bintan island ~ indonesia

the journey continues: after myanmar + again singapore (for 1 night) we reached after 2 hours by ferry the nearby island pulau bintan (indonesia). although the beach was a catastrophe (even at high tide there was not enough water to swim), we liked the hotel and the island anyway because of activities we made => just read my insights below :-)

bintan island (riau archipelago) ~ indonesia ~ adventure resort loola

gorilla guru :-)

sky walking + tree jumping by my wife (unfortunately, i was too heavy for this adventure)

small mangrove islet we could reach by foot at low tide

well, even if we choose this former pirate island especially for its nearness and easy access by ship from singapore, we have spent nice time with our eldest daughter and her boyfriend there.

first of all, the ecological sports and adventure resort loola our daughter selected, was really a good choice. we liked the silt chalets, good food and enjoyed a mass of activities: climbing at a coconut palm, sky walking, climbing wall, sailing, kayaking, bonfire, archery, table tennis, massage (is it an activity or rather a passivity?). we also enjoyed the opening of a self-made floating bar and we even have been the one and only guests one evening there. ironically, only swimming was difficult because of the low water mark (even at high tide only up to the hips). 

on the other hand, we have visited 7 out of top 10 attractions according one indonesian TripAdvisor website.

• the chinese senggarang village built up on stilts in the bay of bintan's capital tanjung pinang

 back to tanjung pinang (border control for ferries from singapore & co.):

happy chinese new year (CNY) => 2568 (chinese) = 2017 (westerm)

• penyengat island, which looked like a museum to me, was accessible in 15 minutes by taxi-boat from tanjung pinang. the most impressive landmark was the Masjid Raya Sultan Riau (Grand Mosque of the Sultan of Riau)

• banyan tree temple

• the new Avalokitesvara Graha (Guan Yin) temple with its 16,8 meters big, 40 tons heavy goddess Quan Yin out of copper and plated with gold

buddhist chinese temple + goddess quanin close to the capital tanjung pinang

• gunung bintan besar (bintan besar mountain) - hiking to the highest elevation point of the island 360 meters) and swimming in a small waterfall on the way back

view from the watching tower on top of bintan besar mountain

• crazy buddhist modern arts temple Vihara Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva 

conclusion: besides the bad bad swimming conditions, for a short time of 4 days it was quite nice at bintan. even if (according to wikipedia and people we met there) indonesia's government tries to promote bintan as touristic number 2 after (hinduist) bali, please do not overvalue that. if you asked me, bali and java (and borneo if you asked my daughter) are much, much, much more interesting than bintan :-)

more pictures here
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singapore (SG)

our eldest daughter just finishes her studies. she got the chance to write her final paper at the NTU technical university in singapore working for a joint venture company between the NTU and my german employer, the BMW car company.
well, the best of all wives and me welcomed the opportunity to visit southeast asia again and spent two and half weeks there. of course, the main goal was to see how our daughter lives (+ studies + works), but we have visited also a colleague of mine who works in singapore for three years now, strange + incredible myanmar and also spent few days at a beach in bintan / indonesia with our daughter + her boyfriend, who also works in singapore these days. please do not think half munich moved to singapore yet, but yes, there are few friends of ours right now there :-)

our stops were:

• singapore, singapore => insights + pictures below :-)
• yangon, myanmar
• bagan, myanmar
• singapore, singapore
• bintan, indonesia 
• penyengat, indonesia = the museum island in front of bintan's capital tanjung pinang
• singapore, singapore
• germany, home sweet home

our impressions about singapore? here we go:

the biggest shock for me was the huuuuuge number of ships in front of the singaporean harbour, probably the 2nd busiest harbour in the world. when i have seen at our perfect flight back home with air france also the documentary about the (container) ships which transport all the stuff we use around the world and probably only the biggest 20 of them (!!!) pollute that much like all cars of the world (iselectric mobility for cars really that important from global point of view?), my big picture was complete ... (to do: link 2 youtube ... i'm still looking for this documentary, but here is a similirar opinion about (container) shipping at ted talks)

• the commercial western style country in the very east
• probably world's only island city-state
• much more green and much less crowded as i supposed it would be while reading the key numbers at wikipedia about that small island (nation)
• currently only 719 square kilometers big, but growing as singapore won already about 130 km2 since its independence (from malaysia) in 1965
• 5,6 million inhabitants, mostly of chinese origin (approx. 75%). the other 2 big ethnic groups are malays and indians, which remembers us of our stay in malaysia 2015 and 2012
• strange but clever tax system with very very low income tax (up to max. 15%). there is cheap food + cheap public transport + cheap taxi transport too, but really high (luxury?) taxes on alcohol, cars & Co. ... 

 metal trees and walk ways? what a strange world :-(

marina bay sands

the interlace, one of the nicest condominiums out there

• clean (almost sterile) environment, surveillance via cameras, many restrictions + hard fines, low level of freedom + civil liberties + political rights ... but if you asked me, the singaporeans do not care and do not complain too much about it, because they are mostly really rich ... => looks like a clever and fine working dictatorship with really satisfied citizens :-)
• extremely wet tropical climate as SG lies just one degree (137 km) north of the equator
• after 8 kilometers at the floor plus 300 meters in the tree tops out of 10 kilometers of our walk around the macritchie water reservoir came a stop sign, the bridge was closed :-((  ... wtf, they really couldn't place any information at the two base entry points for this hiking tour? wtf again ... yes, we went back 3 or 4 km to the parking place where we could grab a taxi back to our hotel

two monkeys walking around the macritchie water reservoir

 little india + chinatown:

 in a chinese buddhist temple

indian (tamil) hindu temple

• chinese new year (CNY) celebrations took place many days

• there are two big universities in singapore, 'our' campus tour by i3 traffic scanning vehicle was at the NTU, the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore

the BMW project cars i3 + i8 + two beautiful women in the NTU garage will boost the electric mobility (electromobility?) in singapore for sure, if you asked me :-)

•    ... more coming soon or never ... 

more pictures HERE

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thomas bernhard + bertholt brecht

source: here

what a nice and happy chinese new year (CNY) today 😄

the best of all wives + me + a friend of ours have had dinner at an asian restaurant, went later to a so nice celebration of 82th birthday anniversary of the german poet thomas bernhard into a small pub in munich giesing. well, my buddy jürgen aka nemo babelfish + his musician colleague set to music the sophisticated socio-critical poems of thomas bernhard + bertholt brecht so well! we liked the songs and the familiar athmosphere in giesing's pub for the poor & needy schau ma mal aka schau ma moi aka schaumamoi a lot 😃.

source: here

enjoy few snapshots:

yes, this is the sound we liked 💚

nathan, source youtube

if you want to enjoy more songs just visit nathan's website or his youtube channel :-)

omg, after 27-30 hours i've succeeded to finish the youtube upload (hell! what's up with my internet connection?), the song to my favorite bertholt brecht poem, a proletarian love between a coal digger (crane?) and the generations of its workers called 'Milchsack Nr. 4'. workers of the world unite 💗

nathan, milchsack #4

btw, there have been few similar events in nemo's toberaum as well: tucholsky + may day

eof