Category: Uncategorized
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Palace
Thanjavur also has a palace. Lovely courtyard garden, tons of stone god statues (literally), and for some reason a whale skeleton. The most interesting part is getting there through the perpetual construction zone where they are tearing up the walkway while you walk on it. Nobody seems to have an issue with that.… Read the…
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XXL
Whenever you think you have seen the most magnificent temple of all, India has a bigger one. Brihadishwara Temple in Thanjavur is the third-largest Shiva temple complex in India, and the tallest of all. The walls and pillars are all intricately carved, and everything is in excellent condition. This temple was the heart of the…
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Shiva
Sri Sabhanayagar Temple is one of the most holy Shiva temples. It’s quite enormous, with four ornamental portals and numerous temples and shrines, built with beautiful carved pillars, painted ceilings, and colorful statues. They also have a large lake they call a tank. In the first courtyard was a scary long line of people waiting,…
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Gingee Fort
Gingee is a town one hour by bus west of Pondicherry. It’s more typical of small Indian towns – a loud and chaotic main street, full of honking scooters, shops and stalls along the sides (don’t even look for sidewalks), lots of people going about their business. No Western tourists and no tourist infrastructure beyond…
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Temples and churches
I have been to India six times and probably a hundred towns, but I think I like Pondicherry best. It’s so quiet, has a beautiful ocean promenade, most streets are narrow and shaded by old trees, there is lots of restored colonial architecture which is much nicer than what passes for architecture in modern times.…
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Pondicherry, India
Chennai, aka Madras, has the international airport but Puducherry, aka Pondicherry and three hours south by bus, has the charm. It was once a French colony and the old part on the Indian Ocean shows it. It’s beautifully restored and very clean and relaxed, which more frenetic Indian cities aren’t. Old trees line narrow streets,…
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South Africa
This country is different from other African countries I have visited, probably as a result of its colonial, and quite brutal, history. It feels very western, both the cities and countryside. The apartheid regime has been replaced with democracy in 1994, but only the government changed, not so much the culture. It didn’t feel very…
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Cape Town
The banner image is the Malayan quarter, one of the oldest parts of Cape Town and known for its brightly colored houses. That exact photo is one of Cape Town’s signature postcard pictures. Unlike Johannesburg, Cape Town has proper attractions and that’s one of them. Cape Town is also quite hilly, allowing proper views of…
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Cape of Good Hope
South of Cape Town is a long peninsula, and at its tip is a lighthouse. It’s quite far up, they have a funicular and a lot of steps, meaning it’s in the clouds much of the time and was not in use much for that reason. But the view from up there is great! The…
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Table Mountain in Cape Town
Cape town is South Africa’s second-largest city after Johannesburg, and it’s safe to walk here. The main landmark is Table Mountain overlooking the city, so called because a large section is flat on top. A circular cable car with a rotating floor goes up to the top. There are many viewpoints connected with paved trails,…
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Scenery
It’s a long way from Oudtshoorn to Cape Town, 500km. It’s part of the Garden Route but it doesn’t look like a garden. Rolling hills, a big sky, mountains, few trees, one monkey. The southernmost point of Africa, called l’Agulhas, is nearby but the road there is bad and there is no bus. Too bad,…
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Kango Caves
There is a huge cave system near Knysna, 2.4km long, of which I visited the first 600m. The rest is accessible if you can fit through a hole that is 27cm wide; I couldn’t. The halls and passages are impressive. Huge cathedral-like caverns with curtains of stalactites and stalacmites; sometimes the two merge to form…
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Garden Route
The garden route is a section of South Africa’s southern Indian Ocean coastline hetween Port Elizabeth – renamed to Gqeberha last week – and Cape Town. It’s not really a garden but it’s a very scenic drive. Gqeberha is not especially attractive. It has long sandy beaches and a hill with a pyramid built by…
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Pretoria
Pretoria is the capital of South Africa. Downtown feels like a smaller version of Johannesburg including the To Let signs, aimless people at street corners, brutalist architecture, and dilapidated little parks with dead grass and buildings missing their roofs. But it also feels friendlier, especially after I found the pedestrianized Helen Joseph Street where street…
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Pilgrim’s Rest
That’s the Name of a village a couple hours northeast of Pretoria. It also feels like stereotypical small-town America, this time really time the white picket fence type. Take a look… They also have tourist trap down by the river. This is one of the first places where gold was found in South Africa, kicking…
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Kruger National Park
This is one of the great African protected parks, and safari destinations. It’s large, over 20,000 square kilometers and again that much in neighboring Mozambique. I joined a jeep tour and traveled over 250km in the park, getting within a few km of the border to Mozambique. Lots of elephants, giraffes, zebras, antelopes, and buffalos.…
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Blyde Canyon & Potholes
Blyde Canyin is the third-largest canyon in the world, cut by the Blyde River. There is a trail along the edge of the cliff with great viewpoints. It was a little hazy though. On the other side are the three Rondavels, cylindrical peaks that look like rondavels, the local word for round straw-thatched huts. A…
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Dangerous?
Ok, there’s no arguing with statistics, but everyone I have met in Johannesburg was then nicest and mist helpful person imaginable. Everyone – police, street cleaners, shop workers, skateboarders on the street – is smiling, greeting, eager to chat. I guess there must be rougher neighborhoods than the ones I have visited. I am now…
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Johannesburg Zoo
After all the time spent in the city it’s pleasant to spend time in the Johannesburg Zoo. Quiet, green, big old trees, nicely landscaped, with large tracts where amimals can roam freely. It’s a really nice place, although it would be much nicer if they had more animals. “This enclosure is currently unoccupied” signs are…
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Soweto
The name means South-West Township and that’s its location from central Johannesburg. During apartheid, black people and immigrants were forcibly relocated here. Today over a million people live here on 210km², it’s the largest township in Africa. Parts look nice and suburban, but really are overcrowded with several families sharing a home. Others are just…
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Johannesburg, South Africa
Johannesburg is South Africa’s largest and most developed city. It’s also the most dangerous. The neighborhoods are very diverse – leafy residential, industrial, and the large downtown area which feels like Broadway in Los Angeles, not like Africa. When getting off the bus it’s best to ask the nearest policeman or security guard where it’s…
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Pilsen in Czechia
Pilsen is a small city not far from Prague, the Czech capital. It’s all about beer. In Germany, any lighlt beer is called a Pils, or so I am told. But its old downtown is very pretty and unmarred by modern architecture. Didn’t do the beer tours, not that interested in alcoholic beverages…… Read the…
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Cours Julien
This is my favorite place in Marseille. A very large square with a fountain, no cars, lined with great cafés and restaurants. It’s always packed with outdoor seating, musicians, playing children, eclectic art stores, and people sitting together and enjoying the Mediterranean sun. Street art is everywhere, in the square and the adjoining streets, which…
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Cassis
Cassis is a fishing village on the Mediterranean Côte d’Azur in the south of France. It gets a lot of tourists but has mostly kept its charm from less crowded times. The old harbor is a string of French (what else) restaurants serving fresh fish. And there is a lot of natural beauty stretching to…
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Tartu, Estonia
Tartu is the second-largest city in Estonia, the northernmost Baltic country. It’s wonderfully relaxed, with quiet roads, few cars, and lots of green space, public and private. Everyone is friendly and speaks English, and the national currency is the euro. Estonia is a very old country, but had to deal with invaders and occupation forces…
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Jozani Forest
Jozani is Zanzibar’s largest forest. It’s a dense jungle without human management, except they run guided walking tours. The highlight are probably the red colobus monkeys that jump from treetop to treetop at high speeds, but they also have miniature frogs that fit on a thumbnail (at the tip of the leaf below), black monkeys,…
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Diving at Paje
Another opportunity to dive, this time at the opposite end of the island. More corals, more fish. I was with a group of newbies which gave me more opportunities to explore. Saw a giant lobster, a turtle, box fish, and all sorts of strange spiky sea stars and soft and hard coral. The Nemos are…
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A long road to Paje
Nungwi is at the north end of Zanzibar island, Paje is near the southeast end. To get there it’s necessary to connect in Zanzibar City, which involves a long motorcycle ride because each line has its own bus station. The “bus” to Paje was really a Thai-style songthaew, a truck with two facing benches along…
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Nungwi
Nungwi is a town capping the northern tip of Zanzibar island. All the beach hotels and bars cluster right at the ocean. Instead of a second and third row like in Kendwa, the rest of the town is where the locals live, with very little attention to the tourist industry. Almost all houses are single-story,…
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Beaches of Kendwa
Kendwa is all about beaches. What isn’t on the beach is boring, endless walls that enclose the resorts that are open only to the beach. There aren’t even souvenir shops more than 100m from the beach. If you don’t come to the ocean then the ocean will come to you, at high tide some shops…