Julia Steinberger

Juli on the road

Julia Steinberger

I recently decided to leave my hometown Munich, Germany to persue my dream of travelling around the world without a time limit and ultimate freedom. I'm planning to spend as little money as possible with cheap flights / buses / hitching, couchsurfing and workexchanges (HelpX, WWOOF, workaway, ect.). So hopefully my trip will last a long long time. Here are a few countries I'd like to visit: Jordan, Egypt, Thailand, Lao, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji or other pacific islands, Hawaii, USA, Central America, South America, Canada, Alaska. But as plans always change on the road, I'm open for any adventure 😊



Asia » Philippines » Palawan » El Nido March 27th 2013

The journey from Puerto Princessa to Palawan's tip, the archipelago El Nido, was a rather pleasant but crampy 6 hour minivan ride. We arrived in the early afternoon, picking a random accommodation from wikitravel on Corong Corong beach, a quiet and tourist-free beach about 2,5 kms down the road and hopped into an overpriced trike to take us to Lorenzo. Lucky for us, Lorenzo had one beach cottage for 800 pesos left and we took it. We enjoyed the quietness and clear waters of Corong Corong before heading back into town to check out the restaurants. The next day we decided to buy a snorkel and head out into the water of Corong Corong beach to check out the coral just off the coast. It wouldn't be the best snorkelling we we going to do on ... read more
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Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa January 30th 2013

It took me a night bus from Chiang Mai, 12 hours waiting at Bangkok airport, a 3 hour flight to Clark, a two hour bus ride to Manila, another 10 hours of waiting in Manila and a short one hour domestic flight to arrive in my final destination, the gateway to Palwan: Puerto Princesa. I spent about 3 days in this crowded and (despite its reputation) dirty city. The main reason was to meet up with my travelbuddy and extend my tourist visa, as I would be spending more than 21 days in the Philippines. I stayed in a small hostel called Chilli Backpackers, unfortunately a 30-50 bus tricycle ride from the city proper. The visa extension was quick and painless, we were in and out of the immigration office within about an hour. There is ... read more
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Asia » Laos » West » Luang Prabang January 27th 2013

Our slowboat arrived on scheduled time on the pier in Luang Prabang. Because I'm always prepared, I pre-booked my hostel on hostelworld and set off to find the Khamanny Inn Hostel. Without a map or any navigational skills, it took me about half an hour walking around town to finally find it. I spent about 5 days in Luang Prabang. The reason is, that it has a very nice backpacker atmosphere and is completely different from what you would expect from Laos. I felt like I just went to another city in the north of Thailand, as it reminded me a lot of Chiang Mai or Pai. I ran into a bunch of people I knew from Pai, which made it even harder to move on on my own. We kind of got lost in the ... read more
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Asia » Laos » West » Huay Xai January 11th 2013

After about 2 wonderful weeks in Thailand, I took the next obvious step on the travellers agenda: the 2 day / 1 night slowboat to Luang Prbang. I conveniently booked the trip for 1750 baht at the Pai aYa service bus station for January 3rd. We were supposed to leave Pai in a minivan by 6pm to arrive at the Thai border town Chiang Khong around midnight and spend the night there. Unfortunately, we were delayed about 3 hours and did not get to Chiang Khong until 3 a.m. after the most uncomfortable ride I've so far in South East Asia. The next morning we had to wake up at 7 a.m. only to realize that we wouldn't leave for the border until 8 a.m. and only wait for a crappy breakfast. Tired and grumpy, we ... read more
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Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Pai January 2nd 2013

After a nice and relaxed Christmas in Chiang Mai, I decided to celebrate the New Year in a small hippie / tourist hotspot called Pai. A small, idyllic place about 3 hours North of Chiang Mai. It is a word of mouth between all the backpackers traveling in the Chiang Mai area to go there and spend a few days, as you wouldn't consider doing that just from reading abou it in the guide books. Since Christmas and New Years is probably the busiest time in Thailand, I thought a nice small town would be the perfect place to party and not spend a huge amount of money. Most people were heading south, to the islands, getting drunk and high and whatever on Ko Phan Gan, Phuket and Pattaya and the surrounding islands. So, I booked ... read more
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Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai December 23rd 2012

Arrival in Thailand I left Jordan behind and landed in bustling Bangkok after a long 9 hour flight. I was planning to spend at least a few days in the city to be able to see everything it has to offer. After being initially overwhelmed by all this... STUFF that you can buy and do in Bangkok, I realized on my second day how massive and polluted it was. And that it wasn't for me. After buying a few essentials for my travels, and spending half of my budget for the week, I decided to get out and go up to Chiang Mai for the Christmas holidays. Because, who would have though, Christmas and New Years are peak season in Thailand, I could most definitely forget about going down south, as prices were high and guesthouses ... read more
Three Kings Monument
Songtheaow
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Middle East » Jordan » South » Petra December 18th 2012

Petra is probably the most visited attacktion in the Middle East, and probably the only reason for many tourists to come to Jordan in the first place. For me, it was a very short experience. I knew I had to visit Petra eventually, despite the 50 JD entry fee, because you can't go to Jordan and NOT go to Petra. So I didn't hesitate when my Bedouin friend from Wadi Rum invited me to go and stay one night at his friends house in Wadi Musa and visit Petra the next day. I grabbed my backpack and off we went, Bedouin style: Very spontaniously. We went with 2 other guys from the village and after a short drive we arrived at the friends house. For me, a European girl alone, this was another scary experience. I ... read more
on the mountain
A camel chilling
Roman theatre

Middle East » Jordan » South » Wadi Rum December 12th 2012

Israel After a short and – let's say interesting – experience in the Israeli kibbutz, I packed my bags and got out of there as fast as I could. I don't want to go into too much detail, but the particular job I had to do was borderlining with slavery and I didn't come to Israel to milk cows for 10 hours a day. And because I was in the country on a volunteer visa (which got cancelled), I had about 48 hours to leave the country. And as I conveniently booked a flight from Amman to Bangkok in Februrary, I decided to spend 10 weeks in a real Middle Eastern country: Jordan. Thanks to HelpX, I had already arranged a place to volunteer in Wadi Rum. So I went down to Eilat and crossed the ... read more
Bedouin desert guide
Camel
A Bedouin writing my name in th sand

Middle East » Israel » Tel Aviv District » Jaffa October 28th 2012

The last day in Turkey I left Fethiye after 2 weeks with a bunch of new (facebook) friends and wonderful memories. I wish could have stayed longer, but I was also excited to go to Israel. So, I took once again the overnight bus, this time in the other direction, from Fethiye to Istanbul, the big scary city. I had less then 24 hours and since Istanbul kind of exhausted me the last time, I decided to book a cheap hostel, close to the Blue Mosque because I already knew my way around there. The overnight bus was packed due to the Bayram holidays... Everybody was carrying cargo loads of meat with them. I couldn't really sleep because I had no space to stretch my legs or anything else... We arrived around 9 a.m. at the ... read more
Panoramic view over Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv beach
Flying into Tel Aviv

Middle East » Turkey » Aegean » Fethiye October 20th 2012

The Ceremony We spent a few lazy days at the hotel with no farm work. We just enjoyed the sun, wandered around Fethiye and relaxed by the pool. On one of the evenings, a ceremony was held in the town center to "open" the brand new promenade and seaside area, as well as unveil the Atatürk statue on the new town square. Quite a few people showed up to hear the mayor's speech (which of course I couldn't understand) and watch the dramatic unveiling of Turkey's favorite politician and national hero, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. A traditional marching band accompanied the event with rythmic turkish traditional music. It was an interesting experience. 12 Islands The next day, my fellow American helper and I decided to make use of the wonderful weather by going on one of the ... read more
On the boat - 12 islands cruise
The waterfall in Gizil Kent
Incirköy




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