Bryan does Backpacking

Trinidad

2008-12-15T14:12:00.006Z

Well here we are in our final Cuba destination. We struck lucky with our 'casa' and are staying with a lady called Maria who is a surgeon of urology, and her batty old mother. It's the nicest one we have been in so far and we're glad of it as Cuba is wearing a bit thin. It is very odd being served your dinner by a doctor who earns more doing that than saving people's lives. She made the best food we ate in Cuba though, great bean soups and fish and chips!

Trinidad is a colonial town full of historical buildings and little streets to wander around. There are lots of all inclusives less than 10km away and the daytime sees many sun burnt European getting on and off tour buses and taking a few snaps.

We spent our time relaxing and wandering, taking in more of whacky Cuba and managed a great night our with our mates Chris and Jo. We went to a nightclub in a cave which was all a bit random but a great night all in all. Chris also kept us entertained with his fluent Spanish which to him meant bunging an 'o' on the end of everything e.g. stupido, excellento!!!

We have to say though that whilst Cuba has been vastly interesting and we've always wanted to come here, we won't be back in a hurry. It's a very frustrating place. We're glad we've got a few days in Mexico City at the end to finish off our trip. As you all know we love our food so we can't wait to get to Mexico and eat like kings!

As a PS, we loved Havana airport's Aeroflot flights to Moscow, one leaving 5 minutes after the other, one a non-smoking flight, the other not!

All the V´s - Vinales and Varadero

2008-12-14T22:39:00.008Z

Viñales

We headed out of Havana and into the countryside, destination Viñales, part of Pinar del Rio province and home of many tobacco farms for cigar production. Viñales is also famous for its limestone karsts which are similar to the ones we had seen in Yangshuo, China.

We stayed in a Casa run by Barby and Omar. Despite what was written in the comment book about the lovely padded toilet seat, said seat did not exist at all. This was a common occurrence throughout Cuba.

Eating out choices were limited so we ate in the casa for two nights which was passable. We had only planned to stay for two nights but sod´s law meant there was no bus to our next destination on the day we wanted to leave so we were forced to stay an extra night – oh joy!!
We visited a nearby tobacco farm to see how cigars are rolled. It was quite interesting despite being non smokers! The rest of the time was spent sitting in rocking chairs on the porch of the casa reading books.

Varadero

Varadero is the main package tourist destination in Cuba and home to numerous All Inclusive Resorts. We decided to give one a try for a few nights to catch some rays and enjoy the beach. We stayed at the 50 year old Varadero Internacional described as retro by Lonely Planet! On arrival you get a pink wristband which entitles you to as much as you can eat and drink almost 24 hours a day for the duration of your stay! We were two of the youngest guests there, the majority were a mixture of Russian chavs (now named RAVS by us) and aging Europeans, Mr B was most disturbed by the topless French pensioners – YUK!
In keeping with Cuba’s extremely low culinary skills the food was decidedly average! Although we did marvel at the Chef’s ingenuity in using the leftovers from the previous meals. Would you like (yesterdays) carrot in your breakfast omelette?????
The beach was fab, not crowded and we got to really chill out. Our chambermaid was great, we’re not sure what the official term is for towel folding but she must have been a former world champion!!

Havana - A World Apart

2008-12-08T16:39:00.014Z

Cuba we knew would be difficult, but it really is a different world. You stand waiting for your bags at the airport whilst many passengers and staff around you are busy smoking, At the airport we had to change money. We had been advised to bring Euros as US Dollars as whacked for much more commission and the cab ride to town was uneventful, and it is amazing how little traffic there is on the roads.

The best way to see real Cuba, is to stay in Casa Particulares – these are private homes with one or two rooms given over to foreign visitors. It is a good way for Cubans to earn CUCs and subsidise their state controlled wages. This is where we stayed most of the time.

Havana is a fantastically energetic / scenic / musical / falling apart / frustrating city. We stayed near the Malecon, an 8km long sea wall on the Caribbean Sea. A great place for a walk and to watch Cubans going about their daily business – be it fishing, dating, dancing, playing music, hustling tourists etc.

The old part of town is a UNESCO world heritage site and deservedly so. It is stunning and because of the embargo, pretty much unspoilt by and modern (post 1959) development. Tourism dollars have been ploughed back into Habana Vieja to renovate the buildings, which in turn brings more tourists and their cash.

Cuba has a well founded reputation for awful food (think a bad combination of school dinners and hospital food but the same thing 7 days a week). We did however find a great Italian restaurant near our Casa, and despite the interior looking a bit school canteen, the staff were friendly and the food not bad at all. We went back a few times and found a great bar nearby which had more Cubans than tourists and an entertaining band.

We did try a few other places for food but we found the food nasty and monotonous, exacerbated by staff who had no interest in what they were doing at all. This was a common theme throughout our time in Cuba. Even the incentive to earn tips form tourists seemed to make no difference most of the time.

We caught up with Chris and Jo, friends we met in Guatemala (from the other Newcastle), and had a great night in a local bar on the waterfront with a great waitress. Jenny did discover however that Mojitos do not agree with her.

We headed to the Museo de le Revolucion (you don’t need to speak Spanish to understand what that was about) which told of the various failed attempts of Fidel and friends to overthrow the Batista government, until he eventually succeeded in 1959. The grounds of the museum contain vehicles, tanks and other equipment including the yacht Granma that Fidel , Raul and Che sailed in from Mexico to begin the revolution – Power to the People!!

We also took the open top bus tour which we sat on for two circuits because you just kept on spotting new things all the time – be it dilapidated old buildings, ancient cars or queues for Havana´s famous Copelia Ice Cream Parlour.

Cuba is Complicated

2008-12-06T15:27:00.008Z

Some facts about Cuba you probably didn’t know

There are two currencies in operation in Cuba, Cuban Pesos (Moneda Nacional) and Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC). Tourist are supposed to use CUC´s and they are worth 24 times more than Moneda Nacional.

Cubans earn between MN190 and MN325 or CUC 8 – 13 a month! By the way 1 CUC is about 75p!!!! Therefore Cubans who come into contact with tourist tips and those with family overseas who send remittances are considerably advantaged. This explains why doctors, engineers and the like work as waiters to earn tips and run Casa Particulars to get their hands on hard currency.

Housing, education (including University), healthcare and welfare and are all provided free of charge by the state.

The US spends $4176 (we’re not sure if this is through insurance) per person annually on healthcare, in embargo strapped Cuba, the Government coughs up $186 per head. Yet the overall indices for life expectancy and infant mortality rates are almost the same!!

Women get one year’s maternity leave guaranteed and also free day care.

In the US there are 815 cars per 1000 people, in Cuba there are just 23.

In November 2005, the UN Assembly voted 182 – 4 to urge the US to end it’s 44 year embargo. Voting with the US against the resolution were Israel (now there’s a surprise!), Palau and the Marshall Islands – and before you ask we don’t know where they are either!

There have been 638 documented attempts by the CIA to either assassinate or remove Fidel Castro from office. These attempts have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous! Examples include exploding cigars, putting thallium salts in Fidel’s shoes to make his beard and hair fall out making him looking ridiculous. Some of you will also have heard about the Bay of Pigs – again backed by the CIA!
In 1994 a US Bill was passed preventing any US President from lifting the embargo until a transitional government (i.e. not Socialist or including any Castro family members) is in place in Havana. Quite scary!

Che Guevara (everyone’s favourite revolutionary) was not actually Cuban. He was in fact an Argentinean Doctor of Irish descent!!

Welsh rockers the Manic Street Preachers became the first Western band to play live in Cuba in 2001. After the concert Fidel commented that he considered their music to be “louder than war”!! We think that was a compliment!

It´s illegal for US citizens to travel to Cuba, although many do via Mexico or Canada. The bizarre thing is the US has a “US Interests Office” on the Malecon in Havana – don’t ask, we don’t know why!

Mexico again - it´s Tulum

2008-12-02T00:13:00.000Z

An early start saw us catching the 8.30 ferry back to Belize City far the last long day of travelling in the trip (except the flight home!). After 13 hours of a painful bus journey and an even more painful border crossing (we both think we might be a little over this travelling lark), we arrived in Tulum at 9.30pm.

We checked into what appeared to be a half decent hotel next to an Italian restaurant. One rapidly consumed pizza later (it was good) and one or three nightcaps, we decided to crash out in our twin beds.

The next morning we both awoke refreshed but also covered in bites! These continued to appear for the next 48 hours by which time we had diagnosed the problem as bed bugs. Between us we probably had 500 bites and Miss J had 50 on one arm alone. We decided that it would be wise to find another hotel!! Bed bugs are just an unfortunate part of travelling but neither of us has been affected so much in the past.
We had planned to spend a couple of days on the beach, but as we both looked like we had the plague, we got ourselves organised for our fortnight in Cuba. To cheer ourselves up we found an Argentinean restaurant and both had a great steak and some red wine.

We did get down to the beach one afternoon, it was beautiful and the view of the Mayan ruins was great.
We headed to Playa del Carmen as it is close to Cancun airport, our departure point for Cuba. Playa is a bit hellish if we are totally honest, full of tourists from cruise ships and all inclusive resorts, and not at all reflective of Mexico. We found a few nice bars and restaurants but always a few streets back from the main drag where we enjoyed some traditional Mexican food, not the touristy overpriced crap served up to the masses.
Mr B had a telephone interview for a new job – let’s wait and see what that brings.

Belize is no Bargain

2008-11-27T14:03:00.013Z

Belize felt very different as soon as we crossed the border from Guatemala, not only was everything in English after about 10 non English speaking countries in a row, but we were also introduced to that very British thing – queuing up at the immigration desk at the border! Belize is part of the Commonwealth and is the only English speaking country in Latin America and Her Maj the Queen is still on coins and banknotes!!

We arrived in San Ignacio (this is where our mates from NZ Steve and Krissy got married) and decided to treat ourselves to a top quality hotel – the Hi Et!!!! One of the few things that struck us on our first wander was how expensive it was compared to the rest of Central America. Beer for instance comes in half pint bottles and costs US$ 2 a go, a main course in a restaurant was between US$ 8 – 10 twice what we’d been paying elsewhere.
The second observation which we’d read about and then experienced from ourselves was the large Amish and German Mennonite communities which exist in Belize. We’ve all read about and seen stuff on TV, quite frankly in the flesh it’s all a bit scary! I don’t think we’ll be converting any time soon! Bryan can’t see himself in a pair of dungarees and a straw hat!
Our main adventure however, was a trip to the ATM caves – no it isn’t an ancient form of cash dispenser, it’s an acronym for Actun Tunichil Muknal (Mayan if you hadn’t already guessed!!). The caves were used for ceremonies and contain many artefacts, burial chambers and stunning cave formations.

This was proper caving for us and very well organised, thankfully as our insurance didn’t cover spelunking!! It involved a 30 minute hike through the jungle and 4 river crossings (wading, not bridges). We then swam into the cave and swan/clambered a kilometre underground squeezing through nooks and crannies and clambering up and down rocks. We even met a Geordie tour guide from Newburn!
We then headed off to Caye Caulker a sand island in the Caribbean Sea and an hour’s boat ride from Belize City. There are no cars there only golf buggies and bikes and of course lots of boats. The Rasta and reggae presence is strong and the accents are brilliant. The view from our room out over the sea was stunning.

We booked a snorkelling trip on a sail boat out over the reef (2nd in size to the Great Barrier Reef), we saw loads of fish and coral and Miss J had her first encounter with sharks, rays and turtles! On the way back the sails went up and the rum punch came out and Bob Marley blasted from the stereo – Happy Days and so relaxing!
Yes, it is a stingray in his arms!

A Quick Dash to San Cristobal and Palenque

2008-11-25T19:03:00.008Z

We headed into Mexico next to visit two places that we had hoped to get to on our holiday last year but didn´t manage due to transport issues. This involved three buses and a boat, the boat in question being very overloaded with 13 backpackers and their packs which then got hit by a heavy rainstorm halfway up the river. Not my favourite boat trip of our travels!

The rain from the river crossing followed us all the way to San Cristobal de los Casas, the first proper rain we had thankfully seen in quite a few weeks. The temperature however was a bit of a shock. It went from 25 degrees in Flores to 5 degrees in San Cristobal. Out came the fleeces and wooly hats from the bottom of our rucksacks.

San Cristobal itself is a pretty town with lots of tour options in the surrounding countryside. We were a bit toured out though so just enjoyed the ambience of the town as it was busy due to it being a bank holiday weekend. There was plenty of people watching available. One of the dissapointing things about the place however was the lack of places both quantity and quality wise in which to eat (and you all know that we like our food!).

Next stop was Palenque and a visit to its ruins. Although we´ve now seen quite a few Mayan sites and we could be a bit runied out, the runis in Palanque are in a beautiful setting and fairly compact and we visited late on in the afternoon so it was quiet. They were a bit different to others that we have visited as you can clamber around them and venture inside.

It was only a quick overnight pit stop in Palenque before the return trip to Flores via bus, boat ,bus (thankfully a much better journey on the way back) and we then spent our last night in Guatemala at the previously mentioned favourite hotel and restaurant before another early start at 6am - destination Belize.

Last Stop in Guatemala - Tikal and Flores

2008-11-19T18:46:00.004Z

We took yet another shuttle bus from Coban to Flores which is a village on an island in a lake in the north of Guatemala. To get there we needed to cross river in a rather antiquated roll on roll off ferry. We patiently sat in our bus waiting our turn only for the lcoal police to turn up and jump the queue. We weren´t going to argue as they were all waving guns around!

Flores was really pleasant for a couple of nights stop. You can walk around it in 20 minutes.We found a great hotel which was nice and quiet and just what we needed and made a refreshing change.

The main reason for going to Flores is that it is a great base to visit the Mayan city of Tikal which is probably Guatemala´s most famous tourist attraction. It also has good connections to Belize and Mexico.

The best time to see Tikal is at sunrise, so the park opens at 6am which meant a 4.30am pick up for us. Being prepared as as we always are, the alarm was set for 4am, bags packed etc. However, we slept through the alarm and Mr B woke up and the clock said 4.29am. Oh dear!! We leapt out of bed, threw our clothes on, grabbed our bags and ran outside. Thanksfully, Guatemala time was in effect and we waited until 4.50am to be picked up, despite us convincing ourselves that we had missed our ride.

Once we had doused ourselves in mozzie repellant we headed off with our guide with the very Guatemalan name of ´Boris´ to explore Tikal. It is set in acres of jungle so you get a good walk for your money but the mozzies were at epidemic levels. The ruins however were amazing and we saw lots of wildlife including monkeys and coaties.

Our tour group was a good mix of people and we met up with a few of them that same night for sundowners overlooking the lake. This included Chris and Jo from the other Newcastle in Oz and Frederica from London. We found a great bar called La Terrazza which had brilliant sunset views and did amazing food and the staff were very accommodating to Mr B´s lactose issues. Chris and Jo are in Cuba the same time as us so we are hoping for a catch up there.

Lago Atitlan and Coban

2008-11-15T21:05:00.001Z

Lago Atitlan is a beautiful lake in the centre of Guatemala surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, small picture postcard villages and some really posh boutique hotels (but clearly we weren´t at any of those)!

We found a great place to stay for 10 quid a night in the village of San Pedro a 30 minute boat ride across the lake. It´s a bit of a chill out place really, so we just kicked back and relaxed. We found a great bar called the Alegre Pub run by a Scotsman from Dundee called Simon. The atmosphere was great, the beer cold and the food spot on.
Our fist night coincided with the US Elections and the pub was packed with Septics (Cockney rhyming slang for Yanks - Septic Tanks get it?)! There weren´t many John McCain fans around and each time Obama won a state the place went nuts with mass whooping which got louder as the night wore on. We left before McCain conceded, but Mr B stayed up and watched the results come in on CNN Espanol in our hotel room so at least we knew Obama had won.
Our next stop was Coban and the beautiful surrounding areas. We took a day trip to Semuc Champey, famous for its stunning river valley and freshwater pools and caves. We spent the morning swimming and clambering around the pools and down waterfalls. In the afternoon we had an adventurous trip into the Cueras Marias an underground system of river caves. We swam and waded through numerous caves with bats and stalactites overhead, clambered up ropes and ladders 1 km into the cave system using candles and head torches for light.

We then headed down river in inner tubes, but not before Mr B had launched himself into the river from a rope swing (apparently it was at least a 10m drop according to Mr B, however Miss McNab said it was probably closer to 5m!!)

El Weekend in El Salvador

2008-11-08T20:49:00.004Z

We never had any intentions of visiting El Salvador. It is not as well travelled as the other countries in Central America, but the few people we've met who have been there have loved it. We didn't have the time to make a major diversion into the country, but when we had the opportunity to visit for the weekend from Antigua we took it, and it was very worthwhile.

The journey itself was fascinating, not only because of the scenery but also because of the minibus tyre changing antics following a puncture just before the border. We were joined on the trip by 3 entertaining Germans in their 40s, Sep, Klaus and Ralf who all worked for Lufthansa.

Our destination for the weekend was Playa El Tunco, famous for its surfing. Our hotel had an amazing cliff top view of the beach and the Pacific Ocean. It was absolutely stunning for 15 quid a night.

We spent 2 days sitting and watching the beach and ocean, enjoying the El Salvadorean hospitality and eating lots of fish!

Definitely a worthwhile side trip.

Good Times in Guatemala

2008-11-02T20:18:00.007Z

After a 5 hour bus ride through the mountains and beautiful scenery we arrived in Antigua, an amazing colonial city only 20kms from Guatemala City. Crossing the border from Honduras was easy, the only disappointment being the fact that we didn`t get a Guatemala entry stamp or a Honduras exit stamp in our passports. Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala are the CA4 group which means that you only get one entry and exit stamp throughout the CA4 not when you move from country to country.

Just as luck would have it we had a wander and found Reilly´s - an Irish pub. To top it off they have a quiz each Sunday - well we couldn't refuse really could we! The place was packed and the atmosphere was great. The quiz was tricky to say the least, but Jenny's Puppies came in 5th, including a 100% correct round, for which we were rewarded with B52 shots. To say the questions were random was an understatement - can you name the 4 moons of Jupiter???

We had some assistance from Chuck, an American in his 40's who was in Antigua to study Spanish for a few weeks. We got on well until the conversation turned to the US election, which quite frankly we couldn't escape. Well Chuck turned out to be one totally self centred guy - in his opinion the US government should provide only the most basic of free services to its people, not including health care, education or social welfare as people should pay for things themselves and why should he pay taxes for those things for other people!! To a die hard socialist like Mr B this was horrific. The conversation ended rather abruptly and Chuck left the building. We had another beer!

Thankfully this didn't spoil our evening and a procession celebrating 'Day of the Dead' passed the pub, complete with bands and floats with huge coffins on. The 'Day of the Dead' is a Central American festival when people celebrate the lives of their deceased family and friends. They visit their graves and basically have a bit of a party.

We were also treated to a lone piper in the pub, serenading his daughter and future son in law's wedding. He was however a yank and despite our requests he couldn't manage a rendition of Flower of Scotland for us.

A 'must do' trip from Antigua is a hike up Volcan Pacaya which I looked forward to like a hole in the head as I am not particularly fond of hiking at altitude. The hike began at 4pm in order to get to the summit for sunset and lave viewing in the dark. Mother nature intervened on the sunset front and we climbed up through the cloud. Eventually we were just metres from red hot rocks.

We managed to find our way up (and our way down in the dark) despite the best efforts of our guide who shouldn't have a job quite frankly. Whilst Miss J struggled uphill, there was an older woman in our group whose legs didn't do down, and we helped her literally step by step back down the volcano at times in the pitch black with our head torches whilst the guide was nowhere to be seen. The first beer at the bottom didn't touch the sides.

Canopies and Ruins in Copan

2008-11-01T20:42:00.009Z

Another chicken bus and coach trip later and we arrived in Copan Ruinas, the town next to the famous Mayan ruins of the same name and probably Honduras`s most tourist visited place.

We were fortunate enough to be staying in a flat owned by Bill and Marta, an American / Honduran couple who are old mates of Bob from the brewery.

It was so nice to have the whole 2 bed apartment to ourselves, with a kitchen, lounge and pool. However the pool was out of the question because of the temperature, which was a bit on the chilly side due to the altitude of Copan, so much so that we had to dig our cold weather gear out of the bottom of our rucksacks! We also used the peace and quiet and space to sort out Mr B´s CV.

The ruins themselves are a short walk out of town. They are nicely compact and remarkably tourist free. We hired a great guide by the name of Juan who gave an interesting and enthusiastic talk as we wandered around. This Mayan site is famous for its sculpture rather than its pyramids.

We felt a bit adventurous so partook in the pre requisite Central America traveller activity - the canopy tour! This involves being strapped into a harness and sliding down cables strung between trees over valleys, rivers, Mayan ruins and local villages using only your gloved hand as a brake! The longest run was 1km long over the Copan river.

Local transport was provided by tuc tucs (auto rickshaws) which hurtled about the madly steep cobble stoned streets and delivered us home each night.

There was a good selection of bars and restaurants in the town including our favourite - the Red Frog! We were kept highly amused and entertained throughout the weekend however by the 80 or so Peace Corps volunteers who were in town for Halloween. Statements like "What, you lived in the Middle East - Cool Man" were very common! To say these guys and girls were naive was an understatement but the amusement factor was high. Everyone was talking about the US election, but personally we can´t wait for it to be over, then it´ll be adios to Jorge as he´s known in these parts!!

Honduran Home Brew and some Birdspotting

2008-10-28T21:17:00.007Z

We eventually arrived at out first destination in Honduras after a 12 hour and 3 bus epic. Having driven through the not so nice capital, Tegucigalpa, we sped through stunning mountain scenery, cloud forest and some seriously twisty roads and finally arrived at Los Naranjos, our base for the next few days.

It just happens that the hostel is attached to Honduras´s only microbrewery - D& D Brewery. It´s run by Bob Dale from Oregon and his Honduran wife Cynthia. Bob makes 5-6 different brews, a pale ale, amber ale (similar to British bitters), a porter which is a bit like Guinness and fruit beers including raspberry, mango and apricot.

We splashed out and stayed in our own cabin which was great, however the fact that we had no Honduran cash was a bit of a worry. We had managed to change some money at the border, but had not seen an ATM on route and we had managed to rock up on a bank holiday weekend. It was a 2 hour drive to the nearest ATM and all the local bank branches were closed so we couldn´t go to a branch to get a cash advance on a credit card. Bob was very understanding though and we ended up paying our remaining balance (lots of beer was partly to blame) to his mate at our next destination.

The village itself is on the shores of Lake Yojoa which is famous for its birds (as well as being quite stunning). We were introduced to Bob´s slightly eccentric English pal Malcolm who looks like he has been travelling for the last 40 years or so. He has settled on a bird watching career in Honduras.

We went out with him on a slightly overloaded rowing boat with Rafael from the brewery rowing for us, early one morning. The lake was so serene and we saw an amazing selection of wildlife. The lake boasts more species of birds (+400) than the whole of the UK.

Everyone we met in the village and wandering around were really friendly. It was great. Bob obviously could not have been more accommodating! He also showed us his amazing collection of Mayan and Olmec artefacts, some dating back to 700BC. He has unearthed them whilst building septic tanks and swimming pools in the area, over the last 15 years or so. He´s also donated a large number of his finds to museums.

On our last day, the weather was conducive to beer drinking only and we had a great afternoon with other guests including a 50 year old Canadian woman and her 9 year old son who were travelling for a year, and an Aussie/US couple who were on a 6 month honeymoon. They had planned to spend the night in their tent ( not very honeymoonish??) but when the storm set in, they switched to a room.

The grounds of the brewery the next day were slightly wind battered with a few fallen trees. It felt like the majority of the fruits from the avocado, banana, passion fruit and orange trees had been falling on our tin roof all night - hence no sleep. We were sad to leave though!!

Horsing about in Leon

2008-10-24T19:58:00.002+01:00

We took time to plan our next few weeks and then caught a local bus (or two) to Leon, another colonial but less touristy city in northern Nicaragua. The city is actually surrounded by 7 volcanoes, some of which are still active!

We found a fantastic place to stay – Casona Colonial, a traditional colonial house, with old furniture, including our 4 poster bed which almost needed a step ladder to get into it.

We went exploring the numerous historic buildings and churches and came across a Dutch guy running socio-historic tours. We decided on ´History and Revolution´ for that afternoon. Harry was a great guide who clearly believes passionately in what he does. 5 of us were taken to important landmarks of historical and political importance from the days of Spanish colonization to the Sandanista revolution at the end of the 70´s, which began in Leon.

We were so impressed we decided to try another of Harry´s slightly left field tours – Cowboy for a Day and Night!

It was great fun. We headed off to a ranch outside Leon to learn and watch how cowboys go about their jobs. The only horsepower out there has 4 legs and eats grass and 4 wheel drive means two oxen harnessed to a cart.

We learned to harness an ox, chop firewood with a machete, use a lasso, ride a horse (I can do this, although this was the first time since I was a wee girl. Mr B never had and it showed and I think he needed a bigger horse!). We swam in the local stream which was very refreshing after a hard day as a cowboy (or cowgirl). And enjoyed a great BBQ before sleeping under the stars in hammocks.

Bryan hadn’t forgotten how to light a fire, taught by his Dad and the Scouts all those years ago! We also encountered the local wildlife, including 3 scorpions, numerous excessively large insects and lord knows what else as we slept. Suffice to say, this is one of the best organized trips we have done and the BBQ and fire brought back happy memories of camping in the desert with old friends in Dubai.

We headed off at the ungodly hour of 5am the next day to head north to our next destination – Honduras. I am now happy that I have my ´H´ for my A to Z of countries visited. Only D. R, Y and Z left to go.

Wet and Wonderful Nicaragua

2008-10-19T22:29:00.012+01:00

Crossing into Nicaragua has to rank as one of our most stunning border experiences. After two local buses took us to Los Chiles on the Rio San Juan, we got our exit stamps, had a spot of lunch and waited for the next boat to San Carlos in Nicaragua. The river itself forms the border between the 2 countries and 45 minutes later we arrived at the border town of San Carlos at the southern tip of Lago Nicaragua. This border route is not on the typical ¨gringo trail¨ and it was great to be 2 of only 3 foreigners on the boat, and 3 of only 5 in the whole town (that we saw). During the boat ride we saw copious birds and were heckled by howler monkeys who clearly didn´t appreciate the disturbance.

San Carlos itself was a key town during the Californian gold rush. It was quicker for people coming from the east coast of America to travel down and up the Rio San Juan, though Lago Nicaragua and 20km to the Pacific and up again, than it was for them to go overland!!!

The next day we boarded our ferry to Isla Ometepe which is an island in the centre of the lake formed by two volcanoes, one of which is still active. The lake itself is one of the World´s few habitats for fresh water sharks. It was a 10 hour ride with a couple of stops on the way where local children piled on selling all manner of food, edible or otherwise.

Ometepe is a great place for volcano hikes, kayaking, relaxing on lakeside beaches and horse riding. Unfortunately the rain was not amenable to these activities and we spent a few solitary days reading, playing yahtzee and having early nights at our 90 year old hostel which was a former family plantation home.

With no sign of the rain abating we caught a bus and boat to the mainland. The buses in Nicaragua are fondly called chicken buses. They are old US school buses and carry everyone and everything. The route to the port was slightly bumpy and not helped by the lava flow over the islands only paved bit of road.

Next port of call on the mainland was Granada via a taxi and a chicken bus from the port. It was slightly soggy when we arrived, despite that we walked though town from the bus station to find a room for the night. After one or two false starts we found a nice room with cable TV and a bathroom for GBP8.

We were then thankfully treated to sunshine the following day and headed out to explore. Granada is an old colonial town and has some lovely old buildings and plazas. We took the opportunity to have a cold drink and watch the world go by in the main square. Baseball is the national sport in Nicaragua and on our wanders we found a ´little league´ taking place between to teams of 8 year olds in full baseball gear – it was great to watch. They all took it so seriously.

Turtle Watching in Tortuguera plus Volcanoes

2008-10-12T21:17:00.001+01:00

The bus trip to Costa Rica was interesting to say the least. Our bus was great, lots of films, a very attentive attendant feeding us at every opportunity including 2 pretty good hot meals. The fun started at the border. Everyone had to get off the bus with all their bags and we were piled into a room where the baggage was put into a line on the floor. Eventually a sniffer dog appears looking for drugs and then the bags were searched by hand. Ours were given a cursory prod – we are British after all! Next step was the exit stamp, big bags back on the bus and then a 300 metre walk across no-mans land for an entry stamp into Costa Rica. Then we had to get everything off the bus again and waited 45 minutes for the Costa Rican customs people to appear. When she did you wouldn´t have known she was fairly important – high heels, spray on jeans and a black diamante studded boob tube with no ID. Again, everything was hand searched, except ours – being British and all that does have some advantages! Our hostel in San Jose was great, although we can’t say the same for the city itself. The main street resembled a drab British 1980´s high street a la Gateshead or Newport. A sharp exit had us on our way to the Caribbean Coast to see wildlife in Tortuguero National Park. Another eventful journey ensued, two local buses and a boat ride later we arrived in Tortuguero (only accessible by boat and air), after seeing a crocodile taking a nap on the way there. The final bus dropped us at a banana plantation called GEEST which some people may have seen labeled onto their bananas. There are 1000s of acres of banana fields, although the ripening bananas are covered in blue bags which makes it all look a bit surreal.

We found a place to stay next to the local footy pitch and enjoyed a cool beer on the balcony watching 2 local girls teams have a match. We had an early dinner (restaurants are all closed by 9ish) before heading out at 10pm to watch huge greenback turtles laying their eggs on the nearby beach. Whilst this was amazing to see it was spoilt for us by the two groups of over excited young kids who with their noisy behavior frightened off one of the turtles and we witnessed the sad sight of her as she abandoned her nest and headed back to the sea, still laying eggs as she went.

We returned to the beach the next day to see various tracks and nests and the wonderful sight of teeny weeny flipper prints as baby turtles had made their way to the sea for the first time.

Another early dinner and bedtime prepared us for a 5am start for a canoe trip though the local river network in search of wildlife. This was an amazing trip and the early start and lack of noise meant we saw loads of animals including howler monkeys, spider monkeys, caymans, river turtles, various birds and the aptly named Jesus Christ lizard which can actually run on water.

Our next stop was La Fortuna for a bit of volcano action. The weather was against us yet again, but we did manage a trip to the active Arenal volcano, albeit in bucketing rain. You could see the steam coming out of the top of the cones , but more fascinating was the sight of red hot lava rocks rolling down the hillside after being spat out of the volcano. No pictures unfortunately because of the weather. We were soaked through despite our wet weather gear.

A Quick Week in Colombia

2008-10-06T20:32:00.002+01:00

6 of us from the boat piled into a lovely local hotel run by a lady called Martha where we enjoyed cable TV and air con after a few sweaty nights on the high seas.

After a few hours of cooling down and catching up on lost sleep we wandered around the old town which is absolutely stunning and deservedly a UNESCO world heritage site.

For an expensive first drink of the night we headed to the Sofitel which is in a converted convent. Subsequent (much cheaper) drinks throughout our stay were enjoyed in locals bars with drunken Colombians, loud music and gyrating teenagers.

We spent hours wandering around the old town but did manage a trip to the local ¨volcano¨. It´s a 15 metre high volcano which doesn´t spout red hot lava, but luke warm mud, renowned (apparently) for its therapeutic properties. You climb the volcano and then pile into the mud pit together. You can´t touch the bottom or sink further than your chest as the mud holds you up and bubbles around you. You´re just suspended in it. A 45 minute bathe and a quick massage later you head to the local lake to be washed down by the ladies of the local village. Certainly a bizarre experience. We are still finding mud in all sorts of places.
We could have spent a month in Colombia but unfortunately we only had a week. As it has only become a safer place to travel in recent years, the place is yet to be overtaken by foreign tourists and travelers, prices are low and the locals are very friendly. It has a real authenticity to it which can be difficult to find on the ´gringo trail´. We headed 4 hours up the coast to a small fishing village called Taganga to catch up on some sleep and for Bryan to eat some more fish. You can pick which fish you want and 20 minutes later it´s on your plate!

We stayed in a great hostel, private facilities and only 9GBP a night. We enjoyed our days watching the locals enjoying their weekend before heading back to Cartagena for a flight back to Panama City and a bus ride from there to San Jose in Costa Rica – the next country on our adventure.

Shipshape and sailing with Stahlratte

2008-09-28T21:23:00.007+01:00

The next part of our trip, namely sailing from Panama to Colombia aboard Stahlratte, or steel rat in English (http://www.stahlratte.org/), a 40m sailing ship which is 105 years old was always going to be a highlight of the trip for us. We were up at 4am to catch a 4 wheel drive from Panama City to San Blas on the Caribbean Coast. Although the journey was only about 80km it took over 3 hours as most of it was off road, through rivers and up mountainous muddy hills. The final leg to the boat was in dug out canoes manned by the Kuna people, who are indigenous to the region and operate an autonomous region of Panama. There were 16 passengers of various nationalities (including a Brit who lives in Dubai) and 5 German crew. The ship is operates as a charity and all the money that is made goes towards the maintenance of the vessel.
We clambered on board and found our double berth, dumped our stuff and headed up to the poop deck for a pep talk. All the food for the trip was included but soft drinks and beer were payable via on honesty bar. The itinerary was a short sail to the outer San Blas Islands, an overnight and day there, then a 5am start the following night for the 30 hour sail to Cartagena. Our time at San Blas was spent swimming, snorkeling, jumping off the boat and exploring idyllic desert islands (not like The World), looking for starfish, rays, coral and abundant fish.
Meals were cooked by the crew, helped by the passengers, organized into daily work teams. The first night was seafood feast – freshly caught fish and lobster. This descended into drunken carnage after a few drinking games with people diving in and being thrown overboard.
Mr B slept off his beer in the comfort of a hammock on deck until it began to rain at 5am. I slept below deck in 30 degree heat which wasn’t much fun!
Next morning, most people were surprisingly subdued – why would that be? Anyway, another day of swimming, catching sun and reading was rounded off by a beach BBQ on a desert island.
We then set sail for Cartagena at 5am but due to the lack of wind most of the journey was made under engine power, although we all helped raise the sails when the wind picked up. The weather was good to us most of the time and every evening we were treated to spectacular lightning storms as we sailed though the 2nd most lightning prone area in the world.
At 7am on our last day Cartagena appeared on the horizon and was surprisingly high rise. Its main attraction however is its old town. We waited impatiently for immigration clearance before heading on shore in search of a shower and bed. What a brilliant few days.

All the B´s - Boquete and Bocas

2008-09-25T20:47:00.002+01:00

We took the bus to Boquete, a 6 hour drive, made all the more enjoyable by what can only be described as Accordion Idol being shown on the video system. We are not joking!

We arrived in Boquete to more rain, but found our hostel was in a stunning house with a stream running through the garden which was full of fruit trees. The place was run by a slightly eccentric , but very helpful local chap.

The main reason to visit Boquete is to see the stunning scenery and abundant wildlife. To help us with this we booked a ‘Cloud Discovery Tour’ through the jungle on foot looking for wildlife and enjoying the rainforest. We were extremely lucky to see a pair of Quetzals – a very rare and endangered but beautiful bird. We also discovered the clouds, having walked through one on the way to a stunning waterfall.

We then took a local bus to Changuinola to catch a boat out to Bocas del Toro, a group of islands on Panama’s Caribbean coast for a few days of R&R Caribbean style i.e. horizontal!

After a half hour speed boat ride we arrived on a beautiful island and set about looking for somewhere to stay. After a rather sweaty hour we found Casa Amarilla, a small posada run by a retired couple from Denver – it was just what we needed, and it had AC, a fridge, private bathroom, cable TV and a safe.
To indulge Mr B´s new found love of fish (having only really ever eaten good old fish and chips before), we headed out to The Reef Restaurant for some red snapper, via a waterfront bar for some cheeky happy hour sundowners (shame!).

The next day after a cool night’s sleep, we took a collectivo (minibus) to Bocas del Drago, one of the islands unspoilt beaches. We set up camp under a palm tree and whiled away a few hours reading and paddling in the sea, before having more fish for late lunch.
On our final day we took a boat trip to some of the local snorkeling spots and uninhabited islands - absolutely stunning (shame about the midges that ate us at lunchtime).

We caught a flight back to Panama City in a very small 20 seater plane (a Twin Otter for the plane spotters). I was not best pleased when we went through the rain clouds and it was bumpy as a roller coaster!

Up the Canal without a Paddle

2008-09-18T03:05:00.002+01:00

We arrived in Panama City after a fairly enjoyable 7.5 hr flight allbeit in a Boeing 737 with not the best leg room and no TV (although the food was probably the best plane food we have had on the trip). After queuing for ages for customs we piled into a cab, destination Zuly’s Hostel. The cabbie told us he knew exactly where it was, however 1 hour later and after much stress for Mr B who at one point wanted to murder the poor man, we arrived.

The hostel was basic and sweaty, but in a great location for eating and drinking and they did have a reputation for being able to organise sailing trips to Colombia – just what we wanted. A swift pizza and beers later we retired to bed, no A/C and about 30 degrees!! One sweaty night later we were raring to go and see Panama’s most famous attraction – the Canal.

Built at a cost of 25,000 lives the Canal provides much needed income for Panama. The visitors centre was fantastic with a museum about the building of the canal, films and also live commentary of the vessels passing through the double sets of locks at Miraflores. Whilst we were there we watched a few ships navigating the locks including a fully laden PANAMAX vessel (built specifically for the canal and carrying over 4,000 containers) which paid US$ 275,000 for the privilege. Whilst this seems expensive it’s about one tenth of the cost of sailing around South America!

The other big must see in Panama City is Casco Vieja – the Old Town – declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but left to rot and crumble it is now being slowly restored to its former glory although certain bits are still decidedly dodgy! To get there we took a local bus, fondly known as red devils, for the princely fare of 10p! All a bit mad but great fun for mixing with the locals. Around the corner from the hostel we found a great Lebanese restaurant and reacquainted ourselves with falafel, hummous and shish taouk.

Although we ended up doing it backwards, we had always planned to sail between Colombia and Panama because there are no safe overland routes. However the cost of flights out of Brazil meant we ended up in Panama and not Colombia so we sailed back to South America!! We booked up to sail on the Stahlratte - http://www.stahlratte.org/ (Steel Rat in English) for a 4 day voyage. Unfortunately the next available sailing meant we had a 7 day wait so we made alternative plans and headed out of Panama City to explore other parts of the country.

However we couldn’t help feeling like something reminded us of Dubai, maybe it was all the 4x4’s or maybe the skyline – what do you think??

Rubbish Rain in Rio!

2008-09-15T02:43:00.001+01:00

Following a 5hr bus trip from Paraty we arrived in Rio and caught a taxi to our posada. We decided to stay away from the more touristy areas of Ipanema and Copacabana and headed to the hills of Santa Theresa – a bohemian neighbourhood, full of old mansions, artists shops, groovy restaurants and a great ancient tram system. The view from our place was worth 10 times what we were paying with stunning views of both Sugar Loaf and Christo Redentor.

Transport in the the area consists of a 100+ year old tram system, madly driven VW combi vans and even more madly driven 30 seater buses which made for interesting trips around the cobblestoned hills. We spent the first evening in a fantastic seafood restaurant with live Samba in the background!

The following day we went to Sugar Loaf mountian which many people should remember from the famous scene in James Bond’s Moonraker when James has a big fight with Jaws in the cable car. We experienced the stunning if not slightly misty views of Rio. We then headed to Ipanema for a very late lunch, declining a dip in the ocean and headed home in a cab via Copacabana. As you can probably tell weather played rather a large part in our Rio experience.

To cap it all we visited Christ the Redeemer but we couldn’t see him from 10 yards away! We took the 100+ year old train up the mountain and waited in vain for a few hours for the clouds to clear but to no avail – divine intervention was sadly missing. We consoled ourselves with the view from our posada. That evening we headed to a pizza place full of football watching locals which was quite entertaining.
As Rio is very much an outdoor place Mum’s final day was unfortunately a bit of a washout. We caught up on the domestics (including 3 weeks of blog) and headed out in the evening for a top notch dinner at a famous Rio churrasceria (thanks Mum). At a churrasceria you help yourself to buffet salad, seafood, bread etc, hot accompaniments are brought to your table and then numerous as much as you can eat skewers of BBQ’d beef, lamb, chicken, fish etc.

The next day we headed to the airport en masse and waved bye bye to Mum and Brazil. Shame about the airport. Panama here we come!!!

Baltic in Brazil (briefly)

2008-09-10T14:07:00.008+01:00

We took a short taxi ride into Brazil and Foz de Iguazu to see the falls from the ´other side´. You get up close and personal (and very wet) on the Argie side, but more of a widescreen view from Brazil. It has to be said however that Foz itself is a dump. Our first day was also extremely cold and not the best introduction to a new country. After an average visit to the local Churrasceria (Brazilian BBQ) we wrapped up in our thermals and went to bed with the temperature hovering not far above freezing.

Our trip to the falls the next day was however blessed with sunnier weather. It´s a shorter visit but you get a panoramic view. We followed this with a quick trip to the local bird sanctuary – home to 800 plus indigenous bird species, including a toucan that took a particular liking to Bryan´s feet.

Jenny then tortured her mum with a 16 hour bus ride to São Paulo. Whilst this in itself would not have been an issue as we took the really posh bus (just 3 seats in a row), we seemed to have been booked on the same bus as the Brazilian version of the Beverly Hill Billies, or in Jenny´s words a load of aging Brazilian chavs who did not shut up until 3am! Needless to say, we were not amused. We followed this up with a 6 hour wait in Sao Paulo bus station and a 7 hour bus ride to our next destination. Pat was not amused by that point.

Paraty however made up for things. We stayed in a fantastic pousada run by an American/Brazilian husband and wife, complete with 4 cats and 4 dogs and an amazing breakfast. Paraty itself was founded in 1677 and is a UNESCO world heritage site, recognised as one of the most important surviving examples of Portuguese colonial architecture. The historical centre is a mixture of uneven stone streets, colonial churches and squat white houses with brightly coloured doors and windows.

We spent a few days wandering idly, chilling out at the Pousada and saved the last day for decent weather and a schooner trip around the local bay which has 60 plus islands and 200 plus beaches. We however passed on the one $8million island which was up for sale! However we do have to confess to having a bit of a spending spree (25 quid in total) on 8 pairs of Havaianas flip flops between the three of us!

Down the Devil´s Throat

2008-09-05T14:06:00.000+01:00

Our next destination was Puerto Iguazu, a short 2 hour flight from Buenos Aires. The reason for our trip there was to visit the Argentinian side of the Iguazu Falls – a set of over 280 waterfalls in a 55 hectare national park. We had a bit of a blustery day so managed to get a bit soggy in all the spray, particulalrly at the largest waterfall – Garganta del Diablo – The Devil´s Throat. We also managed to get completely soaked when we took a boat trip up to and into the spray from the falls but it was all worth it. The place is stunning and more to follow as we are yet to see it from the Brazilian side.

We finished our time in Argentina with a final steak and some Argentinian wine. We are very sad to leave Argentina as it has been fantastic. We will be back!!!

Anyone for Dead Cow?

2008-09-05T14:05:00.008+01:00

After a thoroughly entertaining flight we arrived in Buenos Aires and our hotel – Pousada de la Luna. It is a funky old BA mansion now operating as a B&B. The main reason for this move upmarket is the arrival of Pat, Jenny´s mum, who has joined us for a 3 week holiday.

We are staying in the San Telmo barrio (neighbourhood) which is all cobblestoned streets, aging mansions and a bar/restaurant on every street corner.

We spent the first day after we arrived getting our bearings and chilling out. The following day Pat arrived at the unholy hour of 7.45am!! After collecting her from the airport and sitting in the Buenos Aires rush hour we took Pat for lunch at a local resto-bar and introduced her to the Argentinian version of the ´Pastie´ - the empanada. These come in various flavours including beef, ham and cheese, chicken, corn (??) and tuna. They go extremely well with the homemade chips that every restaurant seems to serve. To say that we didn´t spend each day eating would be an understatement as we gorged ourselves on:-

Milanese
Pasta
Empanadas always with homemade chips
Fresh homemade sandwiches
Salad and last but by no means least
Tons and tons of dead cow (sorry Miss P!)

The steak was so good we fear it will never be the same again anywhere else (sorry M´s Beef Bistro).
We did manage a few sights in between meals including a walking tour taking in the Cathedral, Casa Rosada (the Argentine version of the White House) and the Plaza de Congresso and the newly renovated Puerto Madero. Jen and Pat had a day out in Recoleta where they visited Eva Peron´s (Evita) grave, the local craft market and groovy Floralis Generica which opens and closes at dawn and dusk, they also saw a bit of a BA phenomenon - the dog walker (see pic), La Boca, in the old port area of the city which is famous for its multicoloured tin huts and is the birthplace of the tango (it was conceived in the brothels of La Boca).

Our favourite day was Sunday where we took a stroll around the San Telmo antique market followed by a spot of footy in the afternoon sunshine.

We went to see River Plate play San Lorenzo at the Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti. Our seats were on half way which gave us a fantastic view of the home and away fans who had gathered at opposing ends of the stadium. The atmosphere was unbelievable, thousands of people singing, jumping and gesticulating in perfect unison. Despite 30+ years supporting Newcastle I had seen nothing like this. Even die hard egg chasers Pat and Jenny were impressed. This fanaticism went on throughout the match, however the game itself was a fairly boring 0-0 draw.

All 3 of us had a fantastic time, the city, the atmosphere and above all the people make Buenos Aires a truly special city.

Fin del Mundo (the end of the world?)

2008-08-26T14:04:00.001+01:00

You will probably have detected a pattern with our travel methods by now, so not to disappoint you we embarked on yet another marathon bus journey. A 3am start from El Calafate for a 4 hour drive to Rio Gallegos was interrupted by the arrest of one of our fellow passengers at a routine police checkpoint. We then set out for Ushuaia, the world´s most southerly city. This involved leaving Argentina and crossing back into Chile, a ferry across the Magellan straight and then back into Argentina – 4 sets of immigration and customs. Again the scenery in Tierra del Fuego was stunning with very few populated areas for hundreds of kilometres.

We stayed at a B&B for a change and we were treated to dinner one night with the family. In Argentina they eat late – it was 11.30pm before we ate anything and the kids had school the next day!

Ushuaia was originally intended as a penal colony and is home to a fantastic museum about the prison, Antarctica, local wildlife and the indigenous Yamanas (who were wiped out within 100 years of the Spanish arriving) and is housed in the old prison buildings.

We managed a chilly boat trip out to the various islands in the Beagle Channel where we saw cormorants, penguins, seals and sea lions.

Male sea lions can weigh up to 300kg and live in harems with 5 to 9 females who weigh half as much. The big boy in the pictures was trying desperately to get up to his ladies but had chosen a bit of rock that was just to steep for him. He kept on climbing up and then sliding back down and eventually jumped back in the water to find an easier way up for a spot of canoodling. It was very amusing.

Before our flight out (it was the choice of a 3 and a half our flight or 3 days on a bus - you decide) we headed to the local glacier for a cheeky snowball fight and some lunch before heading north to Buenos Aires.

Bienvenidos a Patagonia

2008-08-18T13:54:00.001+01:00

Before we begin Jenny would like to explain why we didn't go the Welshy part of Patagonia. For those of you who don´t know, a load of Taffy coal and slate miners legged it across the Atlantic in search of a new life in the 19^th century. As a result, Patagonia is the only place outside of Wales where the Welsh language is actively spoken. As some of you will know, Jenny is a Welsh speaker and she´s been there before, although I was quite keen to have some Welsh cakes!

After a bit of confusion over our hostel reservation in Bariloche, we found ourselves in a fantastic hostel run by a young Irish couple with stunning views of Lake Nahuel Huapi. Micro breweries are a bit of a Patagonian trend at the minute and our hostel sold three different types of local beer – Kolsch, a bit like lager, Rubia, a hoppy English type bitter and Negro, a stout. Whilst we were always expecting to find good wine, the chance to try some good local beers was a nice surprise.
After such a long bus journey feeding ourselves on crisps and biscuits we were looking forward to some dead cow. We however ended up having a Mexican, which was one of the best we´ve ever had. It was fantastic.

Bariloche is about 20km from Cerro Catedral, the largest ski resort in the Southern hemisphere so we thought it would be rude if we didn´t grace the slopes with our presence. A quick change of rental clothes later and we were ready to go. Jenny hadn´t skied for 9 years so we had a play on the lower slopes just to get back into it. We left the serious stuff to the pros (including a number of hardcore skiers and boarders in our hostel) who indulge in off piste stuff, avalanche beacons included. We discovers that there are a lot of people spend 6 months in Europe and 6 months in South America in order to be able to ski all year.

Our next marathon journey to El Calafate began at 3pm and ended 34 hours later. The scenery was stunning though as we drove through the foothills of the Andes and into the Patagonian Steppe. We passed llamas, vicunas (llama family) and the scenery changed from grass to snow to grass again for miles and miles of barrenness. We stopped at a petrol station and there was no other sign of civilisation anywhere.

We arrived in El Calafate at 1am to be picked up by our hostel which was fab. The underfloor heating was amazing and a welcome reprieve from the chilly weather. The hostel is probably the best we have stayed in so far with stunning views of the Andes, helpful and friendly staff and a cracking BBQ night.

We managed a bit of a walk on the frozen lake without falling in but the main purpose of going to El Calafate was to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier which is one of the world´s largest advancing glaciers (most are receding). We were picked up at 9am, treated to the sight of condors and eagles and icebergs in the lake, to then be driven back to our hostel. The National Park which contains the glacier was closed for the first time in 4 years. The irony was that freezing rain the day before had caused so much ice to form on the tracks in the park that we couldn´t get to the big bit of ice.

As we were leaving that night (at 3am) it was our only chance to see the glacier and to say that we´re gutted is an understatement. It does however give us an excellent excuse to come back.

The plus point of the day however is that we met a South African couple, Mike and Suzi who have also just left Dubai for the same reasons as us after 5 years there. They had travelled down through Central America and were able to provide us with lots of tips for our trip up.

Sleepless in Santiago

2008-08-15T13:47:00.010+01:00

After a fabulous flight with LAN Chile (who we would highly recommend) we arrived at our hostel in Santiago around 9pm. We dumped our bags and headed straight out for some dinner and after a cheeky pizza and some local cerveza we headed back to the hostel to a massive party which was taking place next to our room = no sleep.

It was so bad, the next day even I got up before Bryan which is unheard of. We then wandered sleepily around the centre of the city, followed by lunch at the central market which was imported piece by piece from Birmingham and is a copy of Smithfield market in London.

The following day we took a day trip to the UNESCO world heritage city of Valparaiso, also listed as one of the top 5 cities in South America by our Lonely Planet guide book. We were unfortunately however not that impressed (and neither were most of the other people we´ve spoken to about it). It does however have some wonderful architecture and a groovy elevator system installed in the 19th century for getting up and down all the hills.

2 nights of ear plugs later we headed to the bus station in anticipation of a fantastic bus trip across the Andes to Mendoza in Argentina for a spot of wine tasting. Events however conspired against us. We arrived at 9.30am to discover that the pass across the Andes was closed due to heavy snowfall and was unlikely to open again for some days. Ironically this happened to Jenny the last time she tried to make the trip (but in the opposite direction) when she got stuck in Mendoza for 8 days.

We did not have the time to hang around so decided to head for the destination after Mendoza immediately, namely Bariloche in Patagonia. This then involved an 11 hour wait at Santiago bus station for a night bus down to Osorno (further south in Chile) which would connect with a bus to Bariloche early the next day. Because it was a bank holiday and everything was shut we didn´t have the chance to go and be culture vultures, visiting museums etc which you would normally do on a rainy day to pass the time. We therefore spent the day looking at the rain and playing on the internet and eating crap food.

Eventually we ended up on a bus and the whole trip took about 30 hours. We must commend the bus networks here though for their convenience and comfort. They are so much better than anything in the UK, primarily because they are the main form of long distance travel for Argentinians and Chileans. You get blankets, pillows, food, tidy toilets and DVDs, free drinks etc for a bargain price and the seats are like a business class seat on a plane.

Sorry no pics of Santiago and the Andes - too much bloody smog!!!

Heed Land *

2008-08-12T16:12:00.015+01:00

Easter Island was always going to be one of the highlights of our trip and somewhere both of us really wanted to go and it didn´t disappoint one bit.

The Island is the most remote inhabited place in the World. Although it actually belongs to Chile, it´s part of Polynesia. Rumours abound as to how the island became populated with people from Fiji and Tonga (the earliest settled parts of Polynesia), who in turn originated from Taiwan and the Philippines.

The Polynesian name for the island is Rapa Nui which is also the native language of the island´s 4500 human inhabitants, although they are out numbered by the 5000+ horses!!

The largest population on the island was believed to have been around 12000 in the past, although this fell (and was recorded by missionaries) to just over 100 people following the introduction of ´western´diseases.

The island is most famous for one thing - its stone Moai (statues) of which there are over 1000. They were built by local clans as a link between the past (afterlife) and the present. By the late 1800´s all completed statues were toppled.

Various theories exist as to why this happened, none of which have been proven, but included inter clan warfare, the emergence of a ´birdman cult´ and maybe even the sighting of a ship. The birdman cult developed a written petroglyph language which is the only known recorded Polynesian language of its era and it has never been deciphered.

Fortunately a number of sites have been restored to their original state, the eldest dates from 1100 AD. We were lucky enough to visit many of these sites with Alex our excellent guide who is the daughter of a prominent local archaeologist. Some of the sites we visited have different stories and tales surrounding them. One of them Ahu Tongariki which consists of 15 Moai was renovated thanks to TADANO the Japanese crane company. The reason behind this - a staff member dropped a note in a suggestion box at his factory in Japan suggesting that to improve their PR, TADANO should sponsor the renovation of the statues. US$ 20 million later the statues stood proudly again, backs to the sea.

Ahu Akivi is a unique site in that the statues are placed much further inland than the others and also because they face the sea - the only site of this type on the island. It isn´t known why the Moai were placed in this way.

The most fascinating site was the quarry where most of the Moai were carved from volcanic basalt rock- now affectionately known as ´the nursery´. The statues in the quarry were not destroyed even though some of them were in an almost finished state and ready to be transported to their Ahu (a stone platform) somewhere on the island. The biggest statue of all, at a huge 22m and 500 tonnes is still attached to the basalt in a horizontal position.

We also visited Orongo, a village used for ceremonies on the rim of an extinct volcano.

Our hostel was not great, suffering from damp, bed bugs, a lack of TLC and a miserable owner. However, it would have taken a lot more than that to spoil our time on such a magical island.

The capital of Rapa Nui is Hanga Roa, it´s a bit of a one horse town, with lots of dogs and horses. We tried out the local food, empanadas with either beef or tuna, a completo, which is a hotdog with advocado, fresh tomato and mayo - it´s a national institution in Chile!

The fact that mass tourism has not yet arrived here was a major plus and made our time on Easter Island very special. The remoteness of the island helps, so thankfully the plague of international commercialism still seems a long way off.

* For those of you who don´t know, HEED is Geordie and Scottish slang for HEAD.

Bonjour de Tahiti

2008-08-07T17:23:00.000+01:00

Tahiti was never part of our original travelling plans but we had to go there to get to our next destination - namely Easter Island. It's a bit like the Maldives with big flash resorts and not much in the way of budget options. French Polynesia covers an area the size of Europe but with a population of 270,000 people spread over hundreds of islands. We opted to stay on the main island of Tahiti, in the cheapest place we could find at $120US a night. It was a pretty little place though with 8 bungalows by the sea and ours had the prime outlook with the sound of the waves to send us to sleep.

We arrived late at night so just collapsed into bed, albeit a day earlier than we had left NZ having crossed the dateline. The next day after a nice brekky, the mother of the owner gave us a lift to the local shop to buy some provisions as there was only one restaurant within walking distance of the pension and the shop itself was bit of a distance. A lot of the food is imported from France and is quite pricey so we stuck to the essentials - french bread, ham, mayo, crisps, Orangina and the local beer, Hintano. After a lunch of sandwich jambon we chilled by the pool. It was all very relaxing until Bryan decided to stick his toe in the Pacific. What happened next is a bit of a blur, but he ended up on his backside in the sea complete with both passports in his shorts. Thankfully the passports were OK although Bryan's pride was slightly damaged.

We spent most of our time reading and relaxing plus a spot of kayaking and one trip on foot to the supermarket which took us an hour and a half.

We found that the Tahitian people were very friendly however the father of the owner did not quite fit that description. After a number of long discussions with him we knew everything about him, including the claim that he is a descendant of the last king of Tahiti and that Bill Gates had offered to by the land that the pension was on and that he owned 5 Mercedes. He didn't even ask us where we were from!

Old Mates in New Zealand

2008-08-04T16:51:00.008+01:00

What can we say. The weather has not been kind to us during our brief visit to New Zealand but we have had a fantastic time. Following a night at Auckland's City Garden Lodge - formerly home to the Queen of Tonga, we headed for a slightly large fry up (note the new hair do) before picking up our hire car.
We headed to Rotorua (lovingly called Rottenrua by the locals). It is an active thermal volcanic area and a bit stinky due the large amounts of sulphur in the air. We stayed in the local YHA and after tea had a dip in their thermal swimming pool with rain falling all around. An early start the following day had us heading off to Hell's Gate, a large area of thermal activity just outside Rotorua. It was fascinating to see the bubbling mud and boiling water and the steam coming out of the ground. We were planning on trying a therapeutic mud bath and hot pool dip but it was chucking it down so we had to give it a miss.

Later that day we arrived in Napier, a small town on the East coast of the North Island to catch up with Jen's uni mate Steve and his lovely Kiwi wife Krissy. As they were in the process of moving to Wellington we all stayed in a house owned by a good friend of Krissy's.

We had a riot catching up and getting acquainted. We were treated to a tour around town and up to Tamate Peak and of course we partook in some eating and drinking. Our favourite bit was a spot of wine tasting and a gorgeous lunch at Black Barn winery.

We headed to Wellington after two nights in Napier as did Steve and Krissy (and their fish). Following a spot of shopping for necessities as we were about to leave the English speaking world, we headed into town to watch some rugby with Steve, Krissy and a few of their mates. at the Westpac Stadium (also fondly called the cake tin). The game was Wellington Lions versus Hawkes Bay Magpies. After an even first half the Lions romped away to win.

The following day we met up with Sonya and her friend Annie. Sonya is an old mate of Jen's whom she originally met at the wedding of a schoolfriend in Cardiff (Sarah - who now coincidentally lives in Dubai). There was lot to catch up on and a slightly important rugby match to watch - New Zealand v Australia in the Bledisloe Cup. We both thoroughly enjoyed watching the Wallabies getting beaten by the All Blacks in a pub in NZ!

We are currently sitting writing this up having had our last "fush and chups". It's been a great week, with a lot of driving (including a 9 hour drive today) but are roads are a pleasure to drive on as they are so empty and the scenery is stunning. Next stop Tahiti!

Old Friends in Sydney

2008-07-27T04:16:00.001+01:00

We were lucky to arrive in Sydney the same day that the Pope left, following World Youth Day. Our hosts, Mel, Rob and Aston (10 months), who moved back to Sydney from Dubai six months ago, are some of our very best friends from Dubai.
The weather has been slightly soggy, although we were lucky enough on our first day to get some beautiful weather to take a trip to Manly for fish and chips on the beach and a cheeky beer at the Steyne pub where Jen had spent Christmas Eve on her last visit here six years ago! After rocking up at Circular Quay for the ferry to Manly we realised we were not alone!! There were still lots of 'pilgrims' from World Youth Day hovering about and heading to Manly!

This was even more evident when we came across groups of many nationalities, complete with crosses, guitars, nuns and monks performing their own versions of Kum Bai Ya up and down Manly main street much to the bemusement of the local surfing population! Whilst all of this was quite entertaining, the 2 separate groups that engaged us in conversation about religion telling Bryan that Jesus loved him despite his flaws were a little irritating!

As a Dubai leaving pressie from Glen and Cheri we were treated to restaurant vouchers for Wildfire - a swanky quayside Sydney restaurant with views of the Opera House. It will no doubt be the most decadent meal we indulge in all trip. Wagyu steak for Bryan and a plate of chilled seafood for me. Thanks Guys! We followed our meal up with a bit of a pub crawl around some old haunts in The Rocks area of Sydney.

The majority of our time in Sydney was spent in the company of Mel, Rob and Aston. This included lunch at Bondi Beach, a trip to the fish market to buy goodies for our very own Spectrum seafood brunch, lunch in Little Italy in the sunshine, and a spot of babysitting or two to give Mel and Rob a chance to go the pub in peace followed up the next day with some early morning jogging! As punishment for something in a former life Bryan donned the rubber gloves again to dye Jen's roots and make sure she looked as beautiful as ever!!! I will not be changing careers however!!

We also caught up with other friends in Syndey, Mick, Kiri, Larry and Richard and Mark Woodwell.

We'd just like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Mel, Rob and especially Aston for letting us stay in their lovely apartment.

Out and about in Queensland

2008-07-21T03:29:00.007+01:00

Our first trip out in the jeep was to Australia Zoo, made famous by the late Steve Irwin - otherwise known as the Crocodile Hunter - CRIKEY! The zoo is very focussed on animal conservation and this makes it feel very different from other zoos. We were (un)fortunate enough to be there during the school holidays and the place was heaving with kids. We headed to the Crocoseum to watch what we thought would be a standard croc show - oh no - we had half an hour of Steve's daughter Bindi and her Crocmen(!) singing and dancing - the kids were going mental - and then Steve's wife Terri came out and did the croc demo, unfortunately this all felt a bit contrived really.

However, seeing the crocs was awesome, Miss J loved the elephants and the koala's were great fun as well. As you're allowed to get close to a lot of the animals Jenny had a chance to schmoo a roo (it might have been a wallaby - who knows)!

We were a bit more adventurous on our next trip - a 3 day trip to Fraser Island; the world's largest sand island, about 3 hours north of Brisbane. You arrive by barge ferry and the island is only accessible with a 4x4. It has miles of inland sand tracks through stunning vegetation and rain forest, beautiful inland freshwater lakes and a 75 mile long beach up the eastern side of the island which also doubles as the main highway with a speed limit of 80km/h. Mr B had a whale of a time with the driving while Lady J looked out the window and enjoyed the scenery and took lots of nice pics!

On the way back to Brisbane we stayed overnight in a youth hostel in Noosa which was a fabulous early 20th Century timber building - not cheap mind - £40 for a double with a shared bathroom. With it's gorgeous beaches Noosa is home to many wealthy Australians, we saw a 3 bed house on the beach advertised for £3 million!!

We had dinner at the local surf club which was the cheapest place in town and listened to the local karaoke which was very entertaining.

Life down under with the Thomas'

2008-07-20T01:47:00.008+01:00

Well, we eventually escaped from Asia and here we are in Australia.

Following a painful trip through customs and quarantine in Brisbane Airport we were met by Nic and the kids;

Rhys (11),

Liam (almost 8!)

and Morgan (4).

Nic and her hubby Simon are old friends of Jen's from the Middle East - they are also Welsh, so Bryan was feeling a bit overwhelmed as the only Englishman! Simon and Nic had very generously offered to put us up (or put up with us depending on your point of view!) for a couple of weeks in their lovely house in Fig Tree Pocket in the suburbs surrounding Brisbane. As payback Bryan ended up as footy, rugby, and cricket coach to Liam and Rhys and new best friend to Morgan (and they're all better than me on the Playstation and Scalextric!)

It was a real treat for us both to stay in a house with our own bathroom, endless cups of tea for Miss J, a decent washing machine and fantastic food and company. BBQ's were the order of the day, steak, lamb, chicken, sausages (no place for veggies here!) and also the treat of a roast dinner on two Sundays - heaven! We also reacquainted ourselves with some great Aussie wines.

We enjoyed the outdoor Brisbane lifestyle, borrowing spare bikes to cycle to the pub for lunch, down to the park for a kick around, watching the kids (and Simon) play footy, cricket and rugby, sausage sizzlers at Simon's office (ironically in the same building as Hyder!!), trips on the river and getting sadly addicted to Australian Big Brother!

Simon, Nic and the kids had a mini holiday to Melbourne to visit relatives, so we had the house to ourselves, but this came with the added responsibility of looking after the family pets - the goldfish (one of which died - oops!) and the 9 hermit crabs (very low maintenance pets).

We all went to watch the Brisbane Broncos v Bulldogs in the NRL (rugby league) at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, it was enjoyable but we think we'll stick to watching (and playing for Mr B) rugby union). Most amusing was the woman on the white horse/pony who rode on whenever the Broncos scored a try - bizarre!!

We were also extremely lucky to be loaned Simon's Jeep Wrangler for the duration of our visit which meant we could do a bit of exploring (see next post for details).

We just want to take this opportunity to say a massive THANK YOU to Simon and Nic for everything. They couldn't have been more generous.

Getting sweaty in Hong Kong and Macau

2008-06-30T23:57:00.002+01:00

Well we have to confess to falling off the backpacker wagon somewhat in HK. Note to self - never go back to a place on a miniscule budget that you have previously visited with plenty of dosh three months beforehand.

We did go budget on the room - a 30 pound a night guesthouse/cupboard in Causeway Bay. Visiting some of our old haunts however was a bit painful on the wallet - Delaneys, The Canny Man, Dickens and even bumped into a piggie we met in Phuket in a bar in Lan Kwai Fong.

We caught up with John Koch (Hyder's Commercial Manager and old mate from Dubai and former travelling partner) a couple of times.

We managed to make it up the peak for the first time in many visits for either of us when you can actually see the harbour through the mist/smog.

A day trip to Macau on the Jetcat 1 hour trip was entertaining. We had "Portuguese" for lunch and a wander around the old town and museum. We also experienced the delights of Macau's casino buildings, some of which would even make Dubai's building look classy!

Our Top 10's for China

2008-06-29T23:56:00.003+01:00

WE LOVED

The Great Wall

Some of the food

25p pints

The hostels

The culture and the history (we've been a bit deprived in the UAE)

Quality public transport

Being in the minority as a tourist

The train trips

Efficient airports

The people

WE HATED

The hacking and spitting

The toilets - squatters, trenches and communal

Most of the food

The pushing and shoving on the metro

Stinky tofu

Pot Noodles (by the end)

Chinese cruise ships

The smog

Chinese wine

Out of date (supposedly current) Lonely Planets

IN OZ WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO

Putting toilet paper in the loo as opposed to a bin

Drinking tap water

Green men at traffic lights which actually mean you can cross safely

Quality wine

Steak

Decent washing machines

Western TV and radio (although it is not that great in Oz!)

Western non propaganda newspapers. The Shanghai Post was as bad as Gulf News

"Chinese" takeaway in the UK sense

Last but not least - seeing all our buddies in Oz

Chinglish

2008-06-29T23:51:00.000+01:00

The English and Chinese languages do not always translate as easily as they might plus the sign writers make the odd mistake. Have a laugh at some of our favourite Chinglish signs. We're sure the intention of the translation was genuine but something just got a bit lost along the way!

Slow train to Shanghai

2008-06-24T02:49:00.008+01:00

Our 24 hour train ride to Shanghai which began at 5pm was a little painful due to the 18 stops but an adventure all the same. Following previous train journeys we'd stocked up with nosh (pot noodle) and enjoyed the scenery. Now we know how many rice fields it takes to feed 1.4 billion people - every spare bit of land has crops of some description growing on it.

Our 6 week sojourn in China now appears to be shortened to 4 following Tibet, Chengdu, the fact that you have to stay one week in the same place for as visa extension and British Airways. Queensland is now to be graced with an additional 10 days of our presence as a result. No one has the right to complain about BA until they have experienced their Shanghai office which we are well acquainted with following a 2 hour wait there to change out ticket.

The first hostel we stayed in had a common room the size of most people's bathrooms and "free" internet that didn't work. As a result we moved to another hostel which by coincidence was in a fairly expat part of town. This as a consequence has allowed us to do some research into the pros and cons of potential life in Shanghai. We sampled an expat bar complete with the essential Filipino band which reminded us of Heroes in Abu Dhabi.

Trips so far have included walks along the Bund by the river, Shanghai Museum, Nanjing Road where we serenaded with the sounds of "you want copy watch - Lolex, hand bag, shoe, t-shirt" - just like Karama in Dubai. The Museum did not quite warrant the full day as suggested in Lonely Planet, however, we now know why we call china, china (as in crockery). They have been making the stuff for the last 6000 years.

It's much more cosmopolitan here than in Beijing and despite similar populations it does not seem quite as frantic, despite the barging on the metro. This usually entails smaller Chinese people attempting to get into the carriage before you get out. This doesn't work too well when faced with Jenny and Bryan and 20kg of rucksack each in no mood to surrender.

We are currently enjoying the last night in our hostel with a takeaway and pint bottles of beer for 20p (1.5AED) each. We fly to Hong Kong tomorrow before which we catch the Maglev (train to the airport) which travels at 430km an hour (YES - 430km!). Our next post will be about the pluses and minuses of travelling in China.

Tour de Yangshuo

2008-06-17T06:36:00.010+01:00

Our next destination was Yangshuo. It's a city of a whole 300,000 people, but to be honest it feels more like a small town of 10,000. It is surrounded by absolutely stunning limestone pinnacles known locally as 'karsts'. They gave the place a surreal feel.

We arrived to rain in the knowledge that only days previously the town had suffered its worst floods for more than 50 years. There was still some evidence of the floods, ie, the raging river with the tops of a few random bushes poking out, which by the time we left had reappeared as an island following a 2-3 metre drop in water level and complete now with grazing horses!!

It had a completely different feel to anywhere else in China partly because of its size but primarily because of its reputation as a magnet for Chinese and Western tourists. There was therefore plenty to keep us entertained. Our first activity involved (and you may not believe it of us!) a 20km cycle ride and a hike up 1251 steps to the peak of Moon Hill. A week later a certain young Welsh lady's bottom is still a bit tender!! We declined lunch after our descent which could have included snake, rat, dog and frog amongst others!

We had a fantastic trip to the Longji rice terraces which are 600 years old and clinging to the side of a mountain! We stopped off on the way up at a Miao village, the women are famous for having long hair (around 1.8m !!) as they are not allowed to cut after they turn 18. It was nice that we were in the minority again as Westerners but it continues to amaze us that the Chinese are so happy to be herded around.

Lunch at the village was also worth a mention, rice and chicken cooked in bamboo trunks, shame about the bones, feathers, feet etc. It was all worth it though for the view of the terraces.

We met some good people on the trip, and at Monkey Jane's roof top bar in Yangshuo with stunning views of the area. Four of us drunkenly decided that it would be fun to do a Chinese cooking course. Amazingly we all remembered to turn up at 4pm the next day at the Half Moon Bistro and we cooked dumplings, sweet and sour chicken, beef with ginger and garlic and Chinese veggies. Clearly we'll be inviting you all around for dinner when we get back (wherever back may be).

Cruisin' the Yangtze

2008-06-14T07:19:00.000+01:00

We were spoilt with a whole soft sleeper cabin to ourselves from Xi'an to Chongqing (11 hours), so a good night's sleep was had.

We were met at Chongqing station by our hostel where we dumped our stuff and headed into town for a wander around. Everywhere we've been so far in China has a population in excess of 5 million people, so bigger than the UAE or Wales!! This is quite hard to get your head around.

At 4pm we started our 4 hour bus ride to Wuchang to catch our 'cruise ship' for two day trip through the 3 gorges of the Yangtze river. We were on a Chinese ship as opposed to one that caters for Westerners with about 120 people on board 12 of which were Western. Our 'first class' (and we use the term very loosely) was a tad on the small side and the bathroom was far from glamorous. The food on the boat was so bad that even the Chinese weren't eating it, the beer was warm and then they ran out!

We used our initiative to put some money back into the local economy wherever we stopped, buying sweetcorn, spuds, noodles and of course cold beer (at a whole 25p or 1.5 AED a bottle).

We met a great bunch of people including Wally from Oz, Alistair from Sheffield and Tina and Tommy from Ireland and we had a riot. Although we're still not sure what the Chinese made of us!

The scenery was very impressive, it must have been even more so before the 3 gorges dam was built. We were however expecting the visibility to be better outside of the major cities but the ever present smog was always there.

Xi'an and the Terracotta Army

2008-06-11T07:05:00.000+01:00

We're now in Xi'an courtesy of the Chinese Rail Network. We took an overnight soft sleeper from Beijing which involves 4 beds to a cabin, and mountaineering skills if you're in the top bunks (which we were!!). It was really good, bar the Chinese walrus snoring away on the bottom bunk!! Who could have thought that such a small man could make so much noise?

Our hostel is great with views of the ancient Bell Tower. The door to the bathroom appears however to have been salvaged from a sauna so we have the pleasure of seeing each others outline whilst 'using the facilities' shall we say!! There is a bar/restaurant with a free pool table. The Chinese and Western food is fab and we've even indulged in salad three days in a row following a craving for vitamins and minerals.

We're not far from the Muslim quarter of town which has some very unusual looking mosques compared to what we're used to seeing in the Middle East. There are plenty of restaurants and stall selling 'Karama tat' including Top Trumps of Iraq's Most Wanted!!!

The Terracotta Army didn't quite have the WOW factor we were expecting it to, but was good nevertheless. We did however have a slight disagreement with our tour guide who didn't seem to understand that backpackers do not want to buy life size marble Terracotta warrior replicas, silk duvets or lacquer furniture!! They just want to see stuff!!

Beijing is Bonkers

2008-06-05T05:42:00.000+01:00

Beijing has broken us in nicely to a new country. We have already come to comprehend that we don't and won't understand 99% of what is going on and that we are going to struggle with the food.

It's a big old city, clearly getting ready for the Olympics. There is a a real contrast of old historical parts and new spangly skyscrapers. We've also had a little look at the expat scene which involves all the usual activities and clubs that you get in the Middle East and they also do brunches! Not sure if they measure up to the Fairmont though.

Tourist activities here have included Tiananmen Square (full of police and security cameras), the Forbidden City, Jingshang Park, Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace (with slightly reluctant pedalos). Top of the list was the Great Wall. We decided to go to a part called Simatai which is a bit further afield and therefore less touristy but as a result it involved a more strenuous climb which quite frankly nearly finished us both off. It was well worth it though.

We've been staying in a hostel where we have our own room and bathroom but no window. It does however have a bar and is right next to the subway which we've used extensively. On our last day a new automated ticketing system was introduced which completely baffled the Chinese but actually made it easier for us as we could get our tickets out of a machine instead of talking to anyone!

The food is a challenge. One meal is cheap and cheerful and tasty and the next you wouldn't probably give to your dog. We have to confess to one trip to Papa John's Pizza. We also went to one of Beijing's famous Pecking Duck restaurants where we dined on half a bird. The sauce that we had is a bit different to home (a bit bitter instead of sweet) but we enjoyed oursleves nevertheless. Bryan and I fought over the duck's head - I let him win!

The Phuket 10s and a surprise from a Welshman

2008-06-01T07:55:00.000+01:00

Well here we are back in Bangkok for one last night before we head to Beijing tomorrow courtesy of Egypt Air (should be interesting!). Post Flight Update - Egypt Air may be cheap, not bad service, but they are very DRY - you have been warned!

We survived the Phuket Tens and had a riot. Bryan played in 3 matches for the Piggies who are a great bunch it has to be said. They were unfortunately knocked out in their first match on the second day (Plate Q.Final).

It was good to see some familiar faces - Kath and John from Abu Dhabi, Mark, Ros and Sian from Al Ain, Dan Talbot from Dubai and Alex (formerly of Dubai). But the biggest and most welcome event of all was a surprise special guest appearance by none other than Mr Kevin Jones (our old boss from Hyder in the Middle East) who stopped over for a night on the way through to NZ. It was good to see him in fine form.

We would also like to extend our best wishes to those members of the Dubai Exiles Rugby Club who are currently residing at his majesties pleasure. Fore!

Last minute preparations are the order of the day today. One last Tom Yam Gung for me and fried rice and chicken for Mr B!

Recharging our batteries

2008-05-28T07:52:00.000+01:00

Well here we are on the island of Phuket doing nothing except chilling out. We enjoyed cheapie 30 quid flights down on Air Asia, followed by a night in Phuket Town and a spot of dinner at On On Cafe which is featured in the film The Beach (what groupies we know!)

We were then in a bit of a quandry as to where we went next we really wanted to go somewhere very quiet to do nothing. Whilst that is relatively easy here as there are so many places to choose from we got chatting to an Irish Pub Manager and decided on the beach at Nai Harn - just a sangthaew's ride from Phuket Town but not very well known (yet) to be trashed!

We have done nothing except read, play cards, pool, sleep, drink beer and eat good food. It's been a real strain but just what the doctor ordered! There are really very few people here and many of the bars and restaurants are actually shut for the low season. We thought it might actually be a bit to quiet for us but we've ended up staying extra night after extra night after extra night!

Our next destination was going to be Kata (another beach on Phuket) but we have now run out of time as we need to head tomorrow to Karon for the Phuket Ten's in which Bryan has volunteered himself for the Hong Kong Pot Bellied Pigs and we are meeting up with Kath and John Roberts (v.good mates form Abu Dhabi).

Kata may have been an interesting destination as we wondered whether it may have any resemblance to that lovely country that is so dear to our hearts - Qatar! Friendly locals, endless bars, fry ups and familes of 7 on a moped instead of in a land cruiser! Check out the picture - what do you reckon?

Not ones normal birthday destination choice!!

2008-05-17T07:50:00.000+01:00

In order for Mr B to meet up with his mate Steve and Jim, his 80 year old dad, we relented and headed to Pattaya on the bus to see them. Whilst we enjoyed the company of our friends and managed to meet stacks of Welshies watching the FA Cup final we can safely say that Pattaya was a little like hell on earth. It is the sex tourism capital of Thailand which was evident everywhere. The Omani family walking around looked a tad out of place to say the least.

One sight that we had been hoping to see but didn't manage were the Nigerian males who come to Pattaya to "service" the Japanese ladies!

It's been a long time coming!

2008-05-11T07:47:00.000+01:00

Yippee. Here we finally are somewhere foreign. Although, I am not sure if you can call Kho San Road that. It's all so much posher and commercialsed than it used to be with a Starbucks and a McDonalds (what is the world coming to!). We've participated in the usual tourist offerings at the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. We also had a gander at Chinatown in preparation for our impending month long visit - it was bizarre in places as you can see. Are we prepared?

We have also spent a lot of time thinking seriously about where we want to go as previous ideas have ended in natural and political disasters - Tibet, Burma and Chengdu to name a few.

Bryan is getting on the backpacking wagon and has even worn the same t-shirt two days in a row!

The journey to Bangkok was surprisingly hassle free - you could even say that Terminal 4 was a breeze. Whilst we do appreciate that Newport, South Wales is a fairly forgettable place it did tickle us that our National Express driver forgot to to go there to pick his passengers up and had to do a U turn further down the M4 at the Magor Services.

Land of Daffodils

2008-05-04T07:43:00.000+01:00

We spent the last week of our UK sojourn annoying Pat (Jenny's Mum) in Cardiff.

It was all a bit of a mad rush really getting final bits and bobs sorted, arguing with banks, catching up with Max and the lovely Sam, all day sessions in Bristol with Nor and Matt, boating on Roath Park lake, drinking Brains, dodging the rain and having yet another (but this was the last one) leaving do at the Pizzeria in Whitchurch. Nicky provided the usual entertainment and it was fab to see everyone.

Bonny Scotland

2008-04-30T07:38:00.000+01:00

After a few days in Geordie land we headed north over the border to see Colin (Jenny's Dad) and his wife Valerie. It was a bit of a fleeting visit but great to catch up never the less. The British weather outdid itself as normal.

This was followed by another very quick pit stop at Lisa and Bil's house in Stony Stratford for the night. Chinese, beers and catching up before an early start the next day. Thanks for having us and for the fry up!

Sexy Sexy Gateshead!!

2008-04-27T07:36:00.000+01:00

Well here we are having escaped the freak show that is plastic fantastic Dubai (although we did appreciate the upgrade on the way back), in Newcastle spending a few days with Bry's parents. We are enjoying proper beer and home cooked food! Final preparations are underway. Just 12 days to go!