30.11.2006 

There is a boat from Koh Phi Phi directly to Railay but as I had already bought an open return ticket Phuket-Koh Phi Phi-Krabi in Phuket I took a different boat to Krabi pier. By then I didn’t know that people speaking about Krabi probably mean Railay or Ton Sai beach as in Krabi town there is nothing interesting. At the pier it was possible to buy a ticket to Railay for 150 Bath (15min. bus and 30min. longtail boat). In Railay there is an East and a West part. We arrived at East Railay which is said to have a bit cheaper accomodation. In contrast the beach in West Railay is better but as it is only two minutes walk to get to the other side it makes no difference where to stay.

The first night I had a bungalow for 650 Bath  at Highlands which was nice, clean  and quiet. The second day I was at Ya Ya Resort which offer rooms starting from 600 Bath. They are also very clean and a bit more central. On the second day I made a full day climbing course which was really cool an which I would recommend to anybody staying here. I’ve done it at Krabi Climbing where the instructors were really nice but probably it makes not very much difference which company you choose. At least during the first half day at the beginners rock all climbers of different companies were gathered together in one place and the price is also the same (1800 Bath including all equipment, our course also lunch and water). In the afternoon we were on the Firewall at Ton Sai beach and made two nice routes of 30m heights (6A and 6A+). Some parts were really hard and I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it completly without rope but as it was top rope climbing (where the instructor first climbs up to fix the rope at the top) you can simply rest a few minutes sitting in your harnest and the try it again with new power .

Ton Sai beach is another possibility to stay (you can see it from Railay West). It is a bit less touristic and more backpacker style as there are no resorts. Accomodation should be also available for 300-500 Bath. For climing we took the longtail boat (30-50 Bath, 5min) in the evening (I went back to Ton Sai for dinner and to explore it a bit by my own) I walked which takes about 15 minutes but you have to walk a few hundred meters over cliffs or through knee deeo water.

The beach is best in Railay West, accomodation for backpackers probably in Ton Sai. Climbing schools are available in both areas. Both places are very relaxed in the evening - small bars on the beach where you can lay or sit down. In Railay there were a few more people in the evening but all in all it was very quiet although the bungalows were booked out. Most climbers are probably to tired to go out.

Today I will leave for Koh Tao (750 Bath). First longtail boat to Krabi, afterwards 3 hours bus to Surat Thani and then 7 hours night ferry to Koh Tao. So I will arrive tomorrow at 5 o’clock in the morning. In the afternoon I will meet Moritz a German guy who already worked in Chiang Mai for a few weeks. We had email contact several times during the last weeks and wanted to meet on the 1st December in Koh Tao and then travel together.

Categories: Getting around
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28.11.06

During the last three days I was mainly diving. I am now a PADI certified Open Water Diver . I first was not sure whether I should do the course on Koh Tao or on Koh Phi Phi but then I decided for Koh Phi Phi as I wanted to stay a few days anyway. I also met a few divers who said that the visibility, the variety of fishes as well as the training are much better on Koh Phi Phi. And although the course costs about 3000 Bath more than on Koh Tao (on Koh Phi Phi it is 12500 Bath, no matter which of the eleven diving schools you choose), it probably was worth doing it now. At Princess Divers the staff was very friendly and we were only two persons in the course with an own instructor, On the first day even another girl which was doing her dive master was with us so we really could not complain about not getting enough supervision.

On the first day we watched learning videos, discussed the questions with an instructure and then went out to do some basic skills near the beach in two meters depth. On the second day we already did the first two dives at max. 12m depth and watched the rest of the videos in the afternoon. Although it was still a bit difficult to control the buoyancy on the first day it was much easier in deep water and it is really great to float around and feel like a fish in a big acquarium. On the third day we did two more dives at max. 18m depth and wrote the exam afterwards. The visibility on all dives was good (20-25m) and the variety of the underwater world really great. Of course I have no comparison yet (maybe I will do one more dive in Koh Tao) but we’ve seen several turtles, a lepard shark, lion fishes, scorpion fishes and many more, which I didn’t espect from a beginner course to be honest.

Right now I am sitting in the boat to Krabi. I will probably stay two nights at Railay beach which is famous for its rock climbing possibilities. Then I will continue my trip to the Eastern islands Koh Tao and Koh Phangan.

Categories: Getting around
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A few photos from Phuket and Koh Phi Phi are now online.

Categories: Getting around
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21.11.2006 

After a 10 hours flight I arrived at 6 o’clock local time (= 24.00 in Germany) at the new Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. It is a big airport with 4 floors and a lot of shops but not very frequented today - probably because it just opened recently. Here I have 3 hours stopover so I thought it is time for the first Mango Magic fruit drink and to lie around a bit in the recreation area. The flight with Thai Airways was quite comfortable - legspace was ok and the service very good. In a few minutes I will transfer to Phuket.  Phuket town is on the East side of the island and about 30km from the airport. As the main beaches are on the West side I decided to take a taxi straight to the beach. Of course, I didn’t know where to go so I just chose one (Laem Singh) which “may be that elusive piece of paradise” according to Lonely Planet. It was nice and not very crowded so I stayed there two hours for swimming and lying around. Then I went on to Patong beach. I heard it is the main beach of Phuket and very touristic so I at least wanted to see it once to be able to judge what touristic means. The beach is several kilometers long and people are lying everywhere side by side. Along the beach there is the village. I have never been to Mallorca but when I saw that, Ballermann came into my mind right away - bars and clubs everywhere but in a style that simply is too much. In the late afternoon I took the bus to Phuket town. At this time I realized for the first time how cheap public transport is in Thailand. Whereas paying 350 Bath (about 7 Euros) for 20km taxi from the airport to the beach is quite good. the 20 Bath (about 40 Cents) for maybe 15km by bus really surprised me. In Phuket I stayed in On On Hotel at Phan-Nga road which was very simple but ok for one night (170 Bath), I ate the first time traditinonal Thai food (’front cooking’ right at the sidwalk - they only had one kind of soup with noodles and vegetables as well as grilled meat on small sticks). Afterwards, I met Joy from Belgium and we alked around a bit. Phuket town is not a place where you want to spend several days. It is all very dirty (I saw the first rat on the street) and there is nothing special. But I wanted to leave for Koh Phi Phi the next day anyway.  

22.11.2006

Joy wanted to see the sunrise so I decided to join her, We met at 5 o’clock and walked up the hill, It was nice and the view on Phuket really good but unfortunately there were too many trees on the side on which  the sun was rising so we didn’t see very much. At 8.30 h my boat left to Koh Phi Phi, Joy planned to go to Krabi by bus a bit later.  After arriving at Koh Phi Phi Don island I ignored all the people offering expensive bungalows, boat taxis and sumilar things and walked a bit through the village right at the pier. Finally, I ended up at a nice beach bar next to the Tsunami Memorial Park, went swimming and juggled a bit. I have to say that because I haven’t had much time during the last weeks I am not very prepared for the journey, so at the beginning the question always is where to go, The one-page information provided for Koh Phi Phi in the Lonely Plannet Sooutheast Asia is ridiculus and not very helpful. I planned to stay for a few hours near the pier and to go on in the afternoon. A few days ago I was in contact with Ronald, an American guy who is in Koh Phi Phi for a few years already. He owns the Sports Bar there and is Couchsurfer. So in the afternoon I called him to hear in which area he lives and when he has time to meet. But I expected the island to be a bit different. It finally turned out that the area around the pier is not only the reception for tourists to sell tours and overprized goods but the main village of Koh Phi Phi, so the Sports Bar is also there and Donald catched me up within two minutes. I regreted a bit that I didn’t call him earlier as by that time everything was full and it was unpossible to find a room for a reasonable price. Finally we found a place where they have put a few tents in addition to their bungalows. So I decided to take one of those for the first night and change to another place in the morning, ass I could leave my valuable things in the bar it was ok. One has to say that Koh Phi Phi is quite expensive compared to other places in Thailand (although Patong at Phuket is worst from what I’ve heard) - they even charged me 400 Bath for the tent. In the evening we stayed at the bar and later we went on to Tigers for dancing.  

23.11.2006 

As the tent was too hot I already woke up around half past eight so I had enough time to look for a room. The first ferry arrives around 11 o’clock at Koh Phi Phi. As people come and leave every day it is easy to find a room in the morning but later it gets more and more difficult during high season. I went to The Rock Backpackers, a place which offers simple dormitories for 200 Bath a night (for one person probably one of the cheapest possibilities here on Koh Phi Phi). I thought I will still have enough possibilities for nice bungalows so I do not necessarily need it here where they cost far more than somewhere else in Thailand. And I am there only for a few hours at night anyway.

In the afternoon we made a hiking tour. First we went up to view point and sunrise view point which is a few hundred meters away from the normal view point. Then throught the woods to Runtee Bay. There we were snorkeling for maybe an hour (it’s great there because you see small fishes and riefs directly in the bay  without the need for a boat) and then continued to walk along the coast to Loh Moo Dee Beach. From there we crossed the hill to Long Beach and went back to the pier. Great tour. In the evening watching several fireshows. Best one was at 23.00 at Hippies.

24.11.2006

Just signed up for a Open Water Diving Course which starts tomorrow. So I will probably stay four more nights on Koh Phi Phi.

So far I really enjoy my time here. I also tried to upload a first selection of photos but somehow it didn`t work on this computer.

Categories: Getting around
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After I handed in my thesis in on Wednesday I went back to Heidelberg in order to move out of my room and bring back my company laptop. Of course I also had to celebrate a bit, sleep a few hours and think about what I need to buy for the tour. I now have a new backpack, a mosquito net and a CF-Card for my Psion to be able to store photos on it. Most people told me not to take too much things with me because everything is cheaper in Thailand. Anyway, now I will have no other chance as all shops are closed. One day left for packing - I hope I will find everything I need tomorrow.

Categories: Getting around
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On Wednesday I handed in my diploma thesis. For more information please visit the extra page SOA-Thesis.

Categories: SOA, SAP enterprise SOA
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I used Akismet for spam protection so far and it worked well in the way that all spam comments were filtered and not displayed. But why letting spam come in if it’s also possible to block it already before. So I just installed the Math Comment Spam Protection Plugin and the Trackback Validator Plugin proposed at Basic Thinking. It sounds reasonable to me, that even in case some spammers may resolve the calculation, it will at least reduce the amount coming in and Akismet can still handle the rest. If you aren’t able to resolve the calculation, you may of course send me an email instead!

Categories: Blog
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Da ich mir schon seit längerem von unserer lokalen Community etwas mehr Community-Funktionalitäten wünsche (was wegen Mangel an Entwicklern nicht so recht klappt) und die Idee von Lokalisten in München bereits recht gut fand (obwohl programmier- und layouttechnisch sehr einfach gehalten), habe ich auch die Entwicklungen bei StudiVZ in den letzten Wochen interessiert verfolgt. Erst vor kurzem selbst durch einen Freund aufmerksam geworden, habe ich mich dann gleich angemeldet und auch immer mal wieder reingeschaut (vor allem in die Thailand-Foren). Habe dort auch bereits ein paar nützliche Tipps bekommen und auf Empfehlung von jemandem eine Unterkunft gebucht, insofern hat es sich inzwischen schon mehr ‘gelohnt’ als beispielsweise OpenBC. Durch den rasante Entwicklung der Nutzerzahlen war die Seite allerdings in letzter Zeit so gut wie gar nicht mehr nutzbar. Interessant waren diesbezüglich allerdings nicht nur der Anstieg der Nutzerzahlen, sondern auch was sich (leider nicht ganz) hinter den Kulissen so abspielt. Hier gibt’s eine recht gute Zusammenfassung der Geschehnisse rund um StudiVZ.

Was ich etwas seltsam finde, dass die Gründer trotz der enormen Kapazitätsprobleme permanent mit den ansteigenden Nutzerzahlen prahlen und neue Seiten wie die in Frankreich einbinden, anstatt zu versuchen die aktuellen User bei der Stange zu halten.
Interessant ist unter diesem Gesichtspunkt auch das PennerVZ - hier kann man sich bei häufigem klicken seine Fehlermeldung selbst generieren und die Vermarktung der Seite dient auch noch einem guten Zweck:).

Ich komm’ aus dem Hartz 4

Zumindest eines hat dieses neue Portal im Vergleich zu StudiVZ schon gelernt: durch sperren des Logins für neue User könnte man die Kapazitätsprobleme in Grenzen halten und dafür sorgen dass die Seite auch benutzbar ist.

Categories: Various
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There is often confusion about what ESA (now called enterprise SOA) actually means. The question of how to define and distinguish it from SOA has also been a topic at the ‘SOA Expertenrat‘ blog of Computerwoche. From my point of view the conceptual things discussed by SAP under the term enterprise SOA/ESA would be discussed by others using the term SOA (or enterprise SOA as well). So on this level there is not much difference. The difference is, that SAP as a solution provider is not only discussing the concepts but also offering elements to use in your own architecture (applications, business process templates and enterprise services), tools for creating new elements in your architecture (developer tools) and a foundation for running your architecture implementation (infrastructure).

So here is my defnition:

Enterprise SOA (in the way the term is used by SAP) is a reference architecture for service-based, enterprise-scale business solutions and SAP’s recommendation for establishing a service-oriented architecture.

The focus is on enterprise services used in prechoreographed, easily adaptable business processes and provided by an application platform, as well as on the technology platform SAP NetWeaver, which is offering the supporting infrastructure, frameworks and tools.

Enterprise Services are robust, coarse-grained Web services designed at SAP using enterprise-wide harmonized business objects and global data types. The creation of such services is surveyed by a governance process to ensure reuse and high business relevance.

This defnition might change over time. I am looking forward to receive comments on whether you like the definition or whether you would change something. Of course you can also provide your own definition.

Categories: SAP enterprise SOA
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The new book Mastering Enterprise SOA with SAP NetWeaver and mySAP ERP is now available.

“Mastering Enterprise SOA With SAP NetWeaver and mySAP ERP provides a thorough introduction and overview for CTOs/CIOs, IT Executives, Systems Architects, and Technical Project leads, who need to understand, assess, evaluate and adopt this new approach to integration. The book explores the fundamentals of Enterprise SOA, identifies the main considerations for successful organizational deployment and reviews the many relevant tools and technologies in SAP NetWeaver” (see Press Release).

The authors Scott Campbell and Vamsi Mohun work for the consulting company MomentumSI. It might be interesting to get an external view on the topic of enterprise SOA / ESA.

Categories: SAP enterprise SOA
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