Asian backpacker

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Revisiting Barcelona for the FIBA Games

A good friend of mine just celebrated his birthday in august. His wife wanted to give him a gift that he would love, a ticket to the semi finals to the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Barcelona. Me and another friend decided it was a nice idea and so we decided to tag along for the game and a quick city trip to Barcelona! She wasn’t that into basketball anyway so it was good that us guys could join to make it an even better experience! He had no idea until he saw us queueing up at the airport to...

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Riding the Circle Line in order to escape bustling Yangon

23-25 March 2014 I wish I could say that I saved the best for the end, but unfortunately Yangon was not my most favorite place. Maybe because it was freaking hot when I was there, which made me very loom the whole day long! Yangon was the only city during my whole trip where I felt the need of taking a shower after I just had one! With some effort I managened to convince myself for a walking tour of Yangon. I did not expect this city to have some of the grandest colonial-era buildings in all of South East...

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‘By the old Moulmein pagoda lookin’ lazy at the sea…’

19-22 March 2014 Instead of taking another boring busride to Mawlamyine (Molmein), I chose for the ferry option. A bit more expensive and double the time to get to my destination, but it’s a relaxing and scenic way to travel! A tuktuk picked us up at the guesthouse and drove us to the jetty where we jumped on board a small long tailed boat. There were only 2 of us that were taking this trip so plenty of place in the boat. There are no build in seats, but they provide plastic chairs to sit on (actually quite comfortable!) and...

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A quick visit to Pattaya – Sin city of Thailand

In 2014 I gave myself a trip to Thailand as a birthday gift. The difference this time is that I won’t be traveling as a backpacker, but rather a “flashpacker”. I didnt even bring a backpack but a trolley that I borrowed. The goal this time was also to kick back and relax rather than going on the road everyday and sightseeing everyday. This time I also brought my buddy Greg with me as he hasn’t been to Thailand before but if you remember he did travel to Japan with me. He’s not so much an adventurous traveler, but more...

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Winding down with the hippies in Northern Thailand: Pai

So after some intense partying in Pattaya, I felt I needed to relax and get away from all the busy and hectic life down south. So I made my way up to Pai, a small town north of Chiang Mai. From Pattaya it was a loooong day of traveling. First I took the taxi from Pattaya to Bangkok DongMuang airport, then took an AirAsia flight to Chiang Mai. Once I arrived in Chiang Mai airport, I took a taxi to bus station. There are several buses you can take depending on your budget and your taste for adventure. You could...

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Spelunking in Hpa-An

17-19 March 2014 The bus journey from Bago to Hpa-An was ‘just’ a little more than 4 hours. A fairly short trip compared to other bus rides I’ve taken. This little riverside town in the southeast part of Burma has not that much to offer itselves. On my first evening, I did went for a wander. Afterwards I positioned myself at the riverbanks reading a bit, doing some diary, watching the local farmers offloading veggies, watching the sunset…in 1 word ENJOYING it all! 🙂 But the real hightlights of Hpa-An are to be found in the surrounding lush countryside and...

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A very short trip to Bago

16-17 March 2014 I do like temples. Maybe that’s the reason why I decided to stop in Bago for a day? Anyway, I hired a motorbike taxi to drive me around.It was actually way to hot to do anything (I burned my feet several times as you need to put off your shoes..even to walk up the stairs to the temples), even the driver was sweating non-stop! But as I was only staying for 1 day I couldn’t just sit and do nothing. As so I saw 8 temples in about 4 hours! This was just a short daytrip, so...

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It’s all about temples and stupas in Bagan

11-14 March 2014 I took the 7.30 pm nightbus from Inle Lake to Bagan. The plan was to arrive in Bagan around 4.30-5 am and head to one of the temples for sunrise. But again, not everything goes as you want it. Only 4 hours after we left Inle Lake the car broke down! Some technical failure. We waited SOOOO long that we saw the sunrise coming up from the highway. It’s not what I wanted, but it was actually not that bad 🙂 And well, it was a nightbus so I had some sleep while they were fixing the...

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On the boat on Inle Lake and trekking in Nyaugshwe

07-11 March 2014 A busride of 12 hours is nothing new anymore. But if you have stomach problems, you want to be at your destination as soon as possible! As so, my busride from Hsipaw to Inle Lake was as you can imagine not so pleasant 🙁 but I did made it! We were dropped off in Nyaungshwe, the closest gateway to Inle Lake. Once we got off the bus, we needed to pay a 10 USD gouvernment fee to enter the Inle Lake area. I was never asked to show the ticket later and I don’t know if I...

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Asian flashpacker – Thailand (pre-trip)

So for my birthday I rewarded myself with a trip (back) to Thailand. I’m bringing a friend who’s never been to Thailand before and to be honest, this time around I just wanted to relax and take it easy. Compared to my previous travels where I was being the adventurous backpacker, I decided that this time I’d up my comfort level a bit more and become…. Asian flashpacker! Eventhough this is relax and tourist vacation trip, I still wanted to check out some places I haven’t been to before. Touching down in Bangkok, I’m gonna try to put in the...