Travelogue Part 6 : Croatia!

It's the most popular summer country in Europe, giving credits to the beautiful coast, islands and cliff. Then it comes with a hefty price of course. Dubrovnik being the most popular vacation city in Europe, nothing comes cheap. It rape my wallet inside out. Initial plan was to spent 80 Euro in Croatia, ended up spending more that double. Dubrovnik itself costs me 40 Euro. 

Oh ya, before going into details, I shall once again thank Philip, Philip and Karl for letting me to tag along to go Dubrovnik from Trebinje. yes, two Philips. The boarder was very jam, we waited for more than 100 mins, I remember that because we were betting on the waiting time.

Upon crossing the boarder, we headed to the infamous old city, where the iconic castle is located. It's just too touristy to me, and to go up to the wall, you gotta pay 100 Kuna, that's like RM50. Each of us had a slice of pizza, even that cost us 23 Kuna. Didn't even dare to dine at the restaurant; a plate of pasta easily cost 90 Kuna. FMLLLLL.
We went to get some drinks at the supermarket (still expensive) and then they dropped me at my hostel before going to a waterfall at Bosnia.
Then I was on my own. Paid freaking 18 Euro for 13 bed dorm. Bla bla bla.
In order to make full use of my time in Dubrovnik, I walked the entire city which includes the old city, Babin Kun and Lapad. More than 10km walk I think. There're a lot of island trips but it's too costly to me so I did not sign up for any.

Left Dubrovnik for Split the next day. 
The funny thing is that Dubrovnik is kinda stand alone, separated from the rest of Croatia. Sort of being blocked by Bosnia. I gotta study the history to find out why. 

Split, in my opinion, is a much better city compared to Dubrovnik, at least it still preserves the local elements, less touristy and cheaper as well. Same as Dubrovnik, it has an old town too and a long streets. It's easy to get souvenirs. Another nice part of Split is the national park. Rented a bicycle to tour around the park (trust me, you need one). There you get beautiful cliffs and beaches, and no crowd, PERFECT! Went to swim and chill there.

I also went to HVAR, two hours boat ride from Split. There are two main towns in HVAR : HVAR and Stari Grad. I stayed at Stari Grad, a quieter town compared to HVAR. There's also an old city (so many old cities) but this is quite special. At one glance, it looks just like another old city elsewhere but when there's someone to tell you the story about the cities, it's totally another case.

So Croatia had never been really independent until the very recent year separated from Yugoslavia. For so many years, HVAR was colonized by venetian, Turks etc. So there's this building that has 3 windows of different era. One from ancient time, another one which posses Gothics element and the last one with Venetian design. This old man is like a walking history book, turn out that he studied ancient history and did a lot of researches. So ya, spent the afternoon listening to his stories.

Went to swim too and cooked dinner. Food are pretty expensive and I craved for chicken wings. So, cooking was the best solution. Left Split after 3 nights and headed to Plitvice National Park.
Here's where I got 3 hitch hikes! The thing is there's no bus terminal at Plitvice so the bus will just stop at the bus stop along the road. And I did not have GPS so I didn't really know the exact location of the hostel. The bus driver wasn't that friendly too and I ended up alighting at a bus stop 4km away from my hostel. At first I thought it's only 1 km so was thinking of walking. But when the locals told me that it's 4km away, immediately I put up my magical hitch hike sign. Thank god this Audi S5 stopped and gave me a lift. Really appreciate that.
It was 2pm when I reached the hostel and since there's nothing to do I went to the national park.

The national park is really very pretty. Anything that is protected by UNESCO is worth visiting. Just like St Naum in Ohrid. Just prepare to walk, a lotttt. Wont't write much, let the photos do the talking.

From Plitvice to Zagreb, hitch hike! and probably the best of the best!
Bus ticket to Zagreb costs 100 Kuna but I had only 70 Kuna left with some Euros. Didn't feel like changing any more since I would be going to Budapest from Zagreb on the same day. The bus to Zagreb was 1pm and we reached the bus stop at 12:30pm. I thought why not try hitch hiking, putting up my magical hand?!
The 3 other indian girls from the same hostel saw me doing that and wanted to try. After 20 mins with no result, they gave up. And now two other travelers from the hostel arrived at the bus stop too waiting for the bus. 
It's around 1:15pm and I wanted to give up. But somehow goodluck struck! A man in a truck with tow stopped and gave me a ride, in front of all the other travelers! That feeling, goshhhhh, I felt like I'm the pro in hitch hiking!
The guy doesnt speak english, so it's just body language throughout the 3 hours journey. He's so kind that he stopped me at the main bus terminal. I was so grateful to meet so many nice people along the trip.

Bought ticket to Budapest on the spot. It's not the local company so there's no information about the bus. Thankfully another guy helped me to ask around and I was able to buy the ticket on the spot. It was 20Euro but well, I got to leave Croatia! 

And upon crossing the border, I was officially in the Schengen Area. No more stamps after here.

Travelogue Part 5 : Montenegro

Kotor 

I took a night bus from ohrid to Montenegro, crossing the Albania boarder. Technically speaking I went to Albania too -.-

The bus ride again was full of uncertainties. I had no idea where is the Macedonia-Albania boarder and when is Albania-Montenegro boarder. So, night ride without proper sleep. Worst thing, I didn't grey the stamp when I entered Montenegro. And I realized it when I was already in the country. I did ask other passengers but they said it's fine. Well, this lead to fxxking unpleasant experience and will talk about it later.

So the day I reached kotor was a rainy day. It's misty and quite cold. Well, Montenegro has mountains, cliff and sea, the best landscape. Few famous beaches and cliffs like Budva, didn't really catch my interest because it looks too commercialized. 

Then it comes to the main part, kotor.

Unlike its name, kotor is actually a pretty clean town. A small town in the centre along the Montenegro west coast. The unique part of this place is the protected bay, where the sea water is calm all the time. 

I booked a 13 bed dorm and fortunately I was the only guess the first night. Well, unlucky for the owner. Was so tired that I needed a good nap so ended up visiting the old town at evening. It took less than an hour to visit the old town and then I went back to hostel, at Ljuta.

I prefer Ljuta much more than kotor centre since I get quieter and clear beach (beach without sand, mainly pebble). There was a freaking Harvey storm that night, like ;/&@:?'#^|¥<¥{•

The next day entire area was in mess! Owner shook his head -.-

Water supply was cut off, so did the electricity. Luckily it was a sunny day so I went to the castle.

Back to the journey from kotor to Ljuta, the public bus sucks! It's actually very cheap. 70 cent euro but you need to know the timing (hourly) and the bus stop. Else'll end up like me, spent an hour walking. Had bad experience on that road!

Went up to the castle the next day. Not much of historical stuff to see, rather get some awesome view of the town. And gotta pay 3€ to go up. 

Took me around 2 hours up and down including taking photo and sitting by the ledge to enjoy the view. 

Then I took the bus back and this time round, I overshot my hostel so gotta take a 45 mins walk backward! But the view was nice, so it sorts of compensate the walking. 

Bought the ticket to Trebinje for the next day and since everything was in place, I just lazing in the hostel, continue my Yugoslavia documentary and skype with family.

It's a very chillax place and the view is really awesome! It uses euro and not very expensive, around 3€ for a hamburger. However, coming up form Macedonia, I wasn't used to 3€ for fast food since I get a full meal for that price in Macedonia. So I cooked in my hostel at Ljuta. 

But overall 2 full days is more than enough though I stayed for 3 days. 

And the bus to Trebinje was sucks as well because I chose the wrong timing, 730pm when everyone is using the same road! The ticket was 6€, cheap but it took me 4hours to reach. Here come the "planted" problem. Remember the Montenegro entry stamp that I lacked of, the immigration here questioned me. So scary please. And I don't think they've seen many Malaysian before, probably only know malaysia because of the flight incidents. Bla bla bla and then miraculously the officer gave me two stamps in one time, entry and exit. 

Puhhhhhh

Reached Trebinje, at 11:30pm!

No phone to call, no wifi, only print screen the airbnb map. Airbnb, not hostel, so nobody knows whereabout. Thankfully the helpful part time waitress speaks god English, help me to get a taxi. And the. I was on myself with the taxi driver who speaks zero English!

He talked to some other guy and then asked me to get into the car. So I was looking at the print screen satellite map and tried to see the corner, direction. Turns out that the pace is really very rural. In Malaysia, it's like some kampung! Can't believe I reached there safely. Just about 15 mins upon arriving, it started to rain so heavily and storm and thunder again, as if I brought them from kotor. 

Travelogue Part 4 : Greece and Macedonia

It's Greece and Macedonia 

Bus ride to Thessaloniki from Istanbul was awful. They had so many stops and the stop at immigration office was so long. Thessaloniki was very hot, reaching 36 degree. A huge transition to me actually. The hostel I went to wasn't very comfortable and there're a lot of mosquitosssss. However, the hostel staffs are very nice. The home-cook squid is very delicious! I went to the old city. Some Roman and Greek cities. Nothing much and I don't think it's worth the time. But well, I went because I needed a night of good rest before embarking to the Balkans.

I think Macedonia deserves a blog by itself. It's a superb country. People are nice, things are cheap and everything is perfect.

Bitola 
The taxi from Florina, Greece to Bitola, Macedonia costs me freaking 27€!! But it's actually considered quite cheap since the Greece taxi driver would charge 40€ for the same route. The passport control wasn't that strict. Taxi driver took my passport and got it stamped for me, I didn't even get out from the car!
It took 30 mins to reach Bitola, a very small town.
It has some influence from the Turks, mainly from Ottoman Empire, and not forgetting Atartuk was born and schooled in Bitola. Another cool thing about this place is the ancient city. I mean really long long fine ago, "ancient city" built by Alexandra the Great and also the museum. It's good to know about the history of a place. 

The Main Street called Tito boulevard is the most happening place in Bitola, full of bars and gift shops. Things are pretty cheap here. I had this awesome cheese in oven with hams and a pint of Skopso lager which cost me 160 Denars, that like RM12! Great food!
There's a Turkish bazaar there but nothing attractive. 

I'd recommend to do a one day trip in Bitola, that's more than enough. Spent a night there and left the next morning.
To reach Ohrid, there are public bus which cost 200 Denars or 4-person taxi which cost 300 Denars. Just 100 Denars difference, a taxi is definitely a wiser choice, since it can drop you at your hostel. It took 1 hour to reach Ohrid by taxi and this is probably the best part of my solo trip so far. 

Ohrid is 580m above sea level, so the weather is pretty cool but the downside is the extremely high ultraviolet radiation. The readings goes up to 10. Sun screen of SPF 30+ is highly recommended. I checked in this Art Hostel, Ohrid. It's run by a family, the brother's the manager. Great hospitality, comfortable room and bathroom too! Some nights we backpackers get homemade pizza from the hostel. Eating with the family did give me a feeling of home :)

Well, so much to talk about Ohrid. I shall start with the hill.
So that's the main attraction of the town. It's 5 mins walk from my hostel. You'd reach a tourist street first, then the main port. Walk to the right direction and you'll see a lot of beaches. Oh did I mention that it's a lake?! So all the beaches are not sandy and the water is not sea water! Something very unique to me. Walk to the end of last beach and there's this old city before reaching Kaneo church.

From there, I continued hiking to the hill and yea, I got the secluded beach where only locals go and also the castle! 
I don't like to swim in this cooling weather but chilling there with beer or coffee is undoubtedly the best thing to do!

St Naum, is a must go! It's part of the Galacica national park. The boat ride which costs 10€ for return tickets is really worth it. The view is magnificent. And after 90 mins of exhilarating orgasmic scenery, I reached St Naum, where crystal clear spring water is found. Like so clear and clam, you feel like literally floating! That place though is touristy, things aren't that expensive. Got a 400 Denars lunch but it's worth it, dining next to the spring. A boat ride at the spring cost 150 Denar, please, ride it!

I did paragliding there too! 49€ exclusive the GoPro. 30 mins in the sky, awesome! But damn it my GoPro wasn't working so I had to rent theirs, which costs me 15€! That's the worst part of the entire trip in Ohrid. If you have a GoPro, make sure it's working and bring it there. They allow you to use yours.
There's one day I woke up at 6am and went cycling at 7. The quietness and serenity you get, presence, was the feeling I had.

And hiking at night to the wild beach, for some beers and stargazing. Awesome!
People in Macedonia are very friendly. Although the English proficiency is not very high, you can feel the hospitality from the very welcoming smile. Initiate conversation with them, and they get very happy to talk about the country, introducing one place after another. 
I spent time walking around, cycling to some places and slacking at the hostel. Met quite a lot of people and it did make me feel very good!

I will be back! AWESOME AWESOME PLACE!

Travelogue Part 3 : Turkey !

well well well.. this is the very first time I feel like a backpacker, after carrying 16kg backpack from bus terminal to hostel via public bus and writing this in backpackers crowd. Back to the topic, Turkey, a very liberal and open minded city.

Göreme, Cappadocia
We flew from Istanbul to Kayserin (RM650 return) and arranged a shuttle bus (10TL) to the place we stayed, Göreme, part of the huge Cappadocia which covers 4 other towns. The entire place is made up of many tiny mountains and valleys, and SAND! so it's quite dry there and cooling as well during the night.
Plenty of sand castles, something that are very unique and I guess you can't find it at other part of the world. Hot air balloon is not the only attraction, in fact the history of the activity is not very long. Other things like the Uchisar Castle and Open Musuems carry more history than others. 
It's a place where Christianity was spread back in the 5th century; many drawings are still kept in good condition.
Btw, the hot air balloon, it's actually quite scary when it reached 980m, the highest it can go. The view is magnificent though! Of course me Tai Hau being Tai Hau did not forget to take selfie!
Order pottery kebab, awesome food! About our stay: We stayed in a cave! How awesome it was! the breakfast was good as well :)

Istanbul
Flying form Kayserin to Istanbul can be quite annoying in the summer because of the frequent changing weather condition in Istanbul. Our flight was delayed for 3 hours but anyway, we reached there safely. Took a bus Havatas to Taksim from airport (15TL) and a cab to Sishane, the place we stayed.
Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque are some places must go! Very majestic and jaw dropping building. And it reflects how open-minded and liberal it was during the Ottoman Empire where Muslims and Christians could live together. 

We took the Bophorus Boat Tour (40TL) but honestly I feel that it's such a waste of money. I'd recommend people to just go to The Princess Islands via boat (3.5TL) and you'll still get to sail the Sea of Marmara, seeing the Asia and Europe lands.
The journey to Princess Islands takes 1.5 hours, if you're alighting at the last stop, which is the best I think. So please go there earlier, if possible try to catch the 8:30am ferry. You may need a full day there, not forgetting the boat ride takes 3 hours!
I rented a bicycle there for 10TL for an hour. Frankly speaking I did not enjoy the rushing 
ride, so I recommend a longer day there.

Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar are so crowded and too many things to buy. It's very happening. Remember to bargain every time you buy things. Slash the price, like 
SLASHHHHH, but be polite at the same time, Turks are nice people :)

I don't fancy food but Hamdi Restaurant at Karakoy is a must go! The kebabs are affordable (30TL) and authentic! The desserts are good too, like Baklava but a little bit too sweet. Order starter too because the main course is really very small portion. Unless you like bread then I think they have unlimited supply of bread. The view from the restaurant is nice too!

Some other interesting things:
I went for movie, it's cheap (10TL) but this is not the point. The interesting part is that they have movie break!! like 10 minutes break! The movie just paused suddenly and continued  10 minutes later.
Crossing the Greece-Turkey boarder is very unique too. I boarded a night bus (130TL) to Thessaloniki (Selanik) where I planned to save on hostel but it turned out that the night was quite hectic. They did not switch off the light until very late. And soon after they switched it off, they stopped for toilet break. Then not long after that, we reached the 
boarder, it was around 3:00am, bus departed at 10:00pm btw from Otogari bus station.
The passport control/immigration is really not that strict. The officer collected all our passports and took roughly 30 minutes before gave them to the assistant bus driver to return to us while the bus left the office. 
So we were all worried that we did not get our passport back and the bus had already left the boarder!

Next post will be on Greece and Macedonia!

Travelogue Part 2 : CapeTown!

Capetown !!!

With proper planning, we were able to catch the last flight of the day from Jo'burg to CapeTown using Kulula airline, which cost us around RM300. I'm sure the price would have been lower if we finalized things earlier.

Touched down at 10pm and then took a taxi to our airbnb stay. Capetown taxi is never cheap but that's the safest way to travel at night. Cost us 300Zar for that trip.

Traveling around Capetown is so easy now because of the extensive network covered by the public bus "Myciti", which was supposed to be ready to use back in 2010 FIFA World Cup. 

Just like ez link in sg, octopus in hk, the card cost 35Zar and we added 100zar credit.

Sightseeing bus although it's very touristy , it did provide a very comprehensive introduction about Capetown which helped us to plan our itenary for the following days.

Again, winter is the right time to visit. Vineyard is good, with 50Zar we get to taste 5 different wine of which one called pinotage is highly recommended. A cross pollinated grape that can only be found in South Africa.

Kirstenbosch, how can I not mention it?!! It's like the 21st century babylon garden! Every angle you turn gives you photo as if it's used as postcards. 

Next, the Camps Bay. Arguably the South African version of Monaco and also Florida. It has the long beach and nice cliff. My favorite place! Had a great drinking night at Camps Bay the night before I left. Bucket list, ticked! 

Trip to Capetown is not complete without conquering the majestic Table Mountain. We're lucky (I guess) to climb to on the most sunny day. But then I brought 4 layers of clothes. 2 thermal wear, a normal shirt and jacket! "You must be boiling", other climbers said to me. Indeed it's very hot at the beginning but very very windy up there. Guess what, the cable car was closed so we gotta trek down. Well, at least we did a complete trekking. 2 hours up, 1.5 hours down. We took the shortest road, Platteklip Gorge.

The trek itself is very scenic and it was a great experience!

For someone who don't like history like me, I am too attracted to the tour guide and ex prisoner from during the visit to Robben Island. A must must go! Take a ferry from V&A Waterfront, 250Zar. Book it earlier!

Another place that's worth mentioning would be University of Capetown, UCT. Very nice architecture. 

Talking about local delights, we had game reserve as dinner. Crocs, kudus, ostrich, wild hog etc. thanks Matt and Anastasia for bringing us there

Lots more to visit in Capetown, places like Long Street, Green Point, and so many more. Cape prof Hope would be a good place to go I think but we missed it because we were too tired to plan.

If one word to describe CapeTown, I'd say "underated". It's such a wonderful place to visit, to chill and for haneymoon. Judy be careful and don't do stupid things. South Africans are generally very nice and helpful. Talk to them nicely even if you reject their offer. 

And this quote sums up the city pretty well : we don't need holiday, we need a Capetown!

Travelogue Part 1 : up to Kruger

From KL to Jeddah
Surprisingly the fight was good! Saudia Airline, highly recommended partly because it's pretty empty from KL to Jeddah!
But the 15 hours layover was suck! I was having mild fever and the fasting festival did not make it any better! MERS was something I was afraid of! Jeddah airport is such a small yet busy one and no place to sleep and I ended up like this!

From Jeddah to Jo'burg
Awful flight! It's so full and my fever got worse! luckily I dose off after two Activfast! Thta's about the flight!

Jo'burg!
Johannesburg, like the rumors have it, very unsafe, or at least that's what I felt! Luckily the airport security guards did their job well, preventing the con man from hitting on us.
Oh not forget to mention the Official did not give us good impression. Just before we reached the arrival gate, this lady came and talked to us, claiming that it's come random check that must be done! she tried to find little things that she can 'make some money' but fortunately we didn't fall into the trap! innocent looking is all we gave to her and at last, she allowed us to go!
We did not visit Jo'burg and luckily we did not!

Kruger!
Winter is really cold! I had cold shiver at night! very very very cold! Party because the building has not enough insulation!
p/s : i'm an engineer, i know this !
It's not just Kruger that we visited! in fact we only spent 1 full day in kruger out of the 4 days. Traveling from Jo'burg to Kruger takes 6 hours with a lunch break at Dullstroom. First evening and night was spent at Balule Bush where this Giraffe was spotted! Bush, is something that you can't really expect how it looks and feels like without paying a visit.

Evening drive on the 4x4 was good! the 4x4 here is the real deal man! they chopped off the upper part of the land cruiser or land rover and welded real steel on it.

We spent the next 2 nights at Marc's Tree house, a camp 45 mins away from Kruger. Great experience and freaking cold too! But still, i think winter is the best time to visit because even during the winter, the temperature during the day can reach 30! that's insane. the stuffy feeling, goshhhhhhhhh! and it goes down again at wound 5pm to some 23 degree, before falling to 16 at night. see the insane fluctuation!
Nevertheless the experience is one of it's kind! Visit vivasafari.com for more info!

A lunch meet up

Seeing her again was incredibly amazing! After all I was the one initiated the breakup. She being wiling to keep the friendship is just unbelievable, not to mention the meet up. Feeling was awkward, a familiar yet unfamiliar chemistry. As if the covalent bond about to form yet not forming. Familiar with the laughters, the shyness. Unfamiliar with the thoughts, the words coming out. Well, it has been more than 3 years. People change, towards what they should and how they want it to be. From a uni student to a working adult, I prefer the earlier. Maybe working world can really change someone drastically. I don't know much about her now, I don't know what had happened throughout the 3 years, but all I know is that she's still a girl who's independent enough to chase for what she wants. Admirers a lot she has. As attractive as she was. Good to be friend again.