I took a detour driving from the coast to coast route to get to the Drakensberg or "Dragon Mountain" (Drakensberg). It took about 3 1/2 hours to drive from Ballito (a small beach town near Durban) and arrive in the northern part of the Drakensberg, where I went to check out a place to stay and of which I had heard very good comments (Amphiteater Backpackers). It turned out to be good decision after good decision. I loved the area and the lodge was one of the best places I've stayed so far in SA. Here's a link to the lodge: http://www.amphibackpackers.co.za/. The lodge itself is pretty isolated, so without a car it's difficult to do tours on your own or buy food if you want to cook your know stuff. Those things apart, the property ... read more

I decided to do the South African coast to coast drive from east to west; starting in Sodwana Bay and ending in Cape Town. Sightseeing and diving were the main goals. I gathered information from different sources about places, things to do, dive companies, people to meet and stay with, etc. I also picked up a copy of the "Coast to Coast Guide". This is the link to the guide's website: http://www.backpackingsouthafrica.co.za/index.php. It proved to be a handful little guide and it's oriented towards backpackers. While I was in Nelspruit a few days before, Avi, one of the guys that was temporarily running the guesthouse I stayed in, asked me if I could drive him to Sodwana. He wanted to spend the last bit of time he had left in SA doing some diving, before returning ... read more

It all took about 30 hours. I was in Bangkok thinking about my next destination, with a high chance of it being Egypt. But then I took a look at the map again and realized that doing a detour in South Africa wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. 30 hours later I had my flight ticket and I left 3 days after. South Africa is a country I had been wanting to visit since about 5 years. In those 3 days I managed to gather information from several different sources. I've got a good friend back home, Claudio fuentes, whose mom is South African and she sent me some info. Another person who helped was Meltem, a German girl who I met diving in NZ. She was recently in SA and also contributed with ... read more

"We told the taxi driver we would pay once we arrived at our destination. He did ask for 10USD in advance though. That was the money he had to pay the police to be able to drive away from Poi Pet" (Cambodian border crossing). After we (my brother José, my sister Valentina and I) did a quick visit to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand, it was time for our short visit to Cambodia. Everywhere you read about SE Asia, whenever Cambodia is mentioned, Angkor Wat is a must. It's the same thing I heard from every single person who's been there. It doesn't matter if you don't visit the rest of Cambodia, but if you're in SE Asia, you can't miss this place. I'm not saying with this that there's nothing else to see ... read more

Bangkok was the beginning of 3 weeks traveling in Thailand with my brother José and my Sister Valentina (Vale). They joined me during my 2 year "leisure escape" from Chile. It all started last year while I was still in Australia and I was skyping with José. He wanted to do something for his 30th birthday; "Maybe go to Colombia for 10 days or so" he said. He then asked me where I was going to be around May this year and my response was "somewhere in Southeast Asia". One thing led to another. A few days after having had this conversation there was a big airline tickets promotion and he and my sister got tickets for Thailand to arrive there on May 30th. Perfect timing: José managed to get a month off work and my ... read more