After 11 weeks of traveling we arrived at one of the world's poorest countries: Madagascar. It is a country that gets its income mainly from agriculture. On our journey through Madagascar, we met an organization that has been engaged for several years in numerous projects in that country. CMGDM ( Coopération MarGas pour le Développement Madagasikara) is the name of the organization. That organization has already achieved a great deal during the period 2008-2010. They have refurbished bungalows, created new tourism opportunities, improved water supplies, training, etc. Because we were very impressed by this organization, we decided to follow the organization for a couple of days. Rice is the main product of Madagascar but unfortunately because of the lack of modern machinery and obsolete irrigation systems Madagascar can only rely on rice from other countries. CMGDM explained to us and to the local population how they can use the ground on a more efficient way and to obtain a higher production. We helped with pulling the seeds out and planted new seeds that are much farther apart than originally had been done. We have also learned that it is not necessary for the plants that they are under water permanently. But thanks to the heavy rains of recent months the fields stood under water. Later that week we made a tour in a factory of sugar that CMGDM had built. This sugar is processed and made ready for export. Vanilla and coffee also makes a large part of the export. Along our many walks we saw many fishers and nomadic tribes. What we found strange were the few types of livestock. But the locals told us that livestock are not valuable to life from. They do not possess the necessary food to fatten the animals and the animals barely give milk. But most of the nomadic held Zebus. Zebus are held for religious reasons. They are not slaughtered and are not kept for the milk. The milk we drank in our hotel was almost sour because the milk truck came too late to collect all the fresh milk. The vegetables and fruits we saw on the locale markets were not always of equal quality. The rainy season was just over so a lot of harvest failed. When we returned to our hotel we saw regular trucks and jeeps stuck on the muddy road. When a truck got stuck we could not believe our eyes: Within a few minutes the truck was completely plundered. So Madagascar certainly needs more money and resources for the economy of to move forward.
After nine weeks of traveling, we arrived at one of the largest countries of Africa, but also one of the most dangerous countries namely Congo. Fortunately, since 2012, peace has more or less returned to the country. But our jeep was frequently stopped by police and checked for weapons.
Despite that, the local Congolese population was very happy with us as Belgian tourists. Congo is a formerly colony of Belgium and they still cherish that time because of the improved road network, nutrition, education and better medical care.
There was certainly no shortage of attractions in Congo. The first thing we visited in Congo was the mighty Congo River. It forms the border between Congo Kinshasa and Congo Brazzaville. In some places the river seems very quiet but that is not true, there unpredictable whirlpools are everywhere. Especially I had a lot of fear as the boat was old and looked unstable. We sat with many people on the side of the boat. We were very lucky that our boat did not overturn because in some places we were a few kilometers away from the river bank. We came back to the mainland after a few hours.
After a long jeep trip on a bumpy road we arrived at the waterfalls in Zongo. These waterfalls are 70 meters high and are surrounded by green. We arrived through a path at the bottom of the waterfall. Fortunately we had a raincoat on because we felt the water falling on the rocks that is coming from the waterfall. Later that day we visited the mangrove forests. The mangrove forests forms the border between water and land. During low tide we saw during the roots of the trees. Mangrove Forests protect the coast against the force of tidal waves.
We also visited the National Park Solanga by boat. This park is the largest nature reserve in the African rainforest and the second largest rainforest in the world. We walked through small streams and branches to come out in one of the many open spaces. Our guide told us we had to be very quiet so we would not disturb the bonobos. During our walk we encountered peacocks and crocodiles. An inhabitant was so happy to see us that we continued our trip on an elephant. Despite the fact that the park is listed on the list of endangered world state we saw evidence of poachers and plunderers.
The last day of our holiday we went to the port town of Matadi where we met with the local fishermen. They told us that fishing and the growing of crops are important sources of income. The Congo River is obviously very important for the freight to and from Congo.
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Week 6 from 25 until 2 April
We were about halfway in our trip and we were very curious to visit Greece. The country looked very beautiful on the internet but we wanted to see it with our own eyes. Although the temperature was around 20 degrees, there were already a lot of tourists in Greece. During that week we went from city to city or island by bus or by boat. During our long bus rides we could enjoy the mountains, nature and the abundance of water. The first thing we visited was the lake of Corinth. It is a narrow lake with six bridges. Five bridges are for cars and one bridge for the railway. The bridges are located approximately 70 meters above the water surface. So we had already suspected that Greece is not totally flat. The next day we visited the theater of Epidaurus. This theater is huge and to our surprise we could hear everything that a group of English speaking tourists was telling below in the theater. Because the bus could not drive to the excavations of Mycenae, we did a part of the trip on foot. Unfortunately there was on the outside not much to see. Normally there are several bodies in each grave. The bodies were buried with many artfully crafted objects: gold cups, goblets, masks and ornaments, beautifully decorated swords and daggers. But unfortunately we could not see that. Later that we week we visited another Greek island Olympia where we visited the Old Olympic stadium. It was not a round track as we had thought, but a long rectangle. A line showed us the start and finish. Athletes were not walking in circles, but returned at the end of the runway. In the past, there was seating for 45,000 spectators and a tunnel in which athletes would make their appearance from. Now there is nothing left from the tunnel and the stadium. We also visited Delphi and the temple of Apollo. During or trip back to Athens, we stopped at the Byzantine monastery. Thomas laughed with us because we were obliged to drag a long green skirt over our dresses. We bought a bracelet after the visit. The bracelet had drawings of several holy persons; the person who stays longest on your bracelet becomes your guardian angel. To finish the week in beauty we went to the Acropolis. There it was very windy but the view over Athens was very beautiful.
When we arrived in Bulgaria, we were amazed by the beautiful nature of the country. The temperature was for the time of the year very high; it was 20 degrees during the day. This was perfect to visit the numerous parks in the country. We decided to visit three nature parks, namely National Park Pirin, Rila National Park and National Park Central Balkan. The first park that we visited was the Rila National park (it comes from roula what means a lot of water) consisting of many springs, 28 lakes and two of the biggest rivers (Iskar and Bulgaria Msarista) . The biological diversity of the flora is large and we saw a lot of different sort of flowers species: freshwater plants, mosses, ferns, taxus, We made with our guide a bike ride over bumpy roads During that tiring ride, the guide told us that Bulgaria counts approximately 350 different bird species. We saw a lot of birds, but unfortunately we recognized only a few in contrast to our guide who knew most of them.
Later that day we visited the health center. After a day walking and cycling that was the best way to relax. We overnighted in one of the many mountain cabins. Fortunately there was extra linen provided, because at night the temperature can drop below the freezing point. The next day we decided to take it easier because this week there stood another two visits to national parks on our program. The second nature park we visited was the National Park Central Balkan. This park is located in the heart of Bulgaria, between the central and higher portions of the Balkan Range. During our walk we came face to face with endangered and rare species of wildlife such as wild boars, wolves and bears. We left the most beautiful and I think the biggest nature park of Bulgaria for the last 2 days. National Park Pirin has an area of 26,479.8 hectares and a lot of different trees such as chestnuts, ash, beech, oak and ash. We have even seen a fir of more than 1200 years old. The park also contains 70 glacial lakes, a lot of caves, waterfalls, magnificent canyons and cliffs. It is certainly worthwhile to visit 1 of those 3 nature parks!
The last day of the week we left very early in the morning to Sofia where we took the plane to Athens.
I read an article a few weeks before our trip around the world about the democracy in Hungary. I was very curious how their democracy will have an effect on the economy of the country. Because the new constitution is in conflict with the European legislation, Hungary can no longer rely on a new loan from the International Monetary Fund. The Fidesz government of Viktor Orban took numerous measures to reduce the budget deficit of his country. Soon we found that Hungarians are very hospitable people. We were welcomed into one of the many hotels that Hungary is rich of. Tourism is therefore a very important source of income for the country. We were lucky with the choice of the hotel because there are many hotels that need to be replaced or renovated. But because of the new measures for foreign investors, it is not all that attractive anymore for investors to invest in hotels or residences. The first day of our holiday in Hungary, we took a taxi to a nearby town. When we arrived and were about to pay, we realized that something went wrong. The numerator of the taxi was on a higher mileage than the distance we had really ridden. Apparently the taxi driver had forgotten to reset the meter. The rest of the week we took the bus and tram to move through the country. The Hungarians love to see tourists and I think thats because of the huge price we paid for drinks. We as girls also paid a different price for the same drink than Thomas. Moreover, the waiter expected a tip by the payment of our drinks. On the other hand, the Hungarian currency the forint is lower in value than the euro. But this problem is solved by the Hungarian government to raise VAT from 25% to 27%. The conclusion is that the Government and local communities let tourists pay and the population in many ways for the bad economic situation.
One of the
last stops on this fabulous journey, was Tanzania. Located in East Africa, next
to Kenya and Uganda, its one of hotter countries weve been. Arriving there, we were confronted with a
very special language. The Swahili language. The country has two official
languages; English is the first one, Swahili the second language. Swahili is
seen as the unifying language of the country between different tribes, so being
able to speak this language is very important for some of the inhabitants of
this country. Of course, we dont speak Swahili, so we hired a translator. He
was one of the locals, and could speak both English and Swahili very fluently.
It gave us the chance to have some conversations with these people, without
making fools of ourselves for trying to speak a language we cant. During the week in Tanzania, our translator
stayed with us all the time. The other locals knew him, and thus he could take
us with him to one of his tribes. They
told us, the tribe language is learned first, then Swahili and English. The younger people, like the students (who we
met during a short visit in one of the universities of Tanzania), mix both
these languages ( English and Swahili) to a new language. Its very strange to
hear them speaking. From one of the
teachers, we learned that lots of languages are spoken in Tanzania. During the
colonial period of Tanzania, even German was widely spoken. This practice
though is already forgotten. Not far
from the borders of Rwanda and Burundi, French is spoken. Even Portuguese is spoken. Its a variety of languages we could appreciate
a lot, during our visit in our 11th week. During the week, we learned to speak a word
or two in Swahili. Mimi nina utalii, for example. It means Im a tourist, in
Swahili.
Week 3, like you can see on the video on youtube, we went to Slovakia. The movie is a kind of promotion-film for Slovakia. It shows all kinds of beautiful things of the country; nature, people, culture, And the movie isnt lying. In our opinion, Slovakia has some very beautiful nature. When we visited Slovakia, we went out searching for what Slovakia is well known; its mountains. So the third day, we went for a long walk into the mountains, searching for landscapes. We climbed a mountain called Krivan. We didnt climb to the top of course, as this mountain reaches an astonishing 2500 meters. Krivan is situated to the north of the country, and amongst nature lovers, its ranked as the countrys most beautiful peak. The mountain was easily accessible, along maintained marked trails, so we were not the only hikers there. Krivan, one of the hikers told us, is derived from the root kriv- meaning crooked. It reflects the special angel the mountain appears to have when viewed from the west and south. You can even see these mountains on the Slovak euro coins (the 1,2 and 5 cents), so to the Slovakian people, this mountain is important. The next day, we took the bus to the Greater Fatra, which is a mountain range a bit more to the east. One of the largest ski resorts in Slovakia is located there. We had some amazing views. Lots of trees in this area; nearly 90% if the area is covered by forests. Its one of the countries where you can see no sign of people for as far as the eye reaches. Luckily, this area, so we heard, is protected by one of the national parks of Slovakia, preventing it from damage. Slovakias beautiful nature is one of the main reasons why people come to Slovakia, and tourism is important for economy. Its something the Slovakian people know where well.
Hungary was
the destination of the fourth week. Its bordered bySlovakiato the north,UkraineandRomaniato the east,SerbiaandCroatiato the south. Being situated next to Slovakia, the country
we visited the week before, it was the next logical country on the to do list.
It also means were staying in the same climate, and the same kind of beautiful
nature. We came across some information that most people dont know. Only seven
countries have won more Olympic medals than Hungary. The people of Hungary won
465 medals in total, which is a lot. One of the reasons why they won so many
medals, is because of their success in swimming. Hungarians are good swimmers.
To support that idea, we went swimming that week. Good for general health, but
also good to see what different habits they have in swimming. Theyre also better in football than you
would think. They won against Greece, Italy, Its why we went visiting (near
the end of our week in Hungary) the Ferenc Puskas Stadium. Its in Budapest,
and during our visit to see some culture in Budapest, we decided to check out
this stadium. Its pretty big, capacity of 39 000 people, but whats the most
amazing thing is how old it is. It was opened in 1953. We went to see a
football-game in the stadium, and had a really good time. The Hungarians are
very enthusiastic people, so there was a lot of singing during the game. It was
very warm during the game, so when it was finished, we went for a drink in the
pub. The day after, we went to take a look to a more futuristic stadion. The
Budapest Sports Arena. It was opened in 2003 and its really beautiful and modern. We liked the architecture of the
box office of the arena too, which was right beside the Sport arena, on the
same square. Because of all the medals, Hungary has been put on the map a long
time ago already.
The 10th
week, we arrived in The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its the second
biggest country of the African continent, and its right in the middle of the
continent. Its the most populous officialy Francophone country, and people
speak French because of Congo was the Belgian colony from 1908 until 1960.
Before that, it was a free state. Colonists brutalized the local population to
produce rubber, used for making rubber tires in a growing international market.
The sale of rubber made a fortune to our king Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and
Ostend to honor himself and his country. During this period, which was around
1900, millions of Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation. Its the
reason why we didnt say a lot we where Belgian people. Some people there know
their history, and theyre not grateful to what our ancestors did with them. The last day we were in the country, we saw
in an old museum an old banknote of Zaire.
Mobutu renamed the country the Republic of Zaire, which was Congos 4th
name change in 11 years. We also visited
Kinshasa, which is the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its also the biggest city, and its located
on the Congo River. Kinshasa had the
earliest documented HIV-1 infection, which dates from 1959. In 2004, Kinshasa was rated as one of
Africas most dangerous cities in terms of crime. We knew this before we
arrived, so we hired two people who were always around. They protected us, if
necessary, and they told us what areas we better didnt enter. All of us didnt like this city very much,
because we didnt feel very safe. Luckily, we didnt stay in Kinshasa for the
whole week, so we still had time to enjoy the rest of the Congo without the
bodyguards. After seven days, we packed
our bags once again, and went on to the next country.
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06-05-2012
This
country is the last country weve visited. The last, but not the least.
Yesterday, Ive read an article on the website of The New York Times (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/madagascar/index.html) about Madagascar. It says
Madagascar is one of the richest countries concerning nature. Research has made clear that 80% of the
animals and plants on Madagascar, exist on Madagascar only. So nowhere else on the world.
This gives
a big hint about how interesting it is for all people around the world to visit
this Island, which is the fourth biggest one on the planet. It also means were
not the only tourists here. Lots of Americans and Asian people, taking pictures
everywhere they can. You would think its life depending for them. Its very
irritating, in my opinion. But at least lots of tourism is good for the economy
of Madagascar. It provides the people with the money they need to keep them
alive, and to protect their heritage. Because lots of companies are making
abuse of lots of the precious materials that are available on this fabulous
island. The second day we started
exploring this nature and his animals. The day after that, we saw the other
side of the Island. We went to a place where some international companies
started exploiting some of the fishes the see around Madagascar is producing.
There are two sides of this story. The positive side is that people can take
profit of it, because of the raise of industrial growth, which is only 5% in
Madagascar. The downside is that theres less and less fish, because these
companies kill far too much fishes. The fourth day, we went to a small city
called Toliara. Its one of the bigger cities on the island, with about 100 000
people living there. Its right next to a big national park, called Isalo, and its right next to the sea. Concerning
nature, its very beautiful here. It proves people can combine tourists (and
thus economy) and nature, without causing too much damage to the beautiful
nature of this island.
The second week of our trip we traveled to Poland. It is a big country with 38 million inhabitants. After a short flight of about 1 hour we arrived at one of the 11 airports of Poland. The temperature was about the same as in Belarus, namely minus 5 degrees. Due to the large amount of snow it was difficult to get from the airport to our hotel. We arrived very late and we were so happy that we could warm up by the fireplace in the hotel. After seeing the many types of vodka, we decided to try one ore more
The vodka with cherry is my absolutely favorite. But fortunately, polish people do not only drink vodka; we also drank coffee, soup and tea to warm us up. The next three days we decided to brave the cold temperature and went skiing in the mountains. We also went as a variety to skiing to Mazirië where an ice sailing competition took place. It is a sport by which different participants sail on the ice with special made vehicles. But we came not only to Poland to do sport. We visited with warm clothes on the historical center of Krakow and Auschwitz Bierkenau. The historic center of Krakow is situated on the Hill Wawel. On the hill stands a royal castle and cathedral with three towers. In one of the three towers hangs a large clock. That clock is even heavier and older than the Big Ben in London. In our hotel there also were regular activities such as the popular card game of Poland Bridge and folk dancing. We found the traditional meals of Poland rather unhealthy but tasty. The food consists of a lot of cheese, smoked meat and herring. Almost every meal consists of soup. For dessert, we could choose from a lot of sweets like cakes, tiramisu, pancakes, chocolate and fruit.
To finish this week we went back to the college town Krakow where we dove into the Polish nightlife. After a short night it was already time to travel to the next country.
After a few boring hours on the plane, we finally arrived at the International Airport Minsk. It is the major international airport of Belarus. It is really amazing! The Minsk airport is approximately 50 kilometers from the city Minsk itself. The airport was equipped with all modern conveniences such as restaurants, bars, a post office, a bank and exchange office, a nursery, a taxi service and much more. Seeing all those bars, made us very thirsty. So accordingly, we took a ten-minute break to drink a glass on our first trip around the world.
The capital Minsk is easy to reach, there a three options: take a bus (price: 1), take a taxi (price: 20) or rent a car. We choose the cheapest solution: the bus. Busses depart every hour from 7 am till 10.30 pm. After a 40 minutes drive on the bus, we arrived in Minsk, next to the Central Rail Terminal. We then unloaded our luggage and were ready for adventure: the search for our hotel. Our greatest problem was navigation! It was a hard nut to crack because the actual street names were in Cyrillic alphabet which we had to decipher.It caused excitement because we didn't know for sure where we went most of the time, let alone that I knew which way I was taking. We wandered about for a few hours till someone had the bright idea to ask someone the way. It wasn't that easy because tourism isn't a priority in Minsk, as a consequence, English is spoken rarely.
We finally arrived the hotel!
After unpacking, we went into the city for more exploration. Minsk is the capital of Belarus and one of the oldest cities in Europe. The city was almost destroyed during the Second World War, something I once learnt in secondary school. I really expected a desolate and dirtiness but nothing was further from the truth. Minsk was surprisingly clean and beautiful, with grand buildings, well manicured parks throughout the city and artistic statues along the main boulevards. Even the Soviet Era apartment blocks in the outer suburbs were freshly painted and well maintained.
What about the cuisine in Minsk?
The eating habits aren't that different from other Eastern European cultures. The modern Belarusian cuisine exists of a wide range of potatoes and red meat. Belarusians spend a lot of their free time in the woods searching for many kinds of mushrooms. The most beloved Belarusian dish is draniki or potato pancake. Dairy products such as sour cream, butter and milk are served with the pancakes. Draniki is also very popular in other countries such as Russia, Ukraine and Israel. A favorite drink is black tea and coffee in general.
Darkness then fell and we decided to explore the nightlife in Minsk. The city at night is really quiet and we felt us very safe. One of the main reasons of the dead silence at night in Minsk is that persons under 18 years are forbidden to be on the streets after 11 pm without being accompanied with an adult. The policies of their government are really strict. Firstly, it is forbidden to drink alcohol (included beer!) in public places such as the local streets, parks,... It is only possible in places such as restaurants, bars, pubs or of course at home. Secondly, smoking is forbidden in public spaces and in the centre of Minsk. Another rule is to protect the city against dust and dirt. Accordingly, Minsk is one of the most clean cities in the world.
