Travel4more.org

Here it finally is… the Travel4more Video!!! Thanks to everybody who joined and supported us on our overland trip from Australia to Germany and who kindly supported / supports our partner organisation just-one in Nepal!    

We have travelled almost 50,000 kilometers over land, through beautiful countries, remote and untouched scenery and busy, but pretty, tourist towns. In almost every country we have seen street children. Sometimes not even old enough to talk, a 3 or 4 year old approached us in Uzbekistan, trying to sell us postcards. When a small vulnerable … Continue reading »

Eastern Europe seems never to reside at the top of anyone’s ‘must see’ travel list. The strange, self-defining, un-geographical title (for example we don’t call Greece ‘Eastern Europe’ despite its easterly direction) does not help to renew the images in peoples mind when they hear eastern and Europe next to each other. The preconceptions some … Continue reading »

At the brink of achieving almost 50,000 km and finally entering Europe, we think it’s time for a quick run-down of the past few months on the travel4more tour! We currently stand at 4,120 euros and the travel4more donation meter will receive its final update on the 10th June. Of course we will leave the … Continue reading »

Our foray into Turkey began with an overnight stay on a parked coach, all to ourselves in the middle of nowhere, after the driver abruptly retired for the night into a small roadside hut. A bang came on the coach door at 6:00am the next morning and we were off on another overnight bus journey … Continue reading »

Having said goodbye to our surprise guests in Tehran, we were on the way to the bus terminal (original plan was to go to Tabriz) flicking through the guide-book again, wondering what Kordestan, the province close to the Iraqi border, looks like. We change our plans 5 minutes before getting on the bus and we’re off  … Continue reading »

We continue our journey further south: Yazd is calling us and has been calling civilization for the last 7,000 years, making it the oldest living on earth! Finding your way in the maze of old adobe covered houses is impossible. And so we spend a great deal of time getting lost and gazing at the small … Continue reading »

The only customs forms available were in Uzbek, the disorderly queue stretched to the door, it would have seemed terrifying if we had not just come from border hell. Luckily we are helped by the same guy shouting ‘motherf***er’, hurriedly filling in our forms while wheeling off the usual list of premier league football teams. … Continue reading »

The last weeks have been some of the most interesting on our whole trip so far! The bad internet connections combined with Iran`s government strict blocking system was even too much for our VPNs (at one point we had 3 different ones on our PC). Often we thought we could upload – only to find … Continue reading »

We already left beautiful Bukhara two weeks ago, heading back to Tashkent in order to participate in a four way (Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and us) Visa ‘war’. We will remember Bukhara as one of the most beautiful and relaxed cities along the Silk Road… Due to internet blocking and slow connections we haven’t been able … Continue reading »

                    Samarkand is the first stop on our cultural tour of Uzbekistan. Founded in the 5th century it has held a title of one of the great cities of Central Asia for centuries due to its position at the crossroads of India, China and Persia. It … Continue reading »

After almost 2 months in China, Kyrgyzstan, the first of the ‘stans (it`s our first time in Central Asia!) is calling and a mix of shared taxis and a hitchhike over 3-days is supposed to bring us there.. But as usual, everything veers slightly off plan. After many difficulites with internet access in the ‘Stans, … Continue reading »

From Kashgar we travel 200 km along the famous Karakoram Highway, which runs from western China to Pakistan. One of the few routes that cross the Himalayas. The route includes the highest paved road in the world. Historically, this was an important part for caravans traveling along the ancient Silk Road. The road is a total of … Continue reading »

Kashgar is our favorite city in China! It is an oasis city with approximately 350,000 residents in the western part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.  China has 5 autonomous regions, the most famous one is Tibet.  Xinjiang means ‘new frontier’ in Chinese and with eight bordering countries it is the gateway to … Continue reading »

We finally arrived in Kashgar after a 25 hour train journey through amazing country. Its our last city in China before we cross into Kyrgzystan and it feels as though we have already departed China and arrived in a half-way house, where central Asia’s influence begins. Traveling such a huge distance back home usually entails these … Continue reading »

Our journey leads us further west through never-ending desert to Jiayuguang where we see the last sections of the fully intact wall. From now we really travel west…into the ancient imperial Chinese nothingness. Dunhuang: one of our favourite places in the whole of China, so far. It serves as a great base to see some … Continue reading »

After a long awaited exit from Beijing we finally headed west into the Chinese wilderness. A fiftteen hour sleeping coach from Beijing drops us off in Yinchuan were we catch another bus to ZhongWei. After a night spent eating noodles under the nose of Chairman Mao (not the actual, a statue) we jump on a train. The train takes 9 … Continue reading »

If someone wants to count the sights in Beijing.. well, it`ll take a while .. China’s capital is dotted with temples and palaces – there is hardly a building that has no historical consequence. Beijing is the political and cultural center of this big country and home to some impressive cultural heritage. Tiananmen Square for example … Continue reading »

When we set out, we (very scientifically) predicted that upon our 30,000th-odd kilometre we would be back in peaceful Mömlingen. Looking back on our prediction, we ignored one factor: we would not actually be travelling ‘as the crow flies’, and not always in the direction of home. We have in fact spent quite a few … Continue reading »

Still reeling from our rejection from Burma we arrived at the seventh nation on our journey. The wide French boulevards were deserted apart from a group of hungry looking tuk-tuk drivers loitering with intent in red and green traffic light glow. As usual the sight of our backpacks gives us away before our skin colour … Continue reading »

We cross the border from Laos into China by bus. China is a massive challenge and beyond any imagination we may have had before our arrival. With more than 1.3 billion people, China has the largest population of any country, with such a huge population comes huge economic, social and political challenges. China’s enormous population … Continue reading »

 What is sex tourism?  ‘I ordered Beer Lao. Then he said “I have lady for you”, I said “sure”. That’s how easy it was.. I only paid about $20-$25 a day to the lady!’  Sex tourism is the act of travelling to procure sexual services. It involves a lot of different scenarios, countries, nationalities, ages, … Continue reading »

After collecting our Chinese Visa in Vientiane, we leave the relaxed capital (about 800.000 people) North. We travel to Vang Vieng, a “backpacker`s paradise”, of which we will write a bit more soon. We visit Phonsavan and Sam (Xiam) Neua in the North-East and learn about the “Secret War” of the Americans and the caves of the Lao … Continue reading »

Nam ist working for COPE, a not-for-profit organisation in Vientiane, Laos. COPE is providing rehabilitation services to people in Laos who lost bodyparts due to cluster bombs. There are still 78 million active cluster bombs in Laos, injuring and killing several hundred people each year.  The COPE visitor center in Vientiane is definately worth visiting … Continue reading »

The Mekong rises in the “Three Rivers Area” on the Tibetan Plateau, together with the Yangtze and Salween Rivers. It runs through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam – 4,909 km (3,050 miles). It is the world’s 10th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia. It drains an area of 795,000 km2 (307,000 sq mi), providing especially poor … Continue reading »

Final destination 200 meters after the border The Thai visa is stamped and simultaneously confirms our Thai departure. In front of us lies the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, built by the Thai government in 1995 and opened in 1997, which functions as border crossing.This friendship has proved most rewarding to Thai traders who are supposed to … Continue reading »

After Singapore, Malaysia is calling! Initially we suspect that a return to a life of ‘tramping’ is inevitable, sat scruffily atop our bags at Malacca bus terminal growing fearful about the absence of our couchsurfing host. Fortunately, flashbacks to the wheeling and dealing of Indonesia are cut short by the arrival of a fleet of … Continue reading »

After having left the beautiful beaches in the South of Thailand, we arrived in busy Bangkok. One of the most visited sights in the capital is the Temple of Emerald Buddha which is the most important Buddhist temple in Thailand and includes a Buddha image meticulously carved from a single block of jade. The largest … Continue reading »

Hospitality is as old as civilization itself, travelling was partaken to further trade or religion and those spreading tangible or intangible commodities needed somewhere to crash, hence, the birth of the guesthouse. Happily this system rolled on for thousands of years, billions of overnight stays tallied up and people around the globe connected. With new … Continue reading »

After our relatively short stay in Malaysia we cross into Thailand. A train takes us from the border to Jerantut where we head towards the beautiful Andaman Sea. After spending a few days exploring Ko Lanta, a boat brings us to the busy and world-famous Ko Phi Phi islands. Leonardo DiCaprio`s famous Beach is covered with … Continue reading »

From Singapore we entered Malaysia. Our first stop was Melakka, an medival city, once occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch and the British. We then headed north to Kuala Lumpur to bring in the new year. Afterwards we went to Taman Negara Nationalpark, a 130 million years old jungle.

Confucius wrote that ‘In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.’ This struck a chord with us during our latest week of travel. Having journeyed through swathes of Indonesia populated by people living a hand to mouth existence we … Continue reading »

Yeahhhhh!!! We reached the €3,000  mark and want to thank everybody who donated and supported travel4more.org during the last 3 months with this small preview of the travel4more-video. We hope you join us for the rest of the journey!    

Our time in Indonesia ends with a visit to Jakarta and Yogyakarta, the cultural center of Java. The nearby tempels Prambanan and Borobudur are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia, and is one of the largest Hindu temples in Southeast Asia. Borobudur is a 9th-century Buddhist temple. We spend the … Continue reading »

5 minutes with Hari – a Javanese sulpher miner. The work in a sulpher mine is hard and dangerous – but someone has to do it…  

The East of Java has 2 amazing highlights to offer: Gunung Bromo is an active volcano and part of the Tengger massif. At 2,329 metres (7,641 ft) it is not the highest peak of the massif, but the most well known. The Ijen Crater lies only 5 hours east of Mt. Bromo and is one of … Continue reading »

The success of our fundraising for just-one in Kathmandu, Nepal has been amazing, when we first contacted the organisation to discuss our plans to raise money we thought that it would take 9 months to reach our target of € 3,000. Thankfully we were wrong and due to some unbelievable generosity we have almost reached our target … Continue reading »

We travel via Kupang (West Timor) to East Timor. From there it takes us 5 long days to travel back west through West Timor, Flores, Sumbawa, Lombok and Bali in order to finally reach Java. The market pictures were taken on Lombok`s biggest market (in Malang).

Have you ever sat in front of a thousand scattered jigsaw fragments, daunted by the challenge? Well East Timor is a vast socio-geographic version of that test and as you enter the capital Dili, you fear that the last remaining pieces of the puzzle may be out of reach.   Disco bus from Bajawa to … Continue reading »

In our current installment of “5 minutes with…” we talk to Leh – a Komodo dragon guide on Rinca Island in the Komodo National Park.

Starting in Flores with a trip to Rinca to see the famous Komodo Dragons, we traveled east through Ruteng and Bajawa before catching a 17 hour ferry to Kupang, West Timor .

There are only four small islands to see them on in the whole world, and all four sit in close proximity, a few hours away from Flores, Indonesia. They are the stuff of legend, enormous beyond belief and man eating in their ferocity. They are Komodo Dragons, the largest lizards on earth.  Such a short … Continue reading »

Our second and last flight of the entire journey drops us into heady, aromatic, crazy and always amazing Asia. Our mouths burn from the spice-laden street food, our ears bleed with the constant rumble of a million of scooters, olfactory senses are laid siege to by the pungent, combating smells while beauty and sorrow sourced … Continue reading »

After Bali we head east to the Gili Islands, which are located north-west of Lombok. The triplet of islands (Gili Meno, Gili Aire and Gili Trawangan) are popular amongst individual travellers and are a hotspot for divers. Taking a ferry back to Lombok we travel through this green island and climb up to the crater rim … Continue reading »

In our next installment of “5 minutes with…” we speak to Gede, an Indonesian fisherman from Bali (Lovina). Although we voiced our concern for the dolphins (up to 20 motorboats trying to locate them in one morning), we would like to emphasize that it is important to pay fair prices to local people (this is … Continue reading »

One of the prejudges Australia has to fight is a lack of culture. And, although the cities look new and lack older architecture, Australia`s history and culture is one of the oldest and richest. It`s the story of the Aborigines, the indigenous people of Australia, who have inhabited the continent for the past 50,000 years. … Continue reading »