We have been told a few times in travel-related Internet discussion forums that when we travel outside Finland, we are guests. Therefore we must refrain from expressing any opinions on that country or its people unless our view is positive. Criticism and especially trying to right wrongs is not seen as acceptable behaviour of a guest. Are we guests or tourists? Let us consider a bit more deeply the concept of ‘guest’. Traditionally it refers to a person who is invited to a country or a home by a host. How many people have actually been invited to visit a country? Certainly diplomats, visiting governors of other nations, some sportsmen and other celebrities. But what about regular tourists on their holiday?
Georgian Revenue service is providing information on tax free shopping and the VAT refund on their website , but unfortunately in Georgian only. As the process is quite different than in other countries, we decided to share our experiences about it.
Recent hostilities in the Middle-East have led to millions of passengers to miss their hotel bookings , flights and cruises. Carriers and online travel agencies ( OTA ) are exploiting the situation. When a refund is carried out, both OTA and the carrier lose money. They deliberately sabotage refunds so that customers give up their money.
Island hopping in Polynesia was a dream-come-true for us. We had been planning it since 2021 , but the timing was never right for travelling two months on the high seas without Internet and phone . Now we were able to do it and it was sheer luxury! Polynesian Islands are known for beaches and popular destinations for snorkeling and watching marine life. We covered some parts of Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and French Polynesia as well as Cook Islands, Niue and Kiribati.
Travelling the trans-siberian railway all the way from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, Russia. And visiting Voguls on the way. We started our Trans-Siberian railway ride from Kuokkaniemi, a small village situated near Sortavala and Finnish border in Karelia. The trip ended in Vladivostok near Japan and Korea totaling well over 10.000 kilometres. It would have been possible to do the trip in about eleven days, but we wanted to stop every once in a while and look around. We bought our tickets one by one, just to the next destination, and got this way a lot of experience of Russian bureaucracy, despotism of the police (militsiya), and the lack of any kind of logic in Russia. We knew right away that our Experiment would at least be challenging. In Santeri’s words: Russia should be avoided at any cost.
Thanks for all our friends who participated in our bachelor parties, farewell party, wedding, funeral of Boris, and birthday parties of Kalle, Laura and Päivi on 23.10.2004.
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