Kaśka&Michał - Kuuk&Travel

Perth, the capital of Western Australia – how to do it cheaper?

On Monday February 27th, 2017Monday September 17th, 2018 by Kaśka&Michał Posted in AustraliaTagged #backpackers, #belltower, #Billabong, #Busselton, #busseltonjetty, #elizabethquay, #fringeworldfestival #, #hostel, #jetty, #kingspark, #Mandurah, #northbridge, #Perth, #Rockingham, bunbury2 Comments

The reason why we decided to head for Perth in Australia’s west coast rather than take the popular route to Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane is that Perth seemed closer to our preferences with its many green areas, beautiful parks and amazing beaches. Besides it is not as packed with tourists as Sydney, it’s quieter and although you should expect high prices during the season, it’s stil a cheaper city than the ones mentioned above. True, you will also encounter skyscrapers and bustling life in the city center, but it’s very easy to get away from it, and you can explore many city center attractions by walk (if you don’t mind walking the distance of 4-5km). 🙂

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What should you know before you get on a plane to Australia?

On Thursday February 23rd, 2017Monday September 17th, 2018 by Kaśka&Michał Posted in AustraliaTagged #airport, #control, #flight, #formalities, #passport, #place, australia, visaLeave a comment

It may seem that there is nothing easier than catch a flight to Australia from Europe for 500-700EUR (you will certainly find some good offers on: www.flipo.pl), prepare some savings, pack basic stuff, alcohol, food, and set off! Well, not exactly. Although Australia is absolutely one of the most civilized countries, it is necessary to organize a few things before going there and have some awareness of what can and what cannot be brought into the Australian continent so as not to be disappointed upon entering this exceptional land. Feel free to use our pieces of advice, and you will see that everything will go smoothly 🙂

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Komodo Dragons – our face to face encounter with the largest lizards in the world!

On Monday February 20th, 2017Saturday January 27th, 2018 by Kaśka&Michał Posted in Asia, Indonesia & East TimorTagged boat, boat tour, coral reef, Flores, island, jaszczurka, kanibal, komodo, komodo dragon, Komodo National Park, Labuan Bajo, lizard, manta point, Padar, pink beach, Rinca, snorkelling, tour, waranLeave a comment

Komodo Dragon is the largest lizard species inhabiting the globe. These lizards migrated to Indonesia from Australia and settled on 5 Indonesian islands: Komodo, Rinca, Padar, Flores and Gili Motang. To see them in the wild you have to have incredible luck, because these animals do not have a sense of its own territory and are constantly on the move. However, you can see them in Komodo National Park on the islands of Komodo and Rinca after getting there by boat from Labuan Bajo on Flores and paying the entrance fee to the national park. We wanted to see the phenomenal island of Padar so we had to choose the following tour combination: Komodo + Padar + Pink Beach / snorkelling + Manta Point (it wasn’t possible to visit the islands of Komodo, Rinca and Padar in one day, and doing it in 2 days would mean paying a double admission fee to the park!). Sharing with you our impressions on meeting the mighty lizards.

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Kangaroo meat – how to cook it?

On Sunday February 19th, 2017Monday September 17th, 2018 by Kaśka&Michał Posted in AustraliaTagged australia, barbecue, bunbury, car, cheap, cook, cooking, enthusiast, fireplace, food, grill, healthy, hyden, kangaroo, kangur, lean meat, meat, mięso z kangura, minerals, ognisko, passionate, picnic area, source of vitamins, trip, wave rock, western australia4 Comments

One of our must-do things during our short visit to Australia was to taste kangaroo meat. Restaurants are so expensive in this country that you automatically think of cooking on your own, which is obvious especially if you have a travel companion who is a passionate chef! Contrary to a popular opinion about kangaroo meat being the cheapest kind of meat to buy in Australia, we’ve found out that chicken meat is in fact the cheapest (for 1kg of chicken meat you’ll pay 8-9AUD / 6USD while 0,5kg of kangaroo meat costs the same or a bit more up to 10AUD /8USD). Where and how did we prepare the kangaroo meat taking into account that we were constantly moving from one place to the other in our small Kia, where we were also staying overnight? You will find all the info here below.

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Vietnam: what things disappointed us vs. what made us want to come back for more!

On Wednesday February 8th, 2017Thursday May 3rd, 2018 by Kaśka&Michał Posted in Asia, VietnamTagged beach, Bitexco Financial Tower, bread, cau lau, cheat, Chinese, Coconut Tree, Da Lat, Dalat, French colony, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hoa Lo, Hoi An, hot pot, kaszanka, lampions, Lunar New year, market, mountain, Museum, noodle, pancake, paradise, Phu Quoc, pierogi, prawn, prison, pristine, roll, rubbisg, Sapa, soup, temple, Tet, tourist, Vietnam, Vietnamese, yellow bird8 Comments

Before going to Vietnam we kind of couldn’t wait for this experience counting the days until we got there. We heard a lot about Vietnamese cuisine considered to be one of the best in Asia, we heard about friendly and hospitable people we were going to meet there and we hoped that it would be less touristy than Thailand. We got a little disappointed by some situations and people and we thought that at some point Vietnam turned out to be jinxed in our case (especially we had the impression that we had bad luck with people that we were coming across during our journey). Later we changed our minds a little bit and found some pluses in regards to people, tourism and Vietnamese cuisine.

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Coconut Tree Prison on Phu Quoc island – Hell on Earth!

On Tuesday February 7th, 2017Sunday January 21st, 2018 by Kaśka&Michał Posted in Asia, VietnamTagged American, American war, carcel, Coconut Tree, death, disembowel, electrocution, hammer, Indochina war, jail Phu Quoc, killings, martyr, murder, nail, prisión, prizon, torture, Vietnam war, więzienie3 Comments

We are all well aware of atrocities of the Vietnam War – there is no doubt about it. This war was hell taking place in the terrain of today’s Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. During the very same war called by the Vietnamese ‘’the American war’’ there was a prison which functioned in Phu Quoc Island until 1973, the jail where the Americans were sending tens of thousands of captives – it was the cruelest prison of the Vietnam war. It was at that time the prisoners were burned alive, had their teeth knocked out, had nails hammered in different parts of their bodies, had their genitals crushed… This post is about the true Hell on Earth …

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Vietnamese New year – how is it celebrated in Hoi An?

On Tuesday February 7th, 2017Sunday November 19th, 2017 by Kaśka&Michał Posted in Asia, VietnamTagged 2017, altar, Anbang, ancestors, Banh Tet, beach, cau lau, Chinese, ciasto, colonial, Da Nang, death, dziedzictwo, French, gifts, gio lua, Hoi An, holiday, homestay, karaoke, kleisty ryæ, Kwiatkowski, lampions, lampiony, Light Festival, Lunar calendar, Lunar New year, mandarin, Marble Mountains, Mickey Mouse plant, New Year, ochna integerrima, palenie banknotów, Rok Koguta, Rooster Year, sajgonki, spring rolls, sticky rice, styl kolonialny, style, temple, Tet, tree, UNESCO, vietnamese sausage, Vietnam, Wietnamski Nowy Rok, wishes, world heritage12 Comments

Tet Nguyen Dan (known as ” Tet ”) is the most important Vietnamese holiday. This is the period when the Vietnamese celebrate the Lunar New Year (the date is taken from the lunar calendar). It is a movable feast, which falls at the end of January or in early February – at exactly the same time as the Chinese New Year. This year the Vietnamese have celebrated the New Year on January 28. It is said that the celebration lasts normally 3 days, but in practice we saw it continued up to 1 week and it significantly differed from the typical New Year celebration in Europe. There are no grand balls and parties, it rather resembles the Polish Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, when gifts are handed in to relatives who gather together at a big table covered with lots of nice food. Let’s have a closer look at it then 🙂

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Crazy architecture of Da Lat – come in and feel like you were in Barcelona!

On Monday February 6th, 2017Sunday November 19th, 2017 by Kaśka&Michał Posted in Asia, VietnamTagged 100 roofs, Antoni, architect, architecture, architekt, architektura, art, bar, Barcelona, cafe, Cataluna, crazy house, Da Lat, Dalat, Dang Viet Nga, Gaudi, guesthouse, Hang Nga, Ho Chi Minh, labyrinth, maze bar, pokój, room, szalony dom, Truong Chinh, work of art8 Comments

Coming to Vietnam we would never even think that you can discover there ”crazy ” buildings inspired by a Catalan architect, Antonio Gaudi. Feeling for a moment like in Barcelona, and what’s more, sleeping in such a climate, or drinking beer in a ‘’fairy tale cafe’’ is really ‘something’! In the city of Da Lat, which turned out to be the most unlucky one for us (which we will write about shortly), we could feel a little satisfaction in being right there and it was thanks to the so-called Crazy House (Hang Nga Guesthouse) and 100 Roofs Cafe / Maze Bar!

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Swastika on marble statues of Buddha in Da Nang! Where does it come from?

On Friday February 3rd, 2017Friday June 29th, 2018 by Kaśka&Michał Posted in Asia, VietnamTagged Am Phu, Buda, Budda, Buddha, carve, cave, cavern, Chinese, cueva, Da Nang, Droga do Raju, hell, Hoi An, Huyen Khong, jaskinia, Marble, motorbike, mountain, Nazi, Ngu Hanh Son, pagoda, Road to Paradise, scooter, sign, signo, simbolo, swastika, swastyka, symbol, temple, Thuy Son4 Comments

Swastika for most of us has been a symbol of Nazi concepts. Germany during the 2nd World War completely usurped this sign and left it with its negative connotation up to present times. Why did we start to wonder whether this symbol has always been associated with nazism? Well, we went to a place called Marble Mountains located near Hoi An in Da Nang and surprisingly we found the sign of swastika on the marble statues of Buddha, and exactly in the center of his chest .. besides, the symbol was also illustrated separately and it was quite big, so it was not difficult to notice it .. at first it seemed abhorrent for us, then later awoke our curosity and we wanted to find out more about it … and dig into the history of the sign..

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Why was Hoa Lo Prison called ”Hanoi Hilton Hotel” by its American inmates?

On Friday February 3rd, 2017Sunday November 19th, 2017 by Kaśka&Michał Posted in Asia, VietnamTagged 1975, Americans, Amerykanie, bombardment, carcel, cruel, cruelty, estadounidense, freedom, French colonialists, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Hoa Lo, independence, Indochina, jail, nothern vientam, pilot, prisión, prison, revenge, Saigon, shocking, souther vietnam, USA, Vietnam, Vietnam war, Wietnam Północny, Wietnam Południowy, więzienieLeave a comment

Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi was built by the French in 1896 in Phu Khanh village. The building was one of the largest prisons built by French colonialists in Indochina. They jailed political revolutionists and patriots there. Many leaders of the government and the Vietnamese Communist Party were imprisoned there. From 1964 to 1973 Hoa Lo Prison confined American pilots shot down or arrested during the bombing of northern Vietnam. The most shocking for us was the fact that the prison got named ‘’Hanoi Hilton Hotel’’ by its American inmates. Sharing with you our feelings about it in a moment.

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Author: Kaśka&Michał