Nikl's Blog
Changed my host - auto redirect to https
Today I changed from GitLab pages to Netlify. In the last months I have been trying to find an easy way to auto redirect any non-https request to https. GitLab pages seems to only support META tags at the moment and I didn't want to use those. Neither did I want to use JS to redirect. After some googling (does that really count as a verb now?) I found Netlify and decided to just try it.
Moving was really easy. I made a free account, created a project and connected it to my GitLab repository containing this website. Then I just had to configure the project to be live at my domain and change the DNS records. Aaaand that was it!
Netlifys free plan already comes with the option to let them handle your TLS certificate and redirect all http requests to https. This is just brilliant. Go ahead and try it yourself: remove the s from https at the beginning of the URL to this page and hit enter. See that? It just works :)
Since they can even build and deploy automatically whenever I push to my GitLab repository, nothing else has changed for me. I push changes and the updated website gets build and deployed without any further doing from my side.
Myanmar part 3 - Mindat and Nagapali
It was a long ride from Bagan to Mt. Victoria (Mindat). The road is only frequented by minivans and it takes 12h or more to arrive in Mindat. When we arrived there we had to acceppt that a trip to the top of Mt. Victoria would cost us at least three days and that we would have to take motorbikes or other vehicles to get to the mountain first. That and the fact that the view was quite poor because of many fires led to the decision to do a short trek in the area the next day and then leave again to the beach in the south. If you ever make it to Mindat there is a place you should visit: an abandoned building next to a church and a priests house (it is marked on "maps.me"). The view from there is great and right next to it is the towns soccer field where you can watch monks (and half the town) watching soccer, quite funny to see ^^
Our trip from Mindat to Nagapali beach took two days and three nights. The first part was per minivan again but then it got interesting. There were only two busses continuing in our direction. They both were old, without AC and were stuffed with vegetables and other goods. We decided to take the one that looked (and smelled) a bit better. It was stuffed with crates, cabbage and guessing from the smell had also lots of tobacco loaded. A few seats were left free of goods so the bus could take a few passengers. To actually get to our seats we had to climb up crests full of tomatoes and then descend again into our seats. Apart from us and the two drivers there was a local mother with two kids and an israeli guy. I enjoyed the ride. The windows were permanently open and I had two seats for myself. It was all in all an interesting experience.
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Myanmar part 2 - Mandaley and Bagan
On our last evening at Inle Lake we went to a winery for the sunset and met an english speaking couple from Yangon. We had a very nice and interesting conversation with them until far after the sunset. They ended up telling the waitress in Burmese to put all our stuff on their bill and they basically made us eat half their food. At the end we had no choice but to accept the meal as a gift and we promised to repay should they ever visit Germany. When we started our trip back to the hostel on our bicycles the winery was closing already (restaurants in Myanmar close pretty early though).
The next day we took a night-bus to Mandaley. For me personally Mandaley was not really interesting. We walked around a bit and watched a cloudy sunset from Mandaley Hill, but that was basically it. After two nights there we took a slow ferry leaving to Bagan. The trip down the river took around fourteen hours and most of the time was just sitting around waiting. Apart from us and two french there where only locals on the boat and we made many stops at small villages along the river loading and unloading people and goods. One time we got stuck at the shore and it took the captain quite some time to manoeuvre us out again.
The last two days we have been exploring Bagan on e-bikes which is really fun. I never drove anything two-wheeled apart from bicycles before and those e-bikes drive up to 50 kmph. It is especially fun between all the local bike drivers and crowded transporters. I finally completely accepted the necessity of all the honking as a warning system and fully integrated myself with my left thumb always close to the horn ;)
Tomorrow morning we will take a bus leaving to Mt. Victoria which is a 3000+m mountain in a national park. I am looking forward to some nice trekking :)
Myanmar part 1 - Yangon to Inle Lake
My trip to Myanmar started approximately one and a half weeks ago and a lot has already happened. Myanmar is a beautiful country and Burmese people are very friendly. They will always smile back at you.
I arrived in Yangon together with a friend and we were joined by his sister in the evening. From the airport we made our way to the hostel by foot and bus which was an interesting experience considering that the buses started operating just the beginning of this year. The next morning we visited the Shwedagon Pagonda and watched the sunrise from there. After two days in Yangon we made a trip to the golden rock and then went up north to Kalaw by bus. From there we started a three day Trekking tour to Inle Lake which was great.
Our trekking-group consisted of seven people plus guide and we had a fun time together. The route led through a bamboo forest and villages from different tribes. The area is pretty hilly and there were awesome views from high places. The two nights during the trip were spend in local homes in small villages and our guide prepared good meals including fruits which he partially cut to look like animals.
I am looking forward to seeing more of the countries nature and its people.
I saw Bruges (and did not die ^^)
There is a british movie called "In Bruges" that plays in the old city center of (take a guess...) Bruges. Every time I heard the name of that city during the last years I had to think of that movie. In german it is called "Brügge sehen... und sterben?" which translates to "See Bruges... and die?". I always remembered that title and the fact that most or even all of the main characters in that movie die in Bruges. That being said my thoughts about the city (and the movie) were still positive and even though I watched the movie years ago I remember the nice scenery. So I went to visit and take a look for myself, hoping not to die in Bruges ;)
Apart from the weather everything was great. It had been raining a lot and sadly the drive to Bruges and most of the visit itself were no exception. It was cold, wet and windy but the city was beautiful. Most buildings in the centre are only two or three stories high and made out of bricks. There were horse-drawn carriages on the market place and the old streets have a flair of history and age. Because of the mostly low buildings you can see the belfry and the church tower from everywhere and use them as a compass while strolling around.
Since Belgium is famous for it's chocolate it's worthwhile visiting one (or a few) of the many shops selling pralines and other sweets. There are canals and rivers to walk along and if you want to you can go up the belfry and take a look from above. I can really recommend visiting that beautiful and old city.
Goodbye Oman
I left Oman today, heading back to Germany. The 7h flight was over quite quick. I didn't even finish my third movie because they shut down the screens literally 8 minutes before it was over. The movie (Hell Or High Water) was pretty good though.
My time in Oman was a very nice experience. Apart from the beautiful nature I like the peoples mentality. Omani people are very friendly and generous but mainly they are always relaxed (about almost everything). They help whenever they can, the only thing you need to do is wait... because the help can take a while.
It is very save in Oman. To the extend that I got completely used to just put down my phone and money outside of the restaurant and then walk inside to order food. Everywhere in the university you can find lonely handbags and laptops that their owners just put down there for a while. I didn't hear of any cases where such belongings were stolen.
The only negative thing about staying in Oman is that you can't do anything without a car. And cars are not exactly cheap. On the upper hand if you want to travel on a low budget a car and a few Rial per day for food is all you need. Anywhere outside the city you can just pull off the street and camp. Especially the beaches are very nice for that. If you are lucky there are not only thousands of stars but also glowing plankton to stare at.
I miss the people and I miss the country. I will go back sometime in the summer to see green Salalah. It was a great time that I definitely will not forget.
Long time no see
After almost four months of staying in Oman I am going back to Germany for three days. My time in Oman is almost over. I am so going to miss Oman and the people from GUTech...