Get to know the world - and yourself along the way!
When walking through an unfamiliar village as a solo traveler, I am often uncomfortable at first. I get stared at, critically eyed and observed, or someone smells business and tries to sell me something. I feel like an vulnerable foreign body in the center of …
In the province of Yunnan, China can be experienced from its more traditional side. Many of its towns and villages are well preserved or have been rebuilt in the vernacular style, and the population is made up of numerous small ethnic minorities. When I visited …
At the border between Armenia and Turkey, on the Turkish side, there are the ruins of the former Armenian capital Ani, which are more than a thousand years old. A beautiful and at the same time very sad place, I found, because the Armenians are …
One morning I was sitting on the balcony of my Airbnb apartment with my novel and a cup of coffee when I suddenly heard a loud hammering. I looked up and promptly found the source of the noise: a small green woodpecker pecking at insects …
If you want to climb a six-thousand-meter high peak from La Paz, it is relatively simple, since the city already lies at an altitude of about four-thousand meters. In only two days I could therefore climb Huayna Potosí, the local mountain of La Paz. On …
The ancient town quarter of Yazd is a labyinth of alleys in which I got completely lost several times. There were hardly any points of orientation, because all the alleys were brimmed by high walls. The tall minarets of the magnificent Friday Mosque proved helpful. …
The whole morning I had kept a lookout for the Bengal tiger, while walking through the Himalayan foothills in the south of Nepal – however, I only got to see an imprint of its paw. At noon the rhinos at their daily river bath compensated …
In the small village of Lamalera on the remote island of Lembata, everything revolves around traditional whaling. Long before the fishermen take their sons to the high seas, they already begin to participate in the food gathering. During my evening walk, I saw the boys …