21 An hour’s drive from Paracas, the public bus arrived at Huacachina, South America’s only oasis. The place looked quite ridiculous. Bizarre, really, a little pond in the middle of nothing but sand and sand hills that almost arched over…
21-22/3/2017 I left Huacachina for Nazca the same day I arrived there. As I stood in the local bus looking down the aisle, I saw all these innocent big eyes staring at this yellow gringo with squirmy eyes who had…
22-26 From Nazca, I took the night bus with a bunch of European youths. Ten hours later, I arrived in Arequipa, Peru’s second largest city. I quickly went out for a quick tour of the city center. This is a…
27-30 A luxurious bus carried me from Arequipa to Cusco. The journey took 10 hours, arriving in Cusco early in the morning. I alighted the bus totally rested and fresh. This was the best and most comfortable long-distance bus ride…
28-29 There is a place in Peru every traveler touring Latin America makes a pilgrimage to wherever he/she is. From Cusco, I tried to get close to it, by finding my way first of all to Aguas Calientes. This was…
31 After seven hours, the tour bus arrived at Puno, still in Peru but now close to the Bolivian border. This was a little town with humble people. I took a casual walk around the square in the morning. A…
1-3 From Puno on the Peruvian side, I traveled by bus toward Bolivia along Lake Titicaca, to arrive at the border. I then walked about 200 meters to cross the border, arriving at the border town Copacabana, by the lake.…
5-7 I finally arrived in La Paz. The first few days in Bolivia were not easy. Few here accepted credit cards. Their ATMs did not take my China and Malaysian withdrawal cards. My dwindling US dollars were depleting alarmingly fast.…
8-9 After 10 hours of desperate escape from La Paz, I finally arrived in Chile’s northernmost coastal city of Arica. As I arrived on the coast, my eardrums popped, just like when a plane touches down. Today I slept like…
9-11 Chile is the longest country in the world, more than 4,000 kilometers long narrow strip of land facing the Pacific. Journeying south should provide a feast of beaches. Arica whets my appetite for more. Who can have too many…
11-13 At the end of seven hours of riding in the desert, after negotiating a few mountains, Antofagasta—a sizeable city of about 600,000 inhabitants—appeared before us. First thing in the morning, I went to the beach to have a peek.…
14-15 I took another night bus, proceeding southward along the Chile Pacific coast. After 10 hours, I arrived at La Serena. I hired a bicycle for the day for USD 10. This beach was wider than the beaches I had…
16-17 I was on the road again, leaving La Serena behind. I noticed more clouds in the sky and more vegetation on the mountains. This bus ride would take six to seven hours, eventually arriving at Santiago, Chile’s capital. Of…
18 One and a half hours away from Santiago on the Pacific coast was the port city of Valparaiso, made famous by its street art, a euphemism for graffiti. A few cable car stations connected the foothills to different parts…
19-20 I left the coast toward Argentina. The scenery on this stretch was yet another feast for the eyes. Today, the sun put on quite a show, flashing its glory with its utmost might in all directions. I felt young…
21-23 Last night I was treated like a king in this bus from Mendoza to Buenos Aires, at a price of USD 120. I was served red wine, champagne, and a hot dinner. I watched two movies on my personal…
24-25 From Buenos Aires, the next logical stop should be Iguazú in Argentina before moving into Brazil. But I had mistakenly booked the accommodation for Iguaçu in Brazil instead. So here I am in Iguaçu, Brazil. Wow! There was so…
26/4/2017 I broke my own record yet again, this time leaving Buenos Aires on a 20-hour bus ride. The rain had been dripping naggingly through the night, with thick vegetation starting to appear outside the bus windows. I opened my…
28-29 I touched down in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, in no time. The flight took an hour, but the taxi ride from the airport to my accommodation took about two hours, bogged down by the traffic. Today was my…
30 I left São Paulo behind and boarded a bus for a six-hour ride to Rio. Yes, this was the city of the last Olympics. Waking up in the morning, stepping out of my residence, which was in an unassuming…
30 I flew into St. Petersburg from Singapore to start the first leg of my Russian visit. Not my first visit, though. That was back in the 1980s, when I flew on the Soviet airline Aeroflot on my way to…
31/7 to 2 Russia is big, powerful, and has a long history, the Hermitage Museum is the embodiment of that. It is a museum, it was also the palace of the Romanov, the last emperor of Russia. From the outside,…
1 St. Petersburg has many palaces, so I had to at least visit one. I took the morning train to Peterhof Palace, supposedly an easy, one-hour ride, but I overshot it. When I asked the ticket inspectors if I was…
4 From St. Petersburg to Moscow, I wanted to take the night trains to save time, but buying night train tickets at the last minute on a summer weekend was excessively expensive. I ended up taking the day train to…
5 Next to the St. Basil’s Cathedral looms the Kremlin, the Russian seat of power. I walked around the compound within the walls. Beautiful churches with those exaggerated golden and colorful domes stood on the same ground local and world…
6 Moscow is obviously more than the St. Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin, so I took a day trip to Sergiyev Posad, one of the towns on the so-called Golden Ring around the city’s fringes. The Tourist Information Office advised…
4-7 Fellow travelers have expressed that St. Petersburg is more enjoyable than Moscow. I, however, find many things that intrigue me here. I could spend days wandering around Red Square, admiring its stately buildings and cathedrals, soaking up the aura…
8 I have now seen the two most famous cities in Russia: St. Petersburg and Moscow. Time to move farther east on the Trans-Siberian Express. I wanted to stop at some cities in Siberia, proceeding only when I was ready…
10 After a little over a day, I boarded the 15-hour night train to go farther east, to Yekaterinburg. I had almost two full days here, a Saturday and Sunday. The sun was out; the locals were out. The living…
13 I arrived in Krasnoyarsk about 10:30 a.m., after two nights—35 hours total—on the train from Yekaterinburg. I’ve never been cooped up in a train or on transport for 35 hours. Traveling by train horizontally across the country, losing a…
15 About eighteen hours after departing Krasnoyarsk, I arrived in Irkutsk early the next morning. This part of Russia was well and truly in Asia. Although the majority of the people were still Caucasian-looking, I was seeing more Asian faces…
16/8/2019 – After a night at Irkutsk, I joined a minibus to Khuzhir on Okhlon Island, paying 1000 roubles for the privilege. The island is reputed to be the best place to see Lake Baikal. We started off at about…
17 The few hours around Khuzhir yesterday were just the appetizer. The next morning, eight of us tourists were driven toward the northern part of the Olkhon Island, in a funny-looking Russian van. Many of these workhorses are seen plying…
19 I enjoyed walking to the end of the world, living on the edge without spilling over, testing the limit without crossing the line, then withdrawing to my comfort zone to relish it, and do it once more over and…
21 After two days of rest, I departed Ulan-Ude at 11 p.m. to arrive in Chita at about 10 a.m. the next day. By now, a train ride of fewer than 14 hours was a breeze. Sleeping among strangers, queuing…
22-26 After a few hours wandering around Chita, I was ready for my next train ride. I started this journey in St. Petersburg in Europe, and would end in Vladivostok, in the farthest east of the country, from ear to…
22-26 After 52 hours cooped up in the train, I finally alighted in Vladivostok, my last stop in Russia, having traveled from one extremity to the other. Not easy sometimes. For example, one of the two toilets for the entire…
I came to this country on business, but squeezed in some time to take a peek. Venezuela is no stranger to making international news in the past few decades. From the time of its former leader Hugo Chavez, it constantly…
30 I came to this Ipanema beach just before the sun set, to squeeze in one more beach for the day. This was another famous beach in Rio. The sun was about to retire for the day, shades of gray…
14-18 Cuba was the American playground decades ago. Then everything changed. Since the revolution in 1959, the country has been a constant thorn in the flesh of the people up north. In fact, a nuclear confrontation resulted when this little…
19-20 At the airport, a band dressed in bright colors played in the arrivals hall, welcoming tourists and getting us into the mood. I had little time in the Bahamas—to be precise, only a day and a half—but I wanted…
Caution: If you do not understand sarcasm or see compliments, you may not want to read further 注：内容含讽刺和隐喻，无意不敬 30 After Cancun, Havana, Cuba, and the Bahamas, I returned to Houston for a little business, then resumed my travel and came…
Arrived into Nairobi early this morning from Kuala Lumpur.
Departing Nairobi for Masai Mara, about six hours’ drive away, with 6 others early in the morning.
We spent an entire day traversing the vast expanse of this reserve.
After 3 days 2 nights in Masai mara, I headed back to Nairobi.
From Nairobi, I crossed into Tanzania via the border town of Namanga into Arusha, Tanzania.
We started driving towards Serengeti the next morning, stopped at a viewpoint to have a peek at Ngorongoro Crater.
Early next morning we set off for central Serengeti.
We spent a night in a camp site near the Ngorongoro Crater, a conservation area.
After four days at the Serengeti safari, I was back in Arusha.
After a day at Stone Town I took the local mini bus to Nungwi, a beach on northern Zanzibar.
6 am the bus departed for the border town Mbaye. It would take an epic 15 hours.
Descended from the mountains at Livingstonia, I waved down a pick-up to get down to Chitimba.
After 2 nights at Kande beach at Nkhaka Bay, I was on my way again. At 6 am, I started walking for 3 km to the bus stop, caught a pick–up truck to Goromoti, then another taxi to Monkey Bay, and after an hour’s wait there, to finally arrive at Cape Maclear at night fall.
At 5 am I was on a motor bike taxi leaving Cape Maclear for Monkey Bay to catch the bus for Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital, at 6 am.
After 2 nights I left Lusaka for Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, fifth country on this trip.
After a couple of nights in Harare, I took a big bus to Victoria Falls, another long ride but for the first time with air conditioning.
Can’t come to Zimbabwe and not see the Victoria Falls.
After seeing the Victoria Falls, I walked from the town Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe across the border into Zambia for a second time.
From Livingstone, Zambia I took a taxi for a short drive into Botswana, first to go to the camp site at Kazungula.
The Chobe River safari ended past 7 pm, at 9 pm I was again on a bus on my way to Maun, finally arriving early in the morning at the Okavango Delta.
I hitched a ride with a young German couple in their rented vehicle at Okavango Delta, departing at 6.30 am to arrive at Windhoek, Namibia’s capital late that afternoon.
A short stay in Windhoek was more than enough. I then took a small bus heading for the coastal town of Swakopmund.
After 2 days stopover at Swakopmund, I drove solo southward in a 4-wheel-drive to tame this Namibia desert.
Arriving at Siesrem around 3pm, I checked into the camp site. Each campervan is given its own parking lot, each with its own luxuriant tree that provide shade.
After a night at the Siesrem camp site under an almost topless tree, I set off early into the desert, under the scorching sun, not on a dying wish, just a wish to see the Death Valley.
After 3 hours at the famous Death Valley and Sossusvlei, I continued my solo drive south in my stud 4-wheel drive.
From Keetmanshoop, I went on another marathon bus ride, this time a midnight bus that would take more than 15 hours.
From Cape Town I was plotting my last fling with Africa.
From Mossel Bay I next moved on to Tsitsikama, on the Garden Route, more for its many activity based attractions.
From Plettenburg I walked 3 km to the main trunk road to wave down a local mini bus.
From Plettenburg I arrived back in Cape Town early morning of 30 December.