haasje78

Caye Caulker After an active 2 weeks in Guatemala, I decided to take it a bit easier in Belize. It turned out to be the perfect choice. My first destination was Caye Caulker, of which I heard a lot of positive things. Together with Steffi and Francesco we booked our stay in the dormitory of "Bella's". The hostel was a bit of a "party hostel"; every evening we were playing drinking games and a couple of times we went out afterwards. During the day I didn't do too much. The most active thing I did was a snorkelling trip, during which I got to swim amongst nurse sharks sting rays. Mostly we were laying the islands only and tiny beach spot. To be honest I was pretty disappointed about this. I was hoping to do some ... read more

The new travelling I have to get used to writing the blogs again, it has been a while since my last travels. After 5 minutes of thinking, I still haven’t got anything on paper. I am experiencing the “new travelling”, sitting in a hostel with my lap topped using the complementary wifi, so I shouldn’t feel the time/money pressure of sitting in an internet cafe. It is convenient this new way of travelling, even though I was a bit sceptic at first. When I entered my first wifi equipped hostel on a late afternoon, I saw many people sitting on the communal table faced down in their laptops or smart phones and not faced towards each other. Now I understand that it was just a coincidence, and many people are just using it a short time. ... read more

As you know, we are back in Europe again and already settled in our new apartment in Helsinki. I wrote this entry when we were in Lapland. Amidst a beautiful countryside and everlasting daylight, I found time and inspiration to write the blog entry on India, our second encounter. Delhi After the peace and quietness of Nepal, going to chaotic Delhi is a huge contrast. With its hectic traffic, dusty roads, relentless heat and a population of over 15 million people (world top 10), Delhi is a challenging metropolis to visit. Due to the coming Common Wealth Games a lot of streets were getting a face lift which gave an even bigger messy impression to the city. 'Main Bazaar' in Paharganj area is conveniently situated next to Delhi's central station. This is the backpackers street where ... read more

After an exciting month in Myanmar we flew back for our last stay in Bangkok. From there we flew to Kuala Lumpur to catch our connecting flight to Kolkata. It looks a bit of a detour to fly over KL, but these two Airasia flights were together the cheapest we could find. Flying from Myanmar straight into India was just too costly. This entry handles our stay in India before going into Nepal. Our second stay after Nepal will get a separate entry. Kolkata To start your India travels in Kolkata was not recommended by many fellow travelers. We have heard horrific stories about the 8th largest urban agglomeration in the world. When we arrived in the busy city, we discovered that it wasn't all that bad. ... read more

From Vieng Poukha in northern Laos we hired a taxi together with the German and American couples, because the public bus didn't show up as promised to us. Relatively late we arrived at the Laos side of the border and found a hostel for the night. The next morning we crossed the Mekong river into Thailand, from where we wanted to take a bus directly to Chiang Mai. Unfortunately the bus dropped us of in Chiang Rai so we had to wait at the bus station for the bus to Chiang Mai, where we would arrive late evening. Chiang Mai and Pai When we arrived, Rob and Reve (a Kiwi couple I met during my last travels) were waiting for us, to guide us to a nice place to stay. We had dinner with them before ... read more