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This page contains an overview of some of my more recent trips

 

Within the next few months I'm planning on visiting the Axis of Evil. Hopefully I'll be able to attend Kim Il Sung's 100th birthday anniversary in Pyongyang, North Korea in April 2012. I'm also planning a trip to Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran/Turkmenistan in late spring/early summer of 2012.

Sometime in late 2011 I'm planning on going to Pakistan, Northern India, Tibet and Nepal. Specifically Aggie and I want to do the Annapurna Circuit trek (wiki). Near the end of the year I want to go back to Yemen, and visit Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan. I also am planning trips to East Timor and Papua New Guinea, and West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin) sometime in the next couple of years.

My last trip was in December 2010 and January of 2011. I flew with Aggie to Poland for a few days, then to Lebanon. From Lebanon we went to Qatar for a couple of days then then Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Aggie came back home from Abu Dhabi, I continued the trip by going to Al Ain and crossing the border into Oman. There I went to Muscat for a few days, then flew to Kuwait to visit a couple of very good friends of mine. From Kuwait I flew to Yemen, then back to Dubai and back home to California. I will write a lot more about the trip soon, for now (here) are some photos

At the end of November 2010 I went with a friend of mine to North Texas and Southern New Mexico, then continued by going to the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. There we went on a train through the Barranca del Cobre to Los Mochis, flew to Tijuana and came back to the United States. Once again, I will write more about it once I get a chance.

In March, April and May of 2010 I went on a trip to Central Asia with a few friends of mine. Here is a brief overview of the trip:

Starting in Los Angeles, I flew to Amsterdam where I had a day stopover and continued by flying to Vienna. In Vienna, I met my friend Klaus, and traveled with him to Prague, Kutna Hora and Bratislava. We also spent about a week in Vienna.
From Vienna Klaus and I flew through Berlin to St. Petersburg. There we met my friend Gregory and spent a few days in St. Petersburg, went to Moscow and Pereslavl-Zalessky for a few days and came back to St. Petersburg for a few more days. We then went on a 4,000 kilometer train ride to Astana, in Kazakhstan

There we met another friend, Christian, and continued to Almaty. From Almaty we went for a few days to Kyrgyzstan, going to Bishkek and lake Issyk-Kol. (We left 2 days before the revolution!) From there we went back to Almaty to pick up some visas and continued by train to Shymkent, then crossed the border into Uzbekistan and went to Tashkent where we met another friend, Vladimir. Then we went to Samarkand, Buhara and Khiva. From Khiva my friends left to go back home, except for Klaus, who came with me back to Bukhara and to Termiz.
I was able to cross the Soviet "Friendship Bridge" into Afghanistan (I got my Afghani Visa in Almaty). I went to Mazar-e-Sharif and Balkh for a couple of days. That part of Afghanistan is very safe (by Afghani standards), the Afghans that I met were some of the friendliest people I have ever encountered anywhere!

I went back across the friendship bridge to Termiz, from there Klaus and I went back to Samarkand and crossed the border into Tajikistan to visit the Fan Mountains. Then we went back to Samarkand and took a train to Tashkent to catch our flight from Tashkent to Kiev through Riga. That however didn't happen since the Riga airport was closed because of the Icelandic Volcano eruption, so after 2 days of being stranded in Tashkent we flew to Istanbul instead. Klaus continued his trip by flying to Kiev, I spent a couple of days in Istanbul and flew to Chisinau (Moldova)

From Moldova, I went across Trans-Dniester (wiki) to Kiev and met Klaus again. After a couple of days we took and overnight train to Lviv, then crossed the border into Poland and went to Cracow. From Cracow Klaus went back home to Vienna and I continued by going to Lodz. Then I went to Plock, Ciechocinek and Torun before flying back home to California from Warsaw through Amsterdam.

(click on the map for more details and photos from the trip)

At the beginning of August in 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 the 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 sometime when I get a chance.

(click on the map for more details and photos from the 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 (8 and 7 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 the 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 the 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.

 

(click on the map for more details and photos from the 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 the 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 the 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 the 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 the 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 the 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

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)

 

 

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