A TripAdvisor™ TripWow video of a travel blog to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile by TravelPod blogger The-boy_picot.
See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00af-9a08-5f62?ytv4=1

CHILE: AricaIquiqueSan Pedro de Atacama
“9th: bye bye La Paz and Bolivia and HELLO CHILE. an actual amooth-riding hassle free international journey across to Arica, northern Chile…had 2 “meals” served aboard and staff were friednly when it came to border crossing procedures….. very smooth but conscientious inspections on the Chilean side………..passed parque nacional Lauca…. very wide and full of wildlife and frozen lakes etc..flattish…….arrived in Arica at world cup final kick off time but first had the shock of struggling to find a basic hostal due to a mass arrival of Chilean army soldiers for some event……. landlord directed me in other directions and ended up content in a nice little central place…. had cable TV……. so caught second half and extra time of final…. how cruel penalties can be! For the rest of the day I wondered, but the town was deserted..prob coz a sunday and prob coz of football screening….. Arica is a moderately big city at the foot of the dry mountains..hailed as a beach resort but not that aesthetically pleasing…knew would only stay one night and day…. 10th: revitalized, I went for a little hike through the centre doing the typical building snaps and squares…. a few nice plazas a nice port but nothing more…best thign was a church designed b Eiffel. The main activity was walking up to the famous battefield site where Chile fought against Peru in the war ofthe pacific in 1880 to conquer Arica as Chilean territory henceforth….. Is set up on the brown mountains encompassing the city, and consists of a museum (good), statue of mary and jesus, tomb and panoramic watchpoints…… nice walk to take me up to lunchtime….In the mid aftee, I boarded yet another bus to take me 5 hours down the coast to Iquique, hailed as the northern Chilean beach resort… Had a thoroghly exciting encounter with the interdepartmenatal customs officers mid way down.. unnecessary!!!!! so silly… and chaotic…. 1 passneger on our bus had her phone stolen without even feeling anything…quite ironic thetheft happened at a control point haha… we stayed stationary for 15mins with the crew wondering whether to get us off the bus again or carry on.. no signal either to try and call it….. could have been another passenger from another bus… Was ever so impressed with the QUALITY of the bus..semi recliners, foot rests, headphones, air con, nice loo, Tv, snacks, clean…. amazing!!! Met this mid-aged local man who after conversing with me, randomly offered me his room that he rents from a lady whilst on businesss….. i thought it nice but had to deny subtly as couldnt be sure he was genuine… was just me….shame… Got to beach resort destination, Iquique. Promptly headed to this crazy family-run hostel….Name translates as “Teachers’ guesthouse”…owner is a mid-aged snobby lady, with her allegedly simple-minded son helping out, and the grandmother literally on death’s door… plus a maid (cleaner,cooker) and this Peruvian handyman/butler…. interesting set up in THEIR Home… have to pass throught the dining room and that to get to the patio where most of the rooms are found.. 2 cabin hut things and 1 big dorm where I obviously lodged… Collided with a gay American dude, Jesse (been living in a Chilean town or 5 months as exchange student, so a handy and reliable info/advice source), a sound English guy (Steve), a mad mid-aged single Kiwi bloke (John) and finally a mid-aged confused English chap (Gary). The latter two were soft drug talk obsesssed so after a while I left the communal patio/drinking area and got some winks.. 11th: Iquique is a moderately populated coastal city, set at the foot of the sandy Atacamanian desert hills……mild climate this time of year (autumny ie low tourist season)so not bad….the hostel lads went paragliding off the mountain tops over the city and coast, so I tagged along to see… Had already done a more spectacular glide in French la…”
Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/the-boy_picot/3/1153067460/tpod.html

Photos from this trip:
1341) Arica -memorial plaque 4 Pacific Battle
1358) top Quality Bus by worldwide standards
1363) resort-like appearance of Iquique
1367) comical tsunami warning sign
1368) boats moored in sea with desert in back
1370) La Tirana festival. Chilean paraders
1378) chinese mask – Oriental infulence
1381) San Pedro de Atacama – Dinosaur valley
1385) me in da valley
1386) stone pile and Bolivia in background
1388) Valle de la Muerte – going through
1397) the treck to prime sunset observatory
1404) Senora Nancy’s place where I slept
1411) young mummy in phoetal position
1413) wonderful outline of mountain in backgr

Duration : 0:2:12

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Preview of Ali_m’s blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ali_m/2/1221078600/tpod.html

This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator.

Entry from: Alexandria, Egypt
Entry Title: “Alex – it’s like Cairo-lite”

Entry:

“By the time we got to Alexandria I had not really slept in over two days (on account of Mt Sinai/the Dahab-Cairo night bus) so I was barely even conscious when the bus full of yuppie Cairenes pulled up at about noon. This was, of course, followed by the ritual of dragging our rucksacks from place to place in the blazing heat trying to find a decent room. This was made more annoying given the fact that Alex has no hostels or dorm rooms – the budget end consists entirely of decrepit old hotels, whose owners buck the Egyptian trend by not allowing any debate over the room rate.

The one we settled on was on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors of an old colonial style building. The lift that occasionally came about 10mins after you hit the call button (sometimes requisite with a little guy in a shabby uniform and hat who came in and pressed the button for you – I think he gave up when we didn’t tip him the first time) was impressively dodgy. While in motion a tinny loudspeaker in the lift plays what sounds like Arabic prayers, perhaps against the thing breaking down. Like many Egyptian lifts there is no inner door, so as the thing is travelling you can see the doors to the other floors as they move past. Many have dusty, broken windows and open onto floors of the building that seem to have been abandoned some time ago. On the gaps between the floors, someone has written the floor numbers on the side of the lift shaft in magic marker. Despite the state of the building, the hotel is by far the most reputable place we’ve stayed in so far – it’s clean, fairly bright and does in fact come with a sea view and a tiny balcony.

My birthday yesterday wasn’t exactly a huge party – I slept until about 8pm, went out and had fattah at an Egyptian restaurant (a super dense stew made with beef, rice and soggy bread), then had cake and coffee at an old cafe-patisserie. Whoop whoop! Today we hit up the Bibliotheque Alexandria, the huge modern library that’s supposed to be a cultural centre for Alexandria. The building was undeniably pretty impressive, and some of the exhibits were kind of interesting, but in the end there’s only so much you can do in a library if you are just a tourist. Mostly I enjoyed the air con in the huge reading hall. We also checked out the National Museum, which was, frankly, more of the same stuff as in the one in Cairo, although presented better and with better air con. Tonight I’m planning on scoping out some of the bars further up the waterfront, and maybe tommorrow we’ll see the catacombs and the fort.

Alexandria is a little cooler than Cairo, and its streets are noticeably cleaner and the buildings are a bit nicer. It’s supposedly famous for its cafe culture, though since it’s Ramadan, all the Egyptian coffee houses are closed during the day, so you can’t just hang around and have a coffee and a shisha by the waterfront to kill time. I’m starting to get really sick of Ramadan. It is always possible to find food and drink in the middle of the day somewhere, but it usually means that all the best local places are closed due to lack of customers (unless you can afford to eat in a hotel), and we’re pretty much forced to go to Gad, a chain of Egyptian fast food places, for a burger or felafels to take out for lunch. Even more irritating, the beer shop seems to be completely closed over Ramadan…”
Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ali_m/2/1221078600/tpod.html

Photos from this trip:
1. “Pool at the front of the Bibliotheque”
2. “Bibliotheque Alexandria”
3. “Rows of books”
4. “-Bibliotheque Alexandria”
5. “:D”
6. “Midan Saad Zaghloul at night”
7. “Looking out from Fort Qaitbey”
8. “Fort Qaitbey mosque ceiling”
9. “High security”
10. “Blue sky”
11. “Fort Qaitbey”
12. “Alexandria harbour”

See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00cb-9848-5d46?ytv4=1

Duration : 0:1:48

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Technorati Tags: alex, alex fattah, alexandria, cairo lite, egypt, facebook cafe alexandria, it's, like, new cabry hotel alexandria, newcabryhotel, Photography, photos, slideshow, trip, tripadvisor, tripwow, vacation

Preview of Patandsaoyuth’s blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1163003760/tpod.html

This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator.

Entry from: Vanarasi, India
Entry Title: “Holly Vanarasi (Benares)”

Entry:

“Another entry in French written by Vero, Patrick’s sister who joined us for almost 1 month in India…For a bit of English, scroll down. Varanasi Par Veronique Jeudi 9 novembre, on est à Vanarasi depuis 2 jours. Nous avons laissé Agra avec plaisir. La ville a beaucoup plus de charisme ici. La vieille ville est typique de Vanarasi et est complètement atypique en soi. C’est un dédale de petites ruelles très étroites (à peine un mètre parfois) qui grouillent de petites boutiques de parfois seulement 6 mètres carré. On arrive à peine à se croiser avec les vaches ou les buffles qui circulent librement. Les indiens balayent mais les tas d’ordures restent dans le coin de la rue et fermentent. Il faut éviter les bouses fraîches qui ne tarderont pas à être ramassées par une indienne de la caste des intouchables pour faire des galettes séchées utilisées comme combustible. Ca pue les poubelles, les bouses, l’urine, les égouts et la putréfaction, au secours de l’air ! Toutes ces ruelles aboutissent au Gaths. Nous logeons à Assi Gath au bord du Gange au Sud de la ville. Les Gaths sont de gros escaliers qui descendent de la vieille ville jusqu’au bord du Gange. Il y a des dizaines de Gaths qui s’enchaînent dont certains portent le nom du Maharadjah qui l’a fait construire. Il faut les remonter à pied ou en bateau pour découvrir et s’imprégner de leur atmosphère. Là on peut se rendre compte que le Gange rythme la vie quotidienne des habitants. Le matin à 5h30, on a pris un bateau pour longer les Gaths sur l’eau afin de voir les pèlerins affluer, faire leur Puja et admirer le lever du soleil sur le Gange. La ville s’éveille et est rapidement en effervescence. Les hindous font leurs ablutions, leurs rituels, ils chantent, ils prient. Ils se trempent entièrement dans le Gange… pollué. Franchement c’est pas un mythe. Un cadavre qui était remonté à la surface flottait à 3 mètres des pèlerins complètement indifférents. Deux corbeaux étaient posés dessus comme si cela avait été un rocher. Les femmes se baignent en sari. Tous boivent et recrachent cette eau dans laquelle on voit remonter des bulles de gaz provenant de putréfaction. Le seul endroit où j’ai pu trouver un peu d’air est le marché aux légumes du matin. C’est plein de petits étalages à même le sol ou sur des petites charrettes. C’est pittoresque. Hum, l’odeur des légumes et de la terre !!! Revenons au bord des Gaths. Les indiens et les Dobi Wallahs nettoient le linge et l’étalent sur les rives pour qu’il sèche. Les jeunes jouent au cricket. Certains jouent aux cartes. D’autres cuisinent, font leur commerce… Les crémations ont lieu à toutes heures de la journée. Vanarasi, ville de Shiva, ville de pèlerinage, est la ville où tous les hindouistes désirent finir leur vie et aller au Nirvana. Les crémations ont lieu toute la journée à deux endroits des Gaths selon un rituel. Les corps sont entourés d’un tissu doré et de guirlandes d’oeillets d’Inde. Les hommes toutes générations confondues accompagnent le corps au bord du Gange et l’y baigne. Puis il est déposé sur un bûcher. Le responsable de la cérémonie s’est rasé les cheveux pour se purifier. Il fait 5 fois le tour du feu avec la flemme sacrée qui provient du temple de Shiva, pour respecter les éléments tels que le feu, l’air, l’eau, la terre et l’esprit. Puis le bûcher est allumé. Pendant 3 heures environ la crémation est surveillée. Avec un long bambou, on pousse les pieds qui dépassent à l’intérieur du bûcher et on lui crève la tête pour que l’âme puisse être libérée. Les cendres et les restes d’os sont jetés dans le Gange. Les femmes n’ont pas le droit d’assister à cette cérémonie car elles pleurent trop et parfois certaines se jettent dans les flemmes. Il …”
Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1163003760/tpod.html

Photos from this trip:
1. “Buffalo stuck in the Gange mud”
2. “Gange banks”
3. “at the barber”
4. “Sitar concert”
5. “Tabla player”
6. “Good karma – candle in the Gange”
7. “Pilgrim singing”
8. “Pilgrim offering milk to the Gange”
9. “Sinking temple”
10. “dasaswamedh ghat”
11. “sheets drying”
12. “Clothes drying”
13. “Pilgrims at Rajha Ghat”
14. “Pilgrims Kedar ghat”
15. “Pilgrims kedar ghat 2″
16. “Cow **** cakes drying on the wall”
17. “Sheets drying on a ghat”
18. “Cricket by the Gange”
19. “Cow **** is good for sleep”
20. “Varanasi university temple”
21. “People stopping by Vero drawing”

Duration : 0:2:23

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Technorati Tags: benares, bénares bucher film, gange, holly, india, Photography, photos, slideshow, trip, tripadvisor, tripwow, uttar pradesh, vacation, vanarasi, vanarasi forum, vanarasis, varanasi, varanasi ceremonie sur le

Preview of Griffix’s blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/griffix/1/1210638600/tpod.html

This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator.

Entry from: Singapore, Singapore
Entry Title: “So expensive in Singapore”

Entry:

“After a four hour bus journey from Mersing (Malaysia), we arrive in Singapore. We are dropped off at the main bus station and from there take the highly efficient MRT (underground/overground train) service to Orchard Road – to the hostel where we are staying. The cost of living in Singapore is on a par with London which totally blows our budget. Accomodation is very expensive here and for the price of a nights accomodation in a 5 star boutique resort in Thailand or Vietnam, we are staying at the YMCA hostel! not the choicest accomodation but it is clean and very central.

Singapore is a very tidied and ordered city – totally opposite to the many other asian cities that we have visited. There are many rules and restrictions in place – large fines for anyone caught littering, jay-walking or smoking, eating and drinking on the MRT and there is no chewing-gum allowed. These rules do ensure a cleaner city environment however it does project an air of sterilness and loss of vibrancy that many other asian cities posess.

Day 1 – we take a wander down Orchard Road in the morning, passing shopping mall after luxiourious shopping mall including construction work to build even more shopping space! Singapore is a shoppers dream and a non-shoppers nightmare.
In the afternoon we take a stroll around the area known as ‘Little India’ (it is reminiscnt of India in parts but minus the buzz, the smells and the chaos), and then to ‘Clarke Quay’ – with its many restaurants and bars, a little similar to canary wharf. In the evening we eat at one of the hawker (street food) stands and sample some of the local specialities.

Day 2 – we take the MRT to ‘Chinatown’, wander around the colourful streets before heading to the ‘Tea Chapter’ to learn the art of the traditional tea ceremony. We are taught the etiquette and process of making tea the Chinese way (and we are not talking about dunking in a teabag and giving it a swirl for a few minutes!)
Feeling hungry, we make our way to one of the many dim sum restaurants and gorge on yummy food. We roll out the restaurant later on in the afternoon and take a stroll to Raffles (the famous Singapore hotel, home of the ‘Singapore Sling’ cocktail). With weary legs (and still heavy tums) we head to Bugis street – a market awash with clothes and food stalls (similar to Camden market). Still with a little daylight left, we visit Merlion park before heading back to our hostel.

Tomorrow we fly to Solo, Indonesia which will no doubt be of stark contrast to here.”
Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/griffix/1/1210638600/tpod.html

Photos from this trip:
1. “China Town”
2. “Clarke Quay”
3. “Lanterns”
4. “Merlion Park”
5. “Orchard Road”
6. “Raffles”
7. “Raffles sign”
8. “Sculpture”
9. “Shopped out!”
10. “Singapore sign”
11. “Tiger”

See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-0126-4202-86e1?ytv4=1

Duration : 0:1:28

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Technorati Tags: expensive, expensive living in singapore, how expencive is singapor, living in singapore, merlion park, no chewing sign, Photography, photos, singapore, singapore expensive street, singapore ymca, slideshow, so expensive singapore, trip, tripadvisor, tripwow, vacation, why singapore so expensive

A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by TravelPod blogger Wheresmehat titled “”Meh” laysia”

Wheresmehat’s travel blog entry:

“(Not a whole lot of photos, since I accidentally deleted them all on the second to last day. HA! Oh and my camera crashed a few days later. Heh! Bought a new one. Hehhhh.)

These two weeks have had some sort of lousy mojo.

If you have seen Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Frankenstein’, there is a scene where the Dr. completes the monster’s ungodly birth. In it, the doc attempts to lift his large child to it’s feet, both hopelessly slipping and slopping together in the placental fluids. They finally stumble along, both bruised and covered in slime.

That is how I felt after every progress I attempted to make over the last 2 weeks.

I will spare you the details. However, if my ticket arrives at the correct address in Bangkok, and I do as well in time, then I should be in India as of November 1. If I ever get through the waitlisted train tickets, I may make it to Pushkar for the camel fair. I will have to do a visa run out of India soon, since I only got the 3 month visa instead of 6 for some bureucratic reason.

Luckily, all these (and others) have been minor issues, and I am healthy and still happy on the road. Knock on wood for me.

It’s funny when you have frustrations while traveling in 3rd world countries. Just as you’re kicking yourself for screwing something up, or get to feeling lonesome, you see the beggar with no arms waving his stumps above a cup in his daily desperation, and you feel like more of a schmuck than before. I need to do some volunteer work soon.

All I know is, I am happy to be in Cambodia. Despite what this place has suffered, I immediately felt a more beautiful energy here. Maybe it’s the cleaner air. Malaysia is covered in a humid haze of smog from Indonesia burning down thousands of acres of rainforest. This didn’t affect the air in most of Indonesia, and I asked an expat why Malaysia doesn’t call to stop it. He claimed that it’s because they own most of the land getting clearcut. He said that the government is pretty corrupt, then looked around anxiously. Doesn’t want to lose his work permit.

You don’t normally sense this anxiety amongst the Malaysian people though. It’s a pretty safe place; clean, relaxed, relatively rich, and very friendly. The best times I had there were sharing tea with groups of Indian-Malay, Chinese-Malay, or Malay-Malay. It’s very diverse, and everyone gets along pretty well these days, but get one group alone and they blame all the world’s problems on the others. It’s openly racist, as I called them on it and they always just laughed. Each sticks to their cultural heritage, and I loved the colorful mix of Indians in Saris, Muslims in scarves, and good old crazy Chinese fashion. It was also superstar fun to speak Mandarin to get around, as the people were always a bit taken aback. Best of all, they speak English, so I didn’t have to rely on it.

I went on some short trips out of Kuala Lumpur. First to the jungles of Tamana Negara, where I visited a tribe who let me try shooting a blowdart. Then to Melaka, a port town with dutch colonial buildings making up Chinatown and Little India. Weird. I had a fun night with a group of Indian and Sri Lankan old men who gave me a history and politics lesson and chatted football. Also met some New Yorkers, one who lives on the same block as Erin & Erica, the other who is from two blocks from where I lived in Williamsburg. Madness. Then I hit the beautiful (and not so freaking hot!) tea plantations of the Cameron Highlands, which are where all my photos come from after the accidental loss. I wasn’t even that bummed when it happened, which surprised me in itself. The best shots of the trip came out afterward, so enjoy.

Anyway, overall it wasn’t a bad place, and most of my agitations are from unrelated matters. It’s like the suburbia of South East Asia. A good place to start a trip with a friend who needs a lot of comforts when traveling. Nothing wrong with that, as I am sure I’ll miss it when my tailbone is cracking on a hard bench bus seat along an unpaved road. But for now, I’m feeling free.

To end on a happy note, the Petronas Towers are currently my favorite skyscrapers in the world. I sat there gaping at them for an hour. Complex and …”
Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wheresmehat/malaysia/1161690300/tpod.html

Photos from this trip:
1. “- Tea Plantation”
2. “- Where’s Waldo?”
3. “- Beautiful Breather on the hike”
4. “- Tea Planters at work… Hello!”
5. “- Asli kid at home”
6. “- Can’t get enough of this TEA!”
7. “- Village where kids live”
8. “- Crops along walk home”

See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-0126-ee46-2aa5?ytv4=1

Duration : 0:1:12

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Technorati Tags: kuala lumpur, laysia, malaysia, malaysia 13 meh, meh, meh wood, package � tamana negara, Photography, photos, slideshow, srilankanoldmencom, travelogue kuala lumpur india, trip, tripadvisor, tripwow, vacation, wilayah persekutuan