Things you should do in Bali

November 12, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

Words by Anna Lebedeva | November 12

Top ten things to do in Bali

If you are heading to Bali we can say – we envy you. Nowadays it is kinda in fashion to express the idea that “Bali is a lost paradise”, spoiled by crowds of tourists coming all year round. But, by what we’ve seen, islanders have managed to keep their integrity, and you will be able to find lots of hidden places and local villages to stay.

Bali is mostly famous as a top-class surf destination. This doesn’t mean you won’t find things to do if you are not a surfer. And I am not talking about swimming or just lazying around while sipping cocktails (honestly you’re better off heading to Thailand, beaches there are better for swimming), and neither about Spas, wellness and yoga activities, all those are abundant on Bali.

Taman Ayun Temple, travel to Bali — Taman Ayun Temple

(1) Stay with locals

There is a significant rise in guest houses operated by local families in Bali, where you can stay and get accustomed with the Balinese people’s everyday life. It is a rich day-to-day lifestyle, made of constant rituals and family celebrations. They are usually very hospitable and keen to share cultural insights and traditions. They also like talking about their families and even private questions are appreciated.

We’ve stayed for one month in Pecatu village (Bukit peninsula) with a fantastic local family, who was very helpful and attentive. They spoke decent English and even tried to teach us Balinese. They also were very tactful and polite so living with them was not that different from staying in a hotel. We never experienced any privacy issues, our room was regularly cleaned and kept in order. Some Balinese build a separate house in their yard and rent those places to travellers usually through airbnb.com.

I believe that staying with locals can be a good way to support local communities by paying directly to their pocket and not to the large companies operating hotel chains around Bali.

Homestay in Bali, Indonesia — Dikubu Home Stay, found through airbnb

(2) Rent a motorbike and go around

Renting motorbikes is very affordable in Bali – around $3,5 for a new bike per day (in case of long-term renting, usually considered from one week up). You can easily pick a bike at your hotel or go outside, there are lots of rent options around the island. Basically with a bike you can get wherever you want: roads are pretty good and traffic is not that harsh (excluding Kuta and Nusa Dua area).

Don’t be afraid of exploring Bali and trying distant beaches scattered in it’s different parts. You can try Kuta and Seminyak (tourist centre), Nusa Dua (enclave of upscale resorts), drive to the most southern point of Bali – the Bukit peninsula – relax on one of the best surf spots in the world, or you can go to the Eastern part of the island, to the beaches of Candidasa. The options are endless and most of them are easily accessible by bike, so give it a try!

Renting a bike is also a great option to get to more remote traditional villages, to see the lives of rural locals outside tourist areas, how they are going about their daily chores, which is a completely different scene from what you will see around your hotel.

(3) Climb mount Batur

That is a kind of must-do-thing, our favourite sight-seeing activity in Bali. If you are lucky and the weather is good you will be able to enjoy the stunning views of volcanos and the lake – just amazing. Even if it’s a cloudy day the hike will be worth it. That’s what happened to us, but still we managed to take a few stunning photos.

It is around 1.5 to 2 hours to climb and not that physically-demanding, basically almost everyone can do it. The start is very early about 1-2 am (depending on your location), in order to get to the top before the sunrise and meet it there.

Batur vulcano, travel to Bali — Coming back around Batur vulcano

You can book a private guide for two people (around $60/person) or take a group climb ($25/person). All that including pick up from and to hotel, breakfast on the top (you can even get eggs cooked in the volcano crater). Nowadays the way up is a bit crowded, but on the top there is enough space for everyone. Local guides are fantastic and very enthusiastic, usually ready to help out in any situation. We believe that you can definitely rely on them.

Wear proper shoes, a jacket and take a camera for the awesome views.

(4) Dine in Ubud

Ubud itself is a top Bali destination, which built its reputation as a centre of art and spirituality. Lots of tourist arrive here (unfortunately too much) to visit the most remarkable Balinese temples, wander around local art market, buy hand-made souvenirs or fine clothing, attend ceremonies and dance performances. But what you should really do above all those things is to have a great dinner at one of the local eateries, ranging from cheap but nice places serving local cuisine to trendy fusion restaurant (some of them are on the list of top world restaurants – who would imagine that a few decades ago).

All agree that Ubud is the best dining place in all of Bali. The diversity is very broad and the quality is very high accompanied with reasonable prices, cozy ambience and very friendly stuff. You can walk around the city centre, basically a condensed concentration of restaurants and cafes. Just pick up one you fancy. We never had a bad dining experience in Ubud – so rest assured that more or less all places are great (or just check trip advisor in advance).

Kangen cade, Ubud

(5) Visit temples

As it is well-known Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, but Bali somehow managed to keep its particular religion (their own brand of Hinduism) alive throughout the times. Hinduism arrived to Bali with indian trades and spread deeply its root in everyday life of Balinese people, expressed in beautiful rituals and ceremonies.

The most interesting thing about Balinese Hinduism is that it is culturally rooted, and not built on some sort of intellectualised idea of divinity. It had instead a practical and humanistic approach behind it. The “world” is inhabited by spirits and forces, that are both bad and good, and to keep the balance and be endowed with luck (attract the good and repel the bad) you should pay your respect to the “spirits” and their natural materialisation (volcanoes, sea, etc), to your ancestors and to your community.

Titra Empul Temple

Pura Besakih Temple

Back in time there were many different powerful Hinduist kingdoms scattered around the island. The boundaries of these Balinese kingdoms live on in the form of Bali’s Regencies, that you can see on the island’s map. Nowadays they are not into any authority, but still revered as ex-royal families.

Each kingdom left its own temples, which are in great abundance on the island. They are all in great shape and quite well preserved. In temples, despite Bali being a famous tourist destination, you can see people praying and performing religious ceremonies regularly. Ceremonies are constantly happening on the island, almost every day you can see locals preparing for tomorrow’s festive or performing their family duties either in the family or community temple. For some serious ceremonies parts or the whole temple can be closed.

With bike it is very easy to go around – in two days you can manage to visit all main Balinese temples.

(6) Try beaches on Bukit

Out of two months we spent in Bali one was on the Bukit peninsula, the most southern part of the island. There we found serene and cozy beaches, some of the bests we’ve seen in Bali, such as Dreamland, Bining, Balangan and many others (our favourite is Bining). All of them are surrounded by sharp cliffs on both sides, offering you great views of the ocean crashing into the rocky shore.

You can find plenty of accommodation around and good variety of surf-style cafes for very pleasing prices. The greatest thing about Bukit is that it is not as crowded as other popular tourist places in Bali (like Kuta). The only downside of this place are the rocky shores, so you have to be careful while swimming during low tide.

Ocean at Bingin beach, travel to Bali, Indonesia — Bining beach

(7) Attend the local performance Kecak & Fire dance

Very calm and peaceful people by nature, the Balinese go through significant metamorphose while performing one of their traditional dances. For them the dance itself is a mixture of artistic and religious nature, which goes hand in hand. And for the Balinese people the dance isn’t just a simple entertainment, it is more a sincere expression of their deeply rooted spirituality.

The unique feature that distinguishes Balinese dance is the face and eye movements, which are of the same importance as the movement of the feet. The dancer’s eyes should not blink, instead be constantly wide open. Facial expression itself plays a huge role in the performance. The strongest act of the Kecak performance is the trance part – where the dancer goes through the flaming bonfire.

There are lots of options to see the Kecak dance in Bali. You should easily find tickets in any tourist agency, but before purchasing tickets check references on the web. Bear in mind that probably you will be only able to attend the performance staged specifically for tourist purpose, but don’t regard this as anything bad – they are usually very well staged and dancers are skilled, and the performance takes place in one of the main Temples (the best performances are considered those that take place in Ubud and Uluwatu Temple). Before attending google the story as it is not that easy to follow the plot – it’s based on the Hindu epic poem Ramayana written originally in Sanskrit.

(8) Campuhan hill

Once you are in Ubud, don’t spend all your time wandering around. It can be really chaotic and overloaded with tourists hence a bit exhausting. Instead take a short easy trek through the pristine Campuhan hill, lined by lush-green hillside and tropical foliage, ending up in the village of Bangkiang Sidem. Karsa cafe resides there, offering food and refreshments while enjoying a pleasant view over the rice fields. There you can also visit the Karsa SPA ($12 for one hour massage), considered to be the best in Ubud (according to trip advisor and our experience), but you should book it in advance (at least one week at the high season).

It will take you around 25 minutes to accomplish the short version of the trek ending right after the Karsa cafe. If you want to go further and around back to Ubud, then turn to the left and take 9km walk through small villages, that go along a small secondary road at the beginning and later merging with the main road to Ubud (we aren’t particularly fond of this road for walking).

Campuhan hill, Ubud, Bali — Starting point of Campuhan hill trekk

(9) Monkey Forest

It is quite a large sanctuary for monkeys, where they live outside cages. It is the closest to their natural habitat you can ask for while at the same time providing a way for people to interact with them. It has many beautiful areas inside, a small river, temples, a small art gallery, places to relax and enough to stretch your legs walking around. Be careful while visiting and make sure you don’t bring a candies, dry nuts, cola or that kind of stuff because the monkeys will get it from you no matter where you hide it.

Monkey Forest, Bali, Indonesia — Monkey Forest

(10) Rice fields

Through South-East Asia it is a very common landscape, but those in Bali are considered to be the most photogenic. Riding around the island’s centre, the most tropical and fertile area, you will not miss the emerald-green rice fields, they are everywhere as they are the main source of food and income. The most stunning ones are in Ubud region, forming splendid dramatic views perfect for taking photos: Tegallalang village, Sayan, Pupuan, Jatiluwih, Tabanan and Tirtagangga

Rice fields in Bali, Indonesia — Rice fields

Travel to Saint-Petersburg – Russia’s North Thailand

October 26, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

Written originally in Russian by Ruslan Bekurov
Writer, Associated professor at Saint-Petersburg State University
October 17

Travel to Saint-Petersburg, Russia — View over Griboedova canal and Nevsky prospekt / Photo by https://instagram.com/evgeniaanikeeva/Are you local enough?

Sensitivity of locals

Once, at a journalist meeting, a reporter from Saint-Petersburg told me that it was kind of unethical to be overly opinionated about a city where you’ve lived for less than 20 years. “Ruslan, don’t take it as an accusation, but you don’t even distinguish between Kronversky and Kanonersky islands. And, really, how many times have you been to Hermitage?” I just shrugged my shoulders – I’ve never been to Hermitage.

People from Saint-Petersburg are very sensitive to what others say about their “magnificent” city. I understand that they want their city to stay as it is, to protect it from newcomers and save all Saint-Petersburg ‘s “goodies” for themselves.

At the same time people here, in Saint-Petersburg, are very kind and hospitable. Comparing to Moscovites, they are ready to play the “charming and open intellectual” role. Here every other taxi driver is either a poet or a writer, the waitresses are also actresses and the loaders are artists as well. And I should not forget to mention the ladies whose work is to control the metro escalators. They will tell you all sort of interesting stories about Pushkin’s favourite places and even share their opinion on why Dovlatov didn’t manage to write a romance about his big love.

Photo by https://instagram.com/evgeniaanikeeva/

European provincialism

As for me, Saint-Petersburg is a great place due to its provincialism. Provincialism in a good European way. You know, there is a kind of pedigreed mediterranean provinciality of Italian, Spanish and French towns. And Saint-Petersburg, despite its wild north climate, is exactly like this. Here you can find that famous slow mode of life, unpretentious communication, procrastination over coffee tables and many other things, that make people like me fall in love with this city and stay here forever. If not for anything else, at least to have some stories about this city and be able to tell them as I am doing now.

In my opinion, the love to Saint-Petersburg is usually a sincere emotion and unexplained kind of affection. Everybody finds something of its own here. Some people like Saint-Petersburg for its climate, with endless rains and wind coming from the Gulf of Finland, others are crazy about the abundance of water, which comprises around 7% of the city.

Islands and my places

In fact, Saint-Petersburg people are islanders. It consists of 42 islands, some big and others smaller. Everybody feels attachment to his or her part of the city, especially during summer time when all bridges stay open at night making each island separate from the remaining city.

For instance, I like living on Vasilievsly island. To prove my laziness I can tell you that I even narrowed my day-to-day life further, constraining it to a very small part of this island. It goes usually between the University where I work, set on the embankments of Universitetskyaya and Makarova, the Hegni restaurant on the First Line and Kadetskaya Line, where Helsinki and Brugge bars are. Probably there are a lot of other places that could be better, more cozy and trendy, but somehow I got used to these ones.

Why? Because they have become “my places” in Saint-Petersburg. Each of them is mine in a very special way. In “Hegni” bar, you will find the best falafel in the city. In “Brugge” bar, the beer is unbeatable. In “Helsinki” bar, you will meet the waitress of my dreams, which never smiles back at me. Where I spend the biggest part of my life is at the University, which is also here, in the main building walking through the longest university corridor in Europe, and to the Journalism department.

I also like the pedestrian area around Vasilievskaya metro station, where you can find the well-known Georgian cafe “Alaverda” with an excellent chacha (Georigian vodka) and khachapuri (Georgian pie). This Saint-Petersburg island is my zone of comfort. There is no need to go to Nevsky prospect to be lost in the crowd of tourists.

Micro-world of pit-yards

During my first years in Saint-Petersburg I specially hated walking through the famous pit-yards. I felt their despair and each attempt to understand their beauty ended up in a slight depression. I was always surprised how sincerely tourists admire all “Dostoevschina” things (those related to Dostoevsky’s vision of Saint-Petersburg). Later on, I fell in love with those yards myself.

Some days you go out of your communal flat for a beer and, voila, there is a movie being shot in your yard, and all of a sudden Mr. Sokurov (the famous Russian movie director) is asking you for a cigarette.

You fall into the chilly micro-world of Saint-Petersburg’s pit-yards, with their dusty windows, local kids playing around, grouchy old women, intelligent alcoholics, annoying doves and seagulls…what was supposed to be a simple walk for a beer ends up as half of the day outside. You forget about where you planned to go and why.

It is especially magical to look into the small parts of the blue saint-petersburg’s sky between the grey old buildings and think about something special for you.

Pit-yard / Photo by http://www.lublu-piter/dvory-kolodtsy

North Thailand

Once, a famous Russian history teacher from Saint-Petersburg, Lev Lurye, rightly said: «The main peculiarity about Saint-Petersburg is the low performance of its citizens. There is no hustling in the city. You earn a bit of money, you go to Dumskaya or Rubinshteina street, have a drink, go to Cinema House, then read a book on the beach of Peter and Paul Fortress. Saint-Petersburg is like North Thailand”.

Saint-Petersburg bars, cafes and restaurants are concentrated in few places. There are two famous bar streets, Dumskaya and Rubinshteina, which cross Nevsky avenue in the centre. Along Dumskay street you will find cheap student bars with good music and – always – some party going on. Even without money you will find your way here.

Basically, Dumskaya is a street of bars, from “Dacha” to “Fidel” bars, to which locals and tourists are attracted like magnets: foreigners, hipsters, creative class, bohemians and all sorts of trendy people. They spend the night going from one place to another. In the summer during white nights all that fun goes out onto to the streets and Dumskaya becomes a single bar with chatting tables.

Not that young and have a bit of money?

Those who are not as young as they used to be, and with a bit more money, spend their evenings in restaurants and bars on Rubinshteina street. It was there that the famous Russian writer Sergey Dovlatov lived. You will find nice places, restaurants such as “Schastie”, “Deti Rayka” and “Tsvetochki”. A bit farther from Nesvky you can find cult bars as the “Mitte” and “Five Points”.

The most trendy places are closer to Nevsky avenue. The imposing and snobby “Fiddler’s Green”, where visitors only drink Irish beer and Bushmills with barmen. The hospitable Cuba restaurant “O Cuba” with a fantastic cadillac from the 60’s in the middle of the room. The legendary “Bar Slona” (Elephant bar) and the hipster karaoke-bar “Poison. The cozy “Saigon” bar, where you can see some slightly drunk poets and writers killing their time while the girls from the opposite restaurant blow kisses their way. On Friday nights Rubinshteina street definitely reminds me Berlin’s Kreuzberg.

My uncle once told me that the kindest girls were from Saint-Petersburg. I think I get what he meant. The local girls are are very easygoing (we call it – windy) in a good way. The reason must be the endless wind. They are smart, light and carefree. It’s impossible to find another place in the world where you have a minimum of two beautiful girls per square metre. Of course, I’ve just made this up (but it should not be too far from being true).

At last. In the second part of the XVIII century a french traveler by the name of Ségur wrote: «Saint-Petersburg offers a dual sight: at the same time you can see here enlightenment and barbarism, Asia and Europe, Scythian and Europeans, fine nobility and ignorant crowd». Segur is a fool, of course. But since then nothing has changed.

And it is damn amazing….

From Instagram of @evgeniaanikeeva

Photo by https://instagram.com/evgeniaanikeeva/

Photo stories, Russia

BEST OF RUSSIA – 2015

October 23, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

“Best of Russia” photo contest

Here in this post we want to share with you the most interesting photos from the annually held photo contest “Best of Russia-2015”. This contest is unprecedented in scale, covering all regions of Russia and very popular among Russian and foreign audience.

Basically any person who enjoys photography, either as a recognised photographer or amateur, can participate in the project. The only requirement is that photographs must have been taken in Russia.

The project’s goal is to authentically capture a year in the life of Russia in the most vivid and creative ways. All winning photographs are published in catalogue and presented in the exhibition “Best of Russia” at WINZAVOD Centre for Contemporary Art.

Last year more than 20 thousands photographers submited their photos to the contest, which were taken in more than 600 different locations in Russian and more than 80 thousands people visited the photo exhibition in WINZAVOD.

ENJOY THE BEAUTY

“Moscow river embankment” Author: Ekaterina Fil Place: Moscow

“Meeting joy” Author: Yulia Popova Place: Arkhangelsk Oblast

“Red Stone” Author: Valeriy Reshetnikov Place: Moscow

“Village Epifan” Author: Sergey Panin Place: Tula Oblast

“Funny ringers” Author: Viktor Kovchin Place: Kemerovo Oblast

“People of Taymir” Author: Slava shut

“Orchestra pit of Mariinsky theater” Author: Saint Petersburg Place: Vladislav Flyarkovsky

“Simple Structures” Author: Viktoriya Chekalina Place: Kamchatka Krai

“Bazhena” Author: Stanislav Liepa Place: Saint Petersburg

“May watercolor” Author: Tatiana Belyakova Place: Ivanovo Oblast

“Boris Grebenschikova (famous Russian musician)” Author: Andrey Davidovsky Place: Moscow

“Laces of Saint-Petersburg” Author: Olga Vinogradova Place: Saint Petersburg

“Golden Baykal Rocks” Author: Asya Kostuykovskaya Place: Irkutsk Oblast

“Woman with eggs” Author: Sergey Smirnov Place: Saint Petersburg

“Mountain (Elbrus)” Author: Ekaterina Makarova Place: Kabardino-Balkar Republic

“Dark Beauty” Author: Viktoriya Pleskova Place: Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

Author: Dmitry Kochergin Place: Altai Republic

“ATTENDANCE IS WIN (Turkish cross-country skiers posing inside the Olympic rings during the Sochi 2014 Games in Sloboda endurance village)” Author: Andrey Selskiy Place: Krasnodar Krai

“Surprise” Author: Andrey Shapran Place: Tomsk Oblast

“Riot” Author: Lyudmila Eremina Place: Ryazan Oblast

“AESTHETICS OF HARD WORK” Author: Anastasia Klubokova Place: Saint Petersburg

“Russian women hockey team” Author: Vladimir Fedorenko Place: Krasnodar Krai

“Dog Happiness” Author: Anastasia Kondratove Place: Novosibirsk Oblast

“What do you think, father Arkadiy” Author: Maksim Mazulevsky Place: Saratov Oblast

“Russian Bridge” Author: Yuriy Smityuk Place: Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai

“Сity guards” Author: Andrey Kolabukhin Place: Yaroslavl Oblast

“Worthy rival” Author: Anna Bazhanova Place: Orenburg Oblast

“Relax at the time of flowering” Author: Vasiliy Golubev Place: Kolomna, Moscow Oblast

“Viktoria” Author: Ekaterina Soboleva Place: Krasnodar Krai

“The famous mathematician Mark Bashmakov” Author: Aleksey Kostromin Place: Saint-Petersburg

“Tattooist Mikhail” Author: Ilya Nodia Place: Moscow

“Winter in Dagestan” Author: Ivan Dementievsky Place: Republic of Dagestan

“Outskirts of a village Author: Evgeniy Mazurin Place: Kamchatka Krai

“Behind closed doors” Author: Ivan Smelov Place: Saint Petersburg

“Siineh” Author: Sergey Gazetov Place: Sakha (Yakutia) Republic

“Painter” Author: Marina Gayrati Place: Moscow

“Soldiers of WW I” ( scene from Musical Festival Spasskaya Bashnya) Author: Boris Tencer Place: Moscow

“Dancing” Author: Vyacheslav Sosnovskih Place: Kurgan Oblast

“GHOST VILLAGE” Author: Dmitry Chistoprudov Place: Republic of Dagestan

“Pokrov” Author: Gennadiy Subbach Place: Murmansk Oblast

“RODEO IN THE ALTAI” Author: Alexey and Alexandra Bushevi Place: Altai Republic

“Packing things for the last journey” Author: Alexander Kondratuk Place: Chelyabinsk Oblast

“ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM” Author: Kseniya Cikunova Place: Moscow

“Dedushka Vanya” Author: Ekaterina Lyzhina Place: Novosibirsk Oblast

“Dedushka is hurring up for the date” Author: Vasiliy Chekorin Place: Moscow

“Winter time” Author: Alexander Fedorov Place: Komi Republic

“Winter in Moscow” Author: Pascale Bazire” Place: Moscow

“Take my hand and go with me” Author: Denis Tokarev Place: Vladimir Oblast

“White Square” Author: Ilya Musaelov Place: Moscow

“Alpine choughs” Author: Hasan Zhurtov Place: Ehl-tyubyu

“A person without time” Author: Aleksey Manyanin Place: Nizhniy Novgorod

City Guides, Russia

Saint-Petersburg by locals

October 17, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

Written originally in Russian by Ruslan Bekurov
Writer, Associated professor at Saint-Petersburg State University
October 17

I am probably about to say a very banal thing that Saint-Peterburg is a different city for each of us. Some people like Saint-Peterburg’s winter, some are crazy about walking during summer without aim around Petrogradka (one of the biggest islands in Saint-Petersburg). Some love its museum and palaces, others get this insatiable desire for going out and getting drunk.

People are different and the city is perceived differently by them as well. That is why I talked to my friends and graduates from Saint-Petersburg State University about their life in Saint-Petersburg and their inner experience of the city. Believe me, they know and love Saint-Petersburg more than I do.

Alena Davidova, 37
Eco-journalist and teacher at Saint-Petersburg State University. She was born and lives in Saint-Petersburg.

Saint-Petersburg is a special place, not only for me, but for the whole world. It is a very big city sitting by the sea, with a beautiful centre, either historically, architecturally and culturally. With a very vivid and youthful culture, cool bars, gardens and parks. This city offers you incredible opportunities for long-miles of walking by foot, tirelessly enjoying the familiar views.

I like walking around Saint-Petersburg without aim – it energizes me, gives me fresh and new ideas, time to think about life situations from different points of view, to mature my story or text, clear my head or the opposite, to concentrate and dive inside.

I like Saint-Petesburg’s islands a lot: small (Elagin, Kamenniy, Krestovsky) and large (Petrogradsky and Vasilyevsky). I like having a stroll there, make picnics with my friends and reading. Another of my favourite places are the bar streets – Rubinshteina, Belinskogo, Pravdy. I love the Pesky and Kolomna areas. It is very interesting to explore the Northern part of the city. And of course I love Pushkin and Pavlovsk suburbs, and both sides of the Gulf of Finland.

Usually we have drinks with friends in the bars of Belinskogo, Zhukovskogo, Nekrasova and Pravdy streets. There is also a “Green room” in Loft Project Etazhi and emerging creative clusters on Vosstaniya, Sovetskaya Eight streets and others.

Etazhi Loft Project / Photo by dimabalakirev.livejournal.com

«Green room» / Photo by himalayabear.blogspot.com

I would recommend to have a walk around Saint-Petersburg islands, get to the city’s roofs – it is even better to find the bars there, walk through the yards of Vasilyevsky and Petrogradsky islands. Spend an evening in Shashlichnaya (where you can try shashlik – shish kebab) on the Lieutenant Schmidt embarkment during the white nights, watching the bridges opening and closing, and again opening, at the same time glazing how the long flat barges creep into the bridges shining like congers. Try “Dockers” bar in yacht club on Vasilyevsky island, walk along the Smolenka river and visit Petrovskaya Kosa area.

Honestly, the climate in Saint-Peterburg is not one of the best in the world, especially from November to March. Points of access to the sea are lacking and there is no developed water public transport. Another thing missing, here, are green areas, parks, where you can rest on the grass and greenery in inner yards and along the streets.

Nikita Lisovoy, 29
Head of communication agency in the field of sport. He has lived in Saint-Petersburg for 12 years.

Saint-Petersburg is “specially” special. This notoriously banal metaphysical aura, about which local rock musicians like to talk so much, definitely exists. Saint-Petersburg resembles a bit a coastal resort city. It is very difficult to work here, you constantly want to have fun, lazy around and think about life. Recently one of my friends told me that Saint-Petersburg is the best city in the world for doing things without any practical utility. Of course, there are a lot of seductions here: girls, alcohol, nature, interesting people and sports.

No matter how strong you are, Saint-Petersburg will influence you a lot. It will bring over you a kind of unique melancholia and sometimes even a depressive mood. I think for most part of the year. But during the summer season you will be thinking: OMG Saint-Petersburg, why are you like this only three months a year!

Winter in Saint-Petersburg, travel to Russia — Winter time

Last years I’ve worked closely with SKA hockey club – a winner of Gagarin Cup. Therefore I’ve spent a lot of time in the Ice Palace, where this club plays, and that is my favourite place in the city for now. I love it for the endless atmosphere of celebration.

My favourite place to lazy around is Krestovsky island – the green point in the heart of the city. This place is special due to its respectable infantilism: I’ve noticed there that even “old” men, after 50-s, have a good-looking skin . Each time I am on Krestovsky island, I want to ask them, “What do you apply on your skin?”. Comparing to them I look like an old man, even though I am only in my late 20-s. Plus, they all drive cool jeeps (smile). And the most important, financial crisis never set foot on Krestovky island and everybody wants to live there.

Couple in Saint-Petersburg, travel to Russia — Photo by tigrotour.kz

Regarding where to eat, I really like “Сhajhana” cafe on Griboedova channel (close to metro Sennaya) — they have one of the best lamian in the city and the prices are incredibly affordable. If you are for authenticity, harsh characters, harsh visitors’ behaviors, crazy tasty food and real samarkand pilaf, then there is another “Сhajhana” on Uralskaya street, that is a great choice.

Another of my favourites is “Teplo” cafe, which means Warm in english, situated by St. Isaac’s Cathedral. It is for those who believe that waiters can become your best friends from the first visit.

It is cool to spend a night at “Beatnik” club. It is a bit of a glamorous place, but not too much. Rich hipsters usually party there, but that doesn’t prevent you from dancing to full exhaustion while enjoying fresh air and playing table tennis. For those who are prone to spend a night luxuriously – there is one of the well-known “Buddha-bar” here in Saint-Petersburg. But be careful with your wallet and bills – they are cheating there, smart little fucks.

And of course, for crazy parties go to Dumskaya street. Definitely a visit there comes with a strong morning headache, also, don’t forget, there is always the possibility of getting into a fight if you drink and stay there too much…On the other hand it is almost certain that you’ll come home with a girl.

Bars in Saint-Petersburg, travel to Russia

Beatnik / Photo by passage.spb.ru

Bar Beatnik in Saint-Petersburg, travel to Russia

Beatnik / Photo Facebook

You need to love Saint-Peterburg, to live here. The thing that is lacking the most, of course, is the sun. Along with a lack of positivism, easiness and simplicity. It would be great to add a bit of Russia’s South to this city and then, I swear you, it will be the best city in the world. But as people say, a city built on bones will never be easy or light. But, God, 300 years have already passed, it should be forgotten…

Gleb Krampec, 32
Head of a PR-agency. He has lived in Saint-Petersburg for 15 years.

I would say that Saint-Peterburg is the only european place in Russia with its own image. It is a city that, surprisingly, keeps its integrity, although I feel it is becoming more and more an average megapolis. This city still has its authentic atmosphere, which is unique and doesn’t fade, despite all the horrible things that happened to Saint-Peterburg and its citizens during the XXth century. I can’t say it has a very friendly atmosphere, but if you merge with the city, it will become for you the best city in the world. At least from April till September.

Here, I should say, the cultural level is higher than average for Russia. I’ve also noticed that newcomers try to raise their cultural level when they get here. I believe the opposite is true for Moscow, in that “endless fair”. You can’t escape comparisons with Moscow – that is another Saint-Peterburg peculiarity.

As to the comfort of life, it is spoiled by the main tourist attraction – movable bridges. And if during summer time it is a pleasure to watch them, in November, missing the last call to cross is not such a big pleasure (you will get stranded on the wrong side of the city).

Life in Saint-Petersburg is a bit slower than in Moscow where most of my clients reside. This affects the business relations as well. Although, the difference seems to fade with time.

For city walks I usually prefer the centre. For such strolls I recommend you to choose comfortable and waterproof shoes (depending on season) and go around the “Golden Triangle”, from time to time dropping in bars and small restaurants. If you have time visit the suburban parks – my favourite is Pavlovsky Park, it is the biggest and least taken care of. If you don’t have time to visit these, have a picnic on Elagin island in the city itself. During summer time there are lots of musical and gastronomical festivals taking place.

Elagin island, travel to Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Elagin island / Photo by Natalia Dubovik

An obvious choice, but definitely worth going is the Hermitage. Take at least a few days to spend there, exploring its permanent and temporary collection. Besides the classical exhibition, I really recommend you to pay attention to the contemporary art. You would be lucky if you have a chance to talk to the Hermitage staff. They are all unique and wonderful people, thanks to whom Hermitage remains as the centre of cultural life in Saint-Petersburg.

If you are crazy about Theatre, and understand Russian, then I highly recommend you BDT (Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre) and MDT (Akademicheskiy Malyy Dramaticheskiy teatre). BDT, under the guidance of a new art director, Andrey Moguchiy, is returning its name as the foremost theatre in the country. Hurry up to catch a chance to see “Alisa”, starring Alisa Freindlich in the main role (she is already an old lady).

Hermitage, travel to Saint-Petersburg, Russia — The General Staff Building of Hermitage after recent reconstruction / Photo by http://www.nvspb.ru

Saint-Petersburg is a seaside city and if you want to have a real water excursion, don’t choose a ride through the canals, but instead visit the forts of Kronstadt – it usually leaves a very strong impression.

I like drinking on Vasilyevsky island, in Helsinki Bar and in Brugge gastro-pub. In the first one you will find excellent nastoyka and a cheerful atmosphere, in the second one – a huge choice of beer and author’s zakuski (entrées and snacks, served before the main course).

Jack & Chan. Photo Facebook

Helsinki bar. Photo Facebook

In the city centre, for fans of asian cuisine, I would recommend Wong Kar Wine, Jack & Chan and King Pong cafes. All serve very tasty food, have original menus, good choice of wine (in the first two) and are very well-priced.

I also want to mention Bekitzer bar, close to “Five corners” crossroad . It is an Israeli street-food, which goes well with Israeli shiraz and israeli dubstep. And, of course, the legendary Rumochnaya (vodka room) on Pushkinskaya 5. It is a nice place, with tall tables and very simple, but very tasty food. It is a pity, that you can’t smoke there anymore – with smoke it was much more authentic.

Bali, Temples and Meditation

October 12, 2015 Anna Lebedeva 2 Comments

Words by Micael Nussbaumer | October 13

Pura Besakih Temple

Gunung Kawi Sebatu Temple

Temples and religion

Even if part of a country where the majority is Muslim, Bali has kept its particular religion alive and well throughout the times. Due to the trade with India this small island has developed its own brand of Hinduism, expressed daily at different times throughout the whole year and throughout the whole island.

We stayed there for two months and we didn’t stay exactly in the touristic centres, but rather around them, and this gave us a very good opportunity to witness the religious traditions of the island. If only staying in Ubud one might wonder if all the religious ceremonies and spectacles are kept just for sake of tourism. We all know that the romanticised idea of ancient, untouched, culturally rich and unique religious practices are a good attraction, but, as we continually saw, day after day, these traditions seem to actually be truthful expressions of the island inhabitants religious culture.

When we stayed in Bukit (the first month), we got to visit some temples, including Uluwatu. What was curious and against our expectations was that the inner grounds of most temples weren’t accessible to tourists – unless you’re entering to perform prayers or attending a specific ceremony.

You also had to wear the accordingly religious outfit and women were “forbidden” from entering during their menstruation cycle. If not for anything else, this kinda gave the impression that the temples were taken very seriously, otherwise they would be completely open.

Another thing that we witnessed were the rituals that our host family did during the period we stayed there. Every night some candles were lit, every morning some offerings were made and every couple of days some ceremony was taking place, either at home, in the family temple or the community temple. Each “house” complex is formed by the main houses, “dikubu”‘s (smaller annexes) and of course a temple.

Pura Besakih Templa and mount Agung

The practises involve mostly offerings, music, singing and ritualistic performances. One could think that people there would have a deep knowledge of their own religion but as it seemed – and as it happens in a great deal of religiously active communities even in the west – they didn’t.

Religion was practised because it was culturally rooted, and not because of some intellectualised idea of divinity, it had instead a practical and humanistic approach behind it. The “world” is inhabited by spirits and forces, that are both bad and good, and to keep the balance and be endowed with luck (attract the good and repel the bad) you should pay your respect to the “spirits” and their natural materialisation (volcanoes, sea, etc), to your ancestors and to your community.

Religion was practised because it was culturally rooted, and not because of some intellectualised idea of divinity, it had instead a practical and humanistic approach behind it.

travel-to-Bali-Indonesia-traditional-dance — Little dancers are ready to perform in Bali, Indonesia

Doing your part in the community was and is a very important aspect of the religious practice there. You would be frowned upon, in a way, if you didn’t take part in the ceremonies, and it seems more because you didn’t make the effort to be part of the communal gatherings than because of some superstition related to it.

Ceremonies are constantly happening, and they’re regulated by the lunar calendar. Other than that the island is completely populated by temples. When we were already staying near Ubud we went for a few long walks and we found, completely abandoned, on the margins of the rivers, several small temples and I would highly encourage you to go around and find them by yourself – the fact that they were abandoned and completely away from the usual track really gave them a special touch – like when you think you discovered something unique and that most people will never see.

If you’re interested in symbols, Hinduism, or spirituality you’ll certainly find Bali a very interesting place to visit. I have an innate curiosity towards the symbolic aspects of religion and in that sense Bali is a never-ending stream of experiences. The swasticas – the Nazi ill-famed symbol – are to be found in many places.

If you ask an Hindu or a Buddhist the meaning of it, they all say it’s a good omen, a symbol of good fortune as the sanskrit name implies, it’s a symbol that was highly present throughout human history and throughout many parts of the world but nowadays most people in the west associated with Nazism.

Tempak Siring Temple

Hindu symbol, representing natural order

Another beautiful thing is the thrones that oversee each temple. In each temple there are two smallish thrones carved in stone and standing high. Although I’m not sure of the reasons for these two thrones they seem to be inviting something to sit on them to attend the ceremonies and bless the event.

Taman Ayun Temple

Gunung Kawi Sebatu Temple

You’ll also find various depictions of spirits, both good and bad, in stone, wood and ceremonies. One interesting aspect of the Balinese religious culture is the assumption that “bad” and “good” are mutually defining and essential to each other. Although most monotheistic cultures such as Christianity and Islam place a very high emphasis on the “good” aspects of God, for the Balinese it seems that it’s understandable that goodness always goes hand in hand with badness – a yin-yang sort of thing – this, I think, is one of the most interesting aspects of this religious culture.

One interesting aspect of the Balinese religious culture is the assumption that “bad” and “good” are mutually defining and essential to each other.

Meditation

I practise meditation, and have practised throughout more than 5 years already. I meditate “every” day – ok, sometimes I don’t but in overall I would say that more than 90% of my days – and I always find interesting what people associate with meditation, among people who don’t do it and practitioners or enthusiasts.

Most people associate it with “zen” like characteristics, servant goodness, and full thankfulness for every and any thing going on. I don’t know where that comes from actually. Meditation, to me, helps me focus and unfocus. It helps me maintain a certain balance (and balance implies opposites) and I would never associate it with pure “good” or anything of the sort. It does help accepting and understanding certain things though and that propels you to move forward. It sounds quite self-defeating to meditate in order to become some sort of “all-loving” creature.

If anything related, I would say that meditation can help you keep focus when you need it, can help you understand yourself and what gives rise to your thought processes and maybe disconnect you a bit from the “real-world”. Saying more than that is in my opinion “new-age” advertisement and if you’re considering or pursuing meditation with such an intent I’m not sure you’re doing yourself any good.

As the Balinese seem to remember, life feeds on life. Their volcanoes are not only materialisation of their gods, but a materialisation that brings and destroys life. The sea for them is a treacherous, dark and powerful force.

Tanah Lot temple, travel to Bali — Tanah Lot Temple

And it seems that despite having been “colonised” by the Dutch, instead of accepting their fate as servants of these new world discoverers and explorers, most of their elite chose at the time to end their lives by marching against the Dutch troops without standing a single chance, something that I believe requires a great deal of character and moral fibre – how many would accept to end their life if given the chance to live even if as slaves or subjugated.

“Where is it I’ve read that someone condemned to death says or thinks, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he’d only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once. Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

If for nothing else, that alone justifies visiting Bali and the numerous temples that can be found all around the island.

Cafes in Hanoi or the city of a thousand coffees

October 7, 2015 Anna Lebedeva 1 Comment

Words by Anna Lebedeva | October 7

The city of a thousand cafes

There are lots of stereotype sayings about worldly famous cities like Venice is the city of million bridges, Saint-Petersburg is all about “White Nights”, Paris is the city of love or Amsterdam is either about Red District, tulip fields or bicycles (so many things about such a small city).

After having spent one month and a half in Hanoi, we started thinking on how to describe the city in the same manner as above – and we came up with what we think is the most suitable for Hanoi – “The city of a thousand cafes”. You can say “How come? It is a communist state, I’m sure everybody is working for the brightening of the country’s future, either in slave work or closely monitored boring office work”. If you think so, you need to eat more noodles.

You can say “How come? It is a communist state, I’m sure everybody is working for the brightening of the country’s future, either in slave work or closely monitored boring office work”. If you think so, you need to eat more noodles.

Cafes are literally everywhere – like – everywhere – like ATM’s should be everywhere – you just walk and voila, another cafe. We’ve travelled quite a bit and visited pretty much of Southeast Asia and we’ve never seen such an abundance of affordable nice cafes like in Hanoi. It really boasts a plethora of cafes of different types and genres: from affordable and tasty street food with plastic chairs and tables to more fancy and cool-hipster-mustache-trendy-sort-of-things.

Such an enormous choice and good quality make deciding “where to go today” one of the most hard daily tasks you’ll ever have to figure out.

And WIFI? WIFI is EVERYWHERE and for free.

And the most interesting things about vietnamese (old or younger ones) is that they are like “professional outgoers”. It seems that whenever they have a chance they go out together, chat a lot and consider this as an important thing of everyday ritual. While in some countries that attempted socialism the ambience could be better described as monotonous, here it’s quite lively – although we aren’t sure about the communist part of it.

Among locals it is customary to relax a bit while enjoying your soup pho after having a hard working day. While many think Vietnam is quite poor in reality you never see homeless people asking for money – either young or old, everybody seems to do something for their own life. That is probably a result of the influence of Chinese culture, that has been present in Vietnam for almost all its contemporary history and is characterised by long-hours hardworking approach. As a side note, when we were in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) we got to see that many businesses were run by Chinese, even though their numbers are slightly below 25% of the population.

Back to cafes, to our surprise we got to know that Vietnam is the second biggest coffee exporter in the world (after Brazil and before Indonesia). Coffee and everything around it is a big thing for vietnamese people – and for us as well – you can try coffee with egg (yummy!), yogurt (refreshing!) or just order the basic black or white Vietnamese coffee with ice (ca-phe-da and you have to spell it like you were a cartoon). You can get it everywhere and usually for about a dollar.

We’ll leave you with 5 of our favourite places to work remotely (not only for a quick coffee but to stay & eat):

Hanoi Social Club

Hanoi Social Club it’s tucked in a small secondary street, surrounded by many clothing shops (girls – you’ll not regret a trip there). It has an open rooftop, several interior areas and a shop. It’s a cool place to hangout, neatly decorated. The menu is quite varied and the prices are more western-like.

Puku cafe

Puku cafe is open 24h/7. It’s very comfortable to sit there working, WIFI is very good, they have a good menu with many wine options and the prices are reasonable for what you get. Besides the closed areas they have an outside terrace where people gather in the evening to have a beer.

Highlands coffee

Highlands coffee is the vietnamese Starbucks – but with discount. It’s very pleasant to work there and there are quite a few throughout Hanoi. WIFI is good, you usually can have a set meal for about 50.000VND (around 2$), big coffee shake for 60.000VND (around 3$) and a banh mi sandwich with chicken or tuna for 18.000VND (less than 1$). We visited them near St. Joseph Cathedral (the one in the photo) but our favourite is by Hoan Kiem lake.

Сa phe pho co cafe

This one is quite near the Hoan Kiem lake, but tucked in a small corridor behind a store front to the street. It has 3 different levels and they have many varieties of coffee. It doesn’t have air-con so when it’s very hot and you’re not heat resistant it might get a bit sticky. Nonetheless it’s a cozy place and you can try egg coffee or yogurt coffee, both of them are approved.

Cong Caphe cafe

Cong Caphe is a hip coffee/bar, with an extensive list of cocktails, well-done and fairly priced. It’s specially popular with young trendy vietnamese. They have many locations and we’ve been to the Old Quarter one and another by St. Joseph Cathedral. Both looked super cool and the cocktails were worth it – which can be a problem if you’re going to work…

Related links:

Indonesia, Photo stories

Bali postcards

Gallery October 4, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

Bali postcards

After our one month stay in Kuala Lumpur we headed to Bali, knowing nothing at all about this place, despite being one of the most popular world destination for tourists and surfers. We were a bit sceptic about our choice – we were expecting mobs of tourist, extremely busy beaches and inflated prices. Our fears were unfunded: we ended up staying for two months, even when we had to overpay quite a bit for our urgent visa prolongations.

For the first month we were looking to stay somewhere by the beach and we chose Bukit peninsula, the most southern point of Bali. It is especially popular among the surfer community, but much less crowded than the enormously popular Kuta and much more picturesque and authentic than the polished Nusa Dua.

Bukit is still, to our surprise, not that developed (as probably it should be) and that is the biggest advantage of this place. It consists of small villages around the beach line, offering plenty of accommodation options such as small hotels and private homestays. We wrote a separate post about beaches on Bali, check it out to get an idea where to stay.

On the second month we moved to Ubud area, a famously known town in the center of Bali – due to “Eat, Pray and Love” movie, that we never heard about before. And that was our second surprise. First, because there were many small villages around the overcrowded and deeply tourist Ubud. And it was in these small local villages that we found cozy and peaceful places to stay – independent houses rented by local families.

It was a good idea of us to go explore and ask around. In the end we spent almost the entire month in Laplapan village and then Kampung hill, which allowed us to enjoy all of Ubud infrastructure, but at the same time live in more serene areas, surrounded by nature.

Ubud itself is the perfect point for exploring Bali. It has a very good access to temples, lakes, mountains and local villages. But that is the topic of our next post.

Home stay, accommodation in Bali, travel to Indonesia

Dikubu home stay in Bali

Pecatu village

Home stay, accommodation in Bali, Indonesia

Dikubu Home Stay, Pecatu village

Dikubu home stay in Bali

Dikubu home stay, Pecatu village

Dikubu home stay, Pecatu village in Bukit

Dikubu home stay in Pecatu village

Our neighbour in Pecatu village

Exploring Uluwatu Temple

Uluwatu Temple

Typical entrance to Balinese home, Indonesia

Typical entrance to Balinese home, Pecatu village in Bukit

Breakfast in Swami cafe, Bingin beach

Balangang beach in Bukit

Bingin beach in Bukit

Bingin beach, Bukit

Bingin beach, Bukit

Around Padang Padang beach, travel to Bali

Around Padang Padang beach, Bukit

View from Swamis cafe at Bingin beach

Beach on Bukit, Travel to Bali, Indonesia

Bingin beach, Bukit

Around Bining beach

Bingin beach, Bukit

Our best friend in Bingin beach, Bukit

Bingin beach, Bukit

White sand Dreamland beach in Bukit, travel to Bali

Dreamland beach, Bukit

Dreamland beach in Bukit, travel to Bali

Dreamland beach, Bukit

Strong waves at Dreamland beach, Bukit

Kuta

Rice fields

Beautiful Temples in Bali

Gunung Kawi Sebatu Temple

Gunung Kawi Temple

Pura Besakih Temple

Pura Besakih Templa and mount Agung

Pura Besakih Temple

Pura Besakih Templa and mount Agung

Pura Besakih Temple

Titra Empul Temple

Tempak Siring Temple

Rice fields

Tempak Siring Temple

Ready for Batur vulcano climbing

Climbing Batur vulcano

Coming back around Batur vulcano

Descending Batur vulcano

Hiking team

Taman Ayun Temple

Tanah Lot Temple

Hindu symbol, representing natural order

Goa Lawah Temple

Iphone-shooting

East Coast, close to Candidasa

Balinese art

Photo stories

Portraits of Asia

Gallery September 23, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

The ‪portraits‬ of people we met on our way in ‪Asia‬

We used to think that Asia was in a way a single thing, when it is so many different things even within a single country. During our trip we’ve collected the portraits of India, Cambodia, Nepal,Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Backstreets Boys in Old Delhi, India

A cow in Daramsala, India

A musician in Dharamsala, India

Tibetian monks in Dalai Lama Temple in Dharamsala, India

Anna in Dharamsala, India

Woman in Taj Mahal, Agra, India

Vasilisa, a french girl, we met in Rishikesh, India

Man in Rishikesh, India

Fisherman and the boat in Pokhara, Nepal

Anna and Siri in a boat in Varanasi, India

Anna in a boat in Varanasi, India

Wedding style photo at sunrise in Varanasi, India

Man and the sand, Varanasi, India

Man sleeping in a boat in Varanasi, India

Nepalese woman in traditional clothes, Pokhara valley, Nepal

Nepalese men in Pokhara valley, Nepal

Nepalese man in Pokhara, Nepal

Anna with Nepalese pupils in Kathmandu, Nepal

Cambodian Sisters in Phnom Penh

Cambodian girl selling Lotus in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodian man in Phnom Pehn

Kids playing with water baloons in Chiang Mai, Thailand

A Buddhist monk in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Buddhist state in Chainge Mai, Thailand

A woman in Chiang Mai (Thailand), preparing street food

Rasta guy in Koh Chang, Thailand

Grandmother and grandson in Vietnam

Anna with an Indian family, Rishikesh, India

Anna with Indian women in Lotus Temple, New Delhi, India

Anna with an Indian girl, Red Fort, Delhi, India

Street food cook in Old Delhi, India

Indian girl in Red Fort, Delhi, India

Fruit seller in Old Delhi, India

Indian brother and sister in Old Delhi, India

Tibetan Monk in Dharamsala, India

Tibetan Monks in Dharamsala, India

Smiling Tibetan Monks in Dharamsala, India

We made a one-day trip to the newly built governmental city of #Malaysia – #Putrajaya, a 20 min drive from KL. On our arrival to Central Station, we met Dayana, who just came back from a job interview in #KualaLumpur (she is a chemical engineer). We asked her how to get to the city center and instead of explaining she just took us there.

travel-Malaysia-Kuala-Lumpur-Ramadan-bazaar

Ramadan bazaar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We’ve just bought some delicious home made sweets from that friendly people in ‪#‎KualaLumpur‬ – you don’t need to obtain an MBA to know the art of selling.

Here they are – the Balinese family with whom we are staying for a month!

Here they are – the Balinese family with whom we are staying for a month!

Little dancers are ready to perform in Bali, Indonesia

Our friend, owner of Kangen cafe in Ubud

City Guides, Indonesia

Our favourite beaches in Bali | Bukit

August 27, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

Words by Anna Lebedeva | August 27

Bali and its beaches

Beaches…This post ought to be my favourite one. You know, white sands, surfers and the monotonous yet strong ocean sound. Bali has become our number one place in our to live&travel&freelance list.

I will try to be as objective as I can about Bali and not to exaggerate that much, I know that when you like some place you become biased about it. We spent there 2 months and we would have stayed there a bit more, if only the visa was easier to extend without previous proper planning.

It is indeed a very interesting place to visit or to live for some time. It combines beaches, great surf spots, lush nature, good food, “culture” and great accommodation at the best quality&price in the whole South East Asia. It is hard to wish for more. But Bali itself is a separate topic for one of our next posts.

So let’s get back to the most important – where are the best beaches in Bali?

Surf spot at Bingin beach, Bukit, travel to Bali — Surf spot at Bingin beach, Bukit

And here is a small remark right away. If you are going to Bali just for a great beach holiday, then maybe it is not that good idea. Thailand will offer you much better beaches for swimming and taking the proper sunbath. If you are expecting bounty beaches with white sand, palms and villas surrounding them, then change your mind (smiling).

Bali is not about that, it is more about a strong ocean with character, beautiful – sometimes rough – scenery and of course world-class surf spots. Sometimes waves are so high, that swimming is practically impossible in many places – unless you are very comfortable in strong waters. In those kind of days you will have to wait for the low tide while reading a book and drinking a beer or coconut juice on the beach. But believe me it is worth anyway.

Bukit, travel to Bali — Map of Bukit peninsula, Bali

Bukit peninsula

Our first month was spent on the southern part of the island – Bukit peninsula, where we found the most serene and cozy beaches we’ve seen in Bali. Most of them surrounded from both sides by sharp cliffs, offering you great views of the ocean crashing into the rocky shore. At low tide when the sea retreats you can see the naked bottom made of rocks and corals, previously bathed by the clean bluish ocean. One other thing that is great about Bukit it is not that crowded as other more popular tourist places in Bali.

Bukit is particularly famous for advanced surfing. In case you go to Bali for surf bear in mind that this part of the island is definitely not for beginners. If you are at the starting point of your “wave career” you better go to Kuta or the surrounding Seminyak and Legian. There are lots of schools and trainers available right on the beach, coupled with excellent waves for beginners.

View from Swamis cafe at Bingin beach, travel to Bali — View from Swamis cafe at Bingin beach, Bukit

Kuta is the bustling tourist center of Bali, which never sleeps. It is a compact city, full of bars/cafes/restaurants and varied accommodation for relatively good prices. There it is easy to walk around and there is no need to rent a motorbike (although we definitely advise you to do so and explore the island).

If you are for night life, having parties and making acquaitances, then Kuta should be your choice. We personally found Kuta a bit too noisy and overcrowded, we prefer calmer places like the ones you can find on Bukit.

So we went to Bukit, the heart of surfing Bali. Its atmosphere differs a lot from the rest of the island, as there are mostly surfers living there, adding a very particular aura to the area. Life starts there very early in the morning to catch up the morning waves and ends almost right after the dawn, to go sleep early – again to catch the waves next morning. No big parties or other “unnecessary extravaganza” that can divert surfers from their mission in Bali. Bukit is a very tranquil and quiet place, with no traffic jams and masses of people, and this makes it so different from Kuta.

Bukit is a very tranquil and quiet place, with no traffic jams and masses of people, and this makes it so different from Kuta.

Strong waves at Dreamland beach in Bukit, travel to Bali — Strong waves at Dreamland beach, Bukit

Where we stayed

We found a very nice brand new place, made as a guest house in the compound of a local family, situated in the Pecatu area between Padang Padang and Binging beaches. It is very common among local families to build one or a few extra houses (they called them dikubu) inside the yard and rent it out for travelers. We enjoy staying with local families as usually it adds a bit of personal touch to our traveling and give you a great chance to learn more about the local culture and the way of living – directly from the hands of locals.

Our place was great. We could reach both beaches in 15-20 minutes by walking and in 5 min by driving a bike – the only downside was the lack of internet, but this was easily solved by going to any coffee around. Other alternative is to stay closer to one of the beaches and commute to others by bike when needed. As for the accomodation prices, in Bukit area, it varies from $15 to $30 for a couple stay in a nice, well taken care of and friendly place (usually with wifi and breakfast included).

And here is the list I want to share with you – our favourite beaches on Bukit peninsula:

Padang Padang {ups, no proper photo}

This is the most famous beach in the Bukit area, thanks to the movie and the book “Eat, Pray and Love”, which I have never actually seen, nor read, nor intend to. It is indeed a very picturesque place, hidden beneath and surrounded by cliffs. To get there you will have to hike down a narrow path of steps going through the cliff.

The best time to arrive there is early morning or by the sunset, when there are not that many people. Usually during the daytime this place is overcrowded. Anyway, I would say it is worth visiting for its beauty, good conditions for swimming and one of the best sunsets on the island. There are plenty of places to stay around, but nothing on the beach itself. Also, there is only one restaurant stall offering food and drinks right on the beach. I would not count on eating there, but for beer and drinks it is pretty fine.

Padang Padang beach in Bukit, travel to Bali — Around Padang Padang beach, Bukit

Bingin

Our second closest neighbour was Bingin beach, where we spend most of our time. It is a few times bigger than Padang Padang and thanks god it is not that popular, there is enough free space to put your towel without bumping into anyone. Bingin is a very popular beach among the surfer community, who are the most common clients there. Views of well shaped tanned bodies and broad smiles are guaranteed there.

Bingin beach, Bukit

Breakfast on Bingin beach

I also think Bingin is the only beach on Bukit that is offering accommodation right by the sea, with Guest Houses and villas situated on the high cliffs overlooking the ocean. Another great advantage of Bingin is the many cafes and restaurants, with good food and wifi. If you go by sunset you will see plenty of tables set on the sand, offering a great ambience to eat some fresh fish for a dinner.

Ocean at Bingin beach, travel to Bali — View from Swamis cafe at Bingin beach, Bukit

There is only one drawback about Bingin – you have to be quite careful while swimming there, stones under the water are pretty high and if there is low tide you can easily cut yourself if you are not cautious.

Balangan

It could be described as something between Padang Padang and Bingin. On Balangan there is a lot of free space and a few good cafes like on Binging, but there is no accommodation right on the beach – which is the same as with Padang Padang. Balangan beach is very spacious and good for swimming outside low tide. The only drawback of this beach is that most of the accommodations are located 15 mins drive and walking by foot is not that great.

Dreamland (New Kuta beach)

What can I add here (smiling)? They don’t call it dreamland for nothing. It is a beautiful white sand beach stretching a few hundred meters, tucked between steep stone cliffs overlooking the amazing Indian Ocean. It is only 20 min drive from Kuta and the Aiport. It is one of the most popular surfing points in Bali – during the dry season the waves here are powerful and big.

Unfortunately, recently the beach has undergone a massive construction project and all the locals cafes, warungs, were dismantled. You will not find budget cafes or cheap accommodation around. Behind the beach there is an elite resort area under development, it was planned to have luxury hotels and five stars services and facilities, but it seems the project failed to come true. Nonetheless the beach itself is gorgeous, spacious and not that crowded and you get to see the amazing statue of the mighty Arjuna surfing a wave at the entrance.

Dreamland beach, Bukit

Our fifteen essential travel tips after 270 days of moving around the world

August 10, 2015 Anna Lebedeva 2 Comments

Words by Anna Lebedeva | August 9

Essential travel tips

Making the most out of traveling is not only about creating the right route or having a comfortable budget. It is also about being prepared for different situations that can happen on your way. I am not gonna talk about extreme cases or so called “force major”, as thanks to the universe that kind of things have never happened to me and I hope they never will (smile). Knock on the wood.

Here is a list of a very basic things to do before going on travel. These travel tips are very simple, yet when we prepare for a trip we tend to be overwhelmed with decisions and overlook obvious things like these tips I am going to share with you.

I wish I knew all those things before starting my traveling as at certain times they would have made my life a bit easier. But as it is said “Wisdom comes with experience”.

(1) Duplicate your bank card and check your main card expiration date

This travel tips is really the most important one. Before embarking either on a short or a long trip, it is worth visiting your home bank to request a duplicate of your bank card. Yes, you will spend some time and probably a bit of money, but the card duplicate can really “save” you in an unlucky event, such as theft or leaving your card in an ATM.

Once I forgot my card in one ATM in Indonesia, it was Friday and I spent the whole weekend without cash. However, I was lucky enough that I was spending some time in this area so it was a short distance for me to come back and pick up my card on Monday. Now imagine I had booked a flight for Saturday. All of a sudden I would be left without a card or I would have to cancel the flight. It could even get worse in case my visa was expiring, which would leave me without choice. And we all know how difficult it is to get a new card when you are not in your home country.

Another travel tip that immediately comes to mind, if you are going for a long time, check your credit card expiration date so to be sure that it covers the period of your traveling.

Here is our post about budgeting your travel in Asia.

(2) Inform your home bank about your travel

When doing a transaction outside your home country, your bank may turn off your card if it was not notified about your traveling abroad. It is a common security measure to prevent possible frauds.

(3) Make copies, scan your documents and save them to the cloud

These are important files to have with you and in case you somehow lose them you’ll at least have copies. Most of the times when you go out you will not want to take your passport, but a copy can come in handy. Also in case of applying for a visa online, the scanned copy of your ID will make this process less complicated and much easier. Besides this, if you want an extra layer of security, you can upload your scanned documents to an external cloud drive, such as Google Drive or Dropbox, this will make them available anywhere at anytime as long as you have an Internet connection.

(4) Check local Instagrammers

By using geotagging you can find photographs of places taken by locals. It is actually the easiest way to find out the best spots (which are out of track of guidebooks) in the area you are visiting. If a local likes a place and shares it, then it should be something good and probably not that touristy.

(5) Back up your laptop content

This can REALLY save your life in case your laptop is stolen or lost somewhere. Use an external hard disk or any reliable cloud service. Or maybe even both.

(6) Pack all chargers in hand luggage

That is a good practice to follow. In case your plane is delayed or your luggage is lost you always stay connected. If you have things to be done on your laptop you are always sure you can charge it somewhere. Usually it is not that easy to find a charger store at airports, and, if you do find, the price is considerably higher than normal.

(7) It is better to pack a bit less than a bit more

That is especially true for budget travellers who prefer traveling with budget airlines because those always charge extra for luggage. And you will see that every kg matters. Also, often, it is quite cheap to buy a few clothes if the need arises, than carrying around unnecessary stuff, that may not even be of use.

(8) Download offline maps – Maps.me

Usually I don’t buy local SIM cards and I don’t use roaming – because it is devastatingly expensive. That means that Google Maps is not that helpful for me. I found a very good offline FREE application – maps.me – which provides you with very complete and detailed maps. They helped me a lot, either when I was strolling around a city or figuring out my route on a bike. I find this application to be the best offline map option. It operates in the same way as Google Maps, but just offline. With maps.me you will get an instant and easy access to detailed maps. Just download the application, choose the map you need and you can be sure that you will never get lost.

Free offline maps Maps.Me, travel to Asia — Free offline maps Maps.Me

(9) A torch will not take much space and can really “light” your way

This is exactly one of the things I missed and one I needed so badly a few times. In some parts of Asia, special when you are not in a big city, electricity can go off quite often and it can take hours to come back. Let’s say you are staying somewhere in an island and you wish to go out for a meal or you are trekking somewhere and it is taking you a bit longer than expected, then a torch can save your stomach and nerves.

(10) Pack clothes that suit different occasions

If you are planning to visit a few countries or you are going on a longer trip without a predefined itinerary, bear in mind that every country has its own convention of what is appropriate to wear and what is not. In many Asian countries it is not acceptable to show up your body and you will feel uncomfortable because people will be staring at you with surprise or even slight despite.

Simply saying people dress much more modest and reserved in all Asian countries, than in Europe or Americas. Without doubt in most places locals will consider you as a tourist and give you a discount while judging your look. But at the same time it is better for you – as a caring traveler – to be respectful of the local culture by acknowledging their cultural codes with proper dressing. I would say that a long skirt, cotton pants and a full sleeve shirt can work out for many occasions in various countries. A rule of thumb – pack clothes that can work out in different situations.

Cycling in Pokhara valley, travel to Nepal

Cycling day, 6 h on a bumpy road in Pokhara valley

Dharamsala, India

(11) Scarf is your everything

You will not believe me, but this small piece of fabric “rescued” me, surprisingly, many times during my trip. It turned out to be the most useful accessory in my luggage-wardrobe: it covered my head and shoulders during the heat hours, it allowed me to enter temples, I used it as a sarong for taking part in ceremonies in Bali, it served me as a thing to lay down on the beach and as a protection during chilly motorbike rides It can do literally everything, even protect you from bad spirits (smile).

Scarf collection for traveling — Scarf collection

(12) Don’t spare money on light waterproof shoes

A good pair of light waterproof shoes could be an expensive thing, I know. But they will pay off and stay with you much longer than you expected. If you choose the right ones, you will not feel too warm or too cold wearing them (unless you are in Siberia). Basically good shoes will serve you well from +5 to +30 degrees.

They will fit any adventure you are into: rainy forest exploration, mountain climbing, trekking or sightseeing around the city. They will manage all those occasions and make you feel confident – even if you are strolling through a muddy forest you’ll feel like you are cat walking during Paris fashion week.

Choose the right shoes for wet forest in Indonesia

Exploring Uluwatu Temple

I had a wonderful pair of proven adventurous shoes Salomon XA PRO 3D, that I bought one year ago for my trip to Elbrus. They are light, bright colored, never get wet or never get too hot, they fit jeans and dress, and I really enjoy walking in them.

(13) Travel with a Backpack that fits your mobility

If you don’t have problems with your back, then you are a lucky one – get a travel backpack for yourself. I got myself a wheel bag as I have a serious back problem, and that bag is now a big pain of mine.

Suitcases, handbags, wheel bags are all not that good options for a nomadic style of traveling, simply meaning moving from one place to another. A backpack will give you a certain level of flexibility and enhance your mobility. Imagine, you are finding your way on an unpaved road or you need to hike a hill to get to your accommodation, or you are in one of the Indian railway stations looking for the right platform to get to your train (usually you will not find there any escalator and the only option will be running 50 m stairs). Believe me, a backpack will make those things much easier to handle.

Two kids with backpacks exploring a forest, traveling the world — Two kids with backpacks exploring a forest

(14) Clean your browser’s cache before buying tickets online

It is a very common practice among popular online services to show you a certain price (promo price) if you are visiting their website for the first time. The aim of the so-called promo price is to attract you as a potential customer and make you buy the first ticket online from a certain company.

If you visit the website a second time and you have cookies enabled the website will know that you are a returning customer and odds are that you really need to book a flight. Hence, they can raise the price. Before visiting again any website, just clean your browser’s cache or use incognito/private browsing. It can really make the difference.

(15) Accommodation

There are a few good platforms to help you find accommodation at your destination. We would recommend you the following ones if you want to book in advance; although, many times we book just for a few nights and, once there, we search around for local spots and best deals. You can find many lovely guest houses and hotels around, but since they are run by not-very-tech-savvy people, you will not find them online.

http://www.couchsurfing.com – platform, global community of more than 9 million travellers, that helps finding accommodation with locals, where you can stay free of charge.
http://www.agoda.com – the best booking resources we’ve ever experienced, often working with flash deals (kind of last-minute booking for extremely low prices).
www.airbnb.com – platform, initially created and known for offering bookings of nicely done local flats, apartments and guest houses.
Dikubu Home Stay, found through airbnb

I hope our travel tips can be of use for you and that by reading this list you found something new. Bon Voyage!

Cambodia, City Guides, Thailand, Travel Tips

Traveling from Thailand to Cambodia without flights

August 3, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

Words by Micael Nussbaumer | August 3

Thailand – Cambodia without flights

Ok, so there are a few ways through which you can reach Cambodia, and any of its main cities, without going for the more expensive flight option. I’ve tried them all, a flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap, bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok, train from Bangkok to the border (Poipet) and then bus to Phnom Penh.

Cambodia is home to UNESCO’s World Heritage site “Angkor Wat” in Siem Reap, which is considered by many to be the highlight of the whole South East Asia regarding temple complexes and architecture.

Of course the flight option is comfortable, so if money isn’t an issue but time is, go for the flight. I got a very cheap flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap (a total of 55$ with luggage and fares) so I took it, but these discount prices aren’t available most of the times. But don’t worry, there are even cheaper options than that 55$ flight.

Sculpture in Phnom Penh - Traveling through Cambodia — Sculpture in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

In case your schedule isn’t super tight they might make much more sense. The time differences in the end aren’t that much more, plus, you have to weight in the trips to and from the airport which are usually much more expensive than the regular trips around the city. A 1h flight turns into 5h total, plus 20$ to 30$ more for the “trips”.

Sihanoukville, in the South, which caters to beach vacationers.

Cambodia is home to UNESCO’s World Heritage site “Angkor Wat” in Siem Reap, which is considered by many to be the highlight of the whole South East Asia regarding temple complexes and architecture. Besides “Angkor Wat” (Wat means temple) there’s Phnom Penh, the capital, and Sihanoukville, in the South, which caters to beach vacationers. There you can find beach and small islands where it’s possible to stay.

Let’s look into some of the options we have used and that we can talk about. We’ll start by getting to Cambodia.

Cambodian border at Poipet, travel to Cambodia — Cambodian border at Poipet

Bangkok to Phnom Penh

This is a fairly common trip for people visiting South East Asia. Many people enter SE Asia through Thailand and then go towards Cambodia/Laos/Vietnam. Bangkok also operates as a big international flight hub so it’s easy to find cheaper connections to this city, explore a bit and set off to other country.

Most trips from BKK to Cambodia overlap at one point and that point is at the border-crossing of Poipet. You can get to Poipet either by train or by bus. When you book by bus usually you book the whole trip and not only the BKK-Poipet part of the trip. We went through train and everything went fine, but due to delays it’s probably better to go by bus.

To go by train you just need to go to Hualamphong station in Bangkok, and then buy the ticket. This train leaves at around 6AM everyday, but you are advised to buy tickets and check the times a day before at this same station. There’s another train that runs later, but your options to travel from Poipet to some other city are low (probably non-existing).

The fare is really low, it’s about 1,5$ (48THB), there’s only 3rd class and it should arrive around 12AM/1PM. From the bus station you need to take a tuk-tuk or a taxi to the border crossing, which should be between 60-80 THB (around 2,5$). This gives you enough time to cross the border and find a transport solution to Phnom Penh. We were counting on using Capitol Buses (10$ trip at 13:45) but due to the delays with the train and the crossing we didn’t arrive in time.

There will be buses throughout the day and night-buses as well. We discussed some prices and got a bus ticket for 12$. We were taken to the bus stop in another part of Poipet and there waited for our bus, in a dusty and a bit scary garage like place, where the old lady who sold us our tickets kept on sucking a beetle in her mouth and from time to time you got to see the insect legs out of her lips. David Lynch wouldn’t come up with such a vision. To be sincere at some point I thought we had been scammed but as usual everything went fine.

We left at around 4PM. The bus was ok, was never crowded, but apart from us only another foreign traveler, from Russia, went on it. It arrived at Phnom Penh by 1AM. To get to the main street of hostels and guesthouses we had to pay around 10$ (3 people with many bags). The total trip will be around 20$ per person, with the tuk-tuks, which is quite a low price – on the other hand it takes you around a total of 20h and it can be a bit exhausting. Nonetheless, you can use this time to write, read, plan what you’ll do next, think about home-cooked food and so on – it really boils down to your time and financial constraints but it’s completely doable!

Bangkok to Siem Reap (home to Angkor Wat)

This trip can be booked in full, using the same bus (you’ll have nonetheless to exit at Poipet’s border crossing) for 23$, including meals and some drinks and comfortable chairs. We haven’t done this one, but you can find more information about it by reading this post – it seems to be the best option I would say! You can also do the same as for Phnom Penh and just find your transport once on the Cambodian’s side of the border.

Anna photographing a street of Phnom Penh - Travel to Cambodia — Anna photographing a street of Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We were searching for buses to Phnom Penh and the offer for Siem Reap was much higher so that shouldn’t be a problem. If Poipet was a nice city to stay I could advise you to spend a night there and then take a Capitol Bus next day (8AM) for 5$, 3,5h trip. The only reason why you would want to stay there would be in case you missed your early train or only had the chance to take the train that leaves Bangkok at around 12AM. In this case use the Capitol Tour Bus as they’re ok, reliable and fairly cheap (I used them to get from Siem Reap to Poipet – the reverse trip).

Siem Reap to Bangkok

For this trip I booked the whole trip with Capitol Tours Cambodia. I walked to their “station” in Siem Reap, bought the ticket the day before and showed up next day at 8 a.m. It takes you on a “normal” bus to Poipet border, you go out, cross the border and after that you’re crammed into a mini-van with destination to Bangkok. The whole thing takes around 9h and it’s ok to do. The mini-van isn’t the most comfortable when it goes completely full (and it usually goes) but isn’t something that you cannot go through, especially if you take into account that the whole thing costs you 10$. It stops on the way to Bangkok for WC and eating at some gas-stations with supermarkets and restaurants/cafes.

Market square in Phnom Penh - Travel to Cambodia — Market square in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Traveling in Cambodia and to Vietnam

I didn’t have much experience of traveling inside the countries, nor did I try to go to Vietnam from Cambodia, but I would say that Capitol Tours offer some great options. It connects you from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh (6$) and to Sihanouk Ville (15$), or from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (6$) and to Sihanouk Ville (5$). The buses aren’t super, but they are quite ok and run on time. They also offer options to go to Saigon from Phnom Penh for a mere 10$ person. Besides these routes you can also find some to other cities in Cambodia, check their website and see for yourself!

VISAS

Getting a VISA on arrival through Poipet isn’t a problem. The price might be a bit higher than the “official” price of the VISA but not that much difference. Usually for 30 days it’s around 30$ (with an extra-fee sometimes charged that you can try to ignore). Many bus operators also offer the service for an extra 5$ so you don’t have to worry with anything. I always did it myself on arrival (either through Poipet or on the airport at Siem Reap).

Sunset at Phnom Penh - Traveling through Cambodia

Sunset at Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Night view close to the centre of Phnom Penh - Travel to Cambodia

Night view close to the centre of Phnom Penh, Cambodia

You can get an e-VISA but it doesn’t make much sense for Cambodia as you can get it on arrival without problems (whereas if you’re going to Vietnam you’ll need an e-VISA or a VISA stamp on your passport). If you fly to Siem Reap (the one I’ve used) it’s straightforward on arrival and the same should apply to Phnom Penh (since it’s the capital). Nonetheless check online for the actual requirements as they sometimes change.

We advise to do BKK – Siem Reap, then Siem Reap – Phnom Penh and depending on what you would like to do, either go to Sihanouk Ville from Phnom Penh or go to Saigon.

Conclusions:

If you’re on a budget traveling overland to Cambodia might be an excellent choice. We didn’t have any problem in any of the trips we did. If you are in Bangkok and figuring out how to go to Cambodia and where to start, we would advise to do BKK – Siem Reap, then Siem Reap – Phnom Penh and depending on what you would like to do, either go to Sihanouk Ville from Phnom Penh or go to Saigon. This way you maximize your time.

We went to Phnom Penh from BKK because we had decided we wanted to try Phnom Penh, but if you’re traveling around I would advise you to go instead to Siem Reap and from there to Phnom Penh (or who knows Laos or some other place). Phnom Penh isn’t that much interesting city to stay (we stayed for almost 3 weeks, although there is no reason to), but you’ll find many tourists doing the same route and it’s easy to meet people.

Backpackers' center of Phnom Penh, travel to Cambodia — Backpackers’ center of Phnom Penh

Travel Tips

Stay with a local family while traveling

July 23, 2015 Anna Lebedeva 5 Comments

Words by Anna Lebedeva | July 23

Staygypsy reasons to “home stay”

There are many different options to find accommodation while you are travelling. The choice is endless: hotels, apartments, guest houses, and hostels. But if you want to escape those usual types of accommodation, get the maximum of cultural experience and you are willing to get to know local people a bit more than just during an ordinary street conversation, then Home stay with a local family can be easily your thing.

Home stay is a perfect choice either you are traveling for a long or a short-term. You will have your own space, exactly like in a hotel, but with an added value in the form of deeper cultural exchange. Here are “staygypsy” reasons why you should “home stay”, along with a list of online booking platforms.

You will have your own space, exactly like in a hotel, but with an added value in the form of deeper cultural exchange.

Dikubu home stay, Pecatu village in Bukit

View from Wijaya Home Stay in Ubud

Experiencing culture directly from locals

Staying with a local family, home stay, is the best way to merge yourself with the local culture. Not only will they show you around, give you valuable tips, organise your laundry, tell where it is better to eat and buy groceries, but also they will teach you a bit of their language and home traditions. They will share with you their daily life, give you insights about family relations, religious beliefs and why they hold certain ceremonies.

Our hosts in Bali in Dikubu home stay, Wayan and Katut, found a bit of time every day to chat with us about many things while teaching us the basics of the Indonesian language. They provide their guests with small dictionaries and conversation guides, and also tried to encourage them to speak a bit of Indonesian. Also, while we’ve been staying in Kuala Lumpur with a local family, we got to know and experienced Muslim Ramadan in a much more truthful way.

Dikubu home stay in Bali

Home stay is usually a very personal thing

Staying at a home stay is definitely a personal thing. At the same time you have your own private space, like in a hotel, but you also have a chance to see and share the life with locals. Another thing that attracts us the most, is that usually home stays are decorated in a very personal and cozy way, with lots of small home-style details around. Sofas, books, lights, pillows, traditional paintings, all these give it a home feeling, difficult to replicate in a hotel. As an example, every night our hosts here at Bali light candles in the common area, including in the small altar they have outside.

The typical home stay is divided into different parts: the family private section, the common areas and usually there is a separate building, hotel-style, to accommodate guests.

Blue Mountain home stay in Kathmandu, Nepal — Guesthouse in Kathmandu, Nepal

A few times in Bali we were invited by home stay family to attend local ceremonies, being provided with traditional dresses and guidance on how to behave and what to do. Even though at first sight it might look a bit overwhelming to spend long periods of time in the home of somebody else, everywhere we went, our privacy was always totally respected. The typical home stay is divided into different parts: the family private section, the common areas and usually there is a separate building, hotel-style, to accommodate guests.

Dikubu home stay, Pecatu village

Dikubu home stay in Bali

Melting pot of travelers

In most home stays we stayed we met a lot of interesting people from all around the world and with various backgrounds. Each of them had a different reason for traveling: some were vacationers, some permanent travelers, while others were doing sabbatical.

The home stay ambience encourages people to chat and get to know each other a bit. We spent a few evenings chatting with people over a few bottles of beer, telling stories, which happened to us and sharing tips and opinions about this small and funny world.

Dikubu home stay in Bali

Home stay in Bali, travel toIndonesia

Home stay is usually cheaper than a hotel

As I already mentioned above, home stay is a perfect choice to stay either for a short or long period of time. Just remember one rule, which is usually applied to home stay, – longer you stay, less you pay. Monthly rental can be up to 50% reduction from the daily price. Yes, I am not joking! Staying at least one week makes a lot of sense as well, as you can be granted up to 20% discount comparing to a few days booking rate.

Home stay of the same quality as hotel is usually cheaper and feels more authentic. From $15 to $20 we can guarantee that you will get an awesome place in Asia, with a cool host, cozy ambience and good location – of course, you will need to surf a bit on web and read reviews, usually they don’t lie. Also don’t mind staying a bit off the centre, many times it is calmer and the area is more local, not only made for tourists, which also reflects in the prices.

Typical entrance to Balinese home, Pecatu village in Bukit

Our neighbour in Pecatu village

Eating local food

Staying with a local family gives you a chance to taste original local dishes, cooked at home. You are either invited to have a dinner with the host or they are happy to cook you something on your request. Our Host at the Blue Mountain home stay in Kathmandu invited everyone of his guest for a farewell dinner, where they can try traditionally home cooked dishes, specialities and drinks. Our host in Bali organized a home Fish BBQ, so to bring all people staying at his place together for the evening. In Kuala Lumpur we were taken by our host to Ramadan bazaar, where she showed us the most tasty and traditional dishes to try.

Breakfast in Swami cafe, Bingin beach

Сourtyard in Home Stay in Bali, Indonesia

Сourtyard our home stay in Bali, travel to Indonesia

Contribution to the local community

By staying with a local family you contribute to the local economy and help small businesses. The prosperity of some regions in Asia is completely dependent on tourist inflow. For example, 80% of Bali’s GDP derives from the industry and many local families would be me more than happy to receive you as their guests, bringing them a solid side income.

Online booking platforms

How to find an accommodation at a home stay? In the age of Internet it is extremely simple. You can check the following websites, they are all very reliable and trustful. We’ve never encountered any problem while booking through them:

A irbnb
Agoda
Couchsurfing (stay for free)
Dressed up with the help of our host family and ready to take part in the ceremony, Bali

Travel Tips

How Much Does it Cost to Travel and Live in Asia?

July 18, 2015 Anna Lebedeva 4 Comments

Words by Anna Lebedeva | July 18

How much does it cost to travel the world on a budget?

Wow, 138 days have passed since I’ve started my travel, beginning in Southeastern Asia. I joined my boyfriend, who was already traveling the world and working online for more than one year. We didn’t have any concrete itineraries, like which countries to visit or for how long the trip will last. We thought that it should be something more or less “chaotic”, so that it doesn’t feel like a pre-planned vacation, but more a kind of road trip vibe.

My decision to join him in this “travel the world” campaign was quite spontaneous, it was made two months before leaving to my first destination – > Bangkok. The most important thing to figure out before settling on the trip was to have an estimation of how much it would cost to live in Asia. Since my boyfriend has been travelling the world already for some time the budgeting task was not that difficult to accomplish and I was able to make some approximate calculations very easily.

Dressed up with the help of the host family and ready to take part in the ceremony, Bali

Dharamsala, India

What type of traveler you are?

Every experienced traveler will offer you her own budget estimation driven by the traveling experience she has gone through. You should understand that there are many different types of travelers, they all have various requirements and demands, available budgets, and prerequisites to the adventurous part of their journey. This makes it even more important to understand which type of traveler you are, so to know whose recommendations and estimations to rely on. For instance ourselves – if to describe it shortly – we would say that we are backpackers, traveling on budget.

Besides the types of travelers, there are other differentiators, for instance, if you are working online while traveling you will have much less need to find extra activities to fill your days. On the other hand, if you’ve saved money to go on the road for some time without worrying about work, you will probably spend more money on making your days memorable. I didn’t include budget on any special activities, but they are available in mostly any places that receives travelers.

At the Railway station to a take train from Thailand to Cambodia

At the Railway station to take a train from Thailand to Cambodia

Tacking train from Dheli to Kolkata in order to pick up flight to Malaysia

Taking train from Dheli to Kolkata in order to pick up a flight to Malaysia

Home office at Dharamsala, India

List of expenditures for budget travelers

I will give an estimation of a minimum list of expenditures for budget travelers, who don’t stay in spa-style hotels, who don’t mind living without hot water (in warm weather countries) or can easily stay a bit further from a beach, than the usual vacationer. I will list the range of cost for budget travelling and backpacking style of living. There is no doubt, it is possible to make it even cheaper and on the other hand much more expensive.

The reasonable comment here would be that budgeting will vary from country to country. Yes, it definitely varies, but not as significantly as we actually thought it would! I am writing this from a cozy restaurant, 15 min from the beach walking, in Bali, which is considered to be a top destination and I’ve just paid $1 for a coffee and less than $2,5 for a nasi goreng (fried rice with fresh seafood), less than I paid in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the same kind of dish in a street stall.

Home stay in Bali, travel toIndonesia

Dikubu home stay, Pecatu village in Bukit

A few times we were pleasantly surprised upon arrival, as we expected a bit of higher cost of living. One of the biggest surprises was the Malaysian capital Kuala-Lumpur, where we spent the same amount of money (budget) as in popular tourist destinations in India, such as Rishikesh, Dharamsala, Agra or Dheli. Meals for $2, a metro ride for $0,5 and free buses, or services ($10 hair cut in a decent place) were all well-priced and of great quality.

Accomodation in Ubud, travel to Bali, Indonesia

Our apartment in Ubud, Indonesia

Beautiful accomodation in Ubud, travel to Bali, Indonesia

Our apartment in Ubud, Indonesia

Regarding accommodation, we opted for a non-conventional approach – instead of staying directly in the city-center. We spent three weeks in Sri Petaling, a very developed residential area on the South of KL, in a beautiful house with a Muslim family, within 15 min walk to metro station and 15 minutes drive to city-center. In the end, we paid $13 a night during our three weeks stay. In case of a shorter stay you would pay a bit more – around $15. Our room was very spacious and cozy, with wall-size windows, with AC, kettle and top-notch WIFI. We were even allowed to use the kitchen and washing machine facilities.

Home Stay in Kuala Lumpur

Guesthouse in Kathmandu, Nepal

Of course, the prices are not the same in each location in Asia (India and Nepal are definitely cheaper than Thailand beach resorts, for example), but I have to tell you, you can find a very fair deal for a very good value everywhere. For more information you can find prices for basic things in various locations in Asia through our City Guides category.

So with all this in mind here follows our table with a rough estimation* of spendings for a couple travelling on budget – without any extra-bills, like paid sight-seeings and sport activities, shopping, clubbing or perks.

*Comments:
– We cook rarely – usually we eat outside two-three times a day
– We don’t spare on coffees
– We usually don’t spend money on alcohol and partying

Minimum list of monthly expenditures for a couple traveling in Asia

Accommodation

Note:
– Nice, cozy and good located (either in the center of a smaller city or in walking distance to metro in case of a bigger one, like Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok); could be air-con and not; could be without hot water (beach places). – Longer you stay, less you pay (a minimum practice is for each week – one day for free).

Examples:
– Pokhara (Nepal): $ 12 for new fully furnished 3-rooms apartment in the center (for 15 day deal)
– Saigon (Vietnam): around $300 for an independent en-suite room with fridge, cleaning and laundry included (one month deal)
– Bali (Indonesia): $15 for nice en-suite room in a local family Home Stay, 15 min walking to the beach Padang Padang (2 week deal)
– Ubud (Bali): $16 amazing design apartment with kitchen (for 30 day deal)
– Dharamsala (India): $10 for a wonderful spacious en-suite room in a cottage on the mountain hill (2 week deal)
– Kuala Lumpur: $15 for en-suite room in a beautiful house in Sri Petaling area (+kitchen and laundry)

total (for couple): $300 – $450

Visa

Note:
– Many countries are VISA-free for most nationalities: e.g. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines
– Check VISA requirements for your passport

$0 – $45 per person

total (for couple): $0 – $90

Food (eating 3 times a day outside)

Note:
– Food prices are really approximately the same between countries
– Eating home can be cheaper

$12 – $20 per person

total (for couple): $720 – $1200

Transportation (to commute from one location to another: Bus/Train- Flight ticket)

Note:
– In many cases you can reach another country by bus or train avoiding flights. For example, there is an excellent bus connection between Nepal and India or throughout Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand
– There are many budget airlines operating in Asia, e.g. Air Asia and Malindu Airlines

Examples (per person):

Flight from Phnom Penh to Kathmandu – $200
Flight from Kalcota to Malaysia – $120
Flight from Kuala Lumpur to Bali – $55
Flight from Saigon to Phu Quoc – $100

$20 (bus) – $200 (flight) per person

total (for couple): $40-$400

Taxi/metro ticket/motorbike

Note:
– This is the most tricky and difficult part to estimate as in each city you will use different means of transportation or will not use it at all. Here I put the average estimate, including taxi to and from the airport + either renting motorbike or driving metro daily.

Examples:

Metro ride in KL: $0,5
Metro ride in Bangkok: $1
Daily bike rent in Bali: $4
Daily bike rent in Thailand: $6
Rickshaw ride in India: $1,5
Taxi to/from the airport KL: $20 Bali: $15 Saigon: $10

$50 (taxi to/from airport) +4$ everyday ride (either metro, motorbike or rickshaw)

total (for couple): $50-170 $

Medical Insurance

Note:
– In case of emergency this is a must have. You can purchase it online with any leading insurance operator, servicing around the world. Price ranges a lot, depending on coverage and the scope of medical service to be provided.

$30 – $100 per a person

total (for couple): $60 – $200

Monthly total (for couple)

$1300 – $2500

How do you go about budgeting your traveling? Do you have any tips you care to share? Do you spend more or less than what we’ve roughly estimated in our monthly budget?

City Guides, Malaysia

Putrajaya – fast growing baby of Malaysia

July 8, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

Words by Anna Lebedeva | July 8

Twenty years ago here was almost nothing – and now practically all the government apparatus moved to Putrajaya.

Our unexpected trip to Malaysia during our current run around the world – turned out to be the right choice. When we arrived in Malaysia we were pleasantly surprised how modern and developed it has become during recent decades. Usually visitors expect something closer to Thailand or try to compare Malaysia with Singapore. And, of course, Malaysia is not yet Singapore, different cultures and countries’ sizes.

We found Malaysian people modest and humble, but the speed with which they are building up the high-end infrastructure of their country can’t be called modest at all (other things are very hard to judge for an outsider). It seemed to us that one of the biggest priorities for people in Malaysia is a constant infrastructural improvement: new 10-lanes highways, state-of-the-art airport, a modern and clean metro system (very affordable and pleasant to ride). Besides these you get free buses going in four different lines around the city-center. All this makes it comfortable, safe and cheap to explore Kuala Lumpur.

During our one-month stay there we did a one-day visit to the freshly built governmental city of Putrajaya, only 25 km from Kuala Lumpur, on the way to the Airport. They call it “Intelligent Garden city” and it is just WOW. Twenty years ago there was almost nothing – and now practically all the government apparatus moved to Putrajaya, making it a complete and independent federal administrative center of Malaysia (residential area is also quite developed there).

Putrajaya, Malaysia

Diana from Putrajaya

The modern and cheap KLIA transit trains, that run every twenty minutes from the KL Central will get you to Putrajaya in 20 minutes for $2,5. From Putrajaya Central Station you will need to take a taxi or a bus to the city center. On our arrival to Central Station, we met Diana, who just came back from a job interview in ‪Kuala Lumpur‬ (she is a chemical engineer). We asked her how to get to the city center and instead of explaining she just took us there and showed a bit around.

There we made a nice half-day walk through the city, which appeared to be very pedestrian friendly, with big wide open spaces surrounded by green areas and lush gardens. The city is intelligently laid around water and although the weather is hot, the river and numerous trees make you feel fresher than in Kuala Lumpur.

Some of the buildings in Putrajaya are still under construction. We were told that the plan is to fully finish the city by 2020 – it is also the date when Malaysia is going to claim itself as a fully developed country.

Botanical Garden is one of the must-visit places in Putrajaya, which you can find on the North part of the city, behind the Prime Minister’s palace. It is the largest Botanical Garden in Malaysia, with lots of rare plants, brought from different parts of Malaysia and around the world.

The only thing that we were missing in Putrajaya were places to eat. During the day we didn’t find any open cafe (probably due to Ramadan), and we didn’t encounter with that many people walking around – it seems that everybody is busy working under the comfort of AC for the prosperity of Malaysia. It is amazing what this country managed to achieve. Although you never know the “inner workings”.

staygypsy-malaysia-putrajaya-_MIC9975 (1)

Putrajaya, Malaysia

Diana from Putrajaya

Ministries’ buildings

City Guides, Malaysia

Experiencing Ramadan in Kuala-Lumpur

July 6, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

Words by Anna Lebedeva | July 6

Bright colors of Ramadan bazaar

We stayed in Kuala-Lumpur for a month, in June 2015, and that was quite an unexpected turn in our traveling route. Before we had spent 2 months in India and near the end of our Visas we started thinking about where to go next. We read that the best time to explore Malaysia were June and July, the rainy season is over and the temperatures are not that “high”. We were lucky to find a very affordable direct flight with Air Asia (popular low cost Asian carriage), from Kalculata to Kuala-Lumpur.

Have you ever thought about traveling to Malaysia? It is definetely a good choice, as this country can offer you a bit of everything: cultural diversity, modern city life in Kuala-Lumpur, eco-tourism and world class beach locations such as Lankawi and Penang. It is quite a lot for such a relatively small country.

Sultan Abdul Samad Building and the center of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — The view of skyscrapers and Sultan Abdul Samad Building

A few days before leaving India we booked through airbnb a very cozy and spacious studio-type room in an authentic house of a Muslim family. The house itself was a small piece of art (originally designed by the husband), with a remarkable Arab-style 200 years old door, brought by him from Syria. In a nearby located Mosque the chanting call for daily prayers took place a few times a day, gently echoing in our room.

As usual, we didn’t have any idea of what was going on in Malaysia – we never read much in advance about the places we go to visit. To our surprise, when we arrived our host told us that Ramadan month was soon to start. We took it as great news, since we’ve never experienced Ramadan before. Especially in a country, where the majority of the population is Muslim.

Arabic door, from Syria — Door in our house, brought by our the host from Syria

Ramadan is the ninth month in the calendar of Muslims, the fifth pillar of Islam and the most important time of the year for Islam followers. During this month from sunrise to sunset Muslims strictly refrain from eating, drinking (even water), engaging in sexual relations, and bad mouthing others. Since we lived with a Muslim family, we were honored to observe how they follow this practice in daily life.

For us it was the first time we saw people performing Ramadan. At first it sounded harsh, but we were told that the most difficult part is the first three days, because after your body and mind get used to the fasting regime. I mean, abstaining from food could be ok, but from water… that sounds difficult. To our surprise, we were explained that actually not drinking water makes it a less daunting task, because the ingestion of water would make your metabolism work faster, requiring more energy and causing hunger.

National Mosque of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur — National Mosque of Malaysia

The abstaining from food during Ramadan, of course, is not an end in itself. Every single ritual, tradition, rule and law has, besides the official legacy, much bigger aims to achieve. People, that were fasting, told us that they abstain from these actions for a few important reasons, among them: a better comprehension of their own way of living, life priorities and values by putting themselves in the shoes of the poor (those who struggle to eat a basic meal on the daily basis); besides these reasons they also mentioned that it is a time for self-reflection and religious studies in order to better themselves spiritually.

The daily schedule during Ramadan is changed according to the position of the sun. They wake up very early, before the sunrise (around 5 am), to have an opportunity to have breakfast, because the next meal will only be after full sunset, that in Malaysia takes place around 7:30 pm. So for almost 12 hours you are not allowed neither to drink or eat.

Malay children in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — Our little Malay neighbors in Kuala Lumpur

During Ramadan you can find one of the most interesting cultural phenomena of Muslim countries – the typical daily Ramadan bazaar. It starts around 4pm and usually ends by 8 pm. Since cooking home in Kuala-Lumpur is not such a common practice (local places are very cheap and they are everywhere), the Malay population, observing Ramadan, go to their local Ramadan bazaar to buy something to eat with the family at home. And that is indeed a truly interesting experience to have while visiting the country as an outsider.

Murtabak, malaysian traditional meal — Murtabak – typical meal in Radaman dish

There are a few Ramadan bazaars that are well-known for the diversity of food presented there. Each bazaar often offers something different in terms of food, but the traditional dishes you can find in any one, no matter how small it is. Just ask around where is the closest Ramadan bazaar to you and go there at 5 – 6 pm (later many popular meals can be sold out), take a camera and a notebook to write down the names and recipes you like. Believe us, it will be worth visiting and tasting, especially if you are from the West.

Malaysian sweets at Ramadan bazaar — Traditional Malaysian sweets

Some of the things you must try in Ramadan bazaar are Nasi Lemak (traditional breakfast dish), murtabak (meat wrapped in a thin pancake), blue rice (very rare to find in other countries), numerous jelly type deserts that come in many colors and subtle tastes (don’t be afraid to try – it looks radioactive, but tastes natural) and a solid choice of drinks, many made from fruits, soya milk and while others you should try to guess. If you are wondering about the prices, usually everything is very cheap, half of liter of a drink will cost you less than a $1 and food will range from $,07 – $2.

Even if you are not willing to buy anything or don’t feel hungry, just visit one of Ramadan bazaars to get a feeling of what it is. Lots of locals hangout with their families around the stalls, making it the perfect place for observing local life, besides that sellers are usually very keen to talk and be photographed (but don’t forget to ask for permission).

Otak-otak can be found in Ramadan Bazaar in Malaysia

Otak-otak, a kind of red rapped in banana leaves and grilled

Ramadan bazaar in Kuala-Lumpur

Phsycodelic drinks

Ramadan bazaar in Kuala Lumpur

Ramadan bazaar

Ramadan bazaar, Kuala Lumpur

Articles on Freelancing, Freelancing

Protecting your outsourcing with a NDA

July 4, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

Micael Nussbaumer
top rated freelancer in Odesk
July 6, 2015

Protect your freelancing work NDA

Although we have covered mostly issues related to the freelancers side of the equation regarding online work, this time we are going to go through a document that is mostly useful for the client outsourcing, the NDA (which is a Non Disclosure Agreement, sometimes referred to as confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA), or secrecy agreement (SA). We’ll see what it is and how you can write one, with a real sample included. Jump to the download section.

WHAT IT IS?

A NDA, as the name implies, is a form of legal document that binds the client and the contractor into specific terms regarding the sharing of information provided for the conclusion of a work. This information can be all sort of things, from plain information (facts, data) to compiled information (images, video, sound files) or others.

By stating exactly the extent to which the information/content shared between the two parties while pursuing a professional relationship can be used during and after the contract ends, a client can protect himself from having certain information made public (again – be it plain information or files created to complete the contract). Although less usual, this form of document can also be used by the freelancer to protect himself and to grant him rights in sharing information later on (for instance including samples of the work done in their own portfolios or profiles).

Besides this, a NDA can be either Uni-Lateral or Bi-Lateral, depending if the information to be protected is only one way (the information disclosed by the Client) or two ways (both the information that goes from the Client to the Contractor and the information the Contractor provides back to the Client). Usually a Bi-Lateral is the correct format for online work, since you’ll be receiving back new information derived from the assignment.

Imagine you only do a Uni-Lateral NDA, protecting the images you’re providing the freelancer to work with. This means he would have to guarantee not disclosing any of that information, but the finished work (since it goes from the Contractor to you) would be ok to be disclosed to public.

Protecting your freelancing work with NDA — Online marketing tools

WHY IS IT USEFUL?

Imagine you’re a busy photographer, shooting assignments for mid-to-high level profile clients and you need total confidentiality regarding the fact that you’re outsourcing part of your work to someone else. Maybe your clients are expecting you to handle all of the work inside your firm or by yourself, or maybe your clients don’t want their names associated with outsourcing. In either case, when using online freelancing marketplaces you need to make sure that you are protected.

A Non-Disclosure agreement provides you exactly with that kind of protection. Of course, it functions mostly as a legal intimidation document, since if you’re outsourcing to India the most probable is that you will be unable to enforce the NDA, but still, in case you wish to, there are legal grounds for it because your worker as signed an explicit document agreeing to certain terms.

Other cases where a NDA is welcomed is when you’re launching something new, or when you don’t want references to the work to be available somewhere on the internet, linking your name to a freelancer or online outsourcing platform. You might also be passing sensitive information that you want to minimize to the maximum the probability of ending up online.

All these are reasonable reasons to have an NDA signed and it’s why it’s also called a Confidentiality Agreement. The scope of it can go much further.

HOW TO GET A NDA

To have a functional NDA it needs to state some basic facts about you (the client) and the contractor (the freelancer), plus the relevant wording and scope of protection for the work at hand. You need at least the following items to be explicitly stated:

Full name of both you and the contractor/client
Legal address
Date
Signatures
Technical definition of the scope of the Non-Disclosure Agreement

Having said this, I have to tell you it’s easier said than done. For it to fully stand in court you will need accurate descriptions of the transactions and contents to be protected in the corresponding jargon. There are a few places where you can get samples for free and we’ll include here one regarding image editing.

You can tweak this one to your needs, changing the wording to reflect your personal needs, or you can hire a freelancer to write you a legal binding document, which shouldn’t be that expensive. Take into account that if you’re going to write several NDA’s it might be worth hiring someone to write one that can be tweaked in the future, this way diluting the cost of it.

Now named Upwork, previously freelancing platform oDesk keeps the same structure for their Job feed. — Now named Upwork, previously oDesk keeps the same structure for their Job feed

SAMPLE NDA

The sample Non-Disclosure here included can be used free of charge and tweaked in any way you might want. It’s from a real freelancing job I’ve done in the past and it was provided by the client himself.

There are 4 formats provided, Pages, Pages 09, PDF, Word DocX and Word Doc 97-03.

Word DOCX Format
Word Doc 97-03 Format
PDF Format
Pages Format
Pages 09 Format

You can see by reading through this agreement that the spaces were left open for you to fill. In the case of digital media files you can just put [Digital Media] as to what it refers. You can make a more explicit reference to the material being protected. You can change the duration to which the contract applies, you can include for instance references to the usage of finished work for portfolio usage, without the mentioning of any data/names or any information that can link the work done to the client or clients.

If you’re working in a big project with very sensitive information then you might need to make sure you have a proper NDA provided by a lawyer to make sure you’re fully protected.

WHEN AN NDA IS NOT NEEDED

Sometimes people are afraid of their content going online, but in most cases you really shouldn’t worry that much. The internet is very wide and if you’re just using outsourcing services for regular tasks you don’t need to worry. There’s no problem if someone finds out you used a freelancer to prepare your product photos for etsy or amazon.

There’s very little probability that anyone can find out that you have been using a freelancer to retouch your personal images for facebook or other social media networks. But in case you’re a blog owner with a certain following it might be wise to protect yourself, you don’t want that somebody that is searching for an article they remembered on your blog ends up in a freelancers portfolio showcasing articles they written to others – that could be bad publicity since people are expecting a personal writing from you.

If you’re doing low-cost design services for others there’s probably nothing to be worried about someone stumbling upon their logo on some freelancers portfolio, but if you’re charging 500$ to 2000$ for a branding package and someone sees their branding in a freelancer profile that charges the same branding package for 100$ they might get a bit pissed of and your reputation might be affected.

If you’re outsourcing technical and repetitive tasks to a freelancer and then applying your own know-how and expertise to deliver fully polished images to your clients, then probably there’s nothing wrong in seeing that work online in somebody else’s page.

Job proposal page on freelancing platform Elance — Job proposal page on http://www.elance.com

Conclusion

Use your discretion and use an NDA to protect sensitive information but not to hide unethical business practices. If the reason why you’re using an NDA is to protect your clients from bad publicity that might arise from the use of outsourcing, then I personally believe it’s fine. If you’re using it to protect your unprofessional behaviour (charging high prices and outsourcing the job to cheap labour overseas without any additional input from you to the final product) then don’t use an NDA, change the way you work.

Photo stories

Saigon postcards

July 4, 2015 Anna Lebedeva 2 Comments

True Asia in Saigon

Everybody calls it ‪Saigon‬, even though it has been renamed HO CHI MINH CITY after the unification of ‪Vietnam‬. This amazing and dynamic city is an excellent choice for anybody working remotely. It packs a bit of everything, it’s a very democratic city, where one can find whatever fits him.

To live it sports everything you’ll need: affordable accomodation, widely available wifi connection, public and private infrastructure, from super cheap street stalls (but dirty good!) to high quality restaurants, bars & pubs, night life, commodities, safety and friendliness.

View our post on Saigon

Le Van Tam park

Pots in the Van Thanh Park

Old potteries in the Van Thanh Park

Floating restaurant in Van Thanh Park

Floating restraunt in Van Thanh Park

Saigon Zoo

Children in Saigon Orphanage

Photo of our friend – Obi

Modern sculpture

Working at Cúcuta Coffe

Around Mekong Delta

Trying a Mekong Delta tour

Night life in Saigon

Night driving Saigon

Fresh spring rolls with fried peanuts and other goodies thrown in for taste

A friendly kid and a parking guard

Deep Fried Frog with rice and draught beer

Pham Ngu Lao street – the heart of the backpackers scene

Dinner with friends

Breakfast at Downtown Coffee

Work Saigon – Co-Work space in Ho Chi Minh City

Grandmother with her grandson in Saigon

Man rowing boat in one of the rivers of Saigon

View our post on Saigon

City Guides, India

Tibetan Dharamsala | India

June 28, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

Words by Anna Lebedeva | June 28

Travel to Dharamsala

From the beginning of April, perpetual wanderers start leaving Indian beaches and head for retreat to the North, closer to the cooling shade of the Himalayas. Usually they start their traveling through Rishikesh, the World Capital of Yoga, where they can enjoy white sandy beaches along the clean waters of Ganga and emerge themselves in traditional yoga practice.

In the middle of May the temperature in Rishikesh rises. At this time, all vagabonds start slowly moving more up to the North, to hide themselves in the forest enclaves like Dharamsala, Shimla or Manali, which are of extreme popularity among western travellers, hosting cheap accommodation, beautiful mountain views and a cool climate.

We also planned to join that mass exodus, but we were a bit confused on where to travel next. We were told that at this time Shimla becomes overcrowded, locals arrive there “en masse” to enjoy the “reprieve” from busy Indian urban life. And since Manali has a fame to be a bit more rastafari (than our young soles strive for), we took the way to chilly Dharamsala, which is famously known as the residence of the Tibetan government in exile and of thousands of Tibetan monks.

View Dharamsala’s Photogallery

Dharamsala in the map India — Dharamsala in the map

If you are interested in Buddhism, Dharamsala will become “your” place of attraction, no doubts. There you will find a few beautiful monasteries and temples, where you can easily join the service with Buddhist monks and have a chance to attend public speeches of the Dalai Lama.

But what will take your breath away are the tremendous views of the snow capped Himalayas as Dharamsala lies right in the middle of Kangra valley. This is an area surrounded by lush forest, comprised of ancient deodars, pines and oaks, where numerous small villages, hill stations, hotels and lakes sprout. Believe us, if you are lucky to get to Dharamsala, you will stay there much longer than you’ve expected. We spent there almost three weeks instead of one, and we left the place solely due to visa limitations. We are already looking forward to our next travel to the North of India, to cover Ladakh and Kashmir to add a bit more of adventure and unique natural settings (for instance, seeing all at once desert, river and snow).

The best time to visit: May-June, September-October
Climate: humid subtropical climate
Accommodation: $6-$50
Continental breakfast: $2,5
Fresh juice: $1,5-$2,5
Coffee: $0,5 – $2
Typical Indian dish: 2$ – 3$
Street food: 1$

This is an area surrounded by lush forest, comprised of ancient deodars, pines and oaks, where numerous small villages, hill stations, hotels and lakes sprout.

View of Bagsu village, Dharamsala, India — The view over Dharamsala and Bhagsu

Where to stay in Dharamsala

To make it clear for you, Dharamsala refers to the whole urban and rustic area covering the Kangra valley. The Tibetan government resides in Mcleod Ganj, so-called “Upper-Dharamsala”, which is a small suburb up in the mountains. Dharamsala and Mcleod Ganj offer numerous options to stay, fitting basically in any traveler’s budget, from cheap Guest Houses to more upscale cottages with swimming pools. North of India is one of the best options you can find, if you are traveling on budget.

Since Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj are a bit chaotic and overcrowded with numerous locals and tourists, arriving in masses to visit lectures of the Dalai Lama, western travelers prefer to stay in two small neighboring villages – Dharamkot and Bhagsu – set amidst tall pines and rodendrones. They lay further up the forested hills from McLeod Gunj, but are easily accessible: you can either reach both villages by 20-min walk through picturesque well-maintained forest path or take $1 rickshaw. In the villages itself, there is no traffic and everything is connected by forest trails. It is the perfect way to enjoy the lush scenery by walking through myriads of stone pathways leading up, down and around the hillside.

The main stone path in Dharamkot, Dharamsala, India — The main stone path in Dharamkot

Personally, we found Dharamkot more cozy and serene. Bhagsu is known as the “techno hippy mecca”, where the young Israeli arrive to enjoy the life after long term army service, to try a first taste of freedom. But at the same time, in Bhagsu, you will find more proper shops and much wider variety of cafes for a hang out. By what we have experienced, we can definitely say that there is no need to decide where to stay beforehand: you can always choose the proper place on your arrival.

Accommodation is everywhere in that region more or less the same and the quality/price range doesn’t vary that much. We found it quite easy to get cheap and comfortable accommodation there – Guest Houses around are very neat and usually made with a personal touch. If you would like to stay in a real hotel, there are a few upscale cottages and hotels around Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj, equipped with swimming pools and big terraces.

Dharamsala, India — View over villages in Dharamsala

We’ve not booked anything in advance as most places are not listed on popular booking websites. Honestly saying, it took us a bit of time to find a roof for a night. We arrived with a morning bus and had to wait till 11 am – many owners will only know if their guests are leaving just before the show up with their bags. It is very common for people to stay here more than they have planned plus the atmosphere is too relaxed for any fixed agreements.

While we were walking around, we stumbled upon the very nice Raj Residence guest house, which is a located up the hill from the main street of Dharamsala, just behind a pink shrine. It is a brand new cottage, equipped with a big terrace, offering a panoramic view over the Dharamkot and surrounding mountains, neat spare rooms and good WIFI connection inside. We payed around $10 without any extra negotiations and tiring-bargaining. There are many different options around, you need to walk and check for yourself. The average price ranges between $8 to $ 20 a night. We found that the Dharamsala area offering a much higher value in terms of price and money, than guest houses located in big cities of the Central part of India.

Raj Residence cottage

Room in Raj Residence cottage

Where to eat

Compared to other popular Indian cities, the choice of eateries is not as broad. We found Dharamkot the least developed in terms of cafes. There are a bit more places in Bagsu village, just a 10 min walk away. We tried a few cafes there and all they were pretty the same in ambience, quality and prices. We can recommend Munchis’s cafe for its variety of dishes with avocado and good pasta with spinach and cheese.

11655371_10206866189712726_1503950726_n — Set menu in Lung Ta restaurant

You can also take a rickshaw or make a pleasant walk down the forested hill to McLeod Ganj. There are a few places that offer you a good value for your money. We enjoyed our lunch in Lung Ta, family run Japanese vegetarian restaurant, located on Jogibara road. Their menu consists of well cooked and light Japanese food for very reasonable prices: relatively big set menu was priced at $3,5 and a typical Japanese dish was for $2. The place itself is warm and cozy, accompanied with an outside terrace offering a scenic view across the valley. It is usually very packed with travelers, but they manage to serve you very fast.

If you are missing Continental food served in a calming western environment with good WIFI, then head to Illiterati cafe, run by a Belgian couple. It’s located on the way down the Jogiwara road after the point where it meets with the Temple. It is the perfect place to eat, relax or spend your whole day, but a quite expensive for local standards. The incredible view over the Dhauladhars mountain is definitely the highlight of the place. They have a great collection of rare books and you can spend days going through them while admiring the Himalayas.

But there is one thing you should not miss in McLeod Ganj if you are a sweets lover, the Tibet Quality Bakery, offering passing by locals and travelers a big variety of cakes, brownies and muffins. Everything is very fresh and yummy there. It is not fancy, but very delicious!

Tibet quality bakery in McLeod Ganj, India — Tibet Quality Bakery in McLeod Ganj

The last words will go to our favourite place – that we are missing already – Trek and Dine cafe in Dharamkot. We ate there every single day, visiting either for breakfast or for other meals and we were never disappointed, not even once. Their food is exceptionally good – be it breakfasts, pizzas, lasagnas, bruschettas, hummus, desserts or kebabs. In the menu the cost is a bit higher than in other cafes around this area, but we always felt it was worth that money. Many travelers, staying in Dharamkot, said they never ate in any other places. Its Israeli, Continental or Spanish breakfast is an unbeatable option for starting your morning the right way and their Chicken Tandoori (full portion) makes the perfect dinner for two at only 400 INR.

Dharamsala, India

Weather in Dharamsala

Since Dharamsala is located in the Himalayas, the weather there is quite tricky and can be often unpredictable. Even during high season (from April to June) it can vary drastically, ranging from hot sunny days to chilly ones. If you stay in Dharamkot or Bhagsu, which lay further up on the mountain, bear in mind that the temperature is a bit cooler there. It is better to be prepared for any conditions, pack both light summer garments and something warm enough: light jacket, thick socks and a sweater are must have items in your traveling wardrobe. In the middle of June till the middle of September, rainy weather takes over Kangra valley – don’t forget your umbrella! Winter comes to that region in December and stays there up till March, bringing cold and snowfalls to the upper part of the mountain.

McLeod Ganj in Dharamsala, India — McLeod Ganj downtown

Dharamsala to Delhi

There are basically two options to get to Delhi from Dharamsala: either by taking a one hour and half flight or by overnight bus. There are about two flights a day from Gaggal airport, located 15 km to the town’s south. Since we were on the backpacking traveling budget, we both decided for a night bus and in the end were very happy with our choice. We’ve heard that more or less all buses commuting between Dharamsala and Dheli are pretty good for Asian standards, but still it exceeded our expectations. Also, in Dharamsala, they don’t try to cheat you and sell you tickets for the local bus priced at the touristic level. We recommend you to take the bus run by Indo-Canadian company. The tickets are priced at 900-1100 INR and get you seated in relatively new and fully AC Mercedes buses with reclinable seats, complemented with warm cover and a bottle of water. It always stops in good places to eat.

Buddhist monks in the Dalai Lama Temple

Buddhist monks praying in the Dalai Lama Temple

Buddhist monks in McLeod Ganj

Women Tibetan monks

View Dharamsala’s Photogallery

5 things to do in Dharamsala:

Attend Dalai Lama public speech

Since 1959 the Tibetan government, the Dalai Lama and his followers reside in exile in McLeod Ganj. By walking in Dharamsala or McLeod Ganj, you will meet hundreds of Monks, who made it their new home, building authentic monasteries and schools. If you are curious about Buddhism, take a chance to visit those places and attend one of the lectures, given by his Holiness the Dalai Lama. Check the Dalai Lama schedule and don’t forget to make obligatory preliminary registration.
Enjoy the nature around

Dharamsala valley is the right place to immerse in nature. Take a short 20-min amble to the beautiful Bhagsu waterfalls, which are well worth visiting. Don’t head to the waterfalls from the Bhagsu temple, as that road is a bit overcrowded. It is better to take a tranquil path starting right on the top of the village (when going up just turn right before Zion cafe), which allows you to enjoy full panoramic views, ending in a very nice coffee overlooking the waterfalls. You can also have a walk to Dal Lake, laying behind, but we found it not that much spectacular.
Trekking in Himalayas

Both Bhagsu and Dharamkot are good starting points for short and long hikes around the Dhauladhar mountain range of the Himalayas. The trodden trekking paths lay through mixed forests of deodar, pine and oak, with occasional encounters with rivers and lakes, giving you vertiginous views. The most popular trekking spot is an eight km trek to Triund, overlooking Dhauladhar mountains on one side and Kangra valley on the other.
A place of learning

Dharamsala area is a great place for learning alternative medicines, self-development techniques, holistic healing or different styles of yoga and meditation. Check the well-known Tushita Meditation Center or other schools and courses, offering different forms of studying and practicing.
Play and listen to music

Numerous musicians and artists gather in this area and many times they end up grouping together around a bonfire or a cafe, playing different instruments and jamming for hours. Everybody is invited to join and take part.

The road to Bhagsu waterfall

Photo stories

Delhi postcards

June 25, 2015 Anna Lebedeva 4 Comments

The city of contradictions

Delhi, to us, it is a city made of different worlds existing side by side. The North part of the city is the frenzy, crowded and crumbling medieval Old Delhi, which shows the real urban India. New Delhi, the remaining part of the city “manicured” by the British, is a surprisingly spacious, greeny and boulevard-sprawling city, that still maintains its hectic and liveable Indian style.

The view over Main Bazaar in Old Dheli, India

The view over Main Bazaar in Old Delhi

Red Fort details, Old Delhi

Anna with Indian girl in Red Fort, Old Delhi

The row of archs in Red Fort, Old Delhi, India

A row of archs in Red Fort, Old Delhi

Indian girl in Red Fort, Old Dheli, India

Indian girl in Red Fort, Old Delhi

Red Fort in Old Delhi

Red Fort in Old Delhi, India

Red Fort in Old Delhi

A small park in Red Fort, Old Delhi

Entrance to Red Fort, Old Delhi

Streets of Old Delhi

Jama Masjid towering over Old Delhi

Bazaar in Old Delhi

Anna strolling through Old Delhi

Busy streets of Old Delhi

Bustling streets of Old Delhi

Crowded streets of Old Delhi

Vegetable stalls in Old Delhi

Food street cook in Old Delhi

Indian brother and sister in Old Delhi

Indian boys playing criсket in Old Delhi

Backstreets boys in Old Delhi

A team of backstreets boys in Old Delhi

Rikshaw driver in Old Delhi

Entrance to Lotus Temple

View of Lotus Temple

Lotus Temple

Indian Gate in New Delhi

Indian couple in New Delhi

Indian flag waving in Central park, Connaught place, New Delhi, India

Indian flag waving in Central park in Connaught place, New Delhi

Sunset in Central park, Connaught place in New Delhi

Garden in Lotus Temple, New Delhi

Central park in Connaught place, New Delhi

Anna resting in Central park, Connaught place in New Delhi

Uncategorized

Our favourite traveling quotes

June 24, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

While we are traveling, we like to extract from our memory proven quotes that made us and many other people step on the exciting journey, either a short or long one. Here is the list of our favorite quotes, we hope that by reading them you will get inspired to step into a journey yourself.

“Peculiar travel suggestions are the dancing lessons of God”
– Kurt Vonnegut

Monkey family in Rishikesh

“Not all those who wander are lost. “
– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Indian brother and sister in Old Delhi, India

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
― Ernest Hemingway

Ashram in Rishikesh

“You’re on Earth. There’s no cure for that.”
― Samuel Beckett

A Ghat in Rishikesh

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”
― Gustave Flaubert

Woman in Taj Mahal, Agra, India

“Because he had no place he could stay in without getting tired of it and because there was nowhere to go but everywhere, keep rolling under the stars…”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

A cow and the road

“No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.”
― Haruki Murakami, after the quake

Grandmother with her grandson in Saigon.

“I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Kids playing with water balloons, Chiang Mai, Thailand

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
― Henry Miller

Kid running to pigeons in Kathmandu’s Durbar Square

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
― Lao Tzu

Backstreets Boys in Old Delhi, India

Travel Tips

1 year and a half traveling – What do you need to pack with you

June 18, 2015 Anna Lebedeva 4 Comments

Words by Micael Nussbaumer | June 18

Last tip is, pack things that serve more than one purpose. Packing something that only works in a very specific situation isn’t that useful. Try to pack clothing that may work either if you need to meet in a more formal manner or that you can still walk around comfortably, the same for shoes and coats.

If you have been reading our blog you probably noticed that we post mostly about the cost of spending some time in certain places, how to get there, interviews with people who are moving and working outside their countries and photography galleries. This time we want to share with you a different insight into traveling. I have been traveling for about 1 year and half now and today I’m going to share with you my travel luggage. What I pack, how I pack and how it works for me. The kind of bags, my clothes, shoes, tech stuff, electronics and others.

BAGS / BACKPACKS

Lets start by the essential thing. Where do you put all the stuff you need. Even though I’m not that attached to my possessions I still have a few that follow me wherever I go. To pack them I use a regular backpack (about 70l capacity), and a photography specific backpack.

Micael Nussbaumer, world traveler and freelancer, with his regular backpack - tucked between his back and it is the smaller photography backpack — Micael with his regular backpack – tucked between his back and it is the smaller photography backpack – Yverdon-Les-Bains (Switzerland – 2014)

The regular backpack is composed of:

Main section – where most of my clothes and sleeping bag go,
A smaller bottom section – where I place underwear, some papers and a book,
2 side pockets – I divide between them my personal hygiene stuff and other small bits,
Top pocket – the bag rain coat, usually my sun-glasses and the book I’m currently reading

The photography backpack is very ingenious and it’s composed of:

Front Section – where I put laptop, wacom tablet, external hdd, usb pen’s, cables,
2 side and 1 top pocket – miscellaneous small electronic bits, agenda, pen,
Main back section – this is where it’s ingenious; it packs a regular photography shoulder bag that can go inside the backpack or that you can detach and carry on with you – this shoulder bag has the usual photography cushions to separate and protect your equipment

CLOTHES

I started traveling in Europe (from Portugal) in the beginning of April 2014. At that time spring was starting and I had planned to cross all Europe and do this traveling for around 6 months. I didn’t need anything particular for cold as I was going to catch most of spring/summer and beginning of autumn. Although most t-shirts I started with are no longer with me, the number of items remains the same.

What to Pack for a trip Around the World — Shirts & t-shirts

My list of clothing right now goes like this:

4x T-Shirts
4x Short-sleeve shirts
4x Shirts
1x Sweat-shirt
1x Jacket
1x Scarf
4x Shorts
1x Sport/Swimming shorts
4x Pants
10x underwear
6x Pairs of socks
1x Casual boot-like shoes
1x Sport sneakers
1x Plastic flip-flops
1x Sleeping bag
1x Belt

ELECTRONICS / TOOLS

Before I started I sold my old photographic equipment, my studio equipment and changed from a Canon 7d with some lenses (covering ultra-wide angle to tele-photo) to a full frame Nikon D600, with a simple 50mm 1.8F. I also bought a MacBook Pro with Retina display, as I intended to fund my traveling with my online freelancing work. The MacBook is definitively worth it. It’s as robust as one could wish for and I’m very happy to have parted with 2.000€ for it (happy might not be the right word but more – comfortable). On the other hand having changed from a Canon 7D to a Nikon D600, even though the later is Full-frame, hasn’t yet proved itself an important decision. It’s true that I got a new modern camera and ditched an older model, got full-frame and all that, but in the exchange I lost some range and options I had with the more complete set-up of the 7d. I don’t regret it, but I wouldn’t make it a priority again.

Tools for working online while traveling the world — Tools of the trade & work

So what do I pack with me to keep working online?

MacBook Pro 15″ Retina
Wacom Intuos 4 Small
2TB Seagate External HDD
Nikon D600
Nikon 50mm 1.8
Tokina 24mm 2.8 (old manual lens – 50€ in Mauer Park flea market)
Samsung Galaxy GT-S7560
Chargers & Cables & USB Pens

HIGYENE / PERSONAL

Traveling the world with these pairs of Snickers and Shoes — Boots & Shoes

These items don’t change that much and this part is usually comprised of:

Toothbrush & Toothpaste
Nail cutter & scissors
Tweezers
Deodorant
Perfume
Soap/Body wash
Hair-cut machine
Wet-towels
Topic antibiotic for cuts
Towel

OTHERS / MISCELLANEOUS

Beautiful Chinese chopsticks I bought in Vietnam – useful for eating in the streets
Sunglasses
1 or 2 books at a time
Notebook / Agenda
Pen

Traveling the world - comfortable shoes — The shoes I ditched in Berlin

TIPS ON TRAVELING LIGHTLY

I travel with 15kg in my main backpack and around 5kg in my photo bag, this makes up for 20kg total and gives me more than enough room to pack anything extra I might need when boarding a flight. Most carriers will have a basic 20kg luggage included plus 7kg backpack & hand bag allowance into the flight cabin. I never pack my laptop, cameras and gadgets on my “hold luggage”, I always take them with me as my hand luggage.

One of the things I found out was that if you’re traveling to cheaper countries it’s totally feasible to pack less and buy new clothing there. I threw out most of my t-shirts (after 6 to 7 months traveling and they weren’t new when I started) and bought new shirts and shorts in Vietnam. The textile quality is quite good and the prices are great. You can find decent t-shirts from 3$ to 5$ in quite good materials. I bought nice shorts for about 10$ each pair along with underwear and socks. Needless to say you can get custom shirts made to tailor your size for quite a reasonable price (20$ to 50$).

Traveling the world with "The Idiot" by Dostoevsky and "Jail Bird" by Vonnegut — “The Idiot” by Dostoevsky and “Jail Bird” by Vonnegut

When I was in Berlin I had thrown away my old sneakers and bought a second-hand pair at Mauer Park’s flea market (simple VANS for 6€!). Then those got ruined about 5 months later and since I was in SEA I just used my flip-flops and my shoe-boots whenever I needed something more formal. Then once I got into Cambodia I found some cool blue Nike sneakers that I bought for 10$, and now I use them to run around the park near Sri Petaling, in Malaysia. I also bought two beautiful pants in Cambodia, one from a local designer in a cool blue and another pair of black skinny VANS, for respectively 9$ and 12$.

Working

FINAL THOUGHTS

My advice would be, don’t worry too much about what you pack, get the essentials with you, maximum two different types of shoes, one flip-flops, between pants and shorts four to eight, t-shirts and shirts up to eight also. I cut my own hair so I just bring along my hair-cutter machine, some usual stuff for personal hygiene and nothing else. I have a sleeping bag for when needed, if it’s too cold in any place where I stay or in the case the bed sheets look “weird” (although I didn’t have to use it for this end yet, who knows right?). It came very handy when I slept on the streets in Paris.

The books make for excellent companions in those long flight/train/bus trips and you can either sell them in most places that have second hand books or simply exchange them with someone. I offered my guide to South East Asia to a German couple in Kathmandu as I wouldn’t need it and they were traveling there after. Besides these regular things I also carry what I need to work and document my trip, a laptop, my tablet and a d-slr.

My traveling setup is quite ok to manage on my own, either if I’m in a modern city or in a dusty road to nowhere. Of course if you’re traveling for shorter periods of time then you’ll probably manage with even less, but even for a year I found it to be more than needed. Remember that most places will either have laundry services (even small backpacker guesthouses) or you’ll be able to find independent places that will clean and iron your clothes for quite a reasonable price without any hassle at all.

Micael Nussbaumer, world traveler and freelancer, working out in Kuala-Lumpur, Malaysia — Pumping up!

Last tip is, pack things that serve more than one purpose. Packing something that only works in a very specific situation isn’t that useful. Try to pack clothing that may work either if you need to meet in a more formal manner or that you can still walk around comfortably, the same for shoes and coats.

What do you pack with you? Have you any other items you won’t leave home without or that you found to be quite handy when traveling for longer periods?

Travel Tips

Traveling the world | Give me a reason

June 15, 2015 Anna Lebedeva 3 Comments

Words by Anna Lebedeva | June 28

Many of my friends, colleagues, family members asked me why did I step on the road of full-time travelling, am I not bored or tired of moving from one country to another, of searching for new places to stay one, two or even three times a month? I can very firmly say – No and No. Full-time traveling is not an easy thing, especially if you travel on a budget and have certain financial limitations, plus if you are obliged to deliver things in time while traveling and working online. It is not always a road paved with blooming flowers, but it’s definitely worth it, if you are sincerely interested in traveling the world.

INTANGIBLES

I thought – “I am soon to be 30, probably in a few years I will be completely enrolled into family or other commitments, so this kind of travelling would become a bit more complicated (but not impossible), or it would just be more difficult for me to leave all my possessions behind even if only for a relatively short period of time…”

I doubt that I will surprise anybody by saying that living abroad is a great experience. But one important thing you should remember is that full-time travelling or working abroad is not something irreversible, you can always come back whenever you want. You will bring new valuable experience, ideas, views and the most important, you will come back a different person, no matter how long you have traveled or worked in another country.

Yes, all these things are intangible, they will not bring immediate material effects into your life, but they will definitely reshape your mindset and your perception of the world. You will learn how to get out of ridiculous and unexpected situations, how to read people without talking to them, you will learn that classifying a culture or country as “bad”, “best”, “worst” or “retrograde” doesn’t really work. You will meet various political and social systems, unusual solutions, you will compare them with your own, then make out of that a conclusion, and learn from all of these.

GIVE ME A REASON

We met on our way many people from very different parts of the world. All of them had their own, very personal reasons for travelling the world: simply to experience new things, to get out of their comfort zones, obtaining a better understanding of themselves, and personal growth. But there is one thing, that is definitely similar in all these people – the need and desire to witness all the possibilities and varieties of lifestyles that exist here, in our world.

The key word here is “OUR”. It can sound a bit cliche, but unfortunately, this idea has not yet been embraced by everybody. Many of us continue building cultural walls, excluding ourselves from the circle of comprehensive understanding, still believing that “we are all too different” to manage living in a basic level of unity. Maybe now I sound a bit pathetic, and if so take it as an excuse to smile.

Nepalese woman in traditional clothes, Pokhara valley, Nepal

Portrait of Nepalese man relaxing by the Phewa’s lakeside

FEAR OF THE UNKOWN

We are all biased by deeply rooted prejudices, constant media brain wash, respectful “expert” opinions, experience of others and fear of the unknown, foreign and unfamiliar. In the end, we are locked by the will of others, because we trust and believe the vision of somebody’s eyes. The “reality” very often contradicts what was “heard” and “told” by someone. Each time I traveled, my expectations and the actual experience differed. I ended up having better experiences than what I was expecting.

Before going to India, I was told to be very cautious and careful with my belongings and eating in local places. The advice was partly valuable for me. I indeed had some stomach problems, but that was my body’s normal reaction to the new world of microbacteries, to which I was not used to. It took a week to get used to it and in the end, I did – it was just a matter of time as with anything new or unusual. Also, it is known that India has the biggest amount of poor people in the world, nevertheless I didn’t feel any kind of pressure nor was I ever afraid of leaving my belongings in the hotels or guesthouses. In a way all the problems are in our heads, as my friend, Anna Stavenskaya, recently said in her interview with us.

Pokhara, Nepal

Rishikesh, India

WHAT ABOUT FINANCING?

And by now a question should have come up to your mind: “It is all great and amazing and I want to travel the world, but how and from where should I get money for such an awesome thing?”. And here is my reply: “There are so many ways to finance your travelling and moreover there are a few ways to make it cost fantastically low”. I will tell you a few, the most proven and common.

One of the most popular ways to get financing for your trip is to work for some time and save money. It will really require you to seriously cut on your spendings, but then you will feel proud of yourself and you will be able to fund a few months of travelling without any worries. I met a lot of people on my way who were funding their trips with a “personal fund”, made up ofpreviously saved money. Some of the best travel destinations are located in Asia, where you can get the greatest possible experience for a comparatively decent amount of money: from $700 to $1000 a month you can rent accommodation,buy inside fly tickets and eat a few times a day outside.
Boat ride at sunrise in Varanasi, India
Another option, which is growing in popularity very fast in our new on-demand economy, is to become a remote freelancer. Thanks to the revolution happening in the world economy and dramatically new digital marketplaces, by 2020 one in two people will work in online regime. The whole way we live and work will drastically be changed soon. Those who have certain digital skills, want to work independently and have the desire to travel, can do it nowadays relatively easily. It is easy to make a beginners income from $500 to $2500 if you have skills that you can sell remotely.

Smiling Tibetan Monks in Dharamsala, India

Cambodian Sisters in Phnom Penh

Old man in RIshikesh

Indian girl in Red Fort, Delhi, India

Another great way to partly fund your traveling is to involve yourself in volunteering projects, which can be easily found, especially in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. For example, by teaching locals your native language, you can be granted free accomodation and/or free meals. We met a wonderful french couple in India, which has been living for a long time in Kazakhstan, in the house of a local family, in exchange of French classes to their children. You can choose other fields, such as teaching art or computer literacy, just check some websites of reliable volunteering organizations working around the world or take a peek at www.workaway.info. In some programs you can even earn a bit of extra cash for your travels. Also, you can check expat portals in a specific country for the vacancies regarding private language tutoring – for English native speakers the demand is pretty high.
Dressed up with the help of our host family and ready to take part in the ceremony, Bali
No doubt, staying with a local family is the best option to immerse yourself fully with local culture, learn the language and get some tips about the location you are visiting. That is, if you don’t mind loosing a bit of privacy. For this there are two popular ways: one is couchsurfing and the other is airbnb. The first option is free, but requires from you availability and the right mindset. The second is a room or flat rental system, which allows you to rent directly from the locals. Sometimes rooms in peoples houses,other timeentireapartments.
Local family with whom we stayed in Bukit, Bali

WHAT DID I LEARN?

The more world you see – the more open you become to others and surprisingly to yourself. I’ve stopped judging other people and other countries in terms of “the worst” or “the best”. I’ve learnt that even a slight judgement requires you to spend a lot of time learning the history, understanding the culture and being aware of the current context of the person or country you are judging.

In India, I was surprised how poor people accept their situation and destiny. It could be easily explained by deeply rooted ideas that come from Hinduism – you get what you deserve on the merit of what you’ve done in your previous life. That is why many of these people don’t even try to change their lives.

By traveling, I ceased to take seriously any nationalism, and become less prone to digest “traditional values” of certain individuals and countries. Global citizenship doesn’t seem to me a crazy idea anymore – it is something that is coming our way and those who are ready should embrace it.

I learnt that basically all people are the same, they want and strive for the same things: they want happiness for their families, good schooling, elimination of poverty and tolerance. All other things that differentiate us are becoming less and less important. Now I am in Malaysia, and, for example, only one thing here is completely unusual to me – it is left-side driving.

Grandmother and grandson in Vietnam

Backstreets Boys in Old Delhi, India

Photo stories

Dharamsala postcards

Gallery June 13, 2015 Anna Lebedeva 4 Comments

Tibet in Himalayan Dharamkot

Two weeks in Dharamkot was the best time we spent while travelling – we merged ourselves with nature in ‪Himalaya‬ hidden small village‪, 2 km from town Dharamsala, where ‪Tibetan‬ government and ‪Dalai Lama‬ reside in exile.

Despite being completely tourist place, Dharamkot is very peaceful, welcoming and fresh, especially at this time of the year in ‪India‬ (spring and summer time), where many people go to escape the heat, that is prevalent now in popular beach sites as ‪Goa‬ and ‪Kerala‬.

Small village Bhagsu, 2 km from Dharamsala

Dharamkot village in Dharamsala, India

Famous “Tibet Quality Bakery” in McLeod Gan

Set breakfast in “Trek and Dine” cafe

Souvenir market in McLeod Ganj

Souvernir maket in McLeod Ganj

Streets of McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, India

Streets of central McLeod Ganj

Nunchy’s cage in McLeod Ganj

Be careful with monkeys on your way from Dharamkot village to Dharamsala, India

Monkeys are everywhere, the road from Dharamkot village to Dharamsala

Monkeys are everywhere, Dharamkot, Dharamsala, India

Detail of Temple

Hotel in Bhagsu village, Dharamsala

View over Bhagsu village in Dharamsala

Roads of Bhagsu village

Bhagsu village in Dharamsala

Children in Bhagsu

Natural pools in Bhagsu, Dharamsala, India

Natural pools in Bhagsu village

View of Kangra valley

The road to Bhagsu waterfalls

Bhagsu waterfall

The road to Bhagsu waterfalls

Indian guy selling souvenirs in Bhagsu, Dharamsala

The road to waterfalls in Bagsu

The Road to Bhagsu waterfalls, Dharamsala

Beautiful Bhagsu waterfalls

Travelers are resting in Bhagsu waterfalls

Butterflies around Bhagsu waterfalls

Amazing view around Bhagsu waterfalls

Paintings on stone

Follow the flow with StayGypsy

Stone footpaths to Bhagsu waterfalls

Dharamkot village in Dharamsala

McLeod Ganj center

Stone decor

Tibetan Monks and Tibetan people praying in the Dalai Lama Temple in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala

Tibetan Monks are praying in the Dalai Lama Temple in McLeod Ganj

The Dalai Lama Temple

View over Kangra valley

Water reflection

On the way from Dharamkot to Bhagsu

Musician, we met in Bhagsu

View over Kangra valley in the Himalayas

Anna is posing while walking around Dharamkot and Bhagsu

Simple life in Dharamkot, Dharamsala, India

Simple life in Dharamkot village

Dharamkot, India

Cottages in Bhagsu

Dharamkot lanes in Dharamsala

Sunset in Dharamkot village

Testing coffee in “Trek and Dine”

Tibetan Monks in the Dalai Lama Temple in McLeod Ganj

Kangra valley in Himachal Pradesh

The talks

Anna Stavenskaya talks about solo traveling and working online

June 12, 2015 Anna Lebedeva Leave a comment

I could say it’s not an easy path, but if somebody really wants to travel, he/she will do it anyway. Just be brave, and follow your heart.

Name: Anna Stavenskaya
Age: 22
Nationality: Russia
Current Location: Singapore
Employment: Graphic Designer
Contact: eppelas@gmail.com

Anna Stavenskaya, online freelancer, traveling the world — Anna working really hard at the library – or trying

We were lucky enough to have a talk with Anna, a passionate solo traveler, graphical designer and photographer. She has worked for VKontakte (biggest social network in Russia), for Look at Me (online media trending website) and Rolling Stone Russia magazine. Although she travels always alone, her trips go for months, she works both as a freelancer online and also offline in a more traditional fashion. Independent of that she keeps on going. When we talked to her she was in Singapore and wrote to us from the airport.

StayGypsy: How long have you been traveling and where are you now?
Anna Stavenskaya: Well, I’ve started my way around a year and a half ago, but I cannot say I was ‘travelling’ all the time. For almost a year I was just living in Thailand and from time to time I went to explore some countries around. Right now I’m in Singapore – really love it here and I’m ready to stay for long time.

SG: In that time which countries did you visit?

AS: This time in Asia I’ve visited 10 countries, including Abkhazia, I’ve visited it when working in the Olympic Games in Sochi, just a few days before I flew to Asia. I can say Sochi was the point where I’ve started my way.

SG: You work while traveling right? How do you find your clients or are they contacts you made previously?
AS: Now I’m working for a company. Some people from that company knew me already, we used to work together a few years ago, and when they started looking for a graphic designer they just wrote me. It was 6 months ago and now we are doing a big interesting project about knowledge together. Before that I was using Odesk / Upwork for freelance work along with some work friends asked me to do from time to time. Also, Chiang Mai (Thailand) is perfect for looking for clients. There are so many cafes and co-workings, and so many people who have their own projects and online business, that you can easily find work since most of them need designers for their projects.

Anna Stavenskaya at Chiang Mai's TEDx event, Thailand — Anna at Chiang Mai’s TEDx event

SG: Usually how much time do you spend in a country?
AS: As I already said I was living in Thailand for almost a year, but in other countries I usually stay from two weeks to a month. Two weeks isn’t really enough to explore a country, there are so many places to see and so little time!

SG: I know you couchsurf but you also book and rent. Tell us a bit more about how you plan and go on about staying in a new place?
AS: I only rented a place in Chiang Mai. In the first week I was living at a friends’ place, and then found apartments for rent. It’s easy there, just take a walk. For all other countries I did couchsurfing (not that much), stayed with friends, stayed in guest houses or shared apartments with somebody. I don’t plan that much. I like to decide everything on the place. For me it’s easy, I only have a small bag and can just walk around for a couple hours, look for a place or guesthouse I like and get in. Sometimes, this way, you can find people who will help you or give you some recommendation. In India I was simply walking along the road and one guy asked me if he could help. In the end he just called to some friends and I became roommate of a girl friend of him for three weeks. That was a nice experience.

SG: What are your thoughts on couchsurfing? Would you recommend it to others and why?
AS: I recommend it for people who really want to explore the country, meet locals and share experiences, not just to stay for free. For ‘true’ couchsurfing you should give back to people a lot. Your energy, your help, try to make the place where you stay a bit better, do something good for the person who host you, speak and ask questions as much as you can. Staying with locals is one of the best ways to explore a country. They will show you their city by different eyes, and usually it’s really cool. Especially if you like to learn more about different cultures and different people. I also like it because it gives a lot of emotions, more than you could have in a hostel or traveling alone. I’ve met a lot of friends because of couchsurfing, and we’re still good friends and still keep in touch. I believe couchsurfing isn’t about free hosting, but more about finding new friends and exploring a country in a different way. When I was living in a house in Chiang Mai we also hosted couchsurfers. I’ve met so many people from around the world, with different stories, different wishes, different views on everything and different experiences. And it felt nice to show them my favourite places, as well as exploring something new together.

I believe couchsurfing isn’t about free hosting, but more about finding new friends and exploring a country in a different way.

SG: How do you organise your daily work? Do you work everyday or set some days just for doing non-work related stuff?
AS: Before I was working a few days a week and then had one/two days for rest and exploring the city. Now I’m moving a lot and want to see and explore something every day so instead of taking 1 or 2 days just to see things I work less hours per day but a bit every day. Definitely the first way is more convenient, when I concentrate in work for most of the daytime and later have full days to do something for my self. When I’ll get stuck somewhere for a longer period of time, I’ll get back to my work/weekend days again.

SG: For people wanting to travel and work what advices and resources you think are worth sharing?
AS: Wow, you know… I’m not really good at giving advices. I think it’s better for everyone to find their own way, since we’re different and have different wishes and interests. I had a hard first 7 months until I found my way. Sometimes I was living without money, did some work for really low rates just for portfolio, had a lot of stress. I finally found what I was looking for, but it was kinda hard and I don’t think it’s the right way for everyone. So instead of talking about that, the thing I really would like people to do is to follow their hearts. And don’t give up. This is all that is important. Maybe also be friendly and tolerant, and making more local friends.

SG: Is graphic design a good option for people looking to work remotely?
AS: If you’re a good designer and able to discipline yourself, then, for sure. But there are a lot of options for working during travelings. Some people work on farms, some teach English (in local schools or by skype), some write or help in writing blogs, some do translations, some start their own online business. I think there isn’t really a formula on what should you do to be successful and be able to travel. I could say it’s not an easy path, but if somebody really wants to travel, he/she will do it anyway. Just be brave, and follow your heart.

SG: How do you calculate how much you charge? Do you have a specific system you use?
AS: For now I have my fixed salary. Before I charged the same price I would charge in Russia. Maybe it’s a bit lower than international standards but I don’t feel good when I charge more than it should be. In Asia I don’t need that much money to live so it’s more about interesting projects and not about money.

SG: What is your substitute for a regular office? Cafes, home, co-work places or any others? Where do you normally work?
AS: I like to work in cafés because there is some people around, but still it’s not too loud. When I need to concentrate I go to a library or stay at home. And sometimes my office is a bar on a beach or a 44-hour train in India. I think after some time I get used to being comfortable with what I have right now. I’m writing this text while seating on the floor at the airport and feel like it’s convenient enough.

SG: You’re a woman, I’m curious, with how much stuff do you travel?
AS: I hate big bags, so I have one small backpack and usually a small extra bag. Of course after some time staying at one place we start accumulating more stuff. But before starting to travel again I do something like a “revision”, just throw out some things or give them to my friends. There isn’t that much stuff that we really need.

SG: Is it safe to travel alone? You’ve been to quite a few countries, which were the best for a solo-woman traveler and the worst? AS: I have a theory that all supposed problems are in our minds. We find that which we want to find. For me, I believe that Asia is the safest part of the world. People here are so open, friendly and ready to help. In the end it’s that that I see around and it’s what actually happens with me. Although I know some people who had lots of troubles there. Most of the time we’re the biggest reason for our troubles, even if we don’t think so (of course we don’t think so, our brain doesn’t want to feel guilty, but it’s truth, we are the only ones who create our own problems). Be nice with people but be careful as well. Asia is quite safe… There are only a few places I wouldn’t go alone again and wouldn’t recommend to go alone – Malaysia and some parts of India. I’m not really a careful person so I could get into problems there and I was almost getting into them. It’s not that safe because of the culture and the way some people think about woman in general and particularly about woman from Western cultures. At the same time I know a few girls who were travelling and living there for a long time and had delightful experiences about the countries and the people there.

For me, I believe that Asia is the safest part of the world. People here are so open, friendly and ready to help.

Northern Vietnamese fisherman - Traditional one feet rowing

Anna in the fields with mountains in the background

SG: Up until now, which was the country you most enjoyed being and why?
AS: I really love those unique countries like Myanmar and Nepal. Mostly because of the people but also because of the beautiful nature and cities. It’s a different kind of beauty, with unique costumes, unique textures, handicrafts, etcetera. I love it as a designer, these places inspired me a lot. I also enjoyed my life in Thailand. And for now I’m falling in love with Singapore.

SG: Which is your next location?
AS: I was thinking about going to Taiwan and Hong Kong, two places I’m curious about. But let’s see, my plans don’t work out most of the time. (laughing)

SG: Where would you like to be and what you would like to be doing in 5 years?
AS: I love to work with statistics and data and want to become a professional infographer. Now I’m learning html/ccs/java script, so later I could do my infographics more oriented towards web and interactive displays. Also I like to take pictures and wish to work for some magazine. Regarding where – seriously, I have no idea. I would like to stay in one place for a long time, learn more about the culture in that place and learn a new language. For some reason I was thinking about Serbia.

5 things about Singapore

It’s unbelievable green. It’s a small country, but it’s really different due to the mixture of different nations and people who live here. You’re not allowed to smoke here. Often in buildings you will find something like gardens, sport courts, playgrounds or just viewpoints on the rooftop. English here sounds like Chinese and the locals call it Singlish.

Which are the best parts of the city to stay? The cheapest area is Little India and Chinatown, there’s nice local food and it’s close to the main touristic destinations.

Your favourite dish? I love a dish called ‘Carrot Pie’. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s not a carrot pie at all, still I like it (smile). You can find my favourite version of it for just 4 SGD (around 3 US dollars) in the Chomp Chomp Food Centre close to Serangoon Garden Circus. It’s a bit far from downtown though.

The best places to go on a rock & roll night? Wow, I’m usually too tired before night. (laughs) Local people told me about the riverside close to the Clarke Quay subway station. It’s also a nice place to walk during daytime so you can visit it anyway.

Things worth doing while in Singapore? Run around a building on the heights of a 50th floor! Explore the Cloud Forest in the Gardens by the Bay and take a walk on the Marina Bay Sands skywalk.

Local words/expressions worth knowing? At the end of almost every sentence the Singaporeans say ‘lah’. Some words sound a bit different here, for example instead of ‘nine ‘ people say ‘naish’. Badass is a popular word here. And it’s not a bad word it’s more like an expression about how cool somebody is. ‘She just threw out half of her belongings, she’s such a badass’.

You can check Anna’s photography at eppelas.com and some of her design/illustration on behance.net; if you want to follow her travels find her on Instagram as eppelas

Photo stories

Rishikesh postcards

Gallery June 8, 2015 Anna Lebedeva 4 Comments

Rishikesh – place where mystics hang out

When we arrived to ‪‎Rishikesh‬, at the backpackers’ community around the Lakshman Jhula bridge, we were pretty surprised and could not believe that this is an Indian town. Before we had spent a week in ‪Varanasi‬, which made us think that ‪India‬ is a very beautiful and amazing place, but could be pretty dirty.

But Rishikesh appeared to be a place that is very taken care of, hidden in nature, at the foothills of the Himalayas, where an absolutely clean and fast-flowing Ganga starts its way.

View StayGypsy post on Rishikesh here