With Salim @ Hammamet, Tunisia, December 30, 2022
With Salim Despite being a dozen years younger than myself, I connected with him like a friend of my age. His thoughtfulness, maturity and inquisitiveness kept me in a comfortable and fun environment all the while we were exploring the Southern part of the country, and the experience will be remembered for a long time with warm feelings. Feeling a lot like seeing myself in my 20s, I occasionally had to hold the urge to give him “unrequested” tips and advice of life – I hope...
with Danilo and Nevena @ Belgrade, Serbia, September 19, 2021
with Danilo and Nevena It was already a coincidence when we crossed paths in Plovdiv, Bulgaria two years ago. And what are the odds that I was sighted on the street in their home country? This has to be called pure luck! Meeting people again is a special experience for me, and it is even more so if it is where they grew up. Thanks to some knowledge I’ve already gained about the country, I am happy that I could understand them better, and it’s also...
with Sibel and Ozlem @ Istanbul, Turkey, February 8th, 2020
with Sibel and Ozlem Last time it was summer and they were travelers, and now it is winter and they are locals. By coincidence, we reunited on a very cold day in Istanbul, and for some time we had to cover our faces as we walked because pieces of snow were getting into our eyes. Although I was a bit unwell that day, I was excited that it felt like a late Christmas for me, with friendly company and snowy streets. Especially when walking across busy...
with Özgür and friends @ Çıtır Balık, Antalya, Turkey, January 26, 2020
Some Turkish friends strongly recommended a fish sandwich place in town. I was happy to learn that the place was only two minutes from where I stay, but from the outside, the popularity seemed overwhelming – the queue for placing orders was long, and there was another queue for the people who wanted to get seated. Trying to figure out how a new place works can be stressful, especially as an illiterate foreigner, but I didn’t hesitate much, anticipating the new experience. By pointing at a...
Bike riders @ Hopa and Trabzon, Turkey, January 14 and 15, 2020
Bike riders On the first two days in Turkey, I met bike travelers each day. Some of it must have been by coincidence and other could have been due to my desperate energy to meet other people, after a long break in Georgia. The two groups of riders had things in common. They both started in Switzerland, have ridden mostly along the same routes, and they are going eastwards – one group to China, the other to Singapore. They haven’t met each other in person, but...
Family with love @ Sevan and Yerevan, Armenia, November 19 and 21, 2019
Family with love It was only my second evening in Armenia but it already felt like it had been a lot. The first day I had to drive for hours at night on unpaved roads trying to find a guesthouse that is still open during the off-season, only relying on offline maps. The second day, I realized that the exhaust pipe between two catalytic converters came off, probably due to the shocks taken from the roads. And it took several hours to find a confident mechanic...
with Artyom @ Bratislavskaya, Moscow, Russia, September 5, 2019
In general, I try to keep distance from using the word ‘hospitable’ when describing people of a country or a region. It’s not because hospitality is an undesirable value by any means. I just feel that accepting to use the word encourages me to subconsciously believe that I am in the position to evaluate different cultures or even compare them, based on my perspectives. Allowing myself to reinforce my previous world view is far from the purpose of journey. But during the three days of stay...
Lesson on a sad day @ Pulkovo Aiport, St. Petersburg, Russia, August 12, 2019
Lesson on a sad day Sometimes people ask if or when I get lonely on the road. Since I have been traveling for almost two years, it seems to be fair curiosity. But when I think about it, I realize that it hardly happens. Yes, there were demanding situations where things could have been solved more easily if I had had company. And yes, there were special experiences which I wished I could have shared in real-time with someone who understood me on a deep level....
This website chronicles Leebong’s journey around the world for 2+ years, for the time being. To find out more, see The Travel & The Why.
To catch me, see Itinerary.
Impressions Series
