Since my trip in Israel in July last year, I didn’t go for a long trip again until last April. In March, I suddenly felt the urgent need to go on holidays! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any friends who were willing to go on a short notice, so I decided to go alone, something I always wanted to try. After a bit of investigation I found a cheap ticket to Nepal, and three weeks later I was on my plane!

I arrived very tired in Kathmandu after a two day journey, and a horrible night in New Dehli airport (not recommended). I wasn’t disappointed: Kathmandu was like no other city I had ever seen. By far the busiest! Even a bit too busy for my tired self so I stayed only one day. I moved on to visit Bodnath and its magnificent Stupa and the impressive Hindu temple of Pashupatinath. I continued and stopped for two days in Bhaktapur. I was also lucky enough to be in Bhaktapur at the time of the Bisket Jatra festival, to celebrate the Nepali New Year with the locals. This was a truly unbelievable experience: the whole city was packed and the atmosphere was incredibly festive.

Afterwards I left Kathmandu Valley and headed towards the town of Pokhara at the foot of the Himalayas. However I stopped halfway to stay one night in the lovely village of Bandipur. Rarely have I experienced such a warm welcome in a village: all the inhabitants were really friendly and the town very picturesque.

So finally I arrived in Pokhara, which was very disappointing to me, especially because of a heavy layer of fog that prevented me to see any mountains! But of course Pokhara was only the base to start my trekking in the Annapurnas. Due to a lack of time I took a flight to Jomsom and from there trekked up to Kagbeni and Muktinath and then all the way down to Marpha. I enjoyed the trek a lot, the scenery is stunning, the locals are lovely and the trek is varied and not too tough. However if I had to choose a trek again, I would probably go for another one as they very recently built a road along the trail and the tranquility is often disturbed by jeeps going by very fast and leaving a big could of dust behind them.

I finished my trip by visiting Kathmandu and Patan in depth and the monkey temple of Swayambunath.

To conclude, I’ve had a fabulous experience in Nepal. I won’t forget the lovely people there who have been so friendly all along my trip. It is also a precious mix of culture, landscapes, architecture and spirituality that is very rare. Traveling solo has never been a problem either: I’ve met loads of people and have experienced the culture much more than I ever had before on trips with friends. This is certainly an experience that I recommend to everybody to try once in their life. And to be really honnest: I don’t think it will be my last solo trip!

The pictures from my 10 days trip to New York are uploaded to PicturesFromEarth. Visiting New York was a great experience. So many movies were filmed in New York that a lot of places already looked familiar. What really surprised me was how close my idea of New York was from reality. A strange but nice feeling!

I spent most of my time in Manhattan, and I was staying in a friend’s place in Upper East New York. The view from the rooftop was quite impressive. Central Park was only a few minutes away so I enjoyed a few walks in this huge park right in the heart of New York.
Of course we didn’t miss most of the most popular tourist attractions such as the Fifth Avenue, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street and the New York Stock exchange.
I spent my last day in the Bronx to see another facet of New York. Indeed the atmosphere in the Bronx is totally different from Manhattan. I finally couldn’t miss the Bronx Zoo, which is the largest metropolitan zoo in the United States.

We stayed two weeks in Cuba where we rented a car to cruise around the island. Here is a short story of our trip:

We landed in Varadero, and we didn’t stay more than half an hour in that town! It really should be avoided at all costs, it is full of horrible huge tourist hotels that totally ruin the beautiful place that Varadero must once have been. Unless you enjoy sunbathing on ugly beaches being surrounded by hundreds of other tourists, just avoid this place!

So instead we went straight to Santa Clara, which is an important town in Cuban history as it hosted the last battle of the cuban revolution in 1958. We had a look at Che Guevara’s monument there.
We really wanted to relax on a nice beach as well so we continued east until Cayo Coco, an island linked to the mainland by a 27 kilometers long road! The beaches there were very nice, even though we didn’t fell in love with the island which had a bit of a fake deserted holiday resort feel.
From there we headed back west towards Trinidad. On the way we stopped at the Manaca Iznaga, an old monument in la Valle de los Ingenios. There is an old tower which was used to watch the slaves in the fields. The view from the tower on the valley is really worth it.

We then finally arrived in Trinidad, which is a charming town where the colonial architecture is remarkably preserved. Trinidad was certainly one of the highlights of our trip. It is sometimes being referred to as a real life museum and we agreed with that. Not only the monuments and the architecture are typical, but the whole atmosphere just has a pleasant cuban feel.

We continued driving west stopping on the way to admire the Turkey Vultures or to go for a swim in the famous bay of pigs where the US unsuccessfully tried to invade Cuba in 1961.

The next stop for us was Viñales, where we stayed just next to a tobacco field in a lovely Casa particulares. The town and its surrounding valley have recently been listed as a world heritage cite by UNESCO. We were also lucky to find the world famous Alejandro Robaina tobacco plantations and had a visit of the fields and infrastructure. We even had the pleasure to meet Don Alejandro himself.

We reached the western part of Cuba and decided to rest a little in Maria La Gorda, a gorgeous place with white sand beaches and palm trees. It’s ideal for snorkeling and scuba diving as well.

Finally we concluded our trip by a few days in La Havana. A fascinating city with majestic colonial buildings that are sadly falling apart. It’s still a great experience and it feels as an experience back in time.

Some general tips and information:

• Life is expensive, don’t expect to have a cheap holiday. Tourists have to use a special currency (the CUC, peso convertible) that makes everything much more expensive for them.
• For hostels, I’d recommend Casa Particulares. These are places where the locals arrange some rooms in their houses to serve as a hostel. It’s nice because you really have the chance to meet the locals who are always really friendly.

We stayed in Madagascar for 15 days and had a great time. We landed in Antananarivo and stayed in the capital for two days, visiting local markets and going to nice restaurants.
We then took a taxi-brousse to Antsirabe, Madagascar’s capital of pousse-pousse‘s. There we found a guide that was willing to organise a 4×4 and a boat for us for the rest of the trip. We knew we didn’t have enough time to travel by taxi-brousse so this was our only option! Luckily we asked several people and chose the best deal.
So we went down the Tsiribihina River for three days which was a fantastic experience. The surroundings were lovely and there is always activity on the river banks to keep yourself entertained. We were sleeping in a tent on the river bank.
At our arrival we carried on to the Tsingy National park, with impressive rock formations that you can climb. The park is really well accommodated for visits, even though some parts can be scary because of the altitude.

We then went to Morondova, where we took an internal flight to Tulear to enjoy some days on the beach. On the way we stopped to admire the impressive Baobabs and the famous ‘Avenue des baobabs‘.

We decided to go in the nice fishermen’s village of Anakao, that I certainly recommend. The village is surrounded by beautiful white sand beaches. Three days of pure please and relaxation. Diving there is a must and should not be missed!

After three peaceful days we continued our trip with the visit of the Isalo National Park. A superb mix of arid canyons, natural pools, waterfalls and green forests filled with lemurs.
We also spent our last afternoon walking in the streets of Rahonira where people were extremely friendly and welcoming, as always in Madagascar.

This is certainly a trip I’d recommend to people attracted to nature and adventure. The nature in Madagascar is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, and you will encounter a lot of bizarre animals and plants.
We didn’t book anything in advance and improvised along the way which worked great. But be careful as we were visiting the country in September which isn’t the most busy month.

I hope you’ll enjoy this first album, many others are on their way!