Att tänka på, land för land

Lite tips från de olika länderna efter egna erfarenheter

Ryssland:
- Ta med en ordbok och förbered dig väl innan med boende o liknande eftersom ingen kan engelska och ingen är direkt tillmötesgående eller villig att försöka förstå något på engelska.
- Var beredd på mycket papper. Du måste fylla i ett antal påväg in i landet, behålla vissa delar tills du lämnar landet och du måste uppge exakt allt du ska göra inom Ryssland.
- Åker du transibiriska så köp inte massa mat i förväg. Tåget stannar minst var fjärde timme dygnet runt och det kryllar av marknadsstånd, mat, kiosker, souvenirer på stationerna.

Mongoliet:
- Gå aldrig ensam i huvudstaden Ulan Bator, folk bildar grupper för att närma sig folk och stjäla kameror och plånböcker.
- Om du ger dig ut i landskapet, försök ordna en egen trip då alla bolag samarbetar och tar väldigt höga priser.
- Men missa inte landskapet för det bjuder på det mesta och lite till.

Kina:
- Väldigt skönt land, hjälpsamma människor, tips är att boka vidare resor inom kina eller ut från kina i landet då det blir mycket billigare. Exempelvis flyg från Beijing till Seoul kostar 600kr.

VietNam
- Tyvärr sönderturistat, väldigt skräpigt och fullt av försäljare som följer efter och drar i dig vart du än är. Dålig luft i städerna och extremt skräpigt även på landsbygden.
- Kan inte rekommendera detta land som ett resmål.
- Om du ändå ska åka hit så missa inte Sapa, åk dock på egen hand och bestig Fan Si Pan, så kan du nog slippa en hel del försäljare och alla andra turister.

Singapore:
- Väldigt rent, dock många konstiga regler man får passa sig för.
- Åk ut till Santosa Island, otroligt fint där ute.

Indien:
- Se upp :)
- Ta aldrig taxi direkt från flygplats eller tågstation av någon som försöker haffa dig, eller kommer fram till dig. De ser att du är vit och 10 dubblar priserna. Gå istället bort en bit och leta upp en taxi som du väljer, resultatet blir oftast bättre.
- Var inte rädd att blanda in lokalbefolkning eller polis. Alla är jättetrevliga. Tex. vi visste inte när eller var vi bokade ett tåg till en destination på en tågstation och frågade en lokalbefolkning som också var där och fick massa hjälp med tider, karta, perrong m.m.
- Oavsett om du är ateist eller inte så säg att du är Kristen när du reser, vi upplevde detta en gång och stämningen sjönk rejält när vi sa att vi var ateister. Bättre köra en vit lögn om att man är Kristen. Finns något i deras religion som säger att om man inte tror på en gud så är man en dålig människa.
- Åk mycket tåg, kostar 5-10kr för de flesta biljetterna, du behöver inte boka i förväg och tågen går hela tiden plus att du träffar enormt mycket människor från indien som både är intressanta och hjälpsamma.
- Indien är som gjort för att backpacka. Boka inte in något, stanna där du trivs, fråga runt efter tips och sevärdheter, njut av indien och kulturen och åk vidare med framförallt tåg när du känner för det.
- Undvik dock bussar, dåliga vägar, skitiga bussar och trånga säten gjorda för små indier. Vi åkte någongång buss i 6 timmar och det tar typ en dag att komma tillbaka efter det i trötthet, nackont och huvudvärk.

Qatar:
- Har du en flygtransfer hit så se till att få minst en dag i landet. Nu satt jag bara på flygplatsen men det verkar vara ett riktigt fint land med beacher och annorlunda öken-natur.

Statistik efter resan

Eftersom jag gillar siffror och sen är jag ju svensk så här kommer lite statistik:

Totalkostnad för hela resan: 35500
Visum: 4000kr
Vaccin: 2850kr
Resor: 12300kr
Fickpengar: 16150kr


Kostnad per land och per dag i landet i fickpengar:

Ryssland: 1033, 207kr/dag
Mongoliet: 1891, 270kr/dag
Kina: 3635, 519kr/dag
VietNam: 2659, 295kr/dag
Singapore: 420, 420kr/dag
Indien: 6507, 342kr/dag

Palolem Beach, Goa

I think the pictures tells you enough :)

In Goa for a week

Now we finally have reached Goa and the beaches. Here we will take a rest from all trains, bus trips, museums and other tourist attractions :)

And on this map you can see how we reached Goa from the beginning of our stay in India:

Udagamandalam 12-13/10

On the way to Udagamandalam (Ooty) we slept on the roof of the railway station in Coimbatore waiting for next train.

The last part to Ooty was by a steam locomotive, it was going very slowly because of all mountains. The trip took 6 hours but the view and the feeling was really nice.


This is a tea plantage, you can see it everywhere around Ooty. And also it is easy to see pieces in the area from the Brittish time in India, like the railways, the names of places, and some buildings that doesnt look like other india buildings.


In Ooty we visited the Tea Factory and the Tea Museum. There we tasted different kinds of tea, and bought some ammounts to bring home. It was really interesting to read about the Tea history in Ooty and about the transports in earlier times to the rest of the world.

Kollam 11/10

On the train to Kollam we met a police officer that helped us a lot. He joined us in a taxi and helped us find a room in the middle of the night. We got a hole suite for only 37SEK. The next morning we took a tuctuc (small yellow taxi) to the Munroe island in the Ashtamudi lake.


This was our driver around the island, 65 years old without teeth :)


And one more crazy thing was that the taxi driver followed us in the boat, so he could drive us back to Kollam again (26 kilometers one way). So we put all our luggage in the boat and then without my notice, my bottle of 50cl rice wine (40+ alcohol %) from VietNam dropped out from my bag. And i bought it in a water bottle. So on the boat trip i saw the water bottle and was thinking it was the taxi drivers water, so i gave it to him and he started drinking it. After a while he started talking about indian water and smiled and pointed at the bottle, but we didnt understand so we just smiled to him too and continued the trip. After the boat trip (90min) our taxi driver drove us back to Kollams railway station. And there, when i saw his eyes and he looked really drunk and was very happy and touched my beard and laughing, then i figured out that it was my rice wine he had been drinking. So very lucky we got the hole way back to Kollam in safe :)


The colours of India :)

You never know what you can find on an india boat :)

Thiruvananthapuram 10/10

In Thiruvananthapuram in south of India we arrived at lunch time and just jumped on a tour bus around the city. The first stop were at a zoo. And there we met 500+ school kids going to the zoo. We said hello and we got like hundreds of hello back and everyone smiled :) And when we entered the zoo, the childrens were going in a long line, holding each other. And we asked if it was possible to pass and the teacher broke the line for us. Then in the middle of the passage the ticket collector asked us for the camera ticket, and that one i had in my pocket so it took me like 20 seconds to get it up and after that the hole line of school children were destroyed and they were forced to run to get back in the line. The teachers didnt look that happy, but the children were very happy to be free for a minute and to get some running :) We told them that we were sorry, and i hope the children didnt got any punishment because of us.Everywhere you can see posters like this with strange faces:
At the time of the sunset we reached the beach on the west coast in India and Kerala district.And the india people took the swim with cloths on :)

Kanyakumari 9/10

After one night at the train we arrived to Indias southest village, Kanyakumari. Very nice place. After walking around we found a cheap hotel, and we got 3 beds even if we just needed 2, but the price was only 60SEK for the room. This is the beach of the southest part of India:

This temple was not only beautiful. Inside the ashes from Mahatma Gandhi has been in history times.

And as usual, wherever we go, we got an photo object for other tourists. This time the guy in the middle come from Bombay.

This is the direction of south out in the big ocean. This point also crosses by 3 big seas (Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal). I really like the colours of the womens dresses :)

Chennai (Madras) 8/10

The first impression of India wasnt that good because of a taxi driver that first told us a drive to a hotel for 400 rupies, and then told us 400 each and refused to stop the taxi when we asked. But after that everything changed, all the people we met were very nice and helpful. The guy at the trainstation told us we were guests of india and we got full service and he smiled at us when 20 other indians were waiting for help with buying train tickets :)

Some pictures from Chennai:

An internet cafe with a little bit too low ceeling :)

This bar was the most strange we have been to. First we asked what they have to drink and the answere was: "What do you want, with a smile". The we ordered two cokes and sat down. After 10min they come and told us we couldnt sit there if we didnt buy any alcoholic drink. In the place were only guys and it was very dark and many doors inside and the indians looked very strange and come and go through the different doors. So we leaved the place :)

Then we walked around, buyed some stuff and then started looking again for a new cafe. Then we met two indian engineer stundets, that invited us for a drink from the wine shop. We bought two beers and sat down in a tent. The students were gone but some drunk police officers was there and we had a lots of talk together :) They were really nice and helpful, and the time just run away so we had to leave the nice guys on the picture but switched contact information.

On the train there was no problem finding correct wagon and place. They had glued a paper on the outside of the train with all names :)

On the train we met a lots of nice people. The old man in the picture invited for a stronger drink and he told us he wanted to go to Sweden because we were so nice. We also get informed that in India, the longer mustach you had, the more wise you are as a person :)

The sunrise from the train was really nice:

Singapore 7/10

Singapore was a really funny place to be in. First our airplane landed 02.00 in the night so we slept outside on the stone floor with cockroachers for 4 hours. We didnt slept inside the airport because of the airconditioning and we had no warm clothes with us so it was too cold.

Then we started travel around in the city. We found a museum about Singapores history and the Peranaka people. After that we ended up on a beach in the southern most point of Continental Asia.

We didnt bring our bath clothes with us, but we were so hungry on taking the swin in the ocean so we bought new ones :)

Sapa VietNam 2-6/10

Sapa has been the best part of VietNam we have visited this time. We got there by train and have trekking the area in 3 days. Very beautiful environment.
On the train i met the students on the picture, the guy to the right was in the same age as me and was a teacher. I asked how much he earned in a month and it was only 2 million dong (800SEK).



This was our group that walked together to the village where we spent the night in a homestay:
This is how they collect rice:


We met two friends from Bangkok and we had a very funny time together:


The local sellers were everywhere but we got them out of the selling-thing by learning them how to paint:


Umbrellas are used all the time by the Sapa-people just to protect from sun:

This women was also our guide and had two children. Lucky she had one of each kind. She told about other families that had 8 girls and no boy. In Sapa everyone has to have a boy, otherwise no one will take care of you when you are old. So it happens very often that families that had many boys sell them to other families.

Halong Bay VietNam 30/9-1/10

This day Halong Bay was open so we took the desicion to go there. We met 2 nice guys from Czeck republic in the trip and together we had a party on the boat in the evening, but we had to have the party in one closed cabin because of one other stupid Vietnamese tourist-trap. They had a roule on the boat that you had to pay 5 dollar for drinking one bottle of wine and so on... and when we paid the trip ticket they told us everything should be included. We refused to pay and had a 5min discussion that ended with the boat people took our bottle and promised to turn it back next day before leaving the boat. But still we had some extra bottles with us in the bag so together with the czeck guys we arranged our own party just like in school doing things outside the rouls.

In Halong bay we visited the caves:

And the selling boats was everywhere:


The second day we were out on a short kajak trip:

..and we passed a village in the sea, living on floating houses:

Tam Coc VietNam 29/9

Our planned trip to Halong Bay got cancelled because of a big storm coming up from Indonesia. VietNam government closed the passage to Halong Bay for all tourists so we jumped on an other trip only for the day to Tam Coc. There we visited a tempel and went out in the water in small boats. Sadly the whole place was crowded with vietnameses trying to sell everything to you. Even in the boats we met selling boats and the vietnameses in our boat was very nice and talkaktive to us in the beginning, but when we didnt buy anything from them (very expensive) they stopped talking to us and just switched boat. So we got a little boy instead that rowed us back, and just before land he were saying dip, dip, dip, we didnt understand and was pointing to the water, deep, aha...but he didnt stop, and then he sayd money so we understand he ment tip. But we didnt gave him any money. The whole place was a tourist-trap and the village main income is from tourists, quite weird. We have destroyed their lifes. Small children born into the tourist-thing and could speak good english and is very good in telling you lies about everything.


Even more sad is that the Vietnameses are throwing trash everywhere, in the water you can find bottles and plastics. first impression you can think is that the tourists is throwing things in to the water, but we saw with our own eyes a vietnamese women throwing a bottle into the water!
So in only a few years VietNam will loose the tourists if they dont do anything about the problems.

Hanoi

The big celebration in China 1st of october even exist in VietNam. People are preparing for the event and is everywhere.

Se this movie:

Nanning 25-27/9

Its very cheap to go by train in china. We got great help from our hostel in Beijing so it only cost us 460SEK to go through whole china to Nanning in the south. On the train we met a guy from Nanning that could speak only a little english, and everyone on the train in our closest area asked questions to us threw him. The service is very different in China and Sweden. On the chinese train there is around 50 working people, 2 conductors on each wagon and some more selling things like you didnt know (toys for kids, food, fruits, beer, shavers...). And they are playing soft instrumental music all the time :) I think sweden has something to learn about trains :)

Nanning was a really soft place. Not that much tourists as in Beijing. And everywhere you go you heard sound of chinese girls giggle and pointing to us. Somewhere you heard 'beautiful hair' and somewhere else you could feel a hand through your hair :) Market was very cheap, no need to bargain. We were eating dinner at the streets just like the chineses for only 5SEK.

In Nanning we visited a great national park, bigger than Porson in Lulea.

We ordered some strange food, served on big leaves. It tasted like sushi or something like that so we didnt finish it.