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My Travels - Under Construction
Travel is the biggest passion in my life and the reason for this website. I love exploring the world and try to go somewhere every chance I get. So far I have traveled in 82 countries (about 90 after my current trip) (many of them multiple times), it has taken me around 3 years of travelling to see this much. I usually travel around 3-4 months each year, including at least 2 longer international trips. Here is a rough outline of my longer and more interesting trips. Click on any of the maps to go to a page with more details and photos from each of the trips.
Finally got my itinerary finalized for my Central Asia trip. I will be starting by flying from Los Angeles to Vienna (with a short stop in Amsterdam). From Vienna I'll take a couple of short trips to Prague and Budapest, then fly to St. Petersburg through Berlin. I'll spend about 2 weeks with my friends in Russia, mostly in and around St. Petersburg and Moscow. From Russia I'll be going by train to Astana, then Almaty, then Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. I'll be getting back to Europe from Tashkent to Kiev through Riga. I'll spend about 10 days in Ukraine, and briefly go to Moldova and Trans-Dniester. From there I'll be going to Poland for a few days (possibly transiting through Belarus) and then flying back home to Los Angeles. A couple of days after I come back I'll be going to Arizona/Utah/Colorado for another couple of weeks. This will take me almost all of March/April/May. I am not going to Northern Afghanistan as I was originally planning, this is mainly due to the security situation at the moment and the lack of time to get Afghani visa and the Tajiki Gorno-Badakhshan travel permit.
(click on the map for more details about this trip)
Sometime in the late summer of 2010 Aggie and I are planning on flying into India again and going overland to Nepal and Tibet. While in Nepal we plan on doing the Annapurna Circuit (w). If that doesn't happen, I would like to go to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and East Timor.
At the beginning of August 2009 my friend Klaus came to visit me in California for a couple of months. Right when he got here we went on a camping road trip all the way up to Canada and back. We started by driving through Utah (Zion N.P., Cedar Breaks N.M., Bryce N.P., Grand Staircase Escalante N.M, Canyonlands and Arches N.P.) We crossed into Colorado and drove through Colorado N.M., Black Canyon of the Gunnison N.P., Mesa Verde N.P., Great Sand Dunes N.P., Florissant Fossil Beds N.M. and Rocky Mountain N.P. In Denver Aggie joined us for the rest of the trip. From there we drove across southern Wyoming (stopping at Fort Laramie N.H.S.) and into Nebraska (Scotts Bluff N.M., Chimney Rock N.M, Agate Fossil Beds N.M. From there we went into South Dakota and visited Minuteman Missile N.H.S., Badlands N.P., Mt. Rushmore N.M., Wind Cave N.P. and Jewel Cave N.M. From there we drove across Wyoming and Montana (very briefly stopping at Little Bighorn Battlefield N.M.) into the Canadian province of Alberta. In Canada we stayed and hiked in Banff and Jasper National Parks before driving back across the border into Montana and going to Glacier N.P. From there we drove to Yellowstone N.P. and back home to California.
(click on the map for more details and photos from this trip)
At the end of May 2009 I went to South America for 5 weeks. I started in Ecuador went overland to Colombia, flew from Cartagena to Panama city and back home. Unfortunately I was robbed and all my camera gear was stolen. I do however have some photos taken with a friends P&S camera which I will post after I come back from Central Asia.
(click on the map for more details and photos from this trip)
At the beginning of December 2008 Aggie and I went to S.E. Asia. We came back at the beginning of February 2009. We started in Singapore, went through Malaysia to Thailand, and flew to/from Myanmar. Afterwards we went to Cambodia, Laos, Malaysian Borneo (Sarawak state), then north Luzon in the Philippines before going back to Singapore and back home. This was my 5th trip to Southeast Asia, but the first for Aggie. I wanted to show her the most interesting sights (Angkor Wat, Niah Caves, Bagan, Auythaya, etc.) so it was a bit rushed at times. It was fascinating for me how much certain parts of S.E. Asia have changed since I first visited them. The biggest change was in Cambodia, it has changed a lot since the last two times I traveled there (6 and 5 years ago). I will write a lot more about this later when I start writing about individual countries.
(click on the map for more details and photos from this trip)
During the summer of 2008 I went on a 8 week trip to the Caucasus and Eastern/Central Europe. I started the trip by flying into Baku, Azerbaijan. From there I went south to Qobustan and north to Sumqayit and around the Abseron peninsula. From Baku I took an overnight train to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. In Georgia I went to Mtskheta, Gori and Kazbegi, then went south across the Armenian border to Alaverdi. There I visited the Haghpat and Sanahin monasteries and continued to the capital Yerevan. I spent a few days in and around Yerevan going to Echmiadzin, Garni Temple and Geghard Monastery. Since the borders between Armenia and Turkey are closed, I took an overnight train back to Tbilisi (18.5 hours), ran across the city in 45 minutes to catch a bus to Istanbul (27.5 hours).
(click on the map
for more details and photos from this trip)
In Istanbul I met a friend of mine (Klaus), and we spent a few days
in the city before taking the overnight Bucharest train and getting
off in Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria on the way. We spent a few days
there and went to Varna on the Black sea coast. From there we took a
bus to Ruse on the Romanian border and another one to Bucharest.
Klaus flew back home from Bucharest and I took an overnight train to
Sofia (Bulgaria), spent some time there and continued to Skopje
(Macedonia). From Macedonia I went to Prishtina in Kosovo, then came
back to Skopje and continued to Ohrid. From Ohrid I crossed the
Albanian border on foot, and continued to Tirana. After Tirana I
took a bus to Shkodra and crossed the border into Montenegro and
went to Bar. From there I went to Kotor by bus, then to Dubrovnik in
Croatia. From Dubrovnik I went to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
then to Sarajevo. From Sarajevo I took a bus to Belgrade in Serbia,
then an overnight train to Zagreb in Croatia. From Zagreb I took a
day trip to Plitvice Lake National Park, then continued to Ljubljana
in Slovenia. From there I went to Vienna for a few days to visit
Klaus, then took an overnight train to Poland to meet Aggie.
After spending a few days in Poland, we took an overnight bus to
Vilnius in Lithuania. There we went to Trakai and Siauliai before
going to Riga in Latvia. From Riga we went to Tallinn in Estonia and
spent a couple of days with another friend of mine (Arvo). From
Tallinn we took a ferry to Helsinki, then an overnight ferry to
Stockholm for a couple of days before flying back home. All this was
done completely overland (no flights at all) and was somewhat
rushed, I only had a little under 8 weeks, but it was an excellent
trip.
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(click on the map for more details and photos from this trip)
In December 2007/January 2008 I went on a trip to South Asia. I started by flying from Los Angeles through Tokyo to Singapore where I spent a couple of days. From Singapore I flew to Colombo, Sri Lanka. After spending some time traveling around Sri Lanka, I flew to Cochin in the Indian state of Kerala. I traveled around the coast of Kerala before making my way through Tamil Nadu to Chennai, where I spent the New Year. From Chennai I flew to Kolkata for a few days before going to Bangladesh. From Bangladesh I went back to Kolkata and flew to Delhi to meet Aggie and we traveled around a bit (Agra, Mathura, Fatehpur Sikri). Afterwards I went to Varanasi, before going to Hyderabad to meet Aggie again (She was working there) and flying back home through Colombo/Singapore/Tokyo. This took me about 2 months.
(click on the map for more details and photos from this trip)
I the fall of 2007 I went on a trip to the Middle East. I started by flying through Jordan to Kuwait, visited some friends there then flew to Bahrain for a few days. From Bahrain I flew to Sharjah (in the U.A.E.) for a couple of days and continued on a flight to Aleppo in Syria. I spent a little over a couple of weeks travelling in Syria and crossed to border into Jordan. While I Jordan I met Aggie, we spent a few days with friend and then travelled around the country. Near the end of the trip we went to the Occupied Palestinian Territory of the West Bank for a few days, crossed back into Jordan and flew back home together.
(click on the map for more details and photos from this trip)
During the summer of 2007 I went to Central America for a couple of weeks, met Aggie and spent another couple of weeks with her in Peru and Bolivia.
(click on the map for more details and photos from this trip)
During the spring of 2007 I went on a 6 week trip to West Africa. I started by flying to Morocco for a few days, then flying into Dakar, Senegal. There I met my friend Klaus and we spent some time in Senegal, then went to The Gambia overland. From Banjul, we went back to Dakar from where Klaus flew back home. I continued my trip by going to Mali for two weeks, then flew back to Morocco for a week and back home.
(click on the map for more details and photos from this trip)
In the spring of 2006 my friend Klaus and I met in Kuala Lumpur and spent a month travelling in Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.
(click on the map for more details and photos from this trip)
Before then I travelled in Europe, Asia, North Africa and North and South America. I didn't take many photos during those trips, so I won't go into details about them here. Eventually I might scan some of the film from those trips, but probably not anytime soon since I've got tens of thousands of photos from the trips you see above to go through and post on the site.
If you have any questions about any of the trips, want some travel or photography advice, or want to license any of my images for use you can contact me at: calphillip (at) gmail.com
Thanks for visiting my site!
Few other galleries that have not been organized yet
March 2009 trip to the Southwest of the U.S. (link)
Dia de Los Muertos Celebration in Hollywood (link)
Spring in the Anza Borrego desert (
link)Spring at the Carlsbad Flower Fields (
link)
Mt. Whitney (
link)