Travel to Germany, Bavaria, Augsburg.

We travelled along roads again full of road works . It seems that the German economy is excellent at the moment and a great deal of money is being spent on the road network. Cars flew past us as they do the German way and lorries were banned off the road this being Sunday. We passed small villages with tiny onion domed churches a sure sign we were heading Austria way.

We eventually reached our stop off point of the night. And it was stil dull and pretty miserable weather similar to what you expect in Britain. Camping Bella Augusta at Augsburg. The town is some distance away and after driving for three days it seemed a silly idea to perjure ourselves and drive in to see the town. Sometimes you just have to park up,make a cup of tea, put the TV on and
Augsburg
On the road again one of the many bridges along the autobahn just chill out. We have another long drive tomorrow through Austria to Slovenia and Lake Bled. Hopefully there wont be so many roadworks and the weather will have improved.

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Travel to Croatia, Dalmatia, Split.

Today was our first tender stop. This means that we cannot dock as the ship is too big - so we anchor offshore. A few of the lifeboats miraculously become 'tender boats' and are used to ferry the passengers from the ship to the shore. The advantage of tender stops is that they usually drop you off at the heart of the destination. The disadvantage is that you have to take a ticket and wait your turn in the Vista Lounge. All of the guests on tours get to go first. With this in mind we decided to go and have a posh breakfast in the restaurant. This always takes ages but the quality of the food is excellent and we knew we would have to wait for a tender boat anyway.

Once we had tendered ashore we headed straight for the tourist office which is located in the Diocletian Palace. This is not a single palace but the name for the old town. The Tourist Office is situated in the Church of St Roche which is a place of interest in its own right. We picked up a walking tour map
M in the Holy Crucifix Churchand headed straight for Galeria Mestrovic (The Mestrovic Gallery). The gallery is out of Split town and we decided to walk there along the newly tarted up seafront. It was extremely clean and well done. There were even permanent wooden sun-loungers along the promenade so people could take a rest and take in some sun. D tried one out. There were some modern metal sculptures and paving stones dedicated to successful Croatian Olympic Medalists of the past. There were quite a few of these. Seems they are a nation that is sh*t hot at water polo!

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Travel to Austria, Carinthia, Villach.

After a fairly peaceful night apart from some motorway noise we headed off in the direction of Munich and the southerly ring road. A road that neither of us had travelled before. We fed the resident ducks before we left and tried the showers which were excellent. Clean and tidy and functional. The day was still dull but it wasnt raining yet.

A few miles down the road it started again. Just a sprinkling but enough to make us think yet again will the damn wet stuff never stop. The skies were grey and full of clouds which threatened more rain. Deer grazed in the fields alongside the autobahn oblivious of the early morning traffic . At 9 the sun broke through. Cars raced past as we skirted Munich and headed for Lake Chiemsee. The roadsides full of bright buttercup yellow Marsh Marigolds and cowslips. We passed a roadside sign that proudly proclaimed the region was the home region of Pope Benedict the retired pope now living in retirement.

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Travel to Afghanistan, East, Kabul.

A great start to the day with the first hot shower since Teheran. My first port of call was the Post Office but alas the replacement International Student cards had not arrived - however there were four letters including some sports pages from the local Bournemouth newspaper. Outside the Post Office I was hassled into having a shoeshine by two young urchins but it only cost 2 Afghanis and so no harm to the finances ! I returned to the hotel and sat on the balcony drinking some tea, reading my letters and watching the world. Outside there was a student demonstration protesting against government interference with the University. I was concerned to see a number of riot police but I did not see any trouble. Time for some exercise and so I headed along the river and found one of the bazaars. Obviously I had my directions confused because I soon ended up back at the hotel but conveniently so as Michael and Heather were just leaving. I followed them back to the Post Office where we had a long negotiation over a postage fine, which was eventually reduced from 133 Afghanis to 64 Afghanis - wasted a lot of time though. Heather's watch was broken and we found a repairer who fixed the problem for a princely sum of 35 Afghanis - pretty cheap. Next stop was the Tourist Information centre and then Afghan Airways to check on flights to India - the next stage of the journey might be a problem because the overland border between Pakistan and India was regularly closed due to armed hostilities. During our walk, we passed the Kyber Restaurant which was self service, glass fromted, clean looking and modern - enticing salads and sweets and so we might go there for a treat on another day.

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Travel to Peru, Lima, Miraflores.

Our travel day was rather uneventful. Despite fears of delays from furloughs, none of our planes left late. In fact, most left a bit early. Flying out of Houston, we sat on the tarmac just a few minutes as they started rerouting planes through a storm. We passed through a little of it, and it was some of the worst turbulence I remember experiencing. It felt like we were going through a rollercoaster. But that was as much as any excitement as we had on the planes.

There were a few highlights of the day.

 • We only had a third person in our row on one out of three flights. For the other two, we got to stretch out, which was lovely.
 • In Houston, we finally got to eat at the infamous Papadeaux. It was definitely good, though I wonder if the non-airport version is better.
 • The Panama City airport was FULL of claw machines. They were all over the place and played pop music while you went for the toy. I only tried one since it cost a whole dollar, but it was glorious.
 • Finishing two books (Amy Raby's Assassin's Gambit and Turn Right at Machu Picchu) and a good chunk of Final Fantasy 4.

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Travel to China, Shaanxi, Xi'an.

Everything was going so well the next morning. Our planned taxi journey to the station area of Xian to pick up our coach to the Terracotta Army went without a hitch - well there was a minor blip when our taxi driver decided he would stop for breakfast en-route but apart from that all good. And then we saw the queues for the coaches to the Terracotta Warriors! As they say in Norfolk where Lottie Let Loose hails from 'Ooooh moi gard!' There were literally hundreds of people in the queue (the fact that the Chinese were actually queuing warranted a photo!) and it wasn't moving as far as we could make out. Dennis hadn't ever seen it this bad before, but this is where having a fab local tour guide comes into its own. A few phone calls later and he had got us a ride, through a friend of a friend and we relinquished our place in the queue, that had only move about 2 metres in the time we'd been waiting, and followed our personal driver to his vehicle a few streets away and we were off....sort of...the traffic was really bad, so along with everyone else trying to get to the Terracotta Army, we were crawling along at snail's pace for quite a way out of the city. Eventually things seemed to ease up a bit and we got on our way.

A very slow 17 miles later and we finally arrived at the Terracotta Army site. A long walk to the ticket barrier and another long walk to the pits and - deep breath - woah there we were standing in front of the most amazing archaeological discovery! The main pit is housed in a big arched roof hangar with a viewing platform all around the edge. At the front are the horses and infantry soldiers that have been expertly restored - not quite to their former glory as the originals were painted, but as good as. Further down the pit are still some of the smashed warriors waiting to be restored or half way through their jigsaw work. At the back you can see lots of half made up warriors, work stations and a lab.

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Travel to Italy, Campania, Naples.

We had a quick breakfast in the Lido Restaurant and then disembarked the ship and made our way to the railway station where we purchased our tickets and boarded a train to Sorrento. Neither of us had visited before and as we had been to Pompeii fairly recently we decided to visit this famous coastal town (Seagulls over Sorrento) and to take in Herculaneum (the other famous ruins near Naples) on the way back. The journey to Sorrento took approximately 1 hour and a half. Located on the Penisola Sorrentina, over steep white cliffs, the town has been a favourite tourist destination for centuries. Very little of the ancient town has survived to the present day. Many excavations have revealed that the city was once totally surrounded by walls made of the local tufa rock. Today part of the walls and remains of some of the gates can still be visited. We called in at the information office outside the station and obtained a map and return train timetable.

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Travel to South Australia, Hawker.

Marg and I decided to have a look at both the Elder Ranges, north west of Hawker and Wilpena Pound north east of Hawker over two half day journeys.

Wednesday morning, we decided to walk to town and then on up Policeman's Hill to a lookout over Hawker and the surrounding ranges. Well worth the climb to get a sense of the area. Hawker itself is rather like an oasis of green in the brown/red plain of arid farmland.

On Wednesday afternoon we drove north to Parachilna at the top of the Elder Range, and as it happens, in line with the north of the Wilpena formation.

The day was fine and the cruising easy along great sealed roads. There are a few lookouts and pointers to settlements long since crumbled, and to various current farm homesteads.

The country side is relatively poor, but dominated by the Elder Range which is long and rugged with interesting formations showing the mighty uplift that has created the angled layers of rock and sediment.

At Parachilna, there is a famous outback Pub that sells feral burgers - camel, emu and kangaroo. As it happened, we
The water station remains
But no thirsty trains travel this way nowdidn't try the delicacy but did take the photo. What else is there at Parachilna? A sort of caravan park, some motel rooms, a disused railway station and FLIES. Seems they want a lift back to civilisation, and jumped into the motorhome as quick as a flash. They clearly missed the trains not stopping here anymore. We advised the flies that we were not a passenger service and managed to shoo many of them out the windows. But some remained.

These were small flies, about half the size of our domestic flies. Their brain was also scaled down, and were not smart enough to avoid capture with a paper tissue. Once captured, they flew away when shaken out the window.

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Travel to Philippines, Palawan, El Nido.

It was time for my annual leave again and for the 2nd year in a row I have planned a “mini travelling” trip for me and my girlfriend. We had strategically timed our holiday to be around the Easter bank holidays and so we actually had 17 days to spend in the Philippines. This was my 3rd visit to the country I fell in love with in 2010 and my 2nd back to one of our favourite destinations – El Nido. Despite being warned by travellers and blogs all over the internet of the development and tourist boom in the area, we still could not resist the magnetic draw of this place.

I had spent quite some time making sure our travel to the Northern tip of Palawan was as time efficient as possible. All of our flights and onward bus journey’s had been arranged with military precision and I had put a lot of faith in the transport system of Malaysia Airlines and Cebu Pacific Airlines. This was my first mistake. The 12 hour flight from LDN to KL went smoothly and after a 3 hour stopover we were in the air on another flight across to
First ViewManila. We circled Manila airport feeling smug that all was going to plan when the pilot decided to ruin everything and diverted to Clark airport. We sat on the tarmac waiting to refuel for 4 hours and by the time we took to the air again and landed at Manila International we had missed our Cebu Pacific flight to Puerto Princesa. After some sweaty sprinting around the airport we managed to find another flight on another carrier leaving 2 hours later than our original flight.

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Travel to, England, Devon, Hatherleigh.

Our original plan was to bike over Dartmoor where we would pass Grimspound, the Neolithic site where Sherlock Holmes camped during the Hound of the Baskervilles. Our original timetable had us there on a full moon. The timetable was shot after several days of bike breakdowns, walking up horrendous hills, and difficulties in finding our route and running into detours. And then we heard numerous warnings of treacherous conditions for riding in Dartmoor, especially in bad weather. So plan 2 had us heading north to Bodmin Moor, another wild and beautiful part of Cornwall.

As we climbed up to Bodmin on day 3 we entered a world of mist and open country that seemed like the top of the world. Picture a single track road winding through open pastures with sheep grazing freely. A lamb followed me for a ways on an uphill climb, running along as I panted and pedaled. We descended into the village of Camelford for the night and climbed back to the moor on day 4. Now the fog was thick with only about 100 feet of visibility. The lead biker faded into the fog, even with all our lights and yellow clothing. Cars, sheep, and
Bodmin Moor morning misthorses loomed out of the fog. To the usual bikers' warnings of "car up" and "car back" we had to add "sheep up." A man walking his dog appeared and Karen complimented him on the dog's good behaviour. He replied, "Of course, he's an English dog."

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Travel to New Zealand, North Island, Tongariro National Park.

Wake up to very low cloud but dry…hoorah! About 15 of us from the hostel pile on the shuttle at 7.15am and by 8am are walking into the mist and haze that is this famous landscape. Everyone has a different pace so we naturally all split down with Alex, Graham, Will and I all walking together. The beginning of the walk, to the soda springs was quite an errie feel, thanks to the fact you couldn’t see anything around except the outline of big mountains either side of you. After soda springs we reached an area known as the ‘devils staircase’, and an hour later when we reached the top we knew why, wooden steps in the mountain alternated with steep paths, sure took it out of us.

At the top of the ‘devils staircase’ I assume you have amazing views, though we weren’t privileged to these, only some rain, but the area felt so dramatic I think the cloud just added to the impact. We reach the South crator, where you can see the long flat plain stretching out in front of you, almost like a desert, and with mounts surrounding you. Here Alex and I decided to head up Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom from Lord of the rings), which we all knew would be a real challenege, especially in the cloud, so the other two carried on with the crossing.

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Travel to Spain, Galicia, La Coruña.

Tuesday was a Fiesta Day in Castile y León (a Bank Holiday). We awoke to find several caravans arriving, some quite early and others throughout the morning, so we expected a noisy Fiesta night ahead. Wrong! By evening everyone had disappeared, leaving us completely alone, the only campers down in the woods by the lake. We like peace and quiet but I (Vivien) think a noisy Fiesta night might have been better than being completely alone in such an out-of-the-way place; John, however, was quite happy about it and it meant we could let the dogs off the leads for a run. Spanish campers had used the day to “set up” their caravan pitches for the summer ahead, for holidays and weekends. Others who had been here over the weekend also left today. One young couple who John helped placing his van on the next pitch to us said that he was putting it there until October.

We decided to go off for a picnic lunch. We drove to the “Casa del Parque” an impressive information centre where we spent a while learning about the flora and fauna of the region e.g. otters, martins, eagles,
Little waterfall on the Rio Terabuzzards and wolves. We have already seen quite a few golden eagles as well as black and white buzzards flying about. To see the wolves one needs to go higher up country on a guided tour “wolf watching”. There are still quite a few wolves in Northern Spain and also still a limited number of Brown Bears, in León and the Picos de Europa. We watched a film about this most endangered of species at the Casa del Parque. This surprised us. We knew there were wolves but thought that the bears had all been hunted out back in the 1930s when bear hunting was all the rage; not so. There are still some left. We were lucky to see Brown Bears in California in 2008. Who knows, maybe we shall see some when we get to the Picos in May!

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Travel to, Israel, Jerusalem District.

I had heard many stories about the added security screening people face when going to Israel. El Al’s pre-flight security checks are legendary, and I had read horror stories about getting though (or not getting through) Israeli Immigration. There is good reason for these precautions, and I certainly understand the Israeli’s caution.

I wasn’t particularly concerned. My point of departure was a small regional airport in California, where getting through security took all of three minutes. I wasn’t flying El Al, I am a near-sighted, middle-aged, reasonably pleasant woman with a US passport, and I am registered with the US Global Entry and Trusted Traveler programs.

I connected in Newark to my flight to Tel Aviv. Even though I had already gone through security at my departure airport, I had to go through security again in order to get in line to go through an additional passport verification before I could go to the gate for my flight to Tel Aviv.

The flight was uneventful, though when we entered Israeli air space, the Israeli Defense Force required that all passengers be seated with their seatbelts fastened. I don’t know if this is something new or standard procedure, but
morning walk
Ultra-Orthodox menI had never run into this requirement before.

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Travel to India, Kerala, Kochi.

So, I set out for my journey from Bangalore to Kochi at around 8pm on Tuesday night. Veena and Indu kindly drove me to the bus station, and just as well they did because I don't know if I'd have found my bus without their help! The Bangalore bus 'terminal' is unlike any I've come across before. Rather than a central building from which the buses depart, it consists of a number of connecting roads with agent offices and buses parked outside. It was very hectic and confusing.

Sadly bidding farewell to my friends, I set off on the mini bus, bound for another bus terminal where I was to catch the main bus. The mini bus driver whizzed through the traffic at lightening speed, with more than just a few near-misses, using his horn every five seconds, an act I've come to realise is the norm here in India.

Boarding the main bus, I was pleased to see that I had two seats to myself. I was not pleased, however, to see the man across the aisle staring at me rather creepily. I smiled at first, just to be polite, but after half-an-hour of relentless gawking, I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. We must have been a sight, two people just staring at each other across the bus. Unfortunately, my tactic failed to deter him, so I just popped my earphones in and lost myself in music. Every now and again, I glanced round to see his beady eyes still fixed on me, but after an hour or so, he lost interest and fell asleep.

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Travel to Philippines, Donsol.

A simply fantastic experience, as we managed to catch multiple "swims" with the butanding, which almost seemed unpeterbed by the dozens of snorkelling tourists bobbing up and down the surface, eager to swim alongside or catch as long a sight of it as possible.

The water was quite murky, so in fact you couldn't really see past a few metres, which made it all the more incredible when you do catch sight of the butanding, because it meant that it was barely inches from you!

I'm still a little heady thinking back about the experience, and even more so when I think about how discouraged I was the first time I made the trip down to Donsol from Legazpi, only to be told I was late, the boats had already left, and so I had to return another day. Stricken by a viral flu, I wondered if
The Lovely Seaside Town of Dancalan
And the rustic catamarans that we took to go out to sea.it was just not meant to be, and if I should just forsake my plans, especially after the French tourist told me there had been no butanding sightings the prior two weeks.

So it really was very fortuitous that not only did we catch sight of one, but even managed to get multiple swims alongside the surface-feeding gentle giant. My perseverance paid off!

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Travel to Nepal, Himalayas.

The weather in Sagarmatha national park is colder than in previous years. When we just came to Namche, it was warm and sunny but it didn't last long. A few days already it’s raining, snowing and clouds are climbing up the hills, sometimes covering everything with fog.

But if you think I’m disappointed with it – you are wrong :) I like this kind of weather, because it makes easy to bring back the memories of the time when I didn’t yet go to school. I can’t remember what exactly I was doing then, maybe playing in the yard, but I do remember that feeling of serenity and mystery I had in such weather. Mist gives a feeling of tranquility and a bit of a fairy-tale. There are no duties or obligations, nowhere to hurry, and I can just take the pleasure of walking and looking around, finding something beautiful, like a water drop hanging from a leaf. And there was sort of a background feeling that the world is full of unknown and enigmatic things.

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Travel to Bolivia, Potosí Department, Uyuni.

After our unexpectedly long bus ride into Uyuni we were in no rush to wake up in the morning. In the end into was 10amwhen we unhappily surfaced, still shattered from yesterday. We were awake though, showered short after and fed shortly after that. Now our task was to book a tour of the Salar de Uyuni, better known as the Bolivian salt flats, the place where land speed records are smashed and many out of perspective photos are taken.

The amount of tour operators on offer in the town is overwhelming and all offer the same package, a 3 day trip observing all kinds of natural wonders. I've no idea how over 80 companies compete for all the tourists offering no difference in tours!? We were very tempted by one company, Crystal Tours, offering us a unique route and a good price, but it seemed a bit fishy. The woman selling the tour wanted to know what time we would come back to book the trip and furthermore stalked us for he next 2 hours. She made us feel uncomfortable and based on that reason alone we would have said no. Just to make sure that we were making the right decision we nipped in to an Internet cafe and had a google of their name. It turned out that these guys are probably one of the worst companies to go with, allowing their drivers to carry on employment knowing they have been drunk behind a wheel. We will give them a miss.

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Travel to Bolivia, Beni Department, Rurrenabaque.

A very dry day in La Paz doing no more than looking around the city and booking a bus to Rurrenabaque later we were on that bus, the one that would take us into the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. We had heard many stories about the bus ride from the capital into the jungle being a nightmare but we were both, surprisingly, looking forward to it.

It was due to set off at 11.30am and we didn't leave until 2pm, it took the guys ages to load all the goods onto the top and underneath of the bus. Its a good sign of things to come! The bus itself was no more than a public one with semi reclining seats and costing £8 for a 24 hour ride, safe to say we were sceptical now. we set off into the mountains before descending down a section of what is known all over the world as 'The Death Road'. The ascent over the mountains was slow and the decent even slower, the death road much more easy going than it had ever been in the past. The narrow gravel roads and near vertical drops had been replaced by Tarmac and guard rails, making you feel much safer than we would have before. We had a solid 2 hours of going down this kind of road but then it all changed as we took a turning towards Rurrenabaque.

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Travel to Uzbekistan, Khiva.

This part of the journey is beginnning to wind down . Two days ago we did the 10 hour bus trip from Bukhara to Khiva and a more desolate landscape would be hard to find . It is desert and it has thousands of sage bushes about which will be eaten by the animals in the next few months. The shepards and their families will live in yurts and use the mudstraw structures as their kitchens . It is an unforgiving land . Mind you on our nature stops we have managed to find the spring flowers blooming in the shade of the sage and they are small but quite beautiful .Yura tells us this will only last for a few weeks and everything will begin to dry up .There is not a lot of wealth in this part of Uzbek and the way of life is more traditional than elsewhere.

Khieva has been another surprise . A walled city not nearly as old as the others we have seen . Therefore the buildings are in less need of reconstruction . It is very pleasant to walk about . There are many Medrassas and several UNESCO sponsered workshops that teach and promote hand carfts ...wood work ,carpets ,embroidery ...it's good. The European tourists , mostly French ,UK ,and some German , seem to buy a lot. That don't seem to be having nearly as much fun as we do though. Quiet , serious ... not like our group at all .We see them at mealtimes and must admit say unflattering things about them .

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Travel to China, Yangtze River.

We were again woken up at 6.20am with an announcement over the boat's intercom and zombies were in evidence once more shuffling up to eat a massive breakfast. For someone who normally only has a slice of toast and a cup of tea in the morning I was finding the volume of food I'd been having in China quite an effort and I assumed a bit of dieting was likely to be needed on my return to the UK! As we tucked into our breakfast our boat was starting to pull into our mooring spot, up against another cruise boat, and were treated to the sight of an older gentleman standing naked, bar his white Y-fronts at his bedroom window - completely oblivious to us! Not a pretty sight it has to be said, but pretty funny nonetheless.

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Travel to Turkey, Marmara, Istanbul, Adalar.

Children laughs flood the deck at the stern side of the ferry. Others, teenagers, are feeding gulls throwing bread crumbs to the air. Seagulls skilfully trap it. Devoid of enthusiasm a waiter walks the aisle between the seats, carrying a hot teapot and a huge tray of sugary donuts. Other passengers sink their glances into Adalar Hürriyet local news pages. In the cabin, an outspoken salesman, too well dressed for the place, screams to an audience too sceptical the wonderful properties of a multi screwdriver provided with a flashlight. He sells also a retractable walking stick that fits in any pocket. Surprisingly, after a few minutes of incessant chatter, many passengers have bought any device.

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Travel to India, Kerala, Varkala.

The journey took me in the opposite direction than usual...I flew over the pacific instead of over Europe, landing first in Honk Kong to visit Jordan and Alice and meet their daughter. I had only seen them once since our last encounter in HK in 2006. So I was really happy to be back there again. I wasn't surprised by the overwhelming amount of people in HK. I remembered it being bustling and busy at all times. But I noticed this time that everywhere the enormous crowds walked, they had a sense of purpose. they were often going to and from the metro stations. Everyone must have had somewhere really important to go! Few people were just lingering, or sight seeing. The newest development i noticed was that everyone had a Samsung galaxy, but the biggest one. Ive never even seen one that big in Canada, (which i know isnt saying much but
imagenow that I've graduated to an iPhone it's possible I would notice these things at home). And everyone has a Samsung despite the multiple 2-story apple stores in the city. People walked around, faces buried in their oversized phones. More Often than not, when i was able to steal a glance at the screen, they were just playing games. Sophia, Jordan and Alice's daughter is adorable. We really bonded and had a great time getting to know each other. I was so happy to visit HK but I was anxious after my 5 days there to get back to India. I didn't waste any time getting back to my favourite spot, landing directly in Kerala and going straight to Shiva Garden in Varkala. If any of these names are sounding familiar it's because this is my 4th trip to the same guest house in the same city.

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Travel to Sri Lanka, Western Province, Colombo.

Before we left home, we had booked only three guided excursions and on this day were scheduled to be driven by tour bus south to the very tip of Sri Lanka to the old Dutch Colonial Port of Galle. It was planned to run for 8.5 hours and we thought it would be a couple hours to drive down and then have plenty of time to explore the folklore museum, see stilt fishermen, and visit the old walled fort that is a world heritage site before having to return to the ship for an 8:30 departure.

We had no inkling of the traffic and congestion we would encounter in the city of Colombo---we have NEVER seen the like before. Lanes in the road are treated as suggestions only we think and we usually traveled through the city streets with 4-5 vehicles along either side our big bus in the 2 lanes. Bikes and people everywhere—sidewalks, curbside, and in the road. Tuk-tuks, scooters, trucks. Oh! My!

We started
1304-104 Just like the States--one or two workers, 9-12 supervisorsour tour by driving through the port area that is being repaired/worked on. It still needs lots of work. We then passed through a shopping area with all kinds of shops, some of which were selling slabs of teak wood stacked around the doorway and out onto the sidewalk.

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Travel to Cuba, Matanzas, Varadero.

After several frustrating seasons where weather, health or other circumstances prevented us from making a real ocean crossing to another country....this year we finally made the jump to Cuba, and back!

There is no simple way to describe the experience. The outbound crossing was extremely challenging for us. Wind and wave conditions exceeded predictions considerably...despite checking 3 different sources for weather they all proved to be wrong. The 108 nautical mile crossing took us 24 hours, most of it hand steered as our auto pilot was overwhelmed by the size and strength of the waves (we found a clump of seaweed on top of our dodger when we were cleaning up the day after arrival.)

But we made it and were glad to have achieved a "bucket list" goal. Our buddy boat, Lorbas, with Rick & Donna aboard, was literally our guiding light as we followed her lights through the night passage. They have a system aboard that identifies and tracks the bearing of cruise and cargo ships...so we followed their lead in avoiding close calls.

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Travel to Australia, Queensland, Hervey Bay.

So today was supposed to be Fraser Island day. But, when I got there, I quickly realized the bike couldn't handle what the island had to offer. The roads are all like beach sand. I knew that going in, but the dude at the hostel said I'd be fine. He takes dirt bikes there all the time. Dirt bikes...

The Tenere (you know, Beatrice) has tires suited for the road, not the sand. So, I still gave it a go, but in the end ended up playing it safe and only going a few kilometers to what's called Central Station and parked it, took a hike, and waited for the ferry back. Bummer because I was all set to camp out on the island with the rest of the hostel folks... They were in 4x4s... Haha.

So, even though I couldn't get to the other side of the island and romp up the coast, it was still a fun day. Well, maybe wrestling the bike through sand for like 8km wasn't fun. But it was a good workout! What a hike though!

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Travel to Japan, Tokyo, Asakusa.

We fly from Delhi to Kuala Lumpur (5 Hours) with Malaysian Airways as part of the first leg of our mammoth journey to Japan. The food is good as is the service – however, the airhostess seems to have taken a liking to C as we are plied with red wine and whisky & peanuts (which the others did not get), so much so that when we arrived in KL, C was a bit worse for wear and can’t recall getting off the plane or (!!) the transit 3 hours when we had Burger King – her staple hangover cure – while M enjoyed some Malaysian Street Food as well.

The next leg (Malaysian Airlines again) sees us depart at 11 pm for a night time 5 hour flight to Narita airport Tokyo. Snacks are on offer. The entertainment channels are better and while C is out with the fairies M watches a bit of Life of Pi (he really can’t see what the fuss is about having failed to finish the book and the film doesn’t do it for him either!) and then he checks out a bit of Argo – the Oscar winner – which looks more promising
Fresh fish food stall - Yanakabut we run out of time so he doesn’t see the ending.

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Travel to North-West Thailand, Chiang Mai.

For the last 5 days, we have been in Chang Mai celebrating Songkron. This is the fesitival that celebrates the Thai New Year. We have just passed into the year 2556 according to the Thai Lunar Caldender! In this festival everybody celebrates with water, which means there is one big water fight for 5 days. It was fantastic fun, including locals and tourists. There was so many people with water pistols firing each other, others threw buckets of ice cold water! People lined the streets and you couldn't leave a building without getting wet. Some people even drove around in open top 4x4 cars so that they could fire water at people. The atmosphere was so good - everyone was happy and really took part in the right spirit. The symbolisim of the water fight shows that the Thai's are washing away the old year and cleansing, ready to welcome the new year.

We have also managed to visit a few sights since
Buddha with some gold leafwe have been here. We visited the most popular Buddhist Temple called Wat Phra That Doi Suthep which is situated on a hill. You have to climb over 300 steps to reach the top. It was really busy with people bringing offerings to Buddha, which is part of the celebration linked with the Thai New Year. As well as visiitng temples, there are large processions in the streets with people carrying Buddha images, as well as offerings of flowers and food, that are then taken to the temples. Everyone wears beauiful clothing and the procession lasted about 3 hours. It was really interesting to watch.

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Travel to Thailand, Central Thailand, Bangkok.

The Grand Palace is the historical residence of the Kings of the Siam dynasty which is situated in Bangkok, Thailand. It is situated right in the heart of the city of Bangkok. It has been the residence of the Kings of the Siam dynasty since the year 1782. The Grand Palace is still the most popular venue for a number of events that is hosted by Bangkok. King Rama I, who was the founding father of the Chakri Dynasty , began the construction of this glorious palace in the year 1782. This was also the year when the capital city of the dynasty, Thonburi, was replaced with Bangkok.Along the years of the reign of the dynasty there was continuous remodeling of the palace and also plenty of portions of the palace were added to the original plan in the later years as per the needs of the kings. This was the official residence of the Kings of the Siam dynasty till the year of 1925 and when monarchy got abolished in the year 1932 all the residual government entities
2moved out of the palace. The palace covers an area of approximately two lakh eighteen thousand and four hundred square feet and the general plan of the palace is rectangular in shape.Visiting Grand Palace is a must if you are visiting Bangkok, even for a day. It is located in the middle of the Rattanakosin Island , and the banks of the river Chao Phraya forms one of the boundaries of the palace.

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Travel to South Australia, Streaky Bay.

Streaky Bay, is quite a big place, we found the caravan park, booked in and found our site without a blade of grass. Started to set the camper up and were amazed at how hard the gravel/limestone/WTF. It is like trying to drive blunt tent pegs into a block of concrete, after bending 3 of these sturdy steel pegs, we eventually finished setting up. It is the biggest park we have been in so far this trip, with nearly more boats than caravans.

The waters here are a brilliant blue and extremley crystal clear, but we have been warned that it could be a tad too exciting to swim with the white pointers. There is a netted swimming area off the main jetty. Just for your info, all the paraphernalia in the gift shops are all shark related......

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Travel to South-West Thailand, Krabi.

Our month in Vietnam is over! It was a very full on month; we took a lot of buses, saw a lot of places and made a lovely Danish friend Leah, whom we travelled with for about 3 weeks (a very long time in the travelling world!). We ended up staying in Hoi An for about 3 days. We had a hotel with a pool for the first time! We rented bicycles, got lost in the old town and rode out to the beach. We also ate a lot of good food there, the best we had in all of Vietnam! We also had clothes tailor made, an interesting experience although they struggled to get the dress I designed quite right. It took three trips back to the tailors and ultimately a motorbike ride out to the work shop where five Vietnamese women made me strip to my underwear, stand on a stool and then they proceeded to prod and poke me until eventually declaring the dress was perfect. It was very nice, not really the dress I designed but the women were so happy with their work and I couldn't be bothered to spend any more time as a mannequin
Hoi An by nightso I gave in! I was taken back into Hoi An where I met Beth and Leah in a very tasty bakery and treated myself to apple pie and caramel ice cream which made me happier than is probably normal! I really liked Hoi An, it was very beautiful during the day with flowers tumbling over each building and at night everywhere was lit by brightly coloured lanterns; it had a very romantic feel.

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Travel to Italy, Tuscany.

So we are in Firenze (Florence). Just arrived by train from rome and getting settled in. So far, to answer the million dollar question, Katy has been a total champion traveller. There were some grumpy babies on the plane but our possum was not one of them! Yay, phew!

Rome was lovely. We stayed in an apartment near the Vatican and set out each day by metro to explore. Sadly due to Dubai airport having a total meltdown when it unexpectedly rained we were several hours late arriving so our exploring was delayed til Monday morning. Up and about early we managed to cover several bridges, ancient churches, piazzas, markets, the forum, colosseum
The piazza in front of St Petersand pantheon in a mammoth orgy of sightseeing.

Gotta say, the pantheon was a real highlight. Having now also seen St. Peter's dome, the simple asceticism of the pantheon dome was just awe inspiring. It literally took our breath away. We also loved the ancient ruins and their juxtaposition alongside modern rome. Strangely, unlike like the pyramids from where you have jarring views of cairo's urban sprawl, the roman ruins seem to belong in their setting. Genuinely part of their city for all eternity.

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Travel to Indonesia, Bali, Bedugul.

We stayed in a resort right on the shore of Beratan lake, and in the morning I was woken up by a sound of drums. A crowd of people gathered by the shore, at the place with an ancient-looking stone god statue. They sang, played the drums, rang the bells, worshiped the gods of the lake, and many were simply chattering and hanging around. Women were carrying gifts to the gods. A colorful procession with gifts and umbrellas came almost right into the water to place the gifts.
I was told that it was the festival of cleaning the water of the lake.

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Travel to Nepal, Gorak Shep.

This trek had two main objectives, firstly to reach Everest Base Camp itself, and secondly to reach the summit of Kala Pattar in order to see the 'classic' view of Everest. We achived the first objective yesterday and the intention today was to achieve the second and then begin the return journey to Lukla.

It is generally considered that the best view of Everest from Kala Pattar is around sunrise. In theory Everest can be viewed from there at anytime but in the afternoon it is more likely to be clouded over and therefore the best chance of a good view is early morning. For this reason we were woken at 4am and dressed and met down in the dining room for a cup of tea at 04:30. At 04:45 we left the lodge wearing head torches to attempt to climb Kala Pattar. Kala Pattar is actually part of the much larger mountain of Pumo Ri (7165m) but because it has its own obvious summit (5600m), it can be considered a peak on its own as well. Th walk starts by crossing the cricket pitch-sized very dry powdery mud flat immediately in front of the lodge; after that it is a continuous steady uphill climb. Another group had obviously set out about 30 minutes ahead of us as we could clearly see the lights from their head torches. Passing them before we had been walking for an hour was a psychological boost and we eventually got to the summit at 06:15, just one and a half hours later which we considered quite good. The temperature had been quite mild when we set off but with the exposure at the summit it was now very cold and I was wearing gloves for the first time during the whole trek. The temperature also discouraged us from staying very long at the top and we started descending 15 minutes later. Despite the cold, by the time we got to the summit it was now broad daylight and the views were truly spectacular. There was the slight disappointment that most of Everest itself was obscured by cloud, but the views generally definitely made the morning's excursion definitely worthwhile.

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Travel to Spain, Andalusia, Málaga.

When I think of Malaga, I think of one thing - holiday resorts. The last leg of my trip was a day in Malaga before flying home to Ireland and my expectations were low. Fortunately I was proved to be wrong! I was staying in a hostel in the Old Town within easy walking distance of the centre. Malaga's history outdates Cadiz. Founded around 770BC by the Phoenicians, it has seen rulers from Ancient Carthage, the Roman Empire, and Arab Empire before coming under Christian rule again after the Reconquista. The archaeological remains and monuments all these eras have had the effect of making the city "open museum", displaying its rich history of more than 3,000 years.

After setting myself up in the hostel (with people again yay) I walked downtown to see what the city had to offer. It was a really sleepy Sunday and many places were closed. I walked down by the Alcazaba, an old Moorish fort with a Roman ampitheatre at it's base. I headed into the centre of town by Malaga Cathedral. Only one belltower was built, the other remained unfinished after the funds for it were given away. As a result it's known as
sunset dinnerLa Manquita, the One-Armed Lady.

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Travel to Italy, Sicily, Palermo.

Regret is great in hindsight as we were to find out today and we should have listened to ourselves and all the guide books we have read on driving in Palermo but....................
Sorry if this is getting a bit boring to anyone who might be reading this in NZ as a large weather system with rain approaches the country to break the drought,at least in the north,but the sun was shining brightly again when we opened the shutters this morning.
We could very easily become attached to Sicily if it wasn't for the rubbish and the chaotic traffic.It does seem to have very pleasant weather which one could get used to very quickly especially when you can have breakfast of soft scrambled egg on a terrace facing east.
This next little story is really for Brent our son in law and immediate family members who will see the funny side we are sure.
We had a need today for a calculator for the first time since leaving NZ and so got the one out that we had packed.

Shock,horror! the batteries
Palermo Cathedral...from the outsidewere flat and we had no way of charging it.As bRent knows we had purchased a card from the $2 shop at home that contained 50 different size of those little dome type batteries,enough, he had often joked to last us the rest of our lives.
Well, Brent,we could sure have done with that card now but it is back at Ranui Street!So today we will keep our eyes open for a similar shop to buy another calculator,this time a type that doesn't require batteries.

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Travel to South Korea, Busan.

I didn't know what to expect from Korean food when I arrived, but it's been a delight! My school lunches in particular are amazing and I have tried so many different things with them. First I had to get used to only using chopsticks and a spoon, which took some time. My school uses flat metal chopsticks, and the first time I had lunch it took me 30mins to eat everything! However I quickly got used to them and can tackle most things now apart from de-boning fish which is still a messy process!

School provides lunch for the teachers for about w63,000 per month, which breaks down as roughly w3150 per meal or e2.42. Amazing! And they always serve fresh vegetables mostly cold or raw; fish, tofu or meat; and often fruit as well as the ubiquitious sticky rice and kimchi. Our lunches are usually reasonably well balanced and filling, and sometimes it's my main meal of the day. I've tried some random things including acorn jelly (weird, no taste) and tiny dried out anchovies and walnuts in a sticky sweet sauce. My only gripe sometimes is the sheer amount of sticky rice. Korea doesn't do wholegrain unfortunately, so I only
first lunch out with schooltry to eat half. This means I also avoid eating multiple carbs (noodles and rice together), and anything made of shaped glutinous rice including rice cakes and tteokbokki. It's all about willpower!

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Travel to Turkey, Marmara, Istanbul, Sultanahmet.

We flew into Istanbul from Konya on the 10th. The flight was short but fairly pleasant. The Konya Airport is small. To board the plane you have to walk out to it. I found that I love to do this (especially on a beautiful day!). I actually boarded the plane from the tail end instead of the regular entrance near the cockpit. I was in Group A which fills the back rows. I have never seen an Airport have passengers board from two entrances. It's smart because it cuts down on crowding in the cabin. Anyways, I was absolutely giddy about. You see I have this secret. I love planes. I love flying. I find it exhilarating. I actually wish I knew more about the mechanics involved. I feel kind of bad about this secret, because when I was younger I made my dad stop taking flying lessons. I thought he was going to get hurt. I feel like a hypocrite now that I have gotten over my fear and find myself toying with the idea of learning how to fly at some point in my life. Sorry Dad!

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Travel to Ireland, County Limerick, Limerick.

So it was Student Race Day! As we were putting on our makeup and putting on our dressy clothes, everyone walking outside was in suits and dresses. I loved it! Everyone looked so nice. I had even bought a big, flowery hat for the occasion. We all went over to Reed's house before we got on the bus to go to the Races. Everyone looked so nice! On the bus, I met one of Brittany's friends from London, Kristy. She was a lot of fun to talk to. After the 30 minute bus ride to the track, the sun was out and it was actually warm. Of course, you can never expect this to last a long time in Ireland, especially Limerick which is the wettest county in Ireland. Right by the entrance was the warm up ring, and I saw some of the horses being warmed up. Then, we went down to the track and I saw my first live horse race, the first of seven races. People were betting, but I had no idea how to do that so I left that to them. I guess I just never realized how long the race tracks are, but it really
Warm-upstook me off guard. Then, the weather started to deteriorate.

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Travel to Sri Lanka, Southern Province, Weligama.

On arrival in Marissa we were hit by the coastal heat, 30 degree plus and no breeze. Our guest house, Palm Villa, was straight onto the beachh and sea. We were shown to our rooms and straight away Evie and abs had their swimming costumes on ready for the sea.
Where we were based was made up of a coastline about a mile long with guest houses,hotels and bars along a palm tree strip. The sea was a major attraction for Evie and abs who enjoyed swimming and crashing into the sometimes big waves, they also got themselves some goggles which they used to swim in the rock pools looking at the fish.
One of the highlights was seeing turtles feeding about 10 metres from shore, we were able to watch theses for about 30 minutes diving and coming up for air while they fed around the rocks.

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Travel to Uruguay, East, Punta del Diablo.

This time we drove all the way to Punta Del Diablo which is close to the Brazilian border and about 300 km away from Montevideo. Apparently the Lonely Planet ranked Punta del Diablo among the top 10 cities to visit in 2008, well we have ticked that one off ...

The small and sleepy fisher village is perched on a gentle rise overlooking the ocean with lots of brightly colored buildings, including few shops, restaurants, bars and grocery stores.
Due to strict building restrictions, there are no high rises or luxury resorts. Instead there are small hotels, a hostel, cabanas and vacation houses.
The high season for tourism runs from December to Easter week. During high season, the population of the small fishing village of approximately 400 people grows to approximately 25´000!

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Travel to Italy, Monterosso al Mare.

Today we woke up to SUN! We had 2 days of walking to go but the best trail we wanted to do was Vernazza to Monterosso which is actually technically shut. So we decided to do it anyway as we have seen lots of people walking it! We had heard that it was very treacherous and 2 miles of steep steps but stunning views so we were excited about the views but I was not excited about the stairs after how my back coped slash didnt cope yesterday with all the uphill stair climbing! So I downed a 3 euro 50 red bull, did some stretches in the sun to prepare! And off we went!

It was such a gorgeous day! Perfect temperature and the sun was streaming through! We climbed for a bit and looked down on Vernazza sparking in the sunlight which looked so beautiful! We watched stupid tourists standing on top the rocks getting soaked by waves again even though they were barred off. Not that we could speak as we were hiking past many signs saying 'path closed' 'do not tresspass' 'falling rocks' etc! But there were still quite a few rebels doing it anyway and
P1010192
Red bull and stretch session before our big hikeloads of people you wouldn't expect to rebel! So it was perfect, much less crowded than normal and we didnt have to pay! :) We walked uphill for prob about half an hour but it wasn't even bad! Very gradual. As we got to the top point it was just such an incredible view so we sat up there and made a lil picnic with our snacks we had prepared and took loads of pics and just soaked it all in! We got stopped at one point for about 10 mins by some men in hard hats telling us to wait as they were working on reinforcing the cliff to stop rocks from falling. Maybe this was why the trail was closed!!!

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Travel to Japan, Tokyo, Hachioji.

I woke up early today on my "Sunday" so that I could go hiking - something I had been wanting to do for awhile. Sometimes, you just need to get out of the city! I WANT to climb Mt. Fuji this August, but I'm really not sure that a) my gimp knee can handle it, and b) I'm in good enough shape. So today was sort of a beginning test to see what my body could handle.

I went to Mt. Takao back in November, to see the autumn colors, but hadn't hiked it since. This time, I went alone (!!!) which was awesome, because I like doing things alone and knowing that I can have independent adventures. Mt. Takao itself is a super popular day hike because of it's close proximity to Tokyo, but according to my hiking in Japan book, most people only do Takao by itself and don't continue on - and Takao is part of a long trail called the Mt. Jimba trail, which spans 5 mountains! I did some research and decided I wanted to do Takao and the next mountain on the trail, Shiroyama.

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Travel to Sierra Leone, Moa River.

When we arrived we parked up in the school field which was the main venue. We then walked down through the town along a road which had been lined by white painted stones. At the far end of the town a parade was starting, we could heat the rhythmic beat of drums and local shakers and the crowd of people gradually made its way towards us. A few people had painted their faces with white paint and tribal markings, there was also a crazy colourful costume bird which came over and ‘greeted’ us as soon as we joined the
Local musicparade. The parade moved very slowly through the town, the leaders at the front kept encouraging people to go even slower so we were dancing along but not really moving anywhere. I had been invited along by another British girl who works for GOAL and they loved that we got involved and joined in, especially when we showed them that white girls can shake their ass just like them.

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Travel to New Zealand, South Island.

Traveling gives me a deeper sense of independence that nothing I have done so far in life has given me such satisfaction. In New Zealand I know I was with 4 other friends but we didn't have our parents or school or a travel program like I did in costa rica arranging the activities we would be doing, or making sure we had a place to stay each night or we were eating properly. The last 4 nights we were freedom camping, we just drove until we found a place to pull off on the side of the road. We went grocery shopping the first day to arrange all the food in advance but besides that we mostly just drove. We stopped where ever and when ever we wanted, mainly when ever something looked beautiful. We found hidden water falls in the Milford sound and a perfect sunset in Hakitaka and even camped on the beach one night in Fox Glacier where the stars were amazing; I wish I knew more about the constellations.

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Travel to Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

After disembarking from the speed boat we had a few hours waiting in Kuala Besut for our night bus to KL and passed the time updating blogs, chatting with a few friends we had made on the islands and having a bite to eat. The bus arrived on time and was easily one
Great times at Holiof the most comfortable and pain free journeys we had taken during our trip. On arriving in KL at 6am we quickly located a train station and made our way to Pasar Seni (China Town), the area where we were looking to stay. Arrivng so early in a big city, it is always difficult to find a guest house as the ones which are open only have night staff operating and the others are not willing to let you check in until mid-day at the earliest. I had a quick scout around whilst Vics stayed with the bags and for a while thought we wouldn't actually find anywhere as accomdation was either full, too expensive or filthy before finally coming accross BirdsNest 2, which had one room free. This was not before a very strange, drunk man from the Oasis guesthouse started being very rude to us whilst following and taking pictures of us because we hadn't taken one of the most filthy rooms we have seen accross the whole of Asia at his guesthouse - complete weirdo.

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Travel to Veneto, Venice.

Apparently I took quite a hiatus from writing, almost a month it seems. Once again I seemed to have gotten sidetracked and caught up in the busy routine which is day-to-day life (haha). Even in Italy, it seems that the daily schedule is one packed full to the brim and always keeping me running here and there. I do appreciate that however, it is good to know that even on the other side of the globe people seem to go about their lives in the same hectic attitude that we do back at home. A reminder that no matter where you are, when it comes down to it, things aren't really as different as we think they might be.

And along with this, is the reality that back at home, life also continues at the same pace. Whether it be for one reason or another, there comes along the moment where you have to sit back and reflect on where you are currently, and where it is you really need to be. For me right now, that is at home in Canada. And sadly therefore this chapter in Italy is about to come to a close for me. Sooner than expected, but with no regrets and a smile on my face. It's the feeling of people in the right place, at the wrong time. And right now there is a much more important place that I need to be. With my family, spending the moments together that really matter. For when we look back on our lifetime, it will be those last cherished memories with a loved one that really account for how we spent our lives. Sadly, I regret to say that for me, I fear I am about to lose one of the most special people in my life, my Opa. We all know that as our grandparents age, each day we get to spend with them is a blessing. A man that has helped raise me and has taught me more than I can ever express to him.

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Travel to Uzbekistan, Tashkent.

We checked in with Air Astana at 2:15 am for the 4:15 am flight to Almaty, Kazakhstan. The flight was uneventful, landing at 4:10 am with the time zone changes. Then we had a 5 ½ hour layover where we stretched out on benches to try to sleep. Looking through the duty free shops didn’t help the time fly any faster. We took off at 9:45 am bound for Tashkent, Uzbekistan. We flew over the Pamir Massif. If there was any doubt whether we should have tried going overland, the obviously deep snows in the mountains settled it. We were told that there had been record snows this winter, and that the passes were closed.

We arrived in Tashkent at 10:30 am and cleared immigration and customs rather easily. There is an ATM just inside the arrival area which I used. It dispensed $US rather than Soms, the Uzbekistan currency. I later found out that this was one of maybe four ATMs in the country, and they all dispense $US. Until ATMs become widely available, which I understand is in the works, tourists are expected to get money from micro banks that perform the same function
$200 in somsas the ATM, but manually. Changing $US to soms is another issue. I never did find out how to do it legally at the government established exchange rate of 2045 soms/dollar. I just gave all my dollars to the hotel and they brought me soms at 2500 soms/dollar.

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Travel to Brunei.

Brunei is a Moslem Sultanate with oil; it is rich with the Sultan being one of the richest men in the world. There is no income tax but good medical care and education. There are several beautiful mosques but we only visited the outside of the Jame'Asr Hassanal Bolkiah mosque. Even the naval dry dock was an attractive building.
On a river cruise we saw 3 large white birds, ferns, cycads, mangroves and several Proboscis monkeys but only got a good view of one. Their available territory is shrinking and their future is uncertain.
People, possibly Phillipino immigrants, live by choice in the water village stilt houses over the river. We had lunch a one of these houses. The interior was beautiful. The village includes a mosque and police station.
The Brunei Museum was a beautiful building but we only had time to look at the native plants and animals section.

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Travel to Vietnam, Southeast, Ho Chi Minh City.

8 April 2013 - It is two months since I stepped my foot at Tân Sơn Nhất airport and started a new life in southern Vietnam. Two months are not a long time, but for me it was the longest time I was out of Hanoi. During the past two months, I made one trip to Phnom Penh and three trips to 10 provinces of southern Vietnam. I have fulfilled my dream of seeing all the 63 provinces of Vietnam. I also published 17 blogs when I was traveling on the road. My parents cried when I said I had no plan to go back to Hanoi anytime soon. They only wanted me to be around them. So far, I have enjoyed traveling and living in southern Vietnam. The weather here is pleasant and good for my health. It's hot during the day, but cool at night. March and April are the hottest months in southern Vietnam. I got much sunburned and have brown skin, as I've spent much time walking out in the sun. The southern girls wear thick coats to protect them from the sun. I often wear a long sleeve shirt and could feel my arms burning, as
Sunset over the city
View from the City Garden, Bình Thạnh districtthe sun is very strong during the day. Anyway, it's still not too hot or too cold same like in Hanoi. Soon it will be the rainy season, and even if it rains, it only lasts a few hours and the sun shines again.

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Travel to Andalusia, Cádiz, San Fernando.

The twentyfifth of January was a sunday. Ai. On mondaymorning I should be back in Cádiz at eight for a practicum. I calculated: that's half past nine Spanish time, nine o’clock Andalusian time, and half past nine Cádiz-time. I wouldn’t make it if I’d leave in the morning. So I told Pájaro that I'd go by bike and drive back home after our “concert” in the eco-pizzeria in Tarifa.

On my way to Tarifa I got an indeterminate feeling that appeared to be anxiety. That’s exceptional: all my genes involved in recognition of danger and worry seem to be recessive. And when it eventually happens that even I can’t deny an alarming situation, I usually think that it’s too late to worry anymore anyway and that things “naturally” will end up to be ok again then, which they normally do. That prevents a lot of stress (at least for me, not necessarily for people around me :P), but my guardian angels must use their superpowers regularly to compensate my lack of fight-or-flight reaction.

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