Author Archives: Björn

… and back to Dudutki

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Today a treat was waiting for us; we were heading to Dudutki with the full team for a team event. Dudutki markets itself as a museum complex of ancient crafts and technologies – which basically summarizes it nicely.

The individual crafts are represented by the corresponding workshop – often with an actual craftsperson giving a demonstration and our guide providing the explanation. We started in the old windmill – to then cover a bakery, the workshop of a carpenter, a vodka distillery, an apiary, a farm, a pottery and a blacksmith’s shop – before making it to the museum’s restaurant, where a wide selection of Belorussian specialties was waiting for us.

Back to Minsk …

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From the summer in Buenos Aires it was now on into the winter in Minsk, Belarus.

Another workshop was scheduled to happen here for two weeks following the week of my trip to Buenos Aires. This workshop in Minsk was basically the continuation of the workshop in Tokyo back in October.

Days were spent with technical discussions, while we had some good team dinners and activities in the evening. Below some photos of Minsk at night.

A week in Buenos Aires

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Another business trip did bring me back into Buenos Aires this week. I had last been here in 2013, so – even with the focus on business now – this was a great opportunity to come back, retrace some of my steps from previous stays and to see, what had changed since then.

And clearly things are changing in Argentina … the new president and government are going a different route as in previous days under the Kirchner family. Most obvious is the ongoing investment into infrastructure; the public transport infrastructure has clearly been improved (from bus lanes downtown to upgrades at the airport), the traffic in the microcentro is more relaxed – and based on the construction everywhere, the city is finally again drawing in investment money – – seems Argentina is on the move (again); I guess, it helps to have a president with an engineering background.
My colleagues also confirmed that in discussion, they are really happy about the country moving forward and away from the old ‘corruption-based’ model. They however also mentioned, that all that good is not coming from nowhere … it seems taxes are on the rise – and that these are really turning to a point, where it starts to hurt the population. So Argentina is certainly a country to stay tuned on.

Back to Town

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Another Yangon Airlines flight did bring us back safely to Yangon (we were indeed safe with them). Here we had a free afternoon before the usual fare-well dinner.

I spent the afternoon walking around some central areas, I had not been to earlier on. I made my way all the way to Kheng Hock Keong Temple and then got (purposely) lost in the maze of little streets in that area.

Inle Lake Indulgence

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From the lake community we continued up the hill into a completely different world – the world of the Red Mountain Estate Vineyards & Winery.

Here we went straight for the tasting room, to get an idea of the wines on offer – and were deeply disappointed. The wines, that were provided with the tasting were all fairly boring and not to our taste.  The tasting therefore did not last too long and we continued to the viewpoint area to see the sun set over the lake and hills on the other side of the lake. Of course – being in a winery – wine was a requirement … and the choice was one, that had not been included in the tasting – – and – behold – the pinot was actually a quiet nice one.

We made it back to Nyaung Shwe well after sunset (of course). For dinner some of the group had decided to go for a bit of indulgence tonight, so we ended up in the same restaurant, that we had already used for lunch – probably the best restaurant in town – for an excellent Shan discovery menu. The menu ended up a bit like a selection of tapas of Shan local delicacies and dishes – – money well spent. 😉

By Bike to hot Water

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This morning I found myself on a bike again. We were a group of five, making the 10km from Nyaung Shwe (our Inle Lake base) to the pools of the Khaung Daing Nature Hot Spring.

At the hot spring they had four pools with water of different temperature – covering anything from warm to boiling hot. We spent about two hours here, before making it back to town for an upgraded lunch experience at probably the best restaurant in town.