In Asia, Thailand 2004 On  07/12/2004  No comments

We decided to continue the car journey to see some places on the island we haven’t have time to see. The first stop was the Bo Phut pier. Interesting because the small wooden quay gave us an enormous peaceful feeling. We drove to the Big Buddha, a huge statue of a golden Buddha. The statue of almost 20 meters height was built in 1972. There was also Buddhas with monkeys, I had read about them but until then I haven’t seen. I liked the place because it looked like Thailand a lot. It was not anymore a tourist island with resorts; here it was a place full of faith and beliefs. The rest of the day we spend relaxing on the sun beds of the hotel: sun, sea and coconut tree shade. Walking on the beach I saw a glass bottle with many seashells stuck to it. That reminded me the sandal from the other beach. Once more the nature was showing its strength.

Our last day on the island we had reserved for a dive trip. We went to Koh Tao for diving...

In Asia, Thailand 2004 On  05/12/2004  One comment

Koh Samui was our first place for “vacation”. Before, our trip had been busy and tiresome. Coconut and fishing were the main activity on the island (koh); nowadays it is a tourist paradise. This, therefore, would be a perfect place to start to relax. In general, the hotels were small, there were many resorts but one doesn’t see the big towers of a chain hotel. I read that here it was not allowed to construct hotels higher than coconut trees, what I consider brilliant.

People told us that it was the rain season. We check on the internet for the weather forecast and it said cloudy and rainy days. We were luck because it rained only a few hour when we arrived and on the day of the departure. The rest of the time we could enjoy the beach, relax on the hotel’s sun bed, sleep in the coconut shade and sea bath. This was what I missed the most. The beaches in Europe don’t give you that kind of pleasure. It is impossible to compare.

Walking on Mae Nam beach we saw pieces of wood ful...

In Asia, Thailand 2004 On  30/11/2004  No comments

We did two tours to the north of Thailand. The first one was a day trekking. We went on a minibus for one or two hours. Then, we walked for about an hour to a hill village. There lives the Hmong tribe, originally form the region of Tibet and Mongolia. Later they went on refuge in China and during the 50s and 60s many came to Thailand, while others went to Laos and Vietnam. It was a quick visit, and it caught my attention a sign saying “2 photos 5 baht” and also to see they were selling Coca-cola.

From there we went to ride elephants. It was 45 minutes riding the animal around the forest. It stopped to eat all the time. And in the end of the tour, the guides sold bananas so we could feed them. The elephants were like a vacuum cleaner strongly sucking the banana. We also visited a hill tribe called Karen. A great part of the Karen people lives in Myanmar (Burma). In this tripe the majority of the women were dedicated to sewing and the men to produce musical instrument...

In Asia, Thailand 2004 On  30/11/2004  No comments

We arrived in Chiang Mai during the Yi Peng Festival (also called Loy Kratong Festival). Before the trip I had read about the festival in the country, so we tried to schedule that in our itinerary. The festival is based on the lunar calendar; it is commemorated on the 12th full moon of the year.

The first day there we met a Thai family (Pracha, Jam e Gik) in the hotel. They took us for dinner and told us about their culture and the festival Together with them we bough “Krathong” (floating offerings made of flowers where in that top we put a candle and an incense). These are offerings to the mother water as an apology for polluting the waters. We put our offerings on the Ping River in front of the hotel and did same wishes. Another symbol of the festival are the hot air lanterns. Some say that when the lanterns go up they take with them our problems, bad luck, sins… Others say that they are an offering to the Buddha and the light represents illumination...

In + More..., Errante and tour guides On  30/11/2004  No comments

In Asia, Thailand 2004 On  25/11/2004  One comment

Since we had seen some photos from Ayutthaya in a magazine, we decided to spend a day there. Declared as Unesco’s World Heritage, the city has many temples spread by the river margins. It was also the capital of Siam for about 4 centuries. Nowadays it has a peaceful atmosphere, far from the rush and stress of Bangkok. We felt that on restaurants and hotels. Here life goes slower and more contemplative.

We visited some ruins. Not all of them because it would be so tiresome and we assimilate what we were seeing. It was interesting to learn a bit about the Buddhist rituals. We spent some time in a temple observing it. There were the symbolic objects: the candle, representing the wisdom, the flowers, the compassion, the incense, and the purification. There was also a pot full of sticks that they shake it until one of the sticks pop out. On it there was a number that correspond to a message...

In Asia, Thailand 2004 On  24/11/2004  One comment

Bangkok was the arrival and departure place in Thailand. An impressing city, full of paradoxes and surprises. Usually when I travel I don’t like big cities, but Bangkok seduced me. Many things in Thailand reminded me Brazil. The mixture of rich and poor, modern and antic, high technology and obsolete, nice people, heat, informality, chaotic transit… Bangkok is like São Paulo, although more beautiful, for its temples and palaces.

We spent almost two days visiting temples. They are impressive: golden Buddha, palaces, gold, ornaments. The city is a mixture of Buddhist temples and modern architecture. The high buildings catch the eye as much as the temples.

The transport here it is already an adventure. The tuk-tuk taxi are everywhere, they are like a 3 wheel motorcycle with cabin for passengers, a cheap way to move around town. Another interesting taxi is the river taxi, a ferryboat that connects the two margins of Chao Phraya. There are about 20 stops of this boat taxi...

In Europe, Islands in the Mediterranean, Itália On  19/10/2004  No comments

I decided to continue with the “escapade trips” to islands. After Mallorca it was Sardinia. This time I went with Maxim, we got the excuse of his birthday to do this first trip “by errante”. Now, besides doing the web pages, he was photographing making videos with me.

As soon as we got there it rained really strong. Alghero’s old town was empty, looking abandoned and there was water everywhere. We had a good dinner in an Italian restaurant and went back to the hotel. Next day it was sunny and like that it was the 4 days in Sardinia, a perfect climate for traveling. We rented a car, essential to see the island. First we drove to the east side of the island. We were surprised by the amount of garbage by the highway near Nuoro. There was fridge, sofa, oven, parts of cars, all thrown away by the shoulder of the road. We stopped in Nuoro to have lunch and walk around the mountains. The region is known by its murals. We saw some interesting one, even by the roads.

Before getting t...

In Spain, Islands in the Mediterranean On  02/09/2004  One comment

I took advantage of my mother’s visit to Spain to go to Mallorca. We went for only four days. We arrive on the afternoon and we stayed sunbathing on the terrace of the hotel. Later we had a delicious torte with tea and went for a walk on the old town.

The city of Palm is beautiful, it has a very interesting old town and wide avenues with coconut tree. We realized that they were accustomed with tourists because we were always well treated in restaurants and hotels. They are hospitable, different from other parts of Spain where they seem to be bothered by the presence of tourists.

On our last day on the island we try to take a boat tour but it was not possible. He was final of the high season and in those days they had changed the schedules of the boats. We always arrived one minutes later that the boat had left. Great part was error of the workshop of tourist information that in said the wrong schedule to them...

In Scandinavia - Baltic 2004, Europe On  25/08/2004  No comments

Oslo was our last one stop. We arrive on the afternoon and went to a house that rents rooms for tourist. The place scared a little, it was very far from downtown, it seemed countryside, there was only green around. It was not the idea of urban tourism we had planned. It looked like a place for weekend houses. But in the end of the day we saw that it was not, many people lived there the year around. When we got off on the train station, many people got off with us. We imagined how it would be to live in this place in the winter, everything very quiet, without life and, in addition, snow all around. The second day we moved to a hotel downtown.

We visit the port, a pretty place for, in the end of the afternoon, seeing the sunset and boats. We also went for a walk on the Vigeland Park: wonderful. A park with approximately 200 sculptures by the famous Norwegian artist, Gustav Vigeland...