Joakimsen.COM - Travel Blog

Closing The 360 Circuit

2009-09-03T06:36:00Z

On our way home we made a couple of stops, primarily to visit old friends, who we haven't seen for a long time and new friends, who we met on the long travel. It was a smooth way of coming back to the 'reality'. The pace in Europe was naturally higher and we found ourselves walking very slowly compared to others. After arriving here, the tropical habit of watching out for falling coconuts didn't abandoned us immediately, when passing below trees.

Malaysia
7 - 13 July
Our flight to London was leaving from Kuala Lumpur, thus we decided to spend some days here and do a bit of shopping. This resulted in sending another parcel home. The last days we spent at our neighbors' place, who happen to be living in Kuala Lumpur for the moment.

On departure day, our flight had a 7 hours delay, but we upgraded our economy class seats to business seats very cheap and the 13 hours flight passed like a breeze.

England
14 - 18 July
We stayed at our good Polish friends in Diss who we haven't seen since their wedding two years ago. They had a lovely daughter, who we saw for the first time. It was awesome to meet them all. Finally we had some homemade cooking. From here we flew directly to Marseille in south of France.

France
18 July - 5 Aug
Our friend found a cheap hotel for us in downtown of Marseille so we could enjoy the bustling city-center. The first day we took a train to the beach in Cassis, which offered plenty nudity (it so French!) and wine drinking. Here we met with Lolo and her boyfriend. Lolo was traveling together with Celine, who we met in Bolivia for first time. It was awesome to meet again and talk about travel and the life after travel. Later this day we hooked up with our friends (Ross and Karine) which whom we spent a great evening together.

In last minute we found cheap high-speed train tickets from Marseille to Paris (3 hrs). The down side of cheap thickets is they have usually inconvenient timings like this one; 06:25. In Paris, Olivier - a 'crazy' painter, who we met in Cuba, arranged for us to stay at his friends'. He was an excellent guide when he showed us around the city and the more unknown places for tourists. On our first day in Paris he took us to a French theater, which even the French had problems understanding parts of it. We had great time together and next time we'll most likely meet in Norway.

It has been 5 months since we last time saw Celine (in Bangkok) and now we met again in Paris. It was really nice meeting her again and her friends, who we have heard a lot about. From Paris we took a train to Celine's place on the countryside of the Loire Valley, to celebrate her 30th birthday. We spent a week here eating delicious homemade food, based on ecological vegetables and fruits from their garden, drinking excellent wine with her family and many friends. Celine's sister is working on a farm, so we helped her with the milking (not manually!) of around 200 goats. And the fresh goat cheese was a tasty reward. The valley is known for its many old castles and wild rivers. We explored Tours city and some places around. But the highlight was the birthday party, which took place in a big barn, located on their property. It was a costume party with creative costumes, a whole grilled pig buffet, colorful fireworks and plenty more. The party continued into to early hours. Thanks to Celine and here family for being such great hosts and treating us as their own family!

Holland
5 - 18 Aug
Another high-speed train took us from Paris to Den Haag. During the 3,5 hours on board the train, our blog post about Myanmar was finally published. A Dutch couple we met on Easter Island about 10 months ago was the reason behind our visit to Den Haag. It was great to see them again. We explored the town on back of their bikes and they were excellent guides. The weather was unusually hot and sunny (over 30 Celsius), thus we took to the beach and even had a bad in the icy cold water.

Since our flight home was leaving from Amsterdam, we spend our last days of traveling here. We rent an apartment in Pijp, far from the hustle and bustle of the city center and had many nice walks around the capital.

Norway
18 - 21 Aug
On the way home we had a stopover in Oslo to visit our old friend who we haven't seen for 6 years. We had a lot of caching up to do and it was a perfect way to end our trip.

Closing The 360 Circuit photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157622035886975/

Closing The 360 Circuit Map

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Philippines

2009-08-12T17:38:00Z

Total stay: 13 May - 7 July (55 Nights)

The Philippines wasn't on our ‘to-do-list', but as our old friend was traveling in the country, we couldn't resist.

The first thing that struck us when we arrived to this easy-going country, was the lack of tourists. Whichever place we visit, there were only a few tourists if any. That explains why many of the beach resorts weren't prepared for visitors, i.e. having food and resources available. The Philippines is perhaps not on the typical backpacker route, but there are some cheap flights with Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur and with Cebu Pacific from Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

Filipinos are very hospitable and easy-going people. They always smile and many dream of a better life abroad. They love karaoke and every bar has their karaoke machine, which is frequently enjoyed by everyone. Returning from the sandbar outside Bais, we met the Mayor of Negros Island in a karaoke bar. When it comes to massage, it must be the best we have tried in Asia.

Most of the places we stayed in had only cold running water, but in the hot and humid weather it was rather a relief. Apo Island there wasn't running water at all, only buckets of water, transported from the main island. Many places also had limited electricity supply.

Fast Facts Capital: Manila Known for: Ferdinand Magellan, world's biggest producer of coconuts, world's second largest archipelago (7011 islands), Filipinos working abroad (1 MM) Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines	Flag

The Philippines was first ruled by Spain for 350 years and later by USA for 45 years, who obviously did a better job than Spaniards, because it's the worlds third largest English-speaking country. The Filipino language uses a lot of Spanish and English words. Names of the cutlery and numbers are all in Spanish and there is the English twist like; Pulis (police) and many more.

The population is the twelfth largest in the world and among the fastest growing in Asia. The powerful Catholic Church heavily influences politics and shapes conservative attitudes towards family planning.

Cebu
(On-and-off for 1 week)
We flew from Bangkok via Manila to Cebu. It's the second biggest city in Philippines, but it's not big per say. While traveling to Malapascua island (on the northern tip of Cebu island) Cebu was a great stop to stuck on supplies and sending a parcel home.
It's in here where hundreds of inmates from Cebu Prison perform a dance routine to Micheal Jackson's Triller, as their daily exercise in the prison's yard.

Our friend was waiting for us in Cebu and together we traveled in the Visayas; mostly in Cebu and Negros islands and met many of his local friends.

Dumaguete
(On-and-off for 2,5 weeks)
Dumaguete became a second home, after traveling many times in and out of the town. It's a good starting point to excellent diving spots, dreamy islands and beaches.

We spent some great nights at live reggae concerts performed by local musicians at Hayahay. It's also very good seafood restaurant with delicious BBQ.

Colorful pedicabs (tricycles) are the main means of transport in town and are very cheap.

Visa extension (28 days) in Dumaguete's immigration office was straightforward and took just a minute.

Bais & Around
21 - 23 May
Bais says to be one of the country's top spots for dolphin and whale watching. But we hired a local boat to the nearby idyllic white sandbar.

The 7 km long sandbar is located in the ‘middle' of the sea and appears during the low tide. At high tide it looks as an inviting swimming pool.

Here we met a big Filipino family celebrating a couple of birthdays (merged together). The family invited us to their place, one of the four-stilt houses you can rent on the sandbar. The celebration included a lot of eating, like a whole grilled pig, kilos of fruits and cakes. Delicious!

Apo Island
25 - 27 May
On the way to Apo Island we spent one night in a beach resort in Dauin and dipped in the pool heated by a nearby hot spring.

Apo is a very tiny island (72-hectare), but it's famous for the best diving in the Philippines. Per-Ove did diving directly from the gorgeous white-sandy beach, just in front of our bungalow. Also snorkeling is very good here, especially in the Apo Island Marine Reserve & Fish Sanctuary, which is known for its excellent visibility.

Malapascua
2 - 7 June
People come to Malapascua island for diving, but we came here to relax and enjoy the beach life. There is a small town, but there are no cars or paved roads here and a walk around the island takes you a couple of hours. The long white-sand beach is beautiful, though it was pretty windy on our visit.

Bayawan & Around
14 - 16 June
Per-Ove together with some friends did surfing around Bayawan beach. On the first day the waves were quite big and powerful. It was a perfect stop on the way to Sipalay.

Sipalay
16 - 23 June
Sipalay and places around offers some of the best diving on Negros. Sipalay is also known for long stretch of nice sand beach, called Sugar Beach, which is perfect for reading a book in the shade of many palm trees and enjoy colorful sunsets.

On the way back to Dumaguete, on board a bus, we had two monkeys in cages as our closest passengers. I wonder what they going do with them..

Siquijor
24 June - 6 July
A short time ago, there were healers living in the mountain here, who brew traditional ointments for modern minor illnesses.

The low-key island has 72km of coastal sealed road circumnavigates the island, which was perfect for motorbike rides with stops a long laid-back beach resorts and villages.

On Paliton beach, where we stayed most of the time, almost every evening we enjoyed multicolored sunsets.

Per-Ove took his CMAS Two Stars Diver here (equals to PADI Rescue Dive Certification).

* Source: Lonely Planet Philippines (10th Edition).

Philippines photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157621897971671/

Map of the the Philippines

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Nepal

2009-08-08T21:27:00Z

Total stay: 10 April – 10 May (30 Nights)

Nepal (together with Myanmar) was for us one of the most distinctive countries we've visited in Asia.

It's very poor country with a challenging history (in 2001 the king's family was gunned down by the price it self), but the Nepali are proud to never have been colonized by the British, as the neighboring country India has been. The Nepali are very kind and easygoing people, eager to converse with travelers. That's how we found out that Aneta is a common name in Nepal. They are good merchants and their tolerance is high when it comes to religious beliefs. The most part of the population is practicing Hinduism and the minority is practicing Buddhism. The Buddhism is linked to birth of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) in Nepal.

Fast Facts Capital: Kathmandu Known for: Mt. Everest & the Himalayas, Gurkha soldiers, Buddha's birthplace, Spirituality & Sadhus (Hindu Holy Men) Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal	Flag

There are many Sadhus (Hindu Holy men) wondering barefoot around the streets offering tika. Tika is a symbol of blessing from the gods and receiving it is a common part of most Hindu ceremonies. Devout Hindus mark their foreheads with this colorful powder drawing attention to the body's spiritual nerve center.

The Nepalese are descendants of three major migrations from India, Tibet and North Burma. That is why they share many similarities with India like: religion, food, numerous colorful festivals, sacred cows (watch your step) and many other. We actually had cow beef in a steakhouse in Pokhara, sloughed my Muslims in Calcutta, India. Momos, Tibetan dumpling speciality are to be found all over Nepal.

This destination was remarkably cheap. We paid 10 EUR for a nice roof top room with private bathroom and solar heated water in central part on Kathmandu. Outside the capital we spent around 5 EUR for a decent room for two. You can sleep for cheaper than that and the food costs even less.

Our visit took place before the monsoon and the weather condition was dry and dusty, thus selection of fruit and vegetable were more limited. Unstable electricity supply forced many places to run their own generators, which contribute fast to pollute this beautiful country. Did you know that Kathmandu is the most polluted city in Asia (2006)?

Nepal's bookshops have excellent selection (in English), therefore we stock on great deal of interesting books in Kathmandu and Pokhara and shipped it home from Bangkok.

Through Nepal we traveled by bus and minivans and you can catch one almost everywhere on the road. The bus assistants make stop and starting signals by knocking on the bus' outside door. If there is no space inside there are always roof 'seats' available.

Almost every house in bigger towns, especially in and around Kathmandu and Pokhara has a roof-top terrace. The multipurpose terraces give also an opportunity to built another floor on top of it.

Nepal is known for its mountainous geography and it contains eight of the world's ten highest mountains. Many people come to do the hiking in the Himalayas, but the country has far more to offer then that. Unfortunately we didn't explore the Himalayas as we got ill for several weeks, thus we have to come back here.

Kathmandu & Around
10 - 28 April
The capital reminded us a little bit of Cusco city in Peru, because of its narrow cobblestone streets and of Yangon (previous capital of Myanmar), because of its ethnic diversity and high dense of dust. But we never before have experienced a place with such insane traffic. We stayed close to Durbar Square in the old part of town, but we frequently used cycle-rickshaw to get around the capital. The skinny drivers were pretty fit and even with our large backpacks they maneuver quickly through the crazy traffic. There is only one rule when it comes to driving: No Rules! No wonder the motorbikes sat up metal bars to protect their legs. We've been told that you could buy a driving license on a black market for approximately 10 Euro. Having said that we have heard that touring around the country on motorbikes is a good way to explore Nepal.

There is always something catching your attention in the streets of Kathmandu. While we were exploring the streets of old town we saw headless buffalo being pushed around on a trolley.

A big Party (3 days and approx 400 people) was taking place 3 hours driving north of Kathmandu, only few kilometers from the Tibetan boarder. We spent one night (20April) in a tent there, by a refreshing river.

Bhaktapur
14 - 15 April
We visited Bhaktapur, a much more quiet town than the capital, just 14 km from Kathmandu to attend the celebration of Nepali New Year (Bisket Jatra). Bhaktapur had its position on the early trade route to Tibet and later became the most powerful kingdoms in the valley. Hence numerous temples, monasteries, water tanks, wells and pilgrim shelters are to be find here. Bernando Bertolucci's Little Buddha was partly filmed at its Durbar Square.

Bisket Jatra is the biggest event in the valley. The locals dressed in colorful clothes and took to the streets to celebrate the year 2066 for many days.

There was music, dance and religious performances. This has been our third New Year Celebration this year, after our traditional one on a beach in Thailand and Chinese New Year in north of Thailand. Flying Thailand to Nepal we actually missed the Thai New Year Celebration (Songkran) with only a couple of days.

Patan
23 April
Patan's Durbar Square is full of temples, with a far greater concentration of Newari architecture than Katmandu or Bhaktapur, which says to be the finest in Nepal.

We spent a half-day exploring Patan's historical backstreets, courtyards and the Durbar Square.

Manakamana
28 - 29 April
Manakama was a perfect break on the journey between Kathmandu and Pokhara. A cable car took us up the steep hillside to the pilgrim village where one of the most important temples (Manakamana Mandir) in Nepal is located. The view was breathtaking. Since it's a Hindu tradition to sacrifice goats by the temples, there were own carriage and price (one-way) for this four-legged creature.

Bandipur
29 April - 2 May
A Nepali we met in Kathmandu recommended Bandipur warmly and suggested to make it our second stop on the journey between Kathmandu and Pokhara. We didn't regret it at all. It must have been the cleanest village with some of the most hospitable and friendly people we've met in the country. It looked like this relaxed place has, fortunately for now, escaped the tourist development. There are only few places to stay and eat and there is only one Internet place with two computers (which only work when there is electricity).

We did some walks around the town, where most of the houses are built in traditional Newari architecture (from 18th century). Until 50 years ago, Bandipur was a major stop on the trade route between India and Tibet. There are many interesting treks and walks one can do here. One is to trek to the largest cave (Siddha Gufa) of Nepal.

Pokhara
2 - 9 May
Pokhara is located by the shore of the second largest lake, Phewa Tal. We stayed in a quiet place outside the town and rented bicycles to get around. Here we met a Nepali film director, who was shooting scenes for his love movie, just outside our guesthouse. From here we watched many paragliders swing in the air before they land smoothly on the fields near our guesthouse. Inspired by what we saw we decided to give it a go. The 30 min tandem flight (with a pilot) was a relaxing flying experience with breathtaking views. We took off from a 1400 m hill (Sarangot) and Aneta was already in the air before she even got the chance to run of the hill. Spinning and steering the glide was very exiting. Per-Ove flew even higher to get a closer view on the birds hovering the mountains.

Many people come here to hike in the surrounding mountains or for mediation and yoga. For the first time we tried group meditation was when we joined Theravada Buddhism meditation class led by an Israeli nun here. It was an interesting hour, with very relaxing ambiance.

Kathmandu
9 - 10 May
On the 9th May we took a bus to Kathmandu to catch the flight back to Bangkok.

* Source: Lonely Planet Nepal (7th Edition).

Nepal photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157621120941406/

Map of Nepal

View Nepal in a larger map

Myanmar (Burma)

2009-07-27T19:59:00Z

Total stay: 23 Feb - 21 March (26 nights)

Myanmar is an interesting country to visit; it's one of a kind. The known brutal 'monk incident' in Yangon that happened a couple of months before we started our around the world trip, made traveling to Myanmar both unsafe and unmoral. Tourism has fallen down dramatically, they talk about 80% decrease since the 'incident'. But as time went by, travelers we met returning from the country had a different view than the rest of the world; the boycott is not the solution and we totally agree on that, as it affects the poorest, which are already suffering. It seems, that the boycott didn't create enough pressure on the government, as the country is good friend with China. There is an assumption that Chinese drives around 60% of the country's economy and they are the major supplier of consumer and capital goods to Myanmar. That said there is possible to spend your money wisely, like on local private businesses.

Fast Facts Capital: Yangon Known for: thousands of Buddhist pagodas, Aung San Suu Kyi Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar	Flag

Unique things for Myanmar
We didn't see many tourists around in Myanmar, only in the guesthouses we stayed in and around the biggest attractions. The natives are amazingly hospitable and grateful to meet visitors. They called and treated us like guests, not as tourists and 'everyone' greeted us and weaved to us when we passed by. They are very curious about their guests and are keen on seeing pictures, videos and hear stories from abroad. They are poor, but they do share the little they have. While we were eating from a street stall a monk gave us candies when he passed by... Some other nice people borrowed us their motorbikes to get around (tourists are prohibited from renting motorbikes and other vehicles). A young man in Mandalay picked us up on his motorbike, while we walked a long distance and drove us for free to our destination. And when our bikes and motorbikes got flat tires, there was always a helping person around with the necessary tools. Not to mention the many invitations to sip some tea with locals at the tea shops.

Learning some basic word in local language is always a heart warming experience, both for locals and travelers. You should see the big smile from ear to ear that appeared on their faces, when we used a few local words like: che-zu-beh (thank you), min-ga-la-ba (hello & good-bye), lade (beautiful) and czama ... tub-a (I'm from... ).

Men wear a kind of sarong, called longyi and chew betel nut wrapped into small leaves, which colored their teeth red. Women, children and some young boys wear a kind of mud on their faces. It's called thanakha and it's a powdered bark, which works as a tan block and make-up.

The typical means of transportation for locals are overcrowded trucks where people stand upraised, open vans that are filled to their edges with sacs of food, people and animals, and long distance buses where only locals are allowed to buy seats in the aisle (the fifth row). We traveled by bus, open vans, plane and horse carriage.

There is lack of what we in western countries would call proper restaurants and bars other then in expensive hotels run by the government. But there are numerous cozy private and simple teashops and eateries, equipped with tiny plastic stools, scattered around the streets. A typical Burmese buffet contained many different tasty dishes, but the meat usually came in the same curry sauce; covered in a thick layer of oil to keep the bugs away, as the buffet was placed outside the whole day... We realized later on that the oil is supposed to be poured out and not mixed with the sauce.

Fortunately Myanmar is striped of commercial signs and ads. Mc Donald's and 7-Eleven are non-existing. There are a few shopping malls (mostly in Yangon), but they are usually empty. Locals buy their goods from streets stalls and markets.

Yangon
 23 - 27 Feb 
Our first 'adventure' in the country was taking a wrong bag at the airport and this is how we met a nice American couple, which were returning to Myanmar for the second time. The backpack looked pretty much the same as ours, but we couldn't open the lock, hence we thought someone had tampered with it. An expert was called to break it open, and we realized that it wasn't our bag after all. We didn't notice the mix-up until after we had a long siesta at the guesthouse. The Americans almost gave up the waiting, as the airline's office was about to close when we took contact...

Yangon was until March 2006 the capital (now transferred to Naypyidaw) and it is the most multiethnic city we've seen so far. The city itself seems chaotic, but the people are quite laid-back and have a good sense of humor. The natives are curious and sought contact with us. An English teacher first invited us for a cup of tea to one of the many teashops here, and the following day we visited his English classes and met his students.

We paid visit to the beautiful and huge golden temple, Shwedagon Pagoda, which is considered to be the holiest Buddhist pagoda in Myanmar. The funny thing is that one of the entrances is equipped with escalators. We also spotted a monk here walking around with an iPod proving some modernization among the few.

Mandalay & Around 
28 Feb - 5 March 
The 13 hrs bus ride to Mandalay was surprisingly comfortable taking into the consideration the general standards of Myanmar. It was a night bus, which made many stops for eating along the way. One should think one is traveling in Spain... On board they tend to play local karaoke, hence we were pleased when they accepted to play our DVD film in English; The Little Buddha. Burmese are Buddhist and it seemed they too enjoyed the movie.

Mandalay was pretty warm and dusty. This is supposedly home to around 60% of Myanmar's monks. Every morning around 6 o' clock after the prayer, we saw monks and nuns queuing outside private houses to fill their alms bowls (with mostly rice).

The ancient cities around Mandalay are no doubt the biggest highlights here:

Mingun

Had a pleasant boat trip up the Ayeyarwady river to get there
Visited an unfinished pagoda, which would have been the world largest pagoda (totally 150 m high) if it weren't for a king who died before the project was finished.
Mingun Bell was gigantic and it's claimed to be the largest uncracked bell in the world, weighting 90 tons, which were supposed to go with the gigantic pagoda.
The purely white pagoda, Hsinbyurne Paya, was breathtaking with many wavy terraces around, which represents mountain ranges.

Amarapura

Once a royal capital, though for only 50 years (founded in 1783).
Great sunrise over the shallow Taungthaman Lake and the pedestrian teak bridge called U Bein (built in 1781, is 1,2 km long and has 1086 teak pillars), where we watched monks carrying their alms bowl, locals on the way to the markets with their produce and fishermen fishing from their long-tail boats.
70 years old family silk weaving factory was an interesting place to see, since they don't use any modern equipment. Two employees spent usually around 1 month on making a longyi (sarong).
Maha Ganayon Kyaung was worth a visit. It's home to several thousands of young monks, though too many tourists were flashing their lenses up the monks faces, while their were having their lunch in full silence.
Visited a colorful pagoda with a huge Buddha statue, both sitting, lying and reclining. Monks were enjoying their break, by playing football around the area.
One pagoda had a sign "Women are not allowed". Our guide explained that this is because ashes of a spiritual leader/monk were placed here and women shouldn't be above a man as it's considering a disrespectful thing.

Inwa

Was a royal capital for nearly 400 years (from 1364 too 1841).
Drove through the relaxed thatched-hut village by a horse cart. Visited some ancient pagodas and a tiny family factory where they make alms bowls for monks and nuns.
Explored Bagaya Kyaung - a teakwood monastery from 1834. Monks lectured children down to four years in reading and writing.
Climbed up a watchtower (Nanmyin), followed by a bunch of kids selling postcards, necklaces and so on. Other remains of the king's kingdom we saw was a huge swimming pool and the old city walls around Inwa.

Sagaing

Home to approx 500 temples, 700 monasteries and around 6000 monks and nuns. (They even have a hospital for monks).
Enjoyed the sunrise from a tiled pagoda terrace on the top of Sagaing Hill. It was amazing to see so many temples from the hill.

Paleik

Home to over 300 ancient pagodas.
Local kids followed us through the ancient pagoda relics and there was no sign of any other tourists. While walking through the village, families were coming out of their houses and gardens to greet us. We bought pens and notebooks in a local store and handed them out to the kids.
The famous Snake Pagoda was full of Burmese tourists and only five foreigners, including us. Per-Ove had an eye-to-eye meeting with one of the two snakes, who lingered around a Buddha image. Both snakes were given a bath, before the posing for photographs, completed by feeding ceremony. Locals asked us frequently to take picture of them and we had a lot of laugh together.

Bagan 
5 - 12 March 
We arrived here by the Ayeyarwady river on an 8,5 hrs 'speed' boat. The slow one usually takes around 24 hrs or more, as the water level was very low at the moment.

Bagan Archeological zone has around 4400 pagodas and it's definitely a rival to the Angkor temples in Cambodia. Bagan kings build the temples over a 230 years period, from 1057 to 1287. An strong earthquake in 1975 did a great damaged to many of the temples. Many of them are being reconstructed now.
The temperature was at around 39-40 degrees and the dusty and dry weather made the exploring during the midday hours almost an impossible task. Thus sunrises and sunsets were the most pleasant ones.

We explored Bagan's most interesting temples by taking a horse cart around the vast area. It's a magical place, though the dusty weather didn't make the perfect conditions for taking photos. The archeological zone is also home to farmers who take out their animals for daily feeding in the surrounding fields.

Inle Lake & Nyangshwe 
12 - 20 March 
Inle Lake (22km long and 11 km wide) surrounded by mountains is located at a higher elevation (875m above the sea level), thus the days and nights were cooler then all the other places we've visited. It was a relief to come here after three weeks of unbearable heat.

At our first night here we met an Israeli couple and we hang out together for some days. We hired a long-tail boat to explore the lake and its surrounded floating villages. While we passed locals with their paddling boats, you could notice that they were not rowing with their hands, but with one leg while standing up. It's an interesting ancient technique, which supposedly give their arms a relief and it's used by all generations.

In Inle Lake we;

drove through floating fishing villages and floating gardens of agriculture, where the natives were working from sunrise to sunset.
visited a local market at one of the many villages (Taung Tho Kyaung) that are scattered around the lake. Beside the normal marked activities, the locals were playing games (read: gambling). A local woman pinched Aneta's arm to see if here skin was really white...
stopped at a family run sake distillery. No wonder that their pigs were sleeping very well here, as the leftovers from the distillation were given to them on regular basis. The family invited us for sake, tea and snacks to their wooden home on stills.
visited by a blacksmith village where each family group was responsible for each produce, like hammers, blades for propels and so on. Then we continued to the floating silk and lotus factory.
took a small river channel where we saw buffaloes taking a dip, sometimes together with their owners. We walked through some ancient pagodas, but unlike many other places they were unrestored. After a long walk uphill, with vendor tables along its both sides, we came to place full of pagodas where people from all over the world had donated money and a pagoda (size depends on the donation amount) with the donators name on it, were build as an appreciation.
After visiting a local monastery, we followed curiously the sound of local music and we found our selves in the middle of a family celebration in the village. Two young sons of a local family were to become novice monks. There were a lot of guests, music, dance and free food, which was continuously refilled. The family invited us to the ceremony in the monastery the next day. It started with serving free food to the whole community at 7 am (we were the only 'outsiders'), then shaving the boys' head before they could appear in the monk robe and the ceremony continued for a while, now led by a monk.

Yangon 
20 - 21 March 
Did some blogging and flew back to Bangkok.  

*Source: Lonely Planet Myanmar (9th Edition)

Myanmar photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157621507613312/

Map of Myanmar

View Myanmar in a larger map

Cambodia

2009-06-25T14:24:00Z

31 Jan - 07 Feb (7 Nights)
While our trip in northern Thailand was coming to an end and our friend's holiday was almost half way through, we tried to figure out our next destination. It was not easy to choose between Laos and Cambodia as both are very interesting countries. The ancient temples of Angor near Siem Reap made Cambodia more attractive - at least for now. A week is what we could afford to spend here, but we would like to come back and explore less touristic places in the country.

Fast Facts Capital:Capital Known for: Pol Pot's brutal regime, Ancient temples of Angkor Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodia	Flag

The Pol Pot's [wikiurl] bloody regime left Cambodian population very young (an average age is 21.7 years) and even the youngest work hard to pay for their (and often also their families) education and other necessities. Already by sunrise, many young children selling everything from copied books to postcards lingered around the temples, before they took off to school. We repeatedly heard the "one dollah" phrase from the vendors or tuk-tuk drivers.

Cambodians speaks good English. Children and monks were eager to practice their English and stopped us frequently to chat.

Bangkok to Siem Reap
31 Jan
After getting off the train at the last stop in Aranyaprathet (Thailand), we took a short drive with tuk-tuk (three-wheel motorbike taxi) to (what we thought was) the Cambodian boarder. Instead the driver took us to a so-called Travel Lounge on the Thai side, where their representative tried to convince us that we needed a pre-arranged visa to enter the country and that they will ‘help' us to arrange that and also further travel arrangements in the country. Since we already did some research on the topic, we knew it was not true. The boarder crossing and visa arrangement turned out to be hassle-free and cheaper - obviously.
The scam continued at the Cambodian side, were a ‘free' shuttle bus took us to a bus terminal, from where we could continue to Siem Reap. This turned out to be a ‘private' bus and taxi terminal in the middle of nowhere, charging hefty amounts for their services. When we asked to be taken to a public terminal or at least back to the boarder for another mean of transport, they got aggressive and rude. It was getting late and soon there will not be any public busses to Siem Reap or enough daylight to get us there, thus we eventually bargain for a taxi ride with them. The road was in very bad condition, due to outgoing construction work all the way to Siem Reap.

What came to our attention later was that ‘all' taxies in the area were working for the people behind the private bus terminal. As the ‘free' shuttle bus also the taxies made sure to bring you here....

Siem Reap
1 - 7 Feb
This dusty town is experiencing a real estate boom, Chinese and Korean leading it.
In order to support local business, we stayed in a cozy local owned guesthouse for 10 USD a night with all the necessities provided.
Siem Reap is definitely touristic town, because of its proximity to the temples. Numerous tuk-tuks are waiting to be hired for sightseeing around the temples, which is convenient and flexible, but bring a mask because of the dust.

Angkor Temples & Ruins
The ancient area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it contains thousands of temples and ruins scattered around the earlier Khmer empire that ruled for over 600 years (from 802 A.D. to 1431 A.D.)

An interesting quote from Wikipedia (for those interested in the history):
In 2007 an international team of researchers using satellite photographs and other modern techniques concluded that Angkor had been the largest preindustrial city in the world with an urban sprawl of 3000 sq km. The closest rival to Angkor, the Mayan city of Tikal in Guatemala, was between 100 and 150 sq km in total size. Angkor could have supported a population of up to one million people.

The most famous temples and sites are overcrowded with visitors, but with so many temples to choose from it isn't hard to find a quiet, secluded place. They all have their charm and beauty.

We spent three days (plus one sunset) exploring the temples with a tuk-tuk as the mean of transport. Every day we would leave the guesthouse at around 5 a.m. to enjoy the sunrise in different locations.

Many of the temples are located in peaceful surrounding in the jungle and many are dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, to the Buddha or to the King's family. There is an ongoing restoration work as the jungle is threatening the structures, the trees seems to find their way to penetrate the temples' walls.

Places we visited (in order):

Angkor Wat (sunset) - the largest of monuments at Angkor and also the best-preserved temple.
Srah Srang (sunrise) - a huge ancient pool for kings.
Temples; Banteay Kdei, Pre Rup, East Mebon and famous Ta Prohm who owns its popularity for the Tomb Rider movie with Angelina Jolie, which was partly filmed here.
Angkor Thom, means "Big City" and Bayon (sunrise - many stone face towers), Khleang Towers, Terrace of Elephants, Baphuon, Royal Palace, Preah Palilay, Preah Khan are all part of this ancient city.
Sunrise over Angkor Wat - We had to come back to catch the magnificent site in the light of sunset as well.
Other temples; Phnom Bakhaeng, Ta Keo, Ta Nei (a magical temple hidden in the jungle) and Banteay Srei.

On the way to Thailand
7 - 8 Feb
After 1,5 day of continuous traveling by three buses and a boat, we finally arrived at our destination: Ko Phayam island in southern Thailand. Read Thailand blog: ([link] + update Thailand blog with this url)

* Source Lonely Planet Cambodia (6th Edition) and Wikipedia

Cambodia photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157620588326914/

Map of Cambodia

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Thailand

2009-05-18T14:37:00Z

Total stay: 22 Dec - 12 May (On and off for 78 nights)

Our around the world ticket expired just one day after arriving Thailand. On 23rd December '08 it's been one year since we left home and this was the second Christmas away from home. First Christmas was in Venezuela together with Andreas, Mabel and her family. Second was together with our new friend Celine, from France, who we met first time in Bolivia, then in Chile and now in Thailand and soon in France.

Fast Facts Capital: Bangkok Known for: smile and hospitality, many beaches and islands, tasty food, sex industry Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand	Flag

We've been to Thailand a couple of times and it feels almost like returning home. 'Everything' is familiar and the best of all is the tasty food on every corner. The northern Thailand was surprisingly beautiful and interesting. It was our first time to visit this region, but definitely not the last. BKK (Bangkok) has been hard to avoid and it became a connecting point during our travel around South-East Asia. Just before our arrival, the Thai government had changed visa regulations, thus if you were crossing boarder to Thailand by land you will only get a 14-days visa, compared to arrival by air, which gives you 30 days. For convenience we rented a locker here to store some things, while traveling around. Other great convenience is taking a motorbike taxi through the dense traffic of the capital.

Ko Phangan
23 Dec - 5 Jan
We met Celine, who just arrived on a non-stop bus from Cambodia, at the central train station in BKK and jumped on a 3-class night train south to Surat Thani and after 12hrs we continued by boat to Ko Phangan Island. We were happy to see each other and spent hours updating each other on our latest adventures. Later we tried to get some sleep, but the wagons were cold and noisy; vendors were walking in the train all night selling their produce.

We spent Christmas in exotic surroundings, on a beach, ate fresh barbecue fish and drunk fresh coconut. The evening was concluded at the colorful Black Moon Party on a beach - of course. Celine got an interesting Christmas 'gift'; a lizard pee on her from the ceiling in our bungalow.

Ko Ngai
5 - 9 Jan
It's was a mellow island, with few tourists and operators, no roads and thus no traffic. During a hike we had through the island Per-Ove spotted a snake and big lizards. So from now on we always walked with a long wooden stick for self-defense. We took off to the next island in the Andaman Sea, a 2 hrs boat ride away.

Ko Bulon Leh
9 - 18 Jan
Relaxed on just another mellow and tropical island while waiting for our friend to come from Norway for a month visit.

The island is part of Ko Petra Islands National Park (established in 1984) that covers 495 square kilometers of the Andaman Sea. The northern part of Bulon has a sea gypsy settlement, chao leh (means literally people of the sea) who live of fishing.

The beach is white and soft and there is not much to do here other than reading books and enjoying the beautiful surroundings... and do some blogging...

Our wooden bungalow was situated high up on stilts and it took many steep stairs to get to the top. It had an airy construction, which gave a lot of breeze inside. Windows didn't have glass and all of the walls, including the floor had big gaps between the wooden planks. We spent some good time with an Italian couple living next to us.

Detour to Malaysia
18 Jan (5 min)
On the way to Krabi, we took a detour to Malaysia's boarder, only 45 min by car from the pier in Pakbara (boarding point for boats to Ko Bulon Leh). Our 30-day Thai visa was expiring in a couple of days and needed to be renewed. The whole boarder procedure took only 10 minutes and the taxi waited out side. Then a minivan took us from Pakbara to Krabi, 5hrs away, just in time to pick up our friend from the airport.

Krabi & Bangkok
18 - 21 Jan
We received our friend at the airport with a banner saying: Joakimsen Travel. She didn't notice it immediately, but the agencies surely did. Hooking up again after what feels such a long time was just great! A 13 hrs overnight bus brought us to BKK, where we board an overnight train to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

Chiang Mai & Around
22 - 29 Jan
The train was making frequent stops and before we knew it a 7 hours delay was a fact. They added more wagons during the travel and its engine stopped working properly. But hey - in a good company it wasn't a big deal. There was one wagon full of some kind of security people. We had a couple of drinks together, but the language barrier made it difficult to communicate. On the train we also met a Thai woman living in Canada, who offered us a ride to our guesthouse in Chiang Mai.

Once again we hooked up with Celine. This time she was traveling together with her cousin and her cousin's boyfriend. We had great time together, celebrating the Chinese New Year and visiting a Chinese doctor who read from the tongue. We visited a few of the 300 temples scattered around the city and outside. Chiang Mai has also many markets, numerous massage, yoga and cooking schools. There is a lot of to do here and around, but the city is big and noisy. It's by the way Thailand's second biggest city.

Per-Ove got surprised in the shower by a huge and fast moving spider. It was so quick that there were no places to hide. It must have been the largest spider he ever have seen...

A Thai Reggae concert festival was taking place in Pai, 3 hrs drive north of Chiang Mai, so we spontaneously made the d-tour. It was very funny to hear famous songs you know, in Thai, preformed by Bob Marley look-alikes.

We took the overnight train back to BKK, but this time it was a quiet ride without any delays and noisy vendors. Early next morning we took another train to Aranyaprathet on eastern side of Thailand, to cross the boarder to Cambodia.

Cambodia
31 Jan - 7 Feb
Read about our trip to Cambodia.

Ko Phayam
8 - 17 Feb
We came to Ko Phayam, a cashew nut island, to wash away the dust from a hot week of sightseeing the Angor Temples in Cambodia. It was a nice wrap-up, since this was our friend's last week in Thailand. We did some canoeing and Per-Ove discovered surfing, while Aneta was surfing on body-board.

Bangkok
18 - 23 Feb
We needed to go back to BKK in order to arrange a visa to Myanmar as well as our flight departed from here. The whole procedure took only three days at the Myanmar embassy. Once again we hooked up with Celine, who just came back from a memorable trip in Myanmar and gave us plenty of travel advices. There will not be several bumping into each other during our travel in Asia. Next time we'll see each will be in France on our way back home.

Myanmar
23 Feb - 23 Mar
Link to blog post will be added here 'soon'.

Bangkok and Ranong
23 - 25 Mar
After a necessary visit to the dentist, we jumped on a 10 hrs bus ride to Ranong to meet our friends from Norway. It was great to see them again and we wish they could stay longer.

Ko Phayam
25 Mar - 8 Apr
The day after we continued by boat to the relaxed Ko Phayam island. This time we stayed on the less developed eastern side, where we rented beach bungalows and hired motorbikes and enjoyed the beautiful island to the fullest.

After our friends left, the plan was to travel to the higher and cooler altitudes of northern part of Thailand and Laos as it was getting really hot in the Southeast Asia. But some how we landed on Nepal instead and a week later we were on our way to Kathmandu.

Bangkok
9 - 10 Apr
We took a comfortable 27-seat night bus to BKK to board the plane to Nepal. This must be the best bus in Southeast Asia. The stewardess wore high heals and had a 70's retro look when is comes her clothing.

Per-Ove met his friend Jean-Philippe he hooked up with in Fiji a few years ago. Jean-Philippe noticed trough Facebook that we where in Thailand at the same moment as him so we hooked up in BKK – awesome!

Nepal
10 Apr - 10 May
Link to blog post will be added here 'soon'.

Bangkok
10 - 12 May
On the 12th we flew our next destination, Philippines, where we hooked up with an old friend from school. We'll most likely stay here until we leave for Europe mid-July.

Thailand photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157616446394355/

Map of Thailand

View Thailand in a larger map

Australia

2009-03-31T13:32:00Z

Total stay: 24 Nov - 22 Dec (28 days)

We love Australia for several reasons; 1) Aussies are easygoing people and their no-worries attitude made us feel comfortable and relaxed. 2) Abundance of wild animals. 3) Great dining. 4) Endless beaches for yourself.

Fast Facts Capital: Canberra Known for: endless beaches, Great Barrier Reef, kangaroos, koalas, venomous reptiles and spiders, Sydney Opera House, Wine Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia	Flag

Melbourne
24 - 30 Nov

St. Kilda, were we stayed at was a relaxed suburb with great range of eating places and bars.
Experiences from Melbourne;

St. Kilda beach - Located just in the middle of the suburb. Flies were pretty annoying, trying to enter our body through every single hole.
St. Kilda botanic Garden
Great Ocean Road - To explore this stunning road (some says it's some of the planet's most beautiful coastal scenery), we rent a car and drove for 8 hrs. We made a stop at Bells Beach, where the Point Break film with Patrick Swayze was made. Since 1973 Bells Beach has hosted the Rip Curl Pro. Second stop was at Aires Inlet to check out some of the prettiest beaches here. Third stop was at Lorne.
Phillip Island is famous for Penguin Parade and every night at 20.30 (mostly on time) penguins emerge from the sea and as a huge colony they walk up together to their beach nests. They are very small and amazingly cute. During our visit they jumped back to the water several times as they were probably feeling some kind of threat that was not visible for us. We watched them from a platform on the beach while they were making up their minds and followed them to their noisy nests, where the kid and the other parent were eagerly waiting to their meal to appear. It wasn't possible to take photos of the sweat creatures, because the flash disturbs them, but inside the center we saw baby penguins being feed inside their nest. Penguins tend to hide under the cars at the parking, so we had to be careful when we drove out.

Perth
30 Nov - 22 Dec

Aneta's brother just graduated after 5 years chiropractic study. Her mother with her younger sister came to visit. We spent a lot of time together driving around Perth and exploring its many sites as;

Fremantle - Has a colonial look with all the streets and houses and has best Italian home-made ice-cream and pizza. Also has very laid back atmosphere
Cottesloe Beach - Relaxed at the huge and windy white beach
Perth's National Park - clapped a wombat, feed lazy kangaroos, watched Tasmanian devil, koalas (they sleep 20 hrs a day) having a break for eating and many other
Perth ZOO - We were invited to a BBQ Christmas Party at the ZOO. The animals were from all over the world: giraffes, rhinos, many species of monkeys, lions, birds, snakes and plenty more
Margareth River - A couple of hours driving from Perth this place is famous for producing great wine. We chose Vasse Felix Winery and spent an afternoon testing their products and having an incredible tasteful lunch. It included a Wagyu beef (like Cobe meat from Japan, but in Australian way), which was so tender that a knife wasn't needed in order to consume it
Burnbury - On the way from Margareth River we spent a night in Burnbury to visit the Dolphins Discovery Centre. A couple of dolphins came to the beach the next morning and had a curious look at us. We stood in the water up to our knees and they circulated in front of us.

We joined for a swimming trip with wild dolphins. We were equipped with snorkel gear, fins and wetsuit. We did see many dolphins and jumped of the boat in to the water almost immediately, but unfortunately they weren't interested to interact with us
Kings Park - A huge park where people come for a walk or to relax with a picnic. It has diverse plant and tree life from many places in Australia and it's a amazingly peaceful place
Rottnest Island - A short boat ride from Perth this island has clear water and cute small animals called quokkas. We took a bus around the whole island and stopped at a couple of beaches
Raf's registration (graduation) from university. Met his teachers and had champagne with his colleagues from school.

*Source Lonely Planet Travel Guide (Victoria & Melbourne 2008)

Australia photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157611401126163/

Australia Cavalcade

Map of Australia

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Tahiti and New Zealand

2009-03-31T12:52:00Z

Tahiti

Total stay: 9 - 15 Nov (6 nights)
A Stopover in Tahiti was the only way out of Easter Island heading west, thus we thought we could make a short stop and have a closer look at the exotic place. The French Polynesia Franc currency notes were very decorative, but so large that we couldn't fit them in the wallet.

Fast Facts
Capital: Papeete
Known for: black pearls, exotic islands
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahiti

Flag (French Polynesia)

Papeete
9 - 10 Nov
We arrived at midnight and stayed at a small family run B&B place (there are only two rooms for rent). The first encounter with the French culture was a one-meter long fresh baguette for breakfast (fantastic!). We did some grocery shopping and head by boat for Moorea Island.

Moorea
10 - 15 Nov
Moorea is a volcanic island and has both white and black sand beaches. We stayed at a camping place (recommended by the owner of the camping on Easter Island) on a white-sand beach with an ocean front view bungalow. The only thing we did was to relax, talk to people, have a dip in the ocean, eat French baguettes straight from the oven and drink some wine. We met some guys from New Zealand and we decided to hook up again in NZ, which was our next destination.

While waiting for the bus to take us back to the boat terminal (at 5.30 am!), a huge rain cloud soaked us pretty serious. The funny thing was that the bus passed us on the opposite side of the road just seconds before the rain broke out, but before he turned back it was already over and we were dripping like wet dogs.

Map of Tahiti

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New Zealand

Total stay 16 - 24 Nov (7 nights)
Crossing the date line while flying to NZ resulted in one less day this year.
NZ has a great range of outdoor activities to offer, but there is no doubt that you need more time than a week and it will empty your wallet pretty quick. Every tiny activity costs money, even if it's only a mud bath in the nature.

Fast Facts Capital: Wellington Known for: kiwi (both the fruit and the bird), diverse nature, lambs Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NewZealand	Flag

Auckland
16 - 17 Nov
The city was clean and reminded us a little bit of Scandinavia and Scotland, because of very similar look of the houses, which were built of wood and concrete.
We took a 4,5 hrs drive bus to Rotorua. Our driver was an extrovert and funny elderly guy. He was telling stories about the areas we were passing and singing in Maori language.

Rotorua
17 - 21 Nov
Rotorua is rich in volcanic soil and there are plenty of thermal springs, dynamic geysers and bubbling mud pools. Some people call the place Fartopolis, because of the high odor of sulfur. The public park (Kuirau Park), close to where we stayed, has a crater lake, pools and boiling mud, plenty of hot steams and mineral baths for dipping, heated by the active soil. The "holes" were fenced in, but it looked, as the place would crack beneath us anytime. Actually there was an eruption in 2003, which covered most of the park in mud.

We visited Mitai Maori Village to catch up on Maori culture. The evening started with a concert where the Maori sang and preformed dances from their ancestors. The hangi (earth oven-cooked meal) was delicious, especially the lamb, which just melted in the mouth. The visit concluded with a guided walk to the bush serving Maori mythology, medicine and cuisine, where plenty of glowing worms were to observe.

To explore the nearby nature we rented a car. The water at Kerosene Creek's was quite hot. We couldn't stay inside for more than 15-20 minutes.

Mt Maunganui & Tauranga
21 - 22 Nov
We drove to Bay of Plenty, which is blessed with stunning sandy beaches and sunny weather. They've built a 250m artificial reef here. Fist we stopped at Mt Maunganui to catch the panoramic view from a 232m mountain (the Mount) and then explored Tauranga.

Hamilton
22 - 23 Nov
The day after we drove to Hamilton to hook up with the guys we met in Moorea. It was Per-Ove's birthday and we celebrated at a local reggae concert.

Auckland Airport
23 - 24 Nov
We stayed at a motel close to the airport, because we had an early flight to Melbourne.

Map of New Zealand

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Pacific photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157616062241707/

Video from New Zealand

Chile Part II and Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

2009-02-12T14:15:00Z

Total stay: 30 Oct - 9 Nov (10 nights)

Santiago de Chile
30 Oct – 2 Nov

Before we flew to the Rapa Nui we had two days in Santiago de Chile. We met a 23 years old poet working in our hostel. Well done for a young writer to give out his first book at that age.

Rapa Nui
2 – 9 Nov

The 5 hrs flight started with an upgrade to business class as there was a double booking of our seats (who says that seats number 13 brings unluck...). We celebrated with champagne and tasty food.

The Polynesian island is a territory of Chile and was annexed by them in 1888.

In 1955-1956, Tor Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)

The island is far from continents and how it has been inhabited has long stumped historians and archeologists. The most widely accepted answer is that they came from Southeast Asia, populating the Polynesian triangle of Hawaii, New Zealand and Rapa Nui.

Fast Facts Capital: Hanga Roa Population: 3 800 Known for: Moai statues, big surfs, diving (best visibility in the world) Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_island	Flag

On Rapa Nui, two civilizations formed: the Long Ears of the east and the Short Ears of the west, both of whom built large stone altars and moai to honor their ancestors. Warfare led to destruction of the altars and the toppling of the moai (many were recently restored uprights).

The world famous moai statues are huge and many, some says that there are 600 of them scattered around the island, with the largest beeing 21m tall. They most likely used timber to move the statues from the carving sites and this could explain the island’s deforestation. The trees you see on the pictures are planted by Spaniards. Another thing you will find on the island are wild horses. They walk wherever they like, even 'downtown'… So you have to be careful while driving at dark.

We stayed in Hanga Roa town at a camping place run by a hospitable local woman and her Tahitian husband. They invited us for some great local BBQ with fresh caught fish. The place has the best view over the ocean and we enjoyed the colorful sunsets everyday. All the rooms didn’t have locks, as we’ve been told; there is no reason to have one – so we got used to it.

What we’ve experienced:

Bicycling on the west cost and exploring the moai statues
Saw the Rapa Nui film by Kevin Costner at a homey local cinema
Relaxed on white sandy beach (Anakena) fringed by palm trees and standing moai (Ahu Nau Nau)
Sampled the nightlife out where local musicians played typical Polynesian music
Attended Rapa Nui Language Festivity
Per-Ove dived around the tiny nearby island (Motu Kao Kao). The currents were pretty exhausting but the visibility was fantastic and diving there is absolutely recommended
Met a nice Dutch couple, with whom we rented a car together to see the sunrise over the 15 standing moai (Ahu Tongariki) line up facing the ocean. Then we walked on the extinct volcano slopes (Rano Raraku), where they use to carve the moai. It looks like they left the 'factory' in a hurry as we saw half-carved, buried and laying moai. Inside the volcano there is a green lagoon and even more moai and stunning 360 view.
Watched the crazy Timber-Sliding Competition for kids (!)
Met also a nice Japanese couple, who joined us for a half-day tour on the island. We visited Rano Kau, a crater lake situated 400m on a gaping sea cliff and the Orongo Ceremonial Village where bird-cult rituals were preformed. Competitors (young men) had to descend the cliffs and swim out to the nearby island with a help of rafts to retrieve an egg. The first to return with an egg without any damage became a birdman of the year. We saw a cluster of petroglyphs illustrating the birdman (Tangata Manu) and their god (Make Make). Stopped at a cave on the way back.

Video from Rapa Nui

*Source Lonely Planet (South America on Shoestring 10th edition 2007)

Chile Part II and Rapa Nui (Easter Island) photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157611474308610/

Map with location of Rapa Nui

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Argentina

2008-12-31T12:41:00Z

Total stay: 12 - 30 Oct (17 nights)

Argentina is huge! It's world's eighth largest country, after India. Argentineans know how to enjoy their lives to the full. All you can eat buffets with juicy steaks, great wine and dining late is on everyone's agenda. We loved Buenos Aires so much and we wanted to spend more time here thus we sacrificed a short visit to Uruguay.

Fast Facts Capital: Buenos Aires Population: 39 million Known for: tango, tasteful steaks, wines, Maradona, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina	Flag

Mendoza
12 - 14 Oct

The road from Valparaiso to Mendoza (around 8hrs) was fairly curvy and Aneta got carsick. She got a newspaper from one of the passengers to put on her stomach, as this trick should help against carsickness. Another passenger gave her pills against carsickness. As this wasn't enough she also got a cream preventing mosquito itching, because the small ‘vampires' just love her blood. Helpful and generous people must say. The border pass/crossing at Los Libertadores between Chile and Argentina at around 4000m was scenic with curvy roads, high mountains topped snow and clear sky.

The city park close by was transformed to stalls serving local food, selling local clothes and art and lively performers. This was a national day and everyone was outside enjoying the day off.

Per-Ove was exciting to place his teeth in the famous Argentinean steak and he wasn't disappointed at all.

Buenos Aires
15 - 20 Oct

The pulsating centre of Buenos Aires, where we stayed, you could watch tango dancers performing on the streets, artists creating ‘innovative' arts and tourists going crazy on shopping. Per-Ove was glad to have a steak house nearby, where we had all you can eat BBQ buffet with great range of meat and plenty of sides to chose from for a 100 NOK per person including a good bottle of wine or 1 liter of beer (each).

Buenos Aires video clips

We visited the famous Recoleta Cemetery which was breathtaking with its many mausoleums with lofty statues and marble facades. It felt like walking in an ancient city. Evita grave is here.

Video from Recoleta Cemetery

Puerto Iguazú
21 - 25 Oct

The 16 hrs bus ride up here was definitely the most comfortable one. New and luxury bus with fewer seats than usual, served good food with wine and champagne and also presented movies in English.

We came to Puerto Iguazú to see the famous waterfalls (there are around 275 falls) in the middle of a subtropical rainforest of Iguazú National Park. It's located in the northern part of Argentina on the border with Brazil. The first thing we did visiting the park was taking a boat ride along the Iguazú River and drove straight in to the powerful waterfalls. People were screaming of excitement and everyone got soaked. Later while walking in the jungle from one waterfall to another we spotted a cappuccino monkey, huge lizards and others. Our lunch was interrupted by hungry animals (don't know their names) that weren't shy at all and try to steal our food. The awesome waterfall Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat) was damping and walking on the connecting "catwalks" got us wet. But what a magnificent view!

Puerto Iguazú video clip

Buenos Aires
26 - 30 Oct

This time we stayed in colorful Palermo, a bohemian and artistic district of BA. Palermo offer leafy parks, trendy boutiques with local designed clothes, hip restaurants and cafés, along with some lively nightlife. It was here we stumbled for the first time upon a Polish restaurant.

Aneta got robbed on a crowded subway just one day before leaving to Santiago de Chile. We didn't notice anything until it was too late. Nothing of great importance was stolen.

At the bus terminal waiting for bus to Chile, only 10 minutes before departure we found out that our bus was leaving from a different platform than stated on the ticket. We run like never before, crossing 80 or more platforms and actually catching the bus in last minute as it was a little bit late.

*Source Lonely Planet (South America on Shoestring 10^th edition 2007)

Argentina photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157611472506098/

Map of Argentina

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Chile Part I

2008-12-25T10:35:00Z

Total stay: 16 Sept - 11 Oct (24 nights)

Chile stretches for 4300 km over half the continent. The country has to offer everything from the world's driest desert to volcanoes, geysers, glacier fields, beaches, lakes, steppe and plenty more. The comfortable busses made it easy to travel long distances. We usually chose bed busses where you could put your seat into a bed position just like in the business class onboard airplanes. The food is great here, especially the fresh seafood and BBQs.

Fast Facts Capital:Santiago de Chile Population: 16 million Known for: politics (Pinochet), pisco (the national drink), Patagonian peaks, wine Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile	Flag

San Pedro de Atacama (Altitude: 2440m)
16 - 20 Sept

Arriving from Bolivia to San Pedro was a kind of relief because of the lower altitude and warmer climate. The town is close to the Atacama Desert, which supposes to be the driest desert in the world as there has never been recorded any rain. It was a relaxed small town with dirt streets, many adobe houses and sunny weather.

On the 18^th Sept there was a celebration of the country's Independence Day with big parties; music, dancing and BBQs everywhere (yummy!).

Caldera
20 - 22 Sept

This sleepy beach town was just too cold to enjoy their white-sand beaches. Perhaps of the low season there was nothing to do here. We even had hard time to find an open restaurant on Sunday. So we decided to continue southward to La Serena.

La Serena
22 Sept - 5 Oct

First days we've stayed in the city centre and then we moved to the beach side hotel close to the city. Here we could enjoy the great fresh seafood every day with the best pisco sour we've ever tasted. Pisco is the national drink made of brandy like liquor of local grapes.

It was a great news that we could hook up with our new friend who we met in Bolivia, Celine and her travel mate Lolo. We continued the travel together until Valparaiso. What a funny time we had together!

Vucuña
5 - 6 Oct

We came to this tiny and relaxed town basically to visit a star observatory. They are known to have the clearest sky in the whole southern hemisphere, mainly because of study winds, cloudless sky and less dust/sand in the air.

We visited Mamalluca observatory at night and googled the sky with a 30 cm long telescope magnifying up to 200 times. The craters of the moon had a size of a pea, but they are 40 km wide and 3 km deep in real size. In addition to that we saw the Jupiter (500 light years away) with its four moons and also star clusters, both new born stars and older as well as the farthest star cluster of the universe. We also saw the only two mega galaxies in our galaxy (Milky Way) which is interesting since you are not able to see them in the northern hemisphere.

Monte Grande
6 - 9 Oct

Monte Grande is located in Elqui Valley, where wine grapes are cultivated. We rented a small, quiet house by a river and next to a vineyard. One morning we were surprised by local farmers or Chemical Brothers (a band) as we call them, who sprayed us and our breakfast table with chemicals - obviously the winds were blowing in the wrong direction... We did a lot of home cooking together and drunk local wines.

Elqui Valley is known for extra terrestrial vibes, specially a tiny village close to us called Cochiguaz, where we did horseback riding. All local people we spoke to claim to have seen UFOs and an UFO conference was to take place after we've left. Beyond that we did a lot of walking and hitchhiking in this mystical place.

Valparaiso
9 - 11 Oct

After 6,5 hrs by night bus we arrived in Valparaiso, a Unesco World Heritage site. After a long walk in the city centre we took an elevator dated 1893 uphill with 30% ascent. Actually Valparaiso is famous for elevators built in its heyday between 1883 and 1916, which connect all the residential hills and streets together.

When we woke up early in the morning after a hard night out, we realized that there was only 20 min before our bus departs to Argentina. There was a time change during the night and we were now one hour ahead... With a heavy headache we arrived like zombies at the bus terminal just in time. We actually got time left to buy breakfast to go...

*Source Lonely Planet (South America on Shoestring 10^th edition 2007)

Chile photo collection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157611401122047/

Map of Chile

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Merry Christmas

2008-12-18T11:33:00Z

This year has been a fantastic year with lot of experiences meeting both old and new friends along the way. We just composed a small clip with some of the people we have met on this trip - wishing all our family, friends and colleagues the best for the year to come. As you can see we are doing just perfect out here on our short world trip.

Also some of you know we have extended our trip with a couple of months and we'll be traveling until the end of August 2009.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Aneta & Per-Ove - we miss you all!

For new window.

Bolivia

2008-11-30T04:09:00Z

Total Stay: 20 Aug - 16 Sept (27 days)

This country gave us a lot of impressions and we collected a lot of material to post on this blog. It was time consuming and therefore it has been a while since the previous posting took place.

As Guatemala, Bolivia wasn't on our list of countries we wanted to visit, mainly because of the increasing crime numbers. Fortunately, we met a lot of travelers who had positive and adventurous experience in the country. Since we were just a couple of hours drive to the Bolivian boarder, we decided to give it a try and... we overstayed. The 2 weeks we planned to stay became nearly 5. This ‘always' happens when meeting interesting people and seeing interesting things.

Fast Facts Capital: La Paz (Governmental) & Sucre (Judicial) Population: 8,8 million Known for: World’s highest everything, mining industry, being landlocked, coca Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boliva	Flag

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, though quite rich in natural resources and culture. The country has experienced many coups and military interventions. It has endured nearly 200 changes of government in its 181 years as a republic. It's South America's most indigenous country (60% of population) and you won't find much of western influence here. Bolivia reminds us a lot of Peru, when it comes to tradition and culture (Aymara and Quechua indigenous, coca , chicha, llamas, alpaca and adobe houses - read more about it in our Peru posting).There is a lot of begging, mostly in the bigger cities. A local told us that some villages are getting support from different organizations in form of food supplies, thus not everyone feels the urge or need to work.

The service level is very variable; sometimes good and helpful, but also sometimes rude and inefficient. We eventually got use to it. To their excuse they don't have much experience dealing with tourists, as they don't have big volumes of visitors, they can't afford traveling themselves; most people have never been abroad and thus don't understand tourists' needs and requirements.

We've traveled by public busses mainly in the Altiplano (south-west high altitude part of Bolivia). Most of the roads were shaky, dusty and unpaved and even short distances were time consuming. The quality of busses and drivers varies and accidents do happen frequently. Some of the long distance busses had actually better seats than flying economy class and some were very compact, dusty and chaotic.

People brought casseroles of food and it looks like they eat to kill the long hours of travel. Quite unexpected; we did most traveling here, than in any other countries. But hey - it was an interesting adventure and it was cheap too. You definitely get a flavor of local culture travelling this way.

The days here were always sunny and fairly warm during the day, but very cold during the evening and night.

On the way to Bolivia
20 Aug

It took us 3hrs by bus from Puno in Peru to Copacabana (starting point for Isla del Sol) along the shore of Lake Titicaca. The lake is divided between Peru and Bolivia and is a remnant of an ancient inland sea (Lake Ballivian). An odd incident occurred while entering Bolivia. Our bus driver and his assistants cold us (and other passengers) names, because we didn't visit all the necessary offices at the border. But they've only pointed out two of three offices to us... They threatened to leave us at the border without our luggage and find the way to Copacabana on our own... They finally decided to wait for us... You just have to be prepared that anything may happen in Bolivia.

Isla del Sol (Altitude: approx. 4000m)
20 - 22 Aug

The slow boat trip from Copacabana to the Island of the Sun took over an hour. Not always is the logistics Bolivians' strongest quality. They squeezed in around 50 people into the boat, but they were only seats for 30 perhaps. Funny enough they sent off another boat with only 8 passengers and plenty of space, which obviously arrived long before us.

Video of the view on top of Isla del Sol

The tranquil island is located on the Lake Titicaca and it's dotted with several small villages, Inca ruins and mountain peaks. There are no vehicles and donkeys and llamas are carrying luggage and supplies up the steep slopes.

We've spent the two days hiking the peaks and enjoying the stunning views. The local kids were begging visitors all day long for sweets. And their parents warned us not to give them any. But one time there were two small girls who didn't took no for an answer and whipped Aneta with a branch.

Copacabana (Altitude: 3800m)
22-25 Aug

The town is small and relaxed, not what you should expect from its name. We didn't do much here but relaxing; reading books and enjoying the great view over the Lake Titicaca.

La Paz (Altitude: 3660m)
25 - 29 Aug

La Paz is situated in a valley, where the richest people were living in the lowest areas and the poorest along the slopes of the valley. The higher they lived, the poorer they were. First impressions of the city;

Shoeshine boys wearing masks in order to not be recognized and stigmatized.
Traffic; persons in a zebra costume were helping people over the streets.
A local women filled Per-Ove's mouth with coca leaves and thrown sugar into his pockets as this should bring luck.
Selling dead baby-llama for local rituals.
Buss terminal; plenty of buss agencies leaving for the same destinations almost at the same time. There were no speakers and the representatives announced departures and arrivals by shouting it out.

Video from La Paz

Cochabamba (Altitude: 2558m)
29 Aug - 1 Sept

After nine hours on the bus we've finally arrived to Cochabamba, a place with lower altitude and warmer temperatures, palm trees (haven't seen them for a while) and great food. It was our starting point for visiting Toro Toro Park.

Toro Toro Village (Altitude: 2000 - 3850m)
1 - 4 Sept

We hired a car (four hours one way) with a driver to take us here for a 3 days hiking. During those days, Don Mario (a local guide from the village) show us Toro Toro Park where we walked on mountains of 350-400 mill years old fossils and stepped on 120 mill years old dinosaur footprints. There are around 2500 dinosaur footprints in this park. The entire park and surroundings are dominated by mountains or more precisely platonic plates that had been squeezes into each other and razed high up, showing many levels of earth beneath.

That has revealed many foot tracks made by passing dinosaurs in the mud, which has later petrified and many are in good shape now. The mountains of fossils were incredible. Every stone you've picked up had a fossil on it, mostly shells in different shape, but we also found sharks teeth and snails.

We also explored a cave and hiked a deep canyon. Our driver spoke English, thus he was a great help in translating. In our opinion what made this trip incredible rewarding is the high engaged guide with 40 years experience and that the park isn't commercialized; there are no fences, no food stalls, no signs and best of all there are just a few tourists a week visiting the unexplored nature. It felt real. We had also fabulous hosts; Zonja (from La Paz) and Walder (from Italy) who took good care of us!

Video from the Canyon in Toro Toro

We returned to Cochabamba to catch a night bus (nine hours) to Sucre the same day. But just seconds before the bus should leave a passenger made us realize that we were on the wrong bus. Our bus from the same company, leaving at the same time, was behind the one we sat on...

Sucre (Altitude: 2790m)
5 - 9 Sept

Sucre, our favorite city in Bolivia was rich in colonial heritage; with many well maintained buildings, churches and flowery plazas. In 1991 Unesco declared it a Cultural Heritage site. Actually Sucre is a second capital - a judicial one, while La Paz is the seat of governmental and treasury.

During our stay a festival for indigenous farmers (Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadaloupe) took place on the main plaza where we stayed at. So we had a good overview from our balcony. It was a colorful event, with singing, dancing and they even dressed up their cars.

Video from Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadaloupe

We took a nine hours bus drive, which turned out to be 12 hours, to our next and last destination in Bolivia, Uyuni.

Uyuni (Altitude: 3675m)
9 - 11 Sept

The town is small and isolated and there is not much to do but to prepare for the extraordinary salt deserts tours. It wasn't exactly our favorite place, but we've met some great people here too. We spent all days looking for an agency to take us on a 4 day private tour to salt deserts and lagoons. Many agencies were actually closed for many hours during the day and it was hard to get proper answers and information from any of them. And then we met French people (2 x Celine and Julian), who we became really good friends with. They joined us for the tour and we had great time together!

Salt desert tour & crossing to Chile
11 - 16 Sept

Day 1

Colchani Town - A salt refinery and an entrance to Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni salt desert).
Bloques de Sal - Visited an excavation place of the salt blocks from the salt desert, which are used to build houses or for animals and people consumption. Each of these small blocks weighs incredibly 20 kilos.
Salar de Uyuni (altitude: 3653m and size: 12000 sq km) - Drove through white hexagon formed ground. It looked like snow, but was crispy and hard when you step on it and obviously very salty - yes we've tasted it.
Volcano Tunupa (altitude: 5432m) - We hadn't time to hike all the way to the crater, but we did 1 hr hike and on the way we visited a cave; an offering place with mummies.
Hotel del Sal - Slept at the Salt Hotel, which was bright and warm. Everything was build from salt blocks, except the bathroom of course.

Day 2

Isla Incahusi - Visited an island full of giant cactus, located in the salt desert. Cactus is used as a building material for frames, tables, doors etc.
Jeep surfing - Sat on the roof of the jeep, while driving through the Salar. Fun and cold experience. Feels like flying...
Isla de los Pescadores - Hiked on another island full of giant cactus, also located in the Salar.
Lunch - Had a lunch in the middle of the Salar.
Cueva Galaxia - Visited a cave system full of petrified algae and corals. Discovered in 2003.
Cueva del Diablo - A cave which was used first as a habitation (1500 B.C.) and later as a cemetery. Their homes were small holes in the ground with overbuilt roof of mud. Now many mummified bodies and skeletons are to be found here.
Hotel de Piedra - Overnight at the hotel made of local rocks.

Day 3

Swamps - Had a walk through the swamps, where we met plenty of shy llamas and different kinds of birds.
Valle de Rocas - Had a lunch at the Valley of Rocks. The place is literally full of rocks, which has been thrown around the valley by angry nearby volcano. From here we saw many vicuñas (nearly wiped out specie of llama). They are now protected and their wool is very expensive)
Laguna Hedionda - It means stinking lagoon, because of the sulfur odor.This lagoon had plenty of flamingos. Close by we saw a small twister passing our road.
Hotel del Desierto - Stay overnight at the remote Desert Hotel at 4700m. At that altitude even light activities as packing our bags was exhausting.

Video from Laguna Hedionda

Day 4

The firth day we started earlier than ever (5:30 am) basically to see the geysers at their best.

Arbol de Piedra - A short stop to see the well known and photographed petrified tree.
Sol de Manaña (altitude: 4950m) - The geysers were magnificent. The soil/mud was bobbling everywhere and the geysers breathed steam high up in the air. You had to be careful where to put your feet as the area wasn't protected by fences or warning signs.
Termas de Polques (altitude: 4200m) - A dip at the hot spring with its sulfurous water was very relaxing for our tired mussels.
Laguna Colorada (altitude: 4278m) - The lagoon is turning red/adobe-red between noon and 4 pm. Also here we found many flamingos.
Desierto de Dali - Drove through the Dali's Desert where some strange formations of stones are founded. It's not Salvador Dali's work, but most likely a natural phenomenon's.
Laguna Verde (altitude: 4554m) - This beautiful emerald green lagoon was pretty windy and cold.
Laguna Blanca - We visited white colored lagoon - just to cover ‘all' the colors.
Ice cold accommodation - This cold hostel 15 min drive from the Chilean border didn't had neither warm water nor heaters. We slept under many layers of blankets and duvets. In the morning we even found frost on the inside of the windows and the barrels of water in the living room was partly frozen.

Video from Sol de Manaña

Day 5

Our driver dropped us of at the Chilean border, where we took a Chilean bus to San Pedro the Atacama town. We had to say good bye to our good friends, but we've promised to hook up sometime during our travel.

Video from the Salar

Other various clips from our Salar trip

Bolivia is definitely an interesting country and a ‘must-do' for an adventurer. Our next visit here would perhaps be to the jungle areas as this is very recommended by other travelers we've met.

The Bolivia photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157610414250635/

Map of Bolivia

View Larger Map

*Source Lonely Planet (South America on Shoestring 10^th edition 2007)

Peru

2008-10-14T17:34:00Z

Total Stay: 22 July - 20 August (29 Days)

The first impression of the South America was - wow! What a different planet than Caribbean and Central America. The dominating color was red-brownish, like the soil that they use to create adobe bricks, to build houses and fences, which eventually gets wet and 'melt', as we've seen in many places both in Peru and Bolivia.

Peru is full of historical mysteries and you can find temples and ruins, many still not excavated or even yet discovered. You never know when you bump into an ancient ruin, especially around Cusco.

We didn't travel much around the country as there was so much to do and see in the places where we've stayed at. But we did visit some of the most important places (in tourists' eyes) like Cusco, Machu Pitcchu and Lake Titicaca and got some great friends as well. Peruvians are generous and helpful people. 45% of Peru´s population is purely indigenous and two ethnic groups are represented; Quechua and Aymara.

Agriculture has been a long tradition here and the smart build agriculture terraces on the slopes of Andean mountains are to be found 'everywhere' in Peru. For ages they have been cultivating the super grain quinoa, different corn types (e.g. purple sweet corn, called mais de morena - its juice is delicious), beans, potatoes and coca - just to mention a few. Indians of Andean have been chewing coca leaves for thousands of years for medical and religious purposes. Coca leaf is not cocaine and a tea made of coca has a light stimulant like strong coffee or espresso, but is healthier then coffee. If you want to learn more about coca visit this site: http://www.perumystic.com/2008/02/coca-leaf-history.html. Peru also has almost 4000 types of potatoes, but we've been told that only three kinds are exported, due to so called international regulations. The potato is originated in Peru and has been cultivated for 7000 years. It was brought to Europe in 1570.

Fast Facts Capital: Lima Population: 28 million Known for: Machu Picchu, Incas, Potatos, Coca Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peru	Flag

Lima
22 - 23 Jul

Arriving from Costa Rica, we had 9hrs to kill at the Lima's Airport in the middle of a night. Our plane to Cusco was to depart at 05:40. We make ourselves comfortable at Starbucks café. Aneta slept almost whole night on a sofa and Per-Ove played with his laptop. It was surprising that the entire airport was open 24hrs.

Cusco (Elev. 3375m)
23 Jul - 1 Aug & 5 - 20 Aug

Arriving to Cusco from Costa Rica's hot and humid weather was a bit of an ice-cold experience for us. We've spent 7 months in the tropical weather and +30°C in difference was a huge jump. We bought winter clothes - which felt a little bit weird, since we were not so far away from Equator and Tropic of Capricorn. The reason for that is the city's elevation of 3326m, thus the days were sunny and warm, like an average summer day in Stavanger, but the mornings and nights were very cold, like an average winter day in Stavanger, sometimes dropping even below 0°C.

Here's a shortened list of what we've experienced in Cusco:

Bus culture: On the way to our hotel, we saw people clinging on to a driving bus full of people. There were no limitations on how many passengers could fit inside (or hanging outside) a bus. As we've learned from our travel in Peru and Bolivia, this was a normal and obviously cold event.
Gastronomy: The variety of food here is amazing and we didn't have trouble finding good places to eat. But our favorite place was definitely the German owned, Granja Heidi, which served healthy and ecologic food from their farm. Many places served guinea pig and alpaca meat (a type of llama).
Sightseeing: We've visited 1) Saqsaywamán ruins (2km from Cusco), where Inca Pachachutec envisioned the zig-zag walls as a puma's teeth and 2) A couple of museums - including the Inca Museum. The most fascinating things here were the mummies in suffering positions.
Hiking: Christo (the Coca Shop owner http://www.thecocashop.com/ and a really nice guy) took us several times hiking around the Andean mountains and Inca ruins nearby Cusco. What a great experience! THANKS CHRISTO FOR GREAT TIME IN CUSCO! He also makes the best coca tea in town, which is the best remedy against altitude sickness. Aneta struggled with it for the first 4-5 days. Even a walk through the steep streets of the town was an exhausting activity for her. Christo employes people with difficult backgrounds to help them out. His products won a Slow Food Price (it's opposite to Fast Food) in Italy in 2002. He has several projects with the local community helping people in difficult situation and also cooperates with local farmers and craft makers to promote authentic Peruvian culture.
Nightlife: And thanks to Christian and Kevin for showing us the nightlife of Cusco. We had great time!

The Inca Jungle Trail To Machu Pitcchu
1 - 5 Aug

Due to the peak season, it was impossible to obtain a permit for the Classic Inca Trail to Machu Pitcchu or Mapi as they call it here in short. Fortunately there are plenty of alternative tours and we chose the Jungle Trail (map).

Day 1 - Santa Maria Village (Elev. 1250m)
After a couple of hours driving from Cusco, we started the descent by bike from Abra Malaga at 4350m to a more tropical climate at the village of Santa Maria. The scenery was breathtaking and we've drove over waterfalls crossing the main road. On the last lap Aneta fell of her bike and joined the escort car. The mosquitoes here are like invisible vampires. You can't see them, but you definitely can see and feel the bites even 2 months later.

Day 2 - Santa Teresa Village (Elev. 1500m)
The 8 hrs hike started with a steep hike by one of many Inca Trails. It was a tough hike up, but we were rewarded by a magnificent view. Part of the trail was very narrow and some people from our group was struggling with vertigo. On the way we stopped to collect oranges, mandarins and avocadoes straight from the trees. We even saw potatoes growing on a tree! We had a refreshing break at the river Urubamba, which we later crossed by a wire bridge, which in many places had gaps between the beams (spooky). Then we crossed the river again by an old cable car (supposedly 90 years old...). It couldn't be a better ending for the hard-working group than a bath in the hot springs.

Day 3 - Aguas Caliente (Elev. 2000m)
Our day started with nearly a head-on collision with a speeding bus. We're talking about few centimeters of gap in between.

After an exciting start of the day, we began the 2,5hr walk by railway from Hydroelectrica to Aguas Calientes (a main departure point to Mapi).

Shortly after arrival to Aguas Calientes Per-Ove climbed a steep mountain (Putucusi) to catch the first glimpse of the ‘lost' Inca city (Mapi). The hike was a nice challenge after 3 days of hiking. On some parts there is only rope and steep ladders, but it was certainly rewarding.

Day 4 - Machu Picchu (Elev. 2425m)
A 1,5hr long hike up hundred of stairs to the Mapi's entrance should be our last hike. Unfortunately Aneta caught heavy cold the evening before and we took the first a bus (05:30) up the narrow, zig-zag roads and saved the energy for inside exploration.

The 2,5hrs long guided tour in Mapi wasn't exactly an enlightening experience, but we had a whole day to explore on our own, with our own guide (a guide book).

In addition of exploring the lost city of the Incas, we also paid a visit to the nearby sights:

The Sun Gate; 1 hr long hike, where we had our lunch with a 1000 dollar view over Mapi.
The Inca Drawbridge; 20 min hike, where we far below could see some of the trails hiked the other day.

Here, all the lawn is been maintenance by hungry llamas. They do a great job and the tourists love them.

Day 5 - Ollantaytambo (Elev. 2850m)
In the morning we took a train to Ollantaytambo, one of the few places where Spanish conquistadors lost a major battle with Incas. The village has been continuously inhabited for over 700 years. The streets are narrow with adobe and stone brick houses on each side and there are also some original Inca walls still intact.

We visited the Ollantaytambo ruins, which faces the village. It's amazing to see Incas storage houses, build on the mountain hill so the air can easily circulate the house full of vegetables, which they later exchange into other products from lower altitudes like coca and such.

We concluded the day in a local ‘bar', where we drank chicha with locals. (Chicha is made of fermented corn and has a low alcohol percentage). The ‘bar' was homey with bed and everything, a friendly and hospitable place.

Puno & Lake Titicaca (Elev. 3 810m)
16 - 20 Aug

After 6hrs of driving, we finally arrived in the town of Puno, a main departure port to Lake Titicaca and its islands. The lake is huge! It's South-America's largest freshwater lake, supposedly the world's highest navigable lake. It covers no less than 8,300 square km and it's 196 km long with an average width of 56 km.

We took off to Amantani Island the day after. It's located on the lake about 3,5 hrs by boat from Puno. As we took a public boat there were no other tourists on board, which helped us practicing our broken Spanish. The island was very tranquil and there are no cars or roads here. Locals didn't even use animals for transporting their goods. We just came for one night, but luckily there was a huge dance festival that day and all communities from the island assembled on a tiny plaza to participate in a dance competition. It was a colorful event and everyone dressed in traditional clothes, drank beer and chewed coca leaves.

The day after we visited unique Uros Islands, floating islands build using layers of tatora reeds, which grow in the shallows of the lake. The reeds are contantly replenished from the top as they rot away, thus walking on the islands feels soft and springy. A remote island we visited first had only 4 inhabitants and the oldest one was over 120 years old! They live very basic in small houses also build of tatora reeds, there is no electricity and they live of small fish and birds (similar taste to chickens they said...) from the lake. Every Saturday they go to Puno in order to exchange fish to clothes and other food products. On the way back we also visited the more touristic islands of Uros, close to Puno, which are heavily commercialized. They have solar panels and some have even TV. They make a living of tourists, selling souvenirs made of reeds and offering boat rides - made of course of reeds too.

The Uros islands are occupied by Aymara and Amantani island by Quechua.

We would love to come back to Peru and explore new places!

The Peru photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157607890149670/

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Map of Peru

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* Source: Lonely Planet South America On A Shoestring 2007

Costa Rica

2008-09-09T02:15:00Z

Total stay: 27 June – 22 July

Costa Rica is a very lush place with plenty of protected national parks and a rich diversity of flora and fauna. In many places we felt like walking in a zoo. Waiting at a bus stop turned out to be an eye bowling activity with iguanas and exotic birds. The monkeys are not so shy either - especially in Montezuma. Costa Rica is actually on top of the list of countries when it comes to number of species. The country is like a natural pharmacy, with all medical remedies you can find in the jungle, which has been used by the locals for ages. The outdoor activities are plenty, but with the rapidly increasing number of visitors (1 MM tourists a year) we’re not sure how long will the country manage to remain 'green'.

Fast Facts Capital: San José Population: 4 million Known for: Big surfs, solid export of microchips, coffee and bananas, being green and peaceful. Pura Vida (meaning Pure Life and is using as a greeting). Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa-Rica	Flag

The eco-friendly brand is already on fall. Deforestation at 4% a year makes Costa Rica one of the world’s most rapidly disappearing forests. More than 30% of country’s forests have been cut to raise low-grade beef that goes into American fast-food hamburgers, TV dinners and pet food. Another sad fact is that only 4% waste water is treated properly before it’s let out into the environment (Lonely Planet). You would expect more eco-friendly focus and execution from a country that enjoys the highest standard of living including the highest education level in Central America. Not to mention the lack of war (it has been without a military army for last 50-plus years) that has helped creating strong exports and even stronger import (tourism).

There is a noticeable difference between the east and the west coast of the country like; music, food, culture and people. The east coast has strong Afro-Caribbean roots descended from Jamaican and Barbadian immigrants who came to work in the banana industry. The black Costa Ricans were not allowed to the other side of the country until after 1948. While the west coast is a huge playground for North Americans as there are a lot of expats and tourists from the USA. The prices are in dollars and many restaurants and hotels are managed exclusively by foreigners and most of the coastal properties are owned by foreigners. We had to have a taste of both sides.

San José
27 – 29 June
The capital San José is the most metropolitan city in the Central America. We were surprise how many fast-food eateries they had and it seems like a family gathering place for many Ticos (Costa Ricans people). We had even a hard time to find a decent place to eat downtown while doing some shopping for the hike to Machu Pitcchu. It's the second time (after Venezuela) that we've seen that long queues at ATM machines. It turned out that it was a pay day for Ticos.

Puerto Viejo
29 June – 8 July
We liked a lot this relaxed village on the Caribbean side - close to a national park.
A short summarize of what we’ve experienced:

½ day visit to Manzanillo Park (Refugio Nacional de vida Silvestre Gandoca-Manzanillo). The German guide was a biologist and had great knowledge about flora and fauna. We had a close encounter with sloths, colorful birds, howler monkeys, termites (Aneta got a bunch of them on her backpack and they bit her), cut-leaves ants (they cut 'everything' what’s green in their way), bullet ants (their bite hurts like being shot by a bullet) and poison (dart?) frogs and snakes. We’ve tasted fresh coconut, sugar cane, water cane, chicklet tree (gum tree – used before in chewing gums, though they are now replaced by artificial ingredients) and some flowers which we don’t remember the names of.

Bicycling: everyday along the shore.
Dinners at Jasmine’s and Mario’s place. Mario’s made some great dishes from the Pacific side where he’s from. Thanks a lot for inviting us and being great hosts!
Illness: Aneta got ill from a seafood soup.
Wild horses: running wild in the streets of Puerto Viejo Village.

Tortuguero Village
8 – 12 July
In the morning on July 8th, we drove to Moin, from where we took a 4hr long boat journey through the river channels to Tortuguero village. On the way we’ve spotted; crocodiles, caimans, turtles, colorful birds, lizards and bats. There was literally wildlife everywhere you looked.

Tortuguero means 'A place of turtles' and that’s why we’ve chosen this place – to see the turtles laying eggs. Actually of the worlds’ eight species of sea turtles, six nest in Costa Rica and four lay their eggs right here in Tortuguero.

The first night we joined the green turtle spotting tour, we didn’t spot any turtles laying eggs, but we did see the turtle itself and she was huge. The next night Aneta went alone, because Per-Ove got sick after eating something. After a long walk to a pitch black beach and waiting for the giants to appear – the group got luckier this time. The whole procedure of laying eggs took perhaps 30 min and Aneta was amazed how strong and elegant she was using her fins to dig the nest, covering the eggs with sand and camouflages it at the end, before she exhausted make her way slowly to the ocean. She made a lot of noise/moaning during the delivery.

We also paid a visit to the turtle museum to learn about their protective program for the giants.

The private canoe tour we did to the jungle of Tortuguero was a great experience too. Our knowledgeable guide was one of few certificated naturalist guides, if the only one in the village. But what made this tour different from others was that he had a battery driven engine and we could come really close to the wildlife without disturbing it. We’ve spotted; birds (bearthrouthed, tiger hairon), spider monkeys, caimans, flower Pakira Aguatica (can be used to make lifejackets, tooth picks and other fibers). If you’re interesting in this eco-friendly tour, please contact the guide directly: Cloied Taylor, cloiedtaylor1 @ yahoo.com, +506 709 81 02 or +506 709 80 29.

He told us that some parts of the Jurassic Park scenes were filmed here in Tortuguero jungle and they built enlarged replicas of small lizards to appear as big giants dinosaurs on screen.

We also met a local bushman who is running overnight tours to the deep jungle. He is a previous jaguar hunter and we struggle to believe that he is 83 years old. Just ask Cloied for Mr. Bill if this is of any interest. Tortuguero is remote, but not too isolated that you need to buy an all inclusive package to get there. It was more fun to do the logistics ourselves, then you can pick and chose what is best suited for you interests and especially if you want to do it the eco-friendly way. A useful link to the village’s web-page: http://www.tortuguerovillage.com

Montezuma
12 – 21 July
The country is slightly larger than Switzerland, but it takes some time to cross the country, because many of the dirt roads are in bad shape and there are steep hills to be crossed. After 1 boat ride, 1 ferry ride, 4 bus rides and 2 taxi rides we finally arrived on the pacific side. We’ve moved to a small and cozy bed & breakfast house, located on a steep hill (nice view) basically located in the jungle. The first day we got visitors (monkeys) on the trees facing us, but they mainly focused on the consumption of the leaves and we didn’t seem to bother them at all. There must have been at least 5 or 6 of them.

The owners were very cool and made us feel like home. We could borrow their kitchen to prepare meals etc. They even had a butterfly garden on the property, for both guests and non-guests.

We had a nice and refreshing hike to a waterfall nearby. When it comes to the beach of Montezuma, unfortunately it's nothing to brag about. It didn’t seem that someone cared to clean it (regularly).

San José
21-22 July
In the morning we left for San José because of the flight to Peru the day after. We drove on a very steep road uphill, so steep that all the passengers had to move to the back of the bus. A little unexpected was the fact that this bus (full of people) stopped on the way at a gas station to fill fuel.

The Costa Rica photo collection:
http://flickr.com/photos/perove/collections/72157607166421753/

Map of Costa Rica

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