10 day Trip through Uzbekistan. Adding more pictures later.

Tara & I went for a weekend trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap on Christmas. It takes around an hour to get out of the Bangkok Metropolitan Area and than another three hours to the Thai-Cambodian Border Poipet. The road is very modern, there is not much traffic and scenic nature is just stunning!

After crossing the border you immediately feel the difference to Thailand. The roads are more dusty and besides the border town you have only tiny villages on the way to Siem Reap. The only things you will see for the next two hours to Siem Reap are rice fields and trucks filled with people and animals. There is a wonderful silence in Cambodia.

After a long day on the road we arrived in Siem Reap. We stayed at a wonderful wooden guesthouse very near to the river. The kitchen cooked delicious Khmer curry with fish or chicken!

Strolling around in Siem Reap city can be pretty boring after a while. Architecture and atmosphere are amazing but the beautiful part of the city including the market is very small and you can easily see the whole city on just a weekend.

We went to Angkor Wat the next morning. Its very near to Siem Reap & one of the oldest and largest temple remain in South East Asia. You can actually stay there for weeks if you want to see all the different temples but we just took a 1-day-pass. The World Heritage site is very crowded nowadays. Whole tourist groups (lots of Korean & Japanese) run through the sites and it becomes pretty annoying if you want to enjoy the atmosphere. Luckily there are still many little temple sites which are very nice and not crowded at all.

The temple complex was built in the early 12th century and still remains the largest religious building as well as one of the best preserved temples in Asia. It has a very typical Khmer Architecture and became the symbol of Cambodia (appearing in the national flag).

Overall it was a great trip and I can highly recommend doing it by Motorbike! If you have more than a weekend you can also drive down to the lake or see the outskirts of Siem Reap.

Some people were asking me if it was difficult to get the motorbike through the border and I have to say that it went very smooth! The whole process is just about temporary exporting and than importing your motorbike.

On the Thai side (Poipet) you need to get your exit-stamp in your passport and after that you show the legal papers of your motorbike to the guys at customs. These guys make a copy of your greenbook, passport & driver license (can be international, no need for a Thai license) and after filling out some forms your receive a customs receipt (dont lose it!).

Very similar procedure on the Cambodian side where you have to find the customs office on the left side (white building) and get a customs form. When you return it is even simpler because you just hand them the papers and pass through!

The last months have been very busy and I couldn’t really find time to update the blog. Since a few weeks I am in process of restructuring some content and I will relaunch the site with a new design in December. Cheers!

People who want to stay in Thailand for more than 30 days  for travel, work or other purposes have to get a Non-Immigration Visa.  For more than three years I was living in Thailand with a Non-Immigration Visa (ED, Student) but it was time to change to a real work permit.  With the right papers from your employer it usually takes 2 weeks, sometimes a bit more.  But my whole process took nearly 14 weeks and I stumbled upon a variety of upsetting hold-ups and snafus.

Since I work as a correspondent I applied for a Journalism Visa after submitting all of my papers (work-contract, work-samples, passport scans, pictures etc.)  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited me to an interview.  I had no idea what they wanted to ask me but I thought it might be about my education and experience.

Surprise No 1:  One of the first critical questions was what my view on the monarchy was.  I was clearly asked if I had problems with the King or the monarchy in general.

Surprise No 2:  They were very serious in asking me why I am focusing on human rights & censorship and why I didn’t want to cover politics in my home country of Germany instead of Thailand.

After these questions were asked there was a glimpse of clarity for me when they referred to a report from the MICT (Ministry of Information & Technology) about my blog being blocked two times before.  I explained to them that I was not aware of writing anything offending in regards to the monarchy (lese majeste laws).  I also never changed any content after publishing to appease them and bring the blog back, and yet it never stayed blocked for long.

A file with my name on it was opened and I could not believe my ears when I heard the quotes.  The official was reading out selections from my blog posts & tweets (some of them over a year old).  The content was mostly about critical issues within Thai culture, the monarchy or Thai politics.

So at this point in the process I temporarily had a feeling I never had before in Thailand:  Fear.  Why was the MICT storing my blog entries and tweets from over a year ago?

I really do like George Orwell’s 1984 and I am very aware that certain elements exist world wide but you never realize how unfare and frightening it is until you really get in touch with it.

The idea they were sending me was very clear:  ”We are watching you – be careful’

As I mentioned before I only felt like this temporarily.  I cannot do my job without being critical and I could never live a life where people are censoring me.

After the interview I was told that the process was taking longer because the MICT had to look into the case before it could be approved by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.  At that point my existing visa ran out and I did a visa run.  I called the Foreign Affairs office every two days asking for updates but there was never a clear answer except ‘please wait’.  My news agency as well as my colleagues helped by calling the Ministry asking them to be clear about any problems. After weeks of silence I was notified that they were doing a huge background check on me.  Foreign relations, the crime division & even the Thai intelligence unit were involved.  Another few weeks of silence and I had to take a second visa run  to extend my stay.

Finally my permit got approved including a new invite for another interview.  The meeting had quite a tense atmosphere with lots of fake smiles and phrases like “We want you to be a friend of Thailand”.  I was taught again how laws (lese majeste) are structured in Thailand.  I constantly had the feeling I needed to justify myself for things I haven’t done.  It was a pain.

I know that this post is public and probably will be read by the MICT/Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  I am posting this because I felt absolutely misjudged and I didn’t like the threatening nature of the interviews.  I never got an apology or any explanation.

I never committed any crime or offense – quite the contrary:  I am not only a ‘guest’ who is respecting Thai culture & values – I am engaged in several development projects in Thailand.  I do volunteer teaching and help in many humanitarian projects around the country.  I love Thailand and always try to present it in a good way.  I recently shot a video project for the Ministry of Culture entitled “What it means to be Thai” which received great resonance from Thai officials.

I don’t like to post too much personal stuff on my blog but this topic was very upsetting to me & I wanted my colleagues to be aware of the intense monitoring of the media & press in Thailand.  Free speech is one of the most important factors in Journalism and we all have to realize how important it is to our life.

This amazing video about new screen technologies shows some daily life situations of the future. Transparent or Mirror-embedded touchscreens are already used in a lot of devices but it would be great if they would have been compatible to all other devices like in the video.

Another already existing gadget is the fold-able netbook called “flexbook” from Taiwan – It is part of the design award 2011 and looks pretty cool.  There are no detailed specifications yet but the netbook should be able to use a usual netbook. It also includes a waterproof keyboard and fold-to-use features as a book for reading e-books, a tablet for browsing newspapers or in crowded environments etc.

There are several ‘eco-phones’ on the market which run on solar power but this is new: A phone powered by coke (or any other soda with sugar in it) – It features a bio-battery which uses enzymes as a catalyst to generate electricity from carbohydrates/sugar.

Saving energy is one of the main ideas in new concepts and inventions. A pretty cool transportation idea comes from Russia: Bike lanes are often non-existent or crowded – why not create a whole new space bikes?

These steel bike lanes in the sky could be the solution. Additional adventure factor guaranteed!

Something non-electronic: Not really the innovation of the year but I love the simple modern design of this nut cracker:

And two more inventions from the categorie ‘science’: After 30 years of research an Indian scientist discovered a new method of birth control for men.

It is called RISUG and a simple injection can give 100% control for ten years! It quickly became interesting on an international level, especially for developing countries. Wired Magazine has the full story.

First I heard about it in a podcast: Artificial Trees – Sounds a bit weird but science is at the point to create trees that work like trees. Killing CO2 and even providing power… its amazing – I really wonder how it can affect the climate change and other environmental problems. Some prototypes are already in use (see pic above) and most of them are up to 300 times more effective than natural trees. A detailed PDF here! The design however looks more like a giant flyswatter…

The Thai election is scheduled for Sunday, 3 July after the House of Representatives was dissolved  on May 10, 2011. Slowly the political parties are starting their campaigns and most parties focus on winning the majority in Bangkok. There are over 150 candidates and all  bigger cities are flooded with huge campaign posters.

There are actually hundreds of variations and the following just shows a selection of the most common posters in Bangkok Downtown and suburbs.

The main parties which are predicted to lead the poll in July are the Democrats & the Puea Thai Party. Most people expect a close race but there are also ideas about coalitions since the latest numbers are not stating a clear majority.

Lets have a look at the campaign posters and what most of the parties trying to achieve. In general I noticed that nearly all campaign posters are designed & printed pretty poorly. Often faces are blurry, body parts are cut off or colors are extremely contrasted.

The Democrat posters are all kept in blue-white. Ex-PM Abhisit and other candidates  are promoting the idea of ‘moving forward’. In visits and campaign speeches Abhisit is also emphasizing on the projects/packages he started in his legislation  and need to continue them.

Puea Thai Party (under the metaphorical lead of ex-PM Thaksin) is focusing on the new appointed candidate ‘Yingluck’. She is the sister of Thaksin and her representation is probably the most professional in this election. More on her poster, analyzed by Chris Baker: here. Some other posters praise free WIFI, ipads and many other materialistic gains – is it just a pie in the sky or real? As long as there are no answers to the question how it will be financed no one knows…

This year we also see a lot of campaign posters which stick out of the mass – mostly with funny or provoking pictures/messages.
The PAD strictly points to the ‘No-Vote’, the funny ads showing animals in suits underlined with the message “dont let animals into the parliament!”

Another provocative approach by candidate “Chuvit” and his party “Rak Prathet Thai” (Love Thailand): He is pretty outspoken and strictly against corruption and tells people to wake up (lit. jump into the pool instead of waiting in front of your computer) by voting for him.

What makes him controversial is his large chain of massage parlours, which are mostly a cover-up for prostitution in Thailand. Mr Chuwit also admitted that his masseuses sell sex every night but his reasoning seems logical: “I am helping the poor for over 10 years.”
One of the reasons for him to get into politics was that the police failed to prevent his prosecution in two criminal cases, even though he paid nearly 300,000 us dollar in bribes every month for several years.

The Bhumjai Thai Party also has a lot of posters out and my friend Saksith took a take on the weird phrases and their meaning in this article.

Other parties are not as present around the city. They go with different themes and messages… mostly all-round topics everyone can relate to.

Harmony is an often picked topic as well as the general boost of the economy.

Freedom, no blood anymore… or better roads all across the country?

We will see how influential the campaigns & campaign posters are with new numbers! Just about four more weeks until Thais are heading to the polls – plenty of time to change your mind!

Today, the 19th of May marks an important day for Thailand as well as for me. Exactly one year ago the military cracked down on the Red Shirt Anti-government Protesters. I covered the event all day and saw many people dead, injured or filled with sadness. It was a long struggle – but where are we now?

One year after the bloody disperse by the military there are still hundreds of open questions. Regarding political aspects Thailand is still divided. Even though the city remained quiet, people continued a normal life and the foreign media focused on a different continent – nothing really changed. There was no solution/resolution/revolution. No change in the government, no change in the military or monarchy, no change in peoples mind. A few weeks ago the house dissolution went through and if everything goes like planned Thailand will have new elections in the beginning of July. Ex-Prime Minister Abhisit said that Thai people have a great opportunity in this election but for most citizens it is unclear if all those political parties & choices are really opportunities or just another extension of political chaos.

Right after the situation calmed down in the end of May, the government formed various truth commission groups to research about the killings in April and May. After one year the official numbers still state around 90 dead and thousands injured but I personally cannot believe in these numbers. I went to the protest sides nearly every day from the beginning in March until the end of May and I saw over 30 dead people with my own eyes. In my opinion the number 90 is still a wrong statement but the government as well as the media seemed to be fed up & satisfied with it.

The DSI (Department for Special Investigations) & various research groups couldn’t find out much about the dead journalists. The only thing that was clear for them: ‘It was not done by the military’. Everything seems blurry and unclear. No real results except the just recently released Human Rights Report which surprisingly found out much more details than all the government investigation groups together. Many cases are pretty obvious but the justice process is just missing. The 156-page report by the Human Rights Watch is based on nearly hundred interviews with all kind of participants during the protests to get a more accurate picture. It is worth a read and a lot of details are revealed for the first time but there is still a huge lack regarding violence from the Red Shirt side, as well as a closer look on all the crackdowns of lese majeste cases in that period.

Human Rights Watch is not the only organization that is demanding more transparency by all Thai institutions but the chronic struggle between government, monarchy, military & other forces are still on going which is making the process of clearing things up even harder. One of the most important things to look at is a Media reform. As long as freedom of speech & self-censorship are still an issue – it will be hard to get clarity about all internal & external conflicts.

For a few more weeks we see campaign posters, speeches, phone-ins & maybe some surprising pr-events and than we will see if Thailand is taking a new direction. A stable powerful government with a strong opposition or corrupted puppets and more chaotic protests?

Thai and Cambodian troops clashed with heavy artillery for a sixth straight day on Wednesday near two disputed 12th-century Hindu temples at the border. The recent fights killed at least 14 people and more than 50,000 have been evacuated from their homes during the clashes.
Cease fire talks have been cancelled and most people are confused why this conflict is continuously flaring up.

Spokesmen from both countries as well as most media outlets explain the conflict as a border dispute. There are different maps, different historical standpoints and cultural views on it. Earlier in February there have been heavy clashes at the Preah Vihear Temple and ASEAN was looking for an immediate solution by peace talks.

There have been many peace talks initiated by the UN or neighboring countries before. The last bilateral talks in Indonesia have been stated as “unfruitful” – the original plan was to start the mapping process of the border region but the result was the plan of deploying Indonesian unarmed observers at the border region. None of these observers are at the border right now and it seems that this plan was cancelled.

So why do we have all these peace talks, pressure from the international community & ASEAN and nothing happens?

There might be more than meets the eye. Besides territory arguments there could be a political interests on both sides of the ASEAN countries to continue this war. The Thai and Cambodian Governments have been in a tense position in the last years. Especially in Thailand a lot of changes are expected with the upcoming house dissolution and the new election which is scheduled for July. A lot of Thais think that the border conflicts are delaying the elections, even though Deputy Prime Minister Suthep and other spokesmen stated that the election plans are not changed.

Another factor in the conflict is also the more or less independent Thai military which is still one of the biggest military powers in South East Asia. The Independent wrote:

Duncan McCargo, professor of South-east Asian politics at the University of Leeds, suggested that the border dispute was essentially the result of an ongoing struggle between Thailand’s military, its foreign ministry and the Prime Minister’s office. “In the past, the Thai army has always demanded the right to pursue an independent foreign policy to advance its own ends. By prosecuting this bizarre and pointless border war, the military is trying to present itself as the true guardian of the national interest, seizing the moral high ground from civilian politicians,” he said. “However, the conflict is further eroding Thailand’s international credibility and is proving a headache to both Asean and the UN. The sooner the Thai military accepts that foreign policy is the preserve of elected governments, the better.”

Beside these factors the question arises who is responsible for further actions. Both countries seem very stubborn to get a long-term solution which also leads to a lack of international credibility. ASEAN tries to be diplomatic but bilateral talks failed. The United Nations as well as some member states noticed the conflict & were calling for peaceful solutions but it will take much more casualties for an involvement of a foreign country.

Last weekend I went to Taiwan to shoot a food story. I had a bit of spare time to explore the capital Taipei and the northern coast. Some pics & a short video…

Even though Taipei is very modern, developed and hectic you can find very peaceful & atmospheric places. Religious life in Taiwan is alive and kicking seven days a week at the Longshan temple. Though not the biggest temple in the city, there is something unique and beautiful about the vibe at Longshan that keeps people coming back. Through a big cloud of incense you can hear calm drums, silent prayers & hypnotic chanting.

I really liked the narrow side streets that have lots of tiny old shops. It seems like Taipei has a variety of different architectural styles, from old traditional Chinese to modern Bauhaus. The overall street design actually reminds me of many places in Japan. Maybe the Japanese colonization might be responsible for that…

From a cultural standpoint there is definitely a lot to see in Taipei. From the Memorial Hall (for the founder of China) to the National Palace Museum – which holds the largest and oldest collection of Chinese art in the world.

The Food was just amazing. As shown in the video above I ate a lot of stuff during my trip! The dumplings are really unique in flavor and variety but also the sour soups with sesame are very special if I would compare it with the rest of Asian food. I also went to the famous ‘Din Tai Fung’ restaurant, which is world famous for its steamed pork dumplings. People have to queue up for a seat and it usually takes about 20mins until you get your order but it is worth it. Great taste and good service!

A must see is also the Taipei 101 Tower which offers a breathtaking view on the city. It was the tallest building in 2004 until it was topped by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

I had planned to do another story on a ghost town at the northern coast of Taiwan but when I arrived I discovered that it had been destroyed a while ago. You can get to the north in a few hours from Taipei and the nature is pretty stunning! Best way to end a day trip out of Taipei is definitely the sunset at the west coast!