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.

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

Travel to Tanzania, North, Arusha.

Well it's been just over a week since we last blogged.. This is not because we have nothing to report but more because the Internet access is a little dodgy and there is nothing more annoying than losing all the blog in Internet never never land...anyway I digress.

When we last blogged we had just left Lake Bunyonyi, which seems to be spelt three different ways, and headed back towards Kampala where we were to stop for the night but after a quick vote we headed onto a place called Jinja which is where Lake Victoria spills into the Nile and the locals say is the start of the Nile river. Hence Jinja is the centre of Uganda's adrenalin junkies heaven with white water rafting, canoeing and bungee jumping etc. so just for a laugh Steph and I bungeed then shot the Nile rapids before lunch and skydived after! Yeah right!! we did toss up the idea but settled on a relaxing day at the camp followed by a cruise on the Nile in the evening.

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

Travel to Cambodia, North, Angkor.

Early doors, alarm set for 5.45am to be packed up and at the bus station for 6am blimey we hadn't been up this early in a long time!! But it was for a good reason, we were crossing the border into Cambodia, very exciting. We had been told countless horror stories of the border crossing, it can be dangerous, be careful, you could be there for ages, corrupt officers, fake visas etc so we were both very sceptical about it all. Managed to fall straight back asleep on the first part of the journey up untill we got to the border, the bus operator guy asked for all our passports and $25 for the visa, I was adamant that I was not paying it or giving him my passport as it should only be $20 and you can do it yourself. However after some deliberation over it all I gave in and paid the guy and off he went with our passports, theres us hoping and praying this is all above board and luckily it was. In the end the extra $5 was fine as if I had done it myself I may have missed the bus as we got pushed Indigo on Otres The lovely beach huts we stayed inthrough pretty quickly. Border crossing are always bit of a nightmare as you never really know what is going on, you have to take all your luggage with you but this was absolutely fine.

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

Travel to Ecuador, North, Quito.

Today we woke feeling lazy and decided to have a catch up day which probably was needed! We woke up at about 6.30 which was actually good cos the tennis semi - rafa/djokovic had started at 6am. So instead of dozing back to sleep which I would usually do at 6am, we switched the tennis on and proceeded to water an epic 4.5 hour match in bed! We did get up at one point and go down and have our breakie which was included. Simple but delicious. Fresh, warm bread, granola, fruit, yoghurt, juice and coffee. They did have a coffee machine so we asked for a latte. She said ok then went on to spend the next 15 mins attempting to our together a latte but it just wasnt working so we kindly put her out of her misery and said not to worry! All full up, satisfied and back to the tennis in bed! Well actually Ben was showered, dressed and on the bed. I was not! Anyway 4.5 hours later and victory was rafa's!! Wahhoooo he's back! I thought then and got told firmly it was now time to get up and shower!

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

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!

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