Another Local’s Perspective, this time from Kudat, Sabah, Borneo. The Secret Place, run by Roby, 36, father of 7 children, was recommended to us by different people in Kota Kinabalu, so we decided to check it out. I seriously recommend going there, if you get the chance. I am so happy to have met Roby and his beautiful family (and his puppies) and thankful that he shared his thoughts about his life and country with me.
During our stay in Vietnam, we drove up to Sapa to visit the rice fields and to experience a more remote lifestyle in the north of the country, away from the craziness of Hanoi. There, we met Soso, our 22 year old young woman from the Black H’mong tribe, who is living in the Tan Van village with her family and has been working as an English speaking guide for only a couple of months. Even though the Black H’mong are partly located in Vietnam, they do not identify as Vietnamese and have their own traditions and customs.
Hawaii portrays for many the honeymoon paradise, beautiful beaches and breathtaking views. I never thought of it as a backpackers paradise in the normal sense as it is also known for being extremely pricey. But even though it completely destroyed my tiny little backpacker budget, I’ve had the best week over there, meeting really cool fellow backpackers, seeing incredible things and jumping into my last year of my twenties like…. check it out.
With Christmas and New Years around the corner, I flew over to Cancun, Mexico to meet my dear friend Stella. We tried to find a good balance between inland experience and beach time during our two weeks of exploring and I have to say: Mexico, te quiero mucho. From beach bumming in Cancun and Tulum, swimming in cenotes and sipping cocktails on the beach to exploring maya ruins in Palenque, dancing the night away in San Cristobal and cheering for Mexican wrestlers in Mexico City. It’s been an absolute blast.
A new episode of ‘The Local’s Perspective”, this time a short interview with Claudio, who lives in Managua with his family and grew up in Nicaragua almost all of his life. I was lucky enough that he was so kind to answer my questions. Here we go and thank you, Claudio!
I had one week to spare in between Panama and Mexico. One week, and I decided to fly over to Nicaragua to explore this part of the world a little more. Let me tell you – I could have stayed here forever and one week does not do any justice to this incredible beautiful country. From all of the countries I went to during this tip – Nicaragua blew my mind and I can’t wait to come back and stay longer (or forever? Haha). Because a week is short, I decided on only three locations in order to make the most of it: San Juan del Sur, Ometepe and Granada. So, for now, let me tell you what I did in a week of exploring Nicaragua.
Viva Colombia – this country really did meet all of my (high) expectations I had before, everything about this country that I read or heard just sounded amazing. An really, Colombia did not disappoint. From Valle de Cocora to the vibrant city of Medellin and sunny beaches on the Caribbean sea – it’s been an absolut blast. So I decided to write down a couple of Must Dos that I found to be great activities and experiences while traveling through the country. Feel free to add some of our favorite Must Dos in the comments as this country has just so much to offer and we probably did not even cover half of it.
New year, new start. And I am trying to finally keep up and to write about every single country I visited, because they all deserve it. But I am being a little occupied by traveling and enjoying myself. Trying to do better. So. Ecuador. God, I loved this country so much. And that is why I thought I would give you a short overview on our itinerary during our time in Ecuador to show how much you can see of this beautiful and incredible country in two and a half weeks. Obviously, you can fill months there and we didn’t even go to Galapagos, but this should give you a good idea. Here we go.
Another year over. I am sitting here in Mexico, trying to find a suitable beginning for this post. A beginning for the end, so to say. It’s been a rough year, when it comes to my professional life, as 2016 ended with a bang, restructuring processes are never fun and the first 6 months of 2017 were stressful, frustrating and exhausting. At the same time, it’s been an unbelievably incredible travel year and I think that one thing has led to and influenced the other at least a little bit.
rannaway - diary of a traveler 