At one point in my Australia planning, I was more concerned with getting a photo of me holding a koala bear than anything else. Apparently, koala bears frequently carry syphilis…
Read MoreOur first breathtaking panoramic view of the mountain range.
Sydney, Australia
I love Sydney because it is a mix of internationalism, urban progress and nature. Sydney is a truly international city: a place where people around the world come to live and to become a Sydney-person. Of course you have plenty of travelers from around the world too, but what I loved was how, similar to New York, you see people from all walks of life, with different skin colors and slightly different accents, all being a part of Sydney...
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Loukweria Village, Tanna Island, Vanuatu
When I had started getting really excited about the prospect of giving myself a year to travel wherever I wanted, I went on AirBnb and just looked for places around the world where I could live in a "village". Tanna Island, Vanuatu came up. The post read that you could live with a local family in a village that has descended from a very old tribe following the native "kastom" tradition. The tribe would welcome you with a dance. You would get a sense of village life in the midst of the beauty of Tanna Island. This prospect got me so excited to travel. It would be so different than anything I had ever done before...
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Mt. Yasur, Tanna Island, Vanuatu
A week after leaving Tanna, I still cannot fully grasp the insanity of the experience. I figured during the planning phase, why not add to the crazy and sleep in a treehouse!? This would guarantee that the meshuganeh nature of visiting an active volcano would be neatly coupled with climbing three stories up a tree just to sleep, even though there are perfectly fine huts on the ground. After all, Tanna Island was the reason why Vanuatu was on my list in the first place.
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Port Vila, Vanuatu
Vanuatu is a newly independent country, only since 1980. Each of it's islands has different nature and associated tribes. The capital, Port Vila, is located on Efate Island. I spent a few days touring around the Port Vila area and checking out the nature highlights of Efate. I did not go too far from Port Vila as my private taxi driver I hired for the day did not want to drive so far. I saw most of the highlights on this day but it was a real struggle getting the driver to go where I wanted…
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