Travel Around The Clock

Photo by Dendy Darma on Unsplash 01:00 AM the alarm wakes us up after barely 2 hours of sleep, with our stomachs still processing the 3 courses delicious dinner of the night before, washed down by a couple of pints of Bintang . Still in a lethargic state, we meet our driver in the hotel lobby in Candidasa . He will take us to Pura Besakih where our adventure is going to start. We ask him if he has ever climbed Gunung Agung and he says he has done it a couple of times. This is a holy volcano and for the local people climbing it is a very spiritual experience. It takes almost an hour to arrive to destination where we meet a 21 years old woman that is going to be our guide. I look at her little thin body and make the first wrong assumption of the day: `If she can do it, it can't be that difficult`. After a few steep flights of stairs I’m already out of breathe when the guide stops at a little shrine for some offerings and then gives us two flashlight headlamps: it’s pitc...

We entered that secondary road on the outskirts of Fethiye, on the South Western Coast of Turkey, looking for a bit of adventure and maybe one of those solitary beaches not included in the guide books and just used by locals. It took only few minutes’ drive among the Mediterranean flora to find the first village. Somehow it had a strange atmosphere; a couple of restaurants at the entrance were all we could notice. It was calm and silent, almost in a shocking way, compared to the hustle and bustle of Fethiye with its tacky souvenir shops and its noisy touristy restaurants. Only a few extra meters and the hill on our left disclosed the desolated panorama of hundreds of abandoned houses.  Kayakoy We suddenly decided that the beach could wait and stopped for a walk. It was late morning on a late July day and it was desperately hot. The cicadas were screaming loudly all around nonetheless the place was very quiet. No tourists, possibly most of them were refreshing by the sea o...

2013 has been, for us, the year we discovered France. Not that we had never been there before, but we had only visited Paris until last year when we finally took our time to explore a bit of the countryside, especially in the south. France is an amazing country and not only for its wines and good food (oh yes we love them!!) but because it is also extraordinarily rich in history and art. Other than the myriad of castles spread all over the country (check out our post about some of them) there are plenty of interesting attractions. Above all of them, the prehistoric caves we visited during our 2 weeks on the road in the southern part of the country have left special memories in our hearts. Have you ever heard about Lascaux ? If the answer is yes, well, forget about them.  The original cave is not accessible and the only thing you can visit is a reconstruction ( Lascaux II ). It may be interesting but we preferred to go for some real ones: Font de Gaume and Les Combarelles , ...

If every serious fairytale has a castle, then France is the quintessential fairytale country, considering the ridiculous amount of Chateaux in the country. And if a lack of knowledge had made us think that they were merely located on the Loire banks or used as accommodations by the wealthy wine producers of Bordeaux, a 2 weeks trip on the road in Southern France proved us completely wrong. We encountered plenty of castles of various ages and architectural styles; some of them were closed as December is low season but we still managed to visit most of them and were lucky enough to have guides all by ourselves giving us private tours! We started form the Perigord Vert and the Chateau de Bourdeilles , which is itself a double castle, including a medieval building and a Renaissance one, both very well preserved and accessible for a €7 per head. Chateau de Bourdeilles The medieval part is of course much more austere, while the Renaissance building has still plenty of decoration, furnish...

I have to say that this was my very first time in the U.S. Yes, at 40 years old I was still "U.S. virgin". And more appropriately "San Francisco virgin". Also this time I was travelling alone (partially for business) after about 17 years. I almost forgot that travelling alone is a very intimate and introspective experience. Thoughts are constantly crossing your mind but there's no one next to you to share them with. You almost talk to yourself like a lunatic and you stare in the face on the people, looking for a sign, a friendly smile. San Francisco was definitely an unexpected and unique surprise. I didn't have much time and I wanted to live the city directly as much as possible. So I decided to take a small rucksack and walk all around with no plans, no guides and without using public transport. I just had a small map that I had found in a tourist office. I saw nearly all San Francisco in 2 days. At the end my shoes were smoking and shouting "En...

Puglia (or Apulia, for English speakers) is the Italian region occupying the heel of the peninsula: an amazing area extraordinarily rich in culture and traditions. My personal experience was extremely physical and that’s the reason why I decided to describe it via the 5 senses. Sight There is no better way of depicting Puglia than using its own peculiar features: the long dry stone walls bordering the roads and the surrounding large green fields, olive groves or vineyards.... ...the Masserias,  ancient farmhouses now often renovated and transformed in beautiful restaurants or hotels.....  ...and the trulli, very distinctive buildings characterized by a conical roof and typical of the Valle dell'Istria. Hearing Puglia has all the sound of pizzica, the traditional folk dance characterized by a fast rhythm and lots of tambourines. It can be described in words. You have to listen to it... Smell  This region is rich in perfumes and certainly that of o...

The only way to fight the incoming apathy and sense of depression due to a November rainy afternoon, was to look back at our pictures and notes from our week in Corsica and write about some of its beautiful beaches! Since last time we were in this gorgeous Mediterranean island 2 months ago, memories are still fresh. One of the things we love more about Corsica (other that good food and wine and an extraordinary mix of French and Italian cultures) is the fact that it has something for everyone. Mountain? Ticked! Amazing sea? Ticked! Sandy beaches? Ticked! Rocky bays? Ticked! Beautiful ancient towns? Ticked! (And we don't want to repeat ourselves about food & wine!) But let's go back to beaches...and let's start with an easy one: Plage Aregno . Easy in terms of access because is just by the town of Algajola and there is a quite spacious parking. No facilities there other than a kayak rental. But the beautiful landscape on one side, the view of t...