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On the way to Sicily
It is about 2300 km from Berlin to Sicily, so we cheated a bit and took the ferry from Genova to Palermo, which money-wise resulted in the same … although I cannot judge the fume-costs of the ferry. Anyway, we started with a wonderful stop-over in Munich, for some professional reasons, and the to-date highest…
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Warsaw in the woods
We had the great opportunity to drive to Warsaw and live in a dome house for the first time in my life. I’ve often seen them in articles or Airbnb listings but never had the chance to experience one myself. So… With a diameter of about 8 meters, they are quite spacious, especially if there’s…
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Tutti Matti per Colorno
This translates into “Everbody is crazy for Colorno”. It is a circus festival, or rather a festival of street and independent circus performers, and once a year it transforms the rather sleepy town close to Parma into something very special. At the heart of Colorno is a Ducale Palace, which tries to look a bit…
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From Valpolicella to Parma
One of the greatest ways to travel in Italy is by our small Bulli and AgriCamper, a similar though smaller variant of FrancePatience or Landvergnügen. It gives you a map of farms, vineyards or other rural places that offer a place to stay for the night, often for free, and the deal is typically that…
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In Valpolicella
On our trip to the festival Tutti matti per Colorno we had some “wet” camping experiences due to the crazy storms (maybe in later times we would call them “normal”) in Bavaria and the Alps in general. We tried to outrun the storms with our T5 Bulli and went to Marano in the heart of…
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Palm Oil: When jungle becomes pixels
If you look from high above, Borneo as the third-largest island in the world is green. Nature. Forest. Jungle. But if you zoom-in, the jungle turns into geometric pixels, showing that there is a human algorithm at work. Use this link to try: https://www.google.com/maps/@5.7683445,117.1430956,154324m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu Malaysia and Indonesia have become dominant players in the global palm…
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Markets of Sabah
I love markets, especially food markets, even more if I have the opportunity to cook at home. And the markets of Sabah offer an abundance of colors, smells and impressions. The permanent ones are in covered market halls or other shaded establishments, due to the heat and sun. The stall owners are typically friendly, interested…
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Running in the Jungle
Still trying to keep my running practice, I had to do it in the afternoon, in the jungle of Muru, a World Heritage Area on Borneo. Poor me. As most of the accessible jungle here, it is part of a park, and they have well-kept paths. However, running / jogging here comes with a catch:…
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Totoro in Bangkok
When M and me visited the Srinagarindra Train Night Market in Bangkok, I was deeply impressed. This is food paradise on earth. Incredible. And although I am reluctant with crickets, squid eggs or things where google translate failed, one of the highlights was a pan cake artist who created a wonderful Totoro in 8 minutes.…
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Made in Germany?
“Oh, from Germany! Muller. Brehme. But not so good anymore.”, the taxi driver said on our way to KK center. It is not so easy nowadays to be a proud German abroad. But what about the world-famous German goods with their fame for quality? Like … Cars? To be frank, on Borneo, there are times…
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Food menus and Google Translate
Google has a cool app, “Translate”, which integrates “Lense”, allowing you to take a photo or use the life camera to translate what you see, e.g. of a restaurant menu. For being in countries like Thailand, Greece, China or Japan, this is a game changer. And as there are a lot of Chinese restaurants in…
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Tip of Borneo: Tampat Do Aman
A dear friend once told me that when you travel, you realize afterward which experience was the most significant, the one that immediately comes to mind when reflecting on the trip. During our three-month journey in Borneo, mostly on Sabah, two experiences stood out, one of which was our visit to Howard’s Tampat Do Aman,…
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Our friend the Tokay
“I miss him. I would like to have him back. Now I have a mouse that wants to eat my stuff”. Said Marc, a traveler from Canada. Howard said they have 7 in their house, and they like them, as they keep everything clean. We encountered one of them in the first night, and let’s…
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Morning Run in KK
As Tamara Thiessen wrote in her Borneo Guide: “Gyms in hotels with less than a luxury rating are rare, so make the most of them when you get the chance if you are trying to keep fit while you are travelling. The heat and humidity make it tough to run outdoors.” The only chance to…
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Chicken Country
“But we are a chicken country, how can you not eat chicken? What do you want to eat here?”. At least she did not ask “why did you come here”. Malaysia is a chicken country, Borneo is a chicken island. Poor lady at a small eatery in Poring Hot Springs. The Malaysian word for chicken…
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Neighbors
If you build houses into nature, you should be ready to accept your new neighbors. So here are some.
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Lion Dance
There is a substantial Chinese community in Kota Kinabalu on Borneo, and the celebration of the Chinese New Year is an important thing. Over the two weeks of festivities, the Lion Dance is something that thrilled us, especial A M C. Have a look at the video. Special dance teams train the whole year to…
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Rain
It is somehow rainy season in Sabah (the north-western part of Borneo), so rain comes twice or three times a day. And when it comes, it is downpour. And many houses have a tin or wooden roof, so it gets quite noisy. The rain is very present. And the rain is warm. Although it cools…
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The secret of the Cats of Sabah’s short tails
The cats I know and have met in my life, almost always had their tail as decoration, indicator of mood, or for whatever reasons – full and in one peace. Even in ports in Sicily or Greece: They were meager, had spotty fur, or a dripping nose, but the tail was almost always “intact”. Not…
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Fruit of the day: Duku
You stumple upon a night market in KK specialising in Durians, and one stand had boring-looking green fruits without label, only price displayed (20 Ringgit per kilo). „Duku“ they said. How does it taste? Shrugs. How do you eat it? The man made a peeling gesture, but did not open one. So I bought half…
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Fairy tale bugs
These are some of the magical things I saw in the Borneo jungle. One is called cotton bug. The other is the lantern bug. Guide Lan showed them to us at the Kinabatangan River. Cotton Bug eggs. I would not have noticed, but Lan new. Then Cotton Bug – potentially Flatidae – fully developed. Looks…
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The fake Mantis Shrimp story
When I first saw the Mantis Shrimps encaged in PET bottles in a seafood eatery in Kota Kinabalu, I got quite angry and cursed the “animal-cruelty of the Asians”. I imagined they grow them in the bottles because – how would they otherwise fit through the small bottle-neck? This is how they grow pears in…
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Expensive Board Walk on Mabul
Mabul resort (actually Mabul Water Bungalows, as there are more than one) is quite impressive. With wonderful flowers along the houses. We visited it as a day tour from Semporna, to dive/snorkle, as our wildlife guide from Sukau (being a native Sempornan) considered it the most beautiful island in the are. The board walk of…
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Hommage to an ugly duckling
I find the Rambutan one of the least visually tempting fruits on earth. With it’s tentacly outside (or “hairy”, as literal translation from the Malaysian word) , in yellow-reddisch colors, hinting at a new cleaning device for your encrusted one-pot, the more rotten it looks, the better the inside. Having first encountered it 25 years…
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About us
We are a small traveling family with 3 kids, based in Berlin, eager to explore, experience and learn from and in the world. We try to combine traveling with our work, either through working remotely (most of the time), or through local projects. Our kids are self-learners / unschoolers / home schoolers, and our travels…