ASIA TRIP 2015 9 countries in 10 weeks
18th of January - 31st of March 2015
QATAR I THAILAND I CAMBODIA I VIETNAM I LAO I MALAYSIA I SINGAPORE I INDONESIA I CHINA
Before I am going to recall my travels through Asia I would like to describe briefly mymotivation for this trip.
I have alreadyseen something of the great diversity that the world offers during my previoustravels. But there is even more and therefore I wanted to discover the Asianregion after my master´s degree. I was particularly interested to experiencethe dynamic of that region and to get some kind of culture shock.
On the 18thof January I started my adventure with the flight to Qatar. After my arrival inDoha in the deep of the night my kind couch surfing host picked me up from the airport. When we went through the city I could already guess the rapid progress of the desert country. This impression was confirmed in the following days when I saw several modern buildings that were virtually built overnight in recent years.
Apparently, sports play a particular role in Qatar. Many European football clubs spend their pre-season training during the wintertime there because of the professional sports grounds. However, another type of sport has been in the spotlight during my stay – handball. Three brand-new gymnasiums were built for the 24th world championship. The biggest one is the Lusail Multipurpose Hall that provides seats for 15.000 spectators. Moreover, it was also the venue of the game between Germany and Denmark. Due to my sympathies with the Scandinavians from my study time in Denmark I was okay with the draw between both teams. Nevertheless, the empty seats were not that nice to see. But I assume that an Asian country also needs time to arise the interest for a sport that is actually dominated by European teams.
It will be interesting if the emirate might become a sporting nation. You can already feel that anticipation of the football world championship in 2022. For example the construction of the main stadium and a metro system run at full blast.
You might wonder why they are doing are these efforts if they still make billions from their oil resources?
The government is aware of the fact that these resources will be at an end one day. Thus, they have defined the vision 2030. Until this year the added value of Qatar shall be independent from the oil business. Instead, they want to have a knowledge-based economy. This reorientation requires entrepreneurial thinking and acting in several fields. Consequently, initiatives like the business incubator of the Qatar University and the local Entrepreneurship Center of the College of the North Atlantic, which I have visited, might elementary contribute to that. This can be for instance related to efforts that throw light on failure. Particularly in the Middle East failure means the losing your face. As a consequence, the vast majority of young people prefer activities as employed persons. And these jobs are often also financed or at least subsidized by the government.
I assume that Qatar is not able to make the change happen on its own. You can see this for example at the new buildings that are mainly built by Indians and Nepalese. However, the main question is if they can attract know-how from abroad in order to tackle their ambitious endeavor.
After my stopover in the emirate I continued my trip to South East Asia on the 24th of January. The next day I arrived in Bangkok. This megacity of Thailand is definitely a contrast to my first destination. I was especially impressed by the business acumen of the local people there. Regardless of whether they are Tuk-Tuk drivers, street vendors, custom tailors or backyard mechanics it seems that almost everybody is an entrepreneur there. Furthermore, this engagement to sell their product or service and to negotiate the best possible price is also necessary to make a living in such countries.
In addition to that, I had discussions with foreign entrepreneurs in Thailand as well. And they said that the markets in South East Asia are still in the beginning and growing fast. Before Rocket Internet entered those markets in 2012 there was nothing like e-commerce in the countries. In the meantime many more entrepreneurs are there to get a slice of the cake.
For instance, I have also visited the office and had lunch with the founders of Ask Hanuman and Alpha Founders. They are Germans as well and decided to start their businesses in Bangkok in order to tackle the emerging markets in South East Asia.
After I have seen many temples in Bangkok I decided to continue my travels to Cambodia on the 30.1. My first step there was Siem Reap, which is the town close to the famous temple complex of Angkor. I explored these temples within two days. By doing so, I could mostly escape from the stream of visitors. However, during the sunrise behind Angkor Wat I noticed how many people visit this impressive building every day. This rush of visitors has been mainly induced by the movie “Tomb Raider” which has been filmed among other places there. Moreover, I was also excited about the interaction of the nature and some buildings. Some of them would have been collapsed if the giant roots had not stabilized the temple buildings.
My second destination in Cambodia was the capital Phnom Penh. There I have visited the former prison S-21 which is a museum about the genocide today. In addition to that I went to the Killing Fields. It is very difficult to imagine the condition under which hundreds of thousands people lost their life during the Red Khmer regime. When I went through the mass graves I saw clothes and bones that still appear out of the ground especially after rain. What is especially bad is that this genocide could be kept secret for such a long time. When high-level visitors from abroad came to Cambodia during that time the regime presented them a peaceful and thus totally wrong picture of the country.
With these diverse impressions from Cambodia I went to the next country.
I was already familiar with the many motorbikes that characterize the traffic in Bangkok. But when I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon) I saw even more of those two-wheeled vehicles. Cars are the minority there. I got the advice before that I should cross the street step by step and the motorbikes would then drive around me. Following this behavior I got used to the traffic quite soon.
One of my highlights in the south of Vietnam was the visit of the Cu Chi tunnels. These show a sophisticated system, which the Vietnamese have built for the Vietnam War. Whole underground villages were established where they slept, cooked and lived for sometimes several month in a row. Today a shooting range is placed on that area as well. So when I walked trough the forest where the tunnels are it felt authentic somehow.
Saigon has been the starting point for my trip up to the north of Vietnam. On that way I made stopovers at smaller towns like Dalat, Nha Trang, Hoian and Hue before I arrived the capital Hanoi on the 14th of February. I did excursions to the Halong Bay and the village Sapa from there.
In the beginning I wrote that I want to experience a culture shock. Although this description is probably overstated I could this impressive insights in the highlands which are in the very north of Vietnam. I spent one day with people from the minority tribe called “Hmong”. Started in Sapa we trekked for a few hours in the mountains before we reached the house of our local guide “Mu”. Several generations live together in her family house that is made out of wood. We had lunch there together with the whole family. After we finished the pets (cat, chicken, dog) came to eat the leftovers from the ground. It was fascinating how those people manage their life. This probably requires more creativity and ability to adapt than the life in big cities. Our guide underlined this fact because she is not able to read or write English. She just learnt it from listening and speaking because it is necessary to earn some money from those guiding tours.
After I went through Vietnam I went from Hanoi to Luang Prabang in Lao by plane on the 21.2.
The fifth country during my trip had a certain charm. I had the feeling that clocks tick more slowly there. However, the people are really friendly and open-minded.
Furthermore, I became a fan of the night markets in South East Asia. Every evening they redesigned the main street of Luang Prabang into a market with a diverse offer of food, clothes and handmade accessories. Besides these cultural highlights I also wanted to experience the nature again. Hence, I went to an elephant camp for two days. I spent several hours with these beautiful animals when I rode on them, took a bath together and brought them to an island where they stay overnight. And all these directly at the wonderful scenery of the Mekong river.
This nice view I had again at my next stop towards the South of Lao. Vang Vieng became famous as party destination what mainly relates to the so called “tubing”. So I went down the river on a tube and during the ride you can make stops on shore. There you can play volleyball or dance for example on the ground between the river on the one side and the mountains on the other.
Afterwards I did a brief stopover in the capital of Lao, Vientiane. You can spend even more time in this beautiful country for sure. But I decided to go to Thailand again.
More precisely, I went to Chiang Mai, which is located in the north of Thailand. In the second largest city of the country they have a great night market at the weekend as well. It is the biggest I have seen during my whole trip.
In addition to that, I had another great experience near Chiang Mai - the longest zipline of Thailand. This is taut above a valley and the ride was amazing. Round about two hours I moved hand over hand along a rope there in the rain forest.
On the next day I flew to Bangkok for two days again. Before my parents started their cruise from there I showed them some of the sights in the city.
Meanwhile it was already March and I went from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur with Air Asia. The landmark of the Malaysian capital are the Petronas Twin towers. Constructions started in the early 1990s and they opened this extraordinary building in 1999. It is still one of the highest towers in the world. Besides this pioneering architecture it is exemplary how many religions live peaceful together in that city.
Only a few hours from Kuala Lumpur by train Singapore is located. I have already heard many good things about this country so I finally went there on the 7th of March. After I found an accommodation there I reached Marina Bay in the dark. The lighted towers of the financial district, the giant wheel “Singapore Flyer”, the landmark “Merlion”, the Art Science Museum and of course the Marina Bay Sands hotel brought me some nice views and hours in the evening. Singapore is deemed to be the cleanest and most safety city in the world. However, I have to say that I have felt unsafe during my whole travels in South East Asia.
It is quite easy to recognize that Singapore is a hub of the established financial industry. Moreover, I also wanted to get some insights into the up-and-coming startup scene. So I went to the Block 79. This new building houses a co-working space (bash) that has been opened recently before my visit. Consequently, the vibrant life inside the space was still missing but nevertheless I had some interesting discussions. For example, Startupbootcamp is organizing an own accelerator program just for FinTech Startups. The matchmaking with established players of the local banking industry stands to reason. Moreover, I have heard some opinions that the startup scene in Singapore is hyped. However, I think that the future years will show if this is a great place to start your business and then expand it to South East Asia.
After my exciting time in Singapore I decided to go to Indonesia in the short run.
I knew that my plane would arrive quite late in Bali. Nevertheless, I did not book an accommodation before because the search always worked locally before. And somehow I also like this kind of challenge. However, the possibility already emerged on the flight. I met three other guys who accidentally still had a free bed in their booked hotel. So I joined them and in the end we travel together for 10 days.
In Bali we did surfing in Kuta, river rafting as well as trekking to the volcano Mt. Batur (1717m) near Ubud. Especially the latter was so amazing. We went up the volcano in the night so that we could see the sunrise from there. The view when the sun comes up behind the mountain while clouds still cover the valley was unbelievable. We had another great experience when we cooked eggs and bananas in the still active volcano for our breakfast.
During the stay in Ubud I also went to the quite famous co-working space “Hubud” there. The location which is a bamboo house and offers a view to rice terraces is already so nice. But what was even more inspiring was the spirit of the community there. People are really open-minded and happy to share their knowledge. For example I enjoyed a workshop about human design that was given by a passionate Australian girl who is working in that co-working space.
After the nice time in Bali the three guys and me went to the Gili Islands by a fast boat. This is a group of islands where only bicycles and horse wagons are used available for transportation. And I especially felt in love with one of the islands – Gili Air. My bungalow was just a few meters away from the beach. Bamboo cottages were located there from where you could enjoy the turquoise water and the sunset. Moreover, we have partied barefoot at the beach with great electronic beats one night. After these memorable days and more activities like snorkeling continuing my trip was even harder this time.
However, after the beautiful nature in Indonesia I wanted to get the contrast again. Thus, I started my journey to Hong Kong on the 24.3. with overnight stay at the airport of Singapore.
Hong Kong is a city that combines tradition and modernity or east meets west. One the one hand the office buildings as skyscrapers and on the other hand local shops and restaurants. Moreover, I had that feeling that there was a sense of excitement and anticipation. That kind of dynamic I was looking forward.
This feeling was even more present when I made a trip to Shenzhen (mainland China). It is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and when I arrived my accommodation I noticed that it is also a great place to do business. I met budding entrepreneurs from the US there who want to produce some goods with Chinese manufacturer. Afterwards they both want to start crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter to enter the US market. Followed by these insights and further talks with Chinese people on the train I got the feeling that the gold-digger atmosphere is still present in China. Moreover, it is not only a good manufacturing base. The middle class is increasing as well and consequently the domestic market is also interesting.
Another trip from Hong Kong I did to the special administration region Macau. It is often called the Eastern Las Vegas. Indeed, there are hotels that look similar to the ones in the gambling oasis in Nevada. But in addition to that Macau also offers some historic buildings from the Portuguese colonial era. For example I went to the Ruins of St. Paul and to the citadel “Fortaleza do Monte” before I took the ferry to Hong Kong in the evening.
Eventually, time has passed so quickly and I was already on the plane back home in the evening of the 30th of March.
All in all, my entire trip has been a great mix of nature, culture and the dynamic of cities. I had unbelievable moments, gathered a lot of beautiful impressions and met many great people.
These influences from 10 weeks of traveling were educational and insightful as well. Hence, I am absolutely thankful for every second of my trip and each penny I spent was totally worth it.
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED FROM THE TRIP?
- Don´t be afraid of uncertainty. Go for it and make decision on the way.
Since I have only booked the flight to Qatar and Bangkok before, I have started my trip with some uncertainty. Of course I had a rough route in my mind but I did not want to schedule where I have to be at what date. Moreover, I recognized that you cannot organize everything in advance. Instead, situational behavior is required quite often.
The journey has been the destination. And some opportunities I could not have make use of it if I had planned everything before.
- Leave your comfort zone regularly.
The uncertainty meant also to leave my comfort zone, which I wanted to do on purpose. I believe that if you want to personally grow you have to escape from the familiar environment. As a consequence, I always decided to change my location when I am familiar the one where I have stayed at that moment. The more often I changed the city the easier it got after a while to adapt to new environments.
And of course I had moments where my trip was not smoothly. For example when it seemed that all accommodations are occupied. But if I did not want to sleep under the bridge I had to take the initiative in order to find a solution. In the end I always found one.
- Get inspired from travels and make something out of it.
Traveling might be a source of inspiration. The opportunities and ideas are literally lying on the streets. Often you only have to adapt and develop a business idea out of them. Consequently, it is always important to walk the world with open eyes.
I have captured some of the great moments on Instagram and Flickr.
After this journey I have been to destinations in more than 40 countries in the world.
I really really appreciate the diverse impressions I could already experience in the first quarter-century of my life.
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