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News Update – February 2011 (Colombo/Sri Lanka, February 28th, 2011)
- Website statistics: In January we were able to welcome 47'626 visitors who did 1'694'464 hits, according to 'Webalizer'.
- 'Google-Analytics' showed 46'197 Pageviews during the same period. The visitors are from ~177 countries!
- (December = 39'692 visitors – 1'373'095 Hits / November = 48'917 visitors – 1'724'728 Hits)
- ('Google-Analytics': December = 39'599 Pageviews / November = 42'410 Pageviews / 206 countries)
- Record day since 12/17/1998 = the birthday of our website: on 11/5/2007 = 13'407 visitors and 787'456 hits
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- Since our "News – Jan./Feb. 2011" from February 9th, 2011, a lot happened: It was planned (and booked) that we have a direct
- connection with Air Arabia to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates after Air Asia's flight from Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia to Colombo in
- Sri Lanka. But as it can turn out on budget airlines, the plane simply did not show up; and as it is not unusal in exotic countries, nobody
- knows or wants to know anything about it at the airport. After hours of investigating, we found out that the flight has been postponed to
- the following morning – it was only omitted to inform us by email. Thus we had the pleasure to spend our first night prematurely and
- unscheduled in Sri Lanka.
- In return, it worked out at its best next morning: In the very early hours we flew to Sharjah and directly afterwards with Felix Airways
- onward via Mukalla to Socotra Island in Yemen. In the afternoon, we landed at Hadibo, the dusty and dirty main village of the small
- island, measuring only 1'466 sq.mi., lying in front of the Somalian coast. At the airport, we were greeted by our future guide and driver,
- who will escort us during the next 10 days around the island. Although we are not at all enthusiastic about being leaded – we prefer
- much more to explore everything on our own initiative – there is no other solution on Socotra: There are no car rentals, and the drivers
- of LandCruisers – without 4x4 some really beautiful places cannot be reached – mostly don't talk English,only the guides. Despite of
- the "watchman" whose main job seems to be to prevent any photos taken of women, the total costs of US$ 1'150 (all-in) were well
- worth it. The island of nature is absolutely (still) unique, though tourism starts to boom after some publication in the media. Most of the
- organized tour groups we met were from Italy, China and Japan.. However, there might be rarely more than one or two dozens of
- LandCruisers at one time on the island, each one carrying two to four tourists.
- After full nine days, which can be regarded as sufficient, we flew back to Sharjah. In fact, originally we intended to spend a few days in
- the capital of Sana'a. Due to the escalation of the voilence in Yemen however, we dropped that idea and flew once more directly with
- Felix Airways to the Emirates. On arrival, we rented a car and – though we know the region thoroughly from our visits in 1994, 96 and
- 99 – we got caught completely by urprise. It might be that the previous ten days on the much laid back nature island of Socotra
- intensified the culture shock. We marvelled what has been built in the U.A.E. since our last visit 12 years ago. A bigger contrast can
- hardly be found!
- Currently we are in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, and are waiting for the arrival of our car from the Philippines. As already experienced earlier, our 21st container is once more delayed and is now expected to arrive only on March 5th, in its 169th country.
- We try now to put online not only the remaining pictures and text from the Philippines which are 'overdue' already a long time, but also
- to boost the popularity of the 'UNESCO World Heritage wonders of nature' of Socotra. We only hope that the political and the
- security situation in Yemen will improve, not only because this country belongs to the most interesting destinations we visited during our
- epic journey, but also in order that the unbelievable treasures of the Arabian culture and nature become more visible.
- If everything works out nicely, we should be reunited with our LandCruiser in about ten days, so that we can start exploring Sri Lanka.
- We plan to spend about two months for it – Sri Lanka, the former Ceylon, is about 1½ times the size of Switzerland (25,332 sq. mi.).
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Tongatapu Island |  |
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Tahiti
1st part Picture Report (Aug.-Sept.
2009) Tahiti 2nd part Picture Report (Oct. 2009) Moorea Picture Report (Sept. 2009) |
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Rarotonga Island |  |
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Temples, Pagodas, Shrines | |
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| The visit of 14 Pacific Islands with and 1 without our LandCruiser | Pacific (Febr. 2008-Jan. 2010 + Aug.-Sept. 2010) |
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| The visit of 13 Caribbean Islands with our LandCruiser | Caribbean (June 2003-Dec. 2004) |
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| + added from the United Arab Emirates: | Fairytale Wedding in Dubai (March 1999) |
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| + added from a earlier visit to the USA: | Las Vegas (Millennium change) |
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| + added from our Arabian Peninsula round trip: | Pictures from Yemen (May-June 1996) |
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| + Flashbacks of our Worldrecordtour: | Pictures from "all the continents" (Oct. 1984 - April 1997) |
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