No gay activities Jun-Aug2023 Germany

No gay activities Jun-Aug2023 Germany

There were no gay activities. Entertain my readers with other subjects, mostly travel and memes from internet.

Quiz: what is this? Solution at end of post.

After two months in Germany, I start seeing penises everywhere:

Vaginas as well:

Here I came across a place where I could get one (vagina). In the sense of getting access to a vagina, not as sex change. Prostitution is legal in Germany.  A job like any other, at least not dusty, as my loyal reader Vinapu puts it.

The movie “Pretty Woman” was in TV in Germany. Romantic comedy is not a type of movie I usually watch, but both the movie (Richard Gere, Julia Roberts 1990) and the song (unrelated to the movie, “Oh, Pretty Woman” Roy Orbison 1964) are famous, making the movie worth watching to fill a gap in general knowledge. Quite entertaining, and pertaining to my activities in Thailand, highly recommended to every punter and service provider!

I had plans to go to Brazil and Colombia, but flight prices were unreasonably high, postpone to next year and book longer in advance. Instead, I joined a friend on a trip Brünn/Brno and went hiking with my parents. 

I went to Brünn/Brno in Czechia to join a friend on his trip there. This trip showed some advantages of European Union and globalization. I went by train, and it would be the same by car, you don't even notice you are crossing a border. EU-wide roaming, including UK as well, means I can use online data at the same price as in Germany.

Czechia kept their currency Czech crown CZK. Normally I would change money, and have some left after the trip. But following my friend's example, I paid everything with my visa debit card. That worked well, only one food stall did not accept card payment (I asked before ordering and went elsewhere). My bank comdirect charges 1.75% for card payment (whereas withdrawal at ATM is free). For this short trip (5 days), it's well worth it. Saves me going to money exchange and dealing with cash and having money left over after the trip.

Prices (hotels, food, public transport) in Czechia are about half of what I would pay in Germany. My train ride from Berlin to Brünn/Brno would have cost about 130 EUR with German railways, but when I booked the same train with Czech railways it cost only about 80 EUR.

The public transport in Brünn/Brno works with payment by credit card as well. You tap your card when you board and again when you get off. When you forget to swipe off, the system assumes single trip. Their system collects your trips over the day and charges you for a day pass if the sum of single trips exceeds the cost of a day pass.

Update: At time of posting, the same has been introduced for MRT in Bangkok. I tried it and it works (German comdirect visa debit card). A trip that would have cost 38 THB was charged 1.00 EUR, at that time exchange rate was 1 EUR = 38.15 THB. Great for everyone without an MRT card! My Thai bank card (SCB mastercard debit) did not work. I probably would have to register for contactless payment before using it.

However the new bus service from Suvarnabhumi airport to hotels in Bangkok leaves me puzzled. There are gaps of over 1 hour between buses, and it's not cheap either at 180 THB. The wait alone can take longer than other public transport and the bus almost costs as much as a taxi.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/travel/2643037/new-bus-service-connects-airport-to-500-hotels

Further on the subject of public transport, bus routes in Bangkok earlier this year got a new numbering system and most buses now have new and old line number written on bus. I recently got the viabus app and it's useful to follow buses that have GPS.

BTS with Rabbit Card does not show the cost of the trip. When I check in, it shows value on card, and when I check out, it shows remaining value and I have to calculate the difference for my diary (daily spending).

In my absence, Yellow Line (Ladprao to Samrong) has fully opened and Pink Line has started free trial runs https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2628690

My parents and I went hiking in Germany. At a temperature of 15 C, I need only half a liter of water for a hike of 25 km horizontally and 500 m up. At a temperature of 20 C, that increases to one liter. In Thailand at 30 C, I would need six liter for this trip. And not just that I would have to carry six liter of water (or fill up along the way), most of it will be in my clothes as sweat. In Thailand, I calculate my water requirement as one liter for every 5 km horizontally or 500 m vertically. Recently I read an even simpler formula: 1 liter per hour.

Solution to quiz: a foldable chair in a museum.

Copyright 2023 ChristianPFC except memes.