The Travels of Päivi and Santeri

Ulaanbaatar’s city centre is Soviet-style. One part filled with dilapidated apartment buildings and the other with gers (or yurt, a kind of tent). After living seven months in a hotel in Cambodia and six months in Thailand , we thought it would be great to try something else for a while: hospitality exchange and Mongolia.

Travelling by bus from Cambodia to Vietnam and all the way through Vietnam from South to North.

Phnom Penh in Cambodia is a relatively hassle-free long-stay destination thanks to corruption especially for global nomads. We have had a pleasant chance to meet our friends in Cambodia this year. First Bill and Betty came over from the US on their six month tour around China and South-East Asia. Together we explored Phnom Penh and Angkor, and made a virtual tour to Angkor temples . Bill & Betty travel a lot spending around half a year abroad. We met in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where we both used to live. You can read about Bill’s and Betty’s travels at Bill’s blog . After the first of May came Helena who took care of Santeri when he was a baby. Helena is living in Kuala Lumpur where we celebrated last Christmas with her family. Helena used to live in China for some years, and according to her Phnom Penh is very much alike. She had been travelling in the neighbouring countries but this was her first visit to Cambodia.

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.