I love self-prepared,
self-guided, self-supported trips. They offer the the greatest
freedom of movement (no
need to negotiate whether any support staff is willing to go somewhere
at certain time), greatest
flexibility and the lowest
costs as well.
Such travelling is more difficult to
prepare and
execute, so photos on this site try to inspire people enough to try it.
Additional information and maps try to help with what's not often written in
guidebooks, although it my become obsolete quickly. For the first 10 years I used to travel mostly to the
area of ex-Soviet Union
(ex-USSR). This is one of the most suitable areas for independent
treks as there are no
porters and almost no guides there anyway :-)
When I started looking for other areas, I became fascinated by Yemen. It does not have much oil money,
compared to other Arab countries, but it's the country where old great
Arab
hospitality and customs are best preserved nowadays. Although Nepal is a country of mass tourism,
Himalayas and buddhist culture there create unique harmony, especially
in less visited Tibetian areas like Dolpo. And if you don't want to see
foreign tourists at all, apart from the capital, you can go to north
eastern India, to very little visited Himalayas of Arunachal Pradesh. I like Ethiopia for it's diversity of nature and
people (but not for behaviour of it's people). I found unexpectedly
beautiful mountains and nice people in Colombia.
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