My Journey - Summer 2009


Collecting some texts/stories here that I've written mostly during the process working on Roots of Coincidence - Vietnam & Beyond, and which were revised by Teresa. However, later we decided to leave them out from the book (not to make the book feel too much like a blog), so that only Teresa's poems would accompany my photos.



Northern Vietnam


The first few days, I spent in the bustling city of Hanoi. Then, I took a one-day trip to serene and captivating Halong Bay. On my way there, I decided that I would look for a bicycle after this trip. I traveled by bus from Halong Bay to Hai Phong where I then stayed for two days. In Hai Phong, I got tremendous support from a friend who helped me to find a hotel, showed me around town, helped me to organize my journey on the bike, and helped me find necessities for my travel that would have taken me days to find since there were no shopping malls around, as most of us know them. When I finally got on my bicycle and started to ride on Vietnam's roads, I felt a sense of freedom. It was just me and an entire country waiting to be discovered by me.

In the late afternoon, short before it would turn dark, I arrived in Ninh Binh. Later, when I found a lovely hotel room and wanted to go for a little walk, there was a blackout in the city. For about fifteen minutes, I was surrounded by a stunning evening scene.

The next day was hot and sunny. I continued on my journey and I was just feeling great. Occasionally, I would take necessary breaks during which I met many kind and helpful people. I had my dinner at a small, but lovely restaurant in the middle of the countryside along the Hanoi-Saigon Road.

Meanwhile, a mechanic was struggling to fix the spokes of the bike. As I was eating, the owners and guests in the restaurant communicated to me with smiles. Then, two guys began to speak to me in English and others tried to speak to me in Vietnamese. In the end, I didn't have to pay for my food though I attempted to. I still wanted to pay for my broken rice-bowl which I felt sorry about, but they refused with a smile. When I returned to my bike and tested it, the mechanic’s little son cheered. I was happy that the elderly mechanic had finally completed his job. I payed him for his work, exchanged heart-felt goodbyes with them and continued on my journey. The hot sun was shining brightly. However, I noticed dark clouds approaching from behind as I rode into a small city. As I was riding in the same direction as the wind, I felt that I was "flying" through the city, outrunning the dark clouds. Soon, I was riding in a slightly different direction, the clouds to the left of me.

While at the borders of the city, I felt raindrops trickling on my skin and seeked shelter at the side of the road in a "tuck-shop" that looked like some kind of garage. Heavy rain pounded down on the tin roofs.

An hour later, the rain stopped and there was a sudden sense of calmness. I could continue my journey along very bumpy and then dusty roads. I worried a bit about the bike, because of the bumpiness of the road. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the ride along the exquisite landscape. Again, due to problems with my bicycle's broken spokes, I had to find help and came upon a Café on a woody hill where the afternoon sunlight shined through radiantly. The owner of the Café came along with two grippers and together we improved the situation. He also gave me tea to fill up my bottle for free. One of the nice things that happened that day was that I wasn't asked to give money for things.

I left the Café and a wonderful ride downhill followed with the sunset right beside me and its reflections on the water of the fields. I was filled with delight and expressed my joy with a shout of "Woooooo!" as the moment continued its escalation of beauty before my eyes. Along the road, I saw some kind of building that looked like a hotel and wondered whether I could stay there for the night, since I wanted more time to take in this lovely sight and knowing it would turn dark soon. However, I zoomed by too quickly, missed it and figured that I would find another lodging along the road.

I stopped for a moment to shoot the sunset and fields. As I was just about to continue my ride, a Van suddenly stopped next to me. Inside were three young guys who asked me if I wanted to get in. At first I hesitated, since I was in a cheerful mood and had energy to bike more kilometres, but then I decided to ride in the Van. It had turned completely dark when, about 30-45 minutes later, we arrived in Thanh Hóa where I was dropped off next to a hotel.

On the second day, I rode my bicycle most of the way, then, for about 15-20 km, traveled by car to arrive at my destination in the town of Thanh Hoa known for its seaside resorts. My journey had taken me through broken bicycle spokes, heavy rains, a spectacular sunset and meetings with strangers. The entire day was filled with generosity from the people around me. At the end of the day, I was pleasantly surprised by such an accumulation of unexpected gestures.


Mưa


I met these children on the street of a smaller city, some tens of kilometers down south of Hoi An. I was smiling with the kids and took a couple of pictures. Soon, a dozen older women came out of a temple on the other side of the street. Then, an old man came across the street towards me. He seemed to smile, so I smiled back at him. Later, when I looked at the photos I had taken of him, I felt different about his "smile", it looked more like an agonized expression then. He had revealed to me an empty eye-socket behind his eye-patch, of which he wanted me to take pictures.
When I took the pictures, I didn't notice the eye-socket; it was rather dark and raining. I wanted to be there for only a few moments to get some bread and to come in from the rain and to leave again on my bicycle.

Unfortunately, I deleted the photos of the man later, because they frightened me for some reason. I speculated that, perhaps, he wanted to show me his war injury, since I'm caucasian and might, in theory, be a descendant of those who came and bombed his nation's land and left 3 to 4 million Vietnamese dead.

Not so far away from this city, something abhorrent took place on March 16, 1968, which later became known as the My Lai Massacre: a mass murder conducted by a unit of the U.S. Army, in which about 500 unarmed citizens, all of whom were civilians and a majority of whom were women, children, babies, and elderly people were killed.

The next day, I saw the heaviest downpour and just felt very uncomfortable all day. I needed a lot of motivation to bike from Nui Thanh to Quang Ngai in order to catch a train out of this predicament. When I was in Quang Ngai in the afternoon, I ended up on a street where my feet were ankle-deep in water while I was still on the bike and the rest of the city was also drenched.

Next day, all I could think of was leaving. The young lady at the hotel greeted me with an enthusiastic, "Hello, Good morning, Sir!" Her friendliness encouraged me to ask her where to find the train. Unfortunately, that seemed all she could say in English. So, I drew lines that depicted rails and added the typical crossbeams. She indicated that she got what I meant and wrote down the address for me and directions on how to get there. I payed and left for the other side of town. As it turned out, I arrived at the bus station. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that I could put the bicycle on the bus, so I continued my quest to find the train station. At an internet café, I succeeded by using the online translator for Vietnamese which I showed the owner. I traveled back from where I came from, passed my hotel and about 300 meters later, on the same street as the hotel I was in - there it was, the train station! I went there and found out that the only train for that day had just left... so I had to wait until the next day in this hot, rainy, damp city. So, it turned out that the train station I was looking for was just a few meters away from the hotel where I started from. So, I had to stay one more day in this rainy and damp city.


South Vietnam


The train, which provided me shelter from the rain as well as time off from biking, took me to Nha Trang. I spent my day in the sun, until dark clouds came. This time I didn't get all wet from a heavy downpour, instead I enjoyed a short swim in the ocean. Only in the evening some rain came.

I have beautiful memories from my ride to the coastal site, Ca Na. The same counts for the morning after. It was sunny and there were fewer people all morning than I met at the hotel at night. Soon after I was back on the bike I felt exhausted though, which I noticed soon through the heavy headwind from the sea, which expected me after Ca Na. I decided to take another break for a day in Phan Thiet, which I reached by the end of the day. I met many friendly people there and enjoyed my stay. From Phan Thiet it took me two days more with about 100 kilometers per day, until I reached Vietnam's old capital Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City, as it is officially called today.

During my last two days on the bicycle, I thought of selling it in Saigon, as I was feeling more and more exhausted. When I got there I realized how helpful it still can be, without having to take taxis and each time bargain for the price. So I kept it and used it to follow friends, when they showed me around town, mainly to different restaurants..

When I left Saigon, after a few days there, I took the bicycle with me on the bus to Da Lat. The mountains, woods and fresh air inspired me to decide biking again all the way to Nha Trang. However I didn't make it to Nha Trang on the bike, as it broke along the way - in the mountains, in the woods, in the rain, and in the dark - at the end of a rather mixed, but then enjoyable day. By the time the bicycle gave up I felt in peace, so that what eventually had happened to the bike didn't shock me much. Not too long after the incident a Van stopped for me and took me to a place next to Nha Trang. There I found a small but suffocating room for the night. Suffocating on one hand because the temperatures in Da Lat were comparatively much cooler than in the lowlands, on the other hand because there was no air-conditioner, instead only a tiny window next to the street, which ultimately provided the room with hot, thin air. It was a hot and sunny day when I got to Nha Trang in the morning - on a motorbike, the bicycle pushing next to me. I didn't have the time to think about enjoying the beach again and just took the next train to Hanoi.


Back in the North - Núi
(this part wasn't thoroughly thought-out anymore, because at that time we decided to leave out the text...)


Back in Hanoi I missed my plane the following day, due to lack of preparation, but also due to lack of an organized public transportation system. I wanted to go back home by train. Arrived in Sapa/North Vietnam I had to realize that it might be easier and not necessarily more expensive to take a plane, because visa for China & Russia are not cheap and take days to get them, plus one has to get them in the capital of the country you're at (which for me would have meant back to Hanoi). After a couple of days in beautiful Sapa, I went on a two days bus ride through bumpy roads of the mountains of North Vietnam. to end up in East Laos. After a boat trip and another two bus rides to the capital of Laos, I decided to go to Bangkok, from where I wanted to find a plane back home. I changed my mind and took a plane to Singapore. After a couple of days there I went to Kuala Lumpur by bus and after a three-day stay got on my plane and left for Germany.

A little adventure - Da Lat and the "Jungle"

Da Lat/Vietnam - 19.09.2009

I felt to finally share my - to me kind of exciting - experiences from my last hours on my last day on the bicycle in Vietnam (btw, if you don't want to read it all but still are interested, feel free to scroll down a bit, for the 2nd half/the adventure part..).

The day was mixed. It still was raining season. It started as a sunny and warm day up in Da Lat. Actually beautiful, but I already had put myself under stress, because I still had some things to do before leaving. I had to get me another vaccination from the dog bite back in Saigon. There was a hospital close to my hotel, but it turned out they didn't have the vaccination. So it was not the first time that I had to head for the other side of town in Vietnam for a certain reason, in this case successfully though. And Da Lat is luckily not so big either.

On my way back to the hotel I found a mechanician who fixed up my bike a bit. Something I could have done in Saigon already, as I had time there. But firstly it was hard to find a bike shop there (didn't see even one) and secondly I wasn't sure if I actually would jump on the bike again at all. Since I was so relieved to have made it to Saigon alive and told myself still back on the bike I wouldn't do so anymore. In Da Lat I decided that I would take the bike to Nha Trang and from there take the train to Hanoi. So already the day after my arrival in Da Lat I would be leaving again.

The repairman exchanged the five gear-wheels - which another repairman put on the bike, one day before arriving in Saigon (the old one didn't spin anymore) - with the fitting seven gear-wheels. The other guy didn't have the ones with seven, so he gave me this one with just five. But none of them, not unlike any other mechanician I've met on my journey, could help me with another problem I've had all the way through Vietnam. Which was that I couldn't use the smallest gears of the front gear-wheels. Which are a big advantage at hills. I FINALLY would figure that out by myself the same last day! Maybe something about this lead to the collaps of the gear shift though. But to that later.

I had my breakfast while the mechanician did his job and when I returned it was done. I went to the hotel, packed my stuff, payed and left. Hm, at first the wrong path though. The receptionist from the hotel gave me a copy from the city-map, but I thought I take a small short cut and end up on that route. Unfortunately that was not the case. I think I was also on the road to Nha Trang then, but it wasn't 'that one'. I heard that one of the two roads were completely new and I thought I better try to get to the one the kind lady at the hotel suggested (hopinng that's the new one). So a bit back into the city, some fixing of my baggage and when I left the city it was already noon. Short before the road to Nha Trang, on the borders of the city, I felt I had to stop for some food and quickly have lunch. But the place I found only had drinks, so I just had me another one of the amazing Vietnamese coffee.

So then, there it was, the road to Nha Trang. I wondered "Am I really right here?!". I only saw a small road in the midst of some trees, it seemed not much bigger than the eye of a needle, so I felt a little uncomfortable. But asking people seemed to confirm I was on the right track. On the other hand, I came to Da Lat to see the woods and nature and here I seemed to get that. The other road seemed to offer mainly just lowlands, with many fields, but very few trees. Here I would get my adventure, I thought. After a few kilometres gradually the road got a little bigger. Then I saw some workers on the road and finally I was on an entirely new road! And that in the midst of this mountainous and woody area. The funny thing though was that it seemed I had it all for myself. Most of the time there were very few vehicles around (at least that day).



In the afternoon, probably around 4 p.m. I had my last break, with a tea, a banana and some sweet stuff. That's where this girl suddenly stared at me... at first kind of reserved, but then she smiled a lot. So cute! I was back on the road with a huge smile on my face.

But finally to what mainly comes to my mind when I think of this day and which makes it special to me: the "adventure".

I continued my journey up and down the hills of this beautiful region. I felt a bit uncomfortable again about the fact that I could not use the smallest gears here and figured I could give it a try losen and tighten this certain screw a bit there. I actually thought it has to be possible somehow to improve this thing. At a small village (one of the very few around) I asked people if they have tools for this. There were kids/juvenils standing around and one of the grown ups brought along something and after a few minutes I HAD IT! I could use the entirety of the 21 gears. I felt a bit silly though and blamed myself for not having tried just this much earlier. Since I had some other hills to climb as well much earlier in Vietnam, as evident in this video:


(this was between Hué - Ca Na - Da Nang - until after Hoi An)

{v. V} The Roots of Coincidence from Yves Schiepek on Vimeo.

So, back on the road, doing some more hills and soon the next rain came. Actually for the third time that day! As I said earlier, it was a very mixed day. And since after noonday there were mostly dark clouds on the sky. It was short before six, and during my time in Vietnam I had to realize that somebody switches off the light at 6 p.m. sharp! So hmm, there I was... still riding the bike, it's raining on me, dark suddenly... but I was smiling (just as right now writing and remembering this). Actually I was smiling even more when it was dark then. Everything got so quiet. And I found my rhythm on the bike. There was only me, my breathe, the nature and sounds coming from nature, such as from the rain and what I saw from..... what felt to me as "Jungle". I was in the midst of the woods, surrounded by trees, riding beside a river. Really beautiful. I regreted that I couldn't see this during daytime. (Later I was told that particularly this area is amazingly beautiful in the early hours of the day.)

Oh, and besides my bicycle didn't have any lights, so when I wanted to see something more clearly, I had to use my tiny neon torch light. This was the case when suddenly my bike was in an open loop. Something was wrong. At first I thought maybe I just have to put the bicycle chain back on the gear-wheels. But my torch light showed the unavoidable... an essential part of the gear shift was broken. Impossible to continue... and I thought it would be hard to find a mechanician not only in Nha Trang, but in Vietnam who could fix that (so I didn't even lose a thought on this endevour). Since most mechanicians specialize on fixing motorbikes (for good reasons), or at least don't put silly gear-shifts on bicycles.

(I took this picture in Tanh, 10 km before Nha Trang,
short before I found my stay for the night..

didn't dare to take out my cam in the rain when it actually happened)

So now here's the funny part left to tell. And I don't know if anybody's gonna believe it. It was dark, still raining, but most of all, I didn't remember having seen (m)any cars at all in a while. And yet I was only smiling about my situation. Pushing my bike and thinking... well, not thinking much... just watching and listening... I was in peace. Also it was still only after 6 p.m., maybe short before 7. Even tough it felt like deep night the evening was still young, so I had no worries yet. And even though I soon afterwards had to realize that the next village was about 20 km away. I was still pushing the bike up the hill when suddenly a bus came along. An overland bus. Actually even from the same travel agency I came to Da Lat with. They stopped for me and I asked if they can take me. They said yes and told me what it would cost me. It was twice the price I payed for my journey from Saigon to Da Lat, with a distance of more than 300 km and here there were only 40-50 km left to Nha Trang. I tried to beat down the price for a moment. But they just saw me in my situation and probably thought that I would HAVE TO accept. Well... they were wrong! :D They were two guys, and what would I give to see their expressions again now! Or know their thoughts when I took my bike to walk my way in the rainy night... in the middle of nowhere.

Hm, ok... everything came to a sudden end when only 10-20 metres farther or so a Van came and they took me (I was relieved though). For half the price. The guys with the overland bus were still standing there.

In the Van I had to realize that it was only maybe about 300 metres more up the hill and then the next huge distance was downhill nearly exclusively. That was about 30 kilometres........ And after the mountains there was mostly only lowlands. So if the bike would have made it these few metres more uphill, maybe I would have made it to Nha Trang the same night on the bike. But yeah, besides, most of the time I wondered where I would end up that day... how far I would make it. Actually earlier I figured Nha Trang wouldn't be possible to reach anymore.

To summarize:
- I rode with a fixed/working gear shift of the bicycle for maybe about ten kilometres (out of nearly a thousand)
- it totally breakes at the hill, short before it goes downhill entirely

Fun times! ;-)

The guys with the Van didn't go directly to Nha Trang, so it was 10 km before Nha Trang in a small city called Tanh where I found my stay for the night, in... (apologies for saying that...) a rat hole. It felt like 40°C at night, maybe it was 30°C. There was only an electric fan and a small window, or rather a whole in the wall, that seemed not to let air in, but just gases and noise from the street. Well, actually such places are only for Vietnamese, the government wouldn't allow tourists to see them, but I asked people on the street and they showed me this. I think there wasn't even a proper hotel around.

(from Da Lat to Nha Trang - plus Sapa)

{v. VIII} Easy Rider 0.5 from Yves Schiepek on Vimeo.

Next morning (20.09.2009) I tried to find a vehicle to take me to Nha Trang. Unfortunately the urban bus wouldn't take me, so I decided to stand at the street and hope for a car to stop. It was an amazingly hot day, not quite enjoyable in the blazing sun. There were very few cars, just lots of motorbikes. I didn't imagine how it would work with the bike on a motorbike. I started walking, it was just 10 kms to Nha Trang afterall. But then this guy stopped and offered to take me there. He didn't want money, he wasn't one of those who make a living by riding tourists around on their bikes and try to rip them off then. Although I started to doubt about his intend when he didn't ask me where I wanted to jump off in the city of Nha Trang. But then he stopped somewhere and I offered him some money, which he refused with a smile. He actually showed me in the direction where I could find a mechanician (although I didn't ask for that), but didn't find anything there. I asked another guy, but he showed me in another direction. So some doubts remained.

My walk to the train station and the time afterwards is an unpleasant memory. It was hot, I barely could sleep the night before, I didn't get me a proper breakfast, the cash machine didn't work to get money for my train ride; asking at the train station I was told about this cash machine, they wouldn't believe that it doesn't work.. I gave up on this and realized I should have lunch. There I met a student, the son of the restaurant owner, who I asked about a bank. It was quite a bit away from there, so he brought me there on his motorbike. He also was one of those nice guys you can find sometime in Vietnam, that exclusively want to help and are happy about the company and speaking english with somebody, so he refused to take money too. Which I offered him when we arrived at the train station. On the train everyone seemed to just smile at me there. Happy people, I was happy again too.

after I took some pics of her, she started to do the catwalk.. =)

Rain, rain, rain...

In Nui Thanh, I was in the midst of the worst rain I had seen in Vietnam. Two days before that I was riding the bike happily through the rain for about two hours (which was at the end of a rather sunny day) and felt great, but the next day all I saw was heaviest rain and I just felt very uncomfortable all day. I needed lots of motivation to actually make it to Nui Thanh, in order to catch a train from there (out of this mess).

Arriving in the city I ended up on a street where my feet were ankle-deep under water for a moment (while still being on the bike of course) and the rest of the city didn't look much better.

Next day all I could think of was leaving...... the young lady in the hotel greeting me with an excellent "Hello, Good morning Sir!" (or sth. like that), left me thinking I can ask her where I can find the train station. Unfortunately that seemed all she can say in english. So I ended up drawing lines that should depict railes and added the typical crossbeams. She gave me to understand that she got what I meant and wrote down the adress for me and how I get there. I payed for my room and left for the other side of town, as it turned out: the bus station. Well, I didn't have the idea back then that one could put the bicycle on the bus... so I tried to find out where the train station is. At an internet café I succeeded (using the online translater for vietnamese and showed the owner). So back from where I came from.. passing my hotel and about 300 metres later - in the same street as the hotel I was in - there it was, the train station. Went there and had to find out that the only train for that day just had left... so I had to wait till next day. In this hot, rainy, damp city.

When I got back at the same hotel I blamed the lady to have pointed me not to the train station, but the bus station, which I didn't ask for and asked her to give me the room for a better price - saying I got stuck there for one more day only because of her (maybe I shouldn't have blamed her though..). So I payed slightly less of the actual price. Next day when I finally wanted to leave she wanted to make me understand as though I still had to pay for two nights! They brought a guy along who speaks english and should clarify that it was just about this. I told them that I payed already - and I think nobody of them did doubt that - and left.


Lots of the footage from my video here was taken in, before and after this day. Also from the train after leaving the city.

Halong Bay

I found out about Halong Bay just two days before I left Germany and thought I had found something rare and special. Well, that was the case. Back then didn't imagine though that there would be this much tourism going on...

The same morning - during the first (boring) minutes on a too small bus - I had decided to try to find me a bicycle after this short trip. Being on one of these tourist-boats, with happy, enthusiastic or nagging westerners (knowing I was one of them), only could confirm me in my decison.

(the day I posted this on flickr, I realized that I have a photo from the same spot as on the linked page above!:p)

If you intend to ever go to Halong Bay, or especially Cat Ba, always know how much money you hand out. Some vendors tend not to give any change..... NO matter how much you gave them! It's almost hilarious.. I heard some stories like this and I made one experience myself.

Gladly I wasn't on the island for long.. only for a minute, to get me a bottled water. I gave the young lady my money, but her, being polite at first (saying thanks) & smiley, wanted to insist that the money I gave her was the adequate price (was about two Euros difference though).

girl with the wonderful smile

Taken somewhere on a street in Hanoi... I saw her walking with her brother and an umbrella in her hand (to protect from the sun). Asked them for a picture, they both gave me the biggest smiles, and I walked my way. Turning around again and waving goodbye to both. Maybe two of the loveliest kids I've met on my journey, as I feel now... even if it was only such a short moment, but they just "aired" so much happiness and lovelieness...... which too made me happy even more that lovely noonday.

Unfortunately her brother was standing in the blazing sun, so I had to crop the photo this way..

A friends comment recently pointed me that she looks more like Chinese. I then concluded that maybe they were visiting relatives, so that their holidays explained their happiness...

In search of a smile

I didn't know what kind of hospital this was when I got there. It just seemed not to be an ordinary one. I thought it might have been one for victims of Agent Orange (I saw a very deformed child in Saigon.. this might have been from A.Orange.. that was shocking..), but after I took these shots I found this poster:

www.operationsmile.org/

After I saw the poster I asked the guard whether it was possible to go in for taking some pictures. I was quite touched before asking him, not being sure what it would be like to take pictures of these kids. He said no. So I left... and next day I left Hanoi.

When I was back about four weeks later, I wanted to give it another shot... I had something in my mind which I could have said to get in.. maybe something like that I want to write an article about it. Anyways, it was just the very last day, the day I had to leave back to Germany, when I wanted to go there again, so I wouldn't have much time. I thought I could go there for a min. or two, on my way to the bus. I imagined when I would take the pictures and meet these children, I might leave Vietnam with a smile - I was in pursuit of a smile that day actually. The plane would go after 5 p.m. and I left the hotel before noon. I just walked in the direction from where I knew the hospital is.. although I wasn't sure where exactly it is (just remembered some points). Plus, I thought that was the same direction from where I came on my first day - where I jumped from the bus that came from the airport (well that was wrong).

In short, I missed the hospital (didn't find it again).. I walked past in this direction, hoping to find the bus, coming from the centre. So I left the centre towards the wrong direction. About three hours before the plane would take off I found somebody in a shop who spoke english and I asked her to tell the taxi driver to bring me to a bus, which would take me to the airport (I didn't see the necessity yet to let the taxi bring me the 15 kms to the airport.. and then fight about the much too high price). He brought me to where I started, right in the centre. There were small buses (no public transport to the airport). The guy asked me when my plane would take off - which was two hours before that - i told him, and finally 45 min. later he would start the ride (after I knocked on the window, showing on my clock). Hm, on the bus I thought it might get short of time slowly. But then I thought if they bring people to the airport every day, they should know! Nevertheless he took his time. Some traffic jam as well in the city. But he remained cool (I tried to). We were at the airport about 20 min. before my plane would take off. I thought (not having the experience) that this should be enough to check in and hop on the plane. I was wrong again.

You can guess, my personal "mission smile" for that day failed. And yet I didn't regret it. When I left asia three and a half weeks later, I was really ready to leave.. and so glad to get back home. I left with a smile.

About a boy

Between Ca Na and Phan Thiet
(Friday, 11.09.2009)

I met the little boy and his family on a sunny, but very windy day around noon. Later there also was a bit of rain too. The day (which you can see at the beginning of my video) had started just wonderfully, since at first the wind didn't bother me much. But later after a couple of kilometres on the bicycle it did. The wind came straight from the ocean and hit me undamped. When I had to climb some hill, I started to feel lousy. Finally on top of the hill I was happy to see some of those huts, one after the other, where they sell drinks and where I could refresh myself (short before this I had stopped again for a moment and recorded the scenes after those at the beach in the video).

There were about five of those huts, one after the other, and after pondering where to stop, I got it easier then, when I saw two kids playing in the distance in the last one. Easier not only because I love kids and the interaction with them, but also because sometimes I just felt uncomfortable when there were only grown ups in such places, and the way they sometimes would observe me, not speaking english etc., or other times getting a bit too importunately. But of course I've also had many positive experiences, when it was very relaxed or even fun.

But to the boy, I don't know, I just liked him. In fact, it wasn't difficult not to like him. Anyhow, at a certain point in Vietnam I met people, children, who when I took a picture of them, very soon asked for money. I started to feel a bit uncomfortable about it then when kids were just smiley, because they could sense and pronounce the word dollars. To be honest, I didn't always give money. This time it was different. I thought about how much I would give for the boy. Just "coins" of course (even if it's tens of thousands in vietnamese money). I even felt like giving him a hug, before leaving. But instead of the hug, I took him up and shook him a little bit. In a kind way of course. He smiled. His father smiled at me too. I smiled back to both of them. Happy End................ no, not entirely.

Thereupon his father showed me the boy's feet. I was quite shocked to see how deformed they were (if you dare, you can have a look here). Also since I didn't notice it before. The father tried to make me understand that they need money to feed him. I wanted to give something, so I did. Even if suddenly I was expected to do so. Anyway, I payed my drink and gave a little extra for them too, additionally to the "coins" I gave for the boy. While I gave the father the money I asked him how this happened, by showing on a motorbike.. the father intimated that it had not to do with a motorbike. I didn't ask again. I had a vague feeling that he didn't want to tell, or didn't feel well with the question, altough he smiled.

The family was just preparing for lunch when I wanted to leave. I was quite hungry as well actually, and didn't know when there would be the next restaurant. I had everything ready and wanted to leave and the moment I waved goodbye, the father offered me to stay and eat with them. I hesitated for a moment, but then joined them. I was glad. So I had lunch with the two kids, the parents, one granny; the grandfather did not join them.. but then a bit later another older woman came. I supposed maybe the sister of the grandmother or grandfather (probably the latter).



Soon I noticed this grandaunt's peg leg. She even presented it with a smile. It was in some kind of rain gutter. Later that day I tried to interpret the whole scene. Or rather, the family's, and the boy's story in particular. I imagined that the boy's scar might not have happened by accident, but might have done intentionally. Possibly to make travellers feel pity for the boy and through this, give money more easily. The family lives in really poor conditions (such as many people I met during my travels, especially in Vietnam). I imagined how just this might have worked very well for years for this grandaunt. Who by the way and to be honest, couldn't touch my feeling for sympathy. Actually how I saw the family then, I was reminded of some classic tragedy. And for me there was the "bad" aunt. The parents of the boy, the sister and the grandmother seemed really likeable. The grandfather kept aloof from the family, even during lunch. I felt he was very unhappy. I interpreted it later as a possible feeling of guilt. Possibly for what he might have done to his grandson. Maybe the parents and the grandmother (probably his wife) couldn't seem to really forgive him for what he had done. Even though they knew it would be "better" for the family, in a way that it would mean more money for them. But even more, he didn't seem to be able to forgive himself. Maybe he couldn't put it all to (who I picture as) his sister, the grandaunt. Maybe the rest of the family didn't even know that it was all the grandaunt's idea. - Well, if it really was. - Since she moved within the family so freely and easygoingly. Or maybe they know, and she just deals with it differently, only seeing the benefits from it.

A wonderful morning + Video

Ca Na - Phan Thiet
(Friday, 11.09.2009)

This is kind of a continuation from my earlier post, it was the day afterwards.

The first scenes in the video (below) were recorded out of the window that I had for that night. Although my feeling that morning and the memories I had afterwards were much more lovely than what you see there. It was gorgeous. There are just things you cannot capture on video, like waking up surrounded by sunlight, hearing the ocean, feeling good about the fact that you got there all by yourself, having endured all obstacles, wind, rain, heat, bike problems etc.



When I arrived at the beach, about one or two km after the place I had for the night, I really loved it. I didn't really care about how I record with the camera... just wanted to capture a bit of the mood from the moment. Something similar actually applies to the rest of the video. There was some partly rather funky traffic (two days later near and in Saigon) I had to keep my eyes on (maybe that was also the reason that I sometimes held the camera the wrong side around and accidentally recorded myself). ;)

Vietnam on the Move from Yves Schiepek on Vimeo.

Lễ Cô Hồn/Wandering Souls day

Hué.. and beyond.

(Wednesday 02.09.2009)

It was an interesting morning. Actually it didn't go about quite perfectly, until I found this lovely place, where the people of the village outside of Hué - which is in the middle of Vietnam - celebrated their " Lễ Cô Hồn/Wandering Souls day" or "Offerings for the Dead day".

I arrived in Hué the night before, by train. I came from Thanh Hoa, after having travelled by bicycle for a couple of kilometres, starting in Hai Phong. I wasn't sure whether I should do some sightseeing in Hué or not. I only knew that it was famous for its tombs. Then I thought it probably would be more interesting to meet people that actually are alive. So I decided against staying. Also because I had just spent about a day (12 hours) on the train and wanted to jump back on the bicycle to see the country (not only from a moving window) and approach my (first) destination, Saigon, which was still pretty far. Later I heard a couple of times from people telling me about how quiet and beautiful Hué should be...

My first experience before leaving the city was lovely. After leaving the guesthouse I saw a woman selling the infamous sugarcane. ;) I had to stop. There was a cute girl, who was pretty funny, running around and so. :) Sugarcane is basically a trunk that squeezed out gives a sweet juice that you can drink without any additional ingredients. Only ice is naturally being added, in those hot parts of Asia. The first time trying, introduced to me by Tam back in Hai Phong, I felt it tastes like some non-alcoholic cocktail. A moment later I pictured myself returning to Germany with some trees on my shoulder. But I finally had to give up on this thought, since the machine for the sugarcane is heavier than dozens of these trunks. =)

One of the next things was what since then I remember as "Alcatraz Plaza". Virtually just a shopping centre. The tough thing was not to get out, but to get in! In short, it took me a couple of minutes getting up to the supermarket. I came with the bicycle and the first problem was where I can park it. I was adviced to another place twice. After I finally was inside and arrived at the 2nd floor of the shopping mall, in front of the supermarket, I could espy the food department, where I wanted to go. I tried to enter. - Not allowed. - I had to go to the 3rd floor and then from inside the supermarket go back down to the 2nd floor. Arrived at the 3rd floor I wasn't allowed to enter either... not with my helmet! I was kindly ordered to lock it in, some 20 metres besides the entrance. I wondered what I could possibly hide in the helmet. But rule is rule. So for a second I thought about locking it in, then entering, fighting myself through the crowds down to level 2, buying my bottle of water and some fruits, coming back to level 3 to pick up my helmet and then finally being able to leave - and the morning was in its later hours already - but I decided to leave immediately. Actually hilarious... if it wouldn't have been so sad.

Now the irony was that I probably wouldn't have got troubles with my stomach for the next couple of days, if I would have spent some hours in the supermarket (no other supermarket around), rather than buying fruits on the market on the street later, where I (stupidly) asked the saleswoman to cut the dragonfruit for me. I just wanted to eat it immediately. She used a knife that looked a bit rusty and as if never washed. Well.. *cough*, my own fault to still eat it then. So, I spent most of the following day in bed, with heavy rains all day additionally and only eating baguette all day the day afterwards (you know, the kind of baguette that makes your stomache ask you an hour later: "Where's the food?" and you think: "Ask the brain, there was something a bit earlier..."). Six of those, no other food...

But finally to how I ended up there at this ceremony, and why I was so eased with the idea to have a break (again) and at the same time witness something quite special. It was also time to have lunch soon, and maybe I could find something there, or at least close to this place. I only made it about 10-15 km outside of the city, not much at all. In between I stopped at a bike shop, checked my bicycle; back on the road, stopped for yet another break to have me yet another sugarcane drink. Again on the road I started to notice the smoke, which had been apparent already before, but slowly it began to bother me. At first I didn't see anything burning, no smoking chimneys or anything like that - saw only some smoke from a distance sometimes. Yet the smoke got so suffocating that I had to cough, put on mouth protection (which doesn't really help, only makes breathing harder) and steadily had to decrease speed, until I was slow enough to get enough O2 for my lungs to breath and still move the pedals a bit... rather than to lose consciousness and fall from the bike. This isn't much exaggerated, it felt really fatal.

It is almost impossible to use this kind of
protection and ride the bicycle/breath at the same
time, so this was the main reason for stopping, when...

... I heard some sounds and music. Actually I was really upset about the smoke meanwhile and more or less thought I'd stop just to have a quick look. But then I just felt so warm at this place I had discovered. People smiling at me. Kids running around. Something was going on, and it felt special to me. I was tired, exhausted (.. already, strangely) and then moved.

(not so well recorded, unfortunately=)

(the kids)

(before I went inside)

The Ceremony

____________________________

And then there even was some food! :0)

Hungry?

Of course the day wasn't done with that. Not long after the ceremony there was lots of rain (as seen in the first scenes of my "Vietnam & the rain"), a beautiful mountain/hill, followed by an exciting downhill ride, finding a lovely place by the sea where I stood for the night and the next day under water...

{v. IV} The Ceremony from Yves Schiepek on Vimeo.

A Great Day (videos: me in action + a proposal)

Nha Trang - Ca Na
(Thursday 10.09.2009)

The Proposal: On this lovely day I had my first proposal in Vietnam. It happened in Nha Trang, short before leaving the city, during breakfast. Well, actually it was only a kind-of proposal. The woman to the right, the younger one (she is married and has a child) asked me about whether I'm married or not and whether I plan to do so in Germany or Vietnam. I said that I'm still single and don't know. Thereupon she told me that the woman on the left (the bit older one) likes me and left space for further plans between us two.

Hm, I must admit, I liked the thought of being wanted. But after considering for a moment, I decided to give her a miss. Turned gay and then ran. I figured it just wouldn't have worked...... and probably not just because of the distance between our two countries.

(I recorded this just seconds after the lady told me)

---

The day before I had actually thought about going away from the big Hanoi-Saigon Highway for the last kilometers, but then next morning I was happy I had changed my mind in the last minute. I was very eased when I realized that after Nha Trang there were not these closely spaced houses, one after the other, that would add their smoke from, cooking or burning stuff, to the street. Even worse when it rained - something that happened every day, since the day I started on the bicycle from Hai Phong - the smoke just got stuck in the air and it would give you far worse headaches than any truck, bus or motorbike gas could give you. Again worse on the bicycle, since one simply needs more air to breath.

Instead I could enjoy the country much better and strangely just that day could smell loads of wonderful 'countryside air'. But what I didn't know, it would remain the only day I could have such fresh breezes, until Saigon-city. Around 3 pm it rained again and it seemed it would do so for the rest of the day. Especially when it looked like such hard rain as I had seen just few days before that, when it wouldn't stop to rain for one and a half days. But after an hour in the rain - during which the time seemed to flow less smoothly, endlessly slow - I was through it. To me it seemed that the dark clouds got stuck within this mountainous region, which I just was about to pass. And when I had left it, my assumption showed to be true, probably.

me in action: Here you see me while riding the bicycle. There's no special effects and I assure you I didn't just sit at home on some home trainer and put me in the video afterwards.

Actually I was not so fast. He was just kind of slow with his motorbike. Also I'm not really so tall as it might seem here, hardly anybody in Europe would consider me tall. People here in Vietnam are just a hint smaller - as you might have heard before. But yes, the proportions just seem different.

(and yes, I do look silly:p)

---

Around 6 mp I arrived in Phuoc Dan, of which I saw marks already 56 km before, and which I decided should serve as my stay for the night. I had my lunch there. Afterwards I asked for a hotel. I was told to either go to Phan Rang, where I just came from and which lies 10 km behind, or go 20 km in the other direction, where I wanted to go. Of course I didn't go back. 20 km in the dark (short after 6 pm here), I had done this before many times. Although not many times without light. Nor in a rather dangerous country, with its disorderly traffic. And also not with a mid-danger of Malaria (as it should be in this region), so one is advised to stay within closed rooms.

So to make me feel uncomfortable from the start, many many flying subjects hit my face in the dark. But gladly they must have been surprised just as me, so they didn't get the chance to bite. Maybe they even got it bad and went home with a big headache themselves, if at all. Strangely though this lasted only for about 3-5 km and then I didn't notice any insects anymore.

(Ca Na) About an hour and a half later I arrived in the place where I was told to find a hotel. A very small place. But one hotel after the other, hardly any other houses. I had no idea why and that moment didn't think much about it, being tired, but yet enthusiastic in a way, happy about my day. I asked in all of them for prices and then decided for one of the uglier ones, with the better price. But which, how I realized a bit later, is situated directly by the railways. And the street on the other side.

Having a drink outside and then hearing the big vehicles with its utterly loud horn thunder past, made me think that I wouldn't quite have fun at night at that place. I went back to a hotel where the owner offered me a special price for a room without air-condition. With it it would have been 10 $ = 180.000 vnd. I got this one for 120.000 vnd. A room with a better price you can rarely find at guest houses or hotels across the country, as foreigner.

So okay, I preferred this room, because the hotel looked better and the room is at the very end of it, so the farthest away from the street and railways. AND, it is directly at the sea/the ocean! As the owner told me after viewing and as I saw myself when I brought my stuff. Then I was just HAPPY. It was perfect!

A perfect end of a great day. And it promised to become a beautiful morning. And it became one.

2nd day of Vietnam by bike - The adventure continues

bike incidents / fast roads / sun&heat / heavy rain / the lift

Had an amazing, beautiful, interesting day. Perfect in its imperfection!


Monday 31.08.2009: Thanh Binh - Thanh Hoa


Start: 8:00 am, it's a sunny day
(notes in the notbook - 2nd breakfast 9 - 9:30 am )

- Today I decided to choose one run smaller in the gear shift, than yesterday, so that I give a higher frequency to the paddles. Through the automaticly faster breathing the muscles are being supplied better with O2. It feels more controlled and less exhausting, whileI should have the same speed.
- Just touched my backpack while riding and noticed how much it shakes all the time - even on even roads.
- The gearshift made some noise today too, so I realized that the chain has been moving sidewards too.



The bike incident

(notes on facebook - ca. 11:00 am)
- 24 hours after starting with the bike, my back wheel looks like noodle salad. Great there was a mechanician around just a couple of metres after I noticed it. And just one door further is the internet cafe where I am now.
(about 45 min. later on facebook)
- The mechanician's been doing an excellent job, it seems. Much better than the one I met yesterday, who instead of improving my little problem with the gear shift worsened it..(so then I fixed it again myself).
- Now it's almost ready again. I also fixed the two bamboo sticks - Tam's idea to let the backpack lay better on the bike..on the bamboo - with rubber band. Think like this the whole thing should move a bit less/be more stabile, so that the problem I had also hopefully shouldn't occure again so quickly.


The problem I actually had was with the crossings of the backwheel. Then I had to realize though that the mechanician had troubles with the gearshift.. they just don't often see stuff like this; if at all.



It actually looked helpless then, so I decided to go for lunch. Met very nice people again (the kids of the mechanician were fun too), had some good food and dropped a bowl. They didn't want me to pay for the food. I was very thankful.. but then I felt bad and wanted to pay them for the crushed bowl at least. They refused.

Back to my bike, it was done! We were all so happy.. and the mechanician proud. Like I said, he was great! ;) I did a few metres with the bike to see how it works and one of the boys was screaming "yaayy".. The good-bye then was very heartily - even more than just a couple of minutes earlier, when I left the small restaurant.


Fast roads

(notebook 2:30pm - 2:50 - at a small Cafe)
1:45 - 2:30 pm - was finally back on the road again, the bike incident cost me around 3 hours.
- following wind / big streets / going pretty fast - no wonder, I had a long break and a good lunch.
- the heat and the sun don't bother me


Sun & Heat

2:15 pm: - suddenly sunny again, after some min. of clouds / feels really hot now
2:30 pm: - considering the speed I had, I decided it might be wise to search the shadow for a little while / I felt like on fire / need to be carful, you never know; I'm still pretty new to this climate
- think stopping was really a good decision; now about 10 min. after arriving in the Cafe, I feel and partly look like having been under water with clothes
- the Cafe is empty. At first I thought nobody's here, but then saw the owners sleeping in the next room.
2:50 pm: less sunny again and dark clouds are coming from the direction I came - leaving the



Heavy rain

(notebook 3:50 pm / yet another Cafe)
- short after I left the Cafe one hour ago, I heard the tunder; back on the road, I was in the shining sun again
- In Ninh Binh I felt I was doing a competition with the dark clouds.. took videos again, seeing myself as winner - at the entrance of the city, they caught me / the rain got me
- I've been here in shelter from 3:15 - 4 pm
- at first there was very heavy rain, when it started, now lighter
- seeing some blue space between the clouds - heading off again at four o'clock

Ninh Binh - Thanh Hoa:
Very dusty, loud, dickey and rather dangerous road with lots of trucks. But wouldn't have wanted to miss this experience. It's part of the adventure!


Bike incident

(notebook 8 pm / at the hotel in Thanh Hoa)
5:30 pm: had "noodle sallad" again ie. the bad wheel.
- thought that would be the end of the ride for today, since there was no mechanician around and you need a special tool for this (will get me tomorrow, so that I can check it every few hours on the road)
- but with a gripper we fixed the crossings, so that I could continue my trip for a couple of kms more.
- was a nice mountainous area though and wouldn't have minded staying either


The lift

6:00 pm: Sunset
- the sunset means it's getting dark slowly (in europe we have it 3-4 hours longer bright in summer) and I should think about finding something to stay for the night
- saw a building that looked like some hotel, but passed over.. there even was internet next door / still felt good though and wanted to stay on the bike for a bit more / still would have been nice to wake up in this environment, with some awesome views.. even if there was the dirty street nearby
- but some metres farther, three young and smiley guys in a small truck stopped and suggested to give me a ride / I said ok, thinking it could be fun
since they looked nice, there didn't seem to have been danger
- felt this kind of thing also belongs to every adventure, the bike on the back of the car (maybe me too, but because of police we didn't do this) and today I got lots of it. :))
- that was about 25 km before Thanh Hoa, my secret dream destination (about 120 km away from the city I started that morning), so cosidering the distances in the cities themselves and the time I finally was on the bike altogether, I probably had between 100-115 km done today.


Tomorrow a relaxed day is planned: Looking for a bicycle shop and then taking the train down south. My muscles most probably need this break.

Hai Phong - Thanh Binh (by bike)

I finally want to share some experiences from Vietnam. I hope to write about my earlier days a bit later here.

At first, my experiences with hotels so far was: The cheaper, the bigger and more comfortable. I'm in my third hotel now (fourth when I count in the night on the boat in Halong Bay;) and I'm loving it. But there's no way to find anything even cheaper with the service the one here offers.

Right now I'm in Thanh Binh. Did my first day on the bike, from Hai Phong. Tam and me started at 10 am and I rode the bike 'till 4.30 pm. Tam is the friend who did so much for me (helped me with the bicycle and so many other stuff, I'm very thankful and still moved by her dedication and support!). This morning then she showed me the way out of the city, to the road that leads to Saigon. Wasn't too easy to find and it took quite a while to get out of Hai Phong's suburbs.

The distance I did today was approxamitely 50-60 km. Less than I would have thought, but I'm glad that everything went well. Since the bike is not so good (a bit shaky), and I don't have the kind of gear for the bike I have at home. Also my legs actually felt a bit heavy already not too long after starting and also my derriere soon felt like apple puree. The saddle is made of bamboo sticks. At least it felt like this after a while. ;)

Tomorrow I plan to get to a city from where I want to take the train for a bit then. In order to skip the middle, the poorest part of Vietnam. A suggestion from Tam. Also since I need to skip something, otherwise there wouldn't be enough time to reach Saigon and then get back to Hanoi (by train anyways) on time.

10 days to go

Today I thought about leaving my laptop here when going to Vietnam, after I went to an electronics-shop to ask about what I could do concerning the different voltage throughout the country (especially on the countryside it can differ a lot) and they showed me the smallest voltage transformator I would need. It has about the weight of three of my laptops. Later today I had the idea that, instead of taking this with me, I could simply keep my computer usage at a minimum level and use it unplugged mostly (it runs more than 8 hours with electricity). Then I could charge the battery of the laptop when it seems safe... I just checked and realized that the adapter from the laptop has a compatibility from 100-240 V anyway, so it seems it could deal with certain differences. But yes, to be be secure, I could still stick to my first idea, to use it mostly unplugged. Guess I still must think about what to do with the other gadgets I take with me. Two of them can be charged through USB, but that means that I would have the computer on. The battery of my DSLR can be charged externally, so that should be no greater problem. Well, to be continued in my next blog? No, I hope not... seems a bit silly to write about such technical problems, so I hope the next time I will find something else to write about. ;-)

Anyway, having the laptop with me surely could already make the train ride (to Frankfurt, from where the flight goes) and the 17 hours of flight a bit more varied. Would be nice to talk to some interesting people too of course. So what I thought of already is that I could do something with the filmed material I recorded 'till then, and cut together one or two mini videos. Then there will be a book, music of course and let's see if I will need more.

By the way, as for my new cam, I got it confirmed today: there's no way to find a better camera for that price by this time. =) Tomorrow I'm gonna bring it back to where I bought it though. So unless they cannot exchange it with another one, I will ask for my money back and buy the same model somewhere else (found it even cheaper in amazon). It created some strange problems already, after just these few times.


PS: Going to try another blog site again, I'm thinking now maybe I'm gonna move there. =)

PPS: Just noticed the 'gadgets' here... think I should check them out too before switching, to see what they're all about!

12 days before the flight (about pc, camera & co.)

Hi, this is my first blog of this kind. I'm starting it particularly, or exclusively, in preparation for my trip to Vietnam (starting August 23rd).

At first, if you intend to read all of this (sorry for the stream of words!;), you might check out this song.. since I'm "drifting" a couple of times. ;-)

Yesterday I received the lock for my (last week purchased) Eee PC! (If you haven't heard from Eee before, it's a baby under the laptops; but a pretty advanced one.) At first I didn't plan to take it to Vietnam, but then I thought it could be a nice thing, and could make some things easier, more comfortable and faster. At least when it comes to transferring music- and particularly saving image-data or when wanting to write something and share it. Carrying it with me is another thing though, it partly makes things a bit more difficult, less comfortable and slower; I anyway should rather not run with the computer on my back. But ok, with all the other stuff in my backpack then, it wouldn't be quite fun to run anyway. I just thought of it (needing to run) for the case I would need to catch a bus or so, and possibly having to wait for the next one for two hours if I wouldn't get it. Although, as I heard there must be quite many of them on the roads in Vietnam(?). But who knows, maybe I'm also gonna be using some other means of transportation... such as turtle or donkey. ;-)

What I wanted to say is that I'm happy about this lock for the laptop, because in the last couple of days I've been worrying a bit about all the (electronic, and in some cases just recently purchased) stuff that I want to take with me [besides the above and below mentioned, it was an mp3-Player]. So this lock eases me a bit, well at least for the Eee. And after the DSLR, the Eee is the most valuable piece of technology I would carry.

Anyhow, do you have any tips on this, taking the computer with me to Vietnam? I will just travel with a big backpack and inside there would be the laptop? Hmm, not sure yet if or how that would work! (Edit: I just received my traveler backpack, and it actually has the "ideal" space - at least it seems so - for the laptop on the outside.. I only would need to protect it a bit, and then it should be quite fine.)

@White Cube from Yves Schiepek on Vimeo.

(if you can't play this video properly, scroll down for a smaller version)

To the video. Basically it is a byproduct of my preparations for my travels. And my first experience cutting (digital) film on the computer. For my previous short movies I used my mobile-phone to record and cut. =) But yes, it's a very similar process as with the video slideshows I also did.

Actually I simply wanted to get me a low-priced compact camera, in addition to my DSLR, so that in case I'd have my 300mm lens on the camera (which is the case mostly, after I had sold my 100mm 2.0 lens*), I could simply switch to the compact camera for a wide(r) angle. I'm just mostly too lazy to change lenses. So I found this camera, a Kodak M1033, on sale - which normally already has quite a good price - as exhibit, with about 15% off. And when I noticed that it has the video mode, and even in HD... Well, I guess I just wanted me to have it. I also checked for reviews in the internet, and they were mostly pretty good. So 'till now I've rather been recording video with it, other than taking pictures. =)

*The bright lens: It was too expensive for my way of using and I wasn't so happy with it > would have prefered a 50mm, as I found out later; pity that I don't have a Canon, since they sell such bright lenses for a WAY better price.. especially the manual ones from second hand.. argh, maybe I should try again selling the Olympus when I'm back, there are some good reasons to get a Canon or Nikon.

So yes, I'm really quite happy with this camera. It even has an editing-mode (to cut the videos) - besides other nice options - so that I don't need to put the entire footage on my computer, then cut it and THEN convert it, before I can work with it in the editing program. That saves much time and effort. And also looks a bit more well-arranged in the folders, when I can seperate the videos and have many short ones, rather than a huge overlap of videos, with all the unwanted things in them: the shaking (from pressing the record-button for example) or just "meaningless"/boring footage, etc.

The quality of this video isn't great of course, since it was taken under these low light circumstances. So the ISO rate was high. Another thing about the quality is that for now I recorded everything without a tripod, in my hand. So that it shakes sometimes anyway. I want to use a tripod though in the future, as often as possible. Oh, and unfortunately do both, Windows Media Player and iMovie convert the HD 16:9 video to a 4:3 format. So yes, what you see now is actually distorted..

This one was entirely edited in W. Movie Maker. But just now I found the AVS Video Editor & Video Converter software for windows. It looks neat so far. I hope it works better than the two above mentioned, without the troubles they make in one way or another.

Why I put together a video from this night and not from my (very beautiful) day by the sea in the forest the same day, has probably to do with the fact that this material was something else for me and maybe even more that I felt it would be easier to deal with the music.

PS: Initially I wanted to use the original music for the video, which was being played that night and actually also was pretty atmospheric and interesting (I liked it), but when last night I listened to the music I finally used (Christian Scott's "Like that"), I felt a bit more inspired to do this. I guess since it equates more to my usual taste. =)


(Hm, think I should try to write less the next times... otherwise it probably even makes it harder for myself later to have an overview on what I was writing - but ok, it is not likely that I would sit at the computer in Vietnam for such a long time to share all my thoughts, and would rather make it short anyway then.)



PPS: To this Blogging site here. It seems quite nice, but what already bothers me a bit is that every too often it just doesn't want to save..... but as you see, I finally made it.