Paul and Kapi's round the world jaunt
In and around World
Well. this is it. After several years of talking we've decided to take the plunge and see the world. It was either now or never, or maybe during retirement, whichever comes first.
8 months, 15 (planned) countries, and countless (unplanned) adventures. See life's big questions answered: is Katherine only loud for North America or will the rest of the world need earplugs too? Will Paul's stomach survive India or will he have to trot out the Cipro yet again?
With jobs and apartments left behind, parental concerns calmed, needles injected and vaccines swallowed ... bring it on! Check out this blog to see where we're at, how we're doing and what we've seen.
Route taken and entries by Real Traveler The Sehrineau's
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1
First up, Paris
Katherine and I decided to start our trip by following our stomachs, and that means Paris ! It's the only place on this trip we've visited before... Continue reading »
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2
Attempting to explore a city with 20 million people and 5000 years of history
Coming to Cairo from Paris was definitely like landing on a different planet. First, the bad stuff. Cairo is overcrowded (20+ million live... Continue reading » -
3
The desert Oasis
We took the long trip from Alexandria to Siwa, which is a desert oasis 300km from the closest town. Siwa was a closed society until about 1980, mea... Continue reading »
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4
Mmm, seafood
We spent a couple of nights in Alexandria, one on the way to Siwa and one coming back.
Really for what was once the second largest city in t... Continue reading »
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5
Temples, tombs, dams, cruises and more ...
We took the long 1100km journey from Alexandria to Aswan via a night train. Aswan is one of the southernmost cities on the Nile. It's more to... Continue reading »
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6
Exploring the pharoah's old digs
Halloween found us in Luxor. Katherine was going to go as a belly dancer and Paul as a mummy, but unfortunately no one here has any idea what hallo... Continue reading »
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7
Getting stuck on the beach ...
Getting to Dahab meant taking a 20 hour bus ride from
Luxor. The bus ride sucked, and that's the last
negative thing you'll hear about Da... Continue reading » -
8
In the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia
So we finally got out of Egypt. After sunning at Ras Shaitan we drove with some new Israeli friends to the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea,... Continue reading »
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9
The city in Red
Our next stop was Jordan's greatest attraction, the ancient city of Petra. 2000 years ago the Nabatean civilization was at the crossroads of many g... Continue reading »
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10
Jordan's capital
Amman is a nice, mostly modern city. It was really tiny before 1948, and has grown alot since, springing up around the remains of the ancient Roman ci... Continue reading » -
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City of God
As most people know Jerusalem is very important to Christians, Jews and Muslims. Seeing the city in person is intense. The ancient passageways of the... Continue reading » -
12
Holiday in Haifa
Haifa was a great break for us, a holiday from our holiday. Some people we met in the Sinai invited us to stay with them in Haifa. Eran and Idit we... Continue reading »
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13
Beaches and bars in the White City
We spent 3 days in Tel Aviv, enjoying the great beach there (even though it was "winter") and exploring the city. Tel Aviv sprouted as a northern s... Continue reading »
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14
Israeli hospitality
We need a special blog entry devoted to Israeli hospitality. In one day at the beach in Egypt we met friends that would host and escort us for 2 we... Continue reading »
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Ethiopia
So the next stop on our journey is Ethiopia, where we are going to visit Paul's brother Eric, who is working with the city hall in Addis Ababa for 5... Continue reading » -
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Visiting the muslim heartland of Ethiopia
Harar is an ancient walled city, it was once famed throughout the muslim world as a bastion of muslim culture and learning. Inside its walls are... Continue reading »
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17
Lounging at the source of the Nile
After returning from Harar in the East, we took the short flight from Addis Ababa to Bahar Dar, which is situated on Ethiopia's biggest body of water,... Continue reading » -
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Africa's Camelot
From Bahar Dar we took a 3 hour minibus ride to Gonder. The ride was uneventful other than the fact that the driver treated it a personal socializi... Continue reading »
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The Simien Mountains
We decided to go for a 2 day hike in Simien Mountains National Park. This is truly one of the most beautiful places we've been to. Ranging from 300... Continue reading »
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Ethiopia's ancient empire
Aksum is a dusty uninspiring looking city. However it has one of the most interesting histories in Ethiopia. Aksum was the seat of a great empire t... Continue reading »
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An overlooked wonder of the world
Our last stop on the "northern circuit" in Ethiopia was Lalibela. Lalibela is the historical highlight of Ethiopia, and one of the most fantastic s... Continue reading »
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22
New years in New Delhi
The Christmas season found us in Ethiopia. While Katherine spent a few days in be , a poor birthday indeed, Eric and Paul went to a bar on Christmas E... Continue reading » -
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Freezing in India
First up after Delhi was Agra , the site of the Taj Mahal. We arrived and picked one of the cheap hotels with a requisite Taj view.
Ag... Continue reading »
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The rose city
To complete the "golden triangle" of Indian tourism, we visited Jaipur. Jaipur is known as the rose city since they painted the whole city pink in... Continue reading »
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25
400 temples and a pond
Pushkar was next up on our agenda. It's a tiny Hindu holy town clustered around a lake (which is actually more like a pond). This tiny town has ove... Continue reading »
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26
Desert city, desert safari
From Pushkar we headed to the Thar desert on a night bus. We'd never seen a bus like this before, as the above the seats were cabins lined with bun... Continue reading »
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27
The Blue City
Heading back from the western edge of Rajasthan to its center, we made our way to Jodhpur. Jodhpur was the the center of yet another mighty kingdom... Continue reading »
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28
The Jain temple
We decided to break up the long journey from Jodhpur to Udaipur to make a pit stop in Ranakpur. Ranakpur contains one of the greatest Jain temples... Continue reading »
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29
Lakeside luxury
Udaipur is a gorgeous, classy city centered on lake Pichola. Many people profess it to be the most beautiful spot in India, and it's... Continue reading »
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30
Tropical India
Before this trip started we knew we wanted to visit two major destinations in and around India. Rajasthan was one, and at the beginning of the trip... Continue reading »
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31
Time to cook!
One of our goals in travelling to India was to take a cooking course. In Kerala we found a 4 day course being offered in vegetarian Keralan cuisine... Continue reading »
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32
There's tea in them hills!
Munnar is a british "hill station". Nestled high in the hills, it is a nice escape from the heat and humidity of the sweltering coast. The drive th... Continue reading »
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33
The backwaters
Kerala's biggest tourist draw are the famous backwaters. Hundreds of kilometers of riverways and canals wind their way near the coast and life revo... Continue reading »
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A beach, a city, a palace, and the end of the road
This entry is actually going to sum up a few different places we headed to after the backwaters.
First up after Allepey we went to Varkala be... Continue reading »
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35
Bangkok
Our southeast asian odyssey started in Bangkok. While there we stayed with our good friends Oli and Anna (Oli was emcee at our wedding). They had j... Continue reading »
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Borneo
After Bangkok we decided that our first SE Asian destination would be the Island of Borneo, which straddles the equator. Borneo is split into a nort... Continue reading » -
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The Kelabit Highlands
Next up in Borneo were the remote Kelabit highlands, a more off the beaten path destination. This is a tiny indigenous community (only 7000 people... Continue reading »
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Going spleunking
We hadn't had enough of Borneo's natural splendors yet, so we decided to go to Niah Caves National Park. We saw this park featured i... Continue reading »
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Jungles, rivers and Orangutans
Our jungle adventures haven't quite ended yet in Borneo. Getting to Sabah, the eastern province of Malaysian Borneo, we decided to start with a... Continue reading » -
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Diving in some fabled waters
Our last stop in Borneo was Semporna, which has some of the world's best diving offshore.
Semporna itself isn't that exciting of a town, alt... Continue reading »
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41
Kuala Lumpur
After a few weeks in Borneo it was nice to return to the big city amenities of Kuala Lumpur.
KL is the capital of Malaysia and is a super mod... Continue reading »
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42
Bali
After Malysia it was off to Indonesia, with the first stop being where else but the fabled island of Bali! Indonesia is a huge country comprised of... Continue reading » -
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Ubud
Our next stop in Bali was its cultural capital Ubud. It is famed for artists of all kinds, painters, dancers, carvers, chefs etc. As a tiny village... Continue reading » -
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Island Paradise
After Bali we took a 4 hour boat ride across to the Gili Islands. The Gilis are 3 tiny palm fringed islands right off the coast of Lombok, the onl... Continue reading » -
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Komodo National Park
After the Gili Islands our next destination was the
island of Flores and it's famed neighbor the Komodo
Islands. To get to Flores require... Continue reading » -
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Sumba
Getting to Sumba required yet another long voyage, this time 26 hours on ferries from Flores. Luckily we managed to snag benches we could lie on ov... Continue reading »
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Pasola
We were drawn to Sumba when we found out we would be in the area during Pasola, which is Sumba's most famous festival and occurs only twice a year.... Continue reading »
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48
Cambodia
After having completed our excellent Indonesian adventures we travelled via Kuala Lumpur to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.
Cambodia is visi... Continue reading »
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49
Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor
After visiting the capital Phnom Penh we headed straight for Cambodia's megawatt attraction, the temples of Angkor.
Siem Reap is a provincial... Continue reading »
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50
One of 4000 islands...
After beautiful Angkor, we decided to get out of Cambodia before the start of Khmer New Year. So far, we have managed to celebrate New Year i... Continue reading »
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51
The Backpacker Capital of Laos
After Champasak, we took a number of buses covering over 700km and ended up in Vang Vieng, the backpacker capital of Laos. Vang Vieng is set... Continue reading »
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52
La vie en repose
Luang Prabang is Laos' primary tourist attraction, a world heritage city set in rolling green hills, sandwiched between 2 rivers and full of ancien... Continue reading »
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53
Back in Thailand
After 3 months touring around the rest of SE Asia we found ourselves back in Thailand. Coming from Luang Prabang in Laos took 3 days; 2 lovely, rel... Continue reading »
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54
Stormy weather in paradise
Ko Phi Phi was the first destination we visited after being joined by Paul's brother Andres in Bangkok.
Getting to Ko Phi Phi was quite the... Continue reading »
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55
A candidate for most beautiful beach
Back on the mainland we headed to Railay beach, near the city of Krabi.
Railay is a peninsula inaccessable by road because of the massive li... Continue reading »
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56
Asia's diving capital
After spending some time in the west coast of Thailand, we decided to head to the east coast to try and find some better weather. Ko Tao is known a... Continue reading »
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57
Back to Malaysia for one more beach
Having encountered bad weather on the Andaman coast and with little interest in visiting any other islands on Thailand's gulf coast we decided to go b... Continue reading » -
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Sydney
Last but not least on our fantastic 8 month trip, Australia is our final continent. Landing at Sydney, we met our friends Geoff and Sarah at the a... Continue reading »
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59
Exploring Oz
To see the Australian countryside for a few days, we rented a car and headed to the area south of Brisbane, about 800 kms north of Sydney.
Fi... Continue reading »
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The Estonian connection
Our last Australian stop was Brisbane, where we visited our friend Aivo. Aivo was a friend of ours who we met during our year in Estonia, and he ha... Continue reading »
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Last but not least
Our last stop in our round the world odyssey was the closest to home, Winnipeg. While Winnipeg couldn't quite compete with the sights, climate or atmo... Continue reading »
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