Temple 1: Mandalay, Sagun and Inwa

We altogether flew from Bangkok to Mandalay and stayed again at Golden Mandalay Inn. First night we ate at the Green Elephant, which is expansive, but worth the money, as the food is good and you can sit in a nice garden. Despite the rain we climbed the Mandalay hill, but being here the fourth time, I admit, that it is better in dry season...  I was three times in the dry season in Mandalay and now the first time in the rainy season. So it is always different.

Next day we hired a car for a day (35000KYT) and we drove to the U Bein bridge. What a difference between rainy and dry season. A lot of the land was flooded and the water was quite high:

Nearby is also a great monastery, with thousands of monks. So they have to cook and wash big...

For Inwa we had to take a little boat, which is really fun. Like so often in Asia they mount a strong engine without a gear box (and no exhaust) at the end of the boat, hook a propeller on the engine and voila:

We had also to transport four bike form other tourists, but everything goes in Asia...

In the afternoon we drove to Sagun, which was again wonderful and magic. Several monasteries are build on the other side of the Irrawady at several hills and you have a splendid view.

What I really like is the fact, that many Burmanese people practice were religion and you always see them praying and sitting on their knees in front of a a small or giant Buddha:

2017 – The Asian River Tour, unique villages and Temples

River 1: Bangkok

After the Abi-Feier from Adrian we flew the next day to Bangkok. Despite the lovely service of Thai Airways we were dead tired and fall asleep at the pool of the Chatrium. In the afternoon we explored the great rive of Chao Phrayain Bangkok. There are regular speed boats and the tickets only costs 18THB. The boat arrives fast, a series whistling (Trillerpfeifen)  from the the boatman helps the captain to maneuver his boat, when the boatman jumps off with a rope and holds the boat, before people quickly depart the boat and other people arrive. You have to be quick, because the next whistle comes fast and the boat engine starts roaring.

The ferry is fast, there is no traffic jam and it is cheap. We really enjoyed the boat rides and I believe this is a good start to see Bangkok!

A good starter to Asia is also a visit to China Town:

In the evening we met Grace and Mary and we had a great dinner in one of the many street restaurants. Unfortunately this was the only good moment with them...

Nevertheless we enjoyed the marvelous view from the 28th floor of the Chatrium:

Haarlem / Netherlands

Finally, it was time to visit Björn again! We got a 50€ return ticket from EasyJet and arrived on Friday in Schiphol. After a 40 min ride with the Bus 300, we arrived in beautiful Haarlem city center. It has really a very nice historic city Centre with small streets and small houses, which are usually very old. Björn for example is living in a ~ 300-year-old tiny house, which was once used for horses and now very nicely restored:

The city has also a very old church from the 13^th century in front of the city market. The ground floor consists of graves, so you are really walking about dead bodies or whatever is left from them! Most impressive is an old Organ at one end of the church and the ancient ships, donated from the Dutch captains many years ago.

The market in front of the church is wonderful and you can buy of course cheese, sausages, bread, etc. for a very good quality. Later we relaxed in a nice Pub and Shelly talked the bartender into starting the old music machine:

We also rented a little boat and cruised through the canals of Haarlem. There are numerous bridges and they all open in different ways to let bigger ships through.

Very nice!

Here are some more impressions of this very nice city Centre:

Thanks Björn for this wonderful weekend trip and good luck with visiting all 191 countries of the world! I think, he has traveled so far 132 of them…

Lake Powell - Suffering the desert heat!

Around noon we left Grand Canyon NP and headed towards Page. It was a really a scenic view, where you can feel the Wild West….

On the road to nowhere...

The heat was incredible and the boys were exhausted.

On a very hot afternoon we arrived at our camping ground Wahabe Resort and build up the tents.

Despite a storm coming up, it was extremly hot in the tents and we could barely sleep. The next morning huge clouds were covering the sky and it started raining. Unfortunately our trip to Antelope Canyon got canceled from the Navajoh guys and we had - let's say - gap day: Breakfast, checking mails, Cinema, Dinner and later back to the wet tent!


Like always, rain disappears and the sun was shining bright and we did some excursions at Lake Powell. No. 1 and must see is the "horseshoe", which is the Colorado river streaming in his bed and looks, well, like a giant horseshoe!

Frank is suffering from altitude sickness and could not go close to the rim. Shelly and the boys had no problems...

Brave Man!

The horseshoe is close to Page and many people are hiking the short trail to the view site. I guess in the morning or evening it must be amazing!

Grand Canyon (Day 2)

The next morning we started early again and took some nice shots from the sunrise over the Grand Canyon.

You can see Yoga professionals, doing the Sun Greeting Exercise and also professional photographer, climbing the rocks to get the best shot:

The views were unbelievable and we can recommend starting the day early to get those views! 

If you start early, there are suprisingly not many people hunting for shots:

Later we packed the car (still tired from the exhausting walk) and had a last view on this beautiful area with the nice huts and said Good Bye!

Grand Canyon (Day 1)

We arrived in the afternoon at the NP and checked in into the lodge. It is a quite nice and you have wonderful evening view of the Grand Canyon. Next day we started early at 5:30 to watch the sunrise at Bright Angel Point:

We had breakfast with a great view at the picnic place:

Here we discussed the trail of the day and we voted for the Kaibab Trail:

Later we started the Kaibab trail which is basically starting at the rim site at altitude of 8.250ft (2.515m). We steadily hiked down trough pine trees until the mule station. 

With an increasing temperature we walked further down the Canyon until we finally reached the Redwall Bridge (6.100ft/1.860m), where we wanted to return. 

Unfortunately Ole was not seen as he walked further and was not see… So we decided to follow him. It was getting really hot and we really drinking and sweating a lot, always knowing, that each step we went downhill, we would have to come back…

The scenery was at least wonderful and really could see the Canyon.

We hiked another 1,5 hour until we finally reached “Roaring Springs” (5.200ft/1.585m), which is close to the campground. Here we found Ole waiting and we got really angry on him, leaving the group and going down such a long distance! At least the water from the spring was ice cold and we could refill our supplies. Frank and Adrian decided to start at 1.20 to hike up 3.050 ft to the trailhead, while Shelly and Ole decided to wait a little bit longer to avoid the heat.

Again the walk was beautiful, but with each step going up more painful. We finally reached the bridge and rested a while before the steep ascend started. Frank was running out of energy and we had to make a lot of stops. What a struggle… but finally we arrived at the mule station, where we rested a longer time. 

The final hike was again steep and took forever, but after an overall 2,5h brutal climb we got to the trailhead. Frank was completely exhausted:

Two hours later the rest of the expedition arrived, also not really fresh, which is not a wonder after hiking almost 10 miles (15,2KM) and mastering twice 3.050ft = 7.100ft in one day! Boy, we did not do much this evening, than just resting… The difference of the picture Start/end are quite amazing, isn't?

Here is information about the trail, which we read later.

Bryce Canyon

In the morning we had a wonderful breakfast and drove straight to the backdoor of the Bryce Canyon NP to avoid the tourist groups (which was another great hint from our hosts!). We parked our car at the end of the dirt road and started to walk.

It was a great walk, early in the morning, no people, blue sky and the first stone formations of Bryce Canyon. After  1,8 miles until we arrived at the trailhead to the Peekaboo Trail and Navajo trail. Here you can see the map and our route (in Red):

We decided to follow the first one, which is a wonderful roundtrip to the Bryce view point and back, which is rated as strenuous (anstrengend), which is was, as we added the trip to Tropic (2x 1,8mi), the roundtrip (3mi) and the trip to the view point (2x 1,1mi), et voila = 8,8mi.


The Canyon itself is mind boggling and one of the best experiences, I have ever made. So here are some impressions from early morning:

Adrian and Ole were also amazed about it!

On contrary to the Grand Canyon, the Bryce Canyon has no river, meaning the formations have been and will be shaped be erosion until today!

"The hoodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park formed in the Claron Formation, limestone deposited

in an ancient lake system 30-50 million years ago. With uplift of the Colorado

Plateau, a series of parallel fractures cut across the Claron Formation. It is along these fractures that the processes of weathering and erosion occur. The principle form of weathering is a process known as freeze-thaw. Water gets into
small cracks and freezes at night. The expansion of the freezing water widens the crack.

The following day, the ice melts and water seeps further into the crack and the process begins again. There are approximately 200 days of freeze-thaw at Bryce Canyon each year, and the process goes mostly unobserved. In summer,
monsoonal rains remove the products of weathering during flash-flooding
events. Over the millennia, the fantastically-shaped fins and hoodoos have
formed." (Source : Bryce Canyon NP Service).

This is a Hoodoo.

It was a really wonderful hike despite the heat. In the afternoon we got a little bit tired and went back to the trailhead, where Shelly and Ole made the Heldenpose (Hero posing).