THAILAND: Phangan Rainbow Bungalows – Ko Pha Ngan

The times when we just did beach holidays in summer and skiing trips in winter are over since a long time. Meanwhile you can go very easily and cheap as well to a warm sunny beach on the one side of the planet, while it is freezing in your country, or you can travel during the totally hot mid-summer of your country to a snowy resort somewhere else on a summit in country where there is winter at that moment. We went to Thailand before Christmas, traveled around, had a good time on the sea and collected a lot of nice video and picture material. Our Thailand-Expert Praxinho V., who lived nearly half of his live in Southeast-Asia and who knows all around the islands by experience on exploring by scooter, on elephants, by foot or just crawling – that guy brought us to one of his “Special-secret-super-nice-places”. A lodge where he always goes, and where we all stood for some days and which we definitely can recommend: The Koh Phangan Rainbow Bungalows of Martin Hine and Noy Prante Limkul ….

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GHANA: Lekma Hospital

The Lekma Hospital is a governmental health facility built by the Chinese Government in 2010 as a friendship hospital between these two countries. The remarkable financial support from the Government of the People’s Republic of China was about 7.280.00 US Dollar. Within 16 month the construction was completed and the hospital was inaugurated by the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana H.E John Dramani Mahama on the 21st of December 2010.

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JAPAN: Streetart Osaka – 落書き Graffiti Nippon

We started the new year in Osaka, Japan. Konnichiwa! The celebration was great, the food and the sake fantastic, but the Japanese are not very familiar with streetart and graffiti. It is very regularized, officialized, well-signposted, marked and labeled. Streetpaintings which are out of the prevailing rules and raster, get cleaned away fast or cubically painted over. Which is kind of another invitation for some more already framed wish-wash or spray can art….

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BULGARIA: Sofia Graffiti Tour

We had already an article about streetart and the city tours in Sofia. In the following story we want to tell you a bit more especially about the Sofia Graffiti Tour and some little streetart gimmicks, we found during our expedition through Bulgaria´s capital. The Graffiti Tour starts on the four days between Friday and Monday always at 3 pm at the corner of „Todor Alexandrov“ and „Bratya Miladinovi“ in front of the Statue of Sofia close to the metro station Serdika and is definitly recommendable. We were very lucky that day, no one else was taking part at the tour, so we had our tour guide Niki Borisov just for ourselves and could even ask and discus more.

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BULGARIA: Sofia Streetart & City Tours

On our last trip we went to the Balkan for some days, more precisely to Bulgaria and it´s beautiful capital Sofia. The weather was kind of unfavorable, from rain to little snow storms, but still we could explore this interesting city extensively and brought you a lot of marvelous streetart fotos and graffiti material. The country and the city looks back over 6000 years of history shaped by a lot of different cultures during the centuries. Everywhere you can find protected monuments and archaeological excavation originated from the Roman Empire, which were found during road work or tunnel bores. The medieval Bulgaria is everywhere integrated in newer buildings, you can see architecture from the Ottoman occupation and everywhere in between there is the distinctive Eastern Bloc design of the communism. All of this commingles in different ways with the modern Bulgaria. Very cool!

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LAOS: LaLaLand Bar & Tours

While we passed the beautiful village Vang Vieng during our Laos trip we visited the Karst Mountains, heaps of nice lagoons and caves and took as well part at the tubing of course. But the real good offers and choices we unfortunately found only in the end of our stay. Like always, you get to the best things just in the end. We didn´t experience the tours ourselves, but still we brought you a lot of amazing photographs and interesting interviews. Just in case if you should be around there one day. An insider tip: Lala and his tours!

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CHILE: Streetart La Serena

Another very cool surfers spot in Chile is the second biggest city in the country: La Serena. Here the Elqui-Valley is just around the corner, it´s one of the main producing areas for the Chilenian national drink Pisco. It´s a very nice drink, you can get in Germany as well, but for sure not comparable to the one you can get there at the vineyards. The city is really nice, with the historic center built in the colonial style and if you arrive from the north it is quite pleasant to arrive at this alive and green place after a lot of ghosttowns in the Atacama desert, who remind on the salpeter mining period.

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CHILE: Valparaíso – Hostal Voyage

During our journey in Chile we made a stop in Valparaiso and could stay in the most interessting Hostel of the city: Hostel Voyage. It´s much nicer to stay at a friends´ place than in a hotel room. A lot of people prefer therefore couchsurfing, it´s a cheaper and as well much more personal way to travel. And at the doors of Hostel Voyage we were welcomed exactly that way. After riding the whole night in a horrible bus through half of the country and searching for over two hours for a place to stay – out of 20 hostels really nobody opened – we finally have been greeted at this nice lodge.

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VIETNAM: Little Kingston Reggae Bar – Mũi Né

Vietnam is famous for its delicious cuisine, the marvelous beaches, the jungle or as well for the remains of the underground tunnel system from the war. But the country is for sure not famous for Reggae Music. Let´s see…. maybe just not yet! Actually everything you need for this lifestyle is perfectly there. You just need someone, who is going to establish the concept. Exactly this idea had the former Berliner and now Vietnam citizen Herby. He opened the Reggae chillspot „Little Kingston Beach Bar“ in the beach village Mũi Né. Herby is Reggae DJ since 20 years and lives since five years in Vietnam. The first three years he was resident DJ and manager in several clubs in Saigon, after quite a while he finally found a perfect place for his own project. We visited him and relaxed at the comfy hammock area at his beach bar location while we recorded an interview about the origin and development of the place.

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LAOS: Sae Lao Project & Equal Education For All (EEFA)

We found again something interesting, good and worth-to-write-about in the middle of the jungle. It was next to the karst mountains while we were passing with our modified go-karts to a lagoon. We jetted past a sign, but after the short look we had to go back to that place the next day for sure. There was written: „Buy a cocktail and send with your purchase a child to school”. There was as well something about „Need Volunteers”. That sounded interesting. What are they doing there and who is doing what and are they really doing what they wrote? And if yes, how can you support? A lot of questions, so let´s go and check it out…

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