Back from Vietnam!

I am back in good (c)old Germany! Berlin these days is freezing cold with an average temperature of minus 10°C. Quite hard to adjust when you left Bangkok and Saigon with 34°C but those are the breaks... YES, it's still winter in Europe!

Now here I am sitting at home in Berlin, drinking Vietnamese instant coffee with sweet milk, turned the heater on the full blast and recalling my sweet memories of Vietnam. At this point I am always glad having a travel diary with me when I am on the road.

I've dreamt of Vietnam

...since I was 15 and watched the French movie "Indochine" with Cathrine Deneuve and Vincent Perez for the very first time. Deneuve portrayed a French woman who lived in Vietnam during the French domination in Indochina from mid-19th to mid-20th century. One of the movie scenes was shot in the  magnificent Halong Bay, a spectacular seascape in the Golf of Tonkin which was hardly known by tourists before:

Picture was taken during our Halong Bay Cruise

Another scene shows the impressive forbidden purple city - the citadel of Hué:

One of the temples inside the forbidden purple city

The Krispy Kreme Kraze in Bangkok

Thais crazy about Krispy Kreme   

Bangkok, 02. February 2011

After having lunch with Meao’s family, Meao took me to Siam Square which is a very popular shopping area among Thai and foreign visitors. While having coffee at Starbucks Meao told me about the new Krispy Kreme Shop next to Starbucks which opened few months ago and that Thais are really nuts about it. People were camping outside the mall 2 days before the first shop at Siam Paragon opened and until today they are lining up for 2 hours just to get some donuts. Thais became so obsessed with Krispy Kreme that some people got the idea of reselling their box of donuts to those who doesn’t want to line up for hours. Of course with surcharge!

My Chinese New Year’s Eve in Bangkok

Bangkok, February 2, 2011

My first visit in Bangkok lasted 24 hours and for a tourist an unusual visit.  Unsual because I haven’t visit any of those famous cultural attractions like the Grand Palace or Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram. I haven’t planned anything what to do or what to see because my visit had another purpose. I stopped in Bangkok just to meet my boyfriend’s best friend back in College in Brisbane. Meao (her Nickname) studied with Kevin at QUT few years ago. I only know her by hearsay and facebook and after six years I finally got the chance to meet her in person on my way to Vietnam. An opportunity I couldn’t miss out and so I decided stay in Bangkok for a day before flying to Vietnam to meet Kevin in Hanoi.

Batang Biyahera is online now!

Batang Biyahera a blog for travel, photography and food is finally online!
If you have improvement suggestions don't hesitate to contact me. I'd be glad to improve my "blogging" skills. In anticipation of the fact that I'm not a native English speaker...sorry for my bad English! I'm trying to improve that too! ;-)


xoxo from Berlin
Tin2