The Travels of Päivi and Santeri

Visiting Antai-ji Zen Monastery in Japan, learning sitting meditation (zazen) and working on the rice fields. Travel story with photos. The temple of the Antai-ji Zen Monastery is called Hondo. The sitting meditation (zazen) is done there as well as the Buddhist rituals such as Monk promotion. In those rituals the main entrance is used, otherwise the side door.

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.

Sixteen funny ways to entertain yourself in the Trans-Siberian 2-week train ride through Russia. Start to prepare for the trip well in advance: don’t change your shirt, socks or underpants at least for one week. Eat pea soup before the trip so in the train you will be able to entertain other passengers by farting “International”.

Vegetarians, nudists, herbs-smoking rastas and hippies in the Russian Rainbow gathering in Karelia, Russia in 2006.

Visiting friends and Santeri's old colleagues from SOT Finnish Software Engineering Ltd. in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia.

Photos of visiting family and friends in Europe.

Satirical tourism guide for Brazilians teaching how to cheat and rip off tourists. Based on real life experiences all over Brazil.

A photo blog of visiting Dracula's castle in Transsilvania, Brasov, Romania. https://nomadtravelbooks.com/photogallery/photo/south-europe-romania-italy-spain/531/pho.webp This is really dangerous. Continue only if you are absolutely sure you know what you are doing. Some higher forces are watching every click you make.

Photos of visiting our old friends in Buenos Aires after being in New Zealand for a while. Of course there were parties again.

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.