Posts in Category: Travels
My scratch worldmap – I’ve been to 48+ countries!
I just updated my ‘scratch-map’ and made it more interactive with links to all posts:
To simplify it, I marked whole countries instead of regions – we all know it’s impossible to see all of a country.
- light blue: posted pictures from there
- dark blue: been there, no pictures though
- grey: haven’t been there yet
Bastei bridge in swiss saxony & Externsteine – Germany
In 2020 worldwide travel has largely subsided due to the spread of a dangerous viral disease named CoVid-19. Therefore, I had to scrap my travel plans as well and decided to spend some time hiking in different areas in germany. For a 3 day weekend-trip, I finally managed to get to the famous Bastei bridge in swiss saxony, close to the czech border. The weather wasn’t always perfect but the whole area offers many hiking trails through forest and rock formations. On another occasion, I hiked around the ‘Externsteine’ in the Teutoburger forest in western germany.
Costa Rica via Stopovers in Canada = Costa RiCanada
In spring 2020 a friend and I decided to explore Costa Rica. We found flights with ~21h stopovers in Toronto on the way to Costa Rica and ~23h in Montreal on the way back. Here are some pictures from Toronto and the 11 days for the western part of Costa Rica and a map of our tour. (Unfortunately, Montreal greeted us with rain so I didn’t take my camera out)
Originally, we had planned to go south from Samara to Montezuma and cross the bay by ferry but we really wanted to go diving and none of the 3 diving schools in samara was operating during the days we spent there. Then we changed plans and went to Tamarindo for diving before heading over to the national parks on the more southern pacific coast. Manuel Antonio, one of the most famous national parcs, allowed us to see sloths and different speciesof monkeys.
Ps: some of the aerial photos appear in the previous post about my new mavic mini as well since they were just too beautiful 😉
Cluj – Exploring eastern Europe
Another weekend trip to eastern europe. During an evening on the christmas market, a friend and I spontaneously decided to book another weekend trip. We found cheap flights to Cluj-Napoca in Romania and convinced 2 other friends to join us. We walked around the town, visited the botanical gardens (although it was freezing cold), took a trip to a salt mine, tried local food and had awesome cocktails and great coffee in the amazing variety of bars. Here are some impressions:
Lanzarote – Christmas on the beach
This was a first for me РChristmas far from home. We decided to take a family trip to the canary island of Lanzarote to catch some sun over christmas. As you can expect Рnot a really christmassy-feeling Рbut we explored the island, whose architecture and art was mainly influenced by C̩sar Manrique, by bus car and bike, chilled by the pool and I event went diving.
Koh Tao and Singapore
After being land-locked in Chiang Mai, we flew to Surat Thani to get to Koh Tao for some diving. We decided to do a few specialties and I got deep & nitrox certified. As previously, Phoenix Divers Koh Tao and their fish-pointers (divemasters/guides :-P) did a great job at taking us to beautiful divesites although the visibility wasn’t as good as the last time. I bought a small rubber whaleshark dive-buddy which now rides the bubbles above my tank when I dive – so far it hasn’t succeded in calling its mom so I’d see a whaleshark again :D. We also took pictures from the 360° viewpoint and tried our luck to see turtles or sharks at shark bay (but didn’t). After Koh Tao, we spent the last nights of my 3 week trip in Singapore to re-visit some (rooftop)bars and meet some old friends.
Unfortunately, my Sony SEL16-50 lens broke during the time in Koh Tao and I could only partly fix it on the go so there are only a few pictures. After the replacement parts from china found their way to germany, I managed to get the lens working again =) .
Chiang Mai – Light festival and cooking class
During my Southeast asia trip in november 2019 I finally went to the north of Thailand and visited Chiang Mai during the Loykrathong / Yee-Peng festival. I only stayed for 3 days but visited temples, a cave, the ‘sticky’ bua tong waterfall and learned to cook amazing thai food.
At night, we bought sky lanterns and let them rise to the skies which looked amazing due to the many lanterns.
Please keep in mind that these lanterns may not be allowed to use in your country or area, especially if you’re near an airport. They pose a dangerous fire-hazard if they get entangled in a tree or fall down early. Chiang Mai has a special allowance and lockdown on night-flights during the festivities and many police officers make sure nobody is hurt by burning parts falling down.
Cambodia – the temples of Angkor Wat
The temples of Angkor Wat are praised for its beauty but I had never visited them – until now. I travelled from Koh Chang via ferry and bus to Siem Reap and spent 2.5 days exploring the numerous temples, some of which had been taken back by nature (including the famous temple from the Tomb Raider Movie, Ta Prohm). Luckily I met a few fun people during the bus trip to discover the temples together.
Many temples are still under reconstruction and being funded by the entry fee (67 USD for 3 days) or individual countries donations, like China and Germany. Anyway, see for yourself 😉
Koh Chang – Diving and Waterfalls
In november 2019 I did a 3 week trip to southeast asia. Some friends planned to join later so I decided to go to cambodia to visit the temples of Angkor Wat before returning to Bangkok to meet them. But first, I wanted to chill on a beach and go diving – so I went straight to the eastern thai island of Koh Chang. I went diving, scootered around the island and enjoyed delicious food on the beach with new friends. The island also has a few waterfalls and is famous for elephant “sanctuaries” (which I didn’t visit). Long story short, here are some pictures from Koh Chang, above and below the surface.