more alpine travels

I´m back in Salzburg today. yesterday I took a tour to Berchtesgaden and Konigsee. It was cloudy and a bit drizzly, but Konigsee was as beautiful as ever. Unfortunately did not see much of Berchtesgaden as we had to wait for another tour group to finish visiting the salt mines near by. Anyway, I will upload the photos when I get connection with my laptop. Will perhaps visit another Bavarian town today.

Last day in the Salzkammergut

It has been a dry and sunny day today. I took the bus to Mondsee, a neighbouring lake, and was pleased that the tourist office recommended a lovely walk. It was rather "tame" as walks go, but there weren't many buses going back to St Gilgen, and I didn't want to be stuck in Mondsee for the whole day.
First, of course I had to "pay my respects" to the Cathedral. It turned out that I dropped in to a baptism ceremony by the Archbishop of salzburg. He must have had a busy season, because I saw him doing the same thing in Salzburg last Saturday. The church was packed full of people in their traditional costumes.
The route recommended by the tourist office went down one of the main streets in this town with colorful buildings. Then it turned into a street which followed a small river. After coming across a rather surprising printing press in the middle of the forest (!) I started on the the "real" forest track. Too soon, the track emerged at an old mill, where there is now a cafe, and not far away, there was a little picturesque chapel. One can find these chapels, large and small, all over Austria.
Getting back to town, I made a quick walk near the lakeside. On the bus, we had looked out to plenty of lovely views up and down the lake.
There are basically 4 large restaurants cum hotels in town, all serving good Austrian food. I was happy to be able to have very fresh salads and fish, while breakfast at the hotel provides me with my daily (unneccessary!) sausage.

warming up in Austria

Well, I have been away for nearly a week and still have not got over jetlag yet. I get up punctually at 4am everyday, and am tired out by 7pm! I must say that I´ve been tiring myself out everday with walking,though.
The first day in Germany, I used my Eurail pass to visit alpine towns of Garmisch Partenkirchen(ski town), Mittenwald (famed for violinmaker Klotz), and Seefeld, a ski town in Austria. When I got to Salzburg at the end of the day, I was shocked to see that they have guttered the inside of the station and it is all in a mess. I´ve used this station a lot in my travels and it used to be my "welcome home" to Salzburg. Never mind, the hotel owner recognised me and did in fact say "welcome home", so I felt good! Its a little family hotel near the station and the same family has run it for 100 years!
It was dinner time when I arrived, and I walked almost 20 mins towards the old town to look for food. In the end I had to settle for a hole-in-the-wall creperie. As nobody was in the cafe, I had attentive and fast service!
I had a lot of changed plans on my first day in Salzburg. I planned to go up to the fortress, but got distracted by a bus going to the Castle outside town, near where my dorm was, when I was studying here 37 years ago (Oh dear, it has been so long!). So I had a good walk in the Castle´s park and also a good bus ride outside town with views of fields and mountains.
After lunch I finally finished the walk on Monchsberg, where the fortress is. Looking at the map, I can see there is still a little bit that I have yet to do.
On Sunday (Pentecost Sunday), before church, I walked through the quiet streets of Salzburg, free from the noisy tourists. I also get a shiver when I walk in an empty Salzburg. I wonder if I will bump into Mozart coming round the corner!! I went to the Franziskanerkirche, my favorite church here: good music, good sermons. I later took the bus to St Gilgen, where Mozart´s mother was born, and where his sister Nannerl lived after she got married. Her very large house on the lakeside is preserved for visitors. I have not done any "sightseeing" in town yet, as I have been busy on the walks.
I rushed off to take the cog steam railway as soon as I arrived, but I could not get a return trip, so was not allowed to go up. I had to be content with the very crowded boat ride from St Gilgen to St Wolfgang and back. The holiday crowds were out in force with (screaming and frisky)children, (harrassed)parents and (doting)grandparents all out to enjoy the first warm days of summer.
Yesterday I also rushed out for my first walk, and of all things, forgot my walking sticks. I walked by the lakeside for about an hour and then attempted the slope up to the St Wolfgang plgrimage church. I gave up after 10 mins, also gave up more of the lakeside part because it was too slippery. I took a boat to a small called Ried and walked about 20 to 30mins from there to the cog railway station. Again, I could not catch the first train, and had to wait for an hour to catch the next one. One would have thought this was Singapore, as people were lining up 45 mins before the next train arrived!! All depends a lot on the weather, and I really was not expecting much at the top of the mountain. But...wow!... though it was a bit hazy, we could see so many snow-covered mountain tops and a 360 degree view of all the nearby lakes. That really made my day. After that I had to ride back to St Gilgen with an even bigger crush of holiday makers. Here they even have a "Whitmonday" holiday.
Today, I had breakfast a little later. They only serve from 8am!! I rushed out again, but it started to rain...anyway, I had planned to take the bus to the town at the opposite end of the lake and then take walks from there. By the time I got there, all was dry again. have to be ready for hot or cold, rain or shine, all in one day!
I enjoyed the flat walk by the lakeside near Strobl, around a kind of marsh. Then I walked into the small town. All seemed quiet and ghostly, very different from yesterday! I walked round a small little hill jutting out on the lake, and then took about an hour to walk to St Wolfgang again. I sure know this town well by now! I was in time to catch the boat home...yes, I know the boats well too...
I hope to go to Mondsee tomorrow to look at the church where "Maria" got married to "Von trapp". I´ll try to upload some pictures tomorrow when I can get connected from my laptop.
I´ll be back to Salzburg on Friday, and then on to the first walking tour in Lake Garda (Italy) on Saturday. The train,bus,taxi connections are always an adventure!

flying to Munich

I've just made an extensive and slow tour of seemingly the entire transit lounge of Bangkok's airport. The Bangkok papers are plastered with photos of the final (?) battle with the "red shirts" yesterday. One wouldn't know that the city was in turmoil, from this cosy transit lounge where I'm typing this entry. I'm not sure what is going on at the moment down town, because there's no TV to disturb the tranquillity here.
Bangkok airport has departure gates at multiple wings, ranging from B to G. On the 4th level, there is a huge "emporium" of shops. E "wing" is where all the high-end branded goods are. there certainly seems to be no end to them, as one passes shop after shop to get to the departure gate.
Well, I'm sad that things have become such a mess here, but I'm thankful that the 2-hr flight from Singapore to here was fine this morning. and that in Europe (so far as I know! )it seems that the volcano is quiet, or more specifically, the ash is not hovering over Munich, which will be my destination tonight.
After 15 hours of flying, with 4 1/2 hrs transit in between, I'll find myself in familiar surroundings in the Bavarian capital. After an overnight stay in Hotel Wallis, which I found excellent 2 years ago, I'll be taking a train ride into the Bavarian alps, passing Mittenwald, where violins have been made for centuries, and popping into Seefeld where Hf Holidays have a walking tour.
My destination for the weekend will be my favorite Austrian city, Salzburg. It's not because of Mozart. It's because I spend 2 happy summers here at the summer school of the Mozarteum, and always feels like coming home. Then, I spent hours indoors practising .This time I will get up to the fortress that dominates the city and walk on Monchsberg. I look forward to attending Mass at either Franziskanerkirche or the Cathedral (or both), and being uplifted by the music there.

Poring Hot springs

We flew to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah, by Jetstar. The plane was full of holiday-makers, most heading for the mountain or for diving at Sandakan. The 2-hr flight was pleasantly short, and I was surprised to find that KK now has a spanking new airport. We bought a coupon for the taxi ride to town, which was only 15 mins away. Even the taxi was brand new!
Two hungry tourists headed out to the town after checking in at Hotel Shangri-la (NOT the real McCoy). At the Melaka restaurant we were introduced to "Sayor Manis", a vegetable commonly found here. Food was good: we cleaned the plates!
In our area of town we found malls galore, so we just walked disinterestedly till we reached the bus terminal near the "Wawasan" building. Susan had spied streams of people headed there at that late afternoon hour.
The next morning, Mr Lo from Sanctuary Borneo tour company was waiting in the lobby to drive us up to Poring Hot Springs, which is downhill past the Kinabalu Park HQ. After an hour's drive, views of the mountain started to emerge. Even though the weather was good that day, the mountain top, as always, was hidden by some dramatic cloud formations.

We stopped by a fruit stand in Kundasang, the vegetable garden of Sabah. Whole valleys in this region are filled with small holdings of fruit, vegetable and (mountain) rice farmers. We inspected fruit that we don't often see in singapore, like "buah salat" known as "snake skin fruit" in Chinese. We bought a bag of "duku" which was juicy and sweet.
Just before 11am, we reached Poring Hot Springs, and after lunch at a nearby coffee shop, we proceeded past the visitors enjoying a warm soak in the hot pools. The butterfly park did not seem to be enclosed, and butterflies darted in and out freely around us .
As it was lunch time, we had the canopy walk practically to ourselves. How wonderful to be up near the crowns of the tall trees and feel the cool breeze. We had our workout for the day walking up to and coming down from the canopy.
Continuing our walk, we came to the Kipungit waterfalls, and then attempted the steep paths to the "bat cave". That was an even better workout!

Late in the afternoon we drove back to national Park HQ and checked into our lodge. The views of the mountain were magnificent!

At the lodge, a personal viewing bench was provided in front of each lodge.at 5am the next morning, the cloudless view of the mountain was there for all who made the effort to get up early to view it. At that hour, we could imagine that many of those who climbed to the summit had already taken photos of their achievement and were already well on their downward trek, which we understand from most people, is more taxing than the uphill trek.

We ended our vacation back in KK, with some time spent at the crowded sunday market on Jalan Gaya, where, besides many trinket stalls, we also saw indigenous produce like vegetables, flowering plants, seaweed, honey and various local cakes. At the port, we saw speedboats of various designs ferrying the agile residents of the nearby water village to the port-side markets in town.

At the foot of the mystical mountain

It's my second trip with Susan this year, and this time it was all good...exhilarating! We are just back from our trip to Kinabalu National Park in Sabah. Mention the magical word "Kinabalu", and everyone gets impressed. But, we were there only to hike the trails at the base of the mountain. The clouds parted sufficiently for us to glance wistfully at Laban Rata, where the final climb to the summit begins, usually at 2am in the morning.

At that hour we were snug in our Sutera-managed Hill Lodge, appreciative of the excellent accommodation and facilities at Park Headquarters. After a copious breakfast that morning, we had a challenging but enjoyable hike on the undulating Kiau View Trail, and the downhill-all-the-way Silau-Silau trail to the compact but comprehensive botanic gardens.

We made the mistake of eating too much for lunch, so we huffed and puffed up the short Bukit Tupai trail. Our final stroll down the Silau-Silau valley was rewarded by the sighting of a large mushroom . Tumbling out onto the exit road, we found ourselves in the vicinity of the Balsam cafe, where Susan refused to have the expensive and watery coffee. Fortunately, our private transport back to Kota Kinabalu was waiting to save us from melting in the fierce heat of the mid-afternoon sun.