My flight was on time and I had a lot of time in the train station, waiting for my 3am or so train.. The minibus station has moved and is now no more in the street, but right in front of the train station in Manglia 😉 My tent was waiting for me, the public toilet is now more expensive 😉 but camping on the beach seems to be still, or again, ok, and I found a nice spot.
After the beach, I took the train back to Bucharest and had a night and morning there.
I finally got to use my warm sleeping bag – at night it was around 5 degrees, but during the day it was beautiful! They offered Yoga classes, and I joined a cocoa ceremony. I got a cocoa bean to eat! However, there wasn’t enough cocoa to drink for everyone.. so I left 😉
The first day was nice and sunny and we went swimming in some lake nearby.
Then it got colder, more cloudy and even rained a bit. We still walked up to the bastille, and then had pizza in what was Italy some time ago 🙂
We went to the market, ate some donkey 😉 Then there was a knitting meeting, and then we painted rainbows,…
I learnt that everyone knows Annecy 😉
And I finally got to see the water jet in Geneva! And the UN.
First: if it’s a long weekend, don’t take the bus to go south. Take the train. The bus can – and will – end up in a traffic jam 🙂 Instead of having some time in Milan to go shopping, I juuuust made it to the airport by getting off the bus earlier than planned.
Second: A 24-hour reception doesn’t mean checking in is possible anytime. I found a hostel with 24 hour reception in Thessaloniki.. however, after booking, reading the questions it became clear that they don’t allow people to check in to dorms after midnight ‘because that would disturb the other guests’. They did offer me to book a private room – which would cost more than my whole 3 nights there. No, thanks. I booked a different hostel for just the first night 😉 And next time, I’ll just walk in and hangout in the common room. Nobody cares.
Thessaloniki itself was nice, the coffee was still great, and the pier looked exactly the same and was just much more crowded during the day than at 6 am. Memories.
We talked about going to Istanbul, looked at flights, discussed timing, and then Marion decided it might be too cold there. So I checked Ryanair and booked a flight to Aqaba! I won’t even have to pay the visa, great! The plan of hiking in Wadi Rum didn’t happen because the couchsurfing guy started sending me too many hugs 😉 I booked one of the cheapest hostels and was ready to go.
There is no bus from the Airport to the city, only taxis. There is a very official sign outside the airport stating that a taxi to the city is 8.50 JOD. ALL taxis ask for 10. I decided to try and share a taxi with a random person.. and we were told sharing a taxi is not allowed 😀 We then ended up paying 15 together. Another fun fact: bus prices to Wadi Rum seem to be fixed, but not for tourists.
I spend my few days not doing much, hanging out at the beach, walking around the city and the market, eating and drinking and smoking shisha. The second time at Al Mohandes, I had learnt that only tourists get plastic plates 😀 I ordered without looking at the menu, and refused the plastic plate 🙂
Taxis from the city to the airport seem to be as much as a scam as those from the airport to the city. Everybody says it’s 10 JOD. There were some funny people in the hostel, one said he walked to Israel, which is a turn off the road to the airport. And so I decided I don’t have much luggage, but a late enough flight, so I can walk to the airport. On the way, I found a mall with a falafel shop, and on the last km on the airport road, a car stopped and offered to take me 😉 He was a pilot before and now managing the airport, or so. We went to some office area at the back of the airport, some other man got in the car, to drive it back to the parking later, and then we went to the entrance. He had to check in his bag, but then managed to skip the security check queue – AND pass it WITH a cup of coffee! haha!
Back in Phnom Penh, I had more noodles, walked through the central market again, and in the evening met Babul, for drinks next to the river, but this time a bit outside the city.
And the next day, to actually do something, I decided to go to the killing fields. But not on a tour. It seems there once was a direct bus to go there, however the bus line doesn’t exist anymore. So I took the bus to as close as I could get, and then a tuktuk.
To go back, I did the same. I booked a tuktuk. And for the very first time in my two weeks of even actively trying to tell them.. this tuktuk driver told me to show him the destination and price and then to cancel the trip in the app! He took me there, I paid him, Yay!
I went back to the hostel, and then took the bus to the airport. On the bus – and also going to the airport – was a mexican guy who told me how much money he lost because it was stolen from his hotel safe 😀 After checking in, I left the airport again, it’s very central with normal restaurants just outside across the road. The mexican guy wanted to join me… I ordered a sandwich.. he, too. However, he didn’t dare to touch it with his hands because he found them too dirty, so he asked for a plastic bag to use as a glove! Luckily he then had to leave to catch his plane,… :))
The plane was on time and changing in Hong Kong worked perfectly. Too bad – I kind of hoped I could stay there for a few hours or a day now that the Covid rules were gone.. Then I arrived in Zurich in the morning, and went to the office 🙂
My bus arrived earlier than it should.. I didn’t want to walk with my big backpack, so I went by tuktuk. And then I sat in front of the hostel door – it’s closed overnight. Eventually, some people leaving let me in, and I waited next to the pool for reception to open. Just down the road, I found the muslim quarter! And then went for noodle soup.
The hostel has a blackboard where people can enter what tour they want to take, and others can join to make it cheaper. A Pauline wanted a Angkor Wat tour for the next day, great! I was told she insisted on it being french,.. oh well.. I guess french it is, then. The next morning, 2 more people had signed up for the tour. The tuktuk arrived on time – at 4:30 or so, but the guide was nowhere to be seen. He had to be called by the tuktuk driver,.. Then we went to pick up Pauline who stayed somewhere else. But the guide didn’t know where. It took two tries, but then we found her. When we arrived at the ticket counter, we were late, and the guide wasn’t able to answer – or even understand – any questions about tickets/the tour. Until the end of ‘last year’ the site had an offer that whoever bought a one-day-ticket got access for two days. Internet still said that, however it was not the case anymore. A guy had tried and didn’t get in the second day. Damn. I should have come here first, and gone to Koh Rong Sanloem afterwards! 😉
We still made it for sunrise, and then got to visit all the planned temples and maybe even one more. But our guide was really hard to understand – even the french people said they really had to pay attention! And he didn’t understand me either 🙂 The others wanted to stop for some breakfast/lunch, and we went to one of the tourist restaurants just next to the temples. There was one restaurant next to the other, all looking exactly the same. Prices reflected the location. I didn’t eat – I had been to the bakery the day before and had brought some food 😉
Our tour ended in the afternoon, and around 5pm, I met Pauline again, to go back to Angkor Wat for those sunset photos (better light!) from the spot we found in the morning. Getting a tuktuk to go there via passapp was as easy as always. I guess we could have done the whole tour that way!
The next day we did a Floating Village Tour, however booked from the Onederz hostel and not ours – it was quite a bit cheaper and exactly the same thing 🙂 The tour was.. very relaxed – just sitting in different places all the time.. and also extremely touristy. Another girl in the group did the little 15-minute canoe tour through the mangrove forest with a local lady.. and later confirmed that they indeed stopped somewhere and she was told to buy drinks/snacks for the lady for extreme prices 😀 She didn’t even try to refuse. But I guess Internet was right about it being a scam.
I had dinner with Pauline at a tiny Indian restaurant, and at Tevy’s place, and managed to get a nice photo of myself eating a cricket – or whatever it was. Then there was a lot more iced coffee, noodles – both in soup and fried, and fruit shakes. And a few temples, to do something and not just hang out next to the pool.
To go back to Phnom Penh, I booked a ticket on a big bus to have my legroom 😉 The bus company had some bad reviews for stopping at a shitty restaurant in nowhere, forcing people to eat there. So I went to the little Indian restaurant and asked them what I could keep till the next day without a fridge. I ended up with some garlic naan and spent the lunch break on the stairs in front of the restaurant!
Between the ferry from Koh Rong Sanloem and the night bus to Siem Reap, I had a few hours in Sihanoukville.
I took a tuktuk from the port to the city. There were quite a few waiting there, asking me if I want to go somewhere, however for the tourist price 🙂 Showing them the passapp price and destination on the map lead to them discussing where that location might be, but they didn’t seem to understand it. And then they’d just repeat their price 🙂 So I stopped a few metres from them, and pressed the ‘book’ button on my app to magically have a tuktuk appear and take me for much cheaper.
Internet said it was possible to leave one’s luggage at the Onederz hostel there, for the day, and that actually worked. I could even have jumped in the pool! 🙂
The beach was much nicer than I had expected!
And much of the city (center) just consisted of wide streets and more or less finished (chinese) high-rise buildings.
I spent my few days on the island mostly doing nothing, just lying at the beach, with a mango milk shake from the stall next to the hostel, reading and swimming.
And there was a beach party for New Year’s!
Hong Kong still has rather strict Covid rules, so I spent my 12 hours there walking around the – very empty – airport and then sleeping. With air mattress and sleeping bag, that was quite comfortable.
Phnom Penh airport is tiny and much of it is outdoors. First, I bought a simcard and then looked for the bus station in front of the airport. There seems to be no timetable when a bus should stop there, but the app shows the live location of buses all over the city, so it’s possible to estimate how long it might take until one shows up. All the TukTuk drivers around me obviously didn’t understand why I was standing next to that rectangle drawn on the street with ‘bus stop’ written in it 🙂 After maybe half an hour, a bus did show up, it was almost empty, had AC, and followed the route it was meant to take. Easy!
My hostel is next to Wat Phnom Daun Penh – and around there are benches in the shade. I entered the whole site from the back, therefore not passing by the ticket office until I was leaving.. ups 😉
I went to the central market, to the food stalls around the russian market, managed to buy the ‘Golden Voice’ graphic novel, visited Tuol Sleng museum, found the insect lady, had some (almost) free beers at/near riverside.
Then I took the train towards Sihanoukville. In the beginning there were mostly tourists – later that changed a bit. I ended up talking to the Cambodian girl sitting next to me, and now have a new facebook friend 😉
The train arrived in Sihanoukville 15 minutes early, so I had over 2 hours time to walk the maybe 2km to the ferry.
Rigi, taking a different way up with a very short bit using a ladder..
Grosser Mythen – luckily I don’t need to pronounce it!
Pilatus – with Emily and some other people. And this time, we walked up and down! We just made it back down before it got dark!
And Stanserhorn.. up from Stans, and then down somewhere in the back towards Wirzweli and Dallenwil.
A few days at the beach..
Everything was the same.. Most of the people, too. Except, Toto got babies 😉
Sitting in the street, I met a funny japanese man who showed me the camping site he stayed at, and then offered to cook for me. It was hot, and he thought, he needs to sweat out.. whatever.. and therefore go running, and generally walk around, wearing a jacket. He joined some people on the beach smoking whatever.. Before cooking, we went grocery shopping, and in the little shop, he decided he needs to lie down now because he can’t handle it anymore.. and the people in the shop asked *me* if he’s ok,… Food was.. pasta… not even japanese… and then it started raining and we just sat under an umbrella at the camping site, while he, and some other people played music.
Islem wanted to go to Djemila, so we did. This time, by car. And this time, nobody talked to me, but only to him. Me showing up just like that, with no police escort :D, still led to discussions, though 😉
In Setif, we went to a nice family cafe 😉 And then I did some shopping with Marwa… And I got to play with Yassine and his truck 😉
Again – but this time in summer!
There is a beautiful public beach in Zeralda. It’s free, very wide, so lots of space. There are guys you can rent an umbrella from, some people sell food, and I think there’s even a shower.
And just behind the beach, there’s an almost normal bar, which could have a nice view onto the sea.. if they didn’t put those milk glass windows in the way, to hide the drinking people from the innocent general public 🙂
Algerian people – or girls who go out, drink alcohol, and would wear a bikini at the beach – don’t like public beaches. They decided we should go to this amazing private beach.. Where you have to pay to enter. For this, you get a tiny, crowded beach full of rocks. And plastic chairs to sit on. Because of all the stones, you don’t want to lie on the ground anyways. Those stones continue into the sea. So you can’t really go in there barefoot… plus, there are waves. And there could be sea urchins anywhere. So, basically, you can’t swim. It was clearly the worst beach ever 🙂
We had some drinks in some other bar.. I had the famous Albraü beer which I still cannot pronounce..
On the way…
Pizza, icecream and some shopping in Milan…
We made it to Oran against all odds – and breaking cars. On the second try, by train. The train was about 75 minutes late, both ways!
And the city wasn’t quite as open-minded as everyone had said 😉 But the second morning, we got our breakfast on one tray! 😀
We went to the market to buy dates, tried to buy wool (all the shops sell turkish plastic, nobody expects that people could want anything else..), had Lablebi in my room, I was asked if I am really going to meet and trust a total stranger in Algiers,.. and then we went to find a taxi… There, the discussion started: my bag is big.. could it go on top of the car? But it will rain, it might not be waterproof! (I do hope it is! I would be quite disappointed with Freitag, otherwise!) And I’d have to pay for it. It could take it’s own seat, then I’d have to pay for the seat. In the end, it was put in the trunk for no additional fee, and other peoples’ stuff could go on the roof. I chose my seat – the single passenger seat in the front – and all was good 😉 I was told the trip would cost 900.
Then a woman came, the driver put her in the second row in the middle and I was told I must sit next to her! It’s not like she’s touching any less men anyways,.. well… I put in my earphones and didn’t speak a word with anyone 😛
On the way, it started raining, the driver was happily typing on his phone, we saw some accidents, it rained more.. and then, just in time to get off, the rain stopped.
Getting off the taxi, I was welcomed by around 5 men trying to get me to take their taxi to continue,.. A ‘little’ price discussion followed and then I was free. Islem found me – yes, it was me 😉 – and we went to the church, to see Algiers from above, and then for a drink and an interesting conversation! (Let’s just think of this, now…). Afterwards I got to see 3 more – quite different – bars, and then we went home.
The next day, I discovered that my room has seaview..
then we went to the great royal mausoleum of Mauretania and to the roman ruins of Tipasa. After a photostop up on the hill, looking down on the coast, we were on the way to eat something.. There was loud music! We followed it, and through a back door next to the restaurants bathroom, we ended up in the bar. Unfortunately we didn’t stay long – Islem wanted to leave after just a beer as he felt that everyone was staring at us 😀 Welcome to *my* Algeria 🙂 We had dinner, and when we left, the guy at the next table proudly wished us a nice evening in English.
Back in Setif, I asked Ahmed (the friend of Taha) if he’d want to meet up for shisha and tea. We first went to the famous lakes in Setif (I guess they could be nice if there was less trash.. ), then we found a restaurant to have Zviti and a Shisha place with people. And even women 😉 And it was neither in a hotel nor in the mall! Some guys were having a birthday party there, and we got some cake, too! No. No other people, only us!
The next morning we met again, to go to Bejaia for 2 days. We had breakfast on the way, then stopped at the waterfall on the way, and arrived in Bejaia around noon. The plan was to stay in the flat of a friend in some kind of holiday resort. The guy responsible for renting her place (and others) out to people stayed at her flat and she wanted to get rid of him 🙂 Didn’t work. He offered us a ‘beautiful villa’ instead, for the same price, next to the sea and with 3 bedrooms. The original plan was to get it for a ‘symbolic price’ but the friend warned us that the villa might turn out more expensive. We ended up getting it for as cheap as the 1-star hotel on booking com an hour away 😉 But it was a mess and had definitely not been cleaned in a long time. We even had a dirty plate and some empty plastic bottles in the sink 😉 Whatever, it’s ok for a night.
And this was my chance to finally go swimming! Weather was great, 20 degrees or so, the beach was right there, and it was almost empty – so about nobody who could mind me and my underwear 😉 The water was quite cold.. but it was nice and warm back out in the sun. And I finally did it! 😀
We had fish in a restaurant next to the sea, then went up to the hills for the first viewpoint just before it got dark.
The next day we went to another viewpoint, a bit higher, stopping at the (surprisingly modern) museum where we were (not so surprisingly) the only visitors and got a personal tourguide.
Back down in the city, we walked around, had tea, walked through the market, and weren’t allowed to see the theater from inside (they’re building stuff and even being a foreigner didn’t allow me in), but we met a man in there who told us about his hitchhiking journey in europe, in the 80ies (?). If only we were still there for a few days, we could make a plan for a barbecue in the forest,.. Well, next time 😉 He usually works up in the mountain so I can definitely find him again 😉 Also he recommended us to try the chickpea sandwich from the icecream shop – that’s what the sign said, at least.
Annaba was much colder than Constantine. And cloudy. No way to consider swimming 🙂
But I had interesting conversations with Amel about what the number of stars of a hotel means and implies.. the best temperature for swimming, traveling in a van.. and I didn’t even feel stared at – in one street at least!
And we ate Mloukhia! I learnt it’s traditionally cooked and eaten on January 1st and that’s what we did 🙂
I wrote Ramy, asking if he could host me. He answered that he isn’t in Constantine but Taha, a friend of his, could host me. And that he also has a friend in Annaba who could host me. I wrote Taha, we had a short phone call and the next day I took the bus to meet him. He did actually show up, and I learnt that he’s not on couchsurfing, but he likes to meet and host people. The restaurant we wanted to go to was full, so it was Shawarma behind the train station :)) and then we spent the afternoon walkin around the city, looking at shops, bridges, the palace, and more bridges 🙂
In the evening we picked up his friend and went to the mosque together – I got a scarf as a present, from his mum, to make sure I’ll get in. The friend asked the man at the gate if it’s ok for me to go in, and I got the official ok not only to enter but also to take photos 😉 Fun fact: I had to take off my socks. And the floor was heated 🙂
At home, I met the mum and sister. She joined me in my – her – room, and we talked about her handicrafts, traveling and shopping (there IS fripe in Algeria, but less than before Covid, and some places are closed now). We had dinner, listened to some music and went to sleep.
The next day, Joubir joined us for breakfast, we went to visit Tiddis, then had some traditional food, saw the cities bridges from the bottom of the valley, and even managed to buy the jacket I wanted 🙂
A friend had said it might be hard to find a bus after 5. Ahmed said after 4:30. I was there around 4:15, bought a ticket to Setif at the counter, only to be told by the bus driver that he won’t go all the way to Setif, but stop in El Eulma. Sooo… Ahmed had to come there to pick me up. He brought the whole family and then urgently had to go to work. We were parked in front of the building. The boss was there, too, and when leaving, stopped at our car to say hello.
Then it was time for Shisha 😉
And then we went back to Constantine to celebrate Marwa’s birthday and the New Year.
Buying a bikini turned out impossible. Decathlon has a men’s swimwear section but none for women. Well, underwear works just as well, so we went to the next shop to buy that 😀
The indoor pool at our hotel was part of the spa area and had to be paid seperately. Unfortunately, the responsible lady wasn’t able to tell me that in any language except Arabic and there was nobody else who could translate 😉 Also, the pool is for women only in the morning, and the one man in there was kicked out when she saw him 😉 Weather was amazing! I was outside in the sun wearing a Tshirt! And that’s when I decided that I definitely want to swim in the sea. In underwear 😀
