Bangkhaos-- Bangkok is Chaos! :)

Khao San road*

There's something fascinating about chaos. Order is nice. It's clean. It's organized. It's... boring. But chaos... ah, chaos can come in millions of different shapes, smells, forms, colors. It changes all the time. It's busy, noisy, unpredictable. --> It's Bangkok.

I arrived on Friday evening and took the express bus from the airport (RE2 = 150 Baht) which drops me off directly at Khao San road, and in front of my hotel. I actually booked ahead this time, for the simple fact that arriving at 10pm at night on a Friday and then trying to find accommodation would be a little insane even for me...

Immediately after checking in, I dropped my bag and went to walk around the wonderful chaos of Khao San. It hasn't changed much. I'm sure the particular restaurants and travel agencies have changed since I was last here (7 years ago!) but the general appearance of it all is exactly the same. People. Happy people. Smiley people on vacation, enjoying the warm weather, chaos, and amazing Pad Thai for 30 Baht.

It's the mecca of backpackers in Bangkok, and even if you're not staying there, you should go for the experience. It's wonderful. I love it. And yes, it's chaotic and noisy, but somehow it's also--magical.

*This picture was taken 7 years ago and happens to be the only one I have. Unfortunately every time I walked out of my room to walk around KSR I happened to not have my camera with me and didn't want to go back to get it. Oops. :(

A world of friends...

People always ask me if it isn't hard moving to a different country every few years leaving all your friends behind... and I always answer the same way: yes, it's a bit hard, but you always end up making new friends...

By now I have lived in so many places, and met so many wonderful people, that it's a joy traveling anywhere (besides the obvious fact that I'm traveling!) because I know I can meet a friend here, another there.

Today I'm flying to Thailand. I was there in 2004 and I loved it SO much! In fact, the picture that inspired me to start this blog was taken there, in the hills of northern Thailand.
A few days ago, I discovered through Facebook that a friend I met in England 3 years ago has been living in Thailand for a year, and we're planning on meeting. I had no idea I had friends in Thailand!!! But I do. And I'm so happy and excited about it!

This trip is going to be a very short one, unfortunately... but I'm looking forward to the sunshine and the ocean... and also, to leaving the computer behind. I won't be posting anything for the next couple of weeks, because I need to "unplug". I promise to update it when I get back though, with plenty of pictures!! :)

Universal Passport

There's something that unites us crazy travelers of the world, the ones that don't ever stop and are always hungry for more. That something is our reaction to the dreaded "Where are you from?" question. We wince. We cower. We don't know how to answer it.

But finally, it seems there's an answer that would satisfy, if not our interlocutor, at least ourselves in replying: "I'm an Earthling." Simple. No complications. No explanations. Short and to the point.

I always thought borders and visas were artificial inventions that spoiled a little bit the joys of traveling. We were all born on the same planet, why should some of us have different rights than others? Following a discussion with my good friend J., he sent me a link to this Universal Passport. It's an awesome idea, and I love what it says on the bottom right corner:

"The bearer of this passport is allowed to travel freely throughout the entire planet.

As a citizen of Planet Earth, the owner of this document agrees to maintain and respect all the traditions and cultures of the lands he or she travels or lives in."

I couldn't have said it better myself. It's perfect! I just hope someday it becomes a reality and we don't need to go through full-body scans before we are allowed to border a plane. 

Travel companions

Choosing your travel companion is probably the most important decision you will ever make about a trip. Not where you're going, or for how long, or what you should take in your backpack. Those are all important considerations that may affect the quality of your trip, but nothing can make or break a trip as much as who you travel with. That is probably why most of the time I prefer to travel alone.

However, sometimes you find yourself with the opportunity of realizing someone else's dream, and you can't say no to that. So this time I decided, against all my better judgment, to travel for 40 days with my mom, and make her dream of visiting Israel and Greece a reality-- something she would never have done on her own.

The thing about travel companions is that it doesn't matter how well you know them. How well you get along in normal life. How much you enjoy spending time with them. None of those things matter. The three things that are vital in a travel companion are these: independence, flexibility, and the ability to go with the flow and not stress out. If those 3 characteristics are met, you will not have any problems. Example:

A- You want to spend a day in a museum, but your travel companion wants to go shopping instead. No problem! You go to the museum, he/she goes shopping, and you meet back at the hotel before dinner. That's independence.


B- You have a bus/train pass that allows you to travel around. You had decided to go from Barcelona to Marseille. Unfortunately the bus that took you from the hostel to the bus/train station took forever to go by, and you missed the bus/train. But you've already seen Barcelona and you were planning on leaving today, so you simply check where the next bus/train is going to, and take it just for the heck of it. After all, you've never been to Andorra before. That's flexibility.

C- You really want to continue your trip as fast as possible. You have a bus ticket for early the next morning. You're excited about it. However, you eat something for dinner that makes you feel seriously ill. You know it'll go away, but you just want to be on that bus in the morning!!! Except there's no way you can face 15hrs in a crappy bus on crappy roads puking your guts out the window.... so you just lay back, relax, and go with the flow. Another day in this little town is not what you would've wanted, but it's no big deal after all...

Any travel problem can be solved or at least endured if you and your travel companion have those three characteristics. If you don't, you're in for some seriously stressful times.

That was just a little introduction to the posts that will follow, the trip with my mom. By the very nature of the trip, and the fact that my mom had never before traveled the way I do, independence was not in the cards. Flexibility was good, and we had some good laughs about that, but the art of relaxing when things don't seem to go exactly your way is hard to achieve and only seasoned travelers have it. So we had our stressful moments. But no amount of stress can beat the joy of making someone's dream come true, and since this trip was her dream coming true, I'd have to say I'd do it all over again. :) We had some great times, saw some amazing places, met some awesome people, and the memories will definitely last a lifetime. Stay tuned for pictures and details!

--> Word to the wise: 40 days was perhaps a little bit too long though. But oh well...

Denmark--old friends, new friends, and even older friends... :)

After a week in Italy, eating to my heart's content, I went to Denmark to visit my friend Jonas, and also get to see my friend Thomas... and since we all know that the world is a handkerchief (El mundo es un pañuelo), I also managed to meet up with Matt, a friend from the US who I hadn't seen in at least 5 years, and who happened to be in Denmark for 3 days, EXACTLY at the same time I would be there, without us having organized it as such. :) And that's not even counting the fact that Dan and Diana flew to Copenhagen for a couple of days just so we could meet up! If Italy was a food-fest, Denmark was certainly a friend-fest! :)

I flew from Milan to Billund, and had to wait for Jonas at the airport for a couple of hours... that's when I realized something, and you can read about that here .

Hanging out with Jonas and his family was great... we had great laughs, food, conversation, and always a roaring fire to warm up by from the cold outside... :) I also had the opportunity to meet Jonas' grandparents, and that gave me a great idea for a book (no joke!). We can learn a lot from elderly people, and it makes me sad that my own grandparents aren't around anymore...

We also did a little sight-seeing, went to Aarhus, met up with Stien and saw the old town, which consists of original buildings brought from all over the country to preserve the heritage of old shops and professions...

Jonas, Stien and I in Aarhus

Doesn't it kinda look like something out of Disneyland?

Unfortunately, Jonas and I didn't have the appropriate shoes to walk in the snow, 

so we had to blow-dry them to keep our feet from falling off... :) 

Then I went to Copenhagen with Thomas, who happened to be driving there on Sunday morning, and met up with Matt for the day while he gave his conference about Life-connect (which was great, good job Matt!!) :) After that I met up with my amazing host Anna, and the next day I met up with Dan and Diana and we walked around everywhere, in freaking cold, windy weather...

Copenhagen is beautiful... It's definitely a city I would like to go back to and visit with more time, preferably when it's warm!!! :) 

Interesting protest in front of the city hall:

"You don't pee in your trash can, so why throw trash in the toilet??"

With Di in Christiania

Gloomy message on a gloomy day...

With Dan...

With Di and Anna in front of the Tivoli Gardens...

And now on to more familiar territory... Switzerland!! and.... CHOCOLATE!! :) :) :) 

Ooohhhh... here we go again...

I feel it coming. That familiar feeling. That swelling in my chest that makes me excited and feeling like I'm about to explode. Yep. It's here. My disease has caught up with me again. I have to do something about it. I have to indulge in it once again. I have to scratch the itch. Yes, this disease manifests itself with an indescribable, and unbearable itch.

What disease is this you ask?

Itchy feet.

Apologies...

Hi everyone...

So I start by apologizing because I haven't finished the blogs of the last trip, (because I'm lazy and terrible!) and now I have to start blogging this trip because otherwise I'll have a hard time catching up, and the same thing will happen again... Hopefully I'll be able to finish the other blog at a later time, but for now, just forgive me and come with me as I cruise around Brazil! :)

Cuzco-Lima-Cajamarca

Cajamarca is a little (actually not that little) city in the north of Peru, almost in the border with Colombia, but inland, in the mountains, with very difficult access. It is the center for gold mining in the region, and apparently one of the largest deposits of Gold in South America. This place is not very touristy AT ALL. There were some interesting things to see, but it's just so hard to get there, that most people don't really bother.

Cajamarca marked "the first" for many things for me: first time CouchSurfing, first time eating Ceviche (which entails raw seafood! yuck!), first time in a bus accident (although that wasn't really in Cajamarca, it was on the way there...)

The bus accident wasn't really bad, we just had to wait a couple of hours for the replacement... oh well... at least no one was hurt!

After many hours in the two buses (one from Cuzco to Lima, the next from Lima to Cajamarca), our CS host, Giancarlo came to pick us up at the bus station and take us home. Him and his cousin Sergio treated us like kings, took us out for drinks, for lunch, introduced us to their friends, showed us around some ruins, and generally showed us a great time! I could not have asked for a better first experience CouchSurfing... It was pretty amazing!!!


Our hosts and friends

We were only there for like 36hrs though, it was a necessary pit-stop for the keeping of a promise.

Next stop==> Colombia!!!

How to almost die in Peru

With a title like that, you’d think food poisoning, mugged and left for dead in a dark alley, being attacked by Indians in the forest, or having a traffic accident. However, the tail of this post has nothing to do with that. The food may have gotten to us a little bit, but nothing that bad (neither of us got to the point of throwing up, it was just belly ache), we were never mugged or felt the least bit unsafe, the Indians are actually quite friendly, and we haven't had any traffic accidents yet.

But we did almost die in Machu Picchu.

Keep in mind that I hadn’t slept much the night before, and we had to get up at 4:30am to be in the line for the buses (another US$7 dollars!) at 5am, because the buses started running at 5:30am and we HAD to be at the top by 6am when they opened, otherwise we would not get our ticket to Huayna Picchu. Tip 1- buy your ticket to Machu Picchu in Aguas Calientes the night before, as they do NOT sell them at the entrance. Tip 2- if you have a student card, it’s half the price! Tip 3- they only allow 400 people per day into Huayna Picchu. You don't have to pay extra, but if you don't make it there by 6am and RUN to the entrance of Huayna Picchu to get your ticket you won't be part of the 400. We got there early and ran, and I got number 296... 15 minutes later and we wouldn't have gone in...

So after getting our tickets, we had until 10am to explore Machu Picchu before we could go into Huayna Picchu. This was actually perfect, because we could have a little breakfast and walk round the ruins, take loads of pictures, and enjoy the place without that many tourists around, since the majority of the people would come around 10-11am.



Machu Picchu is absolutely incredible. How they managed to build an entire city of stone like that, in the top of mountains is completely beyond me. It may be expensive to get here, and the Peruvian government may be making millions from the tourists, but it’s totally worth it!



At 10am we made our way to the line for the entrance of Huayna Picchu, which is the tall, round looking mountain you see at the back of the pictures. Yep, we were going all the way to the top...

Of course, I already almost died on the way up, but fair enough, I could see what I was getting myself into from the beginning, and the views from the top were definitely worth it... It's incredible that the Incas managed to build stone steps around the entire mountain to get to the top of Huayna Picchu, which was a guard post since from there they could see all around and send messages to the main city if they saw any danger.



So we walked around, relaxed in the sunshine, discovered Granadina (close cousin of Maracuya, just a little sweeter) and took lots of pictures. Somewhere around 12:30pm, we were ready to move on, which to me meant going back down to Machu Picchu and from there walking down to Aguas Calientes. Except that we saw a little sign that said "Machu Picchu" with an arrow to the left, and "Gran Caverna" with an arrow to the right. Curiosity spiked, we decided to check what this Gran Caverna was all about... and took that path instead. It's downhill. Very much downhill. Stone step after stone step downhill... with steel cables to hold on to because the steps are almost vertically downhill... At some points, 20m ladders going straight down...


Notice how far away the river looks on this picture...



By this point I'm starting to get worried, because if we have to go all the way back UP to make our way back to Machu Picchu, I'm either going to die or kill someone. But we passed a couple who was going up and they told us there was another way around to get to Machu Picchu, so we didn't have to backtrack. Ok. Good. So we keep going down, so much so that I can see and hear the river, which from the top of Huayna Picchu looked like a little silver snake...

And now notice how close the river looks on this one!!

We make it to the Gran Caverna... and go "So this was it???" alright, back then.



And the way back, happens to be UP. Not the same way we came, but UP nonetheless... We had brought a 2,5l bottle of water for the two of us, but by this point we would've gladly drank the entire bottle each... which of course was not possible. So up and up and UP we go. And round and round and round we go. We had no idea where the heck we were, and we didn't know how long it would be until we got to the entrance of Huayna Picchu, and then back to Machu Picchu.

Remember that we entered the Huayna Picchu complex at 10am... you are only allowed to be there until 4pm... this is 3pm and we're starting to get worried... are we going to make it out in time?? Finally at 3:40pm we see the light, and get to sign our little names out. As a matter of curiosity, after being completely exhausted and feeling our legs were made of silly putty, we asked the guards at the entrance if anyone had ever been crazy enough to count how many steps it was to go all the way around... and the guard tells us: 13,000 steps!!!

Our jaws dropped. Yep, we went up and down 13,000 stone steps in one day, and there was no way we were going to keep going and walk down to Aguas Calientes... so $7 dollars later, we were in the comfy air conditioned bus, back to Aguas Calientes where a good hot shower and a nice bed was waiting for us to collapse.

By 6pm we were asleep. Dead. Or almost...

Ollantaytambo-Aguas Calientes

We got on the mini-van that would take us from Cuzco to Ollantaytambo (try saying Ollantaytambo 3 times fast! haha! took us a while to be able to say it correctly...) and made our way down the Sacred Valley, following the river, in the midst of the mountains. Beautiful scenery. Warm weather (for the first time in a while!!) But since we had been a little late in getting our bus in the morning, we didn’t have that much time to go exploring the ruins. We did however, find this amazing café owned by a British woman who used it as a charity place, where all the profits went to benefit the undernourished children of the mountain villages around. Great food, and quite strange to find a full English Breakfast in a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, Peru.




The best thing though, is that they were having a festival, so we saw lots of people dressed up in interesting/funny/scary costumes dancing and walking around the city... that was fun and unexpected!



Apparently we were having too much fun, because when we got up and started to walk towards the train station, we had to run the last 500m or so because the train was about to leave!!! Can you imagine? US$31 dollars for the train and watch it go without us... NO WAY! So we got on the train and the views were simply amazing!!



Arriving in Aguas Calientes, the initial idea was to camp, so we had left our stuff at the hotel in Cuzco, and brought just the tent and a small backpack, because we had heard lodging in Aguas Calientes was pretty expensive. Except we had fallen asleep on the train (it's amazing, we could sleep through anything... any type of transport, if it starts to move, it would rock me to sleep and I had to make an effort to stay awake if I wanted to look at the views!) and so we were pretty tired and wanted a proper bed. This girl immediately approached us and offered us a room for the same amount we had been paying in Cuzco. Well, jackpot. Ok, so the room was a little dodgy, and had a humangous window facing the hallway (with curtains that didn't quite cover the whole thing!) but at least there was a bed and hot shower... eventually we'd realize that was the best thing we could've done...

So we walked around for a while, bought some food to make sandwiches for the next day (yes, you are allowed to take food, just pack it all out when you leave the Machu Picchu complex!) and went to sleep early because we were supposed to get up at 4:30am!

The only problem is that this time it was MY stomach that wasn't feeling so well, and I spent half the night sitting up in bed trying to feel better... :(

Puno-Cuzco

Finally, we're on our way to Cuzco. We took our bus at 10am to arrive around 5pm, and try to figure out everything about the Machu Picchu thing before the next day, because we really wanted to go soon. By this point I was seriously considering going to Machu Picchu and then heading back south to Buenos Aires, but was eventually convinced otherwise...



Cuzco is an impressive city. The buildings, the lights, the architecture. Admittedly, I didn't see that much of it, but it was beautiful... and it's pretty big too...

So we get to Plaza de Armas and start asking everyone around for the street where the hotel we were supposed to go to was. Nobody seemed to have ever heard of it. Not even the tourist police. Yep, they have so many tourists, that apparently they thought it necessary to have a tourist police force. Since we couldn't find the place we wanted, we ended up going to this place close by that was recommended by some people on the square, it was cheap and clean, so we said ok, good enough!

We dropped our stuff and started going around asking for prices of train tickets to Aguas Calientes and such. We managed to get train tickets from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes for 3pm the next day, and that was really great since one of my friends had had to wait 5 days before getting a spot on the train. The idea was to leave early the next morning, take the bus to Ollantaytambo (1 1/2hrs) and walk around there for a while, before taking the train to Aguas Calientes. Since we had bought our tickets at Plaza de Armas, the lady was supposed to come in the morning, and we told her 8am sharp! with our tickets, so we could go. Well, 8:30am and nothing. The cell phone she had given us, no answer. I start to get worried... we gave her US$75 each, and that's one heck of a lot of money!!!

Eventually she showed up, and we were on our way to get the bus to Ollantaytambo, from where we'd take the train to Machu Picchu!! YEY!!

(TIP: We didn't take the train directly, because from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes, round-trip would be almost US$100, against the US$75 from Ollantaytambo. The bus to Ollantaytambo cost us 10 Soles, or around US$3, so we saved a bit, and got to see Ollantaytambo which is a nice little place and also has ruins!)

Puno, Peru

Puno is an interesting town; 90% of it is not touristic at all, and the result is you only see Peruvians going to and fro with their normal activities.

And then there's the 10%, which mainly consist of Parque Pinos and the adjoining pedestrian street, Calle Lima (or Jiron Lima, since that's the word they use for street instead of Calle, and had us quite confused at first), which is saturated with tourists...

We arrived around 11am, found a reasonably priced hotel (which wasn't easy!) and went out for internet, food, and to try and book our tour of the lake's islands, hopefully for the next day.

In the afternoon, after having lunch at this local restaurant (Sayani) and eating Alpaca and drinking purple corn juice (Chicha Morada), we also found a magical, wonderful Oasis in the middle of Puno... scratch that! In the middle of Peru! We found this cafe/restaurant/lounge bar place called Colors, with incredible desserts and coffee and food! What's more: the chef was Greek! No joke!



And here's the dessert:



The plan was to come back to Colors for dinner, but we ended up crashing, and they were coming to pick us up early the next morning for our 2-day tour of the islands, so that was that...

Lake Titicaca

Continuing from last entry...

So we arrived in La Paz at 7am. It seemed like a pretty incredible city, built like a spiral bowl, with the bottom around 600m lower than the top, and the mountains all around it, really making it look like a bowl.

However, we only stayed for a couple of hours, in the bus terminal, waiting for the next bus that would take us to Copacabana (nope, not the beach in Rio), a city on the shores of lake Titicaca.

Apparently I must've been really tired (after the journey from hell!) because I fell asleep almost immediately, and when I woke up, we were already in the highlands surrounding the lake.

It's quite a sight to wake up and see the beautiful blue skies and the beautiful dark blue waters and mountains and rolling hills all around...


(view from the window of the bus when I woke up... and the broken window with the cumpliments of Mene, who broke it trying to open... oops! )

Funny thing is though, there's a part of the lake where there's no road around, so our bus actually got on a boat, and we had to get on a different boat and chase after it! :) It was kinda funny because nobody explained anything to us, they just told us to get off the bus, and we watched and marvelled as the bus started to cross the lake without us...




Once on the other side, our journey continued for another hour or so, until we arrived in the beautiful Copacabana. We were tired, hungry and very dirty, so all we wanted was a room, a shower, and some good food...

We found a place called Residencial Sucre, with a nice room and hot shower for a reasonable price, and took it immediately. After the necessary showers, we went to find money exchange, food and laundry (which was also incredibly necessary!).



That's my happy face after a nice, HUGE and delicious Rainbow Trout, fished directly from the lake, and so fresh, it must've been fished a couple of hours before I ate it... :)

After food, a nap... that ended up lasting until the next morning, when unfortunately we had the bus to go to Puno, already in Peru. I say unfortunately because Copacabana is really beautiful, and I would've liked to stay a little longer, but Peru awaits!! :)

Small world, lonely heart

I have travelled many places... and to be honest, I haven't made many friends. I am a very friendly person, but I have mostly made acquaintances, people I met, hang out with for a time, but that didn't get close enough to become true Friends. I say didn't get close enough, but the truth is, I probably didn't let them. I seem to have a bad habit of keeping people at bay, in order to protect myself from the pain that letting them in and losing them would cause.

The result is, I have very few really close friends... and they happen to be scattered around this big globe we call Earth. The world seems so small when I think of my good friends in Australia, Pacific Islands, Brazil, US, Argentina, Costa Rica, Holland, France... but it seems soooo big when I realize that none of them are here, close to me, and that I just can't pick up the phone and invite them to come over to hang out, talk, share our hearts.

I'm feeling lonely... not of people in general... but of my good, heart friends... so this is a message to all of you out there: I love you! Yes, you! You know who you are...

Inspiration

That's it. I'm inspired. Just finished looking at some pictures from a friend who went to Colombia (and she's probably reading this... :) )and realized something: Traveling highlights the best parts of anywhere... including ourselves. You know that phrase that goes "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" that was eventually paraphrased into "Beauty is in the eyes of the beer-holder"? I'm going to paraphrase it again and say that "Beauty is in the eyes of the camera-holder."

As Christians, or actually, as normal people, members of the human race, shouldn't we aspire to see the best in people? Shouldn't we aspire to innocence and trust? Maybe I'm being naïve, and as a frequent traveler, I know we have to keep our eyes open and our purses close at hand, but how many people have I met on the road that actually had bad intentions? Not very many!! And how many TONS of people have I met who were helpful and gentle, smiling and trying to help the best they could?

Why is it that we only put the bad stuff on the news, and make it look like it's the rule, when actually, the large majority of the world is honest and caring?

Pictures have the ability to bring the best out of a scene, a country, an event. I want to travel and take pictures of people, to bring out the best in them. To open my eyes and see the beauty, not only of the world, but of the people in the world.



In the jungle, in northern Thailand... this lady was mute, but not deaf, and she was ALWAYS trying to help us weird silly foreigners who invaded her home... I was fascinated by her...