Flashback

My first year of traveling, country by country... I tried to relate my journey and my general impressions...

INDIA

My journey

It all started the 19th of April 2006, I left Paris for Mumbai (Bombay) in India. I had a good friend waiting for me there : Anand.
We were starting one big 4-month travel together.

Anand in the middle surrounded by his two antsm just on his right his father and in front his grandma

And what better way to start this journey than being directly received by a local Indian family ! Anand is half Indian, his family is from the Karanataka state (in the middle of India) and I was more then well hosted in their house doing a few expeditions to Goa (touristy beaches), to Hyderabad where I met a friend of my father Vijay Singh and got to stay in a palace thanks to him !

The palace we stayed in... it will soon be transformed into a museum.

We also went to Hampi (splendid ruins) and attended a couple of local weddings.

We then took the road with Anand going south to Kerala (and it’s backwaters) until the tip of India (Kanyakumari with a delicious sunrise) to go all the way up north to New Dehli (50 hours of train for 10 bucks) where we did the classic ‘golden triangle’ (Agra and the Taj Mahal, Jaipur) to then go eastwards to Varanasi.

Kerala and it's canals in the backwaters

My impressions

India, was a fascinating country, rich in so many ways, so much history behind every monument, so much life you see throughout the overpopulated streets and train stations. However long you stay there, you’ll always have the feeling it wasn’t enough, you could travel a year in India and still feel you haven’t discovered half of it. I left India quite frustrated, but I think it was the best way to start the journey I had started. I had become skilled in bargaining, avoiding being hassled, dealing with the beggars... no other country since seemed to me as tough for a traveler as India was.

NEPAL

Journey

From there we made a small jump to Nepal and Kathmandou where we met up for a few days with a friend doing some volunteer work in an orphanage, and we did a 3-4 days trek in the himalayas. We got back to India and went directly to Kolkata (Calcutta) before we left India for South-East Asia.

Impressions

Nepal was a risky challenge since it was just after the king was overthrown and quite a lot of our bus travels seemed unsecure (had to change route more than once). Nevertheless, I had a view of what Nepal could be, and no doubt about it, to the tourist’s eye Nepal is THE country to go trekking, I didn’t have enough time to do one of the long hikes, but I’ll definitely come back !

MYANMAR

The highest Pagoda in the world : Schwedaggon in Yangon (Rangoon)

Journey

After a few days in Bangkok waiting for a visa for Myanmar, we finally arrived in Yangon (Rangoon) capital of Myanmar (Burma). It was rainy season, so we fled as quickly as possible up north where the good weather was, and beautiful ruins as well, with Mandalay and it’s former capitals all around,

Pagodas close to Mandalay. Each one has an engraved stone witten in Sanskri.
It's one of the oldest books in the world engraved on about 4000 stones !

then we went to Bagan and cycled it’s thousands of pagodas,

Bagan, thousands of pagodas of all kinds.

we finally went to Inle lake a beautiful place where people live out of the lake’s ressources (floating gardens) and have their houses in the middle of the water.

On a lake, you travel by boat. This was our boat with our best friend and driver and guide. Not a word of english was ever needed.

Impressions

Myanmar despite the military regime, was one of the best places I’ve been to. People are so nice and friendly, always smiling, they invite you quite often to have lunch at their house especially if it’s to talk a bit politics, their monuments are just incredible and gigantic... As a tourist this country has it all... and getting to talk to the locals, I personnally have the feeling that boycotting visits in Myanmar is maybe not the best solution, just telling them : “No, you shouldn’t accept such a regime...” felt like helping.

A chinese tourist speaking French that I met there. She draws quite well (it's me by the way) 

CAMBODIA

The royal palace in Phnom Penh

Journey

Then back to Bangkok and going to Cambodia. I stayed a couple of weeks in Cambodia, a few days in Phnom Penh where the high point was the visit of Tuol Sleng S21 (the political prison during the genocide), that was so impressive seeing all the pictures taken of each prisoner and knowing only a handful had survived.

 
Pictures of the victims of the prison in Tuol Sleng S21

Then of course we went to Angkor for a few days (at the time we had been joined by two other friends).

Me and my three other friends ready to visit the Angkor temples. Anand, Adrien and Rachel.

 It was just awe inspiring.

A few pictures from some of the temples in Angkor.

Impressions

Cambodians are really nice and friendly people, they always smile, and you always wonder how ? After the genocide from 73 to 78, litterally nearly each one of them has lost a family member and suffered a great deal during that period... but it is a topic they keep well dig inside themselves. My regret is to not have stayed long enough to really get to know them more. In this context, the ruins of Angkor are just a timeless jewel in the middle of what I felt like an injured country.

LAOS

Journey

We then went to Laos. Crossing the border was quite an adventure... but we made it, started by enjoying the islands inside the Mekong river,

The island of Don Det in the Mekong River

went up to Pakse (2nd city) and the Bolovens (mountains where they have a lot of coffee plantations),

Ancient temple of Champassak

 then went straight north to Ventiane (the capital) and Luang Prabang (a magnificient city, old capital during the old kingdom filled with magnificient temples),

 
Left picture, biggest pagoda in Vientiane. Right picture one of the numerous temples of Luang Prabang

 we went up north enjoying boat rides on the rivers (Mekong) and waterfalls to finally go to Pakbeng and the northern border of Thailand.

  
Waterfalls and river boats, sums up the end of our stay in Laos.

Impressions

Laos is a magnificient country with great scenery and a well preserved wildlife. The people there are friendly and quite laidback. They have a very big country for only 8 million inhabitants and it quite often feels empty. More and more tourists come there and a lot of new tourist resorts are bound to damage this atmosphere, but despite this, it’s a really nice country to stay in.

THAILAND

Journey

We then (still with Anand, so still “we”) went back to Thailand (third time but first real visits), going from Chang Mai (in the North) through Ayathuya and back to Bangkok. It was quite nice visiting all the old sites (ancient capitals), nevertheless after Angkor it seemed a bit dull.

Impressions

I haven’t spend more than 10 days in a row in Thailand so maybe I had a false impression, but it was definitely not my favorite stay for one major reason, the tourism is so developped, that the locals are difficult to approach (you can read in their eyes : “you're just another tourist !”), getting to know their traditions and way of life is really difficult. It’s simply too touristy.

CHINA

Journey

From Bangkok, I said goodbye to Anand who went back to France to do his master degree in Astrophysics, and I went to China landing in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, I first went west to Guilin and Yangshuo. I met up with a friend (Caroline).

 
On the left Guilin. On the right Caroline waiting for a bus the local way.

We planned a one month trip all around China. It sometimes felt like doing a race, but it was great. We went to the Yunnan province to Kunming, Dali and Lijiang. It’s one of the most touristy regions in China, and it’s true that their is really a lot to see.

 
A market in a small village close to Dali. On the right the Tiger Leaping Gorge close to Lijiang.

Than we headed up north to Chengdu, Leishan, then Xian where you have the burried terra cotta Army (magnificient).

 
Left, the giant Buddha in Leishan. Right some of the many Terra-Cotta soldiers close to Xian, they all are different.

From there, we went to Beijing (the Great Wall and many other things) then Shangai, to finally go back to Hong Kong where I met up with my mum, we were going to spend some time together in Indonesia.

  
On the left, the great wall. On the right my mum in Hong Kong.

Impressions

China is a massive country with a huge amount of things to visit and to learn from. It was really great and one month was clearly not enough. Nevertheless, it is probably one of the hardest countries to travel into, rare are those speaking English (even in the tourist information offices !), getting information can be quite difficult. To get around, we used to ask for maps in Chinese and compare the caracters on the map with those on the signs... Also other problem : with the cultural revolution, all the traditions, folkloric clothes and habits were banned, therefore a lot was lost, but today seeing that these ethnic minorities with special types of architecture, clothing and habits are todays' best assets to attract tourism (thus money) it is not rare to find completely fake traditional villages built by the government with an entry fee for tourists of course, or find a lot of people dressed the traditional way (completely out of date) !

  
On the left, someone in traditional clothings working as a tourist guide. On the right a beautiful completely fake village, all the houses are newly built the traditional way and any visitor has to pay an entry fee.

INDONESIA

Journey

So after China, a small week in Hong Kong with my mother, and then we went together to Indonesia, and Jakarta (a huge city quite difficult to live in without a car),

 
Images of Jakarta, it's Mosque on the left and it's dense circulation on the right through which we can see the street painters.

 to go through the island of Java, to Bandipur, Pagandaran, Jogjakarta and Mount Bromo.

   
A view of the numerous active volcanoes in Java. Merapu on the left and Semaru (I think) on the right.

We then went to Bali and mainly stayed in Ubud before my mother went back home.

 
Our stay in Ubud. Very relaxing and interesting with a lot of cultural events...

 I continued to Lombok (a small island) before going back to Jakarta and heading continuing towards Australia.

View of one of the many beaches of Lombok. I had a great time going around with a motobike I rented.

Impressions

Indonesia is a huge country with a huge number of islands... the more remote they are and the more interesting they seemed. I could of spent easily plenty more time there. The Indonesian people were really one of the most friendly, I really had great encounters. And traveling with my mum was really cool.

AUSTRALIA

Journey

I arrived in Sydney.

The opera house

I was received by a friend from university : Matt and his brother JB. I stayed at their place for less than a month where I met a lot of cool friends, I helped out Matt and his friends doing a French play at the Alliance Francaise (I made the subtitles and helped at the rehearsals).

  
On the left the end of the play, on the right me trying to follow with the subtitles during the play.

Then with Matt, we wanted to go south to Melbourne and the Ocean Road to Adelaid with an old car we bought but it got stolen the day we bought it, so we had to change plans...

 
Got to see a lot of animals, on the left a Kookaboorah (however you spell it) on the right the famous kangoroo. 

and the cheapest option was being “Mysterious shoppers” for YHA (Youth hostels)... we visited 14 Youth Hostels all around New South Wales. It was cool, got to see a lot of different things, and of course the beaches !

 
My friend Matt on the left, a sun rise on the right.

Impressions

Australia was cool, I had a break in the middle of my intensive traveling. People are really friendly, though culturally not so interesting (not so different). Historically there’s not much to see, but it catches up with it’s impressive nature and national parks. Got to see loads of animals I never saw before.

NEW ZEALAND

View of the volcanoes at sunset

I then had a stopover in New Zealand, where I allowed myself a five day visit. It was really awesome, I had some great adventures that I tried to narate through drawings... I'm actually working on the translation... should come soon.

SOUTH AMERICA

CHILI

Journey

I arrived in Chili. It was my first foot on Latin America's soil. I mainly stayed at Ingrid's house, an old friend of my parents (and mine as well), in Santiago. A big colonial city which has quite some nice monuments. My number one goal was to start learning Spanish. So I mainly stayed in Santiago doing a couple of side trips in Valparaiso, and in the Valle de Elqui (close to La Serena).

Impressions

This was my first foot on the Latin American continent, and my first real contact with a Spanish speaking country. At first it was quite tough : without Spanish you don't go anywhere around here, and French was probably more useful than English... But past a few weeks I got to get along with the language. Culturally speaking, Chili is said to be the European country of South America, and it is true that when dreaming of South America, you definitely wouldn't imagine Chili with it's westernized structures and life style, so few indigenous people are left. Nevertheless I had a great stay and it was a good first foot on the continent.

ARGENTINA

Journey

I arrived in Buenos Aires where I actually caught up with Matt (again) and his brother (JB) and Cat (an australian friend) at their sister's house (Matt has a cool family). We had some cool time together and traveled all 4 of us together for a while. We stayed in Buenos Aires for a while then went to the beach for a few days in Carilo where we took care of a huge bunch of children (it was fun). Then headed towards Bolivia passing through the Iguazu falls, Salta, Jujuy and Villazon at the border.

Impressions

My stay in Argentina was quite short, less than two weeks, so I couldn't really have an opinion on the country especially that I was traveling with friends. But from what I felt, Argentinians are really welcoming people, very friendly and open. Just as Chili, people seem to live some sort of European life and very few indigenous people are met. I felt there was a great difference between people coming from Buenos Aires (famous for it's night life) and the rest of the country. One thing I loved there was the meat.

BOLIVIA

Journey

My journey through South America lack's of logic. I went twice to Bolivia, the first time with my friends, Matt, JB and Cat and two American friends of Matt in February to see the carnaval in Oruro (our choice since going to the carnaval in Brazil would of been too expensive) and the salt flats close to Uyuni. The second time I was coming back from Brazil and going to Peru, but I stayed two weeks going through Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, La Paz, Coroico, Copacabana (on the lake Titicaca).

Impressions

Bolivia is clearly one of my favorite countries. All the inhabitants are indigenous, wear traditional clothes, have their own traditions. Bolivian people aren't the most friendly-like, they sort of make you sometimes feel that they have their own life to take care of, but who wouldn't understand. Bolivia is the most poor country and for the tourist the cheapest country in South America. Still a bit more expensive than Asian coutries though, their food isn't what I'd call sophisticated, they don't have much ruins to visit but something in this country makes the visit fascinating. The biggest highlight of my trip was clearly the salt flats, inspiring sceneries, and the carnaval in Oruro was simply crazy. I really liked the country.

BRAZIL