Umfrage

Um die Umfrage etwas einfacher und leckerer zu gestalten, hier das Bild eines gewöhnlichen "Lunches" in der Braun 1 Kantine!!


Viel Spaß beim Raten und Meinung abgeben.

Deutsches "Kulturgut" in Malaysia

„Oazapft is…!!!“ „Oins, zwoa, gsuffa….“:

Oktoberfest in Malaysia…

Man mag es kaum glauben aber es gab hier wirklich ein Fest, das zumindest in vielen Bereichen dem Original in Deutschland ähh Entschuldigung, Bayern nahe kam und bei ca. 20 fröhlichen Deutschen ( ich zähl die Österreicher mal dazu) und den 2 Schweizern wurde der Abend natürlich ein voller Erfolg!

Den Einmarsch der Band habe ich leider verpasst, da ich ja erst aus Thailand angereist kam und die Ortsangaben, welche mir von einer weiblichen Person gemacht wurden, lange Zeit nicht ausreichten um dem Taxifahrer wiederum zu erkläre

n, wo er hin muss. Muss aber zugeben dass meine Gesprächsbereitschaft noch etwas niedrig vom Vorabend war und das vielleicht auch ein Grund war.

Jedenfalls kam ich dann irgendwann dort an, die Party schon voll im Gange und hab erstmal einen schönen Leberkäs mit Kartoffelsalat und Laugensemmel ( wie man in Bayern bitte sagt, denn sonst bekommt man beim Bäcker nichts!!!). War zwar nicht wie beim Vinzenz Murr oder sonstwo aber in Ordnung. Das leckere Paulaner blieb mir als Schwabe leider auch verwehrt, da die Flasche dank Einfuhrzöllen 5 Euro gekostet hat. Aber auch asiatisches Bier enthält, wenn auch in minderer Qualität, Alkohol und hat somi

t auch seinen Zweck erfüllt. Leider gab es auch keine Maßkrüge und so haben wir uns wenigsten halb- Liter Krüge gekauft um das Flair wenigstens ein bisschen aufrecht zu erhalten und das Feeling aufzupeppen.

Mit der Zeit ging es dann auch immer lustiger zu und nach geraumer Zeit wurde dann auch standesgemäß auf den Bänken bzw. Plastikhockern zu Hits wie : „Anton aus Tirol“, „I will wida hoam“ , etc getanzt. Den anschließenden Bierkrugstemm Wettbewerb hat die Pam aus München?!?!? dann zur Freude aller anwesenden Studenten, trotz widriger Umstände und gegen internationale Konkurrenz aus Australien und den USA gewonnen. Es gab eine tolle Sporttasche, ein Tshirt und einen Bierkrug! Die Redaktion gratuliert an dieser Stelle noch einmal zum Sieg und den tollen Preisen!

Auf Wunsch besagter junger Dame aus München, die ihren Erfolg und die damit verbundenen Schmerzen und Qualen im rechten Arm, durch obige Zeilen nicht richtig gewürdigt sieht, vielleicht aber auch einfach nur aus einem Bedürfnis nach etwas Mitleid, darf die Redaktion diese Zeilen nicht veröffentlichen ohne noch einmal ausdrücklich darauf hinzuweisen, dass der Sieg zu trotz aller Widerstände zu stande kam. Daher verdient er mehr als nur eine Sporttasche, sondern unser aller Begeisterung und Anerkennung für diese außerordentliche und herausragende Leistung. Falls dies der neue bayrische Ministerpräsident, Herr Beckstein, lesen sollte, schlage ich die Frau mittleren Alters hiermit für die Wahl zur bayerischen Bierkönigin bzw. Repräsentantin bayrischen Bieres vor.

Nichts desto trotz war die Party, wie fast alles außer der Wurst, irgendwann zu Ende und es ging zu sechst im Taxi heim.

Am nächsten Tag bin ich dann verlassen aufgewacht und musste mit Julia (die extra wegen dem Fest mit Heiko angereist kam) feststellen, dass 2 andere Personen es vorgezogen hatten, ohne uns zum Weißwurstfrühstück zu gehen! Schon ok.... hatten ja auch nichts vereinbart ;-) Wir haben den Hinweis auf jeden Fall verstanden und sind erstmal alleine lecker indisch essen gegangen.

Danach gings natürlich zum Kek Lok Si und noch ein bisschen DVD shoppen bevor die 2 dann auch schon bald nach Hause fuhren.

Von mir gibt es noch zu berichten, das ich nach langem hin und her und ersten Überlegungen, die Behörden einzuschalten, nun endlich meinen reparierten Roller wieder habe. Er läuft tadellos und außer den kleinen Querelen ist alles wieder bestens. Das Wochenende kann kommen. Werden wohl am Samstag in eine Rollschuh- Disco gehen (den älteren Mitbürgern unter uns dürften diese noch aus den 70er und 80ern bekannt sein) und dann werde ich am Montag noch einige Überraschungsfotos für euch bereit haben! Also immer fleißig den Blog lesen, damit bald die 1000er Marke geknackt wird!

Ich wünsche euch allen ein schönes Wochenende!

Koh Tao, Thailand

On the 11th I flew to Koh Samui which I reached within 80min. On the first day I rented a scooter to run around the island because it is recommended to be done by the “Lonely Planet” looking at all the nice spots. It’s a nice island with a lot of nature and nice places to see. I didn’t really like Chaweng Beach though because there are just to many tourists and everything is like in a western country: McDo, BK, Pizza Hut, Nike and Adidas Stores and a good old “Triumph Laden” from Aalen.
So I decided to leave the island the next day to hit my final destination: Koh Tao.
This is a small island with only 21sqrkm where mostly divers live, work or spend their holidays. I can also suggest non-divers to go there because the beaches are mostly empty with everyone being out in the water.
Luckily I met two Canadians, Andy and Joel, on my way to the Ferry whom I spent the rest of my trip with. As we arrived at the jetty and were able to pass all the taxi drivers and hotel agents we rented scooters to run around the island to find the diving school with the best conditions concerning the quality of accommodation and the diving.
We managed to find a great place in Sairee Beach north of the biggest city Mae Had which was very quiet and calm but still very close to a lot of fun places.
The course started on Sunday afternoon when we watched some movies and went trough all the information again the next morning. That was also the time when we first met our dive instructor: Renate from Berlin. On Monday afternoon we had our first diving experience in the pool that belongs to the school. Breathing underneath the water for the first time wasn’t as different and strange as I heard and thought it was. I actually felt very comfortable with all the gear and didn’t have any problems with the required exercises like clearing the mask, take out the mouthpiece, etc. We had another class the next morning doing chapter 3 and 4 and then we finally went out with the boat to do our first dive in Mango Bay. This is the spot for Newies because the water is very shallow and there aren’t any currents (Strömung) or other distractions. So we went down the line and did some of the exercises again also adding one minute sitting at the bottom without the mask on. By the way, going down the line looks very, very stupid and is not cool at all. I saw some students do it on my fifth day when we went down in a normal descent and I already felt like an experienced diver remembering myself that I had done it only some days earlier myself.
The next morning we went on our first morning dive which started at 6am and took us to Chumpon Pinnacles where we saw some reef sharks 10m below us because at that time we were not allowed to go below 18m. There was also a small Whale Shark with only 5m length there but I didn’t see it. But Renate who dived her dive nr. 2000 with us hasn’t seen one yet as well so I think I am still doing fine with my 9 dives. This dive was the reason for all of us to go on and finish the “Advanced Open Water Course” to be able to go down there and swim with the sharks. This was not the only reason to go on though because you also get to do night, photography and other more interesting dives as well as some more knowledge in orientation and underwater nature. So we did 5 more dives, the best ones taking place on the last day going down to the sharks and taking pictures and swimming on the reef for about 50min. By then I also felt very comfortable with the gear and everything and so I was really able to enjoy myself down there and also had the buoyancy (Tarierung) thing figured out and so I was able to get close to the reef without harming it.
So I can tell you that diving is something totally different and a great experience that should not be missed! There are so many things to see down there and floating over a reef is something very special.
As you can imagine having tow Canadians and a German staying together we also did some partying together even though we only went out twice because the other nights we were just too tired or had morning dives the next day. But we did go to the “Lotus Beach Bar” and the boys also showed me a nice Thai Drink called “Sangsom Red Bull with Soda” very nice lah!! Sangsom is some kind of Thai Whiskey or Rum, I don’t really know! At the bar Andy also spit fire about 10m high in the air and had never done it before. (See picture) The thing is they use normal gasoline here to do it so I suppose it’s not a good idea to swallow it ;-)
Well anyway I had a really great time and made some awesome experiences I will never forget!
When I came back here on Saturday night I had to go to the “Oktoberfest” organized by the German Malaysian Society right away because everybody else was already waiting there for me. It was a very nice party and Julia came especially for this from KL. The “Inntaler Musikanten” didn’t give their best though and could have pepped up the party a little bit more. I am also very sad that taxes on imported alcohol are so high and therefore a bottle of “Paulaner Weissbier” cost 25RM and we were forced to drink the good old Tiger beer.
I went eating indish and showed Julia and Heiko the Kek Lok Si Temple on Sunday before they left. And that’s it for now… I am back at work and now will start with it as well!! During this week I might write some more details about my trip and will also add the pictures. But I took about 400 normal and about 250 underwater pictures so it will take a bit to work on them!

Back in Penang

Just wanted to let you all know that i am back in Penang! After an awesome week on Koh Tao in Thailand i landed last night, went straight to the Oktoberfest and spent my Sunday with Julia and Heiko running around Georgetown!!
More details about my trip and my new diving experience will follow tomorrow as usual!!!

Diving in 30m with Reef Sharks

Hope everybody is doing fine!

Robert

Important Occasions

First of all "Selamat Hari Raya" to all of you! I Malaysia as well as in other parts people are celebrating the breaking of the fasting month of Ramadhan. Thats why we have off and I am able to go to Thailand!


Second: Yesterday at 9.22pm the first Malay started to go into space which was celebrated all over the country and in some places even shown in "Public Viewing" as many Germans would call it ;-)

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor

And last but not least I am leaving in around three hours to my first trip out of the country!

So I will say myself: "Selamat bercuti!" which means "Good journey!"

I also decided to share the little Malay I know and will tell you Malay words every once in a while. So this was the one for the day!! Have a nice week and I will come back to you after the "Penang Oktoberfest" on the 2oth :-)

FYI (For your information)

As some of you might not know the time difference between your place and Penang I posted a template on the right site so you can all see what I might do at the moment: Working, Sleeping, Eating, Gym etc.

The background also shows the weather details at present and as you can see on the top the temperature is displayed.

Pulau Langkawi

Hallo!

This week the weekend report comes one day later than usual but I really didn’t feel like writing a long text yesterday. I hope you will all excuse me for doing so. I had a really long and rough weekend going to Pulau Langkawi with Florian and Thomas and also joining a friend from work going to an Indian club on Friday night.
We started out going to this club near Batu Ferringhi on Friday where they only played Indian music and the three of us were the only non-Indian people. The music was like the one some of you might know from the Bollywood movies. Rather different for the European ear but still fun to listen to and also totally different and interesting and therefore a good choice. We really had a great night and of course were dancing after a short while. The next day Thillai (who had come home at around 5am instead of us going home at 3am) woke all of us up to go to the Jetty. That’s the place called where the ferries leave and therefore it’s a rather important word to know around here since traveling with ferries is quite common. So we managed to drive to Georgetown, buy the tickets and go to the Jetty in about 25min! Don’t ask me how because normally it takes you 25min just to get to GT. But as Thillai always says: “We’ll manage!”
Being on the Ferry was really nice and we thought we could relax a little and get some sleep… Stupid foreigners! The ferry was small and the waves were high. You do the math. It didn’t take a long time until most of the people were sick including myself but after I had cleared out my stomach I was able to sleep and did so until we arrived in Kuah (“capital” of Langkawi) 2,5h later.
As we arrived there we where of course surrendered by taxi drivers within seconds but managed to find a nice one after eating something who was supposed to drive us to the hotel. After three minutes he already started to offer us an island trip and after some more minutes he had us convinced to do so. It was actually the right choice even though now I think we could have gotten it cheaper. Anyway he drove us to a waterfall, the nice beaches up north, to the cable car built by “Doppelmayr” in the western part of the island and later to the hotel where we arrived at around 3pm. After checking in we went right to the beach which was about 5m away from the entrance door of our Bungalow. The beach, as you can see on the pictures, was very nice with palm trees and everything but the water is not really great. We stayed there the rest of the day allowing us some beers (which cost 1,5RM a can), relaxing and talking. For dinner we went to a Seafood restaurant picked out some fishes (they were already dead) and enjoying them with some fried rice and vegetables. Very nice lah. After that we went to the “Reggae Bar”, the “Sunny Café” and to “Debbies” at last. All places not filled with a lot of people and 90% of them being male. So Thomas and I decided to finish off the day at the beach enjoying once more the leisure of duty free beer and sitting in the warm water with some chairs looking at the stars in the sky! It was really perfect…
The next morning we woke up at around noon and decided to get some breakfast close by. As we arrived at the “Breakfast Bar” it started to rain very heavily and so we stayed there for a while enjoying very nice coffee and talking to two Germans who work for the “Moto GP” traveling around the world at least 9 months a year. It sounded really interesting and exciting what they get to see during their job but doing this for 30 years like one of them sounds crazy to me.
Anyway we finished the day with some Duty Free shopping in Kuah (I found “Weihenstephaner” Weißbier) and waiting for the ferry. By the way they show ripped movies filmed in theaters on the ferry which I think is very funny and not imaginable in Europe.
Yesterday, Monday, I bought myself a 75 liter backpack to be able to travel to Thailand and other places later on and also got my bike fixed by one of our night guards because I was not able to start the bike anymore.
Tonight I will give it to him again and then he will repair and fix everything else: oil, brakes, lights mudguard… Then I can finally start to ride it on a regular basis.
Since it is already Tuesday morning there is only one more day between me being in Thailand I am very excited and cannot believe it yet, just coming back from a great trip to Langkawi.
I hope you are all doing fine and congrats to the “Ersten” on winning another game in a great way!! Keep up the good work, as people would say here.

Wish you all the best
Robert

A normal Tuesday

Obwohl gestern ein normaler Dienstag war, ist einiges passiert:
1. Habe ich nach langem hin und her endlich meinen Urlaub ( der bereist in 1,5 Wochen beginnt) gebucht. Also die Flüge halt. Den Rest mach ich dann vor Ort. Leider hat Florian keinen Urlaub bekommen und ich habe dann kurzfristig auch sonst niemanden gefunden und daher werde ich jetzt am 11. oktober alleine losziehen. Zunächst gehts mit dem Flieger nach Koh Samui und dann vermutlich am nächsten Tag mit der Fähre nach Koh Tao. Werde dort dann erst einmal den Open Water Diver machen und dann so noch etwas tauchen und die Seele baumeln lassen!
2. Bin ich gestern aus meinem Master Bed Room im 2. Stock ausgezogen und in den 11. Stock umgesiedelt. Die Aussicht von dort oben ist einfach der Wahnsinn. Ich kann direkt auf die Brücke zum Festland und somit auch aufs „Meer“ schauen. Echt super. Zudem ist die Wohnung oben um einiges gemütlicher eingerichtet, da hier die Praktikanten, aus oben genanntem Hauptgrund, immer länger gewohnt haben.

Zudem möchte ich noch etwas zu meinem gestrigen und heutigen und sicher auch morgigen Mittagessen in der Kantine von Braun 1 berichten: Ich hatte (und werde haben) Reis, Gemüse mit scharfer Currysoße und Fisch.War es gestern noch eine Art Filet, habe ich mich heute noch einmal gesteigert und einen ganzen Fisch genommen. Die werden einem Frisch vor der Nase auf Bananenblätter gebraten! Nicht schlecht was?!? Und ich würde auch mal sagen sehr gesund. Leider hatte ich keine Kamera beim Essen dabei aber ich werde morgen extra für euch noch einmal das Gleiche essen und es dann dokumentieren! Zudem hat heute die komplette Belegschaft von der Geschäftsleitung Cookies geschenkt bekommen, da ja bekanntlich in einer Woche der Ramadan endet und das natürlich gefeiert wird.
So das war es dann mal für heute ich hoffe ihr genießt euren freien Tag der deutschen Einheit.

Schwäbisch for beginners aka Neiffemerisch

So und jetztedle demmer no äbbes schreiba für dr Dirk. Mir denn jo au äbbes für dui völkerverständigung ( i glaub do geits nix schwäbischs für)! Musch mr halt au no a bissle nochhilf gäbä damit i au besser werd. I muss nämlich grad echt hirna damit des mit dem schwäbisch schreiba au klappt!!
Also hier isch soweit immer no älläs beschdens ond i be froh do zom sei. 4 Wocha sens ja no au scho wiedr ond i han echt scho vill (viel) gsä ond gmacht!
Grad geschdern erschd hau i Schlanga ond anders so kleiviehch o guckt und o gfasst. Scho klasse wemmer (wenn man) des zäh (zehn) minudda vo seim haus weg macha ko.
Ha mr jetzd au an roller kauft damit i da hanna besser rom fahra ko ond mobil be. Nägschdes Wochenende (Schwäbisches Wort!?) gammer ind „Cameron Highlands“ do denn se Tee o baua (also des is au a gsöff abr was anders als an moschd) in so große Äggr.
No gang i no noch Thailand zom daucha ond am Strand flagga. Des isch abr no edd sicher.
Also i hoff euch älle goads guat ond ihr denn eich au mol do melda.

Goodbye :-( Anna & Snake Temple

Hi everyone!
Well it’s Monday morning and therefore time again to share my weekend with you...
Friday night we celebrated Anna’s farewell by going to an Italian restaurant somewhere in Penang. Somehow taxi drivers always find their way to locations I have never been to and cannot remember how I got there afterwards. Just an amazing phenomen. The street architecture here is still kind of confusing to me. I hope this will change within the next weeks since I own a bike now and will be driving more on my own!
Anyway, as I was saying we went to this Italian restaurant with this “real” Italian owner and the food was just great. It really tasted like in Europe. The wine was really fine too but also very strong as I was about to find out just a little bit later…
After that we went into GT (Georgetown) center to go to Sohos first and then later on to SS. It was really a fun night even though we celebrated Anna’s farewell.
Saturday morning was rather hard to get out of bed and I thought that somebody must have put some alcohol in my coke and orange juice which I had all night (except the wine)!! But we are only here once in a lifetime and therefore we headed to Gurney Plaza another mall on Penang on the opposite site of GT. It took us about 50min to get there because traffic on Saturday is no fun… After we made it up to the 5th floor in the parking house going circles in a tower like this: round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round round, round, round round, round and feeling really sick we entered yet another shopping paradise (as women would probably call it). Since I was again not able to find anything in there except a shirt to work out I definitely don’t like them anymore! But they had good Mexican food at “Chili’s” and so I was after all also satisfied ;-)

Next day we had an American breakfast at the “Sunny Café” and Flo and I went to the Snake Temple afterwards. On the way there we stopped at a gas station to ask for directions but couldn’t drive off again event though the engine worked. A worker of the gas station told us that the brake on the back tire was stuck. But no problem here!! The guy just got out a hammer, loosened the brake and fixed a loose part with a small rope. After that we were not able to use the back brake anymore but could drive off without any problem.Robert and Cobra

In the Snake Temple there was really nothing to see and the first time we entered we were not even able to find a single snake! So we went into the Sake Farm next to it expecting it to be a tourist rip off with nothing to see. Turned out that the owner was very interested in snakes and also in telling us everything about them. She followed us everywhere and explained us almost every snake and also put all the different animals into our hands and told us to hold them and take pictures. Really nice! Snakes feel really great and very strong. When you touched them once you know what I am talking about. The cobra on the one picture still has her venomous fangs and that’s the closest they would let me sit next to it. But if you don’t come any closer they won’t harm you because when they do its only because you scared them. It was very interesting and taking all the pictures also worth the money. The little fellow in my hands is a baby “Sugar Glider” (I wasn’t able to find out the German name yet). It’s the one who can fly from one three to another with “wings” (skin) underneath his arms.
Alright that’s it for now and I will soon post some pics of Friday night once I capture them from other people.