How was your last vacation? Two thousand kilometers in ten days? Four countries in three weeks? Whole Latin America in a month?

“I want to experience as much as possible”, that’s what is also often in my mind. But I started to realize that to achieve this, you don’t need to run faster. It’s the contrary. You need to force yourself to slow down. Slow down drastically. Remembering some of the most exciting adventures, encounters and experiences: they mostly started while I was waiting somewhere. Waiting for the bus, waiting for better weather or simply just while having a break.

“I will just sit down and wait until something happens” – I guess that’s what the monkey from Naivasha (Kenya) thought. And he was right! I came around .

So remember the monkey when you are walking with your backpack somewhere next time and simply sit down to wait and see.

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Today’s story is about the illumination of the statue “Christ the Redeemer” in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

But the main protagonist is the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. Born in 1824, Nobel Prize in Physics winner in 1909, he is often credited as the inventor of radio. In 1914 he became a Senator in Italy, in 1937 he died. As a tribute not only Italy held a state funeral for him, but all radio stations throughout the world observed two minutes of silence.

But what does this man have to do with the statue in Rio?

After nine years of construction, the largest Art Deco statue in the world was inaugurated on October 12, 1932. It was a massive event. Probably all 1.5 mio Cariocas (Rio locals) at that time,  tourists, reporters and 250,000 pilgrims from all over the world gathered and as a highlight… guess who had the honor to turn on the lights? Exactly, Senator Marconi. He didn’t come in person, but the plan was that he would flash three short-wave wireless signals from Italy, which would contact the switch at the statue. Nice plan, just that it was raining a bit and wireless technology was still at its infancy. In the end workers in Rio lit the 5th largest statue of Jesus in the world.

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Is it only me or do you also like the sound of the word “Kuala Lumpur”? It gives kind of a mystical impression, maybe like Mandalay or Marrakech. I spent the last week there and learned that the name of the capital originates from the Malayan meaning “muddy river”. So much for that mystical part…

It also surprised me to read that the city is actually pretty new. Founded only in the 1850s, it quickly grew from a small tin mining village to the biggest city and capital of the country. As you can see, the skyline is dominated by the KL tower and the magnificent Petronas Twin Towers. For six years they were the tallest buildings in the world. Today, 5 others are higher (located in Dubai, Mecca, Taipei, Shanghai & Hong Kong).

More fascinating than buildings is the mixture of Malayan, Chinese, Indian & Western traditions, religions & food. So if you go to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), it’s likely that you eat chicken curry, visit Hindu temples, pass by a mosque before eating dim-sum. Then maybe a bit of strolling around in China town before lighting some candles in a Anglican church. And that’s only what I did on the first day.

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It is 6.30 am and the boy is on his way back from the daily morning puja in the big prayer hall. He was sitting there with around 70 other monks of the yellow hat sect and recited sutras to the rhythm of bells, trompeds & drums. It was cold and dark when he entered the temple, but now the morning sun greets the new day. Pilgrims have been walking the 3 km circuit around the monastery all night and will not stop to turn the hundreds of praying wheels the entire day.

This happens every day at Labrang Monastry in Xiahe (China), home to the largest number of yellow hat monks outside of Tibet. Once it was home to more than 4,000 monks, but around 1958 political issues peaked. Labrang Monatry, one of the six great monasteries of the Geluk school, was closed for twelve years. Fortunately today, the monk in the photo is one of more than 1,000 who live, study and pray at this fascinating and peaceful place.

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Work takes me there every now and then and this beautiful building, which by the way is one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world, is one of the few things I always look forward to seeing again. Otherwise, it’s probably only the fact to get to a place with quite unusual rules of life that fascinates me. As the sound of the names is so similar, I am always joking that I am going to “Riyadh the Janeiro”. In fact, both cities actually seem to be on completely different planets, so here just five reasons why Riyadh is not Rio:

1) When you arrive at the passport control you are not being greeted by the beautiful sounding “bom dia”. You are actually quite lucky if you are greeted at all while being pushed erratically from one waiting lane to another.

2) You barely see women. And those few you see, wherever you go, are covered and always accompanied by their husbands.

3) You are surrounded by sand of an impressive, actually beautiful desert that separates you from any beach.

4) You don’t hear music at all, not even in restaurants or tea shops. Can you imagine Rio de Janeiro without music?

5) No caiprinha and no cerveja…

It’s truly quite a different place to experience, with strict rules that are partially difficult to understand for a stranger. But hey, I guess that’s what you call diversity.

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Two weeks back I have been in Germany and spent a magnificent time in Thueringen (one of the 16 states of the country). The photo shows the main portal of one of the many churches in Muehlhausen (Germany).

The town is right at the center of the country and a surprisingly high number of “celebrities” called it once “home”. The most prominent one is probably Johann Sebastian Bach who worked there for a few years in the early 18th century. You might not know John August Roebling who was born there, but he was the guy who built New York’s Brooklin Bridge. And you probably need to be deeply interested in theology to know one of the most radical reformers Thomas Muentzer who lived, worked and in the end was beheaded in Muehlhausen in 1525.

Today, Christians celebrate Good Friday, remembering the day when Jesus Christ was crucified. Then on Easter Sunday, it’s all about the resurrection. Don’t ask me how the eggs & bunnies came into the picture.
Happy Easter.

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My brothers wedding brought me to Mallorca (Spain) last year. What a beautiful place!

People have lived on the tiny island in the Mediterranean Sea since about 5000 BC. Romans conquered it and Arabs influenced the unique Mallorquin culture. People came and went again.

Today this mostly describes the masses of tourists. Last year more than 22 million of them invaded the island. Funny enough, the majority of them only to step out of the plane and stay in hotels like the above, to commute between hotel room, buffet, beach and the party at night. If this sounds like your last vacation there, have a look at the video and see what you missed. All the others, take your time and soak up inspiration for your next trip.

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Every fifth person on earth lives in Africa, the continent that is going mobile in a speed which lets the others look like turtles.

Already today there are more than 640 million mobile phone users in Africa – more than in Europe or North America. Paying with mobile money has been completely normal to Kenyans for years, receiving a diagnosis from a doctor on your handset is maybe your only chance if walking to the next city takes days. Some countries skip fixed lines all together, so millions of Africans own mobile phones without having known or used a landline in their lives.

“Africa Goes Mobile” is also visible wherever you go. The days seem gone when you spotted houses painted with “Coca Cola” or “Omo” slogans. Like here in Accra (Ghana) the usual suspects for the questionable practice of urban beautification are mobile operators like Zain, Vodafone, MTN (yellow-painted building) and others.

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Few years later, close to Johannesburg (South Africa), I bumped into Mrs. Ples. She lived more than 2 million years back and could be considered as the grand-grand-grand-…mother of all of us. UNESCO named the caves in the Gauteng Province a World Heritage Site and if you ever happen to be there, don’t miss the Maropeng Visitor Centre. Even if museums are normally not your cup of tea, you will enjoy the exhibits and the architecture of the building. It was there where I took the photo and smiled back at the Bavarian man surrounded by portraits from around the world.

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The French Revolution lasted around ten years (1789-1799), the American Civil War took four years to end (1861-1865), the freedom fight in India started in 1857 and led to the independence from the British Rule almost one hundred years later (1947). Is the world too impatient when it comes to the developments in Egypt?

Last Saturday marked the first anniversary of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s downfall. Opinions about the country’s progress are influenced by frequent breaking news about protests, violence, parliament elections, actions of the military rulers, etc. –  light & shadow, like in the photo taken at the pyramids in Cairo (Egypt). Maybe the discussion with Maged Maher Gabra from the Egyptian Initiative to Protect the Gains of the Revolution help you to form your own judgement.

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