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 Today, the 17th of August, is the Independence Day of Indonesia, my beloved country where I was born. My beautiful country that I left 7 years ago to pursue a new life with Ryan in Canada. To celebrate, I’d like to give a special mention to a time in my travels that reminded me of Indonesia the most. It’s Monaco. Monaco shares an identical flag with Indonesia, except for the width:height ratio. It somehow brought a huge smile to me when I saw this familiar flag [read more...]  Last year Ryan and I were so fortunate to have his brothers come and and join us in Europe for an Eastern Mediterranean expedition by sea. Of course we couldn’t miss out on Santorini, once a victim of one of the most violent volcanic eruptions in human history, the Minoan eruption. Prior to this mega eruption around the 16th century BC, there had been a thriving ancient Minoan civilization living on this island. Back then, the caldera island still retained its ring shape, almost entirely continuous except for one opening to the sea. [read more...]  I first heard about the Monastery of Montserrat, home of the mystical Black Madonna since the 12th century, from my cousin-in-law. She described this place as an unusual church, sitting on an unusual looking mountain, with unusual Mother Mary statue in it. I was intrigued. Because of its close proximity to Barcelona, only 50 km away, and the convenient transportation options that are available, the Monastery of Montserrat is a popular day trip destination from Barcelona. We decided to take a train ride there, from the station at the end of the famous street La Rambla. I slept [read more...]  A few weeks ago, when Nora the Professional Hobo asked me to write a guest post for her blog, I was very excited. My first guest post! Nora has a great guest post series in her blog called “Week-In-The-Life series”. She said: “The series is intended to give readers a sense of what the “daily grind” of long-term or full-time travel is like. It includes some of the “little details” of daily life that armchair travelers might not be cognizant of in the scope of our travels. The beauty of such a concept is that the daily grind of [read more...]  Basilica Cistern, the largest of hundreds of cisterns found underneath the modern city of Istanbul, was built around the sixth century during the Byzantine era. Throughout its history, this cistern had supplied the water needs of the Great Palace of Constantinople, and then the Topkapi Palace during the Ottoman era. Going down the staircase, you will reach the bottom of this giant water container. Instead of feeling like being inside a water tank, I felt like being inside a dark and ancient sunken palace, or Yerebatan Sarayi, as the Turkish might call it. The big hall is laid [read more...]  It was a hot day in Seville, but the cool gardens of the Alcázar provided a welcome oasis in the city. As I walked along the intricately ornate corridors and the lush gardens, I tried to imagine the life and the rule of King Pedro I the Cruel of Castile in the 14th centuries. Have you visited any Moorish influenced palace, castle, or fortress before? Do you wish to visit them? How do you like them? I think they are extraordinary! Beautiful and intricate. Alhambra in Granada and the Castle of the Moors in Sintra are other exceptional [read more...]  Usually when I mention the idea of cruising to fellow backpackers or bargain travelers I get strange looks and the same question: “Aren’t cruises too expensive for a backpacker?” A lot of people have a mental picture of cruises based on what they’ve seen on the love boat, but this isn’t accurate anymore. In fact, cruising can be a very cheap and rewarding mode of travel for backpackers, bargain hunters, and slow travelers. It’s a fun and inexpensive way to cross the ocean, visit out-of-the way places, and take some time to relax. When Dina and I started [read more...]  After 3 weeks of amazing trip in the North Island, New Zealand (stories coming, I promise), we were back in Sydney last Sunday, February the 28th. Today my friend told me I just missed 2 big events in Sydney. The first one was the Mardi Gras parade and fireworks on Saturday, just right a day before we came. I thought previously it was going to be on Sunday, so I actually was excited the whole day to see how things would be going, since I’ve never been in a Mardi Gras event before. However I saw nothing and later [read more...]  When we were in Europe, I didn’t realize how pretty a night scene picture can be, so unfortunately I only took a few of the night time photography. Here are some of my favourites. We love the city of Brussels. The Town Hall of Brussels in the Grand Place (Grote Markt) The Breadhouse or King's House Grand Place (Grote Markt), Brussels I had no idea that time, that there was a guy making the happy pose and hold in that position for more than 10 secs during the time I took the photo! I was so surprised [read more...]  This morning I found this awesome blog post 12 World’s weirdest stadium, check it out. Many of them have stunning backgrounds, however I have to nominate the Osaka Stadium in Japan and the gravity-not-needed field in Ukraine as the winners. You have to actually see the pictures in above blog article to understand what I mean. The Ukraine field was totally awesome, it’s built in a slope! Seems like Ukrainian players find the formula of anti-gravity. The Osaka Stadium had people’s housing and parking lot in the middle of the stadium, still with the cascading audience stands! Imagine you [read more...] |
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