I have to say, the coolest thing was actually the volcanoes. It started with us being on Sumatra for a few days, I think, and then suddenly, while we were flying, I'm heading towards this volcano and thinking to myself, wow, there's no way that's going to erupt.
I can't really recommend some things; personally, I had a huge toad, and while it tasted a bit like chicken, it does smell a bit strong. Small frogs are okay, they're actually as crunchy as chips, but you have to get used to a big toad like that.
Podz-Glidz, the Lu-Glidz podcast.
Stories from the cosmos of paragliding.
Today with Jonas Prüssing. And I'm Lucian Haas.
I met Jonas Prüssing in 2023 at the NRW Cup in Sauerland. I've been following him on Instagram ever since. From autumn 2023, his posts started appearing regularly in my timeline and left me amazed. Because Jonas had given up his engineering job at a car manufacturer, at least for the time being, to dedicate himself entirely to paragliding. For that, he first traveled to East Asia, where he wandered from country to country for nearly six months, always searching for the best flying weather and suitable launch sites. I had already messaged him back then and agreed that he would tell me about his adventures in the Far East in a podcast episode after his return.
And that's what this 144th episode of Podz-Glidz is all about. Jonas tells very entertaining stories about the diverse experiences and impressions from his trip through nine countries. Did you know, for example, that there's a soarable dune in Japan? That Thailand is a true XC paradise? That Vietnamese frogs taste like chicken? And that you have to watch out for punching kangaroos at the landing field in Australia? I don't want to give anything away just yet.
If you enjoy Podz-Glidz, please support my work as a patron. You can find out how to do that very easily on the paragliding blog Lu-Glidz, specifically on the Förder page.
Jonas, where can I find you right now? You can find me in Bad Wildungen right now. I'm back in Germany and I've been traveling a bit lately. Yes, that's right. But is your big trip over for now? Well, I basically had two travel tours. One was an Asia tour and the other was the Europe tour. And those two parts are over for now. But of course, I've already thought of something new. I'm going back to Asia now. It wasn't quite such a big tour, but I wanted to check out China again. And then at some point, I'll go to India again. But after that, the trip is really over for now.
You started just under a year ago. I think your first flight was on October 4th. What was your idea or what was your goal for this?
Trip? Well, first it was Asia. The background is that I've become a bit more flexible professionally because I'm a student again. And the idea was actually that I wanted to follow the weather, of course, because in October it always gets a bit more unpleasant in Europe. So, naturally, only options like Africa, South America, or maybe Asia remained, I thought to myself. I then asked other people, what's it like in Asia? Has anyone ever flown there? And I've actually only ever heard from all the paragliders, no, Asia isn't like that. But personally, I've been following it a lot over the last few years through various media and have seen that in Asia, the paragliding scene is growing bit by bit. And by now, there are actually launch sites everywhere.
So, "everywhere" would be an exaggeration if you compare it to our launch sites or how frequently we have them. And then I thought, okay, why not Asia? So I drew a circle over Southeast Asia on the map. And I'm...
...gone. Just like that, did you point your finger at the world map—not the world map, but the Asia map—and say, "Which is my first country there?" Or how was it?
It wasn't exactly like that. I'm a competition pilot, you could say. And that's why, of course, whenever I plan any trips, I orient myself around competitions. And in that case, it was perfectly situated because the PWC Asia Tour was happening in Myeongyang, South Korea. And I simply took that as my personal starting point. And I had a bit of hope that maybe there were some secret competitions lurking around somewhere. And that's how it turned out. Naturally, I was immediately into the competition scene there and met, let's say, the elite of Asia. And they, of course, immediately invited me to various competitions in Asia. And so my actual plan—the circle—kept getting distorted every now and then. I met friends there in Asia who then gave me new ideas, and they obviously know the area well.
So, in that region. And they told me, "Hey Jonas, the weather is actually perfect there right now. For example, in Australia. We should definitely go there to fly XC." Or I was invited to the China Open. That didn't quite work out with the visa, though, because it was a bit too spontaneous. Back then, you still needed a visa for China. But I was invited everywhere. And then my route got a bit distorted, I'd say. In a positive way.
Did you actually have a route planned? Or did you really just say... I'm going to South Korea, PWC, I'm going there now, Asia Tour, I'll start there and then basically just let myself be carried from competition to competition, something like that.
So, in reality, I more or less drew a circle. I thought to myself, this is actually the optimal route if you're going from South Korea to Japan. Then Taiwan was a consideration, but that wasn't set in stone yet. And then the logical route, which I think many people do when they go to Southeast Asia, is to start in Vietnam. Then over Laos, Cambodia to Thailand. Then down to Malaysia. And then to Indonesia and then maybe up to the Philippines. I'd say that's a typical route because you're simply connecting a lot of landmasses first. And landmasses are, of course, more carbon-neutral to cross than by plane. And if you want to jump from country to country on a larger scale, then you just have to use a lot of flights. So, a lot of planes.
And in the end, that's how it turned out for me. I think I booked 18 flights. That was a lot, of course, and it's not good for my carbon footprint at all. So, as a paraglider pilot, it's not ideal. But because you do have to adapt a bit to the weather, or should, or I wanted to as a paraglider pilot, it ended up being a bit of a zigzag course in the end.
You flew in competitions. Did you have your competition gear with you as travel gear too? Yes. Yes, that's how it was. Big bag, two reserves inside and all that. And you toured through Asia with that.
Exactly, exactly. It obviously always looked pretty funny. Especially, I'd say, in Japan on the super cramped trains, where thousands of people in Osaka squeeze into a train. And then someone shows up with a backpack. And there are even signs saying you're not actually allowed to take such large backpacks on these trains. But as a foreigner, I think they turn a blind eye to you. It really started with the competition gear. I only had one wing in with me. But otherwise, actually my X-Rated 7 and a Zeno 2. And then of course camping gear and everything else you might need for about half a year. That was a lot. And I wouldn't recommend doing that now. But you also have to say, in the competition scene, there isn't really that ultra-ultra-light gear that is also efficient.
There were a few options. But what I've seen lately—there are some really lightweight ones now, I encountered them in Australia for example—people had basically just a scrap of fabric with them, and it still looked relatively efficient. It either inflates accordingly or you have to inflate it yourself. So those options are one possibility, but then of course there's the question of the protectors. For me, the decision was simply that I have an X-Rated. Sure, it wasn't great lugging that around through Southeast Asia. But that's how it was.
Did you have all your clothes and stuff inside that paraglider bag? Or were you pulling a suitcase behind you? Or what did that look like?
Actually, I even had a second bag. I was basically carrying a sports bag with me as well. So it looked pretty funny on my back. This huge backpack and then another bag strapped in front of my stomach, so to speak. That was my travel gear. Accordingly, I tried not to walk too much, of course, but to use public transport. Or later on, I rented cars and scooters a lot. So it worked on a scooter too. In Taiwan, I thought to myself, wow, that's so much luggage. I'll just send part of my luggage that I don't need here anymore ahead to the airport. And then, when I take the flight to the next country, I'll collect the luggage. Then I'll send it back again. That made it a bit more pleasant.
At the time, I didn't know that you could just buckle a paraglider backpack in front of you, like between the handlebars and the seat. I can definitely recommend that if you have a bit of larger luggage with you. Then traveling by scooter is actually quite pleasant. But I only noticed that around the middle of Taiwan. By then, I had already cruised through Japan on a scooter. Exactly, that realization definitely helped me to be more comfortable traveling by scooter later on. And paragliding equipment.
So you put the pack in front of you on the scooter. Where were your feet? Were they just hanging in the air on the right and left or...
What? Exactly, it was more like riding a motorcycle. So you have to imagine, there was no room left for your feet, you were just hanging there with your thighs on the backpack in the front. Did you have any trekking poles with you? I had trekking poles with me too, because my tent doesn't have its own poles. And that's why I definitely had trekking poles with me. And I also had trekking poles with me because my tent doesn't have its own poles. And of course for hiking too. Of course you can't ride up all the mountains in Southeast Asia. It's similar to everywhere else in the world. There are many hike and fly areas, so to speak. And we naturally hiked up the mountain with the gear every now and then. And I was glad I had trekking poles with me then. Hiking is always an understatement. Sometimes we even had to scramble up, real rock faces, because we couldn't find the official path.
With the giant pack on your back? With the giant pack on your back, yeah. Yeah, so it was...
How much does your gear weigh, if your whole tent and all your clothes aren't included or anything? I mean, what does the pack weigh on its own?
How much did it weigh? Just what I need for flying. In Asia, I'd estimate it weighed about 28 kilos. 26 to 28. If I were flying in a normal competition, of course, it would be significantly more. In that case, I'm at 38 to 40. I didn't have that much with me this time.
But you climbed up the mountains with 28 kilos. Yeah. Just to take off from somewhere in the bushes and go fly somewhere.
So, bushes—luckily, they already have launch sites and they're maintained. So we didn't just pick anything. We often checked them out beforehand. If it wasn't clear that we could fly up there, either on Google Maps or from other sources. We also met a lot of people who recommended things to us. And if anyone said it was borderline, or if we noticed ourselves that it looked more like a bush, we just stayed away and, of course, tried to orient ourselves toward the best possible launch sites. By the way, in that case—which was more like the landmass tour from Thailand through Malaysia to Indonesia—I traveled with a buddy I met in Vietnam. That was Tiger, and he's English.
And he actually had the exact same plan as I did. He wanted to explore Southeast Asia and told me, hey, let's do it together.
But I want to go to Australia first. Then we'll meet again in Thailand. And during that phase, he took the tour through Vietnam and then through Laos and Cambodia, just like you'd actually plan it. I thought, wow, Australia would be pretty nice too. Another buddy I'd met in Taiwan actually convinced me that we absolutely had to go to Australia. And that was a good decision, because at that time, you can fly really, really well in Australia. That's where I flew my new record of 195 kilometers. And that was a good thing, just not for the carbon footprint.
Well, you've come a huge way in Asia. Now, it would be difficult to trace the whole journey and follow along in a podcast like this; it might even get boring at some point. I'd say we just make a little game out of it. I'll name the individual countries you visited, and you tell me what comes to mind spontaneously as a particularly interesting memory or whatever. Whatever pops into your head right now. It can be short or long. Maybe I'll have a follow-up question. But it'll be a bit of jumping around. Just whatever comes to mind. It could also be some local customs of the people or something else. It doesn't always have to be aviation-related. Let's start. You said you flew to South Korea first. So, South Korea is the keyword. What comes to mind regarding that?
South Korea comes to mind. First of all, I had incredibly delicious food there. That started with the competition. The lunch pack consisted of a huge variety of food and diversity. Do you need an extra backpack for that, or what? Exactly, exactly. So I didn't take much with me, exported, I have to say. But I really liked that in South Korea. Another thing is, of course, this competition I attended. It was incredibly well organized. I mean, there was a parade first, where we marched. And they put so much effort into this competition. I don't even know how many hundreds of thousands of euros they must have poured into it. But it was just gigantic. I mean, I'd never experienced anything like that before.
And I've already flown several competitions. But they set a completely new standard in terms of how much paragliding is actually appreciated. And that's what I actually remember best.
Let's move on. Japan.
Yes, Japan.
There's a lot to say, of course. I have to say, Japan was one of the most expensive countries I've traveled to. Public transportation, in particular, wasn't very cheap. Flying-wise, it was incredibly great too. I was there at the end of the season, of course. Because of that, I didn't meet many paraglider pilots there. But I already knew some from the Asia tour, from the PWC there. And I have to say, one of the most beautiful experiences was in Fukuoka. Soaring there at the dune, I liked that incredibly much. There's a dune in Japan? There's a dune in Japan, exactly. I suspect there are even several, but I haven't met them all. But that was way down in the south of Japan. I traveled to Japan by ship.
And then I was basically right by the sea and thought, oh, maybe you can fly here. And a buddy of mine also said, yeah, there's a launch site, go there. I had to walk through this really intense spider forest to get there. It was truly awful, I have to say. Because I'm a bit... I don't want to say,
arachnophobic, or arachnophobia, I think it's called. Exactly, I mean it's not that severe for me, but in that forest it became severe. Because there were just monster spiders hanging everywhere. And I was just thinking, wow, I hope I make it out of here alive. Where is this launch site? And it was an adventure, I tell you.
The Japanese spiders were probably scared, too.
in some ways, in front of you. Yeah, or they just eat people. You just don't know, because they're already big and everywhere. So I'm not sure.
From the Japanese dunes, we're jumping to Taiwan. You said you didn't actually want to go there in the first place, but you ended up landing there anyway. What drove you there, or what was so special about it?
I flew in a competition in Taiwan. That was in Puli. And I came in second there, just barely missing out on first place. The flying terrain there is incredibly beautiful. And I don't think many people know Taiwan as a flying area. But they actually have mountains over 3,900... You can't really imagine it because you think, "Well, these aren't the Alps." But they have almost alpine terrain. It's just that this alpine terrain is quite overgrown with forest. And basically no one flies there. I wanted to fly into it once, and then the Taiwanese people immediately wrote to me on the live tracking, like, "Jonas, don't fly that way, no one has ever done that." And then I thought to myself, "Yeah, there definitely aren't any landing sites there."
So the cumulus would really have to move in. And I was heading towards it just now, but at some point I decided to turn around. But in general, all these countries aren't actually flown as much as, for example, Europe. And because of that, there's still so, so, so much potential there. The other day, I also went on another XC flight. And there, they all said, "Wow, we've never even thought of that." Which was actually super good. And I think the Asians are also slowly starting to explore their terrain better in terms of XC. And there's definitely incredible potential there. What these... mountains definitely provide is that they shield the weather. And because of that, you can actually fly incredibly well in Taiwan.
You just said they messaged you during the live tracking. So, did they have your phone number or something?
Was was that possible? Exactly, so I was naturally... Well, in Taiwan I was already being received. They were like, "Oh, here comes the German, Degoro." And then I thought to myself, what's going on here? They all already know me because I signed up for this competition. And my world ranking was also... quite good at the time, at least by Asian standards, with 230. And they thought, here comes the quasi-paragliding champ. That's why I became known in the scene very, very, very quickly. Then you can use XCTrack, there's this live tracking function. And you can actually write to people there. And the Asians used that every now and then too. So both in Taiwan and later in Thailand, I was messaged. And they pointed out certain things. Or sometimes people just wanted to have a nice chat while I was flying.
You always have to check, of course. It's like driving. I can't recommend just tapping around on your phone. But if you know your stuff, you can sometimes still use one of those hearing aids for other things.
Quick change of subject then, since we're on the topic. Handy, you've traveled through so many countries. Did you basically buy a new prepaid card in every single country? Or how did you handle that technically?
Yeah, unfortunately, my phone wasn't eSIM compatible. And it still isn't. That was a big mistake in my phrasing. Because it meant that I already had, I think in Thailand, 10 SIM cards. Because I had to buy a new SIM card in every country. There isn't anything like Europe Roaming there. Which is an ultra cool thing nowadays in Europe, I have to say. I guess it's incredibly convenient because of that, especially since I've also traveled a lot through Europe now. And then I don't have to buy hundreds of SIM cards. Unfortunately, it's not like that in Asia. The countries there aren't as well connected to each other yet. And I actually bought a new SIM card in every country. That's probably why it was also the item I bought the most, generally.
Back to the itinerary.
Next stop, Philippines. In the Philippines, paragliding is, I'd say, the least developed country of all those I've visited. There's already a launch site on every island, I'd say. But of course, the season has to be right for you to be able to fly there. That's why flying wasn't the focus for me in the Philippines. I flew there with a tandem. I have a friend there. I visited her in the Philippines and celebrated my birthday with her and tried to get to know the culture. And that worked very well because I was, of course, basically right in the middle of Philippine life. I thought that was incredibly great. Generally, you have to say, you noticed that in the Philippines, but also in the countries before. But in the Philippines, it really hit me for the first time because the further south you go, the better the hospitality becomes, so to speak.
The people there are just ultra open, super friendly. And you make contact with other people so quickly. It's unimaginable. Even now, I've been reflecting on the Europe tour. You can't even describe how many friends I met in Asia and how fast it ultimately happened. And here in Europe, I have to say, you have a bit more inhibitions in comparison. It takes a bit longer here to form close friendships. Because of that, I can say this specifically about the Philippines: if you're looking for contact, they'll go crazy for you. You're welcomed so warmly, just like in Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. So the right Southeast Asian countries, they are ultra open.
Did you, I mean, on the Philippines you visited a friend, but in the other countries, was it like a kind of couchsurfing that you also did there? Because you had people, so did they all invite you to their homes, saying if you come to Taiwan or wherever else, you'll definitely have a roof over your head, come to my place or whatever?
So it actually happened that way. Pretty much everywhere we went, we either knew people or people already knew us. And it actually happened in some cases that people we didn't know yet would message us on WhatsApp and say, "Hey, I heard you're coming our way, like heading east for example. I have a house, do you want to stop by? Me and the Tiger in this case. You can stay over at my place." And that happened everywhere I was. So on Sumatra, we met people who invited us to their homes. And in South Korea, I met a buddy who invited me straight to his place. No matter where I actually was, you were more or less invited to couchsurf.
That was ultra good. Otherwise, if that wasn't the case, you can of course just go to a hostel. Accommodations there are ultra cheap compared to Europe. Or I also had camping gear with me. You can basically pitch your tent anywhere and sleep in it.
From the people. If you say you were traveling there and got invited a lot, were they all paragliders? Or were there also other people who noticed you somewhere, wherever that might be? Or is it sort of a paragliding community where you say, if a paraglider comes from Europe, they're already indirectly the superhero who arrives. We definitely want to have them over at our place. And it's an honor to invite them because they're the big paragliders,
the one who comes. Yes, so primarily, I have to say, they were all flyers. Well, not every single one, but a large part of them were actually flyers. And it felt like what you described. The superstars from Europe are coming. We really want to see them and have them here. And that's how it felt. But also otherwise, in the non-flyer scene. We got to the launch site somewhere and then it started raining. And then something happened. Someone saw us driving up there in the car. He got worried and basically told everyone in his village about it. Not an hour later, he came. Then someone else came up who had seen us. He even brought us food in the evening and invited us for breakfast the next morning. And that, that was just really crazy. Often, of course, it's like, wherever there is a paraglider launch site, there's also a paraglider somewhere, I always say.
Then, of course, the paragliders are often informed about things like that because they think, okay, someone drove up to the paraglider launch site. Who would do that? And then after a short time, a paraglider naturally showed up too. He wanted to meet us as well. And that, I mean, it also happens that the locals invite you. But often, well, it's often the case that someone actually gets back in contact with paragliders. It doesn't take long. It's also interesting, of course, when you land somewhere, then everyone naturally wants to come over immediately, people arrive and want to take photos with you. Very often, no matter where we walked or where they saw us, people would come up and go, oh, photos, photos. And it was incredibly warm and sweet.
I just really liked that.
Yeah, I mean, if a turtle like you walks around with a giant bag like that, that
is probably interesting on its own for that reason. Yeah, yeah, that's true. So with my gear, I obviously stood out, no matter where I was. Next country, Vietnam. Yeah, Vietnam, I have to say, the food here was even more diverse than in all the other countries. They even ate frog here, baby frogs. So duck blood, cow stomach. I ate everything that felt like there was to eat in the world. And I loved that, that's what I remember best. But actually, the flying culture is also relatively well-developed there. We had a competition there too, and we placed pretty well. And it also surprised me that you could fly so well there, especially at that time of year.
Because there was actually a bit of... I thought I'd be finishing the season there, but in the north of Vietnam, in Phu Tha Leng, you could still fly thermals very, very, very well. I just loved that.
Yeah, that was a thing. You naturally got into the community very quickly. I met, just like that, I'd say 50 percent of the Vietnamese pilots, and they were recommended everywhere. And we went out celebrating together. And the culture, I'd say, has a European touch. Definitely. So also the party culture—people drink beer, they go to discos, I'd say they sit together and eat in the evening. In some ways, that felt very familiar.
And I really liked the party culture there.
Out of all those exotic things you ate there, what was the most exotic thing that you'd say was the tastiest? Like, what should people definitely try? Even if at first you think, oh my god, what is that stuff? But if you travel to Vietnam, what should you have eaten that turns out to be really delicious?
Wow, "delicious" is a bit of a subjective definition. I have to say, I was surprised by many things at first, like what you can even eat. I wouldn't want to commit to what was "delicious" just like that. What was simply my favorite food, but that's more or less available in all Asian countries, is Jupsal. It's like a style of cooking, so to speak. It's a bit like grilling, if we were to describe it. Only you do it at the table and it's not a real open fire, but rather, well, glowing coals. And a kind of grill grate is placed on top of those, and then you basically cook your own food in the restaurant.
It's like grilling on a hot stone or something like that. Yeah, exactly.
Only they don't have a hot stone,
but the
Charcoal grill underneath. Kind of like fondue, you could say, yeah. Or not fondue, what's the other one called? You probably mean Raclette? Raclette, Raclette, that's it, exactly. Right, sort of like Raclette, just different. But that's one thing I would definitely recommend. It originated primarily in South Korea, but it's spread everywhere now, in Southeast Asia too. It's a really great thing. You also have Hot Pot, which is very common there. That comes more from China, from that direction. There, you basically cook your own food in the restaurant in a sort of cooking pot. That's also ultra exciting. These are more, I'd say, very cozy ways to go to a restaurant, because of course you need to bring a lot of time with you for those types of restaurant visits.
But you also have a great opportunity to chat. Every restaurant visit becomes a proper event that you're definitely going to remember. That's what I'd recommend. There are also things I can't recommend. For me personally, it was bullfrog. It tasted okay, a bit like chicken, but it smells quite strong once you've cooked and grilled it. So, hold your nose.
and then enjoy the chicken, which actually makes it a
big toad is. Right, right. Small frogs, that works. They're actually as crispy as chips. I can recommend that more. But you have to get used to a big toad like that.
Wonderful. Let's skip one. Indonesia.
Yes, Indonesia. I have to say, the coolest thing was actually the volcanoes. I mean, if you're being honest, they have a volcanic landscape. I've never seen anything like that before. I had been to Tenerife before, but they just have active volcanoes. It started when we were, I think, in Sumatra for a few days first. And suddenly, while we were flying, I'm heading towards one of these volcanoes and think to myself, wow, there's no way that's going to erupt. One day later, we flew one launch site further. While we were flying there, this volcano erupted just 10 kilometers away. So that was pretty intense. But as for erupting...
Does it mean like a small cloud of smoke coming out of the top? Or does lava actually spray out of the top and you're flying 10 kilometers away thinking, I hope no ash rain hits my glider.
It's just a plume of smoke coming out. But of course, that always depends on how strong the eruption is. Sometimes lava and chunks of rock shoot out too. It always depends on where you are at the moment and how severe the eruption actually is. So, you get evacuated. You weren't allowed to get closer to the volcano than a certain... radius. I don't know if that's also cool for the airspace. There wasn't a flight ban or anything like that. We didn't notice any. Because of that, you could do all that and fly right up to it. On the other side, that was Mount Bromo. We also flew very close to the active volcano there. Only a few kilometers, actually. And stones still shoot out of that sometimes. So it's almost constantly active, but it has these more active phases where it spits out lava and rocks.
We were there during a phase where just huge amounts of steam, so to speak, and a bit of ash were coming out. It was spectacular, of course.
I think Mount Bromo is a volcano within a volcano, right? So the active part of the mountain basically grows out of the actual huge crater.
Exactly, exactly. That's exactly how it is. It's not just Mount Bromo, there are many volcanoes within volcanoes. For example, there were supervolcanoes that stretch over several hundred kilometers, which obviously don't look quite like a volcano anymore. It's only when you fly over one of those supervolcanoes in a paraglider that you actually realize it's a real volcano. It's just so big that if you were standing somewhere there, you wouldn't really recognize it. You have to fly high above it, and then you see it—it's just a gigantically large volcano. And we flew in some of those. There are several of them. And it's just incredible. It looks super intense. And when you think about the fact that there's actually a lava cell somewhere down there that could hypothetically erupt again, then it's a completely, completely different feeling.
And if one were to erupt right next to you, not a supervolcano, but just a small one, then it feels completely, completely different. And flying there is another world and looks incredibly great from a landscape perspective too. Even as a non-tourist. So as a non-paraglider tourist, there are of course many things to do. We also hiked up Mount Egen. There are so-called Blue Flames there. So actual blue flames come out of the volcano, which you can go and look at. But for that, you have to put on an oxygen mask—no, not that, but a filter mask, basically like these Corona masks, just a bit more professional, in order to be able to hike up there at all. Because there are of course sulfur gases everywhere, which then aren't so...
...healthy. You also have to get a certificate from a doctor nowadays confirming that you're actually able to hike up there. Exactly, but it was also super exciting. And those are the kinds of things—you have to see the volcanoes in Indonesia at least once.
Let's just move on to Malaysia.
Yes, Malaysia is also beautiful. It feels significantly more connected to nature than some other countries. Although Sumatra, for example, was... I think that's still the most natural country. But what was definitely a highlight for us in Malaysia were the elephants. We actually saw wild elephants in the jungle. We stayed overnight in the jungle. We were thinking, we're new to Malaysia, we're tired. We're looking for a place to sleep, we turned off the highway, and suddenly we were in the deep jungle and thought, well, it's dark. We thought, yeah, we can set up a tent, right? And the next morning we crawl out of the tent and shortly after we just see this elephant scene. Right? And the elephants were just walking around there and we thought, aha, so they apparently already exist here.
And then there aren't any in Malaysia, but in Sumatra, for example, there are tigers. And I had the tiger with me, too. So from that perspective, it was also a little hope of ours to see a tiger somewhere. That wasn't the case. But elephants and nature in general are very interesting there. What stands out in Malaysia is that it has a lot to do with the palm oil industry. That means, when you head further into the southeast, you see huge palm plantations everywhere. It stands out. It doesn't look super great, but I'd say, at least it's still green. Better than a desert. The people and the food there were also really good, of course. And above all, you have to say, they have really beautiful paraglider launch sites too.
So we saw launch sites right on the coast near the Sohren, where you can theoretically also fly thermals at the same time. Where there's... there's no tourism there. And we just thought, this is actually the perfect tourist spot. I think this northeast coast is still very unknown to the world. But especially for paragliders, that can be really interesting. So we briefly considered, we actually have to offer a flight trip directly, because it already looks awesome here. That was definitely a beautiful thing in Malaysia. Sure, they also have really big cities like Kuala Lumpur. I think one or two people know Kuala Lumpur. We were there of course and looked at the typical tourist stuff. Everything's exciting. But what was actually interesting was seeing the paragliding scene, that it's not so developed there yet.
And generally, tourism in the remote corners is non-existent, even though there are some beautiful spots.
The East Coast of Malaysia, where you just said you can fly so well—are there any official launch sites there? Or are there again individual paragliders who have sort of cleared out their own launch site? Or how should one imagine that? Or did you guys just take off from a cliff?
So there are proper paraglider launch sites that are, let's say, maintained by clubs, you have to say. But there are only one or two of those. And then there's another good handful of paraglider launch sites maintained by private individuals. So where there's really just one paraglider pilot and they maintain the paraglider launch site. You naturally get to know them very quickly, or they already know you, when you're traveling around there. And then they'll lead you up the mountain, and it's actually flyable there and is a decent launch site. It exists in both forms there, but you have to say, just not with the same frequency as in Europe.
Could you do cross-country flights there? Or do you have to say, okay, there's the launch site, it has a meadow somewhere down below where you can land, but everything around it is actually jungle or something else. Then the pilots radio you again and say, you don't fly any further because there's nothing left back there.
Exactly, so you really have to say that cross-country flying isn't that well-developed in Malaysia yet. But I did it anyway. Of course, there are reasons why not many people do it, because there aren't that many landing sites. You have to be very clear about that. In some cases, there are palm plantations for several—I don't want to say hundreds of kilometers. But it's in that ballpark, and you have to somehow find a gap between the plantations where you can still land, if necessary. Are there...
no paths that are clear where they just drive along with their tractors, where you could say, I could still land on that path? Or are these palm plantations really so dense that in the end you always end up in
...land in the palms? Yeah, well, they are actually so dense that you can't land in the palm plantations. We once thought about whether there might be a path in between where you could maybe land on the ground, but the glider would definitely land in the palm plantations. In a case like that, there's no way around it. But sometimes there's somehow... yeah, let's say, a plot of land in between. Someone has to maintain the palm plantations, after all. And usually, there's someone who feels a sense of ownership over it. And ideally, they have some kind of small garden, right? And then you can land in the garden. Another issue, of course, is just that in Southeast Asia, many... well, here, almost all power lines are felt to be laid underground. That's actually not the case everywhere in those countries.
Whether it's Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, or Thailand, the power lines are all overhead. So, I'd say 90 percent, or probably even more. That means it's also just a huge problem in those countries. So it's not just about finding something to land on at all, but you also have to scan for whether there might be power lines hanging over there. That's an issue, which is why I've sometimes imagined—actually, it would be cool if you had a zoom function with your eyes. And then you could take a closer look at the field. Because if you're still high up, of course, you just don't see it. And you basically have to get to 300 meters to even recognize if there are any lines over there. And if it's really a landing field. And at 300 meters above, it's usually already your last option.
So if you can still find a field in those countries from there, that's already good. But usually, it's the last resort. That's why you have to be a bit careful. And that's why the locals don't do it either.
So, in the end, you'd need a camera app with AI that could automatically detect and map out all the power lines or whatever else.
Yeah, something like that would actually be good. That would be a topic. Exactly, another issue is that when we were there, it wasn't really the season for flying. But generally, the base, for example in Malaysia, isn't that ultra high. I just took off at 800 meters above sea level. That was about 500 meters above ground. That worked too. So you can go on a cross-country flight at 500 meters above ground. But that reduces the landing field selection extremely again. So from that perspective. So going cross-country in Malaysia, yeah, it's possible. But you have to be confident that your skills are up to par. Otherwise, you just land in a palm plantation, which isn't the worst-case scenario. You survive all of that. Trees are our friends and such. But it's just not nice if you want to fly again the next day.
Let's talk about cross-country flying. Thailand, I think you did a bit more XC there.
Exactly, exactly. Thailand turned out to be a secret XC paradise, you could almost say. It's really intense. I wasn't aware of that before. I had been to Thailand once before. But back then, I barely had my license and didn't have my glider with me either. Because at that time, there was actually only one single spot on the maps where it said you could fly in Thailand. In the meantime, that has completely changed. That was seven years ago. And now Thailand has a whole lot of launch sites. Well, not as many as in Europe. So, a whole lot of them are like 10 to 20. But that's already a lot. And there's also just really, really good terrain. For example, Putaburg, which is in the north of Bangkok, and that's good around the time of December—you can go in November too, November, December, January, February is really good there.
And then there's Khao Sadao, which is located a bit northeast of Bangkok, where you can fly really well in the later months of February, March, and April. Theoretically every day. In April, the Asians are in Thailand—so of course, all the Asians from the other countries come there, which is why I always say Asians—they all went to Thailand because they know it's good there. And they flew over 200 kilometers every day. They even flew routes of 280 kilometers. That was really intense. And I had just basically left Southeast Asia and was a bit annoyed that I didn't stay there through April, because everyone had told me, "Jonas, stay until the end of April, you have to stay here."
But theoretically, the competition season was starting again in Europe. Unfortunately, it didn't show up because of the bad weather. So I was sitting here in the rain for a bit. But Thailand has incredible XC potential because there are practically no major obstacles in those regions. A really high base, and the thermals blast like crazy. It works really well, but they aren't that crazy turbulent; they're just smooth for thermals. So they are ultimately still relatively smooth. I'd almost describe it as beginner-friendly. We had, well, in Asia there are now felt to be more beginners than pros anyway. And no one had any real difficulties. So Thailand is really great from a flying perspective in many ways.
One thing, of course, is that you do see the occasional forest fire in Thailand because it's just very dry and hot. And then it starts burning in one place or another. And you see that, and as a paraglider pilot, you can sometimes use that to your advantage. It actually happened that I flew over active forest fires and then turned into them. Tasty, I'd say.
If it doesn't go up or if it takes you off, it's obviously not great. How do you start or where do you start there? Are they mountains or is it winch towing, where you're pulled up? Because I think I saw something somewhere once about a site in Thailand that someone offered as a tour and comes to me and stuff like that. I think it might even be a German who emigrated there and does that. And he definitely has a winch operation and tows you up there. But what was it like in the areas you just mentioned?
have? Well, I haven't found a single winch site in all of Southeast Asia, and I actually actively looked for one. I once met someone who had converted a scooter into a winch. That was in South Korea, but they didn't even use it. And I haven't seen any winches in Thailand or any of the other countries either. Those were all mountains, so it ranges from hills to mountains. Putaberg is more like a proper mountain. I think it's also one of the most famous mountains, even for the Thai people personally. They go there on vacation and stuff. It's a well-known vacation region for strawberries, for example. And there are several launch sites, so to speak, on this mountain. So it's naturally an easterly, northeasterly position that you actually need there. You get that in those regions from November to February.
And after that, the southwest wind usually kicks in. Then other launch sites become interesting, but those are also all mountains or hills. So, I'd say we didn't find anything with less than a 200-meter elevation difference. And I think Putaberg is around 800, 900. But don't hold me to that; they were definitely higher mountains.
How did you actually handle the weather assessment? You just said you need the northeast and other stuff. So, did you personally check a weather app every day and decide where to go based on that? Or did you have to realize that the weather is always made locally? And can you actually use these apps locally, or at least in the region, at all, or are they just useless?
Exactly, so there are many weather apps we don't use in Asia. I'd say things like Meteo Parapente or Paraglideable, which give a very rough overview. Although I use Meteo Parapente a lot in the German lowlands, it doesn't work there at all. What works somewhat is when they have all the models available and you just do a rough plus-minus calculation. And then you just hope that it more or less happens. Of course, you also have to have a certain amount of experience to go on a trip like this and have to be able to assess the weather yourself. In the end, you have to stand there, look at the clouds and the weather, and of course, you have to be able to assess the wind. We often use wind maps or something like that when we go somewhere.
...that we look at and orient ourselves by, or even bushes that are already bending or trees, to assess what the wind is actually like on the way to fly somewhere. But in reality, it's like this: the evening before, or I always did an analysis the evening before, of where you could potentially fly the next day. And then we planned our route after that. So it was really like looking every day. Usually, you can only look two or three days ahead with the weather, and that's why the plan was mostly very, very spontaneous. And Windy works for that, but you also just have to bring your own common sense and your own experience to be able to do that safely.
Let's get to the last country you were in, even if it wasn't the last one in order,
Australia. Australia was of course super exciting, and it wasn't exactly planned like that. I went there with a buddy and he said we have to fly XT there, but for that you actually have to go to Manila. That's not the capital of the Philippines, as I thought before. And I'd been there before too, I thought, Manila, I know that, I've already been there.
Where can you fly XT here?
over all the huts that are there? There's also a Manila in Australia and that's the XT area, and you have to say, you can fly hundreds of kilometers there. It's really good at that time, the Asians basically come there too. So you have to say, those who have a bit of money—and those are mostly people in the paragliding scene—they're naturally traveling around a lot. Because of that, you see the same people over and over again. I've met people there that I'd already met in Vietnam before, or others I'd already seen in Taiwan. And so you keep running into the same people more or less in that region if you're a bit active. And it was really good for flying there, of course.
What was an issue in Australia, or what stuck with me, was definitely that the animals are a bit aggressive. In some cases, it was already mentioned to us beforehand. Three days earlier, a buddy of ours—so, buddies from Asia had already flown there—had a bird tear his glider right in flight, like, actually torn it. He then tried to repair it, but that didn't work out very well either. A few days later, he actually crashed. So the birds there are very aggressive. I was also attacked by birds three or four times. Of course, I always quickly kicked the speed bar and saw that I could get away, because you have no chance as a paraglider pilot against the birds. So, in total, are you faster than the birds?
If they're in a dive, then no. That's why it's important to recognize, okay, the bird is still below me. They turn better than you do. So they're there. It doesn't take ten minutes, then they're above you because they know the thermals a bit better than you do. And then it's time to get out of there. So if a bird comes at you from 200 meters above, they really dive fast. And then they just destroy your glider. That's why you have to recognize early on, there's a bird that looks dangerous, I'm heading out. At the latest, when you hear screams, that's the sign to get out of there. So, into the speed bar, and then if necessary, he has to go for a landing. So there's
Is there a briefing at the launch site for the newly arrived foreigners? What do these ten bird silhouettes mean? You definitely have to watch out for these two; if they are below you, leave them below you. And never let them get above you, otherwise it gets dangerous.
So if I were to offer a flight trip there, I would definitely include it in my presentation. That's how it was, of course; we didn't have anyone there who explained anything major to us. It didn't happen that way, it was all through word of mouth and ultimately with XT-flying, you can go everywhere, right? And because of that, you never know exactly where the birds are right now, probably defending their territory, right? So that's probably their primary purpose. If you're, let's say, at 3,000 meters and there's a bird, then it's there. That's not a problem either, because it's not defending anything up there, right? So they're, let's say, more relaxed, but it mostly depends on where you are right now, if you're near their territory. Then it's bad, right, then even a smaller bird is enough, it doesn't even have to look that dangerous. If you're on the ground or close to it, then the probability is naturally higher that you'll encounter such areas.
But we didn't have a briefing where they told us about this beforehand; it was more like word of mouth, or the videos of the... the little guy getting snatched went viral, of course. That was a Bumerang 12, I think; one or the other of you probably saw that. It was going around quite a bit. And it's not just the birds that are aggressive; I was already bitten by a spider on the first day. I thought to myself, "Hmm, what is that? That's never happened to me before." And sometimes kangaroos show up too—so there are kangaroos in Australia, I learned right on the first day. I mean, I knew that beforehand, of course, but then I saw them. And a buddy of mine landed once too. That was a wild landing, of course, because he got sandwiched between two storms, I have to say; lightning was already coming out of the clouds.
And then, just as he landed, a lightning strike hit a house—a hut, actually—about 400 meters away from him, and it was completely engulfed in flames. And he just barely made it, because there was a cold wind outflow, meaning it was storming like crazy, and he tried to reach his landing zone and managed to do it. He just gathered his glider together, and suddenly two kangaroos show up. And they basically wanted to beat him up. But he went into a defensive position and was just about to start kicking them, and then they thought, "Whoa, shit, he might throw a lightning bolt at us too," and the kangaroos spontaneously beat a retreat. So he wasn't attacked, but I've seen other videos by now where people have landed and a kangaroo comes hopping up, gives them two to the face, and then hobbles away.
So, this comes before that—and I'm not joking, you have to think about it. I've also landed near kangaroos often; they were nice to me, they just watched in awe. So, there will be cases like that and cases like this, but you mustn't underestimate it—it actually happens.
What was it for you—I mean, that's what your buddy experienced—what was the scary moment for you in Australia or somewhere else? Was there one where you'd say, "That was really sketchy for me"?
Yeah. Did that happen? That happened in Australia once, where I also misjudged the weather a bit. I already knew it was going to overdevelop quickly; I was just in Mystic Beach, which is a bit southwest of Sydney and a good paragliding area, and then it overdeveloped relatively fast. I had one of my sketchiest landings because, bam, I thought to myself, "Whoa, that cloud is so big now, I can't be there anymore." The cold air downdraft hit, and then it was basically just going backwards. Five minutes after I landed, it started raining, and five minutes later came the hail and the lightning, so I basically landed at the very last second. And then it went down a bit faster because I obviously had to find some kind of landing spot; there weren't many good ones left, and there was a tree in front of it, and then I think some lee effect kicked in too, and then it hit the ground at increased speed. It wasn't that bad, it didn't help me that much.
I'm of course not injured or anything, but for those who saw it, it first looked like, wow, crazy. They were of course still flying ten minutes before, but ten minutes were already enough to completely change the situation. You have to watch out for that, I mean, in Australia the weather develops very, very, very fast, you mustn't underestimate that, and that's also the point where I say you have to approach it with a high level of personal responsibility and with a certain amount of experience, and better not to launch once than to launch one time too many. I had another sketchy situation. I had a sketchy situation in Indonesia, we were on this Mount Bromo, that was this volcano, we wanted to launch and a buddy had told us that there's a launch site, but we didn't really find it and then we asked the locals again, so people who are basically standing around there, and they were like, yeah, we know, there's a launch site somewhere here, and then they drove us somewhere, but we still didn't really see the launch site and then Tiger with his little glider, almost from some cliff,
jumped off, so it looked really intense and I thought to myself, no, I won't survive that with my gear, it's not going to work, and it was also kind of a tailwind, so the wind was coming in slightly from the back, and then I searched for a long time until I found a meadow where I thought, here it can work, and it did work, but it was already a bit sketchy, I was really glad that it turned out well in the end because it was just ultra steep and I think it was one of the steepest launch sites I've ever seen. I just flew it out, and then I had another very sketchy launch in Thailand, because we also had a bit more crosswind than we wanted to admit, and then I tried to launch three, four times, had some aborted launches, and the last time I thought to myself, oh come on, if I run fast enough now, then it has to work, and then I did, yeah, first took off, but then I had a bit of contact with the bushes, then I was suddenly happy because I didn't land in the bushes, but back on some kind of rocky ledge, you could almost say, but that was, I think, definitely my sketchiest launch experience.
Yeah, otherwise you have to say, everything actually went pretty well—for flying in Asia more or less every day for half a year, that was already good.
Was there a lot of luck involved, or would you say it's about being able to and accurately assessing the situation? I think,
In Australia, there was also a bit of luck involved, because if it had taken just five minutes longer to land, then of course it could have ended completely differently. That was definitely luck, a certain factor of luck involved. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't do this regularly—I have to say, I fly regularly and a lot, and I've been doing so for many, many years. I basically do nothing else except, well, working and flying in the past, and now basically just flying, and because of that, I wouldn't recommend anyone who doesn't know exactly what they're doing to do a tour like that, because things can happen. And of course, the Asians—I've met many and unfortunately the first ones have already died—because I have the feeling that in Asia, their actual own flying ability is greatly overestimated.
In many countries, there are no flight schools at all; there are basically no instructors, you just teach yourself. And even at the competitions, you see people who have been flying for two or three years but are already stuck under the Zeno and in the submarine—we had that again here in France, in Gordos, where Asians who don't have that much experience were there and basically overestimate themselves, and then it can end very quickly in a bad way. So that's why you need a certain amount of experience or a guide; that helps incredibly much, of course, but there aren't that many guides. For example, there's FlyAsia, I think it's a flight group, which is also in Germany. The one that offers flight trips there, I would potentially recommend that more, yeah, so with a flight trip there, or if you have a lot of experience, then you can do it alone too.
What did you learn about flying on the trip, or did you learn anything about flying on this trip that you didn't know before?
Yeah, good question. For me, learning is now, I'd say, a bit subconscious. What I've learned, or rather one reason why I was in Asia and keep trying to get to know new areas, is because ultimately every area is different, yeah. The weather is different. Here, if we have eight-eighth cloud cover in the German lowlands, you basically don't have to think about cross-country flying. But there are regions in the world where that still works very, very well. And those are the little details, I'd say, like assessing the weather better, also the weather in the surrounding area. The dependency on the region and the area you're in, the season—those are details where I was able to take away a lot, that I can better assess different weather and terrain situations.
So, I definitely gained a lot of information in that regard. Now, in terms of flying, I don't know. I didn't learn any new maneuvers. I don't think I flew any further than before either, and I wouldn't say I'm much better at competition. I don't have my glider under better control now either. I think those are just skills I've already mastered well. But it's about those small details like assessing the weather and the terrain. And I learned that even better there, yeah.
Where did
How did this trip personally help you grow?
Personally, I think the trip helped me in the sense that I got to know completely new cultures. And it was also a bit ridiculous. The realization for me was, aha, you can live completely differently, yeah. So you don't need this, let's say, luxury that we here in Europe, yeah, I don't want to say worship. But sometimes you get the feeling that here we have so many things that aren't necessarily essential for living or for being happy. And you notice that, of course, in Southeast Asia. The people there have much less, you have to say that. Especially in the Southeast Asian countries. But they are still... super happy, or at least they seem super happy at first. I haven't met anyone out of the people I've met who was somehow totally unhappy.
And they were all happy with much, much, much fewer things. And that's something I noticed when I came back, like, wow, that really is a different world. And you can get by with much, much less. So actually, personally, to be happy, I basically only need mobility, a paraglider, and good knowledge. And then it's even cooler if you naturally still have friends around you with whom you can share the experiences. That's an experience I've just learned again in the last six months, that ultimately this community is also a very, very, very great thing. So, traveling alone now, that won't be for me, for example, but it's actually wonderful, time and again, when you have travel companions, when you meet people on the way or get to know new people.
And those are... those are things where I'd say that personally helped me grow and I took something away from them.
For the last six months, you've been traveling around Europe. We're already quite far along in the podcast now, and I don't want to go through the entire last six months in detail. But you've basically experienced cultural differences—Asia and Europe, the Asian paragliding scene and the European paragliding scene, the Asian kiting scene, the European kiting scene, and things like that. Compare them briefly. What are the main differences, and where do you think we might still be able to learn something from the Asians?
The main difference is, of course, that first of all, paragliding is incredibly large and well-developed in Europe. So if you just compare the number of launch sites, you can just take the German lowlands for example. I zoomed in on the map once, and there were 36 launch sites or something on the same area, even in the most populated paragliding areas in Asia. In Asia, there are maybe nine or maybe eleven. So there's still a huge difference in how well-developed the paragliding scene is. You notice that. Of course, it will come to Asia. With more wealth, it will continue to spread there as well. And the more, let's say, European pilots go there and explore launch sites and bring back experience, the more it will become similar in the future.
That's something you have to know, of course. There aren't thousands of launch sites; under some circumstances, there might only be three or four. You also have to be there at the right time to be able to fly them. So, it's just a bit different. Just because the weather is good doesn't mean you can necessarily go flying. That's a point that really stood out to me. What we can definitely learn from, I think, is a bit of the community and the hospitality that simply exists in the Southeast Asian countries. No matter where we went, it was always the case that we were welcomed so nicely. And nobody asked for your license or anything like that; it was more or less like you told them you're a paraglider pilot, conveyed it credibly, and then it worked out well.
The clubs—well, I wouldn't really phrase it as clubs, but they were often tandem groups, like tandem associations or tandem businesses, that we visited. And they were always incredibly nice and especially hospitable. And above all, they had a sense of community among themselves that you just don't experience here in Europe. Often, it's like this: I've also gone tandem flying in different places, and it's more like you have your work, you do it, and then when work is over, it's finished and you go your separate ways again. And I also notice a bit of a trend in the clubs. For example, I'm on the board of a club where we don't even have a WhatsApp group to chat in; the club is actually just for the purpose.
to provide paragliding terrain, so seen that way. But it's not about grabbing a beer together in the evening. I have another club where we regularly try and do that, where we meet up for a BBQ or a beer after flying. But you just notice that the willingness in our society to invest in community is much, much, much lower than it was in Southeast Asia, based on my experience. I think that's something we could learn from—how we could put that community more into focus, even in Europe. And I believe that would really promote paragliding or our society in general and would bring added value. So that's a topic where I've noticed there are huge differences.
Finally, what or how did this trip change your life or your idea of your life? So, how will things proceed for you in the future? Why might it be different after this trip?
Yeah, I've actually noticed that I really, really like what I did there. I mean, I don't want to say it was the best time of my life, but probably. And because of that, the question now is, how can you actually do what I did on a permanent basis if you want to? Right now, I've lived off a lot of savings. I also get a small allowance from my former employer currently for going to university. They basically support that. And because of that, it works, but you can't do that forever. So I can't just say, I'm going to keep doing this exactly the same way for the next ten years. And because of that, the question is increasingly arising for me: can you somehow manage to make this lifestyle possible for multiple people? How do you maybe even manage to do exactly that with a group?
I've also put a lot of thought into this in Southeast Asia. My buddy Taiga was also excited about the idea that you could actually manifest something like this as a lifestyle. Some ideas came up about maybe creating a kind of website for sponsorship. So, that you actively look for sponsors who can then basically support teams. And these teams could, for example, focus on breaking records. It was an idea to create a kind of world map. And on this world map, there are the different terrains. And then you can, so to speak, take them over as a team. And then the image... and then that image is displayed on the map by your sponsor. So you could basically turn it into a kind of game.
And use sponsorship money to basically finance something like that. That's one consideration. Another consideration is, of course, generally, I also do competitive sports. But you notice in competitive sports, there's basically no one in the German scene who can make a living from paragliding. In the competitive scene, I mean. You can obviously make a living from tandem flying. That would be one possibility I've already considered—whether you don't do more tandem flying. But that's a different kind of flying. Ultimately, it's tandem. You're at your mountain. You see the same thing every day. That's not traveling. And because of that, it's more of a consideration whether you can't do tandem flying in different terrains. So that you do a kind of trip where you say, okay, I'm going there for four weeks, a month, and I'm doing tandem there. Then four weeks there or two weeks there.
And do a kind of tandem tour. So that you can also earn some money on the side. And these are things I'm actually thinking about, whether I want to change my past life or if I want to go back there. Before, it was like this: I worked as an engineer for a major car koncern that, according to the media, isn't doing so well right now since I left. And because of that, I know... If I had stayed. Yeah, if I had stayed, then maybe things would still be good in Germany. Yeah, no, you don't know. But exactly, the question is already there, whether I can go back there. And also, whether I want to. And I'm not sure yet. I would think it would be great if I could somehow manage to sustain my lifestyle financially through sponsorship.
If you were to say right now that Germany is going to the dogs, let's say economically. And otherwise, I have to emigrate. Which of these Asian countries would you choose as a destination? Yes,
I've asked myself that question often. And others too. I mean, you can ask the Asians themselves. For example, in Singapore, many Singaporeans think about emigrating in their later years. Countries like Thailand are obviously a great option for that. The Philippines are also very well-known for it. Or Indonesia. I think there are a lot—a lot of Germans—who have already emigrated to Bali. My personal favorite country would probably be the Philippines. But I'm not entirely sure; it could also be Thailand. Because Thailand is, of course, much more interesting in terms of flights. The Philippines, on the other hand, have much more beautiful nature in my view. Especially underwater, but also beautiful nature in general.
I also got my diving license in Sydney and got to experience the underwater world a bit from there. And in that regard, the Philippines are a bit more interesting. And the people too, I think—because everyone in the Philippines speaks English, it's obviously much easier in terms of communication. In Thailand, you might get by with English at some point, but you just can't talk to everyone. In the Philippines, you can just talk to everyone. And that's one of the two countries I think I'd choose if I had to emigrate. But I'm not thinking about that at all right now.
Well, maybe the Philippines at some point. Jonas Prüssing is building up the paraglider scene in the Philippines and doing some kind of big tandem business there, maybe. Maybe, maybe, who knows. May it go well, wherever it goes or whatever, but I hope that in the coming years, Jonas, I wish you all the best with it, even if it stays in Germany and you just keep flying your comps here and have just as much fun there. Thanks for telling us about this great trip through Asia, where you can really only get these small mini-snippets and mini-impressions. You can't summarize half a year in an hour, but I hope the listeners at least got a bit of an impression and maybe even a bit of a desire to dare to take that freedom for themselves, to travel the way you did.
Great. Thanks a lot.
As always, you can find the follow-up links for this episode in the show notes on the paragliding blog Lu-Glidz. Podz-Glidz is the podcast by Lu-Glidz. A new episode is released every two weeks. If you don't want to wait too long, feel free to browse the archive. There are already more than 140 interesting talks to be found there. On Lu-Glidz and everywhere there are podcasts. If you like what I offer you here and want to hear more from Podz-Glidz and read Lu-Glidz in the future, then why not become a supporter of both projects? You can choose your contribution amount completely freely. My non-binding suggestion is 60 euros a year, or about 5 euros a month. Isn't that a fair offer for so much information and entertainment surrounding the most beautiful hobby in the world?
All the information on how your contribution reaches me can be found on the website Lu-Glidz.blogspot.com. There, you'll find the "Support" menu item. Lu-Glidz is spelled L U minus G L I D Z. I want to thank all my supporters. See you soon. Money doesn't fall from the sky. Ciao.