Yangon & Ngwe Saung

Myanmar opened its doors for tourists already in the early '90s but it wasn't considered as a safe travel country until 2012. This aspect makes it quite interesting for adventurous travellers, because it is not yet overflown by tourists. On the other hand, the infrastructures aren't yet fully adapted to the 'European standard'.
Nevertheless, we had a good time in Myanmar, listed as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Our first stop was Yangon, where we tried to cure Estelle's flu with a lot of sleep and quiet time. We visited the most important sight of the Burmese Buddhism, the Shwedagon Pagoda and rejoiced ourselves over some very tasty sushi at a Burmese sushi restaurant next to our hostel.
To get some more rest, we then travelled to the Westcoast of Myanmar, Ngwe Saung, to do some sunbathing at those deserted golden beaches.

After regaining some strength, we continued our journey towards the North of the country, to the archaeological site of Bagan.

Pigeons waiting in line next to a Hindu temple in Yangon.

Sometimes one picture says more than a thousand words.

Some buildings are seized by nature.

Sharing a coffee and a cigarette with a local (retired) carpenter.

In the middle of the 2500 years old Shwedagon Pagoda are apparently buried eight hairs of the Buddha Siddhartha.

Each birth year is represented by an animal. You have to find yours and pour as many cups of water over its head as you have years. Every Buddhist has to do this procedure at least once in his lifetime.

Every Burmese man joins a monastery as a monk twice in his life: Once as a kid and once as an adult (at least for one week or longer).

Trying to get the grace of one of the many Buddhas.

The stupa of the Pagoda is made out of concrete with bricks and big plates of solid gold on the outside. Thousands of Diamonds and other gemstones are incorporated in this huge Pagoda, which makes it the most expensive one in the world.

During the early morning hours, the Westcoast of Myanmar was still quite cold.

Some take their dogs for a walk in the park, some stroll around the beach with their oxen.

Singapore

Singapore is also referred to as the Lion City (in Tamil 'singa' - lion and 'pura' - city). Long ago (14th century), its founder Sang Nila Utama, prince from Palembang, thought that he saw a lion during a hunting trip (there are no lions in Singapore, probably it was a civet that he stylized mentally into a big lion). He believed the sight of such a noble animal would mean good luck and decided to build a city at this spot. Then he named this city 'Singa Pura' (Lion City) hence the name Singapore.

After its foundations, it became very quick one of the major trading spots of the East India Trading Company. Nowadays, Singapore is a sovereign island-city state with the third highest GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita (Luxembourg is on second place, first place goes to Qatar according to the International Monetary Fund).

The city is very clean and well organized. Unfortunately it is also quite expensive.
During our stay, we celebrated the birthday of Jean-Marc and profited from the high culinary standards of its many Michelin-awarded restaurants.

We took a round trip on an amphibian bus, listened to some free concerts, tried to solve the enigmas and secrets of the Escape Hunt, hiked through the natural parks in the heart of the city and enjoyed a nice walking tour that ended at sunset on the 54th floor.

Singapore's a city that will not bore you, if you have the necessary cash.

founder Sang Nila Utama

founder Sang Nila Utama

The famous boat shaped Infinity Pool on the roof top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

Enjoying a good whisky (the first in 7 month) in a late night dessert bar during anniversary eve, one of the many surprises from Estelle.

Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot joining forces to solve the mysteries.

We haunted not only the streets of Singapore but also the Marina Bay with your amphibian vehicle (an old original Vietnamese boat used on the Mekong during the war)

A seven-course menu with wine pairing....

....and a very tasty cheese plate.

This bridge was constructed in Great Britain and was imported piece by piece by boat in the early 20th century.

Colonial buildings in China Town in front of some of the many skyscrapers.

Enjoying the sunset at the rooftop of Singapore.

A stone can be quite comfortable, if you know how to handle it.

In the middle of the city is a 9km long walk through several parks/forests, where you can easily forget that you are in a big metropole.

You'll hear from us from Myanmar :)

Malaysia

Malaysia, especially Kuala Lumpur, is the best example to prove that various religions can coexist in a peaceful way. Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Taoists and Christians (to name only the major ones) live and influence together the everyday life of Kuala Lumpur without war and terror.
Nevertheless, the people don't seem to be happy with their government, who rules the country since (at least for the majority of the people) too many years.

From Kuala Lumpur we continued to the Cameron Highlands, famous for their tea and strawberries production. We did an interesting hike through the hills and ended on a big tea farm.
We continued to George Town on the Island Penang, where you can literally feel the vibe of the Indian and Chinese trading history as well as the influence of the Dutch and British colonialization. Then we took the night bus to Melaka and spend some days in this nice city built on the shore of a small river.

Throughout Malaysia (at least on the Westside, where we travelled) you can find a lot of Hawker stalls, many small restaurants and some lovely night markets. Everywhere the food is diverse and delightful and should be reason enough to visit this multifaceted country.

In Malaysia people are not happy with their government and during our stay, more than 500.000 people went on the street ('Bersih' movement) to demonstrate against corruption and the supposedly rigged elections of the Prime Minister.

One of the big buffets in the street restaurants of Kuala Lumpur.

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building housed originally the British colonial administration but serves now as the headquarters of the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture of Malaysia.

The landmark of Kuala Lumpur: The Petronas Twin Towers.

Relaxing in the Central Park in the shadow of a mushroom formed tree.

In between tradition and modernity.

We visited the largest Sikh temple of Southeast Asia, the Tatt Khalsa Diwan Gurdwara, and ate dinner together with the Sikhs. Every Sunday there is a free vegetarian lunch/dinner at the temple, you only have to cover up your head before entering.

Tea fields as far as the eye can see.

Job's almost done.

In the middle of the tea plantation.

 A Gibbon monkey :)

To prevent the fire to take over to the next building, people built a 'fire stopper' wall.

You can either walk or take a train to climb/descend the Penang Hill.

The highly decorated street food artist of Penang Hill while preparing his award-winning pasta seafood dish.

In 2012 the Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic (on behalf of the Malaysian government) created some very fine street art on the walls of the UNESCO World Heritage George Town.

It all started with the street art project 'Mirrors George Town'.

You can find postcards of the street art in almost every store.

Nowadays, those mural paintings seem to attract more tourists than the old city itself.

Relaxing in Melaka, another UNESCO city.

Merry Christmas

Due to some very bad internet connections during the last few weeks, we couldn't post the updates from our journey. Nevertheless we want to wish you all

 A Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year 2017

During the next days, we'll update you on our past adventures. FYI, we are still alive and in a very good shape, as you can see on the picture ;)

Cambodia

The only city we visited in Cambodia was Siem Reap, known for the largest religious monument in the world: Angkor Wat.

From the 9th to the 15th century, Angkor was the capital city of the Khmer Empire, a megacity with more than 1 million inhabitants. As every king had his own religion (Hindu, Buddhism or both) each one destroyed the temples of their predecessor and built a new one to demonstrate their power (and to discredit the power of the former king). This explains the high number of temples (76 major temples) on this territory. It is amazing to discover the ruins of this huge archaeological terrain and to admire those enormous buildings, that were constructed without the modern technical equipment. No machines, no electricity, no mobile cranes, only hundreds of thousands of workers, who grafted day and night, throughout years, to build these structures on wetland. The temple complex of Angkor Wat for example (with its 65m high tower and a moat of 30m x 190m) was built in only 36 years. They didn't use any concrete, it's just stones on stones, and it still stands today, 900 years later.

We acquired a 3-Day-Pass (it's a huge area) and visited it on the first day with a bicycle and a local guide. The second day we hired a Tuk-Tuk to get to a more remote temple site. The third day we did the 'Grand Circuit' with our bicycles but without a guide.

It's a highly interesting site with a fascinating history, where nowadays the nature has claimed back its rightful ownership. Here our impressions in pictures: