World Travelers

I was chatting to my future travelling companion last night over dinner and we both agreed that South-East Asia is a definite contender (I had previously browsed through the photos Bregt posted earlier in this thread - which I had somehow missed! - and was impressed to say the very least).

My parents have very kindly offered to pay for my airfare to anywhere I want to go, as a present for my 21st birthday this summer, which means I can budget the trip a lot more confidently between now and then.

You can check out mine too, if you will. I was in Thailand and Cambodia two years ago, and have a facebook album up.

I've never heard of anyone who were NOT pleased with their stay there.

Very good advice! Of course I realised this when I visited Australia - how best to see a country that not even 3-4 years would allow you to complete?

I remember meeting a couple in a bar in Melbourne who were convinced that 9 days would be sufficient enough time to complete the entire East Coast! And they were stopping half way up to be guests at a wedding!

Will do! Thanks a lot.



Well from what I've researched, Laos seems to be becoming a magnet for visitors at the moment as people have suddenly realised it's as good, if not better than, Thailand as a destination for low-budget travel with extraordinary benefits. That interests me a lot and Bregt's trip report is encouraging.

Like I say, I have 5 - maaaaybe 6 - weeks to kill with this trip so I want to have some rough idea pinned down by about Easter-time so I can book the flights.

Haha, I'm already excited and I haven't even made any concrete decisions. It's probably because I'm entering the same mindset that I was in when I began planning my Australia trip (which was admittedly at far shorter notice than this upcoming one). That trip was my first far-flung extended holiday to anywhere and it definitely gave me the travel-bug, itchy feet, or whatever you want to call it.

Never been to Laos or Vietnam, but heard great words about it. Especially Laos (especially the prices). So should be good!

Riga isn't too far from you...is it?

Bregt, did you come across any of these in Laos?

OK, I hereby retract my Laos recommendation.

Brief greetings from Zanzibar! Had a fantastic safari in the Ngorongoro national park in the north, danced with a Massai tribe, been to a private waterfall and flown a small aircraft, among other things.

Beautiful country, but very expensive! (even for a Norwegian).

Cheers!

Yes there is. In fact, I think that there are a lot of initiatives in the sub-Sahara trying to get people connected. I remember seeing something where there was a building that had 6-7 workstations that were all being powered by one ordinary PC.

And I think they were watching Premier League football whilst the piece was being filmed!

Pros and cons of internet spreading to "unspoilt" cultures in a nutshell perhaps?

I've come across those 'charge you to see natural wonder of country', smiled sweetly and walked straight through.

"Temple Guardians" too, try to charge you until they see someone official looking and then they run for it.

Jah!

Rasta man vibrations yeah are possitive"

Umm, Demetris, what does Jamaica have to do with Hawaii??

Back.

The trip was fine, especially the first part. The second was somewhat more strenous (partly because I had stomach problems for 4-5 days).

After a 24 hour trip from Oslo-Istanbul-Nairobi-Dar es Salaam-Arusha without sleep (I hardly ever sleep on public transportations of any kind), I got a good night's sleep at a lodging and made our first safari to Lake Manyara in the North. Great scenery with forested areas surrounding the moors around the lake, with a wild variety of wildlife including elephants, monkeys, zebras, giraffes, hippos and more.

That was nothing, however, compared to the trip to the vast NgoroNgoro crater, which looked like something out of THE LOST WORLD - an ancient meteor crater whose bed is now inhabited by every exotic creature imaginable. And the AMOUNT....it was just jampacked with herds and animals trekking across the plains - zebras, gnus, buffalos, flamingos, warthogs, ostriches, you name it. Also some predators, like hyenas, vultures and - yes - lions. The most awesome sight was seeing a male lion just 2 meters by the roadside who was just lying there, exhausted after having apparently just caught its prey which lay next to him (a baby buffalo, poor thing).

On the third day, we visited a massai tribe, and even got to dance with the welcoming party.

These days were great, and even though it's obviously tourist-arranged, it's about as authentic as it gets. Sorry, Bregt, I don't think even you could get it more authentic than that (for example, you're not allowed to leave the car while in NgoroNgoro or Lake Manyara...no private trekking on foot!). We were not backpackers, however, so we stayed at regular hotel rooms for the most part. No tents.

We had planned on flying directly to Zanzibar from there, but there was no plane, so we had to take the bus. Before that, however, our guide - Alpha - took us to his small hometown Marungu just by the foot of Kilimanjaro, where he showed us his project - a small park he helped establish in 1992 showcasing the place's history and nature. This is where the "private" waterfall bit comes on, a filmset-type beautiful waterfall that was part of the park. There were NO tourists there, as the park was still in development, so this was really great and exclusive. We also ate goat with fried bananas, a weird experience (the meat tastes fine, but is very senewy).

Anyway, they told us it would take 6 hours with a bus back to Dar es Salaam, so we thought it would be no problem catching the last ferry to Zanzibar. However, it took NINE(!) - this is Africa for ya! - and we missed it. Extremely rushed, we booked a small propeller aircraft which took us there in 20 minutes, but which was very expensive.

Zanzibar is very beautiful with some gorgeous beaches (and Stone Town is hypnotizing with its extremely narrow alleyways), but I'm no beach person and the Islamic culture made things like beers and pubs a rarity outside the hotels. I don't feel very comfortable in Islamic countries, I'm afraid. Also, the hotel resorts in the North by Nungwi had a somewhat "charter tourism" feel to it. The more laidback atmosphere in Kendwa further down the west coast was better, but this was where my stomach problems kicked in, at times nailing me to bed. On the other hand, we got to go on an excellent spice tour, so it wasn't all bad.

I would say the trip was a mixed experience. Tanzania is extremely expensive for a poor country, especially for lodgings, events, transportation. Some of them were even Norwegian prices, even though you get far less for it (airplane from Dar to Arusha was $75, hotel was mostly between $60-$100 for a double room). I could also have done with 3-4 days in Zanzibar at the most, not 8-9, which we had. I'm not sure I'll be coming back any time soon (except maybe to climb the Kili), but I'm glad I had the experience and I have no problem recommending the North if you have the dough for it.

Facebook pictures coming soon!