My guest house organized a bus ticket to Battambang for me and with the usual slight delay I was picked up and transported to the main bus station this morning. The place is basically a big hall with a couple of buses and merchants trying to sell fruit, bread and other stuff. Quite similar to […]
Could be worse
Something you can learn in developing countries is that no matter how many western woes you have, you’re still far better of than most people on earth. All pictures taken near Luang Prabang, Laos. The country has a GDP per capita of USD 1,204 (Germany: 44,558), making it number 144 on the current IMF list […]
The Journey en detail
Thursday, May 20th 15:30 CEST: Leaving home by car. We decided to start early as we expected to hit the rush hour in Bremen. Thursday, May 20th 16:30 CEST: Check-in at Bremen airport. I was hoping my luggage wouldn’t exceed the weight limit as the scales at home showed almost 23 kg (the max weight […]
The freedom to choose a lifestyle
Over the last days I had a few chats with one of my hosts. He’s a couple of years my senior, has a family and runs his own business. One morning we were having a chat about investments and he said “if you have good karma, your business will succeed”. Quite a difference to the […]
City Intermezzo
The two nights at the bungalows were simply amazing, thanks to a great location, a gifted host, friendly locals and a pleasant group of other guests. We headed back to the city as Samart had some business to take care of (no wifi in the countryside) and I had offered to help him with his […]
Newar Culture
The Newar people have a reputation for celebrating a lot. Thus it shouldn’t come as a major surprise that the New Year festivities last eight days. That and many other things I learned during a cultural introduction seminar held by the organisation I’m volunteering with. We had started the day with a prolonged walk through […]