are represented by those tiled buildings. Humble. Plain. Simple and very introverted. One can hardly see signs of life in these areas. It's like a ghost town. Almost no people in sight. And the small, mirroring windows are mostly closed. Live happens inside, but it's not visible from the outside. I felt that is very much Japanese. Older Japanese. And there is the screaming architecture that is trying to make a statement. Loud. Attention seeking. With lots of coloures, shapes and decorations. Districts like Shinjuku, Shibuya or Harajuku. With the neonsigns, Advertisements and Music that become part of the environment. Also Japanese. Like young Japanese people. That part i was aware of. But not the former one.

Therefore i dedicate this blog to those tiles. And they are easily cleaned as well. :)

#world tour #tile land #japan #tokyo #osaka #takayama #amazing days #lovely time #great people #thanks

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia

Almost 4 months have passed, since i've been to Kuala Lumpur. I know. Wasn't too good in keeping the blog up to date. I'm still alive though :) Was just a bit busy the last months. The city of Kuala Lumpur reminded me pretty much of Singapore, but less chinese influenced. The Petronas Towers were big on my agenda as you may expect. And it was quite impressive to see that structure with it's shiny coating standing there.

Traditional buildings were unfortunately not that many in place anymore. New developments are takeing over. I was therefore even more pleased to see a traditional Malayan building in the middle of the city. at Badan Warisan. Where i spent a day going throught their library reading about those beautiful structures. And i was able to see a traditional Malayan plant: the egg plant.

#world tour #malaysia #kuala lumpur #kl #petronas towers #badan warisan #fake egg plant

A for... Auckland

Most of the 11 days I spent in New Zealand were in Auckland. Why? Because it's quite nice. It aint that bad. Especially the inner city and the harbour with the docs have some great spaces! Well.. Maybe not the ABC building.. Or whatever it's called. There are certainly some treasures here and there. And lot's of cafe's. With good coffee.. and cakes.

Most of the city consists of these pretty little villa's or 'bungalows'. Suburbia. But again. It's quite nice. Especially on a sunny afternoon on the front porch of one of those houses. With a book in your hand, and a coffe in the mug next to you. What more do you want? Right.. Nice people. And there are plenty of them. Where else say people 'thank you' to the bus driver, before they depart the bus? I guess i don't have to say anything more. it's lovely.

And just a short 2,5 hours drive to the south lays Waitomo. With it's glowworm caves. Filled with.. Yes, you guessed it right, glowworms. They light up like stars in the night. As if you're looking up to the night sky on a clear night and see the milkyway in it's pure awesomeness..

Yes. This country is amazing and I can't wait to go back!

#world tour #new zealand #auckland #glowworm #cave #waitomo

New Zealand. I finally made it to the other end of the world. Not the arse end of the world.. As some people would say. Just the other side where i'm from. And it's absolutely amazing!

The first few days i spent in West Auckland. A little up the hill from Piha. Where we spent a few days in a rented house. With this amazing view. The introduction to the country couldn't have been better. I love this place. And the people.

#world tour #new zealand #piha

Diverse Singapore

3 Months has it been, since my sister joined me on my tour in Hanoi, Vietnam. Singapore is the last chapter of that family journey. It was a great time i had with her and i'm glad she felt the same way. In Singapore, aka 'Aircon City', lives my friend Chan Wai Keong. Since he offered to show us around, we went with him on the first day, where he showed us the less touristy side of Singapore.

We were surprised how culturaly diverse this city is. Amazing to see how a mosque, a hindu temple and a chinese temple are just footsteps away from each other. People live together in peace. So nice to see!

'Little India' was great and i felt like i was placed back to Tamil Nadu, where the colourful gopurams mark the entrance to a temple.

The chinese temple in chinatown was well filled with people these days. And everybody was chanting together with the priests. Beautiful.

From the chinese Temple we came to talk about 'Feng Shui' that then lead us over to the Merlion. Singapore's symbol. And got explained how the Merlion protects the city from the bad elements from the sea.

After this interesting discussion, we went further north, where people were celebrating the 'hungry ghost festival'. Because it was the seventh lunar month, when the gates of hell are open and the ghosts come back out. In order to please these ghosts, people present offerings during the whole month.

Stages are set up where performances for the ghosts are held. When the audience is seated, the first row is kept empty, so the ghosts can take place. I loved it. Felt a bit like Studio Ghibli.. great!

The auction, that was taking place close by, was there to get the money back in that is spent on the festival. And things are given out with auspicious numbers of singapore dollars. A pile of oranges went away for 1288 dollars.. Crazy..

The next day we went over to Sentosa, the island of attractions. Where we went to see the S.E.A. Aquarium. I haven't been in one for ages. But this one really caught my attention and i loved the unusual and magical animals that were living there. I caught few of them to show you.. Amazing!

Right? These things are cool.

In front of our hostel at Boat Quay, there were some more crabs exhibited.. For the famous Singaporean chili crab. I got one later on. But the one here would have been about 200 Dollars.. Yes. Singapore is definitely not cheap!

But the view was great. And the atmosphere was nice. After being in Asia for a year, it was good to have some more westerness back.

Because we liked the other aquarium that much, we went to see another one. The River Safari. Where River animals were presented.. And they were amazing!

I really wanted to have one of those little dwarf crocodiles!

Or a Red Panda, aka Firefox.

or a Giant Panda,

and a Polar Bear.. Well.. I guess they're all too big to carry.. So i let it be.

The dugongs better known as seacows were soo relaxed. Just floating around in the water. What a great life. Love to do that myself... :) And then we met this little guy in the Spider Monkey forest. Cute little fellow..

Ok.. Enough animals. Singapore has more to offer. Such as the Formula 1 track that is part of the regular road system.

And the Gardens By The Bay.

We went to see the Cloud Forest in a dome with an artificial climate that should depict what happens to a rainforest, when it's situated in higher altitudes.. We would call that Jungle i guess.. Full of parasite plants.

Very fotogenic. That guy must've thought that as well.. Filipino Elvis Presley. Great fun.

Outside the forest are the Super trees. Artificial trees that are ment to be overgrowing with creepers.

The day was about to end. And we went up to the newly built 'boat' building. The Marina Bay Sands. To get an overview over the city.

Lot's of other people had the same idea.

And the pool that was only accessible by hotel guests lost it's attractiveness given the number of people.

Everybody was waiting for the sunset.

and when it finally arrived, we could see the city light up..

Amazing. Perfectly on time, we made it down to the bay area, where they had a cheesy but nice water and light show. supported with laser beams from the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. :) What a great end to the interesting time here in Singapore!

Philippe in the Philippines.. kind of had to write that as a title.. :)

I've been looking forward to see this country. 7000+ Islands.. amazing! Well.. before we got to see it, my sister and I had to spend a night around the airport of Manila before we could see them out of an early morning flight to Cebu.

In Cebu we met Taka and a few hours later Tom. My godchild. That was great. Our hotel on Mactan Island was the starting point of our one afternoon city safari. We soon got to see what amazing people the Filipinos and Filipinas are. Super friendly and very helpful if we needed anything. And they seemed to be really happy.

Soon we got to see the local taxis. Like stretch Jeeps. Awesome!

We went to the older part of Cebu, where the streets were filled with people. Coming from their sundays church visit.

The colourful attire and the amount of kitch related to religion made me think of India. I liked it.

We ended up having some dinner on top of a highrise building to get an overview over the city. We weren't too much impressed by the city. I guess we'd need more time to get into it..

We took a flight over to Siargao. Our home for the next week. Where we took two rooms at the Turtle Surfcamp.

Immediatley we rented a motorbike and rode over to the Cloud9 surfspot. Where we were going to surf the next few days. It was off season here. And the swell was as small as it could get. Perfect for beginners like us. We walked out to the tower to catch a glimpse on the waves. It was low tide, and therefore exposed the creator of them. The reef. I've never surfed on reef broken waves before and I hoped it wouldn't be too much of problem for us. Turned out it wasn't. We could handle what seemed to be the compulsory cut a day.

The next day we wanted to try it ourselfes. Together with some locals we went out and did our best. 4 hours every day in the morning time, when the tide was high. What a great pleasure! Together with Sacha, another swiss guy, we went out day after day and definitely improved our wave-catchability skills.. :)

And during the time where there were no waves in sight, we relaxed. And enjoyed our time in the ocean.

And here's some evidence, that there were some 'waves' that we actually were able to take :)

Great fun! Looking forward to do it again!

When we weren't out with the boards, we went for a ride with Rosalinda, our cute dog lady,

went over to General Luna,

or even further south, to some pretty beaches.

After about 10 days, it was time for us to move on.

We caught another flight and were extremely happy that the party seats weren't already taken. They were oriented the other way around and therefore perfect to play cards with the people sitting opposite of us. And a backwarts start in the plane was definitely more amazing than in the usual seats. We could feel the forces much better.

Back in Cebu, we had to wait another night before we could catch a flight over to Palawan. In the west of the country. When we reached Puerto Princessa, we took a trycicle to the bus station.

From where we took one of these amazing Truck-Taxies to Sabang.

Our journey was interrupted several times. After five minutes of driving we already had an engine problem and had to wait an hour before they could fix it. Twice we had to fill up the cooling system. One of the guys jumped off and, and walked over to a little stream, where he filled the blue canister with water and filled it into a tank on top of the van. That was just a one way cooling system. Not a circle. The water went from the tank on top to the engine, and from there through that hose onto the street. Amazing.

Well.. We reached Sabang just before the it got dark, could see Filipinos playing their national sport, basketball, and watch the sunset.

The next morning we joined a tour to the underground river. Starting with a short ride in one of the country's distinct outrigger boats.

Followed by a one hour tour through the first part of this 7.5 km long cave.

Back in Sabang, we decided to move on to El Nido the same day. We booked a Minivan and enjoyed our time on the beach before we could hop on it in the afternoon.

The ride took for ever.. Seven hours in that van wasn't really pleasurable. At least we stopped once at this nice little place, where we could stretch and enjoy the sun. Before arriving there in the darkness of the night.

El Nido was a pretty little place. But we soon realised that the times of good weather had changed. The rainy season was about to hit the place. And it did get wet.

Luckily not all the time. We went on an island hopping tour. The most popular thing do to in El Nido. And we really enjoyed it. The landscape is truly amazing. Such a great experience. See for yourself.

Eventually, the weather was again about to turn. Still.. There were some spots left.

Back on land, we went out for dinner. To see on the plate what we saw during the day under water.

Coron was up next. A boat ride away to the north. Took us 6 hours to get there. Jessabel was our boat. Another Outrigger boat. And we were happy to have them. The see was quite rough. And it was raining. Quite a wet affair.

Towards the end of our journey, the rain stopped and the see got flatter. The enjoyable part started. We went onto the roof, sat on the coconut and green banana bags and enjoyed the islands floating by.

Coron was a pretty little fishing village known for it's great wrack diving spots.

We went on another island hopping trip to enjoy the beauty of the sea around Coron. Unfortunatley, the water wasn't as clear anymore. But the aquatic life was lively.

And the wrecks were amazing!

Hot springs were there to take a dip.

And Mount Tapyas offered great views over the surroundings. When it wasn't raining..

After three weeks of holidays, my godchild had to leave us. What a pitty. But i'm sure he had a great time and a good introduction into Asia. :)

Life went on and i went to go wreck diving. I startet with a refresher dive, because i haven't been under water for like 2 years... And then went on to two ship wrecks. The first one just outside, but the second one also in the inside. That was amazing! Diving through the interior of these ships..

And the amount of lion fish and his cousin, the stonefish were incredible. Amazing!!

After this adventure my sister and I were ready for some sun! We therefore went over to Legazpi, in the eastern part of the coutry, where we hoped to get some sun.

We wanted to go to Donsol. Unfortunately, it wasn't season to go diving there and all the resorts were closed. A thing we only found out after a two hour drive. At least we saw this amazing graveyard. And drove 2 hours back to Legazpi.

Mt. Mayon, considered world's most perfect cone, is the volano, that dominates this place. Fascinating.

Although the city wasn't that great. We really enjoyed the view on this huge, smokey volcano.

On our last day, we went on a short early morning quad-bike tour to see it from a little closer perspective. Amazing. We wanted to climb it. But that's not possible because of the sulfurous gases.

We enjoyed it from a distance and were happy to at least see it. And spend some time in the sun again. Thank you Philippines. You've been great to us!

Thailand Part Four

Yes.. Back in Thailand. It seems to be the perfect hub to go to all the surrounding countries. It's easy to get in, you don't need a visa and it's so superbly diverse. I really like that country. Maybe also because i've come here the first time 20 years ago, when i visited my uncle with his new family. Now i'm back with parts of that family. My two cousins that joined me in Angkor Wat and my sister that joined the tour in Vietnam. Happy family reunion travelling..

By bus we went to see the resort of our cousins in the eastern part of Thailand. No tourists come here. Only locals are to be seen that come here over the weekend from Bangkok. To relax. And to see that particular flower that only grows up here. (and in the philippines we figured later on :) ). But yeah. Only there if you only look at Thailand. Anyway. We went to see their resort close to Chayaphum. The 'Banrai Phusa Tawan'.

We were greeted by those little sheep before we had a look around the resort.

The bungalows were really cool. So is the camping area. Quite nice place. Well done cousins :)

We wanted to inspect the close surroundings. And stumbled upon this weird, little cheesy place that looked like a farm somewhere in the west. Thais love it. And liked it too. Somehow.

The 'Moh Hin Khao' aka Thailands Stonehenge was an interesting site. And it was real. No fake.. Just make that clear.

The sunset up there on that little mountain was really pretty. Haven't seen one like that in a long time. Beautiful clouds.

On the way back we had some great Noodle Nr.4. Delicious stuff.

On our last day we finally made it up to the national park where the flowers were blooming. Only 3 month a year. Quite lucky we came here at the right time. We got up early to catch the sunrise. It was really foggy. No sunrise for us. But the diffuse light gave kind of a magical touch to it walking through that forest on the search for the flower. Felt a bit like red ridding hood. Luckily no wolfs appeared.

Here we go. The 'Thung Dok Krachiao'.

In the same national park there were some more rockformations. Quite unique ones i thought. And what people did to it was even more unique. they put sticks onto the rock that look like supporting it. No idea why they do that but it looks quite cool.

And yeah, some of the rocks had quite a distinctive shape.

We packed our things and jumped onto a minivan that brought us to Ayutthaya. A city a little further north than Bangkok, where we visited the grandma of Anita and Gela. Lovely people.

Since we were already there, we went on to the historical park of Ayutthaya. Where some old buildings of Thailands capital city in the year 1351 still remain. Among them the famous buddha in that is overgrown by a tree.

We saw some of the most prominent sites and continued southwards to Bangkok, where we stayed another day with our cousins before our ways split again. What a nice time.

Me and my sister went to Krabi for a week before heading over to the Philippines. Bangkok's old Don Mueang Airport seemes really to be out of order. Even the benches seems not to work anymore.. Although i'm not sure how a bench can be out of order..

A few hours later, we arrived in Railay. A beautiful area in the Krabi region, that is only accessible by boat. It therefore had an island feeling altough it wasn't one. The rockformations, the mangroves, the palmtrees and the beaches really made this place worth staying a little longer.

And our bungalow with the pool right outside, in front of this massive wall was definitely contributing to that fact.

The laundry guards will definitely agree with me.

Our first full day we went with Michael on his sunset cruise around Railay. Luckily, there were only three other people with us on the boat. Was quite an intimate cruise with lots of fun. Chelsea, Tyler and Nikhil were great company. And Ting tried to catch dinner. With medium success. The fish seemed to taste great anyway. So was our dinner.

We first stopped for some snorkeling, where we fed some sergeant major fish with water melon pieces. Fun times.

We cruised around the Chicken island to our second stop.

The 'Deep Water solo climbing' wall. About 9 or 10 meters high, one climbed up and jumped back down into the water. Great fun!

Back on the boat, we had a great dinner and sailed back to Railay. Unfortunately no sunset for us today. Was great anyway.

The next days we spent climbing with Kung. Our new friend of the Hot Rock Climbing company. My first time climbing was quite awesome. Starting on a 4b learning wall, we top roped up to parts of 6a's. Super hard for me. Due to the lack of technique.

The second day we went on to lead climbing, where i managed a 5c. So much fun. A bit scary. But fun.

Repelling was up next.

And some more top roping. Next to this cave.

The view inside this cave was really pretty. And the weather kept his promises. It was beatiful to see the turquoise water and the awesome beaches.

After a multi-pitch session on my third and last day, we had another repelling session, in which we first climbed through a cave and emerged on the western side of Railay.

We really enjoyed our three climbing days. And it certainly was a great introduction phase into that sport for me. Awesome. Thanks to Kung again. To say goodbye we went to one of our favourite bars for a few beers. The 'Bang Bang Bar'.

Our last days we enjoyed strolling around the beaches,

And climb up to the Viewpoint that overlooks Railay.

And down into the lagoon from there. Quite a steep little climb that was absolutely worth it!

We enjoyed once more the east part of Railay,

as well as the west part.

With it's great sunsets that everybody seemed to love.

Lovely Cambodia

Bye bye Vietnam. Hello Cambodia.

Me and my sister crossed the border by Ha Thien. The most southern border close to the sea. We figured that rainy weather doesn't stop at the border and it continued to follow us on our tour. Altought the procedure was a bit weird, we had our laugh with Bina and Christian. Two germans we met while crossing over. Especially the health check was completely absurd. Well. We all were healthy and could cross over.

The transport situation seemed to be the same as in Vietnam. Insane what these guys manage to put on their motorbikes.

We took a minivan over to Kep. The closest town to the border. Where we went down to the famous Crab market. Interesting to see how these people store their crabs. They put them in a cage and put them back in to the sea until someone wants to buy them.

Altough the sky was full of clouds, the sun managed to penetrate through them and left us with a beautiful shimmery evening light that we could enjoy at the sailing club.

The next day we were heading over to Rabbit Island.

Yes, we asked ourselfs too why it's called that way regarding the fact that there were no rabbits. Apparently, they made some chemical tests on that island. After that they introduced rabbits to the island to check if it's inhabitable again... Well.. they are no more rabbits.. And people still live there.. doesn't make much sense.. but yeah. It's what they say.

The people there grow some kind of seaweed that they farm, then dry and yeah, eat.

We moved on to Kampot. A bigger village, where we took a bungalow at a lazy riverside hostel, where we met Bart, Ioury and Taka. Hope i spelled that right.. sorry if i didn't. :)

The township itself was quite mediocre but had some interesting features.

Such as the funny remorks and a durian round-a-bout.. yes. Durian. The most ugly fruit in the world.

Anyway. Togther with Andrea, Jessica and Arch we went up to Bokor Hill Station to see the abandoned casino. And much more :) We rented some scooters and off we went.

We stopped at a temple in the clouds. That was quite an experience.

And here you go: The casino. From the movie 'City of Ghosts'. Where the Khmer Rouge had a base during their bloody 4 year reign.

Some abandoned villas further back were an interesting playground.

Especially this part felt like 'Alice in Wonderland'.

And the orange moss didn't help to make it look less fancy.

Quite pretty. Altough the history of this place isn't. The spookyness of the Bokor Church helped to put it in the right light.

The next day we went on to Sihanoukville, where we took a boat over to Koh Rong. And island off the coast, that shouldn't be as developed and touristy as it's mainland counterpart. And it wasn't. But perfect for strolling around and a lot of relaxation time. Although the weather was obviously the same as on the mainland. Just a bit earlier.

Right on the first day we did a boat-tour over to Koh Rong Samloem. Where we went snorkeling and swimming in luminescent plankton at night. This is just a reference picture down here. I don't know how they managed to get in on camera. I tried as hard as i could. But couldn't get it on it. Well.. It wasn't as bright as on the picture, and it was green. And yeah. Not on the beach. But out in the water.. I guess that guy must've cheated a lot to make it look like that.. Anyway. It was absolutely great. 30 minutes of pure happiness.. Ask Emily and Collin. Or Oscar. They would tell you the same. :)

Amazing. And our little bungalow on that islands without 24 hours electricity, internet and the lack of any roads, made this stay even better.

We loved it. Get some more impression of the island.

I really liked this building site on the way to the other side of the island.

Long Beach

And our favourite: 4k beach

Everything had to end. As well as our stay on Koh Rong. We took a boat back to Sihanoukville, where we spent another night. From there we took a night bus over to Siem Reap. To see the famous temples of Angkor Wat. And our cousins, Gela and Anita. Nice family reunion. Since the early bird catches the worm, we had to get up quite early to get the best out of these temples. Tadaaaaa: Angkor Wat

Well.. Others had the same idea. Can't really blame them.

After seeing that first temple we toured around to see more of the area:

Angkor Thom South Gate

Bayon Temple with its many faces

Baphuon Temple with the Gateway to Heaven. At least i call it that way.

Tha Phrom, where they shot parts of 'Tomb Raider'

And that one.. Well. I forgot the name...

On the way back we came across a death procession. Quite interesting. And soo many people. Must've been a nice guy..

In the evening we went to 'Phare, The Cambodian Circus'. A mix between theatre and circus, that was a fun night out.

That guy would be an amazing surfer i guess!

The next day the four of us took scooters and drove over to the 'Beng Mealea Temple'. That one was really nice! A ruin that wasn't ruined! It was great! Luckily they didn't try to restore it so far. Just built some wooden pathways. And for a little tip, one of the security guards gave us a private tour. Really cool. Enjoy.

I really enjoyed that temple! As well as the country. By far the country with the friendliest people in SouthEastAsia so far. Lovely..

Vietnam Part 2: The Middle and the South

A train took me and my family from Ninh Binh in the north of the country to the central part of Vietnam. We stopped in Dong Hoi. Not much to see there, since we unfortunately we couldn't go to the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park because all the tours were booked out. We therefore continued further down south and soon got to the DMZ, the demilitarised zone. We went to see the Vinh Moc Tunnels, where a whole village was moved under ground due to the bombardement from the South towards the communist north, where this little village is situated. It was really interesting to see the network of tunnels as deep as 23 meters under ground.

After that, we needed something to cheer us up. The beach seemed to be the perfect solution. The Cua Tung beach was really pretty but super hot!

Just on the northern side of the Ben Hai River that acted as the treshold of the north and south was a gigantic flag of Vietnam.

The Truong Son National Cemetery contained 10'000 graves of Vietnamese Soldiers. Quite big.

We continued to Hue where we managed to see the sunset just before it was over. perfect timing.

The demolition series seems to take place all over the world.

The next day we went to see the citadel which includes the Imperial Enclosure that served as the Palace during the Nguyen dynasty after it's finishing in 1833.

to get further on our journey, we had to cross the Hai Van Pass.

It offered great views over Danang, which we skipped to have more time in Hoi An. Which proofed to be the right decision. Hoi An is beautiful. Such a nice little town. A must see for everyone visiting Vietnam.

The streets were so small and beautiful and all the buildings had the same colour with the same style. Really nice. But the greatest thing i've seen in a while is this guy who builds these beautiful ships. They even made the Black Pearl. Awesome!

After this big up followed, of course, a massive down. We ordered an icecream. And since the ice cream guy put all the different sorts together we happened to get some durian ice cream as well.. OMG.. The first taste is not even that bad.. but the aftertaste is so incredibly ugly.. like you eat a fruit that was cut with a knife previously used to cut onions.. times 100.. Unedible for everyone with a good taste..

We continued our city walk and enjoyed the superb beauty of this little riverside town.

We decided to stay by the sea, which was a great decision! So we could get both. City and beach.

And there is certainly nothing wrong with that infinity pool towards the river... Awesome.

Back in Danang we caught a flight down to Nha Trang where we managed to see A21 Studio's Lam Cafe. Awesome. Really pretty!

And the I-resort does it as well. Great work. Altough it was superbly booked out on that busy day, and we had to proceed, I managed to get through the back door without paying the huge entrance fee. I took my pictures and went out trough the front door. I like being an Architect.

On our way to Dalat we came across a traditional building of a hill tribe. This one is not inside a village, but outside for young people as a meeting point.

Dalat has a much milder climate than the rest of Vietnam. Therefore there are lots of greenhouses, where flowers and vegetables are growing that don't in all the rest of the country. Our first impression we could get of Dalat was that huge hillside graveyard that merged with the greenhouses. Somehow mystical.

We got a closer look on the greenhouses the next day.

On our way to a coffee plantation where they grow 'weasel coffee'. Aka Fox coffee or 'scheise kaffee' how our guide called it. Officially called 'cafe chon', it's the same as kopi luwak, where the cat eates the best coffee beans and poops them out again. only the bean remains that then gets washed and roasted.. And it certainly is an amazing coffee!

After this, these silkworms were next on the menu. quite tasty. If one regards that they are worms.. Popcorn.. taste like. :)

We could see the whole silk production procedure which was really interesting.

Next on the list was the Elephant Waterfall. Don't really know why it got it's name, but it was nice and cool around it.

Back in Dalat we went to see the Crazy House. Where a russian architect built several buildings over the years. Really Crazy. But cool. And i would love to stay at the 'bear room'.

Because this wasn't crazy enough, we went over to the Lang Bian Mountain. Where we could've ridden on some vietnamese zebras while we were waiting for our jeep to get us to the top...

Wait a minute.. That can't be right.. The white one, fine.. but the brown one is too obvious. :) good job Vietnam! :)

The view from the top all over Dalat was quite pretty though. Altough this super cheesy mountain experience was almost a bit too much.

Also because it was really busy. It was a national holiday. And it seemed that whole vietnam came up here during this time.

Perfect. I thought. So Ho Chi Minh City must be empty then. Well. It wasn't. Still some remaining people there. Among them my friend Trang Dang, that i met in Nepal. What a great revival.

The war remnants museum was terrible to watch. I mean i've seen many war museums. But nothing like this. When you see what impact the 'agent orange' chemicals had and still have you won't believe your eyes. I couldn't see the whole section. I had to get out earlier. Poor people.

I enjoyed the last hours with my parents before they were heading back to Switzerland. It was a great time with you guys! See you again soon. Or a bit later :)

Me and my sister went out for some propper Vietnamese dinner with Trang, her sister and friends. And we even got a free pick up and a city tour. Amazing!

Some more architectural treasures were about to be explored. Starting with Vo Trong Nghia's 'Stacking green'. Looks like it became the 'exploding green'. And it got a new neighbour. very typical for the long tube houses of Vietnam's cities.

A similar approach, as in the 'Binh Tanh House'. Altough this was much more corbusiesque. Amazing!

The Mekong Delta on the southern end of the country was the last unexplored bit by us. So that was up next. We took a bus to Vinh Long from where we took this ferry over the Co Chien River to the Ngoc Phuong Homestay.

We used the free bycicles to get around the little island and found a place called 'Vinh Sang'. A Vietnamese entertainment area. They had really miserable animals. So sad to see..

Especially this turtle and those bears.. It's just really sad to see how these people don't care at all about these animals..

And the Emu-riding... Wtf??

The crocodile fishing wasn't really much better..

We therefore decided to go the 5D-cinema.. 5D? Really?..

It was hilariously bad. It had everything in it. Castles, Dragons, and lots lots more. :) But somehow funny. And unexpected in such a place.

Over in Can Tho we wanted to see the famous floating markets. therefore we had to start super early in the morning.. way too early.

And it was raining again. We were soaked since the roof didn't really help.

It was nice anyway. Especially that fancy 24/7 petrol station.

All the boats exhibit the things they sell on a stick. So everybody can see.

After the first big market, we went to see a rice noodle factory. Interesting. See for yourself:

We went ahead to see the second, smaller maket. Due to the rain, some things were still covered up.

We examined the texture of the floating seagrass,

and drove with our little boat through the water coconut trees.

Ha Thien was our last station. At Mui Nai Beach we could see some Vietnamese parties going on. If something is empty, throw it under the table. Interesting. But don't know why they would wanna have their feet in this trash. Never mind.

The sea was rough but the people were still swimming. That was cool! And the weather got rougher and rougher.

Finally, as we crossed the boarder to Cambodia, some clouds waved goodbye to me the same way they greeted me on my arrival in this beautiful country. Bye bye

Vietnam Part 1: Hanoi and the North

After being in the eastern part of Thailand for a week, I flew over to Hanoi. The monsoon has arrived. Hanoi greeted me with a big, fat raincloud. I love storms. So thanks for that warm welcome. I met up with a friend that i met in Myanmar and went out to get possibly the best Vietnamese food i ever had: Bun Bo Nam Bo. That awesome little place in Hanoi was really incredible!

I stayed in the old part of the City, that somewhat started to remind me a bit of India. It's again more chaotic, a bit dirtier and no one seems to care about traffic rules. I liked it. Much more alive than Thailand and Laos.

After two days in this city, my parents and my sister came over to see me and travel with me trough Vietnam! Was nice to see them again after 9 month of travelling.

We explored the City and enjoyed a drink on a rooftop bar overlooking the Hoan Kiem Lake.

The ethnological museum a bit outside of the city turned to be absolutely amazing and well worth a trip to learn about some of the many minorities living in Vietnam.

And of course one of the many war museums.

After two days in Hanoi we made our way to the Halong Bay, where we hopped on this pretty boat. Unfortunately, the sails are just decoration and all fake.. All over the Halong Bay. Not a single boat can sail propperly anymore. We also had to stick precicely to the route and boat places that were reserved for us.. No freedom here in this country. But what do you expect of a communist country. No place for individualists. Anyway. We started our two day tour out into sea, surrounded by karst mountains.

And this should be the trademark of the Halong Bay: A cock kisses a chicken.

Surprisingly, there was a pretty big cave on one of the islands: The Hang Sung Sot. Pretty nice, and colourful lit up. And really big!

From the cave exit, one had a great view donw to the see and some karst formations.

A floating market was here as well. So we could by fresh seafood! Awesome!

And just before the sunset, we managed to go swimming in the ocean. Without anyone else around. That was nice!

So was the sunset. The next day, we went out for some kayaking and monkey feeding. Again in a constricted area.

After that we went to see a fishermans village. Apparently the Regime wants to replace all the people living here and place them somewhere in the city.. I don't understand such a stupidity.

From Dao Titop we had a great overview over the whole bay.

And at night, we could try squid fishing from the boat. But i didn't catch anything. Fun though.

After being back in Hanoi and sleeping one more time here, we made our way up towards the north. On the way we could see many graveyards embedded in rice fields.

A bit later we went to see how rice farming was done and jumped in for some farming. Pretty tough work in this heat.

A brick factory was also to be visited, what turned out to be a quite unique way of producing that local brick. They just pile on top of another without too much free space. The bricks themselfes contain charcoal, why they don't need much additional material to burn them. Awesome

Veneer factories are as well all over the place. These people here have a pretty tough time. They work seven days a week without any holidays for 100 Dollars a month. Early morning to late in the afternoon. At least the machine was much smarter than most we've seen in India. Much faster.

And some more minority people working in the fields with their buffaloes. For once there were men working and women walking around town. Usually it's the opposite. While women are working, men are playing cards and drink.

Black Dzao Ladies.

A white Hmong family

Then we reached Sapa. From where we mad a short track around the hillls.

at 'Cat Cat' Village of the hmong tribe.

And everyone wants to sell hand made things. So we bought so many of them :)

Although so many children are already in that business. They just don't have that luxury of enjoying their childhood.

Up next was the Red Dzao Village of 'Ta Phin'.

The villages themselfes were not too nice to see, but the people were interesting. We left Sapa the next day, since it was such a big tourist destination. We therefore went to Sinho Village en route to Dien Bien Phu.

The village wasn't as scenic as we expected, but the view certainly was! Since it was high up in the mountains, we could see the clouds rolling in over the hills to this higher situated plateau. The temperature was quite high though so the fog vanished as soon as it was over the hills.

No other tourist was in sight, which made this place a nice diversion from busy Sapa. This Black Dzao lady was busy,

whereas the children had plenty of time to play around.

We got a pretty authentic view on this village. That was really enjoyable. While the news were read over the speakers all over the village, posters are displayed all over vietnam, celebrating the win over the french in Dien Bien Phu.

The next day brought us to Dien Bien Phu. Again through a beautiful landscape with amazing views over cornfields and rice paddies.

Just outside of DBP was Pa Khoang Lake, where ladies were fishing and the bunker of General Giap was located.

In DBP was the bunker of the french Colonel de Castries, which was interesting to see.

The Dien Bien Phu Cemetery showed many gravestones of the fallen in this war.

And the A1 Hill, aka Eliane, where the french troops had their last stands was equally interesting to see.

After the flight from DBP to Hanoi, we took a Minivan towards the South to a place called Tam Coc. What a lovely little village where they dried the rice in public places.

This place is also called the 'Dry Halong Bay' due to it's similarity in Karst Formations. Instead of the sea there are rice fields and rivers to cruise along by boat.

It was already late in the afternoon, when we dediced to stop at a cafe and enjoy one of the amazing vietnamese coffees. This time in cold version.

And condesed milk had to be in there as well! Like in Myanmar.

The next day we went on such a boat ride. It was absolutely beautiful! And the way these ladies row the boat is genious!

After this 2 hour boat trip on the Ngo Dong river we went by bicycle to the Bich Dong Pagoda, which its cave temples.

The last sight for the day was the Thai Vi Temple, where the guard of the temple played the dàn bâo.

The next day we went to see the Phat Diem Cathedral. An amazing Church with asian influences as i've never seen before. Astonishing.

Before we left from Tam Coc, we went again to the Mua Cave, with a pagoda on top of the mountain. 450 steps. The view was absolutely worth it!

Lao-Lao

I came into Laos from Thailand, Chiang Khong. I was told one has to take a boat over the Mekong in order to get to Laos. I loved that idea. It's kind of romantic.. But now they built a new friendship bridge further outside the town.. Now you have to take a bus to cross the land border. And it definitely takes longer than before. Anyway. I stopped in Huay Xai, just on the other side of the border to go to the Gibbon Experience office and have a look if they have some space available for a drop in. And they had. Great! I could start the next morning. And I spent the day in this great place overlooking the Mekong river.

The next morning we started for the Gibbon Express tour. Two days, one night in the Nam Kam National Park. With a finnish-indonesian couple and two guides, we started walking into the green wall.

After an hour of walking through the forest, we already hung on the Zip Lines.. it was great. Up to 600 meters long. Super fast and super high.. Pure enjoyment while seeing this amazing landscape.

We walked through beautiful bamboo forests, and enjoyed hanging in artificial and also natural ropes.

After a few hours we arrived in our tree house.

The food was great. Flewn in on the zip lines. The highlight for me was the view from the toilet. It's a bit like back with the scouts but more professional. Great way to relief yourself.

Just next to our treehouse was Laos's biggest tree. It was full of beehives. And just before dusk, the humming noise was getting louder and louder before they went to sleep.

The next morning i went over to have a close-up look of the tree. That one is biiiig.

After the breakfast back in the treehouse, we left our treehouse via this zipline. It's like 25 meters down. You step out, hock yourself to the line, and chalo..

we walked back through the foggy forests, took another 7 zip lines and headed back to Huay Xai.

Just beautiful.

The next morning I jumped on a slow boat down the Mekong towards Luang Prabang.

A lot of slash and burn farming was visible. Unfortunately destroying most of the habitat of many species. And causing the fertility-losses of the soil on the other hand. Really bad. Just short term money that counts.

The first stop with an overnight stay was at Pak Peng. A funny little town. We grouped up to get better rates and stayed in the same group for the coming days. The approximate travel itinerary seems to be the same here for everyone. We had to try the local whiskey here. Lao lao. Black ginger root whiskey and Lion King. Aweful stuff. Still it seemed to follow us for the rest of our trip.. In biiig amounts.

We reached Luang Prabang in the evening and got two rooms in this beautiful little place.

For dinner we went on the night market, that was hold every night. 10'000 Kip for a plate on the buffet. 1 Swiss franc.. Amazing.

Well.. they also sold different things ont that marked.. again lao-lao. This time in a 'medicine' version. Right..

The next day we went on a tour to the Pak Ou Caves and the Tat Kuang Si waterfall.

The cave was hidden in this karst wall. Reachable only by boat. So we did.

With many buddhas inside.

We took the boats back to the other side of the shore and drove another hour to the Waterfall. Tat Kuang Si. The only one that still has lots of water even in the dry season. It was beautiful. And since it was that hot, we couldn't await to go swimming there. But first, we went through the little park with poser bears. Waiting to get released back into the nature once they're healty enough.

The first glimpse.. and then the actual waterfall..

The next day was all about the city of Luang Prabang. So picturesque..

And there is the most beautiful temple I've ever seen. period. The Wat Xieng Thong. Built in 1560 by the Lao King Setthathirath near where the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers join.

Wat Xieng Thong (or Temple of the Golden City) is a Buddhist temple (wat), located on the northern tip of the peninsula of Luang Phrabang, Laos. Wat Xieng Thong is one of the most important of Lao monasteries and remains a significant monument to the spirit of religion, royalty and traditional art. There are over twenty structures on the grounds including a sim, shrines, pavilions and residences, in addition to its gardens of various flowers, ornamental shrubs and trees. - wikipedia

Seriously amazing. I went up to Mount Phou si in the heart of the old city. On the way up, the market unfolds in front of the Wat Mai Monastery.

And on the top, one has great view all over Luang Prabang. And many people also came to see the sunset here.

The next day we jumped on a bus to Vang Vieng. The weather was again not the best, and I guess the monsoon is definitely on its way. The landscape was beautiful nevertheless.

And the rain arrived in Vang Vieng as well.

And because its Vang Vieng, we went out that night. The Jungle Party was on. Great. And the Lao-Lao was again not too far. And at some point available for free in masses... Well. One thing lead to another and we were in need of good hangover program the next day. And we found one: Tubing!

Four bars remained out of the many they had before. But it was more than enough. And Lao-Lao was available again. Of course.. We took it easy, enjoyed the short tubing moments in between the bars and played volleyball and boules. And had some more Lao-Lao. And Beerlao. Nice and relaxed.

We got kind of late and missed the tube-retourning time. I changed into a kayak with some thai people and got picked up by a motor boat later on, where I got a life performance of 'my heart will go on'.. What a great end of that day.

After these lazy days, I really wanted to do something. I decided to rent a bike for a day and do the 'west vang vieng loop'. 33km around the valley. And it was hot.. really hot. First we climbed the Pha Ngeun hill. to get an overview over the valley with it's karst rockformations.

We started the loop and soon came across a bridge.. or a left over of one.

We finished the loop at Blue Lagoon with the Tham Phu Kham Cave. I just went into the fist chamber. But the light in there was amazing. I really enjoyed it.

We finished bathing outside. and took our bikes to head back to Vang Vieng on that rumbly piece of road. Our asses hurted..

We took another bus down to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Arrived in the afternoon, got a haircut and soon headed out to the Mekong river front.

Where I had an icecream of this guy. A funny vietnamese..

A little while later, a whole bunch of people gathered for some group gymnastics. What a great performance. So entertaining.

On my last day in Vientiane, we went on a walking tour through the city. First of all was the Haw Pha Kaew. Where the Emerald Buddha once was. Before it got taken back to Bangkok.