Cartagena is the jewel in the crown of Colombia’s precious Spanish architecture. The main tourist attraction is the suburb called Centro, where you can easily spend your days wandering around, admiring some incredible buildings and their numerous flower boxes!
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Tibet – a photojournal
I could wax lyrical about this place until the cows come home, but what they say about a picture speaking a thousand words is so true when it comes to Tibet. Here are some photos from the 6 days I spent there. If you’re moderately interested in visiting this jewel of a place, now is the time – the Chinese are constructing up a storm there and I fear it won’t be the same for much longer.
Tibet – soul food
I’ve just spent 6 incredible days in Tibet. I write this to you now on the eve of my return to Shanghai and I’d be lying if I said leaving didn’t leave me with a heavy heart. This could be because there is another monster train trip waiting for me but it’s hard not to love this place from the moment you set your eyes on it. Knowing that I’m leaving it to return to the sheer chaos that is most of the rest of China makes me want to crawl into a hole and die.
The not so glamorous side to backpacking
Let me start off by saying backpacking isn’t for ants. Yes, it’s an amazing opportunity to see the world and conserve limited cash and all that. But you know that already. This post is about what they don’t tell you about!
The Trans Siberian – route marker 5,642km
Greetings from Ulan-Ude! Same ring as London? New York maybe? No, you’re wrong. More like Poffadder. The towns claim to fame is that it has a gigantic statue on Vladimir Lenin’s head. Ulan Ude is a shower stop for me – I can’t stomach the idea of a 35 hour trip to Mongolia so decided to have a pitstop in this metropolis.
The Trans Siberian railway and the drunk Russian called Serg
I’m currently writing to you from a town called Krasnoyarsk, about 4065 km’s from Moscow. Getting here wasn’t a small deal – it meant the longest train trip yet – another 2400kms, passing through 2 more time zones and officially crossing the Ural Mountains – effectively the marker that separates the European side of Russia with the Siberian side of Russia.
Peru – mountains, jungles and a million reasons why you need to get there
(Archived post)
You can thank my good friend Jet lag for this edition – like clockwork, i’m wide awake at midnight every night since being back in SA. I live like a vampire as a result, but instead of consuming blood, I consume packets of those little litchi and strawberry sweets from Tannie Woolies.
On fear – destroying the doubt
T minus 29 days. Whilst the excitement is reaching fever pitch and the preparations are cruising along steadily, that little voice in the back of my mind continues to ask those difficult questions. Whilst I know that backpacking the world is certainly the right decision for me, it wasn’t a decision that I took lightly.
Part of the reason for this blog is to (hopefully) help someone out there to take the plunge and live their dreams. This post is dedicated to you, the dreamers and vagabonds. Let’s try and make those fears and doubts of ours disappear.
T minus 48 days
June 19th. It all begins then.
It’s been a dream of mine to travel the world for as long as I can remember. I’ve had many a beer with friends, strangers and passers by where at some point, the topic of conversation will change to travelling and inevitably, I’d say something like “I want to travel the world and see it all”. Then, I will immediately carry on with my life and do nothing about this dream.
Dinks in Transit 