crazy world travels - blog

- on the road across the planet, since 1988 -

Get ready for intense travel adventures as experienced by myself backpacking around the world, traveling across this planet, on the road, since 1988.  This global nomad travels alone and without plans, exploring anywhere he chooses, focusing on crazy times, cultural highs, world wonders, adventurous journeys and always, with an emphasize on having fun …

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HEALTH WARNING: some content is seriously raw and may cause your grandma to gasp and your goldfish to die [ if they could read ].

popular travel stories

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Drugged, abducted, robbed, ditched in Russia - Everyone around the tables was friendly. I remember having 3 shots with them and that’s it … until I remember stumbling and falling from weakness on gravel somewhere in the countryside amid early morning sunlight. Didn’t know where the fuck I was but it certainly wasn’t in the city. It dawned on me that I had been drugged, robbed, abducted and ditched on a road in the countryside … [ click to continue ]

Christmas in Lalibela, Ethiopia - Located in the central Ethiopian Highlands they remain one the least recognized man-made wonders of the world, yet once the Medieval churches of Lalibela were known as “The Jerusalem of Ethiopia.” [ click to continue ]

Church of St. George, Lalibela, Ethiopia

Travels in Yemen, #1 … there are tribal rules - according to locals - no shooting women, children or old people; only in self defense if a weapon is raised against you or if there are two enemies present. Basically the only men carrying guns in Yemen - apart from the police and army - are the ones from whose tribes are in current conflict - a feud that may go back some decades. [ click to continue ]

A cold beer never felt so freeing - Cartagena, Colombia - A cold beer never felt so freeing; only two hours ago I was busted for grass and sweating it in a Colombian police station … [ click to continue ]

Insane first day - Iraq, 1989 … I forget about the million stares on me as he glares down and barks “You have no right to be here! No photos allowed! Why are you here?” “I’m a tourist.” “You have visa?” “Yeah.” “You have permission for camera?” “Whose permission?” “You must have a letter from from the Foreign Ministry in Baghdad” “But I haven’t reached Baghdad yet!”. [ click to continue ]

Women in pirogue, floating market - Ganvie, Benin

Prison visit - La Paz, Bolivia - My solitary Sunday was absorbed by a visit to La Paz’s San Pedro Prison. No I wasn’t arrested for drugs or acts of public indecency, rather it was a straight forward tourist kind of thing … [ click to continue ]

Hanging with the coolest Rasta - Goree, Senegal - Daouda is an artist, a musican, a Rasta-looking-guy - and a Baye Fall; one who follows the teachings of Cheikh Amadou Bamba, the 19th century Muslim Sufi leader of Senegal, and his most famous disciple, Cheikh Ibra Fall … [ click to continue ]

Across the badlands of Baluchistan - Pakistan - He’d just locked the keys inside his truck. What a plonker! And what a hopeless position: parked as it was in front of the gate - which the guard had just unlocked and now the truck totally blocked the access point between Iran and Pakistan … cornered near Afghanistan … [ click to continue ]

Fast car slowed - Copenhagen, Denmark

Tibet: where the spirit survives - The Yumbu Lakang monastery is straight from a fairytale - there, clinging to a rocky crag and surrounded by barren ridges, this ancient castle overlooks an oasis amid a mountainous, high-altitude desert. At 4000 meters above sea level this is the Yarlong Valley, the cradle of Tibetan civilization … [ click to continue ]