2 Asian Birds With 1 Stone: Manila

Finally I made it to the Philippines – to the call center hotspot to visit our partner sites there. And as I was there I tried to hit two birds with one stone. I got to meet with Anneliese in Manila.

When I received the okay to go there I contacted the cousin of my dad who is living in Manila for 45 years. The contact happened via Facebook and the details were covered in an email. When asking her what she would like to have from Germany she wanted to have the honey my dad makes. The honey actually made it to Hong Kong. But then when I wanted to go from Hong Kong to Manila the airport officers took it from me. Stupid me, I put it into the hand luggage while I was at Dagmar and Joris. I only hope Anneliese is right and a Chinese tasted this marvelous honey. On my first day in Manila she picked me up at my hotel and showed me the historical center of the country and a crash course of the history of Manila. She even showed me her favorite souvenir store in which she goes shopping since quite a while even some part of her furniture comes from there. Of course even I went shopping there.... Next agenda item was real Philippine lunch in the close by Ilustrado. I had meat in vinegar garlic marinade (Adobo), with Papaya sour (Atsara)...

...and a juice of coconut and water (Buko).

Anneliese had a blood sausage stew (Dinuguan) with rice balls (Puto) which I tried as well and it was delicious.

At the end we drove to her beautiful house 30 km away from the city with a huge tropical garden.

Her maid had already prepared coffee and cake for us. She offered us rice dumplings (Suman) with coconut jam. Anneliese loves this jam and had almost covered the whole dumplings with it. Moreover there were sweet biscuits with cheese (Ensaymada) and of course apple cake – only with Mango instead of apples.

When I came back to the hotel in the evening, I was confident that I cannot eat anything else for the next 2 days. Tired but happy I went to bed – happy that I had taken this opportunity. This might have been my last opportunity to see Anneliese in Manila as she moves to her son to USA. This depends whenever she can sell her house in Manila – if you are interested let me know.

2 Asian Birds With 1 Stone: Hong Kong

Finally I got the opportunity to go to Manila – the call center hotspot – to visit our partner sites there. And as I was going there, I planned to kill two birds with one stone. Number 1 was the stop over in Hong Kong. While we were on our world tour we hadn´t time to visit Dagmar and Joris in Hong Kong- even if it was very close to Australia. We had regret it from time to time.

That is why this time there was no doubt. We wanted to vistit the two of them or better to say the three of them as they had little Oscar now. Michaela even went this long journey for only 1 week and it was marvelous. Dagmar and Joris have welcomed us with open arms and showed us their lives in this fascinating city.

We got our own room (especially knowing that rents are pretty high in Hong Kong), met some of their dearest friends...

...went to clubs and bars together...

...went hiking or jogging together...

...and got fantastic advices from them to go hiking in the wonderful nature.

Of course we made sure they got a break from the two of us and went with a turbojet for 2 nights to Macau – the Las Vegas of Asia.

We want to take the opportunity to thank Dagmar & Joris again! You are great hosts and you made us think to come and living in Hong Kong! We will come again – maybe even to live there – Thanks a million!

Poor however Sexy – Part 2.2 - Final Part

Some months ago, you learnt in this blog that Berlin is poor but sexy. You might have thought that even in Berlin there are areas which are poorer, and others which are sexier. You might have wondered which ones are richer, which ones are poorer which means more dangerous. Where do you need to go when you visit Berlin and where shouldn`t you go? The answer is not quite easy. There are streets which are poor and sexy.

Take for example Gleimstreet, which is sexy on one end (where we - of course - lived in our first few months). You see this part when you come from the Schoenhauser Allee, where you can see a fancy, colorful part of the city with numerous restaurants, bars, and trendy stores.




Größere Kartenansicht




But only some hundred meters further there is the Gleimtunnel.






If you passed this one then you are in a different world even so you are still in the Gleimstreet. No more restaurants, bars and trendy stores. Only some old to live in.






Then you are in Wedding area, before you were at the Prenzlauer Berg area. Of course you can´t just say that one area is sexy another one is poor. However there are areas like the Prenzlberg which are more likely to be sexy, and others like Wedding which are more likely to be poor. For those of you who are not familiarized with Berlin this does not help. Hardly there are any signs telling you which area you are in. Therefore you need other guidance. Two key distinctions are organic stores and gambling bars.

If there are organic stores than you are in the sexy part...






if you see a lot of gambling bars you very likely are in the poor part...






...you better get on the next underground which brings you back into the organic store district. You might think now that organic stores are a little bit posh and thus it is not the real, young and attractive Berlin with all its freedom. Well depends.

Distribution (example) of organic stores:




Distribution of gampling bars:





Even we think that the most attractive parts are those were organic stores meet the gambling one and the mix is very attractive. This is not enough adventure for you? Well go and take a walk in Wedding. There are streets where even the police do not go in after midnight. This is definitely an adventure – probably less sexy so.