5 cents per kilometer

Let it go
Today, I’ll start with the actual cost of flying around the globe three times, of renting cars and taking trains, ferries and busses. I have already written about the actual ticket hunting and booking processes of my three circumventions of the globe, but here’s the final tally: Besides spending 360.000 miles on my two Round-the-world […] Read More

Let it go – the figures

Let it go
And this is what my journey looks like if you break it down into figures and statistics: In figures, I was… travelling a total of 185.608 km flying 105.991 miles (or 170.576 km) by plane taking 55.000 pictures driving 9.195 km by car or bus riding 5.280 km by train sailing 557 km by ferry and […] Read More

Night time on the Ganges

Let it go
Varanasi is one of the holy places for Hindus. It’s here that they come to die, and be cremated on the banks of the river Ganges. It is a Hindu rite of passage, where pujas (prayers) are performed and mantras recited during cremation. We hired a boat for the five of us, after tough and […] Read More

Elephanta

Let it go
As every guide book recommended it, I could just not NOT do it… a day trip to Elephanta Island, and the temples that have been carved into the rocks. It’s a nice one-hour boat trip from Mumbai, the boats leave every ten minutes from the Gateway of India. It seems like a tourist destination, though […] Read More

Wat Pho

Let it go
Despite the heat and the incredible humidity, I went on a little sightseeing trip, up the river to Wat Pho, a buddhist temple next to the royal palace, famous for its huge reclining Buddha. Once I got through to the massive reclining Buddha along with dozens of other tourists, the groups dispersed in the wide area […] Read More

Reclamation Street Market

Let it go
It was finally time to visit the other part of town: Kowloon, on the mainland. I took the ferry from downtown that brings you over the Victoria Harbour in less than 10 minutes. The views on Hong Kong are fantastic. If it weren’t for the smog over the harbor and all around. It was hard […] Read More

West Seattle

Let it go
I wanted to take a bike ride over to West Seattle and Alki beach for the whole month, but it was one of these places that got postponed and postponed… until the moment you realize it’s today or never. The weather though was rainy and grey, so it would not be a big bike ride. […] Read More

Asia

Let it go
It was sunny, and so I took the ferry from Kabatas to Üsküdar on the Asian side of Istanbul, following the last mail from my sister with stuff we didn’t do. The ferry system is great to cross over, you can use your Istanbulkart that works on Metro’s, Trams and buses, to hop on pretty much […] Read More

Up

Let it go
Every guide book we had told us not to do the trip to Princes Islands on a weekend. But we had our own mind an planning, and thought it can’t be that bad, as we’re still off season. Well. Ok, the boat was full, but not as crowded as the other ferry next to us. […] Read More

Golden Horn

Let it go
We slept in today getting up at 10, and leaving the house at 12. That’s more my rhythm. I’d rather start the day late and go out late… Sabine’s a bit earlier… We caught the ferry along the golden Horn today – a full half hour ride for 1.75 TL… a bargain! It is a […] Read More

To the Black Sea

Let it go
Sabine and I got up early today, skipped breakfast and headed for the ferries, to get on the boat along the Bosphorus. We had to be there early to score a seat with a view… However, we were a bit lost with all the ferries on offer, and all the guys trying to sell us their […] Read More

Miyajima Island

Let it go
After the sad first day in Hiroshima, I needed something uplifting. A trip to nearby Miyajima Island, best known for its floating torii gate at the entrance to the Itsukushima Shrine. The torii is the traditional Japanese gate usually found at the entrance of a Shinto shrine This one is special though, and it might easily be one of the most […] Read More