Travel to Hungary, Budapest.

I believe we all agree that I have terrific language skills, but I must admit Hungarian has thrown me for a loop. Yet even with the language barrier ... today I witnessed another example of how we are all the same. At lunch, under a huge umbrella, in 104 degree heat, I witnessed the following, and although I understood only one word of the entire conversation ("gelato") I knew precisely what was going on.

Two tables, the first occupied by two couples, the second occupied by the four children of the two couples (lets call them 8-12). Lunch was over and the waiter was cleaning up and asked if anyone wanted desert. As the parents shook their heads "no," the waiter was already rattling off the options, which included GELATO. The ninos, of course, wanted gelato, and after some energetic cajoling the parents relented. After sorting the ninos, the waiter asked the parents if they want to join in the gelato. The two husbands (who I believe are brothers) did not need much encouragement.

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Travel to Germany, Berlin.

We left Warsaw for Berlin on Wed 24th, on a train this time. It took about 5.5 hours, stopping at a few main towns on the way. Straight through the border....scenery the same all the way - mainly cropping. The new main railway station in Berlin (finished 2006 - took 10 years to build) is just something to behold. It's nearly all glass, including the roof, so very light and bright inside. It's about 6 stories high.....trains going north & south are on the lowest level, then there's a couple of levels of shops (all sorts, including fashion shops), including the street level, and the east/west trains leave from the level above. No doubt there's a level for the metro/underground trains too, but we didn't use those, so don't know which one. We walked 10mins to our hotel in the 30 degree heat, which lasted all the time we were there. No air con in our room and after the first night (cooled down to 24) I asked for a fan, so that we could sleep !!! Couldn't leave the windows open as too much traffic noise.

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Travel to Cambodia, Sihanoukville.

Okay so the job sucked. I trained with them for like four days and I would have felt like a complete dick if I had done it. Basically they pretend to be a talent agency and prey on broke people who really want to be actors and actress. They tell them they can make all this money doing extra work they just need to get some professional photos done….by one of their studios of course. T is all just a lie to get them to buy photos. The company never gets anybody a job. So I bailed on that. On the flip side, I have been hired as a freelance content writer for websites. It doesn’t pay well, but that’s okay I am happy to be paid to write. Eventually after you have a portfolio you can start charging more. I can’t believe that I am actually getting into writing. I have always wanted to be paid to write. The subject matter sucks but eventually I can probably write about stuff I like more, if not, as long as I can get paid more I’m good.

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Travel to North Holland, Amsterdam.

We were up early today as it was our last day in Amsterdam and I was determined to visit Anne Frank's House. You don't come to Amsterdam and not visit Anne Frank's House, you just don't. We tried all week to book online tickets but there were none available as they are booked out well in advance so we decided to wait in line for however long it took to get in. Correction, I decided we would wait in line for however long it took.

We high tailed it off the tram and bound down to Anne Frank's House thinking we were nice and early and shouldn't have to wait too long in line. Apparently 100's of others thought the same. Surprisingly we only had to wait about an hour to get in. We'd heard stories of people having to wait two or three hours so all in all we didn't do too badly. I may have left Clive to hold our place in the line while I went for a little walk so for me the wait wasn't too bad at all!

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Travel to Canada, Alberta, Edmonton.

In 31 days I will be off to Lima, Peru to go on a 5 month trip to lovely South America. In a true naive backpacker fashion I haven't yet planned anything as of yet. All I have committed to is the date I arrive in Lima and the date I leave Lima. I have somewhat of a hazy plan of the countries I want to go to which include Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Colombia.

I had previously traveled to South East Asia in the summer of 2012 and had meant to write a travel blog. Unfortunately I did not have the discipline to continue with the blog so I am going to commit to one now. In the next 31 days I plan on sharing some practical information about packing, visas, budgeting, and tips on planning a somewhat unorganized itinerary. Hopefully you will be able to join me on my travels if I have the patience to write every week.

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Travel to China, Fujian, Xiamen.

Xiamen is a very relaxed city by Chinese standards. People say that is because of the proximity to Taiwan, meaning there has always been affluence and a certain limited exposure to the outside world. No one batted an eyelid to see a Westerner. Xiamen is popular as a tourist destination for the Chinese, although it's a more laidback type of tourism, people come for the beaches and to hire tandems to cycle along the promenade.

I had an interesting conversation with the owner of the hostel I am staying at, who is Chinese but married to a Westerner, about the dramatic shift in China from Communism and collectivism to rampant consumerism. This is something almost every traveller I have met in China has remarked upon, but it is hard to escape: in modern China, shopping malls are everywhere, garishly lit up and packed with crowds, and advertising is everywhere too - even on the Subway systems, there are screens showing advertisements.

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Travel to China, Shanghai.

Before I came to China, I had not known calligraphy was considered such an art form. Today I went to the Shanghai Museum, which has a section devoted to the history of calligraphy and examples of the various masters and the development of the form throughout history. It was surprisingly entertaining as the audioguide described how through the various dynasties what was considered perfect calligraphy changed as new masters came along and altered the artistic landscape, similar to the way painting developed in Western fine art. I saw ancient calligraphy variously described as "free and expressive", "like writing in capital letters in an email" and, my favourite, "the finest calligraphy of its time, but characters like a frog squashed under a rock".

Calligraphy remains a popular hobby in China. Beijing has a whole row of shops selling calligraphy materials and we have periodically seen calligraphy shops in all the places we have visited. Walking the streets I also regularly see people (usually older people) practising drawing characters in the street with a large brush and a small bucket of water to dip it in.

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Travel to Switzerland, South-West, Lauterbrunnen.

We arrived the previous night at Interlaken Ost and checked in at 'Hotel Beausite' (10 minutes walk. It is closer to Interlaken West). The staff was very friendly and patient. They spent close to 20 minutes answering our various questions on our proposed biking trip for the next day. Rooms were very comfy and clean. The best part was the view we got the next day from the windows. The picture speaks for itself.

We walked till Interlaken West which had a bicycle renting place within the railway station. They charged us 30-40 CHF to rent a mountain bike for a day and took a photocopy of our passports. Its better to take the bikes for a day, as you can return whenever you want in the night (they close by 1800 hrs), park the bike in the garage and drop the key in a slot. They had a good collection of them, and I highly recommend this place.

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Travel to France, Brittany, Quimper.

Our original plan had been to sail across the Bay of Biscay and arrive southeast of where we are currently located. Unfortunately we had spent so much time waiting for good weather in Spain that we decided we needed to move along if we were ever going to make it to Holland this season. We decided if we could not sail to these areas we would grab a bus and do some overland traveling. Our first trip was to a town called Quimper. Not sure what to expect, we took the approximately one hour bus ride and got off at the top of the town. We arrived there quite early, 8 AM (we found the French are not what one would call morning people) and the town was very quiet. Thinking we’d stop for a coffee we are amazed to find all the shops closed. It turned out to be an excellent time to get there because none of the tourists had arrived so the streets were almost completely deserted – a nice time to walk through the historic area of town.

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Travel to Tajikistan, Murgab.

The differences could not have been more stark. There are two towns within five kilometres of each other both called Ishkashim. The one in Afghanistan was dry, dusty with unpaved streets, ramshackled buildings, irregular electricity supply and the streets dominated by ambling men. In contrast, the paved roads of Ishkashim in Tajikistan were lined were elegant, tall poplar trees, neat buildings, and smartly dressed men and women were seen in numbers. The only similarity was the desire of residents to know about the Ishkashim on the other side of the border. It felt good to be back in Tajikistan.

The next morning my driver, Mendibay, one of the many Kyrgyz living in the Pamir Mountains (the Pamirs), arrived at the guest house sporting metal caps on his teeth often found in the region. His Mitsubishi Pajero was a luxurious comparison to my battered transport in Afghanistan. The roads in Tajikistan were far smoother and enabled a much faster journey, and I would often glance towards Afghanistan and espy the twisted, rough tracks that I had travelled the week before.

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Travel to Thailand, Bangkok.

As Thailand is my favourite destination in the world, a sale on Thai Airways was just the reason to stop in Bangkok on our trip to France. We've been through Bangkok maybe six times but this was the first time it was our actual destination and we had 5 days to have a look around and try and get over jetlag on what is pretty much the same timezone as Perth (1 hour difference).

We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Silom in a Kids Suite. We've stayed in a similar suite at a different location but this one had a seperate room for the kids (rather than half a wall hiding them) so that was very useful sound wise when the Little Miss was screaming at 2am :( The pool was just a normal pool (maybe 15m x 5 wide) but after the heat of France we actually found Bangkok not that hot so although we used it each afternoon that was more in an effort to keep the kids awake. It was mostly around 32 degrees the whole time and only rained once while we were there.

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Travel to South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Howick.

Despite having been to Africa before, today has been the hardest day of travelling we have ever experienced. Ten hours on the road to cover 600 km, or to put it another way an average speed of 37 mph. For the cyclists among our readers we have had a total gain today of 22,000 feet and we are now up in the Drakensberg Mountains. Meg has been complaining of dehydration and altitude sickness! The Eastern Cape where we started this morning is very different to places we have travelled before in South Africa and Namibia; it has suffered from under-investment for many years and the road infrastructure is fairly poor. We had completed nearly 20km this morning before we were able to get into fourth gear.

Today we had another first, something that we said we never do, that is to travel after dark on the rural roads, where you have to look out for cars without lights, vehicles with one headlight so you think it’s a motorbike, cyclist without lights - normally on your side of the road but coming towards you – oh, and not forgetting the pedestrians.

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Travel to Malaysia, Terengganu, Perhentian Besar.

If the fact that we were in Malaysia was a surprise to us, even more so was the fact that we spent around 10 days on the Perhentian Islands, two small islands located off the coast of Western Malaysia. We made the definitive decision to set course there when an old friend from Poland, who was now training English teachers in Malaysia, let us know that he was going scuba diving there for the weekend. We hadn’t seen him in around 10 years and, since we were planning on obtaining our scuba certificates anyway, though the initial inclination was to do our certificate in Thailand, we wondered if there was a good reason not to visit the islands. Unable to think of one, we caught a night bus – in my opinion, the best we’d been on thus far on our travels, with comfortable, fully reclining chairs with plenty of leg room between each seat, not seating more than twenty individuals on the entire bus – from KL to Kuala Besut

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Travel to Ireland, County Cork, Kinsale.

I seemed to have picked up Lindsay’s cold bugs and as the day wore on, mine got steadily worse. Add to that the gloomy weather, it didn’t make for a pleasant day.

The weather wasn’t looking promising but we headed off for Kinsale and Cork on the coast for the day anyway. We took the ring road around Cork and headed off to Kinsale where it was already raining. We remember Kinsale from years ago in the 70’s when we went there with the Tindalls. It is a really pretty seaside resort. Today it was less than inspiring. The tide was out, there were cars and people everywhere and it was raining. We did get to walk some of the town and had a really good seafood chowder at a Pub. We wondered what the crowd was along the foreshore further on where there was a helicopter hovering. It appeared that a sailing ship with a crew of young people had foundered on the rocks and sunk and they all had to be rescued.

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Travel to Central Thailand, Bangkok.

Anytime one arrives in a foreign country, there's always a need to quickly understand how much the money is worth. Yes, you can read and discover that one USD = 31 Thai Baht = .78 Euros. But that still doesn't tell you what the money is worth or what it can buy. In the US, for example, if I buy a single serving of Coke at a 7-11, I'm probably going to pay at least $1.30. Here, that same bottle of coke is only 17 B, less than half the price. A bottle of water? In the US, about the same as the Coke, maybe more. Here, it's between 6-10 B, a quarter of the price.

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Travel to Poland, Kuyavian-Pomeranian, Torun.

We knew it was too good to be true and yes the sun of yesterday had deserted us,at least for the morning.Not that it mattered as we have a reasonable distance to travel by car south to Torun and perhaps by the time we get there the sun will be out again.

Breakfast was the same as yesterday with the three nationalities represented and conversation limited to our individual groups.We would have to say this has been the only disappointing feature of our stay here as it is always good to converse with locals and fellow travellers from afar and we have in the past been able to at least get some conversation from others around us at breakfast.

We took the R1 on a virtually direct run south travelling through countryside that has become very recognisible and repetitive which goes to demonstrate just how big Poland is and just how far we have travelled around and through it taking in at first the eastern side from south to north with a dive into the middle for Warsaw and then on our return from the three Baltic countries,a journey west and now south.

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Travel to Austria, Styria, Graz.

After leaving Slovenia, going through Italy for a short distance then entering Austria, it reminded us how beautiful Austria is also. It’s features are the mountains (snow fields) and the major cities. We drove through Villach, Feldkinchen, St Veit an der Glan and then onto Friesch where we stopped for a few hours.

Friesach is known for its old, moated town. We drove into the town at 12MD and it was extremely quiet. We parked in the town’s main [cobbled] square and found the Information Centre. They gave us a map so off we went. We saw the Palace which was now being used as a theatre, the castle, which is now a restaurant and museum at the top of the hill, and many different ruins. The moat was only on 3 sides. It was a lovely little town.

We had lunch and then drove through Judenberg. For the next 40kms it was incredibly mountainous (with occasional 1st gear work) but incredibly beautiful. From there we drove another 40kms to Graz.

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Travel to North-West Thailand, Chiang Mai.

Our first full day was spent exploring Chiang Mai, visiting many temples in the city, as well as Doi Suthep, a temple quite far up a mountain on the edge of the city. Doi Suthep is reached by climbing 309 steep steps, or there's a cable car for lazy people, which I resisted! The view from the top over the city is well worth the climb though, as well as the temple itself being stunning, and the altitude meant that it was pleasantly cooler than the remainder of the city.

That evening we wandered over to the night market after it stopped raining where we bought a few pieces, ate dinner and tried to find the cabaret that a group of people from the hostel were going to. We found a cultural show, and presuming it was the right place sat down to watch - only to wonder why on earth everyone had been raving about it!! It was only the next day when we asked everyone in our hostel if they'd actually gone to the cabaret that we found out we were in the wrong market!

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Travel to Mexico, Baja California Sur.

That particular William S. Burroughs quote sticks into me like a thorn. I'm at a crossroads in my life, and I don't know what to do. Weird dreams plague me as of late, vivid I picture a withered man sitting alone in the shadows of a Tangiers cafe in the sweltering stink of the midday. His playful old eyes gleam as I approach. For some reason, he's privy to my destiny.

This causes me strong intrigue, so I ask if I can join him and we spend the afternoon chatting about this and that, mesmerized am I by the swirl of his brilliance as it pours from the top of his head like smoke off a corncob pipe. I sip burnt espresso from my minuscule cup with pleasure. Behind him, veiled women drift down the cool cobblestone passages seemingly undetected. Our conversation stays friendly but vague, so impatience gets the better of me and I rudely interrupt. “William, you were going to tell me what I’m supposed to do with my life.”

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Travel to Nepal, Kathmandu, Durbar Square.

Today, Elysia was back volunteering at the hospital, so Mike spent the morning wandering a bit through Thamel and worked on the blog at a cool little coffee shop called Pumpernickel. It's a place full of ex-pats, so it is neat to hear a bunch of different accents.

Elysia wasn't at the hospital in the afternoon so together we walked down to the Durbar Square in Kathmandu. We explored the various temples without a guide and paid a visit to the Palace Museum. It's kind of a neat museum, but seems to be heavily slanted in a pro monarchy fashion; much of the commentary felt like reading propaganda.

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Travel to India, Delhi.

Midway through the last blog I’d made the comment that the bus from Srinagar to Leh was none too impressive and that I’d return to that later… Evidently I didn’t. On boarding said bus there’d been an argument, the context of which, being in Hindi, we were not privilege to. However, at the journey’s end (two days that flashed by in a mesmerizing scenic blur) we were approached by an English-speaking passenger and informed that everyone was going to the ticket office to complain: apparently we had all paid for a “deluxe” bus (i.e. one with reclinable seats), but had had to endure a “C” class ride instead. This was all news to us; we’d booked the cheapest bus available and had expected very little in return. Nevertheless we went along. As everyone packed into the office the rather nervous official immediately picked out Ali and myself and bizarrely stated “it’s only you foreigners that complain about such things”. We gestured towards the 30 local passengers surrounding us.

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Travel to Latvia, Riga Region, Riga.

We can see the top of the Latvian Academy of Sciences Building from our hotel room. The building, a reminder of Latvia's long occupation by the Soviets, was built in 1958-60 using the Stalinist style of the 7 sisters in Moscow.

From the top of this monument of soviet occupation one gets a panoramic view including Riga Central Market. The UNESCO world heritage site is the largest market and bazaar in Europe and was built from 1924-30. The main structures are 5 pavilions constructed by re-using old German Zeppelin Hangers made redundant after WWI. The smell in each of the 5 pavilions advertises its wares, one smells of of fish, one of meat, one of freshly baked bread, and yet another of cheese. Outside the pavilions there is a sweet-smelling flower market.

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Travel to Vietnam, Red River Delta, Hanoi.

Getting off the plane in Hanoi, everything seemed strangely familiar. Thankfully we knew what to do regarding out visas and we were amazed at how easy and quick the process was when compared to the nightmare of Saigon! Before we knew it we were with our friends, Kaithe and Ted, and fighting with the capital's traffic in a taxi en-route to their flat.

After resting for a while and catching up with our friends, we soon had to think about dinner. It was our first night back in Vietnam so if course it should be an Indian take-away! To place your order with the Namaste you simply visit their website, select your dishes (be careful though, the online menu doesn't tell you how spicy things are), and half an hour or so later there will be a knock at the door. Magic! And the food is simply amazing.

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Travel to Italy, Campania, Salerno.

We got into the train alright but the usual baggage compartments zero...i went to the other side of the carriage to put my bag.....no baggage compartment but i did find the train engine...since it was only two stops...we decided one bag would take my seat the other we would put it near the single seat again...and I would go and find an empty seat....Then...this huge fight erupted...due to a dog...yes dogs are allowed in the trains...don't know what the rules are but they can take their dogs....they were all screaming and carrying on...someone had to call the train master.....after more screaming they all got told to sit down .....Lol so funny hearing Italians argue....their hands are going everywhere...after that it was a pretty quite trip ...When we arrived at Salerno ...we had to wait for our pick up for the hotel...standing at the station was interesting to say the least....I saw this girl with two sizes track suit pants with her stomach hanging out..she then turns around and all I can see is her crack...then all this people beeping to get out the way....then people arguing....

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Travel to Hungary, Central Transdanubia, Lake Balaton.

Wednesday July 17 –Today was just hectic. I had breakfast in the hotel (eggs and ham – another new one) and then went to the bus station for my bus to Balatonfured, on Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Hungary. I actually didn’t find a place to stay here, earlier on, so after I got there, I took another bus going to Keszthely, a bit further away. The first bus of course had a blood thirsty pack of people trying to all get on at the same time again. But in this case, I saw why. There were too many people, and not enough seats. I got one, luckily, but many people had to stand. Now this bus was by no means direct, so people were getting on and off many times through the journey. I was on this bus for 2.5 hours, so I’m glad I could sit. I also had to pee desperately for 2.5 hours. Quelle nightmare. As soon as I got off the bus, I went into the info office and found out that my next bus was leaving in 20 minutes, luckily.

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Travel to Slovenia, Upper Carniola, Ljubljana.

As soon as we crossed into Slovenia (an EU country) we could see we were in for a treat regarding scenery. The border was a ‘drive-straight-through’ and buy a vignette for the car. This is instead of paying tolls. Slovenia is only 20,000 sq km and 85% of it is covered with vegetation, with 2 million people. It is also a very mountainous country and it hasn’t been subjected to major wars. So all in all we knew we were in for a treat.

The country only has 45 kms coast line between Croatia and Italy, but it’s a beautiful part of the country. We drove through it from Croatia on our way to Trieste.

Our 1st stop after travelling over excellent roads was Ljubljana with 280,000 people of which there are 65,000 students. It’s the main university in the country. Other than an administrative building for the Uni, which is now housed in the old Parliament House, all the faculties are separate and sprinkled throughout the town – great concept.

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Travel to Indonesia, Java, Bandung.

I got the train from Jakarta to Bandung early on Friday. I took the executive class, which was 90,000 rupiah for a single (about 6 quid). The journey was really comfortable, and the scenery in between both cities was really nice, with green grass and rice fields scattered along the way. The journey took around three hours, and I arrived in Bandung at 11.30am. Hunny hostel was less than ten minutes from the station and in a nice part of Bandung. The guy that worked there told me that I’d arrived too late to go to either of the volcanoes, so it was better to simply explore the city of Bandung and go to one of the volcanoes the following day.

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Travel to India, Rajasthan, Udaipur.

Udaipur..An Oasis in the Desert..Venice of the East..A city of romance..a city, where many celebrities across the continents want to spend few days with their better-halves, some came here for marriage, some for movie shoots, but more or less, this city mesmerized everyone. And from the beginning of its foundation, Udaipur remains a center of attraction for Rajasthan. During the dynasty of Mighty Mughals in India, Mewar Dynasty of Udaipur wrote the history of Rajputana with its gallantry, valor and sacrifice, which is still remembered across India.

Today, this city is one of the important place to visit in India, where everybody loves to set his foot. Many places are scattered across Udaipur, where you can find a glimpse of its glorious past and incredible present, but there are some places which should not be missed at any cost, whenever you are in Udaipur. So Lets find them out.. Read on.

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Travel to Germany, Berlin.

I am not one to sterotype an entire people, but these Germans ... hold on a second ... that's not right ... I am going to start that sentence again...

If you will allow me to sterotype an entire people, these Germans are a very rule-abiding bunch. Seriously, you have never seen anything like it. Among the best examples is their obedience to cross walk signals. I was out for a walk early on Sunday morning and unsurprisingly, there was virtually no traffic. I arrived at a cross walk and the signal indicated "don't walk," but there is not a car in sight. So ... being an American, I proceeded into the cross walk and crossed the street without incident. My fellow pedestrians? They admonished me with their disapproving looks, and they continued to stand, waiting patiently for the "walk sign" to appear. I was astonished. I felt like yelling "People, the nearest moving vehicle is in Dresden, its time to consider looking both ways and crossing the street."

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Travel to Spain, Galicia, La Coruña.

We have spent the last week exploring the Ria De Muros. The first two nights spent anchoring off the playa de San Francisco which was well sheltered and good holding. The town was small and friendly. We then moved to Muros anchoring outside the Marina, the town was bigger and busier, lots of history and cafes. They were celebrating a festival and the live music played until 5.30 am and at 9.00 am they sent up rocket air bombs from the pier !!! When do they sleep? It all got a bit too noisy and busy so we headed over to Portosin and have spent the last two nights on a berth there. A very nice place, very welcoming and friendly. Today we head for Baiona. I don't think we will have enough wind to get us there today so will either anchor up on the way or do a bit of night sailing. That is the boring factual bit over I will leave Sam to let her imagination run riot.

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Travel to Afghanistan, Qala Ouest.

It is a harsh life in the Wakhan. This is best evidenced by infant mortality rates that exceed 40% in places, contributed by a combination of climate and isolation. This harshness is reflected in the Wakhi faces that are as captivating as the mountains they live under. The faces are hard, and every line on their visage tells a tale of trial and tribulation. Even the children wore those same tough visages. It was rare to see a young looking child, for their faces usually resemble the adults, albeit in a much smaller form.

But beneath this hard exterior lies a warm and welcoming heart as our half-day hike through the villages past Sargaz revealed. It was again a glorious sunny day, and the low sun cast large shadows that shaded the main path. We passed numerous vignettes of pastoral life; children watching over grazing goats, men carting goods on the back of donkeys/mules, women tending to the fields. Interestingly, the women often showed their face in public, quite unlike Ishkashim. Usually, rural areas tend to be more conservative than population centres, yet in this part of the Afghanistan, the opposite occurred.

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Travel to Czech Republic, Hradec Králové Region, Teplice nad Metují.

As is it was to be a long journey from Cesky Krumlov to the small town of Teplice we broke the journey in Hradec Kralove, North East of Prague. Another town with an ancient city centre. There was an informative walk around the centre with posts in English so that you knew what you were looking at. A pleasant way to spend a few hours, but not worth a journey in itself. The town was completely dead on a Saturday, no atmosphere at all.  Teplice is a small place on the northern Polish border, the reason to go there are the walks through the wonderful sandstone rock formations, the largest single rock formation in Europe. If you imagine Bryce canyon in grey placed in a pine forest you have a picture of it. Huge weathered rocks, lots of walks and lots of forest. It’s a popular destination with many families from Czech Republic, Poland and Germany.

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Travel to China, Xinjiang, Turpan.

I believe there are 3 places that stand out in Xinjiang province in terms of popularity. The first one is naturally Urumuqi because it’s the capital of the province and it’s also the largest and most developed city in this huge province. The second one is Kashgar because of its location in the far west of Xinjiang. It’s the gateway to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan or Pakistan and it’s the heart of the Uyghur community and culture. Finally the 3rdplace must be Turpan, a famous oasis covered in green grapes where tourists come for a day trip from Urumuqi to enjoy big fat raisins and some sweet wine.

Becky’s friend, Jiao Lu, had some business to attend in Turpan and she offered to drive us there so that we could visit the vineyards and the other sites while she was working: an offer we couldn’t refuse. The road to Turpan from Urumuqi offered some very cool scenery along the way. At first we drove through bare hills of stones and little bush, and then we passed dark stony mountains before hitting the flat empty land where gigantic windmills are spreading on each side of the road for kilometers.

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Travel to Germany, Baden-Württemberg.

There are so many places for families to go here that have things for kids. There are playgrounds, parks, ponds/lakes, hiking trails everywhere, and mini amusement parks. There is a palace called Ludwigsschloss where a man created a fairytale park with castles and houses represented in fairy tales. It is kind of like a Disneyland on a smaller less commercial scale, with Rapunzel's tower, Hansel and Gretel's candy house, scenes from 1001 Arabian Nights, and other houses and castles from famous stories. Here are some pictures from this park as well as another amusement park for kids with lots of cool things for kids.

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Travel to Lithuania, Marijampole.

We should have known by now that Vicky(our GPS)loves roads that takes us to the centre of cities and to the backblocks,if she gets the opportunity.Today it was the turn of the backblocks in a major way!The town where we are staying is in a rural village but we did think there were some reasonable secondary roads to get there and so plugged in the shortest route to the GPS.Needless to say we have learnt our lesson once and for all,more later.

The weather has remained fine although as we get closer to Poland we are not sure this will continue given Poland's weather patternsBut we shall make the best of what is ahead today.

Its back into Lithuania today and a stop at an attraction in a field about 10km before the city of Siauliai(get your head around that one to pronounce) we had seen on the Travel programme on TV.We assume that finding it will be easy enough as people make pilgrimages to it in the thousands and therefore we expect it will be signposted from the main road.We might even find it using Vicky,of course!

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Travel to Czech Republic, Prague.

This was the city that I couldn't see in my interrail trip 8 years ago. This time, I came here with my choir for a Music Festival and did a bit of sightseeing during 4 days.  We were staying in a place near Chodov so it was kind of annoying to take the bus and then the metro in order to get to the center. It's a pity also that a lot of monuments were under repair... Anyway, I managed to see this beautiful old city corners.

What impressed me the most was the Vltava. When I saw this huge river I deeply understood what a patriot like Smetana meant in his piece 'Die Moldau'. I think I have to come back in another time, when the river rages.

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Travel to Japan, Hokkaido, Abashiri.

Simple buffet breakfast with soup, toast, cold noodles in mayonnaise, yoghurt and a few unknowns. Sunny and high 20's again - not complaining. Out of the door and straight up the hill for 2 miles at 7%. This was followed by a descent back to the coast, which we followed for 20 miles. The first town of Utoro was very nice with a fishing harbour and large brown rocks standing in the sea near the coast. It reminded me of the East coast at Scarborough and Whitby. Along the way there were also some quite good waterfalls streaming down into the sea, one spectacular one called Oshin Koshin. Cormorants were also seen basking on rocks close by and waiting for a bite to eat. I managed to get quite a good photo of one as it took off towards the sea. Several kites were also hovering above, again no doubt scanning for food. On our way we saw hundreds of cyclists going in the opposite direction, young,old, fit and not so fit, presumably on a charity ride with police and army escorts. We stopped for lunch in Shari Town, which looked brand new, and we had take away chicken legs and rice wrapped in a leaf. Koshimuzu Flower Park was a bit of a let down, but I suppose it may look better at other times of year when there are more flowers.

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Travel to Africa, Ghana.

So after a pretty straightforward flight, I arrived in Ghana. It was pretty cool to fly over the Sahara desert - just masses and masses of sand in little dunes. Was welcomed to Ghana by a sign saying "We do not welcome paedophiles or ther sexual deviants" which made me giggle :)

Searched the rows upon rows of people holding up signs, and finally spotted by name - introduced myself to Jamal, who lives here in the volunteer house with us. It was such a culture shock driving up to Teshie from the airport in Accra - so many people out and about at 10.30pm, just hanging out on the streets in front of their houses. The houses are just tiny shacks for the most part, and they look like derelict buildings. Apparently they host families of 5 or so! All living in one room.....Ghanaians do not spend time at home apparently, it is just somewhere to sleep.

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Travel to Spain, Region of Murcia.

It's Sunday afternoon and I've come back to the hotel from the beach to do some washing and start getting organised to move on tomorrow. I've spent 3 lovely - hot and humid - days here, just relaxing. I think I needed it. I have been carrying a sore hip muscle for a couple of days - I think from sleeping on buses and trains in awkward positions. I really felt I could do with a massage. I had seen a massage being given on the beach on Friday.  On Saturday, late morning, I walked to the beach - going north this time - where 'The Las Villas Path' starts. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, Benicassim became a centre for glamorous parties attended by renown public figures and important bourgeois from Valencia and other major towns, who had their holiday villas built along the sea front. About 28 of these villas still remain and there are information boards along the boardwalk that give details about them. The one at the most northern tip of Playa (Beach) Voramar is the Hotel Voramar

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Travel to Mexico, Quintana Roo, Isla Mujeres.

When I first woke up I felt really sick. I started to feel slightly ill before leaving the states and it got worse when I got to Mexico. I really wanted to go to Isla Mujeres but felt so rough. Anyway, I dosed myself up with Paracetamol tablets and decided to go for it.

I got a taxi from my hotel to the ferry and was over in Isla Mujeres within 15 minutes. When I first got to the island, I decided to walk around and explore, and felt like I was the only tourist on there, but never felt unsafe. After about an hour or so, I decided to do a boat tour which involved 3 different snorkelling locations, seeing a turtle farm and having lunch.

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Travel to Nepal, Gorepani.

Today we woke up early (at 5:30) to start our second day of trekking. On the plus side, it wasn't raining; in fact the weather was gorgeous and sunny. Unfortunately, all of our clothes were still wet from the thorough soaking we got yesterday. Since we really only brought two pairs of clothes we decided that we would put the wet clothes back on for the hike so that we would have dry clothes to change into when we finished for the day. But we waited till the last possible minute to put those cold wet clothes on. We went down for breakfast and another look at the view in our dry clothes before changing.

Breakfast was great! Eggs, hashbrowns, toast, juice and coffee for 5 bucks. Not bad considering the only way to bring supplies in is by foot or donkey and it is a one day walk to the nearest road! Of course, these little villages are quite self sufficient: they grow a lot of their own food and there are many chickens and water buffalo around. In Nepal, the default milk is water buffalo milk because the cow is a sacred animal to the Hindus

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Travel to Estonia, Tallinn.

Today we reached the apex of the BBA V2,well at least as far as latitude goes.Tallinn is situated at just below 59 30' and to add to this momentous occasion we also bought up 13,000km in Cindy.

The weather pattern remains favourable and we had another fine and sunny day ahead with temperatures in the mid 20's and with the absence of any wind to speak of and lack of air pollution, you get the full benefit of the warm sun when you are out in it meaning its hats on when we are outdoors.

We reckon the landlady was still suspicious of us doing a runner without paying as she kept on appearing from nowhere as we loaded up the car.We only took the microwave back to the car when we noticed she was across the other side of the property talking to her husband as perhaps she might not have been too happy to know we had had dinner in our room.Not that we ever leave a mess!

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Travel to South America, Bolivia.

The 2 nights in our favourite hotel in Santa Cruz were great. This trip was part of a goodbye trip for Ben with one of his school mates. It's an apartment hotel with several swimming pools, tennis court, football and basketball pitches/courts, snack bar by the pool a paradise really. As it's winter they do packages at unbelievable prices. I always like the moment when the manager comes out and sees me and says "hello Mr Parker good to see you again"!. One time the Chef in the restaurant even made us a speical dish! So we'd arranged a separate apartment for Ben and Diego. We met them in the morning at the buffet breakfast.

I set about downloading the British Grand Prix over the wifi but in the morning found that only some of it had downloaded and I was blocked from the internet. I called up the systems manager who looked into it. He came back to me with and with a sharp intake of breath said "6Gb, that's rather a lot you've downloaded!". I'd managed to grab most of it so Joe and me were able to catch up with the world of F1.

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Travel to Latvia, Vidzeme Region, Ranka.

The BBA V2 felt it was time to get back to nature and up the adventure a bit so we booked a log cabin for the night in rural Northern Latvia.Yes,believe it or not,www.booking.com does list properties such as this!

We had had a very comfortable night in Daugavpils and enjoyed the English channels on the 50" TV set but it was going to be a good drive onto what we expect will be rural roads especially as we get closer to our destination and it was time to get going.

We hadn't been able to stop to get a picture of the Russian warrior just before the bridge coming into the city yesterday so drove back and found a place to park and then walk to find the statue again.Well that turned out more difficult than we thought and after walking over the bridge complete with rusting plates covering what we assumed were holes in the concrete we gave up as the statue wasn't where we thought it was.

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Travel to France, Beaugency.

We all met after breakfast at the Le Parc Hotel for a debrief on the cycle tour. The cycling part of the tour (other than the admin, which is Hooked on Cycling) is run by GiroLibero. There would be about 30 people starting today of which 10 are Kiwis (our group). Those of us who have hired bikes have orange 28 gear bikes with a pannier each and a place to read the map on a water proof board between the handle bars. We are suppied with clear step by step directions, white on black arrows on poles or other suitable places, an overall map of the route and a book on chateaus of the Loire Valley.

Todays ride was only 30kms so we could take our time and get used to the bikes and the route. We left at around 9.45 heading out along the Loire, across the Loire Bridge then back along the other side on quiet country roads most of which are specifically for biking. We biked through small villages and grain fields on flat roads so it was easy going.

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Travel to Canada, Vancouver.

Next stop on this wonderful journey was the little railway town of Jasper; well it is a small town, but a major hub for the railways heading East/West and some to the North. This was also the first of the Fairmont Hotel chain that we were to stay in. This is a fascinating establishment that fits into the category of “it was a good idea at the time” or perhaps in hindsight “what were they thinking?” The best description I can come up with is it is a bit like a Billy Butler’s holiday camp with rows of cabins scattered around the curving roadways of the facility. After following one of the roadways , which were all in a poor state of repair, we found our cabin at the end of a row of 6 or seven and some 200 metres from the main building.

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Travel to Afghanistan, North, Sargaz.

Two unpredictable elements of travelling in Central Asia – officialdom and transport – conspired against me in my journey to one of the most remote regions on earth. The ribbon of land called the Wakhan Corridor – with the Hindu Kush and Pakistan on one side, with the Panj River and Tajikistan on the other. This is a rarely travelled route, so rare that I was the first tourist to journey along the Wakhan Corridor this year, and it was already the end of May.

Public transport is non-existent so one must either bring their own transport, or organise a vehicle and driver. It so transpired that there were problems with the vehicle that my guide, Hameed, had originally organised. Thus, 90 minutes after our intended departure he arrived with another vehicle driven by a young man named Mohammadulla, with his brother, Mohammad, accompanying him. Mohammadullah was the equal to the best driver I had seen, but unfortunately, his vehicle, a battered old Landcruiser, was beset by problems that worsened as the journey progressed.

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Travel to Japan, Hokkaido.

Today I left the hotel with two indentations in the bedroom floor, where my shoulder and hip bones lived. The two mattresses were no more than 40mm thick each – paltry. Additionally, the human traffic passing by our door to the toilet in the early hours was like the M25 at 8am coupled with the constant flow of high speed water through ancient pipework making a noise like Niagara Falls.

Breakfasted on the traditional rice, noodles and fish we were off on the road again, following last night’s light rain which left the roads damp and the hills covered in low cloud. Let’s hope that we can survive the day without punctures, having two yesterday on the hire bikes, which are actually quite good Trek machines. This is the reason I like to use my own bike since I know the set up is right for me and that I have good tyres and brakes plus having my other paraphernalia such as bar bag for my cameras and a big under-saddle bag for my tools and spare clothing.

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Travel to Argentina, Mendoza.

8am...I scramble out of bed and trundle downstairs to meet our host George who kindly offered to assist and call the bus company for us. As you would have read from Rach's blog yesterday, there was a snow storm that forced the closure of the road between the Chilian/Argentian border. The first thing I see on George's face is concern and in his best but broken English he tells me “probably zero chance”. Hmmm, I drag Rach out of bed as Gladys had already started setting out the breakfast table and over our croissants and cereal, we decide that the best option is to head to the bus station for further details.

We pack up our room and head back down to say (...what we think will only be a temporary...) goodbye to George and Gladys who have been absolute fantastic hosts from 816 B&B. George had booked us a cab and we jumped in and headed off to the bus station. On arrival, we head to the first Andes Mar ticket office we find. We walk up to the counter and, as always, ask “do you speak English”. The guy tells us “a little bit” and we tell him that we have a ticket to Santiago leaving in 45 mins. In response, all he gives us is rapid fire Spanish, not even talking slow in any attempt to see if we understand him. Rach and I just look at each other in stunned silence, then we say “Arhhh, any English??”. He writes down a platform number for us to go and visit which basically ends that conversation. We left the office in search of platform 17&18 as instructed from our unhelpful Andes Mar employee. On route, a bloke (who was clearly trying to sell us tickets to somewhere) asks us in English where we were headed. We told him that we have tickets to Santiago however have heard on a snow storm that has closed the road. He very helpfully takes us to another ticket office (this time the 'International' Andes Mar office') and asks the girl behind the counter what the deal is.

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Travel to Croatia, Dalmatia, Hvar.

The problems I have had with the fuel tank and fuel filters were well documented in my blog. Now my suspicion has been confirmed. There is a tree growing in my fuel tank and the braches are coming out of my fuel cap. I have a photograph as proof.To stop the tree branch from sticking too far out, I have had to cut it down a little. Not sure how I will refill the fuel tank in future, but I will worry about that later.

Today, left the camp at about 10 am and headed towards Stari Grad, a small fishing port town on the island of Hvar. It was another of those beautiful old town, with lots of old buildings and alley ways. Again, I have taken lots of pictures for you to look at.

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