Tourism – Traveling Epic!

Year in Review 2018 – Joel Oleson Adventure Traveler Fun Photos

January 8, 2019January 13, 2019Posted in Adventure, Africa, Europe, Family, Favorite, National Park, Nature, Road Trip, Tourism, TravelTagged 2018, Africa, Highlights, travel, Year in Pictures, Year in Review1 Comment

At the beginning of 2018, I started working at Blizzard Entertainment and visited a couple of offices in Europe as well and now two of my oldest sons started college. Great accomplishments for which I’m very pleased. As a result of supporting 2 in college, I’ve had to get good at cashing in airline miles. Our big family trip this year was to Ethiopia and Tanzania and it was awesome! The great migration and seeing the It’s one my wife has been asking to do for years. I finished the Western Hemisphere UN (North and South America). I started the year with 155 to go and ended with 163… but lots of great highlights as you’ll see below.

Screenshots above are from “App in the Air” based on Tripit. Reality is somewhere around 1.5 million miles, but who’s counting?

These stats are primarily based on flights alone since I left Microsoft about 11 years ago. It doesn’t count the visits by car or train.

8 New UN Countries

Roadtrip from Bissau to Dakar

Guinea Bissau
The Gambia
Senegal

Island hopping around Madagascar

Seychelles
Madagascar
Mauritius
Reunion (TCC)
Mayotte (TCC)

Weekend in the Caribbean

Antigua
Grenada

Revisits and some New Areas (Some selected photos below)

Italy – Verona, Ramona & Venice
Slovenia – Roadrip from Venice to Ljubljana
Tanzania – Serengeti and the Great Migration
Ethiopia South – Omo Valley Tribes
Zanzibar – Stone town, Plantations and South Beaches
Mexico – TJ x3, Mexicali and San Luis Rio Colorado
Portugal – Lisbon
France – Paris, Normandy, and the coast
England – London

The tribes in the Omo Valley were like visiting my ancestors from 5,000-10,000 years ago. Huddling in the grass huts and talking about their experiences was surreal. Having my son and nephew experience this ancient tribe was so fantastic. I do worry these days are limited. Life on this planet is changing quickly… There was a group of Chinese tourists complete with green screens and lighting equipment that beat us to one of the tribes and I struggled to not be heartbroken. Just when you think there’s no way you’ll see a tourist…

The Great Migration is one of the most amazing things on the planet, and is the largest mammal migration of it’s kind with more than 1.5 million individuals. I was told by my driver that I would cry I’d see so many wildebeests. I think my heart was full, but it was others in the group that voted to move on. I couldn’t get enough of these odd creatures.

Travel can be so much more interesting you see a place not how it is, but how it changes… our perspective changes… a place can be so different at different times of the year. Our driver was telling us about the different times of the year based on baby animals, the rainy seasons with the hippos and crocks, the dry season where the animals get close and the lions have an easier time. Imagine how the Serengeti looks if you’re standing in the middle of a meercats den… every day a different story. (Yes, I did see Meerkats and they did NOT dissapoint!) The Wildebeests were a testament to a creator. The creations of this planet make us think of organization on a massive scale rather than pure chaos.

Watching The Lion King… in Nature play out in front of my eyes… now that brings you to tears!

Watching the lions in the Ngorongoro Crater was fascinating. The density of large mammals is the most dense on the earth in the crater. (Minus the lemurs in Madagascar more on that later). It was incredible to see this lioness be first tracked by a male, then go hunting.

Image may contain: 3 people, including Joel Oleson and Mohamed Amar Athie, people smiling, sky and outdoor

This massive 49 meter tall bronze statue located on top of one of the twin hills known as Collines des Mamelles, outside Dakar, mixture of corruption, Stalinist architecture, and North Korean architecture.

I LOVED Madagascar… The Lemurs, the Baobabs, the surprise trekking of nocturnal night lemurs by flashlight… oh, so amazing… There is so much rich and unique biodiversity in Madagascar, and while it’s so difficult to get there, it ended up being more amazing than I hoped. Madagascar as a culture is still quite primitive and not without problems, but wow what an amazing experience. You can read more about my experiences with the lemurs and baobabs of Madagascar. I couldn’t believe I found covered wagons like those who crossed the plains to Utah in Madagascar. I’ve seen a lot of camels, donkeys, and horses, but true classic covered wagons with wooden wagon wheels… that was a first in Madagascar for me.

Image may contain: plant, sky, ocean, tree, outdoor and nature

Seychelles with the largest nut, the large rocks, the beautiful beaches… I had the opportunity to do some diving.

Image may contain: people standing, sky and outdoor

Venice is a magical city. St Marcos Square with it’s looming tower and incredibly ornate frescoes, mosaics,and golden horses. It’s a must see for any traveler, and even better on this my second visit.

The Mosaics in Ravenna, Italy seem to capture lost mysteries. It’s super fascinating to study and wander the dozens of basilicas and churches in the surrounding areas.

Image may contain: 1 person, standing, plant, tree, outdoor, nature and water

From underwater sculpture gardens, to waterfalls and sulfur hot springs, Grenada was a very green relaxing spice island.

Antigua is a beautiful island. It got quite a bit of destruction recently mostly on Barbuda. This dog followed me for over an hour. By the end of my walk I had 6 dogs following me.

Image may contain: people standing, sky, outdoor and nature

Christ the Redeemer in Lisbon was a gift from Brazil

Image may contain: sky and outdoor — Mont Sant Michel France

Mont Sant-Michel on the coast of France… very appropriate given the anniversary of the end of World War 1. Our visit to the coast included a walk along the beach in Normandy and a heavy heart.

Let me know in the comments if you’d like to see more blogs on some of my adventures last year… Thanks for your support! Here’s to travel in 2019!

Current Travel Plans for 2019…

Family Spring Break trip to China – Xian Terra Cotta Warriors, Heavens gate, Glass bridge, Huge Buddah statues, Avatar Forest, and Pandas (My youngest LOVES Pandas!)
Remote South Pacific island hopping for my birthday including Vanuatu and Tuvalu and possible diving in the Great Barrier reef
TBD

Hope you’ll like and subscribe for more in 2019! Let me know what you’d like to see!

This blog has been verified by Rise: R27b7e21f45a2a55b9d8349f1a83c9d34

Where did life begin? Traveling to Ethiopia’s Omo Valley – Early Man

November 26, 2018November 27, 2018Posted in Adventure, Africa, Bucket List, National Park, Philanthropy, Photography, Road Trip, Tourism, Travel, UNESCOTagged ethiopia, Mursi, National Park, native, tribal encounters, Tribes, Unesco1 Comment

My passion for understanding the past through early man caves, paleontology, archeology, encounters with ancient tribes with connections to the past and life origins and what matters most… these strike directly at the heart of what I find meaningful in travel. Indiana Jones wasn’t just looking for gold statues… he was looking for answers.

If you’re trying to connect with the past, there really isn’t any place where you’ll find more diverse tribes in such a small area than in Ethiopia. Seriously. If you have found something more diverse and connected with the past, I’d really like to know. While the exact number is unknown, there are around 80 tribes and 86 living languages with an incredibly diverse ethnic groups living in Ethiopia. Most of the urban population belongs to the Amhara or Oromo tribes. Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world. Ethiopia today is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and yet has some of the best preserved untouched primitive tribal living in the world. What makes Ethiopia unique is the longevity of Ethiopia without much outside influence. Italy was trying to build an empire in Ethiopia had such a small impact, you’ll struggle to find anything Italian unless you visit Gondar where there are a few buildings that look Italian. Italians made an attempt to have Ethiopia as their share of Africa. They invaded in 1893 but were shamefully defeated by the Ethiopians to become the first European losers in a colonial war. This led to the Italy-Ethiopia war conducted in 1930’s. Ultimately Ethiopia was colonized by Italy from 1936 to 1941. Only 5 years, so you can understand how little impact would come from that. Things will change.

So, going back to it. Ethiopia has a lot of primitive tribes that continue to live the way they have for thousands of years… I was anxious to visit early man, and what an incredible experience I had making so many new friends and gaining insights about ancient life.

While it may seem like Ethiopia has always been the cradle of civilization it was not until 1963 that ancient hominids were discovered in Ethiopia where stone tools that were over a million years old at Kella. Since then many important finds have propelled Ethiopia to the forefront of paleontology. The oldest hominid discovered to date in Ethiopia is the 4.2 million year old Ardi found by Tim White in 1994. The most well known hominid discovery is Lucy, found in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia’s Afar region in 1974 by Donald Johanson, and is one of the most complete and best preserved, adult fossils ever uncovered. Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years ago. You can see Lucy and Ardi bones in the museum in Addis Ababa in the capital.

There have been many other notable fossil findings in the country. Near Gona stone tools were uncovered in 1992 that were 2.52 million years old, these are the oldest such tools ever discovered anywhere in the world.In 2010 fossilized animal bones, that were 3.4 million years old were found with stone-tool-inflicted marks on them in the Lower Awash Valley by an international team, which is the oldest evidence of stone tool use ever found anywhere in the world.In 2004 fossils found near the Omo river at Kibbish at 195,000 years old, the oldest date in East Africa for modern Homo sapiens. Imagine walking around in a valley where the bones you might stumble across could be an ancient ancestor.

You really don’t have to spend much time with the tribes to find their simple, but ancient traditions to be enlightening. You really don’t have to go to distant islands where you risk getting shot by arrows. You can come to the Omo Valley, and get a guide and scout who are provided for your safety and convenience to communicate with the chief and his warriors, who are really quite friendly.

Last summer I traveled to Mexico to see the Olmec heads. I was NOT expecting to see one in Addis Ababa outside the museum in Ethiopia.

The National Museum of Ethiopia is worthwhile. Even in just the last few years it has gotten a lot better. It was the Lucy bones that drew me the first time, but taking my 9 year old boy to put some context in paleontology was very worthwhile.

My friend Abeye who I met on a trip to Lalibella, Ethiopia 8 years earlier with his school friends. It was him and his friends who were our guides when we were trying to locate an orphanage. I had the biggest epiphany… everything you think you know about Africa is wrong. Everything you think you know about Ethiopia is also wrong. Giving money to the orphanages in Lalibela would have been a mistake. They were the only spoiled kids in the city. Who would have guessed? Instead I found a blind kid and his friend who helped us locate school supplies which we were able to distribute to as many kids as we could find. It was a life changing event. Bringing books and school supplies to a few schools along our route on our trips was a lot of fun for the whole family. Mission accomplished. My 9 year old and his cousin will never forget how they felt as they had many first contact type experiences with the kids at the markets. If you’ve never had the opportunity to be a minority, I highly recommend it. It’s important to get out of your comfort zone, and let a villager touch your freckles or softly pinch your skin and stare right through your blue eyes. You sort of feel like an alien. Imagine if everyone had the opportunity to feel like an alien. How much prejudice and bigotry would melt away to empathy?

No matter how much you try to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you will still struggle to understand how someone could put such a large plate in their lip, but if you don’t try to connect with them and imagine life in a straw hut and attempt to connect with their present and your past… to see what life might have been like 3,000 or 30,000 years ago.

The Mursi tribe are a nomadic people known for their lip plates, they live in grass huts between the Omo River and its tributary the Mago, one of the most isolated regions of the country. They are animists. Lip plates are a well known aspect of the Mursi and Surma, who are probably the last groups in Africa amongst whom it is still the norm for women to wear large pottery, wooden discs, or plates in their lower lips.

I had a great time with my new friend. We were taking selfies and could keep a straight face. After traveling 3 days to get deep into the Omo Valley I was so excited to spend time with one of the most primitive tribes in Ethiopia. Clothing optional, this tribe could construct their grass hut village in less than 24 hours. They are a nomadic tribe.

As we drove by these zebra stripped kids I was struck. I was really on the edge of the planet. Our guide said, “don’t take their picture they’ll throw rocks!” It was too late. I caught this beautiful photo first. I hope it represents them well. For the most part prior to us arriving at a village there were terms on photos and we’d work it out with the chief. It’s true… sometimes they wanted money for each picture, but it was my preference to trade. If we could bring things the tribe needed, I felt a lot better…. school supplies, solar lantern, or simple toys.

This pole may look like a bunch of poles lashed together, but actually this is a clock. The tribe adds a new pole to this central point in the village every generation (18 years.) Konso, this ancient UNESCO heritage village is over 400 years old.

Tiya, a UNESCO site of large stones from an ancient burrial ground. No one recognizes the swords. They don’t match any on record in Ethiopia. I love it. The site is still being understood. You can be an archeologist and figure it out! The guides on site have some good ideas, but you can tell much of what they are saying is guestimates.

You can compare these swords from the museum… Doesn’t look anything like it. The 1600s was a pretty exciting time in Ethiopia with the royal courts, castles, and conquests. You wouldn’t believe the history. Gondar Ethiopia where the castles are is a must for a longer trip to Ethiopia.

Humans aren’t the only ancient thing in Ethiopia. Very old crocodiles and hippos in the lake. You can take a guide, captain and scout by boat and go trekking for animals in Lake Chamo Nechi Sar

Ancient stone churches are both in the North and in the South. Lalibella in the North has some of the best monolithic buildings in the world.

The only southerly rock hewn church Adadi Mariam… It’s like visiting a cave church carved out of rock, not unlike the cave churches in Cappadocia, but those churches don’t have a holy of holies and these are all fashioned after Solomon’s temple and often have a ark of the covenant replica based on the real one… just ask them. The religion runs very deep in Ethiopia, and there’s no doubt they are from lost tribes of ancient Israel… the DNA studies and the heritage back up the stories. The stories are fantastic and rich as the countries culture.

Breathtaking natural beauty outside the windows of the ancient village near Konso. This valley is coined New York for what look a vast city scape in dirt… like sky scrapers.

This Mursi Warrior may look tough, and they are, but they are also very sweet.

If you don’t stick to tourist food, you can try some amazing tibs. Tare tare may be a french term, but at this shop, they chop off cuts of fresh beef, seasoning optional. Strips of raw meat – Tere Sega. I LOVE Ethiopian food. It took some convincing my driver that I had an iron stomach, then I could get to the really good places where the locals eat. Tibs, Shiro, Kifto, Gomen, Doro Wat, Shiro Feces, served with a layer of Injira.

Incredible markets. Tribes would come to trade or sell their vegetables or clothes. Markets aren’t every day, but on market day it’s a treat to meet those that come from far away. I did find it annoying that some local government officials thought we needed a permit to go to the market. They were persistent.

Traditional ancient Konso tribal Hut. These are really the nice huts. There are much more primitive and temporary huts.

The hardest working women in the world. I believe. These women spend all day looking for sticks to turn to charcoal to sell or to use as firewood to feed their families.

The wise tribal elders of Konso

Those wooden seats double as a pillow and are one of the few items you might find in a hut.

The inside of a hut. This women was near the center of the village so she has some additional amenities.

The animals live in the stone walled in village for protection. The further outer rings of the village the newer but more risky.

The inside of the grass hut. Embers still warm.

In a spirit of transparency. I’m fine sharing what I got

Day 1 – Rock Hewn church, Tiya UNESCO site

Day 2 Trekking for Zebras, visiting crocks and hippos

Day 3 Jinka!!! Konso tribes the 400 year old UNESCO village including New York

Day 4 Mursi tribe and Mago National Park. This is the lip plate tribe. Dimeka Market…

Day 5 Turmi cultural tribal city in the middle of Omo Valley

Day 6 Dorze village

I ended up going back to Paradise Lodge. We loved that place. The view was incredible. So we elected for 3 nights there in Arba Minch.

For $75 a day for $525 we had a Toyota Land Cruiser driver and vehicle for about 7 days. I felt pretty good about what I negotiated. Our driver knew the route, and while he didn’t like driving in the dark. We were able to push him to put in 12 hour days and saw an incredible amount of Southern Ethiopia on this trip.

It was so great to get back to Ethiopia one of my favorite countries not only in Africa, but in the world.

If you enjoyed this post… you might enjoy my previous post on Ethiopia on Lalibela and the Rock Hewn Churches where I first met Abeye and fell in love with ancient Ethiopia. My friend Abeye is now building his own ethiopian tours.

Natural Wonders of the World – Underground River of Puerto Princesa

May 7, 2018Posted in Adventure, Asia, Bucket List, Favorite, Island, Oceania, Photography, Tourism, Travel, UNESCO, WonderTagged National Park, New7Wonders, palawan, Philippines, ramsar wetland, Unesco, Wonders of the WorldLeave a comment

Philippines is hidding a real gem. In fact, scratch that, they are hiding some of the most amazing islands for vacation in the world. I’ve been to the main island a couple of times, but it was this intentional visit to go see the 7 natural wonders of the world that brought me to the little gem of an island of Palawan. Puerto Princesa Underground River started with a motor boat ride to the nearby beach to an outfitter to provide us with smaller boats bright mandatory big orange life jackets and shiny hard hat helmets.

The puerto princesa national park is a limestone karst mountain landscape. The actual St. Pauls Underground River Cave is more than 24 km (15 mi) long and contains an 8.2 km (5.1 mi) long underground section of the Cabayugan River. The river system of the cave flows into the West Philippine Sea and is navigable by boat up to 4.3 km (2.7 mi) in from the entrance. The cave includes major formations of stalactites and stalagmites, and several large chambers, including the 360-meter-long Italian’s Chamber with approximate 2.5 million square meters of volume making it one of the largest cave rooms in the world.

Tourists getting ready to enter the cave

Just inside the cave system

On the first boat headed to the beach with the smaller boats

The island of Palawan has many uniquely styled canoe boats designed to move quickly over the water

The boat captains love and live on the water. It is life.

Bats, snakes, birds, there’s a lot of life going in and out of the caves.

Chili crab. Some of the best food on a banana leaf.

The boats are a very important part of life on Palawan island

I stand back to back with our guide and she’s next to one of the indigenous oldest elders. They are known as pygmy people due to their height.

Palawan not only has an underground river cave system, but also native tribes! This friendly looking tribe recently emerged from the forest. They danced with us and taught us about their mythologies and shared traditions. A young guide who is from another nearby tribe can speak their language and helped us communicate with them. The young ones are now attending a school built right next to the huts, the teacher resides nearby.

There are 70 indigenous peoples and the Bataks are thought to come from Asia 50,000 years ago. The island of Palawan, the largest province in the Philippines, is home to several indigenous ethnolinguistic groups namely, the Kagayanen, Tagbanwa, Palawano, Taaw’t Bato, Molbog and the Batak tribes. They live in remote villages in the mountains and coastal areas. We drove as far as we could and then walked across 6 streams to this remote village. We visited this small tribe of about 17 individuals, some of the last of the Batak tribe. The Batak tribe is a group of indigenous people who reside in the rugged interiors of the northeast portion of the province of Palawan. These group of people lives close to nature and are extremely peaceful and shy, traditionally they believe in nature spirits with whom they communicate with through the aid of a shaman. At present, there are only about 500, or less, Batak people remaining in the Philippines. This group is now Christian and preferred not to talk about the old beliefs, but did tell us how much their lives changed when they found rice. It was rice ultimately that drove them from hiding in the forest to coming out and coexisting with the other people.

Traveling the Nubian Pyramids of Sudan

November 30, 2017December 22, 2017Posted in Adventure, Africa, Culture, Extreme, History, Photography, Tourism, Travel, UNESCOTagged kushite, merotic, moroe, Musawwarat es-Sufra, nubian, pyramids, pyramids of the sun, sudan, temples4 Comments

Who goes to Sudan? I did and it was awesome! My planning started by scouring the internet for stories of people who visited Sudan and searching for stories of visiting the Nubian Pyramids of Meroe. Thought they were in Egypt???

Pyramids in Sudan? Indeed! In fact there are more Pyramids in Sudan than in Egypt. There are 255 pyramids in Nubia in three sites built over a few hundred years.

Yes, there are 120 large pyramids built over the period of 3000 years.

Pyramids of Meroe

I had heard getting the visa for Sudan may take up to 6 weeks. In fact 6 weeks is about what it took for my friend to get his passport back which pushed it almost too far. He ended up having to call them twice for additional materials. I had another trip where I needed my passport and had only 4 weeks. My biggest breakthrough was connecting with Acropole Hotel. Simply reaching out to these guys and we had a place to stay, we had a ride, and we were able to get customized trip with a driver and everything we needed. In fact they were able to provide an invitation which then allowed for visa on arrival with a letter. The turn around was less than a week, but they recommend a few more weeks, but can make it happen with simply a scan of the passport and $200 wire. Normally I wouldn’t dive into details, but these guys were so great, and reasonable, and trustworthy, I do recommend them. The owner is of greek parents but born in Sudan and has a great education and speaks great English and was very responsive and insightful. On top of all this, I recommend getting the tourist permit and the photo permit (frequently on the same page, which the hotel can organize ahead of time), make sure you have lots of copies as every stop you’ll need to provide a copy.

ACROPOLE HOTEL

Your Home Away from Home

tel: +249 1 83 772860

+249 1 83772518

Fax: +249 1 83770898

Email : acropolekhartoum@gmail.com

Web : acropolekhartoum.com

P.s. No credit cards are accepted in Sudan

only cash Usd,Euro,Sterling,Swiss Franc.

Please bring 4 Passport photos.

When we landed we quickly found that the exchange for money happened on the ground as soon as you arrive. There is no ATM, and the currency exchange is done primarily person to person as the official rate is 6 to 1, where the street rate is closer to 20 to 1. Dollars and Euros are in high demand.

My trip to Sudan was super rich even though it was quick.

We visited three archeological sites each very distinct and unique. The first was a real adventure offroading across the desert in a 4×4. There was a new road under construction, which even made it more challenging. We ended up picking up a nomad to help us track down the site. Fantastic adventure.

First stop was a few temples that reminded me of Karnack and Luxor, but in miniature including the rams on either side of the approach and columns, but you’d find a mix of roman columns as well as egyptian looking temples and columns.

The time period of the pyramids is from about 700BC to 300AD.

Musawwarat es-Sufra

Musawwarat es Sufra is one of the most important archaeological heritage sites of Sudan. Situated in the semiard landscape of the Keraba, 25 km away from the Nile, it was the earliest site outside the Nile valley which the Kushites developed into a monumental arena of religious life in the Napatan period. Most standing monuments, including the unique sacral complex of the Great Enclosure and the famous Lion Temple, date from the Meroitic period (300 BC to 350 AD). Musawwarat is a UNESCO World Heritage. Enjoy the discovery to find it.

Naqa

Horus and Isis

The most extensive Nubian pyramid site is at Meroë, which is located between the fifth and sixth cataracts of the Nile, approximately 100 km (62 mi) north of Khartoum. During the Meroitic period, over forty queens and kings were buried there.

Exploring these pyramids we were alone for the most part except for a couple of locals and guys with their camels trying to get us to take rides. By the time we we were done with the first dozen or so we rode camels to the next set of pyramids and back to the 4×4… with bartering for the two of us the total cost was around 100 Sudanese pounds or about $5.

I got this info from the hotel, but it served very valuable:

· Passport Registration at the Ministry of Interior that all foreigners must do thru our hotel upon arrival is 42.5 Usd. Please bring four passport photos.

· The cost of Tourist Visa is 120*** Usd paid to us plus 150 Usd (for US passport holders) paid at the airport upon arrival

Airport Authorities accept only U.S. dollars, all Bank notes of U.S. dollars should be edited after year 2006.

· Passport should be valid for at least SIX months and without Israeli Immigration stamps.

· For those who need a letter of invitation addressed to the Sudanese Embassy

· To issue exclusively a tourist visa**** (20 days before arrival Maximum) or a letter of invitation we need a clear scanned passport copy ASAP, guest must stay at our hotel for the whole period of his stay in Sudan and can travel outside Khartoum only to archeological sites. We can organize excursions to all Archeological sites and also arrange for a Boat cruise in the Nile.

( From day trip to the Pyramids or more up to 14 days in the desert with camping and food). We can arrange for free Photo and Travel permit to the North as without travel permit from authorities you will not be allowed to travel.*

· All foreign guests of the hotel must pay in foreign exchange currency as per regulations of Sudan’s Central Bank policy.

· Please note that NO credits cards are accepted in Sudan and there are no ATMs to withdraw money. Us dollar Bank notes should be edited after 2006.

My last night ended with attending a local wedding. I wish I could attend a wedding in every culture across the globe. Women on one side of the tent and men on the other with dancing in the middle.

Best time to be at the pyramids for light is the sunrise, but I was able to get some interesting shots with the sun on it’s way down.

This young sudanese girl was selling traditional jewlery and rock carvings. She was happy with the exchange and allowed me to take her photo.

Traditional Sudanese Lamb and Dipping sauce

Top 10 Activities in San Diego California

January 16, 2015January 16, 2015Posted in Adventure, Family, National Park, North America, Photography, Tourism, Travel TipsTagged Baby gorilla, Baby Panda, Balboa Park Centenial, Oceanside beaches, San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park3 Comments

I recently moved to Oceanside California, a suburb of San Diego, and this holiday season we had an opportunity to look at San Diego like tourists. Southern California is a tourists paradise. In Orange County you have Disneyland and Knottsberry farm. Go to the coast and you have world famous beaches Newport and Long beach. In this post, I want to focus on San Diego. San Diego is packed with some of the most popular activities.

Foreigners who think they want to visit Los Angeles when they come to the US would do well to come south a few hours to San Diego area. After seeing a little bit of Hollywood or Disney, you’ll have a lot better time

1. San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park – The world famous San Diego Zoo

Most of my life this was THE zoo. San Diego, California housing over 3,700 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies. Some of the highlights from my most recent visit were the baby panda who has been really growing, the baby gorilla. The lion was awesome.

Baby Panda eating Bamboo

Baby Gorilla right up against the glass…. so cute!

The Male Lion vocalizing… Serious Yawn! Amazing King of the Jungle.

After spending time at the San Diego, it made me wonder what are the best zoos. My favorite are the real animal parks in South Africa and Botswana, but when you can’t have that the Wild Animal Park in San Diego and the San Diego Zoo are really tops.

World’s Top 10 Zoos according to TripAdvisor

1. Henry Doorly Zoo (Omaha, Nebraska)

2. San Diego Zoo (San Diego)

3. Loro Parque (Puerto de la Cruz, Spain)

4. St. Louis Zoo (St. Louis)

5. Singapore Zoo (Singapore)

2. La Jolla – The Cove

My favorite place to relax in San Diego is in La Jolla. The beaches, the calm seas, the birds, the seals… I’ve done some snorkeling at the underwater park. What a wonderful place.

The Cove, Seals, Kayaks

This water arch is accessible by Kayak rental

Sunset at La Jolla Shores, bon fires along the beach

Flickr: 57108987@N00

Don’t miss the seals!

3. Legoland California + water park in Carlsbad and Aquarium

Kids love legoland. Rides, and entire cities and cityscapes including life sized Star Wars figures

Really… This Chewbacca is totally out of legos!

4. San Diego Harbor Cruise, Speed boat or Whale Watching

The San Diego skyline with a cruise ship. The harbor cruise, whale cruises, and even jet boats and duck boats are available for a ride out in the bay.

Battleships and navy battalions, the USS Midway is on the dock available for a self guided tour

5. Balboa Park – Science Museum

Balboa Park is a San Diego must-see, just minutes from downtown, and ranked as one of the Best Parks in the World. The Park is home to 15 major museums, several performing arts venues, lovely gardens and many other cultural and recreational attractions, including the San Diego Zoo. With a variety of cultural institutions laid out among its 1,200 beautiful and lushly planted acres, Balboa Park is the nation’s largest urban cultural park. Yes it is huge… and bigger than even central park in NYC.

The tower and the Museum of Man were designed by Bertram Goodhue, who was inspired by the churches of Mexico and Spain. Even though the tower and museum resemble a church, they’ve never been used as one. They’ve always housed exhibits, except when used as a Navy hospital during World War II.

Flickr: jimnix

Balboa park is definitely something to see. A huge collection of museums right off from the zoo which house great collections of science, natural history, and culture.

As a public service, Balboa Park organizations offer free admission on a rotating basis on the first four Tuesdays of the month to San Diego City & County residents (with ID), active military & their dependents.

Please note: Some museums may offer complimentary admission to their permanent collections only and charge admission to special exhibitions or films.

Also note: Some museums may require ID for minors

First Tuesday

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center
Centro Cultural de la Raza
San Diego Model Railroad Museum
San Diego Natural History Museum (Not valid for 3-D films)

Second Tuesday

Museum of Photographic Arts
San Diego History Center
Veterans’ Museum and Memorial Center

Third Tuesday

San Diego Art Institute
Mingei International Museum
San Diego Museum of Art
San Diego Museum of Man
Japanese Friendship Garden

Fourth Tuesday

San Diego Air & Space Museum (Not valid for special exhibitions)
San Diego Automotive Museum (Last admission 3:45 PM)
San Diego Hall of Champions
Select House of Pacific Relations International Cottages

Museum Month: Half-Off Admission 2/1/15 – 2/28/15

The Timken Museum of Art is always free.

Due to large crowds and for visitor safety some museums may restrict entrance to strollers.

For more information visit http://www.balboapark.org/visit/tuesdays

6. Oh yeah, there’s Sea World… or Tons of Beaches to explore (be a whale?)

Sure go see Shamu or whoever, or why not go to some of the best beaches on the planet. You could even catch a whale cruise. (The 3 day Go San Diego pass offers discounts to Sea World) See bottom.

Coronado (more below)
Ocean Beach
La Jolla
Mission Beach
Torrey Pines
Oceanside
Del Mar
Solana Beach
Moonlight Beach
…. So many choices!

Check out the list of Top 10 Beaches in San Diego

7. Old Town San Diego

Credits: SanDiego.org

San Diego Historical Society: Old Town State Historic Park

Old town San Diego is a favorite. Very easy walking to historic churches, homes, great authentic Mexican food, and markets, shops and fascinating history. I recommend the Mormon Batallion. I have an ancestor that made that longest march in US history from Missouri to San Diego for the Mexican American War. The visitors center has an 3D style interactive movie that puts you back in those times.

8. Day Trip to TJ

As a global traveler I can’t resist going to Tijuana for a day trip. My favorite excursion is the drive to Ensenada and the Blow hole south of the city by another 15 minutes to El Bufadorra, but most would want to spend the weekend in Ensanada and a little more planning. The day trip to walk along Revolution street complete with street tacos and a visit to one of the many markets and lots of cheap souvenirs. This last trip we caught a cab after walking across the border and took us to the cultural museum and walked back to the border. We got some street tacos, churros, and I got a very cheap TJ Harley Davidson pullover Mexican style hoodie. The border crossings can be a pain, but really you only have to wait coming back. The way to Mexico is just a turn style. Make sure you have your passports to get back!

Cultural Museum of the Americas in Tijuana

Fresh and Cheap Pomegrantes… just across the border!

And who doesn’t love all of your favorite characters made up into Piñatas! Yes that is Anna, Elsa and Olaf and a couple minions.. for the right price

The Famous Jai Alai stadium at one end of the Avenue Revolution

The Arch at the other end of the Avenue

I could do a whole post on TJ, and probably should. There are so many people who visit Tijuana the wrong way, and as well there are so many people who are afraid of the border for the wrong reasons.

9. Hotel and Beach Coronado – Mystery surrounds the Hotel Coronado

Coronado’s famous beaches are known for their fine white sand that sparkles in the sun thanks to the mineral mica

Parents Magazine named Coronado Beach one of the Best Beach in the U.S. for Families
A stroll through the historic Hotel del Coronado, a truly enchanting experience.

Flickr: 29541450@N07

“Coronado is home to the famous Hotel del Coronado, built in 1888 and long considered one of the world’s top resorts. It is listed as a National Historic Landmark and appeared in films such as Some Like It Hot and The Stunt Man.” Read more about the Historic Hotel Coronado and Beach… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronado,_California

If you decide to go for a drive swing by the Mission in San Diego or follow the beaches north to Oceanside to the mission there. Best time to stop by is during the Day of the Dead where over 5000 people come to celebrate the dead!

I’m loving it here. I have to wonder if it has the best weather in the world…? Incredible number of days that are simply just right, but I don’t want to convince everyone to move here…. just that it’s a great destination, but apparently you probably already know that.

Even though I’m not getting a dime for this, let me see if I can save you some money. There is a Go San Diego Card that allows you to get into multiple places at once for a fixed price. I used the groupon San Diego deal to save even more. We did the two day and just bought the adult one ($97 for All Inclusive 2 day pass) and used the Legoland kids get in free coupon with full fared paid adult… We had to find someone who was paying full price to let our kid in with them from a $ perspective… It worked. Worked out wonderfully. We saved $50-60 on each day. Combining the activities into a string of events in a day is exhausting, but we had a great time!

Biking the World’s Most Dangerous Road in Bolivia

December 11, 2014November 20, 2016Posted in Adventure, Bucket List, Extreme, Favorite, Nature, Road Trip, South America, Tourism, Travel, Travel Tips, Unique, VideoTagged Bolivian Adventure Travel, Death Road, featured, Ruta De La Muerta, Travel Bolivia, World's Deadliest RoadLeave a comment

It started out as an idea. What would be the coolest thing to see in Bolivia? I’d heard and seen the dangerous road featured on SciFi and National Geographic programs, so getting a glimpse of the road was my objective. I’d also heard about some other things featured on Sci Fi, like Puma Punku and Tiuanaku, but I’ll save that for another post. In my search for information on seeing the world’s most dangerous road, I came across Gravity Bolivia, a high adventure extreme sports adventure travel site for the adventure traveler. If you’re going to go… you have to go with them. Best in safety equipment and support. On this one, I believe it does matter. I usually don’t endorse, but on this adventure, you have to be extremely careful.

In their own words…

“Quite deservedly, this mountain bike ride is our most popular and World famous. Gravity has been featured guiding and riding this road in more than 60 magazine and newspaper articles, (as well as six television shows and on the lips and Blogs of almost every backpacker and adventure traveler in South America), this downhill mountain bike ride is not only famous, but so is GRAVITY!”

My brother in law Jeff, who had never even been to South America joined us on this adventure. He said it was absolutely the craziest, scariest, best adventure, day of his life. He rode on the middle bar of one of our instructors this wasn’t the original plan. They didn’t have a small enough bike, but they accommodated in a serious way.

The ride is one of a kind with the most spectacular descent of 3,600m/11,800 feet from snow-covered high-altitude mountain ranges down to the Amazonian Jungle with most of the 64kms (40 miles) of downhill riding on the road locally known as “The Death Road” or “Camino de la muerte!” The true stories you’ll hear are real. This road is not a joke. It’s serious with sheer cliffs with 3000 ft (1000 meter) drops. The long ropes they carry aren’t long enough for the longest drops and there isn’t a survival rate on those drops either.

Why would someone ride on a road called the death road? For me, I wanted to do the investigation, read the stories and determine if it was something I wanted to do. Initially I simply wanted to see what the fuss was about, but when I heard I could take it at my own speed and with instructors who would tell you about the turns along the way, and give you professional equipment I was slowly convinced I could do it.

On the site they say the ride is for “Confident beginners to experts, average fitness and above, and in particular, those looking for a long, world-class, downhill mountain bike ride.” The Trip Advisor ratings for Braving the World’s Most Dangerous Road and scores for this ride were off the charts at the level of Chernobyl. Here’s what I said in my review “I just got back from a whirlwind tour of 3 capitals in South America and the thing that stands out above all was my ride down the Worlds Most Deadly road. I was a little scared, but I did my homework and read all the reviews and looked into the various companies that do this ride.
First off Gravity is quality. The whole time my needs were met. Andy our guide watched out for us. He told us at each stop what to expect and how to handle it. He wasn’t pushy and allowed us to take things at our own pace.”

I don’t want to tell anyone they have to do this. I don’t want any responsibility at all for convincing anyone to put their life in their own hands. It’s liberating, and will scare you, but it’s also likely one of the most dangerous things I’ve done. That being said, I know I was riding a good 40 miles an hour down the hill at times and feeling an incredible rush. My front brakes needed to be adjusted part way down the mountain, and a guy in our party hurt his arm and shoulder scraping them on the road.

La Paz is an amazing place. When we landed at the airport I was pleased to find they had reduced their visa fees. I got a Bolivian visa for only $60. Only 3 years ago I was looking at $160 x 3 since I was with my wife and baby and at the time none of us had the yellow fever shot. This time we were all ready and got our visa on arrival and yes at the new reduced fare. As of Nov 16, 2014.

When we got off the plane an older lady fell on her face, and after a quick jog, we were all dangerously out of breath. Don’t push it here. When you first get off the plane, the Swahili mountain words of wisdom come to mind… “pole, pole” comes to mind. “Slowly, slowly.” Chewing the cocoa leaves and sucking out the juice (a local remedy) do the trick for helping alleviate the high elevation headache, or bring your high elevation pills. We decided to ride on day 2 of our stay in Bolivia. That was intentional and smart. It allowed us to acclimate at the world’s highest capital.

These cliffs are no joke!

The ride is beautiful. The jungle really sucks you in, and the views are out of this world. We stopped 15 times along the route to take pictures, drink liquids, and take in the amazing view.

Michael Noel, Jeff Beaulieu, and Joel Oleson geared up and ready to ride. Bike, gloves, jacket, pants, helmet and goggles all provided by Gravity Bolivia. We all made it. Incredible experience.

GoPro3 Youtube Highlight Video of our Crazy Experience

World’s Deadliest Road Highlights from Helmet and Chest Cam

“Mountain Biking for 64km down the World’s Most Dangerous Road (WMDR, aka Yungas Road, aka Camino de las Muertas, aka Camino de las Yungas) in Bolivia. The trip starts at an altitude of 4650m and ends at 1200m. I tried to edit this down to the highlights of the journey. Taken from my GoPro3 with myself, Joel Oleson, and Jeff Beaulieu sharing camera duty throughout the ride” uploaded and edited by Michael Noel http://sharingtheglobe.com

I facebooked a video of the narrowest part of the road as we drove back on the road. In a lot of ways it was more scary riding the bus back on that crazy road than on a bike.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152932118078783

I’ll be uploading more video to my youtube channel in the coming weeks. You can subscribe to my traveling epic youtube videos. I’ve gotten over 1.4 million views across the channel.

Top 10 Must See in Baku Azerbaijan: Fire Temple, Mud Volcano, and Early Man sites

November 3, 2014November 3, 2014Posted in Asia, Eastern Europe, Tourism, Travel, Travel Tips, UNESCO, VideoTagged ateshgah, azerbaijan, baku, fire temple, volcano, zoroastrian3 Comments

In my quest to visit every country I wasn’t sure what to expect with Azerbaijan. What looked like a small country with a checkered past sprinkled with war and conflict with Armenia. I was definitely interested in learning about the people, the culture and learning what Azerbaijan had to offer the world and for fellow travelers. I wasn’t disappointed, in fact I was blown away with the treasures of this land.

What I found was fantastic. Azerbaijan is a very culturally rich country with a deep past. A former soviet block country with it’s own history and it’s own identity, Azerbaijan is rich. Rich culturally and figuratively with oil and very culturally rich.

Baku is in and of itself a stand out city that should be held up against the greatest in the region in comparison with Dubai and Doha .

1. Baku Zoroastrian Fire Temple – Ateshgah of Baku.

The Temple of Fire “Ateshgah” on the List of World Heritage Sites, UNESCO. It’s been a museum since 1975. The fires use to come out of the top of the 4 corners. This fascinating fire temple was a place of worship long ago and most of the history before 1700 has been lost.

In front of the fire temple

This recreated piece shows what it would have been like, complete with Zoroastrian pilgrims and Persians

Modern Baku – Baku is a fascinating city with many modern buildings that would boggle the mind. I thought I was in Dubai or Qatar when I started seeing the array of modern, brilliant and fantastic architectures.

2. Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center

– amazing example of modern architecture. The white building is a major landmark in the heart of Baku City. The immaculately white building comes in the shape of waves. It is no doubt an impressive structure and an great achievement in field of modern architecture and engineering. I can’t imagine trying to make the bricks for this. No lines are straight!

3. Baku Flame Towers

is a striking new addition to the skyline of Baku. Located atop a hill on the Caspian Sea overlooking Baku Bay and the old city center, the three towers were inspired by Azerbaijan’s ancient history of fire worshipping, and will illuminate the city and act as an eternal flame for modern Baku. 190 Meters… towering above old town.

4. World’s 2nd Largest Flag Pole – National Flag Square –

The flag square is one end of the boardwalk, so really you’re just on one end of the Caspian sea and 5K walk through the park across the street from the Old Town.

The flag you see was the largest in the world until Dushanbe Tajikistan took it over by just 3 meters. Big flag.

I suggest you either take the

5. Steps for City View Funicular and night time viewing of the Flame Towers

up to the top to get a close up view, or ask your taxi or driver to take you to the steps shown to get a close up view of the Flame Towers. This is a must see spectacle lighting up the night sky with fires.

6. Must See Sunrise and Caspian Sea and seaside boardwalk

Baku is a beautiful city, and walking along the seaside boardwalk and heading for a jog at sunrise is incredible. Beautiful sunrise creeping up over the Caspian sea. You can see the oil residue in the water. It’s not appealing, but the jog or walk along the the sea side can’t be beat. I recommend Milli Park, which is right near the Maiden tower, which is in Old Town. So very easy to combine visits to a bunch of this stuff.

Seaside Boulevard was opened in May 2012 and extends from the ‘Baku Sports Palace’ (Bakı İdman Sarayı) to the ‘National Flag Square’.

7. Mud Volcanoes

– The worlds mud volcanoes are in large part in Azerbaijan. They say that more than 50% of the worlds mud volcanoes are in this country. I don’t doubt it. It hasn’t become the tourist attraction it deserves. We had the whole place to ourselves. Our driver really didn’t want to take us in his nice car, but we twisted his arm and the offroad dirt roads he took to get there, I now understand his hesitation. It was probably my favorite thing we did there. The mud was bubbling up creating cinder cones of mud, we played around. It’s not hot to the touch, in fact it was cool. Very strange and fascinating world.

8. Gobustan Early man site and Petroglyphs – UNESCO world heritage site.

Early man carved out these holes to capture water for drinking.

Gobustan Rock Art – outstanding collection of more than 6,000 rock engravings bearing testimony to 40,000 years of rock art. The site also features the remains of inhabited caves, settlements and burials, all reflecting an intensive human use by the inhabitants of the area during the wet period that followed the last Ice Age, from the Upper Paleolithic to the Middle Ages. The invading armies of Alexander the Great and Trajan also left some interesting grafitti. We didn’t find this on our journey… may have been inside the gated area, but we really enjoyed what we saw. So much there, but you’d likely need a guide to get off the route and see more.

There were a lot of petrogliphys. We did the self guided tour, and later stopped in the museum that’s near the entrance of the park. It was fascinating to see. We combined seeing the mud volcanoes and the petrogylphys and early man stuff in Gobustan.

Walking through the center of town you’ll find a fascinating walking street through the town. Be sure to take the underground walk ways when you encounter busy streets and obey the traffic signs. The cars won’t stop for you. There are lots of fountains and fascinating things to view walking through the city.

9. Old City and Maiden’s Tower – Old City (a UNESCO World Heritage site)

First thing to see in the city and likely where you should stay near… this mysterious and eccentric tower was built somewhere between the 7th and 12th centuries and may have served as a fire beacon, defensive fortification, astronomical observatory, or Zoroastrian temple

Old City Baku

If you like Sports… check out the 2015 European Games planning on Baku Azerbaijan as the host. They are getting state of the art stadiums to host the games.

10. Bibi-Heybat Mosque –

The Bibi-Heybat Mosque is a historical mosque in Baku, Azerbaijan. The existing structure, built in the 1990s, is a recreation of the mosque with the same name built in the 13th century by Shirvanshah Farrukhzad II Ibn Ahsitan II, which was completely destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1936. The Bibi-Heybat Mosque includes the tomb of Ukeyma Khanum (a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad), and today is the spiritual center for the Muslims of the region and one of the major monuments of Islamic architecture in Azerbaijan.

What I missed, that I wanted to see.

Go and enjoy the oil baths of Naftalan. Seriously baths of crude oil… petrol!

The Baku Airport is one of the few in the world offering flights to Nakhchivan and travelers heading that way should book a flight from here. My friend Michael who traveled with me was able to fit it in and spent a good day there.

Chernobyl Tour: Nuclear Disaster Day Trip

October 11, 2014October 11, 2014Posted in Eastern Europe, Extreme, Favorite, Tourism, TravelTagged Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Chernobyl tour, disaster tourism, Nuclear Disaster, чернобыль, Pripyat2 Comments

My first experience with Chernobyl was a fly over. I was flying out of Belarus to Ukraine and my friend Michael mentioned we were flying over the area where Chernobyl happened. My curiosity and thoughts went wild. Then it was a couple of b movies, TV show, and Hollywood Horror Flick that really got me interested. An article from national geographic about the people that lived in the exclusion zone really got me curious. чернобыль to locals in Ukraine isn’t a place people would want to visit? Why go to a contaminated place? Have you ever been curious to visit a place after a volcano? Mt St Helens… A hurricane? New Orleans… or curious about Berlin? Why not Hiroshima or Chernobyl? There is actually a name for this now. Disaster Tourism – the act of traveling to a disaster area as a matter of curiosity.

Was it possible to visit such a place?

Yes! After looking into it, I found a visit to Chernobyl is not only 5 stars and ranked number 1 nearly every review on Trip Advisor for day trips from Kiev, there were multiple tour companies doing nearly daily tours. As well Chernobyl Tour has 106 Five star ratings and not even one one, two, or three star rating. There is only one way for normal people to visit Chernobyl… on a tour. Let me pick a few select titles from the reviews that pushed me over the edge on this…

The infamous and creepy carnival in Pripyat

These rides were never enjoyed by children. The city was evacuated before the park’s launch at the May day celebration.

“Best tour of my life!”

“Ammmmazing!”

“Best Journey of my life!”

“A metaphysical experience”

Chernobyl Tours with UkrainianWeb.com

So I tried to track down a tour that would be able to pick me up on the day the only day I was going to be available. Thursday Sep 25. Here’s the confirmation mail from my reservation that shares a lot of the details. We reserved the private tour. This gave us more flexibility. We stopped at a market on the way and I got a jacket and locally made yoghurt (it had been pretty cold.

In front of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster monument. Behind us is Nuclear reactor #4.

“Today the fiercely radioactive remnants of reactor four continue to smolder beneath the so-called sarcophagus, a decaying concrete-and-steel crypt, hastily built after the accident, that now threatens to collapse. Work is about to get under way on a replacement: an arched structure, the size of a stadium, that will slide over the sarcophagus and seal it off. With its completion the destroyed reactor will be out of sight. But for the region’s people it will never be out of mind, as a slow-motion catastrophe continues to unfold.” – Ny Times Chernobyl Capping a Catastrophe

It’s been covered by what they call a sarcophagus and they are in the process of building the new one which is the biggest engineering project of this kind. This New York Times article describes the new construction.

The Chernobyl Arch will end up costing about $1.5 billion

“If all goes as planned, by 2017 the 32,000-ton arch will be delicately pushed on Teflon pads to cover the ramshackle shelter that was built to entomb the radioactive remains of the reactor that exploded and burned here in April 1986. When its ends are closed, it will be able to contain any radioactive dust should the aging shelter collapse.”

NY times: Chernobyl Capping a Catastrophe

IMPORTANT:

Make sure to carry your passport with you on the day of your tour.

Dear Mr Oleson:
Below is your Chernobyl tour pick-up contact information:
1. On Thu, Sep 25th, at 8:15 a.m., a car from the Chernobyl agency will be waiting for you at the address (in front of the hotel):

Dnipro Hotel, 1/2 Kreschatik Str

The Dnipro Hotel is situated in the Сentre of the city, on the European Square.

Make: Mercedes Sprinter (Color: white)

The driver’s name is Vladimir. His cell # is (He doesn’t speak English.)

AS SOON AS you check-in at your hotel in Kiev, call a taxi service and arrange for a cab pick-up in the morning, for example, at 8:00 a.m. or so -the taxi people will be able to give you a more accurate estimate. Normally, there is a HEAVY TRAFFIC in this part of the city at this time of the day.

2. Your English speaking pick-up manager’s cell phone # is: His name is Anton

3. Your total for 2 persons is: $398.0, already paid: $90.0 (reservation fee). So your balance with us is $308.0

You will have to pay it in UA Hr though.

Unfortunately, the UA Hr exchange rate fluctuates these days pretty vigorously.

If it was today, it would be an equivalent of 4405 (four thousands four hundred five) Ukrainian Hryvna.

However for now this is just a reference point for you, while the exact amount will be confirmed by the tour manager on the day of your tour, as you come to board your tour vehicle.

The Zone authorities just introduced a mandatory accidental insurance for each day/person of the trip. The insurance is 80 UA Hryvna (it is an equivalent of $7 usd and has to be paid inside the Zone directly to the Zone authorities who are the exclusive operator of this tour.)

You will have to pay this amount in Ukrainian currency. Please mind, the tour manager will not accept currencies other than Ukrainian Hryvna.

IMPORTANT:

Make sure to carry your passport with you on the day of your tour.

IMPORTANT:

It’s not uncommon to experience problems with obtaining cash from Mastercard, Visa and other credit/debit cards at ATMs in Kiev, Ukraine. We strongly recommend that you bring some Euro and/or US$ cash with you to avoid possible unpleasant last-minute surprises.

IMPORTANT (in summer):

Please make sure to wear a close type of clothing: long sleeves, no shorts, close sports or casual type footwear (no flip-plops, no sandals).

“The one piece of advice I would say is bring sturdy shoes as there is lots of walking on broken glass in Pripiyat.”

(Picture not included in email… but yes there’s lots of glass!)

Don’t forget the mosquito spray. (We didn’t need any)

Radiation dosimeters are available for rent. The daily rental rate is 200UAHr/day (equivalent of 13Euro). Please indicate explicitly the number of dosimeters you wish us to reserve for your.

Radiation dosimeters are also available for purchase at $175 each. Your will have to pre-order the quantity you need. (The docimeter was actually a Geiger counter and we rented 1 between us)

Please confirm receiving this email.

Thank you for your business.

Sincerely,
Customer Service

www.UkrainianWeb.com

————————————————-

So how did I get to Ukraine? I was invited to speak in Kiev at a SharePoint conference http://spcua.com/ (my day job, see my technical blog for more details). I booked an amazing flight from Amsterdam down to Kiev, and on to Azerbaijan and back to Stockholm for about $500 on Ukraine air. Less than 24 hours later Malaysian airlines went down and I got cold feet and cancelled the flight. A couple weeks later I was convinced that the real conflict was 500 Km away and the people could use the morale from a visit. After some convincing for my wife and making sure my insurance policy was still in place, I rebooked the flight on condition that I’d be able to visit one of my new bucketlist items. Chernobyl, the worlds worst disaster and one of the most fascinating places. It’s amazing how this 1000 square miles now known as the exclusion zone has become a wild animal park. With humans having been evacuated the bears, wolves, moose, wild horses, fish have really made

Life in Pripyat came to a shuddering end on April 26, 1986, less than two miles (less than three kilometers) south of what was then a city of 50,000, as the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant’s number four reactor exploded. Thirty people died in the blast and fire or exposed to lethal doses of radiation. The destroyed hulk burned for ten days, contaminating tens of thousands of square miles in northern Ukraine, southern Belarus, and Russia’s Bryansk region. It still is the worst nuclear accident the world has ever seen!

Read more about the history of Chernobyl and the blast : Great Article on Chernobyl from National Geographic

Exclusion Zone 1st Check Point

An exclusion zone of about 1,000 square miles still exists around the plant, with access controlled through checkpoints. Although radiation levels have declined somewhat through the natural process of radioactive decay, the zone remains virtually empty. Some of the villages were bulldozed to contain the radiation (it didn’t help); forest has overtaken others. In Pripyat, where 45,000 people once lived, paint peels off the murals in the community center and a tree grows in the middle of a gym floor. In one apartment, all that remains is a smashed piano.

The fallout, 400 times more radioactivity than was released at Hiroshima, drove a third of a million people from their homes and triggered an epidemic of thyroid cancer in children. Over the years, the economic losses—health and cleanup costs, compensation, lost productivity—have mounted into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Here’s the Chernobyl tour itinerary interspersed with my photos:

Unscheduled stop. Saw some places in the woods and asked top stop. This was a community center complete with stage.

Arrival at the town of Chernobyl

These are the robots that were used to clean up the nuclear disaster. The best ones were the ones without electrical components. The best ones apparently were the old soviet ones.

Transfer to the village of Leliyov. Passing the 10-km zone border.
Transfer to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station and sightseeing of Reactor 4.

Reactor 4

I captured video of our Geiger counter going crazy right in front of Reactor #4

The Fish of the cooling water. These are nuclear hot. Reminds me of the Simpsons fish what you can’t see in the picture is the scale. The catfish is so big it is the size of a shark. They often will feed it a loaf of bread!

Visit to Pripyat (Prypiat), the highlight of your trip. Sightseeing of “The Dead (Ghost) Town” – swimming pool area, ferris wheel, amusement park, river boats, abandoned buildings, school, etc..

Watch my video “Stroll through Pripyat” where you can see the natural surroundings.

A customized (private) trip; 2 day trip is available too.

There is some pretty strange graffiti, maybe this is from one of those scary movies?

Large strange poster inside the hotel.

How long does it take to grow stalactites? Well as the large hotel turns into a cave, maybe 30 years?

Stop nearby the “Red Forest”

Near the Red Forest we stopped by this sign.

Return to Chernobyl. Lunch* (Food is clean, it is delivered from outside of the Exclusion zone)

I didn’t really take any pictures of our basic lunch. We all laughed about the apples. The soup was fine.

Visit to Chernobyl Scientific Center: physical and radiochemical laboratories (optional).
Visiting the Opachychi village, meeting with “re-settlers”, people who have moved back to their villages after evacuation (optional).

Passage through the Dytyatky check-point. Checking the radiation, deactivation.

After 2 checks like the above at each of the checkpoints.

Return to Kiev at around 6 p.m.

We still got rid of our clothes and shoes and took a detox shower.

Incredible amazing tour. All those comments make sense now. Chernobyl was amazing as a ghost town, a wasteland, and unlike anywhere in the world due to its size and culture.

One of the most interesting thing was listening to the real survivors.

More on travel in Kiev, the revolution conflict in a follow up post…

It was an interesting time to be in Kiev…

From Mary to the Ancient City of Merv Turkmenistan

July 12, 2014July 13, 2014Posted in Central Asia, Culture, Extreme, Food, History, Religion, Road Trip, Tourism, Travel, Travel Tips, UNESCOTagged Dome, Mary, Merv, Mosque, Mounds, Sanjar Mosleum, travel, Tribes, Turkmen, Turkmenistan, Unesco2 Comments

If you haven’t traveled to Turkmenistan, you’re not alone. I bet they really don’t see many visitors due to the challenges of getting approval to visit. You can read about it on the Lonely Planet guide to Turkmenistan or trust me, there is no such thing as independent travel. You’re required to have a guide and simply taking your guide to places you decide you want to go is also off the list. You strictly have to check in as scheduled and not deviate off course. In our travel along the silk road, Turkmenistan was initially planned to be a quick stop, but they wouldn’t have it. They required us to spend at least one night and even that came across as extremely suspicious to them. I do think we had some extra scrutiny, but after all the attention, we did make it through the border fairly quickly (about an hour). It was good to know that we could essentially got to the front of the line as “tourists.” We didn’t see any other tourists the entire time we were in the country, but I did meet a lot of friendly people and the nicest camel I’ve ever met in my life… and in my travels that is a lot! The opposite end of the spectrum is the camel at Petra that spit and bit at me.

While I’m on the topic of camels which is one of my favorite things about Turkmenistan, we saw a lot of camels simply roaming through the desert. In some countries you see sheep on the hills. In Turkmenistan, you see groups of camels by themselves just walking along the desert. It’s amazing how long they can go without water. There were often 2 or 3 adults among a group which may have a handful of young ones eating near by. For these more wild camels we never knew how crazy they might be, but we took our chances for some good shots being cautious and then snuggling up with this lovable camel.

The deserts of Turkmenistan do have a lot of green in them. Our guide was pointing that from space it looks pretty green. Much of what Turkmenistan looked like on the drive across looked like the picture above. I hear there are even more great adventures out through the sand, but we didn’t get to spend that kind of time. Our trip to Turkmen was a part of a bigger trip across the silk road.

Some maybe most wouldn’t be able to point out where Turkmenistan is on the map. It’s north of Iran, West of Afghanistan, and shares a large border with Uzbekistan and finally the Caspian sea to it’s West. We would start our journey in Bukhara and spend the night in Mary after seeing Merv. I want you to see a few pictures of life today in Turkmenistan based on what I saw as we drove across this fascinating land.

First you do see lots of flags and statues including the famous Turkmen symbols from the special star to the Turkmen rug symbols for the tribes on the national flag. I think every tour in Turkmenistan starts out by explaining the nomadic tribes and their tribal symbols on the flag. Great story or unifying tribes.

These ladies were selling their wares on the side of the road out in the desert. Most of it looked hand made from camel fur. Pretty amazing what they could make with a little wool and camel yarn. These ladies covered up their faces pretty quickly when they saw us take our camera’s out.

Kyrgystan has yurts in the mountains, and Turkmen has yurts in the desert.

Many muslims in Turkmenistan (93%). They are a very religious people it seemed to me for the most part, despite being a former soviet country.

Women wear very long dresses and young girls wear their long hair down. Once married the hair goes up.

Statue and Soviet looking bus. You do really see a variety of old and new in the cities.

Traditional dinner in Mary. Yep more Shishka, but these were very fresh and tender.

Now for the old. In Merv I had two favorites both part of the ancient city of Merv which is part of the Unesco heritage site. Merv is the oldest and best-preserved of the oasis-cities along the Silk Route in Central Asia. The remains in this vast oasis span 4,000 years of human history. A number of monuments are still visible, particularly from the last two millennia.

Clay Walls of Kyzkala Palace Unesco Turkmenistan

The oasis formed part of the empire of Alexander the Great. Fluted Clay Wall of Kyzkala Palace

Read more about the UNESCO site on their website http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/886

Palace, Dome and Ruins… (even a little came in the photo… can you see it?)

I appreciate this quote on Merv. While I saw there, I tried to imagine the city in it’s 12th century times as potentially the largest city in the world!! “Merv (Turkmen: Merw, Persian: مرو‎ Marw), formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria (Ἀλεξάνδρεια) and Antiochia in Margiana (Greek: Ἀντιόχεια τῆς Μαργιανῆς), was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today’s Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of culture and politics at a site of major strategic value. It is claimed that Merv was briefly the largest city in the world in the 12th century. The site of ancient Merv has been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.”

Merv was home to practitioners of various religions beside the official Sassanid Zoroastrianism, including Buddhists, Manichaeans, and Christians of the Church of the East. While in much of it now you see mounds these were once great walls. The idea that Zoroastrians were in the same town as Buddhists and Christians is amazing to me.

“It is during this period that Merv expanded to its greatest size—Arab and Persian geographers termed it “the mother of the world”, the “rendezvous of great and small”, the “chief city of Khurasan” and the capital of the eastern Islamic world. Written sources also attest to a large library and madrasa founded by Nizam al-Mulk, as well as many other major cultural institutions. Perhaps most importantly, Merv was said to have a market that is “the best of the major cities of Iran and Khurasan” (Herrmann 1999). It is believed that Merv was the largest city in the world from 1145 to 1153, with a population of 200,000”

As we walked around trying to soak in the history and imagine the vast cities within cities, we were in awe.

Now in much of what was the largest city, you see mounds. In 1221 Merv opened it’s gates to the son of Genghis Khan, named Tolui.

Not much to see now. Looking from the walls of the city toward the dome at sunset.

Artists rendition of the “before”

It is during this period that Merv expanded to its greatest size—Arab and Persian geographers termed it “the mother of the world”, the “rendezvous of great and small”, the “chief city of Khurasan” and the capital of the eastern Islamic world. Written sources also attest to a large library and madrasa founded by Nizam al-Mulk, as well as many other major cultural institutions. Perhaps most importantly, Merv was said to have a market that is “the best of the major cities of Iran and Khurasan” (Herrmann 1999). It is believed that Merv was the largest city in the world from 1145 to 1153, with a population of 200,000” – Merv Wikipedia Article

Fascinating to read the largest cities of the world over time. Surprised not to see any Incan or Mayan cities or even Angkor Wat. I think it’s a fun list but not complete.

From the top of the tower. Dome in the distance.

Sultan Sanjar mausoleum, the old dome. It really is the best preserved of everything we saw in Merv. This 12th-century mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar, also in Sultan Gala is the largest of Seljuk mausoleums and is also the first dated mosque-mausoleum complex.

The stacked rocks reveal that buddhists have visited the place and leave prayer rocks.

The ruins of Merv were fascinating to explore. With civilization after civilization for millinum it is overwhelming to think of this area as some of the oldest continuous civilization.

In conclusion… Turkmenistan was a fascinating visit. I do recommend Turkmenistan on any silk road tour. I wish I could have made it to the door to hell or derweze. Make sure you look that up to see if it fits you’re schedule. Otherwise if you want some history and friendly camels, Soviet city of Mary/ and Ancient city of Merv is a great destination.

Discovering Kyrgyzstan Land of Mountains

June 28, 2014March 9, 2016Posted in Asia, Central Asia, Culture, Favorite, Food, History, National Park, Nature, Photography, Road Trip, Tourism, Travel, UNESCOTagged Ala Archa, Bishkek, burana, issuk kul, Kyrgystan, kyrgz republic, lake, mountains, petrogliph5 Comments

Oh Kyrgyzstan, how I love thee. What an incredible culture. I really really enjoyed the people and mountains of this vast rugged territory. The loyalty and incredible friendliness of the people still strikes me. I really enjoyed visiting these amazing places that were important sites of the silk road and played an important part of the world’s history that has since been lost in much of the history books and easily overlooked. These former soviet republics have a history of their own and are very worth visiting as they each have their own cultures and traditions.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I discovered I’d have 4 days in Bishkek before we’d continue on to Almaty. At first I was a little worried by what I’d seen on simple image searches of Bishkek. As a city you can see it in a day or based on my drivers thoughts… an hour, but get outside the city and day trips and you’re in one of those lifetimes that you need to have to find the depth. I need to share some stories to help you really understand why Kyrgyzstan really captured my heart and became one of my favorites.

I want to help you understand how I saw this place which really reveals my formula. If you look at the pictures of what I saw vs. a quick image search of Bishkek or even a virtualtourist.com search of Bishkek and you see a big difference. On this trip, I took a traveler’s perspective. I did very little research before going. I made a reservation because I had heard from a friend who was there a few months prior that I might have a challenge in the airport. I personally have never allowed language to stop me from visiting a place, but I did once have to visit more than half a dozen taxis on an island in China to find one driver who could take me where I wanted to go. In this case, I like to build a home base. I like to make a connection with a local and a hotel to start my travel from.

On facebook I started with a search, “My friends who live in Kyrgyzstan” – 0 results. “My friends of friends who have friends who live in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan” – a handful of results. I reach out to Monica, and ask her if she could introduce me to her friend Azat. After being introduced, I discovered that not only did Azat live in Bishkek, but he spoke pretty good English and had even visited the United States. Monica had visited him while in Bishkek and with that introduction, I had a true friend. In the world of Kyrgyzstan that friendship I would find would be so profound. The people have a rich heritage and rich loyalty.

I was traveling to speak at a conference in Barcelona and planning a trip across Central Asia, but my friend Michael had already visited Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. He’s the one who had mentioned language may be a challenge. With Barcelona as my starting point I found a flight on Pegasus airlines a very discounted airlines that has some really fascinating destinations. For approximately $250 I could fly from Barcelona and connect in Istanbul to Bishkek on a flight that would take about 10 hours or so to arrive. For the price, I was crazy not to take it. In all my travels across Central Asia, this flight would save me about $1000 vs other routes. I did some searching and made a reservation with Booking.com at RIch Hotel.

Four stars and an 8.4 user rating for $70. I was pretty excited. I was pretty happy with Rich Hotel. The facility met my needs. Good bed, clean sheets, ok (free) hot personally made breakfast (eggs and toast) and juice, but it was the driver that I really connected with. He didn’t speak a lot of English, but over the course of the few days, we both got really comfortable with each other.

My driver would me on private tours of the city, take us to some fantastic places. Here’s the quick list of where we went and amazing must see places. I’ve been surprised how some of these fantastic places haven’t really been discovered.

Bishkek

Ala-Too Square

This square is the central square for the city and in the past has been a place of gathering for political protest it still is a great place to see the people gathering and children playing around the fountains. Across central asia, fountains are found in the centers of cities and the people go there to relax and socialize with their friends.

Ала-тоо аянты Площадь Ала-Тоо is the central square in Bishkek,Kyrgyzstan. The square was built in 1984 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Kyrgyz SSR. At one point it had a statue of Lenin that was later moved to a smaller square. Erkindik(Freedom) was installed in its place it has a statue of Chinghiz Aitmatov. You can read about it’s significance in the Tulip revolution for gathering and protest in 2005.

Interesting Soviet style buildings from 1984 surround the fountains.

It was at the square that I saw this wise man, I wanted to talk with him and ask him if I could take his picture. He didn’t speak any english, but my driver from the hotel helped us find out that he was from deep on the other side of Kyrgyzstan and he was visiting. He was anxious to talk with me and share. As my first real interaction with a local that wasn’t associated with airport or hotel, I was very impressed with how nice he was and how he was happy to let me take his photo and share his wisdom.

This little Kyrgyz girl was gathering dandelions and flowers. I couldn’t resist taking a photo to capture the memory. So innocent.

Old Russian Orthodox church in Bishkek was a quick pass by. I asked the driver to stop so I could take a picture. Going inside was even more fascinating. During the Soviet times, religion was repressed, and few of these buildings remain. The church on the right above is bombed out, but the domes remain.

It so happened while I was in Kyrgyzstan there were celebrations to honor the world war II veterans and remember… Never forget. With as much opposition as there has been it’s very interesting to think that the US and Russia were allies during both world wars.

Ala Archa

Less than an hour outside the city and for about $30, I full day trip to explore the mountains. Think Switzerland, but even more remote and unseen and unknown by western ways. Ala Archa is a national park that has a small fee, but has trails to falls and along glacial rivers with incredible views of the valleys.

Swiss Chalet? Looks like it, but here you can get fresh water or some soup or local horse or sheep milk yoghurt drink.

This is life in rural Kyrgyzstan. Simple, traditional, and living life the way the ancestors did. Huge respect for this type of natural living. Is there more green ways than the idea that no one should own the land and that we are simply transient and all of us will move on in our journey in life?

It wasn’t unusual to find shepherds tending their flocks of sheep, goats, and cattle. What was unique about this was my driver offering to talk to the shepherd to allow me to ride his horse. Sure enough he obliged and I had a great ride around the little hills.

I referred to my facebook friend Azat. He arranged to meet me after my excursion in the hills. He was getting off work and invited me to have a traditional meal with his family. I was very very excited to have such an authentic experience to really meet locals that I could talk to and better get to know what life was like in Kyrgyz. He was a technology guy like myself, so we already had that in common. He picked us up at our hotel and brought us to his apartment in the city of Bishkek. Azat has two little boys and an amazing wife who spent probably all day working on our meal. The food was amazing. What’s better than traditional Kyrgyz Home cooking? They made this traveler feel like I was a dignitary. Very special treatment. They were so nice and kind, and so willing to do whatever was needed. I wasn’t hungry for days afterward. I still get a big smile when I think about how incredible it was to make a local connection and meet a real family to experience the traditions and values. Even though I was only in Kyrgyzstan for a few days, this connection will last a lifetime. I hope I can return the hospitality some day Azat!

Azat and family were so cute. I had an amazing time getting to know them and sharing some of my life experiences with them. We shared stories and really connected. His wife played on her traditional instrument the komuz the national instrument.

At the top of the Yurt is the iconic symbol of Kyrgyzstan. At Ala Acha there was a family that was setting up their yurt and was happy to let us see it come together. There is much pride and honor in these portable homes. The history and family traditions run very deep.

The locals are very humble and extremely nice.

This is what the finished product will look like.

As we were hiking, I saw this group of Kyrgyz teens. They were making soup. Cutting up carrots and potatoes. Really.

Kyrgyz picnic spread

Cooking the soup!

Traditional meal after our hike. Carbonated yoghurt sheep milk and soup.

Kyrgyz Money – som, com, pronounced some or soums

All of this talk of nature and simplicity should also include some caveats. While the cities have plumbing, the more remote villages have out houses. This make shift outhouse has a hole and boards in a very traditional rest room out back behind the restaurant.

In life and in death there are many of the same symbols. Religious symbols and the national symbols that are incorporated from the Yurts are very common. Lots of symbols in the impressively ornate graves that celebrate the next chapter of our journey.

Burana Tower

80 KM from Bishkek on great roads. The tower, along with fascinating stone grave markers, some earthworks, is all that remains of the ancient city of Balasagun, but now there’s a yurt with souvenirs, and a little museum of odd things from the area. (Not much in English. Mostly Russian.) This area was at one point a large city established by the Karakhanids at the end of the 9th century.

The Tower is fantastic. It’s been restored, but it really is very unique and if you’re claustrophobic you’ll find a real challenge. It’s quite dark and daunting, but as you can see in my pictures, if these kids could make it up, I could. There is an external staircase and then a steep, winding stairway inside the tower allowing you to climb to the top.

The grave markers and stone carvings contain a fascinating mix of Buddhist, Islamic, and early man. It’s a fascinating area that gives you the impression that this place has been inhabited since the dawn of man and is a very important place.

All that’s left of the city is earthen mounds and rooms. It’s still amazing to feel like an archeologist to walk around and put together stories of the castle and mausoleums that once were here.

These mounts were once a great city in the 9th century. The ancient city of Balasagun also known as Gobalik (pretty city) by the Mongols who captured the city in 1218.

Balasagun was founded by Soghdians, a people of Iranian origin and the Soghdian language was still in use in this town till the 11th century. It was the capital of the Kara-Khanid Khanate from the 10th Century until it was taken by the Kara-Khitan Khanate in the twelfth century. The Khitans used this as their capital, but were a mix of buddhist nomads, and muslim people as well as traditional khitan.

Old Arabic in grave markers

The food in Kyrgystan is not to miss. The freshest meats you’ll ever find. Sheep, Chicken, Beef skewers called Shishka. The dinning is nice. Traditionally we’ll sit on the floor with cushions around a short table. It’s very family and socially oriented. It’s not about eating fast, it’s about enjoying the company you are with. The drapery helps you get some level of privacy if you want it. There are similarities in the food across central asia, but each country does their traditional rice dishes very different. Each tribe of people has their own way, so you’ll often find different cities have their own flavor. In Bishkek it’s traditional to have a little bit of horse meat with the Osh (regional rice dish).

Fresh food!

Lake Issuk Kul

One of the largest lakes in Central Asia and really what the locals consider going to the beach. There are even changing rooms and sand. Highly recommended to see what a Kyrgyz retreat is like. With the help of our driver we found a variety of small cheap hotels for around $20 even with wifi. I did end up jumping in the lake and swimming around with some Russians on vacation. They didn’t speak any english and my handful of words in Russian didn’t keep us from having a good time splashing around in the fresh, but freezing water as the sun set.

Beautiful and serene Lake Issyk Kul (Иссык-Куль) in the northern Tian Shan mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is the tenth largest lake in the world by volume and the second largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea. (Wikipedia)

The lake is a very important region supporting life of all types and is recognized as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Izzyk kul. The snow leapord is in the mountains surrounding this lake. Ladies sell dried fish and honey on the road near the banks of the lake. Also near the lake is a prehistoric tribal outdoor museum that contains many mounds, mausoleums, rock carvings, and petroglyphs.

Glacial Mountains in the background of the sandy beaches of lake Izzyk kul.

Kyrgyz Kids playing on the beaches on the coastline of the worlds 2nd largest high lake of Izzyk-Kul.

I dove into Kyrgyzstan and made some great friends and a new favorite place in this world. I highly encourage it you to visit Bishkek and surrounding. Don’t stay in the city, go into the mountains, and valleys, visit the lake. You must roam! Don’t let Kyrgystan be one of those places you’ve never been. It’s an incredible experience.

Share this!

Like this:

Share this!

Like this:

Share this!

Like this:

Share this!

Like this:

Baby Panda eating Bamboo

Baby Gorilla right up against the glass…. so cute!

The Male Lion vocalizing… Serious Yawn! Amazing King of the Jungle.

Sunset at La Jolla Shores, bon fires along the beach

Kids love legoland. Rides, and entire cities and cityscapes including life sized Star Wars figures

Really… This Chewbacca is totally out of legos!

The San Diego skyline with a cruise ship. The harbor cruise, whale cruises, and even jet boats and duck boats are available for a ride out in the bay.

Battleships and navy battalions, the USS Midway is on the dock available for a self guided tour

Share this!

Like this:

Share this!

Like this:

1. Baku Zoroastrian Fire Temple – Ateshgah of Baku.

2. Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center

3. Baku Flame Towers

4. World’s 2nd Largest Flag Pole – National Flag Square –

5. Steps for City View Funicular and night time viewing of the Flame Towers

6. Must See Sunrise and Caspian Sea and seaside boardwalk

7. Mud Volcanoes

8. Gobustan Early man site and Petroglyphs – UNESCO world heritage site.

9. Old City and Maiden’s Tower – Old City (a UNESCO World Heritage site)

10. Bibi-Heybat Mosque –

Share this!

Like this:

Share this!

Like this:

Share this!

Like this:

Share this!

Like this: