Travel to Romania, Muntenia, Bucharest.

I always dreamt about going on a cruise, because I think this is the most exciting voyage ever. You get to see so many cities at the same time, take advantage of the trip on the sea and relax, getting tanned, living in a small luxurious city on water.So why not choose cruises instead of on land trips and cheap cruises for that matter? I will probably never go on a cruise, as I am sea sick and afraid of water. I can't embark upon a journey where I will have to be always thinking that I might have to swim at some point.But enjoying dinner with the captain, seeing the dolphins, taking time to know the crew and the other travelers always reminded me of the books I was reading when I was younger, especially the ones with Hercule Poirot and solving murders.The best cruise destination might be the Mediterranean as you can to see so many wonderful European countries, like France, Italy, Spain, and Greece also Africa, Asia. Another nice destination is the Caribbean Sea, visiting various splendid islands or the South Pacific. I think almost the river cruises can be interesting if you get to see lots of places and you can stop many times. Plus is somehow more close to the land and you can get nice photos from the boat.Nonetheless, most surprising than a cruise it’s an air balloon trip, but it does not compare, as it’s so much uncomfortable, will last fewer days.One day I’ll have the courage to go on a cruise!

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Austria, Salzburg, Werfenweng.

We woke today with plans to go to a nearby town in Salzburg that contains the biggest ice cave in the world. We set off with our backpack packed with jumpers.
Our train only took about 50mins, it went quick as we were distracted by the absolutely stunning scenery. The train twisted through snow capped mountains, along rivers and past many small cute towns. we had the carriage pretty much to ourselves and crossed the train from left to right comparing views. Once we arrived at the town of Werfen, it seemed deserted. We found the ticket desk and asked for directions to the bus that would take us up the mountain. It was about a 10 min walk along the river. We waited 25 mins for the bus and were joined by an Indian family also going up the mountain. We payed as we boarded the bus and set off.Well! The drive was a little scary, and sickening, it was only a little shuttle bus but it just kept climbing the mountain, up winding roads it just kept getting steeper and steeper, looking over the
cliffside edge made my tummy drop. After another 20 mins or so we arrived at the ticket office. We purchased our tickets including the sky cart. the first leg of the hike was 20 mins and it was steep! Danel was pushing me at some points as I just felt like my little legs weren’t getting me anywhere! the view was beautiful though, the town of Werfen and Werfens ginormous fortress bellow, looked tiny! Finally exhausted we made it to the sky cart. We had some more water and opened our can of Austrian herbal flavored lemonade. after a 10 min wait for the sky cart to run we boarded. I started to freak out when I saw how steep it was!! I’ve never seen anything like it, it was pretty much vertical! Danel went to put his arm around me and knocked my dermal, which came out!! Well if anything is a distraction it’s that! It was holding on by a thread and I just kept holding it and looking down as we went up. As soon as we got up I asked for a bandaid and headed to the bathroom to
use the mirror. I tried for ages to get it back in not knowing if I could pull the rest out if I wanted to, not knowing how much was attached still.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Australia, Queensland, Rainbow Beach.

We arrived in Rainbow Beach from Tin Can Bay, quaint little town, but right on the backpackers trail and so the townies don't like these "your not from around here, are you, types" infiltrating their little patch of tucked away paradise. We tried to do a spot of free camping by the ocean side park, but it looks like ranger phil, is on the beat, and has harassed several van packers, slapped them with a goldcoast type fine for breaking hick town bylaws, anonymously passed in an out of session midnight council meeting when topped up with the sauce they passed these draconian bylaws, where you are not allowed to sleep in your car, any where in town, unless it is in backpacker alley. you guessed it, backpacker street is full of hostile hostels, where all the young dudes party like there is no tomorrow and for some of them, by the way they party, there probably won't be. Sooooo let me set the scene, bilbo and basho did the right thing and parked our freedom machine in backpacker street, with all the other ten thousand party vans, all knockin and a rockin, till sunrise, ah, did not sleep a wink,
amazing streak art rainbow beachwith all these party types yahooing, yaheeing, all night long, some of them did a lionel ritchie, and were probably dancing on the ceiling, you get the feeling, that we were reeling,

meanwhile back in the town that is reminiscent of a 60's style byron bay where every shop sells surf boards or surfwear, or alcohol or sometimes all of these at the same time, don't mind packing the back packing dollars just don't want them freeloading in suburbia. like check out the only laundromat, oh yeah, its owned by the fish and chip shop next door, that will also sell you a shower for five dolleros. so clean your clothes, clean yourself, before you bring your stinky arse into my house of greasy stuff thats probably been festering all day, o'k we havn't slept a wink, we probably stink and its raining, maybe the towns not that bad, did i mention its raining,

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to China, Hainan, Sanya.

I am currently working on several posts that I need to do a little research for, but it's difficult because I don't have an internet connection in my accomodation, so they're taking a little longer than I intended, hence the las few posts being entirely about how I am thinking and feeling. I'll keep working on them and maybe they'll be finished by the time I get home... but in the meantime, a post about the cheerless subject of leaving Sanya - where I have spent the last 5 tumultuous months of my life. Enjoy ^^

I can’t read through an entire piece of travel writing in the order that it’s meant to be read. An emotion that is best described as excitement and longing takes over and I can’t think of anything else, I want to be there, in the midst. I want to be this writer, writing this piece, having had this experience. It’s the same thing that takes over when reading a particularly good novel – you read it so quickly that you skip over entire phrases and paragraphs, just so it’s possible to absorb it all now, right now.

It’s this
My City Bruvapart of my personality that allows me to read a novel or article again and again. This morning I was reading a piece about glacier exploration. And although I have absolutely no desire to be tramping through a glacial bog and eating dried dinners made with muddy water, I wanted to be there. I wanted it to be me, to be having that experience, to be learning more about the world and about how I relate to it.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to United States, Alaska, Anchorage.

On my mission to eventually go to every State in the USA and every province in Canada (except Nunavut), I eventually decided itwas time to go to Alaska, The Last Frontier.

Coincidentally, and conveniently, Shannan’s family lives in a little town a couple of hours from Anchorage, so we all decided to go visit!

I have mentioned Shannan’s family briefly, off and on, over my blog-times, because they moved to our little town of Eureka, once upon a time, while we were in high school, and stayed about…a year, I think. But they were like a comet coming through – only there for a short time but made a lasting impression!)

I practically lived at their house and Shannan’s parents were my parents and her sisters were my sisters, and when we weren’t living at her house, we lived at mine… I’m not sure if Shannan considers my parents her parents, but I know that we both got grounded and banished to the laundry room to fold clothes for an entire day, so I’m assuming that she did. (She, at least, did the chores they told us to do…well, actually… from what I can remember, we spent the
Glacierentire day in that room and didn’t fold a single thing – but that’s just because we got distracted with visiting.)

I hadn’t seen Dale & Ruby (Shannan’s parents) or her sister, Stacey, since they moved away from Columbia Falls, so this would be a long over-due reunion!

We decided SUMMER was the smart time to go to Alaska. The coldest day on record, in Alaska, was -80° Fahrenheit (-62° Celsius), January 23, 1971. This was, of course, the record coldest day for any place in the United States. Of course, this is a long, long, long way (20 miles North of the Arctic Circle) from where we would be, but still – we didn’t want to risk it!!

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to India, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Colaba.

When you've visited somewhere quite often, it becomes difficult to find anything very new to say about it, doesn't it?

I've been to the hot and humid city of Mumbai (Bombay) four or five times, most recently in 2009 (Mumbai's extremes) when it was a convenient place to meet my young Rajasthani friend on our way south to Kerala. This time, it was a convenient place to start a tour to the north with my travelling companions, the Grey haired nomads , neither of whom had been here before. They like peaceful, wide open spaces and don't normally do cities, so I think they were a bit overwhelmed by it all. Well, this is one of the most heavily-populated metropolitan areas in the world with over 20.5 Million people crammed into it. To put this into perspective, that's more than the populations of London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Berlin and Vienna combined!

It's also the commercial capital, a global financial hub and by far the wealthiest city in India. This you'd only realise by looking at some of the modern tower blocks, glass skyscrapers and tall apartment buildings, which loom above cramped and dilapidated dwellings that house the average
Recycling cardboard in Dharavi
Photo by courtesy of Reality Tours & TravelMumbaiker. Look out of any five-star hotel window and you'll see families living in the streets or in makeshift shanty towns. Poor public-health facilities, limited educational opportunities and unemployment are all familiar scenes to the half of this city’s population which lives in a slum dwelling of some sort.

While I'll include some pictures of the touristy things we've seen during our two days here, I'd like to say a bit about a place in central Mumbai called Dharavi. It's a place that most tourists don’t see – or possibly don’t want to believe actually exists. Perhaps they prefer to bury their heads in the sand, thinking that Danny Boyle’s film Slumdog Millionaire was produced in a studio rather than on location.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Spain, Castile & León, Salamanca, Bejar.

On Friday morning we has chocolate con churros, which is amazing! Since I have been sick I only indulged with one churro.

Then after we had our breakfast we were given thelpful tips for traveling. I am pleased to say I have two trips planned! The first is in March and I am going to Paris with about 10 other people from my program here. I am looking forward to seeing what many people have told me is there favorite city in the world. I want to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre and everything else Parisian!. I want to pick up some French saying for the short time I am there. The other trip is to Morocco. The details are still being finalized but the trip is mid-April. Looking forward to seeing another continent!

After our workshop I was still feeling under the weather (I still am but I am getting over it) so I went to bed early.

On Saturday, I went with two other girls walking around the city. We stopped in a makeup store and I purchased a lipstick for 1.90! We also went to a clothing store and has fun trying on
P1010389coats just for fun. We have no room to pack any though! Then we went to the grocery store. The girls I was with did their shopping and I picked up a few staples for my kitchen

After our outing we came back to their girls’ apartment to pickup some more curious souls and left to walk around. We came across a beautiful park and we entertained ourselves with the playground toys—including a zipline! The night was freezing (by our southern CA standards) so we did not stay much longer.

After, we got warmed up by our apartments and headed out for some Chinese food nearby. I guess some people were craving it. The food was ok—I am not a huge fan of the cuisine myself but I found food I liked.

After a long day I was tired and ready to relax. So I went home, made myself some tea and had a nice skype session.

The next day Sunday was spent booking hostels for our Paris trip. The internet kept going out because too many activities were going on. The laundry was going, people were cooking and three laptops were in use. After the
P1010391hostels were booked I decided to attempt the laundry. I had accumulated quite a pile clothes needing to be laundered. After the wash cycle completed, I was left with a sopping wet clump of clothes. Dryers are not used here in Spain so off to wring my clothes as best I could I went! One of my roommates who had done laundry a few days prop told me her clothes tool 3 days to dry. So I will be wearing the same pants for the next three days most likely. Oh well, Spaniards do save a lot of money not using driers. I just pray it does not rain! Right now my clothes are in the cold, sopping wet. Hopefully they will catch some sun!

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Thailand, South-West Thailand, Ko Lanta.

I'd packed all my gear the night before so I'd set the alarm for 07:15 giving me enough time to get ready and then walk along the beach to the jetty where our boat was moored.

We were soon joined by the other divers, the dive guides and the crew. It was an hour to the dive site so we settled in with chocolate croissans, bananas and hot coffee - this is the life.

Because of the unseasonal weather we all stayed inside as the rain kept sweeping in at regular intervals. Not that I minded because as soon as we were under the water it didn't really matter.

As soon as we arrived we were ready to go. Rmembering to take the camera and put the mask on (!) in I went. We descended without a problem apart from the fact that my dive computer decided to pack up there and then (apparentlly the battery had given up the ghost without any prior warning - very annoying)

It meant that I had to rely on the guide a lot more but as it was my first dive in 8 months that wasn't a bad thing. The
Wary Cuttlefishdive lasted over 50 minutes and despite the poor light, due to there being no sunshine, I got some decent photos. The one of the suid was particulary pleasing and once I get it home to 'photoshop it' it should come up OK.

We surfaced and then made our way onto the top deck where lunch was served the ususal Thai curries and rice but very welcome on a day like this.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Malaysia, Kelantan, Kota Bharu.

I have been banging on about the Jungle Train since before we left the UK. We have spoke to many people who have come to Malaysia but haven't found anyone who has come to the East or in fact done the Jungle Train! We didn't know if this was a good thing or if there was a reason why not a lot of people have trodden this route. . .

From Panang we took an 8 hour bus journey from the West side to Kota Bharu in the North East. We traveled up through sprawling mountains and rain forest with views of mist rising from the rain forest, as it is still monsoon season this side of Malaysia. We settled for 1 night in Kota Bharu and were up at 5:30 a.m heading for the train station. . .

At first I found out that the train only goes half way (Kota Bharu - Gua Musang) to where we were heading so bought a ticket for the express!! after throwin my toys out of the pram we got off the express and bought tickets for the Jungle Train as we had come all this way for it (I wanna
view from traingo on der other choo choooo!!!) just as I had wiped my last tears away . . . the Jungle Train arrived :)

The journey was great, I finally got to hang off a train again whilst taking photos, just like in India. It took a bit of time getting into the jungle but once we were there we had fantastic views of villages dotted throughout, jungle rivers and mist rising through mountains (check the pics) I slept quietly that night and Jess got a bit of peace :)

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Thailand, Krabi, Koh Lanta.

A lazy morning spent having a late (ish) breakfast and then a lie down by the pool at the hotel.

We were picked up for the transfer to the airport at mid day and made our way through the customary heavy traffic to the airport.

The flight took of on time and we landed at Krabi at 16:15. The hotel staff metb us at the airport and we were whisked off in our own minibus the the Pimalai Jetty where a speedboat was waiting to take us to the resort.

Luckily the sea was very calm and it only took us 45 minutes to get there. By this time dusk was ascending so we alighted from the boat , walked along the jetty and were met by an oversized golf cart which took us up the hill to the reception area.

Soon after signing in we were escorted (via a 'proper' golf cart) to our 'Bayfront Room'.

By this time we were pretty tired so after unpacking we made our way to the Thai Restaurant.

An excellent dinner was folowed by a large
Garden of HotelG&T in the bar and me beating Sue at backgammon (apparently I cheated as they're not the 'proper' rules!)

Tomorrow I'll find out all about the Scuba diving and have a relax on the beach

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Australia, New South Wales, Griffith.

During those months of being ill and the recovery period that followed, I craved to be well enough to have long walks in nature, enjoy bike rides and to kayak down rivers. I pictured myself as a bit of a "Solo" Woman, the great outdoorsy type. Just realised today, I'm actually doing it and it's making me extremely happy. I don't quite match the picture I had in my head but the reality is better. A relaxed lifestyle with time for all the things I love doing. Here's a peek at our time along the Murrumbidgee River with our "Flailing Paddles", the name given to our kayak. It's our version of "Dueling Banjos".

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Fiji, Yasawa Islands.

Unfortunately we awoke to rain (it hadn't stopped all night!) and the forecast for the day wasn't great. We had booked onto the caves trip but a minimum of 5 guests from the local resorts are needed to run the trip and the rain had put everyone off so it was cancelled - hopefully more people will want to go tomorrow. So instead we decided to do the Nacula hike up into the hills. There were some great views from up there and the land really is untouched. After lunch 10 more guests arrived, along with 8 travel agents (resort inspection). The rain really started pouring down and so it was back to chess and basket weaving! Guess what - I beat James at chess for the first time ever! Dinner was fab, Nabua lodge serves awesome food and the fish topped it off tonight. The finale was Bula dancing aided by a Fiji beer!

Bailey's bit: On the walk I noticed a bird flying close above us, after a while I saw why. While we were walking we disturbed the insects and when a grasshopper would jump away the bird would swoop in and catch the tasty snack, clever
Picture 043bird! The afternoon consisted of waiting for the cake from the tea house to arrive (chocolate today) and the rain stopped long enough for some quick games of volleyball which Cat actually played in!

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to India, Kerala, Varkala.

From the moment we first decided on a trip to India the prospect of a weekend in Mumbai was going to be both unmissable and unforgettable. And even though our sickly bodies chose not to comply with an ambitious social schedule nevertheless this monster of a city did not disappoint. Our experience may have been different however, had it not been for the very kind hospitality from my friend Vijesh and his lovely girlfriend Himarsha. Having worked together in London for five years before he moved out to India, it was so exciting for us to catch up and V was quick to clear his schedule. He pulled out all the stops to give us a great taste of the Mumbai highlife and waved a magic wand to whisk us out on set to see Himarsha starring in the next Bollywood blockbuster!

Following a torrid last day for Jo in Udaipur, thankfully she felt semi human again as we checked out early at 5am on Friday morning and said our final fond farewells to Rajasthan. With her 'corked up at both
ROARends' she put on such a brave face as we headed to the airport, thankfully no overnight trains to endure this time.

From the skies we got our first view of this monstrous metropolis - an abundance of huge high-rise skyscrapers tipped in a cloud of polluted fog above and immediately surrounded by the multi coloured tin roof slums below. With a population bursting at the seams at 16 million, where nearly 50% live in slums with no toilet, I don't think we will ever see such a visible contrast between the rich and poor anywhere else on our trip. Even as we landed, our plane almost skimmed the corrugated shanty rooftops of the great Dharavi slum. As India's biggest, sprawling over 500 acres and home to over a million people, its situated right next door to the terminal.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Australia, New South Wales, Coffs Harbour.

We had a dream - bright sun, Camera's a clicking every day, But day four has come - what a blast, A tropical low has made us run.

Over the years we have driven through and camped in some scary weather from blizards to fierce tropical storms. The present storm while not spectacular certainly has brought challenges. The wind have been switching as well as extreme gusts, probably around 80-100ks. Driving became hazardous with trees down, bits and pieces flying. In Ballina yesterday a gust of wind picked up and moved tables and chairs at an outdoor eatery.

The plan was to meet up with David and Mary at Yelgun and then first stop Ballina followed by various NNSW beaches until Sunday - BUT, the tropical low changed that.

The Yelgun meetup on Monday all went to plan as did driving to Ballina Wednesday morning except we went to the Horizon Motorhome factory to have a small leak repaired. Six hours later after the roof hatch was removed and fully remounted (all done under warantee) we caught up with David and Mary at Bicentenial park for the night. By now the weather was deteriorating to the extent that
Satalite Imageitappeared likely that the Clarence or Richmond Rivers could flood. So today (Friday) we made the dash from Ballina to Coffs Harbour and sit out the weather system for 2 or 3 days. We could see 200mm rain here tonight and tomorrow.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Spain, Andalusia, Jerez de la Frontera.

In the province of Cadiz there are three towns which form the famous 'sherry triangle' of Spain: Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlucar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa Maria. Any bottle labelled as 'sherry' must have come from this region, which has been producing wines since the times of the Phoenicians (1100BC). Having had absolutely no appreciation for sherry in the past, I decided to visit a bodega in Jerez to sample some different types and educate my palate.

Arriving on a sunny May bank holiday, I went to the Gonzalez Byass bodega near the centre of town, where they produce Tio Pepe brand sherry. The company was founded in 1835 when Manuel Maria Gonzalez Angel, under advice from his uncle the famous Tio Pepe, founded a winery in Jerez. Soon after he created a partnership with an Englishman, Robert Blake Byass, creating the current family-run company which now exports to around 150 countries worldwide. It's not so much a vineyard, which are out in the surrounding countryside, but rather a large storage area where the important distillation processes take place. We hopped on a train for a tour of the grounds before being ushered into one of the
the Apostlesmassive cellars, it was so cold inside compared to the warmth outside. Here we got to admire the dusty barrels of sherry and watched a propaganda video, which was mostly concerned with telling us just how successful Tio Pepe is by an actor cheesily pretending to be the founder of the company. We did get an explanation of the distillation process etc, most of which I've forgotten. We walked from there through a small village to another cellar, containing an enormous 3,500 gallon cask named after Christ, flanked by 12 slightly smaller casks named after the 12 apostles. Further on, we found a small cup of sherry on the floor with miniature ladders leading up to the rim. This was all for the mice who roamed the bodega, and sure enough we got to see a mouse go up for a drink while we were there!

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Vietnam, Southeast, Dong Nai, Bien Hoa.

18 to 19 February 2013 - This is Part 3 of my 6-day solo trip in southern Vietnam by local bus and motorbike. When I arrived in Trà Vinh city in the Mekong Delta, I saw a board with word “Đồng Nai” at the bus station. I decided to make a short visit to this province before going back to Sài Gòn. Biên Hòa is the capital city of Đồng Nai province. It is located 60km from Sài Gòn. There are some industrial parks in this province and many northern Vietnamese work there. I have passed by this province several times before but never really visited it.

The bus ride from Sài Gòn to Biên Hóa takes two hours although the distance is only 60km. A bus ticket costs one US dollar (VND 20,000). It was peak hour when the bus got into the city, so it was quite crowded on the streets. I found a guesthouse near the bus station. Then I spent time walking along Nguyễn Ái Quốc boulevard. There was a great view of sunset and vehicles from a fly-over. Trees and shops are decorated with lights for celebrating Tết lunar new year.

Food is another
Mobiphone shop - Decoration for the new yeargreat thing I enjoyed on this visit. I chose “Gỏi vịt” salad mixed with duck meat and another type of steamed rice cake with pork “Bánh ướt” which is a local specialty. I came back to Sài Gòn next day by bus.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Cambodia, South, Sihanoukville.

We said goodbye to Phnom Penh and started our drive out to Sihanoukville. Once on the toll road it was very smooth and we quickly travelled in to the country. Unlike Vietnam there was little ribbon development probably because there are less people here. There is a wide variety of crops grown not so much rice as Vietnam although they do export rice, however more fruit and vegetables.
We stopped at a cafe for a drink but decided peeled oranges were best. There were Buddhist monks outside with their bowls, all we had were sesame seed crunch which we gave away but they did not look too pleased to receive it. Continuing for about two more hours we then came to the river estuary and boarded a boat with the park ranger. This was the heart of the Ream National Park. It was a low tide but after getting in to the water the ranger and the driver managed to push us off. We saw sea eagles soaring and white Cranes feeding in the shallow water. There were a few houses built at the side of the estuary but not many. People were ducking low in the water and fishing out
Typical home on the riveroysters, others were bent double catching shrimps by hand. Normally we would have walked over the hill to the beach however the water was calm so we continued to the beach by boat. As we did this a shoal of flying fish emerged from the water, frightened by the sound of the engine they propel themselves in to the air.Getting out of the boat was a major challenge for me but with everyone's help I ended up knee deep in the warmest sea water I have been in for a long time, I so wanted to swim in this sea but how? The sand was white, the sun was shining the beach almost deserted except for the Chinese restaurant and 3 holidaymakers. We ordered some seafood fried rice then got into swimming costumes and headed for the sea. Steve went for a swim but all I could do was wade in holding my arm.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to South Korea, Daegu.

Having spent two years in this architecturally-ugly/mountain-pretty city, I thought I'd share some lists I made for people newly arrived to Daegu. Regular readers can just skip ahead to the next entry. Most pics are from other blogs--I just wanted to advertise the places a bit ~~

My Favorite Places in Korea:

-Ulleungdo (Ulleung Island)--really steep hills, awesome rocks, and beautiful views and water colors

-Tongyeong and Bijindo (Bijin Island)--Tongyeong itself is kind of a port city, but it has a replica Turtle Ship, cool mural-covered neighborhood up a hill, outdoor art museum, and lots of ferries to nearby islands like Bijindo, where you can camp on the beach (semi-illegally)

-Upo Wetland—nice day-trip to nature; good place for bike riding or a stroll

-Waterfalls near Bogyeongsa (Bogyeong Temple)--easily the best small waterfalls on mainland Korea that I saw; nice, pretty-easy hike/walk, and if you go far enough you may have some privacy to swim in the creek

-Hiking everywhere: Apsan, Palgongsan including Gatbawi, Gayasan, Seoraksan

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Oceania, Fiji, Suva.

So here's the thing about Fiji: it's weird. And I mean really weird. So much so that I am dedicating an entire blog to all things odd and Fijian. Starting with coffee. Back home in the states I survive off coffee, my blood is about 40% leukocyte and Erythrocytes and 60% caffeine. So needless to say I was shocked when I found out that all coffee here is instant, yes instant. I feel a bit like a crack addict going through withdrawals, hopefully this will pass. Thank God for a little place called the Republic of Cappucino which offers a pretty decent espresso served in an air conditioned environment with free Wifi (coincidentally that's where I am sitting now).

Now let's talk buses. The transportation system in Suva is pretty decent all in all. There is a bus that stops right outside my flat every 15 minutes. These buses are all brightly colored, windowless, and there is always some horribly done Fijian remix of an American pop song. I no longer remember the real lyrics to Justin Bieber's "Never say never",only the Fijian version.

Let's talk school. This will really throw all my Tech friends for a loop, it sure did mess me up! When registering for classes there is no set schedule, this comes out the day before classes start.Consequently, it is very common to have multiple classes all at the exact same time. So what do you do? You either a) try talking to your lecturer to see if they will change the time of the classes, which to my surprise most of them will or b) you go to one classes one week, and another the next and alternate accordingly. And that is just the beginning of classroom issue but I won't bore you with the details. Next, if you ever have to use the restroom while on campus I sincerely hope you brought your own toilet tissue with you, because it's not provided. I found that one it the hard way! Back home we call toilet tissue "mountain money", guess here it is Jungle money!

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Colombia, Leticia, Rio Yavari, Amazon.

We arrived to the place of 3 frontiers before lunch time and were dropped at the bank of the Amazon on the Peruvian side, we think. It was hard to tell because there was a lot going on around us and to get anywhere we had to take a water taxi anyway. We negotiated a price with a boatmen and he took us first to the immigration office so that we could be stamped out of Peru. As it happens water is too low for the barca to go there so you have to really deal with the extra cost. It was not much anyway and the guy waited for us to take us to Leticia, port of entry to Colombia…ah, finally.

People say it is not pretty but we found it rather nice. The streets are nicely coordinated; it is very green and very, very lively. It is hard to say how, but this place is so much different to Peru. It is probably not solely thanks to the people, as this place was a dispute between Colombia and Peru for decades, hence a mix of cultures live there, but maybe the ‘inland’ Colombians, who relocated here, brought with
from the viewpointthem the vibe, the colors and the music of Colombia. The salsa music was to be heard everywhere and people were obviously in festive spirit. As we almost forgot about Christmas we also forgot that it was the New Years Eve time the next day. We really wanted to move on to Puerto Narino but decided that Leticia might have more going on.

We were shocked with the prices of rooms that were quoted to us. We know, we know, it was a holiday season but still 30$ for a crappy room was a little bit too much. We walked around for ages trying all the budget hotels and when we were about to give up we found a nice private room with a kitchen use for 35,000COP/18$ which was ok. Not the first time that our patience paid out. We went for a stroll to check food prices in town and then to the airport to get stamped in (they wanted 7$ for a taxi). That is another inconvenient thing about this border crossing. None of the immigration points are on the way or in town. We walked the 3,5km to the Airport Immigration office as apparently staying
in the junglein the country for 4 days without stamp is illegal….

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Antarctica Adventure

Like a crocodile with dwarfism, I shall attempt to make this fairly short and snappy. I am writing this on the 19th of February. By now I have completed not only my Antarctic cruise but also my hike around Torres del Paine, and I am keen to get you all up to date before I head off for the next big adventure: Africa!

In my previous posts I really concentrated on the various landings that we made in the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Antarctica itself, so it’s about time I gave you a bit more of the people perspective, as I met some great people and some great characters on the boat. First though, one more wildlife experience, which happened in Antarctica after we had landed at Petermann Island.

When we got back into the zodiac after some time ashore, our pilot told us that there were numerous Humpbacks in the channel that we were anchored in. Sure enough, within seconds of leaving the island we spotted blows from whales near to us, and, in fact, all around us. There must have been anything up to thirty whales in our immediate vicinity and we made our way around
1IMG_4490several of the groups, keeping a reasonable distance so as not to distress them with the zodiac engine. Though none were breaching, they all appeared to be feeding close to the water and we saw some diving and snapped some fluke (or tail) shots. We approached a group of three that were a way away from the others and stopped the engine. For the next fifteen minutes we simply floated next to them, and as we did so the whales appeared asleep, not moving, just occasionally blowing spray. It was awesome; they weren’t intimidated by our presence at all, and hardly anyone spoke out of the eleven of us present. Sadly, we had to leave eventually, but it was something that will stay with me for a long time to come.

And what of the people on the boat, I hear you cry? Well, I quickly established bar friends and made other friends on the boat as well. Near enough everyone was friendly and the staff were amazing. As some of you will have seen from Facebook, I purchased a penguin shower cap that I was very proud of, and on the last night I even managed to ‘acquire’
1IMG_4672a Viking helmet from behind the bar that was passed around and made for some good photos. One of the staff, Katherine, was a musician and played a few times in the bar. We had lectures, karaoke, films (if you so wished), a quiz, a raffle to win the ship chart of the expedition, darts, Scrabble and other board games, and even song writing classes and a penguin dress up parade. Good times, and I hope the pictures give a clue as to how fun the whole experience was – a good balance of people, places and wildlife.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Guatemala, Capital Region, Antigua.

If New Orleans is a town with a Drinking Problem, Antigua is a town with a Chocolate Problem. It is sold in every form, everywhere, until you think it must have been invented here. Well, it was, in a way. But that was long ago and in another culture. The annual world prodution of cacao beans is now about 3 million tons, of which Guatemala produces a hardly noticable 1000 tons- not even enough to supply its national consumption.

The choclate tree is a minor bush, just taller than a man, living in the shady underbrush of the jungle. It is easy to spot because of the large bright yellow or orange cacao pods hanging directly off the trunk. Botanists believe it is indigenous to the Amazon jungle in Ecuador, and was brought to Central America in early Maya times. In the Yucatan, it was raised in the shady cool cenotes that dot the landscape. It was too rare and expensive for commoners in those days, and was consumed mainly by royalty. In fact, one of the great rulers of Tikal was named Akh Kakao, Lord Chocolate..

Today the hub of traditional chocolate production is in the little town of San Juan Obispo, located just up the hill from Antigua, on the slopes of the Volcan de Agua, clearly visible from everywhere in town. Here numerous small family factories have been producing homemade drinking chocolate for generations. Bar chocolate is a European invention, and was never produced in Guatemala until the Danta factory started up in 2008. Google it.

I have been enjoying my morning coffee with a few pieces of a 90% cacao bar melted into it, just by the heat of the coffee. Everyone says it is a vaso-relaxer, very good for the blood pressure. I believe this myself, though I have not abandoned my morning b.p. pills.

Valentine's Day is just passed and the chocolate mania peaked out. The little spa down the street advertised a chocolate massage for couples, one solid hour for two, $72. We passed it up.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Laos, West, Luang Prabang.

Really tired today, reminds me why hostels have been off the plans so far in the trip, people in and out all night, talking and laughing, its great if you dont have to be up early! Lol 7am down at the boat, first one here, pleasantly surprised to see that there are some car seats along the edge for people to sit on, yay this journey should be about more comfortable than expected.

The boat in very long, at the far end are the living quarters of the family's who's boat it is. It slowly fills up, first all the travellers arrive to claim decent seats then the locals come in with their large packages. This boat is seriously full, thankfully they haven't tried to get us to squeeze up on the seats.

There boat is due to leave at 8.30, by 9am the boat is must starting up the engine and attempting to leave...with difficulty. They have to get a lot of the locals back off the boat to enable the boat to back off the sand.. Only in Asia!

So we've finally set sail if you will, through the mist still hanging over the river, it
Packed boatas also freezing, so glad I decided to wear my trousers. I realise to my horror the women that is selling the food and drink on the boat is the 'nice' women I met in the market the night before with the trousers oh well I'm sure she won't remember me.....

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Australia, Victoria, Frankston.

We spent our last day in Tasmania driving around the outskirts of Devonport, admiring the farmland and walking along the beach at Shearwater. It was an extra low tide with a wide sandy beach – we smiled at the big distance between the life savers on the sand and those few in swimming. The shells growing in abundance on rocks looked like baby mussels. We went back into town and had a last look at Devonport - all done, tick it off. We did enjoy our time in Tassie.

We had our early start yesterday, leaving the caravan park and queueing at the Devonport wharf to catch the 9am sailing for Melbourne. There were other motor homes, caravans, cars and motor bikes waiting to board. It was another smooth nine hour trip, made pleasant by the company of two couples we met and sat with – one from Victoria, the other from Queensland. There were lots of swapping of stories of trips taken and things seen.

Melbourne was bathed in sunlight when we arrived at 6pm – it had been a 35C degree day there and it was still warm, many people were out along the waterfront making the
The lifesavers are way back there behind Dougmost of the weather. We drove off the boat, found our way through Melbourne traffic and booked into the Coburg caravan park once more.

After a rather sleepless hot night, we woke to a cooler, grey day and even a few spots of rain which didn’t last long. We were going to drive down the western side of Port Phillip Bay and then get the ferry across to the Mornington Peninsular. With the weather being as it was and visibility not that crash hot, we decided we’d just drive down the eastern side to the Peninsular.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Cambodia, South, Phnom Penh.

.

One of my students just left my office. She's had to miss her midterm exam last week because of work. This isn't uncommon. She's an unusually bright young girl with an intense face and a stout, but not overweight, frame. She's curious and an eager learner who always sits in the front row and she goes by the name Kimmy, which is short for Ong Kimheang. It's unusual for Khmer people to take on Anglo names like so many Chinese students do. She is way more engaged as a student than just about any of the other young girls. She's not a vampire girl. Vampire girls are a description that Sam and I have given to the young women who are from wealthy Phnom Penh families. They dress very Korean chic, color their hair, are rail thin, and have a skin tone that is scary white because of all of the use of skin bleach. They look somewhat like they've just been drained of all their blood, hence the name "vampire girl". Kim is very well kept but dresses simply and has kept her beautifully rich natural brown skintone.

I wanted to give her an A on her midterm. She's an ideal student who participates, prepares, comes to class early and asks great questions. Her English is exceptionally good with a very easy to understand accent. She missed the class before the midterm which would have added at least 10 points to her exam. She scored a 68 which was right around the class average, perhaps even a little higher. After her exam I explained to her that with the curve she will have a solid C and she still has a big part of her grade ahead of her so she can easily get a B and maybe even an A. And then something magical occured that happens all the time--I get her story. She's not from Phnom Penh, she's from the provinces and her father died when she was young. She described her mother as a wonderful mother who survived an abusive husband and brought her family to Phnom Penh when she was in eighth grade. She dropped out of school to sell ice cream to try and help support the family. After some years she went back to school and graduated in one year and then started college

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Australia, South Australia, Adelaide.

My time in Melbourne was very busy but I have now moved on to Adelaide and with the heat here being in the high-30's, I have decided to hide out in my hotel room and catch up with a few things. As there's quite a bit to update you on, I'll probably do at least two separate postings about the past five weeks.

So, a few months ago I pre-booked a two-week stay in a 'serviced apartment' in Fitzroy in Melbourne for the duration of the Australian Open because I knew that accomodation convenient for Melbourne Park would be hard to come by. However, when looking for somewhere to stay for my first 3 days in Melbourne the same apartment was much more reasonably priced so I booked it. Once I'd been there for a while and liked it a lot, I then negotiated a good rate for the rest of my stay in the city. It is so much more pleasant having a fixed base rather than having to pack up and move every few days. The apartment had everything
Fitzroy Gardens
Old bandstandI needed, it was close to a park, close to trams and only a 20 minute walk to Melboune Park for the tennis. The staff were extremely friendly and helpful and I felt really comfortable there. Also, rather than staying in a hotel it meant I could self-cater which is so much cheaper than eating out all the time.

My arrival in Melbourne started with a bit of tennis star spotting at the airport. Waiting for baggage I saw Daniela Hantuchova, Sania Mirza, Fabio Fognini, Marinko Matosevic and veteran Peter McNamara all waiting around for their many bags and sports equipment. My first few days were spent getting my bearings and finding out about transport etc., buying food, washing clothes - the unglamourous side of travel! I also managed to fit in watching the rest of the Sydney tennis tournament which was finally won by Bernard Tomic, the talented but troubled young Aussie, and Agnieska Radwanska, last year's Wimbledon finalist.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Australia, New South Wales, Griffith.

It's been a while since the Lonie Rangers have blogged. Dave's been busy with poetic ramblings and I with photographic pursuits. Due to popular demand we have resurfaced. This time I'll be adding short blurbs with snaps (not photography) and Dave will add special issues to interest, delight and tickle your fancy I'm sure.

Darlington Point, you may wonder where, what and particularly why?

A small town on the Murrumbidgee River, 35km south of Griffith. We've been camping along the river for the past month and it started as a raging current up stream and has been dwindling the further we travel down stream. This is due to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Canals pumping 1.2 megalitres of water out to water crops.

Why do we stay here for over two weeks? Beautiful walks along the river, tracks to bike ride, a gentle current to kayak up stream and cruise down and heaps of dirt bush roads to drive and discover other little oases along the river.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to El Salvador, Central, San Salvador.

Today Patty, Helen, Carol and Ashley started by going to a preschool. There was 13 students and 1 teacher. They had a snack time. The teacher drew pictures in each students workbooks of a house, mountain, path and trees. Then they colored them. They also had a story time and the story was Jack and the beanstalk. After that they went back to the tables and worked on writing letters. Helen, Ashley and Carol did puzzles with the students and Patty did English/Spanish flashcards with the students. Everybody else went to the site to begin work. Today was a busy day. We painted, helped the electrician wire the house, mixed concrete, hauled water, soaked bricks,started bricking the septic tank and sifted sand. We got a lot done today!!! Finally we we're able to help with a medical clinic today. This was the first one for the community. Patty took blood pressure, Carol wrote the numbers down for the doctor. Helen and Rhonda took their temperature. Then they waited for doctor. The families are notified by Lillian. She is told by Habitat to tell ten people or families. They limit the amount told because word travels and they know more will show
A finished habitat house (Lillian's)up. When it is their turn to see the doctor they get checked out and if needed they receive free medicine. The doctor is a volunteer and the daughter of an employee of habitat and her full time job is running her own clinic.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Asia, Bhutan, Punakha.

I lost a day due to illness but finally back at it. Perfect weather in Bhutan. In Punakha, winter retreat for king & religious center due to lower altitude & more moderate temp. Came at ideal time. One time each year there are pilgrimages to the majestic Punakha Dzong (Palace of Great Happiness) which serves as a monastery and admin. headquarters. 15 days prior to the huge celebration they prepare with 24/15 days of round the clock praying and dancing (collecting demons and evil spirits). We felt like we were part of it --- dancers practicing for the celebration portion. Monks and the Chief Abbot in lotus position sit round the clock with breaks (about 15 - 16 hours total) each day. Younger monks, in praticular, were nodding off. The dzong is magnificent, built in 1637.

To get here traveled on the narrow road, all switch-back, NO guardrails and straight down. I saw little of the scenery due to trying to stay away from altitude & motion sickness. Picture cows, sheep, goats & sometimes old stupas in the middle of the road, not counting people walking.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Bolivia, Beni Department, Rurrenabaque.

Following a crazy day at the Oruro Carneval (will blog about this later – great day) I decided that I couldn't pass up the opportunity of taking a short flight from La Paz to Rurrenabaque to spend a few days in the Bolivian Amazon. Its easy to get to, much cheaper to see in Bolivia than Brazil and also unlike Peru and Brazil its malaria free (just as well given the number of mosquito bites I received).

Departing late from El Alto airport in La Paz we jumped in the small propeller-driven Amaszonas plane for the 40 minute trip to the small airstrip in the jungle outside Rurrenabaque. The 3 day Pampas excursion didn't get off to the smoothest start, arriving at the airport our driver for the 3 hour transfer to the Pampas hadn't turned up. This meant having to go to the office in town and argue with the tour operators about why it wasn't possible to just wait an entire day for the driver to come back! Fortunately there was a Spanish guy with me who was suitably angry and fluent in Spanish that eventually they arranged alternate transport for the long 'road' to Santa
Croc closeupRosa. I say 'road' in the loosest sense – this was a wide, muddy trail riddled with large rocks, potholes, flood waters, animals.....to be honest I think even World Rally Cars would struggle down it! Half way through the back breaking, bum numbing journey the 4x4 we were in lost its exhaust on a particularly large pothole making us the most popular car on the road as we travelled through the various villages with shotgun like noises firing out of the back of the car.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Japan, Kyoto, Kyoto, Gion.

We woke at 7am today after a great sleep in our futons! I love the blankets! We set off early to catch a bus to Kiyonizu temple and were dropped off on the main street and began our walk up the big hill to the temple. It was a warm day and the walk made it hot. Today Is the first day we took out jumpers off! All the small stalls on the walk up to the temple were still setting up so we decided to visit them on the way back down. The temple was founded in 798 and its present buildings were constructed in 1633, ordered by the tokugawa Iemitsu. There is not a single nail used in the entire structre. Amazing! It takes its name from the waterfall within te complex, which rungs off the nearby hills. Kiyomizu means clear water or pure water. The main temple is a large and old building built on the steep hillside. The balcony hangs over and gives a beautiful view over Kyoto and the surrounding bush land. It was refreshing to be out of the city and to breath some fresh air. We wondered the temple grounds and walking paths. Stopping
Kiyomizu Templeat the waterfall to cleanse my mouth as part of the ritual to enter the temple. This waterfall cascaded from the roof and i had to catch the water in a cup on a long stick.

We headed back down the steep hill shopping as we went, buying small souvenirs for friends and family. (out bags are already full! Eek) and we ate a chocolate cream, banana and chocolate cake crepe. Yum! The walk to our next destination was Nijo castle. It was ALOT further than we had anticipated, felt like forever! And with very sore feet we arrived just after lunch time. Drinking grape juice and snacking on rice crackers on the way. Nijo castle is a beautiful old castle where the inside has been left as original. We got to take our shoes off and walk on the very old wooden nightingale floors.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Chile, Antofagasta Region, San Pedro de Atacama.

After leaving Cordoba, my final stop in Argentina was to be the colonial city of Salta. Immediately I was able to put my improved Spanish into practice, first with an incredibly friendly taxi driver (especially considering my bus had arrived about 5.30a.m.!) and then with the Spanish speaking crowd at the hostel. Here, for once the language around the communal dinner table in the hostel was definitely not English!

My memories of Salta will probably not be of the abundance of colonial architecture, but instead of the natural sciences museum which was stuffed to the gills (literally) with the widest possible array of stuffed animals from around South America. It was similar to the science museum James, Steve, Chris and I had visited in Bariloche on the previous trip – so I thought it only right that I leave the same juvenile, armadillo based comment in the guestbook as a tribute!!!

Leaving Salta I needed to cross the Andes to arrive in the Chilean town of San Pedro de Atacama, so it was to be my first taste of real high altitude on the trip so far. Unfortunately, I didn’t take it all that seriously as I thought we’d
Volcan Lasker
Our motley crew that made it to the summitjust be scooting across in a bus – hence having one too many lagers the night before leaving! What I hadn’t reckoned on was that good old Argentina would stick their immigration point at the highest pass on the journey at 4,600m, (for reference Mount Blanc is a shade higher at 4,800m), and then they would then make us wait for 2 hours in the bus, followed by another hour in a queue. This was unfortunately far too much for my slightly hungover body and I ended up fainting in the customs hall! Not a good start to what is going to be at least two months at high altitude!! Special thanks to the Italian hippy, who – although certainly lacking in soap – he wasn’t lacking in kindness as he helped me to a seat and somehow sequestered a sachet of sugary jam to help my body on the way to recovery!!

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to United States, Florida, Tampa.

What a wonderful and winsome day! Our wonderful and great friends, Diane & Walt, drove over from Tropical Palms today to see us. What better meeting place than at the Hard Rock Casino. It surpasses sharing a Morning Joe at any local coffee shop. It has only been a couple days since we have seen them but it seems like a month. It was terrific being with them again. We met at the Lobby Bar at 10:00 AM....yes, a bar; yes, 10:00 - however, we did not imbibe (Jack Daniels over cereal...yuck!). Calling this reunion another glass of lemonade from our vat. We just chatted in the comfy chairs, catching up on everything even though it has only been two days. Then the gambling urge hit us and we headed off into the maze of sparkling slot machines. For a couple hours we worked those possessive, bewildering machines...sometimes they like you, sometimes they don't. Fortunately, we were on the "Like List" today. We met for lunch and carried on with our chatter. We are accustomed to meeting Walt & Diane for dinner every Wednesday at the Ale House....this was a pleasant substitution. Then, back at it in the maze. My finger
Dear Diane
Her Song Posted on Casino Wallwas getting weak and tired and cramping from all the "bet button" pushing. I wish that motion could count for exercise but I guess not. If it did, I would be the size of a pin. Cory & I eventually decided it was "time to fold them" and headed off to one of the many bars to check our tickets. Now it is around 3:00 PM: okay to imbibe...so we did. Diane & Walt joined us. We bid a fond farewell @ 4:00 - hoping to see each other back at Tropical Palms in a week or so (probably more like "so"). I don't want to jinx anything so I'm sticking with "so" but things seem to be progressing quite well at Lazydays. This morning we got real excited because Cory found an unpainted compartment door in the vicinity of our RV. It was short lived; our bubble was popped:

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to India, Tripura.

To the west of Rajasthan, near the border with Pakistan, lies the Great Thar Desert; but, in the east, it is cloaked in a different, vibrant, swaying yellow, that of mustard fields. The Rajput – historically warrior clans - are not retiring violets and this is reflected in their dress: the mustachioed and turbaned men with gold studs in their ears; the headwear bearing little resemblance to sleek, sculpted, Sikh turbans, being great globular, Ali Baba, mounds in vivid colours. The women’s saris and ghungta shawls are un-patterned in block colours of shocking red, pink, yellow or sky-blue; their left nostril possibly adorned with a gold ring of bracelet dimensions. Eyes may be unnervingly beautiful pale shades of brown or feline green.

Without doubt – and not without good cause – Rajasthan is the most touristic Indian State. A sad consequence of this is that the most popular destinations (the majestic cities of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaisalmer [the latter so beloved to us that it would have been forced on a first daughter as a middle name]) are hardened towards visitors and money is often at the forefront of people’s minds: the touts are numerous, persistent and even, sometimes,
Locals ride on the back of a truck, Chittaurgarhdownright devious. Such receptions have been known to irreparably cloud travellers’ perceptions of India.

Pushkar was and is main-stream, but the welcome is – typically - more than just financial. And then we chanced upon Bundi. Compared to the rest of Rajasthan Bundi was a surprise, a very pleasant one; it isn’t totally off the beaten track (more popular with overnighting tour groups than backpackers), but it retains a certain tourist naïvety and has atmosphere in spades. The approach road hugs a hillside that looks down into the basin cradling Bundi’s old town, a patchwork of low story, flat-topped biblical dwellings in Brahmin blue, natural stone and shades of terracotta. Behind town, snaking along and down the parched hillside are fort walls and plastered to its side is a great citadel in bleached stone.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Botswana, North-West, Maun.

Today we arrived in Maun, our home base for our trip into the Okavango Delta. Our first stop was in town to pick up the supplies for our trip into the Delta. Derek and I went to pick up a couple of bottles of Scotch, but the prices were actually really high. I guess it was because it is a tourist area. I decided to save money and have a "dry" couple of days.

Once we were in the camp site, a lot of people headed off to do their scenic flight over the Delta. I used the time to kick back and relax by the pool, beer in hand. It was nice to just hang out for a while instead of worrying about getting somewhere. It was here that I found St. Louis Export, the local Botswana beer. Kobus had recommended I try this, and thank god he did, it was fantastic. Before dinner I tried to have a shower, but it was horrible. The showers were breeding beds for mosquitos. It must have been the quickest shower I've ever had.

Dinner was earlyish, and afterwards everyone went to bed pretty early too. I took the
The Moonopportunity to try and do some astrophotography. I wanted the pre=actice because I figured the Delta would be a great place to get some good photos.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org

Travel to, South Africa, Mpumalanga, Kruger National Park.

We enjoyed a later start to the morning today with an 8.30am pick-up time for our day tour covering the Soweto township, the Apartheid Museum and Johannesburg/Joburg. The mini-van was full with many newcomers to our travel group joining us. We had a long drive from our campsite in towards Joburg. We saw where they were mining for gold, which when it was discovered in 1886 Joburg suddenly became a very popular place, especially with the British. We stopped in front of the 2010 World Cup Stadium, where the Spanish team defeated the Dutch in the final. The African Cup of Nations final is being played there tonight (10thFeb) between Nigeria and Burkino Faso. We will be watching this with our Kenyan bus driver Josh who loves his football.

Our next stop was the Soweto township, where the famous 1976 uprisings occurred. Young African school kids were protesting on the way they were being made to sit their school exams in Afrikaans, which was not their first language. When this was introduced only 30% passed their exams. This was just one example of apartheid rule in South Africa during this time. During the protests a 13 year old boy, Hector Pieterson, was shot dead by the police in a peaceful student demonstration and there is a famous picture of another young boy carrying him running down the road with Hector’s sister alongside. We were fortunate enough to meet his sister who works at the Hector Pieterson Museum. We drove to the street where this shooting happened in the Soweto township. We drove down the street where Nelson Mandela lived for part of his early adult life, when he was married to Winnie Mandela. This street was also the home to Desmond Tutu, making it the only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace Prize winners. We were unfortunately not able to spend a lot of time on this street (Vilagase) as we were on a strict schedule, but this particular area had a strong cultural feel to it. The township had a population of about 4.5 million people, made up of 61 suburbs, 19 hostels and one upper class area. We were taken on a very short walk in a shanty town, where we saw how more than 40% of the black South African people live (on less than a £1 per day). They had no mains power electricity, and they had communal running water. Their houses were very basic and small, made out of corrugated iron and often only one bedroom. We were constantly being asked for tips from people. Our driver was also spotted by one of our group taking a sneaky commission from owners of small souvenir stalls that were selling us stuff. We were all, I think a little bit disappointed after this part of the tour as we had expected to see and learn more about the shanty town from our guides and see first hand their day to day life.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to, Mexico, Chiapas, Puerto Arista.

Ok, so here is the story, last night we decided to change of our plans. We have decided to head somewhere that is out of the mountains and closer to the coast. We loved San Cristobal, but the city sits at 6,000 feet. That translates to warm days and chilly nights. After several chilly nights (low 50s or high 40s) we decided it was time to adjust our plans. So we are not going south to Comitan. I got out the book, did some reading and figured out how to get us to the coast. So the question became, is it the northwest coast or the southern part of the coast? After some discussion, we picked Puerto Arista, this location is just about 125 miles north of Tapachula and the Guatemalan border, which is on the Pacific Coast. It is a very small community that is a bit difficult to get too. We will take a small bus (hold 10 people) to Tuxtla Gutierrez. Then we will take another bus to a very small city by the name of Tonala (3 hours). From there we can get local transport (pick-up) to the beach community (20-30 minutes). Here is what
Fine Dinning
The only place open after 8 pm!my book says: "This one-street town has a handful of basic hotels and simple palapa restaurants......it makes it a mellow place to kick back for a day or two." One of the hotels was recommended to us by my teacher. So the plan is to stay at Hotel Lucero. It has a pool and sand floor restaurant. Should be fun for a couple of days!

We arrive in Puerto Arista! It was a bit difficult to get here but not too bad. About 90 minutes in a small van (collective – stop whenever some waves their hand); followed by a 3 hour bus ride to Tonala. We arrived later than we wanted to, and all of the local transport has stopped for the night. I exit the bus and get us a cab -30 minute later we arrive in Arista. We arrived at 8 pm on Thursday. The city was dead. We find the hotel, Lucero and decide to stay, we check in. We are both hungry. I asked about a restaurant. He kept saying “in el centro” (in the center of town) and I kept saying give me a name. Finally I realized that I was not getting
Puerto Arista.waiting for breakfasta name.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Switzerland, North-East, Winterthur.

I wake before my hostess and pour myself a little bit of ultra-pasteurized milk (a strangely pleasant taste to me but one many Americans dislike) with my muesli. Due to Kristy’s tiredness yesterday and my own desire to simply enjoy with her and not push a sight-seeing agenda, I opt for a day in Winterthur. And so when Kristy wakes up we munch a bit more and then decide to run some errands.

Kristy and Stefan live very near the pedestrian-only center of Winterthur and it takes less than ten minutes, especially when you jaywalk. Which Kristy says that few Swiss do but as Americans we do so with great abandon…and even some relish. Winterthur may be Switerland’s 6th largest city but there is little hustle and bustle here except for rush hours. After all, this city/village has turned into a quasi-suburb for Zurich so during the day much of the populace pours itself south. The city center has cobbled streets and palely-pastel buildings, jammed together but very well-maintained. Kristy points out that though these buildings and streets are hundreds of years old, there are very, very few buildings that have faded paint, weathered
Winterthur streets
Non-rush hour times (i.e. most times)shutters, or anything of a worn look about them. All is tidy…and dare I say it, Swiss. The two main streets revolve around the Kirchplatz, the Protestant church of indeterminate age (since we can’t read the Swiss pamphlets) and sumptuous, colorful murals inside. Metal dragon cut-outs flare out from one of the double towers of the church, a pagan embellishment on this rather staid Christian front.

We stop to get maternity clothes (Kristy’s first!!) and some posh coffee. I browse in and out of shoe stores, looking for a pair of fashionable walking boots but not surprisingly, all of them are fur-lined. Very sensible for Switzerland, plain stupid for SoCal “winters.” We head back for a cheesey lunch (seriously, this is not the country for the lactose-allergic or intolerant!) and after Kristy naps, we head back out to the forest.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Philippines, Siquijor.

I forgot to mention in the last blog that one of our big regrets was not hanging around longer to coincide with the whale shark snorkelling tour. But don’t worry we'll be sure to get back one day to tick that one off the list.



Today was Suzanne's birthday, and was probably one to forget really as the entire day revolved around travelling from one place to the next, we caught the tricycle to Moalboal and from there a non-air conditioned bus down south to Bato. We then rode the ferry across to Dumaguete. We arrived at our accommodation for the night, and it wasn't at all pleasant. Although the good news was that there was no sign at all of the damage from the typhoon, and it didn't interrupt the tourist trail and infrastructure at all. Although of course we weren't pleased that there was a typhoon at all, as it was reported to destroy many lives and buildings. Our hotel for the night was Plaza Maria Luisa and was right in the middle of town. However the foyer absolutely reeked of raw chicken, and in fact we both had to dry reach a few times. We
little catapillar wrapped in a sleep sheet in Dumaguete
these silk sleep sheets keep you clean and bed bug free, plus roll up into almost nothinghad to change rooms as well as there was no hot water in our first room.



We hit the local Internet cafe... 3 times, in order to find some accommodation in Sipilay. I forgot to mention in my last blog that our original plan was actually to head to Sugar Beach at Sipilay. However we rang around our options on Sipilay, using one of our hotel staffs mobile phones, and had absolutely no luck. Seems as though everything was booked out already. This is when we decided to change plans of attack and actually head to Siquijor instead. Not having a mobile phone really doesn't help matters when stuck trying to book accommodation. Note to self next time take an unlocked mobile phone so we can use local SIM cards.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to United States, Colorado, Rocky Mountains.

A 6:30am rise to have our routine continental breakfast of cereal & juice before we hit the road again. Cornflakes seems to be the flavour of our trip. Bree has also discovered ‘coated cornflakes’, no extra sugar sachet needed.

Our scheduled drive today was 5 hours + an extra hour to visit Mark’s Aunty & Uncle’s old ranch just our of Fort Collins and take a few photos.

In our 6 days and 3,500km’s we have discovered that RV-ing is America’s favourite pastime. Most RV’s carry a combination of their car or boat. We have also discovered that everything has a drive-thru. Why walk to an ATM when you can just drive straight up to one? Mark had to struggle awkwardly out of the driver’s side window and position himself away from the sun in order to see the screen, but hey!

A first on our American road trip was booking into a hotel for more than 1 night in Greeley, near Fort Collins, Colorado. After settling into the lodgings and trying unsuccessfully to use the free Wi-Fi provided we decided to take our car and give it a well deserved bath.

On a more sombre
The Rocky Mountainsnote we happened to arrive in Colorado just days after the fatal shooting at a midnight screening of Batman 3 in Aurora, just out of Denver. We had followed this on the radio the past 2 days, so many stories of people who were meant to be at the screening or knew someone who was, 12 lives were taken. May they rest in peace.

Ahhhhhhhhh, our first sleep in, nice to just wake up and not jump straight in the car. We had the morning to relax before heading into Fort Collins to meet up with friends of my aunty & uncle. We grabbed some lunch and stopped at our favourite shop (Wal-Mart) to grab a jumbo-sized salsa dip and went on our way to meet Mark’s Aunty & Uncle’s friends Donna and Frank.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Vietnam, Southeast, Ho Chi Minh City.

We left the hotel Saigon Dalat at about 1 and took an amazing journey to the airport, why amazing? Because there was hardly any traffic, we went mainly on a duel carriageway and it was such a good road with flowers in the central reservation and lights above so different to anything else we have been on in Vietnam. Arriving at the airport it seemed shut, upon enquiry we were told that all check-ins were closed until 2.00pm. Ok so it is holiday time. We left on time and arrived in Saigon after a thirty minute flight. A short taxi journey to our hotel and the total journey to Saigon including taxis was 90minutes. Not bad compared to a bus journey that we would have taken that lasted 8hours. Our hotel was 5 star Mariott, very swanky even had hot and cold running water. After a quick shower we made our way through hundreds of bikes, a brilliant light display, streets packed with young and old enjoying the momentto the Barbeque Garden, what a brilliant place! In the middle of this beautiful modern city with loads of other customers cooking/burning their own grub. Pauline felt a lot better after the
Steve going in to a tunnelnumbing effects of alcohol and after a lively meal we made our way back to the hotel. The finale of the evening was the firework display celebrating the New Year at midnight over the Saigon river. I was the only pensioner prepared to brave the crowds from our motley crew and it was well worth it. A brilliant display lasting over 20minutes, watched by a huge crowd sitting on their motorbikes.The next day February 10th, we had an early start motoring out towards the outskirts of Saigon to the Cu Chi area which was full of communist sympathisers during the American war; this is the terminology used by the Vietnamese, so its not called the Vietnam war, makes sense. This was New Year's Day and plenty of bikers out on the roads visiting their families. Most of them had their family on the motor bikes, we counted the max of two adults and three kids on one bike, the water buffalo was left at home

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to China, Yunnan, Lijiang.

After deciding to stay on the bus at Tiger Leaping Gorge we continued to drive through to Lijiang which added another two hours onto our day. We had visited Lijiang in 2005 so was familiar with the general layout of the city. It was however, like all Chinese cities we had previously visited, so much larger than we remembered. Lijiang has as it's backdrop the impressive slopes of Yulong Xue Shan, usually totally capped in ice and snow, but looking devoid of both when we arrived in the city. We had seen it's icy slopes on the opposite side of the mountain though on the bus trip earlier in the day.
Lijiang's old town is the original capital of the Naxi people, a group of Tibetans who moved to this region of Yunnan in the thirteenth century. Today it is has become the model for the redevelopment of 'old' towns right across China. It is a very busy, though also very pretty, town now totally dependent on tourism.

We caught a taxi (7 yuan) from the bus station to the entrance square of the old town (Dayan) where I left Jerry with the luggage in Grass Market Square (close to
Baisha countrysidethe entrance)and began to search for a hotel room. Over an hour later I arrived back nearly in tears - I had been treated so rudely by most hotel reception staff - in fact at one hotel I was yelled at and nearly forcibly removed from the foyer. Other hotels wanted outrageous prices for rooms - far more than they were worth even in Lijiang. A couple of hotels had rooms they were prepared to offer me but I suddenly realised I probably wouldn't find my way back to them easily with Jerry. The old town is pedestrianised and is a mess of tiny interweaving lanes and canals. There are also over 700 hotels in these streets - most are within courtyards and all have entrance gates which nearly look identical.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Costa Rica, San José.

From Panama city we caught a late night bus to David, about 7 hours north. The bus ride was fine, we slept the whole way apart from police stops where we had to show passports. Arrived at 4.30 am where we then caught a 'Red Devil' bus to Boquette which was an hour from David. We had 3 nights in Boquette in a private room to relax in. We stayed at a hostel called Nomba which was small and run by an a very helpful American guy who had worked with a lot of Kiwi's in the past. Free pancakes were cooked for us every morning which was great and see us through for most of the day!

We had been told that Boquette with a population of only around 10,000 was voted the forth best place in the world to retire in but little known to us. It had a great vibe to it and is set around high mountains (bit like queenstown) however a little colder but warm enough to walk round in a tshirt and jandals. The town was had a mixture of locals and just as many candians, americans and english pople who have moved due
our hostel san jose to falling in love with the ourdoors and lifestyle there.

Day 2 we did a coffee tour of an Americans plantation that he brought after retiring as the CEO of the meals on wheel business in North America. The farm was very beautiful and Scott got to roast some coffee which we got to take back with us. He exports to a few places around the states.

Day 3 in Boquette we did a hike to a waterfall which was pretty amazing but in order to get there we had to squeeze into a locals van which would normally hold 12 people but somehow managed to fit 22 people in! Scott also almost stepped on a small snake which freaked me out on the way up..

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/