Over 40'000 km, 9 countries, 12 languages and 6 alphabets. Jungle, desert, mountains, steppe and coast. From -20m to 3500m and from -10°C to 45°C. By plane, train, bus, taxi, boat, elephant and horse. These are only a few numbers from our trip of the last 5 months. We had a lot of fun during this trip and we want to thank you all for reading our blog as well as leaving comments and messages. Oh yes, Happy New Year! [View Full Entry]

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After a bit more than 4 months of traveling around the world we thought that we needed some rest. In fact it was a great idea to spend the last 10 days of the trip on Thai beaches! When you go to a beach holiday there is usually not much to tell when you are back and that is pretty much true for our beach holiday as well! As the weather at this time of the year is usually better on the west coast (Andaman sea) we decided to ignore the east coast (Gulf of Thailand) and concentrate on two not-too-busy [View Full Entry]

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Our first stop in Northern Thailand was in Chiang Rai. Roughly two bus hours south of the Laos border. We visited the very interesting Hilltribe Museum and Education Center, which reinforced our decision not to do more treks visiting hilltribes. We have already mentioned our mixed feelings in the last blog entry. Besides an exciting night market (less touristy than Chiang Mai) and a few wats there is not much to see in this small city but we had our dirty clothes washed and written the Laos blog there. A bit more then 5 bus hours south west is Chiang Mai. [View Full Entry]

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Our next station in the Southeast Asian cherry-picking tour brought us directly from Siem Reap to Luang Prabang in Laos. You think that Laos is remote and that few travelers would spend their dollars in this obscure country? Forget it... it is almost as packed with tourists as every corner of Southeast Asia! There are less tourists than in Thailand and because Laos is landlocked you won't find the beach tourists here but sometimes we wish these governments would never had softened visa regulations... this would vastly reduce tourism! Nevertheless, don't believe we are not enjoying our trip or that we [View Full Entry]

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This is our first blog entry from South East Asia. Hope you enjoy it! We stayed 3 days in Bangkok before we actually started to travel. Definitely a great city and so different from everything we have seen before on our trip. It is evident that with this city, we begin a new part of our trip. All the countries visited before where on the Silk Road and had some cultural and geographical similarities, parts of common history and the same religion. We begin now to discover a different Asian culture and history as well as a different religion: Buddhism. No [View Full Entry]

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This is our blog entry for the Uzbekistan part of our trip. There are 47 pictures in this entry and you have to click on "next" at the bottom of the page to see the pictures on page 2 and 3. There is also a map available. We hope you enjoy! Crossing the border from Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan went without problem and we found our way to Fergana where we stayed for the night. A first general impression of the country was that it seems more developed; a bit richer than Kyrgyzstan. Streets are in better condition (almost comparable to Quebec's [View Full Entry]

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As planned, we left the urban life to discover the countryside of Kyrgyzstan. We took a mashrutka (minibus) from Bishkek to Karakol in the Issyk-Kul region. Issyk-Kul, at a height of 1800m, is the world's second-largest alpine lake (after Lake Titicaca) and moderates the climate around the lake in winter and summer. Karakol itself is a few kilometers behind the lake but it is Kyrgyzstan's fourth largest city and a hub for hikers and climbers. Although a city, it lacks of any urban infrastructure. Many roads are unpaved in the middle of the "city" and a lot of garbage is burnt [View Full Entry]

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We write you this entry from Bishkek, where we finally arrived last Thursday. As you can imagine, we were a bit nervous at the airport in Mashhad! The guy at the check-in first looked for Kirghiz visas in our passports, but this time we had the magic letter (see previous entry) that allowed us to board the plane! We also had the pleasure to see our Kirghiz "friend" there, but we weren't very motivated to talk to him! At Bishkek airport, we received one-month visas without problem in 15 minutes! Thanks to Vali (who has just received his official tourist guide [View Full Entry]

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Incompetent employees make us stay one more week in Iran Although we thought that we wouldn’t write you anymore from Iran… we have to spend an unexpected additional week in (very religious) Mashhad!! It seems that everything was going too well for us till now! Last Thursday, we experienced our first real bad luck during this trip!! This day, we felt that we had enjoyed our 30 days in Iran and, ready to take the flight to Bishkek, we were already dreaming of having a snack without shame during daytime and drinking a fresh beer on a terrace without hijab!! But… [View Full Entry]

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Finally, this is our next blog entry... it took a while and is short wrap up of our last 10 days in beautiful Iran. Esfahan This city is the beauty queen of Iran. We stayed 4 nights but could have stayed a lot more. The biggest attraction is the Imam Khomeini Square. The second biggest square in the world (the biggest is Tiananmen Square in China) is not only huge, but it is surrounded by nice buildings. Among others two of the most wonderful mosques in the whole Islam. We visited both, the Imam Khomeini Mosque and the Sheik Lotfollah Mosque [View Full Entry]

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