nomad4ever

Maybe you noticed already, that I’m a fan of Laos. This has a number of reasons, one being, that Laos is today, what Thailand was 20 years ago. It’s a laid-back secluded country, with lot’s of mysteries, unique activities and quirky originalities.

Can you imagine a place on earth, where huge stone jars are scattered on a giant plain; like the Gods just stood up from their meal and left all their pots and containers lie around? This is how it looks in a secret place in Laos –

welcome to the ‘Plain of Jars’:

written by Chris

nomad4ever.com reached the 100.000 Visitors mark today! I want to thank all my Readers for their Interest, Comments and Support over the last 11 months! You fantastic people bring this Place alive!

I’m very happy that so many people are interested in this small Niche of Travel & Lifestyle and hope you guys continue to come back, comment heavily, sending me e-mails, criticism and suggestions.

Okay, it’s about time to look back how it all started and to evaluate some Statistics, Demographics, Developments and other Data:

written by Chris

And then there were the reports about Mel Gibson visiting the Island of the Gods, letting his hair down like Mad Max during his best times. Actually attending a seminar of Alcoholics Anonymous, it didn’t appear to be his motto later on that evening.

written by Chris

When Adolf Hitler chose the Swastika Symbol for his National Socialist German Workers Party, better known as NSDAP or the Nazi party, he was actually already a failed Politician. He was involved in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch (Coup) of 1923, but got arrested 3 days later and had to spend 8 months in jail.

There he came up with his ‘infamous’ book “Mein Kampf”, in which he laid out his racist agenda, to eradicate most if not all of the Jews, other ‘Races’, like the Sinti and Roma ‘Gypsies’ and other inconvenient people. He formulated his plans to conquer most parts of Europe to get more ‘living space’ or ‘Lebensraum’ for the German Volk.

written by Chris

There was this guy who painted this picture to mark the toilet entrances for male and female in Vang Vien, Laos. He obviously smoked too much Marihuana, as he couldn’t remember, which side was for which gender.

Nothing unusual so far. Not in Vang Vien.

But laziness comes with it as well. So instead of starting all over again, drawing a new picture – he just switched the sides ‘top-side-down’.

Uhhhh – done! That wasn’t that hard, was it?

written by Chris

Wanted to share with you quickly some interesting reads I found recently on the web:

The Case For De-Cluttering Your Life Right Now

Over at Brave New Traveler, which always has great, original and inspiring write-ups about travel in the 21st century, Jenn DiPiazza wrote a great article about the ‘hoarding and gatherers instinct’, which is still somehow in most of us. The thing is that we collect more and more ‘stuff’ during our life, which makes us more ‘im-mobile’ and fixed to a certain location. You amass a lot of useless things, waste plenty of money and end up needing more and more space for it.

written by Chris

Over the last few years, some countries in Asia made it more and more difficult for long-term tourists (or none-working Expats) to stay longer than just a few months in country. Thailand only recently made their Visa Rules more difficult and complicated; before that monthly Visa Runs to the neighbouring countries were quite common.

Indonesia introduced a Visa-On Arrival (VOA) for maximum 30 days with respective fees only back in 2004 – before you could get a 3 months stamp for free. The bureaucratic processes to attain and extend a Social Visa are legendary. Although there were some rumours of longer VOA (up to 120 days) a few months back, those have yet to materialize.

written by Chris

Awhile ago we were discussing, if it’s a wise or safe decision to fly a Budget Carrier long-haul. However your opinion is about that subject – luckily time didn’t stop and some of the usual suspects seem to follow through with the idea.

Even if you don’t like the idea to fly long-distance or intercontinental flights with a no-frills airline; it surely would mean more competition and hopefully lower prices for all of us.

So what’s the news?

It seems that there is some movement in the sector, Asian Aviation pioneer Tony Fernandes looks like he’s teaming up with creative aviation individualist Richard Branson, to really make cheaper long-distance flights possible for everyone.

written by Chris