Travels

At 07.00 we were already checking out at the hotel and ten minutes later Lety stamped his signature on the contract that will link us for the next three weeks (day up day down) to our new travel companion: Gambita! (don't get jealous Jordi). The name has been given by Lety because of its color and because in Kerala they eat death shrimp!

The alarm sounds at 06:30. Damn hellish apparatus, isn't it supposed that when you travel you can get up when you want? Well no, especially if the Rober is ready to start the new stage of our motorcycle trip through southern India. Cheer up! We leave from Mamallapuram, a great destination to spend a few days, and head towards Tiruvannamalai.

A tough motorcycle day awaits us today. Ahead over 230 km to Madurai, so we set our alarm clocks very early to see sunrise and set foot in dusty! We take a look at google maps and it seems that the road is pretty good, let's hope! We leave behind the tip of India to go inside Tamil Nadu.

In this second stage we leave Kerala to enter the fabulous, mysterious and ancient region of Tamil Nadu. It is the southernmost in the country and we are going to go to the south of the south, that is to the point of India, where 3 seas meet: more than Bengal, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. The city that awaits us is Kanyakumari.

If there is something that characterizes Rajastan (apart from the turbans and mustaches) they are the palaces and forts of their cities. We saw Jodhpur's, Jaipur's, Jaisalmer's, Bundi's but everyone was telling us ... you'll see Chittorgarh's: it's the prettiest of all! And so we rode a train to this little town lost by Rajastan, accompanied by a fog that seemed to be in London (and we who believed that India was hot and sunny!

Several people had advised us to go to Bundi, "it is very relaxing, very quiet ...". Well, the first thing we saw was not quiet at all. We arrived with the bus to one more Indian city: chaos, traffic, speakers… The disappointment would leave a few minutes later when we showed up at the piece of hotel that was waiting for us.

Kochi has been our particular Chiang Mai India. Why? Because here we have returned up to 4 times in our passage through southern India! The first to catch the flight to Maldives, the second returning from Sri Lanka, the third to rent the motorcycle and the fourth to return it and leave there by train to Hyderabad.

In India we have spent 3 months of madness, enjoying as dwarves with their people. We will always be grateful! And, although we cannot do much, rather than tell our stories lived in the blog, we have come up with a way to contribute our grain of sand. We want to collaborate with a solidarity association that works so hard with children and those in need.

Alone again. Jordi accompanied us for almost three great weeks in which we live everything! Now alone we both ended our passage through Sri Lanka in the beautiful city of Galle ... Galle is one of those places where history can be felt. Around 1,500 Portuguese, Dutch and British people passed through here, each leaving their mark.

Windy Welly, the city of wind ... Here Bender "the wind master" would find the sea of ​​good! Wellington welcomed us with his peculiar warm breath coming from the Strait of Cook as a welcome. Although we still don't know the south island of New Zealand, that wind somehow brings something from there and the desire to cross the strait is growing.

The first part of the trip through New Zealand led us to explore the north island in a circular route, leaving and arriving from / to the most cosmopolitan city in the country: Auckland, where we had a great time! A few weeks after landing at the antipodes we took our van and discovered a lot of super cool places, we got closer to the Maori culture and learned to live on the route, literally!

Still with the whales recorded in the retinas, we get on a busy new bus that leaves us on a couple of hours on the main street of Unawatuna. We like this site even before we know it… and it is that with such an exotic name it cannot disappoint us. And it doesn't: Unawatuna was the beach place we liked the most in Sri Lanka, too bad we only had 2 days of time to enjoy it ... well Jordi returns to Spain and we have to continue with our backpacking!

As we know that one of the biggest concerns of a backpacker in New Zealand is to find the places to park with the van, we have created a list with the “campsites” where you can park and sleep for free and legal with a van in New Zealand, with a description of our opinion of each one.

And after so much bug in Yala we started our routine on the beaches of Sri Lanka. We had already been to Nilaveli, on the east coast, but now we are going to discover those of the south coast. And we start with Tangalle. This area is famous for the turtles that arrive at the beach at night to lay their eggs.

As we know that one of the biggest concerns of a backpacker in New Zealand is to find the places to park with the van, we have created a list with the “campsites” where you can park and sleep for free and legal with a van in New Zealand, with a description of our opinion of each one.

After spending two months backpacking in Japan (or rather raking around Japan), we have learned some tricks to save ... in today's post we are going to give you a few reference prices from Japan to know exactly how much it costs to travel through this amazing country, In addition, we are going to give you some tips to make your trip as economical as possible 🙂 Eating in Japanese fast foods is priceless!

Today's journey is the shortest but perhaps the most beautiful we have done so far. Not surprisingly this route is called the Panoramic Route of the Beach. Well, we didn't see much beach, but we went through beautiful places in these two hours that it took us to reach Mamallapuram. Although if you have to define this path would be "short but intense".

As always the timing is not our forte and from Queenstown, about 3 months later, we tell you our route on one of the most beautiful roads in New Zealand: the Queen Charlotte Drive. Let's go in parts: it was the year 2014, well it is not that far, and we have just arrived for the first time to the south island after about 6 months in the north of New Zealand.

Christchurch February 28, 2015 Our room is in a mess: a sweatshirt lying on the floor, why not wear it, check-in papers, passports, flip flops, the swimsuit. And they, the backpacks ready to return to the adventure: yes, the time has come to leave New Zealand!

Miyajima is considered one of the 3 most important scenic places in all of Japan. Actually the most sought after image by tourists when they approach this small island south of Hiroshima is the huge torii inside the sea that welcomes Itsukushima Shinto shrine. However he himself gives us the main clue to understand that Miyajima is not just a torii ... the reason for being built inside the sea is none other than preserving the sacred character of the entire island, so, in ancient times, you could only disembark at the Shinto shrine by previously passing under this arch, to purify the soul of the traveler.