You can lose everything, but nobody will take away what you saw and what you experienced...
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Feb 09, 2004 07:00 PM Kingdom of Lesotho
Without visa I crossed the border via mountain pass of Monantsa to the Kingdom of Lesotho.
No check points on Lesotho side - really rural villages. Beautiful views of 3000-meters plus peaks... Wonderful, friendly people. Horses, sheeps and cows - Wild South... No beggars. Smiles... Using junk bus I mooved to the mountain village of Semonkong - more the 4 hours drive... From Semonkong I took a hike to Maletsunyane Fall - single 200-m drop! I forgot that it was 2200 m above sea level I got
heavy sunburn... Still worth the effort...
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Feb 05, 2004 07:00 PM Dragon Mountains - RSA
I am happy to be back in Africa...
Tourist BazBus took me from crowded Joburg
to Drakensberg in few hours...
From Amphitheatre Lodge I walked to the bottom of Tugela Fall - it still exists! Water drops down more then 850 m in few stages... Exciting! Heavy rain stopped me half of the way to the top of the fall - the weather here is hard to predict...
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Feb 03, 2004 07:00 PM Keep your fingers crossed!
Beginning of my 6th round-the-world voyage. First flights: Gdansk - Warsaw - Amsterdam - Johannesburg
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Oct 12, 2003 02:00 PM Anamur - far from the crowd
I took a long dıstance bus from Alanya along the coast to Anamur. Buses are comfortable ın Turkey - they serve free softdrınks and cookıes on board. I paid 15 lıra for 3 hours drıve wıth beautıful panoramas of the coastlıne. Take a seat at the rıght wındow! Taurus Mountaıns are comıng to the sea here so you drıve through the swıtchbacks and on the clıffs...
In Anamur I found a room close to the OTOGAR - bus termınal - frıendly owner of hotel Dodehan after bargaınıng offered me s room wıth bath for 10 euro. Sorry - it ıs located close to the mosque so you are forced to lısten to their prayıng calls several tımes of the day and nıght. Be patıent! They calebrate Baıram holıday sınce yesterday - the ramadan ıs over!
It ıs long 3-km walk to the beach from the otogar - I went there to swım at sunset - ıt was great pleasure regarding the night frost ın my country. The prıce of the food is lıke ın Poland - 2,5 l of coke costs 2.5 lıra. Bıg bread roll - 0,40. Tomorrow mornıng I plan to vısıt famous Anamur Castle...
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Oct 12, 2003 02:00 PM Anamur - far from the crowd
I took a long dıstance bus from Alanya along the coast to Anamur. Buses are comfortable ın Turkey - they serve free softdrınks and cookıes on board. I paid 15 lıra for 3 hours drıve wıth beautıful panoramas of the coastlıne. Take a seat at the rıght wındow! Taurus Mountaıns are comıng to the sea here so you drıve through the swıtchbacks and on the clıffs...
In Anamur I found a room close to the OTOGAR - bus termınal - frıendly owner of hotel Dodehan after bargaınıng offered me s room wıth bath for 10 euro. Sorry - it ıs located close to the mosque so you are forced to lısten to their prayıng calls several tımes of the day and nıght. Be patıent! They calebrate Baıram holıday sınce yesterday - the ramadan ıs over!
It ıs long 3-km walk to the beach from the otogar - I went there to swım at sunset - ıt was great pleasure regarding the night frost ın my country. The prıce of the food is lıke ın Poland - 2,5 l of coke costs 2.5 lıra. Bıg bread roll - 0,40. Tomorrow mornıng I plan to vısıt famous Anamur Castle...
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Mar 20, 2003 07:00 PM Trek in the Mandara Mountains
Still in the Northern Cameroon we went to the famous area of Rhumsiki - famous of the landscape and beautiful unspoiled villages. With our guides Daud and Napoleon we walked up to 15 km per day enjoying stone towers and pinnacles, sleeping in the coutyards of local people and tasting local food /I found millet beer the best/.
Daud and Napoleon are worth to recommend - they speak even some english. Our donkey carried all the way the supply
of the mineral water - buy at least 4 ltr per day - it is very hot and dry. Mandara Mts are at the border of Nigeria - very far from Douala but it is worth to come so far - it is real, colorful Cameroon and you will find people very friendly...
Plan to spend 15000 CFA per day of trek - all included and bring good hiking boots!
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Feb 20, 2001 07:00 PM India - Enchanting Kerala
I am in Cochin (or Kochi). It is very hot and humid... Indian ladies from Kerala are very pretty... That's nice... But there is a lot of stinking garbage on the streets - it is bad and sad... It is still country of the big contrasts...
In the morning I was walking around the Fort Cochin, visiting old churches and the palace once presented by Portugeese to the local raja.
Kerala state has a lot of backwaters - rivers and channels. Local tourist office offers inexpensive tour to the backwaters. It will cost much more then 350 rupees if you will decide to go there on your own and to rent a boat... There were only 9 people on this tour - they took us by minibus to the distant village - little boat was waiting there and we sail through the narrow channels enjoying the scenery, watching the countrylife. The local guide was pointing many exotic terees and plants. Then in the village there explained how they made the solid strings from coconut fibre and the mats from the leaves of pandanus palm... Very interesting and the people are just lovely...
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Jan 20, 2001 07:00 PM 16 hours on the bus...
The private tourist enterpreneurs in Vietnam are very well organized - they will send you from hands to hands... Tourist bus companies invented "open ticket". Since most of the tourist attractions are located along the 2000-km road linking Hanoi and Saigon they offer just for 22 USD bus ticket who allow you to make as many stops as you want on this route. It is really good deal but keep in mind theat you will be forced to travel with this one company all over the way... They offer free pick up from the hotel but at the destination they will deliver you to the hotel of their choice...
I boarded the bus in Hanoi at 7.30 pm. Yes, I got a seat but there were not enough space for my knees... Can you imagine such a position during 16 hours? They also take into the bus more people then there were seats - all locals - they were sitting just on the floor...
At the destination they offer me their hotel (6 USD single room with bath). It was not so fancy but I was so tired that I accepted their offer...
Hue is the former capital of Vietnam - in the middle of the town there os old, huge citadel - they charge 55000 for entry. Perfume River is crossing the city... Enough... Good night!
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Jan 20, 2001 07:00 PM 16 hours on the bus to Hue...
The private tourist enterpreneurs in Vietnam are very well organized - they will send you from hands to hands... Tourist bus companies invented "open ticket". Since most of the tourist attractions are located along the 2000-km road linking Hanoi and Saigon they offer just for 22 USD bus ticket who allow you to make as many stops as you want on this route. It is really good deal but keep in mind that you will be forced to travel with this selected company all over the way... They offer free pick up from the hotel but at the destination they will deliver you to the hotel of their choice...
I boarded the bus in Hanoi at 7.30 pm. Yes, I got a seat but there were not enough space for my knees... Can you imagine such a position during 16 hours? They also take into the bus more people then there were seats - all locals - they were sitting just on the floor...
At the destination they offered me their hotel (6 USD single room with bath). It was not so fancy but I was so tired that I accepted their offer...
Hue is the former capital of Vietnam - in the middle of the town there os old, huge citadel - they charge 55000 for entry. Perfume River is crossing the city... Enough... Good night!
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Jan 20, 2001 07:00 PM 16 hours on the bus to Hue...
The private tourist enterpreneurs in Vietnam are very well organized - they will send you from hands to hands... Tourist bus companies invented "open ticket". Since most of the tourist attractions are located along the 2000-km road linking Hanoi and Saigon they offer just for 22 USD bus ticket who allow you to make as many stops as you want on this route. It is really good deal but keep in mind that you will be forced to travel with this selected company all over the way... They offer free pick up from the hotel but at the destination they will deliver you to the hotel of their choice...
I boarded the bus in Hanoi at 7.30 pm. Yes, I got a seat but there were not enough space for my knees... Can you imagine such a position during 16 hours? They also take into the bus more people then there were seats - all locals - they were sitting just on the floor...
At the destination they offered me their hotel (6 USD single room with bath). It was not so fancy but I was so tired that I accepted their offer...
Hue is the former capital of Vietnam - in the middle of the town there os old, huge citadel - they charge 55000 for entry. Perfume River is crossing the city... Enough... Good night!
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