SHABL’s 2010 Travels in Review
Greetings,
For some reason or another this somewhat humble blog has gotten a lot of new readers. First off, I’d like to say thanks and I hope you’re more vocal then most of the other long term readers here. Considering we’re somewhat near New Years and there are so many new readers, makes sense to do some form of recap.
The adventure started in 2009 and 2010 was the first full year of travel. Traveling for an entire calender year is a cool feeling, will always remember 2010 as the best year of my life, hands down, no debate, forget anything cool that had ever occurred before, twas pasty pale in comparison.
Let’s keep this somewhat simple…
I left from Indonesia and hit up Thailand for a month. Spent 2 weeks in Laos and another 2 weeks in Thailand. Took off to Cambodia before spending 2 months in Vietnam. Spent little time in China and then to Hong Kong to catch a flight to Amsterdam. Cut through Belgium to France and spent ~2 weeks in France. Loved San Sebastian, the city I didn’t know existed and also Madrid. Did the Portugal tour and spent 2 weeks in Lagos.
Took an 86 hour train ride to Poland and went to a wedding. Then spent more time in Krakow before Prague. From Prague to Budapest. From there to Slovenia and Lake Bled. Had a friend from Prague in Berlin so took a 24 hour trip there.
Had fun in Berlin, spent a night sleeping on the street (shrubs) before catching a Ferry to Finland. Caught another ferry to Stockholm for a week and then checked out Norway. Norway was beyond ridiculously priced. Took a 24 hour ride from Oslo to Amsterdam for an afternoon. Caught an overnight to Zurich and decided to go back to Amsterdam after arriving in Vienna that evening, another over night.
From Amsterdam went to Munich with a plan of Prague, met someone cool and ended up in Budapest. The time span from leaving Stockholm to Budapest was about a week. I spent the entire week on overnight train rides to max out my Eurail before it expired.
It was cool being able to have lunch in one country, dinner in another and wake up in a third. This summer I’d like to do something I had planned before. Breakfast in Zurich, Lunch in Lausanne, dinner in Geneva and breakfast in Barcelona. If you have a Eurail the whole Swiss part is comp tickets and you just pay for the overnight to Barcelona from Zurich. To sweeten the sting you could leave Amsterdam the night before as it has a great sleeper to Zurich.
Once in Budapest the weather sucked so I went back to Thailand for 2 months. Stopped by Sri Lanka for 2 weeks and now have been in Tanzania for about a month. Really haven’t left Arusha besides an aerial safari of sorts and a trip to a lodge at the base of Mt. Meru for the wedding.
That’s a lot of travel, arguably a lifetime or so. For some reason it’s like I had a 16 month course of antibiotics and the bug is finally gone, travel bug that is. There are other places I’d like to see, I think. Plan on taking it slower this year. Currently sitting here trying to think of somewhere I’d like to see and nothing comes to mind.
I am looking for a beach town to call home for the winter as the process of traveling has become boring. Seeing new things aren’t as bright as I just don’t really care if I see them. I want a pad somewhere that could become a winter base with good connectivity, food and beaches. Considering I’m in Tanzania, it has to be in the Med, Asia or Africa. C & S. America will be left for next winter.
Thoughts?
Make 2011 a good one and travel somewhere. I used to live 180km from Montreal and rarely go. The city is awesome. That said, there are still many parts of Ottawa I’ve never thoroughly investigated either. Get where I’m going?
Tips hat,
P.S: Talking with a friend on IM. Says nothing has changed but everyone is getting older and hanging out less. Unless you wanna get all married and “this is it” styles, the 20′s is a good time to take off, one believes. You’ll know what you want by mid 20′s.
My wife and I live in Serbia, and we vacationed in Egypt for Christmas this year. I have to say I enjoyed it. Living on the Sinai peninsula for a winter would be nice. Close to Saudi Arabia and Israel, Jordan, Turkey, all really nice destinations. Good beach bum atmosphere in Dahab, Egypt with great food and awsome snorkelling. Cheap enough to stay for a while I think. Good fish, hummus/tahini/baba, kofta. It’s a desert ecosystem if you’re into the dry heat thing.
Hi Russ, never heard of either of them and looking them up now. I’d like to see the Luxor so Egypt sounds cool. Any idea on the wifi / connectivity situation of the area?
Thanks for the input.
On the Sinai peninsula in Sharm El-Sheikh and Dahab, every restaurant, guesthouse and apartment has free wifi. There are tons of small cafes and hookah shops with areas lounge around with lots of big throw pillows and wifi for surfing the web. It’s a pretty chill place.
How did you feel about safety? A place expensive electronics would get nicked from room? Anyways you’ve whet my appetite. Thanks mang. Looking like the place to go.
Wow – that’s some 16 months of the year. Caught up with most of those countries but must have lost track when I was travelling about the others!
Just no long jaunts for a while…
I did 13 flights in 2010, 8 countries. I wasn’t travelling for anywhere near as long as you have been, but I somehow realised that I had got to that phase you are in now. I don’t yearn for the new, unexplored places like I did before. But I have a feeling, the minute I get tied down into something I’m not keen on, I’ll start to get itchy feet again. See what I mean? Grass is always greener.
That said, I’m going to be taking holidays in more exotic places in the meantime
Hope you’ve found a nice hang out by now and manage to chill out for a bit.
It’s funny because the grass is greener but I’m not sure what yard I’m looking at anymore. The concept of always moving has gotten old and tired but the idea of going home and settling in is still as undesirable as when I left. It’s one of those “Where does one go from here”. I believe getting involved in a job (for yourself or a company) that you enjoy is the next step. Somewhere fun, naturally. I like the idea of exotic holidays, long jaunts are a different animal.
I’m probably gonna have to go somewhere closer to home this year…thinking Middle East, maybe some other cool Europe countries, maybe Russia, maybe Egypt. Come with?
I’m kinda clueless but leaning towards getting out of Africa and to somewhere where I have more amenities. It’s tougher here and not sure if that’s what I really care to do now. Personally, I’d say the wildlife and nature is a major reason to do Africa. Not sure how keen I’m on it now.
When you leaving again? Let us do something, indeed.
Russia is incredibly depressing and very expensive, coming from my friend who lived there for three years and now lives in Serbia.
Yeah, screw Russia. I saw Moscow from the sky and spent 1 hour in the airport, twas enough.
Philippines is delightful and cheap. Great food. Amazing people. Political instability keeps the gooks away…
That is one country that has escaped me. For some reason never got around to making the jump. Also know some people there. Where are you these days? Thanks for the suggestion, do miss Asia a bit to be frank. Mainly the food.
Cheers to great new year of travel Rob! I’m with you on slow travel … just finished spending 7 1/2 weeks in Thailand, most people I meet go wide-eyed and express disbelief that I haven’t been to 6 countries by now (aren’t you gonna be afraid you’ll miss sumthin’, they say)
I plan on travelling on and off for most of my life now, plus the slower pace is much more organic and relaxing I find.
Right now, I’m in Singapore, out to experience more of the AWESOME food (had very tasty and big portions of Arabic and Korean food yesterday for $6 Singapore dollars each yesterday) and the inherant ballerness of this city, love the wealth and cleanliness of this place (a little freaked out by the severe penalties for everything though!)
I agree with you, in 7.5 weeks many backpackers have done Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and are almost done Vietnam. Reality is there is no right or wrong way, just whatever way you want and that’s the “way of the road” (TPB reference).
I have spent 4 months in Thailand, it’s huge and diverse. Singapore, going to Bali? It’s cool but if you smoke, don’t toss your cigarette. Very “intense” laws over there. Going much longer?
Yeah, I’m in SE Asia until April … next stop Malaysia (tomorrow I head to Johor Bahru)
And yeah, huge fines and threats of The Cane everywhere in this place! :O
I vote Thailand! I just got back from there and I miss it already. I could get use to Thailand for the winter!
I hear ya, been there 5 months now, starting to turn into a guy that just lives in Thailand!! It’s popular for a reason though!
Rob, I think your best bet would be to head to Egypt. There’s so much to do in Egypt! You can head out to the Sahara and do a desert tour, see the bedouins out in Siwa, see all that Cairo has to offer, head down to Luxor, and Aswan, and back up to the Sinai Peninsula (Red Sea). Check out Dahab! It’s such a nice laid back place to chill out with plenty of wi-fi on offer, great food, snorkeling, diving, swimming, bicycling, etc. I have personally thought about spending a month or two there. I’ve been there twice now and I’m still not sick of it. I’m thinking you can at least do a stop off in Egypt on your way to where ever you intend to go. Look into it…
Enjoy yourself…
Solid Ryan. Someone else mentioned Egypt and I believe the same area you just highlighted. For some reason the only thing I want to see in Egypt is the Luxor. I want to see the original inscriptions of the story of Horus aka the story that most other religions are built on. That’s another story though, yes?
We’ll be in touch and if I go there, rest assured I’ll be bothering you on skype, ha!
Happy to have found your blog. I hadn’t heard of San Sebastian either, until I met someone from the Basque Country, isn’t it a gorgeous city? Anyway, my suggestion is Tarifa, Spain for your winter base. That way, if you miss Africa, it’s only a 35 minute ferry ride away! Unless of course you want summer temperatures and lots of people…then Tarifa would be best left for summertime.
Thanks Christine, believe it or not someone else suggested that to me the other day. Looking into it now. Thanks for your suggestion. San Seb is just amazing, love all of it from the architecture to to the tapas.
WOW!!! Really enjoyed the recap! You’ve had an amazing year! Are you panning to visit more of Africa?
It was pretty intense, a year for the books in this gents life.
I’d suggest somewhere around Mediterranean Sea. You could try a new lifestyle for the winter, still have beaches and sun and if you get bored, well there’s Egypt, Tunisia, Spain, Greece (and many more) that are close enough for a quick trip.
Philippines seems pretty cool too though.
Enjoy 2011 Rob!
You are right Audrey. I’m looking into it now, once up there the possibilities are endless and it’s a cool part of the world.