Ski week in Sölden, Österreich

Late 2018 we booked a week in Sölden to go skiing. So, 19th of January we started fron Bärlin and had a good drive, almost arrived too early.
The Sunnhäusl was nice, it costed us from Saturday to Saturday 588€ with breakfast. The bus stop was close, so no problem going to the slopes. The bus only went until 17:30 though. To the village was a 15 mins walk.
During our stay it was cold, with temperatures between -10 and -17. The beer needed 10 mins to cool down to drinking temperature.


And then we went on skiing, had beautiful weather, and when we were tired we just went to to spa.







And on Wednesday was cloudy and we drove to Innsbruck. Went to the tower, had gulyas soup and beer at Piano, and then went to the top.






Then we had only 2 days left of skiing. Every day my fingers were frozen even wearing one more pair of gloves under the ski gloves.





We also tried a couple of restaurants in Sölden.

First was pizzeria Salino, good pizza and good service, unfortunately no pics.
Then was Jati



Here we had Hamburger (not amazing). They had craft beer, one 0,33 glass costed from 5,2€.

Then we went to this black and orange bar cos it was rock&roll



0,33 beer glass started from 4,10€.


Skål!

But as any god thing must come to an end... we had to drive back. It seemed like the mountain would't want us to go



It was snowing heavily, we needed snow chains to cross the mountains back to Deutschland and a big Stau was waiting for us. Would have been better to stay there and ski and party and and and...

Bangkok Part 2

We flew back to Bangkok, stayed 2 days, and then to Auckland.

I booked a place in a shady area, I had no idea about. It’s called Nana, and apparently it’s some red light district. The hotel didn’t look so bad on the outside, but in the room smelled like cigarettes and the overall impression was: better not to touch anything. The room even offered condoms. I couldn’t sleep because the smell was hurting me. At 2am I called booking, canceled the next night and booked another hotel.

First evening we met my colleague and his wife, we ate in a touristic place and decided to go visit the lung of Bangkok next day, which we did.

We met at Phaya Thai BTS and took a taxi to the harbor, where a guy took us to a small boat. The boat ride was for free if we rented bikes from them, 80baht. Alright, let’s do it.

The island, also known as the lungs of Bangkok, is a quiet green place with concrete elevated paths.

It was pretty hard to find a taxi to take us back, apparently they don’t want to drive with the meter on, but after a while, I persuaded one and we went back.

That evening I went out with Louise and ate at Ethos, close to Khao San Road. Good, chill place, decent prices and service.

These 2 days were meant to relax and hangout by the pool, before our long flight to Auckland.

We stayed close to Democracy Monument

Buddha about to be sold

I can’t explain why I like it so much in Thailand. It’s the people, the food? And I found this song Krung Thep Maha Nakhon from Asanee-Wasan. 

Now off to Auckland 

Saigon part 2

We booked a flight from DaLat back to Saigon. It costed €25 per person, big luggage included, and it took only 40 minutes. It is a free airport, you can smoke inside and take pictures outside.

When we landed in Saigon again, we took Uber, as we were told. It costed only 100k and worked perfectly. This time we stayed in the backpackers district. I booked a tour to Cu Chi tunnels and left 1h later.

There are tunnels like this in more areas, but not under all Vietnam :) These tunnels were made already during the French colonial times, to provide a hideout for the locals, probably because their colonist friends were being too nice. Anyway, they were extended during the Vietnam war. As we were told, the people were small and thin due to the lack of food, so ot wasn’t soooo hard for them to move along the tunnels. The average mcdonalds fresser would have been left outside

It was no pleasure either. The Vietnamese could only go out at night, suffered due to the lack of sunlight, malaria, hunger, not to mention the invaders. But they had all these traps for them

All this area was destroyed by US with the agent orange. And still, they lost.

At the end of this tour we watched a propaganda movie describing the people who used the tunnels for about 21 years. It showed happy people, and children having a normal life, eating, dancing, and fighting against the invaders. 

Next day we booked a tour to the Mekong Delta, which proved to be a Mekong River tour. We went around with different boats.

Here we see a Bootstau or bateau bouchon pour les connaisseurs

We drunk schnaps from this jar full of dead snakes

And we seen future purses and belts

Last evening in Saigon, we went to the Bitexco Financial Tower, 262m high, 68 floors, 2nd tallest in Vietnam. We chose the Heineken experience, since it’s €1 more than the sky deck and you go to 60th floor and get beer.

We’ve been up there where is green

To the airport we took Uber again and we were pleased with it. I will only use Uber in Vietnam next times.

DaLat

We booked a bus to DaLat from the place we stayed in Mui Ne. The bus came, luckily we got good sits, but it only left when it was full, even the foldable sits.

It’s a 143km ride, it took 4h. After the last passenger boarded the spaceship. This is one of the reasons we didn’t travel more this time in Vietnam, because unless you fly, it takes forever. Even with a motorbike.

But we crossed some mountains

And when we arrived we treated ourselves with Vietnamese food. Like home.

Then we booked some tours. Without renting a motorbike, it’s the only way.

We visited Pongour waterfall 

We tried elefant and weasel coffee...

Then we went under the Prenn waterfall 

Some things that are normal in Asia, are verboten in Europe because of a small country in Middle East and a big one in America

We took a cable car and visited Truc Lam temple, a nice a quiet place... I felt like I could retreat there and be quiet until I go...

Then this beautiful swan showed us around the lake

Then we climbed the highest peak close to DaLat called Langbiang 2167

We went twice to this bar called Maze. It must have had a good designer, it’s like a labyrinth, but we made it to the top, met and chatted with nice people.

Mui Ne

After 3 nights in Saigon, with sauna, jacuzzi and breakfast, we took the bus to Mui Ne. Everybody told us to get a motorbike, it’s the best way to travel in Vietnam. I’m not sure they’ve seen this busses.

Ok, they are slow, it took 4-5h for 200km. But you don’t need t worry, just lay down and relax.

Mui Ne looked like a resort for Russian tourists, but they must have become poor meanwhile because there were only few of them. Shops and restaurants sold mostly things Russians would buy.

One day we took a tour and we got the crappiest “jeep” in the whole village.

Then we went to the Fairy Stream

And then we witnessed the invasion of Vietnam... fishermen village

Then we got lost in the desert 

This was the first holiday from holiday, we relaxed and did almost nothing the 4 days we stayed here. 

Now off to DaLat.

Museum of War Crimes

WARNING! THIS IS A SAD POST!

The other point of view or what you don’t read on Wikipedia.

Nice French colony, brought with it some friendly inventions from the brother French nation.

And they (and their american friends) treated the locals very nice.

But as the americans themselves say: the first rule of colonization is the extermination of the indigenous population.

International treaties are for suckers only.

Now, some few insignificant nations protested against those war crimes. Maybe some significant others too. To deaf ears.

And when they fled, they forgot some things, they were in a hurry.

I don’t even want to go into the agent orange story.