reto's blog

Category: voyaging

  • Hiking and Sightseeing in Northern Yunnan, China

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    the plan for the 2017 adventure After a prolonged to-and-fro, we decided to climb a rather tall-ish mountain in Yunnan. The plan was simple (at least on paper…): fly to Lijiang in Yunnan province, drive to Haba village, acclimatize for one day, walk up to the base camp (4100 meters above sea level), acclimatize for…

  • Hiking in the Cordilleras

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    getting there The northern part of Luzon, the main island of the Philippines, promises some interesting hiking. Only one little challenge: it takes over six hours by car to get there from Manila, the capital of the Republic. Early March 2017, I joined a group for a hike up Mount Ulap (loosely translated into “mountain of the…

  • Walking Up Pico de Loro

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    I got a chance to join a one day trip from Manila to Pico de Loro (“Parrot’s Peak” in Spanish), a 600 meters hill about 60 km to the south west of the capital of the Philippines. For the uninitiated: people in the Philippines like to get up early, I mean really early as in really really…

  • A Few Days in Prague

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    The sights are beautiful and aplenty, the whole town-centre is a gigantic pedestrian zone, knick-knack shopping, sight-seeing, people watching and snack-indulgence heaven. The crowds can be overwhelming, however just step 100 meters away from the main thoroughfare and you find quiet restaurants, friendly service and good food. The pics in the gallery could lead to the…

  • Excursion to Cheung Chau Island, Hong Kong

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    Father-daughter day: a very nice excursion to Cheung Chau Island, a 30+ minutes ferry trip from Hong Kong Island. After a bumpy ferry ride and a ridiculously unsuccessful try to rent a bicycle, we did some sight seeing: A nice lunch (aircon is a real gift when its 35 degrees outside) followed by a round of…

  • Desert Trekking in China

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    June 2016, we trekked seventy kilometres through the Badain Jaran, which is part of the Gobi desert in China. The executive summary: phase one: Singapore –> Hong Kong –> Beijing –> Jinchang –> Alxa Youqin phase two: walk, sand, camels, sand, fun, wind, sand, tents, sand, lake, sand, watermelons, sand, yoghurts and sand phase three: the reverse…

  • Jalan Jalan

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    Family city-hopping to Kuala Lumpur for sightseeing, sampling local delicacies and – you guessed it – supporting the retail industry. Day one : flight on time, smooth aiport transfer from KLIA2 to downtown and a clean, comfortable room in a nice, conveniently located hotel. Not quite like that: something wrong with the plane, 90 minutes…

  • my first multi-day mountain biking event

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    I’m regularly riding my Merida hardtail since we moved back to the Lion City in 2012. Regularly means one to two times a week, recently closer to three times a week, each ride is in the 35 km (+/- 15 km) distance range. The tri-weekly bike hash adds some high level cardio to it, when I (often…

  • Kuhltour statt Wandertour

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    Aaaaaaaaaaaalso: da kommt einer aus den Tropen, reist von weit weit her, sitzt 13 Stunden im Flugzeug und freut sich darauf, in nasskaltem Wetter mit seinen Freunden in der Schweiz outdoor-maessig etwas zu unternehmen. Schifahren in strahlendem Sonnenschein auf dem Feldberg ist genau nach seinem Geschmack (ein Danke an die SPPs), siehe HIER. Aber oh weh:…

  • The Annual Beijing Ritual

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    Beijing fascinates me. Choosing my journey anywhere between the ultra-ancient and the ultra-modern remains incredibly seductive to me. The icing on the cake are the good company and sumptuous meals with friends and acquaintances every time I return. This is the third trip to Beijing after we moved away from the capital city in June…