Found this cool timelapse video on Vimeo the other day. I had never heard of El Teide, but apparently its the tallest mountain in Spain, located on the largest of the Canary Islands, Tenerife. The video is mostly of the sky but also has some nature shots and is worth watching. This is not the Spain you're used to seeing.
One of the most iconic Australian Adventures is the Great Ocean Road of Southern Victoria. The highlight of the Great Ocean Road tour is the 12 Apostles, and the best way to see them is by helicopter. I personally had never ridden in a helicopter before this, but had always wanted to. On our tour they announced we had the option to either walk down and check them out, or pay an additional $70 and fly over the 12 Apostles by helicopter. This was a no brainer for me, although that's a lot of money, it doesn't seem bad for a helicopter ride, and it's one of those once in a lifetime opportunities you can only regret not doing.
A really cool timelapse video set in 17 countries around the world in a year. I wish I had thought to do something like this on one of my bigger trips, it takes a lot of planning and foresight up front. Kiem did an excellent job with this video, it's well worth a watch. Only downside is he makes you want to see a bit more of some of these places.
I've taken a lot of monkey photos in my travels, both in the wild and in captivity. Monkeys might be my favorite thing to photograph as their interactions with both people and the camera are so funny and unpredictable. Sometimes it can be a bit scary because a monkey at 10% of my body weight would probably win in a fight, but this just adds to the fun. Below are 100 of my favorite monkey photos from my travels around the world.
I was recently contacted by George from PanoMagic.eu about a photo he took of the Devetaki Caves in Bulgaria. We got to talking, and I took a closer look at his 360° Panoramic Photos site. His style of photography is really unique, and his HDR 360° panoramic photos are amazing. If you browse through his photos it also serves as a great resource for Bulgaria travel, hes featured a lot of really cool looking places in and around Bulgaria. Below are a few of my favorites from his site, if you appreciate photography at all I highly recommend you check out it out.
It took me a second to figure out what was happening here, from the title I thought they were actually doing some kind of crazy underwater fishing. Instead this is just a really strange (in a good way) video of some Finnish guys horsing around in the frozen Lake Saarijärvi of Vaala, Finland. Regardless, it's really cool looking, and worth a view. Thanks to Janne the King of Finland for sending this over.
As 2011 comes to an end, I thought it would be cool to talk about my top 5 travel experiences of the year. My year was split roughly 6 months in Australia, 3 months in Southern Asia, and 3 in the US. It's hard to pick just 5, but here are my favorite travel memories from 2011, in no particular order.
Although Sri Lanka is an amazing country to visit, their capital city of Colombo is not one of the highlights. Don't plan to travel Colombo, but since you'll probably be entering and exiting from the Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport, you'll have to spend a little time in the city, so you should know what to do and see. I had 1 day in the city, and chose to have a wander around, find a haircut shop, then board the local train down to Mt. Lavinia, Colombo's best beach.
Delhi is a giant city, with a population of nearly 17 million people, it's the second largest in India (behind Mumbai), and the 8th largest in the world. Public transportation is mediocre at best, although it was significantly improved for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Traffic is as you'd expect for a city of 17 million, congested. So, as a tourist, whats the best way to get around Delhi for a reasonable price, in a reasonable amount of time?
At the time I was travelling from Colombo to Kandy in Sri Lanka, I didn't even know the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage existed. I saw a few signs and my driver asked if I wanted to stop by; I love elephants so of course I did. Not sure what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't really as much of a zoo-type facility as I presumed. For the 2 hours I was there the elephants (most of them) were free to roam around and play in the river as they pleased.
