this is down, but more to come!

Dear friends!

I am back in Germany since last month now, so flohoSINGAPORE is at an end now! I hope you enjoyed the trip I took you on, because there is more to come!
Last saturday I chose the places where I will spend spring and fall next year:
From January till end of March I will be studying at the IPADE in Mexico City, and from September till December I'll be at the University of South Carolina, Columbia!

Until then, feel free to check my homepage at floho.com, where I will post links to all following blogs!

cheers!

JABBI!
(= Just Another Beautiful Beach Impression!)

our tree house!

these little dragons were quite big!

another view from turtle beach

a storm coming up

at the diveshop

HAPPY!

This is the bay of D'Lagoon on Perhentian Kecil, the island of our dreams!

Just a short walk through the junge, and here is: Turtle beach!

In the end...

I am astonished how fast time was passing away the last days. It feels like I just came back from the island with Tine, but actually she is back in Germany for over a week now and it already becomes time for me to leave.
LEAVE? Well, yeah. My time in Singapore is pretty much over. I will come to the office once more today and then jet to Shanghai over the week. Coming back on Sunday, I will either directly continue my journey homewards or stay one more night and then go back, depends on the flight I get. I already have a confirmed booking for monday, but sunday is still on hold. We'll see! When I take the plane on monday, I will be on the same flight with Johannes. Well, if he gets upgraded to the upper floor (which means first class), I won't see much of him anyway ;-)

The week here has been strange, i felt like being in trance. I cannot even remember every day clearly, it is like time just rushed away under my feet. I was constantly tired and either hungry or "just had a double-whopper and all my stomach asked for were some french fries"-like.
Maybe it was the shock that I got when I came back to "civilization". Really, I got so "unplugged" from normal life on the island that it demanded a real effort to get everything back up and running, while everything I wanted most was planning the next holiday, the next dive and the next timeout with Tine.
On Friday I got the testimonial from Johannes, you know, that "To whom it may concern"-stuff. It is quite nice, at least I hope so. I never got one, so I have no idea which traps are hiding in it. Let's just assume there are none and I actually was as good as it is described there. That would, if I may say so, make me proud. Johannes gave me a good feedback on what he thinks about the work I've done and he was satisfied. So was I - can't get better, huh? :-)
Honestly, this was such a great time, I am really feeling sorry to leave. This city is strange, and great, and for me who has never lived in a big city it was unbelievable how easy life can be in certain aspects. You wanna party? Just grab a taxi and go there. Cook? No, don't cook. Go get something. Fastfood? Just down the road. Chinese, taiwanese, hainanese, thai, indian, korean? Go to the food court and get better food then in every restaurant in a 50km range from home in Germany. Expensive? Bah, in Germany the taxi to the restaurant costs you more than the whole trip here.
But enough about prices. I just never lived abroad for so long ever before, and eventually I got used to being here quite well. I know a lot more about the city now then I thought I would get to know, but a minor part of it reflects in the Lonely Planet. Nevertheless is it good to come home again. Maybe my mind will change exactly that moment when I get out of the plane and realize that I am back. But chances are that I will get back in touch with you all and won't have time to mourn about the past - and the past is already gone anyway, isn't it?

back from paradise!

Hey folks,

Tine and I came back on wednesday from the Perhentians, but I didn't have or take the time since then to write you something... now I am back in the game and will provide you with some great pics that will make you jaleous as soon as I am back in the office on tuesday (monday is public holiday). Until then - have a good start in the week!

Remember that song....

Nearly flying

This is what a start can look like when you have some experience. Wow! Just to avoid the questions: No, I didn't make a complete round on the wakeboard. I changed to the kneeboard, some sort of little surfboard you kneel on, and that was an awful lot of fun as well. But my time is still to come - I did not give up completely!

wakeboard-pickup-service

Luckily, everybody who dropped out of the course and lost the rope was grabbed of by some guys on bikes that were driving around the course all the time. This time, they got Robin - but he was really good, wakeboarding without binding, on his first day. There was only that one curve being a problem...

the wakeboard-course

This is the course from the starting-hut. It went round behind that strip of green you see on the left side, and there were also some ramps you could theoretically jump over... I didn't.

wakeboarding in Indonesia

This was on saturday, at Bantam. Or so. I can't keep all the names of these islands in my head... at least I know that it was Indonesia. I don't know if there is much more on this islands worth a look then this facility, and the adjoining hotel. The factories full of underpaid women and all the prostitution around them certainly is not - just too sad a story, but again, bitter reality here. However: This was wakeboarding day, the rain had started when we entered the ferry, but that could not take our motivation. The fact that Robin's wife and daughter had to take the first ferry back because Indonesia does not let Swedish people immigrate without some special paper was really sad, but still: We had to get going! Try to image this facility as a ski-lift in the water. There at the hut they give you the rope you hold on to, and then - here you go! It was not that easy, though...

slums in Manila

Just flip back to the picture of the hotel room and then back here. Isn't it crazy? This is a picture of the area where the normal people in Manila live. The slums. And behind that the scyscrapers where the rich get richer. I felt like throwing up when I realized how f***ed up the situation is. We seem to live in a bubble of happiness, money, prosperity. These people get quite an other chunk of reality each day.

automobile reincarnation

on the way to the LTP airbase. You can find these buses throughout the city, everywhere. They are the cheapest way of getting from A to Z and were totally crowded whenever I saw one (which was whenever we drove somewhere). They are quite buddhistic: Reincarnation is a common phenomenon among these buses and a lot of other "home-made" cars in Manila. Take some buses that are ready for the junk press, add some color - voilá! There's your brand new bus!

(un)security in Manila

The Security-guy in front of the hotel. See the shotgun? It looked used. To get to the hotel, you have to pass two security checks: At the first one they check the car, especially the trunk (for bombs and other ugly stuff), and then in front of the hotel they check the luggage and every single person that looks worth a check. Nearly the same procedure applied to the LTP-Airbase, where Military Police made the checks. There we had three checkpoints. And from the entrance of the airport to the aircraft I passed 4 checks. You see, Safety is a big problem in Manila, and there are parts of the city that are strictly no-go, mainly the slums. But on the main routes and in the wealthy parts of the city it is quite safe. To me, it was just scary to see all these armed people, even in front of the restaurant we went to in the evening.

eagle view

The view out of my room. 18 million people live in Manila - it is just huge.

five-star fun

The hotel in Manila was awesome! This was my room, on the 15th floor of 18.

off to the Philippines

hey folks, just a short message today... I'll be off to Manila 'til tomorrow. Exciting! Maybe I can take some pictures. Robin will be with me, as I said, and he just went to the dentist because one of his "wisdom teeth" (I don't know that in Englisch) hurts like hell. Hope he survives until tomorrow :-)
This morning I also saved my butt - the credit card bill was not paid from my bank some days ago, and Tine's parents, who get my mail while I am away, called me yesterday evening when they received a letter from the bank. Fortunateley, all it took me where two short calls after lunch (8am in Germany) and everything was fine again. That would not have been funny: Being in Singapore without a credit card and no bank account. Phew...

So hang on, and all of you Germans, go to nichtlustig and laugh your a** off! And all of you could try joecartoon.

See you!

Enter the time machine... this is two years ago, I just found it on abi2.de, the website of my Abitur-class. And see what I see: There is no bulging belly! DAMN!!!!!!
I just hate it to make crunches these days and not see a single muscle. Going on a diet is sort of a surreal idea for me, as I never have before - but time changes. F**K!

On Monday Andreas (left) came over to officially open the new office. Here he is cutting a little pig with Johannes (right), which is a Chinese tradition. It was pretty good, though - Champagne and roasted pig as breakfast. :-)