Category Archives: Asia

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Vietnam ’16, part 1a: Dalat

6 December, 2016 jpcorp Leave a comment

Jackfruit lovers and Vietnam Airlines

After arriving in Saigon, we spent a couple of days with the family to say hi to everyone before hitting the road. Our flight to Dalat was unfortunately at 6.25 in the morning on our fourth day there, which made our efforts in getting over jetlag become wasted. With red-shot eyes we arrived at the airport only to find outselves in front of a long waiting queue at about our boarding time. Long story short, we could have made it easily on the plane if it weren’t for the jackfuits in our hand luggages, which I persistently did not want to give up* (I’ve waited the whole year to be able to get a hold of some fresh, nicely peeled ones and you want me to throw them in the trash?! Are you serious?!) (Well, you get the picture…). Trying to save the day, J took them to the luggage counter trying to check them in, but it was too late and they were already closed. The clock was ticking and just when I thought we were going to miss our flight, J came back just in time for us to jump on our plane.

The moral of the story is, no jackfruits or durian in hand luggages because many passengers can’t stand their odours (I will never understand this but it’s not my rule to make). But the best part that left J really satisfied was the Vietnam airlines’ customer services. He simply explained to one of the staffs what the problem was. She then went with him to the check-in counter and eventually help him cut the line to come back and pass security just in time, saving us all the troubles of waiting for the next flight. I told him he had the “foreigner benefit” but he wouldn’t believe me ;-).

Dalat – Vietnam highlands

Dalat probably has the best climate in Southern Vietnam due to its high attitude, about 1500m above the sea level. The weather is cool all year-round, very refreshing especially in the summer months when it’s hot and humid everywhere else. Therefore, it used to be a popular vacation destination among the French during the colonial times. Many of the city’s villas, boulevards, gold course, parks and buildings are dated back to this time. The City is also the country’s biggest supplier for temperate agricultural products like vegetables, fruits and cut-flowers while the highlands around Dalat is famous for its coffee and tee production.

Knowing its magnificent scenery, we had great plans for Dalat but got caught of guard by the very rainy weather, typical for the highlands at year-end. It rained everyday we were there (except for the last day of course, just our luck). We tried our best but didn’t manage to see much, not even one of its many waterfalls or flower gardesns. What’s the point by the cold rain, right? We ended up leaving our hotel only for foods, massages and coffee, which, when you think of it, isn’t so bad of an idea for vacation. The foods in Dalat are possible the third best in Vietnam, after Saigon and Hoi An. You can never go wrong. If you see something tasty, you should try it and chances are, it’s the best you’ve had in months. The night market is fun, but only offers average foods at best, though it’s the best place to buy dried fruits to take home. What we usually do wherever we go is asking around for some local favorites. You can of course google it, but you’d most probably find only tourists’ favorite places. So we asked around, and checked every place out ;-).

Dalat Vietnam Hotel — The door sign of our hotel room – we liked the coincidence

The garden of the Stop-and-Go hotel, view from our room

Nhà Thờ Du Sinh – a church with a fantastic view across the nearby valley

Interesting combination of Asian design and a Christian church

On the other side of the church’s mountain, you have a good view across Dalat and the surrounding mountains

Finally enjoying jackfruit after our first stock tragically ended in an airport trash bin

Xuan Huong lake, seems not natural but constructed with a dam. You also find the “romantic” swan boats here like in Hanoi 😉

Barbecue, prepared on clay stone right in front of us on a table stove

That’s how they heat up the table stoves: put some coals in the stove and heat it up with a ventilator

Night market, touristy but nevertheless worth a visit

Our favorite desert, barbecued manioc cakes

Dalat Vietnam night market — Night market, besides tea and coffee, dried fruit is one of Dalat’s specialties

Seafoods at the Night Market. We didnot try them as they were transported from Nha Trang, hence not catch-of-the-day fresh. Told ya, Vietnamese have very high standards when it comes to foods 😉

Asia, City trip

Muscat, Oman

25 February, 2016 jpcorp Leave a comment

My second business trip to the Middle East within 2 months. We were invited to a conference also to have some follow-up meetings with the partners we met in Tehran in January. It was an even shorter trip this time so there was very little time for sightseeing. The only attraction I managed to see was the Great Mosque, for which I had to get up at 4am German time to be able to get back before the conference started. But it was really worth it.

Once again, I was overwhelmed by the friendliness and hospitality of the people we met – very similar to our trip to Tehran in January. Hassan, an Omani business man I met by chance at lunch, made sure the hotel staff bring me some Halwa, a typical local dessert – very tasty, to try because they served mostly only Western foods at the hotel. He also took a few of us on a nice drive along the coast outside the city and introduced us to some “nature wonder”. We were surprised as we made a stop in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere with not much to be seen. As he put the car into neutral gear, magically, the car started rolling up-hill, no joking!, as if there were some kind of force pulling it forward on the ascending road. I’d heard about similar things about some force of gravity from the earth beneath us, but seeing it in real life was really funny. We then tried again with laying a bottle of water on the street and same thing happened (see the video below). Guess mother nature always has some surprises in play for us.

During the conference, we stayed in the Al Bustan hotel which was a spectacle in its own right: the grand foyer, Swarowsky chandeliers, 3 infinity pool, palm garden, and endless beach. Hence it’s no surprise to find out it is owned by the Sultan himself and he does pay his visit to his president suite every now and then.

oman-1 — This is what you see when you enter the hotel

oman-2 — Close-up of the fountain in the middle of the hotel’s foyer

oman-3 — The hotel’s infinity pool at night

oman-4 — The hotel at night looks better than at day time

oman-10 — The Muscat city administration building at night

oman-9 — A “Fisherboat Memorial” in front of the city’s admin building

Getting up so early in the morning to visit the Grand Sultan Taboos Mosque was definitely worth it. It opens for non-muslim visitors only from 8-11am. I was lucky to be there by 8am because the place got very crowded as I left around 8.45. Having been there before everyone else gave me the opportunity to fully immerse in its peacefulness and tranquility that made the whole experience even more unique.

oman-13 — Impressive building, the floor was so splendidly polished that it looked like a pool

oman-15 — A corridor leading to the minaret

oman-16 — Same corridor from a different angle

oman-21 — Standing in that room for the first time is truly breathtaking. This picture doesn’t do this chandelier justice, in fact it is 8x14m in size and 11 tons in weight!

oman-23 — View of the big chandelier from below

oman-22 — This is just one corner of the more than 4200sqm big prayer room. The carpet in the room is made of one piece, weighs 14 tons and is made of 1.700.000.000 knots!!

oman-31 — Another corridor on the other side of the main prayer room

I took the following pictures during our sightseeing tour. It’s a very rough, dry and rocky landscape but also fascinating.

oman-39 — It was a lot of fun doing that little sightseeing tour with Hassan (left) and all the nice colleagues from Iran Fara Bourse. Would have been nice if we had more time to explore the city and get to know each other better.

And finally here’s a video of the water bottle rolling up-hill:

Oman has never really been on our destination wish-list but now it certainly is. Cant wait to see more of this country.

Asia, City trip

Tehran

8 January, 2016 jpcorp Leave a comment

It’s “sunday” in Tehran, actually friday Jan-8. I got to the hotel around 3am and after a short night and breakfast in Espinas hotel, I started to explore downtown. Tehran is the capital of Iran. It’s elevation is 1189m and it has 9mio inhabitants, the wider region 16mio! Here’s some pictures of places in walking distance to the hotel:

tehran1 — The mosque at Palestine Square, unfortunately there’s some construction going on

A typical piece of "street art", you find many of such pictures on walls or houses, mostly with a political or religious message — A typical piece of “street art”, you find many of such pictures on walls or houses, mostly with a political or religious message

Going through the streets, the impression I got was that most of the buildings have a rather grey look (probably even more due to the rather grey weather), requiring maintenance and some have obviously even been abandoned.

Typical street leading to the North with snow-covered mountains in the background

However, beside the mosques there are many colourful spots like this back-entrance to a shopping-mall:

And here’s the paradise for everybody having a sweet tooth: a store full of cookies, sweets, dried fruit and nuts:

A taxi brought me to Golestan Palace (palace of flowers), the oldest historic monument in Tehran, the construction of the oldest buildings started in the 16th century as part of the former citadel. Since then it has continuosly been extended and renovated by the various emperors who used the buildings as their residence and for represenational purposes. This history ended with the disposal of Schah Reza Pahlavi in 1979. Nowadays the palace is mostly used as a museum.

The first thing you see inside the palace are the walls that are beautifully decorated with tiles. Each arc is differently styled:

There are many buildings in the area of the palace and you have to buy tickets separately for each one at the entrance.

... and the corresponding building — … and the corresponding building

I didn’t visit the ethnological museum though. The first building I entered was the Emarat-e Badgir, the “Building of the wind towers”. It has been constructed in the early 19th century and has 4 towers that were constructed to provide cooling for the main building:

While the building looks nice from the outside, the interior is stunning:

The finest stain glass window in Golestan Palace, in the central room

A doorway leading from the central room to one of the side rooms. It's made of hundreds of little mirrors and when you look at it, it seems to be a huge diamond (almost ;-) — A doorway leading from the central room to one of the side rooms. It’s made of hundreds of little mirrors and when you look at it, it seems to be a huge diamond (almost 😉

Looking back at two of the four wind towers while going to the next building:

A mirror hall at the outside of the Shams-ol-Emareh building

Finally moving to the last building that used to be the residence and reception building of Iran’s former emperors:

Talar-e Zoroof, the biggest building with the large reception hall

Asia

Flying to Tehran

7 January, 2016 jpcorp Leave a comment

Today I started to a business trip to Teheran. The bad thing about business trips is that I have to go alone. The seat right beside me is empty and I really would like to have it occupied with my sweety who now sits at home doing “brain gavage” to get ready for her next CIIA exam.

While I recently created all the other posts “after the event” using a selection out of thousands of pictures that we have taken during our various trips, I will try to make this post as “real-time” as possible. This one actually goes out at 30,000ft above Romania. Thanks to Lufthansa on-board Internet access.

So here’s the first picture that I took shortly after take-off of LH600 from Frankfurt airport. I have been travelling on airplanes a lot. But it still amazes me every time I see those colors at sunset looking out of the plane’s window.

JP Travel Diaries