Anders_O

I am sure more obscure provinces of Thailand can be even cheaper, but Bangkok is great value for western tourists. Your money seems to go really far, and what you get for them is generally good quality. Add to that the friendliness of the people and the obvious charm of the city, and you have a winner. At least for me. After coming back to Bangkok from the resort in Rayong, I spent Saturday express-sightseeing and shopping. I got tricked, I got lost and I got tired, but still I enjoyed every second. I drove a Tuk-Tuk, the three-wheeled motor-cycles roaming the streets of Bangkok, and the drivers were all keen to talk and show me things. I didn’t really trust them that much, but they seem friendly enough. They always try to make deals ... read more

My flight went very well, everything being on time, Oslo to Stockholm with SAS, and after a 4 hour wait, Thai Airlines from Stockholm to Bangkok. Now I have heard a lot of good things about Thai, and I had quite high expectations for them. I was a little bit disappointed with the plane, there were no personal TV-screens, the in-flight movies were quite uninteresting and the plane was rather old. Also they ran out of chicken for dinner, so I had to eat salmon, but that was actually rather tasty. The flight crew was polite, but not the constantly smiling, stunningly beautiful girls I had expected (or rather hoped for;). Arriving at Bangkok Airport, I chatted a little bit with Tord Stølmacher, an old friend of my brother. He was on his way for a ... read more

Wednesday 10th of November, Lima-Guayaquil-Salinas Our plane left at 10.55, so we went to Lima airport for the third and final time this trip. As usual, Anders likes to arrive early, so we had time for breakfast and stuff at the airport. We were flying Taca again, for the third time. And once again, they had a nice plane, with nice crew. The flight was 1h30mins so it went nice and quick and we landed in Ecuador before schedule. The airport in Guayaquil was a little bit slower than we have gotten used to on this trip, and we had to stand in line for a while to get through immigration. But we had no problems getting through, and well outside the airport, we hired a taxi to drive us the 3 kilometers to the bus ... read more

Thursday 4th of November, Lima - Iquitos Brenda was not happy with everything on our tours so far. She told Victor, and as a compensation, he offered to pay for a taxi downtown, so we could look around Lima. We had some hours to spare before our flight to Iquitos, so we accepted his offer. So far we had only seen the area around the airport in Lima, which is truly terrible. Downtown is nicer, with some restored colonial buildings, and some nice shopping areas. We watched the changing of the guards in front of the government building, and looked around the central downtown area. After that, Victor drove us to the airport, where we caught our flight to Iquitos. Iquitos is Perus biggest jungle city, with 500 000 inhabitants. There are no roads leading here, ... read more

Thursday 28th of October, Cusco We had to get up quite early today, because we were being picked up at 7.30 to go on a tour of the Sacred Valley (Den hellige dal). We started by visiting a busy market in the city of Pisaq, but sadly enough, the traditional market where they sell food and handicrafts to locals, was almost drowned by the booths offering typical tourist merchandise. Next up were some small ruins and then lunch, which was a nice self-service thing. After that, the days high-point, a visit to the old Inka city of Ollantaytambo. Still very much a busy city, it has some amazing ruins from the Inka time. The guide told us that the whole area was a astronomical observation are, and all the walls and buildings served a purpose in ... read more