coast to coast

Andi kam - Zürich blieb

2007-08-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

My species might be observed in your streets again...

If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out

by Cat Stevens

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are

And if you want to live high, live high
And if you want to live low, live low
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

You can do what you want
The opportunity's on
And if you can find a new way
You can do it today
You can make it all true
And you can make it undo
you see ah ah ah
its easy ah ah ah
You only need to know

Well if you want to say yes, say yes
And if you want to say no, say no
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

And if you want to be me, be me
And if you want to be you, be you
'Cause there's a million things to do
You know that there are

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are

Click here for an extraordinary performance...

or maybe better here...

This is it, hope you enjoyed

Warm love

Badboy Andy

Incredible India

2007-07-01T03:45:00.000-07:00

Muselland Kaschmir

Shafi, history academic and present runner of the biggest stitching leather dynasty in Srinager, shows me around, tells me everything about the history of Kashmir, about Islam and the holy book. Of coarse we talk about marriages and relationships also...
It was back in time in the days of the second prophet after Adam. The prophet was thinking and what if after 3 or 4 years of marriage man sees a more beautiful woman? Well, if he can handle it, he shall have many women the prophet thought. Though a woman came up to him and asked and what if the woman finds someone she likes better? The prophet tumbled. Let me think about it over night, come back tomorrow, he said. In the night he was enlightened. Next morning he asked the woman: If you have a glass of water and one containing milk and you mix them up in a big bowl, will you still be able to separate them? And if a woman now has two men, how will she know who is the father of her child?
hm...

On my second day in Srinager I was invited to a engagement party including lamb slaughter, preparation of at least 15 meat dishes and the gay entertaining the folks with their dances.

Tar for road construction

Sadic, my gipsy mountain guide, couldn't keep up with my pace so he rode the pony instead

Gipsy women and kids

Where Indira Ghandi used to come when in need to empty her mind

Praying towards Mekka

free as an eagle

Little Tibet Ladakh

In the meanwhile I'm so famous that they make reliefs and drawings of me everywhere

fifty in the monastery, bounce

Curious elder didn't like the picture so I had to make another one. I liked it though

Monk on bike with Ronaldo T-shirt

Celebrating Dalai Lamas birthday in the himalayan heights. More on to come...

The fellowship on the trekVasiliki the greek gipsy Heidi, her friend Joanna on prohibited grounds, Asaf the israeli without warm socks and our guide Karma, tibetan refugee with good karma
not to forget horseman and cook living in the high altitudes

and of coarse Andi and his loyal companion even on 5500 m above sea level

Where Indus the holy river is still a stream

Not one single ride without breakdown

Stories when I'm back from the breathtaking roads in the himalayan mountains

Where I'm sitting in this publishing moment

thumbs up

TINTIN and the monks

Rising in the high altitudes of the Himalayan mountains little boy doesn't find the buddhist buddies as serious as expected. Playing games and chatting on their cell phones, relaxing and sniffing tabacco in the sun they are getting ready for the long and cold wintertime.

However he tries to stay as serious as possible on his path to enlightenment. Kneading sempa dough for breakfast, teaching them french, serving them tea, chatting in the sun, enchanting them with guitar tunes, and meditating to their powerful mantras in the mornings he shares a lot of happy moments with the monks. Considering the belches and sneezing during the prayers, the monk going mad for hours on the drums every morning and the otherone spinning the wheel of fortune from early morning till late at night, boy never figured wheter he found himself in a highly spiritual, a mental care or a insanity center. He was however deeply impressed and touched by the trueheartedness of all laughters and gestures.

I'm just sitting here watching the wheel go round and round...

Hindustan - Holy Cow

India wasn't India if it wasn't for the dirt, the noise, the heat, the howling, the chaos, the yelling, the fight for each rupee, the no sex before arranged marriage, the perverts and not doing everything to get close to western women, the gurus, the belief noone understands, the superstition, the big buisness of selling karma and spirituality, the beggers, the cripples, the little girle and her younger brother sleeping peacefully in the middle of traffic, though every now and then being enchanted by magical mystical, melancholic tunes and dreams of beautiful eyes and eternal love and the magic of a few growing in their hearts out of misery inspiring millions - Life and Death as natural and close as they can get

Begging with style

Singapoor

2007-06-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

Sing I'm rich
Sing I'm poor
I don't understand this world no more

The Italian Mafiosi Andrea and his romance - the cute Swedisch lass Carolina - shelter me and invite me to all fancy places during my days in Singapore - a slight cultural shock walking down orchard road, one size bigger than Bahnhofstrasse

Shopping with the not yet desperate housewives

Feel like I'm home

and some flee from the consumption pressure, well maintaining their self irony

cruisin' indonesia

2007-06-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

Moonwalking through Indonesia i walk into queen and king of the bongo, Joy and Simon, fullblood vegis and hot on all boards

We fight our way over volcanos and under water through lombokien intrigues, corruption bargaining, discussing and fighting. You live and learn. The lombok people is smelling money...

I had a million rupiahs, but I, I spent it all...

Bensin, silahkan!

Phoot love story

Sunrise over Kuta Lombok - the other Kuta. The smoke rising up through the forest comes from many local people still living without running water and electricity, friing rice for breakfast

Kitsch will make you happy

2007-06-04T05:54:00.001-07:00

In Indonesia me is given the honor to spend some time with my mates

ROMAN the czech kiinstler, photographer, pornstar, king of the rackets, friend of the crabs or just known as ROtheMAN

and

BENE the barrel hungry hungarian, feared by all corals, pulling backside snaps higher than any other swiss or just BENESITO the conquistador

Together we would travel on a boat with billowed sail
Bene kept a lookout perched on Ro's gigantic tail,
Noble kings and princes would bow wheneer they came,
Pirate ships would lower their flag when I roared out my name

Who said these waves weren't ridable and who said you need fins to spray?

Staying in a little fishing village amongst the local people the kids would wake us up every morning, scream for the guitare, make us teach them english them teaching us indonesian and watching every our step

We were invited to a wedding party. Never use your left hand eating! The muslim prayers through the worst speakers kept us from sleep till the morning hours

Kiinstler oder was?

ROMANDISCHE Symbiose

My meditation skills have improved so much that nothing can disturb my inner peace anymore - almost nothing

ROs best friends

se more of their action on http://youtube.com/watch?v=p7IDokzExls - a must!

friends

had to put that comment ;-)

Land of Sheep

2007-04-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

Forwarding, I become more and more naiv and innocent. The big cruel world of success, power, progress, heroism, pride, cult, fame, desire, publicity, propaganda and and and loses more and more appeal and importance, smelling flowers instead, my soul can laugh again - things become so clear!?
Which path to choose?
If you want to know more about New Zealand and it's culture, read the lonely planet!

What cows are happiest -
swiss or kiwis?

Auckland in style?

Rangi the lightest and coolest maori and his girlfriend Karina take me to their home in Mahia, show me all secret surfspots and lend me a car so I can get around the country. How nice is that?

Nicht gestellt

Second morning I wake up, start driving half asleep. No car passing for minutes, as I hear one blowing the horn. Adrenaline, I pull over to the left. He's just pointing his fimger to his head...

Gas please!

golfing
kiwi style

In New Plymouth there's a saying that when Mt. Taranaki,
Newzea's Fujijama, is in clouds, it's raining and when clear it's going to rain.

Malte the lucky german hitchhiker enjoying the ride to the far north...

Cape Reinga

Kiwi post box style...

I got the whole world in my hands,
I got the whole world in my hands...

Not zinngiessen for new years - sand spitting in the dunes. What is it arguably telling me, note 6, I will have a lot of sex next year or sigs waegem gras oder em alkohol...?

Adios, amigos! See you soon

In Paradise

2007-03-17T17:34:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, as I arrive in French Polynesia, the Tahitians didn't trade their beautiful women against digicams, mp3 players and other cool stuff of the modern world, like they did as Captain Cook debarked, back in the time though versus nails and other hardware, since mines were very rare on the atolls.
My luggage of course made its way over the ocean a week to late, but who would bother since the only needs you have here are a pair of bathing trunks and a surf board and of course a fully loaded credit card. As all goods have to travel far ways over the sea, prices are way above swiss standards.

With his siebensachen the steppenwolf walks his now lonely path, light hearted when in touch with the local people, when loving his dearest, when successful on the wave and in precious moments being stunned by the world and nature and feeling free as a bird.

The Tahitians seem to live a very peaceful and quiet life, paddling and fishing in their canoes, harvesting their fruit trees and guarding their properties along the coast. The pace sure is three gears slower than in the crazy west world. One sure wonders how they can afford the living and drive brandnew toyota trucks. But since they own all the property it suffices if only one person per family clan works seriously and it is beeing told that each clan carries a "herb" planter which brings good money.
However peaceful life may seem here, tahitians as other humans have a great desire for sex and in their bad habits of drinking too much alcohol, they cheat on their wives, very common and not even unmoralic before the missionaries came. It comes that lots of 18 year old and younger are child bearing. The kids however are in good hands by the loving women in the clans.

Robinson Crusoe exploring the island...

Early morning in the port of Papeete, the main reloading point in french polynesia

Lighthouse on Venus Point, where Captain Cook once observed the transit of the venus, which occurrs every 120 years, in the hope to calculate distances between sun and earth. The legend tells that measurements were a bit neglected due to rendez-vous with aphrodizing tahitian women...

Canoes or Pirogues of this kind have been used by the natives for ever. Today piroguing is the number one sport on tahiti, every kid dreams of his own boat and the boats have accordingly been modernized. Here loading them on the cars after big competition.

20 minutes paddle to the surfspot - oh, my board colour taste sure has improved...

Following rumours about big swells hitting the island little boy hitchhikes to teahupoo, maybe the most famous wave in the world, smuggles himself on a boat loaded with pros and fotographers and learns that a good shot that day could be worth 20 000 dollars. Too bad he only has a borrowed ancient 1 megapixel cam after having been robbed money, credit card and cam - the other two fotographers drop their cams in the water unable to shoot anymore... however the quality just suffices for the blog, impressive having been so close.

Ikaika Kalama from Hawaii preparing his board for action

Woman with kids

Another sunset

guysinthesky

2007-02-26T23:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome to super mario kicker paradise!!

One beautiful day I ran in to the Gaelka warriors, abunch of excellent snowboarders from Gaellivare Lapland and awsome fellows, the boys who once inspired me and showed me that it is not all so hard and dangerous as it looks; The boys are loose, away from girls back home in the deep woods and causing trouble whereever they appear. See their crusade on www.gwarriors.com
It was so cool to meet you!

Johan in finest Terje manner riding for Petzel climbing helmets ;-)

Schmecken with the magic touch and some publicity for the superlative conspiracy...

Finally we left Whistler behind to see some of the real Canada. Grouse Mountain is a skiing area litararly on the roofs of down town Vancouver and since it is the first rise from the ocean it receives some snow - a base of tiny 5 meters...

Taken root elsewhere!?

Wedged between Mountains

2007-01-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

The rumour travels quickly - as I arrive in Whistler the girls are already waiting for Andi the fearless globetrotter.

"That guy is just so hot right now. I'll get him, no man can resist my gorgeous boobs" (Ladina the world famous pornstar thinking)

But Andi falls for a dishwasher girl whos only friend was her mop

"I should have her baking guezli with me, she'll surely fall for that!"

What followed was written in the stars long before...

Whistler is all about having a blast, no culture, no depth. Nothing seems real, luxurious residences, a disneyland for grownups. How surprising that a daypass costs tiny 80 dollars - taxes excluded... It's all about hanging in the bars and bragging about how much fun you had and how high the cliff you dropped was. How could I care, staying with the coolest girl in the world, having a snowboard under my feet and three meters of snow on the mountains that reach far beyond your imagination. Oh, I guess I'm no better than everone here...

Isa and Andi celebrate New Year

Where is the fire work?...

... there we go!

Whistler party fashion

Snow, snow, snow...

Dude, where is my car?

One front after the other hits us - after a cold front with loads of snow it's a warm front's turn that may bring rain even high up. Fortunately one is beeing distributed plastic coats - transparent that your style won't get lost - and rainboarding is still fun!

As my cv wasn't good enough for the snow shoveling job, I had to start even lower. But my dream is still alive - from dishwasher to ... , if I knew

Obi wan conquering

Where is he and what's he doing there, digging a hole?

More to come...

Andy conquering the U. S.

2006-12-21T12:01:00.000-08:00

As time passes quickly, Brasil was to leave for the U.S. Here is the story of Andi conquering The White House

Hey Mister President, don't feel insulted! You just don't mess with ANDI AHLM!

Long story, short end - I got stuck half way to The White House in the hills of NEW MEXICO. Quite relaxing though. But Mr. President, I'm coming!

How great was it to come back to LAS CRUCES and RUIDOSO, where stayed during my exchange year, meet all friends, their families, my hostparents, my coaches and their people - walk the steps of my glorious days. 7 years is little but much time. Many have married having or waiting for kids, others still dreaming or struggling other paths like me, others have fallen on their head too many times like me and others... Thanks for letting me feel like I was home. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world! Not always... Love you!

Little Propaganda...

We all living in America, America is wunderbar!

Did I smell snow? I'm leaving! Off to Whistler...

Bigtime Cities

2006-12-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

Here is the proof - I was there, in the city of all cities Rio De Janeiro. It was the last shot with my broken camera. We outfoxed the broken autofocus, zooming as much as possible. In the background the sugar loaf, picture taken from Corcovado with Christ statue. As I had not told anyone, I was in brazil once before - in the sixties, the photo quality was a bit worse back in the time, maybe you won't notice...

Copacabana on a normal Sunday afternoon - people would stand in the water shoulder by shoulder for miles. Who would ask for a bit space and privacy?

Fortunately hobbies can connect people even though you are from way different cultures, speak completely different languages and are of very different age, even at Copacabana beach...

Ipanema beach, the fanciest beach. At the close end the best wave in town - with spotlight for the night surf

We meet Chrigi's uncle Aschi for lunch, no smaller man than CEO of Roche South America in a fancy hotel over Ipanema. He hooks us up with a car - thanks so much again! This way we can travel freely along the beautiful coast between Rio and Sao Paulo. Thousands of beaches and good waves, picturesque small towns and a lot of nature to explore.

On a two hour hike to the promised beach we choose the wrong path twice. We end up at this house two little kids standimg on the floor, glancing at us shyly. The family lives here in the middle of nowhere, no water, no electricity, accessable only by boat.

On the path we find sweetest sweet mangos scattered all overe and bananas as we finally reach the empty beach. No waves that day, board carridge in vain. Noone cared

another morning meditation. Sunrise at five - I was a bit late that day

Fantom or real?

Boys in action

me?

Chrigi

Juschk

me!

We finally arrived in Sao Paulo where we could stay at Chrigi's uncles house eat at fancy restaurants and shop till we wouldn't be able to carry the purchase anymore - quite a culture shock. Sao Paulo is a 18 million people town where all of Brasils economics is beeing done, 600 helicopters circling in the sky and a shopping rush beyond. Nothing else to do than shopping, dine fine and a few art museums.
Wo ist Walter?

Abbey road?
no, Avenida Paulista
Paul McCartney?
no, Juschk Breitenmoser

Wo ist Walter hier?

Andi teaching the boys to play Golf at O Clubo

Thanks boys for letting me have those good times with you. See ya

Andi meets swiss

2006-11-16T11:48:00.000-08:00

In case you easily get jealous looking at beautiful pics from places far away, you should probably better not scroll down any further. But travelling is not always what it seems. It`s so easy to make yourself believe that everything is much better abroad. But it sure helps releasing your mind from beeing stuck in the same thinking and judging patterns and seeing the world from so many other angles...

Little boys path to finding answers to the two small questions "Why are we?" and "Could there be enough health and happiness for all of us?" continues. On the road he soon meets the two cool brasil cruising swiss

Crigi, surfmasta and first fair-hair rastafarai in Brasil

Juschk the foho dancing conquistador dos coraçoes brasileiros

The argentinian holder of our Pousada in FRANCES. Except that he served us breakfast still drunk almost every morning and fired two chambermaides during our short stay, he was by far the best and most sympathic guest holder so far. Here drinking his Cachaca and offering us and a bunch of others barbecue. "Are they friends?" "Friends? In my life I`ve only had three friends." Maybe he was only so nice to us because he wanted us to propose him for the next Lonely Planet issue.

Election time in Brasil - more like Carneval or a Formula 1 race. One party even offers free beer for everyone, they sure know how to gain votes...

Waiting for Godot. The word schedule doesn`t exist in brasilian portugese. You may 10 minutes or 5 hours you never know. Better learn the art of waiting!

One of many bus travels. Fortunately or unfortunately the back door woulden`t close

SALVADOR is supposed to be the cultural capital of Brasil. There sure are picturesque quarters and nice buildings. More impressions though left the many ruins, slums and poor people, for example the man, whom I didn`t dare to take picture of who lived begging in a hole in a wall

10 years ago there was only a dirt road leading to the idyllic fisher town ITACARE. Only a few hippies and perfect wave searching souls found the path. Surrounded by paradisic lonesome beaches the tale went fast. The beach below we found after an hour trail through the jungle. We thought we had found it, the BEACH. Getting closer sounds of caterpillars became louder and we leaned that a huge luxury hotel was beeing built behind. Paradise is not in Brasil...

He came, climbed, surfed, played and conquered - guess what!

Waves? This way!

Kelly Slater

and ME

Life is not always what it seems, but some precious moments it is...

It`s it for this time, my camera is broke so it`s unsure when the next issue will appear.
Last but not least, as usual already, some beach fashion...

On my own the first days

2006-10-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

Who`s that dude - travelling the world with a pink surfboard and a rad guitare. It`s not only about the image...it`s fun also!

RECIFE - huge horrible town, lots of pauverty and criminality and car drivers going mad. Rich and poor as close as they can get. It`s not with a good feeling you walk alone through the streets. Spent one night and left for PORTO DE GALIHNAS - very touristic, but a good surf spot. Mostly brasilian tourist are brought to the reef with those little boats. At all the locals here are mainly specialized on how to lure the dinieros out of the tourists pockets. However there are a lot of artist on the streets - from Capoiera to brasilian big band with good entertainment. The beaches are endless and empty if you get away a bit with good surf spots everywhere.

The first hostel I walk into is run by Alvaro, northeast brasilian surf champ, his wife and his mother. They hooked me up with board and everything else I needed and took me into their hearts immediatly, so I decided to stay. Sandra, the chambermaid and my main portuguese teacher, is 24, has two kids, works from 6 in the morning till 10 at night for 300 Reais - 200 Francs - per month and sleeps in a little chamber in the hostel. She sees her kids only on her free days.

Daily obligatory hour on the beach. The skin still as white as it can get. In the meantime I wear more brasilianlike color.

Breakfeast. Mango, Maracuja and all those fruits you`ve neighter seen nor heard of. Mmmm, and sugo - fresh juice and coco colada - young coconuts you only drink the juice of and ...

Took that shot with the self timer;-)
Amazing how many good surfers there are in brasil. Little kids with broken boards just playing with the waves for fun and surfing better than most people you see in europe.

English family. All with identical frames - long legs, hips and upper bodies and all into the same fashion. They earned beeing published.

andi geht - zürich bleibt

2006-10-03T19:00:00.000-07:00