On Monday I paid the Vietnamese consulate in Frankfurt a visit. The address: Villa Hanoi, Kennedy-Allee. That sounds awfully wrong but at least Kennedy was kinda pre-war. The consulate was pretty busy and I had to wait a while before I could hand in my paperwork. ‘Ok, come back next month to collect passport’, I […]
Cheap Overseas Withdrawals
$5 + 3%, that’s what my bank charged me every time I withdrew money from an ATM overseas. I had long come to grudgingly accept the loss, simply for lack of alternatives. When travelling in Myanmar, another traveller told me about number26, a Germany based online bank. They don’t charge for overseas withdrawals and payments, […]
Cyclones?
Cairns Post writes today “First it was one of our wettest winters on record. Then it was the warmest September in years. Now, weather forecasters warn the cyclone season could be just weeks away.” (full article). Besides cyclones the wet season holds further unpleasantness. Yearly precipitation for Cairns is 2000mm, 1200mm alone in January to […]
Melaka Bazar
Always on the hunt for a local experience, I asked my host where the locals buy their fresh produce. Melaka Sentral wet market was his recommendation. The term wet market refers to the extensive use of water that is used to keep the merchandise fresh and the floor clean (usually resulting in a wet floor) […]
Into the West Bank
Left the hostel in Jerusalem in the late morning and took the local bus to Ramallah. Good deal, 8 NIS / 2 EUR for the 40 minute ride. Crossed the wall at one of the checkpoints – fortified like the inner-German border in the 80s. Arrived at the hostel in Ramallah not much later. Everybody […]
The Thai Prince
During my time in Chiang Mai I learned how different many Thais see the king and his son, the crown prince. Thais absolutely adore their king and his picture is literally everywhere. Apparently the guy did a lot of good things for the people during his reign and he keeps donating money to charitable causes. […]