itchy feet

Brunei

2010-06-30T00:49:00.002+08:00

Kota Kinabalu

2010-06-30T00:48:00.003+08:00

rollerblading East Coast Park

2010-04-08T06:45:00.002+08:00

My last Sunday in Singapore I finally managed to go rollerblading in East Coast Park with all my sportive friends! :)

McDonalds Skate Through - unfortunately I am not a big fan of McD...

one more time Singapore madness at Sentosa

2010-04-08T06:40:00.001+08:00

Sentosa is an artificial island in from of Singapore and absolutely NOTHING on this island is found to be truly "natural". Singaporeans believe, that you can build your own "nature trail", forests and beaches. Well maybe "nature" is overrated anyway... or not?

First stop: (another) Merlion statue. The symbol of Singapore, half lion, half mermaid...

Second: butterfly park with tons of colorful species and smart parrots:

yes, they started fighting about the food and I was scared for life... ;)

the situation calmed down...

Third: Sentosa Luge

And last: a sunset at the beach...

Unfortunately even the nicest days come to an end at one point...

22nd of January - enjoying Singapore at night one more time...

2010-04-08T06:21:00.000+08:00

Diving adventure in Phuket

2010-04-07T06:33:00.002+08:00

Finally, some pictures from Phuket, where I took my PADI open water and advanced open water courses. But see yourself how beautiful Thailand was!

ready to jump

grand strike

sunset

boat dive out with the "tough" guys

Dao, who introduced me into lots of good food!

Some old guy decided to lighten a lantern for me for my prosperous and healthy life!

pineapple (!) rice with special coconut sauce was my favorite!

Also I took some underwater pictures. True, I still need lots of practice, but not too bad for my very first try :)

Lionfish

Boxfish

Corals

Bluespotted Stingray

Cuttlefish

Eel

more Eel

even more...

Pufferfish

some poisonous skipper fish

Homo Sapiens - uuhm my diving instructor Myk!

INDIA

2009-12-27T02:11:00.004+08:00

Merry Christmas and very happy holidays from Mumbai! For about one month in total Nisim and me are backpacking South India. What an interesting, colorful and very diverse country! We started in Trivandrum, took a bus to Cochin, a train to Madurai to see the the huge ancient temple complex, another overnight train to Bangalore (which has at least a few nice corners), a bus to Mysore for the beautiful Palace, the most horrifying bus ride to Hampi where we got stock with the beautiful ancient ruins and amazing landscape for six days and last but not least a sleeper bus up to Mumbai where we celebrated Christmas! Tomorrow morning we are off to Goa for New Years Eve, another scenic train ride!! But see yourself and check out a very very reduced selection of the most breathtaking pictures on my Picasa Web Album! (If you click onto the slideshow you will be redirected to the album)

We will return to Singapore on the 5th of January and I will be back in Germany in the end of January. Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year!

busy-ness

2009-12-03T15:52:00.002+08:00

i know, i know. I should be hanging out in town, enjoying myself.Unfortunately my graduate school applications take longer than i imagined and I am still in the process of trying to bring to paper what it is I wanna be doing in ten years from now. My imagination is kind of exhausted already..

Other than that the excitement level is quite low. It's monsun season and raining a lot in Singapore. Today lightening stroke the tree right next to me. The big bang still echos in my ears...

My residence now is also available on google maps. Check it out!

studying can be boring sometimes...

2009-11-18T16:11:00.001+08:00

Yes people, I am still alive! Just exam period right now. Will finish my exams next week Thursday and then be up for more excitement to entertain you :)

I am coming back to Germany on 26th of January, arriving the 27th :)

rainforest kayaking...

2009-10-27T20:14:00.005+08:00

for everybody who didn´t get enough borneo pictures:

we got Ivy`s (rainforestkayaking.com) picture CD today. check it out:

(if you don´t like the slide-show set-up, just click and have a look at the picasa web album :))

Borneo :)

2009-10-16T23:35:00.004+08:00

okay people lets try something new: I generated a slideshow from my latest trip to Kuching, Malaysia (Borneo!). Check it out and enjoy :)

PHILIPPINES!!!

2009-09-23T22:32:00.015+08:00

Hey everybody, first my apologies for being a bit late with updating. But my netbook broke down, not starting up anymore. If I ever manage going to the repair center they will surely tell me to simply buy a new computer. Easy said, but since somebody booked an incredible amount from my credit card, I cancelled it and am pretty much broke now... But hey, a life without money or a computer is not as bad as it sounds - well actually its worse!!

But lets review on the happy things going on, for example travelling! For recess week, Nisim and me went to the Philippines. We only spent five days down there, but they were full of adventures and excitement!! But see yourself:

We flew through Manila into Cebu. From there we took a ferry to Tagbilaran on Bohol Island and a tricycle to Alona beach on Panglao island. There we found the nicest beach EVER. We had dinner right on the beach under palm trees with somebody playing the harp. Afterwards a one hour full body massage with body oil under the starry sky in the sand, listening to the waves, for only 300 Pesos (4,20 Euro!). If THIS was not paradise, then we definitely got very close... Anybody looking for a honeymoon destination?? ;)

that is baked pineapple with purple "uva" icecream: delicious!

The next morning we got up 5:15 to leave for dolphin watching 5:45. It was definitely worth it! The same boat took us to some beautiful reef for snorkling where we saw colourful fish, huge swarms, starfish and even a huge turtle! The trip ended with hanging out at the smallest island I've ever been to...

dolphins!!

We found NEMO!!

our sweet house on Alona Beach:

philippino food always comes in little bowls...

After dolphin watching we soon left on a motorbike for the ferry terminal in Tagbilaran, taking a ferry to Siquijor Island, where we spent the next two nights. The day in between we rented a motorbike (300 Pesos for the full day) and went around the island on it.

fried baby bananas:

bottled fuel and we were ready to take off on our bike!

On our way we met a bunch of kids who spontaneously decided to sing their national anthem for us. It was truly beautiful with all their ups and downs in the voices. A very happy and energetic anthem :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupang_Hinirang

After we said long goodbyes to the kids, we made our way to the most wonderful fresh water lagoon you could imagine. Tons of waterfalls, the bluest water and just nobody there!

Later on we met Braxton, probably the craziest "girl" on the island (on the far left)

The evening ended with a cocktail on the cliffs...

The next morning we got up early to take a ferry back to Cebu. The city was quite disappointing, but we were taking a flight to Manila the same night anyway. Manila was not really more interesting though. Philippine cities don't really have a lot to offer... Getting to know their culture on the other hand was interesting enough :)

And off to Manila, just on time for delicious Arabic food and Shisha to relax for that evening.

We spend our last day in Manila with sightseeing, being a bit disappointed, but met very interesting people! :)

These ants use caterpillar silk to build houses out of leaves. They therefore capture the caterpillar and steal its silk to glue everything together.

This 3D ceiling of the church is really only a 2D image that appears to be 3D...

dried squid on a stick - disgusting!!

one more time dinner at the Arabic place...

Especially weird posters or products usually indicate that you are back in Singapore. So does the facial mast made out of sheep placenta...

Fortunately we made it back safe from the Philippines before the floods started. My sad thoughts to everybody who got affected by the floods. May the hundreds of people that died rest in peace!

tioman (malaysia)

2009-09-13T00:11:00.015+08:00

Alright people, I know I´ve been bad lately, not keeping you up to date. But school is keeping me really busy plus there is so many things I enjoy doing out here. Then all this travelling that needs to be planned... Life is tough sometimes ;) Today we finished our bookings for Philippines on recess week. This coming Thursday Nisim and me will be leaving for Cebu and do some island hopping, finishing up in Manila from Sunday evening to Tuesday morning. That´s only going to be five quick days in Philippines, but i suppose very adventurous ones :)

This weekend I stayed in Singapore, to do some studying supposedly. Well I somehow wasted my Saturday in town shopping somehow. How could I resist buying three necklaces for 10 SGD (ca. 5€)??? Well I am actually saving money lately - for all that trips that are about to come :)
Plus school is almost over again... in about 11 weeks I am finished with all my exams for this semester and am off to who knows where. I can´t believe how time flies by... But fortunately there is all this wonderful places around that stop time for a while. Like Tioman, an Malaysian Island we went to last weekend. Check out the pictures and be jealous, whatever busy place you are in this world:

Tioman Island, "a piece of heaven", according to Inga

A two bed hut costs 40RM (8€) per night. In the picture you can see Christian with his very first house he ever ownend in his life ;)

The huts came with monkeys - I guess ours was not dirty enough, so they went to our neighbor´s for picking garbage...

Thats the speed boat ferry we took to Tioman

You would not believe what beautiful butterflies you´d find... I wish they were not too fast for me taking pictures!

Salang Beach - I definitely picked the nicest beach on this Island :)

Well the small river was a bit smelly - You know how people on small islands don´t have any possibilities to get rid of their garbage...

Those crazy big lizards were just everywhere on the island. Felt a bit like being in Jurrasic Park...

Nisim and me in front of the Chalets :)

Fish, fish, fish - whereever you turned your head.

fishkiss*

watching the sunset by the beach in a hammock - can you think of anything more relaxing?? I can´t :P

Christian, Sofia, Inga & Abdullah waiting for somthing to happen :)

nighty-night, may there be another great day to come :)

Petra, Sofia, Nisim, Abdullah, Inga, Christian & me - Thanks everybody for making that trip so awesome :)

After sun set we finally got some food: we picked nice fish they grilled for us.

They looked so yammy (and were!) after grilling :)

there we go: breakfast by the beach :)

After breakfast we started our snorkling trip around Coral Island. I LOVE MY UNDERWATER CAMERA CASE!!! :)

Follow me :)

Nisim, me, Petra & Christian looking forward to the next stop :)

Me feeding the fish...

Those fish were actually really agressive. They bit me a 9798565342343467687556 times!!! :(

Just look at this beautiful colors...

Petra, Nisim, me & well Christians belly... :P

Me & the huge dangerous jelly fish! This was absolutely the biggest one I´ve ever seen!!!

It was just amazing to watch its movement. I should have taken a video...

See that big fish on the left? HE bit me really hard into my arm. They didn´t even stop biting me when all the bread was already gone...

Nisim picked up a huge shell with lots of wonderful colors :)

last group picture for the weekend... thanks guys for making this one so special :)

This weekend was just awesome. It was really hard to only select a "few" pictures to give you a feeling of what a great time I am having down here ;) hehe
We actually liked Tioman so much, that we extended our stay till Monday morning. Eventhough that meant I would miss my favorite class. But this piece of heaven was definitely worth it :)

Thanks for following :)

BINTAN island (indonesia)

2009-08-20T22:48:00.010+08:00

Last weekend Petra, Steff, Abdullah, Nisim and me went to Bintan island in indonesia. You wouldn´t believe how wonderful it was, so I made sure to give you tons of pictures. Plus it´s a tough decision to kick som out anyway ;)
From Tanah Merah in Singapore we took a ferry for about two hours to Tanjong Pinang on Bintan. After 45 minutes in a cab we reached Ocean Bay Resort, a fabolous Hotel with huts right in the water. All of this almost seemed too surreal to us, just AMAZING :) We spent the weekend hanging out on the beach, collecting shells, smoking shisha, having red wine and sweet tea with milk. Life can be so sweet!! But check it out yourself:

the hut in the right corner turned into our shisha-hut :)

on the left my hut, to the right Abdullahs

snorkling...

collecting shells, sometimes with crabs inside...

After our first beach session a huge thunderstorm came up. It was cozy watching it from inside the hut. Those storms only last a few minutes anyway and soon the sun dries all up again... wonderful :)

slowly sun starts to set...

yeah their money is kinda weird, with all their zeros...

i fell in love with shells :)

shisha time

our last beach session sunday "morning"

Nisim & me with "Klaus the crab"

Back in Tanjong Pinang, going "shopping"...

another storm came up

There is many nice places on this island, but also the other dirty areas where you again see that in not so wealthy countries environment is not one of the priorities... :(

still didn´t find out what religion that actually was... seemed like a mixture of chinese buddhism??

botanical garden

2009-08-20T22:28:00.003+08:00

this post is dedicated to all my biology friends :)

Last week we went to Singapore Botanical Garden and had a great time. They even have an orchid garden integrated into their botanical garden. I felt like in heaven... After strolling around and being unproductive, we had sushi for dinner at our favorite sushi place at Clementi and finished this wonderful day with jasmin and apple shishas! mhhhhh.... But check it out yourself:

Nisim, Abdullah, me, Steff, Petra and Rosi

they have fish that swim through poles... ;)

the giant Abdullah-plant was definitely our favorite :)

Yeah, people in Asia seem to want lighter skin and even go for "whitening" lotions... weird people...

Nisim & me with shisha - mhhh

pictures from singapor national day

2009-08-20T21:47:00.004+08:00

soooo people finally the pictures from national day parade...

lunch at a "hawker center"

parachutes :)

helicopters brougth refreshment...

and afterwards showing off their flag

air filled boats were floating over the river...

and of course final fireworks after singing the national anthem (don´t ask me WHAT they sang...)

happy 44th anniversary singapore :)

2009-08-10T01:18:00.005+08:00

Today is national day of Singapore. Everything was somehow performed by the army though. They had high speed bootes & jets and an army parade... seemed a bit weird to me, but was definitely something different :) pictures are following another day - have to get out, it´s way too hot to stay in my room... Whatever you are doing in Singapore, you will always be looking forward to the next shower; feeling that your fingers stick together, you are covered with dust that sticks to your sweaty skin... bah!

btw: commenting is now free for everyone. found out how to change the settings ;)

thursday

2009-08-07T01:23:00.004+08:00

After ladies night on Wednesday we slept quiet long ;) After having a very late breakfast of fresh fruits and papaya milkshake we headed to Sentosa Beach. We had an amazing, eehhm, evening... Guess the pictures tell itself :)

Petra and me

sunset...

We stayed right in front of Cafe del Mar, where they played their wonderful Cafel del Mar albums... Recognized all of them from CDs I own...

We had dinner at Mc Donalds. Quiet western you might think, but actually its a lot different. "Double Wasabi Filet-O-Fish" and "Seaweed Fries" definitely were tasty! Plus they have a Cornetto chocolate chip McFlurry - Yammy!!

Their adds are a bit weird sometimes...

Alright, this exciting day somehow tired me out. I hope I can stop sweating (its incredible hot and never cools down...) and finally fall asleep... Good night :)

wednesday

2009-08-07T00:26:00.004+08:00

Well Wednesday was a great day. Since school didn't start yet (rumors are that they want to watch people with fever first, to eliminate swine flus..) we slept long. After egg&coconut jam and fresh papaya for breakfast we head out for the Singapore Flyer. Egg&coconut doesn´t taste as bad as you might think it would, not to good neither... It comes in green and brown, haven´t found out the difference yet, but i´ll keep you updated!

They claim Singapore Flyer being "the biggest observation wheel in the world". Well, i will check on that one day... It was still nice seeing the city from up there and I took some great shot. Check them out:

Singapore Flyer

a cabin of Singapore Flyer

a gigantic golf course!! I´d right away believe if they say this was the biggest inner city course in the world...

a gigantic water fountain with lights...

coming back down...

A ride on the ferris wheel takes about 30 minutes. After coming back down we went for food at a Hawker Center, a place with tons of small food kiosks. I had a delicious sea food soup. Still wondering why they put that much spaghetti in there though... After dinner we walked towards Clarks Quay, a common meeting point for international students. Wednesday is ladies night in town! We got free entry into doubleO and free drinks all night, anything we wanted! We definitely had a great evening :)

this is one of my favorites...

In Singapore there is laws for anything, and incredible fines on a lot of random things... A 1000 S$ equals 500 €!!

it looks like an opera house, but its only a hotel...

this was the weirdest tree i´ve ever seen in my life...

tuesday

2009-08-05T13:24:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I registered for school. So ladies & gentlemen: I am an official NUS student by now. And yes i feel proud saying that :) Still have to work on my Visa next week though...
After registration I got lost in science complex with Christian. I you ask me, the whole campus is too much designed for cars, but not for pedestrians. This is why you can´t really walk straight to science faculty, but have to take the shuttle bus around campus... There is two shuttle busses going in circles around campus, one in each direction. There´s also two other shuttle busses, one of them called "Science shuttle" - did not find out where exactly it´s going. Shuttle busses are for free.

Lateron Christian, Petra and me went downtown. We seemed a bit lost, but all in all it was really interesting. The skyline was impressive, eventhough you can´t quite compare it to Manhattan downtown ;) Really interesting was the mixture of hightech with tropical vegetation. Singapore is a truly beautiful and damn clean city!

Petra, me and Christian heading downtown

skyline as seen from marina promenade

Christian hugging the safety cat (well he claims it´s a bear...)

All this is going to be a huge casino. I´ve never seen as many cranes in one construction site in my life! (They probably had around 50!)

In Germany (and most other "normal" countries) we have homeless people sleeping under the bridge. In Singapore they built Starbucks there... And no, I haven´t seen any homeless in the whole city so far...

the famous "merlion" (A mixture of mermaid and lion..)

[Wikipedia says: "The Merlion is an imaginary creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. Its name combines "mer" meaning the sea and "lion". The fish body comes from Singapore's ancient name back when it was a fishing village — Temasek — meaning "sea town" in Javanese. The lion head represents Singapore's original name — Singapura — meaning "lion city" or "kota singa" in Sanskrit and Malay."]

Petra posing in front of the merlion

Sunset by the river. In Singapore sun sets in only a few minutes around 8 p.m. already, leaving behind the glow of the city at night...

Airconditioning is very much appreciated. It´s about 30 °C / 86 F all day long, not really cooling down at night.

They have the cleanest subway tunnels i´ve ever seen! You can almost reflect yourself in the floor and ceiling...

by the river...

After walking around downtown we had dinner at some Hawker center in chinatown. The food is incredible cheap and really good if you pick the right one... Singapore also has a national fruit, called Durian fruit. As wikipedia describes it:

"Widely known and revered in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk"
and: "The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia."
On MRT (mass rapid transit) fine for bringing Durian fruit is up to 1000 SGD (Singapore Dollars). We also tried some Durian, and I have to admit, that this definitely is not one of my favorites! Its consistence is of mixed banana. Afterwards a taste of fried onions lays in your mouth you can´t get rid off. Weird...

Petra and me followed the two girls to Arab street for Shisha. We ordered a jasmin one, absolutely delicious!

Arab street area with its tiny houses

smoking forbidden...

yep, cockroaches...

we called it a night late... good night Singapore!

safely arrived in singapore

2009-08-03T22:05:00.000+08:00

Hey everybody, welcome to my new blog! This time i will be writing from asia, roughly said. Today i arrived in Singapore for my semester abroad, haven't seen much of it yet. I had way too much excitement lately and its hard to take all of that in at once... But I hope I adapt soon,and be a good student at National University of Singapore (NUS) so I can allow myself some freetime for travelling.

We travelled around 18 hours until we reached Singapore. That was enough time to watch some movies and old Simpson episodes. Well i guess you can imagine how hard it is for me to sit still and just wait...

Petra & me sipping sodas in Doha (Qatar)

leaving Doha

when we just passed Mecca the sun started rising

the purple clouds were just amazing and finally made me realize that i was on my way into a new adventure...

Goodmorning!!

brushing teeth in a ballroom-like bathroom

our students dorm

As you see, nothing much happened so far. It took a while checking in (especially since my room was already taken...) and we spent too many hours getting lost in this crazy dorm maze. All the doors we need to go through and the elevator are ativated with pressing a key-button. As you might imagine, this does not always work out too well... Also you cannot enter any other corridor or elevator, meaning that once you turn the wrong way ur only choice is leaving the building and give it another shot. And guess what: You cannot use the stairs for going up, so better pray for the elevator... haha funny Singaporeans...
Bis surprise was that the door of our corridor somehow twists once in a while. This, by the way, was how we found out that there is only this one way to get into our corridor. All the other doors are only designed to get out... haha not funny... At least people are friendly enough and help you out when you start screaming for it ;)
Another interesting fact is, that private life sometimes is not to be supposed to be private. in the dorms. Visitors are only allowed between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. And if your visitor is the opposite sex, you are obliged to leave your door open...

Another highlight was the insane cheap food. I payed 1,50 SGD (Singapore Dollars) for a soup, rice, vegies and egg. This equals appromimately 70 Euro Cent or 1 US$... And yes I am sure I gain weight with all the good food they have down here :P

Well tomorrow morning I will finally sign up for school and become an official student of National University of Singapore (NUS). :)

I'll keep you updated!