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.
Travelling to Tibet by the new Qinghai-Tibet railway was awesome and easy. No notorious travel permits were needed. Tibet itself with its mountainous scenery and minority people reminded us of Bolivia, which we love, except that it was way more touristy. Still, at least the train trip was worthwhile.
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.
British sockets ( type G ) with three pins are used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus, Malta, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and parts of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. You do not need expensive plastic adaptors to use them with European power plugs ( type C ). A thin pen will suffice.
We wanted to escape the high season in the coastal Mediterranean Balkan states and so were asking around for suggestions where to go. Upon this mission, we got into contact with Portuguese Vicente on BeWelcome hospitality exchange, which is a free alternative for couchsurfing , and got interested in the place where he had been staying on and off for some years. The place is Kalna in Stara Planina Mountains that run from Serbia to Bulgaria.
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.
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