Romantische Strasse

The Romantic Road is a route that covers the southern part of Germany from Fussen to Frankfurt. In this map you can see the various cities and towns that we visited in a span of a day. We only stopped for 10-15 minutes in each place and sometimes skipped the less picturesque places along the journey. There were so many stops that I couldn't remember the name of the places nor what we saw at each stop. The Zizzster made notes but after a few towns, we couldn't keep track of the places. The driver spoke little English and all he did was put on a tape at specific intervals during the trip describing the next stop. It was fun but tiring.

This picture of the Bavarian Alps shows the start of our journey where we pushed off from Fussen, the town made famous by Neuschwenstein Castle, purportedly the castle that inspired Walt Disney for his cartoons. Pictures of the castle will be posted in future instalments. For now, if you use a magnifying glass you could actually make out its outline in the mountains. At least, I think it is.

Now why did I take this picture? It just occurred to me then that this is a good opportunity for me to capture on film, a German cock checking out two German chicks. That, my friends, is one confident cocky cock. This was in front of a church that looked plain enough from the outside but the fresco inside was amazing. Too bad we couldn't take pictures inside. Hence the picture of the cock!

It was fitting that this Benz entered the frame. A German car in a quaint German town. This is Rothenburg. Our favourite stop along the Strasse. It is a medieval town totally surrounded by a 20ft wall. Wouldn't mind going back there and roam the cobbled streets for a few days. Amazing how one of the most advanced country has managed to keep its heritage pristine for centuries while we teardown pre-World War II buildings indiscrimminately.

Even the newer buildings are built in the old design. Here we want ugly glass structures that lose their novelty after a few weeks. If you think about it, building designs nowadays are either too elaborate or too functional. Nothing that is ageless. For instance, all the Balinese design homes, they do not look at all like the homes we saw in Bali. So what's so Balinese about them?

This hottie was on the bus with us. Hey! It's the Zizzster! I have to hand it to her. She found out all about Neuschwenstein, the Romantic Road, the Eurorail, and charted out our trip even before we got to Europe. Mind you, we had to book all the hotels via the net and she did all that by herself. I just had to nod in agreement and read out my credit card number. She has this knack of making it seem like it was my idea in the first place. So for all females out there, that's the trick in handling your men. FEED our ego! For the guys out there, admit it. That works out just fine for us.

Some buildings just had to outdo their neighbours. This one in particular had ornate statues lining up the exterior walls. We never enquired about what those statues represented. Just found it unique and pretty. I believe architecture is another expression of art. No matter what period they are, art is to be enjoyed by all. If you think it's nice, then it is. You don't need an expert to TELL you it's a classic. If you don't like Picasso, no matter how many lectures you go to on understanding the creator's meaning, you either like it or not. Hence why I never really liked Shakespeare. Cos I can never understand the language!

These guys are hung like a ....
Okay, maybe that's why I never appreciated Shakespeare. I'm just a simple neanderthal. At the end of the day, my needs are simple. Coffee in the morning, Astro remote control in my hand and clean pair of underpants. Of course being a neanderthal, the other carnal needs are a given.

I can't remember which town this is. The town centre is a crisscross of tram tracks and a web of all the overhead cables. The buildings were very nice except that we were there on a Sunday so it was mostly deserted. Mind you, the trams don't really make a lot of noise as it runs on electricity so right after this picture was taken, I was fortunate to get out of the way of another oncoming tram.

Churches define each town that we visited. Without fail, these churches manage to coax us into clicking away at our cameras. No matter how small a town, they are all built grandly and to a certain extent, opulently. I guess it was hard times for people back then and faith was a strong comforter. How else would you represent divinity but with extravagance.

Hope you've enjoyed a snapshot (literally) of Germany. I'm trying out the sepia feature in iPhoto so don't try to tweek your monitors. All pictures were taken with a NIKON Coolpix digital camera at a very low pixel setting so I can't really enhance them that much given that it was cloudy the whole time with not much light. Nevertheless, it served its purpose in helping us capture memories of our journeys.

Till later. Auf Wiedersehen!

Angkor Wat: One-word, WOW!

Cambodia is a country that has been pillaged and plundered of its richness in culture and natural resources for eons, and that has not stopped totally even today. Our trip to Siem Reap was to see Angkor Wat. We weren't disappointed with the stuructures of old and we were also impressed with the friendliness of the Cambodians. Angkor Wat is one temple in a vast city of temples built in a city that grew and grew in the 9th-11th century. Places of worship built in stone, with practically no remnants of human dwellings such as palaces or houses as these were wooden. Most of the temples have a common basic structure, they all reach for the heavens.

Travelling only with your partner makes it hard to have pictures taken together so having a small digital camera helps as you can check if the composition and lighting is ok there and then, especially if you just flag down the nearest tourist/bystander to snap away. A stranger you've never met before nor will ever again has played a hand in capturing a memory for the rest of your life....DEEP!

We always travel with our own cameras. During this trip, I had the dinky digital camera while the Zizzster held on to our non-Digital SLR so more pictures were taken on film than digital as my camera had limited storage. Hence why I now have my own Digital SLR with 1GB memory. This picture is of her trying to capture one of the temples' reflection in the moat. We never realised how cliche it was until our guide said everybody she took there would look for similar angles.

You'd think that big structures like the Angkor Wat is impressive enough for people of that era to build but check out the details on the walls. Angkor Wat has whole walls carved intricately telling stories of Ramayana and Mahabrata spanning hundreds of yards. Nowadays people have problems building flyovers without having to close it again for repairs after a few months.


This dude with us is the caretaker and probably the only guy who lives in the complex apart from the handful of Buddhist priests on pilgrimages. He is featured on the frontpage of Lonely Planet's Cambodia guidebook. He was more than happy to sign our copy. We were thrilled to be in the same frame as a celebrity!

This has to be my favorite photo of the trip. Why? You decide.

Remember Angelina Jolie and the Tomb Raider movie? This was the temple that was featured. The jungle has swallowed the temple structures but ironically it is the trees that are holding together the stones. Didn't Jolie adopt a Cambodian kid and named him Maddox?

Different Kings have different styles in architecture and even by the select few pictures shown in this posting, it is possible to see. One dude built a few temples for his mom, dad, wife, teacher, so the temples have similar proportions and footprint. Different eras will also determine the type of stones used, volcanic rocks, granite or even sandstones. Some poor soul working in a quarry hundreds of miles away had to bring the stones to the King. They didn't actually have DHL back then.

If you are an architecture student you will probably pay enough attention on how these temples were built. Back then, they have not adopted the European style of arches in their building plans. Stones were carved and stacked on one another to form the roof. The problem with this style is that limited weight can be supported and you cannot have expansive halls unless the roof was wooden. Hence, narrow passageways and buildings that are no more than raised dais to house deities. Impressive, nevertheless...

My advice, go see Angkor Wat before the temple is either ruined by the ravages of nature or the millions of tourists that will flock eventually. At the moment Siem Reap is still a quaint little town and is a unique adventure. Go before they open-up a Starbucks in one of the temples. Also be polite if enquiring about the Khmer Rouge. It is without a doubt, a sore patch in the hearts of all the people there.

PS: Forgot to mention that this trip was in October 2004

The City of Love

As promised, the first instalment of a series of trips we did. This Paris trip was in the Spring of 2005.
We were on a quest, at least Zizzster was, to find out what was so romantic about the city. To me the definition of romance in Paris depends on who you are there with. Can't be going, "Oh this place is so romantic" if you're on a business trip with your obese boss, can you?

It was a quick 2-day stop for us and we wanted to take-in all that we can in the city. The Louvre, house to Mona Lisa and DaVinci's Code's main character, was mere footsteps away from the place we stayed in. We waited in line for a good hour to be the first few in. We actually ran to Mona Lisa before the crowd got there. Some may wonder what's the big deal with this portrait of a woman with no teeth? But you have to be there to appreciate her. Different angles stir very different emotions. Now how is that possible, you may ask but you just have to have your time with the great lady to 'feel' her.


What visit to Paris is complete without saying hi to Quasimodo? Magnificent cathedral, this. From the inside I managed to capture the stained-glass window albeit in bad light. Did you know the best quality stained-glass allows all the light to pass through? For example, if you hold up a coloured glass, it only allows the colour that it is stained in but the great cathedrals of yesteryears have stained-glass windows that allows white light in. Meaning the congregation won't be in multicolor when attending mass.

No prize for guessing what shop this is on Champs Elysses.

A symbol of triumph for the Parisiens but the most dangerous roundabout in the world to us. There are absolutely no road markings where 8 roads intersect. If you think KL folks are monsters on the road, try driving in Paris!

This is us on top of the toothpick courtesy of Monsieur Eiffel. The Zizzster is afraid of heights so don't be fooled thinking that she's actually smiling for the camera. It was more of, "Ok, we've made it up here. Now, can we go?". The nice American lady who took this for us couldn't stop laughing.


It was raining when we got to Sacre Couer. We were told by our friend to see it during sunset as you can see the whole Paris from there. So much for that, huh? We took shelter in the cathedral itself and to our surprise there was Mass then and we were entertained by ethereal singing of hymns by the nuns. The acoustics were amazing.

This is a shot of a Paris street at sundown the next day. We were fortunate enough to be in the part of Paris where there are hundreds of restaurants and eateries. Alas, I've never been a fan of French cooking except for French fries.

Hope you've enjoyed the sights of the City of Love and yes, that IS the Zizzster and me.

merci boucoup ibanguy!

It has been a while since I actually looked at the features available on blogger.com. Hence why all of a sudden my blog has pictures now. Hahaha.. Special thanks to Rentap of ibanguy.blogspot.com for giving me pointers. I am now blog-rolled (never knew this was a term)on his blog so the least I could do is to have his link on mine. That will increase his readership by at least... one.

Also linked is kakijalan.com on this blog so as the name goes, you'll only click on it if you are one. The rest is self-explanatory.

The Zizzster asked me why she wasn't featured as much as Josh was so for my coming postings we will see more of the Zizzster. Incidentally, this blog WAS created as a dedication to her.

Apologies for those who tried to click on my previous posts where the links were to my .mac account. I no longer subscribe to that account so the links err... don't work anymore. Don't fret. Next few postings will be of our (Zizzster and me) travels.

Ciao

PS: Teaser for upcoming posts

I miss Josh and the Zizzster

I'm now in exile for a few months on a lil rock in the south china sea. don't get to see my kid and the Zizzster at all so it's kinda hard. Can't wait till I get back. Few more months...

It's hard for all of us, Josh, the Zizzster and me. Made a promise to the Zizzster that this will be the last time that I'm gonna do this kind of absent father/hubbie stints. At least from Singapore I was able to see them every weekend.

Anyway, here are some photos of them I took when I was still back in KL using my new EOS350D Digital SLR. Bought the camera specifically for our trip to Vietnam. As usual the Zizzster managed to sort out some wonderful activities for us there. We used Hanoi as the centre and took separate tours up North. On one of the tours, we stayed overnight on a junk cruising Halong Bay. I'd recommend it to everyone young and old.

Thank god for modern technology, I still get to hear my babies back home everyday. They didn't come along as the Zizzster is also in a new job and it won't be fair for her to just drop everything to follow me. Hence me alone on this lil rock.

To be fair, it's a good place to raise a family without the usual distractions of a metropolis. If you are alone, then you'd probably find it a bit scarce on the activities aspect. Nonetheless, it helps if you have a hobby and some like-minded people to hang with.


Zizzster, thanks for putting up with our current arrangements. I'll make it up to you.

Until my next posting.. adieu.