First-person travel notes, city stories, photos, and videos from the Travel Map archive.
#Taipei Photos from today's hiking! To the north of the city, there's a national park that can be reached in just an hour or an hour and a half. There used to be volcanoes here, but now only sulfur geysers remain, emitting a distinctive aroma of boiled…
#Taipei I found the legendary "Gin Grapefruit" in 7-Eleven. Not all questions in this life have answers.
#Taipei Biking north of the city! Although Taipei doesn't have a great cycling infrastructure, the city is trying to encourage people to use bicycles. Renting them here is quite easy - there are bike parking stations in every district for a mere 30NTD (1…
If you suddenly feel like going to Asia and not coming back. If you've forgotten something, write it and I'll add it! A list of the most popular countries and their accommodation options for Russian citizens: Thailand 🇹🇭 - 30-day visa-free stay (90 days…
#Taipei I'll add a bit more about the gold card, I think it'll be useful, or at least interesting. In its current form, this isn't a full-fledged permanent residence permit. With this card, I can enter the country and stay here as long as I want, but there…
#Taipei The Shilin District. So far, the most beautiful district in Taipei that I've visited. The district is surrounded on one side by a river, along which there's a fantastic promenade, and on the other side by mountains, where a national park begins.…
#Taipei The immigration office finally opened after the New Year, and I was able to pick up my residence permit 🇹🇼! Now I'll have a place to return to for the next 3 years!)
#Taipei You're strolling around Taipei... And suddenly, there's a temple in the courtyard. And on the map, such a beautiful place is marked with a very modest icon!
#Taipei The narrow alleys of Taipei
#Taipei The Dihua shopping street in this regard is not lagging behind! And that's not even mentioning the night market yet!)
#Taipei Is it the post-New Year's week, or do Taiwanese people not work at all?)) There's been such a hustle and bustle in the Ximen area for the third day in a row. It's considered one of the most lively areas on weekdays.
#Taipei And somewhere, it's already the first February sakura) This is the effect of the miraculous +25 degrees in the subtropics!
If they tell you that Asians work hard, remember that due to the Chinese New Year, almost everything in the cities closes for the entire week🫠 (especially if it concerns government agencies, which are supposed to issue me a BL Gold card)
I'm choosing an apartment in Tokyo for a March trip: https://youtu.be/YEehwwTEJP4
#Taipei Today's mini-hiking with a climb to the nearest mountains (with a modest peak of 370 meters, but it's enough to view the city from a height). On the first part of the route, there are plenty of tourists, but only a small portion climb higher than 100…
#Taipei And yesterday, we drove to the hero city of Taipei 🇹🇼! This is probably the most brutalist city I've had the chance to visit. So far, all I can associate it with is Seoul mixed with Bangkok. The city is located on a plain and is built in a block…
#Shenzhen A day in Shenzhen. Part 3 - Attempts to build a convenient city I have to admit, the pedestrian infrastructure in Shenzhen isn't that bad. The Chinese have indeed learned to build smooth and beautiful sidewalks. And most crosswalks don't have…
#Shenzhen A day in Shenzhen. Part 2 - Old residential areas Despite the city's extensive redevelopment, Shenzhen still has neighborhoods of iconic old Chinese panel buildings. Those who have been to Hong Kong, or at least read posts on the channel, should…
#Shenzhen At least two people have already asked me if we were deported)) No, everything is ok. It's just that the Chinese had another blunder, as we were probably the first ones at the border who were doing a transit without a visa. We had a transit ticket…
#Shenzhen A day in Shenzhen. Part 1: Skyscrapers and pretense, with nothing behind it When visiting Shenzhen for the first time, almost everyone is amazed by the abundance of skyscrapers and the beauty of the paved and well-maintained streets. It's not…
I finally made it to the plane with some difficulty. Nine hours and tomorrow morning we'll be chilling in Shenzhen 😎 Fuck this Moscow weather!
These bastards even change the payment method to cash if there's not enough money on the card, just to dump the task of collecting the money on the taxi driver. This fucking company is 10/10. All the IT guys who work there are complete idiots!
Fuckers from Yandex! I ordered a taxi in advance for 2000, but by the time it arrived, the price had changed to 3500. Was there any mention of this anywhere? No, of course not. Why the hell bother showing me the price at all if it's not relevant by the time…
Just in time for the news about the Japanese nomad visa: I got something even better - a 3-year tourist visa to Japan. The Japanese are really generous in this regard, considering this is my first visa to their country. There will definitely be more…
It seems like a total fiasco in Japan. Someone on Reddit told me that the 50 countries where a visa is available are those with which Japan already has a visa-free agreement. In short, the Japanese have completely messed up.
Japan promises to launch a nomad visa at the end of March. There's almost no information about it, but we can summarize it briefly: - The visa will be issued for 6 months (another tourist visa) - After it expires, you'll need to leave Japan and wait 6…
#Copenhagen There was one place in Copenhagen, the joke of which I didn't understand at all. It's called Free Christiania and is located across the bridge from the city center. In theory, it was supposed to be an anarcho-socialist city-commune with autonomy…
#Moscow I went on a winter hike with my friends. For warmth, we had sleeping bags and a big stove, which we had to regularly feed with firewood to avoid dying from the cold or hunger. While the others are sleeping, I'm on duty, making sure this shit doesn't…
It just so happened that on that short flight from Copenhagen to Oslo to Berlin, the weather was absolutely perfect for a brilliant layover, and I managed to take some photos of the coastal landscapes. There's the 16-kilometer bridge-tunnel between Denmark…
#Berlin What surprised me in Berlin was the unusual abundance of tall buildings scattered throughout the city. Yes, there were 30-story glass skyscrapers in Warsaw and Paris too, but they were always clustered together, like business centers. Here, however,…
#Berlin #Review From my numerous trips around the world, I've come to realize that every city has its own style. Berlin also has one. But for some reason, it's so elusive that it doesn't coalesce into a unified picture, at least for me. I spent five days in…
Friends, I've returned to Moscow for a couple of weeks, and I'd be happy to meet you! There will be a few more posts from my recent trip to Europe, and then new content from Asia will follow.
We need to compile a list of the worst airports. I'll start with the worst one - the airport in Antalya is the most terrible place I've ever been to. Not only are there two terminals located 3 km apart and you have to PAY to get from one to the other, but…
I understand the pricing less and less with every new city... In Berlin, a single ticket costs 3.5 euros! This is fucking more expensive than Copenhagen, which I was complaining about. Yes, Berlin has a much larger metro and train network, but its…
#Berlin Sometimes you get too spoiled and forget that if a station is new and clean, and the train arrives 90% on time, that's already a human achievement. In terms of the metro, I'd rank Berlin somewhere between Rome and Paris. The city still has many…
#Berlin Germany spares no one... I'm returning the bottles.
#Copenhagen #Review Yesterday was my last day in Copenhagen. The city is really small, and by the end, I was just exploring the nearby areas. It just so happened that I decided to come exactly when the king's speech was taking place, and the weather…
#Copenhagen Just a bit of nighttime Copenhagen in the feed. Well, not really nighttime... It's 9 PM, and there's not a soul on the streets outside the city center. But it's very atmospheric and cozy.
#Copenhagen Birds don't seem to mind the freezing temperatures and continue to nest in parks, being fed by locals. I encountered herons again. Surprisingly, these guys aren't as skittish as ducks or gulls.
#Copenhagen Good news - it snowed in Copenhagen (and in many European countries) tonight! Finally, there's some winter atmosphere in the north of the continent. The temperature is -2, there are no snowdrifts, and the sun is shining, so it's quite pleasant…
It's only my third day in Copenhagen, and I've already paid my hard-earned 3.5 dollars for the metro, only for the train to get stuck in the tunnel for half an hour. The driver finally made contact about 15 minutes later, saying it was a 'technical failure',…
#Copenhagen This is what the Palace Square looked like today. They say that more than 100,000 people came (there are 660,000 people living in Copenhagen itself).
#Copenhagen And a clip from the speech (something wise in Danish, haha). At the end, the king's wife and the former queen come out.
If you haven't seen the new king yet, here's a photo in higher quality from the same balcony.
#Copenhagen From the scene of the event - a speech by the newly crowned King of Denmark. Please forgive the compression algorithm for my ten-fold zoom of the video)) Read more:…
#Copenhagen I spent the whole day today walking around the city center. After a week in chaotic Rome, the Scandinavian rigor really feels awesome. Starting from the perfect brick and colorful concrete facades of buildings, to the unified design of bridges…
#Copenhagen In Rome, I encountered parrots, and in Copenhagen, a heron greeted me at the train station...
#Copenhagen When I buy a single metro ticket in the city, it costs 24 kroner (3.5 dollars).
#Rome Here's a comparison with the center of the photo from the neighboring district of our house. It definitely doesn't look as attractive anymore)) Of course, no one stabbed us, but the view of the buildings and sidewalks is clearly run-down. And this is…
And I remind all Asians that elections are taking place in Taiwan today (January 13th). Three candidates are competing: from the DPP (Democrats), KMT (Conservatives), and TPP (Left-Centrists). Based on their statements, it's very hard to understand what…