Travel Like a Local

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  • London – Gatwick Airport and Back

    London – Gatwick Airport and Back

    Gatwick airport is located nearly 28 miles south of London and it’s well linked to the city. It is conveniently located if you’re staying in the south-western area (around Victoria station, which is where most of the hotels are), but the airport is not always the main criterium to select a flight, is it? If your low cost plane flies to and/or from Gatwick, chances are that it will be at some inconvenient time, so it’s better to be ready for the city transfer in order to avoid some last minute panic (eventually ending with a costly cab ride).

    London – Gatwick connection by:

    • Train
    • Bus
    • Taxi
    • Sleeping rough at the Airport

    Train

    The train station is inside the airport, in the South terminal. To get to and from the North terminal there is a shuttle train.

    Gatwick Express

    If you want to get to London as quick as possible, cutting the airport transfer time, your best solution is Gatwick Express (www.gatwickexpress.com) high speed train that links Victoria Station in London to the airport in just half an hour. It’s more convenient to book it online as it’s cheaper and it would avoid you the queues at the vending machines at the airport. Getting a return ticket helps reducing the price even further.

    One-wat ticket: £19.90 (at the desk), £17.75 (online)
    Return ticket: £34.90 (at the desk), £31.05 (online)

    National Rail

    A solution which is slower (even if with a narrow margin sometimes) but definitely cheaper, is the local train. If it stops at every station it might take up to a hour, but it also costs half the Gatwick Express. If you check the National Rail website (nationalrail.co.uk) you might find special rates, even on trains nearly as fast as the Express. The rates fluctuate according to many factors such as the season, the day of the week, the hour, and go from roughly £8 to £20 each way. Overnight trains serve Gatwick airport every half hour from St Pancras and Black Friars, slightly less frequently from Victoria and London Bridge.

    To know more about the best ways to save money read the article about getting around Britain on the cheap.

    Bus

    If your flight is at some ridiculous time of the night (which might as well be the case if you’re flying low cost), or if value money over time (same as previous parenthetic), then you might want to opt for the bus. The national company (called, with a certain lack of imagination, National Express, www.nationalexpress.com), as well as other private companies such Terravision and Easybus, provide this service at any time of the day or the night. The price is usually between £5 and £9 each way, but EasyBus, if booked in advance, might be even cheaper. Consider though that their drop-off and pick-up point is near the West Brompton tube station.

    Important: Since I’ve seen too many people getting this wrong, I need to point out that the bus terminal is Victoria Coach Station, at the junction between Buckingham Palace Road and Elizabeth Street, 5 minutes walk (10 if you’re loaded with luggage) from the tube station.  If you’re getting here by taxi make sure that the cab driver is informed before you get in the car (or when you make the phone reservation) and that he’s aware of the difference: you need to go at the Coach Station, not at the tube or bus station. This is the map and post code, to avoid any misunderstanding: Victoria Coach Station, SW1W 9TP

    Taxi

    If you are staying in a central-south-west area of London, or you’re travelling in a group of 3-4 people, the cab is an option to be seriously considered. Especially if you’re travelling late night or early morning. The wisest thing to do is to ask the reception or whoever is hosting you, for the best local taxi companies.

    Sleeping rough in Gatwick

    If you have a early morning flight and none of the options above are appealing or feasible, then the benches in the airport are your only choice left! I’ve only checked the South Terminal and it offers an area suitable for overnight stays: lounge chairs and seat that, despite not being able to provide the most comfortable sleep of your life, are better than the average. The area, next to cafe nero, is quite bright so an eye mask might help.

    Anyone tried the North Terminal?

  • Sunset on Mandalay Hill

    Sunset on Mandalay Hill

    On our first day in Myanmar, we still believed that we could draft up a list of things we wanted to do and follow it. One of the obstacles to our plans was Maung Maung, a man different than all the others offering their taxi services: curly hair, thick wool sweater and exuberant personality. It was not long before we were heading towards Mandalay Hill, sharing the car with a French couple. Maung Maung entertained us with jokes, mostly political in a display of defiance, and when we arrived at destination he let us go without payment “I’ll wait you here“. A suspicious bell rang in our heads as we exchanged a quick look, but we accepted nevertheless. We would have needed a ride later and it was worth relying on him.

    The roofed stairway crawls up the side of the hill until the Sutaungpyei Pagoda at its top and, being a sacred place, it has to be tread barefoot. We left our sandals with a lady at the entrance and we planted our bare soles on the cold, dirty surface of the first stone step. It did get easier soon but our first contact with the local germs and fungi sent a shiver up our spine. The climb is less than 30 minutes and offers an interest insight: all along the stairway there are little souvenir shops which are also where people actually live. The terrace of the Pagoda offers a wide view on the city, the sunset raises a mist from the moat around the Royal Palace, surrounding it in a mysterious light. Despite the amount of people the atmosphere was quiet and friendly, people sat in circle talking to monks, others knelt in front of some of the many Buddha effigies.

    Before we even noticed it the light dimmed as dusk descended… how long had we spent there? Was Muang Muang still going to be there waiting for us? We shot down the stairway, avoiding the multitude of dozy dogs and waving at the families closing up shop while cooking dinner in front of the telly. Of course our driver was still there, we were actually within the agreed time and he still had to cash in. But he looked less enthusiastic than when we left him, and he wanted to upsell us some tour.
    The more resolutely he insisted the more stubbornly we declined. The more we declined his offers the more he became disappointed and pushy. Eventually he told one of his jokes, and normal service was resumed.

    Probably your best bet for a taste of local cuisine is one of the numerous, often nameless, tea houses along the road: concrete floor, plastic chairs, green tea bottle always on the table. However they seemed to be a long shot from the hygienic standards we are used to and we wanted to get accustomed more gradually. So we opted for the Lashio Lay, suggested on our brilliant guide: typical Shan food and slightly more clean than the average, without being a polished anodyne eatery for squeamish tourists. It was so good that during our stay we ate there three times. The staff was friendly, English was not widely spoken there but it was not necessary as there isn’t a menu and orders are taken as “point at what you want”. All of their food is displayed in tubs at the entrance, you tell them what you’d like to eat and they’ll serve you the little dishes with a huge bowl of steamed rice, a soup and their green tea.

    Back at the hotel we were reminded by the staff that it was Christmas and we accepted their invitation to join the party at the top floor. The view was good, there are not many tall buildings, but everything was so dark that all we could spot was some lonely vehicle’s headlight slowly piercing the pitch-black road. We were the only tourists in the majestic saloon, with as many staff members as customers. On the stage the amateur band was testing out their acoustic repertoire of international classics and local tunes, completely ignored by the guys necking a bottle of Johnny Walker at the table near us. I know the description doesn’t make it all glamorous, and in fact it wasn’t, but it was somehow brilliant and we absolutely enjoyed it even if we probably arrived a bit too late and miss the climax of the party.
    The waitress brought us more beer, with some chapati-like snacks while the band silently packed up and left the room and the last scooter wobbled along the road, under the windows.

  • Milan Central Station: My Favourite Worst Nightmare

    Milan Central Station: My Favourite Worst Nightmare

    What a nice way to welcome visitors to Milan, I think, wading my way under the pouring rain through the people selling umbrellas and offering trolley services for heavy suitcases, crowding around the bus from Malpensa airport on the dark pavement next to the Station.

    Milan Central Station is an imposing building, of typical fascist grandeur, representing their ideals of strength, austerity, and Roman legacy, though remaining quite attractive. It’s been recently renovated and, besides the dimly lit, long, ancient stairs that have put to a test the fitness of countless travellers running up with their heavy luggage, there are shiny and slow treadmills parading through the luxury shops. The result of the makeover is that the interiors of the station has been turned, unsurprisingly, into a high-market shopping mall.

    Leave the station and you will find the confusing mess of taxis to the right and buses to the left and, at the front, the familiar faces of homeless and junkies who survived the redevelopment, keeping themselves busy arguing, staring at the void, necking cheap strong lager and occasionally fighting.

    Enter the gutters to the underground station and you’ll get the full package, with gypsies trying to trick naive tourists helping them to use the ticket vending machine in exchange of some coins, or other aiming straight to their pockets without even going through the effort.

    And contemplating all this I find some harmony and, mostly, a great consistency: unintentionally the bulky central station managed to hone itself, through the years, to a perfect representation of what Milan is: old architecture and hyper-modern shops, ladies in fur coats hovering past homeless rummaging in the dirt, hopeful technology and hopeless inefficiency.
    I walk away while two illegal vendors abandon their jumble to attack a gypsy who just managed to score a rather surprised tourist.

    Is it wrong to feel a certain affection for such a controversial place?

  • Food in Berlin… more than just Currywurst!

    Food in Berlin… more than just Currywurst!

    When travelling my favourite thing is try to learn how locals live and, even if for just a few days, try to live with them. Food is an important part of everyone’s life and bars, pubs and restaurants are those places where you can get a nice angle of the local lifestyle. Once you avoid the tourist traps with white table cloths and anodyne international menus.

    I have to admit that during our stay in Berlin we didn’t treat ourselves properly in terms of food. Walking all day and trying to see as much as possible, we ended up feeding mostly on kebabs and the magic combo pretzel+beer, but we’ve been lucky enough to score some good discovery.

    Currywurst

    We got to Berlin craving Currywurst, even though we weren’t sure of what that is we’ve heard so much about it that eating one was on top of our list. The first eye contact has been quite disappointing: three american guys walk out of a kebab shop holding a tray containing what looks like a depressed sliced wurstel drowned in ketchup. Technically a currywurst is nothing more than that, with a sprinkle of curry powder on top, and that pathetic version is pretty much what you get at most of the shops. However the real experience is to have a proper one. The most recommended currywurst can be found at the Konnopke Imbiss, next to the Eberswalder Straße station. Unfortunately, and I blame it on the less than exact directions on our guide book, we couldn’t find it, but we went instead to the butcher (metzgerei) next to the bahn station where we were served huge and tasty homemade currywurst. You can also have a sit and taste their other products.
    Anyway you can find the famous Konnopke Imbiss under the rail bridge just leaving the metro station and walking south along Schönhauser Allee. This is the google map, just in case.

    Restaurant: Aufsturz

    Oranienburg Strasse 67
    Tel: +49 30 28 04 74 07 Website: www.aufsturz.de
    Open everyday until midnight.

    Update 28/10/2013: I’ve been back to Aufsturz and unfortunately the menu drastically changed. No more hearty german food but more snack and pub grubs. Probably the Berliner Teller (cheese and salamis platter) is the option. However the place is always very nice, the staff is friendly and they have something like 100 beers to choose from.

    Too much words for a wurstel, let’s now talk about a real restaurant. This is the only one we visited, which gives us a 100% score on finding great places to eat! It’s called Aufsturz, in Oranienburger Straße, not far from the namesake S-Bahn station, and we spotted it passing by on one of the trams going to and from Alexander Platz. Lovely cozy place, it looks like a local favourite, crowded with Berliners, and I think we were the only tourist there. A good sign is that the menu is written only in German and the friendly waiters didn’t seem used to speaking english to their customers. Thanks to my unsuspected linguistic skills we manage somehow to order a gulash with red kraut and knodeln, and spätzle (like think noodles) topped with cheese and crispy onions. This scrumptious dinner was washed down with 4 large beers and closed off with a dessert (keiserschmarrn con zwetschgenroster) that alone could have been a satisfying meal, all for little more than €30 for two which, to me, sounds like a real bargain.

    The walls were all adorned with paintings to give it an artsy-but-not-pretentious look and, at one end of the restaurant next to the toilets there’s the entrance to the club. But we were too replete to even think of going in.

    Café am Kamin

    Falckensteinstrasse 18
    Wi-Fi: €1/h

    Update 28/10/2013: Back to the Kamin, I was a little disappointed. Perhaps because this doesn’t keep up the competition with the other brilliant cafés in Kreuzberg, but the coffee was just about alright and the muffin was stale. Still a good place in winter as they have lovely soup.

    Another random encounter was with Café am Kamin on our first day of visit, right outside the Görlitzer Park in Kreuzberg, and we fell in love with it. It’s on Falckensteinstrasse, which goes from the park all the way to the famous and enormous Blu’s graffitis in Cuvrystrasse. It’s ideal for coffee and cake, but also for a warm soup (the potato soup is delicious). It’s a small cozy place, with a fireplace that will make it very difficult to leave during a cold winter day.

    Chocolate

    Surely everyone is familiar with the perfectly square shape of a Ritter sport chocolate bar, but did you know that the Headquarters are based in Berlin? We didn’t, and it’s been a great surprise when we’ve been led in the official store, in 24 Französische Straße (there’s a U-Bahn station nearby). Not only it’s a colourful chocolatey Ritter heaven, but you can get a customised chocolate bar! You choose the chocolate and the other ingredients and they melt it and create it right in front of you, which is really cool. You’ll have to wait half an hour for the chocolate to cool down before you can put your hand on it, so you’ve got plenty of time to buy more of the super-cheap chocolate in store. No pictures are available for this place because the photographer was out of control.

    Another great place for chocolate lovers is Fassbender & Rausch in 60 Charlottenstrasse, majestic shop. It’s like a chocolate sanctuary, in fact you’ll see proper chocolate sculpture and even a fountain. Hint: it’s not water that comes out of it. Hard to resist…

  • Orangutans: Interesting Facts to Know

    Orangutans: Interesting Facts to Know

    Orangutans are beautiful apes which have several different characteristics than other apes, such as chimpanzees and gorillas. There are many interesting orangutan facts that differentiate it from other mammals and make it unique.

    Orangutans are the only Great Apes to live in Asia. In fact, they live in Indonesia and Malaysia and are found in the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo.

    The word “orangutan” comes from the languages of these two countries and means “person of the forest”. Orangutans spend their life in rainforests swinging from tree to tree. They move very gracefully on trees even though they are significantly heavy; as an adult male orangutan can weigh up to 82kg! They are in fact the largest arboreal animals as they can grow up to five feet.

    Another distinctive factor of orangutans is their reddish-brown hair, as they are the only apes whose hair is not brown or black. Male orangutans also have cheek pads which make recognizing the sexes of orangutans easier.

    Their diet is also somewhat different to that of other apes as since orangutans spend the greatest part of their life on trees they eat mainly fruit. They also sleep in the trees, where they build nests each night from twigs and leaves.

    Another interesting fact about orangutans is that they tend to be solitary. While other apes live in groups, orangutans very often live alone. The only bonds between orangutans are those between a mother and its offspring. This bond tends to last for a long time as baby orangutans may be carried by their mothers until they are five years old. They may also keep on being breastfed until they are eight!

    In fact, orangutans have the slowest life of all mammals as they take the longest to grow and they even reproduce very slowly.

    Like all other Great Apes, orangutans are highly intelligent. They do not only use tools to help them get their food and go under leaves to help shelter from the rain, but they are also known to use objects in other creative ways. They may, for example, put things over their head in a playful manner, much like humans do, and detach large leaves from trees and wrap them around their bodies like a poncho to help them stay dry when it is raining.

    Like humans, orangutans are Great Apes, which, however differ from most others in various ways. These beautiful, arboreal creatures are extremely intelligent and it must be our duty to preserve them.

  • How to Pick the Best Place to Stay

    How to Pick the Best Place to Stay

    It can seem like an overwhelming experience trying to book a hotel room with all the choices available. Figure out your budget and decide which features you can’t live without. Read these tips to make booking a hotel experience.

    Check online hotel reviews before booking your stay. These will give you with first-hand information about people’s recent experiences at that certain hotel. What people say about their experiences at the hotels you’re thinking of booking can ensure you in coming to the right decision.

    Consider ordering room service when the urge strikes for a late-night snack with your special someone. While you’re likely to pay a little more, it is worth it if you can stay in your comfortable room as you satisfy your cravings.

    You should put any expensive items in the safe and go about your day without worry.

    Use online hotel search tools for hotels. These sites can help you quickly find great deals.

    Always check for online deals before booking a hotel room. This is why it’s up to you should always do your research well online to find these discounts. Check out websites like SniqueAway, RueLaLaTravel, or RueLaLaTravel.

    Be aware in advance of when you can check into your room. Some people neglect asking what the check-in time is and get to the hotel when their room to be available because they forget to check this critical detail. Call and ask if it is alright for you think you’ll be early.

    Plan your trip as far in advance for the best rates. Many locations offer discounts if you book more than a month or two ahead of time. You can expect savings up to fifty percent off at some very exclusive hotels.

    There are three different things you should do in advance if you’re going to be traveling with a trip. Be sure that the hotel will be friendly to pets.Be sure to bring some bags on hand to make pet cleanup easy.

    Book massages as far ahead of time as possible to guarantee you get the perfect couples massage for you and your significant other.The best massage therapists are well-known at resorts, and you don’t want to miss out.

    Free Stays

    It is wise to look into loyalty programs that your favorite hotels offer. They provide benefits to travelers who stays at a hotel chain. You can often earn free upgrades, free stays, and even free stays when you get enough points.

    If there’s a hotel chain you stay at often, check to see if they offer membership to frequent stay programs. These programs give you rack up points. You might earn free stays and discounts, discounts at restaurants, or other things.

    As shown above, there are many ways to ensure you get the right hotel room at a price that fits your budget. Use the tips that work for you and do some of your own research as well. You are likely to have a comfortable stay and pay a price you are happy with.

  • 3 Great Places in Milan to hang out

    There are a few really cool places that we love to regularly visit in Milan. They’re quite eclectic and we found it difficult to categorize them. Yes, we go there for food but we couldn’t fit them in our article on the restaurants in Milan as they’re way more than just a restaurant. Let’s find them out!

    • Santeria
    • Ostello Bello
    • Balera

    Santeria

    Address: Via Ettore Paladini, 8 Milano (Bus 54, Tram 5)
    Phone no.: 02 36685216 / 02 36685215 (shop) 
    Milan should be full of places like this. A nice spot, based on a simple solid idea, that would fit perfectly in Shoreditch, Prenzlauerberg or Williamsburg, and that (sadly) in Milan is the first and only of its kind.
    Breakfast, brunch, lunch, aperitivi, vintage clothes records and book shop, gigs, indie movies and co-working space. If they also had mattresses to lay down between the tables there wouldn’t be a reason to leave Santeria.
    Visitat their website: www.santeriamilano.it

    Ostello Bello

    Address: Via Medici, 4  20123 Milano (MM1-3 Duomo, Tram 2-3, how to get there)
    Phone no.: 02 3658 2720
    Turbo Burger Ostello Bello MilanNot only it’s one of the very few authentic hostels in Milan, but Ostello Bello offers some of its services and activities to a wider audience. Anyone can visit it without necessarily having to spend a night. They have food all day round and leisure activities from music to games, sometimes they’re improvised so any day is good to pop there. If you’re after a meaty lunch make sure to go there for the monthly “Turbo Burger” day. Only one item on the menu, guess what it is?

    Visit their website: www.ostellobello.com and follow them on facebook to keep up to date.

     

    La Balera dell’Ortica

    Address: Via Giovanni Antonio Amadeo 78, Milano (Bus 54, 39)
    Phone no.: 02 70128680
    It takes just 20 minutes by bus from Duomo, or a short bike ride, to end up in a place where time seems to have stopped 50 years ago. The “Balera” could be a perfect set of an old school Italian movie, like Fellini showing the more trivial aspect of the Italian working class having a good time with the few spare money they had. As you enter you will find the balera itself to your right: a open-air dance floor where couple dance the night away whirling on the rhythm of the traditional popular music called liscio, which means smooth.

    To the left you’ll find the bar restaurant. A very rough diner, not the same quality of the bocciofila Caccialanza but cheaper. Ideal during the warmer months, when you can enjoy the patio outside and chill with few drinks. Few minutes in and you’ll forget to be in a big city and you’ll start feeling the relaxed atmosphere of a vintage countryside.

    Open every day of the week from 13.00 to 00.30 (1.30 Friday, Saturday and Sunday).
    Visit their website: www.labaleradellortica.com

  • Life and Beauty at the Temples of Bagan

    The alarm clock set at unholy hours was becoming a habit, by 5.30am we were already riding our bikes down a pitch black road. All we could see was some people, waiting for a lift like ghosts in the dark, and the silhouettes of stupa as the black of the sky started turning dark blue. By the time we reached Shwe-San-Daw Paya temple there was already enough light to distinguish the pagodas complex around us.  We climbed the impervious steps to the terraces, finding the best spot to observe the spectacle of nature undisturbed. Us and a hundred people around us.

    The hue of the sky and the candy-floss mist inundating the temples in the plain beneath us was a sight that left everyone speechless. As the burning globe emerged from the verdant eastern hills the atmosphere felt suspended, like if everyone there was holding their breath. The magic was broken by a minute Chinese girl who dropped her phone on the head of a scary looking gigantic Dutch woman, standing on the lower terrace, with a loud crack. A fight was highly likely, but disappointingly nothing happened so everybody rushed off to their tour buses and bucket lists. We and few others indulged a little longer to admire the flock of hot-air balloons raising and slowly gliding over the Old Town.

    We spent the rest of the day aimlessly cycling on dusty paths, choosing the least busy way at each intersection, which is a very good way to explore Old Bagan for those who don’t have any particular archaeological ambition. We stopped for lunch at an excellent vegetarian restaurant, which had the typical Lonely Planet crowd but was nice especially considering the tourist-hassling, hard-selling area. We ate a delicious lunch within the idyllic frame of a garden populated by fearless birds and water-lilies, shielded from the noise and dust.

    The way back to Nyang-U was much, much longer than planned. We chose to cycle along the spectacular old road, the one closer to the river. The many temples and stupas scattered either side of the road were washed by the orange light of sunset. It’s pretty easy to climb them to admire the sun fall behind the rugged horizon but we pushed on until we reached Shwe-zi-gon Paya, a thousand-years-old golden temple.
    As if we hadn’t visited enough sacred sites for a day we park our bikes and step in. The only two foreign tourists in the complex, we were quite standing out amongst the flocks of locals in their festive attire meandering in the richly decorated courtyard. A group of them even insisted to take photos with us and of us. It felt a bit awkward but also, I admit, rather gratifying.

    I’m not sure I managed to properly convey our experience but I hope it’s clear that it was a pretty intense day in terms of sightseeing. It doesn’t happen every other day to see such a vast expanse of heath, palms and ancient temples. Only that few of them were actually ancient. As a matter of fact most of them were brand new, built by the military dictatorship with modern bricks and unfashionable concrete. Does this knowledge lessen the value of our memories? Surely we had a great day and the whole area is stunning, but knowing that the former inhabitants had been forcibly pushed out to New Bagan is bothersome. With this dilemma resonating in my head I have no doubt about the richest invaluable moment in Old Bagan…

    Looking for a place where to tuck into the fried delicacies we had just bought we stopped near one of the few trees, seeking repair in its meagre shadow. We asked permission to a woman camping nearby with her family. The private property concept in Myanmar is tricky to grasp, but we asked out of courtesy. Not only they had no problem with us camping there but they invited us to their table, gave us dishes and a cloth and served us green tea and tea leaf salad. We were shocked by such a selfless display of generosity, even if our communication was based mostly on gesture and very, very basic English. When the time to leave came we were baffled, “why did they do that and what shall we do now?“. We thought that simply leaving would have been rude, but also offering them money would have been offensive, tarnishing the beauty of their gesture. Only now, few months later, I’m coming to terms with this perplexity. What they did is perfectly natural, and maybe we too should take a bit of that spontaneity back.

  • Iceland Day 3: Snaefellsnes Peninsula

    Iceland Day 3: Snaefellsnes Peninsula

    The day started gloriously with the view of Kirkjufell, the iconic mountain dominating the bay. After a healthy breakfast in the well arranged kitchen of the Old Post guesthouse and we drove to the gas station, to personally witness the cost of grocery. Some items are quite acceptably priced: a big bottle of juice was just 400ISK – but the milk costs double than in the UK and the cheese costs like sirloin at my local butcher. It’s gonna be a difficult fortnight.
    Adhering to Magnus’s instructions we started driving along the coast, westbound, following the road south through the National Park and around Snæfellsjökull to the glacier, to finish the day off in an outdoor warm pool.

    Ágætis byrjun, a good start

    Magnus was right, from the first miles of our drive west of Grundarfjordur we immediately recognized the classic Iceland of the documentaries, its breathtaking beauty surrounding us, without the filter of a camera. The squeaky radio played Svefn-g-Englar, which was been probably written as a soundtrack for driving through exactly that scenery.
    The first stop was Öndverdarnes, to admire the two orange lighthouses and the vertiginous cliffs, home to hundreds of noisy birds. On the way there there are a few beaches patterned with yellow and black sand, one is big and signalled with a parking space, but before that we found another one. Only accessible via a relatively easy climb down big rocks, this beach was little and pristine, not one footprint on the sand and secluded by black rocks which are also quite fun to climb on.

    Geology rocks!

    Back on the 574 we aimed at Saxholar, which we just managed to spot because it’s a huge volcano in a vast green flatland. Don’t expect signs to clearly indicate you every point of interest: be always on the look and be ready to u-turn and drive back.
    It’s possible to climb the volcano, a modest ascent of 5 minutes, and from the top you can see both the bowl where once was the crater, and the land around for miles and miles. We also spent the better part of a hour browsing through the astonishing variety of stones: some spongy, some like hardened blobs, some black, some brown with green and purple reflections. We could have spent hours there but we had so many things to do, so we took a couple of rocky souvenirs and left.

    The glacier disappeared

    Our frequent stops made us run behind schedule so we decided to skip the Vatnshellir caves and the Djupalonssandur – we’ve seen enough sand for a day – and head to the glacier.
    Past the Arnarstapi lighthouse the roads split, and the F570 climbs the side of the mountains to the thick clouds and Snæfellsjökull. We kept going for 6/7 kms and our Jimmy was struggling to cope with the bumpy road and the challenge with other bigger, newer 4WDs. On the map it looked easy: drive around the mountain until you reach the glacier; but the clouds were down low and we weren’t quite sure whether we reached the glacier and, if we did, we probably wouldn’t have noticed.

    Muddy waters

    After a brief but vicious snowball fight we were back in the car, hurling it down the same bumpy road at top speed. Destination: the warm waters of Lysuholl pool.
    It’s barely signalled and the sign can only be seen 20 meters before the turn, which is a bit too late. To avoid slamming on brakes, or u-turning after the missed junction, follow the signs to Kast Guesthouse.
    Lysuholl doesn’t really account as a village to our standards, is more like a few houses scattered within 100m from each other. For this we easily found the pool, spotted by the unusual amount of cars (four) in the parking lot. The building is a simple wooden hut, with a strong DIY feel; the facility is basic but very clean. Nothing fancy: one small pool where to swim and two circular tubs for relaxing, and it was only populated by local families. The water is warm and smelly: the unmistakable sign that it’s geo-thermally heated, and it’s a great way to end a day, taking the fatigue off, the muscles melting in the warm embrace of nature.
    The entrance is quite cheap (650ISK), and remember to shower thoroughly, without swimsuit, before entering the pool.

  • Visa Myanmar: How to Get it in Few Easy Steps

    If you live in the UK the only Embassy of Myanmar is in London. According to their website applications can be made personally, or by a representative, between 10am and noon. Alternatively you can do it via post, as we did. The latter method is actually pretty simple and smooth but I failed to fully get all the necessary info so, to avoid you the same pain, I wrote down a postal visa for dummies guide. For people like me who fear bureaucracy.

    What you’ll need

    • A filled copy of your visa application form (download the PDF)
    • 2 recently taken passport photos (make sure it adheres to the UK passport photo standard)
    • Valid passport (at least 6 months validity)
    • £14 cash

    Application via post

    If you’re sending your application via post you’ll need all of the above plus the following:

    • The £14 fee has to be sent via postal order (addressed to “Embassy of Myanmar”)
    • A pre-paid special delivery envelope 500gr stamp (so they can send you the passports back).

    The parcel has to be sent to Embassy of Myanmar, 19A Charles St, London W1J 5DX.

    The total cost of the operation will have to include the cost of a postal order (£3.50), the secure delivery (£7) and the pre-paid envelope (£7.15). You might consider spending a couple of days in London ans visit some museums while you’re there.

    eVisa

    Until some time ago it was possible to apply for a eVisa only if you entered the country via Yangoon but now, minutes after sending our application via post, this was divulged:

    We are pleased to announce that eVisa is now extended to Nay Pyi Taw and Mandalay International Airports. You may use your eVisa to enter Myanmar through Nay Pyi Taw and Mandalay International Airports even if you have chosen Yangon International Airport as port of entry.

    The eVisa can be processed online via this website and costs USD50. Which is more than the £14 requested by the embassy in London but, considering the extra costs listed above, it actually turns out to be cheaper.

    Visa on Arrival

    Visas can be issued upon arrival in Yangoon only for citizens of the following countries:

    Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Denmark, France, Germanu, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, USA

    It looks to me it’s mainly for business purposes, here you can find all the details: http://www.mip.gov.mm/portfolio/the-required-terms-and-conditions-for-visa-on-arrival/

    Embassy of Myanmar in London

    Surely we were  a bit worried to put our passports in an envelope, together with money and the other stuff needed, and hope they would come back with a visa. Maybe it’s because we’re Italian, therefore naturally suspicious of mail service and bureaucracy, for there is always something missing between you and whatever you want to obtain.

    As a matter of fact there was something missing: the pre-paid envelope. But someone form the Embassy of Myanmar called me asking to send it to her attention so that they could send us the passport back. Moreover they’ve been pretty helpful when I called them (phone: 0207 1480740) asking for more details. We finally got our passports back within a week.