Bangkok, Thailand

Da har jeg faatt reist litt smaaturer til forskjellige land! Etter Australia saa dro vi den 14 timers lange flyturen opp til Beijing i Kina! Det var en lang tur, men jeg fikk sett ekstremt mange filmer paa turen, noe som var veldig greit! :D

Naar vi kom til Beijing var det ekstremt kaldt, og de varmeste klaerne jeg hadde med var tights og en tynn genser, saa dagens foerste oppgave ble aa dra til et marked aa faa kjoept seg en billig jakke! Vi klarte aa prute ned en Peak vindjakke til under 200 kr saa vi var godt fornoeyd! ETtersom vi hadde landet klokken seks om morgenen saa hadde vi mye igjen av dagen, og dro derfor til Den Forbudte by og Den Himmelske Fredsplass! Det var kjempe stort og doeds vanskelig aa finne frem der, men vi klarte det til slutt. De andre hadde booket seg inn paa et hostel kalt Happy Dragon, som var heller litt av det primitive slaget! Mens jeg derimot fikk bo paa et kjempe fint hotell, ettersom jeg moette pappa i Beijing! Det var kjempe koslig aa se pappa igjen, og paa kvelden gikk vi ut og spiste god kinesisk mat!

Ettersom han jobbet paa dagen dro Tina, Celine, Ingrid og jeg til perlemarkedet og fikk kjoept oss litt smykker og perler, foer vi dro til New Marked og kjopte solbriller og annenslags dilldall! De snakker ekstremt daarlig engelsk i Beijing saa vi fikk vi pratet med ekstremt enkel engelsk "You, us drive, that place" og saa hadde vi masse adresser paa kinesisk paa et ark! Paa kvelden spiste vi middag med to av pappas kollegaer og spiste ektre kinesisk Hot Pot middag! Den kvelden proevde jeg mer ukjent mat enn jeg har gjort i hele mitt liv tror jeg! Noe var godt, og noe svelget jeg ned med stor motvilje!

Loerdagen brukte pappa og jeg til aa handle paa New Marked, og jeg fikk meg en kjempefin vinterkaape som jeg gleder meg til aa bruke i september! Soendag bare trasket vi rundt og forberedte oss paa at vi skulle dra til Tianjin, paa et olympisk treningsenter som moren til Tina fikset for oss, men selvfoelgelig snoedde det natt til mandag, og hele turen ble avlyst, saa vi hadde to dager til to kill i Beijing! Den ene dagen dro Ingrid, Celine og jeg til muren (Tina ble ikke med ettersom hun har gaatt paa den to dager foer). Det var kjempe stas for det var masse flotte fjell rundt med lett snoe!

Paa onsdag dro vi videre med flyet til Kuala Lumpur! Vi hadde i det hele 23 timer aa bruke i Malaysia, og vi brukte de godt! Torsdag morgen stod vi opp tidlig og dro aa saa paa en hule med et tempel i! Det var masse aper rundt der, som gikk aa stjal ting fra mennesker som gikk der, veldig soete men ogsaa veldig frekke!! ETter dette spiste vi lunsj med en kollega av faren til Celine, og mange av hennes kollegaer! Vi fikk proevd et skikkelig malaysisk maaltid hvor vi maatte spise med hendene og alt! Resten av dagen brukte vi paa aa traske rundt i byen! Det som er morsomt i Malaysia er at blondt haar tiltrekker seg mye oppmerksomhet og vi foelte oss som en blanding av en attraksjon og kjendis!

Paa kvelden dro vi videre til Bangkok, som vi naa er i, og vi skal bruke dagen paa aa shoppe klaaeer!!!! :D

Nazca, Peru

Will write up this entry later ... but to put it bluntly.. amazing, if short, trip over the lines.

Quite nerve-wracking if you're like me, though, and prefer aisle seats on planes

The bottle of Havana Rum I smuggled aboard helped tremendously... I'm probably alive today (not having jumped out of the plane in a fit of panic) thanks to that.

Amazon River, Peru

Apart from an early morning "Huacari monkey" photo-shoot (again the monkeys were HIGH up in the trees so photos weren't great... the others thought that I would be able to see them better with my camera zoom lens... nope, just larger silhouette is all) we didn't do any touring until the afternoon so mainly a chill-out day.

While hanging around I got restless and took a canoe out onto the river by myself to see more dolphin action (Delfin Lodge really does live up to it's name). The current on the Amazon rivers are really strong (this is why the water remains brown as the silt can never rest at the bottom) and I had a tough time navigating upstream. Coming downstream was blissful though.

At lunch I had piranha (I had to ask Bear, the guy who runs the lodge, for this the night before) and it was actually really tasty. I wanted to make sure the head was on it when I got it too for the photo opp

That night we went out on a really excellent series of excursions. The 4 French people who had been staying in the camp with us had gone so we got to use their faster speedboat (yay! no more dodgy slow paddle boat! you could even stand up on this one!).

(meeting the French people made me realise just how much French I'd lost, now that it's been replaced with Spanish!)

We went out to a huge lake connected off one of the rivers to see huge lillys and much fauna including alligators (we even got to pick up one of the little baby ones. Really solid bodies!). Beautiful mirror reflections abounded and the air was so clean and fresh it was really nice after the series of hot sweaty days.

Later on we went to visit Falcon's home village called "Liberta" whose Green-White-Gold town flag is not unlike a certain other countries!

Here Falcon was due to play a football match with his mates (they do this once a week). We were invited to play, but these guys were serious as there was money involved so you'd have to be really good to join in, so I preferred to take the role of sport-photographer I also got some great shots of the riverfolk.

Later that night we celebrated Falcon's 30th birthday in style! All the guys in the lodge (about 6 Peruvians, plus myself and Emmanuel) took the boat out in the pitch dark up to a small village. 4 rather small huts on stilts, and then one large hut in the middle which served as a nightclub (of all things). When we arrived, we had to wake up the owner to open the place (this reminded me of the time I was in northern Vietnam and a bunch of us backpackers did the same thing!). A crazy night ensued, drinking so much crap beer and really REALLY bad rum that everyone was wrecked.

We had a serious incident though. Unbeknownst to me the youngest member of our group was 18 and had never had a drink in his life, yet here he was throwing back shots all night long. I was amazed at how he kept such a composed demeanour all night, but he was basically trying to be "cool" and didn't want to show any weakness so he kept on asking for more. Then it happened. He fell flat on his back, completely knocked out. Eyes rolled up to heaven. Nothing would wake him up.. he even stopped breathing...

I have to cut this short as I need to pack my bags.. but needless to say we managed to get him back to Delfin Lodge (Bear had to carry him on his shoulders) and in the morning he was alive and well .. if not looking wrecked. He certainly learned a lesson.. as did I .. I'll never assume that all persons present at these sorts of events are there of their own free will rather than dragged along through peer pressure.

Scary stuff!

Amazon River, Peru

(rapid version.. will update later if necessary)

Early morning swim in the Amazon river at the lodge's front at 5am was a great way to start the day (plus it's the only way you could get a wash out here).

Started to get little bites on my back when I got soapy (the fish seem to really like soap)... which were getting progressively nastier, so I got out fairly quickly. It wouldn't be until the last day when I would finally see just exactly WHAT was biting me! (The guys in the lodge said they were just sardines.. but I don't think sardines have bites quite that sharp)

We left at 6am for bird watching, but alas we didn't see many birds, but DID see more dolphin jumping out of the water and even a sloth in the tree (wasn't close enough for us to pick it up though!)

Back for brekkie and then off for second rainforest trek where we walked from the camp itself. Lots more unusual planet and ancient huge trees. Saw squirrel monkeys from afar plus I got my first taste of FIRE ANTS. While trying to balance myself in the swampy ground (they gave us Wellington boots thankfully) I grabbed onto a tree, until I felt a searing pain like acid running in a line down the palm of my hand and saw it was covered in fireants! It thankfully only lasted about 5 minutes, but the prickly feeling stayed for a good while. I don't think anyone could survive being covered in those things!

On returning we saw pygmy monkeys in the camp, very close to the bottom of the tree so I got some nice pics. I also say a red palm snake hissing at me then it wandered off. Pffttt.

After a sweaty day in the jungle, it was so nice to have the lodge as a place to wash clothes rather than having to wear them all again (as I experienced in Colombia). Plus clothes tended to dry here easily. The air was very fresh. I always imagined that the Amazon would be stuffy and humid, but that's only in the really dense jungle where the winds can't penetrate.

As soon as I wore the clothes again though, they immediately became sweaty so maybe this is a futile process.

Lunch then fishing in the afternoon up the Cumaceba river. More damn mozzies biting me through my shirt!

We used very basic fishing rods.. just a twig with a line and hook at the end. It worked though. After one frustrating hour, I finally caught something (I gave it such a tug that it launched the poor fish 5m into the tree above before crashing down again!). It turned out my prized catch was actually a parasite catfish .. one that sucks the blood of dolphins and even humans. Nice! The fish is called "Canero". It's certainly not edible, but I was thrilled that my first fish was a freaky predator epitomising the sort of things you can get in the Amazon. By the end of the day I'd caught 3 fish, but two jumped off the line before I could haul them in ... one of them was another Canero ... Falcon, our guide, said that he'd never seen a tourist catch ONE in his 8 years working here... double-cool

Pete Foran. Parasite-hunter!

Beautiful evening on the river on way back with purple/pink sky. More dolphins and a star-lit sky made it complete. Even the mozzie infestation that night couldn't keep me from smiling!

Incidentally .. I was so glad to have my mp3 player with me. Between activities you usually spend several hours just sitting around the camp, waiting for the air to cool down before trekking out again. So a good book would have been a nice idea too... next time!

Amazon River, Peru

Writing up this entry quickly.. will update later with more details...

Left Iquitos at 7am. Joined by a Portuguese-Canadian guy called Emmanuel who was going to be my roomate for the next 3 days. We first drove a 150km trip to Nauta in the south, which cut out a lot of the time required for boating down the river from Iquitos. Arrived 10am and had brekkie in an "affiliated" restaurant. The huge indoor market across the road would have been much more fun though as the place was packed with people selling anything and EVERYTHING "edible" that the Amazon can produce (and that's a lot).

From Nauta, took a motor boat up the Yarapa river to a point a small landing zone where we disembarked and crossed over to a paddle canoe waiting on the other side for the last leg to Delfin Camp arriving around 12pm. It felt so "Amazon-ing" (sorry... jungle-humour) to be finally on the Amazon river (or it's tributaries at least, the actual Amazon river would be crossed on my last day in Iquitos!).

We had lunch then took the paddle canoe up to a track in the rain forest about 20 mins upstream. Travelling in the leaky paddle boat with murky brown water literally one inch from the top on either side of the boat was a little disconcerting at first. The slightest jolt or movement of your legs would have the whole thing wobbling side to side! Quickly enough I could relax and enjoy travelling down the river admiring the beautiful trees and birds flying across our path.

When we went for the jungle trek, the mozzie onslaught began. Despite doing all the "right" things like wearing white shirt and covering myself in jungle perfume (repellent), the bastards showed no fear and were so big that they could even bite me through my cotton shirt and socks!! I can't believe how many bites I got on my feet despite wearing socks all the time! Be warned.

Anyway, apart from the mozzies, the jungle treks were really cool and educational. We saw Tamarin monkeys + hawks + the largest tree in the Amazon. Saw various medecine plants and even a white-chocolate fruit that tasted delicious! They even had a plant that could cure a type of cancer.. plus many other cures were waiting to be discovered. Nature's pharmacy this truly is (I even got some antiseptic from a nearby tree put on my mozzie bites to stop the itching... it worked a charm and my bites cleared up within 2 days!)

Back for chicken (again!) dinner (the lodge we are staying at is owned by a lovely family who we ate with).

Forgot to mention we also saw red dolphin jumping about the place as we came back... the river is so full of life!

Sweaty night with heavy rain and lots of mozzies... it seems that I know now why I never saw any insects in other parts of South America.... they're ALL HERE!

Lima, Peru

The plan was to get to Nazca by bus, a fairly long-ish journey of about 8 hours, and with two main transport options: cheap non-airconditioned bus companies like Flores, or for double the price a huge double-decker Mercedes behemoth with reclining seats with companies like CIAL. I decided I'd try out the cheaper one since the trip wasn't going to be an overnighter, plus 7 hours wasn't too bad. Predictably the cheaper bus had a rather lax scheduling system so, after trekking over to the Flores station I was told in no uncertain terms that there was only 1 bus for Nazca per day.. at 6am! This is despite the Flores website saying they have a bus every hour!

"Fine! CIAL it is!"... I wasn't going to stretch this out any longer, as it was hot, and this situation smelled earily familiar. "When in doubt (or extremely agitated) just shut up and pay up for the expensive option" I always say.

And wow was I glad I chose the latter! Not only was the huge CIAL bus terminal pristine and airconditioned with efficient staff AND punctual buses, but when I went to pay for my ticket and was given the option of upgrading to 1st class for only 2 euro more, this entitled me to enter the VIP lounge where I was waited on hand and foot and given free drinks and snacks while watching the huge plasma TV. "Nice! Now I wonder what the bus is like!"

The bus was pure lush. Literally a hotel on wheels. I wisely chose to get a seat in the single-seat aisle, rather than the double-seat aisle as this ensured no sleepy person would choose to lay their head in me lap. The seats reclined back ALMOST vertically.. well about 150 in total, and were made of soft SOFT leather. The bus suspension was excellent and we were FAST. I'd heard so many good things about the long-distance sleeper busesin South America from my Brazillian friends back home, and now I under stood. Despite it being a day trip from 3-9pm, I actually fell asleep despite myself. Apparently the 2nd class seats don't recline quite as fully, but seriously, when upgrading to 1st class costs only a few euro more, you'd be mad not to go for it! We even got food served to us... Chinese stir-fried chicken no-less!

On an aside note, Peruvians are MAD about Chicken. Pretty much every 2nd restaurant (or practically EVERY restaurant in Lima) I've seen here specialises in boiling/frying/broiling/charcoaling/slicing/dicing our feathered-friends. It's actually really hard to find a place that serves honest to goodness beef steaks or even fish!

One small thing I would mention which I found rather bizarre was the movie the onboard TV was playing throughout the whole trip. It was the most bizarre thing I've seen in a while: basically a Mexican drama about a ludicrious love triangle between 1 slutty girl and 2 men, and she would constantly sway between them, and that pretty much sums up the whole plot. The only thing is, there was no dialog, it was all done through mariachi singing at some bizarre club. Basically guy A would sing to the girl on stage.. she would fall in love with him, cut to the other guy throwing back liqour then taking to the stage himself and singing to her. She falls for him instead. And so on and so forth... I couldn't stop laughing throughout the whole trip! But to be honest if I was on a longer bus trip I think I might go insane... thankfully my MP3 player soothed my ears somewhat.

So eventually we arrived in Nazca... I hadn't really had my heart set on any particular hotel in town, so when a bloke came up to me and said that he had a room with private bathroom and TV, plus internet and breakfast, for only 40 soles a night (that's about 10 euro folks!), I couldn't resist. The hotel "El Mirador" was decent enough, plus looked out onto the main Plaza de Armas (every Peruvian town seems to have one of these) so I was happy enough. The guy then offered to sell me a flight above the lines for the next morning... "Wow this is all happening so fast" I thought, but when I managed to haggle him down to 200 soles for a 3 person flight lasting 40 minutes I knew I had a good deal, so I went with it.

All of this in the space of about 30 mins... not bad, but it was late and I needed sleep

Nazca, Peru

Sorry for lack of recent updates since... erm... 2nd March(!)... been spending my days either getting mauled by mozzies in the Amazon (where there was no 'net access obviously) or been bussing around Peru, or preparing photos for upload.. or just.. well.. doing nothing! It's quite exhausting having to log everything that happens when so much happens on most days   But for posterity I persevere as I'll be grateful for the hard work put in now.

I have a rare window now for about 4 hours where NOTHING is going on, or no flights have to be booked, so I can finally try to update ya on the goings on.

As per the title of this entry, I'm now in Nazca, the town that's situated beside the famous lines (that were put there by rock-n-roll lovin' aliens!). The lines were created by the Nazca people about 800 years before the Inca empire arrived on the scene in C16th. The tribe has since disappeared, having been assimilated into first, the Inca population, and consequently becoming mestizo once the Spanish settled.

The lines are still here though. Perfectly intact over the centuries due to Nazca region's remarkably low rainfall (30cm per annum) and gentle desert breezes that essentially "clean the desert" and prevent the lines from filling in.

They're really remarkable and to actually see something so famous, with such mystery, for yourself is a fantastic feeling.

I'll update the other entries now... tonight I'm off to rainy Cusco taking a bus THROUGH the Andes on a long 14 hour trip leaving at 8pm tonight and arriving at 10am tomorrow... hopefully will get some shut-eye!

MAJOR CHANGES TO ITINERARY

I've had to make some changes to my itinerary for various reasons:

What does all this mean? Well it means that I now have about 10 EXTRA days free that I can play around with. I'm REALLY disappointed about Easter Island as it probably would have been THE highlight of the trip, but I have my principles and refuse to pay extortionate prices.

Caerphilly, United Kingdom

Hello!

Welcome to my travel blog! I've said numerous times that I will try my best to give updates on how my 'cultural experience' (a.k.a long holiday with a backback) is going whilst in S.E.Asia! So here is the very first entry (hopefully the first of many!)

Well only 2 more nights left in the U.K before I jet off to sunnier climates. I go to Heathrow on Friday night and fly out to Bangkok on Saturday morning (Have to be in Heathrow somewhat early for my liking!!- I'm not a getting up and being able to function at 6:00 am kind of girl!) But this will totally be worth it I'm sure!

This week has been super busy - with lots of organising/panicking/excitement/seeing friends/final injections/ eating as many chips as possible (making the most of them while I can!!) so hopefully I will be all set to go by Friday- we shall see...

over and out for now! :D

Bohol, Philippines

We landed in Cebu City and picked up two Danish Girls (Henetta and Michola) in the taxi rank and shared a cab to the ferry port. They were going to Bohol too so we also shared a minivan when we got to Bohol Island. Our destination was Alohna Beach. We stayed a few days enjoying the beach, the sea and some good seafood. The Filipinos love music, so much so that when a taxi man found out we were Irish he said "Ah, Ireland the home of Westlife". It seems enthusiasm is more highly valued than actual talent (no offence to Westlife) and nearly every beach side restaurant had a Live Band performing. We could only hope that they weren't being paid for their efforts. One particularly poor duo hadn't even learnt the chords to the songs so one guy would shout out the next chord a few seconds in advance. As with everything here people just smiled and enjoyed themselves.

We met up with the Danish Girls for a trip of the Island. We visited the Chocolate Hills which look like Hershey's Kisses in the dry season. It wasn't quite dry season but they were still an impressive sight. We took a lunchtime cruise on the river which lasted a bit longer than expected when the boat broke down and we ended up stuck fast into the river bank. No worries. The Band will play some more terrible live music to keep our spirits up. After an hour of crooning we were ready to jump overboard! Next stop was to see the World's Second Smallest Monkey, the Tarpier. They look like Gremlins before they turn bad (Gizmos or Widgets...). They are nocturnal so have huge eyes and don't move much. The perfect pet we thought, we wanted to take them home with us.

On our last day we again met up with the Danish Girls and went on a snorkelling trip. We pottered about with some fairly uninspiring coral before the boat Captain asked if we wanted to visit Virgin Island. We had about an hour to kill so agreed. The island was incredible. A spit of sand covered in palm trees, with a crescent shaped sand bank stretching into the sea in a perfect arc. The snorkelling had been a little disappointing but this more than made up for it. Feeling refreshed after some great beach time we headed back to Cebu City to begin our journey to Malapascua.

Donsol, Philippines

The Philippines is one of the best spots in the World to swim with Whale Sharks. The town of Donsol is the best spot in the Philippines for swimming with Whale Sharks. So where better to see Whale Sharks I ask you? We caught a cheap flight with the local Ryanair clone, Cebu Pacific, and were treated to some bizarre in-flight games. The air hostess calls out an item and the first person to hold it up and wave it in the air is declared the winner. Prizes included a Cebu-Pacific pencil case - OOOoooh! We tried our best but we just didn't have an expired driver's license, a Philippines OAP ID or a cigarette lighter. Maybe next time...

We landed in the town of Legaspi which is at the foot of a very active and almost perfectly conical volcano. From there we headed to Donsol in a clapped out minivan. At one stage on a steep hill the boot door burst open and both our bags fell out and rolled right back down the hill. Ah well, the journey's half the fun - and the Filipinos love to have fun! Our driver could barely contain his laughter as he chased down the hill after them. The handbrake wasn't working in the van though so the front seat passenger had to put her foot over onto the brake pedal to stop us from following after the bags aswell. Fun!

The following day we were booked in to go swimming with the whale sharks. Not before we watched  another hilarious safety video though! This one contained loads of helpful tips, our favourite being "Do not attempt to ride the shark". As always we gave a fleeting thought to the poor idiot that prompted the introduction of this rule.  Out on the water we sailed around the bay looking for sharks, the idea being that when one was spotted we all jump in and swim alongside until the shark goes back down deep.  Our boat had a captain, a shark spotter, a guide, a WWF (World Wildlife Fund not the wrestling federation) research fellow, and 6 nervous tourists.  The guide yelled jump, so we did and the Whale Shark was right there! RIGHT THERE! 5 metres of a giant shark - terrifying!  He was awesome; we swam along with him for a good 10 mins before he headed off.  This guy was only a teenager; they can grow up to 18metres long (so the WWF guy said). 

The next one we saw was slightly bigger, and Ciara nearly prompted the introduction of a new "idiot rule" by jumping in and landing right in front of his face!  In her panic to get away she actually kicked him in the face with one of her snorkelling fins - wonder what the WWF guy made of that?! Luckily the guide was on hand to drag her out of the path of the whale shark and his giant mouth. It didn't quite qualify as one of her near death experiences on this trip, but it would have been a spectacular way to go!  Back on dry land the comedy kept on coming as Ciara (it's always her) burnt her feet on the hot sand - much to the amusement of the local fishermen. 

After an exciting morning we chilled out on the beach and treated ourselves to a few beers later on in the afternoon.  We got chatting to a bunch of people who were from Ireland & the US and were living in Manila.  They invited us to join them on a boat trip to see the fireflies on the river.  The fireflies were really impressive, huge pulsing swarms of them gather around a tree, hoping to hook up! We joined the guys for dinner (and a few more beers) at Barracuda Bar, where we really pigged out on giant prawns and delicious tuna sashimi.  Yummy!  We woke up the next morning totally hungover and discovered we'd spent all our pesos on booze, fireflies, and fish - oops! After a frantic dash around town trying to change dollars (it was a Saturday of course) we scraped enough pesos together to pay our bill at the B&B and head to the airport by Jeepney. 

Jeepneys are US Army jeeps left over from WW2 and converted into lavishly decorated busses. A definite case of style over substance though, as the stupid thing broke down around 20kms out of town!  So we chatted and joked around with the locals for around an hour while they sorted out a replacement.  We managed to get into the next Jeepney on the basis that we had a flight to catch - but it was a tight squeeze! David was sitting on an upturned bucket in the back, cheek to cheek with his new friends.

So in no time at all we were back on the plane, this time heading for Cebu.  There was a bunch of Nuns on our flight and it seems God was on their side at game-time. Sr Bernadette was lightning fast getting her feet up in the air when the air-hostess called out for a shoe! The whole plane was doubled over with laughter!

Frankfurt, Germany

Dear everyone,

I proudly welcome you on our "Round the world" blog from Tim and Melinda.
As the tip is gonna be to start in only 29 days, I will now check all functions of this blog so that you will be kept in the loop during our voyage =)

If you want to see the approximate trip you can take a look at the google map. I am sure the route will change a bit, but as we have almost all flight tickets, the parameters are finalized.

I hope I will be able to inform you 2 times a month, but this will depend on the Internet access in the several countries. For those having Skype - here is my name: loewchen1984

Big hugs, gros bisous, und abrazo, dickes Küsschen, viele Grüße (depending on the person reading this),
Melinda

Beijing, China

Imorgen er vi ferdige med Beijing. Har vert en kald uke! Naar vi kom hit paa torsdag var det litt kaldere enn vi var forberedt paa saa vi maatte alle sammen dra direkte til silkemarkedet og kjope jakker! vi maatte ogsaa etterhvert kjope lue og votter i og med at det faktisk snor her naa. Saa det har vert en veldig kald uke, spesielt med tanke paa at vi er vant til 30+. Det er vert en morsom opplevelse forde. Hostellet vaart var helt OK. Folkene her er super hyggelig og hjelpsomme, og atmosferen og selve hostellet er veldig koslig. Derimot var sengene vaares paa likhet med planker, og det aa dusje var ett lite prosjekt. Detter gjorde at vi gledet oss veldig til aa dra til Tianjin, sports base, Jixian. Her har jeg vert 2 ganger for i forbindelse med mamma og jobben hennes og saa derfor fram til aa ta med jentene dit og vise de en helt annen side av Kina og ikke minst se muren paa sitt flotteste. Men uheldigvis dagen vi skulle bli hentet kom det en god del sno som gjorde dette umulig. Saa da maatte vi blir 2 ekstra dager i Beijing. Idag sto jentene tidlig opp for aa se paa muren, mens jeg blir igjen og skal inn til byen for aa faa litt massasje. Jeg har faktisk ikke lyst til aa se muren her i Beijing, fordi det er altfor mange turister. Jeg har sett muren fra en helt annen side, hvor vi gaar der helt alene og det er helt fantastisk. Jeg ville ikke odelegge det bildet av muren med aa see den full av turister.

Det vi har bedrevet tiden vaar med i Kina er aa seilfolgelig besoke den forbudte by og himmelske fredsplass. Vi har dratt paa perlemarkedet og kjopt oss litt perleoredobber. Vi har vert paa New Market (Yashow Marked.) Et smartere alternativ enn Silkemarkedet. De har alt, men i mindre målestokk, og det er vesentlig mindre folk. Her har vi trent oss litt paa pruting. Man skal prute vesentlig mye her, og det er veldig morro om man faar det til! Jeg har ikke shoppet mye siden vi lever paa ett billig budsjett, men har faatt med meg en peak jakke, lue og votter (absolutt nodvendig i denn kulden) og 2 par solbriller. Jeg har store planer om aa taa opp shoppingen her naar jeg skal tilbake med mamma neste aar!

Celine, Ingrid og jeg har vert paa Drahon fly og faatt 2 timer med deilig massasje. Lise shoppet den dagen, i og med at hennes far var i Beijing samtidig med oss. Heldig som hun er har hun faatt bo paa kjempe fint hotell mesteparten av oppholdet i Beijing. Vi har ogssaa faat fikset neglene vaares med baade fransk manikyr og pedikyr for en billig penge, og sist men ikke minst spist masse kinesisk mat! Faren til Lise inviterte oss alle paa kinesisk middag med sine kollegaer i Beijing, og da dro vi paa noe som kalles Hot-Pot. Da faar alle sammen en egen hot pot paa bordet og vi koker maten selv! Det er tydeligvis veldig vanlig om vinteren.

Imorgen ser vi veldig fram til aa komme oss ned til varmen igjen! Reisen gaar til Kuala Lumpur, hvor vi skal vere i hele 23 timer. Denne dagen blir hektisk med speed sightseeing. Etter Kuala Lumpur gaar reisen til Bankok, hvor vi tilbringer 2 netter for vi drar til Laos. Baade Lise og jeg har faat sendt hjem massevis med kler, saa vi har store planer om aa shoppe i Bankok, noe vi ser veldig fram til!

Maputo, Mozambique

After some disastrously inconvenient bus rides, I have arrived in Maputo for a brief return to the "real" Africa. The way things have worked out, I don't have any time to explore Mozambique at all, but a tiny visit is better than nothing, so I should at least have some impressions.

Not surprisingly given its proximity to South Africa, Maputo is far more developed than any city in West Africa, but still fairly chaotic - and dangerous. In one day of walking around town I was stopped twice by police looking for bribes. The first one wanted to see my camera and asked me "do you have the documents for this machine?", to which I repeatedly replied "no" and smiled, until eventually he pretended to answer his phone. Later I saw a group of four police and tried to cross the road, but they called me over and took my passport and wanted me to "make some cold drinks for us". I don't know how I got out of that one but I was definitely put on my guard.

Other inconsequential explorations of the city revealed lots of interesting decaying architecture with links to the Portugese, revolutionary, and communist periods of Mozambique's history, not to mention a highly ironic Revolution Museum, which random pedestrians could unfailingly direct us to but which had obviously been abandoned for years.

After the compulsory consumption of the famous Mozambican prawns, it's time for a low-key New Year's Eve. Sadly, it's too late for any more adventures because tomorrow I'm leaving Africa and the possibility of spontaneous unpredictability behind. Fortunately, I'm quite ready to go home.

Umfula Nkosi, South Africa

I spent Christmas with the Graham family on their farm. Getting to the farm involved an interesting drive on a four wheel drive track and a few river crossings. This meant that we couldn't leave the farm easily and it was all the more relaxing for being stuck there. Lots of sitting around reading, eating, and swimming in waterfalls ensued.

There was a storm at least once a day, which made the scenery even more interesting. On Christmas day it hailed so much that the landscape was entirely covered in white. Who would have thought?

If only I was well enough to eat all the delicious Christmas-related food without feeling occasionally overstretched... I clearly haven't entirely recovered from West Africa yet.

Cape Town, South Africa

With some exhaustion, I landed in Cape Town and settled in Observatory, a relaxed and interesting suburb where I had many recommendations from Jo for cafes and places I should visit. But first, I couldn't really participate in civilised society until I got a haircut and some new clothes. Then I had a lot of sleep and especially, eating, to catch up on. Unfortunately my appetite hasn't recovered yet and normal, clean food didn't seem to be what my stomach was expecting. I guess it will just take some time to adjust.

The cliché is that Cape Town is the most European city in Africa. It certainly seems very clean and organised. There have been many exciting firsts, such as going into a supermarket, using public transport (namely the minibuses, which although a bit crazy by Australian standards, are still astonishingly new and efficient by west African standards), and so on.

Cape Town is just such a beautiful city... this is a terribly boring thing to say, but I think I've visited enough cities to be able to say it. At the same time, it's strange being in South Africa and not knowing how dangerous things are. I don't know what degree of caution is needed when walking around the city by myself. That means I am constantly just a bit worried.

After my period of laziness, I visited the Cape winelands, went on a township tour, and climbed Table Mountain. Visiting townships (mainly Langa) was more interesting and less contrived than I expected. It was quite informative and there were plenty of opportunities to get out of the bus and wander around. I found it ironic to see the omnipresent view of the back of Table Mountain, still recognisable with its shape roughly reversed. Townships are a really unique South African phenomenon, with their history tied up in Apartheid and the urbanisation of black and coloured populations. They are an essential study in trying to understand what is going on in post-colonial Africa. Half a day spent driving around got me as far as this realisation, but nowhere near learning anything about it!

The climb up the aforementioned Mountain was fun, slightly sweaty, and touristy. The view from the top, even with clouds covering most of the cape and boiling over the low parts of the mountain into the city bowl, is so exciting it never fails to be an enjoyable experience. During the walk down, which as I expected took about half the time and effort of climbing up, I got to tell a whole lot of unprepared-looking people how far away they were from the top, and avoid paying 80 Rand (AU$12) for the cable car.

Macau, Macau

We took the high speed ferry to Macau from Hong Kong in a torrential downpour. Luckily the trip only took an hour because it was a bumpy one. Once on dry land again our plan was to hit the casinos, win big and roll out of there with our Year's travels paid for!  So with high hopes we went to the Venetian which seems more set up for High Rollers than backpackers.  We headed upstairs to the Mall which was an incredible experience. The shops are spread along an artificial Venetian Canal, complete with Macanese Gondoliers singing Italian Arias. There was a very realistic sky painted on the ceiling and for just a moment we thought we were in Vegas! Eh, Venice, or Disneyland. Who knows?

David had his strategy all worked out for Blackjack, and Ciara was itching to play some craps (It always looks so cool in movies) so we raced downstairs to hit the casino, but the $200 HK minimum bet was far too rich for our blood. We were hoping for $2 HK minimum! Without a hint of shame we joined the blue rinse brigade on the 10 cents slot machines. David quickly burned through the cash, explaining later "I just kept pressing buttons". Ciara's hit a winning streak though, and turned $10 into $100 - the big win was in her sights! With the $100 HK, a 10c slot seemed a bit small fry so moved on to a table game called Sic Bo (a Chinese dice game). Two hands in she'd doubled her money! ON FIRE!! So with $200 HK in her paw she now felt up to the big tables. Straight to the craps table where a rowdy and exited crowd had gathered. The atmosphere was electric! There was big money on the table and some serious players had been working the table for a few hours. So all expectant. She put her chip on ‘9', held her breath and imagined the big win... and that was that. Game Over.

With empty pockets we headed back to Hong Kong. The return voyage was pretty rough and the Captain apologetically announced we'd be delayed in our return to HK. Hilariously we were only 5 minutes late. You can't beat Hong Kong efficiency!

Sapphire, Australia

23/2 - Left Toowoomba @ 10:00 (or thereabouts!) and headed towards Roma in the "Outback". It's a good drive along the Warrego Hwy. through very green and lush country - not quite what we expected but a great drive. The drive goes through Dalby, Chinchilla and many small "hamlets" along the way, it really is a great country!

24/2 - ROMA. Not in Italy but a very fascinating place. Attached to the Info. Centre is the "Big Rig Display". Did you know, Roma was the first place oil and natural gas was discovered in Australia? No, I didn't either but, the display explains the history and the "intrigues" (such as Americans vs Australians), one in particular where a US manager was falsifying reports to shut down the "oz" operation!!! The Visitor Centre houses the "Big Rig" display which has a fascinating display explaining the history of oil discovery and development in Roma. We headed out along the Adungadoo Pathway which follows the creek into town from the Info. Centre and then into town to see old pubs (of course!) still in great condition and on to the Cultural Centre that houses the 3 Dimensional Mural - displaying the story of Roma and surrounds - crafted by a local dentist and his wife (go figure!) - an excellent display and well worth the visit (it was cool too!)  Our walk also took in the town's largest "Bottle" tree - like the Boab in shape but not related in any way! We went along after dinner to the Big Rig evening show - a show with pyrotechnics and video - not all of it working!

25/2 - Roma Saleyards. Up early this morning to get out the largest selling complex in Australia @ 2Km. out of town on the Brisbane road it's huge and well worth the visit! We watched the sales of cattle and tried to guess weights and prices as they were displayed on the tally board - an average of 5-6 cattle per pen - didn't do too well overall! It was really interesting to visit.

26- 27/2 - Drive to Charleville today, through flat and pretty uninteresting country - although very green after recent rains.  Arriving in Charleville we have found that we are ahead of the season (starts in April) and that just about everything is shut! It's a little bit sad actually. From our point of view what we do see is a lot of what were once wonderful buildings in a sad state of repair - Corones Hotel being a prime example. I know it

 must cost a lot to maintain a building such as Corones but some dusting? It must have been quite grand in its heyday - built by a greek migrant, the hotel has seen many personalities (including Royalty!) and now the foyer houses some faded and jaded photos of the hotel in its prime - bit sad really! Still, it's worth a visit. We went out to the airport and the RFDS hangar (gee) and what was more interesting was the sites that "hid" bombers during the war while they were in for repair.  The various planes were hidden in types of alcoves cut into the bush surrounding the airport. We then went over to the Graham Andrews Parkland to see the Vortex Rainmaking Guns - brought into Charleville to break the drought of 1902 - they failed. We did go the Native Timber Walk, 18 different species of trees with a plaque at each explaining it's heritage and uses! It's quite a good (short) walk.

28/2 - Up early today to see the launch of the weather balloon - don't get the chance very often and how many actually people get to see it?  Well we now know why..... We got to the weather station, the orange light flashed, the doors opened at exactly 9:15am, the balloon was launched and the doors closed - more excitement than you could imagine! Anyhow, the balloon floats away and we walk home and stay out of the coming storm!

1/3 - We have left Charleville and heading towards Barcaldine on the Matilda Hwy. via Tambo and Blackall. Tambo is really a very large and magnificent pub, and a very new and magnificent art gallery opened last November. They are showing works by local artists, all very good and well worth a look. Although out of character with some of the towns we've seen, it just seems to fit! On to Blackall for the real Black Stump and the statue of Jimmy Howe - the renowned shearer who sheared 321 sheep in 7 hours with shears in 1892 - a record that still stands!! 

2/3 - We're in Barcaldine and set off early into town for a look around. We actually managed to cover most of the tourist attractions by 9:00am - and we didn't run or jog once!! The Masonic Centre, built in 1902 and painted to appear to have facade, columns and arches made from stone. A very clever and deceptive appearence! Off to the main attraction of "Barcy", the Tree of Knowledge reputedly the site where, in the 1890's during the shearers strike, they met at this site (under the tree) - it's really a dead stump now (some say poisoned!!) but the memorial that has been built around it is really quite magnificent - a must see! The shearers? Well, I think the site might have had something to do with the 6 hotels directly opposite - just a theory. We went on to see the Workers Heritage Centre, "the custodian of the rich heritage, history and traditions of all working Australians" - a must see with many displays from government departments! There is also a "Youngin" - a clone of the original Tree of Knowledge.

3/3 - Left Barcy and headed west toward Longreach - a passing Roadtrain flicked a stone up and we watched (in slow motion) as this huge rock headed for us and SMACK, there's one hellva fright and Rob has some glass in her lap, and the windscreen has a hole! We stopped, cleaned up and went on to Longreach to get help....  arriving in time to go out to the Stockmans Hall of Fame and Heritage Centre. The Centre, built over 5 levels has excellent displays of the early pioneering days in Outback Queensland progressing through to the present day. Video presentations at various stations show each of the eras, pests, floods and everything that nature could throw at them! Level 5 is devoted to stockmen over the ages but, since it is the "Hall of Fame" I was expecting more..... a must see display, despite some shortcomings!

4/2 - Walked in to town along the Linear Botanic Walkway, a fantastic idea that shows off the plants and by default a lot of the wildlife! The path meanders from the Qantas Founders Museum right into town - interesting and informative! A visit to the Kinnan Store in town is a must - a veritable treasure trove of good quality clothes and even some "kitch" souvenirs! The afternoon was spent at the Qantas Museum - a very good display telling the story of Qantas from it's inception right up to the present day. The original hangar houses the first plane to have a toilet - I'll never complain again! There are aircraft including a Boeing 747-200, a 707 and a DC3 on display - all in all an excellent display that shouldn't be missed! 

]]> http://www.globenotes.com/travel-blog-entry/Philippines/Cebu/20195/Sun-Roasted-and-Laid-Back-in-Cebu/ http://www.globenotes.com/travel-blog-entry/Philippines/Cebu/20195/Sun-Roasted-and-Laid-Back-in-Cebu/#comments Travel Blogs http://www.globenotes.com/travel-blog-entry/Philippines/Cebu/20195/Sun-Roasted-and-Laid-Back-in-Cebu/ Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000 Asia and Oz View this Travel blog entry in full along with Photos and Maps on GlobeNotes.com

Cebu, Philippines

Hi all, great to hear messages from home, no change with the weather there then!

The pace of our lives has temporarily slowed down in the heat and in this holiday location. We do stuff every day like sleeping lots, reading lots, swimming lots and eating food. We try and stay out of the punishing sun. We try and do some exciting things during the day, like sight seeing (there isn't that much) getting my hair cut, a visit to the shopping mall and even having a massage (I gave the experience a nine out of ten, Liz, who doesn't really do massages gave it a six, and while we are on this subject why do massages have to hurt, can't they be more gentle?). We do very simple things like going down to the ocean contemplating the beautiful seascape, there is always something going on. We walk to the local market for fantastic fruit lunches. The place we are staying at is basic and cheap but it suits us (and our budget), the setting by the ocean is magnificent.

We feel part of a community and we have made "friends" with the locals, whose services we use. We love the local laundry lady Linda and the two ladies who we buy lots of cheap drinks from daily are lovely and we threaten to become lifelong friends. In fact many many people here want to be our best friends, when we venture out of our beach resort we are a walking sales opportunity and we are accosted constantly. People ask us very direct questions "where are you going" and even "where is your wife" are typical. They cannot believe that we walk (and it is mad to walk in this heat) and we are harassed by taxi drivers, tricycle drivers and jeepney drivers, a horn pip means "you mad person walking in the road, surely you need a lift." The most common request here is "do you want to go island hopping?" we are now immune to this request. The most common follow-up is "my cousin/brother/uncle has a boat and he can take you, very cheap." No thanks is an insufficient answer and, to their credit Philippine people take rejection very well indeed, a smile is the normal outcome from a failed sales pitch. Kids here are adorable and mostly very cheeky. We attract lots of attention and we are shouted "good morning" to very often. This lovely open and friendly greeting is often spoiled by a head on request for some money. I normally ask them for some back but have yet to receive any. The kids using the local internet cafe get so excited and loud playing their games, for buttons, in the end they are chased away by the manager whose patience is tested sorely.

We have another week here, lucky us, before we go to Clark for three nights and Kuala Lumpur for one night, on our way to Melbourne first and wherever we fancy in the rest of Australia for three months. We will let you know how it goes. Love Liz and Andy.         

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Kung Hei Fat Choy! Happy New Year!

You know the rush of heat you experience when you leave Dublin and land in a dry hot country? Well this was the exact opposite. The weather in the north of Vietnam hadn't been great but Hong Kong was having unseasonably bad weather. It was like a dreary winter's day in Ireland. Except for the skyscrapers (they're just behind Ciara honestly) you could be in Ballybunion in December. But we didn't come here for the weather. We came for Chinese New Year and what better place to experience it than Hong Kong?  Our second shock was cultural. We'd come from under developed or developing countries and were suddenly in city that was beyond a metropolis. Everything was organised, smooth, expensive, designer, neon, crazy and cool. One of the first things I noticed was that there was pavement, and it was smooth so you didn't have to look at your feet at every step. Then the drivers were soooo conservative, they stopped before the lights went red, pedestrians didn't jaywalk! The buses and taxis had seatbelts and the seatbelts worked! Weird. We'd booked accommodation in Chungking Mansions, which is a notorious kip but cheap and available which were deciding factors. We had to run a gauntlet of dodgy geezers at the entrance and then stuff ourselves into a tiny lift to struggle to the 12^th floor. Luckily for us our hotel turned out to be a spotlessly clean oasis of calm. The rooms were lovely but hilariously tiny. One of our biggest regrets of the Hong Kong trip was that we didn't take a photo of the room. David's wingspan could pretty much touch all four walls while standing in the middle of the room. We quickly got used to elbowing past the chancers at the entrance and looked forward to returning to our little Hobbit Hole each evening. 

We quickly realised that while it was exciting to be here at New Year the flip side was that most restaurants were closed. We had a great list of places to visit (thanks Louise) but more often than not, when we got there they weren't open. We still had great food from various roadside vendors that we stumbled across while trying to find an open restaurant, any open restaurant. Still have no idea what we ate but it was delicious!

We did a bit of panic research and decided that the best way to see the city was to take an organised tour. We found one that included tickets to see the New Year's Parade. This was lucky as the tickets available to the general public had sold out weeks ago. We enjoyed a jaunt on a junk, a flyby of Jackie Chan's house and afternoon tea with a panoramic view of Hong Kong harbour (in the right conditions). The tour was great with a weird and funny guide called Virginia. Her best story involved the first tunnel to connect Hong Kong Island to Kowloon.When it opened it was soon nicknamed the ‘No Excuses Tunnel'. Before the tunnel, Sailors on shore leave would head to Hong Kong, end up in the red light district and miss their curfew. Their excuse was that the ferries were cancelled due to bad weather. After the tunnel opened they had No Excuse, hence the name.

Then we received our tickets for the parade and passed through the thousands of revellers to take our seats in the grandstand. We each received a goodie bag, including inflatable tiger claws to celebrate the coming of the Year of the Tiger. RRAAAARRRR! Some of the parade was great but like all parades there was a fair smattering of ‘ATA Security' type floats, the butchers from Superquinn and bored pom-pom wavers. By the end we were happy to head back to the nest in Chungking Mansions, but we did have a strange craving for Superquinn sausages....

The next day we hit Mong Kok which is in the North of Kowloon and is the China town of this Chinese town. We ate great dimsum in the park (no idea if it was fish, fowl or what, but it was delicious) and wandered past all the stalls of hooky street. So convincing were the hawkers that Ciara nearly bought a wig! That evening we headed to Avenue of the Stars to watch the New Year's Fireworks display. The fireworks were unbelievable and went on for almost 30 minutes. We'd never seen anything like it before (queue more princess diary gasping by all!) The fireworks made shapes and patterns and deafened us. We could make out Tiger Claws, Tiger Faces, Pouncing Tigers, Smiley Faces and the Hong Kong national flower, Bohemia, all flashing across the sky. We were blown away but Bruce Lee remained unmoved. He'd seen it all before.

On our last day we followed a walking tour route of Hong Kong Island. We passed along Dried Fish Street (closed), Chinese Medicine Street (closed), Antique Street (closed) and finally ended up in restaurant district (open thankfully). We did manage to see some terrific Lion Dancing along the way which more than made up for the lack of dehydrated Otter Paddle and Unicorn Horn. The Lion is made up of 2 dancers - but this is no pantomime horse.  They do acrobatic stunts like jumping from the tops of raised poles and all kinds of handstands and contorting.  All of this is done in time to punchy drum beats, that get faster as the Lion gets more aggressive. The Lion even wags his tail when he gets all excited! We saw more Lion dancing at the airport, and these guys were hilarious! They were leaping up and down the departure area, dancing right up against people queing at the boarding gates.  Definitely the most spectacular parting memory from any destination on our trip!

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Another trip, another washout! A pity but we knew in advance that the weather was going to be poor. We had a choice between Sa Pa in the mountains or Ha Long Bay by the sea. We decided that limited views of the sea were better than limited views of mountains. 10 Months into the trip and we've started researching the weather. Aren't we great?

The plan was to spend the first day cruising on board a typical Vietnamese boat (similar to a Junk) and the second day in a Nature reserve on Cat Ba Island. We were joined on the trip by a lovely Aussie couple, Troy and Cara, and an English gent called Zach. Also on board were a quiet Israeli couple and an even quieter Frenchman. The boat was beautiful and our room was nicer than most hotel rooms we've stayed in. When lunch was served there was one table on its own with one place setting. We thought this a little weird but the Frenchman happily sat on his own and enjoyed his grub. We stopped at a huge cave called Hang Thien Cung but the Frenchman stayed behind. Our guide informed us that he wished to be left alone for the trip, eat alone, drink alone and had paid extra to have his own table for dinner. Strange but maybe he is sick of talking to smelly backpackers.

The cave was magnificent, the main chamber was longer than a football pitch and had great rock formations. Our guide used his torch to point out various areas of the cave and tried to tell us that they looked like birds, fish, genetalia etc. The only one that looked remotely like its description was the turtle, and ok and maybe the willy! Outside the cave we had great views of the bay below with dozens of Junks floating past. We motored on towards Cat Ba island, occasionally passing close to one of the thousands of islands in Ha Long Bay. The islands reminded us of Khao Sok in Thailand. Even  through the drizzle, the overcast sky and limited visibility we could see just enough to appreciate the beauty of this area. That night we shared a few beers with our fellow passengers and hoped for better weather in the morning.

The beer gods hadn't been listening as we woke to further rain and grey skies. We arrived on Cat Ba island and were due to go on a hike. We weren't sure whether to wear flip-flops or shoes but thought the hike would be a fairly gentle stroll through the jungle. Our first hint that the hike might be a little strenuous was when our guide laughed and said he'd wait for us at the bus. The next hint was the stall renting sturdy footwear to anyone foolish enough to be wearing flip-flops. The hike took us through some pretty rough terrain. The path alternated between jagged rocks and ankle deep slick mud. All while climbing steeply to a viewing point in the clouds above our heads. There were helpful handrails at the most dangerous points but most were rusted through. It seemed better to cling to the wet rock and trust that our feet would grip to the pools of mud. We made it to the top in a bedraggled state, sweaty, dirty and bruised from the rocks. There was a viewing tower at the summit.

There was a warning sign saying that only 5 people should be on the tower at any one time. Warning signs are few and far between in Vietnam so we decided to take this one seriously! Eventually it was my turn to clamber up the tower. Like the handrails on the hike, most of the tower was covered in rust. Things got worse at the top where the floor of the observation deck was a series of ill fitted and rotting planks. The handrails were ribbons of rust that crumbled to the touch. The view was only slightly better than from the summit so I felt a bit stupid risking my life for a slightly better photo op. I took a quick snap and descended as quickly and carefully as possible.

Next stop was Monkey Island.  The journey from the boat to the beach was hillarious / terrifying as the row boat (which looked like it was made of straw) hit a rock and started to sink! Luckily we were rescued by another passing boat which ferried us to safety.  But Monkey Island turned out to have its own dangers.  We've had many monkey encounters on this trip and unfortunately these were another aggressive troupe. They didn't like getting their photo taken, and really took offence to some fat American tourist who they chased down the beach.  It sounds hilarious I know, but it was actually quite scary at the time.  They all ran after him and jumped on him, and then he started running towards us! Luckily the monkeys knew we were no stranger to their tricks and backed off.

So after an eventful day we were happy to get back to Cat Ba town and check in to the hotel. Ours turned out to be huge, sparklingly new and with a serious buffet dinner. After dinner we headed out for a few beers with Zach, Troy and Cara. A great night was had by all but we didn't really feel that we'd seen the best of Ha Long Bay.

Iquitos, Peru

Arrived in Iquitos this morning after yet another 3 hour flight delay, despite me making SURE to get there on time (which involved waking up at 5am, despite only getting to sleep at around 2am ... damn Lima hotels!)

Iquitos is literally right beside the Amazon river in Peru (well it's situated beside a tributary, but the main river is only 2 mins boat ride out). As our plane flew in, I got my first glimpse of the vast Amazon basin in all it's green glory! It was such a fantastic experience to FINALLY see the river I've heard so much about, or only seen on National Geographic. Another one to add to the "best trip memories" catalogue.

I'm here in Iquitos to, obviously, partake in some Amazon river explorin' ... and it seems that Peru is probably a better place to see the Amazon than Brazil as Brazil's section of the Amazon at Manaus is so wide that it basically resembles an ocean and wouldn't have the real "roughin' it in the Amazon jungle" feeling about it. Peru, on the other hand, has the large river but at least you can see both banks at the same time, plus it has many tributaries where the real adventure takes place as the monkeys/snakes/aligators/spiders tend to congregate amidst the dark, quiet and mysterious tributaries that shoot off from the Rio Amazonas proper.

I read on d'net that getting a trip set up here was just a matter of turning up and one of the many companies will clamber for your Peruvian Soles (no I'm not selling my soul just yet ... that's the national currency and yet ANOTHER one I need to learn to calculate into Euro!). And that's pretty much what happened to me ... after checking into my hostel I wandered down to the main street, which could just as well be called "GringoLandia" as well on account of the Tourist-only signage and a rather large, excellently-decorated restaurant called the "Texas flower..."  or something which serves the best burritos I've had in a good while.

On arriving, the touts arrived en masse, but I ignored them and instead ventured into some of the offices to start pricing trips. The first one I went into was a fairly luxurious dealie that would cost about US$400 for a 3 day/2 night trek... erm PASS. Then I went into an ecological agency that was housed alongside some English bloke called "Mad Bill" who specialises in selling "Off" mozzie-repellent. Here I was offered pretty much the same deal, albeit without some of the frills for about US$200 for 4 days/3 nights ... sounded about right to me so I went ahead with it and I'm getting picked up from my hostel tomorrow at 6.45am.

Most of these tour companies have lodges that are based somewhere out in the rainforest along one of the tributaries of the Amazon, and it's from here that you venture out each day and also at night to view the different array of animals. So it's not like I'll be stuck on a boat again for the next 4 days. I'm STILL suffering slightly from that vertigo-esque "wavy" feeling when I'm walking about (I guess the waves in the Galapagos really got imprinted in my mind) so the last thing I'd want is more nights on water!

Because the lodges tend to be away from the main Amazon river, I'm gonna try to get a boat out onto the actual river on the morning of the 7th March before my flight leaves Iquitos back to Lima at 12.30pm... can't exactly arrive here and not ride on the bloody river!

So no Internet for the next 4-5 days folks... will update ya when I'm back on the 7th!

Pete out

P.S. I had my first encounter with a scam artist later this evening. While walking to the shops to get some bottled water, an English bloke in a baseball cap came up to me and asked me for help. He spoke well, although did look rather dishevelled and had the "1,000-yard stare" of someone who takes a lot of drugs. He explained how he had been robbed a few weeks earlier and when he punched one of the attackers he broke his finger (cue holding up a dislocated finger with a scab on the end). Anyway, at this stage I'm a bit wary of his story as for instance, why hadn't he contacted the British embassy in Lima, and why wasn't he managed to get medical assistance if it's been several weeks since the incident. It was obvious he was going to try to extort money from me .. and when the magical words came: "I've been told that I need to see a doctor but it costs 70 Soles to get there", I knew I had to lose him. So I basically responded by saying I couldn't help him with cash, but I recommended he go talk to Alex Weiss who runs the tour company a few streets down and he should be able to help him. I even offered to escort him back to Alex once I'd bought my water, but by that stage he'd scarpered off.

I find the fact that some tourists get bought in by this sort of crap immensly funny!

Hanoi, Vietnam

WARNING - The following blog entry contains a prolonged rant that may bore some readers....

I hate Hanoi.  There's not many places I've really despised on my trip, but this place gives La Paz a run for it's money for the distinguished title of "most disgusting city I've ever been in".  David didn't mind it though (maybe I'll have to re-consider this marriage thing!). The whole country was gearing up for Tet though, so maybe the city was more stressful than usual. We spent a lot of time walking around town dodging horn tooting moped maniacs!! TOOT TOOOT!!!  They don't have pavements in Hanoi and where they do it is usually blocked with parked mopeds. Only tourists walk anywhere so I suppose it is our problem. At least we had finally mastered the art of crossing the road. It's simple really, wait for a small gap (not a real gap, just a thinning of the throng) and start walking, and keep walking at a steady pace. Don't stop, don't speed up or slow down, just be consistent and the moped guys will fly past with only a minor tooting of their horn. They toot at everything so it's not an angry toot, just an "I see you" toot. Not quite the Avatar meaning but whatever - I'm just glad to have survived!

We caught up with the bad pennies, Kieran and Grainne again.  They were nearing the end of their trip too and will be home a month or so before us. We convinced each other that we'll see each other again, if only at the dole office! Not sure we'll recognise Kieran if he shaves before we next meet. What a terrific beard!

Hue, Vietnam

We had a flying visit to the Royal City of Hue, arriving in the morning off a night bus from Hoi An, and leaving for Hanoi later that afternoon.  Just enough time to explore some of the ancient city.  The Chinese have had a huge influence on Vietnamese culture, and nowhere is it more evident than in Hue. We visited the Imperial City which is modelled on the Forbidden City in Beijing. Hue was the seat of the Nguyen emperors, and the remains of the ancient city occupies a large, walled and moated area on the north side of the river. Inside the city walls was a forbidden city where only the concubines, emperors, and those close enough to them were granted access, the punishment for trespassing being death. 

They let anyone in these days! We had a lazy afternoon relaxing by the koi pond and just letting the world go by.  All the buildings have been restored, and are suitably palatial, but it's the gardens we'll remember most about Hue.  They were all immaculately groomed and it wasn't hard to imagine what it would have looked like in its hay-day. 

We had another excellent Vietnamese feast before we embarked upon another overnight bus, this time to Hanoi.  The excitement was building for Tet and the bus was packed to the rafters, some people were even sleeping on the aisle on the floor of the bus.

Hoi An, Vietnam

We arrived in Hoi An after an overnight bus and quickly found accommodation. This was essential as we needed more sleep after a fairly bumpy ride on the night bus from Nha Trang. Once awake we set about discovering the town and searching for tailors to make wedding garb. The town was beautiful and small enough to walk around. It is another UNESCO Heritage Town and we liked it as much as Penang in Malaysia.

Similar to Penang the food here was excellent, although the local specialities were significantly less healthy than Pho. Deep fried wantons, springrolls and an indescribable but delicious dish called White Rose. Before our waistlines expanded further we rushed to get our measurements taken in various tailors. This was a difficult task as there are over 300 tailors in the town and they all want your business. Some are good but expensive, some reasonably priced but with bad reputations, but most lay somewhere in the middle which left us with no idea whether we were being ripped off or getting bargain of the century. The truth will come out on May 8^th we suppose!

We ended up spending 10 days in Hoi An which is more time than any other location on our trip but it was worth it to get our suits, shoes and wedding dress made. We also caught up with Andy and Binh who we'd met in the Gili Islands. They were living in Hoi An and trying to decide whether to settle there and open up a bar. Best of luck to them! We had great fun helping them with their market research by participating in a mini pub crawl with them.

The following day we rented mopeds and headed to nearby Marble Mountain where Andy and Binh showed great patience during the 40 minute drive. Our moped skills were somewhere between dangerous and pathetic, much to the amusement of the locals who seem born on mopeds. They would pull up alongside us and say "Ha-Ha this is your first time on a moped, you look so frightened". Surely it wasn't that obvious? We're not naturals on mopeds but then again the rules of the road here aren't what we're used to either. We were more than happy when we got to Marble Mountain in one piece. The mountain contains a number of Buddhist Temples and grottoes. Some of the statues are housed in caves that you need to climb into.

This mix of religion and extreme sports could be the way of the future. We climbed and climbed and were rewarded with amazing views. Paddy fields stretched into the distance on one side, the sea on the other and sprawling hotel development on the third side. The development is being led by Greg Norman and his golfing buddies who see Vietnam as the next Costa del Sol. It seems a pity that they chose to build multi-story hotels in such quaint countryside. After spending so much time in Hoi An we really settled in.  People recognised us in the shops and restaurants, and we even bumped into Kieran and Grainne on the street. Vietnam seems like a small place! We had some street meat together and few beers while they told us great stories about their time living in Australia. Most of their stories involved near death experiences at the hands of Australian wild life. We countered that with tales of wedding admin. Take that! With our new clobber winging its way back to Dublin we decided it was time to move on. Tet (Lunar New Year) was fast approaching and we'd heard scare stories that the buses to Hanoi would be booked out if we didn't move soon.

Tailors we're happy to Recommend Adong Silk, Yaly and Phouc An Cloth Shop for Suits / shirts / dresses

http://www.adongsilk.com/

www.yalycouture.com/

http://phuocansilk.com/

And I got a pair of FABULOUS shoes made at 09 Shoes, their shop is at 65 Tran Hung Dao Street (bituong@gmail.com)

Mui Ne, Vietnam

We arrived in Mui Ne around 9pm and immediately hit a snag. We couldn't find accommodation anywhere, it was dark, we were tired, and there was no room at the inn. The town isn't big but it stretches for miles along the coast.  We walked for about 45 minutes with our heavy bags on backs when an American guy at a bar shouted that his ‘Friend' could help us. Normally we would have run a mile before accepting this sort of offer. However exhaustion trumped suspicion and we accepted his help. He said he'd drive us to a hotel he knew (alarm bell) that had rooms. We sat in the car (alarm bell) he put on the central locking (alarm bell) and drove for what seemed like miles (red alert!­­). We were picturing the headlines at home when our bodies washed up on the beach "Idiots fall for oldest trick in the book" etc.,  but in this case our paranoia was unjustified. Than, our driver, was as good as his word. The hotel was lovely and not overpriced, he refused to accept any payment for helping us out and drove away wishing us a pleasant stay.

When we woke up in the morning we discovered we were staying at a lovely beach that is a Kitesurfing mecca.  We'd tried Kitesurfing in Greece a few years ago and were very keen to give it another go, however with the wedding budget in mind we decided to save our cash for some custom made glad rags in Hoi An, the tailoring capital of Asia and therefore the World, at least according to the Vietnamese!

We spent a lovely few days in the town relaxing by the beach (we hadn't seen the sea since Thailand) and caught up on our seafood intake. By chance we discovered an amazing seafood shack where everything was fresh and cheap. In some cases the fish was so fresh that it was still swimming around in a Styrofoam box of seawater. What a delicious accident! We tried a bit of everything, including various seasnails. The owner would drop the food over and then hover nearby to hear our ‘yum' noises. It was difficult to choose a favourite dish. Ciara vote went to the BBQ'd scallops while I was quite taken with the Perch cooked in a proper tandoor oven. Needless to say we ate there at every opportunity. Our next stop was Nha Trang which is a pleasant seaside city, however the weather intervened once again and we spent our time in the city on wedding business which was so boring for us that we wouldn't dare to put anyone else through it.

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Back to the big City! (Although it felt like we never left really as the Mekong delta was such a disappointment) Chinese Visas all sorted we were now free to explore Vietnam, starting with the delights of Ho Chi Minh City... 

One of the local dishes available in Vietnam is Pho which is noodle soup - sounds a bit bland, but it's anything but.  Some Pho restaurants are so specialised that they only cook 1 type of Pho, like the Beef Pho House we ate in our first night in HCMC.  Each of us got a massive bowl of noodle soup with really rare tender beef and a big handful of herbs thrown in for extra flavour - yummers!  And as we had also just commenced our wedding diets we were delighted that the national dish was noodle soup, and not deep fried donuts or some other temptation.  Unfortunately soon after we also discovered they had a national beer, so the wedding diet didn't last long as it should have! We had a great Pho (& Beer) session with an Irish couple Kieran & Grainne who we'd met on the bus journey from Cambodia. Kieran has a beard, so himself and David hit it off immediately. Myself and Grainne had heard all those beard stories before but it was a good night anyway.

We were glad enough that the Pho kitchen was just on the corner of our guesthouse's street, because, as we expected the traffic is insane in Saigon.  It really is as bad as you see in movies - but way scarier when you're trying to cross the road.  We did manage to brave the traffic and ventured out for a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels.  Here we visited a network of tunnels that the villagers of Cu Chi had dug to hide from bomb assaults during the American War.  We also saw a vast array of their home-made weapons and booby traps.  Old hunting traps designed to catch wild boars were adapted to work on Soldiers - with pretty gruesome results. 

We were allowed inside some of the tunnels, and we really had to crawl along - it was a tight squeeze.  We later heard that the Tourist board had widened the tunnels to fit western frames - lucky for us they did.  We had a very interesting guide who was happy to answer any and all questions on Vietnam.  When we asked him how Vietnamese people feel about Americans or America in general he just shrugged his shoulders and said "the war is over - and we won, we look forward now not backwards" After all the harrowing tales of war we'd seen at the tunnels, David decided to go shoot some guns - bad taste?? Here he is handling an AK47...........

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

We signed up for a trip to the Mekong delta and it wasn't exactly what we expected.  We thought it would be twee riverside villages and remote countryside.  What we got was about 100kms of Ho Chi Minh City stretching all the way to the delta, and huge riverside port towns.  

The weather was appalling as well, it rained constantly for the 48hrs we were down there.  The one interesting thing we saw was the floating market.  Each boat has a huge bamboo stick at the front of the boat advertising what they sell and then the punters sail around haggling for their supplies. Having followed the Mekong all the way from down Luang Prabang in Laos, it was a bit of an anti-climax at the Delta.  Memories of Lazy Days floating down the Mekong will take us back to Laos and Cambodia and the remote countryside of their riverside. I don't think we'll give much thought to the sparling concrete jungle of Vietnams Mekong.

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Quick summary entry for now...

Pic o' day:

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Quick summary entry for now...

Pic of the day...

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Quick summary entry here...

Pic of the day: