nomad4ever

After the recent air travel disasters in Indonesia, things get really tricky to evaluate the safest airlines in the country. Sooner or later you have to fly in or out of the country or will use a plane to travel between one of the 17.000 islands.

What are the latest scores?

• just today a Garuda Airlines Boeing 737-400 burst into flames when landing, killing 21 people in Yogyakarta
• a few weeks back in january an ADAM Air airplane (a 737-400 as well) simply disappeared from the radar screen on its way to Sulawesi, taking a 102 lifes with it

written by Chris

What’s the fuss?

Laos is still a mysterious country, dominated by sheer nature, dense jungles, vast empty spaces and remote villages, ‘Karst’ mountains, waterfalls, hot springs, bat swarms, endless muddy rivers and rice paddies. It only opened up from communist isolation in recent years in the 1990’s.

Through Laos runs the mighty river Mekong, which is one of Asia’s largest and longest rivers. It starts in higher Tibet and is finding its way through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Ready to go backpacking in time?

written by Chris

What the best mode of transportation, if you stay more than a few months in one location? Flying? The Train? By Ship? Take the bus? Taxi? Walk? Yeah right!

What then?

The best modes of transportation are still the ones you can handle yourself and use as you like and whenever you want.

That leaves basically only a car, a motor-bike, a bicycle or your feet. As long you are a marathon man or sporty decathlete there is nothing to argue about a bicycle or walking or running. If you aren’t – or just plain lazy like me, that would lead to a lot of arguing with yourself.

written by Chris

There are some rumours lately that the current Visa-On-Arrival scheme, which was put in place in 02/2004 will soon be eased in an effort to boost tourism in Indonesia.

Sounds too good to be true?

Currently citizens from most countries receive a Visa for a maximum stay of 30 days, when you arrive at any airport or port. Of course you have to pay USD 25 for it. When your 30 days are over, you have to leave the country and come back in to get a new Visa, which can be quite stressy in a country consisting of more than 17.000 islands covering an area bigger than Europe and Australia.

written by Chris

I’m sure most of you have checked out Google Earth already. Google Earth is a virtual globe program that provides satellite maps and images to interact with.

Apart from being able to zoom into famous sightseeing places like the Las Vegas Strip, Miami Beach, the Mount Everest, you can even search for addresses, enter coordinates or just browse to locations of interest like your home town, your place of work or that special place in your memory, where you got your first kiss.

written by Chris

USD 1 Million? 2 Million? 5 Million? Or just 200.000? Are you kidding me – how can I *retire* now!?

How shall I finance my retirement? I will need *loads* of Cash, Gold, Insurance or Credit! I need my Hummer, the BMW X3 for the wife, my penthouse for the mistress, the Wanker’s Club Membership and my Arian German Sheppard!

Oh really?

Poor you – because if you’re really thinking of retiring early in your life – the question shouldn’t be: “How much do I need?”.

written by Chris

That is what true freedom really means for me. Freedom of time, mind, action, day in and day out. Freedom to do, what you want to do – when you want to do it. May it be a jog at sunrise, staying in bed all day, swimming at dawn or horseback riding at sunset.

Thankfully you can fulfil a lot of those freedom dreams in Asia.

written by Chris

Wednesday morning, 10am. Or is it 11am already? Doesn’t matter! You are just about to wake up. Ahhh, another nice holiday in paradise.

The temperatures hover already steadily above 30 degrees centigrade (in the 100’s Fahrenheit) and the sweat is running down your back. Your tongue is dry and feels like it’s stuck swollen on the palate of your mouth.

What can help to ease this serious situation?

Jump on your bike and find out where the next vendor is selling ‘Es Kelapa’ – Ice Coconut!

written by Chris