Sidestory: The Thailand Temple Trip ~ Prelude

Soo, it's time for me to embark on a trip to the far side of the world again. But why Thailand? Everyone knows I don't do well in the tropics (see Book V ~ Chapter 9 ~ Davao Downtime).

Well, long story made short, it's basically the same thing all over again, except different. Here's a quick recap of how this came to be:

Remember when I visited NFC and started helping out there as SOUP (Sidestory: Northern Lightning ~ Malmö & NFC Day 1)? Well, I ended up becoming part of STEW (STaff and crEW) there, and joined the Gaming department. This year, I ended up having dinner with a co-staffer from there who has a wife from the Philippines, and being the opportunistic fox that I am I naturally asked if she wouldn't happen to have any nice friends who're still looking for a mate. Turns out the answer to that was yes, and that's how I got introduced to Chella.

Now, how do I end up targeting Thailand if she's from the Philippines? Well, that's because she went to work in Thailand. So, we made plans to meet up in Bangkok, and I booked my trip there all the way back in May, almost half a year ago now. The idea was that we'd meet there and see if we'd get along.

Except... it didn't even last that long. Things have been rough between Chella and me for quite a while because we have some pretty major differences in values and expectations. Sure, there were good times in between, and there were days when we she was great company, and yet...

...looking back on the overall state of our relationship now, the one word that comes to mind before any others is "exhausting", followed by "frustrating" and "demanding". From the start, she had problems with accepting me for the fox that I am, and one sentence she wrote repeatedly was "I just want normal man." And that's just not who I am. I told her as much, and yet she kept demanding that I change who I am to accommodate her preferences.

I want you to let that sink in for a while, and then add on top of that the fact that to her, I was probably just a free ride ticket to a better life in Germany. In the end, she made me feel like she was just putting up with me until I had served my purpose. Not a good premise for a relationship.

Last Friday, we had our final argument. One that ended with her saying this:

And that was the end of that relationship, not even two weeks before we were scheduled to meet.

I did not try to pick up the pieces from there. I did that in the past, and I don't want to do it over and over again. Most importantly, however, I want to be accepted, not despite of who and what I am, but because of it.

I've got friends who accept me as I am. Friends who tell me how creative, kind and caring I am. I don't need to sell out who I am just to please some woman. And maybe that means that I'll never find a mate. But maybe I don't care about that anymore. It's a shame for the family that I'll never have, but what good would that be if I lost myself along the way.

This way, I'll at least get to live my own life as the fox that I am. Not hiding my true self away, but celebrating it. Strong, proud and free, I will be!

Which brings us full circle to my long-planned Thailand trip. The flight is booked, the Airbnb paid, the vacation days approved. It's original purpose may no longer exist, but I'm not letting all that preparation go to waste. And yes, I would have preferred spending that time going to Japan instead if I have to fly halfway around the world, but here we are...

At the very least, I know that Thailand has a lot of temples that I can visit (although they sadly won't have any fox shrines), so at the very least I've got something to focus on. At least on the day when I'm not boxed indoors on account of it being frigging typhoon seasons there right now. Nice act of preemptive vengeance luring me here during this time of the year, Chella!

Anyway, that's the situation. Not ideal. And you an bet your tails that I'll be crying in bed on at least some of my nights there, but I'm still intending to make the most of this mess anyway. Life can knock me down, and in can knock me down hard. But it won't be able to keep me down!

With that being said, I'm gonna keep you all posted on my journey here. I depart on Wednesday the 7th of October, and arrive  on the 8th. From then on, I intend to make one post each day, and even if it's only "Too rainy to go outside, but saw some nice fish swimming past my window". So until then, stay tuned, and be of great cheer! =^,~'=

Project Petal ~ Outer Circle Part 6 ~ Mühldorf to Brannenburg

3-Jul-2026

My next ride takes me south parallel to the Inn, one of the three great rivers in my territory (the other two bring the Isar and the Lech). During this ride I should tangate the very outermost point of the Rabbit Petal (see  Book V ~ Chapter 4 ~ Project Petal Part 6 ~ The Easterly Expedition), cross through the outer part of the Dragon Petal (see  Book V ~ Chapter 16 - Project Petal Part 10 ~ The Rainy Rosenheim Ride), and finally end in Brannenburg, where it connects to my embarkation point for one of my hikes to the Thalhäusl (see  Book V ~ Chapter 18 ~ Thalhäusl the Third).

Tour map on bikerouter

And since I'm feeling particularly dynamic today, I also cycle all the way to the Ostbahnhof - from where the train to my starting point of Mühldorf leaves - thus adding another 13km to the distance today. Along the way I come across this curiosity that makes me wonder how many "no bikes" signs are needed to cancel one "bike path" sign.

At the station, I'm lucky that I can quickly buy my bike ticket, and then jump into the train to Mühldorf mere Minutes before it departs. Talk about good timing. Oh, and of course I checked in advance this time that the trains to Mühldorf are actually running again.

Arriving in Mühldorf, I make my way out of the station...

...down the hill the station is located on...

...and across the mighty (and notoriously muddy) Inn, which I should only cross again near the very end of today's ride.

And with that, I'm officially on the road again, making my way through the hinterland of the Inn, which is actually surprisingly flat (though it still features a couple of climbs onto the hilltops).

It's always fun exploring! You never know what you'll find! For example, did you know there's a town out here that has a fox on its coat of arms?

After that, the road I take gets a bit more rural.

And before long, I reach the outskirts of Traunstein county.

 Here's a weird art gallery I pass by.

The weather is quite beautiful today too. Warm, but not too hot. Sunny, but occasionally cloudy too, and dry.

Before long I find myself in the county of Rosenheim. I'm actually skirting the borders of the Rosenheim, Mühldorf and Traunstein counties right now, and cross back and forth between them quite a lot.

In this part, there's a lot of ups and downs. Which means strenuous uphill segments, but great views at the top, and then pleasant downhill rushes. It's also around here that I touch the tip of the Rabbit Petal at Unterreit.

No wonder there's many scenic bike routes around these parts.

Anyway, here's to more ups and downs. This part takes me to the highest point of today's ride, at 607m above sea level.

Oh, and did you notice the purple spike right after there? That's when I cycled up to historic Kling castle ruin.

Naturally, there's another great view from up here.

After that strenuous climb, I have my lunch at the bottom of the hill, on a nice and shady bench.

Incidentally, there seems to be a gravel put or something around here.

Moving on from there, the roads that I take are of varying condition.

It's now almost time for me to cross the Dragon Petal, and the Alps are finally coming into clear view.

And here's another of them Eggs.

From here on out, the going is pretty flat, and takes me gradually closer to the mountains, which are actually my goal for today.

There's also another old Roman road around here, with one Lerra of a milestone! This one is a reconstruction though. But back in those days, milestones sure were real milestones! Not like the cheap ones at the highways these days!

There's also this... whatever in the name of Dragon that's supposed to be. Apparently it's name is Rinsie, the monster of lake Rins.

Fitting to that, here's a proper fairy tail path in the nearby town of Prutting, where I enter the Dragon Petal. By the way, that's the town with the "We're gonna build the road there." "But sir, there's a pond..." "I SAID WE'LL BUILD THE ROAD THERE!!!"-pond.

Moving on, I draw ever-closer to the mountains now.

And here's today's winner of "field path of the day". Pretty tame, I know, but it is what it is.

From there, I take an interesting road that lakes me through what literally translates to "Kingdom County: Disturrb ~ We don't call the police here".

This is also where I exit the Dragon Petal again, and move closer to the mountains, as well as closer to the Inn again. By now, I'm slowly entering the valley of the upper Inn, and the mountains no longer only rise ahead of me, but also to both sides.

I pass by the bathing lake of Neubeuern ("New Farmers"), which is located only 100m away from the Inn, and features a wonder panorama.

After that, it's only a little bit further to the south...

...and then I cross back over the Inn again, juts east of Brannenburg. Note that the Inn is actually about 50% wider up here then it is down in Mühldorf. However, it is also much more shallow.

Oh, and here's the lady of the river.

 There's also two more rivers that I subsequently cross. First one made of concrete...

...and then one of cold steel, which will also be my trail home.

Finally, after eight hours on the road, I arrive in Brannenburg.

There, I come across the fabled engine N°4 of the Wendelsteinbahn, a rack railway running up to the top of the Wendelstein, one of the three legendary mountains south of Munich. This engine had a defect and was decommissioned when newer engines were bought.

From there, I make my way to the station.

There, I'm in semi-luck:

(+) There's a train arriving in just a few minutes

(-) That train is only running to Rosenheim, so I'll have to change trains there

 

Fortunately, the connection in Rosenheim is good, and before long, both me and my trusty bike Jycily (the Flaming Ferret who carried me on so many rides across the landscape) are on our way back to the Munich central station.

Actually... make that the vicinity of the Munich central station, since not only does it stop at the most remote wing platform of the station, but I also managed to board on the wrong end of a very long train. For reference, that puts me about half a kilometer from the heart of the station.

Fortunately, I can get off the station grounds after roughly half that distance, and because clearly I haven't done enough cycling today elect to cycle back home, which adds another 9km to today's total distance. In the end, it's almost 19:00 when I get back home, which is actually a solid improvement over the last ride. Go me! (or to be more honest: Go proper train connections!)

This ends an important segment of the Outer Circle, because with the connection to Brannenburg, I have now reached the segment of the Outer Circle that I actually already completed over the course of previous hikes:

• My hikes around the Thalhäusl connected Brannenburg to Fischbachau (see Book V ~ Chapter 18 ~ Thalhäusl the Third and Book V ~ Chapter 7 ~ Tangential Thalhäusl Trekking)
• From there, a hike during a company outing connected Fischbachau to SchlierseeT
• Two hikes I did with my old school friend Robert connected Schliersee to Tegernsee, and Tegernsee to Lengries respectively
• The Broken Horse Petal connected Lengries to the Walchensee (see Book V ~ Chapter 13 ~ Project Petal Part 8 ~ Alpine Abortion)
• And the Fixed Horse Petal connected the Walchensee to Klais (see Book V ~ Final Chapter ~ Project Petal Finale ~ Klais & Kochel Kinetics)

With that, the Outer Circle by now looks like this:

That's three of four sides covered now! Only three petals left to bring in: Goat, Monkey and Rooster! I believe three more rides will do, and then the Outer Circle will be finished too! I'm already looking forward to them! And until I get to them, you all be of great cheer! =^,^=