swesn's VirtualTourist Home Page

Life arises out of mystery: moments unfold, things happen.
Our mind then creates meaning about what happens.
We see things not as they are, but as we are...
Viewing the world through windows
of interpretation and expectation,
our mind creates a drama, a
comedy, a tragedy, a romance,
or a soap opera out of what simply arises.

Thus, our mind creates our dreams and dramas;
and stress appears as the mind resists what is.
To attain freedom, make peace with Mystery;
to invent your world, shift your expectations.
Reality is not what we think.

(author unknown)

Just because I spent a few days / weeks / months at a place, I don't claim to be expert enough to offer tips. I try...

I shall recommend quirky or culturally surprising stuffs that I personally felt special about, and dispense warnings that came from bad decisions or choices. If you feel that I may be of more help, feel free to email me.

My pages are narratives of those personally interesting encounters, culture 'shocks', witty quips I heard, things that made me go "HUH?", amazingly kind people I met, etc.... Just memorable stuffs from my diary... I hope you enjoy reading...

Most photos are taken by me (unless I'm in it, that will mean some random stranger took it) and if they're not from my camera, credits due will be given.

Feel free to swing by my Travel Pages.

<< 1995 >> Czech Republic, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany,
Switzerland, Italy, Austria, France, Spain, United Kingdom

<< 1997 >> New Zealand

<< 1998 >> South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia

<< 1999 >> Peru

<< 2000 >> Jordan, Egypt

<< 2001 >> Mexico

<< 2002 - 2003 >> China, Mongolia, Russia, Poland, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Cuba, USA, French Polynesia

Round-The-World blog: THE YEAR OF LIVING DIFFERENTLY

<< 2004 >> India, Italy, Australia

<< 2005 >> Oman, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile

South America blog : THE MUDDY-PANTS DIARIES

<< 2006 >> Turkey

<< 2007 >> Ethiopia

<< 2008 >> Uzbekistan

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"Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it." -- Eudora Welty

"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all people cry, laugh, eat, worry and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may become friends." -- Maya Angelou

"To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world." -- Freya Stark

"The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." -- Gilbert K. Chesterton

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." -- Miriam Beard

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes." -- Marcel Proust

"It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters in the end." -- Ursula K. LeGuin

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain

"There are two ways to live your life. The first is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." -- Albert Einstein

"We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." -- Marcel Proust

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see." -- Henry David Thoreau.

"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering." -- Saint Augustine

"Travelling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it." -- Cesare Pavese

"The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are." -- Dr. Johnson, English writer, poet and conversationalist, 1709-1784

"A journey of a thousand miles must start with a single step." -- Lao Tzu

"The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready." -- Henry David Thoreau

"Travel has a way of stretching the mind. The stretch comes not from travel's immediate rewards, the inevitable myriad new sights, smells and sounds, but with experiencing firsthand how others do differently what we believed to be the right and only way." -- Ralph Crawshaw

"If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears." -- Glenn Clark

My photos (grouped by countries) can be viewed using Slideshow at MY MULTIPLY SITE

My photos (grouped by themes and favourites) can be viewed at MY FACEBOOK SITE