"Welcome to Vita500's VT travel guide" Vita500's Profile

I am Robert from Kassel, Germany currently residing in Stuttgart.

After hitting the roads of Europe for the first 16 years of my life, I finally had a chance to travel outside Europe in 1996. Since then, my interest in travelling to foreign countries, getting to know its cultural backgrounds and experiencing the local life-style grew bigger and stronger.

The travel bug went deep and I was lucky enough to be able to visit numerous places all around the world. From the Namibian deserts to Cuba's beaches and Asia's metropolitan cities... all of them an indeed unforgettable and unique experience. Impossible to say which one was best as every trip had its own splendour.

Nevertheless, I became especially interested in the Asian regions.
In the year 2000, I got lucky and received a chance to partially study and work in Hong Kong for about two years... a simply wonderful time and awesome experience that I'd like to share with you here on VT (... as I tend to go back to Hong Kong for vacation about once a year, you might wanna drop by my Hong Kong pages once in a while as more tips and impressions are being added regularly).

Due to my growing interest in Asia, I decided to extend my stay for another year. However, an unforeseen visa-problem in Hong Kong made me end up in South Korea, where I was sent to spend the next eight months helping with the set-up of the wholesale office for my company. Korea is a relatively closed country towards foreigners but was able to impress me every day anew with its unqiue culture: a combination of old and new, history and present, conservative behaviour and modern lifestyle.

The original eight months (very luckily indeed) turned out to be more than 5 years before I had to move on and out of Korea, back to Germany.

Hence, I am now living in Stuttgart in southern Germany, looking back on some wonderful 8 years of my "Asian adventures" and looking forward to my new German experience.

I fully enjoyed every day of my time in Asia and hope to be able to share some of the experiences with you via VT.

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HELP WANTED:
Have you been living abroad longer than you think you should have?
Do you feel like you have already turned into a local?

In this case, help me add to my list(s) of 'Signs You Have Lived In A Country For Too Long':

a) Signs you have lived in Hong Kong for too long

b) Signs you have lived in South Korea for too long

c) Signs you have lived in Singapore for too long

... or simply suggest other locations. Any input is appreciated! Thanks a lot!

d) Signs you have lived in Vietnam for too long (sponsored by VT friend 'King_Golo')

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* Your feedback is always welcome, so feel free to leave a comment and express your thoughts
about my travel pages or simply rate my tips so that I know about how you liked them. *

In the following a brief overview of my favourite destinations:
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South Korea's official banner

That's the place where I spent most of the time that I was abroad.

Its cultural diversity and unique ways of combining heritage, confucianism and modern life-style are definitely worth a visit!

Check out My Travel Page - South Korea or My Travel Page - Seoul or My Travel Page - Jeju-Do for further information!

Hong Kong's official banner

I spent around two years in Hong Kong and fell in love with its beautiful skyline, cultural sights, food but also gorgeous hiking trails and beaches.

Check out My Travel Page - Hong Kong for further information on this great country that offers more than crowded streets and high-rise buildings!

Singapore's official banner

The Lion's City!
Singapore is a cultural melting pot, accommodating various cultures within a relatively tiny area, just one step North of the equator.
Singapore is modern, clean, safe but at the same time exotic, historic and a perfect place to experience impressions on various countries at one single spot.

Check out My Travel Page - Singapore for further information on the city where The Merlion is as much part of your life as high temperatures and humidity!

Namibia's official banner

Away from Asia, onto another continent:
Namibia is located in South-West Africa and used to be a German colony until it was occupied by South Africa and reached independence in 1990.

Being a country that is mostly covered by sand, it is also home of the second largest canyon in the world, the unique Welwitschia mirabilis, some of the world's highest and most attractive dunes and... the only German daily newspaper in whole Africa. It was a gorgeous experience!

Check out My Travel Page - Namibia for further information!

Philippine's official banner

The Philippines are a bunch of more than 7000 islands in Southeast Asia.
Being occupied by various countries over the past centuries, they attained independence in 1946.

My trip brought me to the Visayas, the islands in the middle-southern Phlippines or to be exact, to Mactan Island on Cebu.

Escaping from the cold winter in Korea, the sunshine and warmth as well as refreshing pools and beaches of the island resort made me feel a lot better.
Check out My Travel Page - Cebu for further information!

Germany's official banner

Last but not least I'd like to call attention to this beautiful and diversified country called Germany.

Despite our politicians trying their best to gradually lead the country down the drain, I was happy to see the people rebel against this nonsense politics by hosting such a fabulous soccer World Cup 2006, where the official (English) motto "A Time To Make Friends" was better accomplished than anyone (including myself) expected.

Germany surely has a lot to offer:
From dikes and flatlands in the north to mountainous Alps in the south, from Seelachsfilet (Pollack fish filet) to Schweinshaxe (pork's knuckles), from Oktoberfest to Documenta, from cosmopolitan cities to medieval villages, from knight's castles to summer palaces...

Unfortunately, I was rather lazy about creating and updating my Germany pages within VT. However, you might want to check out My Travel Page - Kassel for first impressions. If a growing number of ratings tells me that you like my tips, I might even convince myself to create some more pages of other cities for you. ;-)