Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest city and is situated in the north. It has more than 300 temples, the oldest of which is Wat Chiang Man, which was raised in 1296, the same year as the city was founded. Incidentally, we lived just a stone's throw from this temple at the SK Guesthouse. It has near hotel standard rooms and a pool for the price of a guesthouse, and as such, we can recommend it. However, keep in mind that the excellent servicemindedness we received upon our arrival quickly vanished when the guesthouse realised we had book our tours from [View Full Entry]

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Bangkok, baptised by foreigners, actually refers to a small village within the giant city. In Thai, the city is called Krung Thep, or City of Angels. This is where we arrived after some departure problems at Ko Samui... As there are about 20 flights a day from Ko Samui to Bangkok, we did not bother prebooking any flight and simply took at taxi to the airport. However, this was a huge mistake. At the airport at 12.30pm, We had to buy tickets to the 10pm flight and put ourselves on standby! Quite annoyed by our blunder, we sat down at the [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Malaysia behind (see my previous journal entry), we caught a taxi from Kuala Besut (mainland access point to Perhentian) to the Thailand border, walked through the passport check, and caught the train to Surat Thani, a city in southern Thailand. Arriving late, we had to stay the night at a cheap hotel. The next day we went to Ko Samui for a price of 280 Baht, which included the half-hour bus trip to the port as well as the two-hour ferry trip. The same ferry goes on to Ko Pha Ngang and Ko Tao, which we unfortunately did not hav [View Full Entry]

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Finally on our way! Rushing through Singapore and Malaysia, Remi and I have just arrived on the island Ko Samui off the east coast of South Thailand. Although somewhat touristy, it is a tropical paradise in the true sense, with marvellous beaches and crystalclear water. However, we have not had the time to explore any of this yet. Rather, I will give a summary of what we have seen so far. Singapore, 5-7 February Arriving late at night on Monday the 5th, we went straight to bed. The next day we explored the central parts of the city, starting with Little [View Full Entry]

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Dear reader, welcome back for the continuation of my travelblog. I apologise for the delay in world travel updates, however, it turns out that PhD studies are not only about travelling, but also about, well, studies! Nonetheless, somehow I have managed to squeeze in another serious journey, this time to South East Asia. My previous travelling partner, and eternal soulmate, of course, Helene, is currently working in Norway after completing her medicine degree. Instead of her pleasant company, I am travelling with a highly-deserving second best travelmate, namely my brother, Remi. Wit [View Full Entry]

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Cuenca - the cultural Mecca of Ecuador After our amazing hike on the Inca trail to Machu Picchu (see Discovering the lost Inca city), we caught the plane to Lima on Friday 21 January. Lima is supposed to have great surf beaches but considering that we live in Sydney there was little point in trying to verify this claim. Rather, being pretty exhausted from the four day hike, we just had a walk down to a viewpoint over the beach, where some surfers were enjoying the waves, to have an icecream. The nigh [View Full Entry]

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The Inca trail to Machu Picchu Day 1 Monday 16 January 2006 we were picked up at dawn from Hostal Qorichaska in Cuzco by our tour operator. After about 2.5 hours of busriding through the Sacred Valley, we reached Ollantaytambo for breakfast and to stock up. Chocolate, snacks, and water were high on people´s lists, as well as coca leaves and walking sticks. The locals in the Andes have been chewing coca leaves for centuries in the belief that it aids against altitude sick [View Full Entry]

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Cuzco and the Sacred Valley Cuzco Helene and I arrived in Cuzco, the archeological centre of Peru, on the morning of Saturday 14 January after a long night´s drive from Arequipa. Sleeping aboard the royal class bus we saved money compared to staying one more night in Arequipa and taking a day bus, however, the tradeoff is of course a less comfortable sleep. Astrid and Aashild were not with us as they had left Arequipa a couple of days before to visit Puno and Lake Titicaca and were to catch up with us later on Saturday. They have promised to write [View Full Entry]

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Puno and Lake Titicaca By guest authors Aashild Espedalen and Astrid Diana Oramas. In Arequipa Astrid and I left Robin and Helene behind to study Spanish and travelled on to Puno by Lake Titicaca. The busride took around 6 hours and we arrived late in the afternoon. As Lake Titicaca lies at 3820 meters above sea level we soon noticed shortness of breath as we climbed the stairs in the hostel. We went to bed early to get ready for a big day ahead on the lake. Lake Titicaca is the highest lake with passenger boat services in the world and [View Full Entry]

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Visiting Colca Valley The Colca Valley is located about 180 km north of Arequipa, the city where we have spent the last few days here in Peru. As Helene was doing a Spanish course and Astrid was lying flat out with what probably was food poisoning, only Aashild and myself went there on a two-day trip. Day One Getting up early we caught a local bus to a town called Yanque, which lies at the east end of the valley. The trip took about 3 hours, parts of it very bumpy, and at its peak height, we were 4800 metres above [View Full Entry]

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