Category Archives: _Asia_

Miri – Arriving to Borneo

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A 16 hours journey did bring me to Miri via Kuala Lumpur.

As I was coming straight from a swine-flu country, I was directly given special treatment, my temperature was taken and I got a special Welcome Package including a face mask (in case I show flu symptoms), which proved helpful later on.

A quick taxi ride got me into town, we I directly started exploring town. The center itself felt pretty boring to me … as it was mainly consisting of shopping centers.

The city fan however makes a nice change – a big park with different kinds of themed gardens in it, including a Chinese and Islamic garden … nice for a some rest

Later in the day … once I found the tourist office and had a map, I made my way up a hill outside the city – up Canada hill to the Grand old Lady, Malaysia’s first oil well.

More Seoul Impressions

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It was raining when I woke up, so I re-planned and made this Thursday a museum and mall day. Though before that, I moved over to a tour agency to get my DMZ tour for Friday organized. After that I made my way straight on the National Museum of Korea – the biggest and one of the better museums in Asia. The museum visit was followed by a trip around town with a focus on indoor activities – in my case the COEX mall, the Techno Mart and the Kimchi Museum.

In the evening – after a busy (indoor) day – I decided to visit Namdaemun Market … a traditional market in the heart of Seoul. I also had dinner in a small restaurant in the market … and the old rule is true again – if you look for good, authentic and cheap food – go to the market … so delicious that I ended up in the same restaurant on Saturday evening once more.

After dinner I continued my walk, heading into the direction of the city hall – just to discover that the Deoksugung palace was still open … After a visit to this palace, I ended up in Myeong-dong once more.

First Steps in Seoul

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Having traveled quiet a bit over the last few years – and mostly using Star Alliance flights, I had accumulated quiet some miles by now. In February however, I discovered, that I would have to spend some of precious miles until June to avoid them from expiring. I was therefore looking around and – by chance – came across a special Lufthansa offer for flights to Seoul … I made a quick decision and got booked.

Today I finally arrived at Incheon International Airport, around 50km outside of Seoul. By train and subway I got to my hotel near Dongdaemum Stadium. After settling in to my 12 m² Wohnklo, I started to explore the surroundings.

My first stop was the Namsangol Hanok village, a kind of open air museum showing different ancient Korean houses. From here I continued my walk and moved on to the cable car up Namsam Mountain to get to Seoul Tower to get a view of town.

To close my day I got down into the narrow shopping, restaurant and entertainment streets of the Myeong-Dong district; I also ended up, having dinner here.

More Bangkok …

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My last two days in Bangkok (extended by one day – thanks to Thai Airways) – finally on myself (again).

I used these days for more sightseeing (Chatuchak Weekend Market, Jim Thompson’s House), shopping and going to the movies.

Back to the Mainland …

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We left the island this morning.

The boat first took us back to Ko Sukorn, back to our luggage, showers and the internet. It was also here that I discovered that my flight back was cancelled and that I had to rebook my flight back…
After lunch we got back on the boat and to the mainland. Here we took a minibus to the town of Trang; later in the afternoon we boarded the nighttrain for Bangkok.

Heading for Ko Mah

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Today was the start of the final highlight of the tour – a Sea Safari.

We left Ko Sukorn in the morning to get to an island a further 15 kilometers out in the Andaman Sea; on this island we set up our camp and enjoyed some more quiet days.

We named the island Ko Mah (translates to ‘Dog Island’), due to the number of dogs on the island.

Options here included hammocking, swimming, snorkeling or simply relaxing.