when we got back from our quick tour through austria, a special event was already coming up: “almkirchtag” in the museum of tyrolean farms.
almkirchtag is a tyrolean (austrian?) traditional festivity which takes place once a year in an “alm” (which, in this case, means an alpine restaurant rather than a mountain pasture).
in the museum, however, it’s the time when the old buildings are filled with life, and real tyrolean traditions are revived and displayed in this setting: tyrolean music and song, tyrolean delicacies and specialties, handiwork etc.

[view photos: museum of tyrolean farms, austria]

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the next stop on our route was hallstatt [G], a town that sits in the 40 meters between a lakeshore and a rock face that goes up 300 meters.
up to the end of the 19th century, hallstatt was only reachable by boat or narrow paths. i think the only reason that the village was established there in the first place, lies in the rich deposits of salt, which have been mined since approx. 5.000 b.c.
parts of that history can be seen in the salzwelten (salt worlds), a mining museum which offers guided tours into the mines.

internationally, hallstatt is probably best known for the beinhaus: since there’s hardly any space at all available in hallstatt, the dead remained buried for about 10 years, after which time the bones were be removed from the cemetary. they were then painted and decorated elaborately, and placed in the beinhaus (ossuary).

last time we were in the region, we only had a few hours in hallstatt, which is why we stayed overnight this time. bräu-gasthof lobisser is located in the narrow part of hallstatt with views of the lake, and has comfortable rooms with typical austrian furniture.
(i recommend to reconfirm your reservation before you arrive in hallstatt.)

[view photos: hallstatt, austria]

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when we had seen a little more than a glimpse of vienna, we drove west through a region called wachau (one of austria’s wine regions), and on to its landmark: stift melk, or melk abbey [G].
it was there, that my enthusiasm for creating panorama-images sort-of reached a highlight – which is why you’ll find lots of architectural panoramas in this album.

after the tour through the abbey, i introduced larry to fleischkas¹ (cindy staid at a safe distance ;) ), and we headed on to linz, before driving to our accommodation for the night, at fuschl am see [G].

[view photos: wachau and melk abbey]

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as mentioned before, cindy and larry byers visited austria in late september.

we met at a hotel just outside of vienna, austria.
cindy’s gps navigation device turned out not to work in austria (contrary to what customer support had told her), and due to the combination of inner city traffic, roadsigns in a foreign language etc. they got lost. i’m pretty sure i would instantly get lost in that city without gps.
i ended up guiding them to our meeting point using my laptop, a wireless internet card and google maps.
what did people do before there was the internet, or google?

update: larry reminded me to mention the final instruction i gave them before they arrived at the hotel: still on the phone, i went out on the street, and just before they came around the corner, i mentioned “…and look out for that crazy person that’s standing in the middle of the street”. they drove very carefully. ;-)

here’s part 1 of the more detailled photographic documentation, covering bits of the sightseeing in vienna.

[view photos: vienna, austria]

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classic sightseeing, annoying tuk-tuk drivers, impressive temples, crowds, sushi, and more – here’s the final part of my thailand trip report.

when we arrived at the hotel (one of two that we had booked ahead from austria), stefan and lisa had already checked in. as mentioned before, we couldn’t get more overlap-time for our “thailand trip of 5″, so we decided to meet up in bangkok for a few days.

for the typical sightseeing part, we decided to experience what the travel guides warn of: just around the corner of the entrance to wat phra kaew (the biggest and most popular complex of buddhist temples in thailand), there was an unusually friendly man who told us that the temple was closed for another two hours (which was of course just a big lie).
he was also “friendly” enough to mark four or five popular sights on our city map AND get two tuk-tuk drivers to drive us there for nothing (i’m talking a few cents).
we had read about this, and decided to “try for ourselves”.
the strategy behind this is that between the sights, the drivers ask you to go into an affiliate shop (tailor, jeweler, …) and look at the things they have to offer. you don’t need to buy anything, but the fact that they supply the shops with lots of potential customers earns them gas coupons.
if you’re already expecting this, there are no other surprises – except that they might leave you at the last but one sight, and go search for new victims instead.

wat phra khaew, by the way, is the most impressive complex i’ve seen. the entrance fee is so high that no thai would likely be able to pay for it (locals enjoy free entrance), but it’s no doubt worth it.
another sightseeing highlight was wat saket, the “golden mount” (free entrance).

there were also lots of malls, which from the inside you can’t really tell apart at all. except one mall which had only two elevators – one going to levels 1 and even numbers, and the other one going to levels with uneven numbers.

as usual, the few obligatory postcards that i absolutely had to send (to family) were dropped off at the airport, right before boarding the plane.
 

[view photos: bangkok (thailand pt. 6)]

the way i experienced hua hin [G], it’s about what most people picture if they hear of a single guy going to thailand for holidays: there were “massage” studios with tinted windows on every corner (some of the signs went as far as saying “special massage for man by woman”) and lots of grey-haired men with local women who were far below the standard creepiness rule of dating.
it seems like everybody you speak to (except for the staff of bird guesthouse (a converted fisherman’s pier, it’s family run) – they were really friendly) wants to sell you something.

big portions of the beach were covered in sunshades from the hotel’s exit right up to the water. i think it wouldn’t have been hard to stay out of the sun completely. on the beach.

for us, there was really only one reason to go to hua hin: getting a tailored suit for next to nothing. :)

we stayed there for exactly as long as we had to, and then headed north.

[view photos: hua hin (thailand pt. 5)]

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as indicated in the previous post, the bangkok strikes caused most of public transport to shut down, just before we could leave the little village of khao sok.
we postponed our departure for a day and were able to go back to suratthani the next morning, and from there managed to book two tickets on a private long-range bus to prachuap khiri khan [G].

prachuap was first recommended to us by a local in khao sok. lonely planet also said that this was a good city to leave the tourist-trail, and step into an authentic part of thailand. they were right!
the only person in our hotel (yuttichai hotel; a very nice one, by the way!) speaking english was the owner himself.
in 3 days, we only saw three other farang (”westerners”) – one at a restaurant and two young women at the night market (one of the few places to find food in the evening).
near khan kradi cave, three school children took pictures of us.
..and in one of the restaurants, they just served us a set meal as soon as we sat down, because nobody spoke english anyways…

i used to laugh at the “evil monkey in my room” jokes in family guy — until i met some monkeys in the city that just seemed to be out to get me.
some of them tried to scare me with intimidating grimaces, while others made a direct approach to assess my reactions!
now i see how the writers might have come up with the joke…
 

[view photos: suratthani & prachuap khiri khan (thailand pt. 4)]

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