Marek

 Current location: back at home

Last update: June 9, 2004

Departure from USA: June 17, 2003
Departure from Brno: July 6, 2003
Return: April 2, 2004


Jitka
Trip updates

WE HAVE CIRCLED THE GLOBE AND RETURNED HOME


June 2004
6/8 - Today we finished our diaries and also published pictures from the remaining countries. However, this website is not finished yet. We are planning to add some additional practical information in the near future.


May 2004
5/17 - We would like to apologize for the delay, but coming back to America, returning to our jobs and moving to a temporary apartment left us with no time to work on our website. However, things have settled down now and we have again started to work on our diary and photo pages.


April 2004
4/2 - In nine months we circled the globe and returned to Brno, the starting point of our trip. (Our webpages are not yet finished though. We will soon add photographs and diaries from New Zealand and South America, as well as other information.)


March 2004
3/31 - We are focusing on culture in Buenos Aires - we went to a jazz concert, took a lesson of Argentinian tango and have tickets for an Argentinian musical for tonight.
Today is also the last day of our trip before flying back to Czech Republic.
3/29 - We arrived at our last stop of the trip - capitol of Argentina, Buenos Aires.
Before that we really enjoyed the impressive Iguazu Falls. It is quite a sight (and quite some noise).
3/26 - Another 22h on a bus brought us to the border between Brazil and Argentina. We are near the Iguazu Falls which we are going to explore tomorrow and the day after.
Rio de Janeiro is a beautifully located city on the shore among steep hills, with many beaches and bays. However, inside the city there is lots of traffic and we were not much impressed.
3/24 - We are finally in Rio de Janeiro. It is nice and warm here.
3/23 - We are at the airport and waiting for a flight to Rio. Technical problems with the aircraft are the cause for the delay.
Santiago is not full of tourist attractions, but it appears to have the highest concentration of ice-cream shops in the world. We also managed to make a one day trip to the foothills of the Andes.
3/19 - We are in South America. Santiago welcomed us with sun and 80F.
In the last two days on the New Zealand´s North Island we visited some geothermal areas and Maori cultural village and trekked the famous Tongariro Crossing (there are some beautiful and colourful formations inside the craters in this area).
3/16 - Yesterday it required a two-hour rally on narrow roads along bays to catch the evening ferry to the North Island. We arrived on the minute and succesfully crossed. Today we visited the excellent National Museum in Wellington. We are leaving the city for the country again - destination volcanos.
Yesterday we went for a trek along the coast in the Abel Tasman N.P.
3/13 - Fiords, rain forests, lakes, mountains, glaciers. We spent the last three days in the Fiordlands N.P., made several great treks and went for a cruise in the famous Milford Sound. The weather turned nice.
3/9 - We really like it here. It feels like being on vacation again. Just the weather forecast talks about heavy rains and floods. We hope to escape both.
3/6 - We are finally in New Zealand. There are apparently many tourists here, we could not find a rental car or accomodation tonight. So we ended up camping and will pick up a car tomorrow. It is over with the tropical weather, we will have to unwrap our sleeping bags again.
3/5 - Today we walked through Sydney and also took a ferry to one of the beaches. Sydney is a very nice city with beautiful beaches, relaxed atmosphere and interesting landmarks such as the Opera. On the top of that we had great weather today. We are leaving for New Zealand tomorrow.
The Great Barrier Reef was truly great. We did not have the best weather - it was windy and it rained, but under the water it did not matter that much. Just the boat trip there and back was not much fun - luckily we had enough Dramamine pills with us.
3/2 - We are in Cairns and will visit the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow.
It was hot and sticky in Kakadu. We wanted to camp, but had to give up except for one night - we need battery operated A/C for our tent. Otherwise it was good.


February 2004
27/2 - We left Asia and a night flight brought us this morning to Darwin. We had 2 hours of sleep and are looking at 200km of driving on the ``wrong`` side of the road - we are heading directly to the Kakadu National Park.
25/2 - Today we returned to Singapore and tomorrow evening we fly to Darwin in Australia.
Kuala Lumpur is a modern city, but not as clean and pleasant as Singapore. We liked the Museum of Islamic Art with its exposition of the most important mosques in the world.
22/2 - We arrived in Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia.
However, our first stop in Malaysia was the historical town of Melaka. Since the old town is rather small, we stayed only one night.
2/20 - We like Singapore. We took it easy and spent some good relaxing time here. Today we saw beautiful botanical gardens and now we are heading for a night safari. Tomorrow we are going to Malaysia.
2/16 - Thanks to an unplanned delay, we spent one day in Dubai. We will continue to Singapore tomorrow morning.
2/15 - 14h bus trip returned us to Nairobi. We are flying to Singapore tonight.
2/13 - We are back in Dar es Salaam. Tomorrow we will take a bus to Nairobi.

NEWS:
We are cutting our trip short, returning to Vienna on April 2.
Marek is going back to work. We will circle the globe, but it will be very fast (1 week in Singapore/Malajsia, 2 weeks in Australia, 2 weeks in New Zealand, 2 weeks in South America). (See more details in section Itinerary.)
Accident
We have been mugged by two men on a beach in Zanzibar. They did not manage to steal anything, but Marek ended up with several cut wounds on his forearms and 22 stitches. Jitka was unharmed. Police was not helpful, but the doctor seemed good.

Despite the accident, we gave Zanzibar another chance and spent a few relaxing days on the Nungwi beach in the north. The sea was really beautiful there!
2/5 - We are on the island of Zanzibar, former arabic trade center (ivory, spices, slaves). We were dissapointed with Stone town, one of the major attractions here (we have seen more appealing towns). Last night a thunderstorm came that lasted all night. It still rains today.
2/2 - Today we arrived in Dar es Salaam. We will probably stay a day or two to take care of some arrangements. From here we plan to continue to the island of Zanzibar.
In Lushoto we spent two days hiking in the hills among tribal villages.


January 2004
1/29 - Tomorrow we are leaving for Lushoto, a small town in the Usambara Mountains. We are planning to do a several day trek among the villages in the mountains.
1/28 - Safari was amazing!
1/24 - We left Kenya and entered Tanzania for a few weeks. We are in Arusha, a center for arranging safaris to the most interesting national parks of Tanzania. From Sunday till Wednesday we will be on a safari to Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater.
1/20 - We arrived in Nakuru. Couple nights ago we camped among zebras near the little town of Naivasha.
1/16 - We are leaving Nairobi for a one week tour of Rift Valley.
1/13 - We landed in Nairobi. It is quite warm here on the equator. The city is full of people. We have couple of administrative days ahead of us (visa to Tanzania etc.).
1/11 - We have changed the plans for the rest of our trip. We are expecting to spend 7 weeks in Africa (Kenya, Tanzania), then 1 week in Asia (Singapore, Malaysia), 2 weeks in Australia, 6 weeks in New Zealand and the rest of the trip in south America (Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil). Anybody wants to bet whether we stick to this plan?
1/8 - Our stay in the Czech Republic is approaching its end. We returned from our skiing trip to the Austrian Alps yesterday - great! We are leaving for Nairobi on Monday.


HALF-TIME. At the end of our grand five-month tour of Asia we decided to take vacation and spend Christmas with our parents in the Czech Republic.

December 2003
12/14 - Today we arrived in Delhi. We made a short visit of the city and tomorrow early morning we fly via Moscow to Prague.
We liked Jodhpur. There is a very impressive and well preserved fort there that is still owned and maintained by the Jodhpur`s Maharadja.
12/11 - Jodhpur - we arrived today.
Yesterday we went for a four hour camel ride in the desert and then we watched sunset in sand dunes.
12/9 - Jaisalmer is a beautiful little town in a desert, close to the border with Pakistan. We are staying in a hotel inside an old fort and are spending the days admiring local architecture and enjoying the warm weather.
12/4 - We arrived to Jaipur. We plan to make a brief visit of the city tomorow and then in the evening leave by a night bus for Jaisalmer.
12/3 - On our way to Jaipur we stopped in Bharatpur to visit the Keoladeo National Park (a bird sanctuary with over 300 bird species).
Today we made a trip to the immigration office in Delhi (4h by train, 1h by riksha, 1/2h at the office, 1h by riksha, 4h by train). We managed to extend our visa till the date of our flight tickets (December 15).


November 2003
11/30 - Agra. Khajuraho is a nice quiet place (just like Hampi) and we liked it there very much (the temples are beautiful). Today we have arrived in Agra.
11/27 - After two days on the road we arrived in Khajuraho (Hindu temples from the 10th century). Khajuraho appears to be a quiet place and we plan to stay here for two or three days.
11/24 - We are in India once again. Unpleasant bus trip and a night in a misserable hotel was followed by reasonably comfortable train ride. Now we are in the most sacred Hindu city - Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganga river.
11/22 - We are back from the trek. It was great, though very demanding (who would expect that in the Himalayas :-) ). We met some Maoist, but they were only requesting money - we managed to escape without paying (and without use of force). Tomorrow we are leaving for India.
11/12 - Tomorrow we are leaving for the Jomsom trek in the Annapurna range. We plan to spend about 10 days in the mountains.
11/10 - Pokhara offers better environment for recuperation than Kathmandu. The Annaputna mountains are hidden in clouds for now, but as soon as they reappear we will set out for a trek.
11/7 - We spent one week in Kathmandu. Jitka is slowly recovering from food poisoning that forced us to visit a hospital. Tomorrow we leave for Pokhara.
11/1 - Kathmandu. We have passed through the Tibetan plateau, crossed the Himalayas and descended into Nepal (the first non-communist country after almost three months - the immigration officer`s ``Welcome to Nepal!`` was heartwarming after the difficult trip through Tibet and a nice change in dealing with government officials!)
We have seen many interesting sights and had great experiences in Tibet. On October 29 we set our feet on the ground of the Mt. Everest Base Camp!
We are planning to stay in Kathmandu for several days and finish writing our diaries from China and Tibet. Afterwards we will probably head to the mountains again.


October 2003
10/25 - Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Nepal (we will visit several other Tibetan villages and monasteries and Everest base camp on the way). We should be in Kathmandu on October 31.
10/24 - We are back in Lhasa. The 80km trek between Ganden and Samye monasteries that included visit of several remote Tibetan villages, encounters with nomads and crossing of two mountain passes above 5200m was clearly one of the highlights of our trip. Now we have 2 days before our trip to Nepal.
10/18 - We have slowly acclimatized and visited the most important monasteries in and around Lhasa. The last two days we spent at the sacred lake Namtso (4700 m).
Tomorrow morning we leave for a 5-day trek between Ganden and Samye monasteries. We expect to return to Lhasa on October 24 or 25. On October 26 we join with another Czech couple for a 6-day landcruiser trip from Lhasa to Nepal (including Mt. Everest base camp).
10/11 - Lhasa. We are in Tibet! (We flew in from Chengdu this afternoon.)
10/9 - We arived to Chengdu.
10/7 - We have visited major Beijing attractions (Forbidden City, Summer Palace, The Great Wall, etc.) and today we went to see an opera. Tomorrow we are leaving by train for Chengdu (27h).
10/3 - Beijing. We have arrived today and plan to stay for about one week. The weather here is like Indian summer - very pleasant.
Before coming to Beijing we visited Yungang caves near the city of Datong. These caves are famous for their buddhist carvings (over 50,000 images) from the 5th - 6th century.


September 2003
9/28 - We are in Pingyao, charming old town from the times of Ming dynasty (14th-17th century). It is the best preserved city from that period in the entire China.
We spent previous several days in the historical city of Xi`an (capitol of the first Chinese empire, famous for the discovered army of Terracotta warriors).
9/23 - Change of plans. Tonight we leave for Xi`an (33h by train). Then we will slowly continue towards Beijing. (The change is due to the fact that there are national holidays in the first week of October during which everybody travels and everything is full - which we did not know.)
9/20 - Kunming. This morning we arrived by a night bus to Kunming. Our first goal in China is to find out how to get to Tibet. From Kunming we plan to go to Beijing and then back across China to Tibet and Nepal.
9/19 - Sapa. We spent the last four days in the mountains of northern Vietnam. There are high peaks, deep valleys filled with terraced rice fields and beautifully dressed hill tribe people working in the fields. Sapa and its surroundings made it to the top few most beautiful places we have ever seen.
9/14 - We have returned from a three-day trip to Halong Bay.
9/10 - Hanoi. Due to the lack of time we decided to skip central Vietnam and flue directly to the capitol. Now we can be exploring Halong Bay and the northern Vietnam until September 18, which is the latest date we need to enter China.
9/6 - Cantho. We experienced an unexpected delay in Chau Doc in southern Vietnam. We both were on antibiotics for five days (Jitka had tonsillitis, Marek bronchitis. Well, that was the diagnosis, anyway.) Yesterday we arrived in Cantho. Today we hired a boat and explored cannals of the Mekong delta. We are leaving for Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow, where we need to extend our visas.


August 2003
8/30 - Mekong delta. We have entered Vietnam. We are planning to spend several days in the Mekong delta.
8/28 - Phnom Penh. We were pleasently surprised by the capitol of Cambodia. The Royal Palace can almost compete with the one in Bangkok.
We are taking a boat down to the Mekong delta in Vietnam tomorrow.
8/26 - Angkor. We devoted three days to the exploration of the Khmer empire ruins. Angkor is truly unique. Cambodians also seem to be very nice and friendly.
8/22 - Bangkok. We are leaving for Cambodia tomorow morning. By the end of the day we should be in the center of an old Khmer empire, Angkor Wat.
8/21 - Vientiane. Bangkok. We stayed in Vientiane only for a short time. We are back in Bangkok now. We plan to buy some additional supplies and continue to Cambodia.
8/17 - Luang Prabang. Two-day boat trip on the Mekong river brought us to the royal city of Luang Prabang. The river flows through very sparsely populated jungle in the mountains. We are planning to stay here for couple of days, hopefully making some trips to the surrounding villages.
8/13 - Chiang Mai, Chian Rai and hill tribes of nothern Thailand. We rented a motorcycle and made a trip around Chiang Rai. We trekked in the jungle and got to a remote hill tribe village.
8/11 - Historical sites We have visited three sites that are on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites (Ayuthaya, Sukhothai, Si Sachanalai). We have learned a lot about Thai history.
8/6 - northern Thailand. Our `vacation` is over. We really enjoyed the ocean, sun and good food. Now it is time for more exploring! We are planning to make a small circle through northern Thailand, Laos (boat trip down the Mekong river) and then back to Bangkok.
We have obtained our Vietnamese visa. They are valid August 10 to September 10.
We have updated our website with diary, photos and one story from India.


July 2003
7/29 - Ko Samui. We are enjoying our beach vacation. We found great accommodation on a quiet sandy beach. It is 10m from our cabin to the ocean (13m during low tide). The beach is small and quiet and there are some corals too. We rented a small motorbike to move around the island.
7/25 - Bangkok. We spent several days in the city. Jitka mostly recovered. We have seen some of the major temples and tasted the famous Thai food - really excellent. The next plan is to spend a few quiet days at a beach in the southern Thailand (weather permitting). We are leaving Bangkok Saturday night.
7/21 - Bangkok. So we are in the SE Asia. Unfortunately, Jitka is sick (flu?), so there will be some required treatment for a few days. After the night flight we slept the entire afternoon.
Mumbai. We spent one day in Mumbai (originally Bombay). We explored just a small part of the city, but we did not find it exciting.
7/18 - Hampi, historical capital of southindian empire Vijayanagar, is a beautiful and very interesting place. The current village has a very relaxing atmosphere and there are many ruins of Hindu palaces around. Today we are leaving for Mumbai (some 27h journey). We are considering breaking the trip just before Mumbai and getting to the city only before our flight to Thailand on July 21 (4am).
We have posted pictures from the wedding and from the Toda funeral!
7/15 - Our stay in Nilgiri Hills was very educational. We have learned about hill tribes Toda and by chance had the opportunity to attend a traditional funeral. (Details will follow once we get time to sort out and type our notes)
7/12 - Attending Brahman wedding was a fabulous beginning of our trip. Pictures and observations will be coming soon. We have left the very hospitable environment provided by our friend`s family in Coimbatore and moved on to Ooty (a hill station in mountains north of Coimbatore) today. We plan to stay here for several days and then continue north.
7/7 - We have arrived to India. No problems with the flight. We are staying in a nice hotel in the center of the town.

Planning updates:

June 2003
7/5 - We finished our trip preparations. We are leaving tomorrow. We made several changes to our website to make it more readable. We have also quickly added several pictures from our stay in the Czech Republic.
6/25 - Today we picked up our Chinese visa in Prague. This was the last major administrative thing we needed to accomplish before our departure.
6/19 - We are staying with our parents in Brno, Czech Republic. We said our good-bye to Minneapolis. Now we just cannot decide whether the trip has already started or whether the actual beginning will be our departure from Brno on July 6.
6/11 - We rented our house (the signed lease arrived on Monday). Our Indian visa arrived. Jitka finally recieved her extension of American visa! (along with documentation she needs to be allowed to leave USA next Tuesday).
6/4 - We became unemployed. Jitka`s last day at work was May 23, Marek finished today.
6/2 - We got our tickets! It took almost one month, but at the end we successfully obtained our Round-the-world tickets. We are leaving from Brno on July 6, direction India.

May 2003
5/14 - Change of itinerary. Due to the spread of SARS in China we have decided to eliminate Russia from our trip and modify plans in such a way that we could skip China.
We have bought our tickets from Minneapolis to Brno (June 17).
We are planning to start the trip on July 5.

April 2003
end of April - our trip was announced at Vital Images
4/19 - Russian visa: our contact to get private invitation (which would be the easiest way to obtain Russian visa) did not work out. We need to find a different way.
4/17 - Our website is online again. Within two hours of announcing its existence, our webhosting server went down and it took us 4 days to move to a different provider.

March 2003
Jitka and NCS Pearson resolved the situation and made a very good arrangement. Jitka is on unpaid leave. Jitka`s current position will be filled, but after her return, the company will attempt to find a new position for her. With this arrangement Jitka keeps her visa valid and should be able to return to US at will. We registered our own web domain and started to create web pages that we plan to maintain during our trip. We have decided not to sell our house and rent it instead. We have started the get-all-possible-and-impossible-visa process.

February 2003
At the beginning of February, we have announced to our bosses our intentions to go for a trip around the world. They were really good to us, understanding and supportive. Jitka`s company (NCS Pearson) immediately started to research immigration situation and the options to keep Jitka with the company and simplify her return.

 

New additions

6/8/2004

- Argentina: diary

- Brazil: diary

- Chile: diary

 

5/26/2004

- New Zealand: diary

- Australia: diary

5/24/2004

- Malaysia: diary

 

5/22/2004

- Kenya: diary

- Tanzania: diary

- Singapore/Dubai: diary

- New Zealand: diary

 

3/22/2004

- Australia: pictures

 

3/2/2004

- Malaysia: pictures

- Singapore/Dubai:pictures

- Tanzania: pictures

 

 

2/20/2004

- Kenya: pictures

 

1/17/2004

- Czech Republic - Christmas

 

12/17/2003

- India: diary

 

12/7/2003

- Nepal: diary

- Tibet: trek (pictures)

- Tibet: diary

 

11/10/2003

- China: diary

 

10/2/2003

- Vietnam: diary

 

9/6/2003

- Cambodia: diary

- Cambodia: Angkor (pictures)

- Thailand: Famous kingdoms (pictures)

 

8/22/2003
- Thailand: diary

- Laos: diary

 

8/4/2003
-India: diary

-India: Vijayanagar (story)

 

7/17/2003
- India: Toda funeral (pictures)
- India: wedding (pictures)

 

7/6/2003
- Czech Republic: diary