Vanessa Anseline

Baanessa

Love life and let it live ya back



Travel Blog Posts


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Baanessa
October 3rd 2007

New York City (population: about 8,008,000) Fast paced and distracting, New York certainly has it all. After being in non-English speaking countries for over a year, suddenly I could understand every sign, every word, everyone. I was amazed at people’s willingness to talk about absolutely anything personal on the street as loudly and proudly and possible, despite being surrounded by strangers. All this plus neon advertising and sculpture was extremely distracting. Plenty of world class icons to speak of here, including the Empire State building, Statue of Liberty and Central Park. This is the city, where even its residents are proud enough to wear the “I love NY” T shirt. I met a lovely girl from Sydney on the bus back to the airport who spent my first day with me. We marvelled at Times Square, ... read more



Espania

Published: May 12th 2008Europe » Spain » Andalusia » Seville
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Baanessa
August 30th 2007

Barcelona What a nightmare trying to get to Barcelona! Just a warning to fellow travellers: try not to fly Iberia, anywhere, anytime if you can avoid it. As it turns out, when I rocked up to fly to Barcelona, I was informed that there were no flights to Barcelona anymore, only Madrid. After the most unhelpful service, they put me on a plane leaving in 5 minutes and, without me realising - take 2 of my around the world ticket vouchers instead of one. I sprint to the plane, buckle up and wait a further 40 minutes before the plane can take off. Needless to say, I miss my connection flight from Madrid to Barcelona and I have to go out and check in again. Because the slightly annoying Iberia attendant in Rome took two tickets ... read more



Italia

Published: September 15th 2007Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence
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Baanessa
July 30th 2007

Roma (Rome; population 2.65 million) Home of the great emperors, gladiators, gelato and the great Renaissance art. On arrival I was hit (again) with the culture shock of disorganisation. Trains sometimes are cancelled or delayed 20 minutes and the train station signs seem to direct you through a maze that gets to nowhere. But, if you block out all the loud English-speaking tourists by escaping the tourists traps, the charm of the city shines through. This amazing country has been inhabited by Italic tribes since 2000 BC. In brief, Rome conquered Spain and Greece in 202 BC, then Gaul and Egypt under Julius Caesar and then all the way up to Britain. In I have never seen so much marble and grandeur in my life. It becomes blatantly obvious the enormous wealth of the Catholic Church ... read more



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Baanessa
July 3rd 2007

Copenhagen (population 1.5 million) After rice or noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner in Asia, I welcomed the Danish Smorrebrod every day. This is an open rye bread sandwich that combines all the toppings, spreads, fillings and flavours you desire! It was also necessary to try Polsevogue, the traditional Danish hot dog. The shape of the bread so you don’t need to break it but a perfectly sized cylindrical hole drilled in for the hotdog. And of course, no trip to Denmark is complete without Danish pastry. Despite being called ‘a Danish’ in the west, these bodelicious taste sensations came from the bakeries of Switzerland, which explains why the Danes call it a ‘Wienerbrod’ as in bread from Vienna. Other than this, Denmark is famous for the great fairytale author, Hans Christian Anderson, The Little ... read more



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Baanessa
June 20th 2007

Helsinki (population 560, 000) If you want to experience some cultural extremes, just fly from Asia to Baltic Europe. Completely different climate, people and food. Already on the plane, I felt comfortable as I blended in with the blondes with blue eyes around me. It’s always a relief to feel like you are not always being watched or targeted as a tourist. Walking off the plane in Helsinki, nobody hassled me for accommodation or tried to coax me into a taxi. I looked and felt completely like everybody else - until of course somebody started talking to me in Finnish only to receive a blank expression then “I’m sorry, I’m not Finnish” in return. Suffering from jetlag and confused by the long hours of daylight, I crawl into my bed at 6pm for a quick ... read more



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Baanessa
June 7th 2007

Penang Penage is an Island off the North West coast of Malaysia, Georgetown being the big centre filled with bicycle rickshaws, temples, and colonial buildings. The city is made up of mainly Chinatown and Little India. Plenty of new things to try! Cameron Highlands With unequalised ears I proceeded to the 1400m to Father’s Guesthouse in Tanah Rata in the pouring rain. This is were most of Malaysia’s farming happens with it’s rich soil and reliable rain. In fact it seems to rain every afternoon daily. Although I was only spending one night, there was loads of touristy things to do, including tea tasting, rose gardens, butterfly farms, strawberry farms, temples, golf courses. I was content to drink tea and relax with other travellers. Tamen Negara Masses of 130 million year old jungle have everything ... read more



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Baanessa
May 30th 2007

Phenom Penh The “Tuol Sleng” Genocide Museum was a former Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison used to detain people accused of opposing Angkor. Apparently “Tuol” means higher than that around it, and “Sleng” means supplying guilt, poison or and enemy of disease. This literally translates to a poisonous mound to keep those who bear guilt toward Angkor. Security Office 21 (S-21) was secretly created at Tuol Sleng in 1976 for interrogation of anti-Angkor individuals. Before that, it was a high school which was enclosed by corrugated iron sheets, electrified barbed wire and the class rooms were converted into 0.8 x 2 meter prison cells. While there were 1,720 ‘general workers’ at the prison, male and female children (10-15 years) were trained were trained to be selected as guards for S-21. These normal children were transformed into ... read more



Northern Vietnam - sights and scams

Published: May 21st 2007Asia » Vietnam » Northwest » Lao Cai » Sapa
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Baanessa
May 21st 2007

Sapa (population 36, 200) On May 8th I finally cross the boarder to Vietnam as the officials unceremoniously stamp my passport. I jump on the public bus to Sapa - a minibus that drives around town trying to pick up people going to Sapa until it’s full. As we enter Sapa, people on motorbikes are slipping multiple hotel cards and maps through the window of the bus. Then getting off the bus, I’m bombarded with local 6 year old girls asking, “Where you from? What your name? You buy from me, yeah?” Feeling refreshed an energised by fresh Vietnamese food, I take a walk to Chat Chat village lined with brilliantly colourful villagers with huge dangly earrings. People from Vietnam seem to know a lot more English than people from China since tourism is a ... read more



The rural colours of Asia

Published: May 9th 2007Asia » China » Guizhou » Guiyang
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Baanessa
May 9th 2007

Guizhou (population 8,940, 116) Our guide for Guizhou took us trekking to some of the more remote Miao ethnic minority villages. The Miao people are the largest minority groups in China and divided into branches, including: Black Hmong, White Hmong and Stripped Hmong depending on their dress. Here people believe that everything has a spirit that controls their destiny. So during disasters, an elder will perform ceremonies to drive out evil spirits. There are yearly memorial ceremonies are festivals celebrated in this region. While we were there, the sister festival was beginning, which is the equivalent of Valentine’s Day in the west. During this week all the young girls dress up in colourful clothes and arrange their hair into a bun at the front decorated with a big fuchsia pink flower. According to Fox, the ... read more



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Baanessa
April 25th 2007

Yangzhou (population: 300,000) The backpacker’s capital of China, this city has everything every tourist wants. However, something happened to me in this city that every tourist absolutely doesn’t want. We went drinking at a local bar, when suddenly; monsoon rains hit the quite little town until 4am in the morning. By that time, the drains and nearby river were overflowing and flooded - leaving the quaint little bar an island in the middle of streets that were now rivers. The first step I took into the street, my foot stunk into the wet darkness and found the bottom knee deep. However, the second step I took, my foot found something else and kept going down! I fall down waist deep into the water. As it turns out, I had stepped on the top of a ... read more






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