The Travels of Päivi and Santeri

This Enhanced Edition is a lonely planet parody that is better than the original. The printed book was for sale in Cambodia.

Travel literature review. Detailed descriptions of places and of the beauty of the landscape inherent in travel literature are tedious.

Our two favorites in travel literature are Jet Lag’s Molvanîa and Will Ferguson’s Hokkaido Highway Blues . Molvanîa travel guide is an excellent parody of travel guidebooks. Molvanîa is a fictional country, “untouched by modern dentistry” as the book describes. It is, of course, situated in godforsaken East Europe, which is a most convenient base for mythical stories. The book is a rare treasure among travel literature’s usually dead-serious genre.

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.

Our site has been revamped. We changed the navigation bar to the left side where it is easier to use. There you can search blog entries by countries. You will also find information about why we left the rat race and became full-time travellers. The happiness test allows you to measure how happy you are. The test is related to the book La Habanera which we wrote about our new career choice and leaving our country of origin, Finland. In Highlights (on top of the right dock) you can explore one of the most memorable destinations of our travels so far, e.g. Samba Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Trans-Siberian Railway, and Russian Rainbow Camp. We use six categories for blog entries: Travels, Photos, Books, Articles, Boycotts, and Humor. In future, we plan to write more articles about our philosophy of traveling from the perspective of responsible and sustainable tourism. At the end of the dock you will find a link list of blogs of some our travelling friends, travel-related discussion forum...

Test your happiness using our free test. It was created for the book La Habanera: The Escape From The Rat Race.

An Orwellian vision of air travel: increased fear-driven security procedures make air-travel ever more difficult and uncomfortable. As current, fear-driven security procedures increase, travelling by air will be even more difficult than today. It might not be enough to leave all liquids, arms, blades, scissors, and lighters at home as human bodies may pose an even bigger risk for flight security. Bodies can burst into flames, plastic explosives can be swallowed or surgically implanted, and nerve gas agents can be easily hidden in any luggage. Some mighty explosives contain the same material as human body. Imagination is the only limit how those assets can be used as they have to be boarded in any case. If paranoia and fear of death escalates further, the following Orwellian vision might be inescapable. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

New tourists arriving in Sihanoukville, Cambodia get attacked by an aggressive taxi mafia mob. Watch the video and see by yourself.

An unforgettable Cambodian-Finnish friendship day in Phnom Penh, Cambodia with sauna and Santa Claus. Sauna And A Plunge Into The Mekong River One of the most memorable days during our travels was definitely the Cambodian-Finnish friendship day in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The festivities included sauna bath, a plunge into the nearby River Mekong, and meeting of Santa Claus. Here is a detailed story of the great day when we felt like kings. During the 2.5 years of our travels 3 times around the world we have never experienced such a genuine and unselfish hospitality.

Critical eye on tourism: why travel literature encourage marketing talk and critique is falsely perceived negative? Tourists returning home from their travels are often reciting familiar, positive mantras which can also be read from any tourist guide book or travel agency’s brochure: the weather was great, beaches brilliant, people friendly and smiling all the time, all the sights bigger and better than anywhere else in the world, and the night life buzzing around the clock. Critique does not have a part in this gospel despite the difficulties encountered. This raises an interesting question: Why is criticism silenced? Let us examine two fundamental factors for this behaviour: 1) travel literature and travel-related discussion forums which encourage marketing, and 2) the common misconception according to which critique is negative.