Monthly Archives: November 2010

MangoManjaro.se Podcast #2 – Hitchhiking in Syria

Welcome To Syria!

Our second podcast is here!
This time filled with sounds and stories from the road, mainly in Syria:

  • Learn how to say “Thank You” in 8 different languages!
  • Hear the sound of Turkish radio commercials and radio music
  • Listen to the difficulties and hardships of hitchhiking in Syria ;)
  • Feel the pain that Arabs experience in the cold desert through a moving song from Syria
  • Be first to guess which Gotlandic song we’re singing and win a Turkish ashtray!

…and much more!

MangoManjaro-002-Hichhiking-In-Syria.mp3

We would love your feedback on this!
Let us know what YOU think by posting your comment!

Theme based on track by Matty Blades.

Turkey

Three and a half weeks of fresh fruit, amazing hospitality and at least 10 cups of tea a day. Yes, welcome to Turkey!

For the first time so far during this trip, we have spent enough time in the same country to pick up a tiny bit of the language and to get almost addicted to both the food and the culture. Maybe it has to do with that the tourist season is more or less over, but Turkey wasn’t what we expected. It was much better!
People have given us so many presents that we barely know what to do with it all!
Also, we finally caught up with the warm season.
No more freezing nights for a while! Asia is entered.

Get the whole story!

Half Way to India From Poland Only By Hitchhiking

Somebody told us that Istanbul means half way to India. Depending on what way you’re going, of course,
but we feel like the second episode of this journey has started. We have entered Asia, the Middle East,
and the arabic culture. It is a whole new world where we so far didn’t hear any words for “hitchhiking”.
We’ll see how it goes!

Turkey has been a great pleasure. It has been easy to get around, and we have probably had more tea in 3 weeks
than we’ve had through our entire lives… A great time in a great country.
Now, we have just gotten our 15 day visas to Syria, and we are excited to spend some time here.

Since we are now in a country where both YouTube and Facebook are blocked, the use of Skype is techniqually illegal
and good WiFi seems to be more rare than common, we will probably not be able to post something on a daily basis.
In might also take us a few days to respond to e-mails and comments. So it’s not that we have turned ignorant
since we’ve entered Syria!

There is lots to tell, and we have a feeling that The Chicken Dance is gonna be something special here…
Just wait ;)!

Oh and by the way! We recently got featured at a travel blog – As We Travel.
They think that we’re the 18th most inspiring travel bloggers of 2010 out of 25! How about that :) ?

Welcome to MangoManjaro – part 2 !

Two Months On The Road!

We’ve been on the road for two months now.

Here are this month’s (October/November 2010) statistics:

Movements

  • 2 countries passed
  • One border crossed by car
  • 35 drivers (from Ruse, Bulgaria to Dörtyol, Turkey)
  • 3000 km / 1863 miles traveled

The Chicken Dance

  • 1 public dance arranged, (failing twice)

Accommodation

  • 21 nights spent in hostels
  • 3 nights spent camping in a camp site
  • 2 nights spent with people who we’ve met on our way
  • 6 nights spent with friends who we knew from before

Blog activity

  • 26 published posts
  • 37 new fans on Facebook
  • 12 new followers on Twitter
  • Number of new newsletter subscribers unknown – MailChimp not reachable
  • ~2000 visitors
  • ~85 daily visitors
  • 49 comments posted by engaged readers
  • Number of Facebook likes per post unknown – Facebook blocked in Syria

Finances

  • 227 € donated by readers who supports us financially (thank you again!)
  • A daily bud get of 13€ per person, for food, accommodation and local transports. That’s about 390€ per person.

We believe in full transparency, so you can expect to see a summary like this next month as well.

Read the statistics for September/October and compare them!

Thank you very much for participating in this adventure!
Love,
Amanda and Robin

The Chicken Dance – Antalya!

Antalya, we DID IT!
So this Chicken Dance is legendary, in many ways. It is our only Chicken Dance arranged in Turkey (after failing twice). It is also the first time we have two people walking out when they find themselves confused about whether this is cool or not.
Thank you so much for participating and making Antalya part of the Chicken Dance history!