"Travels with Myself"

Ohados

"Travels with Myself"




Middle East » Jordan August 26th 2010

Middle-Eastern Vacation When I was just a little child, spending time with my family in Eilat (Israel's south-most settlement), I remember looking in Aqaba direction, Eilat's Jordanian neighbor, thinking how things would look like from across the border. I remember how fascinating the idea was. These were the early 80's and at that time Israel and Jordan had no diplomatic relationship, which made these thoughts a faraway dream. Only 30 years later, 16 years after PM Rabin and King Hussein signed the peace treaty between the two countries, I set my foot for the first time on Jordanian soil. You can figure my enthusiasm about it. You see, in the Middle-East crazy reality, a guy like me can travel half the world and back without getting to see a place five minutes from the border of ... read more
View from Aqaba to Eilat
Cleaning man in the Siq
Petra's Camel

Asia » Georgia » Western Georgia » Svaneti August 22nd 2010

Trekking in the Georgian Caucasus It's hot in Tbilisi. I just finished a nasty taxi ride from the mountains, 11 hours in a packed little van the locals call Marshrutka and I'm utterly exhausted. I'm putting my backpack on, trying to escape the noisy station, and then heading the guesthouse I stayed in a week ago. As I'm walking along the old neighborhood I'm suddenly getting this sense of freedom. This sweet feeling which makes traveling so worthwhile. It reminds me of that 60+ couple we met back then in Chile. They were traveling for months already, sleeping in the same low-budget guesthouses as we did, and they looked very happy. At that time I was wondering whether I'll be able to do the same when I'm their age. Well, I guess I still have way ... read more
Svaneti Lake
Glacier nr. Adishi-Iprari pass
Svaneti Lake

Europe » Spain » Catalonia » Barcelona June 25th 2010

A week in Barcelona Well, definitely one of Europe's best. Mediterranean weather, friendly people and the feeling of a city-never-sleeps are qualities that are second to none. Where else could one have dinner at midnight...? In a way, it's like Tel-Aviv in a larger scale. Gaudi is the city's best emblem (maybe Barca Football Club a bit more), so on our first day we joined the hordes (so many tourists!) and took the tour-bus around to see some of his extravagant monuments. Sagrada Familia is indeed impressive, but how much longer will it take these guys to complete it? Man, he dief in a tram-accident back in 1926 and ever since they can't finish it. Come on, get it done already! It is still an amazing cathedral. Later we tried seeing his works in Park Güell ... read more
La Font Magica (The Magic Fountain
Tossa Del Mar
La Boqueria Market

Europe » Austria » Vienna » Vienna November 1st 2009

Business & Pleasure in Vienna One of the advantages of being an Israeli traveling abroad is the uniqueness of our language. Nobody besides us understands it, which allows us to freely communicate among ourselves and, to be totally honest, we sometimes abuse this to gossip about others. Shame on us. Our worst nightmare is therefore making a nasty remark about someone who happens to understand Hebrew. It happened to me once in Peru where a French girl we didn’t like so much (and uttered that quite openly...) turned out to be a Jewish girl who's been to Israel and speaks fluent Hebrew. It was really embarrassing to find out she heard everything we said about her "beauty"... I’m a slow learner and just had to repeat the same mistake in Vienna. We ordered a taxi from ... read more
The Austrian Parliament
City view from Schonbrunn Palace
A real classic city...

Europe » Greece » South Aegean » Rhodes September 7th 2009

A weekend on a Greek Island “Ok, so we’re stuck in the quicksand. What do we do now? Why did I even listen to you??” I was completely pissed off with M. An hour ago we took the dust road leading to the sandy beach of Prasonisi. We followed the 4WDs' tracks passed there before us. We sat on the beach watching the kite surfers playing some nice tricks in the windy spot, where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean sea. When we had enough, we started heading back inland, but this time tried a shortcut through a more virgin ground. It took us less than a minute to sink in it with our little car. Fortunately, it didn't take long before our savior has showed up in the form of a chubby Greek guy who had ... read more
Our resort in Rhodes
Our resort in Rhodes
My birthday cake... :)

Europe » Austria » Tyrol June 2nd 2009

Trekking in the Austrian Alps "Hey, we should really make it happen this time", I said to Yaron. We were having a beer at the local Irish bar bringing up memories from our past trips when it suddenly occurred to us that we've never traveled together. Several years ago we almost made it in Bolivia - Yaron was on his way up to north America while I was on way down to Argentina, when our ways almost crossed, but he missed me by a week, and I couldn't miss the opportunity to catch a ride with a group of Israelis to the Salt Desert near Salar de Uyuni. Then he got married and took his wife to an adventurous honeymoon in China at the same time we were travelling in India. Again, we almost met ... read more
Trekking near Zell em See
Grossglockner trek
Grossglockner trek

Asia » China April 18th 2009

Celebrating Passover in Shanghai and more I'll never forget my first experience with China. It was during my first business trip alone to Beijing so I asked my local representative to write me the hotel's address in Chinese, just in case. After landing and catching the first available cab, I handed the paper to the driver who nodded in acceptance. 30 minutes later I found myself in the middle of the night, near a deserted office building. Fortunately we managed to find an English speaking student nearby to explain us what went wrong - the address pointed to the office address! Since taxis in Beijing are relatively cheap this mistake didn’t cost me much, but the feeling of being a complete stranger in the middle of the night in a huge city without being able to ... read more
Longsheng's outstanding rice terraces
Lunch in Yangshuo
Long Sheng Long hair tribe

Europe » Germany » Berlin » Berlin January 7th 2009

Quick weekend in frozen Berlin I've always pictured Berlin as a dark city suffering from terrible weather and an unpleasant past but as years went by I heard more and more good things about the place. So when the time came for vacation, was a natural choice for spending a short romantic weekend. In the past, I wasn't too keen about these short hops to Europe, where time and money are spent on hectic shopping journeys and fancy restaurants but the deal we found was too good to miss. The good thing about short trips is the fact that almost nothing needs to be packed and a rather small trolley suffice, containing only jeans, shirts and a coat. When we landed the weather was awful - snowy and cold. No such a big surprise when it ... read more
The Jewish Museum
The Museum Island
Central train station

Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix August 25th 2008

The Alps have been an old dream of mine which in some strange way did not came true so far (I've dedicated most of my traveling time for third-world regions in the belief that Europe and the western world could wait for older age). This time I managed to combine a business trip in Germany with a short however condensed trip to the French Alps. After a week in Heidelberg, I took the weekend off and headed towards the town of Chamonix located at the foot of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps and in Western Europe. It rises 4,810 m (15,781 ft) above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence. After a half-day cruising the German and Swiss "Autobahns" (the German highways known for their unlimited speed) and ... read more
Nid D'Aigle Trek
Heidelberg, Germany
Nid D'Aigle Trek

Asia » Thailand March 5th 2007

'Grand Finale' Thailand Thailand, the last destination in our long journey, has finally arrived. We knew the whole time that this will be the place to rest before coming back home and so it was. We started in busy Bangkok which was quite a cultural shock after 'shanty' India but from there it only got better. We started with Railay Beach, a beautiful sand strip near the town of Krabi about which we heard many good things. It is a place loaded with rock climbers occuping its many limestone rock and some scenic sunsets can be seen there. The water were perfect crystal green and clear. After a week we moved to Ko Phi Phi, one of Asia's most beautiful islands and also one of the places severly hit by 2004 Tsunami. The island is back ... read more
Sunset Beach, Ko-Phangan
Ton Sai Beach
Railay Beach, Krabi




Tot: 0.084s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 15; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0373s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb