The lost city of Petra, one of the new 7 Wonders of the World, is a magnificent ancient city, thousands of years old, that still holds hidden secrets waiting to be unveiled.
I understand Israeli security concerns and the dangers they probably face, and I don’t have a problem with their techniques. But the attitude the staff showed towards us, an probably other honest travelers, has much to improve.
What to say of the Wadi Rum, other than it’s one of the most spectacular natural sights I ever seen. I can’t even find words to describe the experience so I will be counting on my photographs to tell the story better than I ever could using words.
The Phi Phi Islands are the most famous of the Andaman Islands in Thailand. Ko Phi Phi Don, the main and the largest island of the group, is easy reachable from Phuket and Krabi. Koh Phi Phi Leh is the second largest and it’s very famous for Maya Bay beach which was the setting for the movie The Beach, starring Leo DiCaprio.
Travelling, alone especially, is such a beautiful, unique and educational adventure. There’s nothing like turning up in a non-English speaking country all by yourself to catapult you out of your comfort zone.
Koh Lanta has virtually something for everyone, couples, solo backpackers, young or old travelers, each of whom can choose their own particular style of island life. I would say Lanta is the quintessential tropical paradise in Thailand.
In the morning Paul left to Singapore and then Mariana took a bus to Battambang. The three of us left, spent the rest of the day chilling and shopping and in the evening we had a fish feet massage. Andre left as well late that night, the next morning Aline took a bus to Battambang, where she reunited with Mariana for a while, and later I left to Vietnam. This was a very personal story which may not have a special significance for anyone other than me, but it’s a story I had to write down and share while it was still fresh…
We rented the bikes right from the hostel, very cheap, but they were really old bikes with lots of problems. We managed to make them work somewhat, with a few tweaks and some air pumped into the tires and left at about noon. That day we rode separately. Paul left early in the morning, I rode with Aline and Andre went with Mariana. We didn’t see Paul all day, but we met with the others later and had lunch together and then we spent the rest of the day exploring the surroundings. After catching the sunset at Angkor Wat, we headed back towards the city. Cycling after dark wasn’t…
After a quick refresh at the hostel, we went out looking for a place to have some dinner. Me and Aline were a little bit behind the rest of the group and, while we walking to rejoin the others, Aline got tricked into the infamous powdered milk scam. We were approached by a young mother, with a helpless look on her face, carrying an infant and an empty baby bottle: “My baby is hungry” she plead, “I’m not asking for money, just formula for my baby.” I suspected something fishy and I think the whole scene triggered off something in my subconscious mind (something I’ve read on the Internet or have seen…
The next morning, after a quick breakfast, we squeezed all 5 of us in the back of Kong’s tuk-tuk and headed out to explore more of Angkor’s wonders. As it turned out that Kong wasn’t a better guide than our previous driver, we decided to designate Mariana as our guide book reader. In real life she works as an interpreter and translator, therefore she was perfect for the job. Her English very good and she also speaks German. As a matter of fact, I was approached in German by German speaking people several times, because we probably seemed to be all Germans: “Hallo wie geht es? Gut,…
