Shortly after my last posting, I left the "cheap" part of my trip when I began the Europe portion of my trip (which I am doing with my sister).
My sister and I were in Turkey for almost three weeks and found the prices much higher than I expected. While clearly not as expensive as the EU countries, Turkey is about 2-3x more expensive than the average country I visited prior to it and roughly the same as non-New York/San Francisco America.
And after Turkey, we've spent a few days each in Munich, Salzburg, Vienna and we are now in Prague. Most things in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic are about 50% more expensive than in Turkey.
Given the expense of traveling, our limited time in Europe, and the many, many incredible sights, my sister and I have been unbelievably busy sightseers over the past month (and especially in the past week since leaving Turkey) as we don't want to "waste" any of our preciouis time here.
Which is all a long way of explaining that this time there's a reason why I haven't been blogging and therefore feel less guilty. I suspect it will be a long, long time before I'm able to put up more current photos on Picasa as well. Sorry!
July 25, 2008
June 24, 2008
Middle East thoughts
Hi everyone. Sorry for being in hiding for the past few months. After Chiang Mai, I had a great time in Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Japan before leaving for the Middle East at the beginning of June. And since then, I've been in Jordan, Sinai Egypt and I am now in Israel.
So far I've been pleasantly surprised at how friendly the Arabs have been (though I've been told that western women get a different reception). The locals I've met are always ready to stop for a chat and eager to point you in the right direction if you're lost. Of course, this doesn't stop them from trying to sell you something, but an "I'm not interested" gets a well-meaning smile.
But other aspects of this part of the world have been disappointing. The main disappointments have been in the areas of cleanliness and food, which is especially painful after spending time in Asia in general and Japan in particular.
And Israel is expensive! After spending $0.25 to $0.50 for water and soda, it's painful to come here and have to spend $1.50-$3.00 for the same. And food is pretty expensive today. In fact, I've been spending about as much on lunch in Israel as I did for accomodation, food and fun for a day in Egypt.
That's it for now. As I've promised (and not lived up to) before, I'll try and post more in the future.
PS - My next stop is Turkey. I'll be leaving this Saturday.
So far I've been pleasantly surprised at how friendly the Arabs have been (though I've been told that western women get a different reception). The locals I've met are always ready to stop for a chat and eager to point you in the right direction if you're lost. Of course, this doesn't stop them from trying to sell you something, but an "I'm not interested" gets a well-meaning smile.
But other aspects of this part of the world have been disappointing. The main disappointments have been in the areas of cleanliness and food, which is especially painful after spending time in Asia in general and Japan in particular.
And Israel is expensive! After spending $0.25 to $0.50 for water and soda, it's painful to come here and have to spend $1.50-$3.00 for the same. And food is pretty expensive today. In fact, I've been spending about as much on lunch in Israel as I did for accomodation, food and fun for a day in Egypt.
That's it for now. As I've promised (and not lived up to) before, I'll try and post more in the future.
PS - My next stop is Turkey. I'll be leaving this Saturday.
April 30, 2008
Chiang Mai
Just a quick update for anyone actually trying to follow my travels with this blog. The black hole I recently disappeared into has a name, Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is the "northern capital" of Thailand and a popular stop for visitors to Thailand, and for good reason: it's really nice.
I arrived in Chiang Mai Sunday, April 20th intending to stay for 3 nights and then traveling on to Chiang Rai, Laos (which is north of Thailand and pronounced without the "s"), and perhaps even Vietnam if I had the energy before meeting my friend John from LA in Singapore on the 29th (yesterday). Well, 9 days later ... I was still in Chiang Mai.
There's plenty to do and see in Chiang Mai, but the reason why it many travelers get caught in its web (I met many foreigners there who had moved to Chiang Mai after visiting) is that the city is just so comfortable. And it's cheap. The guesthouses and restaurants are uniformly of very high quality and cleanliness and the old city (the main tourist and expat area) is small and accessible with the conveniences that travelers need but are often hard to find in other Southeast Asian cities like internet access and bars.
I'm mainly writing this to say that if you ever decide to come to this part of the world, make sure Chiang Mai is on your itinerary (and if you do go, let me know and I can give you lots of recommendations!). So far in my 2+ months of traveling, I've stayed in most cities for 2-3 days and general felt like it was enough or at least close to enough. After spending 9 days (the longest by far I've stayed in any city thus for on my trip) in Chiang Mai, I left with a heavy heart and wished I could have stayed many more days or weeks.
I arrived in Chiang Mai Sunday, April 20th intending to stay for 3 nights and then traveling on to Chiang Rai, Laos (which is north of Thailand and pronounced without the "s"), and perhaps even Vietnam if I had the energy before meeting my friend John from LA in Singapore on the 29th (yesterday). Well, 9 days later ... I was still in Chiang Mai.
There's plenty to do and see in Chiang Mai, but the reason why it many travelers get caught in its web (I met many foreigners there who had moved to Chiang Mai after visiting) is that the city is just so comfortable. And it's cheap. The guesthouses and restaurants are uniformly of very high quality and cleanliness and the old city (the main tourist and expat area) is small and accessible with the conveniences that travelers need but are often hard to find in other Southeast Asian cities like internet access and bars.
I'm mainly writing this to say that if you ever decide to come to this part of the world, make sure Chiang Mai is on your itinerary (and if you do go, let me know and I can give you lots of recommendations!). So far in my 2+ months of traveling, I've stayed in most cities for 2-3 days and general felt like it was enough or at least close to enough. After spending 9 days (the longest by far I've stayed in any city thus for on my trip) in Chiang Mai, I left with a heavy heart and wished I could have stayed many more days or weeks.
April 15, 2008
Another belated update -- from Thailand
The last time I posted I was in Ecuador. Almost three weeks, two continents, 6 countries, and 9 cities later, I am in Lop Buri, Thailand which is about 2 hours north of Bangkok by train. I haven't posted in a while again because of lack of internet access (when I was in China I had pretty internet access but the blogspot.com domain was blocked/censored) and partially also because of travel fatigue.
In terms of internet access, I haven't had a decent wifi connection since I left Ecuador which means I haven't been using my laptop very much. I've occasionally gone to internet cafes (where I am posting from now), but generally used that time to attend to more pressing matters.
As regards to travel fatigue, here's my itinerary for the past few weeks. From Ecuador--which I loved--I went to Peru. In Peru I was in Lima and Cusco/Machu Picchu--which I did not love due to getting altitude sickness and having stomach problems at the same time, though Machu Picchu is fantastic. From there I transited through New York on my way to Hong Kong, which was itself a transit point on to Guilin, China. After Guilin, I spent a night in Macau before flying off to Bangkok from Hong Kong International Airport (which means that despite not spending more than a few hours in Hong Kong at a time, I managed to collect a total of 6 entry and departure stamps ... good thing I got pages added to my passport in Lima!). I spent two nights in Bangkok and came up to Lop Buri by train this morning.
Please keep checking this blog. I do plan on posting more regularly, and will certainly write up the past few weeks in more detail. And as always, I want to hear from you (especially those of you I've met on my travels), so e-mail me at 26weeks@gmail.com.
In terms of internet access, I haven't had a decent wifi connection since I left Ecuador which means I haven't been using my laptop very much. I've occasionally gone to internet cafes (where I am posting from now), but generally used that time to attend to more pressing matters.
As regards to travel fatigue, here's my itinerary for the past few weeks. From Ecuador--which I loved--I went to Peru. In Peru I was in Lima and Cusco/Machu Picchu--which I did not love due to getting altitude sickness and having stomach problems at the same time, though Machu Picchu is fantastic. From there I transited through New York on my way to Hong Kong, which was itself a transit point on to Guilin, China. After Guilin, I spent a night in Macau before flying off to Bangkok from Hong Kong International Airport (which means that despite not spending more than a few hours in Hong Kong at a time, I managed to collect a total of 6 entry and departure stamps ... good thing I got pages added to my passport in Lima!). I spent two nights in Bangkok and came up to Lop Buri by train this morning.
Please keep checking this blog. I do plan on posting more regularly, and will certainly write up the past few weeks in more detail. And as always, I want to hear from you (especially those of you I've met on my travels), so e-mail me at 26weeks@gmail.com.
March 26, 2008
Week 4: Santiago and La Serena
Where: Santiago (Chile) and La Serena (Chile)
The good: Wonderful day exploring Chilean coast near Santiago (Zapallar, Vina del Mar, and Valparaiso, especially Zapallar). Beautiful sunsets from the beach in La Serena over the Pacific Ocean rate a close second.
The bad: Losing stuff. Not a huge deal, but a big inconvenience as I somehow managed to part with the following without my knowledge: 1 pair of underwear (I'm down to 5!), my wonderful North Face windbreaker (big loss), the most comfortable sleep shades and earplugs I've ever encountered (huge loss!), Swiss Army knife, mini-flashlight, big bag of trail mix, box of chocolates from Mendoza, and 1 large Space Bag (which is also a big loss though it probably doesn't sound like it). I've spent way too many hours already trying to replace these and have generally be unsuccessful since I am fairly particular about quality since I'm packing light.
The possibly interesting: There was quite a bit of hotel room availability in La Serena, a 100% tourist town, on Easter weekend, one of the biggest holiday weekends of the year, which was fortunate (long story).
Biggest surprise: Chile is significantly more expensive than Argentina/Uruguay and Chilean Spanish very difficult to understand as Chilenos speak very quickly, drop the last syllables of many words, and use a lot of slang.
Lesson learned: Plan ahead. I was fortunate in being able to book the very last available bus seat available from Santiago to Buenos Aires for the Monday after Easter that arrived just in time for me to catch my flight to Ecuador. If the bus ticket weren't available (~$70), I would have had to buy a one way plane ticket for $350.
Regrets: Not being able to spend more time in Zapallar/Vina del Mar/Valparaiso.
The good: Wonderful day exploring Chilean coast near Santiago (Zapallar, Vina del Mar, and Valparaiso, especially Zapallar). Beautiful sunsets from the beach in La Serena over the Pacific Ocean rate a close second.
The bad: Losing stuff. Not a huge deal, but a big inconvenience as I somehow managed to part with the following without my knowledge: 1 pair of underwear (I'm down to 5!), my wonderful North Face windbreaker (big loss), the most comfortable sleep shades and earplugs I've ever encountered (huge loss!), Swiss Army knife, mini-flashlight, big bag of trail mix, box of chocolates from Mendoza, and 1 large Space Bag (which is also a big loss though it probably doesn't sound like it). I've spent way too many hours already trying to replace these and have generally be unsuccessful since I am fairly particular about quality since I'm packing light.
The possibly interesting: There was quite a bit of hotel room availability in La Serena, a 100% tourist town, on Easter weekend, one of the biggest holiday weekends of the year, which was fortunate (long story).
Biggest surprise: Chile is significantly more expensive than Argentina/Uruguay and Chilean Spanish very difficult to understand as Chilenos speak very quickly, drop the last syllables of many words, and use a lot of slang.
Lesson learned: Plan ahead. I was fortunate in being able to book the very last available bus seat available from Santiago to Buenos Aires for the Monday after Easter that arrived just in time for me to catch my flight to Ecuador. If the bus ticket weren't available (~$70), I would have had to buy a one way plane ticket for $350.
Regrets: Not being able to spend more time in Zapallar/Vina del Mar/Valparaiso.
Week 3: San Martin de Los Andes and Mendoza
Where: San Martin de Los Andes (Argentina) and Mendoza (Argentina)
The good: SM de los Andes is an exceptionally beautiful little mountain town (though expensive by Argentinian standards) north of Bariloche, though also in the Lake District. At around 15 blocks by 8 blocks, the city is wonderfully walkable (or perhaps "wander"-able) with well maintained sidewalks, cute family owned shops, and rose bushes everywhere. I hadn't heard of SM de los Andes until I was in Argentina and am really happy that I added it to my trip on the fly.
The bad: Poor tourist infrastructure for wine tours/tastings in Mendoza, Argentina's wine capital ... reminiscent of Bariloche. This is surprising since ~70% of the country's production comes from the region and the city is a major domestic tourist destination. The main concentration of wineries is only 10 miles or so outside of town but the only transport options without a car are a 1 hour public bus ride from the city center (but remember, it takes time to get to the bus stop too ... 20 minutes in my case) or a fairly expensive taxi. And upon arrival, bike rentals are heavily promoted and would be a good idea if there were actually exclusive bike paths. Instead, bikers have to negotiate heavily pot-holed roads with other vehicular traffic including large city buses threatening to make you roadkill.
The possibly interesting: I noticed that nearly every Argentinian city I visited had a casino. SM de los Andes was the first time I went in one (originally to have a drink at the bar), which is unfortunate because I lost A$50 (~$13) at blackjack, which is the cost of a nice meal. Oh well.
Biggest surprise: I had a wonderful local microbrew in SM de los Andes called Cerveza Lacar, which is one of the best beers I've ever tasted. Too bad I'll probably never be able to have it again.
Lesson learned: This was one of my most enjoyable weeks mainly because I took it a bit slower than Week 2 and met really great people at the hostel in Mendoza.
Regrets: not buying chocolate in SM de los Andes where it's supposed to be heavenly (I just plain old forgot), not drinking enough Malbec in Mendoza, and not eating enough steak before leaving Argentina for Chile.
The good: SM de los Andes is an exceptionally beautiful little mountain town (though expensive by Argentinian standards) north of Bariloche, though also in the Lake District. At around 15 blocks by 8 blocks, the city is wonderfully walkable (or perhaps "wander"-able) with well maintained sidewalks, cute family owned shops, and rose bushes everywhere. I hadn't heard of SM de los Andes until I was in Argentina and am really happy that I added it to my trip on the fly.
The bad: Poor tourist infrastructure for wine tours/tastings in Mendoza, Argentina's wine capital ... reminiscent of Bariloche. This is surprising since ~70% of the country's production comes from the region and the city is a major domestic tourist destination. The main concentration of wineries is only 10 miles or so outside of town but the only transport options without a car are a 1 hour public bus ride from the city center (but remember, it takes time to get to the bus stop too ... 20 minutes in my case) or a fairly expensive taxi. And upon arrival, bike rentals are heavily promoted and would be a good idea if there were actually exclusive bike paths. Instead, bikers have to negotiate heavily pot-holed roads with other vehicular traffic including large city buses threatening to make you roadkill.
The possibly interesting: I noticed that nearly every Argentinian city I visited had a casino. SM de los Andes was the first time I went in one (originally to have a drink at the bar), which is unfortunate because I lost A$50 (~$13) at blackjack, which is the cost of a nice meal. Oh well.
Biggest surprise: I had a wonderful local microbrew in SM de los Andes called Cerveza Lacar, which is one of the best beers I've ever tasted. Too bad I'll probably never be able to have it again.
Lesson learned: This was one of my most enjoyable weeks mainly because I took it a bit slower than Week 2 and met really great people at the hostel in Mendoza.
Regrets: not buying chocolate in SM de los Andes where it's supposed to be heavenly (I just plain old forgot), not drinking enough Malbec in Mendoza, and not eating enough steak before leaving Argentina for Chile.
Week 2: Colonia, Mar del Plata, and Bariloche
Where: Colonia (Uruguay), Mar del Plata (Argentina), and San Carlos de Bariloche (Argentina)
The good: Tie between wonderful steak in MdP and the scenery of Bariloche
The bad: The local bus system in Bariloche, especially in comparison to the long distance bus
service available in Argentina
The possibly interesting: I got my first haircut in MdP
Biggest surprise: Bariloche, being in the mountains, is steep! (Crazy, I know.) The hostel I booked was only a couple blocks from downtown but those blocks were up steep hills, combined with my hostel not having an elevator to my 5th floor room, meant that once I came back from sightseeing for the day I became a bit of a homebody and wouldn't leave the hostel again until the next morning.
Lesson learned: This week was hectic with many, many kilometers logged between boats and long distance buses and only a couple days in each city ... there's a lot to see out there, but there is a such thing as trying to do too much and I think I just went over edge this week.
Regrets: not going white-water rafting in Bariloche ... it's supposed to be great there and in retrospect I think my injured arm could have handled it.
The good: Tie between wonderful steak in MdP and the scenery of Bariloche
The bad: The local bus system in Bariloche, especially in comparison to the long distance bus
service available in Argentina
The possibly interesting: I got my first haircut in MdP
Biggest surprise: Bariloche, being in the mountains, is steep! (Crazy, I know.) The hostel I booked was only a couple blocks from downtown but those blocks were up steep hills, combined with my hostel not having an elevator to my 5th floor room, meant that once I came back from sightseeing for the day I became a bit of a homebody and wouldn't leave the hostel again until the next morning.
Lesson learned: This week was hectic with many, many kilometers logged between boats and long distance buses and only a couple days in each city ... there's a lot to see out there, but there is a such thing as trying to do too much and I think I just went over edge this week.
Regrets: not going white-water rafting in Bariloche ... it's supposed to be great there and in retrospect I think my injured arm could have handled it.
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