My little mountain expedition had not been difficult to organize. I had opted for a route considered easy compared to the usual ones in the Himalayas: it would have lasted five days, and it would not have taken me higher than ten thousand feet. Most importantly, it would have offered me unforgettable views of the Annapurna massif. The receptionist at the hotel…
(read Part 1 here) When we were visiting a temple, Agung drew my attention to one of the pavilions near the entrance. “This is where the cockfights take place,” he explained. “Cockfighting, here?” I asked, surprised. “What for?” The basic reason was not entertainment, my guide hurried to clarify. On the contrary. The cockfights had a sacred purpose, and they…
Bali is known to many as a beach destination, but this is not how I would remember it. I wasn’t attracted by the party vibe that the resorts on the west coast were famous for, so I had chosen to go to Sanur, a relatively quiet town on the opposite side of the island. In reality, because the high season…
On few travels have I not witnessed the consequences of mass tourism, where not even uninhabited or protected areas were spared of overcrowding, noise, or garbage pollution. My impression was that the most pristine and beautiful places on the planet only survived because distance or access restrictions kept them away from human invasion. Tossed in the middle of the Pacific…
Since I first saw Mount Kilimanjaro, at the Kenyan border near Amboseli, I could not stop thinking: “How the hell am I going to climb up there?” Back home, when I was preparing my trip to Tanzania, I would not have even dared to dream about ascending Africa’s highest peak, almost twenty thousand feet above sea level. But as I was…
Wild animals can be a lot of fun! They sure seem to have fun in this video – throughout the Savannah, from Amboseli and Tsavo in Kenya to Serengeti and Tarangire in Tanzania.
The arrival of the dry season meant that it was time for the animals of the savannah to migrate north from the Serengeti plains, across the Tanzanian border, to the cooler and greener Maasai Mara Plateau in Kenya. When the rains started up again, they would go back the same way. The wildebeest migration is one of the most spectacular…
I was in the Sabah province, in the far north of Borneo, heading from the Kinabatangan river valley to my next destination, the Danum Reservation. After unforgettable encounters with elephants and orangutans, the time had come for a completely different experience: a descent into the bowels of the earth, into the famous Gomantong Cave. In the darkness of that cave,…
Remote and untamed, Tioman constantly ranks among the most beautiful islands in the world… here is a little video proof.
Upon entering the Taman Negara reservation, I was assigned a local guide – a small, thin, and very polite young man named Danny. He was a great admirer of the traditions and way of life of the indigenous people. He sometimes went hunting with them in the jungle, with nothing but a spear and a bow, and slept in the trees at…
Memories from my trip to Cuba, going from the old Havana to the charming colonial town of Cienfuegos and ending in the magic southern city of Trinidad… on a salsa rythm, of course!
Someone was waiting for me at the airport to drive me to my guesthouse in Havana. As it was late in the evening, the first thing that struck me was the almost complete darkness of the streets. Old images of the life behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe instantly came to mind, and have continued to return on countless…
A video about my trip to Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal, a place rich in wildlife and indigenous traditions.
This is a video about my trip to the beautiful town of Pokhara and the scenic Poon Hill trek in the Annapurna massif, Nepal. Compared to the 7-8000 m high peaks of the Himalayas, the one that I climbed (3210 m) was called by the locals a “hill”…
My adventure in the Himalayas was meant to start in Pokhara, a picturesque Nepalese town on the shores of a vast, clear lake at the foot of the Annapurna massif. The surface of the lake, framed by purple water lilies, reflected the surrounding mountains, which were dominated by Machapuchare, a razor-sharp, 22,793 feet high peak. Permanently covered in snow, Machapuchare is revered…
Images from my trip to the capital of Nepal and the UNESCO monuments of the Kathmandu Valley, before they were devastated by the 2015 earthquake:
My first vacation alone took place a year before, though I had not planned it. I had gone to Greece with some friends; however, it turned out that our plans would soon diverge. I had first considered going back home, but I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to continue the journey by myself. The rather positive…
