The Travels of Päivi and Santeri

Read the 4 reasons why global nomads don't buy world travel insurance and learn how to do without, while enjoying peace of mind on the road.

Have you considered living or travelling without a mobile phone? Read how we did it for 12 years and what have been the pros and the cons.

In March 2014, Indonesia announced visa-free entry beginning from April 1st. That visa-free entry cost us US $35/person.

Read this before trusting any Tripadvisor reviews. They practice censorship making them useful for businesses but worthless for consumers.

Degrowth would be less harmful, downshifting and reducing consumption, than building more nuclear power.

International Women’s Day is the worst kind of s chauvinism.

Considering the site's code of ethics, practices of BookMooch administration and the outcome of our test run, we are not able to recommend BookMooch.

We bought jogging shoes from Carrefour that broke in one week. Carrefour refused take responsibility.

Spain is the most dangerous country in the world. It is the only country where we have been robbed.

ASUS does not have international or actually any kind of warranty outside the country of purchase. They just tell you to go where you bought it. Our previous laptop broke about 1,5 years ago. It was a no-brand one with just one year warranty. When we were selecting the new one, we wanted to have one with two years international warranty to make sure it would serve us for at least that time. After comparing various models and their warranty conditions we ended up trusting in ASUS. The laptop had quite a good price-quality ratio while it was not broken. There were minor compatibility issues with sound card which never worked for simultaneous playback of midi’s and recording the output to audio. Some drivers that came with the laptop were crappy and others crappier, but without using them it was pretty OK.

Boycott against Air Europa. They trashed Päivi´s backpack and promised refund, but getting it took a year and way too much trouble. Päivi´s backpack received a bit too rough treatment on our flight with Air Europa one year ago, and it broke down. The company promised to refund the damage, as it finally did. But getting the money required dozens of emails, phone calls, and facsimiles. We even had to turn to the European Consumer centre. Here’s the full story why we boycott Air Europa. Our flight was from Salvador, Brazil to Madrid, Spain. When we noticed that Päivi´s backpack had trashed, we filed a baggage claim report right away at Barajas airport. First, we were told to get a replacement bag in Madrid, but unfortunately the luggage shop that Air Europa used, did not have backpacks. Next, we were told to buy a new one from Finland where we were going, and to send the receipt to Air Europa’s Luggage service for refunding.

Thailand visa-run system humiliates foreigners and favours sex tourists making long-stay in Thailand unpleasantly bureaucratic and erratic. Yesterday we travelled to Myanmar, which is another neighbouring military dictatorship. Our motivation was to try out the so called visa-run. We wanted to test and document it so that you don’t have to do it unless you really want to. All foreigners staying in Thailand are forced to travel every 1-3 months to the border, exit the country, and return with a new stamp in their passport. Immigration rules enforce this procedure, and the penalty of failing to do so is 500 baht/day (~ 11 €). Those who travel to Thailand for work, retirement, or for renting a wife are granted a 3-month stay between the visa-runs. Ordinary long-stay tourists usually have to do the trip every month. The Argentinian visa system gives an example of another extreme. There you can overstay as long as you wish. When you leave the country you just have to pay a US 15$ fine...

Bolivian people are used to carrying anything from groceries to children in their backs like human backpacks. The border between Chile and Bolivia is in 6000 meters and air was quite thin. We saw a group of Norwegian tourists in the border queue fainting from altitude sickness. They recovered after having some coca tea. It's a good medicine for altitude sickness, but unfortunately not a drug. It had no effect on us.