Posts Tagged ‘tourism’

26
Aug

[Travel Diary: Aug 15, 2011] South Omo Journey: Day 1

   Posted by: Chip    in South Omo

Travelers to the dark continent all know one fact: “Go to Tanzania to see animals, go to Ethiopia to see cultures.” With the population of 80 millions people, Ethiopia is the host of more than 80 ethnic groups, each has their own culture and language. But the most colorful are those who live in South Omo valley. From the moment I saw the photos of a woman with a ginormous lower lip that hung pendently below her chin, a man who slept on a wooden pillow to protect his clay-coated hair, I promised myself that I’d go to this valley no matter what.

Popular guidebooks like Lonely Planet, Bradt all say the same thing: “It’s impossible to travel independently” in South Omo. Except few towns and villages that lie along the main Konso – Jinka road, most other villages are inaccessible on foot or by public transportations. What they suggest is to on tour or to rent a land cruiser. A land cruiser with a driver costs no less than $100/day, and a 1 week tour costs no less than $1200, both options are out of question. I talked to few backpackers that I met in the Awassa just to realize that all of them avoided South Omo. “If you want to get rid of your money, go there,” a Slovak girl told me. She never went there, of course. Backpacking there sounded like a fairytale. Alex, the Irish guy who ran an eco-lodge in Konso, just giggled when I told him about my plan.

- How are you gonna travel there? It’ll take you days to walk from a place to another.

- I’ll hitchhike.

- Hahaha, good luck then – laughed he.

But my Ethiopian friend, Fidel, overheard the conversation and was deeply worried.

- Are you sure you want to do that? It’s a completely uncivilized area. There is no water, no electricity. People are illiterate, they don’t speak English. They can rob, attack you and you won’t be able to ask for help.

- Inshah Allah.

There is not much information about traveling in South Omo for independent travelers. From what I learned from other travelers, locals and tour guides, I know that Konso and Jinka are the most popular bases to explore the region. I picked Konso because it’s closer.

After 2 days riding on the local bus, I arrived in Konso at sunset, thinking that the bus driver must have cheated me or something. People call this a city!!!? Then my hometown village must be a metropolis. The whole city is dozens of shabby houses and few senile hotels evolving around a petrol station. I found myself a cheap room at St. Mary hotel, not before fighting with the people there to get the right price, not the “faranji” price. (People who travel to Ethiopia will hear this word a lot. People will just follow you and say: “Faranji, money, faranji, money”. Yes, it means foreigner.)

Because I was the only faranji at the hotel, I went over to Dula hotel to socialize with other travelers, hoping to get more information. I met an American guy who traveled alone and Sylvain, a French guy who traveled with his group. Both of them traveled with a land cruiser.

- Damn it, I’m the only poor traveler here.

- Yeah – Sylvain giggled – you are the first one I’ve met who doesn’t have a car.

- What I think you should do is to find somebody like me or him – the American guy pointed at Sylvain – to ask for ride. Unfortunately we have all visited the valley and are going back to Addis Ababa.

It turned out that I was at the wrong place to start the trip. Since everybody travels on tour, everybody takes the same route: Addis Ababa – Arba Minch – Jinka – Mursi village – Turmi – Key Afar – Konso – Arba Minch – Addis Ababa. I didn’t get a ride with them, but I got plenty of information: the tribes, the villages and the most important thing that all tourists go after: the markets. It only happens once or twice a weak at each town. “You have to see the market. It’s like you’re completely taken back to the tribal era.”

So there was nothing I could do there at this time. If I wanted to hitchhike with tourists, I had to start from Jinka. I talked to them for a while then I decided to go back to the hotel to take a good rest. From tomorrow on, I’d venture into the unfamiliar territory of South Omo, being the only lone traveler.

- Backpacking in South Omo – Sylvain shrugged – Good luck with that.

Yes, that’s exactly what I need: luck.

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7
Jun

Kota Kinabalu at a glance

   Posted by: Chip    in Sabah

**For more pictures please visit my Facebook page here.

I haven’t blogged since forever. Part of the reason is that I’m lazy. Traveling is not an easy job, especially when you do it on a very tight budget and hold a passport which gives you a lot of challenges on getting visas to almost every single country in the world. However, the main reason is that I want to take a break to revise my writing and to learn how to make it more worth-reading. Old people ironically advise us to listen more and talk less. This time, I’m gonna read more and write less.

After 2 weeks in Kuching, I flew to Kota Kinabalu – the capital of the northernmost state of Malaysia. My first impression of Kota Kinabalu is that it’s so typical: a typical harbor city & a typical tourist site. But somehow, its typicalness is the thing that makes it special.

Kota Kinabalu is a typical harbor city. You can see it, you can smell it, you can even eat it. Seafood is for sale but not on sale everywhere (it’s expensive in KK). Open air structures:  parks, open air markets, open air restaurants can be found through out the city.

One of my happiest moments is when I sit on a bench in the park right next to Wisma Merdeka, face the blue water, reading “Eat, pray, love” and watching sunset. Or if you are in mood for a candle lit night, head over to Waterfront with your date or friends, enjoy freshly caught seafood, beers, refreshing breezes and feel like the whole ocean is singing under your feet. Dang I need a date here! [KK Waterfront – picture from the Internet]

Another thing that struck me here is that it seems like everybody is a professional diver. KK is one of the cheapest places to get a dive license. Even though I feel like an F-class humanbeing when hanging out with them b/c of my water phobia, it motivates me to learn to swim & get over this stupid phobia.

Compared to West Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu is much more multiracial with more than 30 ethnic groups, excluding many more tourist ethnic groups. Kota Kinabalu is a very typical tourist city which somehow reminds me of Kao San Road in Bangkok. Just stay at any cheap backpacker place (there are many in the city. I’m staying at North Borneo Cabin which is right on Sunday market road and costs me only RM23/night for a/c dorm), and it’s very likely that you’ll bump into a bunch of globe-trotters. There are so many markets in KK: central market, Philippines market, wet market, handicraft market, random market, etc.!

 

 

Most of them are for tourists b/c there is no reason for a city of only 600,000 people to need that many huge markets. However, since everything here is for tourists, the prices are freaking high too.

As we were roaming about the city, I told Marsha (a super cool American Korean girl I met here) that if I ever settled down, I’d love to settle in a city like KK: not too big but not too small, multiracial, friendly, easy-going and has everything: beaches, islands, rice fields, mountains, jungles, shopping malls, etc.

Even though I’ve just been here for 3 days, I’ve already found myself being extremely harassed by super fun & nice people. We went to an island trip together with loads of fun.

Some pictures I took during my first day here:

The European corner of KK

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19
May

Things good to know in Brunei

   Posted by: Chip    in Brunei

After 3 days in Brunei, even though I love this country, I have to say that it’s very hard to live there if you’re not Bruneian. There is no public transportation there. Actually there are buses but they are very random and there are only 40+ taxis the whole country. Everything is expensive in Brunei, and foreign workers get paid much lower than local people. There are few things about Brunei good to know if you plan to visit this country.

In Brunei, Singapore dollars and Brunei dollars are both used at the rate 1:1.

Phone calls

All SIM cards in Brunei are 3G, but b-mobile sim cards are only compatible with 3G phones and DTS SIM cards are compatible with 2G phones as well (seriously I felt so depressed when I was there b/c I had no 3G phone). A SIM card normally costs B$30, but some shops charge B$40 or B$50. They are very hard to find, you can find them in some big shopping malls in the Mall Gadong. If you just stay in Brunei for a few days, it isn’t worth buying one. You can use buy VoIP card to use public phones instead. With B$5, you can have more than 1 hour call to local numbers. You can find public phones at every malls, supermarkets.

Bruneians don’t walk

If you walk on the street, you will soon realize that you are the only one doing so. My Bruneian friends told me that even if they want to cross the street, they will drive. So don’t expect to meet anyone on the road to ask for the way :)

Bruneian gossip

One scary thing about Brunei is that everybody knows everybody there. The population of the whole country is less than 400,000 people so it’s somewhat like a small town. Here is a story: When I was hanging out with Caroline Ang (another Caroline Ang – the owner of Bon Asia Holidays, a travel agency) and she asked who was going to pick me up, I said my friend’s name. She asked more about him but I didn’t know much. So she said: “Let me check.” and picked up the phone to call her friend to ask if her friend knows my friend. After only 2 phone calls, she knew exactly who he is, where he works. Scary!

The gap between rich and poor people

… is huge in Brunei. Most of people here are very rich: They live in big houses, drive expensive cars (Mercedes and Lexus are very popular here), and have their own drivers. However, poor people are really poor. Many people just work for B$500-B$1000/month (a normal room in an apartment already costs around B$300/month) and live in slump areas. Foreign workers are living much below standard, but still better in their own countries (I guess) because of the currency difference.

Green & Clean

Brunei is a green & clean country, literally & figuratively. There are a lot of trees and no corruption. The sky is so blue :)

Tourism

From what I said above, it’s clearly that even though Brunei is home for many glamorous mosques and , this country is not the paradise for tourists. My friend Caroline Ang – the owner of a leading travel agency in Brunei – confirmed that the government (the King) doesn’t focus on developing tourism in this country, but she hopes that they will someday. I hope so too.

Miscellany

1. Education is totally free in Brunei. If you  are a Bruneian and good enough, the government will even send you overseas.

2. The government also provides you houses if you are Bruneian. However, government houses all look the same and you cannot do anything with it, so rich people prefer to buy and build their own houses.

3. English is widely spoken through out the country.

4. Jobs as shop assistants, waitresses are available for local/PR card holders only.

My advices

If you have a lot of money and want to find a place to spend it up, then Brunei is way to go. There are few taxis in the country but they are very hard to find and very expensive. You have to call in advance and wait for a while. A cheaper way is to go on a tour.

If you plan to work there, make sure that your company provides you transportation, or you are well paid enough to buy your own cars/motorbikes. Second hand cars are actually pretty cheap there. You can easily get one with about B$3000.

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