Goodbye Blog!!

Avviso ai naviganti: per gentile concessione di qualcuno molto importante e molto intelligente, da dove vivo ora in Cina non posso piu' accedere a FB o al mio blog.

Due to the new internet policy in mainland China, I cannot longer use my FB and my blog. Bye

Luca

Visa run in Cambodia: achieved!

Hi blog,
Just come back in China from almost a month visa run in Thailand and Cambodia. I had wonderful time visiting new country to me such as Cambodia and enjoying the beach life in Thailand, so more than a visa run or a trip, it was a real holyday, I think I deserve it after long time!

For what concerns Thailand, nothing new to add, my only new discover it was Ayuthaya, great place with nice temples, a very good alternative to Bangkok that I cannot still understand, too big, too noisy, too much traffic and too hot for me.

Cambodia it was a new country to me, I had good expectations and I am happy about what I saw. I have start from Battambang, with a nice ride from the Thai border with a Toyota Camry in the company of a whole family of 8 people (all of them in the back seat of the taxi), then I went to Siem Reap with a long but wonderful boat trip, I spent few days there to visit a good buddy met in Malaysia and to see temple city of Angkor (even if I am not a big fan of really touristic attractions, I have to say that Siem Reap it well worth a visit in a life time) and then I went to Phnom Penh where I left my passport to the Chinese embassy. Then I went to Sihanukville, a good place to do nothing for 4 days and after that I come back to Phnom Phen to collect my passport and finally leave for Thailand.

What I found really amazing in Cambodia are of course the people: even if they had a tremendous past with the Khmer Rouge which exterminated one generation of people, even if they live in a country where corruption is a normal and socially acceptable behavior, even if they are poor, even if they do not have many options for the future to change their life, even if they can still jump on a mine if they walk outside from their garden, well these people are still happy because they are alive and they can enjoy life.

I can highly suggest to people who always complain about life, always sad and angry, that cannot find enough reasons to be happy, to have a nice 2-3 weeks trip in Cambodia, I think that when they come back they can see all things from different point of view.

Enjoy!

Luca

Kids in Battambang

around Battambang

Boat trip Battambang - Siem Reap

Boat trip Battambang - Siem Reap

Siem Reap

Ta Prohm Temple

Ta Prohm Temple



Boat trip Battambang - Siem Reap



Angkor Wat

5 in the morning at Angkor Wat, after I wake up at 4 to be sure to see the magnificient sunrise over the temples. In this exact moment, the screen of my camera fuck me off and from now I have to take "blind" pictures, without even know if these were good or not. I apologize with that group of Korean close to me for that loud dialoge between myself and some higher identities and all those bad words in strict Italian language.



Ta Prohm Temple



Ta Prohm Temple

Baphuon Temple

Bayon Temple

Bayon Temple

Sihanukville

Phnom Penh, S-21

Ayuthaya

Ayuthaya

"A person is smart, but people are stupid". This is a good example.A gig of people to see what? What shitty Lonely Planet says in the bible

notes from my year in asia

Well, well, well…. one year ago I left Italy with the idea to start a Round the World Trip and since then many things happened… First of all I suddenly realized that it was not possible for me to make a RTW trip in a reasonable time, when I was in Hong Kong I thought to have just a look into China and I finished to stay there 4 months, and only to see Yunnan and Sichuan, so I reckon that I would need something like 3-4 years to achieve my original plan. But it is not a problem at all, I like to travel slow, very slow, I like to see and too appreciate little details, so even if I will not see all the world this time, I will be happy as well, which is a good goal for this trip and in general for my life.




Then in this year I saw many wonderful places, I ate a lot of local foods, I had many meetings, most of the time with great people that I will carry forever inside me and I got a girlfriend too, not bad for 1 year of solo traveling.



Now I am in Kunming, but in 1 week I will be traveling again in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos due to my Chinese visa issues, so time to rock again!



My top 20 highlights of the first year of traveling :

- Playing the “you know my friend Tim” game during English classes teaching in Yangshuo;

- Playing basketball with monks at almost 4000 mt in Tagong;

- Finding a bunch of mountains goats in the mist at 6,30 AM during the trekking at Tiger Leaping Gorge;

- Going from 3.800 mt up to 4500 mt and back in the same day during the trekking in the Yading holy mountains;

- Carrying stones with the head for 2 weeks when I was staying in Buddhist temple in the mountains around Dali;

- Sky buring in Litang;

- Diving in Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines;

- Sunrise in Dali and sunshine in Ko Jum and Langkawi;

- Get lost with motorbike in the Boulevan Plateau and finding secret waterfalls (and getting sun burn all over my arms at the same time);

- Elephant riding in Laos;

- Hanging out with local people in Vietnam Central Highlands;

- Playing pool with Hmong people in Sapa (and discovering that the same bar went on fire at the same time I left Sapa – it was not me, I swear) ;

- Party in Pulau Perhetian;

- Get lost during bicycle riding around Shangrila mountains and in Yangshuo rice fields;

- To be up at 5000 mt in China and down to the sea at -30 mt in Philippines;

- The death bus from Shangri la to Daocheng;

- The vomit bus from Danba to Chengdu;

- The sticky bus in Philippines;

- The smile of the children and the curiosity of old people who see foreigner for the first time;

- Eating pork bbq and pork sizig with a nice ice cold San Miguel beer in Dumaguete, eating fresh giant crabs in Hua Hin, bbq in Luang Prabang and Luang Nam Tah, drinking ice coffee in Hoi An, the ice fruits and cream in Hanoi streets, eating lamb with black pepper sauce and orange tea in Cameron Highlands, eating fried noodle in Yangshuo and Shangrila, the late night dumpling with peanut sauce in Shenzen.



But maybe the most amazing thing is that it was relatively easy for me to be out hitting the road for 1 year, I still remember the fear, the big issue of leaving a secure life 1 year ago, I would have never said that it would be like this, to experience the ultimate freedom of a no stress, no commitment life.



I wish myself to be lucky enough to experience the same during next 12 months.



Luca

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2 months gone, time for a visa run

Now 2 months of my normal life in Kunming are gone, my chinese is getting slightly better, I watched a lot of movies, readed few books, worked a little bit, and I have start to plan my route for the visa run of next month. I will landing to Bangkok and coming back to China through Cambodia and Laos, so I wiil have the chance to see the South East Asia part I left before. Good man! Time to rock and kick ass again!!

1 month gone

I am in Kunming from 1 month, trying to learn chinese but my level is still close to zero. I hope next month will be better. Ni hao.

back to China

Hi blog,

as I told you before, I decided to have a break in my traveling and to live in China for a while. Now I am back in Kunming, I already found apartment and I am trying to settle down myself with all the comforts of a normal life, and I have to say I like it.

Enjoy!

9 months now, my perfect circle trip

Hi blog,

you know what? today is April 21st, it means that I am on the road from 9 months, that's a great deal! If you look back at my trip, you can see that it is quite strange that exactly after 9 months I am close to achieve an almost perfect circle trip, perfect as a newborn baby, these are the details:
I traveled overland from Hong Kong to Singapore through China (up to the border with Tibet and back south in 4 months), Vietnam (from North to the Central Highlands in 3 weeks), Laos (all Laos, from South to North in 3 weeks), Thailand (from North to South in 2 months), Malaysia (from border with Thailand up to Singapore in 1 month), then flew to Philippines where I am staying now and in 1 week I will fly back to Hong Kong and then stay in China again for a while.

Luca, well done!

Here below I put some photos of the missing photos about the past 4 months, since I start an impressive beach life!

Enjoy

Boracay - Philippines

Kuala Lumpur, Petronas Tower by night - Malaysia

Puerto Galera - Philippines

My lovely hut at Charlie Bar on Ko Lanta - Thailand

Boracay white beach - Philippines

Chaweng beach on Ko Samui - Thailand

Sugar Beach on Sipalay - Philippines

Sipalay - Philippines

Sunset on Langkawi - Malaysia

Ko Tao - Thailand

Ao Phang - Thailand

Langkawi  - Malaysia

Penang - Malaysia

My secret beach, somewhere 40 minutes bike from Krabi  - Thailand

Lamai beach on Ko Samui - Thailand

Ko Lanta - Thailand

Cameron Highlands - Malaysia

Green Laguna (The Beach by Alex Garland) on Ang Thong Marine Nationa Park - Thailand

Pulau Perhetian - Malaysia

Pulau Perhetian durin Monsoon - Malaysia

Long Beach on Ku Jum - Thailand, great place

Penang - Malaysia

waiting the ferry on Ko Pha Ngan - Thaiand, lot of waiting

Penang - Malaysia

Sunset over Ko Phi Phi from Ko Jum - Thailand

Langkawi - Malaysia

The Beach

I am reading the Beach by Alex Garland and I found a very interesting quote about travelling: "If I'd learnt one thing from travelling, it was that the way to get things done was to go ahead and do them. Don't talk about going to Borneo. Book a ticket, get a visa, pack a bag, and it just happens."

... and another one about Philippines, where I am actually travelling: " I knew my affection for the Philippines was equally as telling: a democracy on paper, apparently well-ordered, regularly subverted by irrational chaos. A place where I'd felt instantly at home."

Well, what to say Alex, I am completely with you man!

By the way blog, you look very poor, sorry, I promise that as soon as I can I upload the tons of picture I got.

See you

Philippines Vs Thailand

after 10 days in Philippines, I really start to love traveling here, I find it much more interesting than the overrated, overpriced and over-touristic Thailand, I find nice food too, even if all the travelers I met before warned me about it, I love the way they made all pork and chicken so damn dirty and tasty. The only difficult here is about moving from 1 place to another, what should take 4 or 5 hours can easily take more than 10, and if I have to think 1 word about how it is traveling in Philippines, I think that the right one is "sticky". Now I am in Boracay, tomorrow try to move on Negros island, where I suppose to spend the remaining days on my visa.

see you!

Pulau Perhetian

well, well, well... after a couple if week I come back here to update my trip. I spent all my time since I left Cameron Highlands in Pulau Perhetian, I planned to go there for 4-5 days, doing some good diving and then going slowly to KL, Malaka and Singapre to catch my flight for Manila, but I did not consider one thing: the monsoon season, that was supposed to finish in February and instead it did not finish at all. So I had to reschedule everything, I decided to skip all the middle steps and to go to directly to Singapore from Pulau Perhetian (not really a good idea...).

But it was not bad, I finally learnt what is the meaning of Monsoon Season (at least 7-8 hours of rain per day, all days), I met some very good travelers and friends, now I know for sure that Lonely Planet sucks, I did skinny deep after 5 years, I finally did some good diving my last days, I found that Bergamo-Pescaro is a great connection, and I know that for the future it will be better to have leave some security time if I have to catch a flight.

Now, after 18 hours of continuous and incredible trip, I am in Manila, ready to go through Philippines for 3 weeks.

As soon as possible I upload some shots!

Bye

my life in Cameron Highlands - Tanah Rata

I supposed to stay here only few days, just as a middle step between Penang and the Perethian Island, where I suppose to do some great diving, but I am not able to leave! This place has a kind of magic,I found a nice little brand new guest house in a quite place only 5 minutes walking from the village and after 3 days I developed a nice routine which is as follows:
- wake up when I finish to sleep, which is usually between 8 and 9;
- nice little walk to the village for great breakfast with chocolate cake, yogurt and tea;
- another little walk to my favorite bench, killing the time until lunch reading;
- after lunch a big nap;
- tea time as a perfect gentleman in the afternoon;
- great dinner, then see if someone in the guesthouse is up for a chess game, otherwise I read again or watch movie;
- sleeping time, usually between 10 and 11.
So, what else I can ask for? Why should I leave??

Tanah Rata

Cameron Highlands

Cameron Highlands - Tanah Rata

wonderful place! a lot of green everywhere and nice cold air! ultra cheap food! what else?

enjoy!

Penang

I love here. Love for the sticky air, love for dirty cheap beds, love for dirty oily food, love for ex-british colony style. Here is a great mix of Indians, Chinese, Muslim, Malay, expats, it is like heaven for the food, and everything is ultra cheap. I love it!

moving to Penang

Tomorrow I will be moving to Penang and I also defined my trip schedule for next weeks or so in Malaysia: Langkawi, Penang, Cameron Island, Perethian Island, Melaka, Kuala Lumpur.

Enjoy!

Malaysia!

From yesterday I've arrived in Langkawi, Malaysia, crossing the border with Thailand with a joint ticket from Ko Lanta. Since I have a bit of fever and I am not allowed to go to the beach, I take some time to update the blog cause last month I was more busy with beach and nothing-to-do-all-day-time that I did not really care about uploading picture and info about my trip. so, here we are!

Ko Lanta

Long time not writing here, I disappeared because I was for 2 weeks in a very little and cozy island outside of tourist tours, no electricity, bungalow on the beach, good food, crystal water, great snorkeling, bare foot all time, lot of reading and relax in the beach all for me, what else you can ask more? now I am in Ko Lanta, here is fine, good place to settle myself for a while and to schedule my exit plan from Thailand, my visa will expire on March 9th and I will be heading Malaysia then.    

lost in paradise!

down to hell and back in 2 hours

February 5th 2011, a day I will remember for the rest of my life.

The lesson is to live the life always 110%, you never know what is going to happen later.

Really.

homeworking time!

Hey Blog, finally I found some time to upload all the pictures of last couple of months of travelling in Vietnam and Laos, now you are definitely ok!

I am in Ko Samui, rainy afternoon, so I took this chance to do some boring stuff, if tomorrow will be fine, I will be going to Ang Thong, the marine park where the movie "the Beach" was settled, I hope to get some nice shots!

see you

diving in Ko Tao

I have been all the past week in the wonderful island of Ko Tao, I went there without a real plan and I ended up with doing the open water course! So now I am a certified scuba diver, looking for more undersea spots to sea!

Now I just arrived in Ko Samui, it is way much bigger than Ko Tao and I still need to figure out what is the best part to hit!

enjoy!