Belgium

Belgium is a country that is surrounded by France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It has a compact size which makes it thperfect country to travel. The capital of Belgium is Brussels and is also known as the heart of the country.

Brussels, BelBelgium is a country that is surrounded by France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It has a compact size which makes it thperfect country togium is also the headquarters for NATO. There are so many different cultural attractions for travels such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Ancient Art, the Comic Strip Museum, and one of the most popular, the Chocolate and Cocoa Museum. The Chocolate and Cocoa Museum features one of Belgium’s best known products.

The capital is not the only place to experience in Belgium. In fact there are many enchanting cities including Ghent, Liege, and Bruges which all have impressive architecture, top-rated cuisine, as well as the night life.

Bruges, Belgium has been known as the "Venice of the North" because it is one of Europe’s most magnificent and well-preserved medieval cities. One of the best parts about this amazing city is that getting to Bruges could not be any easier. You can get there by Eurostar, a ferry, or Eurotunnel, than take a drive to Bruges.

If you are into popular fashion and modern design then you will want to visit the newly reinvented Antwerp. This city in Belgium is known as being a new hotbed for fashion and design. Antwerp, Belgium has many other sights to offer visitors as well including the mountainous area of the Ardennes region all the way to the East. There are also gorgeous coastline resorts set on the Western seaboard.

Belgium is a country that is best known for its specialty products such as ubiquitous beers, delicious chocolates, beautiful lace, and of course Belgian waffles. If you visit Belgium you must stay at one of their comfortable and inviting bed and breakfasts that they are so well known for.

Exotic Kenya

Kenya me! Really. Here too shivering said, visiting there to return home again. Recreation place with young people travel channel in August 2006, or skolechki not regretted their choice, but I am afraid to leave that, in Africa, there is no civilization, flying huge mosquitoes, tsetse flies, river-crocodiles, the safari-elephants, which are and norovyat crush poor directions tourists. Do not listen to this nonsense! ! ! AFRICA WILL BE THE TALE, which want to come back! travel channel

It is difficult to describe words are enormously strong impression that we received from the trip. Yet briefly try to cover everything, because this will be quite useful to people who chose to visit this extraordinary country.

Flights

Tickets for the plane made themselves. Through unwanted, I went to the airline emirates, where the online ticket booking system. That should say a much easier and more convenient than book through a travel agency: first, operators of any nabavyat their interest beyond price, and secondly, the book will surely through the same system. Asked at Fig overpay? They were ooochen happy. Flying with comfort, the convenience. Nothing not even noticed as flying time!

Tour operator

After again the same unwanted came to the company "skantrevel." The site well, understandable and accessible described. Called, said that I need. After a couple of hours already made reservations.

Visa and vaccinations

Visa has in Moscow for three days, apparently, no more. All that was required to complete the questionnaire in English. language and sfotkatsya.

Malaria pills are not saw, but from fever vaccinations just in case made. While understanding that it is absolutely not necessary. I deducted in the network, the most recent case of fever was recorded in one year is far from the last century. I confess trusiha, so decided podstrahovatsya just in case. Few if that!

Tour programme

We flew to Nairobi via Dubai, and has an internal flight from Nairobi to Mombasa. First nedelku decided to stay at the hotel, that it was easier to move acclimatization, relax, sun on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Hotel chose Diani Beach resort and Spa. Indeed, ultimate place! The hotel recently after repairs, as we were travel accessories told, the Germans for a repaired so that all high. Games oasis! Krasotischa! ! ! ! Frankly, I did not even go out on safari, but all these have gone.

Safari - aaa travel

Here is the adventure! Captures, insanity, beckons, consumes even true! Dorrit in a jeep to open Sawaneh (we were in parks East and Tsavo West and Amboseli; 4 days / 3 nights), a number of animals hodit- haunting. Look, there are a few elephants ears move in the other side of a sitting lion travel websites. Great! I do not know why, but it was not frightening. Apparently, the animals are so accustomed to tourists that they are still there - who travels who looks who photography, etc.

As one says in the song, "but the good ever ends."

Thus ended our beautiful fairy tale in Kenya! I hope to get back there again! ! ! !

Uganda

ENTRY

If you have come to this site, then you might want or already assembled wonderful visit countries in East Africa, Uganda. Why Uganda? Because this is a unique opportunity to see African culture, wild fauna, and enjoy the most comfortable in the world climate, the temperature never rises above 30 and never falls below 16. Many scientists believe that the first people came there in the background of the Nile River. In short, when Churchill said: Uganda, the pearl of Africa, was indefinitely rights. On a add that this gem is still not open to most tourists 180 people a year from Russia! ! ! This is in view of the embassy.
Former ruler of the country, and still resident dictator Idi Cannibal Amin Dada offered to move the headquarters of the United Nations in Uganda, because it "geographical heart of the planet." Now that the Well, believe it, because cannibals us better understand many things! In humans, for example ...
So ahead! Relax be so again wanted to rest after a rest!

PREPARING FOR THE VISIT

Above all, remember immunization against yellow fever-without formally barred, but I never asked. In Moscow vaccination centre (GP at No. 13), located at tel. River. e. 14, 621-94-65. Although mosquitoes in Uganda is much less than in Moscow just in case advise for 1-2 weeks before travel start to take pills against malaria.
The visa can be obtained as when entering Uganda, and at the embassy in Moscow at: Korovy shaft 7 kv.3, 230-22-76. A visa costs $ 30, do not forget the picture.

HOW POPAST In Uganda?

Of course, you can use such companies as KLM, Swissair, Lufthansa, British air, Emirates, but if you $ 200-500 are not redundant, it's best to contact the Egypt Air: Krasnopresnenskaya Naberezhnaya 12, Suite 901, 967-06-21. Entebbe Airport is located 40 km from the capital Kampala.
You can also go to Uganda from Kenya bus trip Nairobi-Kampala worth about $ 22 and lasts 12 hours.

WHAT IN UGANDA?

If you are interested in the beauty of nature and wildlife, our 10 national parks, a lake for fishing, mountain climbers to the mountain. Looking sharp sense? Rafting on the Nile! The acute sense of a different kind? In Kampala, there are casinos and discotheques, but it should be remembered that AIDS is not sleeping and there is no alternative to a condom.

Travel Afghanistan

Expeditions 1, 2 and 3. A Journey to the Source of the Oxus
The Expedition A Journey to the Source of the Oxus is an opportunity to travel to the source of this river in the Great Pamirs. Very few Europeans have ever seen it.

Expedition 1 leaves on 10th June and returns 31st June. Expedition 2 leaves on 6th August and returns on the 27th. Expedition 3 leaves on 27th August and returns on 17th September.

New for 2005
Expedition 4. Afghanistan Explorer. Bamiyan and Band-i-Amir
Bamiyan was always a popular tourist destination in the old days because of the two enormous Buddhas that dominated the valley. These were, famously, destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001, who also destroyed the painted stucco decoration in the rabbit warren of caves in the surrounding cliffs. But these were only one of the reasons to visit Bamiyan and there are a number of other sights in the area.

This Expedition combines visiting Bamiyan and Band i Amir with the Herat Expedition and Mazar i Sharif from the Road to Oxiana Expedition and a visit to the Panjshir Valley. This will leave on 14th July and return on 1st August.

Expedition 5. The Road to Oxiana
The provincial towns in the north of Afghanistan are comparatively unspoiled by the twentieth century. There are few cars. Most transport is by horse or donkey. In these places I have felt that I was in touch with the world of Kipling’s India. This Expedition will leave on 29th Sep and return on 17th October 2005.

Expedition 6. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush: The Panjshir Valley, the Emerald Mines and the Lapis Mines of Badakhshan
The Panjshir has been most people's introduction to Afghanistan. When Afghanistan was on the tourist trail, its nearness to Kabul combined with its astonishing natural beauty, made it most people's first destination in the country. This Expedition will leave in September 2005 and the exact date to be confirmed.

Other Destinations Visited

In Xanadu: The Royal Hunting Grounds of Ajar
This stunningly beautiful valley, full of ibex and snow leopards, was the private hunting ground of the King of Afghanistan and is today almost completely unknown. Our visit in 2004 was the first by foreign tourists since 1979.

Herat and the Minaret of Jam
‘The world is like an ocean,’ it was said in ancient times, ‘...and in the ocean is a pearl, and the pearl is Herat.’

New for 2006

The following Expeditions are being planned and their routes explored for 2006. It may be possible to join some of Travel Afghanistan’s leaders as they make their reconnaissance.


Expedition 6. Lake Shiva, Marco Polo’s Ruby Mines and the Lapis Mines of Badakhshan
I believe that Badakshan is going to become one of the great trekking destinations in the world. It is an area almost completely unknown beyond a small group of Afghan specialists and the nomads who spend their summers here with their flocks amidst some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in the world.

Herat to Maimana and Mazar i Sharif
TBA

Message from His Excellency Hamid Karzai President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful

Few lands are as beautiful or as rich in tradition as Afghanistan. It has played host to some of the most famous names in world history: Alexander the Great, Ghangis Khan, Tamerlane, and the Emperor Babur. It was, in former times, a meeting point of East and West, the home of the greatest Kingdoms of the silk road, legendary for their wealth and their culture; later, it became the cradle of some of the most magnificent cities of Islamic civilisation, celebrated for their arts and architecture, philosophers and poets.

With the help of the international community, Afghanistan is emerging from the shadows of the last twenty years, and retaking its place as a member of the fellowship of nations. As peace returns with the establishment of democracy and the rule of law, visitors are beginning to re-discover the wonders of Afghanistan. Travellers are now returning to see the snow-capped mountains and fertile valleys of the Hindu Kush; the northern plains, the Amu Darya (Oxus) and Balkh, ‘Mother of all cities’; the wondrous scenery, the rivers and glaciers of the Wakhan Corridor and the ‘Roof of the World’. Others may come to see the Burial Gardens in Kabul of the Emperor Babur, or the Kabul Museum, which has survived with many of its wondrous treasures intact.

Whether you wish to learn more about the history, society and culture of Afghanistan, or if you intend to travel here as a visitor, you will find in this book a full introduction to Afghanistan’s natural beauty, rich heritage and cultural diversity, along with the practical information which a traveller might require.

I hope we will soon have the pleasure of welcoming you to Afghanistan; I can promise that the Afghan people will receive you with the heartfelt hospitality for which they have always been renowned.

Afghanistan. Security

The security situation in Afghanistan continues to improve. The Taliban seem now to be a spent force. Their threats to disrupt the 2004 presidential election did not materialise. There had been fears that they might be able to make good their threat to stop people in the south – their ethnic heartland – from participating in the election and then claim the result invalid. But this did not happen. There was a high turnout and the Pashtun president Karzai and his Tajik vice-president are in power with a democratic mandate.

The risk that Afghanistan might slip back into civil war now seems remote. Reconstruction is progressing and Afghans’ daily lives are improving. There has been a sense since 2001 that no-one wants to go back to the past. In addition, most of Afghanistan’s tourist attractions are in Persian-speaking the north of the country which has never been an area at which foreigners have been at risk, unlike the Pashtun-speaking southern provinces. Badakhshan, the area where two of our Expeditions go, has always been safe and never fell to the Taliban, remaining under the control of Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance. I travelled there alone during the civil war in perfect safety.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is unlike any other country in the world. I have never been to a more beautiful country, or met such hospitable people. This is why I have written a Traveller’s Companion and Guide – the first guidebook since 1972 – to this extraordinary country and in 2004 started to take tours there. I think that everyone who came on one of those tours wants to return.

In the 1960s and 1970s Afghanistan was the most romantic and exciting travel destinations in the world, but after twenty-five years of war, is unjustly thought of as a barbarous backwater.

I have been visiting Afghanistan since 1993 and since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 have seen the country improve out of all recognition. The most recent milestone in the country’s reconstruction was the presidential election in 2004.

Travel in Afghanistan is tough but rewarding - you will see a unique world that will not survive much longer.

Travel Afghanistan is an Anglo-Afghan joint-venture with Afghanistan’s largest and best transport and logistics company, Afghan Logistics who have fifty vehicles ranging from lorries, buses and 4WD Landcruisers to town cars run by Muqim Jamshady, one of Afghanistan’s most dynamic young entrepreneurs, and we are uniquely well-equipped for you to make the best of your time in this wonderful country.

Afghanistan as a travel destination in the past

Until the Russian invasion of 1979, Afghanistan was a well-known tourist destination. Bruce Chatwin and his wife Elizabeth were regular visitors. When I interviewed Elizabeth for a Times article on Afghanistan she said ‘Afghanistan is the benchmark for me against which all other countries are compared. Perhaps Kashmir comes close in beauty.’ Some of Bruce Chatwin’s best pictures were taken there and can be seen in the new paperback edition of Peter Levi’s Light Garden of the Angel King. (The full collection is in the care of the Trevillion Picture Library and is well worth seeing)

Bruce Chatwin wrote as brilliantly about Afghanistan as one would expect:

‘On the streets of Herat you saw men in mountainous turbans, strolling hand in hand, with roses in their mouths and rifles wrapped in flowered chintz. In Badakshan you could picnic on Chinese carpets and listen to the bulbul. In Balkh, the Mother of Cities, I asked a fakir the way to the shrine of Hadji Piardeh. ‘I don’t know it,’ he said. ‘It must have been destroyed by Genghiz.’

‘Even the Afghan embassy in London introduced you to a world that was hilarious and slightly strange. Control of the visa section rested with a tousle headed Russian emigré giant, who had cut the lining of his jacket so that it hung, as a curtain, to hide the holes in the seat of his pants. At opening time he’d be stirring up clouds of dust with a broom, only to let it settle afresh on the collapsing furniture. Once, when I tipped him ten shillings, he hugged me, lifted me off the floor and bellowed: ‘I hope you have a very accident-free trip to Afghanistan!’

His introduction is a lament for the world that has not been accessible to travellers since the Russian invasion until now:

‘That will not bring back the things we loved: the high, clear days and the blue icecaps on the mountains; the lines of white poplars fluttering in the wind, and the long white prayer flags; the fields of asphodels that followed the tulips; or the fat tailed sheep brindling the hills above Chagcharan, and the ram with a tail so big they had to tie it to a cart. We shall not lie on our backs on the Red Castle and watch the vultures wheeling over the valley where they killed the grandson of Genghiz. We shall not read Babur’s memoirs in his garden at Istalif and see the blind man smelling his way round the rose bushes. Or sit in the peace of Islam with the beggars of Gazar Gagh. We will not stand on the Buddha’s head at Bamiyan, upright in his niche like a whale in a dry dock. We will not sleep in the nomad tent, or scale the Minaret of Jam. And we shall lose the tastes – the hot, coarse, bitter bread; the green tea flavoured with cardamoms; the grapes we cooled in the snow melt; and the nuts and dried mulberries we munched for altitude sickness. Nor shall we get back the smell of the beanfields; the sweet resinous smell of deodar wood burning, or a whiff of a snow leopard at 14,000 feet.’

The monstrous Taliban blew up the Buddhas at Bamiyan and Istalif has been flattened. But you can experience most of the other things he listed.

Note: The Chatwin passages come from his introduction to the Picador edition of The Road to Oxiana.

Accommodation

In the old days, one stayed in hotels that were known as Klubs. Many of them were taken over by the local mujihadeen commander to put up visiting foreign dignitaries (and there were some), members of the government and journalists. Some of these guest houses are very good: any journalist who has covered Afghanistan will speak very highly of the government guest-house at Astana in the Panjshir, near Massoud’s home village, which has electric light, western lavatories and baths. 2002 saw the completion of what was intended to be a palace for President Rabbani in Faisabad on a rocky eminence overlooking the Kokcha river. As Rabbani is no longer president, this house has become the Government guest-house, and the Governor of Badakhshan considers it the first of what will be a chain of first-class hotels. Herat also has two perfectly decent hotels.

In the other towns, like Kunduz, the old Klubs are more basic and although the staff are (as always in Afghanistan) extremely hospitable, paying tourists would probably be disappointed. In these towns we will use our own tents moved onwards day by day in a Landcruiser and put up awaiting the group.

Getting around

Thesiger told me not to travel by car. ‘Always go by horse or on foot. That’s how I did it. There’s just no point travelling in a car.’ He is absolutely right. In a car, you are an intruder, not a participant, in the landscape. Sights rush past you, like a speeded up picture of a flower opening.

Therefore, although we will use Landcruisers to cross the Hindu Kush and for long journeys, we try as much as possible to let you travel as Thesiger did: by horse drawn carriage or foot. It is a completely different experience of travel and the country. Of course, if you prefer to go by car, you can. In the northern cities the main method of transport is horse-drawn carriage and this is how we will move from town to town.

You don’t need any experience to travel on a horse. The ones I have had have been very placid and I just sit on the back and let the horseman lead it. I had never been on a horse before I crossed from Badakhshan to Pakistan in 2001. You do, though, get quite stiff for the first few days and it would be a good idea to get some practice in before we leave. I can organise a few one-day courses in England.

You don’t need to be physically particularly fit. I take no exercise and have never really suffered. Nor especially young. My friend Mr Gary is 63 and spends months at a time in the country.
by Matthew Leeming