vacation @ bali / indonesia :-)

watch out indonesia, watch out komodo dragons, we are coming :-)

folks, of course i'm happy 2 leave tomorrow 2 bali and see a new countryside, new people, new culture ... but i'm such a stupid idiot!!!! i've lost my credit card today :-(. well, i hope i will find it tomorrow morning somewhere in the kitchen or the like. if not i have to call the card company from the airport and block my account ...

damned hell! three weeks completely dependent on my wife as she still has her credit cards. oh, my dear :-(

update on 31 augustus 2009 (thx, MS windows)

service desert germany! folks, it was NOT POSSIBLE to block just my lost card! even not possible to speak to a real person! well, we have blocked ALL credit cards of our account at the automatic phone service ... any cold comfort? yeahhh, i hold all eur & usd cash, so now is my wife dependent on me!

BALI? small + nice + friendly! thx goodness bali is shaped by very tolerant hindu religion, so it is a pleasure to move around, meet people etc.

we have seen some temples, rice terraces, villages, jungle, volcanos already ... tomorrow rafting + elephant trekking ... and the most time: pool, beach, books, waves + sun :-)

update on september, 6th 2009 ... => new monetary system? candy money!

folks, indonesia has launched a new monetary system yet - CANDY MONEY -
well, in a country where prolly everyone is a millionaire and even tourists becomes millionaires by changing $100 in local currency - rupiah - there should be some problems with change coins, isn't it? btw, how would you give back a change of 43,350 rupiah if the smallest common coin is 500 rupiah? here we go, it is 43,000 in bad quality paper money + 3 menthol candys

watch out, money markets! watch out, fx traders!! watch out, central banks!!! watch out, inflation!!!!! the candy money system arrived on planet earth :-)

well, the cash desks in big indonesian supermarkets are full of paper money (bad taste) and sweets (also money, but really good taste)


update on september, 16th 2009 ... => back @home

hi mates,

i'm back now ... it was really nice + interesting + i've finally got some cash through the EC-money-card of our eldest daughter after 2 weeks (~ EuroCheck, just an european account card, not a 'real' credit card like visa, master card)

my overall impressions? there are sooo many of them ... nice countryside; dangerous waves designed just 4 surfers and not for swimmers only visitors with children like us; very commercial tourist services; baksheesh; crowded streets; dogs & chickens walking on the streets; walls + walls + walls everywhere (holding deamons aside?); rice terraces; volcanos; very similar looking temples; gods & ghosts & deamons; IMHO very inefficient spent money on gift sets 4 gods/ghost (3 x daily) and especially on very costly religious ceremonies e.g. 4 burning died family members; exotic fruits (rambutan, mangosteen, papaya, dragon fruit, snake fruit, passion fruit, maracuja, durian [pfui teufl! smells and tastes like toilet! how can mankind plant & eat s.th. like that? DO NOT TRY it !], pineapple, java cherry [folks, i've tried few of them straight from the tree without peeling or boiling them and survived! prolly 'caus i've felt already like at home there and thus even didn't wash them ] + some others where i've forgotten the names already ..., almost only japanese motocycles + cars [heya european + american producers, did u forgot that part of earth?], cheap restaurants with very friendly staff, almost everywhere free wireless internet access available [europe is years behind indonesia in that area!], super duper thai airways service and sooo modern plane equipment => well, everyone had his own screen + remote control panel and thus i could watch movies or play games against any other passenger on board, but after loosing many times in a row against my daughters even in my former favorite game TETRIS i didn't challenge any passenger as i've been sooooo ashamed ... but loosing on the finance markets causes even more pain, isn't it?

what about my trip 2 java 2 unesco's world cultural heritage temples borobudur (budhist) + prambanan (hinduist)? first of all, i had to change all my believes about java there!!! it was not crowded + 100% urbanized + without any field / forest / park / free space / etc. there!!! at least not in the yogjakarta area. by some coincidence of fortune i've got an experienced and sooooo inteligent + friendly travel guide there just for me alone, what a nice day!

btw, i will also post some travel pictures on picasa / facebook / twitter soon.

ps: my stocks went up like crazy in the last 3 'vacation' weeks, mostly because of advanced gold/silver prices and of course besause of the advanced general stock market. folks, i still hate the crashy october 2008 soooo much! btw, U2? well, if my stocks would rise approx. 1% further my open positions would reach THE BREAK-EVEN-POINT. could you imagine my wife's and my children's surprise? after 3+ years of suffering the hell on earth there would be no damned commets like you fat damned stupid money wasting gorilla moron, you! i hate you sooo much! go to hell or die or both and take all your stupid stocks with you! ... would i hear s.th. like my sweet gorilla guru instead? no way! you don't know my family yet! LOL, just kidding ... btw, it's crazy, but my stocks increased in the recent upswing far-far-far more than i've spend for our 4-folks-family for 3 weeks in indonesia including flight, hotel, trips, gifts, souvenirs, donations, etc.

hey! i like bull markets like the devil the hell . btw, i'm not going 2 sell any stocks soon! why? it's a bull market, you know? i will wait till the gold-dow-ratio will reach at least the level 2 or 3. in the last gold bull market in 1980 fell that ratio to 1. folks, that means 1 oz gold bought the whole dow jones index! great, isn't it?

pps: i've read 2 real interesting investing books there:

A) a special edition about MONEY from spiegel magazine (greeks, romans, gold, silver, kings, trade, industrialization, fiorentina, peruzzis, bardis, medicis, venice, germany, fuggers, holland, tulip bubble, john law, paper money (evil!), south sea company bubble, rothshilds, 1929, inflation, hyperinflation, roosevelt, world wars, karl marx, rockefeller, bretton woods, gold standard, vietnam, nixon, fiat money (evil!), greenspan, internet bubble, bernanke, warren buffet, lehman brothers, the current housing & financial mess out there ... and much more ... just the indonesian inflationary candy money system wasn't mentioned at all => ?!?)

B) my 1st re-read of lefebre's soooo great 'reminiscences of a stock operator' ... well, i'll watch out like hell to NOT REPEAT jesse livermore's mistakes myself AGAIN :-)


final update on september, 17th 2009 ... => pictures uploaded

1) java fotos

2) bali fotos

3) my portfolio in the winning zone again ... after a looooooong time (1+ year?) my stock investments turned positive again! nevertheless, i still hate that damned crashy october 2008