Bolivia, of Pollo Economicos and Potable Hello everyone! Another episode of Traveling Kit! Woohoo! In this episode, I'm excited to have Ofek from Austin, Texas, with me to talk about our trip through Bolivia! I met this top bloke in Santiago, Chile, and bumped into him again in San Pedro de Atacama. We then travelled together ever since with a couple other German boys, Alfons and Matti.From San Pedro de Atacama, the four of us booked a trip to Uyuni via the infamous Salar de Uyuni, or the salt flats. Crossing the border was interesting, there was just a house where you get stamps into Bolivia. The exit stamp from Chile was done in San Pedro de Atacama itself! Then we loaded all our belongings onto the jeep and off we went. Passing through scenic lagoons and rock formations along the way before finally arriving at the salt flats. During this time, the group got bigger with three new additions to the squad! Santiago whom I met in Salta, Argentina, and Clara and Jules during the trip. Upon arriving in Uyuni, we took a bus straight to Potosi where we had an amazing time with Jhonny who brought us to the silver mines, thanks to a recommendation by a fellow backpacker. Many thanks to Jhonny who introduced us to Alcohol de Canja, which we dubbed as "Potable" and having an authentic experience with his team at the mines! After Potosi, we passed through Sucre. Visiting some ancient dino footprints, something I did not expect to visit while travelling South America.Then onward to Santa Cruz where the group, again got bigger. With the addition of Dougie, another bloke I met in Salta, Argentina, along with Alfons and Santiago, and Jule whom we met in Sucre. There wasn't much to do in Santa Cruz except consuming unhealthy amounts of potable and chilling in the pool. One productive thing we did was to rent a 12-seater car for the eight of us and began a road trip around the Jesuit Missions Circuit. The car was named "Potable Pancho". Driving around the villages outside of Santa Cruz with lots of fun in between. Starting from San Javier, to Concepcion, San Ignacio, San Rafael, San Miguel, Santa Ana, and ending in San Jose. With two days left with Potable Pancho, we made another trip to Samaipata, west of Santa Cruz. Making campfires, taking a dip in the cold waters at the cascades, and enjoying the night sky. It was an emotional time having to return pancho before heading to La Paz.La Paz is a wonderful city! There's Cholita Wrestling, Urban Rush, Valle de la Luna, walking through the markets, and surviving the Death Road. As my visa was coming to an end, and as a Singaporean, I was expected to pay to extend my visa, I decided to make it out of Bolivia before it expires. Therefore, the last stop in Bolivia was at Copacabana by Lake Titicaca. The highest lake in the world and the largest in South America. Spent a couple chill days and a day to Isla del Sol before taking a bus to Peru!Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed it please check out my instagram @kit_chew, or #travelingkitchew. Also, check out my buddy Ofek's Instagram, @ofekb93, he's going to trek Patagonia so hard, his pictures would be dank as! Finally, follow me on my Facebook page for updates on my trip!

Traveling Kit

Day 531 / 72320km / Copacabana, Bolivia

Hasta luego Argentina y Chile! Once again, I'm going to wax lyrical about my trip around the remaining parts of Argentina and Chile before I begin my journey through Bolivia. This episode will feature both Argentina and Chile as I ziggity-zag between both places before finally ending up in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, to make a 3D2N trip into the renowned Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats of Uyuni). For you good people listening, I'm going to put up links and what-not about things that I talked about during the episode. For those who are the TL;DR sort, fear not! Just skim through this post and you'll get the gist of the podcast. But why would you want to miss out on my sweet voice?BarilocheCircuito Chico - First you need a SUBE card, which is like an Oyster Card (London) or EzLink card (Singapore) where you put some credits into the card and use it for public transport. This card is good for both Bariloche and Buenos Aires, and you can recharge it at almost every convenience store. Check with your hostel where and which bus to take to the beginning of the loop. I took Bus 20, westbound towards the circuit. The bicycle shops will give you an itinerary on where to stop along the loop. Technically you're not allowed to ride on the trails, but it's a lot more fun cycling through them and I didn't have any problems when returning the bikes. I would recommend leaving for the circuit early and come prepared with food because there are several places with great viewpoints and you can spend some time relaxing and enjoy the view. One memorable spot is at panoramic spot with a detour from Villa Tacul.Siete Lagos - The road to Seven Lakes. Car rentals are about ARS1,000 a day. I've heard people renting it for as low as ARS800 a day. I think ARS1,000 would be a good gauge when renting a car, just go shopping along the main roads of Bariloche and there are heaps of car rental companies. There's also free kilometers on the car from the company I chose. I would advise to go prepared with all the lakes on your GoogleMaps or Maps.me as some lakes are not as obvious. Nonetheless, there are plenty of places to stop and enjoy the lakes on the road. Last piece of advice is if you head double backing like I do, take a detour into Villa Traful back to Bariloche. That's the eighth lake, although it's not part of Siete Lagos. But take note that the roads are not paved and you're going to need more time to drive through the gravel roads.Alain de Botton - Here's a plug for his book that I would recommend to everyone, regardless if you enjoy travelling or not. The Art of Travel. I think there's even a video commentary on YouTube for you lazy f***s. PucónHostel - I'm not exactly sure where the hostel I stayed was. This is the rough location that I marked on my map since it's not on GoogleMaps, it's called Backpacker's Hostel, generic I know. Look for Claudio whose the owner, it's CLP5,000 a night. Parque Nacional Huerquehue - That's the national park I was talking about. Take a bus at 8am in the morning from terminal next to Jac Bus Terminal. The bus company is called "Carbugua" which incidentally goes to Carbugua, the entrance of the national park. The morning bus will provide you with ample time to make a loop around Los Lagos Trail and back in time to catch the return bus to Pucón.Termas Geométricas - Definitely recommend this place after a day of hiking to relax those tired muscles. There are several other hot springs in the area but I don't think they are anywhere as good as the one here. SantiagoMotorcycles - Recently, there was a new law that requires non-residents to find a "sponsor" in order to obtain a RUT number. Before you could just rock up to the Servicio de Impuestos Internos and get one on the spot. Now, there's an extra step to get a local to notarise a document before making the application. A decent Chinese bike will go for around CLP1,000,000 to CLP1,200,000, and the shops are located along Lira Street. You'll be able to tour South America easily with a 250cc dual-sport bike. View of the city from Cerro Santa Lucia ValparaísoAscension - Apart from the tonnes of street art for you to explore. Ascensions are a great way to take a short-cut up the steep inclines of the city! MendozaWine Tour - First, take a tram from the city to Guitiérrez station and you'll be in Maipú where there is a string of bicycle rental shops. At the station, there is an tourist information booth where you'll find all the bodegas and olive farms around the area. It's not possible to visit all of them, so your choice would eventually depend on recommendations, costs, and distance. As I've mentioned in the podcast, I visited Bodegas López, Bodega Stocco de Viani, and Casa El Enemigo. The first bodega is a massive commercial one, the second, a small-scale family run winery, and the third, a super hipster one. López is free, the Stocco de Viani cost ARS50, and Casa El Enemigo cost ARS195 for the cheapest wine tasting (3 types of wine). I highly recommend El Enemigo as the guides are really good and the theme surrounding it makes it a wonderful trip around the bodega and great wine as well! There is also an organic winery which is popular although I didn't visit it. SaltaAround Salta - There is not a lot to do in Salta itself except for one museum, MAAM Museum, which houses one of three naturally preserved mummies from the old Incan Empire. Otherwise, most of the attractions lie outside of Salta such as Salinas Grande and Pumamarca. My maté set! San Pedro de AtacamaStargazing - I walked to Pucará de Quitor and sat just outside of the entrance to stargaze. It was a great spot to stargaze from. Otherwise down south along Rio San Pedro or Rio Vilama are great places to stargaze just 30mins from town!Road Trip - Our road trip started in Laguna Tuyajto which is slightly further away from Piedras Rojas. From the lagoon, we worked out way back towards San Pedro, first stopping in Piedras Rojas. Then there are several other lagoons to check out before hitting Salar de Atacama. Bolivian Visa - The Bolivian consulate is not found on GoogleMaps, but here is the location. First you need to prepare the application form which can be found here. The link provided is different because I lost the link, but at the bottom of the website you can find it, same same but different. You need to print the form which you complete online, along with a passport photo. I scanned mine into the form, I'm not sure if you can hand them in separately. At the consulate, you get a receipt to pay for the visa, USD30 for Singaporeans, at BCI bank down the street from Av. Latorre. Once you've paid, return to the consulate and hand all the documents in. Then you have to wait till 6pm to collect your passport with the Bolivian Visa. One important thing to note is that Singaporeans have to pay to extend their 30-days visa whereas other countries (e.g. EU) can simply extend them for free.  I hope you enjoyed this episode and I hope it gets you thinking about your next trip to South America or some other parts of the world. If you have any questions feel free to contact me! Or leave a comment or suggestion, I would love to hear them! In the next episode, I will be talking about my trip in Bolivia! So stay tuned!   

Day 503 / 68561km / San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

In this episode, I'm very happy to share my first maté session with Santiago from Mexico, and Alfons from Germany, with Dougie from Scotland joining nearing the end of the episode. We'll just be having a conversation while sipping them maté.

Day 493 / 67693km / Salta, Argentina

From Iguaçu Waterfalls to Patagonian Mountains When I think of Evita, I think of "Don't cry for me Argentina" Many many water, falling down down down... Replace skyscrapers with mountains please! Hello there! Hola! Another instalment of Traveling Kit picking up where I left off in Brazil. Starting my journey in Argentina, but it's a big ass country therefore I'm going to break it into two parts. Transition into Argentina began in Puerto Iguaçu where I caught the Iguaçu Falls on the Argentinian side. Check out my previous post for a more in-depth review of Iguaçu Falls! Then it was off to the capital, Buenos Aires, to educate myself with Argentina's history. Moving on, I wanted to get to the southern-most city in the world, but it would take half-a-lifetime to get there from Buenos Aires. Therefore, I broke the trip up and decided to check out Puerto Madryn. And it has been one of the highlights of my trip so far. I cycled to look for sea lions, only to find a forever-alone sea lions chilling by itself at the colony. So I went on a boat to look for more sea lions, and snorkelling with them was a beautiful experience getting up close and personal with them. On top of that, the numerous whales I've seen from Puerto Madryn's promenade as well as up close from the boat.  After a pleasant stay in Puerto Madryn, I finally the arduous journey to Ushuaia. With countless hours on different buses, switching buses, and having to go through Chile to get to Ushuaia. I finally got there! Despite the heavy snowfall and gusty winds which obviously was not conducive for hiking and to capture sceneries, good company made up for it. Aside from the weather, it was pretty expensive staying in Ushuaia. Once I've checked the "Been to the southern-most city in the World" box, I left for El Calafate.  El Calafate itself doesn't have much to offer. However, it's not to be missed. Glacier Perito Moreno is simply enchanting. This is not just any block of ice I can assure you of that! Finally, I end off in El Chaltén, the supposed hiking mecca in Patagonia. It was a quiet town and the part about hiking was well justified. I'm a little gutted I forgot to save my pictures of two of my hikes. Despite my brief experience in Finland hiking the icy/snowy trails, hiking here was completely different and more challenging. Yet it was equally rewarding in the end to sit on a rock and enjoy the view.Next stop to Bariloche, further up north of El Chaltén. Look out for the next episode where I will be zig-zagging between Chile and Argentina before heading to Bolivia! Glacier Perito Moreno

Day 464 / 62009km / El Chaltén, Santa Cruz, Argentina

Brazil has been a pleasant surprise at every turn since the media has been exaggerating its safety. I've met some really cool people whilst in Brazil, a beautiful culture and not to mention the amazing natural and man-made attraction it has to offer.

Day 434 / 56197km / Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil

Leaving London, I headed to Paris for several days before exploring Spain and Portugal. Here's my trip mainly through these two places!

Day 419 / 46716km / Lisbon, Portugal

London has called. Now it's time to bid farewell, but not before I reminisce about it!

Day 402 / 43541km / Paris, France

Naomi is a friend from home who is currently living in London. We will be sharing some music we love and talk about them during this show.

Day 393 / 43077km / London, England

England is more than just London! St Michael's Mount at Penzance Since the recent events with Brexit, England has put itself under some scrutiny, or at least some international spotlight. But still, what are some things that come to mind about England? Football. Fish and Chips. Her Majesty the Queen. Their indecipherable accents. What about places in England? London. Liverpool. Manchester. Scotland? Oh, Scotland is another country altogether.  Truth be told, I did not think much of England as a travel destination. So much of what I know about England's cities was from football, and the rest of its stereotypes from the telly. To someone as ignorant as me, my impression of England as a country is homologous to the city of London. I've never wondered what else lies outside this cosmopolitan titan until I had to make a three week trip out of London. And I have to say I was pleasantly surprised every step of the way! Brecon Beacons in Wales I kicked off the trip at Cardiff, Wales, to experience a little bit of Welsh culture. It proved to be well worth it after a hike to Brecon Beacons. Then on to England proper. In Bath, it was a lovely place to stroll around the city and the free walking tour is a great way to learn about the city. Onto Penzance, I had an excellent time exploring several places in its periphery. The trip to the coast complemented by the perfect weather made this place my favourite in England! Finally, I ended off by visiting friends whom I've met on the road more than half a year ago in Plymouth and Brighton.In this episode, I will be sharing my trip around England and a pinch of Wales. Hope you enjoy it! If you do, tell your friends! Cheers. Relaxing around druid stones in Penzance

Day 379 / 43077km / London, England

Roadtrippin' from Scotland to England with Daddy Chew!

Day 344 / 41583km / London, England

 When in Paris, got to visit the Effiel Tower! Hi everyone! In this episode, I will be sharing my trip from Bavaria, south of Germany, to London. To make it a little more entertaining, I have a close friend and my awesome host in London, Naomi. From Salzburg, Austria, I went to meet up with Martin whom I met while traveling in Thailand. We started a biker gang called Diverse Dudes (I've talked about them before) and went on the hunt for noodle temples. He gave me a glimpse of life in his village of Palling. Furthermore, he gave me a rare opportunity to be part of a counter demonstration against protesters who wants nothing more than to ban refugees from entering Germany. This brought to light the refugee situation caused by the civil war in Syria and it was one of the most enriching experiences so far.After Palling, I went to Munich with Martin's brother who was kind enough to host me. After several days in Munich, I made my way to Paris to meet up with Camille whom I worked with at Anak Ranch in Mongolia. I had a few days to spent in Paris before I finally made my way to London where it was time for some well-deserved respite from backpacking.I'd like to thank Martin, Chris, Camille, and Naomi for putting me up in their homes. Very grateful I am. I hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned to the next episode where I will be talking about my stay in London as well as my road trip through Scotland with Daddy Chew! History lesson at Dachau Concentration Camp in Munich

Day 311 / 40095km / London, England

After traveling through Scandinavia, I'm finally in central Europe. Here's a glimpse of my trip through Germany, Czech Republic, and Austria before I make my way to London.

Day 286 / 38444km / Salzburg, Austria

Arriving in Helsinki, Finland, I traversed across Scandinavia during it's frigid winters. With a combination of trains, buses, and hitch-hiking, I went to the North and back.

Day 258 / 36661km / Sæby, Jutland, Denmark

Back from camping with Saufi in the frigid weather of Finland within the Arctic Circle. In this episode we'll talk about our adventure after camping in below 30 degrees celsius and other discussion about living in Singapore.

Day 246 / 34253km / Äkäslompolo, Lapland, Finland

Camping in the Arctic Circle/Lapland/Northern Finland has been decided! But before embarking on the trip, it's time for some pre-camp chill with a cool cat from Singapore, Muhammad Saufi!

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Traveling Kit

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