Cyprus, is an island country and also the third popular and largest island in the Mediterranean. Cyprus is governed by 2 different countries; Turkish will ruled the North of Cyprus, where the South will be Greek.
Cyprus' flag carries the shape of the island, with a landscape of more than 10 times of Singapore. Even though of it's small landsize, it has 2 airports bringing the tourists to the West coast; namely Paphos International Airport and Larnaca International Airport which is on the East. More developed areas are on the West coast of the island where majority of the Water-sport activities are located.
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| 2 hours direct flight from Bucharest with RyanAir, landed at Paphos International Airport. |
Several car rental companies can be found in Paphos International Airport. It is quite common to self drive in Cyprus, as the road condition is excellent, less those off-road track. All car rental companies will not cover damage under-carriage, even though you bought full insurance coverage. So, do not try!!!
Since it's just a 5-day road trip, a small car will serve us good. We took a Opel Corsa, automatic gear, which cost us about SGD380 including full insurance coverage, for the whole duration. It is a right handed drive, and driver is suppose to keep left of the road. All rented car come with "RED" licence plate, so when you see the car with "RED" licence plate, keep additional distance from the car as not everybody is used to drive on the left.
Paphos Habour
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| Weather is hot during summer, and its no joke! Scorching hot!!! Left: Cool down with an Gelato from a beautifully decorated Ice-Cream Van Right: Post with a wild Pelican that came on shore to dry himself. |
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| A stone sculpture looking over the Mediterranean sea. |
Medieval Castle of Paphos
Medieval Castle located right at the end of Paphos Habour, which said to be one of the tourist attraction in Paphos. A square shaped ancient building that served as many purpose in the good old days - fortress, prison and even a salt warehouse.
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| Entrance to the castle is EUR 2.50, and you will be granted a panorama view of Paphos habour. |
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| Princess' signature post... |
Atlantis Turtle Watching Cruise
Read up several blogs and related websites, Paphos Habour is a popular area to cruise out for observing wild sea turtle swim in the ocean elegantly. Cruise ticket can be found everywhere in Paphos Habour, and the price is comparable - EUR 10 and EUR 5 for kids, for a 45 mins ride. Sounded interesting to see a wild sea turtle through a glass bottom boat.
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| Decided to get the ticket at the stall beside the departure point, so we are not constrain by time. |
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| Relatively small glass bottom boat that can accommodate 20 pax. |
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| We were brought to a site to "admire" a sunken ship and some sea weeds. NO sea turtle in sight... It's exactly like the group before us mentioned: "Never again". However, we still enjoy the 45 mins sea breeze... |
Water Sport
How can we miss out water sport in Cyprus, when parasailing and jet ski are everywhere in sight.
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| Water-sport booths are scattered everywhere along the beach, but we ended up with San Antonio, mainly because it is away from the main crowd. and it was also recommended by the glass bottom boatman. Price varies if a few items were picked. No definite price, negotiate is a must. |
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| Princess is all ready for her first experience on Parasailing. No sight of fear though!!! lol... |
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| There they go..... |
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| Next activity: Jet Ski ride... |
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| So happy with her first experience on the jet ski. |
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| Last but not least, complimentary Sofa Ride which is pulled by a speed boat. Look simple but the speed boat driver is trying to capsize the sofa with the waves... |
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| End our day with a swim at the beach. Nice cooling and super clear water... |
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| Beautiful sunset in Cyprus |
Search of Endangered Species in Cyprus - Cypriot Mouflon
Cypriot Mouflon is a subspecies group of the wild sheep and only found in Cyprus. Due to the uniqueness of this species, it is considered as strictly protected species. Mouflon live in flocks and they are in full alert all the time, not easy to get close to one in the wild. The unique part of Mouflon is their 2 curvy horns which they use to fight during mating season.
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| After 40 mins of mountainous drive into Paphos forest, we found this Mouflon Enclosure which is built to protect them from predators or even hunters. |
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Pottery is one of the oldest decorative arts made of clay and hardened with heat. Soft cray is placed on the center of a rotating table, and Potter will use both of his hand with malleable strength to erect the clay and into shapes. End product will be hardened with heat or dry naturally for a few days.
There are a few pottery marking factories in Cyprus. Mostly are dedicated to tourists, therefore price are matched to the purpose. Fortunately, one of the local show us the way to this craft center where tourists are able to experience pottery marking. We are greeted by this cheerful elderly man who is making some masterpieces, demonstrating the skill of pottery marking. His charges are way much below those factories - EUR 10 per piece.
Venue: The Place
Address: 56, Κωνσταντίνου Κανάρη, Πάφος (56 Constantinou Kanari)
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| Doesn't look difficult after seeing the demonstration, it's all about the correct strength applied during the different stage. |
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Fail Demostration... lol
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| Could it be easy peasy lemon squeezy for Queen after seeing 2 demonstrators??? |
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| Those are our masterpiece... Which is better? From left to right: Sample from professional potter, Princess', Mine, Queen's |
What can be the best exotic activity in the middle of the night near the beach?
Sea Turtle Nesting
We start our journey at 11pm and drove 28 km west to Lara Beach, which is the most suitable beach for the sea turtle to nest. Google map show 50 mins, which is the constant legal speed. However, there is a 8 km off road that we need to cover at a speed of 10km/h to 15km/h. OMG... that is torturing when you need to maneuver left and right to avoid big potholes. Total time required about 70-80 mins.
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| Should have a federation taking care of the beach to protect the eggs. This metal structure is lay over the nesting spot to prevent predator from digging up the eggs. |
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| Found !!! On her way up to the beach to find her favorite spot and start digging. We wish we could see her laying her first egg but there are too many sand flies that chase us away. |
Golden Donkey Farm - Following the guide from TripAdvisor. A first stop after we left Paphos, heading toward east of the island. There is a small entrance fee to enter the farm; comprise of some donkeys and horses, wax museum showing how the ancient milk the donkey and process the milk into other sources.
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| Left: Various products made from donkey milk. Right: An old olive tree |
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Camel Park - Located 15 mins drive from Larnaca city center. Enter the park with a small fee of EUR 4, and it can be offset with the purchase of 15 mins camel ride at EUR 7 for children and EUR 10 for adult. Camels used for ride are well trained, they sat tamely at the boarding area while waiting for the tourist to board them. Not forgetting about the camel feeding...
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WaterWorld Themed Park (Ayia Napa) - Is a award-winning Greek theme park in Ayia Napa, Cyprus. It is rated as the biggest water theme park in Europe, operating multiple high-speed thrilling slides for adults and interesting water playground for the young. Lazy people are floating around in the lazy pool on the inflated donuts. The most popular wave pool create the waves draw in the crowd every hours.
Entry Prices:
Adult; 13 years and over -> €38
Children; 3-12 years -> €24
Free Entry for Infants
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Parko Paliatso Luna Park - offering fun, excitement and entertainment to adults and children. The funfair is the biggest in Cyprus built on a 30,000 square meter land, with a parking area ready to host up to 300 cars at a time. The park has more than 25 different attractions. The biggest and most popular attraction is the Sling Shot, the highest ejection seat ride in Europe, and also a 45 meter height Giant Wheel. No entrance fee, pay as you play.
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Nemo Submarine (Ayia Napa) - a very distinctive shape of the orange Nemo Submarine which offers passengers a unique way to explore the coastline. Spacious upper deck with ample seating, ladder to a diving platform, Air-conditioned bottom deck, Large viewing windows in the bottom deck.
Nemo Submarine can be boarded at Ayia Napa Habour and ticket can be purchase on the spot. During the 2 hours ride, Nemo Submarine will cruise along the coastline and visit those caves that one can never view it on foot. making several stops for swimming. Life jackets will be provided for amateur swimmer and snorkeling equipment are available on board.
Prices:
Adult -> €15
Children -> €7
Free Entry for child below 3
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