Tag End of trip
I’ve been at home for a while now and had time to reflect a bit about the trip and the countries I visited.
Though the region is called Indochina (from the two main cultural influences on the region), it’s much less homogeneous than you might think at first glance. Geographically they are of course very similar with jungles and mountains and very similar climates. The difference lies in the people and culture. In my experience Laos and Cambodia are very similar and Thailand, though more developed, is culturally close to them as well. Vietnam sticks out as very different from the other … Read the rest
I’m back home and I’ve had a fantastic trip! I’ve actually been at home for a few days now but I haven’t posted anything until now because it’s taken a few days to unpack my stuff and sort through all my photos. Now I’m done with all that and it’s time to write the last post.
Before I sum up my trip however, I want to do a little bit of promotion:
The people I stayed with in Mae Hong Son were so nice and so hospitable I think they deserve a special recommendation. If you (or anyone you know) are … Read the rest
The standard for our business trips is that we get the weekends off but thanks to several delays we had to work during the weekend as well. On Monday however, there was some kind of festival going on and the customer’s factory was closed, so we couldn’t go to work even if we wanted to. Needless to say we didn’t waste the opportunity. Our customer was actually nice enough to let us use the chartered car for sightseeing so we didn’t have to spend any money on transport – the good part of being on a business trip I guess.… Read the rest
All through our stay here it’s been cold, windy and snowing, today the sun finally came out. Because of the strong wind last night however, the snow wasn’t as good as previous days. All the same I had a very good day, and it was nice to actually see where I was going. Thus concludes our week of skiing, except for some slightly adverse weather, both Renegade Wife and I have both had a great time.
Some general points about skiing here in Niseko:
The resort actually consists of three separate areas, Annupuri, Niseko Village, and Hirafu – Hanazono. Hirafu … Read the rest
There are a few more islands that belong to the Matsu archipelago but we never managed to arrange a good schedule for going there. However we still had a day left and had already seen most of the two main islands so we decided to take it easy. We slept till fairly late in the morning then went out and rode around leisurely checking various minor tourist attractions.
The giant Matsu statue 
vegetable gardens in the center of a small village 
A post warning you not to stray from the path because there are still landmines in the area.
Eventually … Read the rest
After a long train journey to Swinoujscie and too little sleep on the ferry to Ystad we are now back in Sweden and our travels are over for now. Despite a few mishaps we enjoyed ourselves but, traveling around like this is tiring in the long run; three weeks is just enough.
During the trip I learned a few things that can be useful to know for future adventures.
- I brought too many things: I had a few items I never used and can further reduce the size and weight of my bag without a problem.
- It is a good
From Hualien to our goal in Yilan it was only a day of driving. We could easily have gone to Taroko gorge, arguably one of the most beautiful parts of the entire island with its rivers sheer cliff faces. However, both me and Yini have been there fairly recently so we opted against it.
Instead we kept driving along the coastal road which turns out to be one of the most beautiful stretches of tarmac in the country with sheer cliff faces rivaling those of Taroko, sloping down into turquoise water.
While riding, storm strength winds suddenly descended upon us … Read the rest