Travel to Ecuador, Galápagos, Santiago Island.

Wowza! What a day it was today. I'm currently sitting on the top deck of our boat sailing back from Santiago Island. The afternoon swells have arrived and its a little choppy so hopefully I don't make too many typing errors let alone get sea-sick!! Unfortunately its been quite overcast here today and after our little snorkling trip, Rach is huddled next to me wrapped in anything available to keep her warm!

Our day started with a 5.30am wake up call. The bus collected us right on 6am and after making a few more stops at various hotels to pick up our fellow gringos, we travelled north to the boat dock that will take us out for the day. After an hour, we arrived at the boat dock, swapped wheels for waterproof jackets and took the little dingy out to our waiting boat. They fed us 'breakfast' as soon as we got on board which consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich, an apple and a fruit box. I'm pretty sure it was apricot juice however Rach overruled me given her knowledge of Spanish words for various fruits. After knocking back breakie and finishing our peach juice, we settled in  pinnacle rockup on the top deck to get the best views on our way out to the islands.

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Travel to Bolivia, Potosí Department, Tupiza.

So, we left you last at Donde Rita's on Monday 13th May planning to go camping for a night under the stars. We then got a message from our good mates James Mills and Laura Harris in Tupizia, Bolivia saying their flight home is booked for a week on Friday and they want to do the salt flat tour with us, which gave us until Wednesday at the latest to get to them and start the 4day salt flat tour from Tupizia, Bolivia to Uyuni also in Bolivia. After spending hours on the Internet and reading the lonely planet back to front we had little information about the boarder crossings and bus times to go off.

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Travel to Russia, Siberia, Irkutsk.

Irkutsk is one of Russia's more attractive cities and felt more European than I had expected. It was pleasant just to walk around and appreciate the architecture and green spaces in the sunshine. They also have a fountain similar to the one in Piccadilly Gardens, that spurts out of the ground at intervals and with varying intensity, and with the same consequence as the one in Manchester: lots of children running through it and getting drenched.

Irkutsk also has a famous example of the wooden house, the House of Europe, which is particularly elegant. Like most Russian cities it also has a promenade along the river (complete with a fairground), but Irkutsk's is again especially pleasant with lots of interesting churches, theatres and so on. I passed a very nice day just wandering around.

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Travel to Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio, Vista.

This morning is the Spices Tour we signed up for last night. We were up and ready long before the minivan arrived at 8:50 to take us to the farm. I don't think I mentioned that we were a bit hesitant about taking this tour, due to the cost of $50 each, but it sounded very interesting, and Manoli wasn't all that excited about the other tours available, so we went for it. When they picked us up, there was already a young couple in the minivan, going on the tour with us. We traveled quite a ways out of town to their farm, Villa Vainilla. It is a well-known, recognized biodersity operation with a lot of write-ups expounding on it's virtues. They are a major producer of vanilla for the region, plus grow a good many other spices, coffee, and cocoa. First, we were given a very good explanation of vanilla and how it was grown and processed, explaining the reason why it is so expensive. Each flower has to be hand-pollinated in order to produce the bean pods.

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Travel to Turkey, Marmara, Istanbul.

Today was a busy day! I woke early, took a relaxing shower, and went to the roof for a nee breakfast of eggs, olives, cucumbers and cheese. In the reviews for the hotel, some people complained about the breakfast, but this is typical arabic breakfast - a lot of light options. There were meats, bread, cereal, yogurt, fried potatoes as well.

We then walked to my friends hotel nearby and waited for our personal tour to arrive. Sibel was our guide and she was fantastic! She seemed a little shy to start but soon she just became a wealth of valuable information. We started at the area of the Hippodrome and she explained the previous chariot races and the extent of it. She knew not to go to the Blue Mosque at the moment because it was packed with tourists; she said the crowds would thin in the afternoon.

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Travel to Cambodia, North, Battambang.

It took me just over four hours to reach Battambang by bus from Siem Reap. Although a fairly easy journey, it would have been better without the blaring sound from a DVD in Khmer, followed by some equally deafening karaoke or the driver constantly using his horn, when overtaking! Much to my surprise awaiting at the bus station, was another tuk tuk driver with my name on a sheet of paper. I hadn't told the hotel where I was coming from or at what time, so I guess when guests are expected at hotels, they send out their tuk tuk drivers with instructions to wait until the relevant people arrive!

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Travel to Samoa, Upolu.

Another up and down day. I had been going to go to Lalomanu at the eastern end of Upolu today but it was Sunday and there are no buses on Sunday, so I decided on a return assault on the Vaisigano watershed. The head worker that I’d got a lift from yesterday was named Phineas and he had told me that I was on the right trail down to the valley (annoyingly!) and he arranged for one of his workers, called Alibut, to take me back there today so I could actually get to where the birds were. That’s Alibut as in the Samoan version of Albert, not the Pirate version of a large flatfish (“Arrh matey, I’ve ‘ooked meself an ‘alibut! Pieces of eight, etc”).

So in the morning I arrive at Phineas’ house at 7am as arranged, and waited for Alibut who was supposed to take a taxi from his house to Phineas’ house and then we would use that taxi to get up to the reservoir tank. Phineas and his wife went off to fill up their truck with petrol and I sat on their verandah and waited. When they came back I was still Samoan fantail (Rhipidura nebulosa)
photo actually taken at Mt. Vaea but I needed something for here!waiting. Phineas rang Alibut’s wife who said that he was walking but he would be there soon. At 8am Phineas got a call from Alibut’s wife that in fact Alibut was back home again! Apparently he had got to the corner, seen there was no truck outside Phineas’ place, and rather than walk the extra hundred metres to see if I was there had just assumed nobody was home, turned around, and walked all the way back to where he lived!!

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Travel to Cyprus, Limassol.

This was our first trip to Cyprus. This, like Israel, is another divided country. We docked in Limassol, which is the Greek part of the island. The northern part of the island is controlled by Turkey. Our guide, Naflia, said that it has been occupied by the Turks since they invaded in 1974. Even the capitol city of Nicosia is divided by The Green Line which separates the Turkish Cypriots from the Greek Cypriots. Cyprus has fallen on hard times and is in the throes of a terrible financial crisis. This is not so evident to the visiting traveler.

We had a private van tour with John and Brooks and Bert and Lani. We went up into the foothills to the lovely village of Omodos, which is a well preserved country town. We arrived in a downpour so we didn’t do too much wandering around. Back by the coast the weather improved so we visited the archaeological site of Kourion. It is filled with Greek and Roman monuments. Because of its strategic location, many famous and infamous, real and mythological characters have spent time here; like Alexander the Great, Achilles, Ulysses and Richard the Lionhearted. Aphrodite and
LEMUEL World's greatest stewardApollo were highly venerated by ancient tribes. The history of Cyprus can be traced as far back as the Neolithic Age.

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Travel to Indonesia, Bali, Ubud.

There have been a handful of extra special places on this trip which we have really, really enjoyed and stayed longer than planned in; places that we felt so comfortable in we didn’t want to leave, places that seemed nice but quite ordinary at first glance but turned out to be amazing, and places that we want to go back to again one day. Ubud was another one of these magical places. It totally charmed us and captured our hearts and we loved it, spending a relaxing 5 days there. It’s the kind of place where time flies even if you are not doing very much, because there is just something about it that feels so…easy.

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Travel to China, Sichuan, Chengdu.

One of the restaurants we went to on Wednesday night had traditional Sichuan cuisine, served to traditional live Chinese music. There was this guy hanging around in a bright yellow outfit, long mullet haircut with a teapot with a long (I mean long) needle nosed spout. He didn't do much until the end of the meal when he came out to entertain us with a routine - part dance, part physical prowess, part intimidation - spinning and gyrating with the teapot, launching it toward unsuspecting clients, just to catch it before it caught anyone, and then deftly pouring tea (behind the back, backward over his head...you get the picture). A Chinese version of a slam dunk contest!

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Travel to Thailand, Chiang Rai.

I ended up staying in Chiang Mai for a week. While I was there, I spent a lot of time walking around the city, including the old city inside the moat - and of course, eating everything in sight.

A couple of days ago the lady at my guesthouse told me it was Buddha's birthday, so the temples were all very busy. She mentioned 'up the mountain' having lots of people, and I realised she meant the Doi Suthep temple, which sits on top of the mountain that overlooks the city.

So the next day I decided to go up there and have a look. It was still extremely busy, with cars and songthaews (taxis) lining the roads everywhere. I didn't actually realise there were so many stairs to get up to the actual temple, either. Let's just say I earned all the food I ate that day! My legs were extremely sore...

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Travel to Samoa, Upolu.

And now the tropical bit begins. Thirty-one degrees of tropicality to be precise. Now I’ll be honest, but I hate the tropics. That probably sounds odd given that pretty much everywhere I go is in the tropics, but I can’t stand the heat and especially the humidity, I just put up with it because that’s where all the best wildlife is. All things considered I’d rather be in Iceland. But the tropics are what call me and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Samoa’s international airport is 35km from the capital Apia, and most people take a shuttle for 25 Tala or a taxi for 60 or so. The other option, the one I and exactly no-one else on the plane took, is to walk fifty metres out of the airport building onto the road outside and catch a local bus for 3 Tala. (There are roughly 1.9 Tala to one New Zealand dollar, according to XE.com). The bus takes about an hour to get to Apia – cheaper usually does mean slower – so I had plenty of time to scenery-watch. The only birds I could note down firmly were common and jungle mynahs, red-vented bulbuls Red-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer)and Polynesian triller. I did see a Samoan fantail and what was almost certainly a Samoan starling, but because they are both endemics I pretended I didn’t so that I could see them for the “first time” in better viewing conditions than from a bus window.

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Travel to Philippines, Banaue.

Established in the 16th century, Vigan is considered the finest surviving example of a Spanish colonial town in Asia, with a unique European atmosphere… said the narrative. The logic: The Philippines was colonized by Spaniards centuries ago, these buildings are old, and Spain is in Europe. A ‘European atmosphere’ we weren’t to find, though there is no doubting Vigan is a quirky anomaly that doesn’t conform to an easily definable Asian cliché.

Dig a little deeper and you'll discover that the town’s original Chinese name "Bee Gan" became Vigan due to the Spanish penchant for mixing their B's and V's. Many of those old colonial buildings were constructed in an apparent Chinese/Mexican architectural mezcla by elite Chinese Creole families who adopted Hispanic family names, and live on to this day.

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Travel to Italy, Tuscany, Pienza.

From Buon Convento we moved on to our stay for the night at a farm. Podere Il Casale. We had read about this sosta/farm on the internet and many travellers had recommended it saying that it was a quiet stopover with fabulous views of Monte Amiata and the wonderful Tuscan countryside. The rain started to come in and the sky darkened as we pointed Suzy in the direction of the farm. We were hoping for a couple of restful days doing nothing much. And hereby hangs a tail.

We skirted Pienza and found the grey road which led to the farm. A grey road in Italy is an unmade road made up of limestone which is dusty in the dry and becomes a mud bath in the wet. We had often travelled up them and they were potholed and in need of a bit of attention from the boys from the black stuff. Today it was a mud bath and Suzy became covered in a grey gunge which stuck to her like glue. . She would need a clean when we arrived. We drove on and arrived at the Podere at the end of the lane.

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Travel to Spain, Navarre, Pamplona.

On a beautiful sunny day there are few better sights than a glorious lake, fields of wild flowers and a sky full of twittering birds. Luckily Mother Nature smiled on us and we were able to get down to the laguna at Pitillas without seeing a cloud in the sky. We arrived on the day of the "Fiesta del Agua" which we assumed would mean activities and people, but the visitors' centre was closed for the occasion unless you had pre-booked a guided visit which was a bit of a shame.

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Travel to Costa Rica, Puntarenas, Monteverde.

This morning we'd booked the Hanging Bridges tour at Selvatura. The minivan picked us up, and about 12 others. After a rather long ride, mostly due to rough, winding roads, we arrived at Selvatura. This place has the Hanging Bridges tour, at least one canopy tour, canyonerring, a Tarzan swing, and Butterfly, Insect, and Serpent houses. We were really looking forward to seeing some wildlife, so we got our tickets and headed onto the footpaths towards the first of eight bridges. To make a long story short, we saw almost nothing but plants, a couple of birds, and one centipede! Granted, the trek was enjoyable, there were some pretty cool plants, and the hanging bridges were pretty neat, but that doesn't add up to $30 each worth of enjoyment. I don't know if its the norm to see so few things, or if we just picked a bad day or time, but based on our experience, I would not recommend this tour. To make matters worse, other than the last couple of bridges, we had to contend with a birding tour of about 20 people that would catch up with us when we J.C. on one of the hanging bridgesstopped, then they'd stop and we'd pass them again, and so on and so on. Aftre browsing their gift shop, we took the 11am minivan back to town.

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Travel to Europe, Gibraltar.

To be honest, I hadn´t realised that there was an English enclave in Spain, until about 2 months before arrving there. Just as finding a Spanish enclave in a corner of Morocco was interesting, it proved equally so finding a bit of England in a strategically placed corner of Spain.

Getting to effectively what is a big rock surrounded by a town, requires passing border control. The affable Englishman checking my passport, commented that I was a long way from home and wished me well, then I set off for a quirky adventure.

Gibraltar brought back a lot of childhood memories. The phone boxes, the English pubs, the atmosphere, the language and the people all contributed to me feeling like I was in a warped time zone, somewhere between NZ, England and Spain.

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Travel to Israel, Jerusalem District, Jerusalem.

Of all the countries we visit, Israel is the most interesting, perplexing and amazing. The fact of Israel being at the confluence of the major religions of the world, the enormous documented history of this disputed bit of land, the sheer beauty and diversity of the countryside, and the ongoing and seemingly unresolvable Palestinian/Israeli conflict is enough to confound and intrigue a traveler to this Holy Land.

We arrived in the port city of Haifa and opted for a ship's tour to Caesarea Maritime. This city was built by Herod the Great and named after his Roman benefactor Augustus Caesar. Pontius Pilate was here during the time of Jesus. The Roman gladiators performed their feats at the circus and the Christians and lions fought to the death at the amphitheater. After the Roman period, the Arabs controlled the area until the Crusaders destroyed most of the city. It was part of the Ottoman Empire up until WWI. Now Caesarea is one of the most important archaeological sites in Israel.

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Travel to Taiwan, Hualien, Taroko.

Taiwan is not a usual tourist place but there I was headed with my colleague and her family for a 5 day trip covering Hualien, Jianxi and Taipei city. At the very start, we struggled with a Chinese GPS followed by an erratic US style driving and lack of familiar sights like petrol stations, restaurants etc. All sign boards were like pencil drawings! I slept off in the car and once up, was looking at bridges and highways and then the beautiful countryside- mountains, seas and islands! It reminded me of West coast of California.

We were prepared for “SPRING” but it was 18 degree Celsius. Therefore our socks did more rounds than originally planned. On the first day, we saw a beautiful lake and then settled for the night at another beautiful, white castle of a house with splendid rooms overlooking the sea. Most of my friends were vegetarians and we had a vine vegetable dish generously garnished with ginger, fried noodles and fried rice in a famous sea food joint! We communicated through sign language; symbols which we had printed on paper. We even went to the kitchens and selected the vegetables and waited in anticipation that we get pure vegetarian dishes or my friends would have left me there itself!

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Travel to Vietnam, Lao Cai, Sapa.

When we emerged from the doors of the Friendly Guesthouse Lily stood and smiled and we could feel excitement radiating from the glowing expression on her face - the day previous when she had thrust her tiny notebook of testimonials into our hands, a half dozen hand-written messages, presented to us upside-down in an inadvertant testament to the fact that she did not know what they contained, we had caught a glimpse of the stake her family held in bringing guests to the village - yet it was more than a thirst for a few of America’s finest greenbacks that lit the timeless expression on Lily’s face. What we found in this woman, strong and agile for a grandmother, albeit only in her late forties, was the endurance of human vitality, the ingenuity of the human mind, and the great kindness of the human heart - so rare in the raw competition and consumer slime of the smart-phone kiosk, designer coffee culture - on the surface a seemingly cunning saleswoman of the modern Lily's Kitchenworld, inches below the great and ancient wisdom passed down from vast golden fields - from father to son amongst the dancing orange of a ceremonial fire, from mother to daughter building and maintaining a homestead from nothing but the sweat of the brow - those great secrets never to be bought or passed through something so trite as an entitlement, inheritance or title.

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Travel to Europe, Hungary.

Buda is dominated by Varhegy (Castle Hill) and we climbed it today by its nineteenth century funicular. As well as visiting the main attractions, the Matyas Church, a recreation of an original 13th building and the Buda Palace a former royal residence which has been rebuilt several times over the centuries but is now a collection of museums, we also wandered around the streets which included several interesting buildings. Everything has been impressively reconstructed after severe damage during the Second World War fighting.

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Travel to Iceland, Southwest, Hvalfjörður.

Hotel Glymur is one of the best hotels in Iceland, it certainly is one of the best we have ever stayed in and we have stayed in innumerable hotels. The service was impeccable.

We had villa Nature and we had all the amenities we needed. But for me the highlight was soaking in a hot tub, heated naturally from the volcanic lava passing beneath under the moonlit sky. The sensation was weird but exhilarating. Lying there in the hot bubbling bath, feeling the icy wind blowing on the surface of the bath, looking at the moon, shrouded by darkness and silence was a fitting end to a day spent sight seeing, walking over glaciers and hours driving from one scenic spot to another.

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Travel to Portugal, Algarve, Vila Real de Santo Antonio.

Woolly says – I didn’t know where we were going to and all Ian and Jo would tell me was that I would enjoy it, I would have enjoyed more sleep! As we flashed by fields and lakes we continued to oh and ah over the beautiful scenery. Portugal is such a pretty place. It didn’t seem to take long before we were following a bumpy track and I say the sign – Badoca Safari Park – now this was worth getting up for! Communication let us down at the ticket office, but the nice young lady took our 12 Euro each (approximately £10.00 GBP) and called someone to come and explain. The lady who arrived spoke perfect American and told us where to go and when. First stop was the Bird of Prey Beautifulshow, all in Portuguese but we got the gist of it. With three birds being put through their paces, we noticed that the first two seemed to be a little naughty and weren’t doing what they should do. The last bird was wonderful and kept soaring past Jo’s head making her duck, it was very funny to watch.

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Travel to Italy, Veneto, Verona.

Up bright and early the next day to catch the bus into Verona, ended up in a slight rush as the normal bus routes don't run on Sundays. Arriving in Verona city centre we found a huge local market full of the most amazing pastries, olives, meats and cheeses! Got a quick snack and headed out on a little road train for a tour of the city to get our bearings, then we Seducing the ladies at Maccashit the museusms and churches and of course all the Romeo and Juliet sites. It turns out the first Sunday of every month is a festival day, and all the main sites had discounted entry down to 1 euro, making it a cheap experience. Went through an amazing castle/fort which had its own escape path over the river (just incase the commoners got angry during medievil times!) and watched hordes of people lining up to touch a statue of Juliet for good luck in love.

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Travel to Spain, Catalonia, Castelldefels.

We have already flown from Marrakesh to Barcelona and are having our last night in Castelldefels, a lovely coastal town just out of Barcelona. Sitting on the balcony watching our last Spanish sunset.

Our last few days in Marrakesh were quite relaxing. Spent a few days just lazing around both at Riad Khol and at Dar Sabra. Went in to the square again for a bit of last minute shopping and something to eat. Checked out Gilles, the upmarket shopping complex and bought Leanne an amazing silver and amythyst ring.

One thing Mick wanted to do was have his picture taken with the Cobra's. We missed it the first night as they had packed up, so we headed back in the next arvo and there they were. After seeing one of the Cobra's strike at it's handler Mick starts to have second thoughts. Sensing this The Charmer quickly comes over and drapes a less venomous snake around Mick's shoulders and charms 200 Dirham out of his pocket, which is quite alot!

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Travel to Germany, Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart.

Was time to leave Amsterdam for a few days and head to Germany for some beer drinking at the Stuttgart Spring fest.

What would normally be an 8 or so hour drive (on NZ roads) was easily shortened when you drive the autobahn at 160-180km!! We arrived in no time.
We made it in time for the festival, only to be met by a long line to get into the tent, but being the cool kids we are, we jumped the cue and made it to the door. Two guys in front of us were told the tickets had just sold out.... as we were about to turn away a lady came running up with a handful of tickets left. So luckily we managed to get in. If we didnt skip the line we would never have made it in, we were pretty lucky. Sorry to the people we pushed in front of and who didnt get in- but hey, I came all the way from around the other side of the world.

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Travel to Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador, Bonavista.

Despite the odds with the weather over the last few days, we made it to the Atlantic Ocean tonight! We are not quite to St. John's yet or the easternmost point of Canada and North America, Cape Spear. We will save that celebration for tomorrow. We are privileged to be in a quaint, scenic little town called Bonavista about 280 kms north of St. John's (where we hope to be tomorrow). We are so thrilled to be here and can't quite believe we have made it to the east coast.

Bonavista's neighbouring village Little Catalina is where our nephew Darryl's beautiful wife Leah was born and lived prior to moving to Red Deer AB and meeting Darryl, and is where they christened their firstborn, Addison, yesterday that we sadly missed due to a record 58cm of snow in Gander over the last two days. We were bound and determined to get here today. Leaving early this morning from Grand Falls-Windsor, we rode to Gander in 1 degree weather, on fairly dry roads, and through our first light snow shower Tim's in Gander NLof the day. We took regular breaks each hour simply in order to thaw out frozen toes that Minus 40 socks guaranteed for life cannot keep warm. First tea of the day was at Tim's in Gander, right on the highway, no snow tires for side roads required. The news was apparently correct - the snow banks in Gander were 4 feet high and most side roads covered. Those along the highway revealed moose tracks (no, we still haven't seen one).

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Travel to Iceland, Southwest, Reykjavík.

This is my first contribution. This is just a hobby, an off shoot of another hobby, traveling. We have been seriously bitten by the travel bug. This blog is primarily intended as a way of remembering, a virtual souvenir, a travelogue for family and close friends.

We were on our way to Iceland from Heathrow for our 2012 Christmas holiday. The weather was surprisingly fine half way across the North Sea, when we started to have several bumps and air pockets. The captain ordered the suspension of the food service, and we settled down waiting for the last part of the flight to be over. Everyone was watching the onboard movie when suddenly the captain announced that we have a slight problem, on landing our braking coefficient was 'rather low' and that we would have difficulty getting down at Keflavik.

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Travel to Central Bohemian Region, Kutná Hora.

On the way to Kuta Hora delighted in field upon field of canola, brilliant yellow and in fill bloom. My guide was a wonderful older woman who had a lovely way about her and was always able to convey her feelings, attitudes, opinions and values throughout her commentary. She was charming and the day was glorious, bright and sunny just after an early morning rain, the sky was clear and the vista vast.

Kutna Hora

The town began in 1142 when established as a settlement as a Cistercian Monastary, the first in Bohemia. By 1260 German miners began to mine for silver in the mountain region, which they named Kuttenberg, and which was part of the monastery property. Under Abbot Heinrich Heidenreich the territory greatly advanced due to the silver mines which gained importance during the economic boom of the 13th century.

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Travel to Northern Norway, Kirkenes.

Sleeping in a Snow Hotel had been on our bucket list for some time, and we were going to strike that one off. We arrived at the Snow Hotel in early afternoon, in pitch darkness. It was extremely cold but calm and we had hopes for the Northern Lights. We were shown our bedroom closed off with a curtain and bed made of solid ice blocks. The only decorations in the room were the beautiful ice carvings on the icy walls. It was cold and out of this world. The snow hotel consisted of a reception, (with the obligatory fire extinguisher, although there was nothing remotely combustible inside) and two corridors leading to a few bedrooms in the form of igloos. The restaurant and rest rooms were in another building, this time made of wooden logs.

We spent the evening eating in the cozy restaurant. The place was extremely warm and we could cook our own meat on the open fire raging in the middle of the small restaurant. We ate reindeer meat for the first time, and it was absolutely exquisite. I will never think of Rudolph Dasher Dancer Prancer Vixen Comet Cupid Donder and Blitzen in the same Cooking reindeer sausageway from now on!

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Travel to Japan, Kanagawa, Hakone.

This post documents our two-day side trip during our week long trip to Tokyo in the summer of 2010. Part 1 of this series describes the highlights of our sojourn in Tokyo while Part 2describes our climb of Mt Fuji.

Prior to our arrival in Japan, I had booked a room at the excellent Moto-Hakone Guest House, and I also bought the Hakone Free Pass for JPY5500 on arrival at Narita. Both turned out to the excellent purchases; the guest house was friendly, homely and great value for money, and the Pass allowed unlimited rides within the Hakone area plus one return trip between Shinjuku and the Hakone area.

Leaving Shinjuku around noon on Thursday, we took the local train to the town of Odawara. From there, we took a bus to Moto-Hakone on the shores of Lake Ashi. Getting to the guest house was a breeze thanks to the detailed instructions, complete with pictures, on the guest house's website. Arriving around 4pm, the friendly proprietor told us to hustle out to dinner immediately as only the Italian restaurant was open and they would close before 5pm. With that, we headed into town - about a 15 minute walk
Jeff and Hello Kitty, Owakudani
This is Hello Kitty's tribute to the black shelled eggs of Owakudani, complete with a crack!- and had an excellent salad, pizza and ice cream. After dinner, we strolled along the shore of Lake Ashi enjoying the cool evening - a wonderful respite from the heat in Tokyo - before heading back and turning in early.

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Travel to Japan, Shizuoka, Mt Fuji.

This is the second of a three-part series on our Japan adventure. Part 1 is dedicated to highlights of our time in Tokyo and Part 3describes our two-day trip to Hakone.

After our first full day of sightseeing in Tokyo we had a satisfying dinner at a Thai restaurant. Jeff is vegetarian, and unfortunately we had problems communicating this in Japanese restaurants so far on our trip, so we went to a Thai restaurant where I could order vegetarian food in Thai for him. With our bellies full, we went to the bus station next to Shinjuku Station and got onto a bus headed to Mt Fuji's fifth station.

There are a total of nine stations on the trails leading up to the summit of Mt Fuji. Most hikers take a bus to the fifth station and start their hikes there. Yes, it's technically cheating but our time was limited! We opted to climb Fuji overnight for the sunrise, and we also opted to not stop overnight at a resthouse.

The bus ride took approximately 2.5 hours and we arrived at the fifth station around 9.30pm. The bus was only about half full, with mostly foreigners on board,
The Cloud Cover The Foiled Our Sunrise. Boo!including a group of Australian college kids. Mt Fuji's trails are only open to climbers in July and August. As we were climbing at the beginning of the season, only one store was open at the fifth station. Fortunately, that was the store with the lockers. We rented one, placed our dry clothes inside, and strolled around a bit to start getting used to the altitude.

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Travel to Malaysia, Sarawak, Bario.

From Miri, LP recommended a detour southeastwards back towards the Limbang division of Sarawak state, towards the piece of land separating Brunei. Unfortunately, this journey can only reasonably be done by flight, as it entails crossing rugged terrain. Given my time and budget constraints, I had to choose between checking out the famous caves of Gunung Mulu National Park, and the Kelabit Highlands. As I already intended to visit the caves of Niah National Park, I decided on the latter.

And so it was a short 1h flight aboard a propellor "twin otter" MASWings plane to Bario, the capital and gateway to the Kelabit Highlands. Capital is of course only a technical term, as Bario itself has a population of barely 1000, and the panoramic greenery is only sporadically dotted by signs of human dwelling. At a moderate altitude of about 1000m, Bario is occasionally chosen by travellers seeking to escape from the oppressive heat of lowland Sarawak, and also to get away from it all, more generally speaking. The highlands offers great multi-day trekking opportunities, through minor villages and traditional longhouses. But as I only had two days to spare here, I spent my time just taking in the
Wild Oriental Hornbill Spotted It figures. I spend MYR40 for each boat cruise down the River Kinabatangan back in Sabah to spot these critters, and of course they show up free of charge first thing when I arrived in Bario.sights closer to town proper, already a rural delight.

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Travel to Italy, Lazio, Rome.

Today we got to explore Rome! We started our tour with the biggest and most well known structure, the Colosseum. It was amazing, they built it in about 8 years. It's a bit surreal being there, it's not every day you get to visit the colosseum. Then we went to the Roman Forum where we got to see where Julius Caesar was cremated and many other important events. I was starving so i had a pizza near the colosseum. Half way through i found half a bug in my pizza! Had to complain to the manager but its a bit weird in Italy/ europe as the customers are never right, and they were hesitant to give me a refund for a pizza i couldn't finish. After that we travelled to a different country, Vatican City. It is so amazing, the artwork and sculptures are incredible! We visited the Sistine Chappell where we got to see Michelangelo's genius artwork. We spent a whole day touring Rome, then we had our last dinner together as a group, where we had a four course meal at a nice restaurant where they had beautiful Italian opera singers sing to us all night. Today we are making our way to Athens but unfortunately our flights are delayed for 2hrs due to a strike in Athens airport. I may not be able to post anything for a few days until I can get some Internet access but most of it will be just traveling from one place to another. Talk to you again in Greece!

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Travel to Spain, Basque Country.

I went to an centuries old Catholic Church for my friend's first Communion. There was about 20 boys and girls receiving first communion. After the communion we all walked over to the restaurant for a big party. We ate gigantic lunch , included shrimp, filet mignon, wine, sidra, deserts, other kinds of fish, lots and lots of food. We all played together

The party lasted from 2:30 until 10:30, then Grandma and I came home we were exhausted. The place that we went for lunch was a very fancy restaurant. First Communion is a major event here and you receive lots of presents. Where we went was up some outside escalators which we rode and then walked a couple of blocks to the restaurant. I had a lot of fun and the first communion was interesting.

San Sebastian: A couple of days ago we went to San Sebastian and I went on the beach and swam in the ocean. The water is clear here and the waves are not gigantic, swimming here is safer for everyone. The water is warm here and you do not freeze like an ice cube. We played on the playgrounds in San Sebastian. There Eneritz, me and Papa Papa is Eneritz's Godfatherare lots and lots of playgrounds here for children.

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Travel to Spain, Aragon, Zaragoza.

It was another grey weekend in Pamplona, but the weather forecast suggested that just under two hours away in the car, we might find some sunshine. So we headed off to Zaragoza and, sure enough, just as we were getting close, the clouds broke up and we were left with a beautiful blue sky.

About 50km Southeast of Zaragoza is the sad sight of the crumbling remains of Belchite. To get there we drove through spartan countryside on one of the straightest roads we have ever seen. The ruins of the cathedral loomed large in the distance and helped us get our bearings. Not really knowing where we were heading, we went through the new town and parked up out side the ruins of the old town.

It seems that once upon a time wandering idly through the ruins left from a brutal Spanish Civil War battle was possible. The crumbling buildings are getting a bit dangerous now though, and you can only go inside the cordon on a guided tour. They are available at 2pm, 4pm, and 6pm and, as usual, we timed our visit to imperfection! Instead we wandered around the outside of the cordon. It would
Ruins of Belchitehave been quite easy to lift up the rope and go inside but we erred on the side of caution. We even met the guide who told us that an audio tour in English was available if we went back to the starting point on the hour.

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Travel to Costa Rica, Alajuela, La Fortuna.

I was awake relatively early this morning as our hotel is right on a busy street and given we don't have air-con, the windows are open to let at least some cooler air in. After catching up on blogs, we went out for breakfast at the My Coffee cafe (same place we enjoyed an arvo coffee from yesterday). After tentatively ordering pancakes, Rach changed her mind when she saw the dessert menu...berry crepes (with ice-cream I might add!). I chose an omelet and was happy when it was brought out with fresh fruit and muffins too! So we broke our fast ensuring that we were well fed ahead of our massive adrenaline-rushing excursion.

We were picked up at 10am and taken to our waiting 4WDs. We scrambled onto the back of the trays where they had added benches for the would-be canyoneerers. The drive up the mountain was particularly bumpy...a 'Costa Rican massage' our funny little local guides pointed out (amongst heaps of other one-liners). The heavens then decided to open and a tropical downpour begun, well I suppose its not called a rainforest for nothing

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Travel to Bosnia & Herzegovina, East, Sarajevo.

We hadn’t intended to stay more than a night in Sarajevo as we had been to the city in 2009 and we thought we had seen all we had wanted to then.However, when we were looking at accommodation between here and our first stop in Montenegro there wasn’t a lot to choose from on the websites and what there was, was too expensive for the BBA V2.So we opted for another night in Sarajevo to break the journey.

As it turned out there were other things and places for us to see and do and basically fill the day in.
The weather was still grey and overcast this morning but at least there was no rain. We dressed for a daytime high of 10C which at home would have meant thick jerseys and hats if you were going outside.However,here.in the absence of any wind, there was no ‘chill ‘factor and we really didn’t notice the cold.

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Travel to Morocco, Taza-Al Hoceima-Taounate.

The scenery is quite stunning with the Atlas Mountains off in the distance and we notice some snow covered peaks (who would have thought snow in Morocco). We round a bend and suddenly find ourselves in Switzerland! A town called Ifrane was constructed by the King as he wanted a little piece of Switzerland in Morocco. It's good to be the King! Cedar trees and chalets abound and it apparently is quite the ski resort in Winter.

We stop for a coffee then continue on and the landscape changes again to resemble more like the Arizona Desert. We break for lunch in a sizable hotel in the middle of nowhere which has a fossil/meteorite museum attached. This will be the norm for the next couple of hundred kilometres.

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Travel to Bangladesh, Dhaka.

Since my last blog there have been 2 more hartals so I haven't been able to do much, but I did have quite an amazing day yesterday. I actually had the opportunity to venture into a typical Bangladesh village with one of the faculty members at the University. He was nice enough to offer to take us students and some of the volunteers on a walk through of a village where he resided while studying nursing.

On the surface it looks much different than the neighbourhood I am staying in. It is comprised primarily of very poor individuals as opposed to the middle class population that surrounds me now. Despite us foreigners exploring their home, the village people were very welcoming and invited us to have a rare glimpse of their daily lives.

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Travel to France, Île-de-France, Louvres.

And so we are well installed in our Marais apartment which we’ve found to be even more charming than in its website photos (if that is possible). Our welcome was made even warmer on the cool and drizzly Paris morning we arrived when we found that our host Hans had provided us with a most generous care package of fruit, milk, juice, brioche and jams, cheese and wine, Nespresso coffee maker plus capsules and all capped off with a miniature Eiffel Tower. The apartment absolutely ticks all the boxes – light and airy, on a quiet street, with a boulangerie a few doors down, and across from that a café (Les Temps du Cerise) with a zinc topped bar, the Seine at one end of the street, and the Rue San Antoine (with fruit shops, traiteurs, bottle shops, boulangeries, supermarkets and other smart shops ) at the other, and all of this within a stone’s throw (fortunately not in the May 1968 sense) of the Place de la Bastille. There is a danger that one could very comfortably spend a long time here without ever really needing to go more than a few hundred metres from the front door; fortunately we Bienvenue a Paris arrival care package compliments of our generous host Hans.have not been seduced into that trap.

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Travel to Italy, Umbria, Foligno.

We’re currently just outside Ravenna in a dead posh campsite; its been a while since we stayed in a proper campsite that has things like showers and toilets and we needed one because we haven’t done any washing for over three weeks! We ran out of underwear a week or so ago and ended up washing clothes (as well as ourselves) in the trusty bucket. If I was writing hitch-hikers guide to Europe (as apposed to the galaxy) it would be a bucket not a towel that was my number 1 accessory and it has served us well. We just stopped at the first campsite we came across and its lovely, has a posh (and open) pool bar, restaurant, shop, fruit n veg market thing, clean showers with hot running water; I’m in heaven! It also has full length mirrors which means I have seen myself for the first time since leaving home and I’m happily losing some weight! Turns out that you can forget Dukan, slimming world, weight watchers and going to the gym what you need to do is ditch your job (and stupid shifts) run away from anything resembling a schedule and responsibility and gorge yourself  download camera 1 043on pizza, pasta, cheese, wine and sunshine!

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Travel to Philippines, Bohol.

Im sure I saw somewhere on a poster that Bohol is the 12th largest island in the Philippines. I could quite easily google it right now to confirm my thoughts but where would all the fun be in that? The point of this thought is that I was expecting the drive back across Bohol from Anda, via the chocolate hills and the Tarsier sanctuary, to be quite a long one – considering it took the local bus 3 hours to cover the same distance in a straight line. To make sure our asses were covered we arranged to do this trip back to Tagbilaran the day before our flight. This was not needed (tip 1).

If you want to arrange to go and visit the highly popular attractions of the Bohol interior then I would probably not arrange it from Anda (tip 2). There is only 1 option and that is to arrange for a local in his car/minivan to take you and your friends (minus the friends in our case because we hadn’t acquired any) to all the sights and through to Tagbilaran in return for many Peso’s. If we were backpacking, we would not have been able to Chocolate hillafford this and would have booked from Tagbilaran fo sho.

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Travel to Australia, Queensland, Airlie Beach.

There's probably not a huge amount to say in this post. I spent a week on the west coast staying with Rich Miles, and probably got a little more comfortable than I should have. I originally had planned to spend the weekend in Perth and the rest of my time further down the west coast. However I only ended up spending one night down in Margaret River and the rest of the time was in Rich's house. When it came time to leave the thought of rejoining the backpacker circuit wasn't massively appealing, a few days in Cairns though and I'm somewhat back in the groove.

In Perth Rich took me to see King's Park, a fairly nice park just outside the city. Heard some local hippies playing one of the worst songs I've ever heard, D's D's double D's/ In the middle of a riddle. Can't remember the rest of it but I remember thinking Will.I.Am would be proud of some of the
Aussie Rules A game so simple even Australians can understand it.lyrics they'd come up with. Drove to the other side of the city and had a look for some kangaroos, without any success.

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Travel to Malaysia, Pahang, Cameron Highlands.

Today after another breakfast of Nasi Lemak and Maher feeling a little under the weather, maybe a cold from the drop in temperatures from KL to Cameron Highland; we were picked up at 08.45 for our 1/2 day tour. We first visited the butterfly farm where there were some of the most beautiful and biggest species of butterfly I have ever seen, along with an array of other animals from leaf frog to scorpions!

We then stopped at the tea plantation where we could see 600acres of tea plants being harvested by 200 workers. The plantation dating back to 1929 was and still is owned by a Scottish family and harvested every 3 weeks by foreigners.

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Travel to Vietnam, Red River Delta, Ninh Binh.

I went to Ninh Binh with Linda, whom I met in a homestay in Sapa. We found a hotelroom, where we bargained a lot for the price, but it was not worth it, not even at the price, we ended up paying, since it wasn't a nice room, the toilet door couldn't close, it smelled and the lady, wholived there, kept touching my face and shoulders, which was really weird. The next day we rented some bicycles and went to the "Tam Coc cave", where we enjoyed the amazing scenery from a boat. the landscape was quite similar to "Ha Long Bay", except fr the fact that there down here weould be rice on each side of the boat during the rainy season. But even without the green rice on both sides it was a beautiful trip with limestone cliffs on both sides. When we got to the end, there were some women in some boats trying to sell us things, that we did not want to buy. Among other things, they wanted us to buy a banana for the lady, who was rowing our boay, instead we gave her one of our bananas, but neither she or the other women seemed happy about that. When we got near the shore, the woman started saying "tip, tip", but neither Linda or I wanted to give her extra money, especially not when she was asking for it. After this we went to see a pagoda in a cave, "Bich Duong", where there was a pagoda in the bottom, and then we walked up some steps to a pagoda in a cave, afterwards we walked through the cave and saw a sign saying "climb", so we climbed the limestone cliffs, me in peeptoe ballerinas, but that should not stop me from seeing what was on the top, and it was deffinitely worth the climb.

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Travel to Italy, Tuscany, Florence.

We had a leisurely start to the day with breakfast in the shady courtyard. Temperature rose throughout the day to 26 so water and rests were required.

We headed off with our trusty guide books and maps and the Firenze cards Jim had bought online. It was a very popular venue today with loads of groups of young teenagers here and there! Quite a few Americans around as well but we coped.

So we came to Sante Croce piazza and it was brimming with street sellers and guess who fell for the gift of an elephant ornament and then another and 5 Euros later the street seller finally moved on. I got stronger through the day with the shaking of my head and definite No! Jim got it in one but then he had years of training in Abudhabi. We had a browse around the market always so colourful with fresh veg and fruit salami and ham.

So Jim headed off to get the tickets sorted and I sat in the sun having forgotten the sun cream as you do! Yes we have returned this evening with red faces and arms but not too bad thank goodness.

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Travel to India, Rajasthan, Udaipur.

A day which has earned an entry all of its own. We began the day with what shall forever more be remembered as the ‘sweat death breakfast’ on the rooftop of our guesthouse. Turns out when there is no breeze it is rather warm in Udaipur, even at 8am. If only someone had warned us it might be hot. Oh wait…After ten minutes of alternating between using the menu as fan, hat and elbow mat to prevent frying our elbows on the molten metal table we surrendered to the shade to finish our sweat droplets with muesli fruit curd-the incredibly appetising Indian term for yoghurt. We have managed to, with a combination of extensive gesturing, saying the same sentence repeatedly in increasingly louder and with varying inflections and haphazard missing out of selected words (as has become my general way of communicating), persuaded the guesthouse to allow us to set up a tab saying as we are staying here for a month. This involves signing all of our orders so they can add them up at the end of each week. So far, so normal. Until we were thrust an empty sheet and simply asked to sign the bottom. We pointed out, using the communication strategy previously described, that is not particularly common practice to sign a blank cheque for an undetermined amount. About ten minutes of stalemate later we won the battle and our actual bill was produced.

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Travel to Morocco, Tangier-Tétouan, Chefchaouen.

We were invited last night to take a trip with the young French couple staying in our hotel. Silvain and Delphine are from Grenoble and are in their late 20s. They have a rental car and were going on a hike to a natural bridge up in the mountains an hour's drive from here, in the Talassemtane National Park. We left around 9:30 and met the guide they had hired at the beginning of the trail. We could go on the mountain trail that came out above the bridge, or the river trail, where we had to cross by wading (we understood we would cross once...hahaha....). We decided on the river trail, and hiked above the Gorge de Farda, then beside the river, then in the river...really in the river....! At times we were thigh-deep in swift currents....The water was cold but not like in the Cascades...

Once the river adventure was over, we decided to go for lunch at a small place, with a panoramic view, that our hotel had recommended, and then drive another 30 minutes to the Mediterranean Sea. All along our route to the trailhead and after, we would come across the strong smell of ganga,  Men in Hatswhich we knew was grown in the mountains surrounding us. We spotted several plants growing wild along the road, but never saw any fields for sure (there were crops being grown very high in the mountains, and we assumed some of them were marijuana). Marijuana is the main export from this region, even though it's "illegal" here.

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Travel to Greece, Crete, Heraklion.

Once the centre of the Minoan civilization, as well as the largest of all the Greek Islands, Crete has a rich cultural history that forms a large part of the overall tapestry of Greece. According to Greek mythology, goddess Rhea hid the newborn Zeus in a cave on the Island, where he was subsequently reared by nymphs who protected him from his enemies. It was also on Crete, that Zeus took the form of a bull in order to seduce the maiden Europa.

After another early posh breakfast we alighted the ship and walked to the main bus station where we purchased our tickets and caught the no 2 to Knossos which is about 5 km outside of the town of Iraklion. The Minoan Palace is the main site of interest at Knossos, an important city in antiquity, which was inhabited continuously from the neolithic period iuntil the 5th century AD. The palace was built on the Kepphala hill and had easy access to the sea and the Cretan interior. According to tradition, it was the seat of the wise king Minos. The Palace of Knossos is connected with thrilling legends,
Minoan Frescos at Knossossuch as the myth of the Labyrinth with the Minotaur, and the story of Daidalos and Ikaros.

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