Hello from Bunaken island

So, so, so..
After spending a couple of nights at the friendly and helpful Red Palm at KL, I took the flight to Manado and loaded myself to a boat which brought me to the island of Bunaken.
After refreshing my scuba skills by doing a couple of dives I also took the PADI advanced open water diver -course which included deep diving, night diving, wreck diving, navigation under water and buoyancy control skills. Good course overall if you want to improve your skills as a diver - makes things a lot more easy in the long run.
Being here is basically just diving, eating, sleeping and chatting with other divers - only annoyancies are mosquitoes and occasional rain falls. So, not so much to worry.
We heard that Manado suffered from heavy rains and because of that there have been flooding and mud slides that killed 8 people. However, here at the island it is business as usual.
I'm staying here until sunday and after that I'll take the plane to Denpasar (Bali) to study some surfing.


-Ville

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From Vientiane back to KL

Ok, my time is Laos is over and I have to say that it was too short. Laos is absolutely worth more than a 6 days visit. Next time I'll do the extended version..
Something about Vientiane:
Major sights in the city (Allow some inaccuracy about spelling..): That Luang, Patoxay, Vat Sisaket, Hor Prakeo, Presidential palace and National museum can easily be visited in one day even by foot, although a bicycle or tuktuk might be good options too. I stayed at Malinamphu guesthouse so I took a tuktuk to That Luang which was about 6km away. You only feel alive when you enter the trafic from the back of a tuktuk. I don't know if I can especially recommend any of these to you (you'll do it all anyway if you come to Vientiane); the thing is that I just don't get major kicks out of these temples or museums unless there is something spectacular. Well I have gotten this little thing towards photography, though. And there have been many good opportunities to practise that. So win lose situation, not the best, not the worst.
Nice place to have dinner is just in the Namphu corner - place called Khop Chai Deu offers a good menu and service at reasonable price unlike some restaurants around the Namphu fountain.

-Ville

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Luang Prabang - quick overview

City is small and nice, price level is good and the area has a good vibe overall. Two most popular sights are Kuang Si waterfall (26km out by road, 1hour drive, around 100000K for ride and ticket) and Pak Ou cave (1,5h by boat on Mekong, around 70000K for boat and ticket) which are both crowded all day long. However, my recommendation would be to go to the watterfall with lunch\dinner set in your bag and wait for a more peacefull time to enjoy the falls and great blue water in peace - you can also use the rope to swing you in one of the natural swimming pools if you want some action. Pak Ou caves you can skip if you have seen one religious cave somewhere else - that spectacular it is not. Additionally here you find more people wanting your money than anywhere else in Laos so far. If you decide to go anyway, take warm clothing for the boatride, some snacks, sunlotion and a torch for the upper cave if you don't want to be forced to make a donation to get one within the entrance.

What else? Night market is nice and the products there seem to have more quality than their cousins in the other SEA countries. I decided to skip Luang Prabang National museum and most the temples (wats) because they also have tendency to look alike after you visit enough.
Tonight I'm still going to check out the sunset at That Phousi mountain in the middle of the city before heading for last dinner in one of Luang Prabang's many good restaurants.
Tomorrow to Vientiane.

-V

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Lao PDR, I like it already

I have heard people talking positively about Laos because here the atmosphere is supposed to be more relaxed and less money oriented than in other places in SouthEastAsia.
After spending less than a day here, I can already confirm this hearsay as a fact - this is like nothing I have experienced before when travelling; absolutely no-one is pushing you to do anything. Great!
A had an early start from KL, transited through Vientiane and reached Luang Prabang at 1300 local time - I'm feeling a bit exhausted from the Africa tour as well as the jetlag from moving to SEA. Hopefully I can balance the situation by laying low for couple of days - the Laos style.
One more thing - although I have learned to like spicy food, I just don't seem to remember that when having hot sauces here, extra caution is a must. I had dinner in local restaurant by the Mekong river just a moment ago and made a hot mistake by tasting chili sauce a bit too boldly.... Well, to live and to learn from sweating and runnign nose - at least the waiter had some fun to see me burn.

-Ville

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Through Botswana via Pilanesberg to Johannesburg

Since we left Zambia we went on driving southeast through Botswana stopping at Maun (Okavango delta) and at Serowe (Khama Rhino Sanctuary). I must say that tour organizer GAP did not get the full points from this leg because the activities that we thought were included actually were not. Only our own active participation got us on a non scheduled game drive at the Rhino Sanctuary which we paid for ourselves... But results were great - 15 Rhinos!
After Botswana we entered South Africa and made our way to Pilanesberg national park which can be classified as an upper class holiday resort with wild animals behind the fence. First game drive was disappointment but the second one was worth of coming to Pilanesberg: Rhinos, Giraffes, Antilopes and finally a Cheetah! Great ending for our safari drives.
Today we packed our wet tents and drove south to Johannesburg where we are staying near the airport at Airport Game Lodge.
So, almost 8000 km of African roads got us here and on monday it is time for me to take the flight towards Kuala Lumpur.
Now I'm changing the dusty safari&camping outfit to more relaxed watersport look since the following 4 weeks will be mainly about scuba diving and surfing with the exception of making a little loop at northern Laos first.

Top 3 recommendations in Africa: Serengeti, Victoria Falls, South Luangwa National park.

-Ville

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From Malawi to Victoria Falls - way to begin a new year!!!

Here we are at Riverfront Zambezi after another week of Africa. First we left Kande right after christmas and headed for Lilongwe to camp out one night before entering Zambia. Stayed at South Luangwa national park for couple of nights with Elephants and Hippos wandering around the campsite as well as trouble making and shitting monkeys...
We made two fine game drives to see the animals and got attacked by an angry elephant, luckily our driver was on top of the situation and there was at least 3 m marginal to actual collision. Close anyway. We also got to see a bunch of lions sleeping on the road and blokking us - the closest I want to get with a lion.
From South Luangwa we went foir one wet night at Chipata before travelling Livingstone and Vic falls for new year.
I have had some health issues (flue, diarhea, neckpain) but now it seems that it is getting better.

This morning was something amazing! Me and Ken headed for Livingstone island tour bright and early today. This was the place where David Livingstone saw the falls for the first time. Most magnificent part of the tour was swimming in Devil's pool which is a natural stone pool right at the edge of the fall (1m of stone keeping you from falling 100m down). Getting to the pool was a hell of a lot more complicated than I had in mind because we actually had to swim little bit across the Zambesi through some currents to get to the stones where it was possible to jump into the pool. And to make sure that morning wasn't boring, we made our way to the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe where we did a slide over the Zambezi, a wire swing and a bungii jump - all of this 111 meters above Zambezi river. I have to say that when I went over the platform for the bungii, it was something remarkable. It is hard to describe the feeling going towards the water and your brains (and lungs) screaming that are you out of your mind...
Well, now we will kick back for today and prepare ourselves for meeting our new group members since some of our original group are ending their tour here.

Till next time, Ville

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