tina_vietnam's VirtualTourist Home Page

My Motivation

Five years ago I discovered my passion for South-East Asian cultures.
Particularly my studies in economics of East Asia contributed to my deep interest in Asian cultures, politics and economics.
Later I was fascinated not only with facts I read in books but also with the atmosphere that surrounded me while travelling - the feel of a place, it's essential differences, its looks, its colors, its flavor.

On the first day of year 2000 I made a decision: I wanted to spend a year in South-East Asia to experience real life there and have time to really absorb all these idiosyncrasies a country has to offer. I chose Vietnam, because its culture, government, geography would be so different from everything I was familiar with. IT WAS! Learn more about it on my Vietnam page soon.

Just recently I explored South East Asian Arts.

I am wondering what awaits me in this foreign culture in the future.

Join me on my trips to Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos on my travel pages!

---

My Interests and Actvities

Back home, in Germany, I try to recall and keep updating my experiences I made in SEA.

Of course I keep myself busy with organizing thousands of photos and also to dust off my 'yun' (burmese for laquer) betel boxes and my recently acquired distinguished 'daung-lan' (a circular tray on a stand for serving meals in a monastery).

South East Asian Food

As you can imagine I also indulge in South East Asian food.

Back home I often cook a Thai Curry or a Vietnamese soup called 'Pho' to take me back to the flavors of SEA.

I have many cookery books and enjoy trying out new dishes.
My friend Trang in Vietnam taught me some famous South Vietnamese dishes I still enjoy very much! Thanks Trang!

In Munich you will sometimes meet me in my top favourite Thai Restaurant 'YUM' (check out my Munich page to find out!).

---

Fotography

South East Asia offers a lot of opportunities for taking great (!) pictures on people, architecture and arts.

Always remember: Ask the person you take a picture of for permission!
I made the following experience: if you talk to people and show your camera, you easily find out their attitude towards photos taken. Of course that takes some time, but being in a hurry and taking good pictures are mutually exclusive anyway.
In SEA people are very suspicious and believe in ghosts. Sometimes, they believe that by taking a picture of someone, you will send an evil ghost into his soul (e.g. by flash).

In Cambodia a tourist rising a huge objective above his head was shot, because a local was scared to death (obviously due to his terrible experiences in the Pol Pot aera). He took the objective for a gun by mistake.

All pictures on this page are taken with a Nikon F80 and a 28-200 zoom objetive.
For the interior of temples and for sunsets I mostly used ASA 400 Fujicolor films. Outside 200 and on the beach 100.

---

Nature

Next to communicating with locals and get to know their lifes, I love nature!

Music

...and music! Whereever I go or I have to spend some time waiting I bring my portable mini CD player with me...and some chill out CDs (Cafe del Mar, Hotel Costes, Kruder&Dorfmeister, Moby, Massive, ..) to relax and to dream.

Books
My favourite books related to SEA:
- Myanmar Style: Art, Architecture and Design of Burma
by Luca Invernizzi Tettoni (Photographer), Elizabeth Moore, Daniel Kahrs (Editor), Luca Invernizzi (Photographer), John Falconer

- A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East
by Tiziano Terzani

My Travel Philosophy

I prefer to use local transport, because I experience and discover more details and aspects of local life.
For the same reason I stay in small guesthouses, although I can afford better accommodation.

As I am travelling on my own, it's easier to get into contact with locals and to meet fellow travellers. Sometimes I become ill during travelling and then I am really happy to have a 'neighbour' who helps me out with something I obviously forgot to bring (thanks to the Israeli guys who helped me out with electrolyte! in Bagan).

Only when I feel sick or in an insecure situation I use my credit card to get out of a (dangerous) place as soon as possible. Thank gods this rarely happend to me!!

Buddhism

I am sorry not to fulfill the 'cliché' of the average traveller travelling to Thailand. I do not call myself a Buddhist yet. But Buddhism is a big interst of mine and I try to understand this religion, although I find it really hard.

For the meantime I am 'only' studying books written by the Dalai Lama (tough stuff!) or by a Vietnamese monk called Thich Nhat Hanh.

But I am working on it.....

Yoga and Thai-Bo
Some spiritualtity I get from practicing Yoga and Thai-Bo. I think both sports are a good combination for me, because they afford a lot of concentration, but also energy. Boxing frees your mind....check it out!!!
Although I dislike fighting and all relating sports, especially traditional boxing and wrestling, I find some interest in Muay Thai (Thai Kick Boxing).
It's in some ways elegant and doesn't seem to be just fighting without any strategy and higher senses. The 'science of 8 limbs' has an around 2000 years old tradition.
Muay Thai is currently split into two parts, the ring sport and the martial art. The art side contains many techniques that cannot be performed in a ring with gloves on.