http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Ludwig/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Ludwig en-us Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:34:34 +0000 Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:34:34 +0000 The last country in my one year trip around the world Cuba.I had big expectations for Cuba and I really wanted to visit the country as soon as possible and certainly before any further political changes would take place. I wanted to see Fidel Castrorsquos Cuba. I had already travelled through many communist countries in Eastern Europe when I was a child back in the 80rsquos and early 90rsq http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Cuba/blog-408416.html I had now less than one month to go on my trip around the world and was really looking forward to go to Cuba. I wanted to buy a plane ticket in Cancun that would allow me to stay in Cuba for about three weeks. I had therefore only one week left for Yucatan in Mexicorsquos south.I came from Belize and went up to Merida on one long travel day by bus. Yucatan is much more westernised than all the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/blog-406612.html Not wanting to spend too much time in Belize City a place where sunset means danger I took a quick boat ride to Caye Caulker or otherwise called Backpackersrsquo Paradise despite the fact that it is relatively expensive. There is not really much to report on my five days spent on this small islandhellipI went fishing most of the time even did some spear gun fishing trips where I lost t http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Belize/blog-406597.html After a couple of hours in a small touristy bus coming from Honduras I finally arrived in Antigua Guatemala. Antiguarsquos setting is gorgeous nestled between smoking volcanoes in the central highlands of Guatemala the city is famous for its wellpreserved baroque architecture as well as a number of spectacular ruins of colonial churches which offer photo opportunities at every turn. I had p http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/blog-406495.html On a tough travel day I took six different buses totalling 18 hours of driving crossed the border saw thousands of gunned guards in Tegucigalpa ready to shoot at someone wishing it was not me hitchhiked at night in a forest yes I could have chosen a better place and time to finally arrive at my hostelmicro brewery on the edges of lake Yojoa. On the following day I went on a bird watchin http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/blog-406479.html It was a long drive up to Granada where I arrived in the middle of the night. I saw my first gunned guards patrolling the streets while I was walking towards my hostel. I felt a certain sense of security but then againhellipwhy all these guns is it really so dangerous Anyway so here I am in Granada Nicaraguarsquos oldest colonial city founded in the mid sixteenth century. Hiding from a f http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/blog-406214.html Pura VidaAfter another short night in Santiago de Chile and a pretty heavy earthquake during breakfast at the airport I took a flight to Lima and transferred immediately to San Jose Costa Rica. I had been warned that Central America was probably going to be the most dangerous leg of my trip. Costa Rica however felt more like Disneyland overwhelmed by thousands of pretty loud US tourists d http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/blog-406128.html I took a long flight across the Pacific Ocean from Auckland to Santiago Chiles capital city. After a day of relaxing at the hostel in Santiago I boarded yet another flight to Easter Island for a five day journey. Easter Island Rapa Nui in Polynesian is one of the world's most isolated inhabited islands. The island is a special territory of Chile. Its name was given by the island's first recor http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Easter-Island/blog-356463.html Kia ora tatou Hello everyone in Maori languageAfter a couple of sunny days in Sydney I flew over to Auckland New Zealand's biggest city. An hour after having landed I had booked myself into a 25day trip through the country with Stray a flexible bus network for backpackers with an hopon hopoff facility. I left at 6.00am the next morning on my journey. I hadn't realized that New Zealand http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/blog-352568.html G'dayI did a little twoday trip to Toronto for a friend's wedding before heading to Australia. Seoul gt Vancouver gt Toronto gt Tokyo gt Seoul gt Cairns was completed in five days and left me pretty exhausted afterwards so it was time for some chillaxinghellip or so I thought During my busy one month stay in Oz territory I traveled from Cairns to Alice Springs and then do http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/blog-344683.html Korea is not the usual backpackers travel destination. Most westerners that you will see are either English teachers or to put it nicely the less liked American GIs plenty of them in Seoul. Due to my shaved head I was mostly considered to be part of the latter group English teachers with French accents are pretty rare indeed..so are American GIs actually..anyway you got my point I hope http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/blog-344653.html One needs a short break after having traveled through India for five weeks and that is also what I did. So after a relaxing week in Singapore I studied for six months in Singapore in 2001 and therefore didn't feel like doing the touristy thing once again and a few luxurious days on a beach in PhuketThailand with my friends from Singapore Jacinta Poonam and Subash I was back on the road http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/blog-344598.html During my previous months of traveling I had met a couple of experienced backpackers that had traveled extensively through India and I had asked them how they had liked that part of the world strangely enough the answer had always been the same India is different but hm it is great. So after my seven weeks in China and a relaxing two weeks in Thailand I arrived in this different but http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/blog-324486.html Dear FriendsI am now in Bangkok to chill out with my very good university friends from Belgium after almost seven weeks in China I really enjoyed my time there visiting huge modern cities and small traditional villages hiking through amazing sceneries experiencing chinese people learning chinese drinking dice games and eating very good but sometimes strange foodThe planAs you might al http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-300462.html I hadn't organized anything for my stay in Mongolia as usual... but ended up in a great 16day trip accross the country which we organized through the hostel. The diversity of scenery in Mongolia is stunning one can drive through an endless steppe walk on Saharastyle sand dunes slide through an ice covered valley fish in a river and climb rocks that look like the Grand Canyon...all of it wi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/blog-282408.html After almost two months in the Middle East and Uzbekistan where I had the opportunity to visit numerous mosques and medressas I arrived in Russia the first nonmuslim destination of my trip where I stayed approximately 3 weeks visiting St Petersburg Moscow and then after 77 hours in the train crossing most of Siberia and several bottles of vodka later Irkutsk and Lake Baikal.St PetersburgSt http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/blog-282024.html I knew that Uzbekistan would be quite a different experience when I saw that the ticket office of Uzbekistan Airways in Dubai was closed three times a week for ldquoFlight Dutyrdquo and at the checkin counter where I had to battle with people transporting huge home cinema sets and half a dozen truck tireshellipI spent a total of 10 days in Uzbekistan most of it visiting cultural sites alon http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Uzbekistan/blog-269282.html I am now in Tashkent Uzbekistan waiting for my flight to St Petersburg and have some ldquofreerdquo time I know this could sound horrible to some and finally found after a long while a viable internet connection.OmanHaving traveled for a month in the Middle East I arrived in Oman and was immediately struck by two things i Oman is very clean the country has won the prize of ldquoCle http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/blog-269180.html I am currently in transit at the airport in Amman on my way to Muscat Oman. I ended my last note commenting about the kindness of people in Jordanhellip this has been topped by the people in Syria when measured in terms of liters of tea offered and rapidity of people offering any kind of help it has to be noted that I exclude all taxi drivers in Syria for the sake of this little exerciseArri http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/blog-260983.html Dear FriendsMy stay in Jordan was only a couple of days long but it was interesting and great fun I visited Petra at length went to Jesus' baptism site had a quick swim in the Dead Sea and will be heading to Damascus tomorrow morning.The border crossingTo travel from Egypt to Jordan there are two main options either a short trip through Israel or by boat from Nuweiba in Egypt to Jordan's o http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/blog-258053.html