Index English

 

A Gurkha temple in Maymyo

 

Shivaratri in the Pashupatinath temple (Maymyo )and more …

 

A journey in Chin State (Burma)

 

From Salay to the Indian border and back to Bagan

A journey to Myanmar’s deep South

Overland from Yangon to Myeik (Mergui)

 

A Lama temple in Maymyo

 

An unexpected discovery in Maymyo (Pyin Oo Lwin)

 

 

A military coup in Burma

 

 

About the first military coup in Burma 1962

 

A murder in Nilaveli

 

The tragic story of Jungle Boy

 

A night out in Maymyo

 

Secrets of Pyin Oo Lwin’s nightlife

 

A pot made of platinum

 

How I once missed the chance of my lifetime …

A shoe theft in Yangon

How I lost and found a pair of shoes in Yangon

 

A train ride to Mandalay in the 1950’s

 

Showing you, how easy it is today to go to Mandalay by train …

 

A trip to Baghdad in 1978

 

The start of our overland journey from Baghdad to Ceylon in 1978, before Saddam Hussein took power

About Freddie Aguilar and Bob Dylan

Facts about the Philippines

 

Armenians in Yangon

 

About the oldest Christian community in Yangon

 

Assorted holy men of Burma

 

About a fascinating mix of religious people

 

August 20, 1977

 

The story of my first trip to Burma …

 

Balinese types

 

About strange people I’ve met in Bali

 

Berlin – and the consequences

 

How I started a new life in Berlin at the age of 19 …

 

Biography sister Rose Mary

 

A nun of the Bayingyi minority

 

Biography Victor 

 

About one of my oldest friends in Burma

 

Black market deals in Burma

 

When the black market in Burma was in full swing…

Burma – the country and its people

All you need to know about Burma a.k.a. Myanmar

Burmese dream jobs: sailor

About the labour market in a country with economic troubles

Burmese dream jobs, part II

About pop singers, tour guides, brokers and others …

 

Burmese ghost stories – an incident in Myaynigone

 

When the unbelievable becomes ‘reality’

 

Burmese numerology – 108

 

About the most important number in religion

 

Burmese puppetry

 

The abbreviated English version of my PhD thesis

 

Calcutta Revisited

 

A trip to Calcutta 40 years after my first sojourn …

 

Can you spell foxtrot?

 

About trying to spell a word to a hotel telephone operator in Myanmar …

 

Chauktatyone

 

A visit to the Yangon immigration office in the 1980s

Chowringhee, Calcutta

Calcutta’s most splendid boulevard back in the 70s

 

Climbing Mt. Batur, Bali

 

How I climbed the first volcano in my life …

 

Curfew in Bangkok!

 

When Asia’s ‘sin city’s’ night life had to close down at 11 p.m.

Doing legal business in Socialist Burma

How I learnt to run with the pack in Socialist Burma

 

Foreigners in Old Burma

 

From Marco Polo to British occupation

 

Foreword and about the author

 

 

   …

Fritz Werner – A German company in Burma

About misunderstandings in industrial co-operation

From the Bay of Bengal to the Shan Plateau

From West to East with a rented car …

From Marsa Matruh to the Siwa oases

About a bus trip gone wrong

 

From Rangoon to Berlin with AEROFLOT

 

How I met my good friend Effi on a flight from Rangoon to Berlin

 

Guidebooks

 

About the advantages and disadvantages of guidebooks

 

Hitler and Burma

 

About some strange connections …

How to be a good tour guide in Myanmar

 

Some basics of tour guiding

 

How to get rich quickly on the road

 

What happens when hippies try to make some money to ‘pay for their trip’ …

 

I had a boat in Burma …

 

How I wasted more than 100.000 dollars on a dream

India’s cops

The life of cops in India and an ‘All India Detective Meeting’ in Mahabalipuram

Irian Jaya – Penis sheats, grass skirts and armies of fleas

 

How I survived two nights in traditional Papua huts in Irian Jaya

 

Lal Babu – The pusher of Benares

 

How I luckily escaped from being involved in a morphine deal in India

Las Vegas, Myanmar

A visit to Maingla, Eastern Shan State

 

Living off the fat of the land in the Strand Hotel, Rangoon

 

When one could eat lobster thermidor for 2.50 $ at the Strand

 

Music on the hippie trail

 

From Istanbul to Bangkok with Cat Stevens to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Kansas …

 

My books

 

All books I’ve written about Burma/Myanmar – so far …

Myanmar’s ‘language problem’

A country with 54 million people and 80 languages

 

Nudism and karaoke

 

Naked foreigners on Asia’s beaches – and their problems …

 

On the road to Myingyan

 

About kadaw pwes, dead monks and highwaymen

 

Once upon a time in Tehran

 

When my friend Alec visited his friend Prince Ali in Tehran during the Shah’s regime

 

Overland from Taunggyi to Kyaingtong

 

A rare opportunity for foreigners …

 

Pegu Club, Yangon, under renovation

A visit to a construction site

Phone calls in Burma – now and then …

About landline phones, chin phones and linemen

 

Politics

 

Post-war leaders of Burma …

Rangoon’s housing after independence

The remarkable growth of Myanmar’s first city – and the problems resulting from it …

 

Rangoon’s old racecourse

 

About days bygone …

 

Riding Yangon’s public buses

 

Mad Max on the loose in Yangon …

 

Rubyland – A trip to Mogok

 

Myanmar’s gem city and its surroundings

Share taxi from Maymyo to Yangon

About a weird taxi ride …

 

Snakes!

 

Some remarks on those fearsome reptiles

 

 

Some remarks on Burma’s animist nats

 

 

 

A look into Burma’s most fascinating culture

 

Studying Tamil

 

How I studied the Tamil language in Berlin and Sri Lanka …

 

Support breasts – not dictators

 

How do-gooders destroy others peoples’ livelihood

 

Tendjuberrymud

 

Making phone calls in Asia …

The ALAMAN crisis of 1997

When panic ruled the money market

 

The amazing Zawgyi Pyan

 

About an old friend of mine to whom I owe very much

The Atlanta in Bangkok and Dr. Henn

 

The Bagan bookstore in Rangoon

 

About a Yangon institution …

 

The balloon festival in Pyin Oo Lwin

The poor man’s balloon festival …

 

The Burmese script

 

Where ignorant people see only ‘pretzels’ and ‘bubbles’

 

The ‘Deutscher Club’ in Rangoon

 

Traditional German culture in old Rangoon

The easternmost outpost of British India

Col. Rubel’s estate in Loimwe, Eastern Shan State

 

The ‘Local’ to Maymyo

 

A train ride from Mandalay to Maymyo in the 1970s

 

The Lord of the highway

 

A short stop at Shwe Nyaungbin, 20th mile Pyay Rd.

 

The lowest depressions on the earth’s surface

 

A visit to Lake Aydinkol, Turfan basin, Xinjiang, China …

The ominous number 9

And what does it mean to YOU???

 

The ‘Puke Express’ to Padang

 

Adventures in Sumatra

 

The Road to Mandalay

 

The riddle behind Kipling’s famous poem …

 

The Sikh community in Maymyo (Pyin Oo Lwin)

Celebrating Guru Govind Singh’s birthday …

The sixth dream of the King of Koshala

Are Burmese racists?

Thingyan – Burmese New Year

Interesting facts around Myanmar’s most important festival …

Watching movies in Rangoon in them good ol’ days

The most important pastime before the introduction of TV

 

Werewolves of Ceylon

 

Travelling overland from Trincomalee to Colombo with a werewolf  aboard

 

What is hell?

 

Different answers to an old question …

 

When Hindus answer the call of nature

 

Nothing is easy for a traditional village Hindu when it comes to the call of nature …