A White Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

I'm sharing Christmas again this year with Nic and her family in Steisslingen, Germany. It's pretty cold here. Not snowing but very frosty. Here's some pics I took in the last couple of days.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a well and happy New Year!

THAILAND

Bangkok – Chaing Mai – Krabi

(Bangkok gallery)

After saying goodbye to Australia we all jumped on a plane and flew to Bangkok for a 3 week taste of Thailand. From the minute you leave the Airport Thailand is just a feast for the eyes. Especially Bangkok. Ok, not everything in that feast tastes good. But it is definitely an amazing place to see. I absolutely loved it. The mixture of old and new is extraordinary. Especially the crazy freeways that tower above the city in many places. Unfortunately I didn’t get enough photos of that sort of thing, I wish I did.

Our first few days were spent in Bangkok where we stayed at a nice little guest house on the edge of the city center. It was so cheap, I think about 2 Euros a night. My total bill for the room, breakfast and dinner for 4 days was in total about 26 Euros. Crazy!
So in Bangkok we saw lots of temples or a ‘Wat’ as they call them in Thai

“What’s a temple called in Thai?”
“Wat”
“A temple?”
“Wat”
“A temple you idiot?!?”
“Wat”
“Aaaaarrrrggghhh!!!


Ahem…We also visited the weekend markets which were HUGE and consequently even though we designated a place to meet after separating we ALL got lost trying to find it, but eventually did. The markets had almost everything and of course lots of cheap copy clothing, shoes, bags, etc. We didn’t buy much because we didn’t want to carry everything around with us all over Thailand but it was fun to browse.


Bangkok is a very busy, dirty, crazy city. But it definitely has a charm. Tuk-Tuk’s were my favourite mode of transport and very cheap too. You get thrills in number of ways when riding with Tuk-Tuks. Firstly you spend the first few minutes wondering if your driver is going to take you into a dodgy alley where all his buddies are waiting with machetes. Once you’re sure that’s no problem you can concentrate on the fact you are weaving in and out of traffic, narrowly missing motorcyclists, taxis, utes, BUSES and TRUCKS by mere millimeters at great speed. Then remember there are 5 people crammed into this tiny Tuk-Tuk that is designed for, maybe 3 people (but probably 2 fat Americans), and while you are squashed in trying to hold in any extruding limbs for fear of dismemberment, you have to hold your breath most of the way in an attempt to inhale as little toxic, lung blackening exhaust fumes as possible. Defying explanation, all this adds up to a really fun ride and a smile on your face the entire way! ☺

Kao San Road was pretty interesting and a really great place to shop. It is apparently the most popular place to stay if you are backpacking too. We bought a few things there. Mostly T-shirts for me. This was the last place we visited when we returned to Bangkok at the end of the trip for our last minute shopping.


We did a couple of day trips from Bangkok. One to the old city Ayutayuh (I think) where there are ruins of the old city and more temples. On the other trip we went to a town called Damnoen Saduak, 110kms west of Bangkok, famous for its floating markets. Quite interesting indeed. Didn’t buy anything but it was nice to be floating in a boat to see all the same stuff you can buy in Bangkok. Actually, it was quite nice.

We then caught a night train to Chaing Mai.

Chaing Mai

Chaing Mai is lovely. It’s much smaller (Bangkok 9 Million – Chaing Mai 170,000 in the city itself) It’s much cleaner and seems a lot safer too. We all loved Chaing Mai I think. We stayed in a guest house called Julie’s which was owned by a Swiss guy and his Thai chick. Here we looked at more Wat’s, spoke to a Monk about life, buddism and what other colors he’s allowed to wear (Monk Chat – near the main temple in Chaing Mai – and it’s free – Check it out!) At night we wandered the Night Bazaar (Markets) and on the following morning set off on a day tour of Elephant riding, visiting a real mountain village, trekking through the jungle to see a waterfall, some white water rafting and some bamboo raft…rafting. This was one of the highlights of the trip. A really great day comprising of several great adventures. This all took place about 1.5 hours outside of Chaing Mai in the mountains, driven there in the back of a ute. Chaing Mai was a very relaxing and interesting experience.

After much research, studying timetables and general coordination regarding another night train to Bangkok and then on to Krabi taking roughly 24 hours….we decided to fly. ☺

Krabi Province

As we touched down in Krabi the inbound views showed us that the southern part of Thailand was quite different. The high protruding mountains are prominent immediately. Quite amazing!

A bus from the airport dropped us…somewhere…and we arranged to stay at Pine Bungalow on Klong Moung Beach about 30mins out of Krabi Town. Krabi itself was..pretty Krapi (sorry), but Pine Bungalow was such a treat for us. It was the perfect place to end the holiday in a relaxed, beach bumming kind of way…on a budget. Mostly it was the people from Pine Bungalow. They were sooo friendly and nice and made us feel like we were regulars there. The food was also really great which of course helped. It definitely is not the place to go if you are looking for luxury and/or a party atmos. But if you’re after a quiet, no frills, few other people kind of holiday, then it’s perfect.


We spent most days baking on the beach but we also did a couple of tours. One was to Ko Hong (Ko means Island) which was beautiful and did some snorkeling there. Really colorful fish but not such a nice reef as Ningaloo. On another day while Janis and Franni went rock climbing and Britta did a solo tour de krabi on one of the free bikes, Nic and I took another such tour to the famous James Bond Island (Ko Kha Tupu) which was of course really great. The tour also stopped us for lunch at a floating village that was amazing to see. 1500 people living in these cramped houses on stilts and complete with a school, mosque and markets, etc. There was a woman there with a small Gibbon that had a little nappy on. She let me hold him which was AWESOME cause I love monkeys. After lunch there and a look around we drove to a cave temple that was also the home of dozens of small monkeys also. More Monkey magic. We fed them bananas and I tried to always give them to the little baby ones who were instantly attacked by the bigger ones trying to steal them (maybe it wasn’t such a good idea!) So that was another great tour and I think the best part of those tours is just cruising around those islands in the longboats with their weird milkshake maker car engines. The Islands are incredible and somehow majestic or heavenly the way they just pop straight up out of the water like they are inaccessible worlds not meant for mere humans. What the hell, did I just write that. Anyway, it’s true. I was in awe. Loved it in and around Krabi and our time at Pine Bungalow. A big hello to Eed, Thomas and Wat (not a temple, a guy – just to make it more confusing) if they ever read this thing.


Naturally we did a bit of shopping in Ao Nang, a popular tourist spot and very touristy indeed.

When our time in Krabi province was up we caught a bus to Surat Tani. The bus people were indeed rude and un-informative. Generally the Thai people are really nice and friendly but there are obviously still some A-holes as with any country I guess. However, we got to Surat Tani and caught another night train from here back to Bangkok.

We had one more day because our flight left at 12.05am in the night so we headed to Kao Sun road to get our last minute shopping items. I got some more T-shirts.

Overall Thailand was unexpectedly great! I don’t know why I was surprised considering so many people go there. But to be there and see it for myself was such a great experience. Thailand rocks!!

So now I’m back in Germany and spending a few weeks at Nic’s parents place for Christmas and going back to work in January. It’s around 0C here right now which is a bit of a shock after all the warm weather of Australia and Thailand, but, on the bright side. Let’s go snowboarding!!! ☺

Back in Germany. -5 and this is at mid day!! Who walks on water??

Merry Christmas to all and hope you have a good slide into the New Year!

later

STELLAS KITCHEN VIDEO CLIP

Don’t Know Who I’m Talking To


We got back from the Northwest road trip on the Thursday and I spent the following couple of days preparing to shoot the Stellas Kitchen videoclip. On the Sunday we got up early and headed to a farm owned by the Avila family. Many thanks for letting us shoot their and especially to Ben who also played an extra. With help from Matty Vaughan and Marcus McKebery, me, SK and three other extras shot all day from 9 until 6pm. It was very hot and their were millions of flies and it was not easy. But we got through almost everything that I had planned and I was happy with the result. I still have to edit it together (which is my next task after writing this blog – and editing The Laundry) It was hard work but quite fun and will hopefully help to promote the band and get them a bit of exposure.

AUSTRALIA – NORTH WEST TRIP

Perth – Cervantes - Kalbarri – Monkey Mia (Denham) – Coral Bay – Carnarvon – Geraldton – Lancelin – Perth

(gallery)

It’s a bit difficult to remember everything now after spending 3 weeks in Thailand but I’ll try my best. After the rest of the German gang arrived in Perth (Franni, Britta and Janis) we borrowed my brothers Land Cruiser (thanks bro) and made a road trip heading north from Perth. Out goal was Coral Bay but we wanted to stop along the way and see the Pinnacles, Kalbarri and Monkey Mia along the way.

The Pinnacles were quite incredible and I guess (couldn’t find any info on them) it is the remains of a petrified forest. A vast area of rock formations poking out of the ground. Quite an eerie place for some reason. Felt a bit like a graveyard or something. We had a nice couple of hours there and stayed for the sunset which was spectacular due to an ominous looking cloud that hovered above and was illuminated in orange and pink from the dropping sun. So after this we stayed in Cervantes

.
Sunset at the Pinnacles

The next day we took off to Kalbarri. Started getting pretty hot now. We stayed two nights in Kalbarri so we could spend a full day there checking out the river on a little dingy we hired and also driving out to the famous gorges in the area. Was really hot and pretty spectacular and harsh landscape.

Murchison Gorge - Kalbari

After this we drove all the way to Denham which is only about 30km from Monkey Mia and we found a really nice backpackers that had a pool table and even a young pet kangaroo named Bobby. He was pretty cute and would hop around the building which was an enclosed environment with all the rooms surrounding an inner area where the pool, pool table and various bird cages were. It was strange when you were in the kitchen and saw this kangaroo bound past your window.

We got up early the next day (on local advice) to drive to Monkey Mia and be there by 8:30. We got there on time and then waited about 2 hours before the dolphins showed up! The boredom quickly evaporated once they showed up and started swimming past our feet literally only half a metre away. It was fascinating. We watched them swim playfully around for about 20 minutes until the rangers fed them some fish and they immediately vanished. They are clearly there just for the fish! I felt so….used.

Monkey Mia

After this we went back to the backpackers and spent the day relaxing in the pool and also had a game of mini golf at possibly the most difficult course I’ve ever played on.

Next day we made a big leg all the way to Coral Bay. It took about 2 hours longer than it should have because we stopped to help a group of Chinese people from Hong Kong change their blown tyre about 50km after Carnarvon on the turn off to Coral Bay. After getting the tire on using two jacks (one air bag jack to get the car high enough to use the standard Land Cruiser jack) we discovered the steering of the car was completely kaput. Turns out they had oversteered, come off the road and hit a small tree which destroyed the steering and naturally punctured the tyre. I guess in Hong Kong theres not enough space, to build up enough speed, to learn it’s best to slow down for corners. We got back under way after driving them and all their stuff back to the last road house which was 7kms back. All this in 48C heat!! (I’m not joking, I checked a thermometer outside the roadhouse)

Shell Beach - Shark Bay

So eventually we made it to Coral Bay which was for me and probably everyone else, the highlight of the trip. This was because of the snorkeling on the Ningaloo Reef. It is literally only about 20m off the beach and a gentle current takes you along while you look at all the coral, fish and even turtles. We saw 4 sea turtles and loads of really big fish. Britta even saw some Manta Rays. I highly recommend Coral Bay to anyone visiting Australia (or from Australia) if you have the time to get up there. It was amazing.

The journey back was less spectacular although we did stop and see the Carnarvon blowholes and some weird fungi rock things near Shark Bay. We stayed a night in Carnarvon, then Geraldton where Janis and I had the Chicken score of the century!!

CHICKEN STORY
At Chicken Treat I ordered a chicken roll and a ¼ chicken and chips and Janis ordered 3 wraps. When we got back to the hostel he discovered the wraps were actually chicken rolls! (which I was secretly ecstatic about) We drove back to Chicken Treat (10 mins) and they apologized and gave him 3 fresh wraps and said he could also keep the chicken rolls. I protested that my food was now cold so they gave me a new chicken roll and ¼ pack and let me keep my food as well. So we returned with a HUGE bag of chicken and consequently enjoyed chicken rolls for lunch and dinner the next day (well I did anyway). What a great chicken story! ☺

We stopped for one more night in Lancelin before returning to Perth where we all went our separate ways for a little while. It was a great road trip and I was happy to see a bit more of my own country and I’m sure the Germans were pleased to get a small glimpse of the huge country that is Australia. From here Janis and Franni took off down south in a Wicked camper while Nic and Britta took a bus to Busselton. I stayed in Perth to shoot a video clip for Stellas Kitchen.

Bunbury - Swimming With Dolphins
I forgot to mention that when we were in Bunbury my Dad took Nic, Britta and myself out on his small boat to a place called 'The Lounge'. This is a well known spot (by some) in Bunbury where Dolphins hang out. We were extremely lucky that day as there were many Dolphins that would swim right up to the boat. We even jumped in the water and swam with them a little bit. They were a bit shy to swim with us but it was quite an experience anyway. A couple of times they swam right past me and Britta. Amazing! Here's some pics.

The Wonder that is Down and Under

I'm now with my parents and Nic travelling through the remote south of Western Australia from Esperance to a town called Hyden. Over the past week we've been towing their little caravan around and staying in little towns along the South Coast. Nic and I are in a little 4 man tent (4 very skinny men I would think). It's been fun and we've been through Pemberton, Denmark and Walpole (where we stayed the first night and there was a huge storm- didn't get much sleep) and then on to Albany where we stayed 2 nights, and then on to Esperance where we also stayed 2 nights. Most of the time it's been raining but for me that's all part of camping and makes it more of an adventure. I didn't realise that Nic was such a princess! I think she would prefer if we stayed in hotels :)

The Glocester Tree - 61metres high

Along the way we saw the Glocester Tree (which I climbed and consequently had extremely sore legs for 2 days afterwards). This is a huge Karri tree 61m high with a ladder winding all the way around to the top. It was used as a lookout for spotting bush fires in earlier times. Also the Tree Top Walk in Nannup was quite cool. It is a man made walk way 40m above the ground and allows you to walk around in the tree tops of the mighty Karri forrest. In this region are some of the biggest trees in Australia (perhaps the world - but I'm not sure). Between Denmark and Walpole is the Valley of the Giants where most of these giant trees can be seen.

The Tree Top Walk in Walpole

Next we stayed in Albany for two nights which gave us a day to check out the sites around Albany.

Coastline near Albany

The weather was a bit rainy and there was a fierce wind which was slamming the waves against the rocks creating some spectacular explosions of water. The stormy weather also made the blow holes puff sea spray up about 15 metres high.

The Blow Holes near Albany

The Bridge near Albany

on the way to Esperance

Nic and her Paper Bark Trees

The Campsite in Esperance

Esperance Coastline

There was plenty of amazing coastline to see in Albany and Esperance. Beautiful beaches and majestic rock formations including The Gap and the natural Bridge in Albany. Esperance is known as the Bay of Isles and the scenery is spectacular as the coastline consists of these wonderful beaches and the seascape scattered with haunting islands off to the horizon.

This beach was beautiful but this sign is a bit off puting!

So, we are now on route to Hyden where we will see the famous Wave Rock and camp one more night before returning to Bunbury.

The Bush - at Hyden from the top of Wave Rock

Before this time Nic was still in New Zealand with the other girls, Britta, Franni and Antje. She enjoyed her travel a lot:

**NIC**
" Neuseeland ist ein wunderschoenes Land und mit Sicherheit das abwechslungsreichste das ich kenne. Mit Britta, Franni und Antje hatte ich viel Spass und eine unvergessliche Zeit. Ich bin froh, dass wir diese ganz einmaligen Erinnerungen jetzt teilen koennen."

We had a few days in Sydney when we first arrived, which probably wasn't enough but we did get to catch up with Carly and I met up with most of the people I wanted to catch up with from my old work so that was good. We saw the Opera House and Bondi Beach and took a ferry to Manly. Was strange being a tourist in my own town.

So then I spent the next 3 weeks catching up with my family and friends in Perth, Bunbury and Busselton. I caught up with my brother and my two nephews Ethan and Sam. I had to play with them relentlessly but it was really nice to see them. I also caught up with Gary and TM and saw their new house at Peppermint Grove Beach between Busselton and Bunbury. They designed it themselves and it's beautiful. Hopefully Nic and I will catch up with them again soon.

This whole time I was driving around in my little Fiat which my Dad has been restoring for me while I was in Europe. I sent him a new roof and new wheels and some money to get the interior re-done. It was exciting to see it finally and even more fun driving it around everywhere up and down to and from Perth and Busselton several times.

My Ride :)

Most of my time has been spent at my parents in Bunbury and in Perth with my friends up there. I stayed with Dom and he has a band with my other friend Daniel and his other 2 brothers. They are called Stella's Kitchen. They are rock and roll and it was fun watching them play. I also spent an afternoon with them doing a photoshoot so they have some promo pictures for the band. The shots turned out quite well.

Stellas Kitchen

When I have had a bit of spare time I've been trying to cut together my new short film which has proved quite challenging.

I did catch up with other people along the way but it's too much to mention right now. Sorry I haven't updated the blog more often but somehow I never seem to have the time. I'll try and do a couple more before I get back to Europe. Now comes the lengthy part of getting the photos uploaded so I will leave it at that. Hope everyone is well and happy.

ps. Here's a shot of me on the Hexe Lilli film shoot I was working on in August this year. I'll try and write a post about that and stick some pics in too....later :)

Ahh....Paris! Paris!

A couple of weekends ago Nic and I took a night train to Paris for a 3 day weekend. We left at 10pm on Thursday night in a sleeping cabin and arrived in Paris at 7am on Friday morning. It wasn’t the best of nights sleep but it was kind of fun!

Paris is AMAZING! We absolutely loved it. I can easily say my favourite city in Europe so far.

It has such I nice feeling about it. It’s hard to describe but I think it’s a mixture of it being so old and so rich in history, culture and especially art. There are amazing sculptures almost everywhere which I found incredible. The buildings all look so quaint with their little iron window grills and ornate architecture. It’s so picturesque. It is still a little bit dirty here and there but somehow it’s not offputting like I found in London. It’s more of a ‘lived in’ dirty in Paris and somehow adds to it’s charm. We even found that the people were not as arrogant and unfriendly as we were expecting.

Goddess of Nike at The Louvre

One thing that is pretty bad in Paris is the prices of food. They are crazy! It’s not uncommon to pay 5 Euro for a SMALL coke (200ml). 8 or 10Euro for a regular 500ml. I pretty much just drank beer because I somehow couldn’t bring myself to pay that much for a soft drink! Apart from that the food really was amazing too. We really enjoyed the meals and a couple times I had real authentic French Onion soup which was easily better than any I’d ever had. (sorry mum) Most of the time we took a menu deal which most brasseries and bistros have. For example, a 20 Euro meal might give you a choice of 3 or 4 of Entrée, then a main of Chicken, Steak or Fish with some sort of sauce and then a dessert, crème caramel, ice cream or profiterols. Everything was so yummy!

Arc de Triomphe

Of course we went to most of the usual tourist places. In brief, The Louvre was absolutely amazing if you are at all into art and it is mind boggling how many huge and famous paintings they have. We saw the Mona Lisa which was honestly not as impressive as some of the other paintings and sculpture that was there. I saw many paintings that I remember studying at art college which was kind of cool and I was most blown away by all the incredible sculpture. Don’t miss the Louvre if you go to Paris!

We walked along the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe through some nice parks and gardens. The thing with the Arc de Triomphe and also the Eiffel Tower is that somehow they are much much more impressive when you are actually standing in front of them. Of course I’ve seen photos of both and always thought. Hmmm…yeah…I suppose it looks great. But to actually see them in real life is very impressive. Especially the Eiffel Tower. It’s HUGE. We went up to the top even though it started to rain and the view was naturally stunning. From up there you can see all of Paris.

Eiffel Tower

We also checked out the Moulin Rouge which was not that impressive either and the Centre Pompidou, a building that has all it’s plumbing and ventilation pipes and even the escalators outside the building. Looks like a construction site and I think is kind of ugly.

Went to one of the famous cemeteries but didn’t see any famous graves and then to Sacre Coeur. A huge church on top of Montmartre. This was a really impressive church, very beautiful inside and out. We were treated to a huge gathering of people that stood on the stairs and sang songs. Not sure why, but it was interesting and created a nice atmosphere. At the bottom of the steps were also three young guys competing with them. Two played guitars (one also clarinet) and one the violin. They played great Frenchy type music and we listened for a while lapping up a bit of sun on the steps.

Notre Dame

Checked out Chateau Versailles on the last day. This was the palace Louis the 14th built (I think) and where he built an estate for Marie Antoinette. It is the largest palace in Europe and is full of amazing (I need some new adjectives) paintings and sculpture, has a really lavish opera theatre and even a bunch of 25metre deep water reservoirs that provided water for the palace and fountains of the gardens.
Although it was great we didn’t stay there long as it was 30mins out of Paris and we enjoyed more to just walk around the Paris streets soaking it in. Our last visit was back into the city to check out Notre Dame (this actually means Our Lady). It was of course incredible and much more amazing than any pictures I had seen. Everything was somehow slightly different than how I imagined but always great. This area around Notre Dame was very beautiful. I think it is St.Germain on the other side of the River Seine and was riddled with cute little streets with many little restaurants. We had our last meal here before jumping back on the Metro and heading back to catch our train home.

Paris is a really special place. I could easily live there I think.

I went a bit crazy with my camera and took 500+ photos. I’ll have to split the photo gallery up cause I’m sure you all don’t want to see everything. Hope they capture some of the feel of Paris for you.

Au Revoir!

FC Bayern Muenchen vs Leverkusen 04

Nic’s brother, Jochen, got me a ticket to a football (soccer) game. Munich vs Leverkusen at the Alliance Arena. He, his girlfriend Leonie and I went but Nic couldn’t get a ticket which was a shame.

The stadium is really impressive and is where most, if not all, of the World Cup games in Munich were played. The stadium from the outside looks like a big Michelen Tyre and the exterior is actually translucent Perspex which they light different colours depending on who is playing. So if you drive passed it at night it will either be red or blue. Quite cool.

The game was pretty good with the end result being 2-1 to Leverkusen which made Leone and Jochen happy as they were going for Leverkusen. I still havn’t decided yet if I should be a Bayern fan. I feel a bit patriotic to Munich but all of Nic’s family are hard core Hamburg fans and HATE FC Bayern. I think they would kill me if I wore an FC Bayern t-shirt to their house!
It was really fun and I have a newfound appreciation for soccer after the world cup so enjoyed it a lot. I’d like to go again some time.

Nics Birthday at Nektar

It was Nic’s birthday on the 25th of April and I took her to a really nice restaurant called Nektar. I’d never been there so I wasn’t sure what to expect but a couple of guys at work had recommended it as a great place to take your girl.

It was a really great and unique place. From the outside it doesn’t look that exciting but we walked down the stairs into a nice old style bar and were greeted by an interesting guy dressed in tiny leather shorts, huge fake eyelashes and a feather Mohawk and wings. Strange! Are we in the right place? We thought for a second, but then he took us to the restaurant and it was such an amazing place. It is layed out in a big U shape and everything is white. Only there are no tables and chairs. Just big full size beds all around the walls. You lay down on lots of pillows and the food is served to you on a small table in between. The food was 5 star and inbetween courses there was even a live singer and a magic show.

It was a really lovely night and Nic said she thought it was like heaven!

A Fold In The Space Time Continuam

...is the reason there has been no post for the last 6 months. Actually it's just because I have been really busy and... er... lazy.


It's mostly because I was trying to make another short film which was extremely time consuming and if you care to find out why you can read the blog I tried to write while making it


www.makingofashortfilm.blogspot.com


So, in summary the last six months.


-Started making 'Cold' around September after returning from Mexico.
-moved into a new flat with Nicole at the start of October
-Slipped a disc in my back (while moving) and have been taking physio and having to take it easy.
-Got a promotion at work as the Animation Director on a German TV movie "The Secret of Loch Ness"
-Enjoyed Christmas with Nicole and her family again.
-Went to the same ski hut in Austria for a week over New Years but I had to sit in the hut the whole time because of my back. I never strapped onto my board once! But it was still fun. Nic tryed out her new board that I gave her for Christmas. She loves it now.
*will post some pics another time*
-cancelled making the short because I didn't have enough money and we didn't get any funding support
-Went to Nic's Grandfathers 80th birthday party on January the 13th
-Bought a new Digital SLR camera.
-Bought tickets for a trip back to Australia in October as well as a holiday in Thailand.
-Turned 32 in February. Ouch!


Das ist alles! My German is improving slightly but still not great


Surfing in the Isar River
There is quite a famous spot in the city where people surf in the Isar River. In a certain place water flows under a bridge and then drops levels and creates a continuous wave. I always heard about it and then a work friend showed me a video of it and it was amazing. Nic and I went for a jog in the nearby English Gardens so I took my camera down and snapped off a few shots.
















Fasching in Munich
Fasching is yet another celebration in Germany mainly celebrated in the South and is also very big in Kologne (northwest) where it is called Karneval. The tradition started in the 13th century and its original purpose was to scare away the winter and bad spirits so spring would come and crops would grow well. Dressing up in scary costumes with scary masks was the way to do it! So now the reason is just to have a good time and everybody dresses up in whatever costume they want and congregate in the city. It is a very festive atmosphere, naturally encouraged by schnapps and beer. It starts at 11am on the 11th of November(11) and is basically a huge fancy dress party in the streets. I took pics of some of the FREAKS!

Recognise this guy???

Just me and John Lasseter hanging out at the German 'Cars' premiere!!!

Last night we had tickets through Trixter to go to the German premiere of 'Cars' which was held at a Drive-in just outside of Munich. I managed to say a quick hello to JL and tell him how much I love Pixar. I also asked him why they never gave me a job and he said that I probably suck! Actually I made that up, he was really cool and seemed like a really nice guy and asked me to repeat my name when I told him who I was but he didn't hear. Seemed to genuinely be interested in people. I like that.
It was really fun. There was lots of German celebrities. Nic was boggle eyed over Daniel Bruehl who some may remember from the film 'Goodbye Lennin'. Nice guy....but hands off buddy!! :)

It was a very cool night!

Chichen Itza!

We finally made it to Chichen Itza yesterday taking a tour in a small van with a bunch of other people. They were all from Spain and spoke no English so we couldn’t talk to any of them. We didn’t mind so much because both of us haven’t been feeling so well in the last couple of days.




















It took about 3 and a half hours to drive from Playa to Chichen Itza which is roughly in the middle of the big peninsula that is Yucatan. It was good to see some of the inland countryside which comprises mostly of jungle. Apparently there are lots of snakes and monkeys that live in there but we didn’t see any. We did see a baby deer though, which was strange. Bambi in Mexico!

We got to Chichen Itza at about 12pm and a guide took us on a quick tour for 45mins around all the different parts. Chichen Itza is not just the big pyramid as I had thought. It must have been a huge city and the guide said there were at one point 60,000 people living there. So around the main pyramid there are heaps of different buildings and temples including a huge playing field for the ancient Mayan game of ‘Basketball’. It’s about 100m long and has two cement hoops on the sides. Apparently the winner of the game was decapitated for the honor and thereby gained immortality (without a head).

The Observatory


Markets














Another section was a temple that branched off to hundreds of columns that in the time had a roof and was a market place. It is amazing to think of the city with people living in it. Other bits include an observatory, which kind of looks out of place being the only round building, and the huge open Cenote (cave) which is filled with water and where they sacrificed people to the gods. It’s amazing stuff!
























It was much, much grander than Tulum, very, very interesting and very, very hot.

Street from a village along the way













A Tequilla Plant















We finished up there and had lunch then stopped at another Cenote which was filled with water and you could actually swim in it. So we did. It was quite cold compared to the pools and ocean and there were little black fish about 20cm long swimming around with us. They looked like catfish. It was a little bit eerie swimming in a cave but it was fun and another cool experience.

Cenote entrance















Cenote swimming pool















So that’s pretty much it. Tomorrow we are leaving back to Germany so that’s the end of our Mexican Siesta. I’ll put up some galleries when I get back to Munich.

Adios Amigos!