renatob's VirtualTourist Home Page

Im building my site , very slowly, so you won t find many pics or tips.The sort of page I m planning to do is somewhere between telling my own little adventures around the world and trying to promote responsible tourism.Behaving properly abroad is what I am aiming to, I know it s hard,and I know that most of you do the same.However I still see many bad things we westerners are doing(and I include myself as well)that could be very harmful.So when in rome do what the romans do applies in most of the cases, but not always I.E. when in india(and many other places) do not litter as indians do.....

Travelling is great, however we should behave properly when abroad.Tourism is a great benefit for many "developing" countries as a major source of income.Turning this benefit into something negative is extremely simple.Giving pens money or whatever to kids encourage begging, and do remember these small cute creatures eventually will grow.If they get used to make easy money, small amounts like 1 $ a day is more than their father earn..., why they should bother with boring things like school?Once they reach an adult age begging is the only option and being less "interesting" for tourists , they don t have many alternatives.

I would love to build up my site I have tons of pics to upload , but i ve been fighting with internet providers for the last two years.Therefore no internet at my place.However if you want to ask me anything i always have my daily dose of VT, can t stop dreaming...,in my office and I m always willing to help other travellers. My main interest when travelling is to get in contact with local cultures.Understanding the way people live, starting from studying their past, I love history and archeology, trying understanding their present and trying to imagine what would be their future like.
this is me in jordanian version.

I am originally italian but for the last 4 and something years I have lived up here in Dublin.I work and at the same time I study, poverty and development , however I am a lucky person as I have enough time for travelling. I am happily married with a slovenian , that is even more crazy about travelling than me..., and we do have plans for the future....as we are seriously thinking of travelling in africa for a year or something, with no plans or itineraries just following our instincts and moods. I ll keep you updated.
a nice fire in the desert, wadi rum in this case, with a pot of tea boiling a great way to enjoy the sunset!

Finally I ve bought a digital camera...It took 1/2 an hour to take this pic as I was bending in order to get at their height and the kids started bending as well as they thought that this was what they were supposed to do.....my swahili was not that good to explain them what to do, but who cares it was great fun!

I love charts!!!!however it is impossible to classify so many different countries with so many different features.I ll try to create some categories:
top5 culture and traditions trips:Mali India Guatemala Fiji(in a remote island) Mongolia madagascar.
top 5 nature treks: Annapurna, Nepal, Dogon county, Mali, Lushoto, Tanzania, kings Canyon, Australia, anywhere in new Zealand, Dolomites, Italy.
Top 5 biggest disappointments: Beijing, Yucatan, rejkiavik, Bruxelles, Istanbul city
Top 5 historical sites(that made me cry..) Petra, Piramids in and outside cairo, Palenque, Taj mahal(and all the forts in India), Istanbul mosques and haghia sophia,
Top 5 interaction with locals experiences: Ila De Marajo, Brasil(off season), chicicastenango(off market day), taxi brousses in madagascar, a week in fiji in taqalai island populated only by locals and no more than other 5 tourists and spending time with locals is the only activity possible, Jordan people the friendliest people I have ever met.
Top 5 animal spotting:Bwindi NP and the gorillas, Galapagos and its animals on ...display, Tanzanian Parks where I have seen lions sleeping on trees(see picture below), Madagascar lemurs in ambalavao NP, Puffins in Ireland and Iceland the cutest animals i ve ever seen.

uganda is one of the few places in the world where lions live on trees and being quite difficult to spot them I consider myself very lucky to get this pic( and a tons of others...)

banana freights in uganda....