Tour Archives - Wandering North

Asia Yemen Yemen Trip 2025

Yemen – Shibam and Departures

We awoke on this, our last full day, at our beautiful hotel in the valley. The previous day had been our excellent visit to the villages of Wadi Doan. The routine was well established at this point: I woke up, had my cigar, and watched the sunrise, followed by breakfast with the group before we set off on our next excursion.

Today, we would be heading to Shibam. As I’ve said in earlier posts, this was the thing that I most wanted to see. This was the picture that I had seen on the internet years ago, making me think, “Someday, I must see this place.” And that day was today.

The Old Walled City of Shibam is one of the highlights of a trip to South Yemen. The town was founded in the 3rd century, but the buildings that you see today were built in the 1500s. The structures are made entirely of mud brick and stand between 5 and 11 stories tall. They are narrow and built close together. Apparently, this particular design was meant to protect them from Bedouin attacks, but whatever the reason, it looks unusual and beautiful. Amazingly, the buildings remain strong and resilient. While they need regular, fresh applications of mud to the exterior, they have lasted all these centuries. The tallest ones are just over 30 metres high. It is the look of these closely clustered tall buildings that has given Shibam nicknames like “The Manhattan of the Desert” and “the World’s First Skyscraper City.”

Seeing it from a distance the night before was magical, but walking amongst the buildings was equally special. People actually live and work here. We saw pharmacies and honey vendors, little shops selling antiquities, and, of course, men sitting around smoking and drinking coffee. Sometimes, seeing things that you’ve been dreaming of can be a disappointment. This was not one of those times.

From Shibam, we drove back to Seiyoun, where we had started our journey; however, we hadn’t seen much of the city at the beginning. This time, we visited a museum in the market. I was delighted to explore the marketplace, finally try some Yemeni coffee, and browse through the little shops. I picked up some small bottles of oud as a souvenir. We sat around a café with our guide and driver, and I thought again about how much I wished I could just explore a little bit on my own. I could have spent all day sitting at a café, smoking and watching the people go about their daily activities.

We went to a specific spot near the market where they made jambiyas. A jambiya is a large, curved dagger that Yemeni men wear as part of their traditional ensemble, tucked into a thick, embroidered belt and worn on top of their futa. John and Doc had not gotten their jambiyas when they first bought their Yemeni clothing, but now they would. The craftsmen at the shop picked out the right jambiya for each of them and hammered holes into custom-fitted belts so that John and Doc could wear them with pride — right up until they had to go through airport security, I guess.

I bided my time at one of the nearby gun shops. This is another moment where I must emphasize that my trip to Yemen felt completely safe, and that the people were extraordinarily nice and hospitable, but there is a tremendous amount of guns. This little shop, which was no bigger than a single parking stall, sold an astonishing assortment of handguns, machine guns, and rifles. They even let us handle and pose with them—without any ammunition, of course. I couldn’t resist posing for a few photos. I had mixed feelings about sharing these pictures online, but I think I’ve been clear that Yemen is not a scary or dangerous country. I just really like this picture of myself with the machine gun. I’m not someone who does online dating, but if I did, I think this would be a fun picture to use in my profile.

Next, we made a specific visit to the honey market, where rows and rows of small shops sold an incredible variety of locally produced honey. Yemenis are very proud of their honey, and we had been eating it every day, but I had no idea there was such a wide variety. We got to sample different types and were told about how different varieties of honey were good for various ailments. Each of the three of us picked up a tiny little bottle of the most expensive honey (sidr) to take home. It was thick, a dark amber colour, and very strong-tasting. I think it was about $5 USD.

But there was still more sightseeing to do. We drove to the nearby city of Tarim, walked the streets, and took in the Al-Mihdar Mosque and some Sufi shrines.

We returned to the Hawta Palace Hotel (the place where we had stayed on our first night in Yemen) for our final night. We were called to dinner and told there would be a special surprise. A group of men arrived and set up for us just before we ate. There were about 8 men dancing and another 10 men playing musical instruments and singing as they put on a performance. It was wonderful, although admittedly, I was trying to juggle a bit of remote work during the show. My companions, John and Doc, were called up to dance with the performers. John tried to call me up as well, but it was very quickly made apparent to me that this was a men-only situation. No problem. I sat outside with my cigar and just watched the show. It was a terrific end to an incredible trip.

The next day was the day of our departure. We got up, had a leisurely breakfast, and went into the city to walk around the market a bit more. We even went to a sort of Western-style coffee shop for iced mochas and lattes. These fancy coffees were not included in the trip budget, and I think this brought the total amount that I spent on the entire trip to about $30 USD—not including the tips that we gave to our guide and driver, of course. I had no idea how much spending money I would need and had brought a lot more with me; it is always better to be safe than sorry. If you are bringing money to Yemen (and you should) make sure that it is crisp, new US bills. They won’t accept anything with any imperfections.

At the airport, we said our goodbyes to our guide and driver and headed through security. There was little to no fanfare or hassle at immigration. Once we were through, we found a little seating area with a café, and we spent the last of our local money on snacks. I realized at this point that I was no longer really in the country and no longer had to wear my abaya. I had thought earlier in the trip that I might bring it home with me, but after six days of wearing it in the heat, it was crusted with sweat and dirt. I was completely sick of it, so I took it off and left it behind.

We boarded the plane and said goodbye to Yemen. It was an amazing trip. While I wouldn’t visit those same sites again (simply because I think we did them justice) I would be happy to go back to the country if the northern part ever reopens to tourism, as I would love to see the capital, Sana’a.

We shared a quick overnight layover in Cairo before John, Doc, and I went our separate ways. Next was a short layover in Cairo where we spent the night and I got interrogated at the airport.

A few more pictures from that final day in Yemen.

*i accidentally snapped a photo of the most handsome man in Yemen*

Asia Yemen Yemen Trip 2025

Yemen – Mukalla

After a short sleep at the Hawta Palace Hotel in Seiyun, Yemen after our arrival, I awoke buzzing with excitement. We had just arrived the night before, but apart from buying our clothes at the local market, we hadn’t seen or done anything yet. I couldn’t wait for what the day had in store. I got up early and took a walk around the grounds. Because it had been dark when we arrived the previous evening, this was the first time I saw the light hitting the mountains and the flowers on the trees. It was like a beautiful oasis. I had a morning cigar and drank coffee while I waited for John and Doc to join me.

Our guide and driver arrived, and we drove to Mukalla, the main city of the Hadhramaut region on the Gulf of Aden. This was our first real glimpse of Yemen, and it made a great first impression. The city was bustling. It lacked the chaotic crowds of major cities in India or Africa, but it was still incredibly lively. People were going to and from the markets and shops, and children were out in the streets playing football and pool.

Most people looked at us with some degree of curiosity, but no one gave us the kinds of glances I’ve experienced in other cities—where people look at you with disdain or subtle hostility. Everyone we interacted with seemed friendly. Of course, those people were strictly men and children. There were women out on the streets, but they were entirely covered, including their faces, and they did not greet or acknowledge us. The men were friendly and the children were curious. John and Doc kicked a football around with the kids in an alleyway while I took some pictures and watched goats wander between the buildings.

The liveliest part of the city was along the waterfront. A river ran through the city, and it was filled with people on boats flying flags high and playing music. Yemen has two flags: one for the South and one for the North. The people here were flying the Southern flag. Additionally, some people and children were carrying pictures of figures I understood to be leaders or notable political and military figures of Southern Yemen. You know how kids love to carry around pictures of famous politicians and military figures? Maybe it’s a Yemeni thing.

The political history of Yemen is far too complicated for me to explain here. Go read a book. In short, though, Yemen used to be part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1918, the region became independent but was split into two halves: North Yemen was an independent state, while South Yemen became a British protectorate and, later, a British colony. The UK left in 1967. The two halves were briefly unified, but a series of wars broke out between them until 1990, when the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) and the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) officially united to form the Republic of Yemen.

Unfortunately, the fighting has not stopped. The region operates, effectively, as two separate countries: the North and West are controlled by the Houthis, while the South and East are held by the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) and southern factions. Skirmishes and bombings are ongoing, mostly concentrated in the northwest. All of this fighting has created extreme poverty and food insecurity across the country, a crisis compounded by the fact that most Western nations maintain strict sanctions against Yemen.

The view from the harbour was absolutely beautiful, with whitewashed, boxy buildings clustered together along the shore. The water shifted between different shades of turquoise, and everything was framed by the dry desert mountains. It was the sort of place I wished I could have wandered around on my own. It certainly felt safe enough to do so, but that is simply not how things are done there, so we stuck close to our guide as he led us through the city markets before we stopped for lunch.

The restaurant we went to (I don’t know the name, but it was a place we would visit more than once on this trip) seated us in a private room separated by a curtain. We sat shoeless on layers of carpets. In the middle of the floor was a blanket layout holding all the plates of food, which we ate largely with our hands. The thing that always amused me about these meals was that it wasn’t just shoes lined up by the door; various handguns and weapons were also set aside on the carpet just long enough for everyone to eat. Shoes off, guns down. Time to eat.

After lunch, we visited a fruit, vegetable, and fish market, which is always delightful. I don’t know what it is about seeing food sold in other countries, but it never ceases to amaze me. Mangoes stacked up in slightly different ways than they are back home? Fascinating! Truthfully, it is just interesting to see how different people go about their daily lives, and a local market is a great way to experience that.

[Update December 2025: Mukalla was such a pleasant city to visit and seemed so safe, but in late December of 2025, the port was bombed by Saudi forces targeting unauthorized weapon shipments. It serves as a stark reminder that things can seem safe—and may actually be safe for a period of time—but in volatile parts of the world, realities can change instantly. In short: go when you can, because you never know when a window will close.]

Later in the afternoon, just before sunset, we made our way to a new accommodation: the Ramada Mukalla Hotel. It felt more like a standard western hotel compared to our last stop. My room was adequate, and the property featured a massive lobby cafe where the staff had no issue with me smoking cigars indoors. I did quite a bit of that during our down times.

One of the things I quickly realized on a tour like this is that you have quite a bit of down time. The mornings start a little late, the evenings wrap up a little early, and there is always time for a rest in the afternoon; plus, there is a lot of eating. It was a bit too much food for my liking, but I certainly can’t complain about being well taken care of.

It was a perfectly pleasant day visiting Mukalla, followed by a quiet evening at the hotel. The next day, we would head toward even better sights as we left the city and ascended into the valley to experience village life.

Asia Yemen Yemen Trip 2025

Yemen – Logistics and Arrival

Planning

I had wanted to go to Yemen ever since I saw pictures of Sanaa and Shibam, but actually getting there seemed like an impossibility. For as long as I have been thinking of going to Yemen the only real way of visiting it seemed to be either to illegally cross the border from Oman and just see a very small part of the country, perhaps for the day, or to visit the island of Socotra. Socotra looked interesting, but I really wanted to see the mainland and had decided to hold out for that. Slowly, some people started to do organized tours into portions of the mainland, but it just seemed so prohibitively expensive for a solo traveler. And then I got a WhatsApp message.

One of the members of my social travel group in Vancouver (we get together periodically and swap travel stories and tips) posted into the group that he was thinking of going to Yemen with a friend of his from the US and he was looking for a third person to join the group. I was walking down the street in Buenos Aires when I got the message and I immediately said I would go. The tour company and the itinerary had already been picked, I just needed to opt in.

At this point in time, it was not possible to visit any part of Yemen without going on a tour. I’m not a tour person, apart from hiring a guide for a day trip and the prospect of joining a group tour never appealed to me, but the person who was going on this trip with someone that I had already gotten along with and I figured that was enough to vouch for his friend. Plus, a group of three seemed more palatable than a larger group of strangers.

The tour was arranged through a fellow named Kais Al Qalisi, who is a well known tour operator in the region It would be six days visiting Seiyun, Mukalla, Wadi Doa’n, Hawfah, Ribad, Al-Hajjarain, Sif, and Shibam with a guide (Radfan) and driver (Mohammed) and a series of armed guards, starting and ending in Seiyun. The itinerary is posted here. The price for each of the three of us was about $1,450 (each), which included all of our meals in our hotels, water, and visa assistance and we did not have to share rooms at any of the hotels. It did not include the flights from Cairo to Seiyun, which could only be done on Yemeni Airways at exorbitant price of 900 U.S. dollars round trip for the six-hour flight. Yemen is not a cheap trip.

We were connected with a woman on WhatsApp who worked at the airline in Cairo; we wired her the money for the trip and she arranged the tickets which we would pick up at the airport.

For the visa, we simply needed to send our guide copies of our passports and personal information as well as a letter from a doctor. This was the trickiest part. For visa to Yemen, at least at this time, you needed a letter from a doctor that confirmed that you had been tested for and were negative for all diseases. I went to the travel clinic, and they looked at me like I was crazy. How could they possibly issue a letter like that? Would it even be possible to test for all diseases? Most of the travelers I talked to said that they had just forged their own letters, which seemed like a reasonable proposition for some, but I’m a lawyer and I just didn’t feel good about that. What I did feel ok about was a doctor that I knew socially who shall remain nameless who wrote the letter for me. While this doctor didn’t use the language that I had been tested for all diseases, they did say that I did not have any communicable diseases, which seemed to satisfy the visa people, to the extent that they even read the letter which I doubt.

In some ways, arranging all of this seems like kind of a hassle. It’s not as easy as just booking a flight online and showing up at the airport, but it was far easier than some of the other difficult countries I’ve visited like the Congo or Sudan. If you have the money to pay and a person to arrange it for you, you can get the visa.

The Airport

I had flown from Vancouver to London to Cairo and I found myself at the airport in Cairo in a queue at the check in desk to collect my ticket to Yemen. I got to the airport a bit ahead of my two companions and so I stood by myself with about six people ahead of me and a few behind, all of whom had towers of luggage on carts. I had a small backpack. All of them looked at me with a great deal of curiosity. More than one person approached me and asked me if I knew that I was in a queue for a flight to Yemen and I responded with “Yes, I can’t wait to go!” and they thought that was amusing. They laughed and smiled and then seemed genuinely pleased that I was choosing to spend my vacation days in their country.

Finally, I saw a familiar face in the crowd and my friend from Vancouver had arrived with his friend from the United States and our little travel group was united. In the interest of not using their real names (I don’t know if they would object to me using their names but I’m just going to choose to preserve their anonymity), I shall refer to my Canadian friend as John (as in Rambo) and my new American friend as Doc. We picked up our tickets and went to a lounge in the airport, where you could smoke (!) and got to know each other a bit.

The flight from Cairo to Seiyun was unremarkable. It’s always exciting to fly a new airline, but I can’t say that there was anything super unusual about Yemeni Airways. It didn’t have an in-flight entertainment system or Wi-Fi, but it was a standard plane that we boarded from the tarmac and they served us a meal.

And just like that, we landed in Yemen.

Arrival and Shopping

At the airport, we were met by our guide, Radfan who walked us through the visa process, we went to a little room and quickly visa stickers were placed in our passports and without any real questions or fanfare we were led through the airport and to our driver, Mohammed.

We landed at 5:00 PM and by the time we got out of the airport it was probably closer to 6:00 PM and the city was dark but lively. The first order of business was getting appropriate attire. One cannot travel in Yemen, at least at this point, in your normal clothes. You need to wear Yemeni clothing. So we went first to a little shop that sold women’s clothes.

This is probably the number one question that I was asked when I told people that I was going to Yemen, which is what would I have to wear. The answer is you must wear a black abaya, so you are covered from your neck to your ankles and wrists, and you wear hijab to cover your head. The question of whether or not you must also wear a niqab to cover your face seems to be somewhat loose. Our guide did not make me wear the niqab at any point. We did however run into another group with women travelers who are required to wear the niqab at all times. I have absolutely no problem wearing the abaya or the hijab, but I was very thankful that I did not have to wear the niqab as I think I would have found it restrictive and it certainly would have impeded my cigar smoking. The men in the shop helped me pick out a suitable black abaya with some black embroidery around the cuffs. I thought it looks alright. I like wearing all black anyway. For any women who are reading this and are wondering what you wear under the abaya, you can probably wear anything you like but I thought it was most comfortable to wear leggings and a t-shirt. Basically, that is the outfit that I wore every day while I was out and about in Yemen. In the evenings when I was at the hotels I could dress in my own clothes, provided they were reasonably conservative. So, at the hotels, I would wear leggings and a knee-length dress or something similar.

After I was suitably attired, we went to a different store and the gentleman picked out their clothes which were much more interesting. They were these long, wrapped skirts out of patterned and colourful fabric called a futa, a plain colored, short-sleeved button up shirt, and a wrapped headdress called a shemagh.

The clothes were extremely affordable (my ensemble was $22 US) and were one of the only expenses that we had on the trip as everything else was included in the price of the tour.

From there we went to our hotel, the Hawta Palace Hotel in Seiyun. I didn’t know what to expect with regard to the accommodations, but this exceeded any expectations that I had. This place was awesome. It was a couple of two- or three-story buildings in gleaming white Yemeni architecture with the serene courtyard, green gardens, a swimming pool, and flowering trees. It was a bit away from the city and felt quiet and safe. My room was enormous and extremely comfortable if sparsely decorated. We arrived and got sorted and had dinner.

Most of the meals that we had in Yemen, including the one at this hotel, were extensive and quite tasty, if not particularly varied. As a vegetarian, most of my meals consisted of lentil soups and salads, hummus and bread, some fresh fruits and vegetables, yogurt and local honey. It got a bit repetitive, but everything was very tasty. There was also coffee, tea, and water. No alcohol of course. The rest of the group had various types of meat and fish as their main dishes.

We were given Wi-Fi codes at the hotel and technically there was Wi-Fi, but it worked inconsistently. I had been prepared to have no Wi-Fi whatsoever on the trip but most of the hotels had some connectivity in some places at sometimes. It’s not the sort of place that you can go and plan to get a lot of remote work done. In fact, it may be one of the few places in the world where you can still go and be kind of off the grid.

After dinner, everyone else went to bed and I sat up in the courtyard and had a cigar. This became a bit of a ritual on the trip; I would stay up a little later and get up a little earlier than everyone else so that I could enjoy smoking and some time to myself.

John and Doc proved to be excellent travel companions. We seem to be like-minded and share a similar sense of humour and I had an excellent time with them, that said, it was still a bit of a different experience for me to be around people for so much of the time and I needed to have a little time to myself.

Safety

A note about safety. This is probably the second most common question that I was asked about going to Yemen, which was is it safe? Yemen obviously has a bad reputation in terms of safety. They have a long-standing civil war and there were frequently bombings and violence. But as with most countries that face these problems, the war and violence is relegated to certain parts of the country or does not happen all the time. Yemen is large and different parts of the country are controlled by different groups (more on this later) and we would be visiting the parts of the country that were relatively stable, which are in the Hadramaut region or South Yemen. Confusingly, South Yemen is mostly the eastern half of the country in North Yemen is mostly the western part of the country, but it’s this South Yemen part that is relatively safe and the North Yemen part that has the majority of the conflict. The days that we spent in Yemen felt completely safe. I appreciate that that safety may have been created somewhat by the presence of a guide and a guard but there was nothing that we saw that gave me any inklings that our presence would be met with anything other than kindness and hospitality.

I’ve already said so much in this post about what it was like to prepare to go to Yemen and what it was like arriving, that I’ll talk about what we actually saw and did in the next posts. It’s difficult to be brief when talking about a place as unique and fascinating as Yemen.

Read on here.

Europe Moldova Romania-Moldova Trip 2024

Transporting to Transnistria

On my second day in Moldova I left Chișinău and took a tour to Transnistria.

The Unrecognized Country

One of the coolest things about visiting Moldova is that it gives you the opportunity to visit the territory most commonly known as Transnistria. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1990 and Moldova became its own country, Transnistria declared itself an independent state and it has remained that way, although it is technically part of Moldova it is not recognized as a sovereign country. So for those of us that are counting UN countries, we can’t include it in our country count, but it’s certainly a place worth visiting and is a bit of a political and geographic curiosity.

Throughout this post I’m going to refer to it as ‘Transnistria’ although its full name is the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic or PMR. About two months before I visited it became illegal to refer to it as Transnistria and the requirement is to refer to it by its full name or as Pridnestrovie, but It is still commonly known as Transnistria so that’s the name I’m going to use. (Although I do really enjoy pronouncing Pridnestrovie with a Russian-sounding accent.)

Getting There

You can absolutely visit on your own from Chișinău driving or on a bus, but I had only one day and I wanted to learn about the region, so I hired a guide for the day. I booked for a company called PMR Tours, and I would highly recommend them. They have a vast array of tours of Transnistria ranging from half a day to multiple days and the tours can focus on micro topics like mosaics or beer or Jewish history. I picked two half day tours and combined them. I did a general history tour and a Soviet tour.

I was picked up at my hostel by a driver, Zhenya, big and stern-looking (but nice) who spoke no English, and we drove across the border into Transnistria. You need to bring your passport with you to cross into Transnistria and they will stamp a piece of paper and put it in your passport. It feels a little bit intimidating crossing the border, as there are armed Russian soldiers and proper checkpoints, but I get the feeling that it’s just for show more than anything. The drive took about an hour and a half, maybe a little less.

Bender

We drove to a city called Bender, where I was joined by my English-speaking guide Valiery. Bender is an old town dating back to at least the beginning of the 15th century and was a great place to start our tour as it is a place of a lot of historical significance. It is home to the medieval fort called Tighina Fortress, which we toured, and I learned a lot of history about the region.

Also enjoyable was that the fort had a small museum of instruments of torture. While I will seldom pay anymore to go into a torture museum, I’m always happy when I get to look at the instruments of torture. I just can’t get over how cruel we are and the lengths to which we spent time and energy coming up with new and innovative ways to be cruel. It’s so awful that I can only find it amusing. There was one other fellow who was there as a tourist, and we were both in the torture museum at the same time. We hadn’t spoken to each other, so finally I just blurted out to him, “So, what’s your favorite form of medieval torture” And it turned out to be a great conversation starter. Since then, I have used it at two separate business networking events to start conversations with strangers when I was bored. Give it a try. People will think that you are a weirdo, but it really does get the conversation going.

*instruments of torture – and conversation starters*

From the fort we drove a little more into the city and made stops to visit tanks and monuments and memorials to battles, fallen soldiers, and Holocaust victims.

sights of Bender

Outside the Cities

The owner of PMR Tours (I think), Andrey, joined us and we drove through Bender to visit some churches outside of the city. On the way we passed and stopped at some excellent Soviet era monuments and a couple of mosaics. I love that in the Soviet times they would do these elaborate mosaics not just for government buildings or art galleries, but to commemorate industry. That was the case on this company that made electrical cables, and still does.

We visited a massive monument to the two World Wars, which also gave a wonderful view of the countryside, misty and green.

We stopped to visit another building, and I can’t recall what the significance of the building was historically, but it had an enormous Lenin head out front, and as some well-preserved Soviet paintings inside.

During the drive and all the stops, I got to ask lots of questions about Transnistria today. Transnistria in most ways does function like a sovereign territory. It has its own border controls and currency. It has its own police and soldiers and ambulances and government. It’s just that it’s under the umbrella of Moldova.

Tiraspol

We got to a river, with a car ferry. It was a very simple operation. We drove onto the ferry which crossed the river using some sort of chain under the surface. A man, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth used a large lever and winch to pull us across the river. He had a friendly dog as his companion.

A short drive later and we were into Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria. The history continued, but much of the visit to Tiraspol was focused on taking me to Soviet era buildings and statues of Lenin. I thought Minsk had the most statues of Lenin, but Transnistria is a contender for the most Lenins I’ve seen in one country.

Tiraspol is a nice city. It had a beautiful park, lots of public statues, and the sort of broad streets and big buildings that you would expect from the Soviet Union. The public statues were particularly impressive, not only of Lenin, but of people who fought in the wars, of the celebrated cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who died at 34 in a MIG crash, and of…Harry Potter. Yes, there is a statue of Harry Potter just outside of the local university. The reason for it, allegedly, is that Harry Potter stood up against the prevailing forces and was brave and fought for justice and freedom. I suppose this resonates with the people of Transnistria as they have been oppressed and fought for independence from the Soviet Union and from Moldova and that fight carries on. In 2024 this seems a little bizarre, but I can imagine that 50 or 100 years from now Harry Potter will just be a historical literary figure, and it will be less bizarre that he is depicted in marble.

A lot of accounts of Transnistria describe it as quirky or bizarre, and I think the Harry Potter statue is one example that could warrant that description, but I didn’t find Transnistria to be weird. It is just a small territory striving for independence with a strong connection to its history. There is a lot of pride there and I think it’s a bit demeaning to write it off as just a quirky roadside attraction.

*a monuments to students and faculty who fought in WWII*

We wrapped up the tour with lunch at a local restaurant, and I chatted with my two guides. This was one of my favorite things about the trip because unexpectedly, the conversation took a turn from the history and contemporary politics of Transnistria into semi-professional arm wrestling.

One of my guides is incredibly passionate about arm wrestling. I think it came up because I told him that I was from Canada and there was some arm wrestler from Canada, but I can’t quite recall the origins. But once he started telling me that he was involved in arm wrestling I could not stop asking questions. At first I thought it was just a group of guys that got together to arm wrestle in someone’s garage once a week, but he explained that it’s much more organized than that and that they have arm wrestling equipment and specific exercises, and they have matches, and it’s a whole community of people that are passionate about this activity. I’m not a documentary filmmaker, but I would like someone out there who is to make a documentary about the men of Transnistria and their experiences around semi-professional arm wrestling, because it sounds like a fascinating tale of masculinity, competition, and personal identity in state struggling for recognition. Seriously, somebody please make this movie.

I rejoined with my original driver and was taken back to Chișinău, Moldova. It was such a wonderful day. I really wish that I had spent or could have spent more time there, and I would absolutely consider going back to spend a few days in one of the villages of the countryside.

That evening, I went out for dinner at a surprisingly good Italian restaurant (Little Napoli) for pizza and a glass of local wine and then back to my new favourite Moldovan cocktail lounge, Marlene, and had another cigar and cocktail, shivering in the night air. It had been a great day.

I still had one more day in Moldova before I would return home. On to the next day…

Europe Romania Romania-Moldova Trip 2024

On the Dracula Trail in Romania

There was no question that I was going to do a day trip to visit Bran Castle (popularly known as ‘Dracula’s Castle”) from Bucharest. The question was how best to get there.

Setting Out

It is possible to get there by public transportation, but it seemed like a bit of a tight journey to do in a day. It would have involved taking a train and then a bus or taxi and it would have been a little bit too much to do in one day. So, I found a small tour where they take you to the castle for the day and back again; however, the night before I received an email from the small tour company saying they didn’t have enough people to run the tour, so they had moved me onto one of those big bus tours. I was disappointed. I didn’t want to be in one of those big buses, led around by a person with an umbrella, but at this late hour, I didn’t have a choice. So the next morning I got up early, grabbed a coffee, and went to the bus stop.

It was one of those big buses crammed full of people. I wanted to feel like I was too cool for that sort of tourist transportation, and maybe I am, but it actually turned out to be okay. This tour was little more than transportation. They shuttled us from stop to stop and as we approached they told us a few things about the place we were visiting and then they set us free to wander on our own. So it was fine.

*a couple of pictures i took from the bus window*

Magical Peleș Castle

The first stop was at Peleș Castle, just outside of Sinaia. The castle is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, so we would just be making a stop outside to wander around the grounds. The castle was built in the late 1800s by the then King of Romania, Carol I, in a neo Renaissance Gothic-Revival style. It is beautiful. It has the look of a castle that you might draw when you were a little kid, with tall, pointed turrets in a relatively small footprint but rising high in the mountains. It is surrounded by forests just outside of the town. What made the stop at the castle my favourite thing that I did in Romania though, was that it was snowing. This was in November, so it was chilly, but everywhere else on my trip the temperature stayed above zero and usually closer to 10°. But as we were a little higher in the mountains, the temperature dropped, and the snow began to fall. Even as we reached the town and castle, the trees were dusted with snow and flakes were falling. I was giddy. I love snow. As we walked around the castle, the snow was falling heavily and everything looked magical. I can’t imagine a prettier setting.

Bran Castle

From there we drove to Bran Castle. Dracula’s castle. Bran Castle is about 25 kilometres outside of Brașov, in the town of Bran. This castle was built from the late 1300s by the Saxons, so it has a more medieval kind of look to it. It is dramatic. it’s situated on top of a rocky hill looming over the town. It is famous for its association with Dracula and Vlad the Impaler, although the basis for these connections is tenuous at best. Bram Stoker never visited this castle and there’s nothing to suggest that he even based the castle in Dracula on Bran Castle. Vlad the Impaler is believed to have stayed there occasionally or at least once, but it was never his residence. The whole Dracula thing is largely just myth and marketing – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t cool.

Bran Castle is imposing and impressive, and Vlad the Impaler was a bloody and malicious ruler so, Dracula or not, it’s still a great place to visit. There are lots of Dracula representations around the castle, from the souvenirs sold in the town to the depictions of Dracula and Romanian spooky folklore figures like werewolves and ghosts in the castle. It’s a little bit cheesy, but I loved it I love anything monster and horror related so this was right up my alley. Plus, Vlad the Impaler? What a monster. What a badass. Impaling your enemies on stakes and a warning to others. That’s an impressive level of cruelty and drama.

I walked through the castle and then took a couple of moody selfies wearing my most goth sunglasses next to a gravestone at the bottom of the castle. Maybe I listened to a little Bauhaus on my headphones. I had a goth moment and high school me was proud. Who am I kidding? 48-year-old me was delighted.

Dale Raven North, elder Goth

I had a coffee and a pastry and we were back on the bus headed to Brașov.

Brașov

Brașov is a historical city with its own dark history. The pretty town square was once used to burn witches. Really.

We had an hour or two in Brașov. It was getting dark, and it was cold as a little snowy. I visited the Black Church (paid entrance; it was only ok), enjoyed a coffee at a cute café, wandered around. My favorite things (apart from the witch history) were the narrow alley way that was covered in graffiti and the town’s emblem, which was a crown with the roots of an oak tree.

Back on the bus, we headed back to Bucharest. I had a small cigar and headed back to my hostel for the night. I had an early flight to a new destination: Moldova.

Africa Djibouti Eritrea-Djibouti trip 2024

Overnight at Lake Abbé

I enjoyed two days in Djibouti City, but the real draw for me was the countryside. There are a number of excursions that one can do on a tour in Djibouti. You can do long treks, wildlife encounters on the land, whale sharks in the sea, etc. The thing that I wanted to do though was travel inland to Lake Abbé, so I looked for a tour operator to do an overnight visit to that destination.

There were a few offering this service, but the one that I found eventually had the best price and itinerary combination. Africorne Travel, run by a pleasant and professional French guy, Alain, living at least part-time in Djibouti. Sometimes he runs the tours himself and if he is not around then he has a local run it. I was in the latter category.

The Journey

On the day that we left, my guide picked me up in a big 4×4 off road vehicle, driven by a driver whose name I can’t recall. We set out. We stopped at a market to buy some fruit and then drove past some large Chinese infrastructure building roads, and then we were out in the countryside.

The drive was excellent. There are some small towns and villages along the way as you drive to the lake. We stopped at one to have lunch, before continuing on our way. But as we got away from that small town, the land just became barren. Some small rocky hills or sometimes just miles of flat cracked earth. Little to nothing was growing, there was no water to be seen, aside from the odd camel, very little in the way of wildlife. The roads disappeared and we were entirely off road. The temperature was in the mid 40s. It was desolate.

*my crew: stopping for cigarettes and snacks*

What I found amazing, was that in this very inhospitable landscape, there were still small villages. In these small villages people seemed to live of houses that resembled rounded piles of sticks and fabric. There would be one or two shops, that were sort of like cinder block cubes. We stopped at one to pick up some water and cigarettes. But I just kept thinking, why live here? No shade or water, electricity or any conveniences. Surely like would be better in a town or at least somewhere where you cold grow food or fish, but you have to respect the resilience.

I was enjoying the journey, but what was unusual was that we were collecting people along the way. It had started with just three of us, but after our lunch in the small town a man with an orange beard joined us, and for a time another young man joined us. I gather we were giving them rides to other places that we were going. It was fun and I was happy for whatever was going on. I have since then had people ask me if I felt safe as a solo female traveler with all these strange men in the middle of nowhere; and the answer is yes. Without reservation.

The drive should have been about 6 hours not including lunch. So I was counting on it being maybe 7 hours or so. Even as I thought that, I did recognize that things can always go sideways, especially where, as here, there are no roads, but I was keeping my fingers crossed that in about 7 or 8 hours I would be at my destination camping out by the lake.

Unfortunately, things did take a bit of a turn. We got stuck in the mud. It’s funny to say “mud’’ because there was nothing remotely wet or muddy about the ground, but we got stuck in layers of dirt that had formerly been mud I suppose. We all got out of the vehicle and tried to help rocking it back and forth to get us unstuck. That was to no avail. And then we walked out from the vehicle into the landscape looking for large branches that we could use to put under the wheel to make sort of a ramp to drive out on. But the landscape was nothing. It was like the moon. There were no trees, and any bits of wood were just little twigs. Finally, two of the guys decided that they would walk back to the last village that we had passed and ask for help. The last village we passed was a ways back, but I figured that was the only option. (It’s worth mentioning, that in this landscape not only is there no Wi-Fi of course, but also no cell signal. Is the sort of place where you could imagine just dying if you didn’t have the right provisions.)

While we waited for them to return, I sat on the ground in the shadow of the vehicle and smoked cigarillos whilst being bundled up on a long-sleeved hoodie and brimmed cap. It was roasting, but I wanted to stay out of the sun.

I was expecting my travel mates to return with a vehicle with 4-wheel drive and a winch to pull us out of the hole, but what they returned with were three skinny young men in sandals, and with a collective weight of about 300 pounds, and a shovel. How was this going to work?

They got to work, digging a bigger hole and then filling it in with dirt, packing it down and adding more. And then with a bit pushing from all of us, we were out. Two of the guys walked back to the village with the shovel, but one guy joined us for the trip. Now we were six.

The new guy took over for the designated driver and it was clear why; he skills to navigate the terrain far exceeded that of the original driver. We drove in and out of deep crevices in the earth where water once flowed, we scaled hills that seemed to be nothing more than piles of boulders. A couple of times we briefly got stuck again, but he freed us quickly.

Of course, this delay had dramatically extended our journey and by the time we got to Lake Abbé, the sun was setting, but first I got a preliminary view of what I had travelled so far to see.

Lake Abbé

Lake Abbé is salty lake at the border of Ethiopia and Djibouti and is considered to be one of the more inaccessible places on earth. The landscape is flat and then towards the edge of the lake are these craggy natural chimneys and a small, dormant volcano. Because of the late hour I would have to wait until the morning to visit them, but I got some nice views from the camp.

The camp consisted of some igloo-shaped grass huts with cots inside, a covered patio area, cooking area, and toilets that worked if there was water.

I sat on the patio area with my companions. Only two spoke English, but we sat and ate dinner and drank tea, watching the landscape disappear into darkness. I enjoyed a couple cigars.

*On the right, that is me trying to take a selfie and being startled by a flying insect.*

Because there is no electricity and nothing for miles, the sky was spectacular with stars and in the distance there was occasional lightening. I went to bed but quickly realized that the huts were like tiny ovens, so I dragged my cot outside and slept soundly under the stars.

In the morning, before everyone else got up, my guide and I walked to the lake. The ground was crazy. In places it was hard and cracked with dried salt and in other places you would sink into mud past your ankles. There were fissures in the earth in places where hot water boiled up, producing steam. It was so cool; truly like being on another planet.

We could not get right up to the lake as the mud was too thick, but we got to see a lot.

Back at the camp, we had breakfast and then four of us walked to a different part of the lake, where the water appeared pink – because it was covered in flamingos! I had never seen so many. It was incredible. We couldn’t get too close without scaring them off, so my pictures are a bit lacking In quality resolution, but in person it was beautiful.

*Me and the original guide and driver and the substitute driver*

We packed up and started the journey to another lake – Lake Assal. On the way we met lots of camels and a small troupe of curious monkeys.

Our group dwindled as we dropped off our add-on travelers and again, we were three.

Lake Assal

Lake Assal is relatively close to the city, but on the other side. (It is easily visitable as a day trip from Djibouti City.) It Is notable for being a hypersaline lake, like the Dead Sea, and also for being the lowest place in Africa. I had had the experience of floating in the Dead Sea and didn’t feel like getting all salt encrusted so I didn’t swim in it, but it was beautiful. Like nothing I had seen before. Blinding white and reflective; like ice. We could walk out quite far on the salt before it turned into a lake, but with the water on top of the sale it became like a mirror.

At the shore were a few young men and boys selling salt and items, like animal skulls, that had been submerged in the lake and were now salt-encrusted artifacts.

*this would have looked so cool in my office*

We drove back to the city, stopping at a massive gorge and a view of the landscape.

It was an excellent experience and while it was not cheap, it was worth the money.

Back at Djibouti City, I would have another day before heading home via London.

For my post about Djibouti City, click here.

Move on to my layover in London here.

*friendly kids in a village in Djibouti*

Africa Eritrea Eritrea-Djibouti trip 2024

Back in Time in Asmara, Eritrea

When I told people I was going to Eritrea, all but the most die-hard travelers had not heard of it. Fair enough. Although Eritrea is famous for a long-standing conflict with Ethiopia, it is not well known to your average person. Eritrea occupies a sliver of land northeast of Ethiopia, just above Djibouti, and along the Red Sea.

Eritrea has been notoriously difficult to visit. You need a visa and someone on the ground to arrange it for you. At the time I went, you had to go as part of a tour, but the tour needn’t occupy all of your time. You needed a permit to leave Asmara (the capital). There is little to no wifi, no ATMs, credit cards are not accepted, and the country tightly controls the information coming in and out. It is often referred to as the “North Korea of Africa.” Not exactly inviting.

But I was so curious to visit this secretive nation that I planned a trip around it.

I booked a day tour and visa support through an Eritrean travel agency called Adulis Travel. They were very helpful. All I had to do was send them my info and agree to pay them in cash and they took care of my visa, hotel, and tour.

I planned to spend a few days in Asmara. One day on the tour and then two days to myself being gloriously offline; relaxing at cafes and taking in the architecture.

I arrived from Cairo (written about in my previous post). I arrived after midnight and my guide, Selihom, was waiting for me and thankfully so. With her help, I was able to get my visa in my passport in about 30 minutes. Others waited for more than an hour. I paid $70US cash for the visa and Selihom dropped me off at my hotel, promising to pick me up in a few hours for my day tour. Sigh. Another night of only a few hours’ sleep.

I stayed at the Crystal Hotel. There are other and cheaper options, but they are located farther from the centre. The Crystal Hotel was not cheap, but central and well staffed. My room was huge and devoid of any character.

My first glimpse of Asmara was that it was completely empty of people and quiet at this time of night. Also, the streets were immaculate. Well-paved and free of trash. It looked quaint and I could not wait to go see it tomorrow.

The next morning, Selihom picked me up with a driver. The tour would be a walking / driving affair. It was a good introduction to the city. Of course, were it not for the need to have a tour to get the visa, I would have visited on my own and that would have been fine, but we did see a lot on that first day and I got a good sense of what the place was like. What was allowed, what people’s lives were like, etc. As much as you can in a day.

We visited Medebar market – always a favourite stop of mine. We went to a local scrap area where people were taking discarded items and making them into new things. Old paint cans, scrap metal, barrels et cetera, all became something new. They told me this is because of their environmental concerns, and I am not saying that is untrue, but it is certainly also because they do not have a lot of money or access to world markets.

Medebar Market and a welder there with a homemade mask

We visited a video store and electronic repair shop. I know, but it was really interesting. Because there is little to no wifi in the country, people are not streaming their media; they are renting it. Ah, nostalgia. The guy fixing the TVs and phones said he could fix everything and did. Again, in a limited economy things must be reused, but it is also a good lesson to those that throw things away and replace them without a second thought.

We walked the streets of the downtown area. This was terrific. Asmara is full of 1940s architecture, and little has been upgraded. It is a UNESCO site for these reasons. Part of what makes it so appealing is that the Italians occupied Eritrea, built terrific theatres and cafes and then left and the country has been more or less frozen in time since then. Those cinemas and cafes are still in use. The coffees and atmospheres are wonderful. All of Asmara has this suspended in time feeling and in a lovely way. No billboards or flashing signs, people are not on their phones constantly (because no wifi), there are old cars, clean streets, and everything is quite well taken care of. It reminded me a little of Havana before they got wifi.

This was the atmosphere I wanted to enjoy for a few days.

The only downside is that Asmara has very strict smoking laws. No smoking indoors or on any patios. Period. And I only found one place (a courtyard at a hotel) that was willing to break the rules. That was a bit of a disappointment. I had imagined myself on patios with tiny Eritrean/Italian coffees, puffing on a Ramon Allones. Oh well. I still was able to smoke outside my hotel in the evening sitting on a chair they let me borrow.

We continue our tour by visiting the thing I was most excited to see: the Fiat Tagliero Building. The building was designed as a petrol station by Giuseppe Pettazzi and was built in 1938. It has an art deco/futurist style and is intended to look like an airplane. It is fabulous. It is no longer in use but is very much intact and you can enter and climb up to the roof for a different perspective. It was this building that first made me want to visit Asmara and it did not disappoint.

But there was more to come!

We visited the tank graveyard; a pretty field littered with piles of tanks, trucks, and other army vehicles. They remain there as a symbol of Eritrean independence and its victorious struggle against Ethiopia in the war of independence (1961 to 1991). The site is just out in the open but there is a cabal of taxi drivers who monitor the comings and goings and charge a small fee. It was super fun to climb on all the old wrecks and play with the tanks.

Amongst the things frozen in time in Asmara is the bowling alley. Built in the early 1950s for American using a base nearby, it exudes vintage charm. Vintage photos of long deceased leagues adorn the walls. Translucent red brick detail on the walls and lanes where the balls are returned and the pins reset by hand. By children. Of course, Selihom and I played a round. There was no one else bowling at the time, but the billiards tables next to the lanes were packed.

We stopped by a cemetery and walked the tombstones and then we had lunch.

Traditional Eritrean food is similar to Ethiopian and I had a platter of vegetarian treats served on spongy injera bread.

We made a final stop, which was up in the mountains for views of the valley and to try a local cactus fruit that is picked and sold by the local kids. Honestly the fruit was only so-so, but I had several of them.

It was a marvellous day. I learned a lot of about Eritrea, saw ‘the sites’, and enjoyed Selihom’s company. And then I was set free.

I went out for dinner – pizza (hey, it was an Italian colony) – and had a walk and a cigar before bed. I couldn’t wait for the next day of wandering around at my own pace and enjoying the city. Except…that didn’t happen.

Sorry for the cliffhanger, but read on, for the tale of how quickly things can change in Eritrea.

Asia Vietnam Vietnam Laos trip 2024

Hanoi: Vintage Motorcycle Tour

On my second evening in Hanoi, I realized that I had done most of what I wanted to do but that I still had a half a day before I went to the airport the next day. So I looked into what sort of walking tours perhaps I could do. But I found something even better: a tour of Hanoi on a vintage motorbike. This was offered by Hanoi Backstreet Tours and I booked it immediately.

I was picked up at my hotel by a fellow riding a vintage-looking army motorcycle. We were joined by another two guides each with a guest on their motorcycles. A couple from Japan. And off we went. It was terrific. It took us through areas of the city that I had not visited and gave me some small photo opportunities. They also took us through tiny little back streets, that we skilfully wound through on the motorbikes. They took us to some interesting shops including one that made wedding cakes and another that made replica luxury goods out of paper for burning to achieve good luck in the afterlife. We went to a market and saw chickens and fish and other creatures. A lot of interesting historical details were shared.

We even left the city at one point and went across a bridge and saw some of the shantytowns down by the river.

While near the market, we passed a small square where young men were smoking big bamboo pipes. I had seen this already the day before in my walk around but I wasn’t sure what they were smoking in them. The guide explained that they were smoking tobacco, called thuoc lao. It’s not cigarette tobacco. It is closer to the sort of tobacco that you would use to roll a cigar, though it is not fermented in the same way. The pipe, made from bamboo and called a điếu cày, Is kind of like a water pipe. Of course I wanted to try it.

The guide spoke to one of the young men who agreed to let me try his pipe. He lit it for me, got it going, and then handed it to me. I placed my mouth over the end and inhaled deeply, taking in a lungful of the potent smoke. I am a daily cigar smoker but I have never smoked cigarettes, so inhaling is not a natural thing for me. I immediately started coughing and laughing at the same time, much to the amusement of the small crowd of young men that had gathered around to watch the idiot tourist try the giant pipe. Below is a still from a humiliating video of me trying the pipe. Still, it was a fun experience I’m glad that I tried it.

It all wound up with an excellent lunch. It was superb. We covered more ground on the motorcycles, and it was just fun.

Rather than having them drop me off at my hostel, I asked her to drop me off at the La Casa del Habano, that I had passed earlier. I had just enough time for a cigar. I went in and had a Quai d’Orsay in a very civilized environment before catching a Grab back to my hostel and a taxi to the airport. It was a terrific way to wind up my time in Southeast Asia on this trip.

My next trip would be to Eritrea and Djibouti, via Cairo.

Asia Laos Vietnam Laos trip 2024

Weird and Wonderful Buddha Park

Thing I had most looked forward to in visiting Vientiane was Buddha Park, a tourist attraction that is basically exactly what it sounds like, a park full of Buddhas, but it much cooler than it sounds. But first I had to figure out how to get there.

Buddha Park is located about 25 kilometres outside of Vientiane. It is possible to get there by a bus and I consider doing that, but everywhere I went in Vientiane I kept seeing these little signs attached to trees offering a day tour to Buddha Park and a few other sites in a tuk tuk for $10 by a man called Tungchai. It seemed like a good price and exactly what I wanted, but I questioned whether it was a good idea to message a stranger based on a piece of paper nailed to a tree and agree to go anywhere with him. But the more I saw the signs, the more I thought, ‘surely this person can’t be a killer, or they wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble.’ I messaged the fellow on WhatsApp and arranged to be picked up the next day.

*I mean, it’s laminated. That means it’s legit, right?*

It was a great choice. Tungchai arrived the next day on time in his tuk tuk with one other guest. I can’t recall the name of guy who was on the tour with me, but he was a pleasant fellow from Australia with a strong accent who was in Laos on business and had decided to do a bit of sightseeing. I’ll call him Mick. We chatted throughout the day about different places that we had travelled and about where we were from. When I told him I was from Canada he was quite excited because he is a Mormon and had heard about Mormon settlements in British Columbia, Canada where polygamy was allowed or ongoing; he had strong feelings about polygamy and how it should be legal for religious reasons. It was interesting to have that conversation as I’ve not encountered someone who had that belief before in a Mormon context. I took a very open-minded stance and just said that I think that relationships can come in all sorts of configurations and who is anyone to judge, although I had some concerns about the legalities and practical effect. He also told me a story about his son being in prison for homicide. Interesting chat, and he was good company for the half a day that we spent together.

We made a few stops throughout the day. We visited Patuxai (the victory arch commemorating gaining independence from the French), Pha That Luang. the golden temple, and the COPE centre, all of which I had visited the previous day on my walks, but I had no objection to revisiting them. And then it was on to the Buddha Park.

Buddha Park was started in 1958 by a Thai Priest/Sherman named Bunleua Sulilat. His faith was sort of Buddhism influenced by Hinduism as I understand it. He built the park and filled it with statues of Buddhist inspired and deities. Zero set along various paths surrounded by greenery. It was raining when we went, which gave it a magical feel. Even better there were only two other people visiting at the time. The idea of a park full of Buddha statues could sound kind of cheesy, but there’s something about this place that’s just weird and wonderful. The statues are just so odd. You want a giant pumpkin with an angry face that you can walk into and enter a representation of hell? It’s got that. Do you want a guy tugging on the leg of a giant grasshopper? It’s got that. Do you want a statue of various a multi faced Hindu with multiple arms outstretched so that it looks like a carnival ride? It’s got that too. The place is just amazing.

On the way back to the city, we stopped at a couple of other temples. It was a very fun half day trip with good company and interesting stories from our guide, and I never tire of running around in tuk tuks.

And then I was back to visiting Vientiane on my own. I’ve covered the rest of Vientiane in a different post here. The next day I would take the train to Luang Prabang.

Andorra Andorra-Lithuania trip 2024 Asia

Day Trip to Andorra

I was in Barcelona to visit Andorra. Andorra was my last microstate in Europe that I had not visited. It’s easy enough to miss; it’s just a dot on the map in between the borders of Spain and France. It doesn’t even sound real; Andorra sounds like a region in a Tolkien book, not current country.

*Andorra map, right on the border between Spain and France*

Although the area had been inhabited before this, present day Andorra can effectively chase trace its roots back to the 10th century when Charlamagne give a charter to 5000 people living in the area, primarily soldiers. After that, and for centuries, the tiny state seemed to pass hands from one king or protectorate to another and was occupied by France…I was going to try and summarize it in more detail, but honestly it gets too complicated, so just go and read it a book or a Wikipedia page if you’re interested.

In 1993, Andorra got a constitution and became a voting member of the United Nations. Andorra has a Prime Minister, but also has a co-principality, which means it has two princes (Spin Doctors jokes aside); one prince is the Bishop of Urgell and the other is the President of France. So the president of France in Andorra is kind of a Prince. None of this makes any sense to me either but it is interesting.

The whole country is just under 468 square kilometres and has a population of approximately 88,000 people. Andorra is located in the Pyrenees mountains, which makes it a skiing destination, and its capital is Andorra la Vella. Its biggest industry is tourism, and it also earns money from being a tax haven. I’ve never really heard anything great about Andorra aside from beautiful scenery and low cigar prices, but I hadn’t been there and I wanted to go. This is one of those trips that really did feel like I was checking a box, even though I was excited to see what it was like.

The easiest way to visit Andorra is by driving from Barcelona, as there is no airport. If you can drive, I think it would be lovely to rent a car and make the leisurely drive yourself, but as I don’t know how to drive, this meant organizing a bus tour for the day. I never relish doing this but when it’s the only option, what can you do?

The tours that I booked turned out to be quite good. It was a little larger than I would have liked but the timing was good, and they didn’t chat our ears off or make us follow around an umbrella around in a herd.

Bagà, Spain

We left early in the morning from Barcelona and made our first stop, a small medieval town in the north of Spain, Bagà. Bagà is a little pretty town founded in the 9th century and has a population of slightly over 2,000 people today. They gave us about a 20-minute walk around the town showing us some notable sites, and then we were left free to wander for the rest of the hour. It was picturesque and delightful. I didn’t feel like I needed more time there.

Ax-les-Thermes, France

From there, we crossed the border into France, where we had about an hour in Ax-les-Thermes. The town has been settled since about the 1200s. Today it is famous for having sulphurous Hot Springs with apparent additional properties. The town itself was a population of only about 1200 people. It’s impossibly pretty. I felt like Belle from Beauty and the Beast walking around the charming streets; and, like Belle, I was given curious and suspicious looks as I walked around singsongly greeting people with “Bonjour.”

Arrival in Andorra

From there we drove to Andorra. It was May and in Barcelona it had been quite warm, but as we drove high through the mountains Andorra, there was snow and the temperature dropped considerably. The landscapes were stunning. I love mountains and snow so this is right up my alley. I think it would have been lovely to maybe do some hiking or to stay the night there, but we only had a day trip and so we had to make the most of what we had.

We arrived in Andorra and had a couple of hours of time for exploring. The capital of Andorra is…not great. I really struggled to find pretty picturesque things to photograph. Much of it is unremarkable, and a lot of it just feels like a big duty-free store. It’s worth seeing once but that’s about it.

The thing that I had most excited about was picking up some cigars, since I had heard that the cigar prices there are noticeably less than in the rest of Europe, and also they have quite a good selection of Cubans. What I didn’t realize, was that all the cigar stores closed between roughly 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM, precisely the time that we would be there. I walked around to each of the cigar stores and pressed my nose against the glass, looking in at shelves of boxes that would never be mine.

I stopped for a cup of coffee and a small cigar with one of the girls from my tour and walked back, a bit dejected, to meet the rest of the group to get back on the bus. As I waited for the group to join us, I saw a man walk towards and unlock the door to a small and very average-looking cigar store. It was about 10 minutes before they were supposed to reopen, but I frantically persuaded him to let me in. I had a look around. While there were a number of impressive boxes of Cuban cigars, he explained to me that they had already been purchased. At this time the supply of Cuban cigars across Europe was dwindling. There were only two Cuban cigars in the shop that were available for purchase; fortunately they were regional edition San Cristobals, and I snapped them up along with about 15 other random non-Cubans. I can confirm that the prices were excellent.

A bit happier, I boarded the bus, and we headed back to Barcelona.

We got back before nightfall, but just barely. I spent the evening, as I had the previous evening wandering around and having bites to eat and cigars and cocktails at various bars and restaurants near my hostel.

I had all of the next morning in Barcelona as well, and I did more of the same as I had done the previous day, wandering around and taking insights. Fortunately, as I got up quite early, I was able to visit some of the churches and areas before the throngs of tourists overtook them.

At about noon, I headed for the airport, as I had a 3:00 PM ish flight to Vilnius, Lithuania.

Tag: Tour

Planning

The Airport

Arrival and Shopping

Safety

The Unrecognized Country

Getting There

Bender

Outside the Cities

Tiraspol

Setting Out

Magical Peleș Castle

Bran Castle

Brașov

The Journey

Lake Abbé

Lake Assal

Bagà, Spain

Ax-les-Thermes, France

Arrival in Andorra