http://vagabonding.posterous.com About two swinehundts who take a time-out from corporate life and travel through Asia posterous.com Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:43:11 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/Fl9LagdA6BA/a-happy-end-in-thailand http://vagabonding.posterous.com/a-happy-end-in-thailand <p> <p>Happy end, not happy ending. Those of you who were expecting a story about a naughty massage experience, I have to utterly disappoint. This post (which is probably the penultimate of this blog) ‘merely’ is about the last week of my trip. After having rushed a bit through <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/alone-in-vietnam"><span style="color: black;">Vietnam</span></a> and <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/the-two-sides-of-cambodia"><span style="color: black;">Cambodia</span></a>, I wanted to take the last couple of days slow and easy – and decided to spend them at the beach in Thailand. I found an <a href="http://southernfriedrice.com/"><span style="color: black;">extremely nice guesthouse ­­in Kata on Phuket</span></a> which I made my home for the last few days.  Having been hooked on diving again in <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/of-dragons-mighty-sea-creatures-and-thieves"><span style="color: black;">Indonesia</span></a>, I spent three great days diving around Phuket and Koh Phi Phi, did a daytrip to Koh Phi Phi’s famous beaches, and just bummed around for the rest of the time. Yesterday then, I flew back to Bangkok to reunite with Martin who had spent his last weeks in New Zealand. After having travelled together for more than 3 months, it’s been great to meet him again, and to ‘properly’ end this trip together!</p> <p><span>Some people have already asked me how I feel about coming back. I have to say I have mixed feelings: On the one hand, I am a little bit <b>sad</b> because I could easily continue travelling. There is still so much to see and experience…and I just love the backpacker life! On the other hand, I am <b>happy</b> to come back home (and this feeling is dominating at the moment). I am looking forward most to see family and friends again…and – some might say it’s weird but – I am even looking forward to come back to work. Above all, I am <b>grateful</b>.  Grateful to have had these four fantastic months which totally lived up to <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/53159239"><span style="color: black;">my expectations and motivations</span></a>, grateful for the support and encouragement I got from work side as well as from family and friends to realize it, grateful for people making an effort to stay in touch over the past months. It’s been an amazing experience that I will not forget for the rest of my life. Though it’s probably not the last time I did something like this…</span></p><p></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/80FOitIXh6OjxNQpDj1ONgAeg9E4MbtkFDqd2qEVyeSfDh2gFzRCQabpwvjQ/1.jpg"><img alt="1" height="375" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/0pqRXDw8HCsFfp4lJq7IUkmgNdpgj2pt5oc5PODCR2kHw3JlOeKNL2YY46rA/1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/oYtG5UA3OVL1HhV3AsIqDzRuCisdmrUgGeWgSR48gQmASV6QGx8xeHHLXXLD/2.jpg"><img alt="2" height="375" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/SnUvMEFxc8FJQaQmAv6SJYw5w7s8XyhyhluWlzI3XaLazZjByP3hjrHSbofI/2.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/Cje7IDx2rYIzjFX0YhMJsaf9WEqsLfOCUnOfZUNGyLC3qvnvwV8rj2BJDPB0/3.jpg"><img alt="3" height="375" 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http://vagabonding.posterous.com/a-happy-end-in-thailand Sat, 29 Oct 2011 10:27:02 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/j_p7EBfkxlM/the-two-sides-of-cambodia http://vagabonding.posterous.com/the-two-sides-of-cambodia <p> <p>After Vietnam I continued my way into Cambodia, visiting first the capital Phnom Penh, then Siem Reap and world famous Angkor Wat. I wish I could have visited other places too but with my decision to spend the last days of my trip on the beach in Thailand, I just had a few days to experience the country. Thereby, I really wanted to see both the beautiful side of Cambodia, but also learn more about the dark chapter in Cambodia’s history with the rule of the Khmer Rouge in the 70s.</p> <p><span>Phnom Penh offered a bit of both: it’s a charming city with its nice promenade alongside the Tonlé Sap River, many good restaurants and bakeries, and home to many nice sights such as the Royal Palace. But it also is the place in Cambodia where you can learn most about the deeds of the Khmer Rouge regime. I visited the Choeung Ek<span style="float: none;"> Memorial, which is the best-known of the sites known as The Killing Fields, where the Khmer Rouge executed several thousand people in the second half of the 1970s (I can highly recommend the audio tour there). Back in Phnom Penh, I then went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Together, these two sites provide a good yet depressing overview of what had happened back then.</span></span></p> <p><span>My absolute highlight of Cambodia though is (surprise surprise) Angkor Wat.  In my hotel in Siem Reap, I hired a driver and spent one long day exploring the stunning temple complex of Angkor. Yes, it is extremely touristic and busy, but it is still impressive and lived up to my expectations. My personal favorites among the many temples thereby are Ta Prohm, which has been left in much the same condition in which it was found</span> so that you have beautiful temple ruins entwined with or overgrown by trees, and Bayon with its massive stunning stone face.<span></span></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/A1IqYNoZqd39jAwQTwSsZ24fZuclAFKrGB2eEy1WIFObTysuEn5zBHvfj0nf/1.jpg"><img alt="1" height="375" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/iCJ45tLImkJcFWdbZkEpAcf6K3mGO8bEXPmHrlcSs0rRdmf4HnOsLcS9AxYo/1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/QoxJvMmQDXafdS8B5AnhmWUhGoiFtSK8lkKiikhxhJpVpoeiWQIeDeHWl2Wv/2.jpg"><img alt="2" height="375" 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href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/the-two-sides-of-cambodia#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/j_p7EBfkxlM" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/the-two-sides-of-cambodia Thu, 27 Oct 2011 10:37:21 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/I0mBcF60A4U/alone-in-vietnam http://vagabonding.posterous.com/alone-in-vietnam <p> <p><span>Alone in Vietnam is actually a bit misleading, no need to pity me. I was only alone in the sense of Vietnam being the first country that I travelled without Martin (one key impact being that accommodation costs skyrocketed to a ‘whopping’ 15USD average per night). But as it happens when backpacking, you meet other people on the road: In Hanoi, I ran into some folks we had already met in Luang Prabang, my visit to Halong Bay was a group tour anyway with some fun Australians and Spanish, and in Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City as it is now officially called) I met another nice German guy to spend a day (and drink some beer) with. </span></p> <p><span>So how was Vietnam? I really enjoyed it, though I’ve seen less of it than I would have liked, with the end of my trip coming closer and remaining days being limited. First, I visited Hanoi, and loved it! It’s as buzzing as a city can be, has an enticing old town, a beautiful central lake, and some good sights. Also, I had the best hotel of the trip so far (if you ever intend to visit Hanoi (and don’t need 5 stars on your hotel), go nowhere else but to the Hanoi Holiday Diamond). From there, I did a fabulous side trip to Halong Bay which – despite being very touristic – is extremely beautiful (following a friend’s advice I did bit better (aka as higher priced) tour with sea kayaking etc., definitely worth it – thanks Lynn). Then my trip led me south to Hoi An, a little colonial town with lots of charm. This was also the first time I got to see anything of the flooding in South East Asia that apparently is all over the media back at home. My last stop then was Saigon, which to me appeared more modern as Hanoi, yet I also found it very interesting. It’s also where you can learn more about the Vietnam War – which I consider essential when visiting the country. I’d definitely recommend (‘liked’ would be the wrong word here) the war museum with its photo exhibitions (warning: they are quite consternating). I also did a day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels where part of the Vietcong was hiding and operating from – again an interesting experience. I did not see Sapa, any of the beach places like Nha Thrang or Mui Ne, nor much of the Mekong delta. I guess that means I have to come back, no!?</span></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/YWHBrgT2s6LAFYbRRQS366ODvHPkEfnZPm6PkxtYFxOS0zYf5wliwcux0VZF/1.jpg"><img alt="1" height="375" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/jEGMoNrSUyg5cp8dOEixfkqEjotADwMy4zkwnxtEbnfsjoaGfdiCzueWgPCY/1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/jZaskAzsBpVP4J55tV5S1ChTl9zzFWZuCMKHB7ikmXSPLvoNFpfsI26fWIEu/2.jpg"><img alt="2" height="375" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/W89s6a8JqQJ0qLdmCnB7go934suEpm5FN3cfCcoGbraHTqphDAtashzSKM7C/2.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/KTYlr6py1UXWSnUo3fib0l9hvspPcfyevMIIxCmG1YJ5PdMfWugvu5Zdk7lW/3.jpg"><img alt="3" height="375" 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src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/AwMefZlzn2cUJ8uRvXPn5LZCzbSFjKydADoQzS4B7J4dhTSnOIotFr8nPEe2/38.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/alone-in-vietnam">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/alone-in-vietnam">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/alone-in-vietnam#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/I0mBcF60A4U" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/alone-in-vietnam Thu, 20 Oct 2011 04:52:41 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/G-3g1tgIpy0/lovely-laos http://vagabonding.posterous.com/lovely-laos <p> <p><span>With the end of the trip coming closer and closer, my blog is running more and more behind. With the last post, I left you off in Thailand. Between then and now, Martin and I spent a great week in Laos before parting ways. From Chiang Mai, or last stop in Thailand, we went via night bus to Vang Vieng in central Laos. While Vang Vieng is surrounded by beautiful nature, it is mostly known and on the backpacker track for one reason: tubing! According to Wikipedia, tubing “is a recreational activity where an individual rides on top of an <span style="text-decoration: none;">inner tube</span>, either on water, <span style="text-decoration: none;">snow</span>, or through the air”. While this definition is not incorrect it doesn’t cover what tubing is in Vang Vieng: yes, you’re floating on a tube but it is merely the means of transport from one riverfront bar to the next; each more wicked than the one before. We were lucky to have met some great people there and had great fun, playing beer ball, mud volleyball, dancing away and floating happily drunk on the river (see the photos). The next day then was a hangover day for all of us, relaxing in Vang Vieng’s bars and watching one Friends episode after the other (I forgot how much I loved Friends). </span></p> <p><span>After some happy days in Vang Vieng, we continued on to Luang Prabang, Laos’ old capital. What a difference! It’s a nice little town, much more ‘sophisticated’ (for lack of better words), full of monasteries and monks, with lovely restaurants and a nice night market. Definitely a nice place to spend a few relaxing days, especially when heading into the chaos of Hanoi after!</span></p> <p><span>P.S. Sara, Melodi – if you should read this, I stole a few photos from you for this post…but at least no camera ;-)</span></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/UQdoLdaimKvAXRRD8HdsbgoKCtc3CTwMD8SRUlcnHcQxGoECfKDWduUyBTEz/1.jpg"><img alt="1" height="375" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/JSR5s8gSAdx6ZioCrlNhJjG7MBPdZYL6Zwoz4JAo2XRzp6HeGDup0ygFTxUb/1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/2z0Q5Nj9Qyl4fLXMzFKFDG1NjndhvRZEySFWZbsYWxrUoQynV4R7rb0AOXnP/2.jpg"><img alt="2" height="375" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/dEue720uaCXEd0kFtjzaAGJj4CpyDkg6ceoCEIfVgxdSiTJN5PpBo4zD1cpI/2.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a 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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/lovely-laos Sun, 09 Oct 2011 03:10:11 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/uuP5n64_S4g/a-taste-of-thailand http://vagabonding.posterous.com/a-taste-of-thailand <p> <p><span>We’ve not spent a great deal of time in Thailand but so far merely used Bangkok as our hub to travel around Southeast Asia. Yet, we had a couple of days in and out of the city and we’ve seen some of its sights. Conveniently staying in the backpacker ‘ghetto’ of Khao San Road with its very young crowd (I could spend an entire post on destinations and what type of travelers they attract by now), we ventured out to see the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (very impressive) and the Grand Palace. One night we went to the Ratchadamnoen Boxing Stadium to see a fight night of traditional Thai boxing (Muay Thai). Despite the fights being a little bit ‘slow’, I really enjoyed it for the atmosphere with locals betting on the fights, having a beer by the ring etc. </span></p> <p><span>On our way to Laos, where I am writing this post from, we also made a stop in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand which I found to be a very relaxing and ‘feel good’ place – with the one exception that you see a lot of old men with young Thai women there. We spent two days in Chiang Mai: the first we just strolled around the city and its very nice Sunday night market with a great variety of handicraft and local food to sample (we clearly focused on the 2^nd aspect), the next day we booked a day trip full of action with a combination of white water rafting, zip-lining in the jungle and elephant riding. Big fun! Now, Martin and I are a week in Laos before going separate ways, with Martin flying out to New Zealand while I finish my South East Asia tour with Vietnam and Cambodia.</span></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/ZOVogn0AuYudg1u7dT2X7q8QSveLT7tov2Bubjvip9cFhNH3vyDLzNLopUHe/1.jpg"><img alt="1" height="375" src="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/wvyUm3cAewjNPDPss9ZTz9zPcyjapTNZ9ifE3m3fNeMr2gRGUxtmPzYqC5r2/1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/t8DJwPvZaE4Nm4HGMMZzkEX1bCOoGqm8i3xr5vED0Bhg8EGyfzRNveirRzPj/2.jpg"><img alt="2" height="667" src="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/iP4zErrJ34cJKEdfHp7ftB4CVMRhkUAvbSfwrpRqtbBPkrPg78TTIwR8Ighx/2.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a 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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/a-taste-of-thailand Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:02:43 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/5wFBpMEefVw/of-dragons-mighty-sea-creatures-and-thieves http://vagabonding.posterous.com/of-dragons-mighty-sea-creatures-and-thieves <p> <p><span>A good week ago we landed in the most famous of Indonesia’s more than 13,000 islands – Bali. Initially not in our itinerary at all, we decided to spend two and a half weeks in the Indonesian archipelago, using Bali as our base. We didn’t stay long on Bali though in our first week. After a fun-tastic night out in Kuta, and a hung-over next day spent snorkeling around the island’s east coast, we flew to Labuanbajo, Flores – gateway to the Komodo National Park. </span></p> <p><span>Way less touristic than Bali, and frequented only by nature lovers and divers, this was just my kind of thing. We obviously came here to see the famous Komodo dragons, the largest species of lizards on earth, growing to a maximum of 3 meters </span>length. So, together with a nice German couple from Munich, we chartered a boat for a great 2 day trip into the Komodo National Park. We went for short hikes on Rinca and Komodo and there saw the dragons! Really impressive in their size, they were a bit lazy though when we saw them, having just devoured a deer the day before.</p> <p><span>What we didn’t know before of Komodo is that it is also one of the world’s best areas for diving. During our boat tour, we started with some snorkeling and were already wowed by the variety of fish – and that was even before we saw the Manta rays (largest species of rays with up to 7m in wing-span!). So, the next day we immediately booked our diving, and went for 6 incredible dives at sites with alluring names such as Castle Rock, Golden Passage or Batu Bolong. On all sites, the volume and variety of fish was stunning, and we could always also see some larger pelagics, for example giant trevallys and white and black tip reef sharks – and mantas again (they came as close as 1m to us when we were diving, quite an incredible feeling - have also a look at Martin&#39;s video in facebook). I am definitely hooked on diving again, and will do some more of it in my remaining time here!</span></p> <p><span>A little less nice chapter of our visit to Flores was that we almost got robbed. It was the night of my birthday when I woke around 4am and heard someone rummaging around in our room. First, I thought it would be Martin coming back from the toilet but when I opened my eyes, there was a guy with a motorcycle helmet going through our stuff – just in between our beds! I jumped off my bed and seized the guy (who fortunately was unarmed, smaller than me and a bit drunk too). I woke up Martin who was still deep asleep, and then we had him empty his pockets. When we wanted to wake the hotel staff and bring him there, the little fucker got very scared and somehow managed to break free from us. He vanished in the night as quickly as a cat. In the end we were lucky that nothing got stolen from us, and we will be more alert going forward… </span></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/Conqc6gnf0uBRHDC8NIsqK977EXal0FBYVk8zNAaXMRcWQure5cYbqUz5SHJ/1.jpg"><img alt="1" height="375" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/U0OJUXB241GhZRok0lMWogr1g1v7yq7JR4D3ip6j4OC7mdaRhI5fQSpnK0SW/1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/dC5YZXE90AjuAmlfGizgbtakItMmVp3aCmgVC8nbTohaFJQSWQGpMZLPzFn1/2.jpg"><img alt="2" height="375" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/3QBc0qRCehjmdZpil2yDrt8GLx8YWZ72FgACu4E85Ila0oyj0AWK9t6IocB5/2.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a 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href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/of-dragons-mighty-sea-creatures-and-thieves">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/of-dragons-mighty-sea-creatures-and-thieves">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/of-dragons-mighty-sea-creatures-and-thieves#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/5wFBpMEefVw" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/of-dragons-mighty-sea-creatures-and-thieves Mon, 19 Sep 2011 05:37:28 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/HvTSM0c2FZc/myanmar-unlike-any-place-you-know-about-rudya http://vagabonding.posterous.com/myanmar-unlike-any-place-you-know-about-rudya <p> <p><span>It’s been a long time since the last post, and we’ve come a long way – from Northern Pakistan to the beautiful island of Flores, Indonesia where I am writing this blog entry from. From Northern Pakistan, our way led us via a 25h bus ride to Islamabad (a surprisingly green, clean and western-oriented city yet with few sights), then via plane (and an unneeded detour to Abu Dhabi) to Kathmandu which we knew from our trip 2 years ago. We spent a couple of days relaxing and shopping there, sadly let go of our original plan to visit Tibet due to a too lengthy permit process and instead headed to Bangkok which served and will serve us as a hub to travel through the rest of Southeast Asia. The first trip we did from there – and the focus of this post – was Myanmar.</span></p> <p><span>Little did I know of Myanmar. Just that it is ruled by a strict military regime which suppresses its people. It wasn’t even in our original trip schedule. But we’ve heard time and again from other travelers how stunning it should be. So we went and I am glad we did! We spent two days visiting Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon before the regime decided to change its name, only one many odd things that happened here in the past), its pagodas and even checked out its nightlife (a rather strange combination of men drinking and women doing little fashion shows), and then headed to Bagan. Though I consider myself well-travelled, I had never even heard of Bagan <span> </span>before. But it’s absolutely amazing, probably the single most impressive man-made site I have seen on all my trips until now. Lonely Planet writes: “Gather all of Europe’s medieval cathedrals onto Manhattan island and throw in a whole lot more for good measure, and you’ll start to get a sense of the ambition of the temple filled plains of Bagan.” Have a look at the pics and judge for yourself!</span></p> <p><span>P.S. I promise that the next blog entry will follow soon, covering Bali (some of it) and our adventures here on Flores and the Komodo National Park.</span></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/OsEgZsJpS437AmUH8zF89NXh9KDj2QANy14IQpEWpyxq4D6RYhKpHbbcpufb/1.jpg"><img alt="1" height="667" src="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/nwJ40LRSz25NZ7KorlaNpl4ULos9lplnqHd1yNCFglZn2sVO3TMbALR9vEDN/1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/WnH8XYBGxdNyOY2itytASSCIvgn2Li8zN8Dqkd057VeqRUPqLZsEDArAgOcR/2.jpg"><img alt="2" height="375" src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/PDC4KaNq6c1GxGgnknujPrBAo7E2VMSO0RmJnwAGpRJ7ZU6CoaYP4TSRgFpw/2.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a 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href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/what-a-wonderful-world-or-the-baltoro-concord">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> It&rsquo;s just 1am as Musa, our guide, knocks on our tent to wake us. We were already awake though; it&rsquo;s not too easy to sleep in an altitude of 5000m, especially when you know you have the second highlight and the hardest stage of your trek ahead of you. Tired, we stumble out of our tent into the cold night. &ldquo;Why again am I doing this?&rdquo; flashes my mind but the thought disappears when our cook calls us for tea and cookies. Just after this short breakfast, our crew of guide and <span style="color: black;">porters pitch</span> a prayer for a safe crossing of the Gondogoro pass, our objective of the night. While I am not religious, I take all support we can get. Inshallah! </span></p> <p><span>Now we&rsquo;re ready to march into the darkness, head torches leading us the way. About half hour in the trek, I do a quick &lsquo;self check&rsquo;: <span style="color: black;">Breathing? Ok. Legs? Fit. Headache? No. Stomach? No abnormal signs. In short, I feel good. Not necessarily self-evident at this</span> altitude. We continue marching in the darkness, crossing the Vigne glacier to come to the foot of the pass. The walking in the dark is somewhat monotonous. My mind starts wandering. Family, friends&hellip;and towards the trip so far. I think of two days earlier when we had the first absolute highlight of the trip: Concordia, the confluence of the Baltoro and Goodwin-Austen glaciers and spectacular viewpoint to the 8000+m giants K2 and Broad Peak and numerous 7000s peaks. Not by chance, Concordia has been named the &ldquo;throne room of the <span style="color: black;">mountain gods&rdquo;. <span>&nbsp;</span>We were so lucky, had fantastic weather with sunshine and blue sky there. All of a sudden, my mind wandering comes to an end, the path gets significantly steeper. </span></span></p> <p><span><span style="color: black;">We&rsquo;re coming closer to the foot of the pass. Against the moonlight, you can guess how steep it is (only after the trip we read it&rsquo;s about a 50 degree snow slope that might require class 4 climbing). I start feeling a bit queasy. &ldquo;What was I thinking?&rdquo;. Yet, Musa keeps his pace and Martin and I follow. It ge</span>ts steeper and steeper. My <span style="color: black;">breathing is already accelerated when we come to fixed ropes. And now the difficult part only starts. We abstain from crampons and pull us up on the fixed ropes. It&rsquo;s hard work, and probably the most extreme thing I&rsquo;ve done so far. Anywhere in Europe, you would have had a proper safeguard. We didn't. I try not to think of what</span> would be happening if I trip or couldn&rsquo;t hold myself anymore. Could the guy behind hold me? Probably not, I think I&rsquo;d rather take him down with me. Yet, after about cruel 90min we reach the top. I am exhausted but also feel a big sense of achievement. I am a superhero! This &lsquo;superhero&rsquo; feeling disappears quickly though when the first porters arrive at the top. Those guys look like the average Joe (or whatever the Pakistani equivalent is) but walk that very same pass up with cheap sport shoes and 30kg on their back! </span></p> <p><span>In any case, we are all happy to have reached the top (at about 5650m), shoot a few obligatory photos and then head down on the other side of the pass which is not less steep than the way up but at least snow-free. We climb down, again on fix ropes, then the trek smoothes into a nice path which leads us into our camp. We arrive around 7am, happy but totally knackered. It&rsquo;s been an intense 6 hours that I will not forget. The same is true for the overall two week trek which was an incredible experience. As good as it was, we are happy now that it is over: we can shower again, can sleep in a warm bed instead of a thin mattress in a cold tent, and rest for some days before heading to Kathmandu via Islamabad.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/what-a-wonderful-world-or-the-baltoro-concord">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/what-a-wonderful-world-or-the-baltoro-concord#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/25q1AygSNe0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/what-a-wonderful-world-or-the-baltoro-concord Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:09:12 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/SOszjdN8kro/pakistan-the-first-week http://vagabonding.posterous.com/pakistan-the-first-week <p> <p><span>I have to admit we came with mixed feelings into Pakistan. Yes, we heard and read that the area we wanted to go to is safe but we also had in mind what you could see in the news over the past months (suicide <span style="color: black;">attacks, tourists kidnapped etc.). In the end we went…and I am so happy we did! </span></span></p><p><br /></p> <p><span style="color: black;">So far, we feel completely safe and we experience Pakistan and its people as most welcoming and kind. <span> </span>Just to give two examples: we asked where the bus station is – and were lead to it across the town by the person we asked. We needed to take a jeep to pass a particular bad road – and a family invited us to join them in theirs.<span>  </span>In fact, the people here feel sad (and the tourist industry is desperate) that the problems in certain areas of Pakistan, especially the Pashtun tribal areas, affect their country’s image (and their business) in such a negative way. It almost feels they want to make up for it with their kindness. </span></p><p><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></p> <p><span style="color: black;">So what did we do in our first week here? We travelled down the Karakoram Highway (the word highway is utterly misleading; the road is in such a terrible state that you can go at best 30km per hour). An adventurous part thereby was the crossing of Attabad lake, formed just 2 years ago by a major flooding. It does look beautiful but it is a catastrophe for the people who live in the area. Our first destination was a town called Gilgit, which we used as a base for an excursion to famous and impressive Nanga Parbat, aka the Killer Mountain or German Mountain, the 9^th highest in the world. We had two beautiful days up there (well, not up up) before returning to Gilgit and then travelling on to Skardu which is our base for our upcoming two week glacier trek to K2 base camp. </span></p> <p><span style="color: black;"> </span></p> <p><span style="color: black;">Random side notes:</span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style=""><span style="color: black;"><span>-<span style="font: 7.0pt Times New Roman;">          </span></span></span><span style="color: black;">They have Mountain Dew in Pakistan. And I loooove Mountain Dew.</span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style=""><span style="color: black;"><span>-<span style="font: 7.0pt Times New Roman;">          </span></span></span><span style="color: black;">Today at the hairdresser (got a cut for about 1.50 EUR), Martin and I were asked whether we are father and son!! Even considering that they get kids quite young in Pakistan, this is absolutely outrageous!</span></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/n194xgmoLSz7O5SZxlWITdgaksnuRgQSQ5tzuPWEcm3tKnYn3aMyw7K13xrQ/1.jpg"><img alt="1" height="375" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/yRVjeUj6TcHkw3c9BBmE58urzDrCpJ9mjNWlMwo9fDuZT02eMGVKWjYKBe4L/1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/8nFWl3yysO4Cpp2lgRSnMe7EwXA01grefwwuXtvE43pXLJaQSMoK69awEIHw/2.jpg"><img alt="2" height="375" src="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/xXNTsmGy35BFzOxVUZO9rNYftl61BkaGhfOd2EpwnoeHTLuchC3BdT2EhrxI/2.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/O2eH8ClXhKVslbofDlrkySmuIfipUqDqZdW61tOgcnOkK64tyfJ1HlL4qGyM/3.jpg"><img 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gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/pakistan-the-first-week">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/pakistan-the-first-week#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/SOszjdN8kro" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/pakistan-the-first-week Wed, 10 Aug 2011 05:29:20 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/9IJwsU40OxE/western-china-markets-and-mountains http://vagabonding.posterous.com/western-china-markets-and-mountains <p> <p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="">We just got into Pakistan, time to write about our past week in Western China! Having come from Kyrgyzstan, you could immediately sense the difference when crossing the border to China. Better roads, more modern cars, military checkpoints all over the place – just to name a few. Some hours’ drive from the border lies Kashgar, our home base for this past week. One of the first things we learned when getting there was that we should be careful moving around, especially at night, as in the days before there were some serious incidents between the Uygur population and the Han Chinese minority. You could clearly see that something had happened as the city was blossoming with military presence. We nevertheless explored the city with its interesting mix of old Silk Road ‘flavor’ and modern Chinese city – and felt completely safe doing so.<span style="">  </span>We visited Kashgar’s famous markets and bazaars (especially the animal market was quite an experience – see the pictures), and dined in local Uygur restaurants (yummy kebabs!) and Chinese restaurants alike.<span style="">  </span>Another big difference to Kyrgyzstan is that there were many more travelers. So the evenings were spent chatting away over a beer (or two) with these folks in the local tourist <span style="COLOR: black;">hangout</span> “John’s Café”. <span style=""> </span>John himself, a Han Chinese who moved to Western China some 20 years ago, is quite an original. He basically established himself as the monopolist for tourism in the region, and was a big help for us.</span></p> <p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="">For three days we went on a beautiful short trip to Lake Kalakuli and the Muztagh Ata, mighty 7500m mountain south of Kashgar by the Karakorum highway. Together we three nice Frenchies, we camped by the mountain and hiked up to the base camp on 4300m where we had the opportunity to talk with some people who were attempting to summit or just summitted (you could tell the difference between them immediately by the smile on the <span style="COLOR: black;">successful climbers’ faces). <span style=""> </span>This excursion also gave us a preview of what awaits us in the next couple of days and weeks. </span></span></p> <p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="COLOR: black;">Two days ago, we headed south again on the Karakorum highway, this time Pakistan bound. <span style=""> </span>As many of you have expressed their concerns with this destination, let me reassure you that we’ll stay in the very Northern trekking area, an area we read and repeatedly heard is safe for travel. That said, I still highly welcome any emails asking about our well-being :-)</span></p> <p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style=""> </span></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/2szUuKt7PHpvlDMdcSnSxSoDM55GC8oQLK0VMDI6YbbpK6yMAw5rlmJFLlqE/1.jpg"><img alt="1" height="667" src="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/vnYrI2f0RYZX6i5P6lzvksl3Djrgpk68k0aT3NqXFFgraQBAm5xxZ1hhQT2I/1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/EBGIxQuZenmIhsPzbIA3rFDNMlYoZV9bbUeuDElNFOM79rwzaG7H0ShMODLy/2.jpg"><img alt="2" height="375" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/9JljDJkLkfkwgMPuqDP5GSN2JDLa9BDKcSa2V4RhvVt7jutTlKRx6mjXcyRK/2.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a 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href="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/4rLGZdQT8lfNjWzg6PyJU2UzO9aihoy04gXbvtxsnb3LEtHMVJFXxBJMN8vn/30.jpg"><img alt="30" height="375" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/mNtzYugMAfDz7Dhe09gT8Akjx8oB4reLOXKwfNDVjsVvoKHBsOULH8IM0VrO/30.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/Q6Lbhvp7FMXP1NxyM6hd8GolXCjiO2uT928QdtNUCiYehpgbOo9AJUSlKkq4/31.jpg"><img alt="31" height="375" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/coyF1QNqEgRT8U7vNxxyffBX4QeZCxvIVM5CMR3vtMkJBzfaPTLLJglDoS2u/31.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/ilqZsuFSaVA2OW7vku5vvnZhBtm2vYg63jAcBkQSUC0LeiYif5K3Mdrf4Y4T/26.jpg"><img alt="26" height="375" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/H3OhK68JOpvia8Jf6urdUK2dohGv8g49zPGGqMaydeUfqS3BlPjNrdH2diV1/26.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/western-china-markets-and-mountains">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/western-china-markets-and-mountains">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/western-china-markets-and-mountains#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/9IJwsU40OxE" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/western-china-markets-and-mountains Sat, 30 Jul 2011 21:32:25 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/LVonLBb31jY/stuck-in-naryn http://vagabonding.posterous.com/stuck-in-naryn <p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial;">We’re stuck. Stuck in Naryn, a little town in south east Kyrgyzstan.<span>  </span>Properly known as ‘in the middle of nowhere’. Lonely Planet calls it “dusty brown Naryn” and that “there’s little else to see except the town’s garish but striking mosque”. It’s a quite appropriate description I would say, maybe a bit on the positive side still. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial;">So what happened? Originally, we wanted to travel to Kashgar in China today. We had heard and read that Naryn is the best starting point to organize the border crossing. Which is true. What we didn’t read or hear until last night was that the border is only open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. So we’re stuck in this gem of a town full of archetypical buildings from Soviet times that have seen better times. For two full days. Not ideal but I guess that’s part of the experience when you travel in this part of the world. So how do we kill our time here? </span></p> <ul><li><span style="font-family: Arial;">Organizing our trip to China (as planned) – 30min</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial;">Desperately walking up and down Naryn’s main street in the (wrong) hope<span>  </span>to find anything vaguely interesting<span>  </span>– <span> </span>3 hours</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial;">Sleeping, reading and watching Russian TV in our surprisingly good accommodation (a nice and clean 60sqm apartment for 550 som (9EUR) per person/night incl. breakfast)<span>  </span>– 6 hours</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial;">Surfing the internet, writing emails and sarcastic blog entries (in this context, the super slow connections here play in our advantage) – 2h</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial;">Eating <span> </span>– 90min </span></li></ul> <p><span style="font-family: Arial;">That more or less summarizes yesterday. I don’t expect today to be much different. We might skip the desperately walking part in favor of more reading and sleeping. If I should – unexpectedly – discover something of note in Naryn, I will let you know. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial;">I hope you have a more exciting weekend! If not, you do something wrong. But as I am sure we’ll have a super exciting week to come with Kashgar, the Taklamakan desert and our first 7000+ meter mountains, I am ok with this. Almost that is.</span></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/XKeeZe7uIgo63E7iPNuIreZbA1qPqtL8fzzPPIKZlGMVDI4qRNF6OUlSbcoX/P1010434.jpg"><img alt="P1010434" height="375" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/vCuuWI70RxlCGbBrMnWPS5BPLYYUmEwlcyUeDwQEhJcyzB9BV9CRPXEn7nt5/P1010434.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/pfjxKzHbONEei7UEawPKsOdnrfJvLJz9TGvLkgbvbG52ywisSWnFvCEvtymS/P1010437.jpg"><img alt="P1010437" height="667" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/VrrnK08qEH80rBf01jYFPyhSPf5hQZXO39motcQwdKj4o9Dh3PXsS8OUix35/P1010437.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/tHxoPklRIkinMsjuR7eWJQX0ntBtJx8YUKIuAOfOUW5Frc1PGqvz5gaAZEAF/P1010438.jpg"><img alt="P1010438" height="375" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/NY9fUHRgvWRBsMZT0obfQuF4PxhbR4fIlSJrAt2iSTXxo9atS2xwytOorwui/P1010438.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/lMBIP3xFw7tZF0rUjzfunQFqYh8RJnvG6C6lwFiZ0XWHRggZuyEvKYzTfBLy/P1010439.jpg"><img alt="P1010439" height="375" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/QUnVnNOMj9wCHvHcbjylPuccEvJLCXTjAq7fLOKRTqDp1CFbvf8wBc9VUc2H/P1010439.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/mN7EHV6RmB9RbjgRAfHaD7JlXh6ZyZf0L8spgxA2AnXUyQmg1xFf3ybdGgVA/P1010440.jpg"><img alt="P1010440" height="375" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/V71Lold5ezQG65wGXjeXhxleQsSgcNrf85cCZH4cRoD1DKIJd0FhY2YszW3Z/P1010440.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/stuck-in-naryn">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/stuck-in-naryn">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/stuck-in-naryn#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/LVonLBb31jY" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/stuck-in-naryn Thu, 28 Jul 2011 03:14:49 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/VsJ-ongkL1o/living-the-kyrgyz-life http://vagabonding.posterous.com/living-the-kyrgyz-life <p> Yes, we’re still in Kyrgyzstan. We spent the past 10 days following <br />the traditional Kyrgyz life, that is <br />we went up to two beautiful mountain lakes that are being used as a <br />jailoo (a summer pasture) by the <br />local shepherds for their horses, sheep and cows. We slept in yurts as <br />guests of Kyrgyz families who <br />‘adopted’ us for a few days and cared (and catered) extremely well for <br />us.  We got plenty of good <br />Kyrgyz food (incl. fish, hearty stews, and mutton) and found our beds <br />made every night when we <br />returned to our yurt so we could escape the bitter cold that started <br />as soon as the sun was setting. <br />During the days, we had nice hikes (and I my very first horseback <br />ride), swam in or relaxed by the <br />lakes, helped the kids of the family with fishing or just enjoyed the <br />stunning scenery – meadows full of <br />flowers, grazing animals, the blue lake and sky against snow-covered <br />mountains in the background. <p /> One day the locals organized a festival with traditional music and <br />horse games. We saw famous ‘Ulak <br />Tartys’ in which two teams compete to place the ‘ball’ into a small <br />end zone, except that the ball is a real <br />(yet dead and beheaded) goat, therefore also the name 'goat-polo'. I <br />can tell you the guys are tough. <br />Also interesting: ‘chase the girl’ in which a man races after a woman <br />and if he catches her, he can <br />kiss her (in old times he could marry her!) and if not, she can hit <br />him. Unfortunately, my newly acquired horse <br />riding skills are far from sufficient to be able to participate, so I <br />was not qualified to get ‘my’ Kyrgyz princess. <p /> We’re now spending our two last days in Kyrgyzstan in a beach resort <br />at lake Issyk-Kul alongside <br />plenty of rich Kazakh tourists. Next stop China on Saturday!<p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/JCPnYfi21hHyThtO6ROS4oJEKFBK7tGlR3El0ZhXzEXeF0FSy9vIFpXrrEgD/1.jpg"><img alt="1" height="375" src="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/iCMUavppcb7Vp32xi8MFcDfvEeStZw7hRdzH7DZiWnSHUXSx6IVASbhIoJL8/1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a 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src="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/5C8D7X2Y664ufW0W0CKQTpRmtu5L4XpNFjmKKQepAPvpaqGcdSD2fCH4TLj4/29.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/living-the-kyrgyz-life">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/living-the-kyrgyz-life">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/living-the-kyrgyz-life#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/VsJ-ongkL1o" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/living-the-kyrgyz-life Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:52:55 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/rXYbHhBDfZI/into-the-kyrgyz-wildand-back http://vagabonding.posterous.com/into-the-kyrgyz-wildand-back <p> Five days ago, we three German boys – partly experienced hikers, none <br />of us an experienced camper – set out to explore the Kyrgyz’ mountains <br />called Terskej-Alatau in the southeast of the country. Without guide, <br />without porter but well equipped with tent, sleeping bags, gas stove, <br />food for 5 days and the confidence that we’ll find our way. And what <br />fantastic days we had! Five days in pristine nature, beautiful <br />mountain scenery with great weather, very few other hikers, and no <br />connection to the outside world. In short: simply amazing! <p /> In total, the hike was about 40-50km long, led us from our starting <br />point Jeti Oguz at around 2000m over two mountain passes of ca. 3800m <br />altitude back into another valley on 2500m. Challenging enough for our <br />first hike on the trip, especially considering we had to carry our big <br />backpacks. Apart from the stunning scenery and nature, I will keep <br />especially the following ‘highlights’ in (good and bad) memory: <br />- The great company with my travel mates Martin and Hubertus <br />- The ‘cozy’ nights in our 2-men tent with 3 people <br />- Getting lost in the woods…and finding our way back <br />- Having to turn around as our path was blocked by seemingly <br />aggressive cows and bulls <br />- The hot springs at the end of our trip in Altan-Arysan <br />- The first real meal after 4 days of our self-cooked camping food <p /> But pictures speak louder than words – so have a look! <p /> Next, after having celebrated our safely return into civilization <br />with a big dinner, some beers and a bottle of Kyrgyz Vodka (for <br />1USD!), we’re heading to a Kyrgyz festival with a display of horse <br />games (including famous goat polo) and other cultural activities.<p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a 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src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/bTNgsPAhp9WSGuCef0VcwGRSP6EA9kCOz0q7t88YjdGBK4RJZ8jehtvIYp4w/22a.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/PAqfhR0J5AUEw1NyGGshZ5uLfzNW2GmxyDy7rsCCleSYB7k2LYsFvNcsUrrG/23.jpg"><img alt="23" height="375" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/3o0TDLrprbjF49cdUhEfv5JfShOzlygRMofD6YVDVMw83Ojp1O6Se25BKvu9/23.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/X7ILt8jTvvilgVFVRVsCaUIeaBzsBQPnLU2TIVWgAh6nUX9stQ5jJ5x0Gbve/24.jpg"><img alt="24" height="375" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/AWV0yLTjJ5fbJVTQOKq2RyRGiSIDeNv7kLeEGSCe5wvUXPYyUuoUwWDxxtDM/24.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/Se25Uu0av3A5H5Wy89hmfNltjpqeeWPSyGbgdiwhrlhWjJ1ZotY8Q7jHV8Vw/25.jpg"><img alt="25" height="667" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/d7L5jLBdKbavD15NmDRulcGYujxVFSJGJNd2Ad7PXtri7sGqDL5KLHrzqT3W/25.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/n3f7ScISw0O2WryML40dzdlM0VqmNksIzRSM4cy0bDE8ibXbRmMgwcVZxGCk/26.jpg"><img alt="26" height="375" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/vagabonding/dl6q9qzKyJZc50D7DAAl9CSSztzBkJSsRXFF6NOUBXUcghsX7D8HLpwZlS6J/26.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/into-the-kyrgyz-wildand-back">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/into-the-kyrgyz-wildand-back">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/into-the-kyrgyz-wildand-back#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/rXYbHhBDfZI" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/into-the-kyrgyz-wildand-back Thu, 14 Jul 2011 08:24:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/CJYYSQNodrg/karakol-eastern-kyrgyzstan http://vagabonding.posterous.com/karakol-eastern-kyrgyzstan <p> <p>After a long trip via London, we arrived Tuesday early morning in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Upon arrival, we directly moved to our guesthouse that we had pre-booked for just 5USD a night. We thought it was a good bargain then&nbsp;but looking back I would say it wasn't worth more than 3USD. It was a shabby room in an even shabbier flat located on the 7th floor of an apartment building in best Soviet architecture tradition. Well, anyway we were dead tired from the trip so went for a nap first before heading out to town later.</p> <p>What to say about Bishkek? I didn't fell in love with it, neither did one of my fellow travelers. Maybe it wasn't Bishkek's fault but more the weather's. No city is fun being explored by foot when it is more than 40 degrees hot! But then Bishkek doesn't have too much to offer either. As we didn't come to Kyrgyzstan for visiting cities anyway, we quickly decided to move early the next day&nbsp;to our first trekking area - Karakol in the east of Kyrgyzstan.</p> <p>So after what has been my hottest night in years (literally speaking), we hired a taxi the next morning&nbsp;for the full day (for about 40USD) to bring us to Karakol. We had a nice break for a swim in the Issyk Kul lake, the second biggest mountain lake after Lake Titicaca (which I had just seen some months back on my trip to Peru), and arrived in Karakol last night. The plan was to hire a guide and maybe some porters for a week's hike in the Tien Shan mountain range. Now that's easier said than done as Kyrgyzstan is probably the least touristic country I've ever been to so far. To make a long story short, we decided to do the trip by ourselves so just rented a tent, a gas stove, copied the relevant map (which was outsold everywhere) and bought food for 5 days. Equipped like this and with a positive thinking and attitude (that we will actually be able to find the way), we'll be heading into the wild tomorrow morning. Back in civilization in about 6 days (if we don't get lost), next post then with photos from the hike!</p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/karakol-eastern-kyrgyzstan">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/karakol-eastern-kyrgyzstan#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/CJYYSQNodrg" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/karakol-eastern-kyrgyzstan Sat, 09 Jul 2011 10:41:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/Be3rCi1dS4M/goodbye-geneva http://vagabonding.posterous.com/goodbye-geneva <p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Countdown over. It&rsquo;s done. No more work, no more meetings, just free to do what I want when I want. For the next 4 months! </span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">I am writing this from my parents' place where I spend the last weekend before heading off to Asia on Monday morning. Yesterday was my last day in Geneva, and I have to say it was a bit of a strange feeling to leave. Overall, I am absolutely thrilled and excited to go on my trip but yesterday I was&nbsp;a bit sad, too. I won&rsquo;t miss work, I think I won&rsquo;t miss Geneva itself but I will certainly miss&nbsp;my friends.<p /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">I had already moved out of my apartment the previous weekend, stayed this last week at friends&rsquo; places &ndash; thanks Thomas and Jochen &ndash; and was being kept super busy at work still (yet also had probably one of the best and funniest moments at work ever, let me just say that if you ever hear of a movie called &lsquo;The Brazilian&rsquo; you should go and see it). Here some photos from my last week, the evening event of our yearly strategy meeting and my office leaving drinks, that&nbsp;I will keep in good memory.&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/BgGbgJkgFCtCrcjfjbCpmbfewzsvqdJFiDgkqEfrqutmdztdadoDrfnFyGEw/P1010164.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="P1010164" height="375" src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/BgGbgJkgFCtCrcjfjbCpmbfewzsvqdJFiDgkqEfrqutmdztdadoDrfnFyGEw/P1010164.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/IloiwDsdAusoCBDnubydEJrsclctEBcjwaBBkkBdjsJzekzbwJqJHrabvpuI/P1010165.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="P1010165" height="375" src="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/IloiwDsdAusoCBDnubydEJrsclctEBcjwaBBkkBdjsJzekzbwJqJHrabvpuI/P1010165.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> 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src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/vHDmumthdqzmHogfHdxhndpIwDgDwijjBuktonEilJHklvCzHxauhmdfHexf/P1010199.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/jwcBmAubJuoFFtciCdzbJxkBiljtuDaDgvmdDCduIiunsceoxBqHFdvxdfoe/P1010200.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="P1010200" height="375" src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/jwcBmAubJuoFFtciCdzbJxkBiljtuDaDgvmdDCduIiunsceoxBqHFdvxdfoe/P1010200.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/wHznyBmaiFaoCxwthkfltnnaoliunDoywzssnpfzsEnmEtFklEoblIAnqcpg/P1010209.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="P1010209" height="667" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/wHznyBmaiFaoCxwthkfltnnaoliunDoywzssnpfzsEnmEtFklEoblIAnqcpg/P1010209.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/HcsICJtBChfmbpDJqIqdvBAfnvDAEDtxBjutgmcdHCjnErcqoconpEymnckI/P1010211.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="P1010211" height="667" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/HcsICJtBChfmbpDJqIqdvBAfnvDAEDtxBjutgmcdHCjnErcqoconpEymnckI/P1010211.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/ukovbBznvgobxwoIuqIjpyAFiJFIvDnxADDemdHyhgkuHahvjajeIJexEjvn/P1010212.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="P1010212" height="375" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/ukovbBznvgobxwoIuqIjpyAFiJFIvDnxADDemdHyhgkuHahvjajeIJexEjvn/P1010212.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/zcdHlpdaFrfsEpDFldgbGjAvIoIFseJyIzqBvhCHAFyGpeeeGjvmcIdthubw/P1010213.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="P1010213" height="375" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/zcdHlpdaFrfsEpDFldgbGjAvIoIFseJyIzqBvhCHAFyGpeeeGjvmcIdthubw/P1010213.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/IEqvrpiakHxpsyuohdeuvEAkwGoypFvDpDrjaFFIxxJfJFiBcvrDCGFlburp/P1010215.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="P1010215" height="375" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/IEqvrpiakHxpsyuohdeuvEAkwGoypFvDpDrjaFFIxxJfJFiBcvrDCGFlburp/P1010215.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/fpgztBElmfFrktHvACmurEAFrxvaHudenEzIdjBIfdbBjiqeDBbHhspGgnth/P1010216.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="P1010216" height="667" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/fpgztBElmfFrktHvACmurEAFrxvaHudenEzIdjBIfdbBjiqeDBbHhspGgnth/P1010216.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/hssvniFuJkrwtptJarnqdyrxmdkphlkAxuwbrHqGlBoGbzvmmcCIirfoAzJv/P1010219.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="P1010219" height="375" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/hssvniFuJkrwtptJarnqdyrxmdkphlkAxuwbrHqGlBoGbzvmmcCIirfoAzJv/P1010219.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/guIcothuJcJJanEIuehwemdBCAIpACGkonHxIFImsgxtzwxDzAqBcayilFad/P1010220.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="P1010220" height="375" src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-07-09/guIcothuJcJJanEIuehwemdBCAIpACGkonHxIFImsgxtzwxDzAqBcayilFad/P1010220.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/goodbye-geneva">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Unfortunately, I couldn&rsquo;t say bye to all of you personally, especially I missed out on my &lsquo;non-P&amp;G&rsquo; friends (SORRY!). I hope you will forgive me and still come to my 'Welcome Back Drinks' in November! <span style="">&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Next posting to come will be&nbsp;from Kyrgyzstan (yes,&nbsp;I had to look up how to spell it)!</span></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/goodbye-geneva">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/goodbye-geneva#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/Be3rCi1dS4M" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/goodbye-geneva Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:30:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/Kiid2Aaqvps/getting-ready http://vagabonding.posterous.com/getting-ready <p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">With 2 weeks left until I leave Geneva and only 1 week until I have to move out of my apartment (and &ndash; as a side note &ndash; 1 week away from my 6^th year anniversary in Geneva), this past weekend was marked by getting ready for my trip. Mostly, I was clearing out my apartment so I can hand it over to my subtenant this Friday. Not the nicest of tasks but it&rsquo;s got to be done. It&rsquo;s incredible how much stuff accumulates over the years! </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The nice part of the weekend was that I got to pack my backpack for the trip as well. As mentioned in my very first blog post, I am really looking forward to live out of my backpack for some time. Guidebooks on long term travel recommend traveling as light as possible &ndash; and this is what I tried. Not as easy as one might think if you need to accommodate for minus degrees (which</span><span style="font-size: small;"> we sure enough might have in the mountains) as well as for beach life. I ended up with about 14 kilos including all hiking gear and sleeping bag. Not so bad &ndash; and actually 5 kilos less than I had on my 2 week trip to Peru some months back. On top of that I have my day pack which mostly carries some travel essentials and &ndash; geek as I am &ndash; my electronic equipment (netbook, cameras, kindle).</span></span>&nbsp;<div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-06-27/bjCsyDEqhxJxqIDClokFJywErgFGfmiggCtyomknFmuHDgufyazmvjIalkGn/IMG_0670.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Img_0670" height="375" src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-06-27/bjCsyDEqhxJxqIDClokFJywErgFGfmiggCtyomknFmuHDgufyazmvjIalkGn/IMG_0670.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-06-27/xotcezrtiyuvGjsisGwgzslHblCaayqgewoboaDnskHnGkHapDkGdxhnIrcI/IMG_0691.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Img_0691" height="375" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-06-27/xotcezrtiyuvGjsisGwgzslHblCaayqgewoboaDnskHnGkHapDkGdxhnIrcI/IMG_0691.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-06-27/wihGCsFlfbexkmnsizcwwhnGyuvcADriJndavwHnDJbocGAbzboJxvfofCao/IMG_0693.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Img_0693" height="375" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-06-27/wihGCsFlfbexkmnsizcwwhnGyuvcADriJndavwHnDJbocGAbzboJxvfofCao/IMG_0693.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/getting-ready">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Being kept extremely busy at work over the past weeks, it was the packing this weekend that really made me realize that my trip isn&rsquo;t far away anymore. Soooo excited!</span></span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/getting-ready">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/getting-ready#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/Kiid2Aaqvps" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/getting-ready Sun, 22 May 2011 08:10:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/nEuJXNJG0dc/how-i-got-4-months-off-work-and-you-could-do http://vagabonding.posterous.com/how-i-got-4-months-off-work-and-you-could-do <p> <p style="margin-top: 12.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Initially, I was about to quit my job and just go for my dream of travelling for some months, and then afterwards start my life anew somewhere.</span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #333333;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">It would have been easy. It would certainly have been better than doing nothing and just continuing. But it also would have been half-cocked. I actually like what I am doing. I like where I am living. I have good friends here. I was determined to go off travelling but whether I really want to give all that up and change my life over, I need to thoroughly think through. It should not come out of my lazy hesitation to negotiate a leave of absence from my current job. Yes, I had expected the sabbatical negotiations to be an uncomfortable, bureaucratic and lengthy process and I had wanted to avoid them. But in the end, you can only get what you ask for. So I went for it, following the below steps&hellip;and got my 4 months off. It was much quicker and easier than I had thought.</span></strong></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 12pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0cm; text-align: center; line-height: normal; padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #333333;"><span><em style=""><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"A person's</span></em></span><span><em style=""><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">&nbsp;</span></em></span><em><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal;">success</span></em><span><em style=""><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">&nbsp;</span></em></span><span><em style=""><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">in life can usually be measured by the number of</span></em></span><span><em style=""><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">&nbsp;</span></em></span><em><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal;">uncomfortable conversations</span></em><span><em style=""><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">&nbsp;</span></em></span><span><em style=""><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">he or she is willing to have."</span> <br />(Tim Ferris)</em></span><em style=""><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">&nbsp;</span></em></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #333333;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">If you are also playing with the thought of taking a sabbatical or career break at some point, I hope my account of how I approached it encourages you to go for it in the first place and serves as an inspiration how to go about it.</span></strong></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style=""><span style="color: #333333; font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt Times New Roman;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">FIGURE OUT WHY YOU WANT IT &amp; HOW IMPORTANT IT IS FOR YOU</span></strong></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 2.25pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #333333;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">I think it all starts with yourself getting clear about why you want to take time off. It helped me to understand that in my case a sabbatical is the better form of leave than making the hard cut and quit permanently. But if you don&rsquo;t like your job, a sabbatical might not be sufficient for you. Being clear about your motivations will also help you to express your case and get the support and buy-in from others, be it your family, friends or employer. <br /> Also get clear yourself about how important it is for you to get time off. What would you do if your company wouldn&rsquo;t give you the sabbatical? Would you compromise on or abandon your wish? I was determined to quit if my employer wouldn&rsquo;t have approved my sabbatical request. It would not have been ideal but I had made my choice. Asking for the sabbatical so wasn&rsquo;t a question of Go or No-Go but of under what terms I would be going &ndash; which gave me a certain ease of mind (and a strong argument for my case).</span></strong></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style=""><span style="color: #333333; font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt Times New Roman;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">UNDERSTAND THE RULES AND IMPLICATIONS</span></strong></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 2.25pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #333333;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Once I was clear what I wanted, I set out to understand the rules and implications of taking a sabbatical. On the rules side, I tried to learn what my company&rsquo;s take on sabbaticals is, most importantly under what conditions they allow one to take them and for how long. Apart from the rules, also m</span></strong><span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">ake sure that you are valued at your company &ndash; otherwise it will be difficult no matter the rules. </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">On the implications side, I was thinking about financial and company benefits implications and what will happen with me when I get back. On the first one, I learned it&rsquo;s an unpaid leave (which I can live with) but with benefits continuing in a certain way (I am still trying to understand that). On the latter, it means that I am giving up a certain degree of control what my next job will be. Not ideal but I can live with it. </span></strong></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style=""><span style="color: #333333; font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt Times New Roman;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">ASK FOR IT GOING &lsquo;ALL IN&rsquo;</span></strong></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 2.25pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #333333;"><span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Now it was about going external and asking for it. While you need to understand the rules of the company, my take on them was that I don&rsquo;t need to follow them when I first asked for my sabbatical. I went &lsquo;all in&rsquo; and asked for my ideal plan (with a too short notice time, for a too long duration and in the middle of my current job assignment). In terms of format, I first had a personal conversation with my line manager, and then laid out all key points via the following email:<br style="" /> <div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-05-22/EFAqkgtGgrolBfBtpfttGjAkqfdEifdGaBmBtBrxnhglvadgdbzgiFvjxrqA/sabbatical_mail.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Sabbatical_mail" height="367" src="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-05-22/EFAqkgtGgrolBfBtpfttGjAkqfdEifdGaBmBtBrxnhglvadgdbzgiFvjxrqA/sabbatical_mail.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style=""><span style="color: #333333; font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="">4)<span style="font: 7.0pt Times New Roman;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">MAKE THE CASE </span></strong></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 2.25pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">By laying out my ideal plan, I had put a stick into the ground for the following negotiations, knowing that I would probably not come out there in the end. At the same time, I clearly defined for myself what the minimum is with which I would be happy. </span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 2.25pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">With regards to expected negotiations, I had included few arguments in my initial ask for the sabbatical, namely my willingness to come back to the same business unit, and my hint on that I would be quitting otherwise (which I was hoping would be seen as a loss). I had also made a suggestion on how my responsibilities could be covered while I am away. Others, e.g. that it saves the company money, were implicit and didn&rsquo;t need to be talked. I honestly was expecting and preparing for more negotiations but they didn&rsquo;t come. For a week, we had some discussions around the start date and that was it. </span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 2.25pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In all honesty, I was also lucky that at the same time we had a restructuring in our business unit that probably made it easier to accommodate my sabbatical as people were moved around anyway. And it certainly helped that I have a good connection to my manager and one or two others on his level who supported my case (actually, I consider this more important than any rational arguments). </span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style=""><span style="color: #333333; font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="">5)<span style="font: 7.0pt Times New Roman;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">CLOSE IT QUICKLY</span></strong></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 2.25pt; line-height: normal;"><span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #333333;">Once the actual decision was taken, I urged to make it official and public. You never know what may come up that makes someone reconsider it. My sabbatical so got announced mid April, barely 6 weeks after I had initially asked for it. Now that this is through, I can focus on getting my private things in order and on preparing for my trip.</span></span></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/how-i-got-4-months-off-work-and-you-could-do">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/how-i-got-4-months-off-work-and-you-could-do#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/nEuJXNJG0dc" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/how-i-got-4-months-off-work-and-you-could-do Sun, 15 May 2011 10:12:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~3/8HIxO5XjdiI/53159239 http://vagabonding.posterous.com/53159239 <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-05-15/ydlBEgAkzhBbukbzrhdlzonkyfzppdzmpspBteszyBsCFppgiezGAhsCmkqj/P1010817.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="P1010817" height="375" src="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-05-15/ydlBEgAkzhBbukbzrhdlzonkyfzppdzmpspBteszyBsCFppgiezGAhsCmkqj/P1010817.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; font-size: small;">I had wanted to go travelling for an extended period since a long time. After finishing university in 2004, I was about to take the chances but then had been offered a job and decided to play it safe and take the job offer. I am in the same company ever since. During these years, I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to travel to great destinations such as Australia, Tanzania, Argentina or Nepal. Rather than satisfying my &lsquo;wanderlust&rsquo;, these travel experiences amplified my wish to go for this long big trip. Yet, I never really did anything to realize it but got &lsquo;trapped&rsquo; in my (admittedly good and comfortable) daily life.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #333333; font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">This is until the beginning of this year. When I defined my resolutions for 2011,</span><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">&nbsp;<em>DO THE BIG TRIP</em>&nbsp;<span style="color: #333333;">(as I phrased it at that time) made it to the top of my list. During the months before, I got inspired by two streams of influences that made me more and more determined about it. First, the personal accounts of a couple of friends who did the same or something similar and unanimously loved it. Thanks Frank, Alice, Nicola, Guelten and Lynn! Second, a couple of books that I read on the topic, most notably the</span>&nbsp;<em>4 Hour Work Week</em>&nbsp;<span style="color: #333333;">by Tim Ferriss and</span>&nbsp;<em>Vagabonding</em>&nbsp;<span style="color: #333333;">by Rolf Potts.&nbsp;So I was finally acting upon my dream. I would have been ready to quit my job for it, but (as I actually quite like it) I instead decided to first try to get a sabbatical. I asked for the leave of absence beginning of March&hellip;and thanks to a mix of clearly expressed determination from my side to do it in any case, fortunate circumstances, recognition for my work over the past years and personal support from my manager, I got it approved in record timings! So it occurs that I will be going on my big, 4months-long trip starting July this year.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">But why is it that I want to do this in the first place? Here are my motivations for the big trip:</span></p> <h4 style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="">&nbsp;</span></h4> <h4 style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="">1.</span><span style="">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="">EXPERIENCE THE WORLD AND ITS WONDERS</span></strong></span><span style="">&nbsp;</span></span></h4> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">One of the key reasons for all travelling, I want to see the world and its wonders. There are thousands of amazingly beautiful places to see in this world, from mountains and beaches, to big cities and remote temples,</span><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">&nbsp;<span style="color: #333333;">and I want to experience as many of them in my life as I can. And I want to experience them in a way and pace, that can make me appreciate them fully. Beyond the places themselves, I want to see and experience different cultures. Among my personal must-sees for this trip are the mighty mountains in the Karakorum and Himalaya range, Lhasa, Angkor Wat and the Halong bay.</span></span></span></p> <h4 style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="">&nbsp;</span></h4> <h4 style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="">2.</span><span style="">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="">DO WHAT I WANT, WHEN I WANT IT</span></strong></span><span style="">&nbsp;</span></span></h4> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #333333; font-size: small;">I am not a big planner and don&rsquo;t like schedules too much so&nbsp;having the freedom to do what I want, when I want is one of the things I am most looking forward to. When you&rsquo;re working 50-60 hours a week and have family, friends, and thousands of other obligations, it&rsquo;s often difficult to find the time to pursue what makes you really&nbsp;&nbsp;happy.&nbsp;In that sense, I see the big trip as a release&nbsp;from all those&nbsp;obligations&nbsp;and a chance to do what I really like and don&rsquo;t come to do all too often at home.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s an opportunity to cut loose and have fun!&nbsp;Among other things, I plan to do more of the following: enjoying the outdoors, taking photos, hiking/climbing, reading, writing, diving, chilling and partying.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #424037; font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">3.</span><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="">MEET NEW AND INTERESTING PEOPLE</span></span></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #424037;">&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">I find traveling is an amazing way to meet like-minded others and make friends you would never have met staying where you are. During all my&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">trips, I got to know interesting people from all around the world and mostly one or two of them &lsquo;stuck&rsquo; and we became friends. In fact, that&rsquo;s the way I met my travel companion for the big trip, Martin. We met in 2009 in Nepal, stayed in touch and now will travel the whole 4 months together. Afterwards we&rsquo;ll either be friends for life or will never talk with each other again (but let&rsquo;s not hope so!). Then, there are the locals who can offer you a glimpse in their different culture and way of living which also is an extremely rewarding experience. Especially as we will be travelling basic, I hope we&rsquo;ll have many of these encounters on our trip too.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">On the downside, I will not be seeing my friends from home for some months. There are certainly some that I will be missing (you know who you are). But I then I don&rsquo;t think (hope) the saying &lsquo;Out of sight, out of mind&rsquo; applies here, especially nowadays where it is so easy to communicate even from the remotest places of the world via the internet. I&rsquo;ll be posting updates, writing emails, using Skype etc. and hope so will be you, my friends. It will probably be a bit of a filter in the sense of some people making an effort to stay in touch while others don&rsquo;t, but that&rsquo;s alright (and even interesting to see).</span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #424037; font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">4.</span><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="">LEARN</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">I think travelling or visiting other countries is an incredible way to learn about the world, its history, people, culture or even politics. You somehow get an on-the-ground sense of what is happening in a country, something you&rsquo;ll never get through the media or books.&nbsp;&nbsp;More than that, I think on the road, out of your usual comfort zone, you can also learn or improve on a couple of &lsquo;life skills&rsquo; such as communication with others, improvising etc. Apart from this daily learning, I deliberately want to use the trip to refresh my diving skills, and learn some bits of new languages &ndash; even if it&rsquo;s likely only gonna be the bare essentials.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #424037; font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">5.</span><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="">LIVE A SIMPLE LIFE</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">Not my top motivation but certainly one of the things I enjoy while travelling is to live life in a simple way. With that I mean two things that kind of belong together: First, to travel just with your backpack and the bare essentials you need for your life on the road. While I&rsquo;m far from being a minimalist, there is just something liberating about living out of a backpack for some time and not having to worry about stuff so much. Second, it&rsquo;s about using local basic accommodation instead of x-star hotels. Though often not having some of the amenities we are used in our normal life, for me they often have a charm that hotels do not possess.</span><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">&nbsp;<span style="color: #333333;">&nbsp;And when I am coming back home then, I will certainly enjoy and appreciate the comfort of my place all the more.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #333333; font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">6.</span><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="">THINK THINGS OVER</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #333333;">I think anyone who is taking such a trip will be coming back looking differently at certain things in life. I deliberately want to use the 4 months to think things over, that is myself, my life, and what I want out of it.&nbsp;The &lsquo;time out&rsquo; of travel</span><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">&nbsp;<span style="color: #333333;">should provide both the time for reflection as well as interesting stimuli via all the people and things I will experience on the road. Maybe I won&rsquo;t want to change a lot after but am only newly energized; maybe I want to change some things more drastically. Schau&rsquo;n mer ma!</span></span></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </p> <p><a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/53159239">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://vagabonding.posterous.com/53159239#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/VagabondingThroughAsia/~4/8HIxO5XjdiI" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/378008/Nepal_18.10.2009_08-27-48.JPG http://posterous.com/users/3snC2ti08qsN Alex Ripper Ali Alex Ripper http://vagabonding.posterous.com/53159239