Meet Zeev, he’s from Israel, but lives in Melbourne. Our paths crossed in Vanuatu, where he invited me to drink some jasmine tea and talk about stuff. We were two of the four visitors present at Blue Pango motel, a place with lovely Korean owners, that has seen better days.
Back to Zeev (I was told it means wolf in Hebrew), at first I thought he’s just nuts, he had this stare and kept on talking and talking randomly, what he does, how he does it and why he likes it. ‘it’ is giving guitar lessons and taking nude photographs, I presume, not at the same time. The more tea we drunk and the more we talked, I realized he was no nuts at all, just weird and curious, like me, so that put me at ease.
We discussed his days in Israeli army, playing jazz for 15 years, travelling to random places, why Australia and Pacific is so expensive, how to get free stuff and meet local people when travelling. Tip: almost always you have knowledge or services, that someone will want to trade or pay for, you just have to find out what it is e.g. Zeev took local wedding photographs and gave speeches about Israel in local churches, in exchange people opened up their homes, invited him to stay, fed him, and allowed to take pictures of real Vanuatu, for free, voilà.
And then we exchanged goods, I drank his tea, he ate half of my papaya and grapefruit, he gave me 8GB of rock and roll, I gave him two Hollywood and two art house movies, and finally he left me his jar of peanut butter, but took my Dove Men body wash bottle, both were half empty. I think it was a fair trade of goods, what do you reckon?
P.s Here is sweet little island where I spent my weekend, getting sunburnt (no accessories = no sun lotion).
Archive for the 'Travel' Category
Fair trade of goods
Published August 28, 2011 Travel 1 CommentTags: 89, country, exchange of goods, getting stuff for free, Photography, travelling, vanuatu, zeev
Me talk long time
Published August 1, 2011 Life , Travel 2 CommentsTags: 100 countries, 2, birthday, second, Travel, two, years
2 years and counting, my blog just had a 2nd birthday, it was a quiet one, slowly chucking away, one step a time, no big announcements to make, but plenty of little actions on the list. I’m getting around 1000 monthly views, up from 6-7 hundred last year, which is not bad.
After 3 months not leaving a country (very unusual for me), I’ve finally booked in some trips, heading to Vanuatu in Pacific for a long weekend, and then hitting Europe in Oct, via South Korea, visiting Armenia and Georgia on the way, so exited. So I should be at 92 countries by end of this year. Will take plenty of snaps to keep you entertained. The coveted 100 is now in sight.
With Sydney’s winter at its best, lingering above 20C, I’m very exited doing more local shoots as well. I’ve had plenty of cancellations lately, but keeping the spirits high, in the long term it will all work out.
On the third point on my list, exploring and getting to know Sydney, I’m doing much better, in last week alone I’ve been to several cool bars had some amazing sushi, couple of great parties, visited Manly beach, Cronulla and Bundeena, sweet.
Now that I’m back from my mega trip and sharing all the travel experiences with other avid travellers, one particular topic comes up regularly. Who are the most interesting and who are the most annoying people that I’ve meet on the road. Of course it often boils down to specific persons, but there are certain similarities among the nations that give you quite clear indication if you are about to have lots of fun or will you run and hide (this is rarely and option) and prey these people don’t find you or god forbid try to start a conversation or otherwise engage you. After all, nobody wants to be poor donkey by the pink wall.
Lets start with most annoying travellers and here I have a clear, undisputed winner – Israelis. Some of you will nod in silent agreement whilst others might ask WTF. But that is my point of view, in general, the likely-hood that fellow travellers from Israel will be extremely annoying, is very high. They tend to travel only in large groups, are straight out from the army (both boys and gals), totally oblivious to their physical surroundings, only willing to get high and sing (loudly). Its OK for the first 10 minutes, but then it starts to get really annoying, especially when it happens at 3am on the overnight bus, or a peaceful garden where everyone else is trying to read a book or relax otherwise. Of course, I‘ve meet couple of non-conformist wonderful people from Israel, but unfortunately they are minority. To make this write off more fun and interactive, I’ve included a quick poll where you can cast your vote, so go ahead and lets see the results, may be its me, the annoying Latvian after all.
Now to the fun side, time and time again all the Swiss people that I’ve met whist travelling, happen to be extremely polite, informed and curious to have a conversation with. At first I thought its the small country factor, but that goes in stark contrast with the other side so I guess it must be some other ingredient. I’ve also found most Swedes really engaged and there are many other great examples of people from all over the world. Please cast your vote what you think are the perfect travel buddies to meet on the road. Hope the polls work, shout if something crashes and, above all, have fun!
p.s. please note that purpose of this post is not to entice national hatred or finger pointing, its about sharing the travel experiences and learning from them.
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To the moon and back
Published May 3, 2011 Life , Statistics , Travel Leave a CommentTags: antigua, Caribbean, island, rtw, sailing week
My trip around the world is over, I’m back in sunny (but windy) London, Prince is happily married and things are back to normal, sort of. The trip went pretty smoothly, it was on budget, I managed to visit 3 more countries than initially planned and had no serious issues or injuries, kind of boring almost, but the little things kept me entertained along the way. Here are some statistics from the trip, you know I like numbers:
Time on the road: 7 months
Countries visited: 33
Total trip cost: £10,300
Flights taken: 30
Things broken: 1 pair of flip flops
Things stolen: 1 pair of swimming shorts
Monies lost: £60
Strange foods eaten: shark, snake, crickets, lama, cactus, frog
Muggings, robberies: 0
Medical help needed: 0
New friends: 100′s around the world
Talking about the little things, I often get asked, what’s my favourite place I’ve been to, and I always have to stumble through with some semi-answer, as the truth is, I don’t have favourites. Just as I don’t have a single favourite author, singer or a movie. When I travel, it’s the little things that excite me, like interesting local foods or a good conversation with new couch-surfing friends or monkey stealing my breakfast. Every single country I’ve been to has its bright side and its dark side. I love beaches and night life of Rio, but transport is expensive, city is overpopulated and dangerous. I love the natural wonders of Bolivia, but its cold out there, most places lack even the most basic infrastructure and people are often rude. For me its the sum of things, good and bad, that I experience during travels, that keeps me going, exploring and learning further. And this trip was no different.
For me travelling is like an education you can not get at university. I just spent 10 grand travelling, which is quite a lot of money. You can by a new car or put it towards down payment for a new mortgage, but I choose to invest it in travel as I believe in the long term, the experience and memories that I get from my travels will be much more valuable to me than things I can buy in the shop.
On the trip like this you realise just how little of the stuff you really need. I’ve been living out of 30 litre back pack, no mobile phone or TV and the truth is, I missed very little of the stuff left at home (stuff here refers to things only, not to friends and family who I missed dearly), things that make our daily lives comfortable. We surround ourselves with things that we feel are important, almost necessary to lead a decent life and then, when you don’t have them for a while, you realise just how irrelevant most of them are.
Ask me again in 3 months if I feel the same, I’ll probably be back in a rat race, acquiring and accumulating, comparing and consuming, thinking that my current philosophical approach is total bullocks. But then again, I’m only human.
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Mr Holiday and Mr Travel
Published April 26, 2011 Life , Travel Leave a CommentTags: caracas, holiday, mr, Travel, venezuela, worlds cheapest petrol
Meet Mr Holiday, he’s short on time, but flush with cash. He stays in 4 or 5 star hotels with roof-top pools and 7 kinds of cereal for breakfast. He takes taxis to get around and eats out in good restaurants. All in all the good life. It’s a self indulging break from reality, a getaway that feels nice, but can not last forever. Also the margin for error is very small as everything has to be perfect, things have to be on time and to his liking, after all he’s paying for it.
And now meet Mr Travel. His cash is short, but his mind is open. He does not mind waiting 30 minutes to catch a public bus from the airport. He stays in hostels with squeaky double beds or couch surfs to make new friends, he talks to locals, eats where the locals eat and goes where the locals go. Its not always pretty and its often downright difficult, but its damn interesting and definitely always a memorable experience.
Take my recent visit to Venezuela for example, with the worlds cheapest petrol, you pay so little that it is almost for free. The title photo shows that you can get 10 litres of petrol for 1 Bolivar, which is around 15 pence or 25 cents, meaning that you can fill a full tank of petrol for less than a pound. All petrol-heads should go to Venezuela and drive to their heart’s delight. Probably not tourist worthy per se, but definitely interesting.
Holidays are really nice and everyone should have them. I like holidays myself and have had plenty of them in the past. But I prefer travel over holidays. My travels in recent years have taken me to places that I would not have otherwise visited. Places like Kosovo, Albania, Burma, Honduras or Venezuela. They are not on the typical holidaymakers radar, but have offered me the most amazing experiences, I’ve met some very interesting people in authentic environments. If you get bored of your holidays, try out travelling.
Pachamama
Published March 27, 2011 Travel 1 CommentTags: bolivia, carnival, pachamama, rtw, salar de uyuni, salt lake, south america, Travel, trip
Mother earth has given a lot to Bolivians, highest peaks and largest lakes, all the minerals you can dream of and plenty of wildlife on top of that. As my adventure here ends and I get on the plane tomorrow morning for Paraguay, I am still trying to scan and compartment all the diverse things I’ve seen and done here, walking barefoot in wast salt lake of Uyuni, crawling through active silver mines in Potosi 100s of meters underground, mountain biking down the worlds (once) most dangerous road and so on.
It’s been the coldest so far in the 6 month trip, with temperatures dropping to zero at night due to altitude, also Bolivian hotels and restaurants are not familiar with the concept of heating. If it gets cold you just put the jacket on (inside), sitting in restaurant and eating dinner or breakfast with full winter jacket and gloves on is perceived quite normal, so I’ve been counting off the days till I hit warm weather again, Buenos Aires and Rio, here I come.
One thing Bolivians could do is to smile a little more, they are probably the most serious nation in South America, just look at the carnival pics, even there it looks like they are hard at work, must be the cold weather. They are also pretty crappy at service, especially in restaurants, if you sit and wait patiently as a regular westerner, you’d go hungry for a very long time. Once I run an experiment, and it took 10 minutes to get attention and menu, another 15 minutes to take an order, 45 minutes for the main to arrive and another 10 minutes to pay the bill, also the drinks normally arrive after the food, even if its just a coke, so you sit and wait by the empty table like a fool, if you follow the standard western etiquette. That is why I prefer local comedores (eateries) that serve you instantly menu of the day.
Overall verdict, Bolivia rocks, but Bolivians suck, but don’t let that deter you to visit this beautiful country.
Picture set from Bolivia adventures here.
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Into the Wild
Published March 20, 2011 Travel Leave a CommentTags: arequipa, chile, emu, lama, mountains, peru, rtw, south america, Travel
Last couple of weeks probably have been the most testing so far in my current RTW trip. Travelling around southern Peru, Northern Chile and now Bolivia for last few days. Average altitude has been above 3000m (currently at 4000m+ city of Potosi), meaning that at daytime the sun is harsh (and my nose is red), but as the sun sets, temperature drops below zero. Forget about heating, hot showers, internet or other such luxuries, I did not even have running water for several days whilst hiking the mountains. But there’s a big payback and that is the amazing scenery that you get to see and experience.
6000m+ volcanoes with snowy tops, lamas and emus (big running birds, that were too fast to get a picture) wondering around in the wilderness. Ough, I almost forgot about the condors that we spotted whilst hiking, they might not look like much, but their wingspan is around 3m. Some parts of the mountains that we passed were like a surface of moon, surreal formations of dessert and rocks. Overall, very satisfying and unique experience.
And come it did. Before last week I was not aware that carnivals are a global thing, not just Brasil and few other spots. In fact, most Latin American countries have their own versions, may be not as glamorous or well know than Rio de Janeiro, but still very enjoyable.
I happened to be in small Ecuadorian town, Banos, that had swelled 10x for the few days of the carnival, and the key activity here was guerras de espuma or foam wars. Literally a whole town was covered white with foam. I can not remember last time I was having so much fun running around with 12 year olds with two foam sprays in hand and mercilessly attacking random passers by with foam. The best thing, nobody ever gets angry as it is part of the whole festival idea, you spray a stranger in a face and he smiles at you (or sprays back), how cool is that. Some more examples of action here, here and here.
P.S. later on I found out that foam is quite toxic and flammable (due to alcohol content) so after having lots of it on my face, I’m changing skin like a snake, but that’s another story.
What they don’t tell on the news
Published March 4, 2011 Travel 1 CommentTags: bogota, colombia, rtw, south america, Travel, trip
You only hear about Colombia when something bad happens (just like Latvia, really). Forget about Guerilla fighters and Pablo Escobar, that stuff was in the 90′s. Now Colombia is a place to be, safety has improved dramatically in last 10 years (it is now much better that anywhere in Central America or Mexico I’ve been), people are as friendly as it gets (even that frown face in the picture turned out to be a good egg), so put your travel shoes on and come over here when you get a chance.
Colombia is basically one huge mountain range, and every big city is in some kind of valley or on top of the hill, great for vistas, but not so great if you want to get by road anywhere, average speed is 30km/h tops, so flying is a much better option, I learnt it the hard way (after spending 14h on the bus to go few hundred km).
I already mentioned Colombian love for plastic surgery, its a shame really, as the original stuff is not half bad, Colombian woman have got to be one of the prettiest in the world (by my own subjective standards). And they know how to have fun, Andres Carne de Res, one of the hottest restaurant and party spots in Bogota was full on, steak and aguardiente was tasty, but I was no match with locals on the dance floor (you see I grew up with silly folk dances, not salsa or merengue).
Pics from Colombia here.
Crossing the Line
Published February 26, 2011 Travel Leave a CommentTags: border, crossing, crossing the border, crossing the line, passport, stamps, Travel
Most of the time its red, sometimes its yellow, but no matter what colour, it always brings me excitement, I think I have a border crossing fetish. 76 countries and couple hundred of border crossings later, there are still things that surprise me. Every exit/entry into new country is potentially disaster in waiting (officers on lunch break) or a pleasant surprise (free wi-fi), you never know before it hits you.
Here’s couple of my most memorable, best and worst border crossings to date. Actually my latest crossing has to be up there in the top 5, coming in Colombia by a small boat, from Panama. Connecting villages on either side have no road access, just the sea and inhospitable Darien jungle, full of drug traffickers and guerillas, where kidnappings are still commonplace. Another fun water border crossing was going by boat from Vietnam to Cambodia via Mekong delta, where you stop in the middle of river by the barge to get an exit/entry stamp. Then there is Israel, which is officially at war with three of its neighbours, so travelling around this region requires some advance planning, plus the lovely Israeli special forces in black suits that question you as a potential terrorist suspect. San Marino is an interesting spot, where there is no border crossing (it’s just a rock in middle of Italy, what crossing), but you can get stamp for a fee as a souvenir. And to finish the top 5 would be lovely autonomous region of Transnistria, self proclaimed independent republic (part of modern Moldova) that is stuck in Soviet times from 25 years ago. Entering it, you pretty much disappear, as officially you’re never there, so if something goes wrong, you’d have to sort out the mess or else.
Then there is US customs, consistently (been there 3 times) the worst and most inefficient entry/exit procedure. Foreigners are made to feel like nothing upon entering the land of dreams. Considering that most of us arrive after long haul overnight flights to the states, queuing for 2-3 hours (even if you just need to catch a connecting flight and not even entering US) and looking at the bored faces of customs officers who take 10 minutes on average to process a foreigner is really testing. I once got shouted in full voice for stepping in the wrong queue and don’t get me even started on visa process that we used to have to go through before ESTA was introduced for Latvia. Its a shame that worlds biggest power has border crossings that are shambles, they could learn a thing or two from Chinese on this as well.
To finish on the high note, there is of course Singapore. Not only the most open worlds economy, but also one with most efficient border control. They manage to process the same level of information as US in fraction of a time, and there are always enough officers on shift so there are never queues for more than 5 minutes, no rudeness and no silly questions about terrorism, just straight forward efficiency.
Et voilà, that has been my experience so far, what about you, anything to add or challenge?
