far from home

2007-06-11T05:20:00.000-07:00

4th - June (Salvador, Brazil)

After an itchy night, I woke up with a lot of mozzie bites which swelled to the size of two pence pieces so looked really good for the beach! The beach is very busy and there are guys coming along every two minutes trying to sell you stuff so it's not exatly the most relaxing beach ever. There are other beaches a short bus ride away but as I am feeling lazy this is the only beach I went to during my stay here. One guy came along with a watering can and watered my feet which took me by surprise. By 14.00 I decided I should probably get indoors as I didn't want to burn and I had plenty more days to toast myself, however, it rained for the next two days and I began to regret that decision. I had eight days in Salvador with the main objective of relaxing and getting a tan, the weather was always hot but raining or overcast at least half of the time. When the sun did come out it was scorching and I did manage to get a bit darker but nowhere near as dark as some of the natives...... Salvador is 'Africa in exile', where the African slaves settled making Salvador a very interesting cultural experience. The historical centre has lots of churches and colonial buildings, the sound of the drumming bands echo along the narrow cobbled streets, there are women dressed like those terrible toilet roll holders that old women have in their bathroom, there are some very nice local dishes such as the fish moqueca and calbresa, bright, vivid, colourful art and there are of course beggers, thieves and people trying to sell you stuff you don't want. Salvador is a busy tourist spot but mostly it seems with Brazilian tourists.

There were a load of 20ish year old Brazilian students over here on some kind of project/holiday staying at the hostel which meant it all got a bit noisy at times but was also good for a few drinks so my time here was mostly speant relaxing, reading, laying on the beach whenever possible, drinking, and watching football, tennis and films; really just winding down before returning to Blighty.

I had to get from Salvador to Rio as my flight home was from there, managed to find a cheap flight the day before the flight home but couldn't book online without a brazilian credit card so got the hostel owner to book it over the phone. However, what I thought was an 11.00 flight turned out to be an 08.00 flight so when I arrived at the airport I had missed it which could have been terrible if I hadn't managed to get on a later flight but that was delayed and I ended up spending ten hours at the airport and arrived at my hostel in Rio just before midnight. I had planned to do some gift shopping in Rio but only managed to buy a few pairs of havianas before leaving for the airport where I stocked up on Brazil t-shirts.

The British Airways flight home took thirteen hours and was very disapointing from an entertainment perspective and I found it very difficult to sleep. I was expecting a huge 'welcome home' banner at the airport but instead Carly was there holding baby Casey who was wearing a 'welcome home uncle Adam' t-shirt, and behind them was Mum, Dad and Daniel. We had some food before heading to Lambourn to see my Nan and uncle Jim, we popped into the pub where Dada and Dan let me beat them at pool. Later that evening we had a good curry which I had been looking forward to for a while.

On the Saturday, Carly and Dan had a barbecue and as a surprise a load of my mates turned up which was very nice. Later, Dan and I went into town where we met up with some of Dan's mates and I got hit over the head with a bottle - it's good to be back.

Thank you everyone for reading the blog.

THE END.

2007-06-10T09:42:00.000-07:00

25th May - 3rd June (Buenos Aries and Uruguay)

Sorry - no photos until I replace the stolen USB cable for my camera.

Flying into Buenos Aries we got the birds eye view of the impressive bowl shaped river plate stadium. We were unsure which would be the best area to stay in between San Telmo and Palermo - after some deliberation we decided on the former. It was a public holiday and the streets were pretty empty but the hostels and hotels we tried were full or didn't have a room for three. I volunteered to stand in the street and guard the bags while the other two checked out a hostel, and stooped down to strap the sleeping bag to my rucksack at which point I felt something wet hit the back of my head and neck. As I looked around me a woman told me that it was a bird shit and provided me with water and tissues, it was all down the back of my jumper and was the runniest most vinegary smelling bird shit ever so I was very grateful to the woman helping me to clean it off. But then she was gone and so was my big bag, we were on a crossroads so she could have gone left or right and disapeared quickly and I couldn't leave the remaining bags to give chase anyway. I felt like a complete idiot but was glad they had took mine as I knew there was not much of value in there - mostly clothes. The most annoying things to lose were Cusco paintings, my kiwi and boomerang, the warranty to my broken camera, the travel towel, skydive video, all the little movies (eg the Maori rapper) that were on the photo cds (the photos are all saved on flicka - thank god!), the mountain madness t-shirt and my mp3 recharger which none of the electrical shops here have. The lads reappeared and decided we should get a taxi to Palermo where we checked into a hostel with a bar where we drank a load of cheap wine then went out to some bars and clubs until about 05.00. A strong G&T was the final straw that sent me off to sleep with my head on the table as Jamie and I were sat with a couple of girls (not that I remember any of this!)

We jumped out of bed at 11.00 as we had decided to check out and move to a nice hotel which we had found on the internet. This was in the central area. From here we went via taxi to the San Telmo police station to report the theft, our taxi driver spoke reasonable English and offered to translate in the police station for me - I don't know how I would have got anywhere without him as the police spoke very little English. Having suddenly remembered that the bag was stufffed with hi-tech equipment and $100 bills I made my report before the driver took us to a massive shopping mall to replace some clothes. We tipped the driver well - he was a really nice guy. After a couple of hours I was feeling the worse for wear and we had all had enough of shopping so we went back, had some beers, gave the boys another pool lesson and ate fajitas.

Sunday was pleasant; we went to the big market with lots of antiques, art, junk and street performers; a nice atmosphere. We ate lovely food with a little wine and I bought some good quality shoes to match the suit that I will soon be wearing to Casey's christening and Richie's wedding. In the evening we went into several bars, in one of which we seemed to be very popular with the multitude of girls who kept looking over at us - it turned out to be some sort of brothel although it looked just like a normal bar. We drank up and left.

Monday was a real struggle to get up. We had booked a three and a half hour bicycle tour of the city. We all wore shorts and it was freezing with an icy cold wind that numbed our fingers. Our young female guide was lovely and informative and we managed to enjoy the tour despite the cold. We went to another shopping mall to buy a few more things. In the evening I needed a couple of energy drinks to get me going, again everywhere seemed quiet but we stayed out late and finished the night playing cards and eating the pizzas we had delivered until 06.00 whilst reminiscing about Bullseye!

The first taxi driver we asked to take us to the cemetry dropped us at completely the wrong end of town (god knows what he thought we said!), lucky the cabs are cheap so we just got another one to the right place. 54,843 square metres with 4,800 vaults housing the bodies of wealthy and important argentinians. Some incredibly grand tombs, coffins and statues including that of Evita. We walked to the big metal flower in the park and then to a British Airways office which was of absolutely no use in replacing my stolen flight ticket home. For the evening we had booked up at the cafe Tortoni to see the amazing Tango show; the music, dancers, drummers and costumes were incredible, the food not so great. We drank until 03.00.

Tired and a little hungover, we rushed around to get to the port for 09.00, however the 09.00 ferry is a slow one, the fast one leaves at 11.15 but arrives in Colonia (Uruguay) at about the same time so we killed time by going to La Boca to buy some pictures that we had seen during the bike tour. In Colonia, I checked into a hostel and dumped my bags, the boys were going back to Buenos Aries the same day as they were flying home that evening. We strolled around the old part of the city; very picturesque cobbled streets and colonial architecture, a good lunch and then the boys were gone. In the evening I went back to the old part of town to see it with it's old gas style lamps lit on the houses - it was deathly quiet and I was about the only person around. Back at the hostel I got chatting to a nice Irish family and I hate to admit I never had a drop of alcohol (sorry boys!).

Colonia is lovely but there isn't much reason to stay more than a day so I took a bus to the capital 'Montevideo', home of the first ever world cup. Checked into a hostel located right on the lovely plaza independiencia and soon realised that it was full of predominantly gay blokes, one of which was determined to get me batting for his side! I quickly left to explore the city which is full of surprises; it's a lovely place, with so many impressive buildings; churches, massive banks, loads of museums, nice little market stalls, park areas, huge statues and of course scattered among these are the usual horrible drab grey highrise blocks and ugly crumbling eyesores and some persistent but polite begging kids. In the evening I went out with a few of the straight people from the hostel to a lively bar with a band playing where I seemed to be getting somewhere with both a nice American girl called Jackie and a Danish/Bolivian girl who was very drunk. Back at the hostel Jackie fell asleep as we watched Saw 3.

I went for lunch with Jackie and her friend Mark, quite possibly the healthiest lunch I have had in a year as it was a huge salad buffet, however I did finish it off with an extremely rich piece of chocolate pie! We walked around the streets and into a couple of museums then played cards and used the net before going out for a few bottles of wine and a magnificent steak in red wine sauce - perfect!

Jackie and Mark left in the morning, I took a bus ride with all my stuff to the bus station hoping there might me a bus leaving for Port Alegre (from there flights to Salvador seem to be much cheaper). There wasn't one until 21.00 so took my stuff back to the hostel. The bus journeys were entertaining; people come on to beg, sing, read poetry, play instruments and sell bits and bobs. I walked around the city again, the breeze was cold but it was quite hot in the sun. I discovered that you can't buy flights online over here without a Brazilian credit card. Before leaving the hostel again for the bus station the gays made me eat some food which was nice but I was worried that it might be spiked! I was glad to get away!

On the bus, I was told that I would be fined at the border for not having a piece of paper that was supposed to be given to me as I enetered Uruguay (that really annoyed me as I'd never had it), but luckily I slept through the border crossing and they must have let it go. In the evening there was a U2 live dvd, in the morning Placebo sang 'Where is my mind?' with Frank Black on stage - much better than the usual tosh I have to sit through! I arrived at Port Alegre on a Sunday, waited an hour for tourist info to open and was told the only place to buy flights is at the airport. I would maybe have liked a day in Port Alegre but at 08.30 took a short, expensive taxi ride to the airport where I booked an 11.00 flight to Salvador where I am hoping as it is quite a long way north of Rio it will be hot and sunny for my last week or so, so that I can come home with a tan! I arrived in the late evening in the Barra area of Salvador, it was hot and sticky which I thought bode well for a day in the sun the next day. The dorm at Albergue do Porto seemed pleasant enough and the showers were hot. I was warned as I left to get food that the streets aren't safe at night and not to take anything valuable, so I walked around all jittery and jumpy before stopping for a horrible pizza on the seafront which didn't seem like there was much going on. I made it safely back to the hostel.

2007-05-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

10th - 24th May (Mountain madness and Daz and Jamie in Brazil)

Firstly, I apologise for the fact my blog is way behind and secondly for the lack of photos - both will be rectified as soon as possible......

Back at La Paz I shared a room with Chris and Kim. I had a haircut that lasted an hour and a half as the barber was keen to learn a little English so that he could impress his daughter who was learning it at school. We found a good English type pub with decent food called 'Olivers travels'. The following day was one of the most exciting of the trip; cycling down death road!!! On superb mountain bikes with full suspension and disc brakes we cycled 64km, 61km of it downhill at up to 60kmh and mostly on winding gravel road with massive drops off the edge should you get it horribly wrong. Aaron, our English guide stopped us regularly along the way to tell us tragic tales of buses, lorries, cars and cycling tourists that had plummeted to their doom. Some of the views were amazing although there was a fair bit of cloud and mist around. I enjoyed every minute of it although the short uphill bit was a struggle (I blame the altitude). The road, though a bit hairy at times, is nowhere near as dangerous as it once was as there is now an alternative road which takes most of the vehicles leaving the cyclists to speed down the old road without much chance of meeting oncoming vehicles.

The following day I did a lot of gift shopping as there is loads of cool stuff around the La Paz shops and stalls. This got posted home a couple of days later.

I had to fly to Santiago in order to go on to Rio, this involved a stop at Iquique where we all had to get off, go through the same process of getting passports checked and bags scanned before getting back on - seemed a little stupid to me. Stayed overnight then flew on to Rio and it felt weird after once having such a huge pile of flight tickets to be down to the last one - the flight back home. After what seemed like a long flight and a long bus journey, I arrived in Copacabana where Darren and Jamie had arrived from England the previous day. I checked in to the plush hotel room they had booked, had the best shower I'd had in ages and went out on the town to catch up on everything over a few beers. Copacabana was one place I had heard quite a lot of bad stories about so I was a bit worried but the main streets were busy and well lit and soon put me at ease.

We spent a day being driven around the city sights by a good English speaking guide, including the sugarloaf mountain cable car, churches and cathedrals, the brightly coloured steps where we met the mad artist, various good viewpoints of the city and a good traditional lunch. Unfortunately the clouds never cleared from around the famous christ statue on Corcovado so we had to save that for the next day. A lot of the women like to wear very skimpy shorts which is fine by me!

Dazza went hand gliding and landed on the beach while I laid down and got a little burnt in a very short time. We took the obligatory photos of the christ statue before walking along Ipanema beach watching the super fit volleyball players as we went. There was a guy doing keepie ups with everything from a pea sized ball, an egg, to a coconut, he was very good, a few days later we saw him on MTV Brasil. In the evening we went to the Maracaña stadium where we watched the local team win the semi final of the Copa de Brasil 4-2. The stadium is the biggest in the world, it once held 210,000 but now it is all seating holds a meagre 130,000, very impressive but much more sedated than my experience at the away end of Colo Colo in Santiago.

The next day we took a boat to Ihla Grande where we stayed in an excellent and cheap posada (like a B&B). We spent most of the day on the beach, the sun was super hot and the sea was refreshingly cool and calm. I could get used to this, but it didn't last. In the evening we drank beer and Capriahnas, the traditional local drink, sickly sweet and very strong. The next day started clear and hot and we arranged a boat trip with a bloke at the posada; when we arrived at the port, in amongst all the lovely boats with decks where you could lie out and drink beer whilst being surrounded by beautiful chicas, we found our crappy little fishing boat and we were a little miffed at having booked up with this guy, however, it was a nice day, we snorkelled amongst some thankfully harmless jellyfish (that really gave Jamie the willies) and stopped at some pleasant beaches. It clouded over and we got back just as the rain started, we drank, played cards and 'chatted' to some local girls who spoke neither English or Spanish (they speak Portuguese here) before heading to the pretty crappy local nightclub.

I wish I had managed to get a photo of it - they have a red VW camper fire engine, it's hilarious! I've also seen them used as ambulances. It had rained on and off during the night but was now a downpour that would last all day, we watched the tedious FA cup final, played cards, and I ate jacket potato with mozzarella to which I added a big dollop of the marmite my friend Rich had sent over with Jamie. He also sent some much appreciated tetley tea bags and chocolate. There are not too many options here when the weather is bad, even the internet goes down so eventually we were left with no choice but to drink!

Again it rained most of the night but by morning it had slowed to drizzle. We took the boat to the mainland and a bus to Paraty, a really nice colonial town with cobbled streets, nice buildings, restaurants and shops (a bit pricey). We stayed in a nice B&B and I bought my first ever pair of flip flops (havianas) which were particularly hard work on the cobbles. We watched 'Blood Diamond', one of my pirate dvds and the quality was pretty bad. For the next few days the lads suffered a little with stomach aches and sore throats, I was fine though as I am made of stronger stuff!

The bus to Sao Paulo took five hours and a little kid threw up all over the aisle. Some of the coast, about an hour south of Paraty was stunning with expensive looking beach houses and a lot of boats. The bus on to Iguazu was nice but there was a massive fat woman with an irregular snore that lasted from the minute we got on to when we got off sixteen hours later. I watched Dukes of Hazard in Portuguese with Spanish subtitles before falling asleep with my walkman on. We stayed in a hostel on the Argie side of Iguazu but made a trip back across to the Brazil side to get some good views of the falls. Jamie was feeling quite ill that night and he spent the next morning in bed. Daz and I made the most of having lost the veggie by going to a parrilla for an all you can eat bbq meat fest. Jamie made it out to watch the champions league final on a big screen in a cafe with no atmosphere. Pizza and beer and six games of pool undefeated.

It's funny how some Argie restaurants have no concept of vegetarianism; one place where we had clearly stated in Spanish that Jamie was veggie brought out quesiladas which Jamie bit into and swallowed before realising had meat in. A bloke came out to explain that it was ok as it was only ham, not beef!!!

The sun was shining on the third day in Iguazu and we took a bus to the Argie side of the falls which was spectacular, we also went out on a jet boat where we got drenched by the spray. Some of the walkways that usually sit a little way above the water were now off limits; 6,000 cubic metres per second of water was falling instead of the usual 1,300 and as you stand on one of the walkways that overlooks the edge of a big fall it's amazing to watch, it put me in a bit of a trance so I could almost feel myself going over the edge. A quiet night in as Jamie tries to let his throat recover in time for the drinking to come in Buenos Aries, there's not too much to do in Iguazu town anyway.

2007-05-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

28th April - 10th May (Salar de Uyuni and Rurenabaque)

I started the day with a much needed hot shower before taking the bus to Copacabana, just inside the Bolivian border, where I had planned to stay for a day or two with a visit to Isla del Sol. This plan quickly changed when I realised there were no ATMs and I had little money. Immidiately noticed how cheap Bolivia is when I ate fajitas for lunch. Bolivia is the cheapest country in South America, especially for accomodation which costs between 20 and 40 Bolivianos (16 Bolivianos = 1 Pound). So, after lunch I got on a bus to La Paz, the capital, a four hour journey.
The road to La Paz comes in from above the city so there are good views of what looks like a brick and concrete explosion at the heart of what must once have been a beautiful green valley surrounded by mountains - the buildings have spread from the centre outwards and upwards, it is a mess but quite an impressive mess! There I found the adventure brew hostel, nice, clean and sociable but with cold showers. Met some English girls and went out for food and drink (2 pints and a risotto for 50B - bargain!). Over the next couple of weeks I would be coming and going from La Paz as it is central to all the places I want to visit. The Bolivians are not an attractive bunch of people; the babys and young kids seem cute enough with their rosey red cheeks but then it all goes wrong.
There don't seem to be any young women; they must go from schoolgirl to fat old woman in shapeless dresses and aprons overnight!

The next day I booked a ticket to Uyuni (70B for a 11 hour journey) before taking a look around the coca museum and the witches market where you can buy anything from Llama feotus' to stuffed frogs! La Paz is the highest city above sea level in the world so breathing can still be a problem, especially walking up the steep hill to the bus station carrying my increasingly heavy bag as buses go past directing their black smoke directly into my lungs - this must be how a forty-a-day habit feels!!!

The eleven hour bus ride to Uyuni is the bumpiest road ever. The journey was at night but any hopes I had of sleeping were misplaced. I was sat just above the rear axle which sounded like it could snap at any moment leaving the bus to drag it's arse like a dog with a pooey bottom! I met Becky from England and we chatted for a while between failed attempts at sleep. We arrived at 05.00 to a temperature of between -5 and -10 with no wind and me wearing my shorts! We walked around knocking on doors until a hostel eventually let us in. We slept until midday, had lunch, booked a tour for tomorrow and walked around the bright, cold and not too exciting town. In the evening I went for beer, pizza and wine with Becky, a pleasant evening that ended with a little accident which would tarnish my experience of the next few days.....

Travelling has made me appreciate some of the things I take for granted back home, take for example my current predicament which has made me appreciate the basic human neccesity of having a good fart without ruining a pair of pants. When things return to normal I will make sure I fully appreciate letting rip with confidence!

The Salar de Uyuni trip is three days and two nights. It's an amazing place with great scenery but the roads are very bumpy in our four wheel drive and I spent a lot of time clenching my buttocks. Also, the nights are very cold and my one pair of trousers are currently out of commission; the others in the group just think I am mental for wearing shorts every evening. There are seven of us in the group and they are a good young bunch; the Belgian couple speak good Spanish and English which is lucky as they translate everything the driver says. The driver is not a tour guide, which means there are no useful explanations of how the salt lakes and other interesting features are formed, other than that it was a very worthwhile trip with great scenery.The first place of interest along the journey is the train cemetry - I believe these are British trains once used for transporting valuable minerals.

The salt flats are 12,000 square km of salt, there are buildings made from salt bricks, and coral islands with loads of cactii, there are lakes with flamingoes (if only the zoom were working on my camera), geysers and bubbling mud pools, hot spas and lovely sunsets and sunrises.
The accomodation on the second night was freezing cold and very basic with grim toilets with no seats - just what I need! During these few days, the food provided has been ok but again I have no appetite and have eaten very little.
I decided against the hellish road back to La Paz and opted for a 01.45 train which goes halfway (slept all the way), followed by a coach on a toll road arriving at La Paz at 13.20. I felt like my stomach was starting to improve so planned my next trip for the next few days; the wetlands of Rurenabaque. Unfortunately I spoke too soon and much of the evening was spent on the toilet, however, thankfully the situation did improve for Rurenabaque.

The small plane left from the La Paz military base at 07.40, a patchwork of fields below as we headed north. The skies were perfectly clear until we reached mountains that held back a flood of unbroken thick white cloud for miles and miles until there were more mountains, beyond which the skies were clear again and miles of jungle and river could be seen below. We landed on a gravel track runway of a tiny airport surrounded by jungle before being transported to the small town of Rurenabaque where there were lots of travel agencies for the pampas (wetlands) and jungle tours. I had been told the wetlands were good so I went for that and checked into a nice cheap room. Skyped Mum, Dad and Carly before spending most of the Saturday afternoon trying to change dollars into bolivianos, finally succeeding in a pharmacy. I ate most of a huge lasagne with my appetite returning. In the evening I went to an excellent bar where I met Aussie Chris, chatted to him for a while and it turns out he is in my group tomorrow.

I managed to get away from the bar at a reasonably sensible time. At the Indigena tours office Chris looked like death, he didn't enjoy the bumpy three hour journey to the boat. A nice canadian family of five and dutch girl Kim made up the rest of the group. Over the next three days we saw black monkeys, howler monkeys and the inquisitive squirrel monkeys (remember my zoom doesn't work),
an anteater up a tree, a capiberra (huge rodent), pink fresh water dolphins, turtles, a cayman (like a croc), bats, tucans, mcaws, an owl, hawks, condors, kingfishers, storks, hummingbirds, cormorants and other smaller colorful birds. On the first evening we took the motor boat to the sunset bar; as soon as the sun went down the mozzys attacked and we whizzed back on the boat amid the swarm, it was horrible but we got surprisingly few bites - there was worse to come though.

The next morning, we walked in borrowed wellies through the muddy swampy marshland looking for anacondas with no success. My wellies had holes in so my feet were soaked and I really didn't enjoy the walk as I spent the whole time trying to swat the mozzys that were all over me and biting through my clothes. My fifty percent deet wasn't as strong as the others' and I suffered the worst of it with bites absolutely everywhere. More mozzys were waiting for me under my net at the dorm so my feet and ankles took a pasting! Also in the night, something brushed against me which scared the bjesus out of me, I leapt out of bed shouting obscenities, waking everyone. I thought it was a rat or something but it was more likely the resident cat. By the time I found my torch it was gone.

I went fishing for the very first time. In the rain, we went out in the boat and dangled tiny chunks of meat on the end of some fishing wire in the water. Everyone on the boat other than Chris and I were catching pirahnas and catfish and I soon realised why I had never had the urge to try this so called sport before. The journey back to Rurenabaque was interesting as the road had become very boggy with all the rain and several buses were stuck. At several of the worst bits we had to get out and walk as the 4x4 ploughed through. Back at Rurenabaque all flights were cancelled and we tried to arrange a 4x4 to get us back to La Paz which would have been another hellish journey but we failed in that quest, the rain stopped and the flights started again.

2007-04-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

23rd - 27th April (Nasca to Puno)

We had travelled back down to the much less oppressive altitude of 598m, my plastic water bottle had completely caved in. I thought it best to get the flight done as soon as possible as the sky was perfectly clear. 192 soles to share a Cessna with four old Italians for half an hour as the pilot swung around each of the images below so that people on both sides of the plane could see clearly. The Nasca lines are mysterious images carved into the mostly flat rocky landscape below by several different civilisations between 900bc and 600ad. Nobody can prove exactly why and it is the different theories that make them so fascinating. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines. Lots of geometric lines, a monkey, hummingbird, astronaut, spider, dog whale.
The photos from above were no good as the colours involved are kind of grey on a grey background but when I went to planetarium later that night for a fantastically entertaining and informative presentation on the lines, the mystery surrounding them became much greater. Also I saw the rings of saturn clearly through a telescope and the craters of the half moon as if I could reach out and touch them.

The town of Nasca isn't at all pretty with most of the buildings looking like they are not yet finished. The main street is nice enough and well lit at night. It is extremely hot. I bought 8 dvds for 12 soles so they should be top quality and legal!
I went to the Museo Antinini which would have ben completely dull if it weren't for the wonderful trophy heads! After a lunch that I never managed I sat and read for a while before taking a tour with a taxi driver to see bones and mummies out in the desert,
stopping at the less than fascinating gold prospectors and pottery working place where they tried to sell me stuff I had no use for. I Arived 45 minuted early for the 23.00 bus which arrived an hour and a quarter late.

I awoke on the bus around sunrise, the hills looked like massive sand dunes with a scattering of rocks on them. This desolation continued for miles until suddenly we got to an area irrigated by the river that was lush with trees and farmland. There was a confusing bus change but we eventually got to where we were going and I met Raymond, a strange young Korean living in Canada. We booked in to the lovely and cheap 'Hospedaje el caminante class'(15S), went to the museo santaurios andinos for an interesting presentation on the young Inca sacrifices found in the nearby mountains, and the very weird contemporary art museum. The football kicked off earlier than I expected so I missed most of the Chelsea 1-0 Liverpool first leg but watched the rest in an Irish pub. In the evening I ate Ceviche (marinated raw fish) as I can't quite bring myself to eat the local delicacy of fried guinea pig (served whole). Ray and I went out drinking with a couple of others and played some pool.

The next morning we went to the Convento Santa Catalina which is a massive convent village for years hidden from public view behind huge walls, a fascinating building, pleasant gardens and all that but it seems I am unable to find much enjoyment from anything religious and trudged around completely bored. Later Ray and I caught a 20S bus to Puno, the price was reflected in the standard, an hour late leaving, dirty and for a while I thought the most uncomfortable bus I had ever been on as my chair wouldn't recline and the guys in front did until he was almost behind me! But then I remembered some of those bus journeys in asia and just laughed as the truly horible martial arts slapstick film played loudly above me.

We arrived in Puno in the evening. It was dark and the streets were wet and dirty. The buildings, again unfinished. We tried looking for a sociable hostel but instead found a dive with a bathroom that had a smell that could make your nose run, your eyes water. Truly horrible. We went out for Lasagne and even that never really got my appetite going. I thought of Carly's lasagne, with garlic bread and a lovely trifle for pudding. Back at our 12S hostel, the beds were actually pretty good and I slept well despite being back at the uncomfortable altitude of 3,855m (taking tablets again).

The hotel shower was cold and looked horrid so I skipped it. Puno looks just as bad in the day. Ray and I walked to the port where we joined a 15S half day boat tour to the floating reed islands of Uros. The people here have an interesting lifestyle living mostly off of fishing although they do supplement this by selling tat to tourists! The morning was hot and bright but it rained when we got back to Puno, I ate another half meal before we changed to a much nicer 30S hotel.

2007-04-24T18:33:00.000-07:00

16th - 22nd April (The Quechua Trail and Cusco)

I had gone from virtually sea level in Lima to 3,310m in Cusco. In the next two days I would reach 4,200m before descending to Macchupicchu. I started taking the altitude sickness pills as a precaution as well as drinking Coca tea (very nice), chewing coca leaves (not nice) and eating coca candy (okish).

My alarm was set for 05.15 but the bus was late despite me being the first pick up. Eighty-two km to the start point with some nice views of rural life along the way including farmers ploughing fields using Oxen (how quaint!) and people making mud bricks to build their houses. I bought a bamboo walking stick from one of the women with a baby strapped to her (there must be a local law that says you are not allowed to sell on the streets unless you have a baby strapped to your back). Todays walk was mostly gentle but it was hot, sometimes cloudy and a quick shower at lunch.
I was the only Brit in the group of 11 Norweigan, Dutch, Swedish, Japanese, Brazilian and Israeli. My camera, only about six months old but having taken six years worth of photos has chosen this perfect moment to play up with some of the buttons not working; luckily I can still take photos but playback and delete are no longer possible.

The Inca trail lasts four days and should really be called the Quechua trail; the people were known as the Quechua, the Inca was their king and had a seperate route to Macchupicchu which is now impassable. I don't want to bore you with the facts (mainly as I don't remember them) but if you are interested see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_road_system and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu.

The porters and cooks of the many groups constantly whizz past with 30kg plus strapped to their backs, tents, cooking stoves, tables, chairs and food. The food is always good and plentiful especially on the last day when we collect their tips from the group, we had more food than a Bavarian schnitzelfest that night! They wake us up with a cup of tea in the mornings, pancakes for breakfast, a good lunch, supper and sometimes a snack inbetween. I sampled the local corn beer made by the farmers 'Cheecha', like blonde beer with a dash of fairy lemon. Some of the views, mist and cloud permitting are fantastic and in the rainforest section in particular you can see brightly coloured flowers, butterflies and birds including the oil slick colours of the hummingbird as it darts between the trumpet flowers (very difficult to photograph!). There are several archeological sites of interest along the way which our guide Miguel told us about along the way. As soon as it gets dark (about 19.45) we go to bed as there are no fires allowed and of course it goes completely black. The trail is about 48km I think. The second day is about 4.5 hours uphill until 4,200m followed by 1.5 hours downhill. The third day is mostly downhill which I was dreading with my old knees but they were fine and the final day.....

Up at 04.00 in pitch black. 04.30, a quick breakfast then leave for the checkpoint 10 minutes away where we wait in a queue for it to open at 05.30. One by one our tickets are checked and we race to get to the site before anyone else gets there to ruin it! It is a short but hard walk to the sun gate where at around 06.00 we caught our first glimpse of Macchupicchu from above just as the sun was coming over the peak of the mountain casting the first rays of light onto a small section of it. A few photos from there before continuing down, taking photos along the way. I took so many photos because every different point seemed to offer something new and every few minutes the sun was casting different shadows (and as you know I can't delete!).
We waited around for a while to gather for group photos before Miguel gave us the fascinating guided tour. Then, time was our own, the 18 year old dutch lads and I had to climb Waynapicchu (the mountain next to Macchupicchu in all the postcards) which has really steep steps carved into the side of it and on a perfectly clear day like today provides some amazing views.
Strangely, only at the very top, there are loads of butterflies swarming about. We took pictures of ourselves on the very highest point of the mountain, sat for a while taking in the view then climbed back down.
From there Q took the 30 minute bus down to Agua Calientes town while Jon and I ran down the god knows how many steps for 25 minutes and walked the 15 minute road with calves burning (how do the porters do it?!). A celebratory beer and pizza and then for some reason my train time was different to the rest, a five hour journey along the Urubamba river with an increasingly sore throat.

The photo cd that I had left behind had been hand delivered to my hostel which was a great relief.

I spent the night alternating betrween uncontrollable shivering and sweating and for a few days in Cusco I felt like absolute shit. I rattled when I walked but no amount of paracetomol or nurofen seemed to help. In the mornings I would decide that it would do me good to get out and about but after a few hours would be in desperate need of my bed, feeling like I would soon collapse in the heat and altitude. I remember waking at midnight after an afternoon in bed thinking how am I going to sleep now, but I did, lots and lots of sleep and lazing around but without much getting better. I watched Hitch, Spartan, Goal and the rather gory Hostel. I had a nice room to myself which was costing me a bit extra but it was worth it just to be able to cough and sneeze without bothering anyone else. I've realised that four days of walking and a few days of not eating has left me looking like a thin version of Albert Steptoe! On the third day of being ill, i spent the morning skyping back home and felt almost human and also like I had got my appetite back so I went for an Alpaca steak which was nice but a little too salty. After struggling to force down as much as I could (about half) I started feeling a little dizzy, then the small amount of light in the pokey locals restaurant suddenly seemed blinding and I really thought I was going to pass out. I managed to order a bottle of water, had to grope around to find it as I couldn't see a thing, and drank until my vision returned. After settling the bill I sat in the nearby park until I felt reasonably normal again. In the afternoon I was nearly tempted to buy a fairly large streetscene painting, had a look around the pre-columbian art museum and the Catedral del Cusco which is as impressive inside as it is outside despite my mistrust of all things Christian. I got my shoes shined and was called a marthafocker by a young boy trying to sell me postcards. At 18.00 I took a bus to Nasca which wound around the mountains until I fell asleep. When I awoke at sunrise we were still winding around mountains but now they were made of bright pink rock with a blue, grey and pink sky all around. There was litle vegitation and looked pretty desolate but I watched the changing scenery for the rest of the journey to Nasca.

2007-04-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

11th - 15th April (Into Peru)

Before leaving Santiago, I did manage to contact a couple of my old friends from Sammies, Sarah and Catie who I met up with for a couple of very strange cocktails (on Sarahs recomendation) and a good chat about all kinds of rubbish. I would have been happy to stay out all night but managed to get myself in bed for midnight. At 3.15, having just uncovered my ears to deaden the sex noises of the couple across the room (after staying in so many dorm rooms it's surprising that it hasn't happened before really!) the alarm went off, I dressed and gathered my things in the dark. Olivia, a cute little English girl was on the same shuttle bus, after checking in we went for a bite to eat where we met Rosie; another cute English girl who Olivia had met previously. Things were looking up! Olivia was going to Cusco, Rosie and I were both going to Lima but on different flights so I arranged to meet Rosie at the Lima airport where I held up a board with her name on. We crammed onto the tiny bus on route S to Miraflores with our huge rucksacks on our laps and looked frantically between the 'footprint' road map and the passing street names, none of which tallied up! Eventually we got off and found Nomade hostel that I had booked online which had plenty of room for Rosie as well. We checked in and went for a lovely lunch in a quiet but frienly restaurant. Many places to lunch menus which are either set or have limited choice and are incredibly cheap, if on a tight budget it is worthwhile eating your main meal at lunch time and a snack from the supermarket later. Our three course meal came to 15 soles each (6 soles = 1 pound). We walked through the streets of Miraflores (a well to do suberb of Lima) and along the sea front for the rest of the afternoon, got some food from the supermarket and Rosie cooked it at the hostel. Everything was perfect apart from having to settle for cheap boxed wine as the price of wine here is about the same as in England which comes as a terrible shock after Argentina. We ate, drank and watched 'The Departed' with Matt Damon and Leo di Capreo which was pretty good.

Our plan to hire bikes the next day didn't work out so we ended up walking again, this time with a young American called Max in tow, we stopped at the same place for lunch and looked around lots of local craft markets where I started to realise just how hard it was going to be to find suitable gifts. We went an an hour long open top bus tour where I nearly froze to death, didn't understand a word of the Spanish commentary and saw very little of any interest whatsoever. Back at the hostel we ate, drank and watched 'Notes from a scandal', also pretty good.

The next day Rosie and I took a taxi to central Lima, walked around and took a Spanish guided minibus tour up Cerro San Christobal. The bus did about 10 laps around the block in Lima before setting off up the hill in order to fill the bus, taking about 40 minutes. The most interesting views were of the slum huts built into the side of the hill.
At midday we caught a glimpse of the changing of the guard, with as much pomp and ceremony as back home. We went to a restaurant run by nuns who confused me by speaking French where I had some lovely trout and then we walked around the shops until Rosie went to her Lima hotel to meet the group she would be touring with for the next seven weeks and I went back to Miraflores where I bought a big 45Soles jumper for the Inca trail, a 13S burger king and watched 'Team America' (f#ck yeah!). Lima was much nicer than I expected, very busy and noisy but some very nice buildings and a lot to see. Miraflores is also very nice but it was about time to go.

I spent the morning killing time, then when I got to Lima airport realised that I had left my photo cd in the hostal computer. I found the Peru national footy shirts that Christophe had requested, ate a McChicken sandwich and hopped on the plane. Cusco is amazing, the plaza de aramas is the most perfect cetral square I have ever seen, especially at night when it and the hillside behind it is a mass of lights. The fountain, the huge cathedral del Cusco and the church all glow in just the right amount of light, the women with babies strapped to their backs and long braided hair beneath their traditional hats try to sell all kinds of stuff but stop short of harrassment as the tourist police are keeping a close vigil. The streets leading off of the plaza are narrow, cobbled and full of character until eventually you get to normal scummy streets with scummy cars and scummy buildings. Straight away I noticed the difference in altitude; just walking along a level street had me breathing out of my arse. Apparently I should have allowed a couple of days to acclimatise in Cusco before hitting the trail, too late I'm booked in for tomorrow. Apart from sorting out a few neccesary items for the trek (including altitude sickness pills), I haggled down a metre long street scene and a small portrait of a local child to 105S, ate some pasta and sampled the local brew 'Cusquena' which is pretty good. I slept like a man with a Llama on his chest - badly.

2007-04-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

4th - 11th April (Full circle - Mendoza back to Santiago via Valparaiso)

I felt pretty tired after my long journey which was a good excuse to sit in the hostel all afternoon drinking beer and watching the first leg champions league games of Chelsea and Man.U. I went to bed early and later awoke to the sound of a girl farting in her sleep - nice! The hostel is okay apart from there is only one working shower so had to wait a while in the morning. Later I paid 30 pesos for a bike tour of the city which was really crap. The guy just led the way as two other guys and I followed out to a nice park, up a hill to a crap view and back to the shop. I think we were expecting to take in some of the sights of the city and be told some mind-blowingly interesting facts about them. Ate lunch with the Argie and English guy from the bike tour and hung around chatting for most of the afternoon. I felt pretty ill for some reason though and thought I was coming down with something but it was fine the next day. I tried to get on the Mountain tour which I was told was very good but it was fully booked. Cooked pasta and watched Goldmember.

The next day I took a local bus to Maipu, where I picked up a bike and a plan of the area for 35 pesos and rode around all the bodegas (vinyards) and a wine museum with a very good guided tour. Of course there was some unavoidable tasting involved. The sun was hot but we are quite high above sea level and there is a gentle icy breeze coming off of the mountains. The bodegas are lovely and the mountain backdrop very picturesque but the town itself is scruffy. I learned a little about wine production and tasting techniques and enjoyed the day despite the only restaurant on the route being full and having nothing but wine and fruit to keep me going. Back at the hostel there was a nice BBQ consisting of salty chunks of beef and some bread which I washed down with a bottle of red. Wine in Argentina is even cheaper than in Chile so it is mandatory to pick up a bottle every time I go to the supermarket!

Managed to find a second hand bookshop at last and bought Bill Bryson's 'Neither here nor there - travels in Europe'. Got my ears lowered for 20 pesos by a bloge whose hand was shaking when he used the scisors, still he managed a good job. Steak and chips for 17pesos then a bus across the border at 13.15 to Valparaiso, Chile. Unfortunately I had forgotton there was still fruit in my bag from yesterdays bike trip which nearly landed me in jail at the border crossing. The woman really wasn't very happy but I had no idea what she was saying! My Spanish had also let me down on getting information about the journey as I thought they had seventeen hours when it was actually seven so I arrive late at night and not early in the morning as I had thought. I phoned the hostel I had booked for the following night and they had space and sent a taxi to get me from the station. The hostel is a little scruffy but fine and the dutch girls were there as well as an Irish fella called Keith who I got on well with.
The town used to be quite grand but apart from one or two impressive buildings the whole place looks like it's falling apart, it has suffered from pirates, fires and earthquakes destroying most of it's colonial past.
The centre is the dock area and from here there are 42 hills rising up in a crescent formation with old buildings (mostly diapidated) and slum huts intermingled together on the steep slopes. There are a lot of beggars, drunks and ne'erdowells around and this is the first place in South America where I have felt a little bit wary and kept my hand on my wallet, especially at night. A lot of the smaller streets stink of piss and at one point I had to check my pants as the stench seemed to be following me around! Keith has been here a while waiting for a credit card to arrive and he really likes it here. After a while I decided I quite like it as well, it is grubby, smelly, graffiti covered, scruffy, littered and full of dodgy characters but it has real character, a real change from some of the places I have been that are just like a little tourist village. There are beaches at nearby Vina del Mar which is supposed to be more upmarket and my plan had been to laze around there for a couple of days but the weather was overcast a lot of the time so I never made it. The bars look really nice; small, cosy and a bohemian atmosphere.

There is an area of seafood restaurants (which is also the red light district at night), where i sampled the local wares (that's wares, not whores!)
I had a lovely paella that had an ocean full of seafood, chicken, chorizo and beef one lunch time and some nice salmon the next. Discovered that 'American Pie - the wedding' is terrible. One night Keith and I decided to go out for a couple of beers which ended up being a pisco cola session in a night club which somehow went on until gone 05.00. The next morning I felt surprisingly well and hung around waiting to watch Man.U's 7-1 demolition of Roma and Chelsea getting through against Valencia. As soon as that was over I got on a bus to Santiago where I stayed at La Casa Roja, a lovely big building with too many young idiots getting drunk, making noise and puking up - I was never like that! I ate at an empty Chinese restaurant and spent the following day just killing time. I have an early flight to Lima tomorrow

2007-04-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

28th March - 4th April (Worrying about flight change, Israelis and cash card)

I had a flight booked as part of my round the world ticket from Santiago to Lima on the 30th of March but had planned to get this changed as I decided to take the journey south first. I didn't change the date straight away because I wasn't sure what to change it to. But by the 28th I was cutting it a little too fine and if I miss one flight I've heard they for some reason cancel your remaining flights and that would be a big problem. After ringing several numbers and getting nowhere my last chance was in Barriloche, my next destination, which according to the book had a LAN airlines office. If the book is out of date on this I'm in trouble. The only bus to Bariloche was at 21.30 ariving at 11.00 on the 29th. I walked along the street where the LAN office was supposed to be but couldn't see it which worried me but a visit to tourist information gave me their new address and everything got sorted. Phew! New problem. The Israelis are in town en mass and all the best hostels are booked up (nobody that I speak to has much good to say about Israeli travellers). I eventually found a place but the bathrooms were in a bit of a state. Some of the Israelis were a bit annoying but a couple were nice and friendly.

Barriloche, surrounded by lakes and mountains is a pretty big town and wants to be Swiss. The church and many of the buildings are modelled in a Swiss style and the town square would look lovely if it weren't for all the grafitti. Apart from the usual array of shops selling hiking gear and souvenirs to tourists there are a load of shops selling Swiss style chocolates, fodues and loads of different flavoured ice creams.
At the moment they have massive window displays with easter eggs the size of houses. I think dad would have slobbered over the window in a Homer Simpson style. Despite all the chocolate available I have noticed that some of the local women are of a higher standard than I have seen previously! I managed to book a nicer hostel for the next two nights.

The next day I took the local bus to Llao Llao for a pleasant forest walk with lookouts over a couple of lakes. Later, at the internet cafe I bumped into the dutch girls who were again planning to hire a car which I was happy to join for a trip to see the seven lakes tomorrow.

Sanne and I shared the driving of the little Fiat with Steffi and an Aussie guy called Lee from their hostel. We drove for about 400km over mostly bumpy gravel roads. There was some nice scenery but nothing amazing (maybe I have been spoilt by all the lakes and mountains in NZ!).
The final stretch did have some weird, gravity defying rock formations but we couldn´t stop the car as the fuel light had been on for a while and the sun was about to disappear.
We had already changed a punctured tyre but luckily we made it to a fuel station without further adventure. After a shower and some fast food I went to the girls' hostel where we played drinking games with red wine then went clubbing until gone 05.00. I didn't drink much after the hostel as I was worried about getting in to my top bunk with low ceiling!

The next day I had to find another hostel as they had reservations, again the best ones were full but I found a pretty basic one with a very friendly owner. I didn´t realise until later that the bed was far too soft, the matress was just a piece of old sponge and the pillow was disgusting. I had visions of a bad back and all kinds of crawlie things coming out of the sponge! I walked around the town to clear my head, cooked pasta for lunch and used the internet for a while before getting my cash card swallowed by an ATM. Bugger! Hopefully will be able to sort it out at the bank tomorrow. Back at the hostel I started to read 'Five Boys' by Mick Jackson which I had found in a hostel book swap area but then Rocky 3 came on the tv.

The next day was a public holiday so the bank wasn´t open. I was hoping to get on a coach to Mendoza today but will have to put that on hold. The weather is nice again and the town is pleasant enough to just kick around doing nothing much. I don't really want another night on the sponge (although I slept very well) but I can't be bothered to look for yet another place.

The bank opened on Tuesday. I was there by 09.15 by which time the queue snaked around the large hall several times. There was at least a hundred people waiting and it took me an hour an fifteen minutes to get to the front. I had rehearsed my opening line "a domingo mi tarjeta esta dentro la machina" which although I realised was terrible Spanish thought it would probably get the message across "on Sunday, my card is inside the machine". The man said something back which I couldn't understand but seemed to be dismissing me so I asked "¿alguien hablas Inglis?" and luckily a woman came over who understood me and managed to recover my card. I hadn't planned on taking this long so had to run to book my coach to Mendoza, run up the steep hills to check out of my hostel and take a cab to the bus station, arriving just on time for the 11.30 bus having had no breakfast and no time to buy any food for the journey. Luckily, they served up some edible lunch to keep me going. The first part of the journey went past some of the unusual rock formations and I took some photos through the window. As darkness came I slept reasonably well considering there was no 'cama' bus available and had to slum it in 'semi cama' meaning an ordinary reclining seat instead of the lay-z-boys I'd become used to.

I arrived in Mendoza at 06.30 with nowhere to stay, so hung around the bus station until it was light then went out looking. Again, most of the places were booked but I found somewhere then looked around the town. Not at all what I was expecting. The name 'Mendoza' to me conjures up pleasant rolling hills of vinyards and villas but is in fact a sprawling modern city with noise and cars everywhere. There aren't even any old buildings as the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1861 and was completely rebuilt. I hadn't seen a McDonalds in a while and thouroughly enjoyed my grilled chicken sandwich.

2007-03-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

18th - 27th March (Towers of pain to ocean of soup)

The bus from Punto Arenas to Puerto Natales only took three hours and I spent most of that chatting to a middle aged Brit/NZ couple; Kevin and Sue. I checked in to a cosy place called 'Patagonian Adventures' who are also well equipped to deal with all of your trekking needs and very helpful. Puerto Natales itself is pretty small but nice enough. I spent some time researching my five day Torres del Paine trek and doing some urgent laundry. I met Rafael from Switzerland who needed a trek partner which seemed like a good idea. We went to a nearby restaurant with Kevin and Sue where my huge plate of delicious lamb cost only 4,500. At a nearby shop I bought a wooly hat and gloves for my trek. Back at the hostel I arranged the hire of a rucksack, stove, chunky fleece and a sleeping mat. It is possible to hire tents en route to avoid carrying them around which is a bit more expensive but I thought worth it. I have my own sleeping bag. I went to the supermarket and stocked up on mostly noodles, dry soup, flavoured rice and a large nestle choc nut(yum).

We were up bright and early and joined a bus load of people for the three hour journey to the start of the trek, this point would also be our camp for the first night as our trek went out and back here. There are luxurious refugios at these places which charge a fortune and also go against the spirit of the adventure. For a while we couldn´t find anyone to hire a tent from and while searching we met Jim and Sian, an English/Welsh couple in the same predicament. Eventually, thanks to Rafael's Spanish we were sorted and on the trek with the bulk of our stuff left at the site. We walked for about six and a half hours, in warm weather but with gusts of wind that could almost lift you off of your feet. At the end of the track, culminating in quite a hefty climb, we reached the view of the three 'torres' with only a little cloud to obstruct the view - the wind was very cold here so we went back down to the trees to light our stoves; noodles never tasted so good! Back at the camp ground I had an ice cold shower before someone told me they turn on the gas a little later. Unfortunately I had to share a fairly small tent with Rafael which got smaller as the side nearly caved in in the wind - not a great nights sleep!

The second day was supposed to be a gentle four hours but the four of us went the wrong way meaning a two hour uphill walk in the strong sun with all of our stuff on our backs, another little diversion later and the walk became six and a half hours. The chap from the first campsite had called ahead to the next one to reserve us a couple of tents. It´s amazing how good this crap food tastes when you are hungry enough! For the second night, as everything went totally black the sky became mad with stars but this time the tents were more sheltered and I slept pretty well.

An early start on the third day as this was to be the longest and hardest. I awoke with a cold and sore throat. After two hours of walking my knee was giving me some niggling pain but I continued past the end of the track up a steep, slippery pile of boulders as the cloud turned to drizzle then snow trying to reach a summit. The whole of my chocolate rations were used up today. Eventually I turned back defeated but the journey down was hell on my knee and painfully slow. Rafael meanwhile had left me for dead, some trek partner he turned out to be. Luckily I met Jim and Sian at the bottom who walk at a much more leisurely pace and continued the rest of the way with them.
With my Inca trail not too far away I decided not to risk further aggrivation to my knee and took the boat and bus back to Puerto Natales. I was dissapointed not to complete the trek but it had been a good 3 days. Back at the Puerto Natales I bumped into Christian (who I met in Santiago) and his friend Nathan so we went to the restaurant where we has a veritable smorgasboard including fish and seafood soup, king crab, mussels, clams, lamb, chorizo and of course virtually no vegetables (as is the South American way).

The next day I took an 8000 peso bus across the border (no problems) to El Calafate, Argentina. The journey was through miles and miles of flat browny green fields, always with a snow topped mountain range somewhere in the distance. Along this mostly empty lancscape there were occaisionally sheep, guanacos (from the llama family), ostriches (all of these I guess were being farmed) and ostriches at a small shallow lake. The 'hostel del Sur' had been recommended to me and some others from the bus were heading there so that´s where I went. The hostel was fantastic and a great place to sit around and chat. The town is small and nice but clearly set up for tourists. I spent some time exploring the town and skyping home before going back to the hostel for bbq, beer and wine (all you can eat/drink for 30 Argie pesos, 6 Argie pesos = 1 pound) The hostel is 30 pesos per night and that is apparently about as expensive as it gets.

In the morning, two dutch girls, a 47 year old American bloke and I hired a car and went off to see the rather impressive Moreno glacier. A short walk allowed us to see the glacier from several viewpoints quite close to the huge terminal face.
There was regular creakings as the thing inched slowly forward and a few loud bangs as large chunks fell off, usually not visible as they were on the inside but sometimes falling off of the front and splashing into the lake. We stood around for quite a while hoping to catch a large collapse on film but eventually it got cold so we left. This soup doesn´t taste so great now I´m not exhausted but I brought enough for at least five days, luckily now I have some lovely Argie Malbec to wash it down for under 6 pesos (that's a pound) a bottle. The cheap boxes of wine cost half that and also taste okay to my discerning palate! I spent the evening chatting to among others, a cockney geezer with a swedish wife who had become totally cockney!

And so, at 15.00 the next day I was once again on a bus, this time to Puerto Madryn. These bus journeys seem to make up the bulk of my spending but then they do cross huge expanses of land. This one was 22 hours in a nice leather lay-z-boy. Again, large open planes, never far from sun, clouds and rain so rainbows are common, at one point I could see both ends of a rainbow that arched over the road ahead of us like a gateway into the unknown. I watched Tom Hanks in 'Terminal' and 'Batman begins'. Cadburys chocolate over here is not so good.

'La Tosca' was recommended to me, but both the hostel and the town seemed pretty dead at first (it was siesta time). Puerto Madryn is a big town, there is a lot here but seemingly not that much going on. There is no-one much to talk to at the hostel and the only interesting thing I did here was scuba dive. 470 pesos is a little expensive but the prospect of diving with the sea lions won me over. A bright blue sky and the sea looked fairly calm, however the boat was tiny and by the time we reached the sea lions I was feeling a bit dodgy. The dive itself was pointless as the ocean had been replaced by pea soup, we did get to swim right up to the sea lions on the surface though and the cute young pups were intrigued by us. As soon as I was back on the boat I got rid of my breakfast before going on to another site where I dived about 20 metres to the ship wreck 'Albatross', the visibility was much better and despite my thick dry suit the water felt extremely cold. The ship had sunk 45 years ago and was covered in barnacles etc. it was good to go right inside and look around. Once back on land I went for a pepper steak to fill my empty belly (27pesos) and spent the rest of the day lazing on the not so pretty beach listening to music. Back at the hostel boredom reached new levels, with the Martin Amis book finished I read bits from a NZ book about how to save for your retirement (it´s near impossible to find a good English book anywhere!) This asparagus flavoured rice has really lost it´s appeal!

2007-03-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

12th - 17th March (further south)

The 22 hour bus journey to Coyhaique, was in a normal coach, not the super duper deluxe kind that I had before but it wasn´t as bad as I expected. There was a middle aged couple from dorset who I spoke to for quite a while, four movies back to back dubbed in Spanish, some beautiful scenery, mountains, lakes, the sea, trees and then a wild west landscape with an unusual lilac sky in the east as the sun set in the west. The journry crossed into Argentina and back into Chile so there was some time spent at border crossings. When we arrived I checked in to an hospedaje and walked around the nice little town surrounded by mountains, a pleasant atmosphere with locals and a few tourists strolling around - the only problem is the dogs. By the afternoon I felt like I was jet-lagged. I didn´t do much in my three days here and actually got quite bored. The second day was ok with a nice long walk around the forest reserve, from way up in the hills I could just about make out the sound of cars engines and barking dogs. The third day was too hot for the dogs and for once they were quiet.

I was looking forward to my 30,000 peso flight to Punto Arenas (further south) on Sky air because I was told the views over the moutains would be amazing and I had a window seat. The brief glimpses through holes in the cloud looked pretty good. In Punto Arenas I found a nice, virtually empty hostel (tourist season ends at the end of February). David, the chilean guy that runs it is very helpful and friendly. I spent a lot of time trying to work out a way to head further south into Tierre del Fuego and back but options are fairly limited at this time of year so I settled for a two hour boat trip across the channel into Porvenir, a run down town with nothing to see or do, luckily I had a Sudoku that I had tore from a newspaper and this filled my time as I sat by the sea. It was an extremely windy day and the return journey was put back by four hours but thankfully it ran as I really didn´t want to have to spend the night in this hole. The book describes it as picturesque with quaint houses, I think that took some imagination, the houses are delapidated tin huts painted in bright colours.

2007-03-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

5th - 11th March (Travelling south by bus)

So you lot thing this is all just a big relaxing holiday? Well, I´ll have you know that it is very stressful, hard work. There are two reasons for this; 1. things are done differently and it is not always obvious how things are done, 2. not knowing the language too well obviously makes things difficult, this exacerbates the first problem! Some examples: 1. The nightclub where you have to go to one booth to pay for the drink of your choice, collect a ticket and then go over to the bar to collect said drink. 2. The department store where I went to a counter to look at a watch and decided I would take it, not so fast! The woman kept hold of the watch and gestured to a counter where I went to pay the 10,500 pesos, I was given a slip of paper which I was about to take back to the first counter, too easy! The woman gestured me towards another counter where I handed over my slip of paper as the first woman arrived with my watch. 3. The restaurant where I wandered in and wondered do I order at this little booth or is that just for paying at the end? I decided on the latter so sat at a table (should I have waited to be seated?) and waited for someone to bring me a menu. I waited a while before walking out never knowing if I should have just ordered from the woman in the booth. 4. I am currently trying to organise a bus south to Coyhaique, this involves a 30 minute minibus followed by a 21.5 hour journey (bad enough!) but it is quite difficult to organise the second journey as I have to deal with the bus station that is 30 minutes away. In Oz/NZ you can do these things on the net, I´m not sure if you can do that here but the websites are only in Spanish. My phone call over a bad skype connection went nowhere so I ended up taking an hour round trip just to book my ticket. So now do you appreciate that soon after I return to blighty I am going to need a relaxing holiday?!!

Anyway, my bus from Santiago left at 23.00. There are several standards of bus and several different companies (especially in Santiago), I went for the 'Jet Sur' salon cama which was cheaper by far than the bigger companies but provided total luxury in a fully reclining seat with leg rest (like a lay-ze-boy), pillow and blanket for 12,000 pesos. I arrived in Pucon at 08.45 having had at least four hours of sleep. The 'hostel refugio' which I had booked online, was right next to the bus station and very comfortable and quietly sociable.
The town is very pretty with great views of the snow topped volcano although it looks like it was built purely for tourists. From midday I hired a mountain bike, cycled about 24km over mostly bumpy dirt track then fell asleep by the lake. The 22km ride back along the main road seemed to go on for ever.
At the hostel I watched Liverpool and Chelsea get through to the next round of the champions league.

Up at 06.20 for a guided hike up the volcano, sky looking iffy. By the time I and about 20 others got to the base of the volcano the sky was still dodgy so we waited a while before given the option of going back and getting a refund of our 38,000 pesos (quite expensive I thought) or giving it a go and possibly not going all the way to the top.
Everyone went for the second option and sure enough the sky got worse so after climbing up 800 feet we slid most of the way down on our arses on ready made toboggan runs in the ice which was great fun if a little chilly! If only I could have gone yesterday, the weather was perfect. Spent most of the rest of the day watching more champions league action.

During the night there was thunder, lightning and heavy rain. It was still raining in the morning. I spent the morning talking to a couple from South Africa who had travelled in the oppsite direction to me and gave me some useful advice on where to go and how to get there. At midday, almost everyone from the hostel jumped into a minibus and went to the hot springs. There were several pools of different temperatures and with the rain falling on our heads they were absolutely lovely. We sat in the pools chatting and relaxing all afternoon until my hands resembled shrivelled up prunes.

The next day started quite leisurely, breakfast, shower, a stroll to the bus station to get some information. There was a bus leaving for Puerto Montt in five minutes so I ran back, grabbed my stuff, paid some money and ran back, catching it as it was leaving the station. 5,900 pesos. Six hours later I wandered around the Puerto Montt station to find a bus to Castro on the island of Chiloe, that too was just about to leave. Another four hours and 4,300 pesos including a ferry ride. The weather had got progressively worse as we travelled south. The landscape of green farmland, trees and cows along with the grey skies and drizzle reminded me of England. I tried to get into a hostel from my book but it was full so as it was getting dark I was invited into a 'Hospadaje' which I´m sure was just this old ladys house. Not a word of English was spoken and there didn´t seem to be any other travellers although there were plenty of rooms. It was nice and clean, the woman (Judith) seemed friendly, I had a nice little room to myself and breakfast was included for 4,000 pesos a night.

It seems that stray dogs are not just a Santiago thing, the barking made an unwelcome interupption to my otherwise good nights sleep. In the morning I walked along the seafront and around the town, more of a fishing port than a seaside resort, there is a steep drop from the town to the sea and the slopes are filled with brightly coloured stilted houses. The dogs bark constantly and there are a lot more cars than I expected (I guess I just think of islands as being tranquil places). All kinds of things are sold from wheelbarrows in the street, including tuna. I sampled 'milcaos' from a street stall, fried potato cakes with some kind of meat in the centre, tasted like corned beef hash. Only 500 pesos and not particularly tasty or healthy! I took a short bus trip south to Chonchi where there was plenty of tranquility. Actually there was nothing there but a brightly coloured church and drizzle so after walking around the town twice I returned to Castro. I had planned on finding a nice seafood restaurant in the evening, but Judith fed me some warm bread cakes and the weather was pretty horrible so I just stayed in and read my Martin Amis book which I think is aimed at a more intellectual reader than me!

The clocks went back an hour so I ended up on the 07.50 bus to Puerto Varas instead of the 08.50.
On the trip back over the channel I looked out to see seals jumping out of the water and Pelicans flying. Just over four hours later I arrived and checked into the 'Compass del Sur' hostel, walked around the sunny and cloudy pleasant town, and stopped at a restaurant to sample 'Congria' fish as recommended in my guide book. The texture was similar to cod and tasted ok but not as good as the salmon I had recently. Afterwards I looked up Congria in my dictionary and found that it was Conga Eel.

2007-03-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

26th February - 5th March (Segunda manana de Santiago)
Charles (hostel owner), Sarah and I:

On the whole, it's just been more of the same for my second week in Santiago; struggling to get to grips with the lingo, socialising, fantastic weather, watching pirated films and not much else. Sabina, a forty year old Canadian mother of two boys, who has been living in Chile for a while, joined the school. She had picked up some vocabulary, mostly from her boys who learn Spanish at school, but her actual spoken Spanish wasn't that great. Sabina and I made up a class on our own for the second week which made life a lot easier. I went out for lunch a few times with the other more advanced Spanish speakers and mostly just sat, listened and tried to understand a little of what was going on. Of course, two weeks of Spanish is nothing like enough to enable me to converse properly but hopefully it will help me to get around and survive!

Things I've noticed in Santiago are:

1. People snogging in public places - this goes on in the street, the parks, on the metro, everywhere and nobody seems to mind. It's not just teenagers either, it's people of all ages, people older than my parents - sick!

2. There are lots of stray dogs roaming the streets - they are often in packs but seem to be unthreatening to humans.

3. Everyone smokes - Cigarettes in Chile are about one fifth of the price in England, in Argentina they are apparently half the price of here! So, it's not just Chileans that are smoking but most of the people in the hostel are also puffing away as they sit out on the patio. I went to a house party the other night and it was ridiculous, I was moving from room to room just trying to get away from smokers. Uuugh!

4. Police cars are green and white, fire engines are green.
5. Men leer at women - it's the done thing, so, when in Rome etc.. but seriously, it's funny, when I was walking along with some people from the school, one of them a nice brazillian girl, I walked behind her and just watched the reaction of the men. Manual workers were predictably the worst offenders, whistling etc, but the old businessmen in suits were also pretty obvious with their ogling.

Other things I've done this week include my second attempt at Sushi - I hadn't tried it since Karen introduced me to it in Melbourne and it's ok but I'm still not a huge fan. I tried to move the date of my Inca trail booking as my plans have developed (I want to go south first), but it turns out you can't move it so after much thinking I cancelled the trek (losing $100 U.S.) and will hopefully rebook it for later. I watched a lot of films; Crash (very good), Farce of the penguins (stupidly funny), Napoleon Dynamite (not for me), Children of Men (rubbish), Rocky Balboa (hmmm, I feel like I've seen it before!), Jackass 2 (not as good as the first), Da Vinci code (not bad), still planning on seeing Hotel Rwanda and A scanner darkly before I leave on Monday.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Seeya.

2007-02-25T11:08:00.000-08:00

16th - 25th February (My first week in Santiago, Chile)
The terrorists here have gone back to more conventional forms of weaponry.....

I had pre-booked a two week hostel and language course together online for $399 U.S. Hostel de Sammy is a little shabby, the showers run boiling hot and freezing cold and if you want to go to bed early and get a good nights sleep you will be woke up around 05.00 by people coming back from the clubs. The owner is ok but he is a very loud American who seems to annoy a lot of people in a Basil Fawlty kind of way.
People are drinking on the patio until late every night so there is always someone to hang around with and it's a really sociable place. There is also a crappy pool table, table footy, free internet, a good tv and dvd player and free breakfast. My first night out, a club where the dance floor was packed from start to finish, ended around 06.00. My main problem here is that my Spanish lessons are monday to friday 10.00 - 13.30 so I am burning the candle at both ends. My first two days of Spanish lessons were pretty horrible, after a little one on one session I was thrown into a group of five who already knew quite a lot (there were no other absolute beginners to put me with). I thought maybe this would make me learn a lot quicker but after day two where I understood virtually none of what had gone on I was thinking of complaining and demanding more one on one sessions. The lessons are not like how we learnt languages in school, ie. translating between English and German, they speak no English so if you are not getting something they can only try to explain in Spanish. I decided to stick with it for day three expecting that I would say something afterwards but somehow a lot more of the lesson made sense. Sometimes the school organises things in the afternoon or evening, so I have socialised a bit with the other people at the school. I attempt to converse in Spanish but most of the time revert to English pretty quickly. We went to an Italian restaurant where I spoke to a nice girl called Rebeccah from Bristol, I also attempted a Salsa lesson which was a good laugh. I have homework every night!

The money here is very easy to convert as there are roughly 1000 pesos to the pound. Everything seems pretty cheap here - I am drinking every night but a 2 litre box of wine costs under 2,000 pesos so why not? You can eat good food at the restaurants for about 5,000 pesos and I have eaten some lovely paella and some fantastic salmon with seafood.

There was a norwegian guy called Kim here in my first week. I went with him and some others to watch the local team 'Colo Colo' play a league game. We were with the home fans, the atmosphere was good but a little scary - Kim told me not to take my camera out of my pocket and to keep hold of my wallet. Colo Colo won 4-2. The fans were singing and dancing for the full ninety minutes. The stadium looks smaller and less impressive than the county ground but apparently can hold up to 65,000. The ticket cost only 3,500 pesos.

A few days later, River Plate (from Buenos Aries in Argentina) came to play in the early stages of the Copa Libertadores (their equivalent of our Champions League). Kim is a fan of River Plate so an Argie staying at the hostel called Nicolas, Kim and I went in the away end. The tickets cost 5,500 pesos, I imagine a Champions League game costs at least ten times that. For some reason we went really early, we and the other River fans spent three hours getting abused in Spanish by the Colo fans with a lot of gestures involving crotch grabbing. There was lots of stuff being thrown our way including a coin that hit me in the head and a bag of nuts that hit Kim in the face. Once the game kicked off the atmosphere was amazing, there were fireworks and flares and lots of singing and dancing. It quietened down for a while in the second half when River went 2-0 up but soon got going again when Colo got one back and when River had a player sent off. It finished 2-1 and the home fans were held back to let the away fans escape, we ran to the exit as we were bombarded with more stuff. I have attached videos of the River fans and of the goals. The quality of the football was fantastic - loads of great one and two touch footy. Definitely the best live game I have been to and don't forget I have been to the County Ground!

What with all the study and socialising I haven't really explored Santiago much yet. The area where I stay (close to Republica Metro station) has a faded European charm to it. Many of the buildings look like they were once very grand but now need some tlc.
Towards the centre there are lots of grand churches, museums etc which are in a much better state. On my first day here, there was some rain and strong winds were blowing the leaves from the trees so it felt like Autumn, but every day since has been incredibly hot and clear. The streets generally feel pretty safe and I have no problem walking around at night. After a week my Spanish is still rubbish and when the assistant at the supermarket asked me something I had no idea what she said, but I did have a succesful trip into town where I managed to buy a plug adaptor and an alarm clock using a little Spanish and some made up words like 'electrica' (if in doubt take an English word and add an 'a' or 'o'!) On Saturday I spent four hours on the patio doing revision and I feel like some progress has been made. I also got my shoulders a bit burnt. A heavy night out last night and today is Sunday, I watched the Coca Cola cup final, lounged around a lot and caught up with my blog. I'm still not sure where I am going next but I'm looking forward to it.

2007-02-25T10:31:00.000-08:00

12th - 16th February (Farewell New Zealand)

Saw this stroke of godlike genius...
Hitch hiked back to Auckland. Didn't do a great deal but did bump into the girls again and went up the skytower with them. Managed to sleep ok despite the fat american snorer! Hitch hiked part of the way to Waitomo but after getting dropped on a motorway junction with nowhere safe to stand decided to go back the other way. A big friendly Samoan giant called Paul took me all the way into Auckland even though it was past his junction. I walked to the harbour and took a boat to the island of Waiheke. It had been hot all morning but of course by the time I got to the beach and put sun cream on a huge cloud came across. The bloke running the hostel is on something. It's a bit of a party zone with seriously loud music. There were no beds available but there was a tent which I managed to sleep for eleven hours in on the first night.
In the morning I set out on a long walk in some scorching sun, eventually I crashed on the beach which prompted clouds and a few spots of rain but God was only playing with me, spent the rest of the day on the beach, and most of the next day on a different beach which I had to walk through a nudist section to get to - not pretty! Considering I have done nothing but laze around it came as a surprise when my back spasmed whilst walking up a hill - it hurt like hell for a few days. I also managed to miss a big patch on my back with the cream so that burnt and peeled.

Back to Auckland yet again. After killing time all morning I went to catch the bus to the airport and was told I would need a taxi as the traffic was so bad the bus wouldn't get there on time. I only had $28 left and hoped I could get by without going to the ATM again. The taxi driver accepted the $28 having started out at $40 because it was on his way home. The eleven hour flight to Santiago was really tedious as the entertainment selection was pretty poor and I didn't have an aisle seat so I couldn't get up and stretch my legs much, also I couldn't sleep. The highlight was the film 'Little miss sunshine' which was very amusing. I put my watch back sixteen hours and landed five hours before I took off!

So the New Zealand adventure was over and the South American one had began. Despite some crappy weather I enjoyed New Zealand and will look back on all the really cool stuff I did there with happy memories - ice climbing, bungy jumping, sky diving, dolphins, penguins, mountains, lakes. Fantastic.

2007-02-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

5th - 11th February (Whitianga to Paihia)

What a day! I asked the hostel owner where to hitch from and he managed to get me on the bus over the bridge to an area called Bethlehem. From there it took me another eight lifts to get to Whitianga. About seven hours to travel a little over 100km with a few rain showers along the way. When I finally arrived it felt like I hadn't got past Bethlehem as there was no room at any of the hostels. The thought of hitching on again straight away wasn't a pleasant one so luckily I managed to get a $60 room above a pub restaurant for $40, there were three beds but I had the room to myself. Spent the rest of the day wandering around the small town, had a couple of beers in the two fairly dull pubs and watched some of the rugby sevens.

The weather was still miserable the next day so I decided to give the local walks a miss and hit the road again. A short walk, a hitch from an old guy who came here from Oz to avoid arrest for tax evasion and never went back, and then from 3 young lads from Thames (where I was heading) with a car thick with the smell of dope smoking and Rage/Nirvana playing from a laptop. It only took about an hour and twenty to get to Thames and the weather was no better. I wandered around the small town, ate at the bakehouse, did the $10 tour of the disused gold mine, met a 47 year old canadian called Tim at the hostel and went down the pub with him for a game of pool. In the evening I went to see the Borat movie (with only four other people in the cinema) then ate at the hostel, drank wine with Tim followed by whiskey.

I had hoped to go to the 'spectacular' pinnacles walk in the morning but the shuttle bus wasn't going due to bad weather. I hung around for a while considering wether to hitch hike out or not, played some pool and drank some beer and eventually decided to take the $24 bus to Auckland, this felt like a defeat but I couldn't be bothered to stand around getting wet although the weather brightened up as soon as I booked my ticket. The bus was boiling hot and there was a lot of congestion on the way into Auckland. My first impressions were not great, too many cars, tall buildings and people. The 'Surf and Snow' backpackers is big and decent enough although there ia lots of traffic noise at night. I phoned the police about some abandoned suit cases in the street and walked to the pier area which although only a short walk felt like a nice relaxing spot with nice bars and restaurants. Back at the hostel, a 21 year old Japanese lad had managed a half bottle of J.D., I knew from experience that this has consequenses. He later fell out of bed, made lots of thrashing about noises and ended up under my bed. I was worried that he might chuck up under there so me and another English lad in the dorm lifted the bed and lifted the Jap back into his bed. Earplugs helped me to get a decent nights sleep.

My morning visit to Qantas went much easier than I had expected, all the dates I suggested for my South American internal flights were okay - the only problem is I almost picked the dates at random because I have little idea of where to go or how long it takes to get around. I decided to head north to Paihia, in an area known as the bay of islands. Thirty minutes of walking towards the motorway junction and thirty minutes of waiting followed by a lift from an old American tourist called John, the two hour journey went by quickly as he was quite a talker. A middle aged woman took me a bit further, then a lorry driver took ne the rest of the way, stopping for a while to unload some roofing off of the back. I arrived in Paihia at 16.00 with lots of thick cloud, light showers, some blue sky and strong sun. Cap'n Bobs is a nice hostel with nice views of the sea. After visiting the supermarket I cooked steak and jacket potatoes for dinner followed by triple choc ice cream, all accompanied by $6 plonk - lovely! I spoke to some people including Conor from Ireland who just happens to be on the same flight as me to Santiago. Unfortunately Cap'n Bobs was booked up for the following night so I carted my stuff down the road to the pleasant Mayfair Lodge where George the owner is very helpful and chatty. I spoke to Mum, Dad and Carly on the phone. The weather was still humid with showers but supposed to get better tomorrow so I booked an $85 boat trip with the hope of swimming with dolphins. Walked to Waitangi where the treaty between the white settlers and the local Maoris was signed before continuing on to the Haruru falls, nothing too exciting but it was something to do. I watched a Maori cultural show at Waitangi for $12, the sun came out so I lazed around for a while before heading to the supermarket.
At the supermarket I spotted a cute girl (Jen) who turned out to be staying at the hostel, in my dorm with her hot mates Sian and Caz. I spoke to them for a while, they recently graduated from Nottingham Uni and are also heading to South America. Girls like that were never in my league and when one of them said I would probably like the Thomas Crown Affair becaude her dad likes it I realized they never would be. Still, it was nice to spend time with fit, intelligent young women. Sian looks like the girl from smack the pony.

Hurrah! Perfect weather for the boat trip.
The catamaran was a bit overcrowded, especially when we were all trying to photograph the dolphins. We weren't allowed to swim with them because they had a baby. I burnt some bits of ny back that I didn't manage to reach with the suncream - this would peel a few days later. The trip was pleasant, a little snorkelling, a walk on an island and hot dogs for lunch.
When I got back I fell asleep on a patch of grass by the sea, only to be awoken by a hen party who wanted group photos with me before abducting me in their tour bus as far as the bar for a drink before leaving for their next port of call - good fun. Later went to a couple of bars with the girls from the hostel.

Next day, I took the ferry to Russell, ate fish and chips before walking to flagstaff hill and long beach in the hot humid weather. Russell is a quaint little place. Back to Paihia for a walk to a lookout point. Used the hostel internet to book the inca trail for April and put some photos on the blog. I watched 'The fastest Indian in the world' a good NZ film starring Anthony Hopkins.

2007-02-03T14:19:00.000-08:00

1st - 4th February (The Bay of Plenty)

On the road again. Walked five minutes to a decent spot where I was picked up by Ted, a retired guy doing a limosine transfer in his people carrier. Ted dropped me in Rotorua, I then walked for about 50 minutes in the midday sun to get to the right road (not easy with a big pack on my back the day after the Tongariro crossing!). I was about to find out what Rhys was talking about when he said that hitching allows you to meet much more strange and interesting people. I was picked up by a pair of Maori bad boy gangstas in a Honda space wagon with adjustable hydraulic suspension. The baseball bat in the back was a bit worrying but they seemed like nice young lads (Pet and Andrew) and after talking to them for a while I found out that they were up and coming hip hop artists, they played me some of their stuff which was really good, Pet did some freestyle rapping and at a car park/lookout point Andrew (complete with bling and silver 'grills' over his teeth) showed me crumping (I think that's what he called it!), an aggressive dance style that I wish I'd filmed. They explained to me that the bat was in case they get trouble from Samoans when they go to Auckland. When we arrived at Whakatane (FA-KA-TA-NEH) they bought be a KFC and wouldn't let me pay, and although they were really cool I was on my guard having memorised their number plate in case they drove off with my stuff while I was in the KFC toilet! I really enjoyed meeting these guys who I would probably have avoided under normal circumstances. Whakatane is a pretty little quiet place and the Karibu backpackers is small and homely. I did my laundry, booked a trip for tomorrow, sat in the sun and talked to Ninka from Holland, she made too much pasta and like the nice guy I am I helped her out! In the evening I watched Shallow Hal while drinking a $5 bottle of Hardys Cab Sav.

The alarm went off at 08.15, it was raining hard. The boat trip to White Island was put back from 09.15 to 10.00. The rain started to die off and the sun came out just before we set sail and the weather stayed perfect all day.
I got my $150 worth just from the journey to the island; loads of dolphins came out to play, swimming alongside and behind the boat - they are incredible to watch but difficult to photograph. White Island is the most active of the three active volcanoes in NZ. It's last eruption was in 2000 and although they weren't expecting another one soon they went through all the safety procedures for an eruption or a landslide.
I thought it was a bit like a reverse lottery - the chances of it happening are very slim but you have to be in it to win it (ie. get flattened by flying hot rocks!) The whole island was fascinating, a huge green steaming crater that would dissolve any part of your body that you dipped into it, lots of sulpher, steam and odd rocks plus the remains of the doomed sulpher mining operation.
The guides were very good and full of information and tragic tales of the people who had died on the island. The water was choppy on the way back, I felt a bit queasy but there were several pukers much worse than me. We were back around 17.00 for a quick sunbathe before walking into town. Some nice fish and chips and sunset over the harbour to finish off a fantastic day.

Information and pictures of white island can be found at www.whiteisland.co.nz if you are interested.

The next day I aimed to get to Mount Maunganui, only about an hours drive away but without any cardboard I relied on the thumb. I was picked up by an old scouser called John who just took me to the next junction (taking me away from all the Rotorua traffic), two middle aged ladies, Ruth and Donna took me to Te Puke stopping for a sandwich and a coffee, a twenty minute walk before getting picked up by another middle aged lady who took me to the outskirts of Maunganui. With 6km to go I decided to walk but it was hot so after twenty minutes I stuck the thumb out again and got picked up by a nice young girl from Chile with her two kids in the back, we drove past the backpackers so I still had another five minute walk. It was quite a fun day but too much walking in the heat so after checking in to the nice hostel I walked to the beach which was very nice. It was very busy with it being a Saturday and the school holidays coming to an end. I stayed and soaked up some rays but the factor 30 stopped me from changing colour much. In the evening I walked through the town with lots of nice cafes, restaurants and bars but couldn't find a supermarket so had to eat a huge burger from an American diner.

With plans for a half day walk followed by some more lazing on the beach, the downpour that lasted all morning was not good. So, I spent all morning on the internet and burning a cd, and I thought summer had finally arrived, especially as I am now in the part of the country that generally has the best weather, the north east of the north island. Oh well, it could be worse, I could be in England! The rain stopped in the afternoon, long enough to go on a walk around the mount. In the evening I went to the cinema to watch 'The pursuit of happyness' with Will Smith which was okay.

2007-02-03T00:36:00.000-08:00

27th - 31st January (Spurting geysers and naked geezers!)

I didn't wait more than ten minutes before a young builder picked me up on his way to do a job for a mate. He was nice enough to stop at the bubbling pool of mud en route before dropping me in the centre of Rotorua. After visiting the supermarket I cooked up some pasta - straight back into the old routine now Sasha has gone! I read half of 'The five people you meet in heaven' by Mitch Albom having left Shantaram for Sasha to finish (will have to pick that up elsewhere otherwise it will be on my Christmas list). My first impression of Rotorua is the smell of rotten eggs, caused by the sulpher of all the geothermal activity around here. I spent some time in the late night internet cafe.

The following day, I took a bus to Waiotapu. At 10.15 every morning, in front of a seating area packed with tourists, a man empties some biodegradable soap into the Lady Knox geyser which then bubbles a bit before a surge of water leaps twenty metres intop the air and continues for a good few minutes. Then, with Kee, an American girl on the bus, I walked the 75 minute track around a strange landscape of green pools, rocks of various formations and colours, steam and smelly sulpher. When we got back I left my camera on the bus but soon managed to get it back after a phone call to the bus company. In the afternoon I walked to the polynesian spa pools, at the edge of lake Rotorua where several pools of thermally heated spring water range from the pleasant 36 degrees to the uncomfortable 43 degrees. I sat there, relaxed, finished my book and got shat on by a seagull. The sun was shining, so on the way back I stopped at the local festival where I supped ale, ate barbecued salmon and listened to the local musicians. Watched Shrek 2 again.

The weather forecast for Taupo was looking better so I decided to hitch back there. I checked out, walked for ten minutes then waited fifty minutes for a lift, dropped halfway to my destination by a dodgy dreadlocked dude in a campervan and quickly got picked up by a bloke with a little girl listening to a cd story read by Baldrick. I checked in to a really shabby hostel, then went to town to arrange the bus to the tongariro crossing ($45) and the two night hut pass ($40). I went for a swim in lake Taupo, the water was ice cold but in some places you could dig your toes into the little stones and find unbearably hot streams - weird! The sun was hot, the wind was cold. I went to bed quite early but slept badly.

The alarm went off at 05.15. The 05.45 bus was 15 minutes late. It was raining hard when I awoke but seemed to be gradually improving and after about an hour on the bus it realy looked quite promising, however, the driver got a call telling him the winds were too strong in the mountains and we turned back. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise; I hadn't managed to get any waterproof trousers and the driver said i had the least amount of gear he'd ever seen for a three day crossing. So after a little nap, I moved into the much nicer Rainbow lodge, got a refund for my hut pass and booked the bus for a one day crossing with the weather forecast for tomorrow looking very good. Didn't do too much of interest for the rest of the day but played cards with a canadian, a fin, a welsh lad and some germans.

With my alarm set for 05.15, a girl in the dorm, also doing the trek, set hers for 04.40 so I got up then feeling rubbish. The weather was glorious all day. The crossing is quite hard work in places, particularly the 'devil's staircase'. I also went off of the track to climb up Mount Ngahoue (Mount Doom) which was quite steep and mostly loose gravel meaning that at times I was taking a step up and sliding half of it back down again, this also made getting back down interesting, the best bet is to kind of run and slide at the same time, good fun but quite hard on already aching knees! Altogether I think the route took about eight and a half hours including 45 minutes of breaks.

Some of the sights were fantastic; emerald lakes, the red crater etc., but the strangest thing was the naked guys at the top of Mount Doom where the wind was extremely cold. A fantastic day where, yet again the weather (on the second attempt) came through when I needed it. I managed to stay up until midnight with the strange concoction of nationalities despite feeling very tired.

2007-01-26T21:05:00.000-08:00

22nd - 27th January (Waiting to fall from the sky over Taupo)

Tom and I shared the five and a half hour drive to Taupo, stopping for sandwiches at the side of the road. We set up our tents at a YHA place close to the centre of town - a nice place but with a tiny kitchen (doesn't affect me too much!) and too few toilets and showers. Some lads were trying to get a game of volleyball going so Tom and I joined in.
Most of our time in Taupo involved watching the weather and phoning the skydive people, one evening we actually got to the airport, Tom and Sasha were harnessed and ready to go (I wasn't feeling 100% so decided to try another day) but the weather had other plans and they didn't jump. We managed to find a few things to keep us entertained while we waited; eating, drinking, watching films, laser-quest, mini-golf, internet, introduced Tom and Sasha to indoor climbing, visited the incredibly fast water of Huka falls, balancing on high wires, beams etc at 'Rock'n'ropes', eating lovely kebebs, got a haircut and finally I noticed the sky clearing one evening as I walked back to the hostel to meet Tom and Sasha who had already phoned the company and were getting ready to go.
I still thought it was about 50/50 as we raced to the airport, filled out the forms and watched the video, the sky still looked very dodgy. I was strapped up and ready to go, my tandem and I were last into the plane so we were due to go first, the clouds over the lake were growing thinner with every minute and I started to feel the nervousness that comes with realising I was very soon going to jump out of a plane at 12,000 feet. It was totally brilliant, better than the bungy, 45 seconds of freefall at over 120mph followed by the upwards jolt of the parachute opening and the serenity of the silent sky over the lake as we drifted down to a gentle landing. Sasha and I paid $219 but Tom paid the $100 extra to have his dive filmed by a cameraman who jumped with him. I have video footage of the before and after which cost $20 and looks quite cool. We all loved it. The next morning we visited the honey hive where they have bees nests enclosed in glass, loads of information about the life of honey bees and a shop selling bee products - it was more interesting than it sounds. After that, Tom and Sasha drove off, leaving me to hitch for the first time in a month. I had been planning on going to the scenic Tongariero crossing for views of Mount Doom from Lord of the rings, but again good weather was required and not forecast so I headed for Rotorua, an area of geothermal activity (volcanic stuff).

2007-01-23T17:11:00.000-08:00

18th - 21st January (Windy Wellington)

We packed up our tents and drove into the very pleasant Picton town with lots of quaint little shops and cafes. We got to the ferry terminal at 13.00 to check in for our 14.00 ferry. Leaving through the Marlborough Sounds, with its scenic wavy coastline consisting of loads of mountains poking their heads through the water, covered with trees, as the ferry sped up the front deck got a bit cold so I sat on the back deck soaking up the rays and breathing in the smell of the caged cows beneath and the exhaust fumes from above. The crossing took about three hours. Our hostel is a fifteen minute walk from the centre, the campsite part of which is a fairly small backyard, every day when it looked as if no more tents could possibly fit in, a couple more would appear - it felt like Reading festival without the rain.

After a supermarket shop we went to a fairly cheap curry house and once again I was less than impressed. Although tonight is a Thursday the nightlife in Wellington looks like a weekend, the upmarket bars are doing a brisk trade with mostly well dressed business classes I presume and the Irish bars with live music cater for the not quite so well dressed - I know where I will be tomorrow night!

Wellington being the capital, there are plenty of internet cafes at $4 per hour (around half the price of some places around NZ) and most of them have Skype available. So over the next couple of days I spoke to several of my friends which made me feel very happy - especially speaking to Smudge and Stu H, the newly proud fathers. Finally, the ten euros I put on my Skype account back in Thailand has been used up - Skype is great. Wellington is known famous for being windy, on the first day, the sun shone for a while but most of the rest of the time was overcast so I spent a lot of time making the most of the cheap internet. The city is nice, not too overcrowded, with cafes, coffee shops, art gallerys and museums, plus of course the usual chain stores and fast food joints. Back at base, I cooked a fairly hot Thai red veggie curry, then we went for beers, the Wellington atmosphere made me feel like a session but with my more refined friends I managed to get two pints before getting home at midnight - at least I will feel ok in the morning!

The next day Tom felt a bit tired, so Sasha and I wandered around looking for art gallerys and things to do; we found the terrible 'beehive' building, a late 60's monstrosity I believe, and the rather nicer adjoining parliament building before heading to the seafront to try our hands at inline skating - I was much better than I expected, having been rubbish at rollerblading and ice-skating when I was younger, I was quite quick but couldn't stop or turn. Sasha was a bit shaky but improved gradually. We both managed to get through the hour unscathed. Sasha cooked jacket potatoes and corn on the cob. I did a clean sweep of yanif, trumps and 15's - damn, I'm good! We all had a pretty bad nights sleep with the souped up boy racer cars speeding between each set of lights along the strip.

The next day, the others went to a monastry, so I did more internet and skyping - happy birthday to Dad. I couldn't find a pub showing Liverpool whoop Chelsea which was on Sky so I went to the impressive Te Papa museum, before meeting up with Tom and Sasha to go to a Hari Chrishna thing, I thought it was just going to be a street party and a bit of a laugh but as we went up some stairs and Tom and Sasha dissapeared into a room full of strange people, I realised this was not a place I wanted to be so legged it back to the safety of the internet cafe. When I met Tom and Sasha later they laughed at me but when they told me about the singing and dancing I felt I had made the right choice (despite the lovely free food I missed).

2007-01-18T21:56:00.000-08:00

Here are some video links from Oz and NZ:
The rope swing...

Capricorn Dave's ant dance...

My ant dance...

The bungy...

The canyon swing...

The penguin shuffle...

Hope you like them.

2007-01-18T15:20:00.000-08:00

8th - 17th January (Ice climbing to sea kayaking)

We packed up our tents in the rain and drove on to Fox Glacier where the weather was also mostly overcast with showers. We went in to the town information centre and I booked a day of ice climbing for $210. Later we went for a nice walk around nearby Matheson lake, as we got to the best lookout point the sun was low in the sky behind us, the clouds cleared a little and we got some excellent photos of the mountain, clouds and orangey sky reflected in the lake. Being quite cautious with my budget, I don't mind spending $210 dollars if I have a good time but just like the moments after I spent out on the bungy jump I wondered wether ice climbing would be any good and wether the weather would ruin the views of the glacier. However, when I got up at 06.45, the sky was clear and remained that way all morning, the clouds arrived in the afternoon but no rain and the day turned out to be fantastic fun. We walked around the side of the terminal face of the glacier and up on to the surface of the ice, fully kitted up with crampons (boots with massive spikes in them) we walked until we found some suitable ice walls (big crevaces in the glacier) and there our group of four learnt to walk and climb on ice.
To be walking on a glacier is amazing, these things are like prehistoric remnants of the last ice age, they played a massive part in shaping this country and when you walk on one you can hear them creak as they gradually move down the valley at about a metre a day, you hear the trickle of tiny streams all around you as the sun melts the ice and high up above I could see the pinnacle where fresh snow was being compacted to continue the cycle with new ice.
At one point, I climbed a small face, was lowered over the lip into a crevace of smooth blue ice, then with the aid of my ice picks climbed up the taller wall in front of me - it wasn't as hard as rock climbing as you can use the picks and spikes on your shoes to make suitable ledges as you go but it was a good ten hours of walking and climbing so I was quite exhausted by the end (especially as I had volunteered to carry one of the ropes which was twice the weight on the way back due to it being wet). We all brought sandwiches for lunch, sat on our waterproof jackets on the ice wearing just a couple of t-shirts with the sun beating down, very nice. Once the instructor was happy that we knew what we were doing, we were
bilaying eachother (using the rope as safety for when we fall), he took all four of our cameras and snapped away so I have some great pictures from that day. After Fox glacier we drove to Franz Josef glacier, the busier and more expensive of the two. We walked to the terminal face and took some photos but I don't think they compared to those I got at Fox, I also preferred the smaller and prettier village at Fox.

The next stop was Hokitika where there really isn't much to do. We found our way to eco-world with the promise of seeing live Kiwi birds (well you have to see a Kiwi when in NZ), after walking around the aquariums and looking at all the exotic fish and eels the size of my leg (no joke) we got to the dimly lit Kiwi enclosure where only one Kiwi wanted to show itself, he had one leg and hopped about for a bit looking cute and helpless. I bought a tiny Kiwi in the hope that it would make it the rest of the way around the world with me so that it can join the undoubtedly huge pile of baby Casey's soft toys. The campsite we stayed at was pretty busy but all I could hear when I went to bed at night was the sound of the crashing waves about 200 metres away. In the morning we drove to turquoise blue 'Hokitika gorge' which was very nice but swarming with sandflies.
On a boiling hot day, we drove on to Westport, stopping at Punakaiki for views of the pancake rocks, where the limestone has formrd in distinct layers and then been shaped by the acidity of the rain and the crashing of the waves, making formations that look surprisingly like piles of pancakes. If we had been here later in the day we could have seen the blow hole in action but we moved on to Westport where we stopped at a high viewpoint to watch the seals as the played on and around the rocks. The pups were about a month old and we stayed for ages to watch them, it was a hive of activity and we could have stayed there all day, unfortunately they were a bit too far away to get good photos or video. In the evening I walked on my own into the quiet town in the hope of finding internet, but instead I found a pub where I ate lamb shank (as much as I've enjoyed eating veggie food I needed to eat an animal!) washed down by a couple of beers.
On the way home I saw the best sunset yet but we weren't on the coast so my photos have industrial buildings and telegraph poles in the foreground. Today, my friends Stu (that's Stu who I lived with in Portsmouth) and Clare Hawthorn had a baby girl called Emily (12th Jan).

So, onwards again, in a very hot car to Nelson, bright sunshine all the way but rain as we approached Nelson (sod's law) so we drank tea and played yahtzee before putting up the tents during a dry moment. We drove to town and treated ourselves to Dominoes pizza. Found an internet cafe with a handful of Skype machines that were all in use until 20 minutes before they closed when I managed to call Mum. I also managed to transfer some much needed funds into my current account. In the last 2 months I have spent an average of 42 pound per day taking my 6 month total to 5,300 pound (although this doesn't include the 1,700 pound flights or the prepaid 2 week tour of India which cost almost a grand I think). Still, South America should be fairly cheap.

At the information centre in Nelson, we spent half a day sorting through the multitude of options of things to do in Abel Tasman national park. Eventually we settled on a $65 day of kayaking, followed the next day by a $40 sea taxi and trek. I emailed a copy of my driving licence to the car rental people so I could drive the car. Back at the site I managed to get ducklings to eat oats out of my hand while the mother duck made concerned noises waiting to go for me if I made any sudden movements. I made a nice salad for dinner (although a steak would have made it better). I drove back to the internet place and couldn't get on Skype at all. I tried to call Dad using my credit card from a payphone and it charged me $4 as soon as the BT callminder cut in - bargain!

I've been travelling with Tom and Sasha for three weeks now and it's been pretty good. With Sasha being veggie and doing most of the cooking I have eaten well, they are Buddhist and neither of them drink much so I haven't drunk much either and am feeling quite healthy as a result. When the weather is rubbish or there is not much to keep us entertained we can always play cards, and it has been a convenient and cheap way to see probably more of the south island than I could have done any other way. Tom wants me to stay at least until the 24th of January as that's his birthday and we both want to skydive over lake Taupo, but I am starting to get the itch for hitch hiking again soon as I'm not really meeting any new people and it's all a bit too easy, plus I am missing meat and ale! (I have discovered Mac's Sassy red though - a lovely local tipple!)

So anyway, a 06.15 start, and luckily again, when I need it most the weather is good. A drive to Mauharu (the Abel Tasman starting point) where we filled out forms, applied sun screen, had a safety lesson and kayaked off in a double and a single kayak. Just like when I swim, my shoulders felt like they had cramp after no time at all and it seemed like really hard work. From 09.00 to 14.00 we paddled about 24km around an island, to watering cove and back along the coast to Mauharu stopping at several nice coves and beaches for snack/lunch/shoulder recovery stops. I managed to capsize whilst trying to get in from the beach with camera still in my pocket, luckily it somehow stayed dry and I transferred it to the dry bag, I then capsized again and looked like a complete wally. My shoulders and probably my technique improved as the day went on and the route back had a little current behind us. We booked in to the campsite at Mauharu and played cards.

The 10.30 water taxi (speed boat) took us to Bark Bay, we walked south for about three hours to Anchorage, the few clouds dissappeared and we had over an hour to swim in the icy sea and sunbathe on the beautiful beach before the 16.00 return boat trip which seemed so much bumpier than the outward trip despite the stillness of the water. The walk, described by the lonely planet as the best section of this coastal stretch was mostly under the cover of forest and not that remarkable. Sasha saw a dolphin on the way back but the rest of us missed it. In the evening we watched 'Ugly Betty' (never again) and 'Ian Wright's unfit kids'.

We drove back to Nelson the next morning, where we ate at a Thai restaurant with a good, cheap lunchtime menu. I then drove the incredibly windy road to Picton. The weather went from sun to dark cloud and rain. We drank tea and pitched tents. I started to read 'The 5 people you meet in heaven' by Mitch Albom although I am also reading Shantaram. The games room had pool, table footy and air hockey, we played all three followed by shit head and 15's and an episode of Black Adder.

2007-01-17T15:25:00.000-08:00

5th - 7th January (Wanaka and Haast)

On the way out of Queenstown we stopped for a while at the worlds first bungy and watched some jumpers. One girl went into the river from head to waist - that looked really cool and I was tempted to waste more money but didn't. We drove on to Wanaka, stopping at puzzle world just before we arrived, viewing all the perception altering displays and puzzles before spending 72 minutes in the hot sun wandering around the extremely frustrating first ever 3d maze. The 6th saw my first overcast sky of the new year. We drove along a long bumpy gravel road to the start of the Rob Roy walk, when we arrived it was raining so we sat in the car playing cards for a while, eventually we went for it, walked for one minute (there and back!), I was the only one with a waterproof jacket. On the way back the sky cleared and we stopped for a pleasant lakeside walk. Later, I spent a while uploading all of my Oz and NZ pictures on to flickr, so click on the flickr icon to the right to see the latest pics - but be warned NZ is very picturesque so I have taken lots of scenery pictures that are probably mostly boring and not very good, in the hope that there are a few of picture postcard perfection. Wanaka is very nice but the weather isn't. We didn't stay long, packed our tents and drove to Haast on the west coast. The weather was sunny and cloudy all day and I played with my boomerang for the first time (almost got it to come back to me), then drove north to Jackson bay where the lonely planet describes some beautiful red rock mountain views as 'unforgettable', I will never forget those views after a long, bumpy and windy drive, of completely unobscured f#ck all. There is nothing to stop in Haast for, if the sky is clear the route to and from Haast is quite scenic, just don't stop! The music in the car is an odd mix. Tom likes Britney, Hindi pop, Thai pop, Michael Jackson and thankfully the Beatles, Sasha has generally better taste although she is a big fan of Alanis Morrisette, at times the journeys are quite painful!

2007-01-05T22:18:00.000-08:00

1st - 4th January (Extreme sports in Queenstown)

Started the year with a bad head that lasted all day. Packed up the tent and used the internet for a while to read all my happy new year messages. We loaded up the car and headed for Queenstown, stopping in Te Anau again for lunch, and arrived at Lakeview holiday park between the lake and the gondola ride where there were a few chalets, several motor homes and millions of tents ($15 per person). The facilities were pretty good but the showers cost a dollar a go and it costs $5 to hire a cupboard in the kitchen, I was of course outraged and refused to eat or shower! Camping hasn't really saved me a fortune as it's only about $6 per night cheaper but it's good fun and makes a change from the hostels. I made a veg stir-fry using green curry paste(about time I did some of the cooking!) and I won at the great card game I have just learnt, called 15's.

The next morning I sat in the sun reading Tom's book 'Shantaram' which is set in India and so far is very good, it's also very big. The others took advantage of the fine weather to sort through all the stuff in the car. At midday Sasha went into town to try to replace a glasses lense that cracked whilst sat in the heat of the car window while Tom and I took a steep 45 minute hike up to the top of the gondola ride to get to the luge (gravity powered go-karts on two different race tracks), we paid for 5 rides and had a great time bullying all of the litle kids off the track. Tom got the better of me but he had done it before. A nice steak and cheese pie from the cafe before walking back down. Sasha beat me at 15's (stupid game), while Tom used the internet then I sat in the sun and read while Tom and Sasha cooked veg tortillas. Sasha then kicked ass at Yanif before I scored a record 413 at Yahtzee, Tom left disillusioned after winning nothing!

Sasha decided to make pancakes for breakfast which nearly took us until lunch. After that we wandered into town knowing that we wanted to do something but not knowing what. At 14.30 Tom and I booked a bungy jump, luckily there was a 15.30 cancellation for us to go on giving Tom time to change into suitable footwear and me time to eat fish and chips (well, it could be my last meal!) but neither of us much time to think about it. At 134 metres, the Nevis bungy is the highest in NZ and one of the highest in the world so it seemed like the one to do! We got fitted out like some kind of production line and in no time at all we were shuffling forwards in our ankle cuffs towards a big drop suspended over a canyon. I'm not trying to sound all butch and hard but neither Tom or I felt any fear, I had a strange sickly feel in my stomach when I prepaid for it but that's normal for me! Everything happened very quickly and there wasn't much time to worry about it. The initial millisecond of knowing my body had leant forward to the point of no return was scary, then an 8.5 second fall which at first felt very strange and then exhilerating. The bounce at the bottom was very smooth, not at all jerky like I had expected. It was fantastic but over too quickly, can't wait to skydive for a slightly longer flying sensation. I declined the pricey dvd but paid up for a combo where I do the canyon swing at a reduced price tomorrow. Bungy $210, canyon swing $60, the look on my face priceless (I also bought the $39 t-shirt). In the evening I cooked bangers and mash for Tom and I, and a ready made veg lasagne for Sasha then went to town to use the internet.

Some death metal from somebody's car stereo around midnight and 06.00 disrupted my sleep. The three of us used the free gondola ride tickets that we managed to blag. Tom and Sasha took photographs and video footage of my canyon swing which is really just a 43 metre rope swing, but almost as much fun as the bungy. There is a cliff jump bungy that goes from the same spot, so we stood in the sun, watched and took photos of other jumpers. Later, Tom and Sasha went into town while i read and sweated in the sun. After a cool shower I joined the others for Sasha's 18.00 hangliding which she thoroughly enjoyed, then off to 'Fergburger' which does great burgers from $9, but I was hungry and went for the massive $14 burger with all the trimmings. Oh yes! Went to burn a cd and copied jump and swing footage from Tom and Sasha's cameras.

2007-01-03T01:40:00.000-08:00

28th December 2006 until the early hours of 2007

After a short walk to the main road south and a five minute wait, got picked up by Tom and Sasha who I had met at the Christmas dinner table in Oamaru (what are the chances?), they didn't even have room for me really as they are camping and their car was piled high with stuff. Anyway, they made room and I squeezed in for a drive through the Catlins national park area in the south-east, stopping at nugget point where a few little islands sticking out of the water are supposed to look like gold nuggets in the right light (clearly not in this overcast weather though!) We stopped at the petrified forest on the south coast where clear fossils of fallen trees could be seen in the rocks - we were also treated to a close up view of a lone yellow eyed penguin. Finally we got to a campsite near to Invercargill where we pitched our tents (luckily they had one spare and I had bought a sleeping bag recently), Sasha made a veggie casserole and then they taught me Yahtzee. We weren't too far from a busy road and none of us slept too well.

In the morning we packed up our tents in the rain and bundled our stuff into the car. We drove to a supermarket in Invercargill, Tom and Sasha bought some food, I bought $40 of fuel and some cadburys banoffee pie chocolate that dad would love. Drove on to Te Anau where we stopped for lunch, I had a nice small venison pie with chips. On towards Milford sound stopping at several scenic lookouts where we got some close ups of a kea (an endangered parrot that has become over familiar with humans who have fed it things that aren't good for it) and some footage of it tring to pull the rubber seal away from someones car door. Arrived at Milford sound lodge, about the only place to stay around here and took the last two campsites at $15 per person (all the rooms were booked up as well), after pitching the tents Sasha made some pasta and vegetables and we sat up chatting.

The weather looked good so we decided to go for a walk. We paid for another night at the campsite and also booked a cruise on Milford sound for tomorrow ($92 each). We slowly walked the key summit track taking lots of photos as we went - lots of strange looking woodland with a multitude of mosses, lichens, fungi and algae growing up and hanging off the branches of the trees, looked pretty weird. On arrival at the summit we sat and ate the sandwiches that Sasha had made, it was sunny but with a refreshing cool drizzle. In the evening Tom made a nice veg curry and we played Yanif and Yahtzee. I had to get up in the night for the toilet, it was freezing cold outside without a cloud in the sky, probably more stars than I have ever seen. Ten minutes later I could hear a single bird making a regular high pitched sound as it flew from one end of the basin, overhead to the other end, everything else, apart from distant waterfalls, was perfectly silent.

From the 31st of December, the day of our Milford sound cruise up until the 5th of January we had nothing but glorious weather, about bloody time! This, of course, made the Milford sound cruise very nice indeed although it did mean that many of the numerous waterfalls into the sound were dry - every silver lining has a cloud! The water was beautifully clear, the views of the mountains were complimented by the occaisional whisp of cloud, the seals were bathing on the rocks and the view from the underwater observatory that we stopped at was clear (but crowded with too many people).

After the boat had dropped us off I spotted one of the most unusual things any of us had ever seen - a rainbow that encircled the sun, it stayed there for at least an hour. Back at the campsite I made like a seal and basked in the sun for a while, Sasha did some jacket potatoes with a selection of toppings and we headed back to the sound in order to try to catch a nice sunset, we failed but got some nice shots anyway until the sandflys became too much for me and I had no choice but to take refuge in the nearby 'Blue Duck Bar' until at least 01.00 when the sandflys go to bed. I drank quite a lot of beer but it was the sudden addition of sparkly stuff at midnight that sent me squiffy, at which point dancing to MC Hammer and singing 'Who the f&ck is Alice?' seemed like a great idea!

2006-12-24T12:20:00.000-08:00

23rd - 27th December (Christmas in Oamaru)

I had thought of heading to Queenstown for Christmas as it's quite a lively and popular place to be apparently. Of course, the flip side of this is the accomodation is probably all booked up. I sat at the roadside on the only road out of Mt. Cook holding a 'Queenstown' sign for two hours, the sun was burning the back of my neck and head. There wasn't too much traffic but there were plenty of half empty cars that were going in my direction at least to the next junction about 50km away at Omarama. I decided to change my sign to 'Omarama', less ambitious. I was picked up by an Israeli girl and her dad who were heading to Dunedin. After talking to them for a while I decided to change my plans and go to 'Oamaru' on the east coast which they were passing through. The good think about hitching is you never really know where you might end up! They recommended the 'Empire Hotel' which had a couple of beds free, is a very nice place and free internet (very useful). The town itself isn't exactly buzzing but it's pleasant enough. The 'Countdown' supermarket seems better value than others I have been to, I stocked up on pizza, pasta and fruit and of course some booze. Hardys Cabernet Sauvignon for only $7, so I got two and a twelve pack of Speights old dark for $19 - that's Christmas sorted! Back at the hotel, I watched the end of what looked like a great film called 'Joe Dirt' where I discovered the phrase that I will now use at every available opportunity "Life's a garden, dig it!".

Oamaru is known as one of the few places where penguins come ashore to nest so after a fourty minute hilly walk I got to the site where the yellow eyed penguins come ashore and watched from the observation hut as 3 white specs in the distance moved a little. I borrowed some binoculars for a better look, I could see some penguins waddling about but I couldn't see their yellow eyes. I walked most of the way back and stopped at the harbour where you have to pay $15.75 to watch the 'Little blue penguins' come ashore just after dusk. About 65 penguins came ashore in 'rafts' of 10 to 12 at a time, and slowly made their way up the slope to their nests, a dim light overhead had just enough power to show them clearly without blinding them. I guess I sat there for almost an hour, freezing cold but enjoying the show. Most of them passed by about 20 metres from my seat but towards the end one walked across about 5 metres from me. They're funny little creatures - I could see why that kid wanted to take one home from the zoo last year and although I was tempted my rucksack is heavy enough already! Unfortunately there was no photographs or filming allowed.

Options are especially limited in Oamaru on Christmas eve so I went to the cheese factory, unable to bear the excitement of a factory tour, I ate a cheese platter and drank coffee in their little cafe, and bought some blue cheese to take away. Kicked around for most of the day, glanced in the estate agents window and realised that I could sell up and move to a reasonable place here and not have a mortgage anymore. I went to the tiny cinema to watch Al Gore's 'Inconvenient truth' which was quite thought provoking. There were only seven other people who all looked over sixty. Had a few drinks back at the hostel and watched the end of groundhog day. Quite a sober Christmas eve.

Christmas morning was pleasant so I went for a walk then spent some time on the internet. The people who run the hostel put on a $20 buffet lunch which was massive and included four different desserts (I had at least one of each!), there was no turkey or brussel sprouts but we did have crackers to pull. I drank plenty of beer and wine without much effect watched films and played a little pool. Managed to stay up past 01.00 in order to speak to the whole family and Richie B. which was nice.

Boxing day morning, I walked for ten minutes with 'south' written on my board before being picked up by Gizzy, a Tongan bloke in an MR2 whose English wasn't great and neither was the conversation, his stereo wasn't on so the journey was a little uncomfortable. Luckily Dunedin was only an hour away and he dropped me in the centre, next to Penny's backpackers which looks great in the very new tv room and kitchen but a bit grotty in the showers and toilets - only $18 though. Went on the $56 scenic railway to Pukerangi and back, nice scenery, tunnels, viaducts and all that but my hayfever was about the worst it has ever been and I spent most of the journey with eyes on fire and sneezing. The guide was mumbling something undechipherable through the speakers and I was just glad when it ended. Once my eyes had recovered I watched Shawshank redemption at the hostel then slept in a dorm with the loudest snorer in the world ever in it.

The next day was incredibly dull, I was so bored I even played hearts and solitaire on the computer as the free internet wasn't working. There are no English speakers in the hotel and I don't even recognise what language the majority of them are speaking but they are speaking it too bloody loud. Did some laundry. Took a bus to the tunnel beach walkway which had some nice views and nice weather. Treated myself to a chicken jalfrezi at a cheap indian restaurant but it turned out to be mostly veg and not too nice. Planning to move on tomorrow.

2006-12-23T13:28:00.000-08:00

15th - 22nd December (From Christchurch to Mount Cook - Is this summer?)

At 04.45 (20 minutes after some German lads came in from their night out), my alarm went and I caught the Skytrain to the airport. My flight was with Jetstar, which I think is the budget arm of Qantas. The flight and the plane was fine but there was no free food or drink, not even a cup of tea or a water. I had tried to get rid of all my Australian dollars and they didn't take visa, it was lucky I'd had a sausage and egg McMuffin or I would have starved. They even charged $10 for the mini dvd player which had 'Scanner Darkly' on, which I really wanted to watch. I listened to my music instead. I did have the emergency exit seat with the extra leg room though, and it was a window seat; as we came in over the south island, the sky was clear and I could see miles and miles of snow capped mountains that just stop abruptly and become miles and miles of seemingly flat farm land with circular fields (for rotarty irrigation systems). I stared out at the mountains in astonishment, I honestly had no idea this is what New Zealand looked like, it's amazing. I realized that I spend too much time thinking about what to write in the blog as I looked out of the window thinking of superlatives to describe the scenery; I'll settle for 'stunning'.

I checked into the Christchurch YMCA (something told me that it's fun to stay here!), it's clean and tidy and it has a gym and a climbing wall which I checked out straight away - I need a climbing partner. I went into the cold town, traded my Oz lonely planet for a NZ one and had a lovely $5.50 Speights beer. The NZ dollar is weaker than the Oz dollar; about 2.9 dollars to the pound. My room mates arrived; Brad from the U.S. and some guy from Brazil, chatted for a while, went to bed, woke up shivering but found a blanket.

33 today. Read some birthday emails. Brad and I took the bus to the Gondola but decided to save $19 by walking up the hill instead of taking the gondola ride. It was pretty hard work but there was a nice breeze. There were some nice views from the top although it was cloudy. We stopped for a coffee at the top and I treated myself to some rocky road birthday cake. We took the gondola back down the hill for free. In the afternoon we climbed the walls at the YMCA for a couple of hours which felt like really hard work but good fun. Later we went for some nice (expensive) food followed by drinks at 'the Bog' Irish bar where they had a decent covers band playing. Their version of 'Fairytale of New York' was the first and only time I've felt like Christmas was on the way.

The next day I checked out, did some internet banking, made a sign reading 'Mt. Cook / Twizel', left about 11.45, and walked for about an hour, mostly along minor roads until I got to route 1 where I was picked up fairly quickly by a couple of young kiwi lads going home after a big night out in Christchurch where one of them had got into a fight and they both looked a bit rough. They both work on dairy farms. The driver (whose name I forget) bought drinks at the service station and wouldn't let me pay for them or towards the fuel so I gave $5 to the firemen collecting for a kids cancer charity there. The stereo started with REM and went on to Arctic Monkeys. I was dropped off at Timaru, about 150km from Christchurch and about the same again to Mt. Cook. I checked in to the '1873 Wanderer backpackers' (the owners are very friendly and helpful) and wandered in to the reasonably sized but very quiet town (it was a Sunday), found the Speights ale house which looked like the kind of trendy place that would be expensive but had a good plateful of bangers and mash for $16 and discovered Speights Porter ale, a dark rich ale that is probably the best thing I've tasted in a long while for $5.50 which seems to be the price of every beer everywhere so far.

In the morning I walked to the supermarket and got some porridge and milk for brekky, after that walked the other way into town to buy a sleeping bag $135 and managed to haggle for a free pair of thick walking socks as the bag was ex-display. Sonya, from the hostel drove me out of town just before midday. I walked about four steps with my 'Mt. Cook / Twizel' sign before getting picked up by Sam who is from the U.S. but hasn't been back there for years and probably never will, he spends his time between NZ and Israel, travelling and working. He is on his way to work at 'Buscot Station' a backpackers near a place called Omarama where he goes to work every year, it sounds really nice so I decide to go there. The weather started out very hot but got cooler and cloudier as we got nearer to the mountains. We stopped at the amazingly turquoise blue lakes Tekapo (with a picturesque little stone church on the edge) and Pukaki before arriving at 'Buscot Station', more like a home than a backpackers, surrounded by acres of farmland and mountains and rated at 93% in the guide book (one of the best in the country). Tony, the owner, is very nice, Kevin is working there for board and is an ex-retained fireman from Avon, Sam is also working for board and is trained as a chef, on the first night he cooked mussels which I had never tried before, very nice. I contributed some wine and ice cream. We witnessed two orthodox jews lighting the Hanukah candles and performing the whole ceremony with prayers and little hats - quite an interesting experience. I asked one of the jews several questions about his religion as I know very little about it and tried not to offend him as I find it all rather difficult to understand.

After my porridge, phoned mum with my new phonecard then sat around drinking tea. Kevin had talked about driving to Mt. Cook today so I waited for him to finish working but he eventually postponed it until tomorrow. Tony made a light lunch. I walked Fitzy the dog up the hill behind the house for about two and a half hours. In the evening Sam made pasta and a nice salad. We drank red wine and experimented with different camera settings for the sunset over the mountains. After last nights unusual Hanukah goings on, tonight we had a strange 'new age' woman going on about positive energy and all that mumbo jumbo, she wanted to perform a 'raike' on Kevin who was having none of it!

It's not like staying at a backpackers here, more like Tony's home. The only problem is that Tony keeps playing the same Christmas cd over and over again and the weather is so miserable that I'm spending most of my time indoors. Quite a few cyclists here today sheltering from the rain. I played backgammon, read, did emails, ate Sam's cooking and watched a video about Mt. Cook (it may be the closest I get to going there!) In the evening Sam cooked lovely roast chicken with Rhubarb crumble and custard for dessert. Finished the day with a game of shit-head.

Porridge with honey - beautiful. Spoke to Carly and Dan on the phone. Kev told me that a Korean American named Sung was heading to Mt. Cook so I cadged a lift. I booked into the YHA there and walked along the hooker valley trail with Sung. It was pretty cold with a few gentle snow flurries. I took some nice photos despite the thick cloud. We reached the glacier at the end of the trail, some large chunks of ice had broken away and floated on the lake which looked pretty cool. The glacier itself looked pretty dirty as it was carrying a load of rocks and gravel but I was quite impressed to be looking at a real life glacier having recently read about the part they played in forming the earths features during the ice ages in Bill Bryson's 'A short history of everything' which is quite tough going but fascinating in places. At the YHA, I cooked a pizza, after 20 minutes of the recommended 35 it was burnt to a crisp, I ate it and missed Sam's cooking! Read all of 'skipping christmas' by John Grisham in one go - a nice easy read with no thinking to do, just what I needed after 'A short history...'. Watched 'Snatch' video.

In the morning, I did the two hour 'Red tarns' walk; much steeper than yesterdays gentle stroll. The weather was superb; clear skies, boiling hot with a cool mountain breeze. There was still plenty of snow on the mountains and I drank from the icy stream. The snow formed massive ledges that looked like they should fall at any moment and create a huge avalanche, my camera was ready. I did the easy 'governer's bush' 45 minute walk straight after and met a total of seven people on both treks. Pretty quiet. I went to the Hermitage coffee shop for a sandwich and sat in the sun for a while. I spent most of the afternoon reading 'The Coma' by Alex Garland who wrote 'The Beach' then walked to a bar for a pint of Speights Old Dark, also very good, also $5.50. The food menu looked expensive so I went back to the YHA for noodles and shepherds pie in the microwave (a good balanced meal!) Watched 'Angela's ashes' on video which was pretty good.

2006-12-23T12:27:00.000-08:00

11th - 15th December (The last days in Oz)

Spent the best part of a day in an internet cafe, catching up on the blog, burning a cd and at long last managing to get some photos on the blog (hope you liked them). The weather in Cairns is really humid when it's not raining and the city itself is a strange mish-mash of buildings that just don't look right. At the hostels evening BBQ, had some kangeroo and tried croc for the first time (not bad). There was an entertaining digeridoo competition afterwards.

Awoke about 04.30 as a roomy was getting up for a flight, but dozed until 06.45 when I got up for my dive trip. Decided I was experienced enough to go without a guide (saving $20) and went in a group of 3. The visibility was ok but not perfect and we saw some beautiful fish and coral on two different dive sites. I took my underwater camera down and snapped away like crazy (since got them developed and really shouldn't have bothered!). I've done better dives but at least I can say I have dived on the barrier reef which for a while didn't look too likely (some dive boats didn't go out today as the water was still very choppy). I paid $205 for the experience. I sat on deck most of the way back and despite the cloud, caught the sun on my face a bit. Got back, read and fell asleep for a few minutes by the hostels pool in their lovely tree filled garden. Back to the woolshed with another voucher, $7 for a not too bad rump steak and a beer of course.

Next day was the $120 Cape Tribulation rainforest, Daintree river and Mossman Gorge trip. A very pleasant way to spend my final day (I knew it wasn't going to be too energetic when the first pick up after me were Beryl, Betty and Maude! - and no I didn't pull!). The weather was good and not too hot. There was some lovely scenery although it feels like I've seen enough forest, rivers and beaches now. Robin, our guide, about a 60 year old man, was very nice and full of information. I got on well with a nice WPC from Essex with her four year old daughter Sophie. I swam with fish, turtles and an eel in the river (the eel scared me a bit but Robin said it was harmless). The boat trip along the Daintree looking for crocs looked like it would come to nothing until a small one was spotted and the cameras came out - after some zooming in, some trimming and enlarging it looked like a monster! Also got some nice shots of the gorge and some lizards. That evening back to the woolshed where I chatted to some old bird from Perth.

My flight from Cairns to Brisbane went without a hitch. I went to the Qantas desk hoping to get my final flight date confirmed without paying the $25 that the Qantas offices required - no problems - I am due home on Thurs 14th June at 07.30 so start preparing the banners and the feast of vindaloo and roast beef. I start back to work on the 18th.

My one night in Brisbane was at the Banana Bender Backpackers and I spent the afternoon in the Queensland museum. It was extremely hot with little breeze but at least Brisbane didn't have the humidity of Cairns.

So that was the end of Oz and I had a good time here. I intentionally made my stay here brief as I wanted to spend more time exploring New Zealand and also to try and spend less money. Now I wish I'd had a bit more time as I could have explored the northern territories with Rhys. Oh well, on to NZ....

2006-12-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

8th - 10th December (Magnetic Island - Cairns)

Did I mention before that travelling by Greyhound was too punctual and predictable? This journey to Townsville proved me wrong, not exactly exciting but the driver learned of a lorry accident further up the road so stopped at a service station with a little cafe until the road was cleared, this turned a five hour journey into nine hours (I managed to pass a little time playing shit-head). I had been planning to stop in Townsville to Scuba dive the 'Yongala' shipwreck, supposedly one of the top dive spots in Oz and I was really looking forward to it, however, the weather conditions aren't good at the moment so I decided to go straight across on the ferry to Magnetic island where I continued to monitor the reports. I decided to try Bungalow bay resort in the north near to Horseshoe bay as it sounded good in the Lonely Planet, I got the last dorm bed available thanks to someone who booked but didn't show up. There are eight people to an A-frame bungalow with adjoining bathroom, pretty basic inside but full of charachter. One end wall is just wooden trellis and wire netting which allows all the wildlife sounds in in the morning. The resort is really nice, the staff are friendly, the restaurant isn't particularly cheap but my $16 chicken risotto was the best food I'd eaten in quite a while. I ate with two of my dorm mates (an American lad and a lad from Plymouth) who had to go to bed fairly early as they were working the next day so then got chatting to 21 year old Michelle from Oxford. Spotted some possums.

The following day, with dive conditions still no good, walked about twelve kilometres along the various north east bays of the island and along the fort walk for some decent views - a very hot and humid day with more walking than I had planned wearing sandals and having had nothing but a little fruit for breakfast. The island was formed when molten granite came to the surface and has since decomposed along fault lines creating rounded domes and boulders, some of them are massive and precariously balanced. Some fault lines have eroded to form valleys and amongst all the rock there are plenty of trees (not rainforest). I returned to watch a parrot feeding frenzie, a relaxing swim in the cold pool, a shower, a dissapointing pizza and a drink with the lads and Michelle.

With little prospect of diving from here or Townsville, I decided to head to Cairns, hopefully to do a reef dive. A local bus and ferry got me to Townsville, then the greyhound - raining virtually all the way and I was worried that it would be too hot up here. Passed through a place called Tully which holds the record for the highest annual rainfall in Oz, 7.9 metres in 1950 - it looked like it was on course to beat the record in one day! Booked into 'Tropic Days' hostel, seems like a very nice place with only four to a dorm and a 15 minute walk from the centre of Cairns. $24 per night. Arrived on Sunday, dive conditions are supposed to be a little better by Tuesday, can't dive Wednesday as I fly to Christchurch on Thursday (not allowed to fly within 24 hours of diving), so booked up for Tuesday (it had better not get cancelled as I can not come to Oz and not dive the barrier reef, especially as I missed the Yongala!). Received a free food voucher for the woolshed in town so got the courtesy bus there, upgraded my freebie to a nice lemon chicken plus a couple of beers (2 for 1) to wash it down, all in fourty minutes to catch the courtesy bus back again.

2006-12-09T16:51:00.000-08:00

3rd - 7th December (Licking an ants bum and being a salty sea dog!)

The adventure begins. The group consists of two twenty year old Swedish lads, Kim (the Dane), Henrich (ze German) myself and obviously Capricorn Dave as seen on TV! The day started gently enough (apart from Dave's mad driving on the dirt tracks) with a dinghy trip along a river looking out for snakes which we couldn't find. The weather was very hot and a quick swim in the river was very pleasant. A steak burger at a country pub for lunch and then on to another river where we had great fun on a rope swing (haven't done that since I was a kid) and a mud bath which really needed some female presence to stop it looking a bit gay! After that we did some exploring; Dave found some lime ants and showed us how to hold their heads and lick their bums - it's a bit like licking a battery but with the taste of lime, apparently the Aboriginies used to do it to get vitamin c (what I want to know is how they discovered that licking an ants bum was a good idea!). Dave found a red back spider which bit him and made his hand swell up for the next two days at least, a huntsman spider (about the size of a tarantula and furry) that we all held for a photo session, we held a snake which I think was harmless, saw lots of kangeroos and danced on an ants nest like Steve-O from Jackass which was hilarious. Finally we set up camp, started a fire and cracked open the beers, Henrick wasn't camping so Dave drove him back to town leaving the rest of us stranded for two hours in the middle of nowhere. Luckily he did return and cooked up some sausages, steaks, sweetcorn and potatoes. We rolled out our sleeping bags and swags (like a one man waterproof body bag) and slept until it rained and the swags turned out not to be waterproof , a sleepless night in the van until the rain stopped then back outside to be woken by birds singing and flys buzzing all around - this had been the first rain in the area for a long time, just my luck!

The next day we split up as the other three had booked a trip to Keppel island on the ferry while I had booked to go into the rainforest with Dave. I went back to the hostel for a shower first, then Dave picked me up along with a Swiss couple. It was cloudy but the rain managed to hold off, there was quite a lot of driving and despite Dave's mad dirt track driving I managed to fall asleep. We swam in a nice billabong, ate at a nice restaurant next to a park where there were wallabies and unusual looking guinea fowl, took canoes along a river where we saw a few turtles and water dragons but no snakes, an even better tarzan swing than the day before and more looking for wildlife that didn't want to show itself. The two days plus camping and all the food cost 215 dollars - the first day and camping was fantastic but day two was a bit of an anti-climax. Dave has taken bookings for four girls and no blokes to do the outback adventure tomorrow - sod's law that I get an all male group!

I left for Airlie beach early the next morning, after a seven hour journey checked into the YHA - a very spacious six bed dorm which for the first night housed just german Mike and myself (these germans are everywhere!) Airlie is pretty much just one road of pubs, fast food and other stuff for the backpacker and a harbour full of boats. It's stretching the truth a little to call it Airlie beach as the beach is tiny and crap! The first thing I did was find a cash machine, heard someone call my name, it was Kellie and Jo (the Nottingham girls) so chatted to them then went off to look into sailing trips, soon after spotted a face I recognised but couldn't place straight away, she recognised me though, it was Jen who Daz and I had played pool with in Mui Ne, Vietnam.

The boat trip that I really liked the look of was booked up for the next day so I booked it for the day after and a trip on the 'Camira' catamaran for the first day ($135). The big lilac coloured cat carried about 80 passengers and was a bit of a luxurious high speed cruise around the Whitsunday islands. The weather was perfect for burning, there was plenty of food and drink included (including beer) but as I hadn't had brekky or a sea sickness tablet I was unable to make the most of it - I certainly couldn't face the prawn cocktail. I got chatting to some English lads straight away and later an aussie guy and a couple of norweigan girls so it was really quite a sociable cruise. We stopped at Whitehaven beach but didn't have enough time to get to the viewpoint which I am told is fantastic - I did manage to take a tablet and started to feel a bit better for the rest of the journey (even managed to force down a couple of VBs). We did a little snorkelling but couldn't really see much. The Whitsunday islands looked very nice but not a patch on Halong Bay, Vietnam.

The next day I made sure I had breakfast and a tablet before boarding the 'Domino', with only 6 other passengers and Reg at the helm this was more like a proper sailing boat. I steered for a while and tried to fathom how all the sails, ropes and pulleys worked. The weather was scorching on the way out, a healthy lunch on a tiny island and some snorkelling with reasonable views although I missed the turtles. The weather turned a bit nasty on the way back but that kind of added to the fun. 125 dollars for the day and much more fun than yesterday. In the evening I made some horrible pasta that probably cost as much to put together as eating out, drank a few stubbies with Tom from yesterday's trip and watched crap tv at the hostel.

2006-12-04T23:25:00.000-08:00

28th November - 2nd December (Fraser Island)

I enjoyed my stay in Brisbane and it was really cool to meet up with Scott and the family - I reckon Brisbane is a great place to live but not the greatest tourist spot. Next stop Hervey Bay.

I've realised that my asian blogs contained as much info on the journeys as the places I went to and that travelling by greyhound is far too punctual, organised and uneventful - I think I will hitch hike in New Zealand. From Hervey bay I went on a two day tour of Fraser Island ($260). There were a real mix of nationalities in our group and I was the only Brit. It took a while but I eventually got quite friendly with a couple of German girls. We walked through rain forest, crystal clear lakes, massive sand dunes, swam in beautiful lakes, visited a washed up ship wreck, took in the ocean views from 'Indian Head', and I paid $60 to fly in a small plane for some ariel views of the island which would have been better if it wasn't cloudy and raining, and ate some fantastic buffet food at the resort.

Fraser island was formed over millions of years when three underwater mountains appeared which stopped all the sand as it drifted north with the current. When the ice age came the sea levels lowered exposing an island made of sand. Small vegetation grew and died time and again leaving nutrients for the next generation until there was enough to support the rain forest. There is not enough downward pressure to create soil or fossil fuel. It is approx 120km long by 15km wide and up to 200m above sea level. There is tons of fresh water flowing down the creeks into the lakes and the ocean. some of the trees are over 1000 years old. Lesson ends.

Back in Hervey Bay, I got into a game of pool doubles and played about the best pool of my life. One unlikely looking angled plant ended up potting both the balls and the crowd went wild! Ended up drinking until late when I had expected an early night. Spent the next morning recovering on the beach before getting back on the bus to Rockhampton where I spoke to a young Danish girl doing a thirty hour journey from Brisbane to Cairns.

I met two Nottingham girls heading to the same hostel as me, the Ascot is quite homely with friendly staff situated above a pub (handy!). I also met a Danish guy called Kim in my dorm who was heading to a nearby 'Criterion' pub with a bunch of German girls so I tagged along. Rockhampton is pretty lively with locals at the weekend (not in the week apparently).

I killed a day in the uninspiring town, did laundry, internet, bought new trousers from k-mart (finally throwing out the khakis with the big hole in the crotch!) and walked around some gardens. I played shit-head and even watched some of the cricket before heading into town for the annual firework display and some beers at the pub where the same awful covers band played as the night before. The fun comes tomorrow...... (www.capricorndave.com.au)

2006-12-01T19:32:00.000-08:00

22nd - 27th November (From Nimbin to Brisbane)

To see all my oz photos click on the flickr icon on the right, click on 'oz - set', then probably best to 'view slideshow'. You can speed up the slideshow using the sliding bar.

The three of us plus a couple of American stone heads hired a Yaris for the day trip to Nimbin; a strange little hippy town not too far from Byron. We took some photos, drank coffee and did our best to support the local economy. Back at the hostel we kicked back, relaxed and drank some beer etc (as seems to be the norm just lately!)

I spent most of the next day lazing around on the ridiculously hot beach and chatting to Rich. Rhys managed to load his rucksack on to his bright red back and hit the road. Rich has been trying to get accomodation in Brisbane but can't because of some little game of cricket. I took a 16.00 greyhound to Coolangatta (just an hour and a half up the road and the clocks go back an hour) after booking a place at the YHA. The first person I saw when i arrived was Rhys which was a nice surprise - we chatted for a while and went for food. In my 8 bed dorm I finished reading 'the family way' by Tony Parsons.

Rhys left early the next morning, I was hoping to get to the nearby national park for a couple of nights but that ended up being a non-runner, next stop is Brisbane but with the cricket fans filling all the hostels I called on Scott Burns (an old Swindon friend) and asked if I could stay at his house. I had intended just to meet up with him for a drink and felt a bit cheeky asking to stay as he and his wife Carla have a five week old daughter called Imogen. I stayed another night at Coolangatta where I had a day of sunbathing and walking around the coast. Bought super noodles and a muffin from the garage for supper, the assistant said "have a good night", I'm not sure if he was joking but there isn't much about noodles and a muffin that suggests I'm going to have a good night! I watched Match Point at the hostel which was completely awful.

Anyway, Scott gave me the thumbs up so the next morning I was on my way to Brisbane. After a coach, metro, bus and a bit of a hike I arrived at 'Vanilla Pod' which is the deli owned by Scott, Carla and Carla's parents. Scott was doing some work there as it was a Saturday, he has an office job in the week. I sat around drinking coffee, meeting Carla's parents and chatting while I waited for them to close for the day then we went to Scott's house; a wooden single storey house on stilts known as a Queenslander in a really nice area - it's full of character and I reckon it would be a great place to live. Later we went to Carla's aunts house for a BBQ, they have a media room with a big screen where all the men watched the Oz v NZ rugby union - good fun as there was a New Zealander in the room.

Whilst in Brisbane I spent a bit of time with Scott and family; they took me to a lovely winery with good views and a jazz band where Scott and I did a bit of wine tasting. Scott and Carla, both being involved in catering are pretty good at knocking up a bit of scran and Scott even looks the part with his french chef moustache (grown for charity raising known as Mo-vember), he does an excellent BBQ. I had a look around the central area and boarded the citycat which is a boat that goes up and down the river. I had a tour of the local parliament offices, the botanic gardens and the highlight, a tour of the XXXX brewery including four half pint tasters which were very nice (I steared clear of the weak stuff) in the company of four aussie guys who were over for the cricket.

2006-11-25T23:11:00.000-08:00

13th - 21st November (Chilling out in Oz)

Most of our evenings in Port Macquarie are spent drinking and chatting. In the day, we generally sit around the Ozzie Pozzie yard, drink tea and discuss what we are going to do with the day until around midday when we usually go to the beach, swim, attempt to bodyboard, attempt keepie ups with the haki sack, read, chat and laze around. On the way back to Ozzie Pozzie we might pick up some food and a couple of cheeky beers.

I did manage to get away for a bike ride one day, the free bike was hard work and I attempted to do a fairly large curcuit only to find that the free river ferry crossing only ran in the morning and evening so I had to come back without seeing the winery and Koala petting zoo. I did see my first kangaroos in a field though.

A new member of the group is Kevin, a 30 year old from Bolton who has an 18 year old girlfriend that he has been with for 3 years, this is a source of constant amusement to the rest of us.

After 'a quick pint' at the macca on the way back from the beach turned into a quick skinful, we picked up a slab and went back for food. When the beer ran out we drank some left over goon (red wine) from a goon bag. Rhys mentioned the war once or twice in front of a few germans and then passed out on a sofa so that I could play human buckaroo by balancing a load of books on his head.

There isn't loads to see or do in Port Macquarie, but what there is (for example, the rainforest centre) I would have liked to see but was too busy enjoying myself.

I took the greyhound to Coffs Harbour as I had already bought the pass while Rhys and Rich made their own way there. We met up at Aussitel backpackers which is bigger and livlier than Ozzie Pozzie with about 80 mostly younger backpackers. Preparing food in the kitchen is hard work. We signed up for the punch night and drank our fill of vitamin c without getting even a little squiffy. Punch night included entrance to a club later where they had a wet t-shirt competition (which I only stumbled upon whilst looking for Rhys) and a foam filled dance floor.

The next day was the tea marathon, the weather had changed from super hot to icy cold winds so we sat at the hostel, drank tea, chatted and played cards. I did manage a short trip to the botanic gardens with a french and german girl that we befriendeed. Ended up staying up chatting with Rhys until 02.00 about everything from family feuds to abortion (without any alcohol!!!)

Rhys picked up his bacpack and thumbed his way out of Coffs Harbour. The weather is good again so Rich and I stayed another day, we walke to Muttonbird island which juts out from the mainland and gave us some excellent views, it was incredibly windy and the waves crashed against the rocks with amazing force. At one point Rich got quite close to the edge and just after he moved away a massive wave came up and crashed down where he had been stood. After a nice lunch we hired bikes, along with Thomas (ze very tall german who claims that germans don't have mullets!) to see the famous big banana. Not exactly a highlight of the trip!

Rich and I booked a dorm in Belongil beachouse, Byron Bay which is described in the lonely planet as 'aimed at a slightly more mature crowd', despite being quite immature we felt a bit old for the Aussitel kids. As with Port Macquarie, I felt like I hadn't really seen much of Coffs Harbour and I didn't manage to contact some people there who I met in North Vietnam and had offered to put me up which was quite bad.

I arrived at the beachouse after Rich and was surprised to see Rhys who had phoned Rich to find out where we were staying. We are a 15 minute walk from the centre of Byron Bay in a place that is apparently quieter and cheaper than the places in town that are full of 'schoolies'. More of the same daytime activities at the beachouse and on the nice close beach. The free shuttle bus took us into town where we were planning to buy food from the supermarket, but a quick beer turned into 9 and that was the end of that idea!

Rhys had planned to move on the next day but had missed more than half of his back with sun cream and was in agony, Rich despite being dark already was also a bit burned and the pair of them stayed out of the sun for a day while i went for a walk along the beach towards town. The town end of the beach is busy with schoolies and the pleasant town is quite full of them as well. Later met Rich and Rhys for a couple of beers but this time managed to go to the supermarket after. Back at the pad I made a nice chicken and veg stir-fry and discovered that blackbean sauce and goon mix very well. There was plenty of food and I got merry on the goon.

The next morning we made a fantastic full english breakfast. I took the shuttle bus to town and walked around the coastal trail and light house which took most of the day and had some amazing views, at one point i could see the ocean through 270 degrees. In the evening we drank and went to a club that I can hardly remember but I do remember how full of stars the sky was when we walked along the beach back to the hostel.

2006-11-17T20:49:00.000-08:00

12th - 13th November

An early start and a six and a half hour bus journey got me to Port Macquarie for 13.30. I hadn't expected a great deal from this place, just a useful stopping off point. At the small and friendly 'Ozzie Pozzie backpackers', the friendly chap who picked me up from the bus station introduced me to some backpackers who were hanging around and I met more later. He also gave me a quick tour of the beatiful, small and laid back town in the minibus. I took a free bike hire to the Koala hospital and rode along the lovely coastline to the supermarket, back to the hostel where I cooked my snags on the barbie. In the evening a few of us went to 'the Macca' where the bands were loud and average at best, the atmosphere was great and we talked and drank until late.

Among others, I have made friends with Rhys, from Melbourne who is mostly hitching his way around the country and will eventualy get married in Perth where his fiance is waiting. He says hitch hiking is easy and has been picked up by an 18 year old girl and an old woman! He is good fun and laughs at the word 'Jubblies' and Rich from Reading who is also a good laugh an adrenaline junkie, skydiver and a bit of a smooth operator.

2006-11-17T20:26:00.000-08:00

9th-11th November (Sydney)

The YHA is a big place over 9 floors, the room has two bunk beds and is big and clean enough. Despite the number of people staying here it doesn't seem as easy to meet people as I'd expected, the people in my dorm come and go at different times to me, I creep out every morning as they are still in bed. Over the next few days I do loads of walking, take loads of photos and my feet are killing me. An art gallery with some exhibits by Nelson Mandella, an observatory, the opera house, harbour bridge, botanic gardens, a ferry to Manly and back to get good views of the harbour, Sydney tower observation deck, 'sculptures by the sea' along the beautiful Bronte to Bondi beach coastal walk on a blisteringly hot day, and a ten dollar haircut (not skinhead this time!).

I even went to the opera house playhouse to see a play called 'The Hospital'for 35 dollars; now I don't consider myself to be an expert critic of the arts but this was the biggest load of old tosh I have ever seen! With a made up language and ridiculous dances, I clapped politely at the end and left in shock. While sorting out my rucksack on my last night to leave in the morning, I found an unopened bottle of red at the back of the locker, forgotten by a previous occupier, with no glasses and no friends, I sat in the tv room and drank like a wino straight from the bottle. I enjoyed the sights of Sydney but was alone the whole time, which was hard after my good time in Melbourne and Merrigum, thankully this was about to change.

2006-11-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

2nd-8th November (Down on the farm)

I had an excellent time in Melbourne, Karen and Christophe were very hospitable and it was so nice to be with friends, it was like a relaxing break from travelling, so thank you Karen and Christophe for making my first impressions of Oz so good. My next stop was at a dairy farm about 2 hours north of Melbourne at a place called Merrigum (near Shepperton), I had met the farm owners, Glenn and Linley when i was in India and they had been nice enough to invite me over. So for the next few days i was treated to more friendly hospitality and fun on the farm.

Whilst I was at the farm, some of Glenn and Linleys family members came and went, their daughter Shelley, her partner Lance, sons Darcy (3) and Finley (18 months) were around for a while, and another grandson Nathan showed up for a while. Everyone was very friendly and it felt like I was getting a real slice of Aussie family life. Glenn reminds me a bit of my old grandad, he is a bit of a grumpy old man who complains about all the noise the kids make, he has a strong accent so that sometimes I have no idea what he is saying but I just know it is funny. He refers to everyone as pricks!

My typical day at the farm started at 05.30 when i would get up to milk the cows (Glenn had already herded them over to the milking shed by this time), wearing my overalls, boots and essential peaked cap i would put the suckers on and off of the cows as they lined up in the shed. By about 07.00 the artificial insemination people would turn up and stick a hand up a couple of cows arses (they are a NZ couple on a working holiday and gave me a contact address in NZ within 5 minutes of meeting me). We would wash down all the cow shit off the yard (I am highly trained in this area), feed the youngest calves some milk and watch as they greedily suck at the rubber teets, feed some grain to the older calves, then head to the house for breakfast. During the day there may be some odd jobs for me to do; i learnt how to drive the tractor and shifted a load of hay bails which really made my hayfever flare up but was great fun. Shelley took plenty of photos and video footage of me at work. Paul and John, my country bumpkin cousins would be impressed to see the townie at work, covered in shit and sneezing like mad! Around midday Glenn and I would have a couple of stubbies with lunch while sitting in the shade of the back garden. Afternoon milking was around 15.00 and I would use one of the motorbikes to herd the cows towards the shed. More beers and food for the rest of the day - bliss.

One day we went to Echuca, the oldest inland port in Oz, where Glenn, Linley, Shelley, the kids and I went on a paddle steamer, had a picnic (with beer) and some ice creams.

One day, i skipped the morning milking but went with Lance to chop firewood. Lance taught me where to make the cuts and wearing leather chaps I chopped a tree down with a chainsaw and managed to make it land roughly where i was aiming.

If Linley's scales are correct I have lost three quarters of a stone since I started traveling, I'm pretty sure I'll be putting weight back on in Oz though.

There is quite a lot of time to think on the farm, this is the kind of thing I think about: Isn't it strange that over thousands of years the cow has evolved with udders and milk to feed it's young and that over several decades man has evolved a massive industry with hi-tech machinery in order that we instead of the calves benefit from this evolution? Also, with artificial insemination and selective breeding, we make sure that future cow generations will be fatter, have bigger udders and produce more milk. Some cows have teets at eye level when I am in the pit, some hang lower, some are down below my chest level and very close to the cows hoofs. Rather than stooping down to see what I am doing, I have to feel for the teet with my index finger at the rim of the sucker. Some teets are so thick it is a struggle to get them in the sucker, some so small that the suckers don't want to stay on. Sometimes the cow fidgits and tries to kick but their movement is quite restricted and it is quite easy to move your hands out of the way - the bigger danger is the shit and piss, the peaked cap is indispensible! Oh, and I did bang my head so hard that I had pain in my neck for 2 days. Yep, there is a lot of time to think!

As Glenn says, being a dairy farmer doesn't take a genius, but he does have a lot to think about; to buy or sell cows, field rotation and irrigation, breeding, disease etc. Australia, is facing another year of drought, there are very many vast areas of brown dry fields and farmers going out of business or killing themselves, Glenn is lucky he still has a reasonable supply of water for irrigation and I think he has a pretty good life. There is a fair amount of time available to 'sit back and lick your ears' as Glenn would say.

After giving some serious consideration to hitching to Sydney, I booked a 4000km pass for the greyhound bus costing 620 Aussie dollars (about 2.5 dollars to the pound) and booked three nights in Sydney's central youth hostel association(YHA) for 105 dollars. The first few hours of the journey were flat and mostly brown fields but gradually became more hilly. About an hour from Sydney I saw the first housing estate with two storey houses.

2006-10-31T17:10:00.000-08:00

24th Oct - 2nd Nov (Australia here I come, you ripper!)

My final day of diving in Tioman was a little dissapointing after such a great dive two days ago, a wreck of an old fishing boat which attracted one big school of fish and not much else. I took the 13.00 boat back to Mersing which had to stop offshore due to the low tide, and smaller boats came out to transfer us to the jetty. Over a couple of days spoke to STA travel and Qantas and eventually managed to bring Melbourne flight forward so that I could be there for the weekend. I hadn't really spoke to anyone much for a few days so I was looking forward to meeting Karen and Christophe in Oz. Bryan Robson has joined Steve Mcmahon on the ESPN team. The 11.00 bus to Singapore dropped us at the Malaysia border for a very quick exit stamp, back on the bus for a couple of minutes then dropped us at Singapore immigration where we queued for an hour before getting back on a bus for the rest of the journey to the centre (and I thought Singapore was super efficient). I took a taxi to the very nice YMCA which was full so walked as far as the Hawaii hostel and stopped there as it was about to rain; not a pretty place but cheap. My room consisted of two bunk beds, my room mates were two Japs and a local guy who was quite friendly. I found a nice restaurant then came back and watched 'Domino' starring Kiera Knightley on the local chap's portable VCD player.

After a McDonalds brekky, I went to the Qantas office to discover my flight from Rio to Blighty doesn't look possible as they are all booked as soon as they are available; STA hadn't told me this when they said all I had to do was ring and tell them what date i needed (I couldn't book it at the time because the computer system cannot book flights more than a year ahead). I'll make some more inquiries with STA but it looks like i may have to pay extra and fly via Madrid. Singapore is one of the best and cheapest places to buy electronics so if I was going to replace my damaged camera anywhere it had to be here. After much deliberation I came away with a nice new Fuji for 450 dollars(S), about 150 pound. I took the excelent metro to the excellent airport where i had a much needed shower for $9. Sat with an aussie girl called Karen on the flight and spoke to her quite a bit in between eating a good in-flight meal, watching a decent aussie film 'Train to Freo' and listening to a good in-flight cd 'Sergio Mendes - Timeless' (kind of R&B samba) which I have since acquired onto my mp3 player along with the Killers new one (thanks to Christophe). I tried to sleep, I even used the eye mask, but not a wink.

I had arrived in Oz and collected my luggage by about 05.45 and the 06.00 bus to Melbourne centre was quick due to the lack of trafic which meant I got to Karen's house far too early and sat around in the freezing cold until Karen woke up. I didn't expect any cold weather in Oz but for the first couple of days the skies were clear blue and the wind made it feel like winter. Karen is an old Swindon friend and Christophe is soon to be her husband, their place is nice, spacious and really central. I spent some time putting photos onto my blog using Christophes computer, slept for an hour, went for a massive burger and bought the Oz lonely planet for full price (they didn't have any fake copies!), went back and started planning. After a couple more hours of sleep, I went with Karen to a Japanese restaurant for my first taste of sushi which was ok. Christophe joined us later for a few beers and we talked until late.

My first full day in Melbourne was a Saturday. Christophe, Kaz and I went to the Queen Victoria market where we bought Shrimps for the barbie! (among other things). Chilled out for most of the day, ate some Spag bol, drank red wine and later met up with Roo and Belinda for drinks (Roo is a friend of Richards who is a good friend from my uni days, Roo moved over here recently to be with his aussie girlfriend Belinda). Christophe, Kaz and I went for some Japanese food but this time i wasn't so adventurous and had chicken.

On Sunday, the three of us took the tram to St Kilda beach, had lunch and a good look around before returning for a BBQ with Roo and Belinda and Christophe's friends, Andrei and Anna. Kangeroo steak is very nice and according to Christophe, very similar to horse meat, the dirty snail eating b@startds! as Catherine Tate would say (no offence Christophe!) I ate until i thought i might explode.

The weather heated up from Monday onwards and over the next few days I went to the old Gaol where Ned Kelley was hanged (I listened in on a school party's guided tour), the immigration museum, the aquarium, the excellent view of Melbourne from the Rialto tower, the amazing 'earth from above' exhibition (I recommend you see some of these pictures - they may be on the internet) and the Melbourne museum. In the evenings we ate food, drank beer and wine, talked and watched films; 'The Castle' is good aussie humour, 'Wolf Creek' is scary and 'Supersize me' is scary as well!

2006-10-24T03:48:00.000-07:00

18th - 23rd October - The black jack scam, Singapore

After sorting out my memory card, i walked around the shopping mall in search of boxer shorts, i bought 2 pairs yeterday, supposedly large, turned out to be for a large action man (no jokes about the lack of genitals please!), the ones from the department store said 31-33 inch waist, thought they would be safe, but no, I am now singing surprano! A local woman asked me the time and started talking to me and as i had bugger all to do i agreed to meet her family. It was supposedly her brothers house, her cousin prepared some nice food which i ate and then her brother, a card dealer at a casino showed me some tricks. His slight of hand was amazing, no matter how much he or i shuffled he could always turn exactly the cards he wanted. He told me about a bloke from Dubai who would be coming round later who had stitched him up by saying he would give him a percentage of his winnings and then giving him much less the previous night. He said i could play the Dubai bloke at black jack with him as dealer making sure i got the right cards and he'd take a cut of the winnings, it was fool proof but i didn't like it and all of a sudden the guy turned up for a game. The brother had given me 200 dollars to play with, which i must have doubled 4 times in 4 hands, at which point, on cue i said the next game would be my last. I had 21 so couldn't lose, the dealer was signalling that the guy had 20, but he raised the stakes to 50,000 dollars (which he placed on the table) but requested to see some proof that i could cover my losses if i had to. The dealer asked if i had a credit card or travellers cheques or something, my credit card was in my money belt and although i knew i couldn't lose the game, i wondered what would happen once i took the card out, so I claimed not to have any money at all, my travellers cheques are at the hotel, the dealer asked how much (to which I was very vague) and the game was declared void and I was driven to where i wanted to go (shitting myself the whole way). I went to the Petronas towers, at 84 storeys high they claim it was the tallest but is now second, but they only take us as high as the 42nd floor skywalk between the towers. That night my KFC food poisoning set in with fever and bad stomach and little sleep. The morning bus to Mersing started ok but by the end i had a headache and was dehydrated. The Mersing heat was unbearable so I checked into an empty dorm room in the East Coast Hotel and laid on my bed, read 'First they killed my Father' (I recommend you read it)and slept. I forced myself to eat a few mouthfuls of Pakora in the evening (my only meal of the day), went to an internet cafe, sat down, farted and left very quickly. One pair of my new tiny pants straight in the bin!

The next day started bad but after a while in the toilet i was feeling better. I took a boat to Tioman island, Salang resort and checked in to a very dingy chalet with mosquitos and ants running riot. It's only 10 metres from the sea when the tide is in though so i sleep well listening to the sound of the waves while insects feed on me. Malaysia is currently covered by a thick haze caused by deliberate forest fires in Indonesia, this happens every year and stays for maybe a month until the monsoon washes it away. The sun still manages to burn its way through though and the beach is very nice despite the onslaught of sand flies biting my feet. There are loads of chinese and indians here on holiday and because of some indian festival there are bangers going off at all times of day and night on the beach or in the street without any warning - it's lucky my stomach has hardened up or this may have caused another accident!

My four days here were spent reading on the beach and scuba diving. It felt good to be back in the water after 3 months and we did some excellent dives in groups of 3 or 4 off of a small boat. I saw my first turtle amongst many other things but the best dive was like an adventure playground of rocks and coral - it took a good bit of buoyancy control to get through all the narrow gaps and through the tunnels especially as there was a bit of surge to contend with - my best dive ever, having now done 14.

Unfortunately, as this is low season, there isn't too much to do in the evenings; there are a couple of restaurants but my appetite has not fully recovered yet and there is one bar. I did manage to watch the Liverpool v Man U game in an internet cafe where the local lads all cheered for Man U who won 2-0. I finished 'first they killed my father' and also 'the sorrow of war' which is a very dark and depressing fiction.

On my final day, i did a wreck dive which turned out to be not as exciting as I had expected, took a boat back to Mersing and tried to bring forward my Melbourne flight so that I could be there for the weekend, but it isn't possible so now I am wondering how to kill a few days.

2006-10-15T00:57:00.000-07:00

7th - 17th October (Visa fiasco)

My last day in Mui Ne, i awoke at 07.00, ran on the beach (very briefly),
then watched some locals paddling out to sea in upturned tea cups, pulling in the nets and sorting through all the fish and crabs. Booked a flight online from Siam Reap(Cambodia) to Kuala Lumpur(Malaysia) for the 17th Oct., took a bus to HCMC, booked an 8 dollar room and watched the premiership goals from last week. I booked a two day tour to end in Phnom Penh for 24 dollars and later watched 'School of Rock' and the first half shambles of England against Macedonia.

The tour took us by bus to Cai Be for a motorised boat on the Mekong - the heat and fumes on the boat sent me to sleep. Lunch, then back on the boat and bus to Chau Doc on the border where we stayed the night in a cheap hotel - I had to share a room with a Japanese chap who started a brief high pitched wailing in the middle of the night. I met a Canadian girl called Siobahn.
In the morning there was a row boat tour of the Chau Doc fish farms (see how these women row whilst facing forward - weird!) then a big boat to Lek Luang (Cambodia). The tour leader checked the passports and told me i would pay a big fine for overstaying my visa (not what the travel agent had said!) and that i should go back to HCMC to sort it out. At the border, the tour leader said they were unable to process my fine and i would have to return to HCMC and there was nobody i could argue with so i was getting quite frustrated. At the last minute they took 60 dollars, plus 20 for the Cambodia visa and i was just relieved to not have to go back. Arrived in Phnom Penh in the rain and went with Siobahn to Spring hotel recomended in the lonely planet - it worked out cheaper to get a twin room with air con. We walked to Chaay Heng restaurant also recommended in the lonely planet, a basic place with plastic chairs spilling onto the pavement packed with locals. The food was cheap and fantastic, we went again the next night. I bumped into Ben and Kate who I'd met in Hoi An so went for red wine with them.

Siobahn and I went via tuk tuk to the S21 museum and killing fields in the rain along the bumpiest road ever.
S21 was once a school, it became a prison, and now a museum.
The Khmer rouge were meticulous in their records of prisoners and the black and white photos of all the men, women and children they killed were haunting. The rain and thunder added to the sombre mood of the day. 8,985 bodies were exhumed from mass graves at the killing fields, possibly 2 million were killed across the country. I can't really describe it, you just have to see it to believe it. There were beggers with missing limbs and one with a badly burnt face outside S21. Siobahn and I spent 20 dollars on a 50kg bag of rice which we took to an orphanage where we played with the kids for a few hours - they stole my camera and took loads of photos.
It was nice to spend time around these poor kids laughing and playing after such a depressing day.

The six hour bus journey to Siam Reap cost 4 dollars - we were pounced on by tuk tuk drivers before we could even get off the bus, all shouting over each other with arguments like "I spoke to you first" for the sake of a dollar fare. Of course they want to get you into their hotel and also provide you with a lucrative tour of Angkor. We went to the 'Heart of Angkor' hotel, 12 dollars for a twin room and booked our motorbike riders for the next 2 days (it is illegal to hire your own motorbike here). Siam Reap seems very nice with smart little bars and restaurants clustered together in a street that is off limits to the local begging community of kids, women with babies and people with missing limbs. There is a lot of begging here.

An 05.00 wake up for an Angkor Wat sunrise that was obscured by cloud despite the generally clear, hot day.
My 1 week pass cost 60 dollars. Angkor Wat was very busy and absolutely massive but I was more impressed with Bayon
(giant faces carved into the stone) and Ta Prohm where trees grow amongst the ruins and Angelina Jolie came to film tomb raider.
There are many ancient temples to explore, dating from ninth to 13th century - miraculously spared by US bombs, how refreshing!
There are kids at every stop, selling t-shirts, postcards and souveniers or just begging, they are really persistent.
On the way back i saw this... Later we went to the excellent Khmer kitchen then i went for a 'seeing hands massage', recommended by the lonely planet for massage by blind people - it was excellent and only cost 4 dollars, I gave her five just because I am that kind of guy!

The next day we had a more civilised start time and the sights were mostly not as impressive. The heat was oppressive with very little shade. We finished up at a high spot near to Angkor Wat to watch the sun set. With bright sun in the west and dark clouds moving in quickly from the east, the sun was soon covered and the rain was heavy. I'm pretty sure one clap of thunder and lightning were less than 100 metres away - pretty lucky for Friday 13th! I had my waterproof coat but my walking shoes were soon soaked through. I took a couple of photos which i think damaged my camera which now doesn't work properly. I bumped into Michael and Aine who I'd met briefly in Hoi An and Mui Ne so we went out for food and drinks with them later. We went to Dead Fish bar where we fed the crocodiles.

The next day Siobahn went off on a motorbike, I lazed about for a bit then hired a mountain bike for 3 dollars. I found the land mine museum, a Khmer heritage display and then went to Angkor Wat again. The lense on my camera has stopped working, i have since had a quote of about 50 pound to get it fixed so i will continue to hold open the slidey thing with a tooth pick every time i turn it on! I have started to find Siobahn quite annoying in a "there was this one time, at band camp....." kind of way. On Sunday I had a lovely roast chicken dinner at the Irish pub and spent most of the day reading and watching tv. The most noteworthy adventure was that the bathroom door handle was faulty so that when i went in for a shower i managed to lock myself in, i must have been banging on the door and walls for about ten minutes before the hotel bloke came to let me out. I met up with Ben and Kate in a restaurant/bar where the beers are 25c if you buy food. I had spring rolls, ginger chicken and 10 draught beers for 6 dollars - bargain! We discussed high brow issues such as poverty and corruption.

At 07.00 a motorbike was waiting to take me to three of the further afield sights;
Beng Melea are excellent overgrown ruins, Kbal spean is a waterfall and river with rock carvings and lingas in and beside the river - the road here was terrible and not really worth the effort, and Bantay Srei made from red stone with some intricate carvings.

Next day, i went to burn a cd but the memory card was corrupted again - i managed to get most of it back again in Kuala Lumpur which is where i flew to today. At the airport i found i had to pay an extra 25 dollars in airport tax, the price of the flight now is making me wish i had gone overland through Thailand, i could have climbed at Rayley beach again. Despite studying the lonely planet, i haven't got a clue what to do in Malaysia or Singapore. In Kuala Lumpur (KL), the public transport seems pretty good, the food is cheap (but i did get food poisoning from the KFC) and the hostel is cheap and nasty! Beer is expensive, from 6R (1 pound) in a shop to 14R in a street restaurant. I watched waterworld in the hostel commen area whilst trying to plan my next move.

2006-10-14T23:29:00.000-07:00

28th September - 6th October (The tropical storm)

There were a few people going to the same hotel as us as we got off the train in Hue; the older aussie couple who i'd met Monday and a young NZ couple, Oscar and Fleur. Daz and I arranged to share a car and driver to go to Vinh Moc tunnels, it cost us 10 dollars each and it was great to explore the tunnels in such a small group at our own pace instaed of being with a bus load of people in these confined spaces. Vinh Moc's tunnels are not as famous or extensive as those at Cu Chi near Ho Chi Minh city (HCMC) and they have more headroom despite not having been altered much to suit tourists (unlike Cu Chi). Some say Vinh Moc tunnels are better although having seen pictures from Cu Chi i wish i had gone there as well. In both cases, people lived for sometimes months and years underground, babies were born and raised here and resistance launched from here - it's pretty amazing to see.

On the way back, our car was stopped by police and we thought we might get a taste of police corruption and have to hand over money, we had no idea what was going on as they took our driver away for a few minutes, it turned out to be a speeding ticket.

The next morning we shared a car with the NZ couple again to visit three temples - the weather switching between baking sun, overcast, and pouring rain. We took the tourist bus to Hoi An and checked in to the hotel 'Hai au' that Declan had recommended. The Aussie and NZ couples were there as well. It was a little out of the town but the room and staff were nice. 13 dollars per room. Hoi an is famous for it's cheap tailored suits which Daz was keen to arrange, I don't wear suits as often as Daz and hadn't planned to get one but they were really cheap and looked great so I decided to replace my 'Suits You' suit that i have been wearing to all smart gatherings for the past ten years with my own tailored suit costing 45 dollars which Daz was good enough to take back to dear old blighty for me. Daz got 2 suits, one the same material as mine and we looked well smart. I hope i don't lose or gain too much weight before i go home or I'll end up looking like a sack of spuds for baby Casey's christening! During our time in Hoi an we checked out all the happening bars and restaurants and played a bit of pool. Silver tongued Daz soon got friendly with an American girl called Jess.

In the pouring rain, Daz and I took a bus to My Son, the site of ancient Cham relics from 8th to 13th centuries, temples living areas etc almost totally destroyed by US bombs which pissed me off a bit as it is something of a recurring theme! With news of a bad storm approaching, Daz and I had a nice steak and chips for lunch as there were rumours that everything would be closed later. Daz, Jess and I managed to find a bar with a generator and we stayed there until late. As we left the storm was picking up but the moped riders were still there to take us to our hotel.

The storm hit big time at about 02.00, the window shutters were banging in the wind and a little water was coming in under the balcony door. We fastened the shutters and got our bags off of the floor and with earplugs in I went back to sleep. We awoke at 08.00 with the bedroom flooded, the hotel was full of water, there was a big hole in the roof and a river running down the stair wells - there was no electric or phones. I helped the staff mop water for a while (I have a lot of training for this!) but it was pretty futile. Lots of people helped and the friendly staff were constantly smiling and helpful. I spoke to a girl who was desperate to get to her family home near the beach and was worried about her family - she later told me they were fine but there home was ruined. The hotel gave us noodles and by 11.00 it had died down enough for us to go and inspect the damage - lots of damaged roofs,

trees down and flooding but it was good to see how quickly the Vietnamese people went about sorting everything out and opening their shops again, most without electric. In the evening the hotel provided us with more free food, we went out for drinks at an excellent bar with good music and taught Daz and Jess 'shithead' which I ruled at, i also beat Daz at table footy which left him demoralised and wondering why i am so good at everything! The hotel was locked when we got back so I shouted up to Oscar's room and he came and let us in which was a relief as the streets were pretty wet!

Not surprisingly, our flight to Nha Trang was cancelled and there were no buses - we were forced to stay in Hoi An a while longer and revise Darrens carefully laid plans, booking flights to HCMC for 58 dollars each, but Hoi An is a nice place to be stranded and the sun came out for a bike ride to the beach. The sea was pretty rough and deposited loiads of storm debris on the beach in the afternoon which the locals went about sorting through and clearing up. In the evening the streets were noisier than before and all the restaurants were busy. Kids everywhere were doing the dragon dance to the sound of a loud beating drum.

At the airport check-in, the electricity generator failed and i expected massive delays to result but all was ok. We arrived in HCMC in pouring rain and flooding. The next morning Daz, Jess and I took a bus to Mui Ne beach where it was hot and sunny, we found a nice place by the sea (Hiep Hoa resort), went for a nice lunch (tuna steak), put on sun cream, poured with rain so sorted out my emails and banking. We all went for happy hour cocktails and played some doubles pool.

The next day the weather kept changing, we did boogie boarding, ate lunch by the sea (barracuda in spicy coconut sauce) and Daz tried to teach Jess and I the basics of surfing - it was hard work but we both managed to stand up on the board and i enjoyed it enough to want to try again in Oz. In the evening we went to a fantastic restaurant where i had BBQ seabass for 5 dollars. We went for happy hour cocktails and played pool doubles against some annoying drunk lads, one annoyed Daz by standing over the pocket he was aiming for so I finished off with a well cocky 'colour of money' shot staring straight at the lad - he wasn't amused.

I decided to stay a bit longer in Mui Ne, Daz and Jess were due to leave on an 09.00 bus for HCMC which was cancelled due to a breakdown. They ended up getting a 55 dollar taxi to make sure Daz could get his 14.00 flight. As soon as they left the sun came out and i had a sweltering day on the beach. Sampled some street food, stamed dough balls with a minced pork and egg filling, not bad.

2006-10-06T04:53:00.000-07:00

20th - 27th September - (Mui Ne beach - Vietnam)

In Dien Bien Phu my money situation was starting to look a little low, with this in mind i managed to convince the hotel to change my 10 pound note into Dong for a les than favourable rate (they will only be able to change it in Hanoi). The bus driver from Dien Bien Phu to Sonla tried to charge me an extra 20,000d on top of my 55,000d ticket for my large rucksack - although this is about 70p, my funds are low and i have a suspicion that this is just a trumped up tourist charge so i stand my ground - the drivers assistant also tries but they give up when i go to get off saying i will ask at the ticket office - a small victory which i started regretting later when my bladder had got to the point where i had to ask them to stop the bus (usually they have stops every couple of hours). By this point i had made several local friends at the back of the bus as they all were fascinated by my mp3 player, i passed it around for them to hear Morrissey which they all seemed to enjoy. With these guys on my side the bus soon stopped much to my relief.

I arrived in Sonla in the early evening, checked in to a nice hotel and went out for some bia hoi (draught) at 2000d each i was soon a little tipsy, there were no food menus and my vietnamese efforts weren't working so i went hungry.

The next day was spent doing a lot of walking, using my nearly invisible photocopied lonely planet map to find an old french prison, virtually destroyed by wars, a war memorial garden and a very hot steep midday climb to a lookout tower.
Buildings here are usually 2-4 stories, very narrow and deep, usually with only the front painted - apparently there is some sort of tax based on house width. I went into the goat restaurant but with no English menu, decided not to risk it so ended up in a shabby cafe (also with no menu) drinking bottled beer (they didn't even have beer hoi!) and eating cold cuts of beef with rice. I was surrounded by friendly blokes who kept speaking to me in Vietnamese, undeterred by the fact i couldn't answer them, i didn't even have the lonely planet with me for some basic phrases!

My hotel didn't know the bus times so i decided to get to the station and wait. As my motorbike taxi got to the station the Hanoi bus was leaving so the timing was perfect. The bus was decent enough but the large briefcase under my feet made things a bit cramped. The bloke next to me spoke a little English, he also fell asleep and headbutted my shoulder on every bump and dribbled on me! I haggled a motorboke taxi from 40,000d to 30,000d to get from Hanoi bus station to the old quarter, the ride was scary and with nothing smaller i handed him 100,000d, he gave me some change and rode off quickly as i counted the bundle of notes, so i actually ended up paying 60,000 (great haggle!) I booked a decent 10 dollar room for the night, went out for bia hoi and some great food. I found my way to a bar with a pool table with the biggest roll i have ever seen where i lost a Baileys to the girl running the bar. I like the old quarter but it's a bit manic - the pavements are full of parked mopeds so there is nowhere to walk but the road where there are cars, mopeds, bicycles and people whizzing about - not good after a couple of drinks!

My mate Darren arrived on the 23rd so i moved across to the 45 dollar room he had booked on the internet (such decadence!) I spent some time watching premiership build up until Daz arrived at 15.00. The evening was spent with food and beers and watching Liverpool beat Spurs 3-0. I taught Daz a pool lesson and he pulled a New Zealand girl on his first night in town!

Here is a video of the Vietnamese electricity board...

Daz, jet lagged, slept until midday, then we went out to the Ho Chi Minh museum and the army museum. We spent some time admiring Hanoi women, who must be the fittest women in the world. Food drink and another pool lesson for Daz, a 03.30 finish and a 07.00 alarm for our bus trip to Halong bay. In the afternoon i phoned Carly who was making Sunday roast for the family - i could almost taste it!

On the bus to Halong city, Daz slept while i spoke to an aussie couple who ended up getting on to a different boat, but we saw them again several times over the next 2 weeks. On the boat we made friends with Declan and Edel from Dublin, about 27 years old, and we got on really well - there were only about 15 people on our big boat which had surprisingly spacious bedrooms with toilet and shower. Daz and i were next to the engine room which ran all night to provide electricity, my earplugs did the trick but Daz didn't sleep too well.
The weather was overcast and rainy but the views of the 1,969 limestone islands that surrounded us was impressive. We visited a massive cave with a ceiling worn smooth by water and large stalagmites/tites. The food on the boat was pretty good and as the weather prevented us from trekking or kayaking on the first day, Edel and i sampled some Vietnamese red wine which turned out to be good enough for a second bottle. Daz and Dec went for the beer.

The following day was again overcast with rain storms but we managed a little trekking as well as some kayaking and swimming while the sun was shining. Surprisingly, the 59 dollar tour 2 night tour included a very nice 3 star hotel on Cat ba island where Daz and I went for a 7 dollar massage with no happy ending which was a shame as the girl was cute! The massage was quite relaxing, followed by good food then we met with Dec and Edel for beer and wine and another excellent night.

The trip back to Hanoi seemed long. Our 19.00 train to Hue was now at 23.00 so we killed time by researching and booking a flight from Danang to Nha tran for Sunday for 48 dollars each - this flight was destined not to happen and we lost 12 dollars on the booking fee. Another pool lesson for Daz!

2006-09-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

12th - 19th September (Dien Bien Phu - internet cafe undergoing noisy renovations!)

My early impressions of Vietnam are not great; I am dissapointed by the route from Mai Chau, the settlements we pass through are of scruffy concrete buildings instead of the beautiful bamboo hut villages i have been used to in Laos, there is rubbish strewn everywhere and the vehicles kick up dust from the roads. My first impressions of Hanoi are worse;
i get off the bus to a throng of motorbike taxi riders shouting, waving and pulling at my arm - at this point i don't know where in the city i am (as there are a few bus stations) or where i am going (my first priority is to find an ATM). I speak to a bus station official who points me towards the nearest bank, he says 1km so i start walking with my big rucksack on my back. I walk for at least 1km in the city heat with hassle from moto taxis every few seconds, and find a bank, they tell me i need Vietcom bank, 1 more km. After about a km i find another bank, they also tell me i need Vietcom bank, another km. Eventually i get there and to my relief get some money and by this time i know where i am on the map, and am resolute not to take a mototaxi, i have a lot of time to kill as i intend taking the night train out of here so i walk the remaining 4km to the train station hot and exhausted with an occaisional stop for food and cold beer. I arrive at the train station with three hours to spare sitting on a plastic seat reading whilst very loud Vietnamese tv blares out 'who wants to be a millionaire' among other things. The train is six to a cabin and the bunks are narrow and hard, i don't sleep too well.

The train arrives in LaoCai and a minibus takes us on to Sapa and drops us at the summit hotel, a little way up the hill from the main part of Sapa, the rooms are very nice and the view is terrific. 8 dollars. I explore the area, enquire about a trek up nearby Fansipan mountain but nowhere seems to be running this as a group trek, so book a less strenuous 3 day hill trek for 45 dollars and then walk up some nearby hills for good views of the town, mountains and valleys.
It's a lovely hot day but a nice cool breeze in the hills.

Sapa also has an abundance of mototaxis but they are not too pushy.

The trek group are made up of a Spanish couple, an aussie guy and an English guy - they are a decent bunch. Our trek guide is a 19 year old Hmong girl in traditional costume called Sisi, she speaks a strange cockney/aussie english and is very funny. There are several other small groups with young Hmong girls leading them. We do a fair bit of walking, beat some rice out of it's stalks, swim in the beautiful, freezing cold river and then stay with a Hmong family who speak no English but communicate via the medium of raising a shot of rice wine, i get through about 15 shots,
the old man of the family is drunk and can't stop laughing. Sisi cooked up some great food and we played cards into the night.

Suprisingly there was not too much of a hangover although the stomach felt a bit iffy. The rest of the group had only booked a two day trek and left about 2 o'clock in a jeep, leaving Sisi and I to trek some more and stay at another home where we ate and drank but a much quieter affair than the previous evening.

The final day started gently enough with a beautiful ice cold swim, but after that a two hour walk straight up hill in the sun. We ate noodles for lunch then had 17km mototaxis back to Sapa. I got a new hotel room in the centre and showered before phoning mum to wish her a happy birthday. In the evening Sisi took me to a dingy cheap restaurant where the locals eat, there are no menus, just a glass cabinet where the uncooked meat and fish sits looking a bit ropey. We had some fish, chicken and beans with rice and it tasted better than it looked. We watched some rather odd, unenthusiastic traditional dancing and music playing.

The following day was a Sunday so Sisi was off work, we hired a manual motorbike which took some getting used to. With Sisi on the back we went to Lao Cai where i hoped to get some money out of the ATM, apparently not for foreign cards on a Sunday! We looked around some shops and ate noodle soup with some horrible fatty, boney pork in another dingy locals restaurant. Back to Sapa for warm clothes and waterproof jacket before a ride to the waterfall - very cold and foggy, my toes were freezing as i was wearing sandals. In the evening i treated Sisi to pizza and pasta in an expensive restaurant, she had never tried either and loved the penne bolognese, at these prices i doubt she'll ever eat it again. Sisi is really sweet and i think she has a bit of a crush on me (well, she's only human!) I leave tomorrow.

According to Lonely planet, the public bus to Lai Chau takes 7 hours, in less than 3 hours the bus drops me off at a place called Lai Chau, strange! I ask a mototaxi rider for Lan Anh hotel (in the lonely planet), he double checks my request like this is strange then we ride for 40 minutes out of Lai Chau while i get more confused. The scenery on this stretch is breathtaking. Eventually we get to a Lan Anh hotel where i meet 4 aussies about to leave in a jeep with their driver and guide so i tell them about my confusion. Apparently this is the new Lai Chau, the old one (90km away) in the book is slowly being deserted as it will be flooded by the new dam. There is not much there and not much here either so i take them up on their offer of a ride to Dien Bien Phu as it is further south towards Hanoi but also west towards the Laos border. The ride in the boot is a little cramped and i don't see much of the pleasant scenery.
We stop at a village where the kids huddle around the cameras and giggle at the resulting pictures.
I've noticed that some of the kids are fascinated by my hairy legs and arms as men here are pretty hairless. The 10 dollar hotel room in Dien Bien Phu is very nice, i eat with the friendly aussies, 2 couples about 50 years old (you're never too old to travel!), they give me their details and say i am welcome to visit them in Oz.

In the morning the aussies leave for their guided jeep tour. I walk around until i find the war museum, cemetry and A1 hill where the decisive battle that sent the french packing took place. I'm not really that interested which is why i hadn't intended coming here but ther isn't much else to do.

After 3 months of travelling i have spent about 1900 pounds, 20.90 pounds per day, which with all the travel, diving, climbing and trekking i don't think is too bad.

2006-09-13T04:31:00.000-07:00

10th - 12th September (Sapa)

The border crossing i decided on is fairly new to tourists and there is not much about it in the lonely planet, but i didn't want to head south when my destination is north so i risk it. I get to the border ok where i meet a couple going the other way and exchange my leftover kip for their dong (yes, dong, stop giggling Phil), they told me, as did the Americans that buses don't run from here to anywhere in Vietnam, they say i will have to hitch or get a motorbike taxi.

The immigration is fun; a row of 4 huts, i go to each one in turn, having passport, and visa inspected and stamped several times, filling out a form, going to another office to have it checked and stamped, back to another to check my baggage (not very thoroughly) and finally walk 200m to the Vietnam side where they check my passport and visa again. The official told me that the motorbike taxi is expensive and i should bus 100km east to Thanh Hoa, 200km north to Hanoi, and 100km west to Mai Chau (my intended destination), i am wishing that i'd taken the bus through the crossing to the south straight to Hanoi for 25 dollars which at the time seemed expensive. I haggled a guy down from 40 dollars to 30 for a 140km numb bum 100cc motorbike ride to Mai Chau. It took about four and a half hours. The villages are more concrete eyesores than the quaint little huts of Laos but all the kids shout 'hello' when they see the white bloke on the back of a bike, the young ladies seem excited to see me as well but that is nothing new! I arrive at Lac village in Mai Chau where the staff are friendly and one speaks reasonable English which is always handy. It's a small village of stilt houses with a few tourist guest houses surrounded by paddy fields and mountains with only tvs and motorbikes to detract from the isolation.
I watch some kids having great fun with a cardboard box, i come back an hour later and they are still loving it - who needs playstation? My motorbike taxi adventure has left me with only 45 dollars and i am worried that it will not be enough to take me on my planned route with three stops before i next get to an ATM in Sapa, especially as i want to do treks and see the sights of the places i stop in otherwise what's the point?

Hoa, the woman who runs the guest house telephones her sister and then assures me there are now ATMs in Hoa Binh which i could get to on a motorbike taxi for a 14 dollar, 140km round trip, i'm not too sure but she convinces me.

There is no ATM in Hoa Binh and the banks will only exchange dollars and euros, my plastic, baht and pounds are useless. A waste of time and money and now i have no choice but to take the bus to Hanoi and abandon my route. I fancied drinking but now every dong counts. In the morning i leave for Hanoi having not seen much of what Mai Chau has to offer.

2006-09-13T03:45:00.000-07:00

6th - 9th September (from internet cafe in Sapa, Vietnam)

There is only one ATM in Laos, that is in Vientiene. On the morning i leave i take out the maximum amount of kip, approximately 70 dollars. Even if i got more i doubt i would be able to change any leftover kip as it's a currency that nobody really wants. I have about 50 US dollars, some thai baht and some uk pounds that i hope will be of use in Vietnam until i next get to an ATM.

The public bus to Phonsavan is fairly empty and no tourists, the next few places i stop at are not on as popular a tourist route as the previous ones. The journey is hilly and windy with beautiful green scenery, the villages are more frequent htan before but there are not so many satellite dishes but i did see some kids riding pretty decent mountain bikes. My 3 dollar room in Phonsavan smels of damp, there is no ventilation. The town is seriously quiet in the evening - there is nothing going on.

Phonsovan is not so quiet in the morning, my guesthouse is on the main road and the traffic gets going about 0500. I go on a tour with a Japanese couple to the plain of jars. There are several sites around this province with a total of over 5000 large stone jars scattered about the hills.
We go to the largest single site with about 340 jars, the reasons for them are uncertain but it is possible that the dead were placed in the jar so that the soul could rise up to heaven, the body would later be removed and cremated. I prefer the story that they are whiskey vessels for the gods!
Much more entertaining was our afternoon visit to Hmong villages where some of the kids looked like they had never seen a camera before, i took some great pictures of the kids and also my favourite one of an old woman.
We saw temples and stupas bombed by the U.S. Saw how rice is produced, how swallows are caught and fermented to be sold as a delicacy and some silk worms for silk production.

With no brekky, a real bone shaker of a public bus with uncomfortable bench seats to Sam Neua. The engine sounded awful, it drowned out my music and the driver kept stopping to repair something. The whole bus rattled and creaked. We were held up for 30 minutes by a broken down lorry in the middle of the road. The highlight of the journey was trying to communicate with Monica, a cute 20 year old Laos villager, her English was only a little better than my Laos. Again i was the only tourist on the bus. All the cows and buffalos live on the roads and grass verges and they look pretty healthy - i kept expecting a 'me, myself and Irene' moment!

I found a nice 5 dollar room from the lonely planet and spoke to four friendly Americans in a restaurant, they were going the opposite way to me so we exchanged information. 2 canadian lads showed up going the same way as me. We all drank beer and some shots of the rice wine that makes you blind!

While in Sam Neua, i got a bus to Vang Xai caves where i had a personal (as nobody else was there) guided tour of 3 caves converted into living accomodation / strategic headquarters where some of the top brass hid from the Americans during the Indochina war (Vietnam war as the Americans call it). The guide spoke little English and i would have been interested to hear more about the caves but it did only cost 3 dollars. Met the canadians back at the restaurant where we all had a great steak and chips for 25,000kip, bargain. Over several beers, i taught them shithead and they taught me a good game called Yanif.

2006-09-02T01:54:00.000-07:00

1st - 5th September

In the morning i walked up Phou si hill to get a good view of Luang Prabang, it's bigger than i had realised and the view was clear, on the route down the other side there were several buddahs and a monk who i chatted to - he let me take his picture.
I wondered why there are no buildings here on the banks of the Mekong unlike in other parts such as Pak Beng. I checked my emails and found my mate Darren had booked his flight to Hanoi for the 23rd September for a 2 week holiday so now i am spending a lot of time thinking about how best to spend the next three weeks and arrive in Hanoi. However i do it i'll either spend a fortune on flights or a long time on the bus. An Aussie bloke told me there was a public bus that takes 26 hours from Vientiane to Hanoi which would most likely be pretty cramped. I'll see if i can make a number of smaller journeys but that may mean stopping off in some pretty remote places.

At 12.30 i got on the public bus to Viang Viene, a halfway point to Vientiane. The aile is knee high with big bags of sugar and there is no air conditioning, but everyone has a double seat (my luggage takes up one seat) and the wide open windows make it quite cold. The views from the roads through the mountains are so much more spectacular than from the Mekong. We could see for miles and miles of unspoilt green valleys and mountains, we stopped at the occaisional roadside village where the thais on the bus would buy fruit and veg, hardly any of it i recognised but i think there was sugar cane and tiny colourless corn on the cobs. Other villages we passed through filled with kids playing in filthy raggy clothes, people washing at the one communal tap or kids carrying back water along the road. It looked like poverty but the land had provided plenty of food, and they had huts with satelite dishes and the glow from the television inside and all the kids looked happy.

After about 7 hours the bus stopped and everyone got off so i checked into a hotel and went for food where i bumped into the Aussie from the bus who told me this was Kasi, just a food stop and we still had an hour to go. I fetched my bags and handed the key back to a bemused girl who spoke so little English that i didn't even try to explain.

In Viang Viene i had food and Lao dark beer whilst sitting in one of the many tv bars showing 'friends'. I slept well in my 3 dollar room smelling of paint. In the morning i looked around; Viang Viene is a cluster of guesthouses, travel agents, restaurants and internet cafes at a t-junction surrounded by mountains, a real blot on the landscape. Nothing great about this place but there are a lot of backpackers passing through. I booked a bus to go at 13.30 today to Vientiene but the chap for some reason booked it for tomorrow, he apologised and told me there were no more leaving today apart from a pick up truck where i would be standing the whole way, could have been an adventure but i booked an air con bus for tomorrow morning and checked into another hotel without the smell of paint. At least i have plenty of time to kill by catching up on my blog. I went to an internet cafe to burn a cd of my pictures but the computer had a virus and corrupted my memory card, i spent a lot of time trying to recover lost pictures but with no luck. Later i found a guy who copies albums onto mp3 so i now have 9 new albums to keep me happy for only 9 dollars.

The following day on the bus to Vientiene, i started reading 'A short history of tractors in Ukranian', listened to my great new music and met Angela and Emma, sisters from Sheffield who must get on really well as they do a lot of travelling together.

Vientiene is a lot more spread out than Vang viene and if you find the right cafes and bars is pretty chilled out but there doesn't seem to be all that much to do in the day.
I hired a bike for a day and cycled around in the scorching sun (with a bit of a hangover!) and sweated like a scouser in a idendity parade. I spent the evenings with Angela and Emma and had a very good time. The only problem was that the hotels have curfews so we went back to our hotel, took some beers and played shithead.

I found a fuji shop that managed to retrieve my corrupted photos which i was very glad of because they included the long neck women. I took a local bus, packed with locals to the Buddah park; a bizarre collection of huge concrete buddhist and hindu figures and a giant concrete pumpkin that you can walk around the 3 levels inside where there are more small strange figures; you'd just have to see it to believe it!

The girls left before me so i spent one more evening in a bar where i watched a 60+ rat faced, grey pony tailed man with a local girl on his lap maybe 18 years old - nice one fella!

2006-09-02T01:16:00.000-07:00

31st August - The waterfall adventure!

Had booked up 2 trips for today. The morning boat trip was to some boring caves which had become temples filled with buddahs and concrete steps. The highlight was stopping at a small village on the way back where they make Lao whiskey. After some tasting i took a small 1 dollar bottle of the stuff that doesn't make you blind. The trip was due back at 12.30 but got back at 13.20, giving me just 10 minutes to find a street vendor for noodle soup which i scoffed down as quick as possible and a small portion of sticky rice wrapped up in a banana tree leaf to take away.

The afternoon bus journey was to a big waterfall, i took some photos from the bottom but there were steps to the top which i started to climb. People coming down said that the views were great and you could swim up there. I got to the top, where the path ran out and got to the edge of the big waterfall but couldn't see where the views were from or where to swim, so i tried to go around the fast flowing water through patches of mud, smaller streams and jungle, after a while i realised i was getting nowhere and a lot of the streams were too deep or fast and the mud too boggy so i decided to go back. I walked in so many directions that i got lost and the fast streams and mud kept stopping me from going where i wanted to. The straps of one of my shoes broke and i lost it in the mud. I tried to follow the flow of the water but i would get cut off and so many streams seamed to be flowing in different directions. I would listen for the waterfall but kept getting to smaller ones. I was starting to worry, i found a pomelo tree and picked one just in case i was stuck here for a while, i started calling out but nobody could hear me over the roar of the water. My minibus was due to leave at 16.00 and i wondered wether they would just go or tell someone. I wondered how long, if at all, it would take to send someone to find me. I started thinking about how to survive a night in the jungle. I know all of this must sound really melodramatic, but i was trying to think clearly whilst being scared out of my wits, and i felt like i was getting weaker with every step. I felt homesick. Eventually i got back to the edge of the waterfall and down the hill wearing my one shoe. I was 30 minutes late and the minibus was still waiting. I pulled off the leach that was feasting from my foot and went back to my hotel for a shower, where i found blood on my bollock, the cause of which was a hole a leach had left on the adjacent inner thigh. I went out for a drink in the evening and it felt like nothing had happened. I went to bed at 22.00 and went straight to sleep, at about midnight there was a knock at the door, Tom and Eimer had come to say goodbye as they were leaving the next day, they're a nice couple and i hope i bump into Tom in Oz.

2006-09-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

25th August - 30th August

On the 25th i woke up thinking of leaving for Laos, but at breakfast i bumped into Janna and Cathy who i had spoke to briefly before, they were going to do a thai cooking class so i decided to tag along.
It cost 800B and was excelent fun, we had to eat everything we cooked, which was a lot, spring rolls,green curry, massaman curry, veg fried rice, ginger chicken and fried bananas in coconut toffee for desert which dad would love. I booked up a trip with the girls for tomorrow who, like me felt a little disappointed by the hill tribes, then went for a quick afternoon drink with them which turned into a bit of a session as we were al chatting and having a good time.

The next day we were picked up at 07.30 and most of the day was spent inside an air conditioned minibus with an eratic driver and a chinese sounding guide called Art. The main objective of the day was to see hill tribes, particularly the 'long necks', in traditional costume. We ended up in a tourist market where 3 diferent hill tribes, in traditional clobber had lots of stalls, all trying to sell us pretty much the same stuff (mainly hand woven scarves, necklaces, bracelets and shit).

Managed to take some good photographs but it was a pretty dull day really. In the evening i wanted to go to the Thai boxing but found it is on every night except Saturday.

Took the 13.00 bus to Chiang Khong, first class was all that was available, with air con and a really loud tv playing thai music videos and films the whole way, i could even here it over my mp3 player on full blast.
I met Tom and Eimer, both from Cork university. Spoke to them for quite a while, they are here on holiday and Tom will be going out to Oz around November as well so could meet up somewhere. We arrived at about 20.00 in the pouring rain where a woman persuaded us all to stay at her guesthouse. My room and shared bathroom was a bit dingy but it was only 120B. We ate there and the guy who runs it, a frenchman from Taihiti showed us a load of photos on his laptop. Taihiti looks like the nicest place in the world (bit of a honeymoon haven).
In the morning we paid 1600B for our Laos visa and crossed the Mekong to get the visa stamped, then with Tom and Eimer and a german couple, onto a long boat bound for Pak Beng. The boat was crowded with wooden benches seating about 100 passengers (mostly tourists) and it stopped at various places along the way where people
would either come on the boat to sell us drinks and snacks or load on cargo which filled the roof of the boat and gradually filled the aisle (big bags of rice or sugar). The Mekong is tea coloured with lots of swirling eddies littered with debris, mostly logs but we did see a bloated dead dog. The boat swings from side to side to avoid the debris. The scenery is nothing but green hills and the very occaisional village. Despite my blow up cushion (thanks for that piece of advice Richie B), my arse was numb and i was glad to get off in Pak Beng at 17.30 but geting the bags off was chaos and i lost my rag at a local when after waiting for ages and then searching the back of the boat in vain for my bag, found he had taken it off for me and wouldn't let me take it until i paid him - after some choice words i took my bag and he got nothing. During this time i had also been harrassed by blokes selling various guest houses and all kinds of drugs - amazing in such a tiny village. We all checked in at a nice hotel, and i haggled my room down to 250B while the guy who works here was still trying to sell me weed. Tom, Eimer and myself found an excellent Indian restaurant. The currency here is the kip, it suffers from massive inflation (from 11,000 to the pound in 2001 to 18,000 now) so the US dollar(10,000 kip:1 dollar) and Thai baht (260 kip:1 baht) are widely accepted and preffered, but whenever you get change it is in kip.

We were back on the boat at 08.30 the next morning bound for Luang Prabang, there were less seats this time but an empty space at the back where we could lean against the sides of the boat and stretch our legs. A couple of stops on the way and we were huddled into a tiny space with our knees under our chins. I was very glad to get off at 17.45, and this time i managed to get straight to my bag and the reception committee was much less intimidating. We found a really nice guest house 5 minutes walk from the main street for 200B - apart from some tiny ants making a constant march through my room this could have been a room in a 3 star hotel back home. Laos was colonised by the french (for most of the 19th century i think) and Vientiane has lots of french buildings. It was awarded a world heritage site status in 1995, has a very laid back atmosphere and has a night market which doesn't sell fake designer gear but mostly hand made fabrics, clothes, lampshades (made from the local paper with flowers pressed into it) etc. There is very little hassle from the traders here, just a 'Sawadee' (hello) if you show some interest. Beer Lao has given Tom and I both slightly dodgy stomachs, now I have discovered Lao dark beer which is more expensive and tastes like Newcastle brown ale, it's not available everywhere but it's bloody lovely.

The next day, i went walking around Luang Prabang with the sun burning my head and neck, loads of temples (Wats) and buddah statues. The place is swarming with monks and the younger novices all wearing orange shawls and often carrying umbrellas, i spoke to a couple of them. A popular game for the local boys is throwing flip flops at a stack of picture cards, whoever hits the stack wins, i watched this for a while until the boy who lost all his cards started crying and the others left counting their spoils. Had lovely tomato soup with french bread for lunch and watched local men play boules in the afternoon, there is lots of cheering, barracking and laughing and the games are played for money from about 6000kip (35p) upwards, doesn't sound like much but probably is to them. In the evening i ate a nice rare buffalo steak in garlic sauce (garlic is nothing like as strong as back home) and drank while watching Wigan beat Reading. Tom and Eimer popped in for a drink.

2006-08-26T19:31:00.000-07:00

20th - 24th August (Changmai internet cafe)

Maybe i should have booked something with the travel agent a bit earlier. I could have taken a coach for about 300B or a cheaper train option for about 600B but because i left it until the day i wanted to travel my only option is the 1000B sleeper train. I checked out of my hotel and spent a lot of time putting new photos on the blog to keep you lot happy. Arranged vietnam visa (i only remembered that i needed to do it when i heard someone discussing it in the travel agent) which will be sent to me in Changmai, this cost 2000B. I was killing time all afternoon until at the last hour i found a bloke who could put albums on to any mp3 player for 50B - I only had enough time and memory to put the new muse album on but next time I'm in Bangkok i will find him again. My taxi to the train station cost 250B (should have got a tuk tuk). Met Sally and Rachael from Loughborough uni in my carriage, about 20 and quite chatty then slept very well in my comfortable bed (much more spacious than in India). On arrival in Chiang Mai, i took a tuk tuk to Sarah guesthouse which i found in the lonely planet. Clean and basic for 200B, just what i needed. There are 3 obese dogs that live here, most dogs in Thailand look scabby and malnourished. After getting some tourist information i visited a tribal museum which was fairly interesting and then booked a 3 day trek for tomorrow which should take me to some hill tribe villages. There is a huge street market every evening in Chiang Mai so i spent some time looking around that; there is everything from fake designer gear to local handmade ornaments, there are even massage stalls so i had my first massage, half an hour, head, shoulders and arms for 60B, about half the price of Bangkok. The massage was a little painful at times but quite nice. Looked for a nice bar but i only managed to find the seedy looking ones so went to bed.

The Trek:
Just my luck, met the rest of the group, 10 Irish 19-20 year old lads, nice guys, big drinkers and quite entertaining but obviously as they are all friends travelling together i am often sat listening to conversations about school friends, teachers,etc. A group made from smaller groups and individuals would have been better for me socially.

Joe, our 62 year old guide likes to sing Elvis songs and play the harmonica (not all that well), he's a bit of a character and the lads call him 'crazy belly'!!!

There was a two hour drive into the jungle and then we were trekking. We all set off up the hills too quickly for Joe who told us we needed to pace ourselves, he was probably right, it was very humid and the sweat was pouring off of us. We walked for four hours up and down slippery muddy tracks - i didn't have too much trouble keping up with the young'uns who didn't have an ounce of fat between them but i struggled with the slippery downhills where my ankle was still feeling less than 100%. We finished up at a hill tribe village next to the river where we swam and washed (it was brown with muddy sand but seemed fresh), then we had a lovely dinner played poker and drank warm Chang. I had pictured something much more 'tribal', the village was quite basic but the people didn't appear to be any different to any other part of Thailand (I think we were expecting a little bonfire and people in bizarre costumes dancing around it or something). It was pitch black by 19.00 and all we had was candles and our little torches. At the end of the night us 11 lads all shared a big room.

The second day was more walking only this time we had a young guide called Sang who set off at lightning pace. Joe stayed at the village to take Care of one of the Irish lads who was really sick (the 8 whiskies the night before last plus the heat may have been a factor!) and the plan changed so that we would be staying in the same village again that night. The upside of this was that we were carrying less stuff than yesterday. We visited another village of a different tribe and again it was not what i had expected, they had solar panels and satellite dishes (apparently supplied by the government to all villages) and we never saw anyone in any of the tribal dress that i had seen at the museum. Sang calls me Rambo because i am the biggest in the group (that tells you how skinny these Irish guys are!) and i managed to snap a rotten chunk of wood in two to use as stepping stones. He has singled me out as the raft driver for tomorrow! We walked at quick pace for about 4 hours altogether before getting Elephant rides back to the village.
The Elephants looked healthy and well looked after so i didn't feel guilty about riding them. We were sat two to an elephant on a wooden seat with a thai driver sat just behind the elephants ears stearing with his knees. It lasted about an hour and wasn't too comfy, most of the journey was along the river but it's amazing how they can walk up steep narrow paths when they need to. Good food again and plenty of it followed by a Chang session that went late into the night.

Day three was no trekking. We were on bamboo rafts - 5 on one, 6 on another with a Thai driver at the front and one of us steering the back of each using a bamboo pole as a punting stick - it was a lot harder than it looked and at one point we nearly went upside down on the white water ( all our bags with cameras etc were suspended in the center of the raft). It was excellent fun. We went to a snake farm with an entertaining snake show on the way back to Chiang Mai

2006-08-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

15th - 19th August (Internet Cafe in Bangkok)

Unfortunately the rest of my stay in Railey beach was spent without further climbing - however, i am determined to climb again soon.

On the 16th i found out that my nephew had been born. I was pleased and relieved that everything was ok and also a little bit sad not to be there.

To start with moving around has been difficult and i couldn't even walk the 400m or so to the nice beach. As the pain eased the beach was in reach but every time i got there it would go from scorching sun to heavy rain, so I have been reading a lot. I like the relaxed night life here more than anywhere else i have been and my Thai friends are very nice (ze germans left on the 15th) but the days are getting tedious so I have to go. I paid 3000B for my two and a half days of climbing (about 40pounds which i thought was good value), got a free 'Cliff Man' vest and tipped Bong 250B just because i am a great bloke.

On the day i left, it was raining hard and i had to wade into the sea carrying my stuff to get to the longboat - obviously i took my bandage off for this and left it off for my overnight bus journey to the dreaded bangkok - this has caused my whole foot to swell up so it looks just like Carly's did when she was pregnant. The bus journey was ok despite some unexpected stops/bus changes (the usual crap) and altogether the journey took from 14.30 - 05.30 to get close to Khaosan road. I still had to walk for about 15 minutes and all the hotels were full at that time, so I had to hang around for a while and wait for people to check out, this was fine as i managed to eat breakfast while watching ESPN talking about the build up to the new premiership season for about an hour. Decided that to pay 650B per night like last time i was in Bangkok would be far too extravagent so found myself in the worst shit hole i have ever seen for 150B, shared bathrooms, loads of writing on the wall and something that could be coke (or maybe sick) on the wall. Slept for a while before going out to do a little shopping, getting info on the overnight train to Chang Mai, and getting my head shaved to guard one for 100B
(bit pricey compared to India but at least i got what i asked for this time!) Currently checking out the tatoo parlours in order to complete my new 'double hard bastard' image. The Liverpool and Arsenal games are on in the bars later so i am looking forward to that, possibly with a beer or two.

Bye for now,
Uncle Adam.

2006-08-15T05:33:00.000-07:00

12th - 15th August (Internet cafe on Rayley beach with bandaged ankle)

Ralf, the german policeman, is about 6 foot 4 inches tall and reminds me a lot of Phil in looks and build - he is a nice chap and speaks good english. Ralf gave me a lift to Krabi, then we had to get a longboat across to Rayley beach where we met up with Ralf's rather iffeminate aquaintance Sam who looks uncannily like Jack Dee when he smiles.
Sam has a Thai friend who works here called Tam.
I have spent these few days mostly with these people and some other Thais (including 'Bong', our climbing instructor) from the climbing centre 'Cliff Man'. I am staying in a basic bungalow with no view and a spaniel that yelps in a high pitch for about twenty minutes from 06.30 onwards for 200B called Rapella, it has a nice powerful cold shower. I have done two and a half days of climbing and have loved every minute of it, unlike windsurfing i have taken to it pretty well. Ralf is bigger and stronger than me but he really struggled and gave up after one day. I have done eleven climbs so far and learnt some skills including belaying (where you control the safety line from the ground for the climber), and leading (where i do the first climb attaching the safety line as i go and then passing it through the anchor point at the top before being lowered to the ground).

I find the climbing really challenging which is probably why i enjoy it so much; when i really struggle to get past a point and my legs are shaking because i'm using so much energy but eventually get past it and on to a ledge where i can rest it is so exhilarating like nothing else i've ever done. Also, when you climb, you are thinking of nothing else, real escapism. Falling off is really depressing but if you try again and get past it that feels great. Climbing shoes hurt like mad because they need to be small so that they cup your feet into a claw shape. I've seen some excellent climbers including a japanese girl who was pretty much hanging upside down off of a rock - she said she had been climbing for two years. I hope i can carry on when i get home, using indoor climbing walls for practice. Today, i fell from just inches below the final anchor point, meaning that the previous tie off point was about two metres below me and i fell about four metres -
this wouldn't normaly be a big problem but i didn't manage to push away from the rock and somehow twisted my left ankle as i tried to stop from smashing into the rock, hence the strapping. My camera was strapped to me as i was planning on getting a nice shot of the bay from the top, luckily that survived intact, my ankle and my pride suffered more as i gradually got to the ground in an ungainly fashion. Rain stopped proceedings shortly after that anyway and i am hoping that i will be okay to climb tomorrow.

I have eaten a lot here and spent too much money mainly because the german guys are here on holiday (they are staying in a posh hotel) and always order loads of starters to share with every meal. My highlight has been spicey pizza at mom's kitchen. I have to keep reminding myself that it is still cheap by u.k. standards.

2006-08-14T05:26:00.000-07:00

9th August - 11th August (internet cafe Rayleh beach)

When i bought my ticket i was a little unsure quite how i was travelling - apart from the boat part; the journey turned out to be quite an adventure. At 12.30 i was collected by minibus from my resort and after a few stops to let various people on and off and travelling at breakneck speed we arrived just in time for the boat from Nathon harbour. The boat to Surithani on the mainland was fine. I popped into the toilet at the Surithani harbour, came out and showed my ticket to someone official looking who spoke quite frantically in thai to someone else, who then pointed to the moped taxi. I hopped on to the back of the moped carrying my large rucksack and some hand luggage and was taken at high speed to chase the bus that i had missed, after some beeping and waving the bus stopped and i paid the moped man 40B. The bus travelled about 20 minutes and dropped me an indian looking chap and a japanese lad on a street corner where we got into another minibus and were driven for about 10 minutes, each dropped at different places, i was at a roadside cafe where i had to wait so i had some noodles. There were other travellers arriving here. I was sold my first nights accommadation at 'jungle huts' in Khao Sok and at 18.30 me and a few others who were loaded into 2 minibuses. I think something had been happening beforehand to do with one of the drivers who was apparently a bit of a psycho and a few of the travellers, and there were some very pissed off people on board. When our driver stopped for petrol, two travellers got off saying they had had enough and would get a taxi. They left and the pscho came over and started pointing, shouting and swearing. Everyone was a bit edgy now. Our driver raced ahead of the psycho but after a while he stopped because he didn't know the way! After some phone calls he went on and after a bit of searching around we found jungle huts, most of the others hadn't booked anywhere so they got off as soon as they liked the look of somewhere. I arrived at 21.30 in a basic hut with a bathroom and a bed for 300B.

I only stayed one night in jungle huts, after some looking around i moved to 'Baan Rimnam' at 200B per night.

Most of the jungle tours left early so i spent my first day just looking around and reading. This is rain forest and surprisingly it rains quite a lot, electric fails quite often as well. Met Kiam (a tour guide) who showed me where to stand for the 18.30 bat highway and sure enough loads of bats came flying through along the river. Kiam is a really nice guy and a good guide, he took me, a group of four young english girls and a 34 year old german policeman on the lake tour the next day.

The whole group was very nice and friendly and we had an excellent day on a long boat, walking through muddy island jungle tracks, wading through rivers, swimming in the lake and exploring a cave full of bats and big spiders.

I was surprised at the lack of wildlife, there were no birds but we did see 2 monkeys literally flying from one tree to another, colourful butterflies and dragonflies, leeches on our legs, and big lizards. We all met up later for food and drinks in a really nice place. Also spoke to some british people who work in Krabi, they gave me some really useful information and it sounds like a great place so i am looking forward to that. Coincidentally Ralf is driving there there tomorrow morning so he is giving me a lift.

2006-08-13T05:49:00.000-07:00

6th August - 9th August (Internet cafe on Rayley beach)

Okay, so the boat came in to Buddah pier, on the north of Samui. We took a taxi south to Lamai on the east coast - this area is not as lively or touristy as nearby Chawen but my first impressions of Lamai and Samui (from what i saw on the taxi ride) are that it is not as nice as Phangan or Ko Tao, it seems to have been ruined by tourism. Thye cheapest bungalow i could find was 400B and it was one row back from those with the sea view. AS usual, it was quite basic but fine. I share my room with at least 2 adult and 1 baby gecco (cute little lizard that is useful for eating mozzies and bugs). The girls are living next door but they have met up with some friends in a posh hotel so i don't see much of them. I have shaved off my rather impressive 10 day beard!

The weather is changeable - the most annoying thing is that as soon as i lay on the beach there are big gusts of wind and i am covered in sand, so i spend a lot of time walking around the streets instead. There are a lot of uk style bars. Spent an evening with a canadian guy and four german girls, the girls have mopeds and they say that the rest of the island is no better than here - i am planning on getting away as soon as possible.

Each morning i am awoken by what sounds like a half throttled cockerel - thinking of going to finish the job!

The best part of my stay here was a duck platter that i had in an authentic thai roadside restaurant (no frills - looked like a kind of undercover market), 130B and delicious.

Sliced my pinkey on a rock in the sea, bled like mad, i was worried that it would attract sharks so got out quick!

In the evening i went to the lively bar area and was constantly offered massage in a way that suggested something more sinister, quite a seedy area, and no, i didn't accept.

Paid 550B for a journey to Khao Sok national park on the mainland.

2006-08-05T22:49:00.000-07:00

29th July - 6th August (From an internet cafe in Haad Rin, Koh Phangan)

Hello again,

Some people who i met in Koh Tao (a couple of them were in our dive group) have turned up at cookies and they are my new friends for this section of my tour.

They are Simea, James, Maz and Sophia and they all know eachother from living in Dubai although they are a mixture of English, Phillipine and Lebanese origin. Later on James' brother Ben arrives and Simea leaves. They are all very nice and a lot of this week is spent with them, either sitting around chatting, eating, drinking, travelling about the island, whatever.

The weather has been strange, mostly hot but often cloudy and a few storms that appear out of nowhere. I spent about 3 hours on a beach one day without suncream because i could barely see the sun through the cloud - i turned very pink but eventually with a lot of aftersun i am back to my normal bronzed adonis colour.

While i've been here i've read 'The lion, the witch and the wardrobe' (it was the only english book i could find at the time) and 'Saturday' (can't remember the authors name but it wasn't great anyway). I am just starting a trilogy by Philip Pullman that Malachi gave me.

I have been hiring a 100cc moped for 150B per day (no helmet or anything - sorry mum) which has been great fun, whizzing about the island in a pair of shorts, sometimes on really dodgy dirt tracks, trying to find hidden beaches and stuff - sometimes on my own, sometimes with the others. We've made a couple of night rides to Haad Rin (the main party area of the island) which is quite a hairy ride even in the day. Sofia fell off the back of Simea's bike whilst trying to get up a steep hill, but she was ok.

We discovered a bar near cookies, run by an english bloke called Sam who is a bit of a character, there is a pool table and he introduced me to a drink called San Sung which i drink in large shots and tastes similar to vodka.

While i've been here, I have done a bit of snorkelling off the north at Mae Haad and saw a lot of fish in the lovely clear water, went to a half moon party (Koh Phangan is famous for it's massive full moon parties on the beach at Haad Rin but we weren't her for a full moon), and also tried a free yoga session with the others - i was a bit worried about you all taking the piss and calling me a hippy tree hugger if i ended up really getting hooked on yoga (some people stay here for years just for the yoga), it was interesting and the excercises were quite good but the whole spiritual side of it was a bit much for me (apparently there are 7 energy centres called Chakras in your body and the exercises are designed to absorb cosmic and earth energies into each of these chakras, with each exercise designed to bring different positive energies such as wellbeing, lucidity, harmony etc.) There was even some mantra chanting from the instructor. As i said it was interesting and worth a try.

Most importantly of all is food, as usual it has been cheap, usually fairly small, and tasty thai food and although meals are small they seem to be enough to keep me going, probably because i'm not doing much and also the rice expanding and filling my stomach. It's quite nice really to eat small meals instead of eating until i can't move like when i'm in England. My stomach still has the odd bad day but i won't go into that again. Last night we came to Haad Rin and ate in a very hot and busy seafood restaurant, it was expensive compared to what we were used to (300B about 5pounds), i had a nice seabass and also tasted some Shark which was really succulent and tasty.

James and Ben have left today - James needs to sort out a visa then they are meeting their parents in Bangkok. Maz, Sophia and I are getting on a boat in an hour to Koh Samui, the biggest island of the three on this side of Thailand. I'll let you know how i get on. Bye for now.

2006-07-30T03:41:00.000-07:00

Okay - i'm getting a bit tired of the day by day account now so i'm going to try to do it in chunks. Hope you don't mind?

18th July - 27th July

During this time i have been on Koh Tao, the weather has been generally hot with a nice sea breeze. Saw a big red cock.
Koh Tao (Turtle island) is a very nice place, the beaches and the sea are beautiful. It's a very small island and almost everything here is geared to tourism, especially diving - lots of dive schools with lots of boats coming and going. The food is always good. I share a room with Liz which keeps the costs down and before you even think it, there's no funny business! Liz is also my dive buddy and during our stay we have done our open water course and our advanced open water course involving a fair amount of reading and 9 dives.
We have seen loads of fish but i managed to miss a distant grey reef shark that most of the others claim to have seen. The best dive was the last one which was a night dive with torches - there was no moonlight, pitch black and massive waves, the boat was all over the place but my travel sickness pill did the trick. We turned off the lights and waved our hands about while standing on the ocean floor - these weird green phospherous specks fly everywhere. I've seen rays, angel fish, clown fish (like Nemo), boxfish(pretty weird), batfish, barracudas, scorpion fish, trigger fish (that was scary because we had to swim slowly past - they can be aggresively territorial), cleaner wras (they nibble at you if you stay still for long enough) and loads of other stuff. Had really bad pain in my ear from the pressure on my first 2 dives but seemed to improve after that. One of the advanced dives went down to 28m which is the sort of depth that can bring on Nitrogen Narcosis which can make you feel giggly and drunk - the dive guide did some mental tests on us but we were fine - quite dissapointed really after we had heard and read so much about it. Craving ribena quite a lot. In between diving i've been mostly reading and lazing around in the sun and sometimes forcing down a beer - it's not been easy!!! Read 'Vernon God Little' strange but good. Eventually left Liz on the island with her dutch friend, and took a 1 hour boat ride to Koh Phanang...

27th July - 29th July (present)

Chose a bungalow resort called Cookies on the south west of the island because they advertise windsurfing (sounds like a challenge!) - my bungalow (a hut on stilts, made from mostly wood and wicker) is about 10m from the sea with my own little bathroom and a hammock on the porch. It feels like sleeping outside, sort of an adventure like when Carly and I used to camp in the back garden! This is the view from my hammock outside my bungalow

I can hear the crickets chirping and the waves washing against the beach. The resort is run by some nice Thai people, a lady called Bee is always very friendly. 250B per night for this paradise - fantastic.

The windsurfing is only on in the evenings and only when the conditions are right - eventually i have a lesson and can be seen falling off every 30 seconds as people eat in the restaurant watching the sun set - i am rubbish and the poor bloke with his tiny amount of English doesn't know how to tell me what I am doing wrong - he just shows me what to do - then i fail miserably. Oh well can't be good at every thing (or anything come to think of it!) I've spoken to several people while i've been here and took a taxi with Malachi to Haad Rin for an evening of drinking some evil stuff through straws from a bucket (regretting that today!)

That's all for now. Bye.

2006-07-18T03:49:00.000-07:00

13/7

Explored Bangkok on foot for a few hours, found it very difficult to find my way around due to crap maps and crap street signs. Found little of any interest. Contacted Jon who lives in Bangkok (my brother in law's cousin) but he works in the week so i'll see him on Saturday. Feeling bored and a bit miserable. Looked at a couple of cheaper hotels as 650B is quite expensive for the area, they were around 300B but nowhere near as nice and i couldn't bring myself to take a drop in comfort while i am already a bit low. One thing that always cheers me up is good food and i'm eating plenty of that for about 75B a time - tonight was Thai red beef curry - fantastic! Got quite drunk and ended up talking to a nice german girl in Gullivers but she was leaving early the next morning (she probably just said that to get rid of me!) She was spending only 150B per night for her room so i am feeling far too extravagent now.

14/7

DO NOT DRINK CHANG BEER! I have the hangover from hell. Managed to go out about midday, saw Wat Phra Kaew, the royal palace and Wat Pho. I got drenched in a rainstorm then took a tuk tuk. I saw a huge reclining buddah, a bigger standing buddah and more smaller buddahs than you could shake a monk at. Now quite bored with Bangkok, temples and buddahs! I felt rough all day. Had some excellent spicey pork and even treated myself to ice cream, plus a coke for 135B. Can't drink tonight so sat in my expensive room and watched 'Cable Guy' and the middle east conflict on the news. I am planning on getting away from Bangkok straight after i meet Jon, don't know where.

15/7

A restless night with a bizarre midgit dream. I phoned Jon and got a cab to his house which was an adventure as the driver spoke no English and i didn't know where I was going. We chatted, i met his wife and daughter, we went to the mall and had food, then Jon and i left for Sukhumvit to meet some of his mates, then on to Nana where we saw some of Bangkoks characters - ladyboys, prossies, that sort of thing! Somehow managed to get back onto Chang and ended up a little tipsy!

16/7

Hungover again! Checked out at last and got a tuk tuk to one of Bangkoks two train stations. After several visits to tourist information i was yet to get any info on buses or trains as they don't speak much english (stupid bloody foreigners!) but i was hoping that i might get to Chantanaburi to see the bridge over the bridge over the river kwai. I found out i had picked the wrong station for that and the staff just laughed when i told them i just had to get out of Bangkok and asked where the next train was going to. One was going through Chumpon which is a ferry ride from Koh Tao island. I hadn't planned on heading south yet but then i hadn't planned anything much and i liked the sound of it despite the 8.5 hour train journey. The train was clean and comfy and pretty cheap. All the windows were open so the wind blew through as we went but it was still warm. The scenery was green an beautiful and i spotted some westerners further up the carriage. 4 young English kids got out at my stop so i asked them if they too were getting the early morning ferry which i had booked with my train ticket, unfortunately they had booked an overnight crossing but the bloke that came to pick them up took me as well and we all went back to his small travel agency. I chatted with the 4 young 'uns while we ate at a nearby restaurant (tom yum soup) and they were very nice. They left for their ferry and i hoped to meet them on the other side. I stayed the night in a very basic room above the shop for 150B. Feeling glad to have left Bangkok.

17/7

The ferry took 3 hours and the crossing was very calm (thank god). There were about 60 people on the boat and i spoke to an English girl named Liz most of the way - she had done some travelling and some volunteer work in Laos. When we docked there were several dive companies wanting us to come and see there accomodation, Liz had booked when she was in Chumpon so i went with her to Dive Buddah situated right on the beautiful south coast of the island. Liz and I ended up sharing a room which is basic but we have a private bathroom and a fan. I read and slept on the beach for a while and then we had a one hour dvd with another 14 people who were all to start a four day PADI diving course. Yet again i had fantastic food at lunch and some lovely steamed fish in the evening. I spent about 2 hours reading my new PADI text book then tried to phone Nan but she was engaged. I am loving it here already and it is nice to have someone to talk to.

2006-07-12T21:14:00.000-07:00

Michael, Nicola and I took a tuk tuk back to the old city again (well there is not much else to do here!) Went to the main gaht again, fended off the hawkers with ease and looked in a few shops. Had a nice lunch at the hotel and spent most of the afternoon on the computer. On the advice of a lad i was chatting to earlier, i booked my 3 nights accomodation in Hong Kong online for 22 pounds a night. At 18.45 we boarded the sleeper for Delhi. The group were a lot more split up this time; Manu and I were in a compartment with an Indian family. I couldn't get comfortable in my bed - if my feet hung off the end they would get hit when the door opened, so I had a pretty bad nights sleep. The toilet was a lot better this time. Again we were delayed by about 2 hours and the train seems to spend as much time stationary as it does moving. I figured that we did 450 miles in 15 hours, so 30 miles an hour.

8/7

Not much happened. The tour is winding down now. In the evening we all went out for food and drinks at the upmarket DV8. Michael did a speech for Manu and gave him all of our tips in envelopes. I had a few to drink and got to bed at 0030.

9/7

I was up at 3.10 feeling bright and breezy (yeah right!) My taxi was at 03.30 and check in was at 04.00 even though the flight wasn't until 07.00. Landed in Hong Kong at 15.00 after putting the clock forward two and a half hours ( i am now 7 hours ahead of GMT). The airport is ultra clean and modern, all steel, glass and white. The tourist information girl gave me loads of info, her English was good but very quick so it was hard to follow - still, i walked away with a map with circles drawn all over it and a leaflet on things to see and do. My hotel area in Mongkok, Kowloon is very lively with flashing chinese signs everywhere. I eventually find my hotel - my room (on the 13th floor) is tiny but air conditioned, the bathroom is the size of a bath with a shower but no cubicle - the water just runs over the floor to a drain. I went into the first 'restaurant' i found and had chicken (skinny bits of thigh i think!) in blackbean sauce. All local transport and street signs have an English translation, other than that there seems to be very little English - trying to find my hotel was a struggle as everyone i asked didn't have a clue what i was saying. I remebered that the tourist information girl had written my hotel name down in chinese, showed that to a man and he pointed the way - why didn't i think of that earlier?

10/7

The weather was very overcast. There are plenty of McDonalds in Hong Kong so i had a mcmuffin for breakfast. I found out that Italy won the world cup so i won the green watch sweepstake. I got on the Metro which again was very clean and modern, there are steel seats with no cushions. Getting around is pretty easy either by metro, bus, ferry or taxi - there are very few cars about probably because everything is close together and the public transport is so good - the buses run exactly to the timetable. The ferry is fantastic and only costs about 2 quid. I went to Stanley market, Repulse Bay (a short sandy beach), Ocean Park, the zoological and botanical gardens and finally went on the peak tram on Hong Kong island, I stayed at the peak until it got dark so i could see all the lights on both sides of the river - the weather was still very cloudy so the view wasn't as good as it could have been and i think my photos were rubbish. Apart from all the travelling around i did a lot of walking so it's been a long day. I finished the day with a reasonable beef in chile sauce for 32 HKD. (14HKD to 1UKP)

11/7

Pissing down. This was to be my first use of the Johnny 'Extreme' Moulder monsoon proof, hurricane proof, earthquake proof and bomb proof jacket. I took the Metro to Tung Chung on Lantau island. From here on there are just a few light showers and i am left to carry this bloody jacket around all day - still, shouldn't moan. I use the buses to cover all the sights of this tiny island. The island is mountainous and covered in forest. There is a monastry with a giant outdoor Buddah (the head alone weighs 5 metric tonnes!), the wisdom path which has something to do with infinite spleadour, here i read 'Understanding the relativity of all standpoints will prevent one from becoming irrationally attached to things. In this way one will become free of all mental obstruction' - DEEP!

Went to a fishing village where the people live in tin houses on stilts. Found Hollywood road and Manmo temple but they were rubbish.

Finally got to the avenue of stars on the south bank of Kowloon to witness the symphony of lights - all the sky scrapers on the opposite bank lights and lasers dancing to music - very clever.

I went to a more upmarket pizza restaurant and had peking duck pizza (a small amount of duck peeking out from under the mushrooms, peeking - get it!) and a beer for 116 HKD. The bigest adventure today was on my walk to the wisdom path, i turned back half way and did one of those runs where you keep your knees together until i got to the toilet - this was to be my first number 2 in a squat toilet - after some precision bombing, some awkward wiping (the bin was too far away), i was just glad that this one had toilet paper as many of them don't, i was back on the path to wisdom. Hope i'm not going into too much detail for you but this was a momentous occaision!

12/7

Awoke at 09.00 with a case of the 2 bobs (sorry to get back to this subject). My plans to visit a Hong Kong history museum were scuppered as i stayed in my room. The episode passed fairly quickly and i checked out at 11.00 and took the metro to the airport. On the plane I was sat next to a young chinese couple who kept kissing, just glad i wasn't in the middle seat! If Grant had been there he would have shouted 'GET A ROOM!' It was pissing down when i arrived in Bangkok but after a 2 hour crawl by bus through the rush hour traffic to Khaosan road the rain had stopped. I was sat under a drip! I found the Hotel Sawadsee Banglumpoo without much problem. Nice room with air con, double bed, shower (with cubicle) and free breakfast for 8 quid (i had pre booked for one night on the internet but will stay at least for one more night). Went straight out. Khaosan road was not at all what i expected - not much atmosphere in the bars. I had a nice chicken green curry for 50Baht (65B to 1UKP) and after searching high and low for some atmosphere found Gullivers where i met Scottish Ed and Dan from North London - i chatted to them over several beers and found out that any Thai girl who shows any interest is a prossie which is a shame because there was a pretty one across the bar and there were several of them plying their trade in the pub. Drinks were 75B here.

2006-07-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

4/7 continued

Didn't do much in the afternoon as i still didn't feel quite right and the heat outside wasn't helping. We boarded a sleeper train at 21.30 and my stomach was doing somersaults so i was really dreading it. India has an excellent rail network and the sleeper carriage we were in was quite new and clean. The toilet smelled of curried shit and was just a hole in the ground with a pipe set an angle down to the track - the fact that the pipe was at an angle was to allow peoples shit to stick to the side rather than go straight through! I was dreading having to go. Sue gave me a couple of tablets for stomach cramps and they did the trick. The carriage slept 8 altogether and was very cramped while we were all seated because we all had so much luggage. When we went to bed (which was quite early because some indian chap was trying to sleep and was annoyed at how much noise we were making) the beds were very narrow but i slept ok. The carriage has 2 lots of three bunks opposite eachother (the middle bunk folds up when you are using the bottom one as a seat) and another two opposite the open corridor at a right angle to the 6 (i hope that makes sense!). It was a bit of a come down from the luxury we had become used to but perhaps this will help me prepare for the rest of my travels, I am well aware that my time in India has been all too easy with nice hotels and Manu helping us every step of the way. I am quite glad that i did it this way though because there is no way i could have seen so much of india in such a short period otherwise, and i would probably only have seen the main tourist spots and not the real india in places like Karauli.

5/7

Awoke about 06.00 and sat by a window to watch india going by. Apparently 70% of india's population lives outside of the cities which is hard to believe when you see how crowded the cities are, but now i believe it; there was just miles and miles of farmland and small villages. I saw lots of men coming to the side of the railway line to do their morning shit which was a bit disturbing (Simon Prior would love it here!) We arrived at a nice hotel in Varanassi after a 13 hour journey - i went to bed. In the afternoon we visited Sarnath which is an important pilgrimage for buddhists but for some reason I wasn't all that interested. Went to bed after a nice cheap meal and a beer at the hotel.

6/7

Awoke by 04.00 alarm call and took a bus at 04.30 to old city of Varanassi. There was life on the steets but not too busy at this time. We took a short walk to the Ganges for a boat ride but unfortunately it was too overcast to see the sunrise. The Ganges was not quite what i had expected and i think the rest of the group felt the same - there were a few people washing in the 'holy waters', a couple of bodies covered with cloth on the banks waiting to be cremated and one burning pyre. We all expected the banks to be crowded with people. We were all given a burning candle which we were to set onto the river and make a wish, i don't hold a great deal of faith in such rituals but even so i wished good luck to Carly for the safe birth of baby Rodney. Walking around the narrow streets of the old city was a bit nasty - the streets are very narrow and you rarely catch a glimpse of sky, not that you want to look up as the streets are paved with diarroreah from the cows that roam around eating whatever litter they can find (so much for the holy cow!) In the afternoon some of us went to see a silk weaving demonstration.
In the evening it was back to the ganges by tuk tuk for the daily Aarti ceromony where 7 priests stand on platforms at the waters edge and summon the spirit of Gange using music, chanting, incense, flames and synchronised movements (sort of like a boy band). This lasts for about 30 minutes and again we were expecting more of a crowd and lots of chanting and praying but were a little dissapointed. The tuk tuk journey back was a high speed dash down some narrow, bumpy pedestrian streets. Beers and bed.

2006-07-03T22:42:00.000-07:00

30/6

Went via tuk tuk to some shops - think i got ripped off for some deodorant at 400R but haggled down an indian style shirt from 400R to 250R. We have been told to haggle over just about everything and we have even been known to haggle with tuk tuk drivers over 10 or 20 rupees between 3 of us which is nothing but it's all part of the game. Having said that, i had to tip the cycle rickshaw man as it looked like such hard work in the heat. Also bought a nice little shirt for Elliot which some friends from the group are going to take back and post for me. Had chinese food for lunch (lots of the restaurants sell indian, chinese and western food).

The whole group went to the Indiana restaurant in the evening which was more expensive but included music and dancing. Later we had drinks on the roof of the hotel, we couldn't get the usual kingfisher so had to settle for the kingfisher strong (8%).

1/7

On the coach journey to Karauli, we saw a lorry on its side in the ditch and another overloaded with it's rear axle snapped, abandoned in the middle of the road. All vehicles are overloaded in India; i've seen a family of 5 on a moped, jeeps with 12 people on top and at least 15 inside and there ate illegal people lorries powered by well pumps (i kid you not). A 2 vehicle collision over here would be a major incident. We arrived at the maharaja's residence which is a little run down now but pretty grand all the same. My room is fairly small but has a large ornate wooden bed at waist height so i decide not to drink too much that night.

I walked along a nearby street and got a haircut for 15R - i wanted it short but i think he misunderstood and thought i said i only wanted a little bit off, oh well, it's tidied me up until i get it shaved in Thailand.

We all sat on 2 camel carts and took a ride through the local farming community to a nearby lake - all the people are really friendly, the kids are fantastic, cute and smiley;

they come running out, waving and shouting 'ta ta' which was a bit confusing but we all just shouted it back. The good thing about this place is that there aren't many tourists, there is no begging, no hawking (people trying to sell you crap), just friendly people.

The kids are happy for you to photograph them and love to see themselves on the digital display. The children are playing in the street, kite fighting, hoops and sticks etc. I guess they are fairly poor but they seem really happy and probably have as much as they need.

There are very few tvs around but Manu pulls out all the stops; a few of us spend the evening watching England lose in the hotel guards hut, a dissapointing result but we'll never forget where we saw it.

2/7

Early morning peacock wake up call followed by a walking tour of Karauli old town, this is within the city walls in the opposite direction to where we went yesterday. The lod town is much busier and people are selling stuff from waist high shacks where a man sits in the middle of the floor and can reach all the items from there. The conditions here are a bit more squalid but not too bad and still no begging or hawking. We went to the old city palace which wasn't particularly exciting, it was very hot (about 42 degrees) and quite a lot of walking. After that a few of us split up from the rest of the group and got lost, we ended up miles from the hotel and got a tuk tuk back. I managed an hour in the sun before i jumped into the dirty pool. I dressed up smart for supper as i thought the maharaja might join us but he didn't show up.

3/7

Took a coach to Keoladeo bird sanctuary and ate vegi pizza and fries at a service station cafe on the way for 78R, bargain. The bird sanctuary was not too exciting as they are waiting for the monsoon which could arrive any day soon and bring the wildlife with it. We saw a few deer, monkeys, herons and other resident birds which i can't remember but i guess we were just unlucky with our timing. On to Fatehpur Sikri, a ghost town with forts, mosques and palaces perfectly preserved. Our guide, Mr Khan is perhaps the most unusual man i have ever seen and his way of talking had us in stitches but also listening intently as he kept testing us on the things he had said. The architecture encompasses loads of symbolgy from the 4 main religions in order to keep Akbar's 3 wives and 49 girlfriends happy - Mr Kahn made this a very interesting visit. Picked up 9 bites from something (6 of them under my t-shirt) as a momento. We arrived at Mansingh palace in Agra which is a normal hotel but very grand with all mod cons and a pool. Just finished getting ready for our evening meal when it hit me, i thought i just needed the toilet but i had really bad pains in my stomach, felt a bit sick and feint, so i stayed in my room, and never went too far from the toilet! Went to sleep hoping to feel better for our early morning Taj Mahal visit - surely i can't miss that!

4/7

0515 woke up feeling better but still not 100% so took toilet paper and plastic bags just in case (thanks Kim!). Luckily my pants remained unscathed as i took in the majestic Taj.

It really is as magnificent as people say and our guide told us a few facts that i never knew; it was built as a tomb for the mughal emporors third wife and took from 1632 to 1654 to build. Where we had been unlucky with our timing for the bird sanctuary we were very lucky here; with it being early in the morning and not yet tourist season there were very few people here. Manu said he had never seen it this quiet. I took loads of photos. We went back to the hotel for a hearty breakfast and my stomach is starting to feel better. We have the rest of the day free so after i finish this i might check out the pool (hope i don't turn the water brown).

2006-06-30T02:28:00.000-07:00

23/6 - Mum, Dad and Carly drove me early in the morning to Heathrow - we arrived in plenty of time and had some breakfast. Emotional farewells as i left them to go through the passport check - suddenly i felt very alone, it's amazing how lost you feel when you don't have a mobile phone! Arrived in Delhi at night - transfer to hotel was my first glimpse of the Delhi traffic - lot's of colourful lorries that wouldn't pass an m.o.t. with 'horn please' painted on the back, and sure enough, there were plenty of horns and flashing of headlights, this seems to be a very effective means of communication as there are no mirrors and everyone seems to avoid hitting eachother even though lane markings are just for show and junctions and roundabouts are a free for all. Had considered venturing out this evening but now i am a bit scared so i will wait for daylight. Watched both world cup games in my room as they were at 20.30 and 00.30, Steve Mcmahon works as a pundit for ESPN india with this indian chap who clearly knows nothing about football, Steve trying to explain the offside rule was pretty funny. It was a bit sureal.

24/6 - Slept past 11 and was apprehensive about leaving the hotel, i am on my own until tomorrow morning when the others from the tour arrive. After Judith's balanced appraisal of the delights of Delhi 'why are you going there? it's horrible' i had visions of kids hanging off of my t-shirt begging for rupees. The weather is hot and muggy but not unbearable - they are waiting for the monsoon. Walked around Karol Bagh where my hotel is situated, extremely busy with, cars, tuk tuks, mopeds, cycles and pedestrians. I was mostly ignored apart from the occaisional shoe shine kid (i'm wearing sandals). From 13.00 to 18.00 i hired a tuk tuk to see the sights - saw india gate, p.m's residence, a 30 foot colourful elephant god (Ganesh) built onto the corner of an ordinary concrete building, went to a nice restaurant and had a nice vegi meal with a mountain of rice, naan and 2 cokes for 400R (5 pounds), went to national museum (boring) and a small Mahatma Ghandi museum which had lots of flashing lights, buttons, videos and music but nothing that actually taught me anything about his life! Tuk tuk man was waiting with his sister-in-law, nieces and nephews when i came out, i sat in the tuk tuk while they all stared at me in disbelief, asked me where i was from and mentioned Beckham and cricket (i later found these to be standard words from any indian trying to make conversation), they seemed like nice kids and were genuinely curious about the white man and not my money, this isn't tourist season yet but there does seem to be very few whites about and we do arouse a lot of interest both from those who want our money and those who don't. Driver took me to an emporium, i thought it would be a bustling indoor market - i was the only customer in there and i was given a really hard sell by a jeweller and a rug man who laid out about 12 rugs for me to look at in the basement - i virtually ran out of the shop to make sure no-one else could grab me. Driver tried to make me go into a fabric shop at which point he confessed to getting commision from certain shops if i go in, at which point i made him take me to the hotel.

25/6 - At last met the group, mostly older than me but seem like a nice bunch. Visited a hindi and a seikh temple - the seikh one was very crowded and they seemed very surprised to see us - especially the kids, it was fun to see their reactions to us with our head scarfs on! Visited India gate (again) and the place where Ghandi was cremated. Manu is our tour leader and is very nice and helpful. Some of us went to restaurant, had my first beer (kingfisher) and watched the England v Ecuador game (some in the restaurant, the rest back in my room).

26/6 - Went to Shekhawati in Rajastan by coach passing through a few small roadside communities built around farming, slate mining and brick making. Shekhawati is a lively little village where the kids were there to greet us as soon as we got off the coach - they are friendly (over friendly) but of course want money. I gave in and let a young lad show me some of the local houses for 200R, took a picture of some women which i then had to make a donation for so in order to get value for money, here it is...

Shekhawati is renowned for it's haveli's with frescoes on the walls - it was once an area where wealthy traders lived as it was on the main trade route - but now most of these houses are in disrepair - the area has bags of charachter and our hotel was an amazing restored haveli.

27/6 - Had a nice breakfast of banana, mango and porridge then went on the official tour of the havelis. Took a short coach trip to the desert resort in Mandawa - mud huts (well, actually they are brick built and plastered with a mixture of mud and cow dung!), built for tourists and very luxurious with a swimming pool as well ( i could get used to this!) Had a refreshing swim then went on a camel ride to a local farm house.

Just as we arrived at the house we saw a sand storm approaching, one minute we were taking photo's of it in the distance, the next we were being sandblasted - it was brilliant.

We all stood in this tiny farm house while we waited for it to pass, some of us walked back in the rain while the others waited for a jeep to come and get them, jumped into the pool. Nice buffet meal at hotel followed by a show of indian dancing by a little girl and a traditional punch and judy style puppet show.

28/6 - Morning swim followed by fruit breakfast. Coach to Arya Niwas hotel in Jaipur, a big, clean, basic hotel with internet access. Really cheap cafeteria (under 100R for a decent indian vegi meal). Took coach to Amber Fort, the old capital of Jaipur built into the mountainside. This is an extrordinary place and our guide Eugene regailed us with stories of what different rooms were used for and how the royalty used to live. Jaipur's street's are as busy as Delhi's and still lots of people trying to sell you stuff, but either i like it better here or i am getting more used to it. Hotel isn't licenced so bought large bottles of kingfisher from nearby shop (50R, 65p) and drank them on the hotel roof with some of the others. Went out to a restaurant and then a bar.

29/6 - Took coach to city palace, the part-time home to Jaipur's royal family which was abolished when India became independant from Britain, a fascinating stone observatory built by an 18th century astronomer king and saw the palace of the winds. Watched a display of carpet weaving and traditional textile printing which was very interesting. Jaipur is known as the pink city as a former ruler and artist decided this was a good colour to paint the city walls and all the buildings within (more terracotta really). At the weapon museum section of the palace a tiny little girl with her family shook my hand and said 'how are you' she was really cute! In the evening we went to see a 3 hour bollywood movie, seems to be a real family outing for the indians and only costs 100R, the cinema is very extravagent, the film was very loud and mobile phones were in use a lot. The film didn't have as much singing and dancing as i'd expected but i struggled to follow the plot as there were no subtitles. Finished the evening with a nice vegi curry at Neros with rice, naan and beer for 450R followed by an extremely persistent woman begging with her baby in her arms, the tuk tuk nearly ran her over. It's hard not to pity them, but we have been told not to give them any money as they are usually run by gangs who take most of the money for themselves and will even cut off a limb in order to get more money - there are charities set up that can use the money properly.

Sorry that this is going on so long but i don't know what to miss out - it will definitely get shorter as the days go by, i promise! Bye for now.

2006-06-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's nearly time to go and anything that i don't manage to sort out in the next couple of days won't get sorted. Panicking a bit but also looking forward to it. The last few months have gone by too quickly and i haven't been very organised - i have done hardly any research on the places i am going and other than the flight itinerary my travel plans are sketchy at best. In a way that could be a good thing as i can just make it up as i go along and not stick to a rigid timetable. I think it will go something like this: India for 2 weeks (pre booked tour which starts and finishes in Delhi) - Thailand - Laos - Vietnam - Cambodia - Thailand - Malaysia - Singapore (that should take me to the end of October). Oz (East coast from Melbourne to Cairns over about a month). New Zealand (Christchurch to Auckland over about 6 weeks up to mid Jan). South America hopefully will include Chile, Peru (including the Inca trail), Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil but in what order and how i have as much idea as you!! Flying out of Rio to Heathrow probably around 13th June to start work on the 18th. That seems like a long way off but i'm sure it will come round quite quickly.

2006-03-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

Just retrieving a random photo from my archives to experiment with blogging. These are some of my red watch mates. Also trying to work out how to change from U.S time.

2006-03-04T12:27:00.000-08:00

4th of March 2006. This is it. I've put my money where my mouth is. Today i purchased my round the world ticket. The main thing i've been pondering for a few weeks now is Delhi as my first stop - shall i go? If so, shall i go on the rather pricey organised tour of the sites; taj mahal, ganges boat trip, jaipur etc. or just turn up and hope to find some like minded people who know where to go and don't mind dragging me with them? Ended up booking the tour - it's only money. I'm going to have to change that attitude if i am going to last the year!

The story up until now, for anyone who doesn't know me but happens to have stumbled upon my meanderings, is this; my name is Adam Page, i am 32, i work as a firefighter in Oxford. A few colleagues have taken advantage of the county councils career break policy over the last 5 years or so, and that's what set me thinking. I also have some good friends from my uni days who have done it and they helped to convince me that i would have a great time. I'm going on my own which on one hand makes it a little more scary, but also could be a good thing; i will have to make my own decisions and make new friends for myself. I fly on 23rd June and will be gone for almost a year if the finances last.

I've been sort of planning for about 3 months at a guess - but now i've bought the ticket, it seems really soon, whereas before it seemed like ages away. I'll need to let out my house - hopefully that won't cause me any problems. I need to sort out my jabs and sort out a lot of other house/car/insurance type stuff. Also need to save as much money as i can between now and then.

I don't suppose i'll be adding too much to this until my travels strart, but as my first 'blog' i thought i'd better have a play with it first so i'll know what i'm doing later. Bye for now.