Travel - Liebe zur Erde... - Liebe zur Erde

Laos - Country on the Mekong

That I would once bathe with an elephant in the Mekong , I had never even dreamed of - but yes, here we go: it is part of the adventure travel ...

Meanwhile, I 'm almost 3 weeks in this very remote Laos, I have experienced a lot and came pretty much around, tha´s why the website couldn´t say anything new. However, to whom who the updates take too long, you can accompany me on Facebook:  I try to post, there regularly short contributions from the mobile phone. But now to the adventures here:

Laos - is a fascinating country dying?
So you could describe the irritation when you travel here with open eyes. From the magnificent temples to the culture and the excesses of the modern gold rushs which are visible here, is among other things the introductory page:
http://www.liebe-zur-erde.eu/laos.html

Luang Prabang - City of 1000 temples! Absolutely inspiring is the festival of lights of the boats , Lhai Heua FAI , which I can experience here. There is a separate page on the website about that event:
http://www.liebe-zur-erde.eu/das-lichtbootfest.html

The temples not only in Luang Prabang are aesthetic and artistic treasures, as I have not yet seen it . And they make me marvel at this people, which seem so be so completely down to earth in daily life - and yet can produce such beauty! What is missing here up to now, are meditating Westerners. However, what also lacks is the ability to establish contact and substantive conversation to the monks: These worlds seem strictly separated. Below is the link then as soon as the page is ready:
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Poachers , dealers and child mortality: Originally lives of people along the rivers :
After my arrival in Luang Prabang, I have left again to explore the north by boat: from the 11 days I was 6 days in boats - some where tourist boats with roof and proper seats, some were native longboats with no roof and I was between the locals squeezed in. The regions are sometimes really very remote, many do not have road access. For this amazing round trip , there will be a separate page on the website :
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Handicraft, People, Villages:
Rarely I found it so hard to get in contact with the indigenous people: the Laotians are indeed absolutely friendly but very shy and they live quite introverted or reclusive. Only the help of a local guide helped to melt the ice: in result I got out some of the most beautiful shots of people I have ever made. And surprising insights into village life, where children can not go to school , life expectancy reached only 56 years old and only 30 % of women over 15 can read and write.
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The Nam Tha National Park - jungle without animals?
A few days I was traveling around the Nam Tha National Park . One of them in alleged primary rainforest / monsoon forest. Ok -  but now: where are the animals? No birds , nothing else living - only leeches .... Relatively quickly it becomes clear that poaching is still practiced here - China and its greed for all particular is near. And what there is more: Laos was once forested over and over, and that's not so long ago. Today is like a chessboard with huge parts just made tabula raza: the tropical wood is sold and rubber tree plantations take its place .
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Who wants to experience this country as it once was, should really come soon. Still traveling is tedious, but nature shows unspoiled places that make it an experience to explore it! The way the locals see the adventures involved in traveling this sign shows, which is hanging over the ticket counter in Oudomxai :

The bus company wishes good luck to all travelers:

Meanwhile, I 'm not anymore in Vietnam, but even in Laos. But just today I do realise that somehow this new blogentry was not uploaded - so, here it comes late. More about Laos is in the making.....

My experiences in Hong Kong can be found here as a travelogue - who would have thought that this financial hub with its narrow skyscrapervalleys comes for me as a recreational paradise?
http://www.liebe-zur-erde.eu/lang1/hongkong.html

Also to Vietnam, the first sites are born: here I came, however, pushed to my limits - on the one hand as for the photography, on the other hand in terms of the weather: The weather was influenced by my trip to the coast from  the typhoon which came over central of Vietnam. For us in the north, it did only rain, but still - sunsets as you wish to catch on a scenery like that, where just not in the game this time. The second border are the people : Vietnam lives (yet) strong of its people and the encounters with them. But I'm not good at holding a camera to the peoples face . In addition, the page about Hanoi is not yet ready. So essential parts of the beauty of this country for the moment remain hidden - you just have to go there yourself!
http://www.liebe-zur-erde.eu/lang1/vietnam.html

Now I proceed on to Laos, where I am in for a intensive travel tour. The next update will have to wait for a while.


Last but not least, my last blog entry , as expected, caused a number of different reactions. I will go into the thing here at this point in the next few days - come back here, if you like. Until then, I hope you enjoy reading !

Asia? - Dornach? From Dornach to Beijing in a luxury flight!

For the normal people usually it is enough actually to prepare for a several month-long trip. For me the surprise of an additional ad hoc move came along: All of a sudden we get the opportunity to move to Dornach - So now I aam down under in the whole packing and dividing the stuff: what with goes where, what is stored, what is needed for the trip ... - and already we're gone! So I will have the pleasure after my return to live in Switzerland: what a joy and what a luxury!




Flying with the business class: Surprises at a high level in an Air France to Beijing ...

Yes, I would have never dreamed that I would ever fly business class - but now my dear Andreas has given me the opportunity and pleasure: because he was so much in the air due to his profession, he had accumulated miles. Then came the news that he would have to use them up to October – so where is good advice, how to make reasonable use of them? Since he did not want to sit in front on the plane while I darbe behind, he now booked a business ticket for both of us to Beijing in an Air France flight and puts me in astonishment.

First time I discover that the “Otto Normalo”, the Mr or Mrs X, usually never gets to see the business sector, as there are several entrances to the plane.
This is the First Class, today empty...



So I'm in for the first time to enjoy the lounge in Stuttgart -



and in Paris:





Buffet food is top notch and included in the ticket price.



In front of the door an Airbus A380 in all its beauty - but it only rises hard, the fully loaded plane in the sky! We travel in a smaller one ...



Then the comfort in Business Class on long-distance:



Backrest and footrest move in any direction



A 5-course meal is served with tablecloth



For us 13 fools 4 stewards are running

The foie gras I leave my to my beloved one and entertain me in addition to the food rather than making more photos.



Sunrise over the desert of Mongolia:

And an addiction to this flight form can also be fully understandable: it's my first long haul flight without any jet lag, and that comes not only from the tricks for the time changing zones! One sleeps while the plane swings under the turbulences!

And again - India!


In Germany it's snowing. In Waldorf schools sound carols from each classroom, the rooms are decorated for chrismas. Candles, stove, incense, tea - for us it is homey and world and conciousness moves inward. Advent - oh how I wish I could be here!

But no - according to the rules of our art it has to be now:  back off to India. So I have to leave. And somehow I have a feeling I'm just escaping constantly the snow which is constantly on my heels. Even the pilots must be defrosted in the morning before take of.






Is that in the distance the mountain Ararat? - I love flying!








At night I arrive in Mumbai. My hotel in this noisy city is right on the water near the docks. 30 ° C and the wonderful sea breeze take me in and welcome me - and Advent is forgotten!





My dear Andreas has set this post via email in the home computer. Those who follow me and what to see more can do so at the following link or on Facebook:  - click here for the Travel Blog:

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http://reisen.liebe-zur-erde.eu/#home
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And again an adventure is approaching. The interested reader can follow me on my travel blog, here is the address – I will do my best to write in both languages, German and English:
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http://reisen.liebe-zur-erde.eu/#home
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Eurythmy therapy in India – how did it came to that?




On my long Trek 2007 (see the website at http://www.liebe-zur-erde.eu/lang1/trekking_in_ladakh.html) we had to cross about every 4 weeks the 450 km-long road from Leh to Manali and take a break from trekking to go on a shopping tour: because we ran out of food. So this was what happened after almost two months trek: quite exactly halfway between Leh and Manali, we came on the road in the middle of nowhere - there are about 200 km in both directions to the nearest settlement. Our Nomad Kunga remained for the care of our ponies, my Tibetan Ponyman Namgang set out to Leh to see the Dalai Lama and I went myself the next morning to the street to stop a vehicle. 200 km through the Himalayas, with over 5,000 m high passes - that does not sound like much, but it is almost a day's journey, no matter in which direction. There is not much traffic there - but on the other hand, not every driver will meet regularly in the nowhere at 4600 m altitude a single half wild female tourist. The first car that came was a small Indian car - with four well-fed Indians in there. The stopped immediately because they thought there might have happened an accident - and to see whether I might be a mirage. When they heard my story, they were really amazed, skidded along in the car and gave me very willingly a ride to Keylong. One of them was Dr Gaikwad, a pediatrician, with whom I am still in touch. He is an very active and committed person, who professionally helps at charities, organizes retreats and trainings. I have sent him to a seminar on Waldorf education, where he got some experience with the eurythmy. He got interested and wants me now there in Pune to see what the eurythmy therapy might be able to do. What a surprise..






There are a number of facilities in Pune. Dr. Gaikwad – or Jivak, as he is also called -  himself is working in one of the local hospitals. Additional he cares for two hostels from the Karuna Trust for very poor children (from the SC/ST groups: Scheduled Castes  and the Scheduled Tribes, more to that on Wikipedia), where the children live and can go to school. There is a Kindergarten within the slums and a project for children of sex workers.


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But everything will be in India - a country that has partially catapulted itself into the modern in incredible speed-, in the other hand, time seems still endless available,  hours have a different meaning to our standards in Germany, appointments take place at some point and everything can happen this way or that – or not at all. In this respect, this first visit will serve as an initial orientation - for me and the people there.





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21.1.2012

When I'm back home in Germany, there will be an benefiz-evening to India (German language) - who wants to participate may feel invited, please use the contact-form (http://www.liebe-zur-erde.eu/kontakt.html) or send directly an e-mail to me.
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