Die Wiltener Sängerknaben haben heuer am 24.12. gleich mehrere Fernsehauftritte:

Weihnachten auf Gut Aiderbichl
u.a. mit dem Konzertchor der Wiltener Sängerknaben
18:15 Das Erste (ARD, Deutschland),
19:55 ORF 2 (Österreich),
20:10 SF 1 (Schweiz)

Weihnachtsweis
u.a. mit den Männerstimmen der Wiltener Sängerknaben
14:00 ORF 2 (Österreich) und 3sat (Deutschland)

Adventskalender
mit einem musikalischen Beitrag der Wiltener Sängerknaben
09:00 und 19:55 ZDF info (Deutschland)

Möglicherweise gibt es auch Web-Streams (Online-Videos) auf der einen oder anderen Website.

Apropos: Einige Bilder von der Konzertreise nach Wien (bei der ich die Gelegenheit hatte, “richtige” Chorfotos zu machen) sind jetzt im Fotoalbum.

[view photos: Wiltener Sängerknaben in Wien]

—

in english:
on december 24th, the Wilten Boys’ Choir is featured on TV several times (see above).
web-streams might be available on the respective websites.

speaking of which – i’ve just uploaded a few photos from our concert tour to vienna, austria (where i had an opportunity to take “real” choir pictures).

[view photos: wilten boys' choir in vienna]

leaving koh tao at the end of the second week, we boarded the night boat that would leave around 11 pm and slowly drifted towards the city of surat thani on the mainland.
it was the evening i had my last pad thai (a tasty fried noodle dish), because it stayed in my consciousness for too long. in fact, it kept bugging me during the whole trip to the mainland – more than 6 hours in a moving ship…

our next stop was khao sok national park [G]: one of the world’s oldest rainforests (older than the amazon rainforest).
we stayed at nung house, which was exactly as nice as two canadians had told me just days before. the guesthouse is situated right by the river. it’s very calm and comfortable with hardly any other travellers around. our hosts were extremely friendly and helpful (especially when we found out that the strikes in bangkok had gone to the point where public transport was shut down).

when we entered our bungalow, we were first greeted by a seemingly mental scorpion (we named him alex, NOT alluding to any alex we know). he was turning around and wildly tried to sting the floor.
we later asked our host whether it was dangerous. she said “oh, no…”, then suddenly pausing and, in a more curious voice, asking us what colour it was¹. :)

it was there that we met one of the most communicative thais we’ve ever encountered. he was working at nung house and, ironically, happened to be deaf-mute since birth. this didn’t stop him from communicating, and we had some interesting “talks”, using hand signs, pen&paper, and pretty much whatever was around. he got his point across better than most english-speaking thais…
he was also the one who helped us plan our further route, and recommended going to prachuap khiri khan – it turned out to be exactly what we wanted!

the entrance to the national park, with a visitor center and hiking routes (most of which were closed during the rainy season), is just at the end of the main street, so we walked up into the forest one day, and made the interesting acquaintance of tiger leeches. ;)
the following day, we did the “one day lake jungle and cave tour” (the group was too small for the overnight stay at tonetuey floating bamboo rafthouse) – a must for anyone who visits khao sok.
our guide was a part-time national park ranger, and the entire tour was a great experience.

[view photos: khao sok (thailand pt. 3)]

[view all posts of this group]

ever since the 2008 nobel prize in chemistry went to a team of scientists who discovered and modified the green fluorescent protein (GFP), everybody seems to be interested in the crystal jelly (aequorea victoria) that produces it.
here are three pictures of aequorea victoria that i took in 2006:

please contact me if you are interested in using them.

four our second week in thailand, we left koh samui and headed on to koh tao [G] – a tiny island (it has a maximum diameter of 7 km) situated about 50 km northward.
we did a padi open water course with emily and amanda at big blue. while i very much liked the course itself, i cannot recommend staying in their cheap rooms. they’re cheap for a reason!

four days later, we took our temporary diver’s certifications and headed down to the southeast of the island and spent the rest of the week at coral view resort, a lovely, quiet place with a beautiful beach, with a panoramic view of close-by shark island, and koh phangan in the distance.
right by the resort restaurant, there’s the office of impian divers.
robert, who runs the diveshop, told us: “impian divers is the smallest diving school of koh tao, and probably also the smallest dive instructor” (pointing at himself).
the entire staff (all three of them: keitha, robert and tom) were very friendly and welcoming, and they took the time to chat.
with hindsight, i’d have done the entire diving course at impian divers.

there was a lot of underwater life to see, even just snorkelling (i was snorkelling when i met the shark).

amongst others, we saw a blue-spotted stingray (taeniura lymma), hawksbill turtle (eretmochelys imbricata), yellow boxfish (ostracion cubitus), triggerfish (balistidae), baby squid, giant groupers (epinephelus lanceolatus), sergeant major fish (pomacentridae), barracuda (sphyraena sp.), seal-faced pufferfish (tetraodontidae), and three nudibranches (cool stuff!) including phyllidia varicosa.

all of the underwater photos (except for the last 5) were taken with my pentax optio w60, which is waterproof down to 4 meters without any housing.

alltogether, i think diving has been one of the greatest experiences i had in several years – especially around koh tao, where the sea seems to be stuffed with wildlife.
 

[view photos: koh tao (thailand pt.2)]

[view all posts of this group]

here’s a selection of photos from the thailand vacation 2008.

the prehistory: when four friends (lisa, stefan, mathias and markus) weren’t able to find a sufficient period of time to visit a fifth one (rene), they had to rearrange. the result was a thailand trip of 5, in 3 stages.

part one is about the first week, when mathias and i visited rene¹ in koh samui, thailand.

highlights include: take-away food everywhere (i mean it!), loads of exotic fruit including durian, dinners on the beach, thai food in general (especially curries!), a thai massage right by the beach, coconut drinks (basically just coconuts split open) on the beach, ang thong marine national park, sleeping right at the beach, fried insects, bioluminescence, …
 
[view photos: koh samui & ang thong national park (thailand pt.1)]

[view all posts of this group]

i’ve recently had the chance to see the ASIB: Algensammlung am Institut für Botanik der Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck (algal collection of the institute of botany).
in the little laboratory room, there are some 1500 specimens of aeroterrestrical algae and cyanobacteria (cyanoprokaryotes) stored and cultivated. every strain is grown in its own little test tube, and the entire chamber is cooled down to 12 degrees celsius to slow down their metabolism and make them low-maintenance.
the oldest specimen was collected in 1920.

apart from the scientific importance of such collections, i was impressed with the beautiful array of algae in nearly every colour.
 

[view photos: algal collection of the institute of botany]

here’s a glimpse of what the second half of september was like:
cindy and larry byers came to visit austria, and we went to vienna, salzburg, fuschl, hallstatt, zugspitze, south tyrol, …and included some “goode olde innsbruck tyme” as well.
for some reason, the only time i actually find myself looking at austrian sights is when somebody travels 9.000 km to be here…

this set of photos in no way does justice to their visit, but it’s the start of my catching up on photo-blogging.
 

[view photos: the byers visit - 17 photos, 14 days]