Follow up

This morning, here in Ljubljana, still in a fluffy bad, surfing across various Internet pages, I've found the following citation, posted by my dear Chilean friend Geyson on his Facebook. I couldn't resist to copy it here. Maybe it will give you some hints, why the hell I did it...

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."
— Chris McCandless, from the book Into the Wild

The balance

365 days under the sun and 365 nights under the stars

15 countries

24 flights

hundreds of hours of bus, car, boat, truck, rickshaw, jeepney, scooter and bicycle rides along the most amazing landscapes shared with even more amazing people

one RTW ticket

one backpack

5 kg of cloths

one red dress from Buenos Aires

one pair of flip-flops and one pair of good (but really good) trekking boots

one stolen iPod

one lost pair of sunglasses

two diving curses and 19 dives registered in my little dive book

many, many new friends all around the world

oh, so much delicious food and wine and freshly prepared juices and just ordinary local beer

50 very itchy fire ants' bites and countless just itchy mosquitoes' bites

three antibiotic pills, when some aspirins and carbon tablets haven't helped anymore

some 10.000 photos

to many hours spent on internet in the most dodgy internet cafes struggling to select and upload photos for this blog

miles of coral reefs and sandy beaches

days of walking in the most pristine nature and swimming in the most clear seas

half a million of penguins, 20 whales, 5 whale sharks and thousands of all those colorful fishes you see on TV

a couple of afternoons spent in the huge Asian shopping malls

hours and hours of pleasant conversation with people of all kind of nationalities, religions, ages and professions

10 days of hard core Vipassana meditation

some 100 different beds in as many different towns, villages, beaches and national parks

plenty of funny stories, enough to bother my friends for the rest of my days with

countless priceless impressions and memories

and much more

to make it short

one year of "PURA VIDA"

all for the price of:

a Peugeot 307, HDI, 1.6, 120 Hp, silver color, 5 doors, 3 years old, sold in September 2008

(costs for the RTW thicket excluded)

Burma (Myanmar)

The golden country. A country full of treasures, with its countless pagodas, stupas, monasteries, stunning landscapes, colors, gold and gem mines... But the main and real treasure is its people - the nicest people in Asia, if not in the world! People with their simple traditional everyday life and buddhist dhamma* lifestyle, convinced that more you give, more you get, with their big smiles and their innocent curiosity. It's a country that steals your hart. Unforgettable...

Nobody understands how the hell they've been so unlucky with the present political situation. But they know: it's only a tinny fragment of time in the whole eternity...

My camera got tired and the photos quality is poor, but as you can see, it's impossible to spoil the beauty of this country and its people!!!

ps: *for those who've never heard of dhamma, please check the vipassana web page. Highly recommended!

Thailand and Laos

If you think, that traveling is manly sightseeing, you are wrong. It's not. Not at all! There are places and times you simply enjoy... like reading a book in shadows along Mekong river's banks in Luang Prabang, spending days chasing delicious food and best massages in Pai, taking a cooking class in Chang Mai, discovering posh corners in huge shopping malls in Bangkok, snorkeling, diving and just sunbathing on Thailand's islands among others...

The result: plenty of cozy memories, a nice sun-tent and very few photos of Thailand and Laos in my case :)