Liebe zur Erde... - Liebe zur Erde

Cambodia:
Angkor Watt , Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville

                 Image : the Angkor Watt region with the flooded areas and the lake from the plane

Cambodia - the Wild West of the East, a lawless land , this is how it is described by the Lonely Planet . And I have seldom read so extensive, pertinent analyzes and descriptions of a country in a Lonely Planet edition ( German edition 2010) - only to be recommended and a pleasure .

What do we know more about that country than that in the civil war the Khmer Rouge have ravaged? Millions of people have lost their lives at that time in this small country. To everyone who aroused the suspicions that he could think was slaughtered. Somehow the Communist hordes of various countries have proved (from Russia and China  up to here ) their desire to clean up with the intellectual elite of their country.
Also known are probably the many landmines that are still lying around everywhere in the country and still get their victims among playing children and normal farmers. Poverty, many amputees and the catastrophic living conditions have caused the world to come in for help ! - ....
But we are in Asia, and so this attempt contributes its  own special fruits between this bold and humorous people.  Alone in Siem Reap - the place close to Angkor Watt with the streams of tourists from all over the world - are said to be 850 NGOs. Just for comparison: Siem Reap has 60 000 inhabitants. Even if one counts a little more surrounding up in the number .... - seems to be a lot, no? Evil tongues say that the first money that gets to an NGO, is used to buy a great car for the boss / manager / CEO. The first and most regular paid salary gets the driver. And since so many people suddenly have a livelihood , the NGO must indeed continue to exist, even if the target group is gone and there is/would be nothing more to do. The orphanages for example: the war is almost 20 years ago - and still: these facilities flourish. The answer: hardly a child has lost his parents, but these are just poor and so they send their children there, so they can go to school and at least get a meal.

The success of NGOs is seen in the fact that most children which were former begging, today sell postcards to tourists: the grounds are full of them. Child prostitution is also a huge issue as the German journal SPIEGEL reported recently. Were the first new discoverers of Cambodia as a tourist destination a few years ago dauntless backpackers:  its wake next came the pedophiles. Regularly corresponding incidents are known. (see also below to Sihanoukville ). So this as the first impression of a tropical country whose infrastructure is virtually non-existent by our standards, whose inhabitants are mostly very poor, but very friendly and cheerful enjoy the peace. What could that be nice here !

Angkor Watt:

Meanwhile, we explored the world famous temples around Angkor Watt in Cambodia (but not with the elephants - which are meant for luxury tourists, which § 20 per head for a trip of 15 min) - and marveled our eyes out. Over 4 days, we went and climbed chronologically and tried to understand the development impulses that led to these huge buildings. This really is going to have its own page. Now, however that I have seen, that after a certain size of the structure, the whole temple is no longer reasonable to photograph from the " human perspective ", the page layout will probably take a while. But here are some impressions of the sites growing in their size, their ideas and their nature - as they emerged in the jungle and which makes them so unique :

One of the many gates in Angkor

The royal pool...

Photographed from one of the lower galleries - Angkor Watt





The so-called Temple of the Trees- so totally overgrown by the rainforest that the roots of the
trees became part of the buildinsg stability.

A temple for a spiritual Cleaning: the central basin and around 4 more
in the 4 directions

In the end, this brings this Australian that I have met in Angkor Watt in the upper gallery, right in the sight of the Blessed Sacrament, to the point in this (photo) attitude: a beggar for spirit ( again the comment was my contribution to the event )! Greetings to the unknown stranger!

Phnom Penh

A long bus ride across Cambodia's second best - and almost continuously paved - road brings me to Phnom Penh, where I fall again into the foothills of a festival. But mainly, I am pleased with the re-encounter with the Mekong, whom I embrace like an old friend happy in my arms. Here I meet and understand a vast and impressive natural phenomenon :

The Mekong River forms with the Great Lake / Tonle Sap River and the annual flooding areas a kind of water system in which everything works together through flows: one can not tell whether the water from the Mekong River, the Tonle Sap or rain bursts from heaven is (rainy season). Either way, everything is flooded with water and the lake stretches its wake from 2 700 km2 to now 16 000 km2 (!) .

On Wikipedia there is an amazing explanation for the phenomenon: The Tonle Sap changes twice a year in its current direction: because the Mekong swells through the rainy season, and from the waters pouring down from the Himalayas, it swells so massive that the Tonle Sap at the mouth where it enters the Mekong river its riverbed is pushed back. So the Mekong is contributing to the flooding and the rising of the lake. In November , the water level of the Mekong falls so far that the Tonle Sap returns to his original streaming direction . This date is celebrated with the annual water festival in Phnom Penh.

Last but not least :

Sihanoukville - the PPP city :
Party, pedophiles price rigging

and despite the nice image here my advice from November 2013: Not worth it - better go to Thailand !

But first things first :

I end up first in Serendipty Beach in a hotel right on the beach - with a fantastic view and all the facilities you need for a few days work . The long sandy beach is full of locals celebrating their 3-day water festival here, but it's really very quiet during the day and relaxed: I feel good. The infamous beggar - thieves and sellers flock are now to share with more people, so they remain a marginal phenomenon only. But then: In the evening it starts already and increases during the night: the disco operating at the beach shacks. Not until midnight, noooo - it is not so civilized here in spite of the many hotels: at midnight it gets real started, there is again and Happy Hour and at 4.00 in the morning the volume of the beats is turned up again really efficient until the sun appears. Despite a distance between me and the transgressors I am absolutely whacked in the morning. And as I check and ask around among the hotels around it quickly makes clear: this is ALWAYS like this - whether normal day or holiday.

The next morning I spend on the PC with google and then in the tuk tuk to run around the beaches. What I wanted: a nicely bright room with sea view, no further away than 400m from the beach , reasonably quiet, with Wifi and affordable (meaning the Sokha Resort eliminated). What I find - in addition to hotels of different classes which suffer from the noise - can be grouped into 3 categories:

1. high-priced **** houses such as the Independent Hotel and Casino Queenco that are so fucked away from everything that they squander their rooms on the Internet (and only there). The Sea-View of " Queenco casino and hotel " there emerges mainly as a view of the casino parking lot. The Independent Hotel looks absolutely extinct, although it is an old but beautiful area. In both cases, the question of where you get something to eat if you do not want to use the hotel 's own restaurant is open. The cost of great rooms - some within the Independent have 60m2 - in the next few days is just around the $ 35 - unfortunately without the desired view of the sea. Seaview you can get with the really expensive rooms in the Independent.

2. Robinson Crusoe Cottage for almost the same price (!) : This is just understandable if you look at the average tourist which comes here: mostly male, 25-40, tuff,  travel experienced tattooed guys who want to have fun. This naturally also contents the experience "bamboo hut on island without electricity" as a have to do. Also in Sihanoukville itself, there are a few of these shaks. And you can not imagine it: these are mostly huts or "bungalows", as they also build by the poor locals: partially open, without glass windows , full of gaps and cracks for the mosquitoes (malaria area with the dangerous malaria Tropika). On the mainland with electricity and partial AC - but in such a filthy condition, as I have never seen in my life (Queen Hill Resort, with a fantastic location) . Oh yes - and our strong boys pay for these fun easily 20-30 dollars (!) - by night!

3. Really quiet bungalow sites on Otres beach. At least I have none found on the internet which also has sea view. The bigger problem, however: here the hoteliers let you pay for the quiet location - and we 're talking about completely overpriced rooms and bungalows in the area beyond the 60 - 100 dollars. The same equipment in town would not even cost half .

The only joy was the small plce of the German Andreas and his wife (Guesthouse Sunset Lounge): they have sparkling clean small rooms with equipment, where you know for what you pay for money - $ 17 a night in a quiet stretch of beach. Unfortunately, the rooms are a bit dark , are transverse to the beach and are too warm during the day, as that it might work to work on PC , as AC is only installed in one. So it remains only a nice meeting.

Well - these are the joys of traveling.

As regrettable as that may sound for this extremely friendly and moslyt honest people here, but if you don´t  want to risk a failure (see eg reviews and travel reports from the tripadvisor), go somewhere else.



Another special tourist group I previously knew only by hearsay - here I experience it almost close : Men, usually traveling alone or in very small groups of male friends. Most clearly beyond the 50, but you can see also some from the 40th. I saw men nearly in their sixties which are escorted by escort young, barely 20 year old stylish girls. And it is a spectacle to watch the arrivals, when their journey coming here ends outside my hotel: so much enthusiasm in the eyes you can see in them - some of them seem to be surely. They look around with true enthusiasm and look clearly forward to the days ahead. Oh dear - here I am apparently landed in a place for sex tourists . Of course one can not refer to any of those men as pedophiles, that is clear. However, not only many of the west -run hotels, but also the streets a plastered with large posters of Child Care, an organization which tries to make aware to sexual child abuse. Which points to a regular happening problem.

Oh yes - there are no photos here: because you risk the theft of anything that is not encased in concrete and also the dangerous form of from the motorcycle thievery is practiced , so the camera stayed at home .

I'll stay a few days and work here. And I hope to get the page to the river travels in Laos ready sooner or later....

Laos - Country on the Mekong

That I would once bathe with an elephant in the Mekong , I had never even dreamed of - but yes, here we go: it is part of the adventure travel ...

Meanwhile, I 'm almost 3 weeks in this very remote Laos, I have experienced a lot and came pretty much around, tha´s why the website couldn´t say anything new. However, to whom who the updates take too long, you can accompany me on Facebook:  I try to post, there regularly short contributions from the mobile phone. But now to the adventures here:

Laos - is a fascinating country dying?
So you could describe the irritation when you travel here with open eyes. From the magnificent temples to the culture and the excesses of the modern gold rushs which are visible here, is among other things the introductory page:
http://www.liebe-zur-erde.eu/laos.html

Luang Prabang - City of 1000 temples! Absolutely inspiring is the festival of lights of the boats , Lhai Heua FAI , which I can experience here. There is a separate page on the website about that event:
http://www.liebe-zur-erde.eu/das-lichtbootfest.html

The temples not only in Luang Prabang are aesthetic and artistic treasures, as I have not yet seen it . And they make me marvel at this people, which seem so be so completely down to earth in daily life - and yet can produce such beauty! What is missing here up to now, are meditating Westerners. However, what also lacks is the ability to establish contact and substantive conversation to the monks: These worlds seem strictly separated. Below is the link then as soon as the page is ready:
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Poachers , dealers and child mortality: Originally lives of people along the rivers :
After my arrival in Luang Prabang, I have left again to explore the north by boat: from the 11 days I was 6 days in boats - some where tourist boats with roof and proper seats, some were native longboats with no roof and I was between the locals squeezed in. The regions are sometimes really very remote, many do not have road access. For this amazing round trip , there will be a separate page on the website :
......................



Handicraft, People, Villages:
Rarely I found it so hard to get in contact with the indigenous people: the Laotians are indeed absolutely friendly but very shy and they live quite introverted or reclusive. Only the help of a local guide helped to melt the ice: in result I got out some of the most beautiful shots of people I have ever made. And surprising insights into village life, where children can not go to school , life expectancy reached only 56 years old and only 30 % of women over 15 can read and write.
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The Nam Tha National Park - jungle without animals?
A few days I was traveling around the Nam Tha National Park . One of them in alleged primary rainforest / monsoon forest. Ok -  but now: where are the animals? No birds , nothing else living - only leeches .... Relatively quickly it becomes clear that poaching is still practiced here - China and its greed for all particular is near. And what there is more: Laos was once forested over and over, and that's not so long ago. Today is like a chessboard with huge parts just made tabula raza: the tropical wood is sold and rubber tree plantations take its place .
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Who wants to experience this country as it once was, should really come soon. Still traveling is tedious, but nature shows unspoiled places that make it an experience to explore it! The way the locals see the adventures involved in traveling this sign shows, which is hanging over the ticket counter in Oudomxai :

The bus company wishes good luck to all travelers:

Meanwhile, I 'm not anymore in Vietnam, but even in Laos. But just today I do realise that somehow this new blogentry was not uploaded - so, here it comes late. More about Laos is in the making.....

My experiences in Hong Kong can be found here as a travelogue - who would have thought that this financial hub with its narrow skyscrapervalleys comes for me as a recreational paradise?
http://www.liebe-zur-erde.eu/lang1/hongkong.html

Also to Vietnam, the first sites are born: here I came, however, pushed to my limits - on the one hand as for the photography, on the other hand in terms of the weather: The weather was influenced by my trip to the coast from  the typhoon which came over central of Vietnam. For us in the north, it did only rain, but still - sunsets as you wish to catch on a scenery like that, where just not in the game this time. The second border are the people : Vietnam lives (yet) strong of its people and the encounters with them. But I'm not good at holding a camera to the peoples face . In addition, the page about Hanoi is not yet ready. So essential parts of the beauty of this country for the moment remain hidden - you just have to go there yourself!
http://www.liebe-zur-erde.eu/lang1/vietnam.html

Now I proceed on to Laos, where I am in for a intensive travel tour. The next update will have to wait for a while.


Last but not least, my last blog entry , as expected, caused a number of different reactions. I will go into the thing here at this point in the next few days - come back here, if you like. Until then, I hope you enjoy reading !

Facebookentry through Andreas after he came back home...


A hacked laptop and 2 months trapped in China's " Great Firewall"


Many here will have wondered sure why no other blog entries came. But after the friends to whom I had written of the situation, also got PC problems (scroll down to see - this had nothing to do with a virus, as far as we Can see), I did not dare to do any more but left the thing and wait.

Now I am in Hong Kong - and arrived back in the world in digital terms . And here comes the story of the past weeks:


Liunxjia , 17.8 , on the Yellow River :

China seems to have discovered its love for me . It starts with the fact that my fresh patched and laboriously configured laptop gets right at the beginning of our trip in August hacked within a few days. Now, it is possible to differentiate between a hacker attack that is executed with economic criminal background, and the quite different one of a political hack, namely through the fact that in the case of economically motivated hacks the PC itself will not destroy itself in the core. With Andreas as a more or less expert on my side, at the end we can only record the total loss of the laptop, which can´t be set up fresh any more. Now what?

In the next step I can´t enter from the hotel computers any longer to my email accounts - in none ("Your Internet connection has been interrupted" - the famous sentence which shows that a page got restrictet by China). The aim of the action seems to cut me digital fundamentally and virtually off , at least in terms of my own work. Since I will stay longer than 2 months in China, this means a full blockade of all my activities , quite apart from the fact that all data and work material such as correspondence in connection with the great journey are lost for now.

Well of course one has to ask why China is fighting against the normal travelers (are we on Chinese thought at all "normal" travelers? ) . Whether there many coincidences came together here or just a westerner traveling independently is so dangerous, I can not answer, and China would deny such a thing anyway.

China is a great country , which is quite different in many respects than our western media report about. This applies in particular for his people. We have had many impressive and beautiful experiences with the people here. Their openness and willingness to help you would search in vain in Germany. And quite some of my trip reports will also work out exactly this aspect again.  But I can not quite hide the fact that this week-long cyber blocking with me gave me not only a sense of injustice , but also evokes a certain anger and defiance - after all , the financial damage is significant. In this respect, this introductory blog post after a long silence will deal a little with the Chinese way of thinking , as far as we could watch it anywhere. Anyone who thinks that this is not appropriate:  you can scroll further down - the issue with the hack has some more parts to tell later. So first to the cultural side:


Lose face ?

We do pretty well  in managing the typical attacks of a self-organized trip to a country whose words and places are ineffable and its inhabitants have seen in some parts still no Westerners: no one has to lose face because of us. you can in polite or humorous forms point on things which should change (eg the forever phonecalling driver of a tour bus in Dunhuang): if people can change something , they will do it then. And if they can not - as today - then is there just nothing to do: Andreas must take today a 4-hour journey, because it is not possible in this 100 000 people- strong "village" with several banks to get money from an ATM or to change other currency. Although all signs and imprints say that you can : the labels are just not an information for Westerners, but to spice up their reputation between the native population. Our 4 -star hotel has boards which say that you can pay with credit card as also change money. But it is just a facade - you just can not. There are similar examples to hundreds.
Facades and to masquerade as someone - the Chinese love it: People dress up and then play to be someone else for a moment. At least until the photo is shot. Tourist haunted places are equipped with all necessary props : On the northern hill overlooking the old kings Palace in Beijing, you can wrap yourself in emperors and queen costume and be then for a few minutes one of the great ancestors . From the massive sand dunes at Dunhuang desert a Dysneyland was conjured just as in the "Grasslands", already on the way to the Tibetan plateau in the vicinity of Xiahe , where you can play for a few hours nomad or riding like Genghis Khan. And otherwise there are no limits for the phantasy . Want to try how it feels to be someone else is a beautiful gesture by itself. But to look behind the mask is, however, strictly prohibited in cultural terms. One can - and then is surprised to find the same hardships, the same aspirations and concerns within the souls as in other cultures also. But may never be shown.
Anyway - the photography thing. And tourist groups. On the page about Huangshuan I go more detailed on that point, along with my discovery how Dante would have described Chinese's heaven and Chinese hell. The blindness of the people for their country and the absolute nature in the appearance of their own stature is the ground where those flowers grow to which this separate page has been created.
While the people themselves - especially in rural regions - are really very friendly and helpful, curious and really glad and proud, for example when they understood the gestures of the foreigners correctly and selected the right fruits in the right amount. The English-speaking students a real joy , but may be you can not necessarily say the same of their government or administration. The Political slogan (correct: the facade ... ) says: Strangers are welcome, we are an open country , where everyone can go and see what he wants, limits are for your own protection . All official signs such as street names , toilet signs and so on are also written in English - also in the province. The people on the street react mostly friendly and curious on us - especially in the regions where there seem to be no other Westerners: and we have been quite a while in such areas. The regulations behind it speak another language, but you usually do not see this as long as you are " Normalo tourist", guided within the ordinary Socialist High-speed mass method of the characteristic Chinese Mass tourism, in which they pass through the country and its highlights. And exactly here lies obviously the danger posed by normal blogging and writing tourists , even if they mainly care about culture and landscape : they could possibly see independently and think and take conclusions about things they really should not see or grasp . Because we remember : dressing up and playing is beautiful and fun. But how it looks there behind that you should not see - not only as a stranger - maybe it's for the Chinese themselves not to endure what they find?

During the weeks that we are in the country, China for us started to look more and more like a big playground of the world history: where people let off steam with have nothing and no one but themselves in their mind. Anyone who reads the accompanying China pages in this website as well as the Chinese newspapers itself, can note a subject that always attracts the entries and stories: it is in utter ruthlessness , but with the face as if the culprit didn´t do anything, didn´t shove, push, jostle . Whether it is elongated and thus poisoned milk powder (and that happens in the kids doting China!), Poison in toys or the flesh of dead (because previously diseased) pigs - which meat could be infiltrated by a gang back in the food cycle ( - recently they got hauled up and since then the farmers through out of lack of other possibilities their dead pigs in the Yangtsee ... - anywhere , only one thing , namely the own profit and the own advancement counts.  Children happened to get injured by a car - but both, car and pedestrians left the scene - and nobody helps. That incident impulsatd whithin China itself  adiscussion about the state of ethics in society. ( China's courts may get - depending on how influential an offender is - sometimes even rigid . In a case is a culprit hanged ( http://edition.cnn.com/2013 / 09/25/world/asia/china-baby-murder/index.html ) , in another case, first time nothing happens , because the villain is the son of the local police chief - but he expressed clearly enough on the spot of the accident - where somebody died: "Sue me if you dare - I am the son of... " who he was ( http://www.globaltimes.cn/china/society/2011-01/618824.html or http://www.bbc.co.uk/ . news/mobile/world-asia-pacific-12317756 ) . Children and women are kidnapped and sold to the rural population who can afford it: there is a strong preference to boys in rural areas. But exactly for this reason not all men can find a woman : . . , there are simply not enough. So you can buy one from which you just know that she was kidnapped and stolen (cost just under € 10,000 ). China daily says that in 2011 13,000 children and 23,000 women were freed from the police - and so that's just the tip of the iceberg ( http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-09/28/content_17001616.htm ) . In the north of Vietnam is also widely poached , the market appears to be large. In the headlines recently was the case of a little boy who was attacked and his eyes - or parts thereof - transplanted for another receiver, and were taken from the child which will last the boy blind for lifetime.


Over the days, a structure shows in my attempts to get into my mail account:
The first time it works - and I can stay there, no matter how long. But from there on the new access is blocked and another login is not possible ( your Internet connection has been reset ). Log in will also be allowed only if the computer may save email and password - otherwise nothing works .
After about 3 weeks , the situation calmed down so far that I can enter several times in succession in my email accounts again. However, it is also the only of limited duration: the hotel in Beijing, from where I write these lines in late September , gives an excellent internet connection with which I can even download movies from the German libraries. Only - my two email accounts can not be opened , neither the Gmx nor my own website account. The reason remains unclear, but it is such a strong slowdown in the connection - and only noticeable on these pages that the server - either will not let me login or content may not be displayed ( your Internet connection was reset ... ) . All that is beyond any probability to appear as random. After I 've struggled for days with this problem, I am so annoyed that I want to have all these Chinese hackers idiots only in hell: what's the point - and what a perversity : traveling guests to cut off communication? Secretly, I wish to get face to face to  the Chinese leaders who is responsible for the people which causes such stuff: I really would like to talk to him. Presumably, however, I have no chance with this.


China - or has it been the NSA ?

And of course I must say: For quite a while I could not be sure that now specially China has hacked my computer. Also the NSA is at the moment great just to do as it pleases . While I write this words, the partner from the Guardian journalist from Brazil ( Snowden revelations ) was held by force in London and had to give all his electronic devices in - the whole thing under the Patriot Act, which was made for terrorists. The Guardian in turn was forced to destroy its hard drives in the basement because the journal did not want to give out information. Sais this: the secret services have gone to war with its citizens - who does not submit , gets destroyed.
OK - But: why should the NSA hack my laptop ? Because a VPN tunnel that allows logging into Facebook ? Can the NSA hack and observe like this in China at all?
The matter gets yet another unexpected turn. In the moment when we realized that the computer was hacked and destroyed itself , I write to a friend about this matter: I describe my thoughts and the possible cause of such hacks and ask for advice and help concerning my way forward and my travel with the eurythmy. Because that is in its entirety with the additional costs now at stake: The laptop can´t be set up new in China expected, especially not with an German or English operating system . Buy a new laptop - all are Chinese speaking and have the wrong keyboard. They are also equipped with a monitoring software which I definitely do not need on the long run. Shall I fly home and use present device with a new hard drive, install the new programs which are also at home? Besides the fact that all my work is just blocked , the damage including the loss of earnings amounts to an average 4- digit range. Very well, then. This friend of mine is reading this my email which have been sent from a hotel PC, and she too is reading them not on her regular PC but on a laptop on vacation. As she later comes home, also her computer is hacked, apparently with the same symptoms that I had, too. --- Shocking question:  How likely is such a coincidence?

Basically, there are two possibilities here : either we are in the same distributors who did send out this virus - then even more people in our environment beginning with the end of July should be cornered with the total loss of PCs and the whole thing has nothing to do with us. Or, quite sinister: my mails are scanned and the recipient's regular IP address (there lists for that, says Andreas ) got hacked, too - as a precaution . That the beneficiary is on vacation, makes at least possible that he reads my emails before his pc gives up the spirits.


And now: why?

When asked why a superpower should bother with shooting down the computers of traveling eurythmists, Andreas said with a grin : "I suppose there is a right-wing directed Eurythmy fraction, which is fundamentally against the use of PCs and therefore cuts in at a central location as a prevention to use them " . Well then ...


In the meantime I did reach Hong Kong. And I will see what happens when I will upload this story. If there is another gap in my reporting's and travel blogging, then you know, what did happen.

Also in the meantime, I have my site at least partially enriched with the travelogues from China. They are, however, all still only available in German language and awaiting translation. I hope to do this in the coming days.
Well - and then there's the bottom line . This chapters might will have to be revised again , because the impressions show from Hong Kong (where 95% Chinese live) , how extensive the development and expression of personality depends on education and environment .

Asia? - Dornach? From Dornach to Beijing in a luxury flight!

For the normal people usually it is enough actually to prepare for a several month-long trip. For me the surprise of an additional ad hoc move came along: All of a sudden we get the opportunity to move to Dornach - So now I aam down under in the whole packing and dividing the stuff: what with goes where, what is stored, what is needed for the trip ... - and already we're gone! So I will have the pleasure after my return to live in Switzerland: what a joy and what a luxury!




Flying with the business class: Surprises at a high level in an Air France to Beijing ...

Yes, I would have never dreamed that I would ever fly business class - but now my dear Andreas has given me the opportunity and pleasure: because he was so much in the air due to his profession, he had accumulated miles. Then came the news that he would have to use them up to October – so where is good advice, how to make reasonable use of them? Since he did not want to sit in front on the plane while I darbe behind, he now booked a business ticket for both of us to Beijing in an Air France flight and puts me in astonishment.

First time I discover that the “Otto Normalo”, the Mr or Mrs X, usually never gets to see the business sector, as there are several entrances to the plane.
This is the First Class, today empty...



So I'm in for the first time to enjoy the lounge in Stuttgart -



and in Paris:





Buffet food is top notch and included in the ticket price.



In front of the door an Airbus A380 in all its beauty - but it only rises hard, the fully loaded plane in the sky! We travel in a smaller one ...



Then the comfort in Business Class on long-distance:



Backrest and footrest move in any direction



A 5-course meal is served with tablecloth



For us 13 fools 4 stewards are running

The foie gras I leave my to my beloved one and entertain me in addition to the food rather than making more photos.



Sunrise over the desert of Mongolia:

And an addiction to this flight form can also be fully understandable: it's my first long haul flight without any jet lag, and that comes not only from the tricks for the time changing zones! One sleeps while the plane swings under the turbulences!