Tessa's return and her Birthday Celebrations (21/04/07-22/04/07)

Tessa came back from her trip with Paul on Saturday and so we celebrated her birthday at the weekend. We went for a dinner to the Hard Rock Café: Jaqueline, Hannes, Paul and Tessa, Leo, Yen and her boyfriend and me. We had a nice meal there and enjoyed the music very much.

We also enjoyed our starter ...

... and I my burger :)

Afterwards we went clubbing and met some friends from Singapore ... ... and some friends from Mexico and France: Andrea and Marie.A cuddle with Xiao Yu and Tessa
On Sunday we went to Vivo City. This is on the roof of Vivo City - there is a wonderful view of Sentosa. In this shopping centre there is the restaurant where Tessa and I will work for the next two months: Brotzeit.Afterwards we went to Sentosa Beach ...... and relaxed in Café del MarFinally, we watched the sunset from the beach ...
In the evening we had our dinner at Brotzeit eating Käsespätzle, Kaiserschmarrn, Apfelstrudel ... :)

Tioman Island - family holiday (06/04/07 - 09/04/07)

All of us, also Thomas and Christian, came back to Singapore on Thursday night and so the six of us (my parents, the boys, Martin and me) left Friday early in the morning for the Tioman Island in Malaysia.

The six of us slept in little chalets just near the sea. The water was turquoise and the jungle had different tones of green - really beautiful. Thomas and Christian in the speed boat on the way there.

The view from our room ...The three boys ... My dad and me ...
During the day we took a boat to Coral Island where we went snorkelling and also diving. This was a great experience and I will definitely do it again ... We could see a lot of different fish and Thomas and Christian even saw a shark and a turtle ... mhh a lot going on in the waterCoral Island - white beaches View from the beach at the resort ...
In the boat on the way to the airport. Unfortunately Martin had to take the bus ...
All of us enjoyed the days in Tioman - even though it was very quiet and not a lot going on, we could make the best of it. Just after we arrived in Singapore again, my parents, Thomas and Christian flew back to Austria again. I enjoyed having them here in Asia the last 4 four weeks - we did a lot and I also had a great time!

Exploring Thailand with my parents (31/03/07 - 05/04/07)

After my parents had spent a few days in Borneo, they returned to Singapore to travel to Thailand with me. Early in the morning we took the plane to Chiang Mai. The plan was to go trekking in Chiang Rai and then go to visit Bangkok. 30 years ago my dad was in Asia and he lived with a monk in Wat U Mong for a week in Chiang Mai. So we went there to have a look if this kind monk was still there. Unfortunately he had left 7 years ago. We, however, chatted to a 20 year old young man from Canada who had decided to be a monk. I could not sit next to him as they are not allowed to touch women ...
Different sayings were hung up ...
After a bus ride, we arrived in Chiang Rai and looked for the hotel
The next morning brushing my teeth and getting ready for the trekking tour to the hill tribes ...
The first day we visited the Golden Triangle, then we continued to Lahu Village, Akha Village and then returned to Chiang Rai again after two nights.

... Golden Triangle (31/03/07)

The first day in Chiang Rai we went to see the Golden Triangle, where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet ...At the Golden Triangle we watched a ceremony where Thai girls danced in the temple to thank Buddha for something he had done for them. As you can see, they are very nicely dressed ...On our way to Laos on a boat ... We had lunch on an island in Laos ...
Back in Thailand we visited different villages. This one is called Karen - where the women wear golden rings around their neck. Girls start wearing them at the age of 5 and they can never take them off. In the past, women wore them to protect themselves against tigers in the Jungle - it was supposed to blind the tiger.
We also saw a hill tribe called Big Ears ...
A cute little girl

... Lahu Village (31/03/07 - 01/04/07)

Mhh, after a nice day at the Golden Triangle, we came to the place where we were supposed to sleep :)) Wow, we were really surprised. It was a very poor village in the middle of nowhere. First, we were not sure what we should do - so we only sat in front of the little hut as our hosts did not talk to us and rather ignored us ...Nevertheless, we had a very nice view ... That was the hut - only very small.
The villagers even cooked in there ...So in the evening we were sitting on the little balcony having our meal ... mmmh very strange ...

When we were there, it was very hot and there were a lot of fires in the Jungle. So suddenly after we had had our dinner we heard some music and then the mayor of Lahu village spoke through loudspeakers and asked every man to come to help to extinguish the fire as it was coming nearer and nearer to the village. Of course my dad also joined and it turned out that they did not have good facilities to extinguish the fire, so everyone had to pee on it :))) That's the little hut :))) That is where the three of us slept. Obviously, we had the parent's bedroom. We slept on the floor on bamboo sticks, beneath us were the pigs, chickens and other different kinds of animals which made noises during the night ...
Brushing my teeth, surrounded by pigs and chickens ...

and even bigger animals :)My dad waiting to leave :)
That was a really interesting experience for us, but we were happy to leave.

... cooking in the Jungle (01/04/07)

In the middle of the jungle, near the waterfall, some television people came to record how the winner of the Thailand Guide Award cooked a meal only with banana leaves and bamboo. They invited us to join them - so we were the European guests watching and applauding. Here you see the winner and Oui, the famous and beautiful (her words) woman from the television programme Channel 5 ... It was very interesting to see how they cooked a great meal in the Jungle ... Of course there was not only one man working, but many. Here they are making little mugs and chop sticks out of bamboo ...
The camera man ...
Scrambled egg cooked in bamboo ... mmmhh!
Finally, the meal was ready and Oui, the camera team, the villagers and we enjoyed the great meal ...The television lady :)Our guide Bamboo also joined us ...That was a really nice experience and we were also on TV in Thailand ...