The best part about traveling to Kyrgizstan has by far been the people. I have used apps such as couchsurfing, tinder and InMessage to get in touch with locals and every time people have been eager to get in touch and show me their homes, families and culture. Most Kyrgiz people share small apartments where...Read More
The Deputy Minister of Culture with her husband the movie producer The last week has been interesting. It all started when I went on a tinder date where I was invited to a barbeque party of the girls family friends. It was there that I met the Deputy Minister of Culture who after some vodka,...Read More
About a two hour drive West of the capital, towards the Sierra Leone border you find a quiet and peaceful beach called Robertsport. The second half of the drive was bumpy dirt roads leading down to a small village by the beach, where there were just a few bungalows and one restaurants, a true paradise...Read More
It is hard to find any information other than scientific articles about the monkey island in Liberia. There is almost no information about people who have visited it, probably for the reason that it is in fact not a tourist site. What it is: Monkey island is just a nickname for several islands about a...Read More
The New Market near Mamba Point Oh how I had longed to come back to a West African city. To the lovely chaos, dirty streets and water served in plastic bags. To the simplest shack restaurants were people were drinking beer from the morning on and all you could order was rice with whatever sauce...Read More
With nothing to do in Bangui I decided to rent a motorbike taxi for yet another day. This time to look for pygmies south of the capital. Pygmies are tiny people living in small settlements, usually far away from cities and civilization. My host Desire took me to a chief he knew who were sitting...Read More
f you haven’t been to Bangui yet, you haven’t seen many people it is possible to fit into a five seater taxi. In Bangui that number is somewhere between fifteen and twenty. At least seven people in the car, three in the trunk, one in each window and as many as possible on the roof....Read More
Bangui is a city divided in so called PK districts. When I was there in may 2016, PK0 to PK3 were considered the safe zones, while I stayed just a littlebit outside with a couchsurfing host in PK4. A few steps further would have gotten me in the Muslim district of PK5 where a lot...Read More
The capital of Chad was a weird, but welcomed transition between the conservative Arabian Africa and the more promiscuous West Africa. On the street you would find black ladies in high heels with fake hair and lots of makeup as well as men with dhob and women with hijabs. The background sounds could use mosque...Read More
My impression of Chad before getting here proved to be completely wrong. It is relatively cheap, it is very safe and clean and it is easy to organize travels from the capital. I had thought the opposite. Me and my German travel companion rented a car with a driver for 20 000CFA (approx 30$) to...Read More
I’ve had my fair share of frustrating visa experiences, but the last ones here in Africa deserves to be on the top of my list. Sudan visa was surprisingly quick and easy after expecting the worst. They didn’t even bother including my last name! Equatorial Guinea: is famous for being the World’s hardest visa to...Read More
With my visa expiring in just two days I ask myself; how did I manage to spend 30 days in Khartoum, which is way too hot (46°), has not really any tourist sights and hardly any open restaurants during Ramadan? The answer is by hanging out with the local people, which are the friendliest I...Read More
There are some less known, but just as impressive pyramids around the city of Karima. To get there I took a five hour 5$ (70SGD) bus and checked into Hotel Al Nasser, which offered outdoor beds with Wi-Fi, chargers and clean showers and bathrooms for less than a dollar. Hiking to the top of the...Read More
Meroe is a group of pyramids located about 250 kilometers from Khartoum. Some travelers report to have visited the pyramids as a day trip from Khartoum, but I would highly recommend having one night on the way or in the nearest city called Atbara, about 100kilometers away. To get there we took two 5cent buses...Read More
When crossing the border from Ethiopia to Sudan, I was only carrying a little bit of USD cash and did not know that it would be impossible to get more. After trying countless ATMs, where none were working, I found out that international credit/debit cards are not accepted, due to western sanctions just like in...Read More
Researching information about Sudan has been a pain in the ass, as there is practically no updated information out there. Here I provide you with the situation as of May 2018: Money: There are no ATM’s accepting foreign debit/credit cards, so you have to bring enough cash to change once you are there. 1 US...Read More
If you ask me, it is more impressive what Gondar was and not so much what Gondar is today. The city in North West used to be the capitol of Etiopia (from 1632 to 1835) and the Royal Enclosure is still a proof of that, even after earthquakes and British bombings before UNESCO made it...Read More
I know some might be angry at me for posting a recipe for how to get into Lalibela for free, but for the backpackers, students and people like me, who were considering skipping a visit to the churches because of the hefty 50$ entrance fee it might be good, because you HAVE TO visit Lalibela....Read More
Originally my plan was to go straight from Addis to Gondar, but when I was asking the buses at 4 o’clock in the morning, all of them were fully booked, but there was a seat available to Bahir Dar, and I must say I’m glad that I did it that way. Bahir Dar is often...Read More
At the moment I am writing this the time in Ethiopia is 02.11 on April 18th, while it everywhere else is 08.14 on April 26th 2010. Confusing, right? Everything in Ethiopia is different, maybe because they are the only country in Africa which was never colonized. Ethiopia follows a lunar calendar with thirteen months a...Read More
